art without a license

Palestine - Walking for Peace

2012-01-18T17:35:00.000-08:00

I went to Palestine not knowing what to expect and not particularly believing that peace could be achieved by the simple act of walking as proposed by William Ury (William Ury@ TED) the founder of the Abraham's Path Initiative (www.abrahamspath.org).

I joined API on their exploratory walk of the West Bank of Palestine in late February. My job was to walk the path and document the journey through photographs. API's goal is to facilitate an experience of the other side of the Middle East. They believe that the simple act of walking and experiencing a community and its people first hand will connect people powerfully, and reinstate a belief in a shared humanity.

Our small group of 8 international people walked, ate, and stayed with the locals throughout our trip. We experienced their wonderful hospitality while on our 140 mile walk from Nablus to Hebron.

As an agnostic I struggled to understand why I was here. What did this land, the heart of the world's 3 major religions and a place of intense modern conflict have to do with my life experience?

5 days into my walk it dawned on me that I was not here to find anything but to let go of what I thought my story was. What was I holding on to so tightly it prevented me from moving forward in my life? The very things in life you think are not negotiable actually are or so I realized as I trudged up the 'Valley of Death' in the hot sun with my soul bared and my ego in shreds.

This is what being on a pilgrimage is I began to understand. This is where peace begins within anhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd without. Here are the pictures that don't do justice to the experience but in the end I came away believing that YES, peace can be achieved simply by walking.

Read more about our journey at: Wend Magazine: Path of the Patriarchs
and Bark Magazine: Dogless in the Desert

Photos by Claudia Chang and writing by Jayme Moye

Kenya - Gentle Tourism?

2012-01-18T17:28:00.000-08:00

I always thought my traveler's footprint was relatively minor especially when I considered my low budget modus operandi . What has become clear is my naivete regarding my impact. I now refer to my trips by the total number of plastic water bottles I used while there. My trip to India was a 112 liter plastic bottle journey. I was there for 28 days and used an average of 4 liter sized water bottles a day. (Water Bottle Usage Worldwide)

Getting access to clean water is a major issue for everyone. In Kenya I resigned myself to the daily rising count of plastic water bottles. It was distressing to be handed several pint size bottles of water every hour. Half way through my 2 week trip the count was up as high as 42 pint sized plastic water bottles. What was the alternative? Did one exist here in Kenya?

With this rising bottle count constantly on my mind I journeyed to Sasaab Lodge in Samburu in north central Kenya. The hosts Ali and Tony greeted us with a cool cloth to wash the red dirt off our tired hot faces and then handed each of us a steel water bottle filled with filtered water. I cringed at accumulating yet another useless item most likely manufactured in China. My dismissive thoughts almost made me miss what our host said next.

Sasaab gets all their drinking water from several large 18 liter recyclable water containers. Since they introduced the recyclable containers a year or so ago, they have gone from using approximately 200 500ml and 100 1 liter plastic water bottles a month to having no plastic water bottle waste at all. This fact is so important because much of the country in rural Kenya has no infrastructure to support the waste generated by travelers or their supporting lodges. Much of this waste must be trucked out or buried somewhere in the environment.

This beautiful lodge situated on the hillside above the Ewaso Nyiro river remains fixed in my mind as a special place not so much because of its location but because of the solutions it has created to the serious environmental issue of plastic water bottle usage.

Read more about our adventures in Kenya at: Wend magazine: Warrior Blood

Photos by Claudia Chang and Christina Erb.

TransFair USA Eyes a Brand Makeover...Why?

2010-09-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

As I continue to investigate the workings of Fair Trade some interesting facts are coming to light. This explains the mumbled comments, and reluctance to say much or the sighs of perseverance I've encounter with those caught up in industries relying on these certifications.

Matt at Just Coffee Cooperatives writes:

"This situation has been developing slowly over many years, so we should ask: “why is it finally coming to a head now?” The answer to this seems to lie in the rise of the IMO “Fair for Life” certification that many committed FT roasters (and growers) are turning to as an alternative to the FLO/Transfair system. To put it plainly-- the IMO certification is reportedly cheaper, based on auditing as opposed to marketing, and less cumbersome than FLO/TFUSA's version. And more, by using the term “Certified Fair Trade” in its language, the IMO program is liberating a term that has been monopolized legally in the US by TFUSA for years. In the past, the more committed “fair traders” had nowhere to go outside the TFUSA model for third-party certification-- they were the only game in town. There now appears to be a better alternative and that development must make TFUSA very nervous."

Read the full article by Just Coffee Cooperative at:
http://www.justcoffee.coop/node/11481

Fair trade certification delayed is fair trade denied.

2010-09-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

The more I search the more complex things become. Here's a great article on Fair Trade and the shifting tides of change that occur as organizations slip with regard to their values. It may take a little time but eventually we notice...

From the Huffington Post:

The Organic Consumers Association has launched the Fair World Project to promote fair trade in commerce, especially in organic production systems in developing countries as well as at home, and to protect the term "fair trade" from dilution and misuse for mere PR purposes. This new organization fills the critical need for a watchdog of misleading fair trade claims, and a cheerleader for dedicated fair trade mission-driven companies. The Fair World Project will focus on promoting projects that connect the environmental and health benefits of organic agriculture with the social benefits derived from fair trade.

The article below is featured both on the Fair World Project website as well as in the inaugural publication of "For a Better World." The website provides a space and forum where consumers and activists can discuss issues within the Fair Trade movement, ask tough questions and share information. Please check it out here.

Going Fair Trade: The Challenges of Setting Up Sustainable and Fair Supply Chains and Getting Them Certified

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-bronner/going-fair-trade_b_712227.html#

Context and Complexity

2010-04-13T10:51:00.001-07:00

"Imagination is far more important than knowledge."

