12ozProphet

been a minute since ive posted. apologies. no better reason to get back on the horse than to call out christain acker (curator of handselecta and fellow 12oz poster) for coming with a pretty MAJOR update to his portfolio site. one of the smartest dudes ive ever been able to collaborate with. amazing balance of well thought out design, exploratory illustration and great taste in music (see his fifty24sf series). big up buddy!

From December 5th to January 10th, Lucky Gallery is pleased to present “Wearing Whitman’s Words; A Typographic Exploration.” Featuring new works created specifically for this show by; Jennifer Heuer, Jessica Hische, Justin Thomas Kay, Pablo A. Mendina, Ed Nacional, Meg Paradise, Pillow Fort, Friends of Type, and Travis Simon.

These designers were asked to make selections from Leaves of Grass to visually explore letter forms. The designed words will be displayed on the front of t-shirts with the selected text written on the back in a font consistent across each of the shirts. This contrast will highlight how the shape of letters can add meaning to the words we read.

The visual form of words is one of the largest influences of design on our everyday world. In this show, t-shirts are used for their value as common objects and as a vehicle for personal expression. The individualist attitude portrayed in Walt Whitman’s poetry shares the spirit that designers bring to the letters they create. Everyone attending the opening will be given a free shirt, extending the show beyond the gallery walls.

“The idea for this show is to introduce design to a new audience through typography in a way that is accessible and fun, while showcasing exciting new work to the design community,” says Ben Peterson, the guest curator for the exhibition.

go to this gallery on behance for more… they did an amazing job rebranding the show and linking it up with furniture in the gallery.

dave over at grain edit got some flicks from the show. go there for more and a mini writeup.

i am in a show coming up at cooper union soon. i did the logo for the show as well:
LUBALIN NOW

Herb Lubalin (1918–1981) is best known for his wildly illustrative typography and his groundbreaking work for the magazines Avant Garde, Eros, and Fact. On view will be recent posters, publications and motion graphics by internationally recognized graphic designers that spotlight an emerging trend toward expressive lettering and typography. Original sketches, magazines, logotypes, and posters selected from the Lubalin Center Archive will illuminate Herb Lubalin’s influence on contemporary graphic design.

Featured Artists:
Marian Bantjes
Deanne Cheuk
The CW Network
In-house department
Ariel Di Lisio
Marcus Eriksson
Oded Ezer
Gretel
Jessica Hische
HunterGatherer
Justin Thomas Kay
Like Minded Studio
Brett MacFadden
Christopher Martinez
Non-Format
Matt Owens
Post Typography
Roberto Quiñones
Alex Trochut
TV Land
and
Herb Lubalin

Curated by:
Mike Essl +Alexander Tochilovsky

Opening Reception:
Thursday, November 5, 2009, 6 – 8pm
41 Cooper Square Gallery [map]
This event is free and open to the public.

Exhibition On View:
November 5, 2009 – December 8, 2009

Gallery Hours:
Monday–Thursdays 12–7 pm, Saturday 12–5 pm
Closed Fridays and Sundays
Closed November 26, 2009–November 29, 2009

i judged the chicago event along with upso. looks like the global championship will be killer…
—————-

2009 GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT
This year’s Cut&Paste Digital Design Tournament has made its way through 16 cities and 256 competitors from February – June 2009.

It now culminates in a battle of the best, champions vs. champions, with the final 2009 tournament event: the first-ever Cut&Paste Global Championship.

Showcasing the talents of 48 competition winners in 2D, 3D, and motion design, from the North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific regions , the championship event will take place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Friday, October 16, 2009.

The Global Championship will present the same three competition formats that Digital Design Tournament 2009 has featured throughout the cities on its global tour: 2D, 3D, and motion design. The Global Championship will be putting sixteen competitors onstage for all three competitions. These competitors, forty-eight in all, represent the winning designers from every city on the 2009 Cut&Paste tour. Arriving with at least one successful competition under their belts, the city champions will take the stage again to quickly create designs against the ticking pressure of the clock and under the watchful eyes of the crowd. And this time, the pride of their countries and hometowns, along with their personal reputations, will be on the line.

When:
Friday, October 16th, 2009
Doors open: 7:00pm EST
Show starts: 8:00pm EST

Where:
Hammerstein Ballroom @ Manhattan Center Studios
311 W. 34th Street
New York, NY 10001

Who:
48 Competitors from 3 Competitions and 16 cities. To take a look at their portfolios and winning work from each city, check out the following links:
2D, 3D, and motion design .

