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After missing last months, we've decided to pull out all the stops this time. We'll be serving White Castles, Mac n' Cheese along with Vernors n' Captain cocktails. Plus as always, free posters, conversation, beer and wine. We may even have a veggie or two laying around. Hope to see ya!
Josh Kamler from Language in Common approached us to help out on the Peace Billboards project. Josh's father, well know local artist Richard Kamler began the project. He gathered artists from around the world to place their vision of peace on billboards throughout San Fancisco. This is a powerful and original way to challenge people to think about what peace means to them. Richard posed the question to me a while back, he said" What if the world saw Pablo Picasso's Guernica before the bombs fell?" We can all imagine war, it's much harder to imagine peace. Get out and tour the billbords on your own, you can find a map here. Or jump in a bus and do the bus tour, you can find all the information at www.peacebillboards.org.
A while back during the second Super Tuesday we posted a little piece playing off the fonts that Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama had chosen for their respective campaigns. We found it funny that the font choices coincided with their political platforms as well as their own personalities, so we decided to make the fonts the candidates. You can see what we wrote here: Change vs. Experience, may the best FONT win.
A few weeks ago our friend Brian Collins saw the posting and decided to use part of it on a segment he did on ABC a few days ago. He tried to plug us a few times during the interview but unfortunately any indication of myself or the Vega Project was edited out completely. Regardless, we appreciate Brian's attempt to give our lowly blog a little taste of fame. Thanks Brian!
>You can see Brian's ABC segment here<
Last summer while I was an advisor at Project M which took place in Hale County Alabama I got to experience first hand some amazing projects being created by the Rural Studios which is part of Auburn Universities Architecture program. One project that stood out for me was the Hale County Animal Shelter, It was not only the first site I visited but it was also such a departure from the norm that it was a highlight of my Project M experience. The students on the project were extremely dedicated and determined to complete it on schedule. The last I herd there were delays on the project and the county had no money to run the facility. To my surprise there were photos in Architectural Record magazine of the completed building, still with little indication if it's actually being used. I'll be visiting Hale county again next month when I return to Project M, I'll find out first hand the fate of the "Dog Pound"
The month of May is bike month and as some of you may know, Bike to Work Day is May 15th. But have any of you heard of Drive Your Bike to Work Day (DYBTWD)? May 21st is a special day for bike rack awareness so make sure you strap your neglected bike to your car bike rack that you forgot you even had. Then drive your bike to work. For more information, check out driveyourbike.org.
At our core, designers are communicators, we decode, interpret, and translate information and ideas which is then applied to one or more of the vehicles we have in our creative arsenal.
Unfortunatily many designers, schools, clients, etc.. value each of these qualities differently, not quit understanding that they are of equal importance. What's the point of conceptualizing and interpreting a big idea without presenting it in a creative manner? You see it everywhere these days, left justified all caps Helvetica, Gotham, News Gothic, sure the message won't get lost but is it being elevated creatively? This seems to be where we are these days, I wouldn't call it bad design it's just non-existent design.
The focus has definitely shifted, the craft has definitely taken a backseat, where back in the 90's during the digital transition we looked at design as an art form. You had the whole grunge movement with the David Carson's and Emigre' magazine driving us all to push creative boundaries. Unfortunately what was being communicated many times was lost in the process.
Communicating Information is quickly becoming the most valued design quality, making sense of chaos and delivering it clearly. This is a skill that only a handful of designers poses, it's not sexy, it won't get you published, and you definitely won't win any awards. When was the last time you looked at a street map or at a interface and stopped to think about who designed it? Unless it's flawed it becomes transparent, a part of our lives that's success is measured based on how invisible it is.
I believe strongly that as a designer today you need to posses each of these qualities equally. Especially as our role changes with the on-slot of new technology, in a culture of disposable trends. A great Designer stays true to the fundamentals of good creative design, while clearly communicating ideas and information. It also helps to be a good educator, therapist, and mediator but that's a whole other posting.
Hundreds of makers (i.e.: inventors, engineers, computer geeks, crafty folks, geniuses and more) converged upon the San Mateo Fairgrounds this past weekend for the 2008 Maker Faire brought to you by the fine people at Make and Craft Magazine. This event is growing bigger and bigger each year. I hear that attendance has grown 50% since last year’s faire in the Bay Area.
Some stand out exhibits for me were Mobile Muffins by Acme Muffineering. These little electric-powered muffin cups are maneuverable and reach top speeds of 18+ mph, not to mention very cute when they’re zipping around. The bummer: you can only ride one if you’ve built one.
I was looking foward to riding the Unwheeldy, a tandem recumbent fixie dicycle, but it was being repaired when we got there.
We saw an amazing Tesla coil demonstration. The picture below shows a two by four lined with hot dogs and pickles conducting electricity generated from the Tesla coil.
I have been noticing a lot more Smart Cars on the streets of San Francisco lately, so I took notice of the Tango that was on display. It is another take on the two-seat electric vehicle. The manufacturer, Commuter Cars, is based out of Spokane, Washington. The Tango is small enough to fit in motorcycle parking spaces and even in-between parked cars by parking perpendicular to the curb. The Tango is also praised for being small enough to split lanes in traffic, cutting down on travel time and pollution. Supposedly it can go from 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds. Read more about the Tango at www.commutercars.com
Is this architecture or sculpture on a massive scale? The Centre Culturel Tjibaou, dedicated to Jean-Marie Tjibaou who died in 1989 while leading the fight for his country’s autonomy from the French government, is devoted to the cultural origins and search for identity of the native Kanak people of New Caledonia and the South Pacific.
The exterior was influenced by the villages of local Kanak tribes and the huts they reside in. The form is also innovative and functional, horizontal wood slats on the outer façade on the ocean side filter the wind into a second layer of skin. An inner façade of glass louvers which open or close according to wind speed, allowing wind to flow through the building for passive ventilation. The double layer of skin also filters the warm air upward functioning similar to a chimney.
Jean Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.