"The formulation of a problem is far more important than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. To raise new questions, to look at old problems from a new angle marks the real advances in science." - Albert Einstein

I was thinking that all this talk and attention about sustainability is great but ultimately the aesthetics of consumption is the issue. How to help the consumers of the world develop an identity outside of things? with millions still in poverty and the grossly wealthy lifestyle idealized?
These are the social processes identified as lifestyle consumption, expressive consumption, aesthetic consumption that require the solutions. Creating solutions as alternatives for these processes will turn sustainability into a real and worthy goal, not allow it remain where it is now as a Utopian ideology.

read more:
Design, Lifestyles and Sustainability.
by Peter Dobers and Lars Strannegard

Conference on Climate Change, Unchanged

2010-01-05T15:34:00.000-08:00

As the old year fades into the archives things remain unchanged despite many hopes to the contrary. I refer not only to US politics, economics, health care, and trade policies but the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change.

Here's a unique perspective from Indonesian activist and journalist Fitrian Ardiansyah:
The Jakarta Post : New Year, new climate (re)solutions.

So Fair Trade or Fair Trader?

2009-10-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a project investigating organic fair trade coffee, tracing the bean from the growers through the various intermediary steps terminating with the consumer. Its been a long and complex route with new facts learned at every step. With each bean of knowledge I gain the complexity grows.

The question that kept arising was "What is Fair Trade and what does it really signify?"

Today I spent the afternoon talking with Mark of Conscious Coffee who helped answer these questions. A local roaster with over 12 years in the industry, Mark is on his way to Aceh, Sumatra to visit some of the same coffee growers we met this past summer. We thought it might be good to share our experience and get his take on the confusion behind the fair trade label.

So why are there so many fair trade labels and products out there and what is the difference?

Fair Trade is a certification that provides rules regarding pesticide use, workers treatment..etc that growers must meet in order to get the Fair Trade label. Much of the coffee Mark at Conscious Coffee buys comes from cooperatives who have invested their time and energy into creating a high quality coffee bean for the specialty coffee market that includes conforming to the regulations for fair trade and organic certifications.

They are the Fair Traders.

Conscious coffee and other roasters like it make a conscious decision to invest in these communities not because they have the best tasting bean or because they offer the best priced fair trade organic coffee. They invest in these communities because these cooperatives are making a long term commitment to produce high quality coffee that will help to support their community and improve their lifestyle. This intention is important to both sides of the conscious coffee market. Fair traders want to help facilitate this process. Its not "Profit Over People" coined by Noam Chomsky, but profit working for people.

On the consumer side of this relationship the connection from the cup of coffee they buy to the grower becomes transparent. They can trace that cup of coffee directly from the region of the world where the coffee was grown, to the cooperative, and often down to the farmer and village who grew the beans.

The gist of this is that by consciously choosing to buy traceable beans you invest not just in yourself and your immediate pleasure, but in the future of these people and communities laboring to provide these products for your consumption. (Yes, this is a simplistic way to look at it because the issues surrounding coffee growers is so complex and transcends political as well as socioeconomic concerns, but this is also an important way to understand these relationships between our consumption and their production).

A Fair Trader is a person or business who's idea of success is wrapped up in the success and sustainability of those communities that produce the products they sell.
Other retailers offer Fair Trade coffee but they are simply outlets for marketing this product without a connection to the source. The money they make never makes it back to the origin or growers because there is no partnership involved. These large retailers don't know their growers, the regions or the concerns of the coffee growers. The growers have no voice.

Fair Traders like Conscious Coffee considers the producers and communities as integral parts of their business and are invested in improving not only their lives but the lives of the farmers as well.

The Fish is Gone: Technology Paradox Killed it.

2009-08-23T20:34:00.000-07:00

My fish died today.
He was just a goldfish I won at a fair, oh about 10 years ago. So I suppose he was old and it was time but I blame his death on the technology paradox.

Technology simplifies life by providing choices and functions not otherwise offered, yet that very simplicity requires a increase of operations and capabilities that often are too complex to control, requiring innovative and equally complex design to translate it's functionality.

In short, somewhere I must have misread instructions, misinterpreted directions or become confused about the affordance, constraints, and mapping of the care required for my goldfish and it's habitat.
I gave it food, although maybe too much food at times. Then I wasn't sure just exactly how much chemical I was supposed to add to the water to de-chlorinate it. As for the algae, how much was too much?

Come to think of it, there are dozens of things, technological things that produce background static and stress in my life for the basic reason they are not simple enough to understand and operate.
My digital watch/timer, my DVD player clock display, my alarm clock, my new touch screen cell phone, the menu table of my digital camera, my computer...to name a few.

I tend to use these objects only in a few prescribed ways that I, through trail and error and through reading the manual, have been able to mentally map. It's like learning a new language each time. I look for ways to naturally map these objects' functions based on how I intuitively work. Most often this mapping is not natural but based on my previous experience with the earlier generations of these products.

Occasionally a product comes along that requires no heavy sighing (the price I pay for being technologically up to date). For example, the i Pod is a quick study, easily mapped mentally because the functions mimic natural behavior. Not only that, it creates an enjoyable interface that encourages use because it is fun. I'm referring to the navigation wheel. I love the way it turns in a circle, the sound it makes and the simple tree structure of the database.

When faced with the ever expanding number of new technologies, I feel an affinity with De Cervantes' Don Quixote and Thoreau's Walden. I want to hide in the wilderness or attack these modern windmills but technology is not the over bearing all consuming monster that is taking over our lives. It provides me great advantages and comfort. The design and implementation of that technology is what pushes me to consider a more simple life, where my time is not consumed by bad design. Choices and varieties have become a burden in ways I never dreamed of.

