BRIGHT & BEAUTIFUL: Dordt College is currently displaying a selection of original screen prints by Corita Kent from the collection of the Corita Art Center, Los Angeles. The exhibition of 26 prints will be on display from January 6 to February 12. In 2016 Corita Kent received the AIGA Medalist Award.
Showing posts with label aiga design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aiga design. Show all posts
Thursday, January 12, 2017
BRIGHT & BEAUTIFUL—Corita Kent exhibition at Dordt College
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Rick Valicenti and David Versluis attending the AIGA Design Educator's Conference at BGSU, Ohio
Rick Valicenti and David Versluis at the AIGA Design
Educator's Conference: “Nuts+Bolts” at Bowling Green State University,
Ohio. June 15-16, 2016.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
“Notable Quotable” — A Student Typography Poster Competition
© Jordan Harmelink. “Than the Trees.” 2015 Notable Quotable
11 x 17 inches.
A Dordt College Graphic Design 3 studio project.
Quote by Henry David Thoreau
Jordan Harmelink, a Dordt College junior student recently had a poster design selected for the Notable Quotable juried competition, organized by the AIGA Student Group at Southeast Missouri State University and the River Campus Art Gallery. Awards will be announced at a reception on November 6.
The criteria for design included a notable quote, which was expressed with innovative typography. Each designer had to be a student at a university in the state of Missouri or in any state that borders it.
“Notable Quotable” — A Student Typography Poster Competition
© Vanessa Blankespoor. “Elegance” 2015 Notable Quotable
11 x 17 inches.
A Dordt College Graphic Design 3 studio project.
Elegance, is not the abundance of simplicity. It is the absence of complexity. — Alex White
Vanessa Blankespoor, a Dordt College junior recently had a poster design selected for the Notable Quotable juried competition, organized by the AIGA Student Group at Southeast Missouri State University and the River Campus Art Gallery. Awards will be announced at a reception on November 6.
The criteria for design included a notable quote, which was expressed with innovative typography. Each designer had to be a student at a university in the state of Missouri or in any state that borders it.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
“Notable Quotable” — A Student Typography Poster Competition
© Lance Wunderink. “Every film is a puzzle” 2015 Notable Quotable
Received an Honorable Mention
11 x 17 inches.
A Dordt College Graphic Design 3 studio project.
Every film is a puzzle really, from an editorial point of view — Walter Murch.
Lance Wunderink, a Dordt College senior recently had a poster design selected for the Notable Quotable juried competition,
organized by the AIGA Student Group at Southeast Missouri State
University and the River Campus Art Gallery. Awards will be announced at
a reception on November 6.
The criteria for design
included a notable quote, which was expressed with innovative
typography. Each designer had to be a student at a university in the
state of Missouri or in any state that borders it.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
“Notable Quotable” — A Student Typography Poster Competition
© Jordyn Visscher. “Work for a Cause.” 2015 Notable Quotable
Received an Honorable Mention
11 x 17 inches.
Hand-printed wood type; cut, assembled, and printed digitally.
A Dordt College Graphic Design 3 studio project.
Work for a cause not for applause
Live life to express not to impress —author unknown
Jordyn Visscher, a Dordt College junior student recently had a poster design selected for the Notable Quotable juried competition, organized by the AIGA Student Group at Southeast Missouri State University and the River Campus Art Gallery. Awards will be announced at a reception on November 6.
The criteria for design included a notable quote, which was expressed with innovative typography. Each designer had to be a student at a university in the state of Missouri or in any state that borders it.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Dordt College Portfolio Review Night 2015
Poster design by Amanda Oberman, Dordt College Junior
Dordt College Department of Art and Design
PORTFOLIO REVIEW NIGHT! (not for students only)
Portfolio Review Night 2015 is featuring the talents of these great creatives:
Jamin Ver Velde
Creative Director, Dordt College
Creative Director, Brand New Web & Creative Development
Rob Haan
Marketing Creative Lead, Alpha Omega Publications
Ellie Dykstra
Creative Director, Rise Ministries
Brian Rykes
Graphic Designer, Creative Resource Inc.
Matt Van Rys
Creative Director, Van Rys Studios
Join us for Portfolio Review Night!
Monday the 27th, 6:30-8:30pm.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
“Time well spent”—an I-29 barn-storming tour and a well-crafted workshop with Rick Valicenti: “Making it up as you go along, a preview for a life-long career”
Vermillion, South Dakota—9 October 2013: A group portrait taken of Dordt College and University of South Dakota workshop students with Rick Valicenti (center), Professor Young Ae Kim is on the far right (with hands on knees) and Dordt graphic design professor David Versluis is standing on the far left.
