“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 

HOUR ONE:
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) 

BEFORE WE MEET:
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:

1. 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. 
2. Slide 2: a selfie 
3. Slide 3: their favorite poster image 
4. Slide 4: their second and third choices as one side by side slide repeat the sequence for the next participant 

NOTE:
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.

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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.”

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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. 

1. 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. 
2. Ibid. B30.

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The Bridge as a Relational Metaphor

Image from iStockphoto.

The bridge can be thought of as a relational metaphor about establishing connections. Driving along on the Zeeland Bridge, which is the longest bridge in the Netherlands, you feel as if you’re magically riding on water. Writer/designer, George Nelson writes insightfully about bridges in his book, How to See:

Bridges

Of all the structures and machines used for going places, the bridge is unique. Unlike the road, an earthbound strip, the bridge leaps, taking imagination with it. Like the plane, it defies gravity, but noiselessly. It “moves” with infinite grace without going anywhere. It never causes visual pollution; it soars across rivers and chasms, enhancing natural environments. The names of great bridge builders [and bridges] are remembered.

The beauty of bridges, as we perceive the best of them, is related to the fact that they are a single-purpose design, and that all of their components are directly related to this one purpose. Everyone understands what a bridge is and does. The same is true of aqueducts.

Technology, while continually refining bridge design, has little effect on our response: The Pont-du-Gard, built by the Romans a thousand years ago, is as satisfying an ornament in the French landscape today as it ever was. … [1]

1. Nelson, George. How to See: A Guide to Reading Our Manmade Environment. Boston, Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. 129-33. Print.

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Mies’s Modern in Chicago and a booklet by Michael Glass Design

The lead-in image shows the cover, last page with location map, and building list on the inside back cover.

This booklet, produced in 1986, is a kind of pocket catalog of architectural work by Mies van der Rohe that’s located in the city of Chicago. This 24-page booklet, which includes the cover, is a very fine example of solid editorial content with building descriptions by Wim De Wit and Catherine Ingraham. Terry A.R. Neff edited the copy. Most of the architectural photographs are from Hedrich-Blessing. The piece was designed by Michael Glass Design, Inc. of Chicago and published by the Museum Contemporary of Art, Chicago.

In the introduction, Lynne Warren writes, “Mies van der Rohe was not only one of the great architects of the 20th century; he was, because his work served as the paradigm of the Modern style, a figurehead around whom the aspirations and achievements of the Modern aesthetic could be analyzed and critiqued. This critique consisted of sometimes louder, sometimes quieter, complaints that the steel-and-glass towers of which Mies was responsible for filling the urban landscape were cold, austere, and inhuman. Recently the raucous forms and florid embellishments of what is called the postmodern style have brought out greater appreciation of the modern style’s simplicity and elegant beauty, and Mies’s contribution can be easily comprehended.”

Michael Glass’s piece captures the clarity of modern style architecture with a relatively simple one-column layout format with text typography set in Helvetica and justified. However, the last two pages indicated above deviates from the justified format as an anomaly with left alignment and ragged-right. The uppercase cover typography elegantly suggests and mimics the high-raise structure and linearity of Mies’s designed buildings.

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Quotations on creativity — E. Paul Torrance

Photograph of E. Paul Torrance is from the blog Thriving Too in a piece posted by Tessy titled “The Power of Creativity,” May 15, 2010.

“They found a large number of significant correlations between the non-aptitude traits and the measures of ideational fluency and originality. Ideational fluency appears to be related to impulsiveness, self-confidence, ascendance, greater appreciation of originality and inclination away from neuroticism. Those having higher originality scores tend to be more interested in aesthetic expression, in meditative or reflective thinking, and appear to be more tolerant of ambiguity, and to feel less need for discipline and orderliness.” —E. Paul Torrance

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Quotations on creativity—Gertrude Stein

Portrait of Gertrude Stein, with American flag as backdrop (1935 January 4)
Photographer: Carl Van Vechten
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Van Vechten Collection, reproduction number LC-USZ62-103680

Graphic design students as well as writers may find this quote, by American expatriate writer/author Gertrude Stein, an interesting model for practice:

