Items tagged with 'design'
No ordinary illustrations
Check it out: Talented local designer Phil Pascuzzo has illustrated a children's book -- No Ordinary Apple, by Sara Marlowe. It's about "mindful" eating (and an apple). Blurbage:
On an otherwise ordinary day, Elliot discovers something extraordinary: the power of mindfulness. When he asks his neighbor Carmen for a snack, he's at first disappointed when she hands him an apple--he wanted candy! But when encouraged to carefully and attentively look, feel, smell, taste, and even listen to the apple, Elliot discovers that this apple is not ordinary at all.
Lushly and humorously illustrated, No Ordinary Apple makes a traditional technique for training mindfulness a fun and enjoyable way for children to learn to slow down and appreciate even the simplest things.
"Lush" and "humorous" are good words to describe Phil's style -- his work is often colorful and witty. You've no doubt seen his work -- he's designed a bunch of book covers, as well a version of the Twitter bird.
Phil has designed a bunch of book covers, show posters, and even a version of Twitter's famous bird. (He also designed the AOA holiday banner this past December.)
Earlier on AOA: The book on Phil Pascuzzo
Swissted at the Arts Center
This could be worth a stop: Swissted, in which Troy native -- and now NYC-based -- graphic designer Mike Joyce mashes up punk rock and Swiss modernism, will open at the Arts Center of the Capital Region on Saturday (April 13). From the blurbage:
Drawing from his love of punk rock and Swiss modernism, two movements that have almost nothing to do with one another, Mike has redesigned vintage punk,hardcore, new wave, goth, grunge, and indie rock show flyers into International Typographic Style posters. Every single one of the shows represented actually happened.
Joyce's Stereotype Design studio has worked with a bunch of music clients, including Iggy Pop, Katy Perry, The Stooges, The Strokes, Maroon 5, Natalie Merchant, The Lemonheads, Morphine, Heart, and Aretha Franklin.
The Swissted exhibit will be up at the Arts Center April 13-21. On April 18, Joyce will be there for a reception and book signing from 6:30-8:30 pm.
Yep, the Arts Center advertises on AOA.
Currier and Ives exhibit at Albany Institute
"Awful Conflagration of the Steam Boat Lexington," a lithograph printed by Nathaniel Currier. The Lexington was a luxury steam ship that caught fire and sunk in 1840.
Opening this Saturday (February 9) at the Albany Institute of History and Art: The Legacy of Currier & Ives, an exhibit that includes 64 prints from the famous 19th century printing and publishing firm. Blurbage:
The exhibition, organized around five themes of Identity, Progress, Home, Success, and Artist, introduces the visitor to the firm of Currier & Ives and illustrates, through interpretive and educational materials, how their imagery became ingrained in the national consciousness. During the seventy-two years that Currier & Ives operated (1834-1907) the firm produced more than 8,000 lithographs. Their colorful prints, which hung in homes and public buildings across America, gave testimony to the events and ideas that shaped national history, its progress, and art. Currier and Ives worked with several prominent artists like Eastman Johnson, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, and George Henry Durrie, whose designs are represented in the exhibition along with others.
The story behind the firm Currier and Ives is interesting -- it specialized in identifying images that would be popular and then producing them inexpensively. We bet Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives would have been all over the web if they were operating today (CurrierIvesFeed?).
The Albany Institute exhibit runs through June 15. It could make a pretty good double bill with the also-currently-open Making of the Hudson River School exhibit.
The Albany Institute advertises on AOA.
image: "Awful Conflagration of the Steam Boat Lexington," from the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts
Mohawk Show
Design gawking: the Mohawk Show -- an exhibit of work from a design competition sponsored by the Cohoes-based Mohawk Fine Papers -- will be on display at the Foundry in Cohoes January 31.
The touring show highlights "higher thinking in graphic design, excellence in print production" -- and not surprisingly given the sponsor -- "appropriate paper choice." The exhibit has already made a handful stops around the country, and after Cohoes it's headed for Europe.
The exhibit will be on display from 6-9 pm. It's free.
image: Neal Whittington / Present & Correct / Mohawk Fine Papers
Milton Glaser exhibit at Opalka Gallery
Opening this week at Sage's Opalka Gallery: "Milton Glaser: In Search of the Miraculous: One Thing Leads to Another" -- a collection of recent work by the famous designer. There's a reception for the exhibit this Friday (November 2), from 5-9 pm.
Glaser has created many designs you'd probably recognize -- maybe most notably the I (heart) NY logo (which he created pro bono for the state, in the back of a taxi).
On November 14, there will be a screening of a documentary about Glaser, To Inform and Delight. The doc's director, Wendy Keys, will also be there. The screening is at 6 pm -- it's $5.
