More Revolutionary Flavors for Mao Cola!

I just finished working on my project for PRIN351. Now Mao Cola has new revolutionary flavors such as "Lenin Lime", "Stalin Grape" and "El Che Peach"!

Memory Project, DART392

Here is the documentation for my first project in DART392. I decided to make a portrait of my niece in the manner of Victorian stamps. It is also influenced my the concept of "Uomini Famosi", the portraits of famous men during the Renaissance.

Talking about Russian Constructivism...

I've been working on a project involving Russian constructivism for my print class (PRIN351), so here is one of the posters I've produced so far for this class using works by Rodchenko and Lissitzky. Behold Mao Cola, the Revolution in Cola!

Offensive? Yes. But who should be more offended by this really? Is it the Chinese, living in a hypocritical regime of so-called "communism", or Westerners that will use any possible icon as long as it sells. You be the judge.

Love Letters

Here's what I have so far for the Love Letters project. I also want to work on another concept, this time using the "big bang" as a metaphor:

Chasing the Perfect

As I picked up Natalia Ilyin's book "Chasing the Perfect", I couldn't help but think it was going to be one of these post-feminist insecure writer telling me how I should think and design. Maybe it was the cover, maybe it was the title, or the subtitle. I was wrong. Although, thinking about it now, maybe not entirely.

Let me start by saying I hate that book. I hate it because it makes me doubt. It leaves me pondering on a profession I've devoted time and effort to (although that might just be my mid-degree crisis). I hate it because it's telling me the truth when I just want to put on earmuffs and scream "LALALALALALALA". I hate it because it scares the shit out of me.

Anyway, back to the book, the first couple of pages are a bit ordinary. After a bit of explanation about how graphic designers are born, not made, and how the inability to draw is a prerequisite "skill" to become a graphic designer today, the author brings us to another direction. She brings us with her, through her insightful journey as a human being making discoveries about the true nature of graphic design. She points for us the corrupted dreams of modernist designers that wanted to create "universal" design, but which resulted in the individualization of society. Thought-provoking is an euphemism for describing this book

After reading Sagmeister's "Made You Look", and Kalman's "Perverse Optimist", I thought I'd never again be shocked by any book about design. But believe me, this book shakes you up in a subtle, but profound way.

Typography in Public Space

Here are some examples of type found in public spaces:

Another Video With type (by me this time)

After uploading a video that was using type to illustrate a song yesterday, I remembered I pretty much did the same thing back in my years in CEGEP de Maisonneuve, so here's the video. The song is "Scapegoat" by Atmosphere:

Cool Video using Typography

Some of my favorite Design quotes

Here is a collection of quotes regarding Design that I've collected over the years through some books I've read:



Oliviero Toscani

Clichés are our cultural history

If you are sure. you know you're doing something old



Tibor Kalman

Every rule about what is appropriate narrows what's possible

The cultural lights of this century are all maniacs

I'm not against beauty. It just sounds boring to me.

Our vernacular is Kentucky Fried Chicken. Our common experience becomes the common experience of network TV. Our idea of cultural diversity is cable.

Graphic design isn't a profession, it's a medium

Consumption is a treatable disease

Consumer culture is an oxymoron

Wealth is poverty

Religion works better for corporation than for people

Rules are good. Break them.

Good designer (and writers and artists) make trouble.

Graphic design is a means, not an end. A language, not content.



Paul Rand

Between designer and artist is no difference. They both work with form and content.

The fundamental skill of a designer is talent. Talent is a rare commodity. It's all about intuition. And you can't teach intuition.



David Carson

If everyone loves your work you're playing it much too safe.



Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe

It is better to be good than to be original



Ivan Chermayeff

When in doubt, make it red. If you're still in doubt, make it BIG.



El Lissitzsky

Typographic arrangement should achieve for the reader what voice tone conveys for the listener



Jean Cocteau

The greatest literary masterpiece is no more than an alphabet in disorder



Marc Steuer

I submit to you, creativity's not talking; it's all about the ability to listen



Raymond Loewy

The most difficult things to design are the simplest.



Unknown

Art is not a mirror. Art is a hammer