I often wonder as technology progressed throughout the ages, was there such an abundance of things and choices that advancement was hamstrung like in this more modern era? Did the blacksmiths in the Middle Ages continue to use tools that were difficult to operate or inadequate for the job? Or were these badly designed objects quickly tossed aside in favor of more efficient better designed tools? I think the consequences of bad design was more immediate back then, seen in outcomes of wars or survival over harsh winters.

Nowadays our technology acts as a buffer preventing us from leaping over design disasters immediately into more workable designs. We must continually muddle through because the consequences are not clear. If my current MP3 player interface is difficult to navigate, I will still manage to survive the winter. I can build my Taj Mahal and no one will wonder why. This is the second level of the technology paradox. Like a tornado it spins within itself creating more things that take more time that create more need for things.

Give me sleek, well designed, naturally mapped objects and I will consider dismounting my horse and abandoning my spear to embrace the modern world once more. As we move away from the obsession with technology like a child in a candy store wanting everything all at once, I think we can transition into a world where the important choices are around time and not things.

Good, thoughtful design plays an important role.

To read more on this subject:

Donald Norman writes about "The Design of Everyday Things"

Sumatra or Bust

2009-06-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

For the next month we will be in Sumatra Indonesia touring coffee plantations, exporter warehouses and various other locals to trace the developed world consumption of coffee back to the producers. Here we will explore the similarities of our challenges and hopes, the diversity of values and expectations. This project is an extension of the concept of Reproduction over Production. How does this idea fare in the face of some tight economic and social realities?

For the full story as it unfolds check out our blog:
Sumatra or Bust

Coffee, Cinnamon, Paper and Orangutans, what do they all have in common?

2009-05-29T18:18:00.000-07:00

Reproduction over Production...is it only a dream?
What does this mean?

This is where a society produces only as much product, uses only as many resources as can be reproduced or renewed readily.
Our current capitalist economic system has been borrowing from the future for centuries. We've cut down our old growth forests, sterilized our soil, polluted our oceans and air, all in the name of profit. Money.
Nothing wrong with that as long as these resources last. They are our natural capital and need to be accessible on some level for profit. This has always worked because our world population was relatively small and the level of our resource usage has never been greater than the ability of the Earth to renew itself.
Not anymore.
The current economic model will lead to our destruction unless the paradigm shifts.

This is an interesting time to be alive. It is on par with the shift during the 15 century that occurred in the scientific world with the help of Francis Bacon. He created a methodology, the scientific method, that pioneered a inductive way of thinking. It changed the way people thought, the fundamental way they looked at things. it ushered in the scientific era.

Our wealth in the developed world insulates most of us from the hard edges of this type of change.
We don't see first hand the dwindling limits of the world's resources.
We don't experience first hand the consequences.
We can't really relate to the reality of this process because our societal systems support and protect most of us.

I'm on my way to Sumatra, Indonesia to visit coffee cooperative, Orangutan infested rain forest, illegal Palm Oil plantations, and cinnamon orchards popping up inside preserve boundaries.
I want to look at the edges of this change and see first hand the issues, complexity and the people. How are the people coping? What are their needs and how might I, as a great consumer, help them? Can we in the developed world shift our habits enough to include these people in our greater vision of a sustainable, reproductively rich world?

http://www.gopetition.com.au/petitions/orangutan.html

Admissions of Foolishness

2009-03-01T21:57:00.000-08:00

After many decades on this earth you would think I would know my own desires. With thoughts of meaning and worth bubbling through my electrified nerve highways I missed the point. I created "nice" or "splendid". A simple miscalculation yet when applied to fragile new growth, devastating.

I have yet to bring in the couch of sympathy off the porch of my ego. More foolishness embedded in previous foolishness. What matters is the clock is ticking and I am spending time the way I prefer.
Buried deep beneath everyone's exotic plumage are hidden desires that wield a particularly deliberate force. "To send light into the darkness of men's hearts..." Schumann.

This is a divine manifestation.
Like a mandatory lunch under the bodhi tree.

Transformation by Fire

2009-02-17T20:02:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago there was a fire in the foothills near my home. It scorched one of my favorite walking trails. Two weeks ago I finally managed to get out there and explore. What I saw wasn't my familiar trail, but a changed landscape. The area was so rocky. The fire had burned the tall softly flowing grasses that hid the rocks. Those unusual stumps and decaying logs were left as piles of ashes. I could now see how the trail wound up and around the mountain slopes. With the grass and some of the trees burnt to cinders I had a clear view into the distance.

I thought to lament the loss of my favorite trail and the feelings I associated with traveling it. But then I realized I was fortunate to be given a perspective that was unique. A view into the underbelly of this area. This rawness, realness, not dressed up and served on silver was this piece of earth I thought I new but had only bothered to glimpse it at the surface. Things were different one level deeper but I hadn't seen it.

I experienced the process of the transformation of an artist to be like this fire. Things are painful. They are stripped away. You're left raw and vulnerable but there is something real, new and elemental about what's left. It the essence of who you are.
This wasn't something to grieve or bemoan, but a place to begin anew, refreshed. Once I learned to re contextualize my experience, I could see the path in front of me more clearly. I could begin to grow again.

Eco Conscious Design

2009-01-26T13:26:00.000-08:00

Eco friendly design.

Is the role of an eco conscious designer solely limited to the products they use and provide for clients?

Eco design begins with the cultural understanding of a product and its context?

