Last weekend at the Orange County Museum of Art, a friendly and well-meaning volunteer docent inquired whether I was writing a school report, and proceeded to introduce some of the pieces on display in the current ‘Imaging + Imagining California’ exhibit. Alighting on a piece by John McCracken called Dream (Chartreuse Green), 1988-92—a leaning, gleaming, fiberglass plank—she gamely explained that even though it might not look like it, it was, in fact, art.

What struck me about the exchange, other than the delightful thought that I might look like an undergrad, was her perceived necessity to prove the importance of a Minimalist art object to someone she thought was a student of art. She wasn’t far off base: her concern echoed the theme of many discussions I had with my Illustration students in the Media, Art and Design program at the University of Westminster in London. Even after nearly half a century’s worth of art movements and theory that have proven the staying power of conceptual work, these budding designers were skeptical about the value of work that needed to be seen in the context of history to be fully understood. This skepticism was part of an overall reluctance (only at first, of course; they were smart kids) to see history and theory as an important component of their work as designers.

But what’s the possibility of producing meaningful design work without understanding art and design history? Pretty much none. Read the rest of this entry »

An exhibition of work by Artemio Rodríguez. Featuring prints, illustrated books, skateboard decks, short animated films

Last Friday, I attended the grand re-opening of La Mano Press, an artist-run printmaking collective in the arts district of downtown Los Angeles. The night featured the travelling print exhibition, ‘Graphic Reality: Mexican Printmaking Today,’ curated by La Mano frontman Artemio Rodriguez, as well as a selection of prints, illustrations, skateboard decks and short films by Rodriguez himself collected under the name ‘Print Bites.’ Best of all was the unveiling of the customized 1968 Impala dubbed ‘Muerto Rider,’ emblazoned with black and white woodcut-style graphics and the bearing the rallying cry ‘We are the defenders of the Cheeseburger’ along the side door.

Muerto Rider Translation: Dead Rider. A customized 1968 Impala

‘Graphic Reality’ debuted at the International Print Center New York’s (IPCNY) gallery space in Chelsea last November. Rodriguez claims that the criteria for artist participation were both medium—all of the artists are primarily printmakers, not conceptual artists dabbling in the method—and age. Bringing together a relatively young group of artists (born between 1962 and 1981) gives the collected work a fresh, unified generational context, while also setting into relief the anachronism of young artists deliberately choosing to produce work in such highly traditional methods. For example, LA native Rogelio Gutierrez, the youngest exhibitor, creates litho portraits with stone instead of metal whenever possible. Jiving with the intentions of a studio dedicated to spreading awareness of traditional printmaking, the exhibition focused on themes of continuity and historical awareness through method, despite the highly varied personal inquiries of each piece of work. Read the rest of this entry »

Stock Image? Indeed.

In a recent article on Designobserver.com, Jesse Nivens makes a great point about stock photography: since it’s predicated on a standard business model of supply and demand, it provides images that reflect the dominant worldview in order to sell. For Nivens, this meant a dirth of images portraying overweight individuals (let’s say ‘fat’, unfortunately it produces more results in a search engine), even though the reality is that contemporary American society could stand to lose a few. Others joined in and bemoaned the lack of visibility when it came to finding a range of visually marginalized groups such as wheelchair-users, the unattractive, and the non-tan (British). Apparently, these images aren’t as needed in the world of stock photography because they aren’t aspirational enough to sell products. Trust me, though—plenty of British people buy things all the time. I’ve lived there.

Limited subject matter isn’t the only thing that frustrates designers about stock photography. The design community has had to become adept at using stock footage in lieu of original commissions because of deadline and budget constraints. Considering the pace of advertising and image projection today, both online and in print, the proliferation of stock photography isn’t really a mystery—it allows anyone to acquire decent photos on almost every topic for about $100, all in the time it takes to use a search engine and right-click your mouse. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re a design writer, it’s hard not to let your cowering awe of Steven Heller impede your ability to write an unbiased review of this book. But what’s not to love about Stylepedia? It surpasses its genre as a quirky coffee table showpiece, and delivers a compendium of over 100 truly informative short essays on alphabetized topics that range from style periods (Art Deco, De Stijl) to makers (Ed Fella, Paul Rand) to manifestations (Food packaging, Teen Magazines). Topics certainly hit both the high and low ends of visual culture—let’s say ‘Vernacular’ because we know what that means from reading page 319—but, as the authors point out in the introduction, even those topics that fall outside of the canon of ‘good’ design are included because they meet the criteria of having made a meaningful and lasting impression on society. Hence, Tiger Beat.

Stylepedia gives the appearance of being effortlessly compiled, written, and designed, which of course is the result of nearly unmatched knowledge and professional skill. Heller, the author of an estimated 105 books on design (when the number of books you’ve written becomes cloudy, you’ve definitely hit your stride), has been the art director of the New York Times Book Review for over 33 years, is currently co-chair of the Designer as Author MFA at the School for Visual Arts, and has been a prodigious commentator on graphic design as a freelance writer and editor for the AIGA voice. Fili’s no slouch either; in addition to writing fourteen books with Heller, she runs her own studio in NY, has generated work that’s been canonized in the Library of Congress and Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, and is a member of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. So I guess what I’m saying is, if you’re going to trust anyone to put together a Stylepedia and not make it schlocky, trivial or gimmicky, these are probably your two safest bets. Read the rest of this entry »

‘Design is art people use’. So begins the essential 2006 manual D-I-Y: Design it Yourself, edited by Ellen Lupton, curator of Contemporary Design at the Cooper Hewitt, in collaboration with the graduate students she teaches as Director of the Graphic Arts MFA program at the Maryland Institute College of Art. It’s a phrase worth remembering at a time when both the escalating celebrity of designers and the ever-increasing cycle of consumption means we’re less reliant on our own creativity to solve the basic problems of everyday life. Lupton is a champion of the DIY movement, and this easy to use and genuinely hip guide proves that she’s unafraid to hand the baton of high design to everyday folks so that they can improve the way they work, live and create—without utilizing the paid services of a professional.

In a recent review for Eye, I lampooned certain outcroppings of the seemingly never-ending DIY movement for using the guise of creativity to convince otherwise reasonable people to devote their time to completely pointless activity (again and again I come back to the ‘Knitted Car Antennae Cosy’). But D-I-Y manages to finally shut me up by offering tips that actually achieve the best of what design should do, that is, improve your life by Read the rest of this entry »