My Type of Environment

WARNING: Photo-based post ahead. If you don’t like looking at awesome things, shield your eyes! :)

It’s almost a very long weekend (3 days for us folks who get Memorial Day off). I couldn’t be more excited, and you know why? Because I’m going to Sin City this weekend for Punk Rock Bowling. I would tell you how excited I am but that would take too long. I absolutely love Las Vegas. Right down to the empty plastic liquor bottles that only add to the keenly landscaped streets. My boyfriend and I were just in Vegas in November to see Morrissey (!!!) We spent some time in old, downtown Vegas, Fremont Street, and I fell in love with my surroundings. I snapped a few photos of my favorite environmental typography. Since we’re staying on Fremont this time, I hope to find even more!

Most of us have some fascination with everything mid-century. I certainly do, a lot of it I can attribute to being so close with my grandparents. I’m a huge film nerd, and seeing remnants of Vegas’ past on Fremont Street sends me back to a certain time period in film. Have a look and see for yourself. Just be careful that you don’t fall asleep and wake up in the past.

Irons in the Fire- An interview with Lloyd Winters IV

Sitting on a roof top of Wieden & Kennedy, drinking a beer one late Friday afternoon, I got a little glimpse into the world of Lloyd Winter IV. It was all very casual and listening to him I had this sense that even though he has so many irons in the fire (an always had), this guy clearly knows what he wants and what he's doing, while always staying true to who he is.

His story is a colorful one, where the road is lined with punk rock, skateboards, gig posters, a silkscreening lab, playing in multiple bands, late nights working in clubs, meeting his wife in one, running one with a partner, teaching, corporate jobs in Beaverton, getting married, having three kids, design collaboration, working full time as a designer in one of the most respected agencies in the nation (without the graphic design degree) and then continuing his side projects in the evening.

“I want to try everything–I need to be alway's doing shit and I'm not happy unless I'm doing design and illustration.”

As the evening approached we skimmed many topics...

We talked a little about how so much is available for creatives.

“The information is out there. Coming from a background in fine art and art education, I taught myself a lot about graphic design. Sometimes I can tell that there are technical things missing. I try to just focus on the concepts and connecting the solutions. Now a days everything is so open source with our practice, everyone shares. All those gig poster guys like Mike King—they shared their knowledge with us—that was cool. I've learned from them.”

On balancing design with illustration- “I try to approach illustration like I do design and vise versa. Sometimes I fly by the seat of my pants—I do what I do to make shit and go with my gut. I use the basic grasp of composition when designing and I spend a lot of time with my sketchbooks. What I love about sketching is I don't think. It's like creating a logo, I can't make one without sketching first.”

On working for W&K- “A friend asked me to create a poster for the Haiti relief show that W&K was putting on, so I re-used a bit of art I made for the band Fin Riggins, then collaborated with Santiago Uceda to create the poster. I pulled around 50 prints the night before the show, they all sold. When I made the poster I wasn't really trying to make a Haiti themed poster, I just wanted it to look good and sell. The next week I had an interview and a few months or so later I was offered a job.”

So far Lloyd has created a pretty impressive body of work while at W&K—from designing logos, custom lettering, and books, to titled designs for TV spots. “All the things I do in the community is an extension of what I do here”.

On his work- “Skateboarding is a huge influence of my work, but also other counter culture like music, weird art, rock posters, and silk screening. I like to push the psychedelic weirdo and try not to be to literal, just conceptual.”

Originally posted on the WeMake Blog

If your in Portland you gotta head out and join us for next months sketchXchange and a night of inspiration and drawing with Lloyd Winter, the designery illustrator.

DATE OF THE EVENT: Friday Night, June 1 2012

TIME: 6:00-9:00 PM

PLACE: The Left Bank Project 

COST: FREE, however a donation is always welcomed!

REGISTRATION BEGINS: Monday, May 28, at 10am (register on the website!)

LEAP Motion

This looks like fun! LEAP Motion
Say goodbye to your mouse and keyboard.

