My last Blog entry

I may not be the best student. But I do feel like I have learned a lot. I am very stubborn to get into a rhythm sometimes. But overall I believe the class was successful.

It was interesting to learn about the past in graphic design (mainly print), but it can get a little dry. I think part of that reason is I've found a greater interest when design meets with technology and people.

The idea that we can make designs that can interact is stunning, in a way design hits emotion when it comes to all of our senses sight (of course), hearing (example. movies), smell (advertisements with perfume samples), touch (material counts!), and maybe taste....but we can tell what in good taste and bad taste in design (it's more of a feeling). But now we are coming on to something that may very well be considered a sixth sense, which is interaction. And could possibly explode all of our senses out of the water.

Interactive design will link many bridges and fill lots of gaps in the industry to work with others, provide stable work, and opportunities for those who tap into it first.

We're always on a learning staircase of improving, I feel like it's time to shoot up a couple flights and hope for all the hard work we can coast along to a nice path of oblivion.

So think somewhat out of your realm of comfortability and get ahead a few stairs when your young and still full of fresh ideas. You will later have, taxes, work, relationships, and babies consuming your time for creativity later.

good luck!

Aaron Koblin is a fantastic Data Visualization Designer

Aaron Koblin recently spoke at the TED 2011 conference last February. He has done some incredible things with motion in data visualization. He now works as an artistic director at Google.

So Kids learn your programs well, Flash, After Effcects, and (programing) PHP


this is his site

http://www.aaronkoblin.com/

If you have not yet heard of Motionographer...get on the bandwagon

Motionographer is the equivalent of a SwissMiss but dealing with mostly moving images.

http://motionographer.com/

check it out....it's the future

This is where our friend Max works

Max Strizlakfdjadsjfaodfaodja (what ever his last name is) is interning at imaginary Forces.

http://www.imaginaryforces.com/featured-work/

Title design and commercial spots are their specialty.

Because Max and anyone that works in advertising and commercial work really makes me appreciate this quote.


"The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artist. Modern art is a disaster area Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little."
~ Banksy

Better change over to graphic design all you fine artist majors!

the Image says, " Marcel Duchamp is a big French Hag"

I just love the guy

Wayne White is more becoming a hero of mine.

From his great typography and to what he has to say.

"I fucking love the world...because I am going to miss it when it's gone."

Just thinking about that quote since yesterday was the anniversary of the tragic BP spill.

http://waynewhiteart.com/

This one is for Angelica

Did you know it is that easy to become friends with Paula Scher?

It was just one of those random people I sent a request not thinking of getting one in return. But this so far my repertoire of famous facebookers

Paula Scher and Fred Durst

great combination

I am getting real tied, but I must go on

If I could walk into a book and fall asleep in any image in it, I would choose page 452 in our class book.

it is 22-15 Ikko Tanaka.....since I can't find it on the internet the image above is the image it's next to. You can pick up your book and check it out.

Film titles

I have to admit, one of the coolest film titles that I was really drawn to was from Tarsem Singh's "the fall." It was a very visual orgasm for photography nuts, sorry for type-o-philes, but it was toned down to focus on the images

here it is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-UX8rBEgeQ

also watch the trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO0LYcCoeJY&feature=related

Then after that netflix it

The GIF has become somewhat of a great design concept

People always keep talking about new art forms. Some have suggested a twitter account and how one goes about it to be an art on how successful it is.

But I think the true people's champ is the GIF, short for Graphics Interchange Format.

check them out

http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-news/tin-man-how-can-i-ever-thank-you/

http://warmingglow.uproxx.com/2011/04/links-soothing-cat-gif/cat-brush

http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_gifs/10768/Crazy+Black+Kid/

Come on, some people still don't even think Graphic Design is an art. Those that are visionaries can see it's true worth.

I did rather like

I did enjoy looking at the work of Gunter Rambow.

He truly was a European visual poet. I think in general, using reference that are simple and twisting them into a message is the best form of graphic design there is.

Looking at some postmodern designs

After scanning through postmodern posters, Here are some pictures I don't like.

Pretty much Wolfgang Weingart's posters. I think I am not really in the visually looking of weird constructivist looking post modern posters.

Does this not win as the best movie poster for X-Men?

