whizdumb

Always Be Knolling

 

Lani gave me a subtle prod to write more here. I've been more of a listener than a contributor lately. But it's nice to hear that someone's reading so I'll try to write more. Thanks for the nudge, Lani.

Browsing through The Selby this morning I came across the photo essay of Tom Sachs' space... space as in his studio and living area. Space as in his interest in NASA and space travel. What a place.

Then I read a bit more about him and Knolling. It all clicks together. Angles, materials, arrangements. It is a holy mess yet fastidious and calming all at once. Quite nice.

Design and the Elastic Mind

If you haven't heard of or seen this exhibit, I'd call it a must if you find yourself in New York sometime between now and May 12 when it closes.  Loads of inspiration and mind fodder for anyone interested in the role of design in an information and technological society.

Among the many wonders on display are instant furniture, nano inventions, and a new piece by Jonathan Harris.

If you can't make it in person, the MoMA's exhibit website is a meaty proxy for it.

Book cover designs wanted

That is one stinker of a book cover. 

Paul Isakson heard from the author who is looking for a little design love to rescue the cover.

As Paul writes:

Can you design a better book jacket/cover than this?

If so, Tara Hunt would love your help.

There really are no rules. Just take the words that are there and make the thing look better.

Post a link to your design in her Flickr comments for this image and she'll check them out.

If you don't have a blog, web site, Flickr account, etc. to post your design to, just create a drop for it and put that URL in the comments section.

Also, please spread the word to others if you can.

I didn't get a deadline from her, but I'm sure it's something that's needed sooner than later.

Any help you can give her is greatly appreciated.

That is one stinker of a book cover. 

Paul Isakson heard from the author who is looking for a little design love to rescue the cover.

As Paul writes:

Can you design a better book jacket/cover than this?

If so, Tara Hunt would love your help.

There really are no rules. Just take the words that are there and make the thing look better.

Post a link to your design in her Flickr comments for this image and she'll check them out.

If you don't have a blog, web site, Flickr account, etc. to post your design to, just create a drop for it and put that URL in the comments section.

Also, please spread the word to others if you can.

I didn't get a deadline from her, but I'm sure it's something that's needed sooner than later.

Any help you can give her is greatly appreciated.

A couple upcoming design events in Denver

A couple events coming up for the design minded.  This Friday 2/22, local digital design talent Ian Coyle goes analog for an open house / show at his new letterpress gallery, located at 8 West Ellsworth in Denver.

I bump into Ian here and there, usually in Belmar.  He gave me one of his letterpress samples as an invitation and it looks excellent.  I hope to get down there Friday and see what else he's got going on. 

Paul wrote a post recently about some more great stuff Ian's been doing.

And in early March the one and only Sagmeister will be rolling into Denver.  His new book is Things I have learned in my life so far, and he'll be discussing it and other stuff at the event.

Fri, Mar 7, 2008, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
At the Oxford Hotel, The Grand Ballroom, 1600 17th St., Denver, CO 80201

The full skinny from AIGA is here.

UPDATE: The event is now sold out but Denver AIGA members are eligible for this poster Sagmeister made for the event.

Andy explains:

The ONLY way to get his poster for this event is by 1) being a member of AIGA Colorado (at any level) and 2) having your correct address registered at the AIGA national website (http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/membership) by Thu, Feb. 21 . No amount of whining or begging will get anyone else the poster. It won't be available for sale or at the event.

Art meets science at Le Laboratoire

I heard a story recently on NPR's Weekend Edition called New Space Promotes Intersection of Art, Science.  It's about Le Laboratoire, a place in Paris that is part science lab, part art exhibit.

It was founded by a Harvard professor of bio-medical technology named David Edwards who moonlights writing fiction. 

He started talking to his colleagues across disciplines and found they shared a similar story - the scientists had a hidden interest in art and the artists had a hidden interest in science.  He was struck by their covert passions and wondered what would happen if he brought the seemingly opposite disciplines together in a public space.

Le Laboratoire was born, and it was driven by a central question: What lies behind innovative intelligence?

He wrote two books related to the founding of the lab.  One is called Artscience: Creativity in the Post-Google Generation. I haven't read it.  In the meantime I recommend giving the story a listen.

Le Laboratoire has since closed the exhibit featured in the story but it looks like they have ambitious plans for the future. 

They segment their types of innovation into four kinds:

CULTURAL Through collaboration with a scientist, an artist creates a new form of ?????

INDUSTRIAL Through collaboration with a designer, a scientist invents a new scientific process.