Bringing awareness into our business practice of ways of living in respect to others, other environments, businesses, cultures..etc is a key component in operating a sustainable business. Although profit is major, creating a platform of sustainable practice is no longer an option in today's business environment. Wal-Mart once reviled for its business practices involving employee treatment and resource usage, is now leading the industry in implementing energy reduction methods. Scale has a lot to do with Wal-Mart's new position. Simply changing all their lighting to compact fluorescence bulbs has saved them millions and garnered them new respect for leading the way. What brought about this transformation? Public pressure and economic pressures related to rising energy costs.

Eco conscious design is more a question of either choosing a reactionary business strategy or being a leader in the business world by creating a viable business model demonstrating the effectiveness of sustainability and eco consciousness that does not value profit over people.

Inauguration 2009 : A Suspension of Cynicism

2009-01-20T10:39:00.000-08:00

This year has been one of extremes where belief, collective and individual has figured prominently.
As an artist belief is a word I am intimately familiar with on both sides of the spectrum. I am often given to letting the neutrinos, dust, universe, energy...etc do their work in the absence of immediate inspiration.
Question: when has immediate anything especially inspiration ever become a reasonable expectation?
Segue to politics of today Tuesday January 20th 2009.
Something has happened today through collective belief, thought, intention, that puts life in perspective, on the knife edge of meaning.
Barak Obama as President of the United States is the result of intention and belief in ( insert your ideas here) through out the population, individual and mass.
I feel proud, once again, as if I was somehow responsible just because of my belief.
For today at least may we suspend cynicism.

Goodbye 2008

2009-01-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

I was listening to Geoff Nunberg at NPR talking about
the word of the year.
He chose "Joe".
He went through the history of the use of Joe, the common man, GI Joe, good ole Joe, Say it ain't so Joe, Joe six pack, Joe blow... Fascinating.
So I asked myself what would be my word of the year?

epistemology?
integration?
heterodoxy?
infrastructure?
all these words surfaced because of investigations into my thesis topic. But one particular word came to mind in the latter part of this year that speaks more powerfully to me than any other:

re.lief –noun

1.	alleviation, ease, or deliverance through the removal of pain, distress, oppression, etc.

2.	a means or thing that relieves pain, distress, anxiety, etc.

3.	money, food, or other help given to those in poverty or need.

4.	something affording a pleasing change, as from monotony.

5.	release from a post of duty, as by the arrival of a substitute or replacement.

6.	the person or persons acting as replacement.

7.	the rescue of a besieged town, fort, etc., from an attacking force.

8.	the freeing of a closed space, as a tank or boiler, from more than a desirable amount of pressure or vacuum.

9.	Feudal Law. a fine or composition which the heir of a feudal tenant paid to the lord for the privilege of succeeding to the estate.

10.

Literature.

a.	a distinct or abrupt change in mood, scene, action, etc., resulting in a reduction of intensity, as in a play or novel.

11. on relief, receiving financial assistance from a municipal, state, or federal government because of poverty or need.

A Visit to the Denver MCA

2008-12-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

Practices of Design had their final meeting at the Denver MCA
(Mu of Contemp Art).
I brought my camera and couldn't contain myself at all the opportunities of reflections and planes.

I went snap happy.

David Adjaye, the architect created a delightful play of light, shadow, and shape not diminished in the least for its lack of acute angles.

The museum reminds me of ones in Europe, understated hiding among the urban landscape.

Revealing their secrets only when you stumble upon them.
It messes with your perceptions of what you think you know about this urban landscape.

MCA is a Leeds Certified building which adds to its aura.

Sustainability, renewable resources and a conscious business approach are championed by this building.

Its their poster child in a community that is saying to the rest of the world: "Yes we know and we are acting on it."

Oh, the art inside, on the walls is great. Easy to look at, to contemplate with room to breathe.

As much as I'm not a great fan of Damian Hirst...
I must admit his piece Saint Sebastian was most memorable and striking.

The Aftermath

2008-12-09T19:34:00.000-08:00

For all my cynicism about certain prescribed holidays and the commercialism surrounding them I really did enjoy mine. Thanks giving that is.

My favorite art piece was the brilliant yellow orange, stand-in for potato mash, butternut squash. A colorful alternate to tradition.

A visual delight, food as art, where I imagine the origin of color resides. In times past to be an artist required an intimate relationship with the offerings of nature and the secret of her colors.
Can butternut squash be the new purple of today?
Ernest the rooster might know.

Motion Graphics

2008-11-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

Here some cool motion effects from vail

In Good We Trust, Denver Biennial 2010

2008-11-15T13:37:00.000-08:00

In Good We Trust is an idea that deliberately points to the friction between the image of the US and its efforts in the world over the last 10 years and the actual acts of good occurring all over the country. The focus is away from the negative to the positive intentions of those actions and getting the words out. Bruce Mau, Massive Change a well known designer/artist came to Denver a couple of weeks ago to present his ideas for a biennial event planned here in 2010. Initiated by Mayor Hickenlooper, local Denver artists including Seth Goldenberg instructor at UCD, are working towards developing a vision and the tools needed for this event. Mau's vision includes very interactive exhibits, "We want people to change the way they think." Sustainability and reproduction over production are some of the topics under discussion. They hope to expose people, open their minds to the creative possibility to change the world. Sounds like talk about infrastructure to me:) What do designers and artists have to do with infrastructure? (see my previous post).
Main idea: What would happen when you bring science and art and business together to create intuitive, inventive ways of changing existing processes and dynamics. They intend to build an experience in the Denver Biennial where you can walk into that vision and come away with motivation and ideas for changing the possibilities they see needing it in their world.

Infrastructure

2008-11-13T16:10:00.000-08:00

In his book "The World is Flat" Thomas Friedman talks about how culture and infrastructure affect how countries grow their economies in today's global environment. This is the crux of the job issue in the US today.

