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graphic designiPhone App Generates Random Swiss DesignWe're sure your head hurts too after last night's pummeling of greasy food, beer, and some occasional bits of football thrown in there for good measure, so we'll start out gently this morning. An interesting new iPhone app has been released by the Japanese company Wowlab. Called addLib (not to be confused with the popular sound card company, AdLib, of the 1980s), it's essentially a random design generator. You plug in a photo, it kicks out a poster that looks like it might have been laid out by some famous Swiss designer, all at random, using "the Grid System, a fractal theory, the golden ratio, and the Facial Recognition System." A fun toy, sure, but we'd be interested to hear what you think it says about design, that quality can come from formula rather than unique, practiced artistry. Or are we just over thinking the whole thing? Here's the app in action: Lost in Translation?: Designing Opera Titles
Despite their drawbacks (drawing the eye away from the stage, undermining the illusion that the actors are real people acting on their own impulses, in real time), titles "have become as integral to an opera production as sets and costumes, wigs and makeup," writes Gurewitsch. "Yet most designers and directors give them scant attention, taking the titling systems of the houses they work in pretty much as they find them." [Translation: graphic design opportunity alert!] He goes on to offer examples of creative titling, including performances that have experimented with non-standard typefaces and excerpted longer stretches of text at a time, allowing the viewer to refer back to previous lines. Then there are the times when titles go beyond translation: ...Titles have been known to mutate into commentary, marginalia, or even hypertext, as in a rare revival of André Grétry's Zémire et Azor at Houston Grand Opera in the early 1990s. In particular, I remember an aria di bravura in which the heroine had a great many more runs and roulades to toss of than thoughts to pin them on. "Neat, hunh?" one title read, when the steeplechase was at its dizziest. Don't Judge a Film by Its Nostalgic Faux Book Cover
An Era of Stefan Sagmeister Copies?Just a little while back, we'd noticed a copy of the July issue of Esquire, which featured model Bar Refaeli, nude, with handwritten type all over her. "Quickie Stefan Sagmeister rip-off," we thought, as we usually do when we see this sort of copy of his two most famous handwriting-on-body pieces. It's what we thought even more recently when we ran across this new campaign for the breast cancer awareness magazine Pink Ribbon. We would have moved passed it, as we usually do, but then we ran across this post over at Peachfuzz about TBWA/Chiat/Day's newish ad for Absolut: Totally "Things I Have Learned..." right? We might be a little late to have seen this spot, but given all the other places we're seeing his work in, we think it's worth asking if we are now in what would be considered a wider movement to rehash old Sagmeister ideas? If so, why now? What's in our collective consciousness that's making us do the things like those linked above or stuff like the clearly-referential, much passed around tattooed Swedish magazine? Has this always been going on and we just haven't noticed? Or is this all just a case of laziness? As Peachfuzz puts it: "If you're going to be a hack, at least cover your tracks by not picking the guy every clueless first semester design student lists as his favorite designer." Pablo Ferro, Carin Goldberg, Doyald Young Awarded AIGA Medals at Legends Gala
Even the most severe recession in recent history can't keep great design down. "No matter how bleak the situation into which we have been thrown by the global economy—it does offer opportunities. Designers need only invent them," said AIGA president Debbie Millman in a speech welcoming guests to the annual AIGA Design Legends Gala, held earlier this month at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. "By understanding our living and working context, we blow open avenues of opportunity and innovation not yet charted or explored." The highlight of the design star-studded evening was the presentation of the 2009 AIGA Medals to designers Pablo Ferro, Carin Goldberg, and Doyald Young.
Steven Heller presented the medal to Ferro, draped in his signature red scarf, for "introducing narrative and nonlinear dimensions to design for films, changing our visual expectations, and demonstrating the power of design to enhance storytelling," while Paula Scher did the honors for Goldberg, who was lauded "for her exquisite ability to join intelligence, craft, and an eye for the evocative image in designing iconic pop-cultural and literary artifacts, and for her commitment to design education." Young, who just turned 83, was recognized for "demonstrating the power of a lifelong love of the craft of calligraphy, type, and graphic design, for his contributions as an author, and for his dedication as an educator" and received his medal from Deanna Kuhlmann-Leavitt. JetBlue and Patagonia took home the the AIGA Corporate Leadership Award, and 22 designers from around the country were honored as AIGA Fellows. Alex Holden's Reimagined 'Choking Victim' Poster Goes Down Easy
SVA Readies Milton Glaser Retrospective
On the Ethics of Photoshop Tutorials
Indie Rock Poster Artists Get Their Close-Up
