designation

2009-09-06T11:34:00.017-05:00

I did this spread for Outside magazine last week as part of their design test for their art internship. They said they really liked my work. So, there's always that to replace a job...

Just an update: I am now a graphic design intern at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

2009-08-01T14:49:00.013-05:00

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I know... I've neglected you. Get over it. Here is the first thing I have designed in two months: it's a beer label! My sister brews her own at home and asked me to make her a label for her new maibock. I took it a step further and named the company Damn Beer. "Give me a Damn Maibock." or "I wanna a Damn Lager!" Has a nice ring to it. So here is my illustration for the first label! Each variety of beer is gonna have its own label with a different flavor of facial hair.

My sister has agreed to brew a special batch of beer for the 7th Midwest Hardcore Bike Polo Championships that are going to be held in Columbia in late October. Be on the lookout for all the fun posters, t-shirts and Damn Beer labels that I plan to design for Columbia's first bike polo tournament. Cheers!

2009-05-04T15:21:00.006-05:00

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I designed this photo story spread for Global Journalist. This week I also desinged a service feature spread for Vox while undertaking the entire design template for the upcoming Pets themed issue of Vox magazine. And lordy, lord, it was quite a stressful weekend. I have become used to working 30+ hours on my weekends as of late, but this weekend just seemed slightly more stressful.

Oh, and I also enjoyed the projects that the Meredith Corporation commissioned ending this week! Here is a snap shot of the website I built with a team of designers for Storage magazine.

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Colourlovers had a fun posting with lots of pictures of Holi by photographer Poras Chaudhary. I had heard of the color festival before, but I needed to do a little more research to figure out why these people looked like the Indian version of the blue man group. I've been to some pretty wild festivals before (Songkran in Bangkok!) and there is absolutely nothing that I love more than delving right into the culture of the places that I travel to. And based on the photos, Holi seems like my kind of a good time! It's a Hindu festival celebrated in India and Nepal and Bangladesh and other countries with a large Hindu diaspora. Basically, people riot with color powder. You get up in the pulsating crowd of wild people who are throwing handfuls, buckets full! of color powder on you, and there is no escaping the chaos. I want to go, real bad. I am a little confused as to why the post showed up this week because the festival takes place in March, but we can't very well expect Americans to be able to keep a Hindu calendar straight, now can we.

|inəˈvā sh ən|Here are some fun balloon sculptures by Jason Hackenwerth! He's been getting a lot of press for his fun creations. And it seems I am not the only one who enjoys his work.

Sculptors tend to hew stone, hammer metal, or mold clay. Mr. Hackenwerth blows, twists, and shapes inflated plastic into configurations as magical and ephemeral as sand castles at the seashore. Mr. Hackenwerth draws inspiration from the plant and animal kingdoms' "combination of spirituality and sexuality." Of these plastic shapes, he said: "I'm filling them. The air inside is slipping out. It's a great metaphor for our own lives." The works sag with gravity over time, shrinking as they age, "a perfect combination of sadness and joy." Mr. Hackenwerth's work celebrates exuberance while transcending the carnivalesque. - Gary Shapiro, NY Sun

You should check his website. I think he's available for parties.

2009-04-29T19:08:00.019-05:00

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Colourlovers had an interesting post this week on retrofuture illustrations. From what I gathered, a group of artists working for a German company called "Retro-Futurismus" are at the forefront of this illustrative trend. I think they made that word up, but that's okay by me because it has a nice ring to it and it describes some really cool art. The color palettes beautifully combine artistic elements from a bygone area with images from a sci-fi thriller. I love the spoof on the Titanic poster. It's refreshing to see how a little creativity can turn an outdated design style into an entirely new illustration genre. In my next life, I think I'll come back as an illustrator.

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So Lost at E Minor, one of my favorite blogs that reports on the newest trends and best upcoming artists in the design world, recently announced a logo design competition. And having just one a logo design contest, I am in the spirit to do more. I regularly visit the website for inspiration and have often wondered why their logo is so damn ugly illegible. It's bubble letters, for crying out loud!

So I am announcing the competition to anyone who reads this. And, if you win the competition, they'll give you four hundred bucks. I really want a new tattoo and to pay off my speeding tickets, so I am entering. You guys should, too. Plus, it's a great way for us to get our name out there since we are all trying to build a name for ourselves as designers. The competition ends next week on May 8th, so get cracking!

2009-04-22T15:21:00.006-05:00

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Well, here it is. The result of my first time serving as art director of a photo shoot. It was certainly a learning experience. We had about 24-hours from shoot to finish on this cover. And considering it all, I am okay with the end result. It looks fine. The responses so far have been, "You're so creepy." Well, you're a pu... a baby. I don't think this design is creepy in the slightest. I thought the concept was classy, that is until I found myself at Walmart at 7:30 AM the day of the shoot buying baby doll parts and fake bugs. Cause you know what I think is creepy? Walmart, any time of day. Anyway, I ended up finding what I need in the dollar section instead of the toy section. And this is the end result. I think the words of the Vox's Art Director sum up the entire experience of this cover, and possibly even this semester in general. She said (very kindly, mind you), "You do creepy really well. And it will work for you somewhere."

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But wait a moment... we're moving a little too fast here. Let's back that thought up, take it out for a beer and get acquainted a little bit better. Who are some of the artists who have built their names and reputations around being creepy? Van Gogh was creepy, but only as a person. Goya was a goddamn freak show. Pee Wee Herman? Don't even get me started on that theater-creeper. And then we have exhibit S: Michael Jackson. S is for super freak, because this artist is a nut bag. Yes, yes, yes, all these people became famous for their creepiness. But I certainly don't want fame. And even after three or four beers and a smidgen of tequila, I don't think you'd be able to convince me of the admiralty of being a creepy artist. It seems to me that you just can't separate the creepy art from the creepy artist, no matter how hard you try. And Michael Jackson is the perfect embodiment of that. He is literally refusing to allow his creepy art collection be removed from his possession. Colourlovers reports the star has gone to court to put a stop to an L.A. auction of his collection of 1,390 memorabilia, ranging from carousels to canopy beds to canoes. So, the auctioneers have turned his collection into an art exhibit. Because people really are fascinated by creepiness. Don't live in L.A.? No problem! All of his possession are available to view online. I can guarantee you just looked. You owe me a soda.