I visited India somewhat alarmed about the imminent takeover of the US by India and China after reading Friedman's book. What I found there surprised me. Their infrastructure was horrible. The poverty endemic. I couldn't imagine how a country with such overwhelming issues could possibly overtake anyone. What I did notice was, despite this, India is pushing ahead with high quality education and technological development. The business sector is tasked with creating patches of reliable infrastructure where it is most needed. These modern city island sectors are spread out all over the country like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi

Barak Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope" talks in depth about the importance of infrastructure redevelopment in the US. Like in the past when the Steel Belt turned into the Rust belt key sectors of our economy need a realignment. What does this have to do with design? Design is an important element to any reworking of processes in regards to conceptualization, communication and incorporation.

61 Trees Per Person

2008-11-13T14:41:00.000-08:00

Npr - article

Nalini Nadkarni a professor of Ecology at Evergreen State college in Washington appeared on NPR revealing some interesting info: "Some of the finest forest ecology studies being carried out today are the result of NASA-funded multi-disciplinary collaborations." She noticed that trees give off specific light reflection signatures allowing her to estimate their numbers through out the world.

In 2005 there were some 400,246,300,201 trees on the world, with 6,456,789,877 people in the world that comes out to 61 trees per person.

As a designer alone I must use up close to my allotment of trees in a couple of years. Good thing they are renewable resources.

Wangari Maathai 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is helping the world's people to increase their individual tree allotment.

Recycle Conundrum

2008-10-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

Remember the saying most of grew up with that was tossed at us at the dinner table by our parents? A warning like a dull knife of awareness raising: "Eat your food, there are children starving in Africa, China, Uzbekistan...", or some version of. To the mind of the 7 year old concepts that broad were incomprehensible.
This incomprehensibility can be used to describe the recycling conundrum of today.

On a recent trip to Moab, Utah, I chanced to visit the recycling center attracted by the large hill of crushed glass, which no one wanted, has no commercial value, took 2 years to accumulate.

The story of this recycle center is just one of many seeping like toxic waste from small communities around the West.

Moabians have taken a little time getting used to recycling. The idea has a difficult time gelling with the myth of the indomitable West of unending resources, unregulated freedom, and independent spirit. So the efforts of all citizens are to be celebrated. Drop into this mix the difficult reality of recycling, its inability to etch a place in the capitalist market which values production over reproduction and sustainability and what you get is a small hill of crushed glass thats growing faster than our economy at this point in time.

This is really a dicussion about value, intrinsic, verses capitalist.
Enough.
Moab's recycling center is looking for great ideas for reusing glass.

Thanks to the folks at Moab recycling center for taking the time to fill me in.

A visit to Anabliss and Ironton

2008-10-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

Its always a pleasure to be invited into someone else's art space. I want to thank Matt Coffman of Anabliss and Jill Hadley Hooper of Ironton Studios for welcoming us, (Brian Liester's Practices of Design class at UCD) into their art space and sharing with some of their history with us.

Anabliss:
Matt, the founder of Anabliss, walked and talked us through his space. His staff was friendly and willing to share their experiences. Each had a unique story that led them to the doorstep of Anabliss. Thanks for sharing.
I learned there is a distinct difference between practicing graphic design and branding identity. "Its not just a website [per se], its a complete branding initiative" says Matt. It comes down to controlling collateral. Consistency flows through all aspects of business collateral.

He mentioned Joe Duffy's book, Brand Apart, as a great reference of brand strategies.
Anabliss does a lot of Pro bono work. A current project in the works is the Warren Village Project. Matt talked about how the design process gets started. Words of wisdom: design around copy. Having a good copy writer can be essential to good design work. It helps focus a project in the right direction.

Know what your value is.
Overall Matt was quiet and humble about his work. His passion for design was evident by the way he talked about his work and his design process. I enjoyed seeing the diversity of work completed since he started his business. What a great insight into the business of design.

Jill Hadley Hooper:

There was a distinct difference between the sleek quiet interior of Anabliss humming with the sound of Macs and the, in the trenches, rusting metal facade, smelling of turpentine, feel of Ironton Studios. Jill walks the line between digital design and illustration. Right next to her studio space was a voluminous expanse of white walls used for display. A gallery.

It's something to contemplate. As a mostly digital designer I rarely face the blank wall of judgment, yet there is something elemental about nailing up a piece of your work and giving it the space to be, to settle, to grow. Much of digital design is about meeting deadlines and pleasing clients with hardly time for a breath in between. Jill manages to walk in both worlds successfully.
"Cuter, pinker, rounder, neuterer," says Jill of the pressures of the commercial illustration world.
After hearing some of the stories behind her work I began to see the appeal of having a white wall available for use. The ying and yang of art. That which feeds us can destroy us. Thus the white wall, which on reflection I secretly named Moby Dick. Then I jumped into my vehicle I affectionately call Pequod, and drove away.

"... truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more." — Moby-Dick, Ch. 11

Low Art vs High Art, [A Paradigm Shift in action]

2008-10-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

Contemporary art is experiencing growing pains. The established dynamic is being challenged by today's changing cultural technototems spurred on by the unapologetically democratic, universal leveler, the Internet. Shakespeare's famous line"All the worlds' a stage" has come to represent today's reality. An individual's values figure more prominently. Voices once excluded are now emancipated whether for the better is not relevant. That these opinions directly effect change on all levels is what is pertinent.

Bansky, the modern low art technician is fostering this debate through guerilla art marketing

If the word graffiti rubs you the wrong way think of low art in terms of a refashioned use of the idea of recycled reuse.