The Opalka Gallery is on the Sage Albany campus, at New Scotland Ave/Woodlawn Ave/S Lake Ave. It's open Monday-Friday 10 am-8 pm, and Sunday noon-4 pm.
Good design leads to electoral success?
Winning design?
Observation: the results of our campaign yard sign design primary matched up surprisingly well with what actually happened in last week's primaries.
Here's the breakdown...
Political yard sign design primary, part II
Oh, the polarizing typefaces.
Yesterday we started our political yard sign design primary with a look at signs for Albany County DA, and a few local state Senate races. Today, we move onto a handful of local Assembly races. And there a lot of signs. So let's get to it.
As in part one, we got a trio of accomplished local designers to critique signs. Here are the results...
Political yard sign design primary, part I
In this primary, your stance on kerning can make all the difference.
The primary elections for state and local offices is this Thursday. And that means lawns, medians, parking lots, and other spots all over the Capital Region are currently adorned with political signs. So. Many. Political signs.
You can't help not seeing them. They're everywhere. So we thought it'd be fun to look at the signs a little differently, a little more fundamentally -- as design objects. And we got a trio of accomplished local designers to critique the design of signs from a handful of local races.
Because of the vast herds of signs this year, we've broken the design primary up into two days.
Today: design primary results from races for Albany County DA, State Senate 43rd, and State Senate 44th...
I (something) NY
The state's tourism arm introduced a new advertising campaign today that plays off the iconic I (heart) NY design. It replaces the heart with other images that are supposed to represent fun things from around the state: pizza, the track in Saratoga, Finger Lakes wine, and so on.
One of the TV spots for the campaign is embedded above. The ads will be shown around the state, as well as in markets such as Hartford, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Montreal.
The Cuomo admin press release says the tourism arm will also be collecting submissions from the public for the logo, which will then be displayed online.
About the original logo...
The original
The logo has been appropriated/re-mixed/ripped off almost everywhere. A few years back the state hired an anti-counterfeiting firm to crackdown on unlicensed uses. [I Love NY]
Update: Glaser's apparently not a fan of the update: "I saw one that said, 'I Pizza NY.' I don't get it." [NY Post via @thomaskaplan]
Rock on, lunchboxbrain
Check it out: one of local designer Andrew Gregory's t-shirts is for sale at the Gap.
Andrew, who lives in Rensselaer, does design work under the name lunchboxbrain. His design ended up at the Gap through a partnership with Threadless. From his blog:
Rock On was originally designed for a community challenge - Threadless Loves Minimalism II. Most of my tee designs are fairly simple and I thought that the design was a great fit for the challenge. While it didn't win that challenge, I knew it was a strong design and had even considered printing it myself. Two months after I submitted the design, I received an email from Threadless stating that my tee was under consideration for inclusion in the Threadless + Gap line. A few months later, I got the word that Rock On had made the final cut. Needless to say, I was relieved, thrilled and humbled by the news.
He's giving one of the shirts away on his lunchboxbrain Facebook page.
Back in 2010, one of Andrew's t-shirts was featured on Woot!, the deal a day site. Here are more of his shirt designs that are currently available.
A typeface that says Albany
This caught our eye this week: there's an effort in Chattanooga, Tennessee to develop a signature typeface for the city. The effort is organize enough that it's produced a video explaining how the typeface could help the city market itself, and there's a Kickstarter project aiming to fund it.
This got us thinking about what an Albany typeface might look like. It'd be an interesting challenge -- finding a way to acknowledge the city's long history, but also working in the fact that city's most prominent architecture (the ESP) is more modern.
Or maybe even more fun: a collection of Capital Region typefaces -- for Albany, Troy, Saratoga, and Schenectady -- that could be used on signage and other related materials. It'd help reinforce the idea that each of those places is different, with their own unique feel.
[via TMN]
Michael Bierut at St. Rose
Noted designer Michael Bierut will be giving a talk at St. Rose September 30. Opening a few days before that at the school's Esther Massry Gallery: "Michael Bierut 30 Years 90 Notebooks." From the blurbage:
In this exhibition of work stretching over three decades, Bierut has recorded his work and thoughts in a series of identical notebooks dating back to 1982. Today there are more than 90 such notebooks. The exhibit presents a selection of completed pieces that are juxtaposed with an assortment of Bierut's notebooks. Viewers can make connections between original, very rough sketches and finished work and gain insight into the design process as a result.
Bierut is a partner at the famed design firm Pentagram. He's worked with a long list of well-known clients (example: The Atlantic redesign, the New York Times building sign, the Saks shopping bag.). He co-founded Design Observer. And In 2006 he received the AIGA Medal, the highest award in the design field.
Embedded after the jump is video of Bierut talking about his notebooks.
photo: Christian Witkin
Troy, can you dig it?
