Fifty People, One Question is a beautiful and magical short film by Benjamin Reece. You need to take seven minutes and watch this. Watch the short film in high deffintion.
We had an idea. Go to a place. Ask fifty people the same question. Film their responses.
Been having some good times with this little application that allows you to create Polaroid looking photos from your digital photographs. The results are great, as you can see from above.
Last night, a friend and I went to the the inaugural event for AIGA Connecticut, which is the Connecticut chapter of the American Institute for Graphic Artists. Sean Adams, the AIGA President gave an insightful and great talk on fear in the design business.
Over the last 10 years at AdamsMorioka, they’ve made mistakes. Big design mistakes. Some were a collision of events that hit like a train wreck. Some were self-produced. All of the mistakes were motivated by fear. When is fear appropriate in design? Are we on the Love Boat, or a voyage of the damned? How do we know the difference? Where are the lifeboats?
The next event is William Drenttel of Design Observer giving a talk on his so called public life, there is more information on that right here. Looking forward to joing this remarkable organization and I couldn’t be happier that it has been brought to this state. Even better, there is a student chapter that is being started at the Hartford Art School as well.
One of my new favorite blogs is entitled Smosch, it is just a beautiful online publication. It is a visual documentation of Sandra Juto’s life as an artist and illustrator. Be sure to engage in the photographs that can be found here. These two photos are from the site.
Apartamento is a recent online discovery that appears to be a good looking magazine that might just be worth our reading.
Apartamento is a new international editorial project dedicated to the world of interiors, born to tell the story of personal experiences and lifes through the spaces where we live and work. Everyday stories, seen without the usual masks of look-a-like interiors perfect to the millimeter, because in real life the variables are infinite and unpredictable, since every environment has got its own dynamics and peculiarities that make it special.
Apartamento aspire to be a source of inspiration, a new stimulating force to show how common people live, decorate their home and react to the same everyday life events that at some point might happen to all of us.
Project M is a brilliant project and initiative. They have a brand new website as well.
We are part of a design movement. We believe that ability equals responsibility. And we are not the only ones. So, we built a lab where designers like you can make a difference. We are building the tools that will build the future. And this is where you come in.
Malcolm Gladwell recently released his third book entitled Outliers. It has been added to my long list of books that I plan on consuming sometime in the future.
In this book I’m interested in people who are outliers—in men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as puzzling to the rest of us as a cold day in August.
On August 30th I moved into my new living space at the University of Hartford where I am attending The Hartford Art School. I am very happy here and all the people are amazing. The photo above is of my roommate Jeff and I at one of the art shows.
The Hartford Art School is a remarkable place and I am very happy to be pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design here. It feels magical to be making art all the time, we go to the studio late at night to work and it is a great feeling to be producing creative work in this new atmosphere. The professors are very friendly and caring on top of just being knowledgeable and creative individuals. The way the school works is that the first year we all take the same courses as every other art student, this is called Foundation Year. This semester I have a great lineup of classes.
Drawing is providing an introduction to representational drawing, we have done a large self portrait, large charcoals drawings, interior and exterior spaces, photo reproduction and will be moving on to the figure shortly. 3D is a sculpture class in which we create three dimensional work and we are now focusing on linear pieces of work. And 2D Color is a color theory class based around painting, we have been doing color scales, abstract paintings, and exploring the way different colors work with other colors. As for non-artist classes I am taking a course on Western Heritage and a Rhetoric and Writing course.
The first week there was an Alumni Art Show that some friends of mine and I went to. This was before classes even started and it was great to see all the work in the gallery and talk with some of the teachers. The photos above are of us at the show and my two favorite pieces.
Then there was The Hartford Art School Faculty Show which was a great experience to see the artwork that our teachers have made recently. We met up with some of our teachers and the opening was packed. The photos above are from that show.
Several weeks ago, my mom and I attended the AIGA Design Gala event in New York City. It was a wonderful experience and that evening I was honored for receiving an AIGA Worldstudio Scholarship. I went on stage an took a bow and spent the rest of the night with fellow recipients and meeting designers and contributing artists to my book. I met Debbie Millman, Armin Vit, Troy Monroe and many others. I ran into Scott Belsky from Behance where I am interning. Also, Khoi Vinh came and introduced himself, he is the design director for the New York Times website. Stanley Hainsworth was generous enough to buy the table for the scholarship receipents and has been the creative director at Nike, Starbucks, and LEGO. Also, I was introduced to Richard Grefe, the executive director of the AIGA and Ivan Chermayeff, past AIGA Medalist. The photos above are from that night in the city.
We also attending Adam Machose’s solo show in Hartford. He is our drawing teacher and he presented a series of small acrylic portraits of friends and imaginary characters.
The completed manuscript for my first book, Creative Grab Bag, was sent off to my wonderful editor over at HOW Books at the end of August. I have received initial feedback on everything and they are very pleased with the outcome of the book and the direction we are moving forward with it. The book is scheduled to be published sometime later this year in the Spring of 2009. Thank you to everyone who has made the book what it is and to all of the contributing artists. It is a wonderful thing to create a book and I look forward to sharing it with you.
There have also been some changes around here on my weblog and personal website. The header has been designed as a cleaner version of the past one. As seen in the navigation at the top the structure of the site as also changed. The Blog is now located on the front page and the retired web address for the weblog is now serving as an archive. There is a Portfolio of graphic design work which will soon feature new work from The Hartford Art School, there is Books section which contains information on Creative Grab Bag and A New World Platform, along with the About section where you can learn more about myself.
In the Elsewhere section of the sidebar there have been the additions of Last.FM which tracks all of the music that I listen too and FriendFeed which combines all my online activity into one online space. For the time being Videos for Creatives, a weblog featuring video from the online creative world is being retired.
The other night we made some pasta in the kitchen on the bottom floor of our building. My roommate Jeff has started a radio show on campus and some friends and I sat in as guests for a little while. I got a typewriter for our place as well. And tried tea, some funky lights, and a live plant. A bunch of nights we worked in the studio for a while, late into the night. And during the week I get the New York Times for free, I read it every day. The photos below are from all of those experiences. You can see more pictures from all of the recent events including the art shows, the AIGA Design Gala, and my time at The Hartford Art School here.
The blog moving forward will have four main types of posts, Photography posts containing just photos from my life, Art School Work will feature photos from the work I have produced along with artists statements, Sharing Links will be a collection of links to other interesting things online, and then Normal Posts will be my own thoughts, stories, and projects.
I will soon be introducing a series of poster for sale, along with some new photography, recent projects from my art classes, and a brand new project that will document my art school career and life going forth in a new manner. Thanks to you all, your the best, see you soon.