Rick is listening to a question from a student while others in the background are putting up their posters on the wall. Just behind Rick stands Young Ae Kim who’s the graphic design professor at USD.
Dordt senior students are recreating their posters from memory using traditional cut and paste collage methods. A USD graduate student is in the background working on his collage.
From October 8–10 Rick Valicenti, founder and design director of Thirst, was at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa for a barn storming tour of the area. The evening of the October 8, Rick gave a presentation titled “Time Well Spent” to the AIGA South Dakota Chapter at the University Center in Sioux Falls. Rick spent the night in Sioux Center, Iowa at Dordt College. On Wednesday the 9th we drove Dordt students to the University of South Dakota in Vermillion for a day long workshop with USD graphic design students. Then it was back to Dordt College for an evening encore (with slight changes) presentation of “Time Well Spent”. On Thursday the 10th Rick sent most of the morning touring Dordt’s campus and shared his insights with art and design students during the student Senior Seminar class.
The day-long workshop at USD was titled Making it up as you go along, a preview for a life-long career. Thirty-five design students participated with Rick for a productive, thoughtful, and reflective time together.
Here’s Rick’s entire syllabus for the workshop (published below with permission), however, as the workshop unfolded it became apparent that students needed more time to (re)make their posters and adjustments were made and the original syllabus became more improvisational. The questions were asked by Young Ae Kim:
“Making it up as you go along, a preview for a life-long career” a design workshop
What is the workshop structure?
At a high level it is a glimpse into the essential fact that being a designer is about being comfortable with NOT knowing where the next opportunity or idea comes from and how to embrace one’s own ability to nurture both opportunities and ideas throughout a lifetime. We will come to terms with the fact that others before us have navigated these waters and made wonderful work along the way.
On the practical level we will engage in the listening, responding, and then making process. This is the way of design.
- What will we hear?—our inner voice and each other
- How will we respond?—intelligently
- What will we (re)make?—something meaningful, beautiful, soulful, and of course wonderful
I am thinking we should listen to the past—the designers who have come before us. We will talk about their work, and in the end we will better understand what sensibilities we respond to and perhaps why we are moved by what they have brought into the world.
HOURS TWO TO FOUR:
We will each re-make a poster design we have identified in as much exacting detail as possible using glue sticks to collage the color of pre-printed magazine pages or another printed matter. We can add colored tape, and anything else that seems relevant. Let it be know that we will be scribes bringing something from the past into the future. Our ability to get it exact will be our responsibility. We will be as precise as we can be given the tools at our disposal acting as if we are court stenographers or monks recording sermons. It should be good illuminating crafted fun.
It should be noted that we will not be able to look at the original once the process of replication begins. It will only reside in our minds eye during the making process. There will be no headphones AS OUR COLLECTIVE VOICES, SIGHS, BREATHING WILL BE THE ONLY SOUND that fills the room. Only serious play and focus will fill our two-hour making time. Each person will in essence be a human filter as they channel those who made this design before them.
OBJECTIVE:
The replication of something held close will be an act of creative respect, homage, and adoration. In doing so, we will serve as a human filter of the past welcoming it into the future all the while absorbing the vision, aptitude, and sensibilities of someone who came before us. In doing so WE WILL BE ONE WITH OUR SUBJECT.
NOTE:
This approach is different than the ubiquitous design school assignment of creating a poster ‘about’ a master designer or ‘in the style’ of that designer. This assignment is actually all about ‘being one’ with our subject matter which will be the thread that runs through my public lecture.
HOUR FIVE AND SIX:
We will look, talk, see how close we came to the originals we replicated. We will make a few personal notes as to how it felt to channel someone else’s sensibilities and vision. We will assess our own personal creative stretch and growth. We will recognize our place in the continuum of designers. We will photograph our work and juxtapose it to the right of the original we will post this jpeg along with a closeup detail or two on a Facebook group page we make for the session. we will credit ourselves and we will acknowledge the original designer. we will send the Facebook post to our entire friend list. We will say goodbye to each other thanking them for sharing what will have been a most special day.
How do we prepare for this workshop?
Think deeply about all of the poster designs they have seen and experienced throughout their life, in books, on the web, in the cineplex, wherever. Concentrate as to which of all these posters is THE poster design that moves them most. Collect thoughts as to why they are moved by this design.
- Is it the composition?
- Is it the brilliant idea?
- Is it the color?
- Is it the typography?
- What is it that moves you?
- Research who did it, what year, what country, what firm, why, for what client, etc.
