Pay It Forward

Earth Clock

http://www.poodwaddle.com/earthclock.swf

Paula Scher: Recent Paintings

Paula Scher, NYC Transit, 108 in x 60.5 in, acrylic on canvas, 2007.

Paula Scher, NYC Transit (detail).

Okay so I know I ripped on Paula for her HP templates, but I do love her paintings.

Did I mention I like maps?

From the Pentagram website: "An exhibition of new paintings by Paula Scher opens this Thursday, 8 November at the Maya Stendhal Gallery at 545 West 20th Street in New York City. Featured is work from her ongoing Maps series including the paintings India, Tsunami, Manhattan at Night, NYC Transit, Middle East and Paris. An exhibition catalogue has been published. The show remains on view through 26 January."

Free Magenta!

Check out this article about T-Mobile apparently owning the color magenta so that no other telecommunications companies can use it.

"Don’t worry trademarks only apply to the industry sector that they are registered under and since DT applied for their trademark in the tele-communications sector you just can’t use the color magenta around anything to do with phones, digital media… oh and just about anything on the internet."

And also check out this site (in German I think?) about "freeing" Magenta.

Halloweeeeen :)

So I decided to be Jane Jetson for Halloween but I thought that the store-bought costume looked nothing like her.

So I made my own. Took me too long but it turned out well I think. Not the absolute best photo, but you get the idea.

I need to post a picture of the hair before I painted it. It's made of this foamy modeling clay called Crayola Model Magic. Very cartoony.

Take that, Bootleg Jane!

Jess and Amanda's year of travels

Gotta give a quick shoutout to my friend Amanda (and her friend Jess's) travel blog. The 2 of them decided to save up some money and take a trip around the world. How crazy is that?

First stop: Lima, Peru to hike up Machu Picchu. Hopefully they will get some pictures up very soon! Good luck guys! Have fun and stay safe.

Jess and Amanda's year of travels

I'm a real adult!

Long story short:

After interning at The Knot Inc for about a month I was offered a job at another company I had interviewed at back in September. After thinking about it I decided that this was a great opportunity to gain some experience (and make some money) even though the agency was really corporate and I happened to love my job at The Knot.

When I told my boss I was leaving she told me that the whole team wants me to stay and they want to offer me a full-time position.

So, the past week I have been super stressed deciding what to. Ultimately it came down to where I think I'd be the most happy. My team here is really young and so much fun, and they are so helpful that I'm learning a lot. SO, I decided to stay here at The Knot. Maybe someday I'll get sick of designing wedding crap, but for now it's awesome!

It's so insane that I felt like shit on graduation day, thought I sucked and would never get a job in New York, and just a few months later I had my choice of 2 really great positions. Happy Day.

Now I'm a real adult with a full time job and billz to pay.

Crazy.

Ballsy Ads

Bold advertising for Alma Magazine is getting a lot of attention. I'm weary about posting a swastika on this blog let alone allowing it to represent my company.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I just don't think the message is strong enough to warrant the use of this symbol. The other two ads aren't as heavy and I think they work better.

But if they want some attention, this is definitely the way to get it.


Tagline:

"Wow! Ninjas are awesome!"
ALMA:
IGNORANCE IS UNNACCEPTABLE

Mari Santos

Mari Santos is an amazing artist/designer from Toronto with a flair for creating fashion out of cheap, ugly, mundane things like old tees for example. Her latest project, Urban Renewal does just that. God knows I love this kind of stuff. I've always felt that we pay way too much money to look cool when we could just have it for next to nothing.

Also, does anybody else think that asians are fucking cool? I mean, they're so much more hip than everyone else. Plus, they have better health and higher IQs...

Anyway, check out Urban Renewal and also check out Mari's homepage (because after clicking around I could go on and on about her other projects too) at http://wiredminds.ca/mari/

Come on Down to South Park

So instead of catching up on freelance work today, I decided to make South Park characters of some of my best friends from my hometown.