… ‘You will write … if you will write without thinking of the result in terms of a result, but think of the writing in terms of discovery, which is to say the creation must take place between the pen and the paper, not before in a thought, or afterwards in a recasting. Yes, before in a thought, but not in careful thinking. It will come if it is there and you will let it come, and if you have anything you will get a sudden creative recognition. You won’t know how it was, even what it is, but it will be creation if it came out of the pen and out of you and not out of an architectural drawing of the thing you are doing … I can tell how important it is to have that creative recognition. You cannot go into the womb to form the child; it is there and makes itself and comes forth whole—and there it is and you have made it and felt it, but it has come itself—and that is creative recognition. Of course you have a little more control over your writing than that; you have to know where you want to get; but when you know that, let it take you and if it seems to take you off the track don’t hold back, because that is perhaps where instinctively you want to be and if you hold back and try to be always where you have been before, you will go dry’ …

Quote found in “The Uses of the Unconscious in Composing” by Janet Emig (1964), 7-8. In her essay, Emig cites her source as: John Hyde Preston, “A Conversation with Gertrude Stein,” in Brewster Ghiselin, The Creative Process (New York, 1962), 159-160.

Emig, Janet A. “The Uses of the Unconscious in Composing.” JSTOR: College Composition and Communication, Vol. 15, No. 1, Composition as Art. JSTOR, Feb. 1964. Published by: National Council of Teachers of English. Web. 21 July 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/355938.

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“Me, Myself & Design” 2010

Dordt senior student, Paul Hanaoka, presents his portfolio to Mr. Joe Sparano of Oxide Design Inc. of Omaha. As Sparano gives feedback, Dordt students, Andrew Hornor (background) and Mark Veldkamp (foreground) observe the review.

On Saturday, April 10, six of us from Dordt College traveled to the Concordia Campus in Lincoln, Nebraska to participate in “Me, Myself & Design” — an event organized by Mr. Paul Berkbigler, Director of Education, AIGA Nebraska. This festive occasion provides a great opportunity for students to meet professional graphic designers and to ask questions about what’s it like to work as a designer.

In addition to panel discussions and portfolio reviews, by the professionals, the event is an excellent way to connect with the AIGA member design community.

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Camoupedia: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage

Last summer, when Professor Roy Behrens’ ambitious book was published I asked our library to purchase a first edition, author-signed copy for Dordt’s collection. However, as soon as the book came in, out it went on inter-library loan to Virginia Tech University. Because the book has been on the road, it wasn’t until now that I’ve had a chance to read it.

Promotional copy from the publisher, Bobolink Books, states: “There is nothing else quite like this: The conclusion of 35 years of research, it features biographical articles on hundreds of artists, architects, stage designers, and zoologists—even automobile stylists and golf course planners—who contributed to military and/or natural camouflage in the 20th century. Enriched throughout by 344 illustrations, including photograph portraits, military photographs and documents, patent drawings, artworks and other images. It includes a comprehensive Camouflage Timeline, a 38-page bibliography of camouflage research sources, and in index.”

In high school I spent a lot of time in the library and found a book that interestingly described how some renowned artists during World War I painted designs on aircraft and artillery. A year later with a low draft number, a 1A classification and a freshman in college… I waited to be called-up for induction and military basic training. I thought that with my artistic ability perhaps I could paint camouflage for the Army rather than combat. Fortunately, the draft ended in early 1973.

Admittedly, I’ve been somewhat reluctant to get completely on board with the subject of camouflage, mainly because it brings me back to a time when I played army as a kid and frankly I find the military connotation to be disconcerting as well as making me think of the so-called Patriots on weekend training camps in the Michigan woods. On the other hand, the way living creatures in nature utilize protective coloring mimicry and body under-shading and background picturing is absolutely fascinating. This compendium conveys Behrens’ interest in camouflage like a naturalist studying the created world. For Behrens the import of studying camouflage is a thesis for how art and design communicates. In other words, what is the psychological impact of patterns, color, values, emphasis, scale, and space as the basis for visual language?

As is the case with Behrens’ other books, the “side bars” are always interesting and entertaining reading. In addition, one my favorite items is the camouflage “styles” and concordance listings.

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Keeping in touch

We thought many of you would be interested in this information. It's from Naomi De Boer who is working this summer at Alpha Omega Publications, which is based in Rock Rapids, Iowa.

Naomi says, "I was just trying to figure out an aspect of in-design when I ran across this website: http://school.tatoland.com/."

She goes on to say, "It looks like a really great resource if you want to read about the basics of a number of programs in the Adobe Creative Suite, including Flash and Dreamweaver. I thought maybe students who are just learning the programs for the first time, and even more experienced students, would appreciate an online resource. It's nice because if you have a question, it can be accessed while doing homework. Anyway, just thought I would pass that along, since I found it helpful."

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