Day #3: Adam

Yesterday I was thinking about this project and it occurred to me that one of the most difficult things about the project will be the choosing of the names. I'm of the opinion that good design is, in a big way, all about good content, and so being a good curator of the material at hand becomes a valuable skill to be pursued. Therefore the choosing of the names presents a series of dilemmas: who? in what order? system? no system? based on relationship? based on who I was thinking of when I sat down to do it?

The last option seemed the most exciting to me, but then I remembered that I have a real tendency toward meta-cognition and so I'd sit down and try to think of a name, second guess myself over and over and then in the end have a whole cornucopia of names sprawled out in front of me – so:

I'm starting with close relations and working my way out from there. That being said, if a name presents itself to me in some clear way, then I will use that one. I won't be making it clear, however, who these people are. Maybe comments on the blog will make it clear who they are, and that's fine, but all I'm putting up are names and colors.

Day #2: Carol

I'm already formulating quite a few thoughts on this project which I will post as they develop, but for now:

100 DAYS – Day #1

I guess I've been on a Michael Bierut kick lately – but that's probably because he's awesome.

Here's a post by Michael Bierut about a design project that he does with his students at Yale in which he asks each of them to do the same design operation every day for 100 days. The results are interesting, so I've decided to try it.

My project?

Manually* typeset, in 72 pt. Helvetica Medium, the first name of someone I know and choose a colour according to what I know of that person's personality. The format for every entry will be 4 × 5.

I may not post every entry on here, but I'll at least post one periodically.

Day #1: Hank

*By "manually" I mean letterspace and kern the letters point-by-point as vector shapes in Illustrator as opposed to just simply typing them.

BLOG DESIGN

A friend told me recently that my blog design is not befitting of a graphic designer and that a graphic designer having a plain and undesigned blog is a poor reflection on his skills/taste. Admittedly my blog is a Blogger template, and, though I don't think it's that bad, I have to agree with my friend that perhaps my blog should have a little bit more "design" to it.

Luckily I am taking a web design course this semester and learning a bit of CSS.

Therefore I will be working on a new template for this blog, hopefully making its premiere sometime before the new year. While I am learning a bit of CSS, I'm still relatively shaky with it so it may take a while before I come up with something that I'm really comfortable with presenting.

In the meantime, Robert, you'll just have to put up with what the Blogger template designer allows me to do.

AWARDS

Back in, oh, early October, Versluis approached me about entering a few designs in AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Nebraska's "The Show," which is their annual design show and competition. Upon his advice I entered a couple of book covers that I had done for the Dordt College Press and one poster. Weeks passed and, receiving no word on the entries, we assumed that my designs had not been honoured.

Then on Friday Versluis received a package in the mail from AIGA Nebraska. One of my covers received a Silver and one received a Bronze! This was exciting news indeed, and also an honour to be recognized by distinguished members of the design community.

Here are the two designs:

Left: "Sign of a Promise" — Silver Award
Right: "Ruth" — Bronze Award

HATING ONE'S OWN WORK

i've started to compile material for my portfolio, which means that i've been going through a lot of my "old work" from, oh, last year. is it normal to hate the work that you've done in the past? i think it must be. while i in no way wish to devalue the experience i gained by doing that work, or somehow imply that i'm just the best ever graphic designer presently, i just—don't really like most of what i've done in the past. 


this proves to be problematic when trying to put together a portfolio.


so much of my past work seems really amateurish and "green" compared to the direction my work is taking now, but it kind of reminds me of that scene in "annie hall" when woody allen and diane keaton are on the plane back from los angeles, having their break-up talk and woody compares their relationship to a shark:


"a relationship, i think, is like a shark. you know? it has to constantly move forward or it dies. and i think what we got on our hands is a dead shark."


i think that's how it goes with work, too. the moment you think you've "arrived" and you no longer have anywhere to go is the moment when you may as well just give up and stop. so maybe for that reason i shouldn't "hate" my old work—well certainly i shouldn't be ashamed of it. that'd be like being ashamed of wetting the bed at the age of two or crying the first time you fell off your bike. 


so maybe the real problem would be if i got myself potty trained and off the training wheels and then said, "well now, i guess i'm an adult." 

DUNNE & RABY

i recently watched gary hustwit's new(ish) film, objectified, which is a 90-minute documentary about industrial design. i would highly recommend it.

among the designers whom he interviewed for the film were dunne & raby, a pair of experimental designers based i london. their modus operandi is to use design as a means of intellectual exploration and discussion.

among the work of their discussed in the film was a series of hypothetical robots that they designed. one of the robots was an information storage unit. in order to access your information you would have to cradle the robot in your arms and stare into its electric eye for five minutes—the idea being that we don't exactly know the long-term effects of such a prolific cloud of information surrounding us at all times, so what if a technology existed that would require the user to have a "conversation" with it in order to achieve the desired result?

they also have a "product line" for people with irrational fears such as alien abduction and nuclear war.

anyway. i find their work to be interesting and worth at least a glance, so please—click here.

JOSEF SCHULZ

i found this photographer via the iso50 blog. i'm not sure how to describe his work other than to say that it's sublimely beautiful but also frightening and challenging. please take a look.

iso50 also features a lot of really great music, in case you're interested.

here's a link to some of josef schulz's work.