ideas + images

The economy of type

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:32:22 -0800

Designers Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth conducted a little experiment to measure the economy of type: they hand-lettered large-scale samples of commonly used typefaces using ballpoint pens.

The pens themselves form a neat bar graph—the remaining ink levels indicate their findings.

[via Flowing Data]

“There’s nothing like the isolating bleakness of long-term joblessness to make people...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:47:13 -0800

“There’s nothing like the isolating bleakness of long-term joblessness to make people finally appreciate Andrew Wyeth.” http://ow.ly/1cTAz

How genetics works (via Kottke)

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:24:16 -0800

How genetics works (via Kottke)

Met guards challenge institutional rules limiting contact w/ visitors & unite to show own...

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:33:53 -0800

Met guards challenge institutional rules limiting contact w/ visitors & unite to show own artwork http://bit.ly/ba2P9i (via @ARTnewsmag)

Soap opera as performance art, according to James Franco

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:25:25 -0800

If you bake some bread in a museum space it becomes art, but if you do it at home you’re a baker.

Marina Abramović in conversation with James Franco, about the importance of context in performance artIn today’s Wall Street Journal, James Franco gives us an overview of performance art in the 20th century, noting that recent recognition by the Guggenheim, Art Basel Miami, and MoMA’s P.S. 1 lend credibility to an art form earlier considered frivolous and pretentious.

Just as the art world is reconsidering the stature of performance art, Franco hopes that his appearance on General Hospital will encourage people to “ask themselves if soap operas are really that far from entertainment that is considered critically legitimate was panned by traditional art critics.” [A Star, a Soap, and the Meaning of Art | WSJ]

(Also, Palo Alto represent! Though Franco and I went to the same high school, we never crossed paths.)

Serif tote bag

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:55:57 -0800

[By Little Factory, via Core77]

Target for the arts

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:43:00 -0800

Art is integral to how we do business. It’s in our DNA.

Laysha Ward, Target’s president for community relations

According to Robin Pogrebin’s NYTimes article on Target’s philanthropy, the company continues to give 5 percent of its income (roughly $3 million a week) to causes in the arts, education, social services and volunteerism, despite the economic downturn. Pogrebin observes that many of Target’s beneficiaries are arts institutions across the nation, who often hold “Target days” offering free or discounted admission to a program, performance or museum exhibition. Laysha Ward’s comment above serves a dual purpose within the article: it reminds readers both that Target supports arts organizations through philanthropy, and that they strive for beautifully designed products on their shelves (Ward cites the work of Michael Graves as an example of their commitment to creativity in Target’s stores).

Other interesting articles in the NYTimes’ Giving section online cover SFMOMA’s challenge to find space for Don Fisher’s collection, raising awareness (and funds) using social media, and the look of cause marketing during the recession.

When should you use Comic Sans?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:08:28 -0700

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Frank Stella on MoMA

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:20:00 -0700

The increased popularity of MoMA under Lowry hasn’t pleased everyone. “There’s never a quiet moment,” said Frank Stella, the 73-year-old American artist, speaking at a packed opening last month for a retrospective of designer Ron Arad.

Stella said the gradual expansion of the museum to artists such as Arad — who works in various media — has de-emphasized painting, sculpture and architecture.

“That was the focus of the museum,” Stella said. “Now it’s just a couple of floors in the department store.”

From Philip Boroff’s Bloomberg article on highly paid museum directors and MoMA’s success under Glenn Lowry’s leadership [Museum of Modern Art’s Lowry Earned $1.32 Million in 2008-2009 | Bloomberg]

Post-it pixels

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:03:00 -0700

Bang-yao Liu’s senior project at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Trash gets a second chance

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:13:00 -0700

If you throw everything away, there will be just a big pile of garbage, and you won’t have anything to make collages with.

Alexandra Lehrer, 5, a student at Beginnings Nursery School in Manhattan. The school’s Materials Center collects unwanted materials (everything from LPs to champagne corks to seashells) and uses them in the children’s art projects. [ Where One Man’s Trash Is Preschoolers’ Art Material | NYTimes ]

Good design is always about the truth

Wed, 20 May 2009 21:50:00 -0700

Good design is always about the truth… I think our things should reflect that. There is a lot of illusion in design, a lot of surface and playing with reality. That’s why I like things that have a sense of humor. They just seem more true to life.

Ellen Lupton, curator of contemporary design at the Cooper-Hewitt [Kicking the Tires | NYTimes]

Words create worlds

Sun, 17 May 2009 10:48:00 -0700

Kaspen’s promotional images for Prague bookstore Anagram Bookshop.