While scheming for a new blog post I decided to get sidetracked and do something in photoshop.

While back I commented on the shitty X-Men First Class posters. Well since it takes place in the past I wanted to give it a retro feel of a Bob Dylan Poster that Milton Glaser made. It might be off a little since Glaser made this in 1967 and the events that take place in First Class is set during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

So don't blame me for too many flaws....I made it in 5 mins....the same amount of time it took their original designer to make his or hers.

Sorry if I was too serious on that last one

When it comes to stats you sort to have to always be a little serious, but then there are other times (or maybe a lot) I just like to let loose.

That is why I am an avid fan of Olly Moss. I am pop culture nut, but never to the extent of a People Magazine voyeur or a Prez Hilton (plus if you can tell, he never did learn much about design. Check his photoshop skills).

But I've grown up having a weird pop culture/fanboy attitude that has probably helped me loose out with more girls than I realize....because my movies, comics, literature, and music fill that void.

But to conclude, I was seriously almost considering going to LA for Olly Moss's art show, but then my brother had to plan his wedding the same weekend in a year and half in advance. Maybe next time

....Oh yea, so I don't get too strayed away with design history. Here is a picture of David Carson's desktop.

An interesting subject the book missed out on......INFOGRAPHS!

Visual graphics is the soon to be new gold mine of graphic design. Considering in one year we produce more data than all the previous years combined. But we as humans can not process all this information in their true forms, computers can in 1's and 0's but for us to look at that would take ages to figure out what we are even looking at....That's why we need to harness all this data and create it into something visual. By enterpiting and creating data that is easy to understand it helps people be understand their world better and how to function and adapt.

We are in an information overload these days from billions of pictures being put on facebook to trillions of dollars that are mysteriously going places that are not benefiting the majority of the population. By making data easier to understand we can prevent crisises. It is shown that the the financial crisis in 2008 could have been prevented if records could have been easier to read for people processing information comes as quick as it goes (within seconds) to make smarter decisions. Famous staticien and infographic designer Edward Tufte has a valid argument where executing a decision through carefully designed arguments could have saved the space shuttle The Challenger http://www.asktog.com/books/challengerExerpt.html


In time graphics will rapidly almost take over words, who wants to read a several paragraphs when you can understand something by a visually appealing communicative design?

Maybe, I'll write something later on this topic....but I have a few more posts to do

here is a cool site http://www.visualizing.org/ please do check "where is my tax dollars going"

also the infographic above is Linkedin's connection of one person to many (graphs can be sexy)

Can someone fire the designer of the X-men Posters already!

I don't understand how 20th Century FOX works or thinks, but how do they keep under promoting an over 100 million dollar film with shitty movie posters.

There is only two ways I see the lack of creative flow.

A) One of the X-Men producers just wanted to help launch his nephews graphic design career.

B) Is having as much motivation as I am having this semester.

Either way it's pretty bad, it's made me push my limits. I am calling out a nation wide manhunt for the designer who designed these posters. The bounty price tag is set to two nights on my couch to crash.

Let the Search Begin!

I wan't to watch "Love and Other Drugs"

Based on this poster of "Love and Other Drugs," I am thinking of possibly watching this movie tonight. It also might help that Anne Hathaway is nude in the film. But I am going to say it's the poster that makes me wan't to watch it. Because Anne Hathaway has been nude in like three other movies ("Brokeback Mountain," "Rachel Getting Married," and some straight to dvd "Havoc", I could have easily watched them....but no....I am choosing Love and Other Drugs due to a highly creative poster concept.

This makes me think of other films that have had such simple but very memorable posters

The 40 Year Old Virgin, with a beaming Steve Carrell with a warm backdrop that shows the expression that all he really wants is to just loose his innocence.

My first movie that I saw in the theater four times, Jurassic Park, has such a memorable movie poster that I could recreate it from my memory.

Then there is Amadeus, I remember when I was real young just looking around blockbuster (how nostalgic) and seeing this cover and interpreting the movie in so many ways from a Chinese Emperor to a new sci-fi epic. I finally watched the movie in 10th grade to finally realize it was about Amadeus Mozart.

The love and other drugs poster was very exclusive, Hollywood producers relied more on the naked star power of Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal (really can't blame them on that business decision, it seemed solid). But any whose, I have a couple of more blogs to write. Feel free to talk to me in class if you want.

