Knitting Awesomeness
Knitted Scarf
Knitted Cardigan
Knitted Head Scarf
Huge Knitted Scarf
Love this stuff. Found on Jonathan Jacques-Belletête Tumblr. I knit a similar design as the men’s scarf last year, still yet to be recorded.
Well then Fuuuck Me, Project Fail
Well then Fuuuck Me
This blog is as much about failures and process than finished products. I have a great series of paper cuts going and have been slowly collecting other materials to test the concept on. This blue plastic was a nicely finished matte bag I got at a music store in LA. It clearly does not hold up.
I laugh at how I decided to try a whole statement rather than even one flourish which would have told me enough. Although, I do love how the statement clearly reflects my failure. It’s like cause and effect or effect and cause or maybe I can just predict the future?
Sean Freeman for Band of Horses
Band of Horses Poster, by Sean Freeman
I was just perusing through this year’s Communication Arts Typography Annual and came across this lovely poster by Sean Freeman. Obviously, there is a lot of typography in the annual to be admired, but this one struck me especially. I love the use of actual objects to create type, such as I’ve been exploring with paper recently. The poster is also a significantly appropriate style for the band.
Check out more of Sean’s incredible work at Levine/Leavitt—it’s all pretty mind blowing.
Lex McQuilkin, Cut Paper Artist and Illustrator
It’s been ages since my last post! I still have nothing to say for myself, so I’ve decided to at least say something about someone else.
Lex McQuilkin is an amazing illustrator I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with this past month. Not only was she perfect for the job we are working on, but she shares a love of paper art with me. She’s been working on it a lot longer than me and has given me some sweet tips. Her work above are beautiful examples of intricate paper work, often layered with decorative papers underneath. The typography, hand drawn, always works so nicely with her images. When I look through all of her work on her sites, I definitely take note of how she presents her work—within frames, hanging freely on pins, installations—and hope to be able to replicate something similar one day.
Lex is a resident artist with Million Fishes Artist Collective in San Francisco, is a co-founder of Aorta Magazine, and has started her own poster company, Argot Prints. Most of her work is dedicated to social justice, practice, and responsibility, often concentrating on women and queers on the arts.
Mary and Max, Strange Pals
Mary and Max
Last night I watched a dark claymation film called Mary and Max. It’s a story of two unlikely friends, an obese, middle-aged New Yorker and a young outcast from Australia, Mary. I had never heard of it before, but I can’t resist anything claymation and I noticed the voice actors were the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, and Eric Bana. Also, it won a ton of awards when it hit the festival circuit a few years ago.
The imagery was super fun and dark and I kept getting little surprises from the scenes. I love the fish smoking underwater, the bubble bath design, and all the small details throughout. Beware of death by embalming fluid, hard psychiatric emotions, disgusting-looking characters, and ground up goldfish.
Watch it now on Netflix. Also, definitely check out their website if you’re into that kind of stuff.
Paper – Cigarette Ash Landscape
Cigarette Ash Landscape
Cigarette Ash Landscape Installation
Cigarette Ash Landscape installation
I love this Cigarette Ash Landscape installation a friend posted from Designboom. The cigarette forms were created by Yang Yongliang. Check out both of their sites for more amazing work.
3D Preparation
A Common Name 3D
I did a little vector art for my new graphic design brand, A Common Name. I kind of like the colors I used and all of the shapes layered over each other at this point. This isn’t the end result, but it’s fun to share a little weekend process.
Burton Products
Burton Campaign Ad
While flipping through Nylon this month, I noticed this awesome ad by Burton. It’s not the exactly something I’ve never seen, but I love that there is no digital typography in this ad. I’ve always been a huge fan of using major amounts of imagery and teeny tiny small typography, the imagery is more interesting! But when you can find a solution that is unobtrusive, thank you. This is the kind of tactile design I like to see, especially since I’ve been hand building my typography lately. This is the type of work I’d love to integrate my design career with.
Furry Pals Help Me Design
A Common Name, Dog Upset
Cat Declines A Common Name
Fixing My Photo Set Up
While starting photo shoots for my new brand, A Common Name, I got a few distractions. There are a few too many adorable animals trying their own layouts or probably just flat out disapproving my designs. They are way too cute to get mad at, so we happily documented their ideas..
Prepping a New Brand
A Common Name, Typeface Arrangement
A Common Name, 3D Typeface
The above two images are raw shots of a typeface I’m building for my new design brand called, A Common Name. I’ve been physically building two different typefaces into 3-dimensional paper type. The plan is to place the letters onto complex surfaces to photograph. The end result would only feature one of the typefaces set in different locations—on grass, on a brick wall, in a river (oh yes, we’re going large scale too). I had so many typefaces in mind for this, even extremely round letters. Somehow these square/rectangle shapes appeal to me, when I lay them in any which way on a surface, they create amazing patterns and shapes (see above). I’m also happy with the possible juxtaposition of placing such rigid letters in natural settings.
A background on the name:
A Common Name comes from months of searching for a new business name and finding that nothing that pertains to me in the design world hasn’t already been used. Smith is THE most common name in the U.S. I cannot use it in any way, shape, or form because it’s already been done and used. I landed on A Common Name because of this problem. Many names have become common and so many design firms have “common” and regular used phrases. It’s hard to feel original, especially in the web world.
A Common Name will be a title for myself, for original design work, for a design firm. Everything has a common name, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t amazing.
Sagmeister Inc., Public Art
Sagmeister Work in Progress
Sagmeister Inc. Public Work
Now on to admiring some current artists… In 2008, Stegan Sagmeister and his team created the piece shown above. It was a public installation created with 250,000 Eurocents on Waagdragerhof Square in Amsterdam. It took more than 100 volunteers and over 8 days to complete. The piece is beautiful and I completely understand the sentiment. Definitely an obsessive way to be, but with fantastic results. Even crazier is that this was a public piece, so once it was completed it was left to the public to do as they will. To work so hard and long on such a fleeting beauty is something to bow down to.
Sagmeister is well-known for his typography and extremely creative designs that challenge the viewer. He creates tactile art, such as the above, with found objects and every day items. Other print pieces will be stunning collages, fading billboard designs, illustrations, and installations. He has even had an intern cut into his own skin. His work is always an inspiration for me and I suddenly find my creative experiments falling into a similar category these days. Although I don’t compete, yet.