- Be prepared to discuss their discovery with the class. consider it a personal treasure on show and tell day.
- Before we meet capture an image of the poster. enlarge it in color at the highest resolution you can find. Bring a vertical 11" x 17" reproduction so we may hang it along with everyone else’s on the wall. Have a jpeg ready (see below)
Trace the image understand everything you can about it know it as if you created it yourself by doing this you will get closer to being one with the subject.
What supplies are needed?
Supplies will include: glue stick(s); x-acto blades 2-3 pieces of 15" x 20" (or larger) white illustration board; tape colored and/or clear gouache; brush magazines and printed stuff (START COLLECTING THEM NOW); no press type, no computer, no camera, no laser printer, no image making tools except their hands, eyes and mind however, each student will be encouraged to photograph their making process with a phone camera. Vine compilations of the making in time lapse are welcomed.
FOR OUR WORKSHOP SETTING:
We will need a projector attached to a computer. a pdf of each poster from each student should be compiled into one multi-page pdf. each student sequence will be as follows:
- Slide 1: a black slide with their name in white set in any type face that best expresses who they are at any size and position on the frame.
- Slide 2: a selfie
- Slide 3: their favorite poster image
- Slide 4: their second and third choices as one side by side slide repeat the sequence for the next participant
Each student should be prepared to talk about their findings and listen to what the others have to say about theirs.
I always enjoy this time with students… let’s make it easy, fun, theatrical. Read More......
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Designer Rick Valicenti gives presentation at Dordt College
SIOUX CENTER, IA – Design legend Rick Valicenti will share his optimistic perspective on communication design at Dordt College on Wednesday, October 9, at 7 p.m. Valicenti will present “Time Well Spent II” in the Ribbens Academic Complex classroom CL1444/1148. Event parking is located in the parking lot west of the Ribbens Academic Complex.
Valicenti is the founder and design director of Thirst, a Chicago-based communication design practice devoted to art, function, play, and real human presence. He has been influencing the design discourse internationally since 1988 and is a leading presence in design as a practitioner, educator, and mentor.
The White House honored Valicenti in 2011 with the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Communication Design. In 2006, he received the AIGA Medal, considered the highest honor of the graphic design profession. In 2004, he was recognized as a Fellow of AIGA Chicago. He is a former president of the Society of Typographic Arts and is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale.
Several works of Valicenti are in permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Cooper-Hewitt National Design, and the Columbia University Rare Books Collection.
Valicenti’s presentation is sponsored by the Dordt College Department of Art and Design, AIGA Student Group, and the Co-curricular Committee.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
George Grant Elmslie and Alfonso Iannelli — two designers for the 1936 Oliver P. Morton School, Hammond, Indiana
George Grant Elmslie, American (born Scotland), 1869-1952
Main building cornice panel, Terracotta. 1936
Manufactured by Midland Terracotta Company, Chicago, 1919–39; Fritz Albert (American, 1865-1940), modeler
From the Oliver P. Morton School, Hammond, Indiana
(demolished 1991); William S. Hutton, architect, and George Grant Elmslie, designer
Collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, gift of Cathers and Dembrosky
Photograph by versluis
An interesting correlation of symbolism and motif exists between George Grant Elmslie and Alfonso Iannelli who were two designers for the 1936 Oliver P. Morton School, Hammond, Indiana.
A wonderful exhibition titled, “The Progressive Pencil: George Elmslie’s Prairie School Designs” is currently on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Regarding this piece the exhibition label explains the following:
In the 1930s, Elmslie collaborated with the architect William S. Hutton on three public elementary schools in Hammond, Indiana: the Oliver P. Morton School, the Thomas A. Edison School, and Washington Irving School. All three received funding from the Public Works Administration, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933.
The Morton school and the concurrently designed and built Edison school impressively combined Prairie School rectilinearity with Elmslie’s organic ornamentation and large-scale figural sculpture. This panel—one of a series crowning the cornice of the Morton school—features the dynamic “flying V” Elmslie favored, along with abstracted floral and foliate ornament.
Alfonso Iannelli
American (born Italy), 1888-1965
Screen for Oliver P. Morton School, Hammond, Indiana, 1936
Photograph by versluis
Photograph taken from the exhibition, “Modernism’s Messengers: The Art of Alfonso and Margaret Iannelli — 1910 to 1965”
The panels were designed and made as multiples, stacked on one another and the joints grouted for the installation. The exhibition label for this piece states, “This panel was part of a decorative perforated terracotta screen above the entrance of the Oliver P. Morton Elementary School in Hammond, Indiana.” Read More......
