Twenty One entries in "Design"

The inaugural exhibition in the newly re-located Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography.

Herb Lubalin (1918–1981) is best known for his wildly illustrative typography and his groundbreaking work for the magazines Avant Garde, Eros, and Fact.

On view in Cooper Union’s new gallery, the installation includes recent posters, publications, and motion graphics by internationally recognized graphic designers that spotlight an emerging trend toward expressive lettering and typography.

Original sketches, magazines, logotypes, and posters selected from the Lubalin Center Archive will illuminate Lubalin’s influence on contemporary graphic design.

Opening Reception

Thursday, November 5, 2009, 6 – 8pm
The Cooper Union
41 Cooper Square Gallery [ MAP ]

This event is free and open to the public.

Exhibition On View

November 5, 2009 – December 8, 2009

Gallery Hours:
Monday–Thursdays 12–7 pm, Saturday 12–5 pm
Closed Fridays and Sundays
Closed November 26, 2009–November 29, 2009

I just put the finishing touches on a new Volumeone Season called
The Road Less Traveled. It was the first time that I had a song written especially for the project before any design was started. The process was a very unique one for me and I wanted to share it.

Making the Song

The Road Less Traveled takes its inspiration from American folks tune from the likes of Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. I worked with Fletcher C. Johnson to write the song. Fletcher and I sat down and I gave him some general direction. I knew I wanted the song to be about an ophan/misfit kid from Appalachia that travels around playing songs and leaves his hometown to explore the world. I also liked the Seeger/Guthrie idea of the banjo/guitar as a weapon for social change to bring about a new way of thinking. I gave Fletcher a list of terms and ideas and sketched out a few ideas.

A few weeks later Fletcher played me a cassette tape of a rough of the song in his apartment and we agreed on a sparse arrangement that was upbeat but not too silly. I really like the tune and think Fletcher expanded on some of our original ideas to create a great song. With a little spit and polish The Road Less Traveled was done. Now it was up to me to make it into something.

Generating the type

I sat down with the finished song and wrote out all of the key words and phases. I did not want to simply illustrate the song visually because I felt that it could become too cartoony. I drew a bunch of radios and clocks and things until I realized the illustrated approach was the wrong direction.

I have been really into the typographic work of Ed Ruscha and inspired by the typography that appears on old fruit crate labels. Both have a very “American” feel to me just like the song. I decided that I wanted the actual words of the song to be the hero of the piece and set about sketching out different words.

I decided to draw all of the type in Illustrator so that I could more easily it break the type apart and animate it later. Needless to say it’s not easy to make dimensional type in Illustrator and even harder to make all of them look good. After a few months of work I had drawn about half of the words and started to design the overall look of the piece.

Designing the idea

The key to making all the type cohesive was to define a more limited color palette. The palette allowed me to develop a set visual vocabulary so that when I had to create other words or visual elements I had a well-defined approach to start from. In addition, the use of the cork pin board helps ground the visuals in an overall idea. Basically the cork pin board is the final resting place for the memories from the Road Less Traveled story. Like a postcard on your refrigerator, the cork pin board holds postcards containing the words from the song as well as other mementos from the misfits’ travels.

I created two static pin board walls to get a general layout and also created 9 postcards of the most interesting words from the song. With the pin boards and postcards complete it was time to start animating.

Creating the motion piece

I used the static pin boards to create a general flow for the animation and also added in two new landscapes for the chorus of the song to break up the action. All of the scenes for the animation were blocked out using static images of the type and other elements to speed up the process. There was no sense in animating any type until I knew how long the type needed to animate for.

After the animation was blocked in, I set about animating all of the type. To animate each piece of type, every stroke of each letter had to be separated out in Illustrator so that each part could be masked one at a time. Once separated, the letters’ parts were brought into After Effects and masked on one-by-one. This process took several weeks.

After the type was animated, I set about building all of the postcards and other scene components. During this time I basically “filled in” the static rough cut one scene at a time. To save rendering time, I left out all moving footage. After all of the major elements were animated I made adjustments to timing and pacing to lock down a final edit.

After the bulk of the animation was completed, I called up Fletcher and had him come by the studio so we could shoot him on green screen. Up until this point all of the images of Fletcher in the animation were static images of Jason in our studio used for placement only. Now that I had a fairly finished edit I could shoot Fletcher playing and slot him in.

Putting it all together

The final piece took a long time to render because it was built at HD resolution. Before the animation was complete I picked up the postcards from the printer. To give folks online a closer look at the type, I created a scrollable corkboard wall in Flash using the vector files my original static designs.

For me, creating the typography and working to translate it into print, motion and an effective online presentation allowed me to show the piece in different ways and hopefully show others how a design idea can be translated into different mediums. I also feel the postcards reinforce the idea of the motion piece while reminding people of the physical world and the need to go out there and explore.

Overall I am happy with the end product. I wish it had not taken me so long but I hope the time and effort I put into The Road Less Traveled shows and I hope that people enjoy it.

Welcome to 2009. We just finished up a new video piece for Good Magazine. As we head into the last year of the two thousand aughts, we take a look at some of the numbers that shaped our lives this past year. Thanks for the memories, 2008!

Art Making and Authenticity

Originality and Authenticity are central components to the creative endeavor. As an artist or designer, one is confronted with the larger challenge of establishing your own creative voice and by extension, cultivating this voice over an entire lifetime. This is a tall order of course and there are many possible approaches. Looking at artwork in general, two primary approaches come to light.

The one path that most artists embrace is the cultivation of a singular stylistic approach. The artist initially explores many different avenues and ultimately arrives at a stylistic “tool kit” that they refine and modulate through time. Examples of contemporary artists that fit this description are the likes of Ed Rusha, Chuck Close, Jim Houser, Barry McGee. All of these artists have a defined “style” in the sense that if you have seen 8 – 10 examples of their artwork you would be able to readily identify other pieces.