I now know the artist/designer print that is on the wall at home

At my home, all the way yonder in Virginia. My mom has these framed pictures. they are 3, but in a spaced out continuity are the same picture. I remember the picture ever since in my youth when I really started working the pre-frontal lobe of my brain.

I would always walk by it with a glancing view. But once I had an art project during my senior year of high school, the assignment was to recreate an image you like. I didn't want to travel far to see something, or put the effort of logging on the computer with a dial up speed. So I decided to go out in the hall and really look at pictures in the hall.

I choose recreate just the image to the right of a woman covered. But when I was doing this assignment I realized that a man was wrapped around her, not a snuggie. Which amazed me, because I've lived in that home for so many years and never noticed that one detail to that print.

The image stuck in my head, but I never learned who the artist was or the name of it. My mother and art teacher didn't know.

But last week in class, when we saw the image in class I immediately remembered it and will never forget it.

The Tree of Life, by Gustav Klimt. made in 1909

We Are!!!!.....(whisper) St. John's

What the hell made St. John's think this was an inspirational banner to commemerate our send off and one and done tournament run (but two for the ladies, a bit more impressive than the men).

There are two reasons I mainly have why this banner sucks.

1) The Slogan Sucks

Not only is the slogan a complete rip off of another team, (Marshal University Football, the slogan was used to commemerate the football team that died in a tragic airplane crash that claimed the lives of the whole team. Almost the same situation with St. John's, but instead of an air plane it was the NCAA Men' Basketball Tournament).

Why couldn't we have come up with something better? Like....

"Steve Lavin is our Savior!" .....We are a Vincention you know, so we should live it up.

"To the Final Four".......Tacky, but still a lot fucking better.

"10 College Seniors With No Where To Go, but the Final Four!"......it is very true in two ways, there are 10 seniors on the team and they're more in a predicament about their futures after basketball....hope they learned a lot in school.


2) The Design is Made for Loosing

The design was a fucking waste of paper. I would love to slap the back of the head of the designer with my tablet who made this.

SOME PROBLEMS

* It mixes a lame serif and sans serif font to make a tacky message.

*Italicized and bold, that is no excus.

* Why the fuck have "..." are we all waiting together to say "St. John's!" in a 1,2,3 manner.

*They really didn't measure out the words too well compared too all the red space I see on the banner.


While I was sleep computing I made this design in a 3 minutes, Sal Chavez and can hold to that I did so.

Not Great, but a lot better than what our school made with a microsoft word document.


St. John's, realize you spend your money in a lot of the wrong places. From hiring a woman who embezzles student's scholarship money, to putting most of the money in to construction for two buildings while others around it decay and fall apart, and the overall design of websites, classrooms, and overall campus construction.

It doesn't take that much, but thinking of the right place to put money can help promote efficiency in the student body and help students take pride in their school, other than having a basketball team ignite it.

Give me how much ever that golden flame costs and I'll make sure their will never be another banner "We Are . . . ST JOHN'S" mistake and prevent many others.

Is it Wolverine? Or two Batmen? And is that a Twinkie in the center?

Olly Moss, has once again captivated nerds with a design the unites Marvel and DC comic fans.

enjoy.

Floral Design is like the old Black in earlier graphic design

Floral Design used to be so cool with type, but because coolness only last as long as an ice cream in the summer with the raising of the thermometer, so does cool with the raising from lowbrow to highbrow.

Can't wait too see what trend follows after minimalist type logos.

French Nouveau is soooo Faux Pas.....in Iran

Let me describe in a hypothetical situation of President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a room full of French Nouveau posters and someone tells him the history and importance these posters played in paving the way for a new image of women not stuck in the kitchen.

(A golfer announcer like voice narrates the scene)

He approaches up to the poster. Puts his hand near his chin. He starts to tilt his head. He keeps this position, never scene anything like it. Ahmadinejad is thought to have left by now, but his clear perseverance in manner is very hopeful, in that he might be turning over a new leaf. Wait! He is now taking his hand and tearing the posters from the wall. Oh no, he just tore down a Alphonse Mucha poster for Job cigarette papers. This is a tragic day in Art Nouveau history and a regular day for Ahmadinejad.

