GrooveLab

Rock, Roll & Sprout

During a brainstorming session this past week, our creative team was trying to come up with some ideas for our event & production company client. They will be giving a presentation to other Bay Area event planners and the presentation's main focus is sustainability and planing events that are more green. One of the ideas I threw out had to do with this innovative new paper I had just read about. It looks like an average sheet of paper but after reading what's printed on it, you can soak it in water, put it in the ground and it will sprout, grow and flower. We discovered a mom & daughter-run company in Canada that deals in all types of stationery and paper products using the paper.

A few days after our meeting I picked up "Break Up The Concrete" the new disc from the Pretenders. Anyone familiar with the band probably knows the politics of lead singer Crissy Hynde and her strong commitment to the environment and animal rights issues. I was pleased to find out that digi-pack wrap was actually made out of this special new plantable paper! Great new music and a fresh patch of flowers. What a great way to start off the week.

 

International Design Excellence Awards 2008

Industrial design is one of those areas of design that doesn't get talked about too much. At least, not in these pages. Groove doesn't get many opportunities to design vacuum cleaners or anything like that. But it is design nonetheless, and interesting design at that. Sometimes it can be quite beautiful, the way a logo or a building or a website can be.

Some of the top designs can be seen here. The winners include everything from a flexible computer screen to a digital camera for the visually impaired - a noble gadget if there ever was one. But I have to admit when I read about the water-resistant, vibrating massager all I could think was "Some people have too much time on their hands."

At any rate, see the gadgets pictured here and a lot more when you explore the site. Another interesting thing about the page is the heated discussion these designs sparked among site visitors. Scroll to the bottom to see posted comments.

Design Hero

Fabien Baron is the graphic design visionary who is probably the most responsible for my doing what I'm doing today. He and his namesake firm's portfolio ( www.baron-baron.com ) reads like a greatest hits of branding and design. Long before I even realized what graphic design was, I was impressed and mesmerized by his campaigns, magazine layouts and photography. He has continued to inspire me and my work throughout my career. So needless to say, I was extremely excited to hear that Fabien has recently taken over as the editor at Andy Warhol's Interview magazine!

The publication has been run with the incredible Ingrid Sischy at the helm for the past few decades. Her departure left a huge gap to fill. What's really exciting is what Ingrid brought to the publication as a journalist, Fabien will bring as a designer. Of course, Fabien is no stranger to Interview. In the late 80s he had a short stint as creative director. It was really the first time I saw typography as art. This was even before I even started design school. There have already been several "test issues" of Interview, the latest features Marc Jacobs on the cover with a Warhol wig on his head.

The official launch is the September issue. Word on the street is that in addition to the design there will be changes to the format and paper stock. This magazine collaboration comes right off the heels of Fabien's post as creative director at French Vogue. I am thrilled that I will finally be able to pick up (and actually read) a regular Fabien production in English! For more info on Fabien, visit this link to HINT, an online fashion magazine that recently interviewed him.

Pick a Card, Any Card

Type foundry P22 has created its second playing card deck featuring 52 different fonts in a standard regulation deck of playing cards. 
The cards were designed by a slew of guest designers and you can see them all for yourself right here.

The interactive interface is cool, as is the way the cards populate the page. If you hurry, you can snag a deck for yourself before they sell out, like the first deck did. I love it when contemporary artists come up with a fresh take on a classic [with the exception of the remakes of The Dukes of Hazard and The Beverly Hillbillies].

Design by Engineers

Here's a picture of the latest rover thingy to land on Mars. [Seems like one is landing or almost landing every couple of months.] The pictures are cool; very awe-inspiring. According to the caption, the DVD stuck to the rover thingy has literature, art and other earthly cultural wonders. Great idea.

But what I noticed is the crappy design on the cover. There are two huge logos, one on either side, a big block of copy on the top, and some straggler lines of copy at the bottom. It also seems that all of these elements are multi-colored. Red and blue on white. How American.

It's sad that NASA can drop tens of billions of dollars to send this thing all the way to Mars, but can't see its way clear to invest 200 bucks for a designer to make it look decent. We've barely touched the Red Planet, and already we're trashing it up. What will we send over there next? Val-Pack coupons?

a logo worthy of its destination

I always cringe when I see any type of script type. Perhaps it is my solemn belief that true calligraphic strokes should come from a brush or a quill and not from a keyboard. In art school we were required to spend hours not only studying typography and the creators of the classic type families but, with carved bamboo in hand, we had to replicate classic type forms and calligraphy. The instructor would roam around the room with a loop magnifier and judge us on our grace and precision.

