Archive for the Graphic Design tag
Latin American Graphic Design. TASCHEN has just put out a insanely large survey of Latin American-flavored design, historical and contemporary. The book is text + photo heavy and weighs in at 504 pages, lots of profiles on prolific designers past and present. For anyone interested in design south-of-the-border, this is the book for you. Taschen has a full flash-based preview of the book, you can actually leaf through every page. Very impressive.
Comprised of 20 countries located in North, South, and Central America as well as the Caribbean Islands, Latin America is populated by over 500 million people. From Argentina to Mexico, all Latin American countries are Spanish-speaking with the exception of Portuguese-speaking Brazil. Latin America has been producing a very unique form of graphic expression for decades and this historical publication brings together the best examples from the 20th century as well as today. The book begins with an extensive historical essay about the region’s contribution to design, featuring the development of graphic design in the region from 1900 to current times, while the main body of the book features A to Z entries of almost 200 designers and design offices that have built up and continue to champion the Latin design identity. Finally, a handy index facilitates access to key information in the book, such as designers’ names, countries, publications, educational institutions, and famous events.
Bodhi Oser has some beautiful skate/surf/snow tinged work. Art-Direction, Design and Photography are his domain and he does it inna fine style. His portfolio site is shortnsweet, exactly as it should be. His work appears effortless and minimal, deceptively so.
You’ll probably recognize Bodhi’s work from the Surf Life 32 to 02, Ron Church CA/HI 1960 to 1965 and Ron Church Surf Contest books published by Tom Adler’s book imprint. As well as work for Gravis, Quicksilver and a bunch of action sports related brands. Dude is heavyweight.
Further, I’ve written about Tom Adler before, his series of books are responsible for helping alter my perceptions of how surfing-related imagery can be presented. His approach to the subject has helped elevate surf photography to a high art level. Bodhi is a part of this process, these guys should be winning awards for their work.
Go drool, now.
Emil Kozak nices it up again. This time we find this Barcelonian design aesthete killing it on a collaboration with Kelly Slater and Al Merrick, for Slater’s board graphics. These sheets are made by HP and sandwiched in between the foam and glass. You can actually order Emil’s designs here, as well as board graphics by Thomas Campbell. At $60/side, it’s not exactly economical for us mexican contingenters, but if someone were to float one down my way, for like um uh testing purposes, it would knock my stoke level up a few gigometers. hint hint.
The Solitary Arts has a blog and it’s good! Their whole site is filled with interesting imagery and the blog is no exception. lots of interesting posts, usually about goings-ons and what-have-yous. but always on point.
No rss feed though.
CalArts homie Kevin Lyons has a new show Your Mom’s In My Business at the HVW8 Art+Design Gallery in Los Angeles, if you’re in the area and dig on hand-made design, go check out the show. Kevin is a heavyweight:
Printed Ephemera and New Works by Kevin Lyons
Opening Friday, May 9th, 6 - 10 pm, Show runs May 10th - June 15th
HVW8 Art+Design Gallery
661 N. Spaulding Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Gallery open: Wed - Sat, 1- 5pm
Or by appointment:
323 655 4898
Kevin Lyons is a 1992 graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design where he received a degree in film. After working for Nickelodeon / MTV as an Associate Producer, he co-founded the NYC based design firm, stereo-type which for two years was responsible for much of the graphic look of the New York City underground Hip-Hop and Acid Jazz scene. This included the logo design for the long standing NYC based club, GIANT STEP. Stereo-type’s client list also included Soul Kitchen, 555 Soul and the LA-based, Brass Recordings. After receiving his masters degree from CalArts in 1998, Lyons has gone on to work for Nike, both in and out of house, was the former Art Director of Urban Outfitters on two separate occasions, and has been Art Director for filmmaker Spike Jonze’s Girl Skateboard Company. He was also the original US Art Director for TOKION Magazine and maintains long-standing freelance relationships with Nike, Jordan Brand, Adidas, Stussy and Stussy Japan, Beams Japan, HUF, Nieves Books, Stones Throw Records, Commonwealth Stacks, and long-time friend and collaborator NYC artist, SSUR.
more info here.
[via Juxtapoz]
A-Side Studio combines beautifully subtle graphic design, illustration and photography. Their work is tight and laced with surf/skate inspiratory vibe. They art-directed a new surf culture related book project coming out called The September Project:
During the month of September in 2006 two dozen creatively driven surfers took residence in a house on the west coast of Ireland. The September Project documents the collective experiences of this place and time by means of photography, illustration and words.
plus lots of good goofy skate/surf/design snaps at their blog.
[via It's Nice That]
I’m really digging the illustration and left-field content of Stephen Floyd. great stuff.
[via CH]
Lance Wyman is the mastermind behind the superlative ‘68 Mexico Olympic branding system in addition to a hundred other logos you’ve probably seen, but never attributed to Wyman (or maybe you have and I’m a crowd of one).
I’ve never seen a full exploration of the concepts and applications Wyman’s team created for the project, so when I ran across the examples on his website (shown above) I was amazed at how many different applications there were and how the letterforms grew and morphed into a pattern of geometric shapes with the logo almost but not quite illegible. A brief search on google, amazon, et all… and I couldn’t find any books on Wyman’s work or the ‘68 Olympics branding. There should be (if there’s not already) some kind of definitive, impressive tome on this subject, if not in english then at least in spanish as the logo is still as relevant and venerated as it ever was, reappearing constantly by reference in modern Mexican pop culture.