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Chicago Design Museum’s 2013 Pop-up Exhibition “Work at Play”
The entry to the Chicago Design Museum’s 2013 Pop-up Exhibition titled, Work at Play. We had a delightful chat with Stuart Hall, gallery assistant, who stands in the background of this image.
A very interesting design exhibition occurred last month in Chicago. The 2013 Pop-up Exhibition titled Work at Play opened in conjunction
with Chicago Design Week and ran for the entire month of June. Block Thirty-Seven, located at 108 North State Street, was the venue for one of Chicago Loop Alliance’s newest Pop-Up Art Loop galleries, a 17,000-square-foot space on the building's third floor. One of the charters of Pop-Up Art Loop is to: “Transform vacant Loop storefronts into vibrant temporary art galleries throughout the year. Taking its name from one of the original 58 city blocks established in 1830, Block Thirty Seven was there at Chicago’s
birth. Today it stands as an iconic symbol of Chicago’s future.” The building is a symbol of regeneration and one of Chicago’s newest downtown landmarks.
The premise for the exhibition states, “For many, the compulsion to create is constant. It’s unstoppable. Beyond the hours at the office, we create, we make–we play. In an attempt to find our own voice, we may stumble upon a visual language that can speak for and, perhaps, inspire others. This year, we celebrate the blurred line
between work and play.”
Here are a couple of examples from the exhibition:
Matthew Hoffman
Fresh Start/Start Fresh — 2013
44 x 77
Artist statement: “Fresh Start/Start Fresh consists of a rotational two-word ambigram created from a single connecting line. This optical illusion reminds us that every day can be a fresh start.”
Note: Shown above is my test of Matthew’s work where I took
the liberty of playing with his word image of “fresh” by rotating
and stacking it underneath. —thank you.
Thomas Quinn
Everything We See is a Perspective, Not the Truth — 2013
When viewing at a certain point, the text becomes aligned.
Artist statement: “Anamorphic typography is a special experience in which an arrangement of letters look perfectly set from a single point within a room, while looking wildly distorted from all other points. The message takes this experience and ties it to a larger point about seeing situations from another perspective.”
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
AIGA Chicago: ”Between Light and Shadow“—realizing that chairs are creatures too
Left: Photographer: Tom Vack. Right: Design Director, Designer: Rick Valicenti.
Between Light and Shadow: The Designer/Photographer Relationship.
The AIGA Chicago event at Open Secret Studio / Chicago.
Tuesday evening, June 11, 2013.
photograph by versluis 2013
Photograph from the Open Secret Studio balcony by Steven Brooks. Photograph taken from flickr: AIGA Chicago’s photostream.
A few page spreads from the Holly Hunt Image Book—image is courtesy of Graphis. Client: Holly Hunt. Design Director, Designer: Rick Valicenti. Designer: Robyn Paprocki. Illustrator: John Pobojewski. Illustrator: Cameron Brand. Photographer: Tom Vack
On Tuesday evening, June 11, 2013 during Chicago Design Week the AIGA Chicago held a fantastic show and tell event at the Open Secret Studio in Chicago. The event was publicized as “Between Light and Shadow: The Designer/Photographer Relationship,” which featured designer Rick Valicenti of Thirst/3st and photographer Tom Vack who spent time talking about their collaborative process to produce the beautiful Holly Hunt Image Book. Classic Color in Chicago printed the 64-page catalog on Sappi Fine Papers called Opus.
After brief introductions from event co-chairs Brendan Shanley and Robyn Paprocki the meeting was kicked-off by Holly Hunt of Holly Hunt Enterprises Inc., followed by Rick Valicenti who led the evening presentation. Rick is a cultural innovator, a leading contemporary designer and visionary, design director and visual artist. Tom Vack is an acclaimed photographer and visual artist and remarkable for his imagination.
It seems that nothing is impossible for Valicenti and Vack when collaborating on a design project. However, as Valicenti declared: “Without a visionary client [Holly Hunt] we don’t get to practice [visionary] design.” Rick suggested that a truly collaborative process begins with a fanciful client. For Valicenti and Vack a working collaborative process instigates open-mindedness and encouragement among the contributors.
Indeed, one of the most unique and striking things about Holly Hunt is that she sees her collection of furniture, lighting, and accessories as not merely inanimate objects, but actually as creatures. According to Rick it was in the planning stages of the Holly Hunt Studio catalog that Holly reviewed the sumptuous materials and surfaces of her new collection and exclaimed, “The aliens have landed and they are beautiful”. For Valicenti, Holly’s response captured the motif and emotion of the collection that “things are new again”.