An alternative approach is the cultivation of an “evolutionary” approach whereby the artist cultivates a conceptual sensibility as well as broader stylistic toolkit. The artist Damien Hirst is a good example of such an artist. Hirst has several modes within which he works. From animals perserved in formaldehyde, butterflies in stained glass to a human skull covered in diamonds, Hirst does not have a singular artistic “style.” That said, Hirst does have a larger creative vision that is reflected in his work as a whole. An example of a designer that fits this paradigm is Peter Saville.

The singular stylistic and evolutionary approaches to art making are of course both equally valid. Both approaches share an impulse to find a unique voice that one can call their own. As an artist or designer finds their voice, we see how their creativity impacts the outside world. The key ingredient to understanding the power of authenticity and art making is when we place one’s creative output in the context of the larger culture.

Its all about Context

From the ivory tower of the Chelsea gallery to the disposable pulp of an advertising magazine insert, it is the context in which we experience a creative artifact that influences its perceived value. For example, if we look at a piece like Bruce Nauman’s 1987 video installation “Clown Torture” we see four color video monitors and two video projectors with a clown yelling. Without the context of a gallery setting, the average person on the street would find this piece both ridiculous and unwatchable. It is the symbiotic relationship between the perceived “authenticity” of Nauman’s work combined with the legitimizing context of the gallery that makes the work successful and valuable.

Conversely, we see commercial brands that are attempting to provide a similar context for art making. A recent example is the launch of the Scion Easy Ten Filmmaker Series. Scion gathered 10 budding filmmakers who created shorts (about 15-20 minutes each) that are screened together in a multi-room venue. In this context, the video installations are not given the care and attention of fine art but are treated more like window dressing for a marketing initiative. As a result, we see otherwise legitimate artwork as an excuse to a down few free drinks.

The labor required to create Nauman’s torturous clown piece may pale in comparison to time and energy required to create one of the Scion short films. Nonetheless, it is the labor, authenticity and context of the artwork itself that provides a framework for others to understand the artwork and, by extension, give it value as “art” or jettison it into the cultural landfill of advertising.

The Artist as Brand

In the last 10 years or so, we have seen artists and designers working very closely with brands to cross-promote each other. One of the first instances I recall was in 1999 when artists such as Damien Hirst and Nan Goldin used their artwork on boxes of Camel cigarettes. More recently, we have seen the explosion of the “designer shoe” phenomenon where an artist or designer lends their creativity to decorate a limited edition shoe.

Brands like Nike, Adidas and Reebok have all developed limited edition artist shoes. Through these “collaborations” the shoe brands gain artistic legitimacy through the artist’s artwork and the artist gains commercial legitimacy through the shoe brand. The question that arises is what is the authenticity of these artifacts? Are these genuine art objects or merely marketing gimmicks that go no further than being eBay collectibles?

Artist/Brand collaborations have thoroughly permeated our culture. Artists have “decorated” everything from Smart Cars, Coca-Cola cans, bicycles and even My Little Pony. One of the most extreme extensions of the “artist as brand” is exemplified by the licensing of Don Ed Hardy’s tattoo artwork by Christian Audigier.

Within Tattoo culture, Don Ed Hardy is considered a truly “authentic” figure. Ed Hardy was friends with Sailor Jerry Collins, one of America’s tattoo pioneers and to many, Hardy’s artwork is an extension of the classic tattoo style that Sailor Jerry created. With Hardy’s name and “authentic” tattoo pedigree, Audigier has been able to build the Hardy “brand” into a multi-million dollar venture.

From hats, shoes, apparel, perfume, and even an energy drink, the Hardy brand has grown by pornographic proportions into a worldwide phenomenon. As a result the authentic origin of Don Ed Hardy’s artwork has been completely lost to the general consumer. In addition, the artwork itself has become fodder for economic consumption and as a result has become disposable. For Hardy himself, his artwork now has a life of its own and as a result he must accept that his creative life’s work is no longer special and in many ways is no longer his own.

The parasitic relationship between the artist and brand is not new. The “authenticity” of an artist is a very powerful and valuable commodity. Some artist and designers have embraced the notion of the artist as brand. Other artists see the co-opting of their creative energies to merely sell a shoe or a can of soda as antithetical to everything the creative endeavor stands for.

Most artists and designers fall between these two extremes. To many the short term value of an artist/brand collaboration, be it creative or monetary, is worth the exposure it provides. For creative individuals that have a vested interest in their body of work over the long term, the authenticity of one’s own creative perspective must be regarded as their single most powerful commodity.

Art and its parasitic relationship to celebrity

Many artists have used imagery of celebrities and other authentic cultural figures to prop up their own artwork. One of the most common examples is the celebrity photographer. Photographers such as Annie Leibovitz and Dana Lixenberg have made their livings off of the images of celebrities. As an artifact, the photograph is made “legitimate” or “authentic” by the celebrity image. Conversely, the artifact captures a moment in time that can reveal a sensibility or a perspective that the person may not be aware of. Without the celebrity, the photograph is devoid of the power/authenticity of the celebrity and is merely a photograph of a person we do not know.

Within the sphere of art making, artists have also used celebrity imagery to similar effect. Andy Warhol’s work has featured portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley and many others. Warhol’s celebrity portraits create a kind of mirror, reflecting back our own popular culture obsessions while in many instances revealing the tragic nature of fame itself.

In contrast, other artists utilize celebrity imagery to build their own myth. An example of this phenomenon can be seen in the use of imagery of celebrities and popular culture icons in the work of Shepard Fairey. Unlike Warhol, Fairey utilizes celebrity imagery in a more transparent manner.