The only thing worse than computerized script type, is computerized script type set VERY poorly. Here we have case in point. Look at the haphazard way the letter forms crash into each other. Uhg!

Beyond the sheer train-wreck quality of the type, I am just questioning the entire concept and naming strategy. Will a toilet seat cover really guard your life? Does the fan emblem assure you that deadly germs and pollutants will miraculously blow out of your way? Does the magenta color palate say "clean, safe and secure?" The only other thing I've ever seen printed on a box of these is "Provided by the Management for your Protection." I never really understood that either. Perhaps some things are just better off without a logo. Did I say that out loud??

In the end, perhaps my rant is a little overboard. I mean most people in a stall would be facing the other way anyways. Maybe I need to save my "did you ever notice" rants to bitter old men like Andy Rooney. I will continue to speak out about script type, however. Some things just shouldn't be allowed to be on display without proper critique...

Great Minds…

The AIGA annual studio tour circuit gives its members a chance to snoop around and learn about some of the many innovative studios in the Bay Area. Tonight I had the pleasure of visiting Fuse Project a SOMA-based brand and product design studio. The Studio was  founded by Swiss-born product designer Yves Behar and has a growing portfolio of fantastic projects and clients. Of recent note, and falling under my latest obsession with green design, is the work the studio did on the $100 laptop project. Not only is the laptop project intent on getting technology into the hands of school-age children in developing countries, but the laptop can be solar, hand-cranked, or bicycle-powered. Imagine needing to take a few laps around the block in the middle of the work day to get your laptop cranked up again.

In truth, what was really exciting to me about visiting the studio was hearing about their design philosophy. Fuse Project sees itself as different than other product design studios in that the objects they produce are expressions of brand, business, and future thinking. Their process starts at phase 0 - the philosophic investigative phase - and then touches all points of design, from branding, product development, and identity on through to packaging and beyond. From what I heard tonight, Fuse Project is all about the integrated approach and the articulation of varied touches in a life cycle process. In a nutshell, their essence is stated as, "Design Brings Stories to Life."

I just found myself nodding, and thinking to myself "Yeah, I get these guys. I like this conversation." It's inspiring to feel engaged in the bigger dialog and to know other companies out there are making the world safe for great thoughtful design.

Design from anywhere

One of the things I admire about great designers is their ability to see the transformative potential in everyday things. The dollar bill is just about one of the most ubiquitous items in the country. It's a tool; a means to an end. So few of us look at it as any sort of canvas. But someone has done just that, and managed to find a way to fashion some unexpected and whimsical creations out of something we all take for granted. A friend turned me on to these, and there are several more. But these are some of my faves. May these little amazements inspire you to create the extraordinary from the humdrum.

Book Report #1: In the Bubble, Designing in a Complex World

In the Bubble is one of those  books that will send you thinking sideways. You'll find yourself staring into space and daydreaming about what's possible. Its the kind of work that forces you to rethink your everyday approach to things and question them anew. John Thackara has done a great job at synthesizing work going on in multiple disciplines to create a thoughtful framework through which we can focus design thinking moving forward.

Thackara sees the future of the design profession as one in which designers must evolve, "from being the individual authors of objects, or buildings, to being facilitators of change among large groups of people". He proposes a new kind of design mindfulness which values and balances both human needs and environmental needs while focusing on service creation rather than the design and production of more unneeded objects and technologies. He describes a system of 10 factors to consider  to create more innovate and sustainable outcomes. These concepts structure the book by chapter and include, lightness, speed, mobility, locality, situation, conviviality, learning, literacy, smartness, and flow. Each chapter weaves together a narrative combining philosophy, science, and design examples to tell the story of why these issues are critical  to  the  current  design landscape.

Read this book now!

The Stars Among Us

Groove's very own resident writer extraordinaire Sam McMillan is featured in the current issue of Communication Arts (Issue #358). Sam wrote a wonderful expose on San Francisco design firm Turner Duckworth.  T/D does fantastic work and even employs several of my former students. Check out the issue and the great work by both Turner Duckworth and Mr. McMillan.