Here they are in this order:

Val Complete with yellow bikini, yellow designer sunglasses, drinks, a and a cig. Why the hat? I don't know it just seemed appropriate.
Caitlin Booze, beach, and of course- a black eye!
Jenna Hip hat and a tennis racquet
Doreen Red hair, pirate gear, and a light saber. Doreen, I believe you can die now.
Heather Doublefisting. The viking hat was a bonus.
Amanda I thought the outfit looked like something a preppy Bostonian student would wear, and the weather too.
Kristen Do I need to describe this?
John Little black T, a high tech camera, FOOD, and a halo of course

Make your own at http://www.sp-studio.de/

Chris Jordan: Intolerable Beauty

detail of Cans Seurat, 2007, 60x92"
Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds.

Chris Jordan is a photographer based in Seattle who's work has been influenced by photographers like Andreas Gursky. Jordan has definitely influenced my own work, as I was looking at him when I did my Darfur installation. All three of the series featured on his website are amazing, but he regrets that they are not nearly as impactful on the web as in person.

His earlier work is all photographed from existing found scenes- as is- pictured in his Intolerable Beauty, Portraits of American Mass Consumption. His newest work Running the Numbers, An American Self-Portrait (2006-2007) features digitally compiled photographs based on statistics of American (and world-wide) litter and consumption. He describes how he had one litter research organization send him 5,000 cigarettes which he dumped out on the floor, photographed, and digitally manipulated to create a massive image of the number of cigarettes discarded in one second all around the world.

I listened to a podcast interview with him and was intrigued to find out that his original interest was not consumerism, but color. He would find scenes like old paint cans in the dumpster in the back of an auto body shop and photograph them for the amazing color they produced. One particular image of a mass amount of trash he took and blew up spurred his interest in photographing things related to mass consumption. I think it's amazing how he could come from almost a strictly formal photographic curiosity, and end up doing something so heavily conscience driven.

http://www.chrisjordan.com/

Retro Junk

http://retrojunk.com/

I've recently revisited this site and I can still spend hours on it. As an 80's/90's kid it's so much fun to search for videos of old commercials and the themes from shows and movies I forgot existed!

My favorites? The Goonies trailer, Ray Charles Pepsi commercial, Salute Your Shorts, The Elephant Show, and how could I leave out my personal childhood fav, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

Paula, what are you doing?!

Famed graphic design icon and Pentagram partner Paula Scher has designed a series of free business templates for HP. Suits have a choice between 5 styles- "Bold", "Friendly", "Elegant", "Edgy", and "Modern."

The templates are, as all templates are, boring and generic. There is not a stint of creativity in these stale, one-size-fits all molds. These fonts are nice I guess, but lend nothing to the individuality of a brand. I mean, what is the difference between these "designy" templates and any old Word template? Also, if anyone has seen the documentary Helvetica, Scher comments that she actually hates the font and never really uses it in her own work, even though she chooses none other than Helvetica for two of the styles here. In that light the templates almost seem sarcastic on Sher's part.

In Scher's defense she says “No template is a substitute for hiring a professional designer,” and also gives a link to the AIGA website. “But at the very least, I hope we can stop a few innocent people out there from using Comic Sans.”

Uh, I'm not buying it. That's nice on the surface, but think about it- these templates do more harm than good. This makes the design process (choosing a font or an image) seem as easy as picking out a pair of socks in the morning. No: easier. Is this really what small businesses need? What does this really do to make people understand what designers actually do and how important building an original brand is to the success of their company? This seems to go against everything we stand for as designers and diminishes our value.

Paula, I'm disappointed.

We Feel Fine

Check out this amazing database of feelings (We Feel Fine) by Jonathan Harris & Sepandar Kamvar:

It's such an amazing and diverse way to gather and map out information. I would love to do a project like this someday.


Excerpt from the site:

"Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved.

"The feelings can be searched and sorted across a number of demographic slices, offering responses to specific questions like: do Europeans feel sad more often than Americans? Do women feel fat more often than men? Does rainy weather affect how we feel? What are the most representative feelings of female New Yorkers in their 20s? What do people feel right now in Baghdad? What were people feeling on Valentine's Day? Which are the happiest cities in the world? The saddest? And so on."