Leap represents an entirely new way to interact with your computers. It’s more accurate than a mouse, as reliable as a keyboard and more sensitive than a touchscreen.  For the first time, you can control a computer in three dimensions with your natural hand and finger movements. 

This isn’t a game system that roughly maps your hand movements.  The Leap technology is 200 times more accurate than anything else on the market — at any price point. Just about the size of a flash drive, the Leap can distinguish your individual fingers and track your movements down to a 1/100th of a millimeter.

Pioneering Product Designer- Dieter Rams

Dieter Rams was strongly influenced by the presence of his grandfather, a carpenter. Rams trained as an architect before joining electronics manufacture Braun in 1955. In the more than 40 years that he spent working at Braun, Dieter Rams established himself as one of the most influential designers of the twentieth century. His elegantly clear visual language not only defined product design for decades, but also our fundamental understanding of what design is and what it can and should do.

Dieter Rams created ten rules of design more than twenty years ago. Sometimes referred to as “the ten commandments,” they are just as relevant today: 

1. Good design is innovative. 

2. Good design makes a product useful. 

3. Good design is aesthetic. 

4. Good design helps a product to be understood. 

5. Good design is unobtrusive. 

6. Good design is honest.

7. Good design is durable. 

8. Good design is consistent to the last detail. 

9. Good design is environmentally friendly. 

10. Good design is as little design as possible.

Mr. Rams turns 80 today and there is a new book out that tributes his work.

Less and More elucidates the design philosophy of Dieter Rams. This new hardcover edition contains images of hundreds of Rams’s products as well as his sketches and models—from Braun stereo systems and electric shavers to the chairs and shelving systems that he created for Vitsœ. In addition to the rich visual presentation of his designs, the book contains new texts by international design experts that explain how the work was created, describe its timeless quality, and put it into current context. In this way, the work of Dieter Rams is given a contemporary reevaluation that is especially useful in light of the rediscovery of functionalism and rationalism in today’s design. Less and More shows us the possibilities that design opens for both the manufacturer and the consumer as a means of making our lives better through attractive, functional solutions that also save resources. VIA Gestalten

Check out this great video from TV&A you'll love it!

Kapow Kouture

Joss Whedon’s Avengers made a gagillion dollars ($1,042,513,047 worldwide, to be exact). The movie was absolutely awesome, as I love anything Whedon touches. Including Dollhouse. You know who else loves The Avengers? Australian fashion design duo, RomanceWasBorn. They scored an exclusive, kick-ass deal with Marvel for their 2013 Spring/Summer collection. The collection is inspired by The Avengers, and is sure to excite the myriad of Avengers (and Marvel) fans worldwide.

Costuming is obviously huge for superheroes. A costume transforms the everyday person into the superhero. Sometimes it’s full-body armor, like Tony Stark as Iron Man. Sometime’s it’s tiny cut-off Daisy Dukes and a green complexion, like Bruce Banner as the Incredible Hulk. A costume is not limited to a unitard and cape (though there’s nothing lesser about that). It’s transformative. The styles created by RomanceWasBorn are also transformative. They’re more than just a haute-couture dress. They transform the model into an amalgamation of color, texture, shape, and size all germane to The Avengers. It should be noted that the hair and make-up artistry and the runway design took a big part in creating the proper mood for the collection.

This first photo is their take on the Incredible Hulk.

The second photo is their take on Iron Man.

The third and fourth are grab-bags, faithfully representing Jack Kirby’s style.

This is a small sample of Jack Kirby's work:

On a related note, check out this eye make-up. I will probably try to do this every day from now on.

More eyeballs here.

Read more:


Jack Kirby, Article on Jack Kirby from LA Times, Eye Make-Up, RomanceWasBorn. Fashion Show Photos, Original Post I Read


P.S. I wrote this whole thing in Comic Sans.

Show & Tell with Grove

Oh I had such a fun time last night at the WeMake Discovery Workshop with Grove.
Grove handcrafts lovely, lovely iphone cases and ipad covers from bamboo and felt. The wonderful thing about the Grove collections, is that they are crafted from beautiful bamboo, fine leather and felt. Then they are laser engraved and polished resulting in handsome covers.  It was awesome taking the tour of their headquarters and learning about the process. Their felt covered ipad case is so well-made, oh just beautiful..made me appreciate even more true craftsmenship.