More Numbers and Percentages

2008-10-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

The trillions of dollars lost in the last few days could represent the total number of yellow leaves that have fallen this Autumn in the mountains of Colorado...

8,451.19 represents the number of leaves on the ground in my backyard.
Time: 4:09PM ET
Color Change: -128.00 (1.49%)
Prev. Green: 8,579.19
This Morning: 8,568.67
Day's Range: 7882.51 - 8901.28
52wk Range: 8,523.27 - 14,280.00

FDR's take on his version of the Banking Crisis.
"We had a bad banking situation... bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people's funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans. This [shocked] the people for a time into a sense of insecurity and to put them into a frame of mind where they did not differentiate, but seemed to assume that the acts of a comparative few had tainted them all. It was the Government's job to straighten out this situation and do it as quickly as possible -- and the job is being performed."

Internet Storytellers, Landscapes into Silence

2008-10-09T15:26:00.000-07:00

I don't live in a heavy traffic area yet there are days and nights where I wake up thinking this is the day the internal combustion engine will finally been silenced.

silence

I recently came across an internet storyteller, artist, anthropologist Jonathan Harris and his project Whale Hunt. The silence of this piece is profound. It extends into the visual landscape invading the senses in a powerful, elemental way.

Along the same lines, Polar Artist, Irene Sullivan's "Excerpts of the Arctic" a photographic exploration of her time spent in the Arctic in 1980, continues to echo the silence nurtured by many of today's digital storytellers.

Seven is the lucky number?

2008-09-30T11:00:00.001-07:00

Last week there was talk about a 700 billion dollar Wall Street bailout.
This week, Monday, the stock market dropped 777 points.
Tomorrow looms ominously.
I took a trip down the Million Dollar Highway in Colorado to take my mind off my disappearing 401K.

I renamed Highway 550 the 700 billion dollar highway.

Molas Pass between Silverton and Durango.

Final Card Design

2008-09-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

This is the final look I came up with today...
"Anisozygoptera"
So the question came up, "Why the dragonfly?"
well...
"In many cultures, the dragonfly is regarded as a symbol of light, adaptability, grace and transformation." This seems an appropriate symbol for conscious design.

Here's a dragonfly story that explains it all...

"Oyenstikker", "Trollslanda":
The Europeans thought dragonflies were sinister, but the Asians and Native Americans thought of them as symbols of courage, strength, and happiness. This connotation has spread worldwide in modern times.

In ancient mythology Japan was referred to as "Akitsushima, Land of the dragonflies."

Dead Trees

2008-09-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

The Daily Green:

The variety of paper out there in the world is amazing.

The people at xpedex, a great paper resource, are familiar with each and every kind.

Kind of like the tea plantation owners in India.

They know all the variety and then some.

TMI

Recycled paper intrigued me.

PWC post consumer waste %

You can choose.

There is even 100% PWC paper out there.

As a designer it is becoming more cost effective to use recycled paper and non-toxic inks.

Design proofs

2008-09-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

I played around with my logo design.
The results...in the form of business cards:

Design examples everywhere

2008-09-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

I looked around and found some cards that caught my eye.
I complied the ideas I liked and then uniqued them into my card.

Some thoughts that came to mind as I did.
a. What is it that I do? Is it apparent in the design?
b. What colors do I think speak best to that?
c. What font?
d. Does my design emote ?

I found a few great resources:
a. "A Brand Apart" by Joe Duffy.
b. www.justcreativedesign.com
c. Are you a bad designer? (yikes!)

Identifying Markets and Branding

2008-09-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

Investigating how other design firms market and brand themselves.
Well I work in design now and have pondered these questions...where is my niche.
Small business, artist, women...
Someone asked me "where is the money in that, most artists can't afford websites or anything?"

I found there are lots of plug in design firms and web developers, but the most common response from my clients were they tried that and it worked for a while but now they want more personal design that represents them and their business.
My competition:
They have templates for artists...
other peoples pixels.com

I found some interesting sites:

www.3indesign.com

www.pascalarquitectos.com

www.contempomodels.com

www.leoburnett.com

From 500 to 499 to...

2008-09-18T09:44:00.000-07:00

500 one day, 499 the next and then "poof" suddenly trillions have disappeared in a day.
Add this to the approximate 39,000 per breathing American that has been seeping out like a leaky faucet everyday since the war began.
I'd say this has been a decade of numbers.
Perfect fodder for an art project.
Reductionism.
What matters is the NUMBERS, the Wall Street mantra as seen in this CNN top story:
"The New York Federal Reserve Bank Thursday also pumped $55 billion into the nation's financial system. That comes on top of $70 billion that it pumped into the system Tuesday."

"The Bank of Japan, Bank of England and Bank of Canada set up new swap programs with the Fed, with Japan getting $60 billion, England getting $50 billion and Canada getting $10 billion."

And so on...

But even the power of numbers is collapsing as we speak.
We are on the event horizon of...
Some were afraid of Cern's Large Hadron Collider creating a black hole that would end the world.
Seems like there has been an invisible black hole operating within our midst for years.
Its all in the matrix of numbers flashing in the news every day.

Have you seen the latest poll numbers? The percentages are...
And so on...