I have finished my rant. Moving on. Colourlovers also had an interesting post on chromotherapy, or color therapy. I have always wondered about the value of sensory-based medicine. What is color therapy, really? What is music therapy? Does that mean a really great album can be a therapist? Is buying a painting just like paying for a really expensive therapy session? What is this new-age nonsense really about! Really, please tell me, Colourlovers. And they respond with, "chromotherapy can use color and light to balance energy wherever a person's body be lacking, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental. Not to be confused with Light Therapy, which has been proven to relieve things like major depressive disorder." Oh, okay then. Thanks for the clarification. Maybe there are some pictures that can illustrate this better...
Yes, now it all makes sense. It's a tanning bed for oompah-loompahs! Fantastic. Now that the mystery of mystic medicine has been solved, I can sleep easier. But lord help me if it is ever on one of these beds. If you guys want to find out more information on this (provided by a source besides a color-centric design blog), I would look elsewhere. I strongly suggest you look at elsewhere. Enjoy!

2009-04-15T22:51:00.014-05:00

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Colourlovers is back at it again, blowin' my mind with more variations of graffiti art — I am a woman obsessed with graffiti. This one's called "light graffiti" or light art performance photography. Try to guess what medium the artists use — it's a tough one. From what I've read (and you're about to read too), it's a "one-shot time bulb exposure capturing an entire performance of movement traced with colorful light."

I am enthralled by its trippy yet universally-appetizing aesthetic appeal that reaches from the piners of Studio 54 to the pothead-followers of Phish. MoMa to Coachella. Amsterdam to Atlanta. [Insert your own alliteration here]. I hope you appreciate the undisputable beauty of yet another graffiti form. I sure do, although I doubt I'll ever start practising this one.

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I made another great discovery this week. It's a German-based publishing company called Gestalten. I first wandered over to its website after I read about the company on design-centric websites such as Creative Dump and Creative Hotlist. I became enamored with the comapny when I discovered they published a book entitled We Make Magazines, a compilation of the top 1,100 independent magazines across the globe. 'Thank ya baby Jesus!' was my immediate reaction, since I thrive on independence of all types. A database of the most creative minds in the print industry? Orgasmic! Granted I don't thank Jesus every time I have an art-orgasism (that would be blasphemous to artists everywhere), but I am excited beyond words to hold this book in my hands and be able to flip through the inner-workings of the best and the brightest minds in the publishing world.

Then I made the connection that Mizzou grad Andrea Guinn, a former student of this Advanced Design class, has several pieces published in one of the many of this company's books. How she entered the radar of a German printing company is beyond me, but good for her.

2009-04-08T12:42:00.015-05:00

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The first question that pops into my mind when I hear the phrase criminal justice is: "What's that?" Not because I've never heard the phrase before—'cause I didn't know the damn thing actually existed. So needless to say with an outlook like mine, the idea of having to design covers for the Criminal Justice issue of Vox was like having a dark cloud looming over me, or worse! A bird that had just eaten a big meal flying above my head and following me wherever I went just waiting to unload. Oooh, that gives me shivers. I am deathly afraid of bird poop (when we were little, my mother used to persistently tell my sister and I that if a bird pooped in our eye, we would instantly go blind...thanks). Irrelevant. I was stumped on what to do for these cover designs—that is, until I sat down and flipped through several issues of Flaunt magazine in preparation for my phone interview with one of the magazine's designers. Her name was Sarah, and she was only year older than me and already working what I would consider a dream job. She kept talking about "rad artists" throughout the entire interview. I hate that word, but I love what it represents. Every designer and artist in their right mind would love to have someone, anyone and everyone look at their work and walk away with the impression that it was "rad."

I think in the past few months, I have been too caught up in the idea that a cover design needs to be literal. My very first cover design I did for the class in January is still my favorite (it's that one right over there), and it's the only one that I think is a true representation of my style. Yet, it was the one that people repeatedly responded with "I don't get it." And you know what! That's fine with me. I don't need you to get it—the fact that you have to take two looks at a cover design to even attempt to comprehend what it means/represents is a good thing in my mind. It means that people won't be able to walk past it without taking a second look at the very least. At best, they will pick it up and stare at it until it does make sense. So for my cover designs this week, I have come full circle and returned to a more abstract approach to cover designs. I used macabre art as inspiration. It's not often that we Vox designers get to do dark imagery, so I ran away with it. I think all four have potential to be "rad" after some revisions. And I am happy to have returned to the idea of designing for me and not the masses. Click here to see the transcript of my interview with Sarah Lee, designer at Flaunt magazine. It's not captivating (in fact, I think I made her really nervous... and it shows in the transcript), but I put it there because my teacher told me I had to.

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Today, there is a bicycle festival day on the University of Missouri's campus, and I couldn't be happier about the celebration of two wheels. I can count the number of hobbies I have on one hand, and bicycling lands in the number three spot (1. designing, 2. music, 3. bicycling, 4. art, 5. hiking). After graduation, I am devoting an entire month to mastering the fixed gear and I am rather scared about it. Anyways, Colourlovers is back at it again with an interesting post on Contrail—a product meant to help develop biking communities and allow cyclists to reclaim their part of the road. As you ride, Contrail leaves a faint trail of colored chalk behind marking your part of the road. I would love to see how colorful Columbia's roads would be if this product was given out for free at today's bike fest. I give my full endorsement of this product and hope to see much more color out on the pavement in the near future.

