I think I might have seen the work of Richard Perez first on ffffound and then traced it back to his site, but then immediately I started seeing him in a few other spots and was really impressed. He can do the fun 50′s illustration that we all love these days but he can also rock some modern type and then bring it back full circle with lovely ID work. I believe he may still be searching for work in the SF Bay Area so act now ’cause supplies like Richard are rare indeed!
For a short while (one year), I went to art school at Minneapolis College of Art and Design in Minnesota. During my time there, I knew this character Aaron Draplin, he was a friend of my roommate. Back then, I would say me and him had very different opinions on graphic design and our approach to it, but it was all in good spirit and laughs. The same could still be said today. Although I still respect his work and its clean and niche approach, its just not how I would do things.
Today I came across this video of him chatting, seems someone is working on a short documentary with him? Watching this one clip, I see he is still a big bearded guy, wearing hats and loving the Pacific North West of America. He is also still very opinionated on graphic design, and on this topic in particular I can agree with him. While I do agree with how bad this typical technique in America is, I am not so sure I get as upset about these things. Just goes to show though, you can’t buy good taste, not even for over $10,000.
At the same time (always taking the chance to bash on Google), who says bad taste won’t take you to new heights or intense stock values?
New Industry Arts is the recently updated brain child of James Widegren– Reporting on Visual Culture; photography, fashion, industry & creative/art this website is constantly updated with good scccchtuff.
We recently got contacted by a new site that is trying to connect talent with opportunities in a fair and community engaged environment. At first I was a little hesitant about doing this as I hate to see graphic designers exploited for some stupid prize or contest that you have to do hours of work for a client for free.
Society6 seems like a great site for monetary, promotion and other grants to be given to artists and designers. All you have to do is have a profile showing your work, nothing more. I think in the future as the site grows there could be some great things that happen at Society6. They asked us if it would be fine for them to start a ‘grant’ for illustrators to apply for a chance to be featured on our site and see where it goes from there. We accepted the offer.
The site still seems a little unclear at times, but think that will work itself out as it has only been online for a number of days. Anyway, check out the site and see if it looks like something you want to be a part of. If so, take advantage of the different opportunities posted so far. It is great to see people start projects like this to connect people for the improvement of our profession, not to exploit it.
A repost from Design Observer. Well worth a look. I think the non-anglo labels are the most interesting of the lot.
Ted Staunton’s 78 RPM Labels
I’m trying to get this posted before Matt walks in the door. He’s been coming into our office lately to work on some new fonts, because this office is a designated typographic zone. When Matt isn’t making fonts he’s filming, experimenting with photography, and racing over midwestern hills and across valleys in his VW. And you can see all of this unfold on his Flickr.
Our buddy Mike Davis has some new keychains that he did with Kid Robot based on his alphabet poster. Each letter of the alphabet is designed to be a word starting with that letter.
They are having a release party at Robot Love (MPLS) on Thursday, May 21st. I would get there early as it should be packed.
The fine people at Wolff Olins have a new blog called Never Work. It is pretty wild how they have the navigation set up. I don’t think I like it but it is interesting non-the-less. I need to make an account. Will do when I have some time.
Some nice type in motion work from OneSize for the 2009 OFFF sponsor titles. I think they did a really good job and liked what they did with our full logo as well. Check em out and some of their other projects.
You can see the video larger here.
This week we feature British designer, Chris Gray. I came across one of his shirts on Beautiful Decay and was pleasantly surprised by his other work. Let’s learn a little more about him.
Name: Chris Gray
Company: Toy / WSS
Website: http://www.thisistoy.com / http://www.weshallsee.co.uk
Short explanation of what you do / who you are: I am a freelance designer working from my tiny shared studio in Manchester across print, film & web. I also run a small independent art business working alongside 9 other European illustrators.
Color: Black
Music: Chad VanGaalen (this week)
Book: Down and Out in London & Paris
Designer: Geoff McFetridge
Animal: Kingfisher
Website: http://www.as-found.net
Place: In the Sun
Shape: All of them
Artist: Salvidor Dali
Typeface: Trade Gothic LT No. 20 Bold Condensed
Movie: I’m watching ‘SYNECDOCHE’ tomorrow. So hopefully that.
Work: One of those jobs where you convince yourself that there is no idea to find, and you go through stages of believing you are complete failure as a designer. Then it hits you like an Iceberg and for those first few moments it makes you feel like a demi-god. It is surely the best feeling you can get.
Word: Rad!
Season: Summer
Magazine: Graphis 1958 – 1974
Guilty Pleasure: Riding kids bikes
Distraction: G, C, Em, D. I still suck at F
Love: My Girlfriend. She gives me more ideas then anyone I have ever met.
Hate: Mistaking Salt for Sugar
What are you working on right now? In 8 hours I start painting a new mural for my solo exhibition in which I took all the graffiti out of the venues toilet are turned it into some form of giant interlinking illustration.
What career would you switch to if you had to stop your current profession? Why? I went through a stage when I was younger whereby I wanted to be a pro BMX rider so I could cruise the streets in the sun all day doing flip-whips. Unfortunately I never quite got good enough.
Every so often you land on one of those sites that just knock you out of your chair. Everything is Terrible does just this and just like the the title hints, it is full of nothing but terribleness! Enjoy!
Boom, our latest publication has finally landed! A work of art that explores the relationship between nature, motion and sound, The Interpretation takes us on a languid journey through a slowly flourishing forest. Hinting at vague memories of microbiology and rotating through a cool organic spectrum of greens, blues, browns, blacks and whites; this motion-based work will entrance its viewer as the forest evolves. The Interpretation is set to a minimal score filled with authentic sounds of nature, complimenting the environmental essence of the visuals. One of the movies on this DVD also features a soundtrack composed by various Ghostly Records musicians.
