Infrastructure

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.

Final Card Design

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

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

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

Design examples everywhere

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

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

Backlash Against Design and Innovation

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

Pro Bono D-day

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

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

Restaurant Kody Logo 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

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

The Inner Life of Painting

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

The Avant Garde

"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

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....