Somewhere along the well-trodden path marked by El Lissitzky and Lester Beall walks Shepard Fairey. And, like the famous propaganda artists of yesteryear, Fairey prefers red and has a flair for dramatic perspective—although that is where the similarities end. His latest poster coincides with a new grassroots initiative by moveon.org titled Power Up America, and [...]
On the Fast Company blog, Valerie Casey has written a deliberately provocative piece about the evolution (or lack thereof) of product design aesthetics over the past decade. Having recently judged the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), she observes a striking degree of stylistic continuity across a diverse range of objects, which is demonstrated via a [...]
In my last post I briefly introduced the classic diagram of the Eames studio model—a brilliant and simple summary of how they envisioned their practice and its relationship with clients and society at large. Apart from the telling intersection between studio, client and society that for them defined successful work, what I like most about [...]
Challenging the assertion that style is superficial, and that designers need to “move on.”
I have seen the future. And it looks a lot like the past, only different. Old is the new new. In the future, history is remixed with the recent past to reflect a present that claims no distinct visual language or critical position of its own—unless you view this condition as such.
The virtual intersection of [...]
A discussion/critique of the new SVA D-CRIT MFA program.
Recently, I was working on a typical branding project—the outcome of which was a presentation that, among other things, contained a brief narrative (or brand anthem) introducing the positioning concept and bringing it to life through a series of short, declarative statements. It’s the sort of presentation where every word is carefully chosen and scrutinized [...]
A quick deconstruction of a classic package from the 1950s—New Era potato chips.
Occasionally I think it might be nice to live in the fictional world depicted within the J-Crew catalog. Long days at the beach, an autumn visit to New York wearing an authentic Navy pea coat. New England, the Hamptons. And an occasional trip to Paris accompanied by the sort of buttery brown leather luggage I [...]