Rick acknowledged that it was through the cooperation of all the participants including the people at Classic Color and Sappi who deserved much credit for continuing the collaborative spirit in order to complete the project. Tom Vack suggested that new designs, new processes and new materials require new approaches when developing tear-sheet images for the Holly Hunt Collection.
Rick explained the technical aspects of the production process while printing the page reverse negative image of the long sofa. At that moment he decided that the image needed an aura of gold flecks, which was then added to the UV coating. As a result the “fairy dust” effect would emphasize Holly’s initial quote, “The aliens have landed and they are beautiful”. Interestingly, the impact of this technique creates the quality and feel of traditional Japanese painting with mineral pigments on linen.
Additionally, Rick mentioned in a HOW Design/Sappi interview, “that many of the images are actually combinations of many images, each illuminating with a slightly different lighting direction. Once layered in post-production, this created geometric patterns of light and shadow.”(1) As Tom Vack mentioned, “photography and lighting is a formal process and with digital photography light can be anywhere and I can move it around the subject the way a Cubist way—by layering the images and erasing parts of the layers to combine and reveal the layers beneath—in this way, I developed the images.”
- Mazzoleni, Melissa. “Photographer & Designer Discuss New Furniture Design Publication - See more at: www.howdesign.com/how-design-blog/photographer-designerdiscussfurniture-design-publication/.” HOW Design Blog 11 June 2013. Web. 15 June 2013.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764–1820) architect of the Baltimore Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Baltimore Basilica, built from 1806-1821, was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Latrobe is known as the first professionally trained architect in the United States, and was Thomas Jefferson’s chosen architect of the U.S. Capital Building. Photograph by versluis 2013.
A watercolor showing the architectural elevation and cross-section indicating the interior details. The bell towers are are not the same as was actually built. This piece is in the Baltimore Basilica archives, photograph by versluis 2013.
The wonderful details of the “coffered” dome and skylights. Latrobe’s chandelier design is an exact reproduction. Photograph taken with available light by versluis 2013.
Interior view showing the pews, organ loft, and side windows, which apparently were suggested to Latrobe by Thomas Jefferson. The fresco shown above is one of four designed by Latrobe honoring the four gospel writers of the New Testament. Photograph taken with available light by versluis 2013.
View of the masonry vaults that support the huge weight of the dome. Latrobe’s mathematics and engineering ingenuity seems very modern. Photograph taken with available light by versluis 2013.
For the design of the Baltimore Basilica, built from 1806-1821, Latrobe worked with Renaissance-style engineering ingenuity to produce a remarkable building. The Basilica is of the neoclassical typology, which was au courant at the turn of the 18th century in Western Europe, particularly in France. However, Latrobe’s brand of neoclassicism creates a striking edifice that freely and soberly translates the spirit of ancient Greek architectural principles and proportions, which results in a distinctively American architecture. The spare interior balances elegantly with the wonderful details of coffered dome and skylights. The combination of formal simplicity and structural complexity is harmonized to the service of Roman Catholic liturgy and symbolic of God’s grace. With a minimal amount of ornament (decoration meant monarchical decadence to Latrobe) the monochromatic yellow color scheme helps accentuate the effect of a worship space that is filled with natural light (the light of inner heaven) entering through the dome and large, clear glass side windows.
To give further insight into this building, The Catholic Review published an article by Suzanne Molino Singleton to commemorate a major restoration of the Basilica completed in 2006.
Singleton’s essay quotes Jeffery Cohen, architectural historian from Bryn Mawr College, who writes, “The basilica’s architectural significance is less a matter of such single features, and more a matter of monumental yet simplified geometry that vividly brought this more severe phase of neoclassicism to the heart of an American city. ” (1)
Singleton continues by saying, “Mr. Cohen explains that Latrobe had worked in this vein on a smaller scale in Philadelphia, and more in internal spaces at the U.S. Capitol, “but in Baltimore he had more scope and scale, and it challenged him to explore more complex possibilities of architectural iconography and lighting.” (2)
Because of its hilltop building site, the Basilica, at the time it was constructed, would stand out for all to see as a symbol and beacon for religious freedom in the new democratic republic. Today the Basilica is surrounded by the city buildings of downtown Baltimore and has become integral in its urban environment.
- Singleton, Suzanne Molino. “An Architectural Masterpiece.” The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Ed. Daniel L. Medinger. Baltimore: The Catholic Review of The Catholic Foundation, 26 Oct. 2006: B29-30. Print.
- Ibid. B30.