Colourlovers postings in this past month has also illuminated a renewed trend in the design industry—color hunting. It's an age old practice, and I view it as an inextricable part of the design process. A step so inherent my reaction is, well, "duh." Of course you hunt for colors, everyday, everywhere you look. But recently, graphic artists such as Alex Fuller and fashion designers such as Issey Miyake's creative director Dai Fujiwara have been making headlines on Colourlover's blog and around the art world for doing just that. Fuller has embarked on a color study entitled "local paint," where he intends to travel around the world to match color swatches to painted walls in colorful, exotic locales. His first stop was Puerto Rico, where he snapped this photo and started his collection of swatches. Fujiwara traveled to the Amazon to match his color swatches to the colors of the rain forest.

Frankly, I am torn on how I feel about this practice. The critical part of me wants to call this practice elitist. I can just imagine a famous fashion designer locked up in his million dollar apartment in France in preparation for Fashion Week, shouting frantically at his assistants "I will only use a color if you can find it in the Amazon!" as they hurriedly try to take notes and figure out how in the hell they are going to pull off that demand. And then the mere image of a team of wealthy fashion designers transporting their entire studio to Brazil with thousands of color swatches, hundreds of sketch pads and dozens of interns tramping into Amazonian villages where locals barely scrape by a substance living is purely ludicrous to me. It's like a damn circus freak show. And it's pompous. See what you think.

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But then again, the same argument against color hunting in the Amazon can be made for all art in general — certainly there are many people out there who view art as elitist and pompous. And I am not one of them, so I really should just cut Fuller and Fujiwara a break. They are simply trying to push their creative boundaries, and that's commendable. I am simply pointing out there are more economical and practical ways of achieving the same goal. And Dutch designers Wimer Hazenberg of Booreiland and Jan Willem Wennekes of Zeptonn prove my point with the publication of their collaborative book Vormator: Elements of Design.

The creators describe Vormator as the ultimate design challenge where each artist was required to create a one-page visual by using only eight shapes within a set of given rules. Hazengerg and Wennekes created the challenge to demonstrate the importance of limitations on design—geography included. The works published were the best of more than 500 submission from around the world. Each designer also includes a written explanation of their own design process, making the book both inspirational and educational. It's a great concept for designers in a rut to test out and see what they can come up with, and its an even better coffee table conversation piece if you own a coffee table and have money to spend on books whose sole purpose would be to sit on top of it.

2009-04-01T20:12:00.013-05:00

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Three. 3... 2... 1. (polo)

It's the amount of atoms in a water molecule; the number of spatial dimensions in the universe; the number of Stooges. It's the number of strikes in a turkey; the number of blind mice; the number of goals Jozy Altidore scored tonight for the USA's World Cup Qualifier victory over Trinidad; the first lucky prime number... and from now on, it's my lucky number. Because it happens to be the number of weeks we have left to complete our capstone projects.

Call me crazy, but that thought makes me ecstatic. The way I look at it with my third eye, I will have survived college if I survive through these next three weeks. And that's feasible! I can do three weeks. Granted, there are really 6 weeks left in the semester—but what's in a number, anyways.

Here is a snapshot of the rough draft for the website my team is building for Storage magazine. Lots of work left, and I am sure it will look completely different tomorrow. But I figured I'd feed you photo mongers out there.

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I've always dreaded waking up one day at 40 years old working a mediocre job and going through the same routine day in and day out. That's what happened to London-based graphic designer John Taylor. The monotony and stress of having to do formatted and uncreative design work every day for 40 years drove him into a static state of terrible depression. On his blog, Taylor called that part of his life the lowest of the low. His doctor told him he had to quit his job. When he got bored of doing nothing, his doctor recommended doing something creative and solely for himself. Thus, the "Film in the Blanks" project was born.

Colourlovers recently posted a selection of Taylor's creative therapy. Taylor takes famous and not so famous movie posters and deconstructs the graphic elements in an abstract style reminiscent of constructivism. Then he posts them on his blog. From there, followers post their guesses in the comments area. A point system ranks the highest scorers, and there are prizes given out to the year's biggest winner. He has garnered a following more than 10,000 fans in the few months since the project has started, and he has even opened up a store where people can buy his posters. I was 1 for 3 on this batch of movie posters. Check out his website for the really hard ones, and don't forget to stop by Colourlovers!

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From art for art's sake to art that's made to save the world, this week's innovation post is on reverse graffiti. I love graffiti, and I'd love to be a graffiti artist. The colors, the excitment, the art. But I had never heard of reverse graffiti before today. And I gotta tell ya, buh-da buh ba-bah, I'm loving it. And yes, McDonald's does play a roll in reverse graffiti. In reverse graffiti, McDonald's purpose is to die! Along with all other blood-sucking corporations and ozone-murdering pollutants. You see, reverse graffiti (also known as clean tagging or grime writing) is an environmentally-friendly practice popularized by a London artist named Moose. Moose, along with the rare hybrid creatures of the art world known as the tree-hugging gutter punks who have embraced him as their leader, use dirt and grime as their medium. Well, technically, they use soap and water as a medium because they execute their art using the negative space from the areas where they have cleaned away the dirt. The medium itself is a political statement about the state of our planet, but the content of these artists' images often raises the political statement to a higher level.

Predictably, these elusive and nomadic rebels don't have websites to promote themselves. But that's why productive factories like the University of Missouri School of Journalism have continually spit out hard-nosed, well-washed students for more than a 100 years. That way, these artists' statements get spread around further and faster. Pictured above is Brazilian artist Alexandre Orion, hard at work in one of the busiest traffic tunnels in Sao Paolo (a city where it is not uncommon for a traffic jam to be over 60 miles long and the average person spends 4 hours a day sitting in traffic). Orion took a bucket of water and washed away the caked-on pollution to form skulls that remind the motorists of their daily and deadly contribution to global burning (I just made that phrase up, but what's warm about it? It's a bloody burning blaze these days). Well, the skulls used to remind motorists of the size of their carbon footprint. Enter the angry Brazilian authorities who didn't like Orion's questioning. But rather than cleaning the tunnel of all remnants of pollution, the lazy leaders just cleaned off the section Orion had worked on. So Orion continued to imprint skulls on the sections of tunnel walls that were still dirty. Turns out the Brazilian authorities' final solution for this "terrible problem" of public art was to clean off all the tunnels in Sao Paolo so there would be no place left for Orion to work. Because why would they think to try to find a solution to the city's traffic problems? That'd be silly.