Backlash Against Design and Innovation

2008-09-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

Following the links on Renee's site plaid and polyester>Design21>
A r t i c l e:
>A lack of Design knowledge:
"We actually live in a world full of bad products and bad design." says >>David Carlson
"Quote"
//"Bruce Nussbaum from BusinessWeek puts it like this:

'The truth is that the backlash is against the fad of innovation, not the fact of it. The backlash is against CEOs who get up and shroud their companies and their reputations in the rhetoric of innovation while continuing to sell out-of-date, poorly designed products and services. Consumers know this is fake and realize that the talk about innovation is not authentic.'" read more://

>Look at: as art, play, information...
>Dunne and Raby

2008-09-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

Robin Strelow, a local Colorado designer, worked as a volunteer for CASA, a non-profit organization that trains volunteers to act as child advocates in court custody cases involving abuse and neglect.
Defining the problem:
During her volunteer work she came across CASA’s brochure and noticed it was out of date. It had several different font types and featured only pictures of Caucasian children. Since the county's demographic had shifted in the last decade the overall image of the brochure had to as well. It didn’t meet the organization’s needs for recruitment and funding. The brochure is handed out during a yearly gala to attract new volunteers and gather donations, both corporate and individual. CASA was running out of the old brochures, which created the opportunity for a reassessment.
Aware a new look was needed, Robin was approached to do the redesign. There were no funds available for this project.
Design Strategy:
Robin worked with a marketing business volunteer who help develop new contemporary copy. The aesthetic had changed in the decades since the last brochure was update, from information overload to information distinction based on your organization’s target audience. This was the first time the brochure would be “designed.”
Goals of the brochure:
1. Attract more volunteers
2. Attract more funding
3. Inform public about the work of CASA
4. Create a value statement.
Approach:
1. Integrate diversity into the images.
2. Tighten the body copy to purge unnecessary text.
a. This required a reassessment of the organizations mission and goals.
3. Utilize existing assets such as the website to provide essential information.
4. Inspire confidence in the advocacy process by updating the imagery.
5. Set up a meeting between copywriter, executive, and designer to build a cohesive vision.
Innovating:
Inspiration
Working as a volunteer helped Robin to understand the goals and needs of CASA as well as the value it had within the community. There were many sad stories entering the court system daily. Much of the design came intuitively and as a result of defining the current needs of CASA.
Tough Choices:
With no budget for artwork or photography the Internet was a great resource for free imagery. The new brochure had a sense of competency and seriousness to it. It used white space and new imagery to lighten the message and give the reader room to breathe while conveying a sense of grace to CASA’s mission.
Funny enough there was an issue with one of the photos on the final brochure. It was a picture of a young girl twirling, her arms spread wide. The director felt the girl looked “scary” like she was being crucified. The photo was replaced. There was also some push and pull with the amount of text. This was resolved by using the organization’s assets such as the website, for more detailed information allowing the brochure to gain more white space.
Generating Value:
The design didn’t require a sell because it was a collaborative process integrated throughout the design process. Value was established by the choice of photos and words and their treatment. The new design provided room for the audience to digest and contemplate the issues presented. The professional look established legitimacy as it adopted the current aesthetic common to modern corporations and businesses. In order to be considered, CASA needed to speak the same culturally appropriate visual language as their audience. The new brochure invited comment not because of its lack of adherence to modern design principles but because it seamlessly fits into the modern aesthetic as well as created an indescribable ahh-ness best described by the Japanese expression, “mono no aware.”

Note:
I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing Robin. She gave me an extensive indepth picture of what the design world has been like for her. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to talk to her. The work she has done has been varied and interesting reflecting the passion she has for design.
"Passion in life feels itself"
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Claudia

Pro Bono D-day

2008-09-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

I was scheduled to talk to Robin today but we haven't connected yet...
I feel like I'm just shy of harassing her, leaving messages, sending follow up, just in case emails.
Well, she has my email, my number, my questions, knowledge of my intention and of my deadline.

In the mean time I've been researching her on the internet.
She founded Bluegg Creative Design in 2001.
No record of a website exists of this company.
There is a Bluegg Design in Cardiff, England that is hiring.
Check out their website. They create clean modern designs.

Robin is now working for Interweave Press, a national craft media company. She is helping this firm, who seems to be stuck in a "craft" 80's ish aesthetic, to develop a cohesive vision that will translate through all their departments; advertising, web, print, and launch them into a 21st century aesthetic. Take a peek at their current website and you'll understand what I mean. Despite their audience it needs...something...less. I found the book "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug, a great resource about juggling a company's many diverse needs and balancing that with successful user interface design. (*A Brian Book, recommended in one of his classes)

She has two pro bono projects listed online:
Voices For Children/CASA of Boulder County
vfccasa.org

Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers
www.rfov.org

Pro Bono Designer

2008-09-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

These are a few words to describe:

"National award winning art and creative director with vast experience developing publications, strategic marketing collateral, branding systems, annual reports, advertisements, presentations, and fund raising materials."

Here's a partial glimpse of her online portfolio:
(which can be found at creative hotlist)

Business Finance Magazine:
Coming To America

"This was a feature appearing in Business Finance magazine about the topic of immigration in America and how business deals with the influx of foreign-born workers. I thought of the concept of showing the Statue of Liberty with the people looking down from her torch to represent these individuals' situation of being in the U.S. but not necessarily being able to find work."

Sport Aviation Magazine:
Jawbreaker

"Spread layout for Sport Aviation about a very fast Glasair 3. The plane had a unique paint scheme that is quite stylish. I designed the layout and chose this photo to illustrate this dynamo of a homebuilt small airplane."
Experimental Aircraft Association

Rocky Mountain Institute Annual Report 2005-06:
"Unusual Partners"

"This annual report has the theme of "unusual partners" which describes many of the clients and organizations that RMI has worked with over the years. I chose to use symbiotic relationships in nature to illustrate this concept throughout the piece. Most of the images were donated by professional photographers. Recipient of 2007 American In house Design Award."
Rocky Mountain Institute
Design: Evergreen, Colorado

"The restaurant's style is one of casual elegance in a mountain setting west of Denver. I worked with the chef/owner to develop a simple yet elegant logo with a distinctive style just like this fabulous establishment. The restaurant was voted one of the top 10 new restaurants in the area by 5280 magazine in 2004."
Adam Mali, owner/chef, Restaurant Kody

Pro Bono Research Project

2008-09-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

I contacted several places with few results...
Out of state:
Ogilvy and Mather
SS+K
In state:
Factory Labs
White Ink
Ones that responded:
Robin Strelow
Karen Steenekamp

The Pro Bono Project involves investigating the world of pro bono design work, interviewing the actual designers, and detailing their design process as described in the AIGA article "Why Design."
Not many responses to date and most didn't have time.
A crisis of perception for sure in my opinion but as Kurt Vonnegut says "so it goes...."