Labor Day Kayaking

On Labor Day I went out to Southampton with John to go kayaking. His uncle lives out there so we used his kayak. It was reeeeally choppy so it took us a while to get to our destination (called Sand Hill by the locals because, well, it's a big hill of sand) but it was a decent workout and we stayed close to the shore. Then we got back and ate some dinner that John's aunt made, drank some wine, and made a fire outside. It was relaxing.

I'd have to say I'm pretty much a kayaking pro by now. Like one more outing and I'll be ready to compete definitely.

VC + Yankees = :)

So Adam Tatz invited me to Saturday's Yankee game, and it was perfect. Seats in section 1 right behind home plate! And we were in the shade. Before the game we went to Monument Park which was my first time there. I saw Clemens up close throwing in the bullpen.

I took my die-hard Mets fan friend who always talks shit about Yankee stadium and he was impressed. He said, "Why are they knocking this place down?" Sadly, the answer is: To make more money. It will be a tragic day.

Anyway, the best part of the story is that they were giving away beanie baby bears to everyone 14 and under and of the 4 of us who went to the game, I was the only one who got a bear! I guess sometimes it pays to look like you're 12.

Final score:
TB 6
NYY 9

Me and Tatz

Monument Park







View from our seats

THE INTERVIEW (dun dun DUN!)

To quote Sarah Erin's comment on my "Portfolio? What's that? By Myself?" post:

"Hope it went well!"

ummm. If by "well" you mean that I flawlessly finished my book (and actually liked the way something I did came out for once), set aside everything I needed the night before- outfit, directions, and all (which is something I obviously never do if you know me at all), set my alarm, was totally psyched...

...and STILL almost slept through the interview, woke up at 8:30 when I was supposed to catch an 8:51 train, called the creative director's cell phone, lied and told him I had forgotten about a doc appointment at 9:15 and could we please reschedule?

Then yes; it went well.

haha but seriously it did go well. Even though that really did happen. But the CD was really cool about it, told me to come in at 3, and he really liked my work! I'm not sure if I'll get it because I think he's looking for someone with a little more experience, but we seemed to "get" each other. It would be cool if I did get the job because it would basically be just me and the CD which means I'd have my hands in everything, and probably even be "in charge" of certain projects, go to client meetings, and get tons of experience.

I also have an interview at MRM Worldwide next week, which is really cool because Tatz works there now and really likes it. Which reminds me that I better get to sleep because I'm meeting up with him for the Yankee game tomorrow!

Night! :)

Scrabulous!

As if I didn't have enough distractions already.
http://www.scrabulous.com

Portfolio? What's that? By myself?

That's what I was thinking when I actually got a call today (or since it's almost 5am, yesterday) from a potential employer who wants to interview me for a Jr. Designer position. He said "Bring an extra copy of your resume. Oh and your portfolio of course."

Gulp.

I sent them my portfolio website so why do they need a book too? Ahhh so I had to make one, and I can't believe I did it all by myself! No Greg, no Melissa, and no Adam- and it's so late I couldn't even call them. I'm really tired, but I'm so glad I told this guy I would interview tomorrow because it FORCED me to get this thing done that I've been avoiding all summer. I'm thiiiiiis close to finishing and I really hope I don't fuck it up at this point. I stayed up all damn night. This guy is going to think I'm sleepwalking into his office.

But on a better note: Could it be I'm capable of doing things myself? This actually gives me a bit of confidence walking into this interview. I think I just might finally be ready to work.

Sigh.

A Visual Representation of your hard drive

So my Macbook pro just told me that I'm running out of space and need to delete some stuff, and ended up stumbling upon this "Disk Inventory" application. It visually shows you through colored squares exactly how much space each file, folder, and application take up on your hard drive. You can just click and delete from here. So easy to use! I highly recommend it:

Disk Inventory Application

Brooklyn Indie Market!

WOW! Someone needs to go to this with me! Located on Smith St at Union St in Cobble Hill Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Indie Market is held every weekend from May to December and includes twenty independent designers selling their own stuff from clothing to home goods to pet gear.