Friday, May 3, 2013
New Work: AIGA South Dakota’s QUOTE THIS! art gallery show — Tis the season for graduation cakes.
This is Versluis’s piece for AIGA South Dakota’s QUOTE THIS! art gallery show. The QUOTE THIS! group exhibition features handmade typographic renderings of one’s favorite design quote. The show is now on view at the Sioux Falls Design Center from May–July 2013. Versluis’s piece is a photograph of a custom-ordered, hand-lettered graduation cake that honors a quote by designer Morton Goldsholl who once stated, “Bad Design is Useless and a Sham.”
About a year ago while spending Sabbatical time at Thirst (3st) I found this wonderful quote by Morton Goldsholl while studying one of Rick Valicenti’s fabulous sketchbooks. Valicenti had heard Mort make this statement:
And speaking more about Rick’s connection with Morton Goldsholl — here’s a recent designboom interview in which Valicenti responds to a question:
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Something that I always remember was told to me by Morton Goldsholl, a Chicago design legend and student of Moholy Nagy’s first class at the New Bauhaus: on a rainy night some 30 years ago I drove to Mort’s office to meet the man with a friend, Michael Glass, and together we stood soaked, knocking at his front door. When he answered, we were both completely tongue tied. Out of panic, I asked, ‘If you could share any wisdom with two young designers what would it be?’ Mort answered with, ‘I have three words for you both – take a risk.’ Then he closed the door, and we left! (1)
- “Rick Valicenti (3st) Interview.” designboom. designboom.com, 29 Jan. 2013. Web. 2 May 2013.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
John Cage used press type to compose his mesostics
M: Writings ’67–‘72, 1973
Author: John Cage
Art director/designer: Raymond M. Grimaila, Middletown, Connecticut
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Interestingly, for the cover design Grimaila chose a type
style for the “M” that seems to be a precursor to Dala Floda.
This is an inside spread (p.122-23) from a chapter known as the Mushroom Book. Cage used press type to compose and produce his mesostics designs.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is hosting a marvelous ongoing exhibition series that features iconic works from the MCA Collection. Currently there’s a “Mixed Media” show titled, MCA DNA: John Cage, which started September 1 and runs to March 3, 2013. MCA online information explains the artifacts on display this way:
Materials demonstrating how to interpret the score of this important work [A Dip in the Lake: Ten Quicksteps, Sixty-two Waltzes, and Fifty-six Marches for Chicago and Vicinity (1978)], which later entered the MCA Collection, are on view along with scores and books drawn from the more than eighty items associated with Cage in the MCA Artists’ Books Collection.The exhibition at MCA honors the John Cage Centennial as well as Cage’s long-time relationship with the MCA. One of Cage’s pieces on display is one of his diary series, M: Writings ’67–‘72 that was published in 1973. The book features a collection of Cage’s mesostics that are, as someone described them, “inspired by music, mushrooms, Marcel Duchamp, Merce Cunningham, Marshall McCluhan, etc. and includes ‘Mureau’ composed from the writings of Henry David Thoreau.”
This publication was recognized in AIGA’s Fifty Books of the Year (1974) and is in the AIGA design archives. The Design Archives description states: “This is a miscellany written and printed pretty much according to the I Ching. It seems abstruse, but attuned readers can enjoy Cage’s high humor while soaking in the penetrating insights and anecdotes intended to ‘unstructured bourgeois’.”
Bibliography:Read More......
Cage, John. M: Writings, ’67-’72. n.p.: Wesleyan University Press, 1973. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 21 Dec. 2012.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Minimalism, Measurement, and Primary Structures: Sol LeWitt, Stanley Tigerman, and Elaine Lustig Cohen
Sol LeWitt (American, 1928–2007)
Modular Cube/Base, 1967 (two views), photographs by versluis
Painted wood
Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, restricted gift of MCA Collectors Group, Men’s Council, and Women’s Board; Young/Hoffman Gallery; and National Endowment for the Arts Purchase Grant, 1978.60.1-2
Sol LeWitt was one of the important artists who participated in the 1966 Primary Structures exhibition that featured artwork associated with Minimalism. LeWitt’s piece, illustrated above, is representative of his work from 1967. This particular sculpture was displayed earlier this year in a post World War II anthology exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The exhibition featured artifacts from the MCA collection; the curatorial documentation mentions that:
In LeWitt’s sculptures such as this, cubes of fixed dimension (made even more clear by the gridded base) combine to create a much larger form. The relation between part and whole can be seen as a metaphor for all systems, whether natural or man-made, visible or subatomic, lending such exercises a truly humanistic overtone.
