© 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.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
“Notable Quotable” — A Student Typography Poster Competition
Saturday, October 10, 2015
Calvin College presents 50/50 — 50 Alumni in 50 Years
From September 8 through October 10, the Center Art Gallery (Gallery 1) at Calvin College presented 50/50 – 50 Alumni in 50 Years. The invitational show was curated by Director of Exhibitions, Joel Zwart and hosted in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of the Department of Art and Art History at Calvin College. The photograph above is from the reception recently held on Saturday, October 3. Photographs by versluis ©2015.
The red sculpture is a piece entitled:
Boundless Spirit: A Steady Flame by David Versluis
Powder coated, welded steel, and aluminum base
62"H x 32"W x 23"D
2014
Thursday, September 17, 2015
David Versluis | Roy R. Behrens: a collaborative series of Iowa Insect Montages
The Iowa Insect Digital Montage Series preface by Roy R. Behrens:
David Versluis and I decided to try something. He has a collection of Iowa bugs (dead ones) of which he made exquisite scans at high resolution. He began to send me the scan files, one at a time by e-mail, with the challenge that I should respond to them by beginning to build a digital montage, using Adobe Photoshop. I could do whatever I liked. Then I would pass that back to him, in response to which he’d make a move—and pass it back to me again (as if we were playing chess). And so on, usually with five or six back-and-forth turns, until we mutually came to suspect that the work was finished. So that’s how we proceeded.
Beetle I Digital Montage (2012) © David Versluis and Roy R. Behrens
40 x 60 inches
Beetle II Digital Montage (2012) © David Versluis and Roy R. Behrens
40 x 60 inches
Cicada Digital Montage (2012) © David Versluis and Roy R. Behrens
40 x 60 inches
Yellow Jacket Digital Montage (2012) © David Versluis and Roy R. Behrens
40 x 60 inches
Dragonflies with Cicada Digital Montage (2012) © David Versluis and Roy R. Behrens
40 x 60 inches
Scarab Beetles Digital Montage (2012) © David Versluis and Roy R. Behrens
40 x 60 inches
Hoverflies Digital Montage (2012) © David Versluis and Roy R. Behrens
40 x 60 inches
Leaf Beetle Digital Montage (2012) © David Versluis and Roy R. Behrens
40 x 60 inches
Ladybird Beetle Digital Montage (2012) © David Versluis and Roy R. Behrens
40 x 60 inches
Cicada Husk Digital Montage (2012) © David Versluis and Roy R. Behrens
40 x 60 inches Read More......
Thursday, September 10, 2015
typographer and architect juxtaposed: a version of ‘typotekt’
Antonius Kurvers (Dutch, 1889-1940)
Poster
Tentoonstelling van Nederlandsche
Gemeentewerken (Exhibition of Dutch Municipal Works [Utrecht]), 1926
Color lithograph; Van Leer, Printer
Gerrit Rietveld (Dutch, 1888-1964)
Sideboard, 1959 (designed 1919)
Beechwood, pigment
Gerard A. van de Groenekan, Maker (Dutch, 1904-1994)
From the Modernism Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Art
‘Typotekt’ is a shortening of the words typographer and architect and was a name used by Piet Zwart to describe himself as a graphic designer.
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Henry Moore: bones that are still alive
Henry Moore (British, 1898–1986)
Working Model for Divided Oval: Butterfly
Bronze, 1967; cast 1982
Collection of the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
photography by versluis ©2015
The model for Divided Oval feels like it’s from a sculptor who was also a bone and joint specialist. Dr. Calvin Seerveld has mentioned that, “You sense that Moore means to
pare things down to the essential bone, but the bones are still sinewy
and alive, not skeletal!”(1)
The following text is from Henry Moore Works in Public:
Moore’s own words, although not specifically relating to the Butterfly, reflect upon the alliance between tension and enigma…
My sculpture has a force, is a strength, is a life, a vitality from inside it, so that you have a sense that the form is pressing from inside trying to burst or trying to give off the strength from inside itself, rather than having something which is just shaped from outside and stopped. It’s as though you have something trying to make itself come to a shape from inside itself…
I think it should not be obvious exactly what a work of art is on the very first view. If it is obvious then, one tends to look at something, recognize it and then turn away, knowing what it is.’