Go to the site and check out the designers. I like Liz Shaw's "rockin" handbags and the neat hats from Rocks and Salt. If you're an aspiring designer you can contact them about getting a booth.

Who's coming with me? Next weekend maybe? Hmmmmm?

Andy Pratt Design

Andy Pratt Design makes some really fun greeting cards! Great funny quirky little illustrations. I want em!

Nevada's Finest

This site with Comedy Central links has wasted sooooo much of my time lately, but specifically the Reno 911 clips. Lately I've found these clips especially funny because of all the time I've been spending with my friend who works as an NYPD officer in the ghetto of Brooklyn.

Cartographismes

I love love love maps. They are so beautiful. When I visited the Vatican museum there was a whole corridor of maps which pretty much served as a waiting area until the crowd gets up to the really famous artwork. It quite possibly might have been the most interesting part of the museum for me.

I found this blog by of...artwork? maps? both? It's all in French so I can't read it but it doesn't matter because the images are so interesting. A few of these resemble Jackson Pollock paintings, but they are all pretty different. I believe they are all from the same artist, but I can't find an author on this blog.

Check it out: "Cartographismes"

Little Becky

This little girl is so funny. She's on an Irish radio program and makes prank phone calls. I think I just love her little Irish accent.

Check out "footballer's wife"
http://www.beforeiforget.co.uk/2006/little-becky/

good design resource

excellent sites on here

www.forestyoung.com

I especially like Rebecca Ross's page under "yale sites"

Shadow Sculpture

by british artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster


Dirty White Trash [With Gulls], 1998




HE/SHE, 2003

Rules to Live By

I have to admit that I pretty much stole this from Haley's blog, but I thought it was way too worthy of posting. After watching a TED lecture by Stefan Sagmiester (a man who had an intern carve a poster into his chest- that's how much this man loves graphic design) I decided to take the things he says he's learned throughout his life and list them here for myself as sort of a general set of ideals. They're the types of things you need to catch yourself doing and remind yourself that you need to correct that behavior.

Here they are:

• Complaining is silly. Either act or forget
• Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
• Being not truthful works against me.
• Helping other people helps me.
• Organizing a charity group is surprisingly easy.
• Everything I do always comes back to me.
• Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
• Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted.
• Money does not make me happy.
• Traveling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
• Assuming is stifling
• Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
• Trying to look good limits my life.
• Worrying solves nothing.
• Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
• Having guts always works out for me.

My New Favorite Word

is Fuckery.

Stolen from my current obsession with Amy Winehouse. Her lyrics are great- blunt, the way I like 'em. In Me and Mr. Jones she so eloquantly asks,

"What kind of fuckery is this?
You made me miss the Slick Rick gig."

If that's not fuckery I don't know what is.

My favorite has to be,

"What kind of fuckery are you?
'Side from Sammy your my best black Jew."

Poetry I tell you.

Check this chick out. I love the hive.

A Day in the City

So today I had an interview- for a job I don't really want. The company is down by Wall Street (ugh) and they do background checks (ew). The people there do seem nice though. Today was the second part of my interview where I read through 70 pages of court records, articles, and other junk and wrote a summary of it. I was there for two and a half hours to do a "short writing sample."

I decided before I got on the train this morning that since that would probably bum me out terribly, I needed some inspiration. I visited the Cooper Hewitt to see their exhibition Design For The Other 90%. I was a bit disappointed to find that it was outside in the garden and it was quite small. Not worth going. Honestly the website is better than the actual exhibit. However, I got a second look at Cooper Hewitt's Design Triennial, which was excellent- again.

Then I subwayed over to the Art Director's Club where they had their 86th Annual Awards Gala. I really enjoyed it. My favorites included a book called Miscellaneous Crap. Basically this person has a box of junk, photographed it, and then categorized it all in the book. The book is dedicated to "the [however many] millions of Americans with OCD." I also enjoyed Icons for 42 Below Vodka. (shown above) They're wonderfully dirty and hilarious. Plus, I just freaking love icons.

I'm blogging!

I've given in to the pressure.
So does this make me cool or uncool?