Elaine Lustig Cohen (b. 1927), catalog for The Jewish Museum (front and back covers)
Primary Structures: Younger American & British Sculptors, 1966
image is from Display.
Regarding the Primary Structures exhibition the MCA Chicago documentation states:
Building Blocks
One of the earliest exhibitions surveying the art movement that came to be known as Minimalism was titled Primary Structures. Presented at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1966, the exhibition and its theme still offer a useful way to think about some of the central concerns of artists working at that time. As the title suggests, the artists stripped their sculpture of unnecessary embellishment, focusing on the core components that shape two- and three-dimensional form. This approach directs us to focus on how an object is assembled, how its parts relate to one another, and the powerful effect color can have on perception and meaning, foregrounding the importance of the subtleties of surface, hue, texture, proportion, and relationships among these components. …
Stanley Tigerman (b. 1930), Formica Showroom, Grid Axonometric, 1986.
A wonderful correlation and contrast exists between LeWitt’s Modular Cube/Base and Tigerman’s drawing for the Formica Showroom project shown above. In the Cesi n‘est pas une rêverie: The Architecture of Stanley Tigerman exhibition catalog Emmanuel Petit writes:
Tigerman considers measurement to be an essential principle of legibility in architecture, and he sees the grid as the most potent architectural tool to structure space and time in a project. Unlike Mies, with his unequivocal grids, Tigerman avails himself of multiple grid systems that dislocate the sense of stability, orientation, and hierarchy, to suggest the existence of another non-linear order in architecture. (1)
- Petit, Emmanuel. "Nine Clouds of Architecture." Cesi n‘est pas une rêverie: The Architecture of Stanley Tigerman. Ed. Nina Rappaport. New Haven: Yale School of Architecture, 2011. n. pag. Print.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Chicago design luminaries
The newest STA (Society of Typographic Arts) publication, “Carl Regehr: The Lost Journals” (1968–1983) was recently introduced at the STA 85th anniversary celebration. I had the opportunity to attend the recent STA 85th anniversary celebration in Chicago on Friday, October 26 and was thrilled to have several Chicago design luminaries autograph my copy of the book. Above is photograph of the title page spread with the signatures of Jack Weiss, Susan Jackson Keig, Robert Vogele, and Norman Perman.
Interestingly, Susan Jackson Keig, who had been one of Moholy-Nagy’s first students at the New Bauhaus in Chicago during the late 30s and early 40s, said that Moholy also taught business courses because money was so tight for the design school.
In this blog I’ve published a couple of pieces about Carl Regehr (1919-1983) who was one of Chicago’s best designers and educators, an Honorary Member of The STA, recepient of its Design Educator Award in 1983 the excellent designer and design educator. The STA organization of mainly graphic design professionals was brought back about a decade ago. From its inception the STA has had a robust series of events, hosted visiting designers and produced several noteworthy publications.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Herbert Matter’s 1955 History of Writing Mural for the Grosse Pointe Public Library
The Central branch of the Grosse Pointe Public Library was designed by architect Marcel Breuer and opened in 1953 in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. Shown (top is a vintage photograph of the library building that dates from the around the mid-50s. The image above is of Herbert Matter’s (1907–1984) History of Writing photomontage-mural for the Grosse Pointe Public Library, which was completed in 1955. This image is a clipping from a 1956 article in American Artist magazine written by Eugene M. Ettenberg. For the caption, Ettenberg summarized Matter’s project outline:
Matter’s mural, twenty-five feet long and nine feet high, for the new Grosse Pointe, Michigan Public Library designed by Marcel Breuer, portrays the history of the alphabet. Starting with the prehistoric stone scribblings, it follows the development of our letters through pictographs—cave drawings, hieroglyphs, Easter Island and Mayan markings—early communications from Crete, China, Arabia, and right up to the present-day letter form we term “Egyptian” to be seen on the locomotives and cars of the New Haven Railroad.
Detail images above are courtesy of the Grosse Pointe Public Library. Select image for a larger view.
According to library information, W. Hawkins Ferry felt it would be appropriate for the library to have art depicting the development of the written word (the idea was Matter’s concept) and commissioned Matter to do the mural. The mural, completed in 1955 for the adult reading room, is a photomontage—Matter’s preferred medium. The work displays a pattern of communication symbols and illustrates the evolution of writing from 12,000 B.C. It includes elements of Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese and the typeface of the Gutenberg Bible.