This is your brain on architecture

Thu, 14 May 2009 18:56:00 -0700

Michael Cannell has a nicely illustrated post on Fast Company about recent discoveries on the neuroscience of architecture. Among other discoveries, it turns out that our brains are more receptive to rounded, cushy designs instead of hard edges:

A study by neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School found that faced with photographs of everyday objects—sofas, watches, etc.—subjects instinctively preferred items with rounded edges over those with sharp angles. Mose Bar, a neuroscientist, speculates that our brains are hard-wired to avoid sharp angles because we read them as dangerous. He used a brain scan for a similar study and found that the amygdala, a portion of the brain that registers fear, was more active when people looked at sharp-edged objects.

And as if in affirmation, Jonah Lehrer observes that the “padded leather womb” of his Eames Lounge Chair makes reading tedious articles a little more approachable; he calls the chair a rare intersection of comfort and modernist (read: characteristically geometric and angular) beauty. (By the way, Lehrer also recently wrote about neuroscience and a different form of art—jazz improv.)

If you love it, you don't know much about typography

Tue, 05 May 2009 22:45:00 -0700

…and if you hate it, you probably don’t know much about typography either, and you should get another hobby.

—Vincent Connare, designer of Comic Sans

Here’s a short video project inspired by Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica:

Extreme makeover: Dell edition

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:31:00 -0700

Here’s the lede for Wired magazine’s article on Dell’s snazzy new PC designs:

Dell has been long been the Ugly Betty of the PC industry–functional, smart but severely lacking in the looks department.
But over the last two years, the company’s consumer-targeted PCs have gotten a design makeover that would make Tyra Banks proud.

I understand the journalistic strategy of including cultural touchstones that will draw readers into an article, but comparing product design to fashion makeovers really underscores the point from Frog Design’s Max Burton, quoted in the Wired piece:

“Dell needs to treat design as something that is not superficial,” says Max Burton, executive creative director for Frog Design in San Francisco. “What they have right now is more of applique design — [it’s] more about finishes than real change to the materials and process.”

Buried further down in the write-up, Dell acknowledges that design happens beneath the surface, too: Ed Boyd, vice president of consumer products, points out that a Dell Studio hybrid desktop launched in the last year uses 70 percent less material and power than older desktop models.

The focus of the article encourages you to believe that it’s only the cosmetic changes that garner attention, create desire, and produce results. The fashionistas that Wired mentions probably want a good-looking computer, true—but what about function? No one wants a beautiful plastic brick (at least, I’d hope not). For products to truly evolve, design needs to consider materials, manufacturing processes, new technologies and thoughtful interface design. And as any Ugly Betty fan knows, true beauty is on the inside, anyway.

Sugimoto as scientist

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:37:00 -0700

To be a good photographer you have to be a scientist as well.

Hiroshi Sugimoto on his latest project, “Lightning Fields.” Sugimoto uses a Van de Graaff generator (capable of creating 400,000 volts) to charge a metal ball that he uses to shock large sheets of film. [Lightning Fields | Modern Painter ]

Above: “Lightning Fields 013” (2006). Gelatin silver print, 59 x 47 in.
Below: Self-portrait by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2008.

Fritz Hansen: Be original, fight the copies

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 22:05:00 -0700

Danish company Fritz Hansen is serious about counterfeit designs. The company, which is the official manufacturer of Arne Jacobsen’s Egg Chair, has posted a stunning slideshow of the destruction of the knock-offs they have confiscated.

Fritz Hansen also posted a brutal (though gratuitous) video of a tractor destroying a fake Egg Chair on their Facebook group for their “Be original, fight the copies” campaign.
Interestingly enough, though the company goes to extremes to protect their original designs, they also provide CAD drawings of many of their products. Fritz Hansen also takes furniture theft seriously; you can register your missing furniture on their website.

[via the excellent BAGnewsnotes, where Robert Hariman posted an interesting interpretation of the photos]

SFMOMA plans to expand

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:05:00 -0700

The San Francisco Chronicle’s art critic announced today that SFMOMA hopes to double its exhibition space by adding to its current footprint. However, the museum is still in the exploratory phase and is investigating the necessary permits and funds to make the expansion possible. Says museum director Neal Benezra,

It’s an optimistic announcement, but we’re being very modest about it. It’s important that people don’t think we’re announcing a capital campaign in the middle of a recession.

"Price less" works of art [NYPost]

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:19:00 -0700

I feel that the museum respects that you can pay what the economy allows you to pay. That way, you can come more often.

Retired Long Island teacher Joan Smyth, 60, who normally pays the full $20 “suggested admission” at the Met but on Monday decided to pay half