REGULAR BLOG

8.5.08

in addition to rearing my first child, i've been busy working on this for an exhibit at eastern michigan university, called "the posters of discontent". of course i always make these things way more work than i need to. the final result:
- two 24" x 36" posters -- digital print with 1-color silkscreen
- two webpages providing additional information, thoughts, and links on the subject matter.

6.5.08

file under: sandwich cookie anomolies

"the big mac", from a package of el cheapo best choice double-filled double-chocoloate cookies. for the record, double double-stuff is a little problematic to eat.

6.3.08

who would have thought you could get significant insight from the ellen show? i just happened to be halfway watching it the other day with my wife and she had on will smith (the so-called "fresh prince").they were talking about politics and he mentioned that he had met and talked with nelson mandela. the two were talking about the role of artists in society and mandela told smith that the artist's role is to paint a picture of what the world could be like, and the politician's role is to implement it. i thought that was an awesome reminder of what we should be about as creators -- forward-looking, encouraging, creating wonder and excitement for what could be. my self-initiated work in the past has been more about critical comments on the status-quo, but since graduate school, i've been trying to be more positive about what we could be doing and offering possibilities and solutions. mandela's thought is also a good reminder as i attempt to work on a poster for an exhibit at eastern michigan university. stay positive, introduce challenging new ideas, avoid sloganeering and one-liners, introduce new possibilities, carefully consider audience and context. we'll see what happens there...

the second half of the above phrase, "...the politician's role is to implement it." is problematic from my perspective, unless you assign each of us the role of "politician". it's really problematic to try and legislate and enforce changes when people are not internally motivated to change. people have to understand the situation and see that the benefits of changing outweigh the current benefits of staying the course. in that way i think we all need to play "politician" in the sense that we each should be discussing issues important to the survival of our families, communities, and world. it is each of our individual roles to implement a vision of how the world should be. if each of us is pulling a little bit of weight, the load is actually quite light.

6.3.08

i heard an interesting idea from kevin haley recently. it's not his idea, but cool nonetheless.

the violin string analogy:
if there is no tension, there is no music. if there is too much tension, it breaks.

i'm still trying to figure it out a little bit, but i thought it spoke well to group dynamics, and to an internal pressure that happens when executing a task or creating something. i won't beat it to death with explanation.

4.3.08

write a letter to someone you love.

1.21.08

church and syrup

language is a powerful thing. words, thier meanings and associations shape how we think about the world. two examples have come to mind recently; not profound ones, but they make the point.

my wife and i were having pancakes with her parents yesterday and she referred to the [real] maple syrup i've been using as "hippie syrup" and calls her eggo choice simply "syrup". not to mince words here, but the only ingredient listed on my bottle is "organic maple syrup". according to the ingredient list on the eggo bottle, it should be referred to as "high fructose corn syrup water", as those are the first two ingredients, followed by something called "sugar syrup", which doesn't quite sound like natural syrup. there is a list of a bunch of other stuff, then at the end is "natural and artificial maple flavor", something you'd probably find in waffle crisp cereal.

this got me to thinking about how language and culture shifts over time, and it's something only popular opinion dictates. what society agrees should be called syrup is called syrup, regardless of whether or not it is a totally engineered facsimile. what bothers me about this case, and probably many others, is that corporate marketing departments are capable of causing this shift in public perception of what things are. the concept of "syrup", is slowly shifting away from a naturally occurring sweetener that probably isn't that bad for you [in moderation of course] to something that resembles syrup only in appearance. the concept of "syrup" is only a small example, and i wonder where it will end up.

"church" is another example. the bible clearly refers to "the church" as a connected body of human beings that believe in christ:

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. Acts 12:5

and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. Acts 11:26

the primary implication of this is that the church is a living, breathing, dynamic entity capable of love and action. and what do we do today? we go to a church [building] once or twice a week. obviously a building cannot "earnestly pray" or meet with saul and barnabas. we have ceased to be the church in its original intent -- one that reaches out to others, shares joy and pain, enjoys community and life together. like the syrup example, it's really sad that we have moved into the realm of the fake, the static, to "stuff" like a building, and away from things that are authentic and dynamic.

more official struggles for power through controlling language definitely exist. one small example is legislation passed in the late 1990s in california that provided the right to sue local govts for actions that ignore or diminish the role of english as the common language of the state. further, "proposition 227 called 'english for children' passed in 1998 decreed taht all children should be taught english and anyone who wants their children to be taught a second language would have to make a special written request." [visible signs, david crow, pp 67, 70]

so in my futile attempt at grassroots control, let's call things what they are: eggo fake syrup and a church's building.

12.08.07

a thought inspired by one of my senior's degree projects, or maybe a few of them:

what would a day without screens (digital displays) look like?

i would think digital clocks would count. certainly t.v., computers, cell phones, atms, ovens, and those awful digital billboards would count.

11.07

teaching or something.

10.14.07

holy crap i made something. initial ideas tumbled around for a few weeks only existing as a few random scratches. actual sketches were begun around 9:45 and now i'm posting these samples around 1:00. perhaps it will go somewhere. perhaps not. click the image for refinements and possibilities.