End Scene

The Gutenberg Bible really made the bible....ehh

I wen't to the New York Public Library yesterday to see the Three Faiths exhibit with the iconic star, one of the earliest editions of the Gutenberg Bible. It was large in stature, but on the inside it was a pretty dull. Compared to the many of illuminated Torahs, Qurans, and Bibles that surrounded it.

Everything else livened up the room, while the Gutenberg Bible really just kept it plane and simple. It reeked of the idea of quantity over quality bull-crap (which really isn't that bad since how much help it has done with the spread of literacy, with the exception of Morgantown, West Virginia). But like President George Bush Jr. once said, "One of the great things about books is sometime there are some fantastic pictures." Which I whole heartedly agree, for the case of this exhibit. I enjoyed the illuminated hand madd scripts with how unique they were.

My personal preference was The Gospel Book of Landevennec, if it was mass produced, I am pretty sure we would have some of these insanely awesome pictures in our Bible today. I am not sure what is pictured, but I believe it to be a Bird-Man, an Alien, and Werewolf (very Twilighty before it's time)

Some People Walk Slow in New York, They Shouldn't, But They Do

I come across this important subject of why some New Yorkers walk slowly and on how next time I will walk over them, with my metal cleats on.

It was such a fascination that I put all important work out of the way to come up with four theories as to why this phenomenon may occur.

Please give me your opinion and if you are a slow walker please state why you are so obnoxious to those around you.

There Is Only One Someone/Something Sit On My Lap.....and it's gone

I declare last week the "Week of Shit." From almost loosing the tip of my left index finger God knew I got lucky. So he got me where it really hurts, he decided to spill "liquid" on my laptop.

Now I feel like a sailors wife waiting for the return of her loved one from Apple Care. Once it comes back sure it will work okay, but it will never be the same. It won't have the Windows XP which took me forever to get, nope, going to be cleaned off the hard drive. It won't have the Roskilde Festival Turborg sponsor sticker, nope, taken right off or a brand new cover. It won't have that cute, sometimes annoying dent on the left side, nope, replaced with a new non dented frame.

But at least I still have the tip of my old, scratched up finger, sure it might be annoying at times and may never feel any nerve endings there, but at least it has attitude, it stuck around (with a sliver of skin), and personality with it's new look. Which sometimes I think gives anything an edge.

I will miss my old laptop...but not as much as I typed earlier, more because of annoyance dealing with waste of time. I do wonder what it takes in design (product design, graphic design, typography, and etc.) to give a personality and some sort of lasting relationship to people. Especially in the digital age, it's hard to keep a digital product as thoughtful as a family heirloom, with backed up hard drives, infinite copies that could be printed, and the ever expanding Facebook profiles of memories. It can be around practically forever.

There are really two digital files I take to heart, a thoughtful email from Dad and a picture when I was younger with some of my best friends growing up. If I ever lost those files, you can bet that the blog about it would be atrocious to read and unpleasant to look at the pictures I post, all because of my frustration of loss, in a hypothetical situation.

All and all I think I am just on a random typing sequence, I need to cut short and just ask one question to anyone who is reading this.

What is very close to you in the digital age (as in any particular sense of files, websites, and apps)? And why is it so special?

Keep Your Fingers Tucked In

I would like to show you the before and after pics of a fight I got in with my exacto blade.

The after effects just made my finger more unique.

Apple Movie Trailer Binge After Thoughts

After watching every movie trailer on all three pages I've decided the only movies I must see (when I say "I," I mean everybody should do it too. As to prevent me from looking down on you).

The 1st must see is "Hanna."

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/hanna/

It has an interesting font for the movie title (which is a plus to typophiles) and because it is a teenage girl that is on the verge of becoming a woman with trying to find out what she wants in life while facing constant hurdles of heartbreaks and family issues.....NAAAAWWWWWWWTTTTTTTTTT.


The 2nd must see is "Even the Rain"

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/eventherain/

It's like the sequel to Christopher Columbus...I think. But it really made me think, because I like when I say like smart and sophisticated things.


The 3rd must see is "Love"

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/love/

The title makes no sense, the trailer is very confusing, but it is in my top three because there is astronauts and Civil War soldiers.