Author Archives: Alex

MOCA OPENS THIS FRIDAY!

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The Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art is on the move. This Friday, January 20 from 7–9pm, MOCA will be open its doors to the public at its new location in Cleveland’s emerging Uptown District. Located at the intersection of Mayfield Road and Euclid Avenue the new MOCA will be hard to pass by without a second look.

The new MOCA, designed by Farshid Moussavi of Foreign Office Architects, is leading the way in Case Western Reserve’s collaborative urban-revitalization project. The hexagonal shape at the base evolves over four stories into a square at the very top. The unique geometry is given form by black stainless steal, tinted and transparent glass. The varying trapezoid and triangular exterior walls lean in and away from the base, creating reflections of both the street below and sky above. Positioned among the University Circle’s academic life and cultural organizations, MOCA is certain to provide a new energy and life to the community.

Though contemporary art can, at times feel, aloof, strange or hard to relate to, the interior of MOCA has been designed to be as inviting as possible. There will be no charge for entrance to the first floor, as visitors are encouraged to gather, eat, shop and absorb all that MOCA has to offer.  For a modest fee, guests can explore the remaining three levels of exhibition space. The new MOCA is an exciting opportunity for the greater Cleveland community to experience local, regional and international art exhibitions.

For more information on upcoming events, follow this link to MOCA’s homepage.

Colors for your Man Cave

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Color is an essential element in design. It can evoke moods, create emphasis and contrast, and make emotional connections with the audience. Scientists and Artists alike have studied it for centuries and it takes even the best decades to master.

Now marketing color is a different craft all together. The interior paint is a market saturated by female driven advertising. However, CIL Paints has dared to be different. Ultimate Man Caves, a “paint colors for men” collection, attempts to engage the neglected male market. CIL Paints has renamed 27 different colors, changing the mood and the market by the name.  From “Monterey Cliffs” to “Wolfden,” “Fairytale Green” to “Mo Money” the names certainly evoke a different mood.

Although not all of the feed back to CIL has been positive, the line of paints, in my opinion, accomplished the original goal behind the campaign; to be funny. Alison Goldman, a spokeswoman for CIL Paints said the original idea behind the campaign was to “do something hilarious.”  I think they certainly hit the mark with names like “Porcelain Throne” (Pillar) and  “Zombie Apocalypse” (Juliet’s Potion).

See if you can guess the original name with the color and new manly name. The answers are on the side, but don’t cheat! Use the key to check your guesses.

If you’d like to find out more and to check out a photo gallery of some man caves, click here.

 

 

 

Humblepied

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Mig Reyes is an interactive designer at Threadless and an instructor at the Chicago Portfolio School. I stumbled upon his interview at createthemap.com (which is totally worth the 9 minutes). After watching his interview I found my way to his site, Humblepied.com

Humblepied is a collection of short interviews–conducted by Mig–of creative professionals offering advice to young and old creatives alike, all via ichat. As its name implies, it is humbling and inspiring to see what these seasoned veterans of the creative industry have to say.

As a recent graduate, I am all too familiar with all of the fears and anxieties that come with developing a portfolio, graduating, and jumping into the “real world” with a life-time of work in hand, searching for someone who will give you a chance to do the great work you know you can. Luckily, I found Studiothink, or was it Studiothink who found me… either way, I’m very fortunate and thankful to be working with these awesome creative professionals.

I wish I would have known about this site several months ago. These short videos are great sources for inspiration, and offer a chance to hear the thoughts and philosophies of people we may never meet. Mig has done the entire creative community a great service by bringing all of these people together in one place.

If it were my turn to be interviewed on Humblepied, I’d say this to help get through those months of anxiety leading up to graduation:

If you’re there right now, or approaching that time period as this semester ends and your next (or last) begins, believe in yourself, know who you are and go after it. And if you ever find yourself at a loss (as we all do at some point), check out humblepied.com for a few words of wisdom, guidance and support.

Idiosyncrasy – at the University of Akron

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I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd Advanced Graphic Design Exhibition at the University of Akron entitled, “Idiosyncrasy.” This semester-long course, taught by Markus Vogl, a second year professor at the Myers School of Art, has one goal: to brand, create and host a design exhibition at the end of the semester. Yesterday was the show’s opening reception. This course provides Graphic Design students the invaluable experience of creating an exhibition, which in my opinion, is all too often reserved for the Fine Arts.

Going back to my alma mater was a great experience for me. I was a part of Vogl’s first exhibition experiment, as a student in his class, and it was really awesome to see what the students came up with this year.

