Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Now I know how to put the pen down right!
Friday, December 16, 2011
Sophie Duran, a conceptual designer based in the Netherlands, balances between art and design. She always works out of her instincts and has a great sense of color. The work she creates pulls you in as a viewer and makes you look twice.
Her latest collection of artwork, Undiscovered Wonders of the World, created out of self-made photographs, old travel books and minerals, show unknown mysterious worlds that are open to multiple interpretations.
All prints are digitally printed on silk velvet and crepe de chine, a type of fabric with a crisp, crimpy appearance. The velvet gives vibrancy to the colors and makes the landscapes look three-dimensional. Crepe de chine gives a lightness and sophisticated feeling to the prints. The designs are also presented as scarves to give the landscapes another dimension. Her goal is to point out the beauty in this world and add ‘new beauty’ to that herself.
I can appreciate that she created these imaginary worlds/scenes that appear realistic but mysterious too. I love that she pairs her printed pieces with the scarf version to create a different feel for the artwork.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
This delightful piece takes the style of Van Gogh’s Starry night and adds a little comic book flare. This piece is called Dark Starry Night by James Hance and is a parody that includes Batman and Gotham City rather than a large cathedral and town. Using the same line and color style as Van Gogh it is apparent where the idea for this piece originated from. Complete with the wavy sky, stars, and even a Bat Signal, this piece is a joy to look at for those that enjoy comics as well as the style of Van Gogh. Sadly this isn’t a set of superhero Van Gogh parodies but it still stands out on its own.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Every time I see a newspaper stand, I wonder which is worth getting? So what pulls my attention the most and why? The USA Today newspaper caught my attention because it is the one with the most colors and it has more than one photo to draw my eyes around and wonder what this image might be about. What I also like about USA Today is that the newspaper throughout the pages are colorful and the typeface is big enough to read. The Washington Post and New York Times both are similar as far as their front-page type, black and one with one image, dull looking, and old. Does this affect anyone else or am I the only one that notices these things?
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Zach Johnsen is the artist. He is an Illustrator, and some of his work is created with other mixed techniques and media. His work reminds of the times when I had to time draw and express my feelings, like drawing a figure and having it’s head blow up for exaggeration. But in this particular photo I felt that he did a great job of expressing those feelings using color and repeating the figures and drawing it in different position to show movement. People who are in the working business understand that it gets extremely frustrating from time to time and I feel that this image expresses those emotions in an appropriate matter. Sometimes we feel like we want to just scream our heads off and throw our luggage or for students our papers in the air expressing our anger. In other words this is another inspirational artist I find unique. He’s able to express emotions quite well. I hope to do a few personal work myself to express my own feelings.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Don’t you hate when you study as hard as you can for an exam to a point where you know that you are going to do great. Only to sit down and find out how all quickly you forget some things as you take your test? This happened to me today during my Art History Exam. I studied as much as I could for the exam right up to the point of taking it and felt pretty good that I was going to do fairly well on a test I knew was going to be fairly difficult. As the test dragged on I found myself forgetting some of the small things I thought I knew the word to a definition, a time frame, a pieces name. All just leaking out of my brain the longer I sat there and looked at it. What’s worse is that feeling when you know you have studied it because you can picture where it is on a study guide and what it is associated to it but in the place of the answer you are looking for in your mind, there is only a blank space. I suppose should have done my best to study harder, but there’s not much I can do now but hope for the best and prepare for the next test.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Pin Pres is a shelf that is has billions of sliding pins. This concept looks very rich, modern and unique. It is made for children’s room to place their toys, books, and other such things for fun and keeping things clean and organized. To me I feel that this Pin Pres is not safe. I have nieces and nephew that will not only use these pins to put up their toys, book, and other things. They will certainly climb on it to try to get to the top of the shelf. I watch my nieces and nephew all the time and I can say that this design does not look safe. It is visually appealing, but I do not think it is a good place to set this shelf around children.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
I was shown this a while ago, but recently wanted to show it to someone and have watched it over and over again. This idea behind the Johnny Cash project is such an interesting and interactive way to involve anyone who wishes to contribute. The entire idea behind making a still picture and placing it in the video for a simple mili second on screen time is so visually interesting. When all of the images are joined together to create this video it is very captivating. I think the most interesting part is at the bottom you can see the very tiny thumbnails of each picture being shown at the exact second it is on the screen. It is an awesome way to show a thanks to the late Johnny Cash and also a way for artists to get together and create something beautiful without even knowing each other!
link:
http://www.thejohnnycashproject.com/
Thursday, December 15, 2011
I ran across this design for an alarm clock, and to me it was the perfect example of a larger trend I’m seeing these days. With our group consciousness being flooded with virtual (read: not physical) media, we have very few occasions to actually touch and feel a beautifully designed piece. When we actually feel the raised paper of a thick letterpress invitation or when we touch the soft grain of balsa wood, it reminds us that the internet can only bring us so far. A lot of people predict that magazines and newspaper will die out forever but that’s not likely the case. When photography was introduced in the early 1800s, everyone predicted the demise of painting. Same with the introduction of the lightbulb and the candle. Did painting or candles ever die out? No. What happened was that they were relegated to luxury items. Similarly, the magazine and newspaper are in the process of repositioning themselves in the market so they can compete with websites. I think they will need to invest in what makes them different from the web: beautiful, large photos, well-thought out articles and the tangible aspect of their paper. The homemade, physical object was once commonplace and disregarded but it has been elevated to be a luxury item.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
I just read a blog article from a coder who developed a piece of jquery that is used in several high profile websites, including Pinterest. What makes his perspective so interesting is that even though he was the one who wrote the code, he recognizes that he will never ask for exclusive rights or monetary profit from his labor. He embodies the hacker ethos that demands that information be free. It’s the same mentality that makes Wikipedia thrive and moves millions to support the release of Julian Assange from Wikileaks. The coder contributed his small piece of brilliance to the ever changing currents of web design, understanding that his gratification won’t be found monetarily, but through the satisfaction of a job well done. It’s an interesting perspective and rarely found in other professions, but that is the beauty of the wild, unregulated internet.