Above is a brief, hand-written correspondence from Matter to Breuer (1955) that accompanied the enclosure outlining the chronology of artifacts and elements within the mural. Apparently there were inevitable delays in completing the mural on time and in the note Matter thanks Breuer for his patience. This piece is in the Marcel Breuer Digital Archive, Syracuse University Library. [1]
- Matter, Herbert. Letter to Marcel Breuer: Mural for the Grosse Pointe Public Library. 1951-52 [1955]. Syracuse University, Syracuse. Web. 5 June 2012.
Image is courtesy of the Grosse Pointe Public Library. Read More......
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Thirst / 3st posters on display at Dordt College
The Dordt College Department of Art and Design is currently featuring poster designs created by the Chicago-based design studio, Thirst.
The exhibit is currently on display in the Dordt College Art Gallery located inside the Campus Center, and it will run through July 15. The public is welcome to enjoy the exhibit free of charge Monday through Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Founder of Thirst and Graphic Designer Rick Valicenti has shared a sampling of posters that span the company’s nearly 25-year history including the 2011 Show Boat poster which is part of the seminal Lyric Opera of Chicago poster series, a decade of Illinois Institute of Design College of Architecture Lecture series posters, and the internationally acclaimed LOEB posters for Harvard’s Graduate Students of Design.
The exhibition was assembled by art (graphic design) professor David Versluis who spent the spring semester on sabbatical in Chicago working at Thirst. “This is the largest collection of Thirst’s posters outside of their studio,” said Versluis. “Viewers seem to be keenly aware that this exhibition is smart and special with exceptional imagination. Each poster has high visual impact while collectively this body of work is stunning.”
Valicenti has been influencing design internationally since 1988. He is a leader in design, taking on roles of practitioner, educator, and mentor.
In John Foster’s book New Masters of Poster Design, Valicenti says, “The best part of designing a poster is the hardest part of designing a poster—deciding what to actually print. Unlike when designing a catalog or book, the designer has but one page to express the program, the event, or the system, not 32 or 332 pages! I thoroughly enjoy the challenge.”
In 2011, Valicenti was awarded the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Award in Communication Design, an honor designated by the White House. The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) honored Valicenti the Medal in 2006, the highest honor of the graphic design profession, for his sustained contribution to design excellence and the development of the profession. He was recognized as an AIGA/Chicago Fellow in 2004 and has been a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) since being invited in 1996.
Valicenti has juried the President’s Design Awards for the National Endowment for the Arts during the George H.W. Bush and William Clinton Administrations. Valicenti also serves on the Board of Directors of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been published in major graphic design publications including Eye.06 (London), Émigré (twice) and Idea (in Tokyo). His book, Emotion as Promotion, was published by Monacelli Press in 2005. Read More......
Monday, April 16, 2012
AIGA Chicago’s 2012 Design Thinking Series I — Rob Giampietro: designer, writer, critic, curator, and educator.
Rob Giampietro’s fast-paced presentation at AIGA Chicago’s Design Thinking Series took place last Thursday night in the classy glass auditorium at Morningstar, Inc. AIGA Chicago’s biennial Design Thinking Series promotes the idea that “Design is always changing. It continually transforms how we engage with each other and our world in new and exciting ways. New processes, strategies and technologies are invented. Historical precedents are reevaluated and critiqued. Innovative storytelling and narrative techniques are formed.”
The April 12 event was first in the 2012 series. The summary and essence of Giampietro’s thesis is how writing informs graphic design practice—specifically, how the cooperative of writing, criticism, and graphic design articulate metaphorical ideas as messages to audiences. For Giampietro “metaphorical systems” are directly correlated to the design process and linked to form making. As a graphic designer and educator Rob Giampietro’s research and writing helps him, as he says, “reflect on ideas more deeply.”
Concerning criticism and metaphor here are some excerpts from Rob’s presentation slides:
Criticism at its core is merely the act of revealing links between objects. —Rachel Rosenfelt, Editor-in-Chief, “The New Inquiry”
In addition:
The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one thing in terms of another. —George Lakoff & Mark Johnson, “Metaphors we Live By”
- Metaphors are conceptual; they’re not just a matter of words.
- Concepts are not always literal; many ontological concepts are highly metaphorical.…
Rob Giampietro, a principal at Project Projects, helped to design the SALT identity system in 2011. Above is a photo of the SALT identity installation (centered) as it appeared at Walker Art Center’s, Graphic Design: Now in Production show earlier this year. The identity is comprised of the “suggestive” (allusive) typeface Kraliçe, designed by Timo Gaessner. According to Ellen Lupton, in the exhibition catalog, “The graphic identity for SALT, a cultural institution in Istanbul, avoids the idea of a logo altogether.” photographs by versluis. Read More......
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