Rarrrr

2009-03-18T18:59:00.024-05:00

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I have been blogging for weeks about my design anomalies. I have been talking about my personal anomalies for fifty-twice as long. This week in Advanced Design, with the help of some sound advice from friends, faculty and advisors, I finally managed to settle into a groove. In the words of Miss Maggie Searcy, "I am glad you're getting organized...in week nine."

What can I say? At least my germination period is four times shorter than that of most human beings. In my determination, I managed to accomplish quite a lot this week. I worked on finishing my logo designs for Show Me Dharma, redesigned my website, worked on the Storage website, and (if you hadn't noticed yet), I redesigned my blog. Ya, those are monsters. And yes, those monsters happen to be nudging that middle finger up higher than normal in a half-ass attempt of rebellion reminiscent of that of a high school student who wants to flick of their mom behind her back, but is too terrified that she is going to turn around any second now, see you as your middle finger is climaxing in defiance, and then drive you to the weekly 4 o'clock confession-session with Father O'Brien. Or Imam Rahman. Or Rabbi Goldberg. You get the picture; you also see it. Enough explication.

In addition to that laundry list of class work, I also designed Vox's music department for the March 26th issue. The story is about an organization called ASCAP, which has bloodhound-esque capabilities for hunting down local venues that host open mic nights where musicians play cover songs. Are they local talent scouts, you ask? Au contraire—the ASCAP charges venues obscene "licensing" fees for allowing artists to play cover songs at open mic night. The costs have been so much, that venues such as Kayotea have had to stop hosting open mic nights at all. It's pathetic. Here is the art I created for the story (they wouldn't let me use a coffin for art so I had to improvise).

Today, I also sat in on the planning meeting for Vox's pet-themed issue. I had not been to one of these meetings before, and hot damn! am I glad I went. The team of editors, designers and directors decided to blow up the typical Vox issue. For those of you in the unknown, that's unheard of for Vox—a magazine that spawns on format and structure. We got to design the entire issue from scratch, and I am in charge of creating a style template for the magazine along with the help of a great team of designers. I cannot wait! I don't have a pet of my own in town, although I have been known to show up to the Humane Society on a seemingly inconsiquential Tuesday morn, choose an animal and attempt to "rescue" it against the legal advice of my lease.

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So what to do when I inevitably get turned down at the Humane Society and I once again find myself without a pet of my own? Plaster my walls with posters of animals, but of course. Beautifully designed and colorful 20th-century European posters found only in the flea marekts of Paris or in the private collection of reknowned illustrator Bob Staake.

Now, I have to admit, this revelation was of the sort that comes to you days after a fight, when those words you exchanged with that drunk guy at the bar three days ago have been playing on repeat in your subconscious until suddenly, with wild gesticulations, you proclaim in the middle of the library: "Here's your cognitive level.... this is where retards are!"

Admittedly, its not the best line, and you are talking to yourself in public places. But you're proud of your new comeback, just as your proud of your perceived rebellion against your landlord's tyrannical policy against pets. Colourlovers, you cannot even begin to fathom the ways you inspire me. And I am not just talking about the pristine color palettes of these fantastic posters. I am talking about the links you provide to artists such as Bob Staake, whose work has appeard in prominent locations such as the cover of the New Yorker. His designs are fanastic representations of an era defined by surreal realism. He has worked for Random House, AT&T, Walt Disney, Coca-Cola, Coors, Mattel Toys, Hallmark, MTV and the Washington Post. It's not a very impressive resume, but I think one day he will get the recognition he deserves. Interim, these posters of pets and their bold color palettes may serve as inspiration for the Pets issue.

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No? You don't think the posters match the theme of the Pets issue? Fair enough, I have other inspirations. What about these Neverending Story? Can we use that as inspiration? I, for one, think Falcor embodies exactly what I was talking about in my last post... that images from your childhood make tiny paw prints on everything you do, but people just don't acknowledge it. I sound like a damn psychiatrist, but luckily I am right, so my pretentious bullshit is justified. And I am on a mission: let's bring these inspirations out into the open and publicly embrace Atrail & Falco, Lisa Frank & unicorns, Milo & Otis. I purpose a regression revolution of sorts for the Pets issue—a 'where are they now?' montage of pet icons. What made this ludicrous connection of dots? None other than Australian artist extrodinaire Emily Valentine Bullock and her quirky ensemble of work.

In her own words, "Over the last ten years I have developed my own technique and style using feathers from road kill, cat kill and dead pets." Ah, the beauty in road kill. I am glad the recycling revolution has moved into the art world. Valentine is certainly doing her part to reduce the greenhouse effect one plucked feather at a time. They're so snugable, aren't they? I'd place em right next to my grandmother's urn on the fireplace. Or maybe they could be the garden gnomes hired to protect the grave-site of my beloved and deceased puppy dog named after the 1980s pop-star Blondie. These lil pups damn near shattered my Heart of Glass. And they make me laugh like a bastard in a barrel of hay. I love it.

2009-03-12T11:00:00.017-05:00

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As for my logo designs, I had a lot of fun designing them! Too much fun, really. I need to work on my time management because I spent valuable time this week tweaking away at logos that weren't in dire need of tweaks. We had reflected on our own design process in class this week, and after examining my style, I have come to the conclusion that I am constantly trying to do the opposite. Yupp, just the opposite of anything and everything, really (OK, so maybe I knew that before...). I've had this annoying habit ever since I was little and my mother would say to a five-year-old me, "Julia, wasn't that birthday cake great??' and I would say "No. The cake was fine, but it would have been great if it were the colors of the rainbow..." What does this have to do with design, you ask? I don't know, I went on a tangent. But I do know that I believe society has turned our entire generation into perfectionists, and the irony in my desire to take the opposite stance lies in the fact that I still abide by the notion that nothing is good enough. Needless to say, I certainly I have a landfill of things to work on... and hope I always will lest I go crazy from monotony!