10.09.07

"as soon as i arrived in the indies, on the first island which i found, i took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts."

"they...brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. they willingly traded everything they owned...they were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features...they do not bear arms, and do not know them, for i showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. they have no iron. their spears are made of cane...they would make fine servants...with fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

"let us in the name of the holy trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."

straight from the pen of one christopher columbus.

please join me in mourning the death of at least one million arawak indians at the hands of our european forefathers. i pray that i would be one strong voice for the hope of love over the violence this country was built upon, and on which it continues to thrive.

[ source: "a people's history of the united states 1492-present (revised and updated edition)" by howard zinn; 1995 harpercollins: new york; pp 2, 4 ]

8.17.07

i just made an appointment to have my hair cut.

for those who know me well, this is significant because i've paid for maybe two hairscuts (a friend in high school insisted it was plural because one did not have only one hair cut. but i believe hair is like sheep, linguistically speaking.) in the past, oh, 14 years. my wife has cut my hair for pretty much all that time. i did it myself for a year or two, mirror and clippers in hand. you see, i'm developing a bit of a complex about the top of my head -- it ain't what it used to be. so this will be my professional consultation about how to deal with the increasing reflectivity of my north pole relative to my hairstyle choices. my wimpy follicles have made what was once an easy haircut choice look slightly odd, and i just wonder if there's a better strategy, ya know?

you may be asking yourself, dear reader, what this has to do with graphic design. well, not a whole lot in the specific, but for me it is part of a larger question of attention to the visual, to style, trends, and what amount of concern for those things is "proper" for me, or anyone i suppose. i'm a designer and generally a visual person, so i can't ignore those things, or deny the fact that it shapes my behavior. part of me knows that hair, or lack thereof, doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. neither does the style of our aforementioned hair, our clothing choices, wall colors. but then again, the cumulative effect of those things adds a lot of pleasure and satisfaction to our lives. but for me, it seems somewhat important to approach personal things like hair and clothes in a way that synchs with my values. i don't think i've been very thoughtful in most of my clothing purchases over the years, although i do keep them around for an insanely long time, and don't buy new stuff very often. so how much graphic design, or style, or clothes, or faux-hawks, is too much? how do we know? i'm not totally sure, but being aware of the trap of it and at least contemplating what it means for our lives, and the effect that those choices have on others is a great place to start. then sometime soon after, acting accordingly when we have the courage to do so.

to my design students, if the projects you've received are lackluster, look no further for the excuse. unfortunately i sapped all of my meager creative talents writing this entry. please accept my sincerest apologies. if you pat me on the top of the head in class, i'll know you read this. no rubbing though -- things aren't attached well up there.

8.01.07

literature i own, that makes me look like i care about the environment and political issues, but haven't read yet, thus evidencing my illiteracy:

"thinking forward" was started probably five years ago and i never finished. an amazing book on new ways to structure an economy based on human values. other books i began in grad school as required reading (only a chapter, usually) and wanted to finish, but never have. a few i buy when i think about it, sincerely hoping and believing i'll actually read it some day. sound familiar?

7.07

building a kitchen...

6.24.07

like i mentioned below (6.20.07), i'm reading this great book called "searching for god knows what" by donald miller. in a recent chapter, he mentions how aliens would describe our species as totally obsessed with human validation, ranking, and determining who is valuable. he noted the mammoth popularity of sports, describing it as 80,000 people gathering together to see which team is better than the other. you may say that isn't so bad, a little competition doesn't hurt anyone, which may be true on a superficial level. but at its root lies a desire to be ahead of at least one other human being, and the contest is the forum to prove our value over another. miller cites a host of reality t.v. shows like survivor, fear fractor, american idol, and some show called "rank" on E! that i've never heard of (which sounded utterly ridiculous, by the way).

not two hours later i was eating some yummy vegan pesto in front of our kitchen-remodeling-dust-covered television, watching a pbs show called "design squad" or something. two teams of kids had to build wacky custom bikes, which were then voted on by the hosts and some custom bike guru. well, both teams did so well that the judges said both teams won. what really surprised me was that these kids were mad! they were not happy that they won, which the judges pointed out -- they were mad that the other team did not lose. they had that deep-seated desire to be recognized as better.

quite a while ago, maybe a year or two, i realized i had a similar desire for validation from other people, a need to be recognized as better than average. i'm reluctant to say i want to be a better graphic designer than others, as if in some insane competition, but i think i have to admit that desire is there. when someone else does great work, i inevitably wish it was me getting that recognition. i inevitably compare my own work to it, getting jealous and frustrated with my inability to make great work. i think everyone has this need to be deemed worthy, to be recognized as good by others -- designers definitely included. just look at the number of local, regional national, and international competitions we have every year. i've entered those, telling myself i'm only playing the game to get recognition that my job wants me to get. but if i really didn't care, i wouldn't have that great, but fleeting, feeling of solid satisfaction when i've "won" something -- along with 400 other people of course.

you know what? i think that search for validation and worth from other humans is ultimately useless and a complete dead-end. i think that thought even as i pursue it. i believe in a creator who made the universe and everything in it out of an intense love and willingness to have a relationship with his (its?) creation. while we search around endlessly for temporary validation from others, we unwittingly have infinite value beyond description from the one who created us, if we only chose to engage it in a reciprocal relationship. even if you don't believe in the creator stuff, the search for human validation is fleeting and a dead-end. we all are intrinsically valuable, unique, and worthy of equal treatment regardless of where others place us in the social strata. that's true no matter what we do for a living, or even if we do nothing "worthwhile" our whole lives.