Troy-based illustrator Owen Sherwood emailed this week to let us know that he has a Troy design entered in the "Threadless Loves Your City" t-shirt contest. As his blurb reads on his entry at the Threadless site:
Troy, NY is not only my Hometown but the long time home and final resting place of Mr. Samuel Wilson... Also know as the one and only Uncle Sam! Like that famous historical figure, us Trojans we love our fish-fry, vibrant art scene and tiny hot dogs. We ride bikes and think we're hipper than Bushwick. We may be small but we're tough. With Uncle Sam for our role model, we are strong yet sensitive, thoughtful yet gnarly and most importantly, welcoming to all newbies. Join the Trojan Army! Vote For the best little city in New York! Vote for TROY!!! CAN YOU DIG IT!!! (Did I sound like Breaveheart, I was going for Braveheart)
And, as he said to us in the email: "Help me put Troy on the map... Or at least on a shirt!" Voting ends next Wednesday (August 24).
Earlier on AOA:
+ "Rub me on your butt!"
+ Woot! Andrew Gregory!
Blast from the past
All aboard! Next stop... the future.
We came across this photo today while getting Carl's piece about the Livingston Ave Bridge together. It's a locomotive from the old New York Central railroad -- the railroad organized by Erastus Corning (the great grandfather of the longtime mayor of Albany).
We love the sleek vintage futurism of the locomotive's design. It looks like a rocket ship from an old Flash Gordon flick.
The engines were designed by Henry Dreyfuss, one of the celebrity industrial designers of the 1930s and 40s. Among Dreyfuss' many notable designs is the classic "Lucy" telephone.
This streamlined engine design (the "Hudson") went into service in 1938 after being manufactured in New York Central's huge West Albany yard (the engine under the hood was produced by Alco in Schenectady). The stylish locomotives powered the famous 20th Century Limited line.
If/when New York ever gets high-speed rail, we kind of hope the engines look this.
photo: Robert Yarnall Richie via Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library
Get the Message at Albany Institute
A few of the images from Graphic Design: Get the Message.
The Graphic Design: Get the Message exhibit at the Albany Institute of History and Art is definitely worth a visit for design nerds, it will also be interesting to anyone who's a critical consumer of media -- or just curious about the images we see every day.
Stay a little while and you'll see it's also about world history, innovation, how far we've come as a country, and how we absorb information...
How Phantogram's music looks
Here's something to look at. It's a video for the Phantogram song "Make a Fist" by greater Capital Region locals The Ravacon Collective. It's like something from a turbulent dream. We like it. (Though we're glad to be experiencing it awake).
Ravacon created a dozen different visuals for Phantogram to play during their national tour this year. You can see how the visuals were used from this concert clip shot at a show in Louisville back in September.
There's one more after the jump, video for the Phantogram song "Running from the Cops."
Making the Twitter bird more "human"
There's an interesting interview with local designer Phil Pascuzzo at design:related about his work on the now ubiquitous Twitter logo and his ongoing relationship with the company. A snip:
[Twitter co-founder] Biz [Stone] had sent over the bird mark that he designed, which Twitter was using at the time. I think he said something to the effect of "can you redesign this logo and add some Phil-style." Being a Twitter newbie, I did some research and asked friends that used this communication tool so that I had a better idea of what the product was. Giving the mark more life and vibrance really made sense at this point. Like most projects, I began by doodling in my lined notebook and quickly came up with something I liked. From there I worked in Illustrator to execute the mark in a polished way.
There's a lot more in the interview, which also includes some great design eye candy.
The site for Phil's studio -- Pepco -- has a bunch of examples of his work, including many of the book covers he's designed.
And check it out: Phil's also the drummer for Scientific Maps.
[via @id29]
Earlier on AOA:
+ A little bird told us
+ The book on Phil Pascuzzo
Felt & Wire
Despite (or, perhaps, because of) pushing pixels all day, we're total suckers for great paper products -- stationery, cards, tags, whatever.
So there was some smiling when we came across the Felt & Twine Shop recently. It's a designer-curated online shop of printed goods run by Cohoes-based Mohawk Fine Papers. There's also a blog.
It's not as expansive as Etsy (what is?), but it made from some happy browsing.
Earlier on AOA:
+ "I Love New York" by CAPow!
+ Lori Hansen's vintage letterpress
+ Paper Dolls
+ Susan Merrick
photo: M-square Press postcard
A photo tour of EMPAC
The scene at today's opening.
RPI cut the ribbon on EMPAC today. And you know what? It's pretty cool. There's nothing else like it in the Capital Region. Heck, there's probably nothing else like it in the world right now. You should definitely check it out.
A lot of people have already written about all the crazy artistic and technological potential at this place, so we'll leave that to them. We did take a tour today, though.
Here are a bunch of pics...
... said Carl about Capital Region high school graduation rates