Taking cues from Alexander Rodchenko’s Russian constructivism and Chinese Communist propaganda poster art, Fairey “re-draws” celebrity photographs in an effort bring out the “heroic” or “iconic” nature of the person. The most recently successful example of this is Shepard Fairey’s illustration of president-elect Barack Obama. Like the pervasive commercialization of Don Ed Hardy’s artwork, Fairey’s illustration found its way onto everything from “Vintage Obama T-Shirts” to knock off versions for your pet terrier. I have been told retailer Urban Outfitters has made millions in sales on Obama apparel using Fairey’s illustration.

As the authenticity of the Obama brand works in tandem with Shepard’s Obey brand we see a symbiotic relationship that serves an immediate commercial need. The end result may be the creation of a “Nostalgia for the Present” that sells shirts in the short term but may produce a hollow cultural caricature of the “authentic” person whereby popular culture will dismiss the image like we do so many other brand images that – now that the election is over – fall away after the sales cycle.

Establishing your own model of Cultural Production

In this era of “post-integrity” the former polarizing forces of “selling out” versus “keeping it real” have been replaced by many shades of legitimacy and authenticity. As a cultural producer, whether you consider yourself an artist or designer, the challenge is to take advantage of the variety of contexts that help frame your work.

In this day and age, a graphic on a skateboard that hangs on a gallery wall has a far different meaning and value than the skateboard for sale at the local skate shop. The beauty of our current cultural circumstance is that one has the ability to place one’s work in a variety of contexts and as a result our work grows in meaning and value. Cultural production is no longer mutually exclusive to one setting and as a consequence the artist/designer has a responsibility to forge their own path and to flex the power of their own creative voice in responsible and meaningful ways.

As we move forward, we can not prevent the co-oping of the value of a celebrity image or the gross commercialization of an otherwise authentic creative impulse. All we can do as creative individuals is support the contexts we believe in and actively point out the contexts we feel devalue one’s creative efforts. In the end, creativity and commerce are a balancing act with no real right and wrong.

Questions? Comments? Contact Matt via email - .

Summer 2008 was busy. At this point it’s all a bit of a blur. Between work, travel and an obsession with political punditry, it’s slightly difficult to remember what all happened. So, before we forget, a roundup of projects completed this summer…

U.N. Icons Suite

We worked with OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to develop a standard symbol set for all OCHA maps. We created roughly 120 icons communicating a wide variety of subjects: security, relief materials, infrastructure, sanitation, etc. The symbol set was made into a typeface that OCHA cartographers will use worldwide.

The project was a serious graphic challenge. Some concepts are extremely difficult to represent using simple graphics. Consider a subject like security. How does one design distinct graphics for things like arrest, detention, abduction, assault, attack, forced entry, harassment/intimidation and hijacking?

Fortunately we were given enough time to get the set right. We’re pretty happy with the results. And attending meetings at the U.N. was a bit of an adventure.

Design by Matt Owens with significant assistance from Dylan Mulvaney, one of our summer interns.

Good

We worked with Good on The Hidden Cost of War, a 2-minute video feature examining the hidden costs of the Iraq war for the Transparency section of the new Good website. The research behind the piece comes from Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilme’s book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.

Design and animation by Matt Owens and Jason Bishop. Opening intro sequence by Mark Owens.

The piece has been getting some attention, and we were psyched to see it discussed, among other new Good video pieces, on Brian Lehrer Live:

(Skip to the 3:50 mark)

If you’re not familiar with Brian Lehrer, you should check out his regular 10am program on 93.9FM WNYC here in New York. You can listen on the web. He has the best opening theme music.

After the video piece turned out well, Good asked us to design the Transparency section of the November/December Good Magazine, now on newsstands. The Transparency section covered 5 topics: the hidden cost of war; the amount of energy burned by the average car vs. the average human; a glance at refugees worldwide; smokers by state; and taxi queues in the United States.

Some spreads:

You can see more from this project here.

Sesame Street

David’s spent the summer regressing back to his childhood. He was asked to direct four short spots for newest season of Sesame Street, season 39.

Drum Machine:

Forward and Backward:

A Boy and his Robot: Lunchtime:

Cowboy Patterns:

King Tuff, The Weight

In addition to Wes’ summer as The Rambler, he created two LP packages, one of which features a staggering coupling of complimentary spot colors, the second is more photo-driven, but equally ridiculous.

King Tuff Was Dead:

The Weight Are Men:

Nevikov

Athletics’ Jason Gnewikow has been busy with his fashion line under his phonetically spelled name: Jason Nevikov. Spring/Summer 2009 is currently in production, with some pieces already available via Oak:

http://www.oaknyc.com/product/jason-nevikov-1984
http://www.oaknyc.com/product/jason-nevikov-outdoor-min
http://www.oaknyc.com/product/jason-nevkov-brooklyn-har

—

And that’s only half the summer. More coming…

As designers we celebrate meaningful libraries of information. We love the information, but it’s not our only concern. We also take the design of the library itself – the system that organizes the information – very seriously.

Designers have a long history of library-making. Pre-internet, we compiled books (reference books, monographs, retrospectives, magazines, etc.) Now we find ourselves reinventing our libraries for an online world. We develop new systems to better manage and deliver our information, and to accommodate the scale and scope of the internet.

Unlike the finality of books, online libraries constantly change, and this dynamic nature makes modern library-making a unique challenge. To do it right, you need more than the designer and archivist; you need the information architect – the online system builder – as well.

Today we’re happy to announce the significant relaunch of a modern online resource. We partnered with our friend and colleague Duane King (the DK of BBDK) to develop a system that extends his immense library of online resources to the web. Please enjoy Thinking for a Living™:

http://thinkingforaliving.org/

This past Saturday Jason, Matt and I had the pleasure of speaking at AIGA/NY’s Smart/Models one-day business conference here in New York. Our presentation, “Creativity and the Collective”, focused on our studio-as-collective business model.

