Design in a small town part 2

I have to admit that, while I am frustrated at metrocentrism in general, I find myself practicing it often. I get frustrated by the lack of thought that not only goes into the city planning but also the design of little displays, public spaces, signage, and other artifacts which make up the backdrop of our lives.

Take, for instance, the image above. This wine bar is actually quite nice and popular gathering place. Housed in an old Post Office building there is a certain charm to it, I suppose. But the signage is so awful. To add insult to injury, the recent addition of the reader board does nothing to remedy the overall design. It makes me cringe and laugh at the same time when I have to pass it on my way to work.

Did the owners not think that a reader board has come to signify something quite different from the atmosphere of a wine bar!?!

At the same time, the tackiness becomes part of the, well, mystique of small towns. The town appears, for a lack of a better word, authentic. Cities often, on fresh visit, appear to be confused conglomerations of the hyperdesigned and the utter corroded

Boonies, eh?

Hicksville, backwoods, the wilds, the boondocks...er, bundocks

Design in a small town part 1

Years ago I left Seattle to live with my wife in a small town in eastern Washington. My friends thought I was crazy for moving back to the town that I had seemingly spent 18 or so years trying to escape. My designer friends expressed the viewpoint that I was removing myself from a viable design scene and thus committing career suicide.

In many ways they were right. Regardless, I am amused by the metrocentrism of my peers. I think that it not only needs to change but WILL change in the next 10 years.

My research of creative communities leads me to believe that as designers (of all sorts) seek to settle down more that they will explore the option of moving to the 'boonies'. I believe that the fear many have of small towns often stems from the various traumas of youth, general impressions of rural america, and their desire to be near many potential clients.

Or it could just be that small towns are, well, tacky. Others have recently discovered strange design artifacts from small towns.

More later...

The Political Flash

Flash movies are more often than not an annoyance that pertains little to the meat and matter of a website.

But I keep coming across efforts to use Flash as a method of storytelling in the service of imparting complex information or sharing political viewpoints. Many of these Flash movies suffer the same problems as their splash counterparts.

I recently found an informative Flash animation from MoveOn.org. I am uncertain whether the chosen media diminishes (somewhat) the value of the message. Check it out: Bush in 30 Years

The Invisible Art

I stumbled across The Invisible Art a few weeks ago. The book outlines a comprehensive history of matte painting in film. Matte painting is a hyperrealistic painting of a environment or object that is composited into a motion picture image to provide additional or fantastic sceneographic design (see wikipedia ). The matte painting work is so skillfully done that it is seamlessly integrated into the film.

The book is a bit of a dry read unless you are really into filmmaking or production design but it is interesting to flip through in order to trace the history and, most importantly perhaps, see examples from well-known scenes in a number of films that leave you going: "That was a painting?"

With digital technologies we take this skill for granted. I wonder if these painters worry about their careers in the same way that poster artists do?

Welcome!

Metasurface will hopefully provide a novel view of the warp and weft of contemporary visual culture.

I am hoping that, in the least, it can be more than a monologue. I would like to explore a host of issues - not just those pertaining to visual culture and communication - such as creative communities (the emphasis of my research), design culture, design education, art and design in rural America, teaching in higher education and host of corollary topics.

Please join me and help me achieve my lofty goals.