In an organic response to my own dilemma of constantly being bored and needing to make things different, I drastically changed my design style while tweaking my logos. Typically, I design around colors—when I am brainstorming, the color palette is the first thing I try to consider. I don't sketch, I don't write a single thing down—I'll walk around for days with a color scheme hanging over my head as I wait for the design to materialize on its own—and believe me, it doesn't always do that. So! For this assignment, I threw out colors all together and got down and dirty with some dark lead (it covered my hands and smeared my face at the end of a few hours). I think it's incredibly important for logos to be visually appealing in black and white, and I was concerned that if I designed my logos around a color scheme, then the logos would not translate well in black and white. Here are a few of my favorite logo designs.

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And after I finished my logo designs, I surfed over to Colourlovers for my weekly dose, and that's when it hit me. It's Lisa Frank's fault! All the tasteless design faux pas of our generation! Lisa Frank is the awesomely horrible 1980s children illustrator who smeared our backpacks with rainbows and enabled use to stick sparkly unicorns all over our lunchboxes when we were little. Lisa, Lisa, Lisa... did you know the impact you would have on an entire generation or two who came of age amidst the height of your popularity? Did you know that your color palette would come back to bite the world in the ass once those children were mature adults working in the design industry??? Why would you do that to us!! For crying out loud, it all makes sense now why 1980s neon colors have suddenly become the only accpetable color palette of fashion street wear in the London, Sydney and Tokyo.

And suddenly I am beginning to question what other childhood enjoyments influenced my development as a designer that I am not even aware of. Trolls?? What about My Little Pony? Fraggle Rock? Days of Our Lives?

But I guess it really doesn't matter if I figure out whose fault it is I like monsters, horses and soap operas. I just need to say hey! at least my designs are dramatic. It's always good to look on the bright side of things (is that Mr. Rogers talking??) And what better way to do that then with my very own rainbow cake! Colourlovers points out rainbow cakes are not just good for staying positive, but are excellent for numerous other occasions including:

A child's birthday
Your mom's birthday
Coming out to your conservative parents (If you're a lesbian, they'll be thrilled that you won't be forgoing your feminine kitchen duties... If your the kind of gay guy that bakes cakes for your parents, they were probably on to you anyways.)
Coming out to your conservative parents on your mom's birthday

So my hat's off to you, Colourlovers, for making this week's worth of postings the brightest and gayest yet! You really did make me happy.

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And since I am on the subjects of Red Bull, rainbows, birthday cakes and freaky childhood flashbacks, Brooklyn-based artist Thu Tran embodies all these elements perfectly with her art installations, hand-blown glass birthday cakes, magic marker character sketches and muted illustrations. Her aesthetic has been described as that of a twelve-year-old girl with a killer Red Bull habit whose obsessed with food and animals. Dear lord.

Inexplicably, I think she awesome. She is both progressive and regressive, inventive and obsessive. The perfect union for my seemingly insatiable soul. Her art invariably brings up some sort of warm, happy memories from childhood. And you just know she had the same 32-pack of smelly magic markers you always wanted to steal from your cubby neighbor Gwen, whose parents were the type of free thinkers that would have invited the whole neighborhood to their gay child's coming out party, hired a caterer to bake the rainbow cake and then insisted everyone go swimming after eating some.

Incidentatly, her online portfolio is an outstanding example of professionalism merging with personality! Check out her stuff for a little innocent inspiration.

2009-03-04T23:23:00.007-06:00

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This week my teacher forced me to examine my career goals. A seemingly innocent enough request for a soon-to-be graduate (fingers crossed). Its not as if I was asked to plan out the rest of my entire life... yet my mind acted as if I was being torn apart by wild dingos. I mean, I was going from one extreme to the next, sprinting from one side of the spectrum to the other confused about what was going on and wondering why am I running?

Amidst all this internal chaos, I also worked on some cover designs for the upcoming nicotine and caffeine themed Vox issues. Well, truth be told I am only supposed to be working on the cover design for the caffeine issue. But I am having a really hard time of it, and somehow, inexplicably, ideas for the nicotine issue just won't stop flowing (I don't smoke, I swear). I am really excited about some of the nicotine designs. Sadly, the caffeine ones are still a work in progress. Stay tuned for tomorrow, and say 'Hi!' to Joe!

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These are stamps! Incredibly diverse, colorful stamps! What artistic country produces them? Could

it be Venezuela with that crazy Castro-lovin' Chavez proudly following in the art-centric Commie tradition? Or is it a Scandinavian country projecting its love of design onto mediums besides furniture? No, no no (with a wag of a finger)! It's Israel.

This war-torn, poverty stricken country somehow managed to find time to create these one of a kind stamps by commissioned artists. Some make political statements, some make people forget about their corner of the world where the mailbox sits. Oh, and some are from Romania. Colourlovers has more of these collector items on display, as well as Flickr. Maybe we can earmark a stamp art project into the next bailout?

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I came across some layouts by Finnish photo illustrator Inka Jarvinen the other day and thought I'd share her work with you all. Her cut and paste style somehow still seems fresh among all the Skateboard magazines and grunge fashionistas. In a time where my portfolio takes up half of my consciousness on any given day, Jarvinen has assembled a diverse portfolio every designer would to aspire towards. Its choke full of magazine and record covers, magazine spreads, posters, logos... she even has her own fashion line coming out soon called Girls of Boredom. The spread above requires close inspection, which I think is part of what makes it so great. It was printed in a magazine called Tulva in 2007. Check out the website, it may be in Finnish, but when it comes to design it just don't matter what language it is.

2009-02-25T22:57:00.016-06:00

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I have been working on the art for the music's department pages this week. We are running a story on 3.05 about music video games conquering music instruments in the younger generations (am I allowed to say this??). After reading the text, I created this image for the story. Well, needless to say in my hindsight, which is not anywhere near 20/20 even when I wear my glasses, I realized I had made the exact same mistake we had been lectured on the previous week in class. So I had to change the art for the week, but I still like this one so here it is. I ended up taking my own photos of a real guitar neck and a guitar hero neck.

