30 October 2005

Illustration Friday: Broken (and Remote)

remote-broken.jpg

(click for higher resolution image, buddy.)

Thought I'd work in both "Remote" and "Broken" as I was too busy to complete last weeks entry. I was really pleased with the way the woman turned out. I drew solely from my mind's eye as I was in a hurry (a perpetual state of being these days). My car is a bit junky but that's the point, I guess.

The rock is really funny...out of place, awkward. But a convenient place to rest, I suppose. Whatever to tell the story...

UPDATE: It is strange how seeing an image every day influences our feelings. I have gone from luke warm to completely frigid in my feelings about this image. All the corners cut, the hurrying through just to post something...I know I can do much better and will.

28 October 2005

No Comment

I don't quite know how to describe this one.

(from Gizmodo)

27 October 2005

Polio - The Comic Book

I am very interested in the ways that storytelling can impart information that is otherwise difficult or, frankly, too dry to present quickly and effectively. Edward Tufte,an information designer, in his books (Visual Explanations in particular) finds wonderful confections and visual displays that tell stories and reveal important information if the viewer takes time to read them. Tufte's examples are wonderful but some take an added bit of knowledge or explanation to understand the stories the way they were intended by the author or artist.

Sometimes, informative storytelling happens in such a way that complex information gets wrapped in a wonder candy-coated shell and the what we learn taste so good going down. This little story about Polio, I feel, works in that way.

When you've finished reading it, you'll say, "Makes sense to me."

21 October 2005

Knitting Halloween



Amy Archibald, from somewhere in Oklahoma, has crocheted these Yoda ears. Light sabers and Darth Vader mask (possibly) in the works.

I still cherish the papier-mache mask Darth Vader mask my mom made for me in '78. Aren't moms great?!

19 October 2005

The Plame Game

I don't know about you but I am really rather enjoying the whole Plame leak investigation/Judith Miller/Rove/Libby affair.

The best and most comprehensive coverage with video clips from a number of tv news programs (and the daily show, of course), I believe, is Crooks and Liars.

In the same vein, you have to love the Daily Show's view of White House as a television show (click on "The White House Show"). Brilliant.

17 October 2005

Illustration Friday: Cold

permafrost.jpg

(Click on image for larger version in Spectaculovision™)

Inked a quick sketch and went with a modest palette. Pretty quick again. I like the simple story it tells. Only disappointment was I couldn't work a squid into it. Enjoy.

10 October 2005

Illustration Friday: Lost

lost.jpg

(Click on image for larger version)

This is a quicky and I don't feel done with it. I have to post because I am having trouble finding time to work on this. Mid-term week. Sigh. And the students gripe about it.

Anyway, this time round I tried to simplify my process. I was away from the scanner again (curse those faculty and committee meetings!) and didn't want the frustration of not being able to get the effects that I desired with the tablet and mouse. I feel as though each week is so divergently different from the next that I haven't a consistant style.

09 October 2005

Ten Words that Will Hurt Your Resume

I came across this blog offering and decided that I could do a much better job of finding words that may have negative repercussions on the way a potential employer views your resume. Here is my selection:

1.) Mujahideen

2.) Jiggy

3.) Nasal Spray

4.) Necrophilia

5.) Tickly

6.) Aardvark

7.) Inflatable

8.) Dander

9.) Plutonium *

10.) Peep

* This word is safe to use if you are apply for work in: a nuclear power plant, a university research lab, Hollywood, convenience store on route 66.

08 October 2005

Design in a Small Town 8: Dismantling the Creative Class

I don't remember if I've talked about it before but much of my ire about metrocentrism came from reading Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class. While that book, which talks about how important creative people are to the economy, highlights hipster creative youth (which in my research often means young white males) it does so at the expense of other more pressing issues that cities (and rural areas) face. It also glosses over the struggles young creatives face.

Angela McRobbie, who studies British culture industries such as fashion design, lays bare the mythology of the hipster, artsy-fartsy lifestyle. She highlights how labour actually places the burden of social programs back on the individual creative producer and dismantles unionization through a 'hollywoodization' of work. Creative individuals who love the work they do go from job to job with no long term prospects and very little security net. This is the seedy underside of the creative class.

Add to that a city's need to support growing numbers of underprivileged individuals, address social inequities, and, heck, in some parts of the country just consider mundane infrastructure issues makes the focus on attracting creatives short sighted. Diversified creative communities are important, don't get me wrong, and we should pay attention to what their members have to offer. But the discussion needs to move beyond a celebration of the few who have made it and happen to be currently living in the city. There is a whole country that could use creative people, not just in the capacity they were trained, but in ways that could help communities grow and flourish.

For a good dismantling of Florida's creative class arguments read this article.

Biblioperving

I've just surfaced again from being inside some of the oldest and most remarkable books in the world.

The British Library hosts an online gallery that is filled with beautiful examples of historical works that are not only interesting to read (and, in some instances, decipher) but to merely regard.

(thanks to Jann)

06 October 2005

After Design



Sometimes the most beautiful things in world are really quite ugly. More often than not there is something deep within us that prompts a certain visceral reaction that favors an aesthetic. Or, more simply yet, we have emotional connections that allow us to look past the object itself and see only the beauty in our mind's eye. Don't get what I am talking about then think about the crap your mom posted on the refrigerator.

Of course, this begs the question whether there are generally accepted notions of beauty regardless of culture or education. The more interesting question perhaps is why do we find things so friggin' ugly sometimes.

When we spend time exploring the production of visual materials the process is often such that the exploration - not unlike a romance - builds a bond between the product and the producer. That bond, if enough time is spent building that relationship, can be quite strong.

What is the point to this? What does this have to do with the image above?

The image is of Hotel Fox, a hotel in Copenhagen that is a Volkswagen project. The hotel will house the journalists coming to report on the unveiling of a new car. Illustrators and designers were hired to do up each room. The results are very strange and, I must admit in my opinion of some, awful.

Why do I have such strong sentiments? Take a look at this room. I cannot imagine spending the night in it only to wake up face to face with an oversized pink mexican hip hop wrestler. It is so much the illustrator's private party that I can't seem to feel welcome.

It's got me to thinking that, while I celebrate the freedom to play and liberation from Martha Stewart's aesthetic grasp, I find the work too much, well, work to interact with and appreciate.

02 October 2005

Illustration Friday: Float

float2.jpg

(please click on image to see larger version - don't be shy now!)

Once again went for the all digital solution and tried to get my markmaking somewhat looser and similar to a pencil sketch. I also wanted something lighter in spirit than last week's experiment, hence the jolly polar bear reading, oh my, Kierkegaard. So much for lighter....sigh...