DJ: Cosmo Baker (The Rub / Bang NYC)
Coined by DJ A-Trak as a “virtual librarian of music”, Cosmo Baker is known for reading his crowds and playing music that the people will enjoy. From funk to soul to hip hop, Cosmo will keep the energy at top level for our first-ever Global Championship. For more info, and links to The Rub podcasts, check him out here:
http://www.cosmobaker.com/
http://www.itstherub.com/

JUDGES & PRIZES
Check out the Global Championship page for prize info from Converse and 55DSL, as well as a sneak peek on who’s judging the main event: http://www.cutandpaste.com/events/global_championship/

much thanks to bruce and nolen over at post typography for letting me get involved in this. excited to see it in print.

check the site out at http://www.letteringandtype.com for release party info in baltimore and nyc at cooper union.

“Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals
with a Foreword by Ellen Lupton
Princeton Architectural Press — ISBN 9781568987651

No component of graphic design has attracted as much interest or inspired as much innovation in recent years as lettering and type. These foundations of design, once the exclusive domain of professional typographers, have become an essential starting point for anyone looking for a fresh way to communicate. While there exist many maxims and practical guidelines for executing specific design styles and processes, what makes lettering and type endlessly fascinating is the flexibility to interpret and sometimes even break these rules.

Lettering & Type is a smart-but-not-dense guide to creating and bending letters to one’s will. More than just another pretty survey, it is a powerful how-to book full of relevant theory, history, explanatory diagrams, and exercises. While other type design books often get hung up on the technical and technological issues of type design and lettering, Lettering & Type features the context and creativity that shape letters and make them interesting.

Authors Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals of design studio Post Typography examine classic design examples as well as exciting contemporary lettering of all stripes—from editorial illustration to concert posters to radical conceptual alphabets. Lettering & Type is ideal for anyone looking to move beyond existing typography and fonts to create, explore, and use original or customized letterforms. This latest addition to Princeton Architectural Press’s best-selling Design Briefs series features a foreword by Ellen Lupton and hundreds of images and examples of work by designers, artists, and illustrators, including Marian Bantjes, Matthew Carter, Emigre, Ed Fella, Sibylle Hagmann, House Industries, Margaret Kilgallen, Christoph Niemann, Steve Powers (ESPO), Stefan Sagmeister, Christian Schwartz, Alex Trochut, Underware, James Victore, and many more. Throughout the book interviews with type designers, artists, and graphic designers provide real-world perspective from contemporary practitioners.”

new work magazine releases issue 4. beautiful as always. produced by new work studio. in their own words: “NEWWORK magazine is a large-format arts publication for Connoisseur of fresh ideas. Designed and published biannually by studio NEWWORK, each issue features new work from a wide range of artists and creators in the worlds of fine art, design, high fashion, culture, and politics. From art directors to business leaders, design students to curators, NEWWORK’s contributors are united in their passion to push the boundaries of their disciplines. Among the magazine’s special features are bold, custom-designed typefaces and a twist on the traditional newspaper format, offering a stimulating juxtaposition of striking design and everyday simplicity. Since pages can be separated, each layout can be hung on the wall as an individual art piece.”

my friend daniel does many things well: he writes in a way that i immediately know its him when he does it, he takes a hell of a photograph, and he curates a great set of those photographs here. it might just be a brotherhood formed in friendship via milwaukee, wisconsin - but regardless of the fact that this friend of a friend became just “friend” i think daniel has more than a few great things to say and document behind a lens. get familiar.

i hate to essentially re-post this from michael over at a continuous lean, but i really believe strongly that as many people need to hear about this documentary as possible.

“the last truck”, which originally aired on HBO, is the story of the final days of the GM plant in dayton, ohio. it is a passionate and extremely bare bones look at the emotions behind the thousands of individuals whose lives are forever changed by the closing of the doors of that plant.

sure there is blame on all sides - the auto industry in general being the easy target. people like to blame the union workers for their supposed “overcompensation”, and i was glad to see that conversation brought up in this. the wages of those workers are an unfair focus that was brought out in all this. my grandfather worked for the wisconsin electric company for 40 years. my grandmother worked for w.a. krueger priunting for about 20 years or so. my dad worked in shipping and recieving at a printing company which changed names multiple times over the 80’s through ownership changes and is now housed under quebecor world. a few of my other family members (rick, richy, curtis) also work in printing which is a huge industry in wisconsin, and has obviously seen better days. these people at GM and people like my family members i mentioned had jobs that will/may no longer exist in ours and our childrens time due to wide scale globalization and a loss of respect for skilled laborors producing work in our country and for our country. i hope if there is anything we learn from all this it is to scale that back a bit and pay attention to our people more. im not saying i have remorse for the auto industry and the multitude of ways they spent this last century interfering with the development of mass transit amongst their many other evils, but i DO have remorse for these people who loved what they created by their own hands, like any other artisan. culture needs to progress to keep up with modern environmental needs and digital needs in how we take in media, but i think it is our responsibility to support that with local production and reinvestment in our community as a whole.

buy american. produce american. grow american. support american made products. support companies that support american made products. being patriotic doesn’t have to mean living in opposition of other countries/cultures - to me it means just being cognizant of the people that weave together the local fabric around you and having a respect for that.

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part5