This was my first shot. I know I have said this before, but I want to emphasize I am not a photographer! However, I really like the lighting in this photograph. I am hoping to run this the length of the page in Vox, but that probably won't happen with all the 1.5 page to 1.75 page ads we have. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

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Colourlovers.com has without a doubt become my go-to website for inspiration—and not just because I am required to go to it every week. Artist Christian Faur wowed me this week with his crayon portraits! Never in a million years would I have dreamed something so innovative and detailed could come out of my box of 64 Crayolas.

One last crumb of information from colourlovers this week—the color pink does not exist literally. Absorb that all you legally blonde faux fans of the light spectrum.

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I stumbled across this website earlier in the week while... well, to tell the truth I am not sure what I was doing. that might be due to the fact that I constantly doing 100 different things, or it might be due to the fact that Lost at E Minor offers a 1000 different resources for those in the art world. The website markets itself

as a source for inspiration for "creative people," and predominately showcases the new trends in illustration, fashion, architecture and design. Every week an original and innovative artist, building, product, film, photographer, etc., is highlighted to garner support from the community. The website even offers e-mail service for a weekly secret playlist that showcases "hidden gems" of the music industry. It's ridiculously fun, easy to navigate and has so much information its overwhelming! I hope you check it out. I mean, look at this sleeping bag they found god knows where. They deserve recognition for such thorough head hunting.

pop culture 101

2009-02-19T03:43:00.017-06:00

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Another week gone... another lesson learned... another deadline missed (just kidding?). For this week, I have been working on my online/mini-portfolio designs as well as the redesign for the T/F cover. I like to call it a hybrid of Lichtenstein and Zoolander (purse your lips, furrow your brow and raise your voice to a male-model reading level when deciphering the headline). I had wanted to play around with the title True/False, since it is a documentary film festival all about questioning reality, I thought why not start with questioning the meaning of the name. Maggie had suggested I look up Lichtenstein's work. Well, she was right! The two concepts fit perfectly together. The question that remains is how well does the concept fit into Vox's style. I am competing against some other great designers, so good luck everyone!

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ColourLovers continues to provide a healthy dose of informative and inspirational content this week with a posting on San Francisco-based artist Lawrence Yang, whose multi-medium color combinations create a distinct atmosphere that's both haunting and playful. Yang provides the perfect example that artists can use neon colors tastefully and effectively! I love finding artists whose work can teach designers to be bold in color choices. No part of the spectrum is off limits! And that excites me because I feel like many designers repeatedly use the same color palette, lock themselves into a box and bore their audience all at once. I am tired of being bored. Yang wakes up my creativity. I hope he does for you, too. Coincidentally, his website also serves as a great example of what an accomplished graphic designer's online portfolio looks like while we are in the midst of designing our own websites.

ColourLovers also reported on a study that examines the varying effects the primary colors have on people's creative problem solving abilities. The NYTimes recently published an article on the study, which was conducted by a group of Canadian scientists. The scientists found that the color blue boosts people's creativity while the color red aides in the recall of and attention to detail (ie spelling and grammar). And I take the fact that I just had to reread the article five times right now off my blue computer screen in order to summarize the study in one measly sentence as proof that you can believe everything you read... as long as you retain it, that is. The article reminds me of a psychology study I once read that found kindergardeners who were taught in a classroom painted blue were much calmer throughout the day and performed better on tests

than those who were taught in a room painted red. I love these interesting tid bits on external factors that influence our moods and decisions everyday but most people don't even recognize (I also heard blue decreases your appetite, while red increases your appetite for something else...). It's an interesting story you guys should check out, but doesn't that graphic just make you want to skip right over it?! It looks like an election poll.

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From art that makes you want to skip right over an interesting story, to a story that would mean nothing without its art — Flaunt Magazine, one of the boldest design magazines on the market that I just can't seem to get enough of, will be publishing their 100th issue soon. Its amazing to look back on all the face lifts the magazine would yearly, quarterly, and sometimes even monthly undergo for the sake of staying fresh. The issue has the quirky theme, "the power of ten," which encompasses the subject for all the feature stories (ie. lists of the 10 best photographers that pushed boundaries, the 10 best typographic spreads to grace the pages and the designers who created them, and the 10 best artists that gave the magazine street credit) The spread pictured above is an example of the "art that gave the magazine street credit," I for one could stare at this page for hours.

I truly love this publication for their desire to repeatedly stuff the envelope full of as much innovative art as possible. And for their big 100th issue celebratory cover design?? The nerve of it—it's unbelievable, in every meaning of the word. I look at it and want to say 'This??' and then I answer myself with, "Ya, this," because the staff at Flaunt is once again doing the unexpected, and doing it well. That, and it is 5AM... I have to stay awake somehow, even if it does mean having conversations with myself.

2009-02-11T22:40:00.020-06:00

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This week in Advanced Design I designed both the feature story and the music department spread. Well, technically I designed the feature two weeks ago. And thank god, because I struggled so designing this week. Turns out the graphic for the chocolate layout (see last post) was supposed to run across two entire pages! Count em: 1, 2. I found out this news about an hour past deadline on Sunday night sitting in the Vox office trying to fix the problems on my department spread. It was overwhelming to say the least. All I can say about this week's designs is that I learned you can never be too prepared. I got kicked to the curb, picked up and thrown in the dumpster and then driven to the landfill on Sunday. I am looking forward to picking myself up for a new week.

I started designing for the True/False film festival covers this week. I think the idea that the magazine's circulation nearly doubles that week has made me want to design something great, which in turn has made the process less fun. Here is one of my cover designs. It is far from stunning, but I think it's a start. There will be more cover designs to come.

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Furthering our historical design education, my fellow students and I have started presenting

on the design of a specific magazine or designer pre-1970. Emily was the first to go, and I was really excited to hear she chose Alexey Brodovitch as her subject. I had only heard of Brodovitch the day before while I was in the library researching the subject of my design presentation. And his work is great! Thanks, Emily, for walking us through an exhibition on a great artist. Here is a spread on 9 easy workouts to do at home that ran in Harper's Bazaar. It's one of those designs that just inspires you to ask a million questions: What is this story about? How did he come up with this design? Is she stretching? dancing? kicking?... no, she's not kicking... wait ... where is she kicking him??