HUMANITARIAN  Artists and scientists engage in dialogues to bring solutions to humanitarian problems.

EDUCATIONAL Artists and scientists create with or alongside a student in the arts or sciences to produce passionate experiential learning.

Sometimes I feel like the common themes of left brain vs. right brain; art vs. science; rational vs. emotional have become the tired dualities of pre-concept conversation.  We talk about how such-and-such concept hits on a balance of emotional and rational.  We debate the role of each extreme, often for the purpose of explaining why a concept, an approach, an execution, works.

I like what Le Laboratoire is doing because they use art and science as creative inputs.  They crash them head-on and exhibit the result.   It just seems like a good approach for true creative alchemy.

New look for 2008

I've been meaning to get out from under the typepad template I've been using for this site, so here we go.  A fresh layout and logo for 2008.  I'm by no means a designer so who knows if it's any good but I feel it works better for me, and hopefully for you too.  The three columns afford me more space for links and stuff.  Also, I've committed to an ad-free blog which I hope others do too (there is far too much advertising cluttering up some good blogs out there). So enjoy, and if you have any suggestions for tweaking the design, layout, etc. by all means give me a shout.

One designer's visual take on Buy Nothing Day

Spending Black Friday in Los Angeles has given me a few things to post about.  One of them is this gem from the Los Angeles Times op-ed page today.  Its' a visual take on conspicuous consumption by British graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook.  You could call it the family tree of Black Friday's doppelganger, Buy Nothing Day.

Download buy_nothing_day.pdf

Economist's delicate balance

The Economist in the UK has released a series of new ads aimed at younger readers.  Each of them show vividly how good art and good copy come together to be much more than the sum of their parts.

See them all at The Planning Lab. 

Packaging and Labels: The Long View

I find most personal care product labels unnecessary after purchase.  They're designed to shout at you on the shelf and their usefulness pretty much expires as soon as you get them home.  I know how to use deodorant and I know it by its shape.  I don't need a lot of visual clutter adding to my bathroom counter. 

That's why I sometimes peel off labels when I get the product home.  (I know this sounds kind of obsessive-compulsive but trust me, it's not like that.)  It's a good thing when I find labels that are easy to peel off.  Some are, some aren't. 

Wouldn't it be interesting if labels and packages were designed not only to sell to you on the shelf, but to be like good children were described decades ago: seen and not heard.  Of course, to be heard in this case is to shout a brand name or a swooshy logo at you at the top of its little lungs. 

If packaging were designed as much for sitting on a counter as it was for sitting on a store shelf a few things would happen. 

- The label would be a temporary feature, lasting only a fraction of the product's life.  It would therefore be easily peeled off, even with a corner ready for peeling.

- The pack would be designed to take on a slightly different aesthetic when labelless.  Function would give way to form.  Perhaps design features would be revealed that were concealed by the label.

- The role of the consumer would change to that of a designer.  In other words, the product would have to fit in their world above the counter and therefore pass the muster of other housewares. 

- Maybe longer lasting products could be customized.  A sleeve for inserting a picture.  Or a surface suitable for writing on.

It seems like a good way for a brand to be more than simply a product under the sink or in a medicine chest.  If the power balance is truly in the consumer's camp then a brand should allow for people to express their love by ripping off the nameplate and making it their own.

The folks at Method understand the dynamic of above/below the counter but they only look at cleaning products. And while their products are much easier on the eyes they still have labels.

Maybe things like this would start in the bathroom with products that are used daily yet tucked away like hidden secrets behind a mirror.  Yeah, that would be a start.

The other book of lists: Milk Eggs Vodka

Bill Keaggy, an early blogger and collector of pointless things (like rocks shaped like shoes.  Really.) has published a book of equally mundane yet slightly more significant things.  Shopping lists.  Discarded shopping lists to be exact. (By the way, if you're into other people's discarded things and haven't read Found magazine it will be your Nirvana.   The mag is better than the site.)

For awhile he's run the site grocerylists.org and I've checked out a few lists here and there.  But now they're combined into a book called Milk Eggs Vodka.  I haven't read the book yet, but I was amused at something he's published online as a teaser for the book.  It's a serial narrative based on the lists themselves, strung together to tell the life story and romance of Allan and Janie.  I like the creative license there, in fact it makes a pretty plausible story. 

The role of the lists themselves as the key players in this drama kind of raises the whole Shopper Culture thing again.  No sooner has Meg written another excellent article on the subject, called Culture of Shopping.  It introduces a study that us Integer planners have just conducted about the role of shopping in American Culture.  Anyway, give it a read and share a thought or two.