The bulk of our presentation examined the differences between a traditional business structure and our collective model. As we’re so often questioned about the nature of our organization, we wanted to provide examples of how members of the collective form teams on a per-project basis to tackle work involving a variety of a creative disciplines — from graphic design, illustration, print and motion/broadcast/directorial, to web design and development.

To illustrate various points, we prepared a series of infographics designed to be part informative, part humorous, and part inside jokes for both designers and fellow aging hardcore kids/former edgers.

For the design nerds, we reinterpreted the classic 1969 Eames diagram.

(Click to enlarge)

And we were so pleased with the following graphics that we opted to include them in our presentation, despite the risk of having our cleverness lost on portions of the audience.

(Click to enlarge)

(Didn’t catch these? See here and here.)

Some thoughts

45 minutes goes fast; we had to blaze through the last five minutes.

Speaking early in the day is the way to go. With our talk out of the way we were able to relax and enjoy the other speakers.

Apple’s Keynote is a breeze. Give it a look if you’re putting a presentation together. Copy/paste vectors no problem, drag-n-drop Quicktimes, export to PDF, whatever you want. Near-zero learning curve.

TheTimesCenter is an amazing event space. Totally pro-form. The building’s interior nature/garden zone: blockbuster.

Michael Surtees of DesignNotes posted a review of the event, including some photos:

Update: Armin from Under Consideration published a very nice review as well.

Unanswered questions

We did a 45-minute presentation with no Q&A, as the organizers asked that we save questions for the end of day panel discussion. We were able to address some audience questions during the panel, and it was certainly interesting, but given the number of questions we received during the reception, and later via email, it appears that a few attendees left with questions unanswered.

The most common point of confusion regarded distribution of revenue. It seems some misinterpret the term “collective” to indicate a form of communism. Others simply wanted to know how we structured proposals, paid taxes, or formed LLCs.

We're happy to pull back the curtain for those with questions. Just get in touch:

Thanks

We’d like to extend a big thank you to the Smart/Models event committee – Tina Chang, Liz Danzico, Kent Hunter, Bobby C. Martin Jr., and Sam Potts – for the hard work of organizing the event, and for making us a part of it. And, of course, thanks to everyone for coming out on a Saturday.

We posted some new work today.

Cover photo illustration for this week’s NY Mag:

---

House & Parish One, One-Thousand CD package:

---

Shout It Out Loud Music CD Sampler:

I was fortunate enough to speak at the Cranbrook Academy of Art design department at the end of January. Having graduated from Cranbrook in 1995, I was really excited to see what students were up to, and to catch up with Elliott Earls, the head of the department. Back in ’93, Elliott interviewed me as a perspective student and was instrumental in getting me into the program.

Elliott has been carrying on the Cranbrook tradition of an open studio environment that centers around self-initiated projects and weekly group critiques. I gave an hour long lecture to the students touching on my personal and professional work as well as talking about the collective nature of the Athletics studio. One of the main themes of my lecture was the notion that, as a designer, it’s not only the actual work you create, but also your own unique perspective on the design discipline that informs the creative process.

Cranbrook, like other design programs at Cal Arts, RISD and Yale, has amazing design resources: large-format digital output, laser cutters, wood shop, audio/video facilities and an impressive library. All of the available tools and raw materials offer Cranbrook students the opportunity to pursue and produce nearly any design idea. I think the big challenge, and the same challenge presented to me 13 years ago, is how to focus your own ideas and efforts to further one’s development as a designer.

During my visit, I spent about 30-45 minutes with each student learning their background and speaking with them about their work. The range of skill, ideas, energy and focus were pretty vast. I also found that students had decided to enter the Cranbrook graduate program for a variety of reasons. Some students had already worked in the professional sphere and were looking to either teach or shift their ability. Some students had very little design training but were selected for their creative ability in another discipline such as painting. Overall I felt the students had a firm grasp of what they wanted to do and were actively working together to move forward as designers.

I also found the group critiques to very informative. Group critiques begin with 2-3 students that hang their work in the crit room the day before critique. Another student is then selected to review the work and write up a 1-2 page evaluation. Reviews consist of an interpretation of the project as well as an assessment of the work of other artist or designers (contemporary and historical) that may help frame the project. The day of critique, the review is read aloud and all of the students have an opportunity to give their assessment. Comments range from issues regarding clarity of purpose, craft, meaning, technology, context, concept and aesthetics. After everyone comments, the person that created the work then reads a statement of purpose that articulates their ideas and goals for the project.

All of the students then have a chance to realign their comments to inform the statement of purpose and provide comments on how to move the project forward. It was my feeling that if every student were to take the critique format seriously and truly digest, evaluate and then act on the comments, the resulting work would be extremely strong. But as we all know, this is easier said than done. Just because the group provides the designer with the ammunition to push the work forward, it does not mean that a clear path emerges. The real opportunity for students is in learning to absorb feedback, and then work from it.

The Cranbrook experience is part academic, part self-help, part teamwork and part personal soul searching, and in the end provides a creative/critical format that is unique within the design discipline. It’s sort of the design equivalent to tv shows like Survivor or Project Runway, but it takes two years, there is no prize money and you have to read a lot more. Like any academic setting, I think Cranbrook provides the basic framework and facilities to push an individual designer to another level, but it is up to the individual to take advantage of the people, resources and environment.

Talking with students I stressed a need for a high level of sophistication in projects. Just because you have great resources does not mean that a big digital print of a Photoshop file represents “finished work.” Notions of craft, materiality and format help distinguish between a design “sketch” and a fully realized idea. For example, I would rather see tight story boards that clearly articulate a motion project than a 5-minute video “sketch” of an undercooked idea. It was the conceptual artist Sol Lewitt that said, “The idea behind the work supersedes the work itself” and that, “The idea becomes the machine that makes the art.” I truly believe that if a designer has an idea they believe in then articulating that idea can become an amazing journey where the sky is the limit.