Everyone who attended the workshop got to draw up a design and engrave their very own piece. I created a little bird, after having a better understanding of the process I want to make MORE! So fun and right her in P-town!

This is on the inside of each ipad cover. :)

My friend Mary-Kate McDevitt made a beautiful WeMake type one!

My little birdy!

Upcycled Canopy

Ok, I know, this must seem like a theme this month, but I had to share this! Designer Garth Britzman of Lincoln, Nebraska used recycled bottles filled with colored water to create this very lovely canopy.
The effect creates a simple transparent environment where “one can explore the surface qualities of the bottles at every level.”

It's so pretty too :) and a great way to recycle an everyday object. I could see this made in a small scale garden environment as well.

"Excentrique" A Canopy of Rainbows!

Artist Daniel Buren has a wonderful installation exhibiting at the Grand Palais in Paris right now. He has created these giant circles of colored plastic that overlap and form a colorful canopy inside the beautiful building. Depending on the weather and light, shadows and reflections are cast to create a dynamic world of color. At night roving spotlights bounce off the panales while an on-a-loop soundtrack (of a text read in 37 different languages) ensures you won't start dancing.

"When the sun comes out, everyone is upside down,' says Buren, pointing upwards to our reflections on the circles. In the beginning, I was impressed by the building, and didn't know how to compete with its extravagance. But it's rather alienating. So I set about providing a human scale by creating a kind of shelter."

These panales come in four colours only and are assembled on site in a repeat pattern, which began alphabetically starting with b for the colour blue.  At the centre of it all are mirrored glass circles that you can walk on refelcting the roof top above which Buren has covered with intermittent blue panels.The results are simply striking. Via Wallpaper

Artist Daniel Buren

Picture: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/GettyImages

Certain Artifacts of the Post-Punk Scene

There’s nothing that makes me happier than putting on a post-punk record and drifting back to a few years before I was born. There’s no point in saying I wish I was born twenty years earlier, but I’ll say it anyway. I’ve never felt a stronger musical connection with any era than with the ‘70s punk and ‘80s post-punk scenes. So you can imagine my excitement when I clicked-through a tweet from WFMU (the renowned freeform rock station in New Jersey) and happened upon this Flickr set.

I couldn’t bookmark it at work fast enough to read at home later.

Posters and flyers are a perfect medium. They don’t tell a story; they invite you to write your own. See the flyer. Go to the show. Unless you grab a poster from the club’s wall, you probably won’t remember the flyer, but you’ll likely remember the show forever. The flyer isn’t integral to the show, of course, but if they stick around long enough, they become a nostalgic artifact that enriches the history of the music.

Out of the 200+ flyers in the set, these were my favorite:

 I couldn’t find any discernible information on this one until I had my face an inch from my screen. Searching for this information is like searching for something on a map, and what do you know, the flyer *is* a map! :) If you want to find something, you’ll look hard enough. This goes for maps and flyers.

These two flyers are amazing. They’re an accurate visual representation of the scene. Take a look at album artwork from that time, and you’ll see the connection. I’ve seen people today try and replicate this look and feel, but it always ends up feeling contrived and disingenuous. These, however, are honest and legit.

My favorite part about this poster is the outlining of “FALL” and that weird shape sitting below the “L.” Why? What would compel someone to do this? Who knows. Who wants to know? It adds to that bit of mystery so many post-punk groups engendered. It’s random, and it just works.

A Place With The Wild Things

I have always loved Maurice Sendack, his illustrations and stories have a permanent home with my inner child as well as my heart. When I was a kid his work delighted and inspired me and when I had kids it was his books (and Shell Silverstein) who's pages got worn from reading over and over again. We still have those books, and every now and then it's me who opens the pages to read the stories, and they are just as good as the first time. 

RIP Maurice

Be sure to listen to his interview with Terry Gross on NPR