- Seerveld, Calvin G. Rainbows for the Fallen World. Toronto: Toronto Tuppence Press, 2005. 231. Print.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Iterations (a design process): John Ronan’s the Poetry Foundation
Poetry Foundation Building, Chicago, Illinois. 2011
Photograph courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.
John Ronan Architects (American, founded 1997); John Ronan (born 1963)
The building comprises:
• a public garden
• a 30,000-volume library
• an exhibition gallery
• the Poetry Foundation’s programming offices
Presentation Model, 2008. The semi-transparent screen in front is featured.
Basswood, cardboard, and Plexiglas
Photographs taken from the exhibition Iterations: John Ronan’s Poetry Foundation.
December 14, 2013–May 4, 2014 at the Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 24.
Architecture & Design Society, 2012
Photographs by versluis @ 2015 unless otherwise indicated.
Diagrammatic Sketches, 2008
Computer print on paper exhibition copy
Architecture & Design Society, 2012
Iterative Models, 2008
Cardboard, paper, Plexiglas, and other materials
Collage and assemblage site-plans and floor-plans (projecting-up the plan views).
Architecture & Design Society, 2012
Precision drawing.
Architecture & Design Society, 2012
AIC exhibition didactics state:
For Ronan, the gestation of a design begins with analog processes. After a period of thinking the ideas are quickly sketched hand, or down-loaded, in a spontaneous and intuitive manner. This set of hand-drawn diagrams reflects Ronan’s initial thoughts about how best to integrate a garden—a requisite of the project—with the space’s other key elements: a public reading room and library a performance space, a gallery, and an office. Here Ronan explored different relationships—such as interlocking or overlapping—between the building and the garden, which he then translated onto the site plan. …
Founded in 1997 by John Ronan, the Chicago-based architecture firm John Ronan Architects has made its mark with a range of critically acclaimed buildings and a thoughtful approach to spatial relationships and materials. The firm uses a distinct, iterative methodology in order to explore a wide range of options at the outset of a project. While many architects have adopted a completely digital process, Ronan sees advantages in both handmade and digital design methods; the handmade process, seen here, allows for a more intuitive and less calculated approach that is valuable in the beginning stages, while digital tools allow for the precision necessary to finalize a design.
Operating on a shoestring budget since its 1912 founding by Harriet Monroe, Chicago-based Poetry magazine experienced a surprising windfall in 2003 with the bequest of approximately $200 million from the pharmaceutical heiress Ruth Lilly. The magazine reorganized as the Poetry Foundation and decided to build a permanent home to advance its mission of raising the public profile of poetry. After a thorough selection process, the organization selected John Ronan Architects to design the building.
For the Poetry Foundation, Ronan’s design process entailed thoughtful considerations about how to integrate the required elements of the building. As seen here, the iterative approach was used throughout the design’s development-from the initial diagrams and a set of site-specific models to the presentation model-with the goal of creating a compelling spatial narrative. Completed in 2011, the building was recognized with a national design award from the American Institute of Architects.
This exhibition has been mode possible with support from the Architecture & Design Society.Read More......
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Erich Mendelsohn: ascending the steps of Mount Zion—by design
Erich Mendelsohn, architect, (1887–1953)
Mount Zion Temple, Saint Paul, Minnesota, (1950–1954)
View from the northeast on Summit Avenue
Photography by versluis ©2015
Erich Mendelsohn was one of the great twentieth century architects. His buildings are characterized by sensitivity to the site and very expressive of the buildings purpose. Renovational updates of various areas of the building were completed in 2001 by the architectural firm of Bentz, Thompson and Reitow of Minneapolis.
View from the courtyard with Sanctuary in the background
Sanctuary
Hans D. Rawinsky’s The Burning Bush (Holy Presence), 1960
