Recently...
2:25 pm
Filed under:
Identity, PDC, Typography
Design Build Alliance
You haven't heard much from me lately, and that's okay. Would you like to know why? Because I've been Mr. Concetration working on projects!
One of the areas of my focus lately has been working with the folks at Design Build Alliance (DBA) in Austin, Texas. These architects and designers are doing amazing design-build work producing sustainable structures for low-income folks. It makes me proud to say that I've been to Austin because of the good work they're doing. Hell it makes me proud to be an American.
So, we've been working to build a visual framework for DBA (that's just fancy-talk for "graphic design"). Through talking, sketching, and passing around images, we've come up with some good stuff. As the project nears its completion, I've posted one image up (seen above) and there will be more to come soon as an update to this post.
11:39 am
Filed under:
CVT, PDC, Typography
think-make-think on 20×200
I’m pleased to announce that one of my photographs, titled think-make-think, is being offered in a limited edition by 20x200, which is a project of the Jen Bekman Gallery. The photograph’s subject matter is of a sign constructed in our studio bearing a quote written by John Maeda. The quote, which is a haiku, reads:
All I want to be,
is someone that makes new things.
And thinks about them.
This photo has never before been available in print.
The backstory:
First, it’s important to understand the context of John Maeda and his work. Professor Maeda is a world-renowned graphic designer, visual artist, and computer scientist. Until this year, he was the Associate Director of Research at the MIT Media Lab. He is now the President of the Rhode Island School of Design. He is well known for his book The Laws of Simplicity which proposes 10 laws (plus three keys) for achieving simplicity in our increasingly complex world.
In April of 2007, Professor Maeda wrote a haiku entitled think-make-think and posted it to his blog. Over the next few months, that haiku often found its way to the forefront of my mind. When our studio acquired the remnants of a discarded arrow sign, it was clear to me that think-make-think was the perfect piece for the sign due to the haiku’s small size and its potency. But mostly, I wanted that quote to have a prominent role in our studio environment. Judging by the wave of positive feedback we received, it became apparent that not only was I positively affected by Maeda’s words, but so too were many other people.
Limited-edition
For those who are new to it, 20x200 is a web-based project from the Jen Bekman Gallery. Jen opened her pocket-sized gallery on the Lower East Side nearly 5 years ago with the mission of supporting emerging artists and collectors, and she's made a name for herself doing just that. 20x200 takes the mission one step further, making art available for everyone. Each week, two new pieces are introduced: one photo and one work on paper. Each image is available in three sizes. The smallest size is reprinted in the largest batch – an edition of 200 – and sold at the lowest price – $20. Hence the name 20x200. Bigger prints are offered for bolder collectors - medium-sized editions of 20 for $200, and large-sized editions of 2 generally for $2000 (some of the large sized editions will actually be original pieces of art and prices will vary a bit). Every single print is delivered with a certificate of authenticity numbered by the artist.
• 200 small-prints available for $20 each
• 20 medium-sized prints available for $200 each
• 2 large-sized prints available for $2000 each
20x200 is on my shortlist of favorite web-based projects and I’m thrilled to be part of it with this project. I hope that you’ll take a moment to visit 20x200 and explore the limited-edition prints of think-make-think.
12:18 pm
Filed under:
Identity
Talkshow 24/7
TalkShow247 is a talk show that Marc Horowitz hosts from his house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The show’s set is located in his Los Angeles living room where guests are invited to stop by for live-streamed discussions with Marc. Being an around-the-clock live show, the cameras also capture household goings-on when guests are not present, such as Marc brushing his teeth, talking on the phone, and sleeping.
My work on the show has been to develop a logo to serve as the show’s moniker. Because Marc is known for his hand-drawn artwork and a hands-on approach to his projects, the solution that worked best for this project was to create a stencil or mask that can be applied in any material or format needed. The wide letterforms allow for an infinite variety of artwork to be produced across mediums including print, web, and video.
Talkshow247 launched this week and can be seen streaming live at talkshow247.com
7:23 pm
Filed under:
Code, Web
tippr • sneak preview
Update: I've canceled this project (though I still like it).
I'm currently building a web-based application called tippr. It's a "tip jar" for twitter. tippr will allow users to send a tip to anyone that they follow or that follows them. The tip amount is firmly set at one quarter ($0.25). Some twitter users post a great deal of timely, relevant, and useful information for which I feel it would be nice to extend the gesture of a tip. A quarter's diminutive value matches well with the diminutive size of a twitter tweet.
Reasons you might choose to send a tip along to someone include but are not limited to: providing a useful piece of information, tweeting something that makes you LOL, sharing a timely piece of information that you would have otherwise missed. The latter is becoming increasingly important with the growing number of location-aware apps.
For a better look at this screencapture, visit it on flickr.
Stay tuned for more.
6:19 pm
Filed under:
Identity, Portland, Print Production, Typography
PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture Series
Portland State University's Art Department offers free public lectures every Monday night of the school year. The roundup of speakers is impressively curated by the program's coordinator, Harrell Fletcher, whom you might know from Learning To Love You More along with many other things.
I've been fortunate to work with Harrell in putting together the poster for this year's PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture Series (PMMNLS). Every project is different, and this one has been very fast-moving and lean. To keep costs down, we've built a piece that's being printed 2-over-1, that is two colors on the front and one color on the back side. There might be some further PMMNLS materials in the works as well. You'll just have to check back to find out. ;)
4:47 pm
Filed under:
Before and After, Identity, Portland
Citybikes
Citybikes is a bike shop that ranks highly in the minds of Portlanders. And, that's saying something because there are a lot of excellent bike shops here. Their recent tune-up of one of our vintage bikes was so good that I now realize that I've been missing out on how a "real" bike is supposed to ride. I've been at their shop a lot lately, and, although they're doing a great job, I don't think that they're logo is. So, here's what I did about it... Read more...
11:25 pm
Filed under:
Indexhibit, Typography
WeCan, Ok
I recently had the opportunity to work with one of my favorite art directors, Nancy Nowacek. She's in the process of moving her site over to the Indexhibit platform and I chipped in with technical advice on how to customize it. If a person has interest in modifying their own code, I encourage them to pursue it. Nancy rolled up her sleeves and attacked the CSS only pausing to fire off questions to me about CSS declarations and selectors.
I've always really liked her work at Metropolis, you've probably seen some or all of it, and she created one of my all-time favorite things: The "I'm Working" Hoodie (pictured above). While working on her site, it was her identity work that stood out the most to me. Clean and on-point, with excellent type-work including mono-space type, wow. Visit her new site and see for yourself: http://wecanok.com
11:16 pm
Filed under:
Indexhibit
Jimmy Cohrssen
It's pretty humbling when you encounter the work of someone who's really good at their craft. Jimmy Cohrssen is really good at his: photography. His clients include Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. I've been working with Jimmy to build a portfolio website to showcase his work. The site is run using Indexhibit, a content management system that I work with a lot. It's described by the Indexhibit folks as such:
Indexhibit is a web application used to build and maintain an archetypal, invisible website format that combines text, image, movie and sound.
The site allows Jimmy to create, edit, re-order, and delete images as he sees fit and without the need to deal with any coding. My involvement had been to install Indexhibit, get it up and running, and lend a hand with the text formatting and layout.
The site's in the content preparation stage right now, but when it's ready I'll post an update so that you can go and check it out.
