Questionable Characters.

Today has proven very frustrating design-wise. Fortunately Ben Barry and Frank Chimero created Questionable Characters, an online question and answer forum, just for me.

No...its for everyone. But it did cheer me up.

Final Graphics 2 PSA

Graphic Design PSA from Brian Rio on Vimeo.

Final Branding Website

Can be found at: http://people.ku.edu/~brio/main.html

The Semester in Review

This semester had many things. I think the highlight for me was the DSVC show which wound up being a very career-affirming experience. Especially to see the similarities and differences in other programs. You hear a lot about the "community" of design but to actually experience it is the only way to really learn the concept. I hope that we (Chris, Cat, Jovan and I as well as anyone else willing to participate) can carry this over to Prototype and the role that it plays for design students.

Second, I find that I keep thinking about the good.is website. I want be more involved in design that matters. That sounds very generic. I like the idea of desiging for the sake of pushing a message that the designer personally believes in — I mean one you can really stand behind — as well as bringing awareness about a problem or concern be it local or global. Somehow the purpose behind something like that goes a little further than exploring 400 birds...

Finally (and this one's important on the eve of review) I'm dissapointed in myself that I seemed to be treading water all semester. Just trying to keep afloat and not pushing myself to finish a project strongly or intelligently. Today, hanging my work I was a little ashamed at how many projects just died after the due date. Rather, how quick I was to drop them since I'd already met the minimum requirement. And I hate the idea of making excuses for how busy I've been with family things because life happens right alongside work. That will never change and I've got to find a way to (I hate the word "juggle" here) harmoniously weave the two successfully. I hope that I can be disciplined enough to refine many of the things that seem so unfinished this semester. Check back with me. I'll work on it. I guess the bigger issue is, I want to be great. And while I feel that some of what I did was great, much of it was mediocre at best. This summer I plan to really consider that idea as I plan for next Fall. How can I sustain a level of excellence in my work? Is that unreasonalbe? Is it practical and who serves as a model of this in the design world?

As I say, check back with me, I've got some thinking to do. It's going to be a busy summer.

Oh and ps - Damn you, Paul Renner, that Futura is a crutch. Get rid of it, Brian.

More Bruce Mau

Found this over at Typography Served. Typographic interpretations of Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for growth. There are others but these are the more conceptual ones (Repeat Yourself for example has been created with multiple exposures). The unfortunate thing about Typography Served is there's rarely an information on what's going on. It's more like a dump for typographic eye candy. Some sweet, some sour.

Anyway, I think this could make a nice project. Maybe everyone in class picks a statement and interprets it, then makes their own statement on "growth" for a second interpretation.

I like your type.

I like your message too.

Tropicana Cafe's Tropfest (short films) winner of 2008.

Jasper Morrison

In flipping through a general look-at-this-handsomely-designed-object books Morrison's work stood out to me for the child-like drawings that accompanied some of the designs. His sketches are crudely rendered but also very innocent and yet very deliberate. Searching through some of the work he is known for I found that this innocence carries into the design. His work is clean and very no-frills and says, "You need a chair? Here's a chair." I like that.

I'd like to somehow juxtapose these sketches along with the objects or at least find a way of conveying their innocence throughout the project.



He has a current exhibit I assume in France as the website info is all in French. Here's what he has to say about the show entitled: Jasper Morrison : take a seat!

“This exhibition consists of 21 chairs, one for each year I have been designing them, and the idea is to line them up and let people sit on them. Partly to avoid the trap of exhibiting functional things with the usual”Please don’t touch“instruction, and partly to let people experience the diversity of the subject both visually and physically. They’re part of everyday life to such an extent that we hardly notice them, but most of us spend more time sitting than we do standing or sleeping, and that fact alone is enough reason to keep designing chairs.” Jasper Morrison.

Even his brief description (as well as the title for the show) paint a picture of the child-like aspect I'm going for.



Here's some bio info delivered in awkward stocatto:

jasper morrison was born in london in 1959.
he received his bachelor of design degree from kingston school
of art in 1982, and his master's degree in design from the royal college
of art in 1985.
in 1984 he received a berlin scholarship to study in germany at the
hochschule der künste.
1986, set up the office for design in london.
reuters news centre installation included in the documenta 8 exhibition in
kassel in 1987.
began designing products for aram & SCP, for the german door handle
producer FSB for cappellini, alias and vitra.
1988-1992: accepts offer of three months in berlin to take part in
design werkstatt berlin.
forms 'utilism international' with andreas brandolini and axel kufus
which concerns itself with the improvement of public spaces.
projects include design for the frankfurt art fair and town planning in vienna,
graz and berlin.
in 1994 began a consultancy with üstra, the hannover transportation authority,
designing a bus stop for the city.
in 1995 the office was awarded the contract to design the new hannover tram.
further collaboration began around this time
with the italian companies magis, alessi, flos and the
german porcelain manufacturer rosenthal.
recent projects/events include:
teaching a unit of royal college of art students with michael marriot,
a digital slide show installation of a 'world without words'
at the design museum, london,
a solo exhibition at the axis gallery in tokyo,
furniture design for the new tate modern gallery in london,
a solo exhibition for flos at yamagiwa centre in tokyo,
a show in palermo for magis with marc newson and michael young.
elected as a royal designer for industry, london 2001
morrison reduces things to essentials. he designs things that are so quietly
functional that, to an untutored eye, they can look as if nobody designed them at all.
there's one thing he likes doing above all: designing for mass production.
he's a designer, not a craftsman...