DYSP takes viewers into the offices, studios, backyards, cars, and lives of artists such as Art Chantry, Brian Chippendale, Print Mafia, the Ames Brothers, and Rob Jones. Along the way, Yaghoobian harvests killer visuals (gig posters for everyone from Arcade Fire to Marilyn Manson as well as inspiration-soaked sojourns to carnivals, zoos, and the gigs themselves) and delightful—if occasionally profane—commentary, including spirited debates about the glut of octopus imagery in rock posters (great minds...) and memorable quotations ("With a band like Elf Power, can't go wrong"). Of course, it proved impossible to choose just one poster for the film, and so there are six (Bryce McCloud's swashbuckling feline design, above, among them). Check out the film's trailer, below, and then head to GigPosters.com, the world's largest historical gig poster archive. Heeding Reader Feedback, Hartford Courant Reverses Redesign
In an online poll described by Jeff Levine, the Courant's new senior vice president and director of content, as "not scientific," readers were asked to weigh in on three possible front-page designs, including one liberally accented with a hue that we'd describe as "USA Today Blue." Almost 95% of readers favored a return to a more traditional layout. Many respondents used the poll to provide additional feedback to the paper, weighing on issues ranging from the positioning of features, local news, and Dilbert (a staple of the business page) to the reformatted TV listings. More than one commenter mentioned the Titanic and deck chairs. "The masthead is the least of your worries!" advised commenter Al. "You should concern yourself about the paper's content—ever since you featured a front-page article on Outhouses, your paper has gone downhill." PreviouslyDebbie Millman Assumes AIGA Presidency Chip Kidd Feeds Gloria Vanderbilt's Obsession Making Small Talk with Anthony Burrill Milton Glaser Launches New Website Communication Arts Seeks Your Best Work New York City Opera Will Make Its Mark with Big Black Dot Print Wins Second Consecutive National Magazine Award Chip Kidd on 'the Typographical Equivalent of Bad Toupees' Michael Bierut and Friends Beat Shepard Fairey to '21st Century WPA' Punch Yum!: Thomas Schlesser, Philippe Starck among James Beard Award Finalists New Frontiers of Graphic Design Event: Haiku Your Way to Free Tickets Kit Hinrichs Retrospective Opens at Art Center College of Design Milton Glaser: Shepard Fairey's Work Is 'Dangerous Example for Students' 26 Years' Worth of Doodles, Hundreds of Trees Sacrificed New U.K. Stamps Will Celebrate Iconic British Designs Pentgram Releases Annual Educational Holiday Booklet Edward Leida Launches Website, Will Guest Art Direct NYT 'On Language' Column Wolfsonian to Host Graphic Design Marathon New York Observer Caps Election Coverage with Sculptures, Star Trek Parody Poster Men's Vogue Pins Down Michael Bierut Seven Questions for Print's New Editor-in-Chief Emily Gordon NYC Debuts Sneaky, Scary Matchbooks to Help Smokers Quit James Victore Teams with The Decoder Ring Pentagram Does It Like They Do on the Discovery Channel NYT Serves Up Ace Wimbledon Infographic Louise Sandhaus Shakes Up L.A. Design History For Alton Kelley, What a Long, Strange Trip It Was Doodlebooks: Ink Scribbles as Cover Art Teaching Tips from Alexey Brodovitch Andrew Kuo Talks Art, Design, and Control Issues How George Lois Souped Up Esquire Designing the Beijing Olympics Protests The Rise of the Graphic Design Auteur What Stefan Sagmeister Learned on His Year-Long Vacation Nailing Graphic Design Badge, Eagle Scout Designs Centennial Logo for Boy Scouts Rodrigo Corral to Design Olsen Twins' Coffee Table Book Chip Kidd's The Learners Reviewed Glowingly in Newsweek Graphical Alignment: Fella and McFetridge Show Opens at REDCAT Ed Fella and Geoff McFetridge To Align at REDCAT Alice Rawsthorn Talks Voting with Design for Democracy Patricia Urquiola Goes to Fashion Week FreshPressed and Ready For Success Adrian Shaughnessy Survives Journey Into Wolff Olins Den of Crazies Poetry in Motion: SpotCo Designs National Poetry Month Poster We Can Hardly Wait For This 2008 Calendar Adrian Shaughnessy's Graphic Design on the Radio How Aesthetic Apparatus Really Works At Home With the Closest Thing to a Rock Star In Graphic Design Frank Baseman's Sad Case of Trying to Do Good in Philadelphia On Call to Answer Your Prayers During Your Darkest Design Hours S. Neil Fujita, the Godfather of Graphic Design The Tote Bag That May Get You Fired Bad Color Selection + Bad Movie = Bad All Over Beleaguered Miss Teen South Carolina Reveals Career Aspirations; Design Community Mourns Armin Vit Reviews the ODG: It Ain't All That, Cuz Debbie Millman on James Victore in Graphic Define Magazine A Slimmer NY Times Has No More Room For Graphics? Are Toto's 'Four' Too Similar to Sagmeister's? Project M Wants You To Buy a Meter That's What M/M Are...M'm M'm Good Help Save Donald T. Sterling From Himself Carin Goldberg's Key Gets Copied The Steven Heller Update: Books, Blue Q and Big Boy The Independent Offers Up Both Sides Virginia Postrel Tells Us Why DIY is A-OK Come On, If Pam Can Do It So Can You! Tell Us Something We Don't Know Make Way Oakenfold! Watch Out Bukem! Designers Are Way Cooler Now! Lorraine Wild Gives It Up For Her Soul Sister A Short Time With Brody About the Times Milton Glaser Uses Superstar Designer Status For Good Glaser Speaks! Scher Blasts Back! It's a Graphic Design Battle of the Sexes! Educating Voters, State By State To That Person Out There Worried About the Glass "Cieling" in Graphic Design Andy Rutledge's Graphic Design Smackdown Is It Really Hot As H-E-Double Hockey Sticks? A Little Gobbledy-Gook For This Week of Gobble Gobble This Blog Post Has Been Censored Bon Appetit: James Victore's Delicious Week Three Greatest Hits From Emigre "Oh my god. It even has a watermark." Showing Off the Guts of the Thing Let's Reach Into the UnBeige Mailbag... |
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