As a designer, I think it is important to live in the “now.” I feel more urgency and enthusiasm for the design discipline than I ever have. I also feel that Elliott, as the head of the program, continually expresses a level of energy and commitment to design discourse that is genuinely inspiring. For students, I feel it is their personal responsibility to realize that their time at Cranbrook is very special, and as a creative person, you must push yourself and your fellow students. If you have the opportunity to do whatever you want, why half-step it?

On the last day of our visit we had a chance to see the Eero Saarinen exhibition at the Cranbrook museum. The exhibition was incredibly inspiring. From his 1948 womb chair design for Knoll, to the 1962 TWA Terminal 5 at JFK, Eero’s creative output was staggering. I felt the exhibition was a great reflection of the true potential of the design discipline, and part of what makes the Cranbrook legacy so special. From Eero and Eliel Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, Michael and Kathy McCoy, P. Scott Makela, Andrew Blauvelt, Elliott Earls, Martin Venezky and more recently the likes of Jason Jones, Camm Rowland, Chris Williams and many many more, I think there is something very unique about the Cranbrook experience that brings really talented people together and provides them with the right creative and critical tools to bring out their best. Ultimately Cranbrook grads have an oppurtunity to impact the larger world of graphic design in amazing ways.

View pics of my visit on Flickr

Many small, idiosyncratic organizations make an effort to remain shrouded in mystery in some myth-building effort. Large, publicly-held companies rarely do. But there is one major exception: Apple.

At Apple, nothing is revealed until the last moment possible. Then, once every six months, Steve Jobs strolls out on stage in front of a packed house and delivers a keynote speech revealing various new gadgets. Every time around the tech world is obsessed with what might happen, and then post-event, obsessed with discussions regarding whatever was actually revealed. It makes for fantastic punditry. (I do love that John Gruber.) All consumer electronics companies release new products, but Apple is the only one turning product launches into media events by refusing to discuss, or even hint at what lies ahead.

What I find staggering is how much effort Apple puts into secret-keeping. Apple products require massive numbers of humans — designers, software and hardware engineers, advertising partners, overseas manufacturing partners, documentation-writers, web designers, etc. So many humans and no one is leaking. iPhone, the most highly anticipated product of recent memory, didn’t leak. Clearly the entire company has been organized around this secret-keeping principle, and it’s an integral part of the Apple brand strategy.

I mention Apple because we are fascinated by specialness in brands, particularly the myth-building qualities. Apple’s secret-keeping is a perfect example.

Months ago we considered penning an article for the blog detailing the inner-workings of a functioning design collective, specifically the business model. After all, we are operating outside the bounds of a traditional corporate entity; it might be an interesting read. Ultimately, we decided, No, we don’t need to share such information, at least not on the blog. Once distilled down to words on a screen, it didn’t seem so interesting. If anyone really wanted to know, we figured they could get in touch and we could have a conversation.

Turns out this is exactly what happened. This past Thursday we were treated to lunch by our new friends Renda Morton, Andy Pressman and Holly Gressley. All three are talented designers and currently sharing studio space in Dumbo. They wanted to chat with us as they are considering forming a collective. They stopped by and we shared our thoughts on the subject.

The take-away here is less is more, and sometimes lunch.

Matt Owens launches redesigned volumeone.com.

AisleOne has a great interview with designer Duane King.

Duane is one of our good buddies and creative director of BBDK, our partners out in Sante Fe.

I had the good fortune of playing Layer Tennis a few days ago courtesy of Coudal Partners. The basics of the game: two designers spar back and forth over 15 minute intervals, adding to or modifying a graphic composition of their choosing. With each “volley”, files are passed back and forth and a commentator (Joshua Allen) writes about each post. Throughout the match viewers can vote on their favorite and give their opinion of the work.

My partner was Jason Gnewikow, a colleague in the studio and long time friend. Jason had just returned from tour with his band House & Parish. The Layer Tennis invitation came to us a bit last minute, with the match taking place the day after Jason’s return to New York. We didn’t have much time to plan, but we were eager to come up with an idea that we thought would be fun to do.

Looking through the previous matches Jason and I noticed that the majority of the work consisted of layered Photoshop files that were assembled using pre-existing assets. Jason and I chatted at length about an unconventional approach that would be more “graphic” as opposed to assembling “graphics.” We felt that this approach might not gain the approval of all of the viewers, but by embracing the idea of a graphic feel as opposed to the standard photo-montage approach, we could come up with a match that was entertaining for us and also a departure from previous matches.

We all know Layer Tennis is sponsored by Abode, and as a participant, we relinquish our rights to the work created and Adobe can utilize it in whatever manner they desire. As a committed user of Adobe products, it was my desire to utilize their products in an unconventional manner and to do something using functionality that designers may not use on a day to day basis.

When I considered the term “Layer Tennis” the first thing that came to mind was the old school video game Pong. Indeed Pong is the first tennis of the digital era. What better way to make a nod to Pong as well as the “vintage” internet than to make all of our pieces animated gifs. ImageReady rules! Jason and I suspected that the tennis = pong = old school = animate gif logic would be lost on the majority of kids that wanted us to create “sick visuals” based on our already existing tool kit of graphics, illustrations and client work we have developed over the years. This was an exercise to be executed in 15 minute intervals. It was not a client project, nor has there ever been a client project that followed such a process. Layer tennis is supposed to be fun for the people doing the work and in the end it should reflect our perspective.

