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...

I see what you did there...

Designing with type, you clever designer.

DSVC Show

In leiu of a long rave or rant about the DSVC show (it was definitely more rave than rant) I've compiled a list to summarize my thoughts on this weekend's DSVC conference.

10 Things I think I think about the DSVC 5th Annual Student Conference:

In no particular order:

1. Dallas has an impressive and inspiring design community. I think this is probably true of many comparable markets though it was extremely refreshing to step into a different region and see design as they see it. Probably 90% of attendees were Texans.

2. It's possible to do work you love with people you admire. As pointed out by Christian Helms of The Decoder Ring who's had the opportunity to work with an impressive list of like-minded individuals, both for profit and for fun. This was a reoccurring theme. Design is really a co-op of sorts where ideas grow and develop infinitely better when they're shared and probed as a group.

3. It's important to stay inspired. Even in tough economic times or lulls in creativity, find something that keeps you going. Waste time creating, it will keep you sharp and aware of changing trends.

4. If you ask 100 questions you'll probably get 100 different answers. This speaks to the diversity of creatives. Fortunately those 100 answers are valuable answers. Even the stupid ones since they teach you what not to do.

5. Designers say fuck a lot. A LOT.

6. There's value in making an effort to learn someone's name. This was easily the most impressive thing about Jim Sherredan of Hatch Show Print. And if you know HSP you know they've done some impressive work. But Sherredan asked everyone that took the time to talk to him what their name was. Later I saw him mingling in the hallway and he remembered my name (and probably dozens of others).

7. There's always a little more that can be done to improve your work. As pointed out by 2 of the 5 judges. I took this to heart and feel I've been lazy with some of my projects - making them just good enough. We need to push ourselves to refine our own work until it is flawless.

8. If you're looking for something ask a local. Even the scary ones that hang out at liquor stores.

9. There's a difference between graphic design and design graphics. I'm still trying to figure this one out. Somehow Matt Owens of Volumeone and Athletics has made a career out of making design graphics. He's an artist with ridiculous design sensibility who's able to use his art as a problem solving tool. I want that. PS - Matt was a part of The Cost of War that many of us watched on Good Magazine.

and finally,

10. The student design community can be infinitely furthered by events like the DSVC student show. More things like this need to happen. And more students need to attend them. I spent a good part of the weekend feeling lucky for being there and I'm truly glad that Cat, Lauren, Jovan and Chris got to go too. But there was also a bit of me that wished there was some way to get everyone (all of you, class) to go. This is a learning experience that can't be taught in class but definitely furthers the concepts and ideas we've been discussing and will continue to address throughout the program.


Of course, a lot more happened then can be summarized in 10 bulleted points but I'm still digesting. More to come when time permits.