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This week on http://www.colourlovers.com/blog, you can find a great post

featuring over 1,700 vintage Valentine's Day card! As always, the blog includes swatches of the color palette used in each design posted. I for one would never put blue, yellow red and beige as a Valentine's Day color palette! Yet another reason why the site is great for inspiration for when you feel bound to a certain "idea" of what a color palette has to be for holidays or other stereotypical themes.

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For my presentation, I chose to study Otto Storch's work. Storch was the art director for McCall's Magazine

from 1955-1969. He single-handedly saved the magazine from the chopping block with his innovative designs. Storch's philosophy (and I am paraphrasing here) was that type, text and images should all be united into one design. Well, that ideology seems inherent for designers today, but it all started with Storch. The one point that struck me the most when I was researching his work was the fact that Storch admits his rise to fame was a stroke of luck. In an interview, Storch said, "My time had come. I was in the right place at the right time. I had the creative ability and the experience, and an editor who wanted to do things."

Frankly, that's disheartening to hear as a naive student of design. It would be lovely to believe as designers we will all end up working at a magazine

that gives us free creative reign to "express ourselves" or "convey our point of view." In reality, there is a slim chance we will get to accomplish this. It was a much needed slap on the cheek for me (your grandma calls it a love pat). I don't like living in bubbles (who does, really?) so I always welcome the feel of that slight sting. But I learned more than the fact that it will take more than talent and dedication to make my career dreams a reality. Fifty years down the road, Storch's work is still innovative and inspirational. I won't say too much since I have yet to give my presentation, but here is a sneak peek on his work. Hopefully this image doesn't ruin any surprises for you since it is still considered to be one of the best examples of graphic design in the 21st century. And for those of you without a magnify glass next to your computer, this is a story on frozen foods. That's right, frozen food. Bon apetite!

2009-02-04T23:58:00.025-06:00

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Old school [fill in the blank]... Charm? ...Trade? ...Elegance? ...Martha Stewart? You be the judge. This past week in Advanced Design, I worked on redesigning the Chocolate feature layout. I was shooting for old school [blank], hoping to achieve an illustration that reflected the dedication and passion of McClure—the chocolatier extraordinaire. Using our textbook "Graphic Style" as inspiration, I choose to use a simple, negative space illustration to communicate the romance and elegance of his trade. My redesign included removing the all-brown background that pervaded each page of the layout, adding chocolate splashes to each page and transposing the images to emphasis the dominant photograph. How do you think I did? I'd really like to hear some opinions on my new column layout and photo design. Professor Jen Rowe called it Martha Stewart, which I wasn't my aim and I doubt is a category McClure would be very thrilled to be associated with. But I guess Martha is known for pristine design more so than prison. Overall, I am happy with the outcome.

I also worked on the department pages for Vox's music section this week, and struggled intensely on creating art for the anchor story because of a lack of time and the difficulty the editor+design team encountered in trying to procure any decent images from the band's publicity team! I frankly threw up my arms in the end, threw up all over InDesign, and then threw in the towel. See the February 12th issue of Vox for a preview; I am too embarrassed to post an image online. However, I was happy with the art I developed for the play list that will be running in the issue despite the fact that I was working under a instilled design format for holiday play lists (usually takes a stereotypical holiday image and places a play button on top of it)—I played off the album artwork of the secondary anchor to develop what I think might be an edgier take on the cliche. But it won't matter in the end, because everyone will focus on the shooty artwork on the first page instead.
[side note: The artwork is not really blue, but for some reason blogspot will only upload the image as blue. It's realistic colors—red].

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Recently, the class has been examining the different historical eras of design through our textbook and documentary movies such as "Helvetica." The profound cylindrical nature (as one of our fellow design students referred to it) of our trade illuminates our need to know about our predecessors and their work. Well, while designing my "Chocolate" feature spread, I grew to realize that it is not quite enough for designers to be able to recognize different eras' influences. As future graphic artists, we are also responsible for knowing how to recreate specific historical elements of design in order to be successful. It dawned on me that I am lost when it comes to recreating a Dada design or American post-modern art.
That is why when I saw a stack of the book "Retro Graphics: A Visual Sourcebook to 100 Years of Graphic Design" sitting on the counter taunting me from underneath the bookstore manager's arm, I stealthily snatched it right out from underneath him as he was pricing this gem in preparation for life on the dreaded shelves. No, that does not mean I used my five-finger discount to get the book for free. I just wanted to emphasize my inability to wait to get my hands on this book! For starters, I didn't want the book to be on the shelves at all (I liken it to a prostitute standing on the street corner—it just cheapens the product). Secondly, I wanted this book in my hands immediately because, as far as I am concern, no other design book is quite like this one.

Like our textbook "Graphic Style," this book takes the reader on a step-by-step visual journey through the different eras design. The difference being... drum roll, please... "Retro Graphics" teaches you how to recreate prominent design characteristics from each era! Needless to say, I held and caressed this book against my cheek till it scared every bookstore customer in the vicinity. I think I might sleep with it underneath my pillow for the next month or so to quell my fear of failing as a designer—just like when I slept with my Precious Moments Bible for a whole month to squash my fear of the devil after my grandpa let me watch "The Exorcist" when I was only five years old. There's some Catholic guilt for you. Looking back, I think I was just a fan of the illustrations, because I was only five and therefore couldn't read and had no idea what the Bible's message was (translation in a high British voice: I've always been a lover of graphic design). The moral of the story is: everyone needs this book so they can sleep peacefully at night knowing that when a design comes into their heads, they will be able to artfully execute it.