The question I asked myself the moment I heard of Layer Tennis was if I thought that it was my role to show the world that one can create a sophisticated design composition in 15 minutes. I determined that that was not something I thought wise to communicate. Secondly, my impulse was to ask, what does this say about our discipline? our profession? What does a potential client assume if they see great design composed in minutes for an undisclosed sum? I determined that given the quick and dirty nature of Layer Tennis, the pieces should not be about creating perfect things at the drop of a hat (lord knows it takes me forever to come up with something cool) but to come up with a process that talked about the tools we use everyday, and at the same time have fun with them in a manner that client work rarely allows. In the end Jason and I thought that Layer Tennis was an opportunity to lighten up, try not to sweat the small stuff, have fun and maybe just maybe make people think. A few minutes before we started, a cold chill came over me and I asked myself – “Would Herb Lubalin be comfortable with the idea of Layer Tennis? Paul Rand? Neville Brody even.” In the end, I threw care to the wind and let the pixels fly.

After the match was completed I felt both elated and a little uneasy. Would we be confronted with a deluge of haters? Would folks get the joke? I spoke to a few friends and colleagues. Those that know Jason and I and are familiar with our work gave us a pat on the back and a little chuckle. It was not so much a “job well done” moment as much as it was a “good luck explaining this one” kind of comforting. I think we were both prepared for the aftermath and were prepared to have some explaining to do. For me, I took the high road. I love making things. I love the opportunity to explore and share visual ideas. If through a strange stroke of events I find myself convincing one of my studio mates to stand perfectly still and slowly apply a pair of 80’s sunglasses while I photograph each step, all so that I might compose an animated GIF, isn’t that more fun that just moving around something you already made in Photoshop, or giving away something you know everyone already wants?

Don’t get me wrong, if someone were to give me a decent amount of money, a coherent brief and a clear articulation of the needs of a project, you can be sure I would unleash my personal arsenal of visual, motion and interactive skills to develop the best idea possible. This is what is done for client projects and is something I enjoy. On the other hand, the challenge of making multiple large scale animated gifs is not something that is terribly easy or fun to do on a daily basis…unless you have a Layer Tennis game to bust out! In the end, if Adobe starts a “Project Runway” style contest called “Designer Warfare” and gives us the budget and time to pitch killer ideas to be judged by our peers, you can rest assured I would be on board and would come out with guns blazing.

I would like to give shouts out to Steven Harrington, Chuck Anderson, Aaron Draplin, Jason Koxvold, James Hutchinson and everyone else that kicked out the jams on Layer Tennis. I totally appreciate the work and their approach to the project. Thanks again to Coudal and Adobe for giving us the opportunity.

If you’re in NYC, check out this week’s Village Voice. Wes illustrated the cover story, and the cover:

That’s Wes about to be run over by a bus. It’s not the first time he’s worked himself into a cover.

Recently discovered Sleevage, a blog on record packaging design. Sleevage is still relatively new, and it seems like they’re still working to find their voice. I find many of the reviews to be a little too easy — too brief, minimal commentary, or stories I already knew.

However, today’s interview with David Calderley of Graphic Therapy on the Brendan Benson – Alternative to Love packaging was great.

I enjoyed David’s words on how he eventually arrived at the final product. It’s always nice to learn the back story, see early concepts, and final art for the album and singles in one place.

For those unfamiliar with Brendan Benson, I recommend all three of his records, and that one he did with Jack White as well.

Link:
http://sleevage.com/brendan-benson-the-alternative-to-love/

I had the fortune of seeing the design studio Vasava present their work at the OFFF festival here in New York last week. I have followed Vasava for many years now and was very excited to see them speak. Vasava www.vasava.es is a design studio based in Barcelona. They are primarily dedicated to communication campaigns, interactive, editorial design, motion graphics, events and exhibitions as well as personal projects and products.

Totaling 15 people, the work of Vasava has a wide variety of styles and mediums. Seeing the work presented together, the notion of design authorship came to mind. The way Vasava present their work, it is impossible to tell who did what project. However, you do see specific styles where it is apparent that the same person did one project and then another.

Of particular interest to me were the following pieces:

Diesel Fifty book. 5 Steps to creativity

The Room Flyers

Fotogramas

HP Hamburger

Overall, the type and illustration work as really impressive. Whoever did the type for the 5 steps to creativity in the Diesel Fifty book deserves a pat on the back. Vasava have been working with Diesel for many years and a large portion of the work they presented was Diesel related.

I was taken by how varied the work was. There seems to be an anything goes freedom to a lot of the work which was really interesting. I think in the US, we tend to focus on the accomplishments of individual designers and are generally overly critical.

For Vasava, I think as a studio they work hard but are open to anything and do not take things too seriously. I think this allows them to move seamless between different kinds of projects and different styles without getting too caught up in the details.
The quantity and variety of projects was totally inspirational. I really appreciate the impulse of most of the work and I think Vasava are a very unique example of what is possible in the commercial illustration/design world when really talented people put their egos aside and decide to work together.

Lastly, Vasava run a gallery/store in Barcelona called Vallery. Located in the Barcelona’s city center, It features exhibition by outstanding artists, graphic designers and illustrators.

VALLERY

I think the combination of the studio, great work with tons of variety and a store/space to share their passion for design is a real inspiration.

If you’re reading this, you likely arrived via a link posted somewhere out there in this great big internet. This article is no longer available because it needs some revision. You could say it expired. Adobe has changed the behavior of Photoshop a bit since Adobe CS1 and some of the issues that inspired this piece in the first place are no longer applicable.

Yesterday we launched the wholly redesigned and developed website for Dangerbird Records, an independent record label located in Hollywood, CA and home to artists Silversun Pickups, Dappled Cities, La Rocca, among others.

One of the more info-heavy sites we’ve done, the Dangerbird site is packed with content and loaded with features. The site balances out all sorts of content — artists, releases, news, tours, downloads, store, videos, etc. Considering that each of these include various levels of sub-content, the overall scale of the site made for an IA challenge.