Here’s a fascinating interview with Wyman from Eye Magazine. He delves into the logo’s dual inspirations - native Huichol art and Op art. OpArt which was coming on strong internationally and Huichol art which was just starting to be embraced and exhibited in Mexico. The Mexico 68 Olympics logo was a melding of these two seemingly diametrically opposed arts, that ended up working together pretty superfluously.
Incidentally, Creative Review asked Wyman what his thoughts are regarding the London 2012 Olympics logo:
“The London 2012 logo has been presented with promising descriptive text but besides the date, I don’t think the logo itself attempts to reference anything of significance,” he says. “It has certainly aroused a lot of critical references, from grade school paper cuts to porno.
“My gut feeling though is to give the logo a chance, he continues. “It has a recognisable, brash character and might offer an open book of application possibilities that will keep it fresh into 2012.
More on Lance Wyman and larger images from the Mexico 68 Olympics series at Web Esteem Mag.
[via TypeNeu]
Kitsune Noir posted awhile back about an Evan Hecox show at Kinsey/Desforges in Los(t) Angeles. The post went right over my head. Somehow, yesterday, I stumbled on to KN’s flickr set from the show and it blew me away. Hecox has a signature street-style meets wood-cut / silkscreen / guache painting and for this show he went to Mexico City and applied his art with the vibe of DF, the results are amazing.
+KN’s show review | +KN’s flickr set
Oh Snap! Old school calarts homie Geoff McFetridge just started a wallpaper company called Pottok and the first designs are his. Gorgeous stuff. recycled paper? √. water-based inks? √. no varsols? √. no chem waterproofing? √. Can you put wallpaper on concrete walls? I’ll take one of everything.
It’s so cool to see Geoff finding new creative avenues to put out his art, independently. go Geoff!
[via it's nice that via +KN]
James Danzinger (of the Danzinger Gallery in NYC) has a blog and it’s wickedly good: The Year in Pictures. In a recent post, Danzinger gives a run-down on some of Tom Adler’s surf-culture related work from books on surfing’s golden years by photographers Ron Church and Don James to Swell’s impressive branding and identity. If there were ever an art-director who I’d love to work under, it’d be Tom Adler. His work is inspirational. A friend of mine gifted me Adler’s Ron Church: Surf Contest book and it’s an absolutely amazing time capsule of surf-culture history.
Flickr user Pantufla has sets of photos of just about anything you could think or ever needed to source. His goal seems to be to have a collection of everything. A great source of inspiration for designers, photogs and casual history buffs. Please file this one under: “how the hell does he have enough time in the day to do this shit”
Supermarket is pretty cool. a well-designed website for buying well-designed things from people just like you and me. apparel, jewelry, furniture, photos, paintings, etc… sorta like etsy. [via SM]
Hybrids Project is a new photography book by Klaus Thymann. The book is filled with interesting images covering “…micro-pockets of hybrid cultures…” including snow polo, gay rodeo, underwater striptease, hip hop in china, an indoor beach, rave as religion and many more. The website for the book is equally interesting, with a unique thumbnail and preview system. thumbs up. oh and book design by Love Creative. [via Avisualsociety]
Jeff Canham has some really wicked art/design/painting/signage. He’s the guy behind the Mollusk store signage and the art-director for Surfer mag from 2000 to 2005. I especially dig his art series, paintings on plywood.
I’m really liking the art-as-commerce stuff going on over at Keep Calm. [via PoppyTalk]
Christopher Bettig works under the name the Mountain Label. his work is super tight, clean and inspirational. seen in Urban Outfitters everywhere. and he’s got a blog. I love this guy’s work. wow. [via The K]
A brief primer on Michael C Place and his studio ‘Build’: Love™
Blanka is a uk outfit that sells some gorgeous minimalist posters, photography prints, books and tshirts, including a line of typographic tees by Build each one with a different classic song and its running time. brilliant. they ship oversees as well. I dig the aesthetic of the site, but its at that expensive of the usability. a bit hard to navigate, but really nice products. [via DS]
22nd Amendment. Andrew Sloat’s artful and gorgeously done short-form video celebrating the fact that a little someone can’t be re-elected for a 3rd term. what a way to start your Saturday morning. Cue the confetti!. [via kottke]
Stevey has been digging up some interesting stuff, here’s one, a wonderful illustrated book: The Space Alphabet.
Mathew Star Thomas‘ illustrations are super-tight. he has a pretty diverse collection of styles. At first all i saw was the blingy ones, but his header graphics would look nice, staring up at me from beneath a layer of surfboard resin. semi-NSFW. [via Layer Tennis]
Reed Danziger has some gorgeous paintings. I love the abstract textures and little touches. His work definitely has a passing analog/digital discourse with the work of Joshua Davis. The difference being that Danzinger creates his compositions by hand, whereas Davis uses programming to create his. [via Art/Moco]
I’m loving the graphic design / web / photography work of Applied Projects, a newish company started by Rune Høgsberg, who has made some of my most favoritist photography portfolio sites from years past. [via It'sNiceThat]
QBN Sessions was a few weeks ago and snippets of the presentations have hit the web. One snippet in particular caught my attention. That of Graphic Designer / Programmer Joshua Davis (his work). It really interested me to hear him explain how he essentially compartmentalizes the various processes in his work, I’d definitely like to see the full presentation. [via everywhere]