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Since the implementation of the in-class quiz, we students have all been getting to know the historical eras better than we know our own cats (or mothers, depending on your religious upbringing). That is why I found it particularly interesting to stumble across a new posting on http://colourlovers.com/blog/ concerning vintage Czech film posters. The blog doesn't really say much about these posters, because... well, much doesn't need to be said. However, they do display the color schemes of each poster. Which leads me to my next point: http://colourlovers.com/blog/ allows registered users to search a database of thousands of color schemes and download them onto your computer in Adobe format. Its incredibly simple and handy way of choosing a color scheme without having to eyedropper your way around multiple websites for a custom palette! I was saving that tip in my bag of tricks for a rainy day when my blog material lacked oomph, but shucks. This just seemed to be an appropriate time to let everyone on to the secret. Colorlovers also had a posting on the color and design of vintage comic books. The posting was of very few words once again, the organizers clearly prefer to let color speak.

However, the organizers did recently report on Pantone's winner for the 2009 color of the year. And the award goes to.... Mimosa? What a flux! I humbly disagree. What do you all think the 2009 color of the year will be?

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When it comes to color schemes and poster design, no contemporary seems to do it better than Chicago-native screen printer Jay Ryan. Mr. Ryan has been on the underground music scene for quite some time, but has recently gained notoriety for his muted color palettes and quirky illustrations. I first found out about Jay Ryan last semester when my screen printing instructor spoke quite favorably of his work, often citing famous posters Ryan had done as inspiration for our own designs. Based on the way my instructor spoke about the Ryan, the artist seems to have unknown "connections" to the University of Missouri. But certainly his reach has spread far beyond the Midwest with famous Indie bands such as Modest Mouse counting on Ryan to promote their shows and help them maintain a degree of credibility on the street. I love his work so much that I found an interview with Ryan in a Chicago publication and designed this spread in October 2008 for my portfolio using a like color scheme and illustrative motif. You can all check out his work at his company's website, http://thebirdmachine.com/

Hope you find it to be as innovative as I do!

2009-02-03T08:59:00.003-06:00

The end of my inspirational photo diary.

2009-01-31T13:55:00.005-06:00

Day Two, Three and Four

A day in the year of the Ox

2009-01-28T23:33:00.010-06:00

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In week one of what will undoubtably become the craziest semester of our college experience (in terms of education, you social degenerate), I designed a mediocre yet avant-garde cover and a creepy feature spread. I had no intentions to make my feature spread creepy, nor did I strive to make an undecipherable cover.

I am extremely happy with the overall feel of the photo illustration on my cover design. In my redesign, I plan on recreating the background photo with higher quality images. I am also going to remove the yellow moon, which was my pathetic attempt at tying the feature story into the cover design (John Henry's newest album is titled "Under the Yellow Moon"). Clearly, the design lacks the correct wording that will interpret my "The Revolution will be televised" idea. The interactive, fill-in-the-blank-yourself title was also a retrospective catastrophe.

As for my design of the feature spread, I felt the main purpose of the story was to illustrate to the reader that Washington does not control the economy. I thought it would be fun and interactive to turn the faces of the president into cut out masks because, well, I enjoy fun workbooks (ie. have you seen the David Hasslehoff workbook? It'll appear in my "You Can't Miss" section shortly, no doubt). However, I believe I chose the faces of the wrong president (and v.p.). I plan on changing the "masks" to George Washington and Ben Franklin in my redesign. I also plan on making my columns consistent throughout the story, and moving my pull quote from page two to page one to better tie in the idea that the consumers control the economy.
Also, you should check out my side bar if you own a magnify glass. It includes a finger puppet of G.W.! Which might have to change if I am removing all elements of current politicians for the story. But that would be sad because it's a quite humorous side bar. Any ideas on which monetary figures would make a good finger puppet? Or for justification as to why I have the phonetic spelling of each word in the side bar? If George W. isn't presenting the list, it doesn't seem to make sense or a joke anymore.

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The letter of the day is "O," brought to you by fluorescent lightbulbs and sponsored by the snow, which compelled me to stay indoors and search for photographic inspiration within my own home. The photographic assignment proves to be particularly challenging for me because I: a) do not own a camera, b) do not understand how to take beautiful pictures, and c) would forget my head if it wasn't attached to my shoulders.

I have no idea of what word I will spell out with my photos to creat my logo design, but rather view the assignment as an especially interesting and interactive game of Scrabble (I am keen on interactive games, if you haven't noticed). Therefore, the assignment is also a competition between myself and my fellow designers just as it seems every assignment this semester will be.

The competitve factor of our capstone adds a spicy incentive to all of my fellow sore losers in the crowd, while simultaneously replicating the nature of the design industry. I wish all my classes in college would have followed the format of Advanced Design—granted it is only week one and I highly doubt that I would have made it to my last semester here at MU if that were reality. Nevertheless, I look forward to completing assignments designed to cultivate my creativity in this class. As Banksy shows the world, one person's creativity can affect a (design)nation.

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Banksy is one of the world's most infamous graffiti artists. He travels around the globe to leave satirical, political messages on bare concrete. From Madrid to London, New York to New Orleans, Banksy displays two idioms: one man's trash is another man's treasure, and art is a revolutionary medium (or "art can save the world" for all you yippies).

I find the way he incorporates the pre-existing elements of his canvas into comical art inspiring. Check out his website at: www.banksy.co.uk

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This week marked the beginning of the Chinese New Year. In celebration, www.colourlovers.com/blog paid tribute to the wonderful attributes of the color red, which has been the official color of the Chinese New Year celebrations of the since... well, for a while, anyways. Traditionally, red envelopes or red packets containing money are exchanged within the community to help ward off evil spirits in the new year. Revelers typically wear new, red clothing throughout the entire holiday to protect themselves from the evil spirits. The Chinese believe the powerful energy the color produces invigorates the soul and prepares you for the upcoming year. So, go by yourself a new pair of red shoes to ring in the year of the Ox (really, I want you all to buy red, socks but this entire post has seemed too similar to Sesame Street to end with a ridiculous rhyme). Happy 4707, everyone!

designation

2009-01-22T15:25:00.001-06:00

designation
Originally uploaded by jlvkt2

happy citizens of design nation