Information Architecture

As we’re respectable web/info designers, we went through a full IA process. We tend to do this for any large-scale site, especially the info-heavy ones (jumping straight into Photoshop would just be asking for a world of pain.).

We’re quite fond of the Flash-based prototyping tool we’ve developed specifically for the purpose of wireframing representative site states, and stitching the wireframes together in a click-able environment. For those of you familiar with making wireframes in Illustrator and packaging them up in PDFs, you’re sure to be sweating our little app.

In the past, we’ve worked on some globo-chem level corporate projects that required extensive wireframing. Trying to manage these projects with Illustrator & PDFs is too much. We’ve looked into pro software products like Axure’s RP Pro, but this sort of thing is just too far down the corporate-web-ditch-digging rabbit hole. And after taking a closer look at these prototyping tools, we realized that we could just lift a few of the basic concepts/features and roll our own app in Flash.

Basics of site prototyping

• Wireframe each representative site state, focusing on organization of content, visual hierarchy, etc.
• Link the states together in a straight-forward way, allowing the client to click from state-to-state and really get a sense of how the different pages work together.
• Upon completion of the prototyping phase of the project, the visual designer should have a clear vision of the site’s structure, content and functionality, all before cracking Photoshop.

What does our prototyping app do?

By using Flash, we are able to design each wireframe in an environment similar to Illustrator. However, unlike Illustrator, we’re able to create reusable objects (Movieclips) for all sorts of repeated elements (site header, footer, sidebars, etc.). And the real trick is that we can use Actionscript to stitch the wireframes together in an intelligent way, allowing the user to click through to the wireframes.

With the Dangerbird site, it was important to prototype the Artists, Artist Detail, Releases and Release Detail states. By having the prototype link these states together, the user gets a feel for how the different states relate to one another. It’s just not the same if you’re stepping through a PDF.

Demo

Want to see what it looks like? Check out one of the later prototypes for the Dangerbird site. Various details were tweaked along the way, but you’ll find that the prototype seriously informed the final product.

In the end all relavent parties (client, designer, developer) have a clear picture of what’s going to be built, how it will work, how it will feel, etc.

Framework & Content Management

The real nerd-thunder of the Dangerbird site is the underlying web framework. Like other Athletics web projects (DKNY Jeans, Oak, and the Athletics site itself), the Dangerbird site is powered by the Studio IV Adminkit CMS and front-end framework.

The Adminkit CMS software manages all aspects of site content (artists, releases, news, tours, downloads, store, videos, jukebox — everything). Adminkit is something we’ve been actively developing for more than three years now.

The front-end framework doesn’t have a catchy name, but perhaps it should. Very much informed by things like Ruby on Rails, CakePHP and CodeIgniter, our framework follows the MVC design pattern and defines common conventions for integrating HTML templates into a system powered by the Adminkit CMS. The framework is mostly geared towards increasing developer efficiency and creating reusable chunks of code. Also, the framework provides some nice features, including human-readable URLs and output/page caching.

Human-readable URLs

Human-readable URLs are important to us. Rather than crazy looking query-string style URLs with a bunch of random looking garbage thown in, we like simple URLs that plainly describe the content they represent. For example:

Query-string style URL:
http://www.example-domain.com/news_article.php?cat=235&article_id=235266

Human-readable URL:
http://www.example-domain.com/news/title-of-article

Considering how extremely possible human-readable URLs are, we see no excuse for the former.

Output/page caching

Caching is important if you intend to power a popular database-driven website. In the era of the Digg/Slashdot effect, your website needs to be prepared to deliver content to a lot of visitors in an extremely efficient manner.

Without having the page-caching system built into the framework, a sudden surge in site visits would overload the server’s database with requests for content. Fortunately, a good page caching system can eliminate this database bottleneck. The page caching system stores static copies of pages generated from database content, and upon future requests for the same content, the system delivers the static version instead of making the full roundtrip to the database. Clever indeed. Inspired by WP-Cache and the CodeIgniter implementation.

Web toys

The Dangerbird site was an opportunity to throw all sorts of different gadgets into the mix.

• Jukebox. Over the years, we’ve done a ton of players, most of them being minor updates to code dating back to 2002 (that’s a lot of mileage out of the now-extinct RemyZero site). The Dangerbird player is a bit different. First, it’s powered by Adminkit, so Dangerbird can upload MP3s and compile playlists whenever they like. Second, we built two different embed-able options for the player — regular and the mini. Hopefully the MySpace/Facebook crowd will embed them like mad.
• Home Promo Slideshow. These things are pretty common at this point, but I think it’s important to point out the home page’s promo slideshow. In the Adminkit CMS, Dangerbird can upload and assign any number of JPG or SWF files as slides within slideshows. They can toggle various slideshows, re-order slides, etc. It’s a pretty cool way for Dangerbird to immediately inform visitors of whatever the new-big-thing is. I’ve always liked the way Macromedia did slideshows on their site, and now Adobe continues the practice.
• Search. This is cool… results are segmented by section, so you can get a sampling of results from every section (artists, releases, news, videos, etc.). Here’s an example if you searched for “silversun”.
• Mailing List. The Dangerbird mailing list is managed by Campaign Monitor, our favorite email newsletter software. Campaign Monitor offers an API for integrating CM’s services directly within your site — rad.
• Buzznet Integration. We’ve become familiar with Buzznet recently — we did a bit of profile integration on the Cartel site. With Dangerbird, we did something similar, but instead of using one of the packaged Flash/Javascript widgets provided by Buzznet, we rolled our own. Two problems with Buzznet’s packaged widgets: 1) they are generic looking, and 2) they are often slow. To get around this we parsed Dangerbird’s photo RSS feed and rendered the content to work within the overall site design direction.
  