As part of the theme this year, the students explored the idea of obsession in a multitude of mediums that challenge the boundaries of what “Graphic Design” can be. Many of the students removed themselves from the two-dimensional plane of print and web design and found themselves in perhaps uncharted territory.

Jessica Peiri’s, “Poise,” was her tangible realization of the balance and responsibility she feels for her emotions and relationships with those closest to her. Pieri wrote on words and phrases on rice that represented people near and dear to her. She encapsulated these in colored glass, and hung them in perfect balance as apart of a larger metallic mobile.

Jessica Pieri's "Poise"

 

Alex Zvada’s “Tempo,” was his expression of his obsession for music. He used a colorful display of lights that reacted to the tempo, tone and amplitude of the music that accompanied. As Zvada states “This artwork illustrates audibly, as well as visually, the moods and themes that are presented in my mind, throughout the day.”

Alex Zvada's "Tempo"

I don’t want to give away the rest, because this exhibition truly deserves a visit. If you’d like to find out more information, follow this link. http://www.idiosyncrasy.co/

And if you do find yourself in the Akron area, stop over to Folk Hall for a peek at “Idiosyncrasy.” The show runs through November 23.

AIGA Action Alert

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Below, is an e-mail I received from AIGA. For all designers out there, I hope you are as disgusted with this as I am. It’s these type people that trivialize our profession and belittle those who have dedicated their lives to design.

—Alex

ACTION ALERT: Check LogoGarden for identity work stolen from you

A website promoting access to “do-it-yourself logos for entrepreneurs” starting at $79 has copied logos and other images created by designers and displayed them as LogoGarden founder John Williams’s own work for sale, without the original designers’ permission.

Bill Gardner of Gardner Design, who found more than 200 of his own designs offered on the site, has documented Williams’s outrageous and unethical behavior on the blog Rock Paper Ink, including examples of the slight modifications of well-known logos like the identity for World Wildlife Fund and Time Warner Cable.

Williams has made slight modifications to many of the images, presumably in an attempt to avoid claims that he infringed on the original designers’ copyright rights, although these modifications are not enough to avoid liability for infringement of the creator’s rights in the underlying works. It may actually increase Williams’s liability by demonstrating his willful copyright infringement.

We believe the most powerful response we can make as a community is to demonstrate the profession’s outrage and the threat of clients’ legal action, if the rights to the design belong to the client. Several legal actions are already in process.

Your course of action, immediately:

  1. Check logogarden.com for your own work using the “try it free” button.
  2. If your creative work has been misappropriated, contact Williams (see below), contact your lawyer, contact your client and have your client contact his/her lawyer to make it clear that this is a violation of copyright law.
  3. If your work is on the site, contact Williams to make it clear that this represents illegal, unethical behavior; that it fails the basic test of decency, common sense or business acumen; and that it also exposes his customers to liabilities for copyright infringement.
  4. Send a copy of your correspondence to copyright@aiga.org.

Three possible addresses to use for your correspondence:

LogoGarden, LLC
1011 Centre Road, Suite 322
Wilmington, DE 19805

John Williams
230 Halmerton Drive
Franklin, TN 37069

Email: service@logogarden.com

This is an issue that affects us all and is such an egregious case of violating creative rights that we must take action.

Sincerely,

Richard Grefé
AIGA executive director

Apache Music Video

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A friend of mine posted this on my Facebook earlier this week and I liked it so much I watched it probably four or five times in a row. I am so impressed at the way director Ned Wenlock and animator Rodney Selby were able to tell a story across vastly different landscapes on a revolving carousel. The elements and principles of design used to shift from scene to scene were implemented so well. It’s a joy to watch, as every turn brings a new landscape that comes to life with an incredible amount of detail. They created an amazingly full and deep landscape in a very unique and creative way.

Although I enjoy the song, I understand it may not appeal to everyone. If you find you don’t like it, turn down the volume and enjoy the beautiful animation.

-Alex

The Endless Search For Inspiration

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A friend of mine showed me an amazing website the other day, and I couldn’t
keep it to myself. The people of Designspiration.net describe it best,
“Designspiration provides a diverse selection of high quality,
user-submitted images as a means of sharing inspiration.”

-yeah that pretty much sums it up-however, the best part of Designspiration
isn’t just the things you find, it is how you use it.

Just start typing anywhere on the website—literally anywhere—you don’t
even need to be typing in a search box, and designspiration immediately
begins to refine your search. You can even create a search by selecting your
own custom color palette. Not looking for anything in particular? That’s
cool too. Designspiration makes it easy to browse image by image just by
pushing on the arrow keys of your keyboard.

Be careful though, it’s addicting. That’s the hardest part, if you’re asking
my opinion, is knowing when to stop looking and start creating…

Alex