6.20.07

things that currently make me angry:
- insect bites from an otherwise enjoyable camping trip. or maybe it's poison ivy
- sustainable materials that inevitably cost three times more than "normal" materials
- kitchen remodeling in general
- always knowing everything i do can be much better
- being angry

things that currently make me happy:
- my understanding and encouraging wife
- riding my bike
- dark chocolate marzipan ritter sport candy bars
- "searching for god knows what" by donald miller

5.03.07

more thoughts on "helvetica" the movie.

the dogmatism and "rightness" of modernists really gets under my skin.

the grid guys -- vignelli and crouwel specifically -- seemed to claim ownership of the proper way of approaching graphic design that younger designers, raised in more postmodern times, do not claim. that seems awfully arrogant to me. i suppose that's just part of the modernist / postmodernist ethos of universal truth / meaning versus "everyone's right and meaning is open" to grossly oversimplify it all.

one thing that surprised me was when wim crouwel, whom i adore (the kees broos book "alphabets" is great), claimed his work was neutral and legible, but a good part of it is anything but. crouwel is famous for his "rationality" and incredibly strict use of the grid for both layout and letterform design. true, he uses the grid a ton, but his mechanized way of working is as much a personal choice as david carson's deconstruction and other humanistic methods. crouwel's rationale came across as much more intelligent than carson's who, in my opinion, is just as myopic in his constant pursuit of expression as vignelli is in his pursuit of cool rationality. don't these people realize that context and audience are everything, and appropriate responses demand working from a full palette of concepts and forms?

back to crouwel. because of his strict adherence to the grid, much of his resulting work is quite abstract. he mentioned how legible his work is, and then we see his helvetica calendars, which slice up every letterform spelling the names of each month. beautiful, yes. legible, not exactly. its funny how we are all somewhat blind to the context of our own perspectives, and tend to understand that as the truth. i believe in absolute truth, but that humans are only capable of understanding a small part of that. so my perspective is not a complete one, and neither is anyone else's, no matter how right they may seem.

a semi-related thought: when he lectured at kcai, vignelli said that americans are interested in progress and europeans are interested in refinement. i really like that notion and think progress for its own sake is unnecessary. progress that challenges us and enriches our lives in ways that make us more loving, thoughtful, and compassionate -- better able to communicate with and understand each other -- is something i'm all for. of course where it gets messy is where we all differ on the things that engender love, deeper thought, or compassion. my favorite christopher columbus quote, referring to the subjugation of the arawak indians on hispaniola, is a great example of misguided intentions: "let us in the name of the holy trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold." it sounds unbelievably hypocritical, but i'm sure he believed he was doing the right thing for his queen. am i doing the right things?

5.02.07

4.19.07

nine minutes before i told myself i'd be in bed. four months since the last entry. seven percent on my battery life.

go.

tonight i went to an aiga sustainability dealie here in kc. it was good. jerry allan from minneapolis college of art and design spoke. his talk focused largely on this idea of five systemic aspects of the human condition. here are some notes and questions i thought about in relation to those five aspects. they're sort of "answers" to big problems we're faced with as a species.

create a positive mindshift that redefines the five systemic aspects of our human condition. this is essentially a creative and conceptual task of reframing, redefining and redirecting how we understand these aspects. it can be thought of as positive/negative outlook, or in the way many martial arts redirect the force coming from the opponent to effortlessly overpower the opponent.

i think a lot of these can be resolved and rethought in very creative ways by asking simple questions as i've tried to do below. this is just a quick brainstorm.

fear factor: what things should we really be afraid of? are there really issues in this world that are truly insurmountable? how rational are our fears? if we determine we can overcome certain fears, what are creative strategies for doing so?

dominate and control: what ends does this serve? does domination result in an overall healthy/sustainable outcome? are there ways cooperating that enable all players in the system to share smaller amounts of control? can control be rotated?

glitter factor: what things are worth responding to? how can we reinforce the satisfaction of long term gains over instant gratification? how can we make responsible things/actions attractive?

economics of scarcity: how can we make the most use out of our most abundant elements, from which nearly all life is made? what are the most efficient distribution methods for resources? what role do localized economies play in allocation of resources? how do we make sure everyone is provided for fairly? how might economics consider production and consumption in a more wholistic way? are there working models of true cost pricing systems? how might that model be replicated?

work and worth: by what criteria do we define "work"? can play be work? how can we value people unable to undertake our traditional notion of work? how might we shift our values of what types of work are worthwhile? can we place higher value on work that promotes love, justice, community, health? are there other forms of payment besides a greatly abstracted notion of "money"?

three minutes left. welcome back beloved readers.