  One thing: the Buzznet site is slow. Anytime the server tries to fetch the RSS feed, it takes forever. Rather than make every Dangerbird visitor suffer, we maintain our own server-side cache of the RSS feed and serve that up instead. Once every three hours someone has to wait for the Buzznet feed to be re-cached. You can check out the Buzznet call-out in the sidebar on the site home. (Thanks to the Zend Framework for the feed parsing and caching.)
• Videos. The player is a modified version of the player used here on the Athletics site, but the embed player is new. An example:
  
  

Parting thoughts…

We like the folks over at Dangerbird and have really enjoyed working with them over the past few months. It’s been a pleasure to work with a client that is already informed about the web — they were right there with us on RSS feeds, embed-able players, blogs, and other web two-point-new terms.

And on a personal note: given the Pumpkins’ inability to comeback, Silversun’s gonna have to really step it up and carry the torch.

---

Comments? Contact James via email - .

Matt Owens’ “Meridians” video short has been featured on Beautiful decay. Check it out HERE

David Ahjua is finishing up work on VH1’s RockDoc:

NY77: The Coolest Year In Hell.

NY77 premiers August 11th at 9 PM on VH1. This two-part, two-hour documentary tells the story of one of the most astonishing pop culture years in American history. New York City had fallen in decay and chaos. There were not enough jobs, not enough money, not enough police, not enough schools, and not enough social services. There was a city wide black out with major looting, there was a serial killer on the loose, and the Bronx was burning.

Yet out of the chaos, emerged one of the most creative times any city has ever encountered. Hip Hop was emerging from the South Bronx, punk music was emerging from the lower eastside, and disco was emerging from Queens and midtown Manhattan. Elaborate, finely crafted graffiti art decorated the subway cars. Break-dancers danced in the streets. There was a huge sexual liberation with sex clubs and a burgeoning porn industry. In the beginning of the year, the world was not paying attention, and most of this activity existed in its own underground bubble. Yet by the end of 1977 all of this artistic expression was about to become part of mainstream America and would remain popular for generations to come.

The film will be graphically dizzying and groundbreaking, led by the team that produced the acclaimed documentary The Kid Stays in the Picture. Firehouse Films was created in 2004 by Academy Award nominated filmmaker, Nanette Burstein.

David worked with graphic hot shot Wyeth Hansen to design and animate the more than 60 minutes of graphics in the documentary.

You can read a review of the advance screening of NY77 HERE.

We have been working with Cartel, the Atlanta pop-rock band on Epic Records, for some time now. Projects include everything from music videos and album packaging to the band’s official website. Most recently we completed work on album packaging for the band’s upcoming self-titled release, the follow up to 2006’s Chroma. What made this project unusual was that Cartel was the featured artist for Dr. Pepper’s “Band In A Bubble”, a corporate-sponsored four-part MTV mini-series that aired over May and June.

The crackpot concept:

Construct a giant “bubble” structure on Pier 54 in Manhattan, put Cartel in the bubble for 22 days (they don’t get to leave), film their every move as they record their album, broadcast every moment 24-7 on the web, and cut the footage down for four episodes on MTV, including a finale concert episode.

Pre-bubble

While we knew we were doing the packaging, I don’t think we found out about the bubble until February. We like crackpot schemes, so we were happy to go along. Further, as individuals invested in pre-internet punk rock and hardcore, we are continually fascinated by the MySpace generation and the no-apologies, seventh-wave emo rock culture.

There was a lot of pre-bubble hype (see here and here), with plenty of haters. Things were really heating up—people around town were talking about the show, and there was a general bubble fever enjoyed by anyone that gets excited about the music business or teen culture.

And to up the ante, Cartel’s management informed us that they wanted us to make an appearance on the show and go inside the bubble. Apparently the design of the album’s packaging was important enough to warrant a “bit” in the show. We would go inside the bubble, present our designs, and chat about it all on camera. Ridiculous!

Visits to the bubble

We went to the bubble twice. First, we went in to go over photos with the band and discuss the design. Some photos from that one…

Heading down with Cartel’s manager

Pre-interview outside of bubble (interviewing Chris Black)

Then, a week later, Jason, Wes and I went back to present the initial design concepts. We presented the comps, made some jokes, and got out of there. And we had to do a little post-interview on the way out.

Inside the bubble

Final design

Despite the storm of insanity surrounding the record, the band had plans for a more mature and considered record. With the record being self-titled, the band wanted a simple, iconic graphic for the cover.

The band chose the “peachtree” direction, which we then expanded upon to create the final album artwork.

Of course, someone leaked the cover within days of final approval. We really enjoyed the discussion on Absolute Punk.

Best Quote:

i didint mind the atrwork on the last one it wasnt too special but i re4ally dont like this.
its cool to rep the home town and all but this just is awfull. i see this in a store and it makes me not want it. and the bad thing is i ususally just dont really care about the artwork very much but i see this and it makes me not want it.

Conclusion

After all the hubbub of visiting the bubble, putting on fancy wireless mics, being interviewed on camera, etc., we never made the cut for the show. I’m afraid design comps just aren’t exciting enough for reality TV. So, we got to experience the bubble first-hand, without any national embarrassment. Not so bad.

The finale concert went well…

The record

We recently got an advance copy of the album. Rather than go into an in-depth review, I’ll just say that the record goes beyond our expectations. We expected the rockers and air-tight singles, but we were surprised by many of the tracks that expand on Cartel’s usual repertoire of pop rock tunery. Terms like “blues hammer”, “Miami sound machine”, “Pearl Jam”, and “hot-doggin vocals” were used to describe various tracks. The record is set to be released August 21, 2007.

Some links

http://www.cartelrocks.com
http://www.drpepperbubble.com