Karen Steenekamp of Open Design was great to talk to. She graciously shared the client design strategy and the questionnaire she developed as a result. On pro bono work... she was definitive, '"it is... "-not something to jump into. Given the constraints of that type of work it can be a challenge for a small design firm without a lot of resources.
I've been invited to talk with Robin Strelow tomorrow. She did a spread of brochures in Communication Arts developed for The Rocky Mountain Institute. Her style reminded me of the work by Ogilvy. Her pro bono work is simple newsletters or letter heads. I shall find out more tomorrow.

My process:
When I realized all great designers, even not so great designers out there were not dying to talk and give advice to an impressionable design student, I was up against a business park wall so to speak.
My Strategy:
Go local. I got results when I dived into the local scene, the real people, the humble median, those still looking for their 7 minutes(?) of fame.
My Interview:
That has yet to occur but I sent an outline of my topics and questions in an email to Robin. I developed it from the AIGA article "Why Design." Some of the steps outlined in the article seemed contrived and repetitive, so I used Burrough's cut up method.

I found a great link about famous graphic designers...
Design Talkboard

A crisis of perception

2008-09-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

Mind Walk by Bernt Capra
This is a long but fascinating movie about art, science, physics, and the matter of life.
It touches on philosophy and physic as it tackles the questions many of us may ruminate on subconsciously everyday.
When you have 1 1/2 hrs to spare...
It is a good watch and most appropriate for the times we live in.
The quality is very poor and the original VCR copy is not much better. That was 1990. Don't confuse this movie with the newer version made by a different director. The first 5 minutes are a slowwww build up setting the scene.
So be patient.
The movie really unwinds when the two men meet the scientist and begin their discussion.
Enjoy

Thinking about Holes in Cheese

2008-09-02T16:37:00.000-07:00

Here's another intriguing quote from Collings:

"Artists have interesting concerns which no one ever thought was worth thinking about before, like holes in cheese. Advertising expresses a new world of oceanic immenseness where no one is alone. We want to be shocked by art."

The Inner Life of Painting

2008-09-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

I picked up this great book at a used bookstore, "A Brief History of Painting" by Roy Bolton published by Magpie Books . What attracted me to it was the introductory essay by Matthew Collings In his essay he talks about contemporary art. Mr. Collings does a great job discussing the dichotomy in art that exists today, offering great examples and explanations that has helped me to articulate my unease about the current trend in the art world.

Plus he's a gas to read.

He doesn't take himself too seriously.

"Art must be unconventional, but galleries must be conventional

so you can tell its really art in them and not just something left over from a party or a murder."

Dialog City Air forest

DNC week in Denver 2008

SEO changes faster than lightening

2008-08-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

I've been searching for tips to optimize my client web sites.
I came across this article/blog, copybrighter.
Just when I think I've got it managed...

Its got some good up to date info on SEO.

The Avant Garde

2008-08-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

"Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics." - Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avant-garde.

I've been excited to see all the events happening in Denver and the
surrounding areas this summer in anticipation of the DNC. dialogcity.org is a great site that has invited international artists to Denver to put on interactive "dialogical site specific" exhibitions.

Another great event going on this and next week is the
Boulder International Fringe Festival.
It may not really be "fringe" if I care to be consistent, but it is interesting never the less.

As I looked over the site and all the contributing artists I came away slightly confused as to what exactly was I looking at. Contemporary art is all over the map, which in my mind is a good thing because it allows for a variety of expression. My confusion arises with the misuse of the terms innovation and avant garde. I always thought these terms referred to work outside the mainstream of the art world. Works that were literally on the edge or fringe of society. Seems as if the contemporary definition of avant garde refers to those artists in the"scene", fully excepted, welcomed, and integrated. Its become like one of those girl scout/boy scout badges you can collect along the way to...fame?

I noticed that the Home Depot employees collect similar badges that they hang from their uniform aprons as they advance through the ranks.

Ethics and Authenticity

2008-08-14T14:31:00.000-07:00

This summer I had the opportunity to attend a workshop led by well known artist/philosopher/physicist Enrique Martinez Celaya. The topic of discussion was "the challenges of making art in the age of careerism and art funds." It was a fascinating discussion that ranged over vast topics including philosophy, ethics and authenticity in art.
It was a difficult discussion to follow where every assumption made about definitions or concepts concerned were challenged. Mr. EMC as I like to refer to him (eMC2) did a comparison between the works and talent of Velásquez and Rembrandt, suggesting that perhaps Rembrandt lacked subtleness. His talent was visibly displayed in full glory on the canvas to impress. Velásquez on the other hand revealed his complexity and subtleness by what he didn't paint on the canvas.
The main idea that was consistently generated was "Why do you do art? and "Is this really art or just decoration?", "What is art?" The discussion generated many thoughts and questions such as "If someone gets paid big bucks for their art, does that legitimize it as art?"
I've been digesting the discussions throughout the summer and have decided to turn to the philosophers of old for some background and guidance, Satre, Heidegger, Hume, Kant....