Red Pill

Great segment about Detroit and Corktown on NPR

Most of this piece takes place in the Detroit neighborhood of Corktown. This is the same neighborhood that the students of Project M Detroit will be staying in when we arrive there in two weeks.

Take a listen: Download 20090812_atc_13

Apple's new "iTablet" computer? Sorry try again.

The rumors are flying today about the new tablet computer Apple will be releasing this Fall. They shot a commercial in a Truckee, CA diner today featuring a flat device being dubbed the iTablet computer. I have heard many other predications for the name including, MacBook Touch, iPhone Pro, and MacBook Tablet. It seems most predictions revolve around this being a tablet computer with OS X or a high level iPhone (I'd love to see someone holding one of these up to their head).

I believe this is all wrong, and it seems very obvious why.

1. The new device will be called the iBook. Duh! They dumped the name last year for Mac Book and Mac Book pro while developing this device.

2. Why would they want the name iBook? To compete directly with Amazon's Kindle! 

Prediction:

Apple will be pushing downloadable books from the iTunes store to read on your new iBook. Think about it, for a little more money than a Kindle you can listen to some music, surf the web, and check email if you need to. I don't think this will be a full blown Mac complete with OSX because it would cost too much but I could be wrong on that one.

Mark my words, you heard it hear first! The all New iBook

What are your thoughts?

Elliott Earls - rebelartistmusiciandesigner

I was lucky enough to meet Elliott Earls when I was still in school. At the time he was a recent grad from Cranbrook and had just thrown a perfectly good design career in the music industry out the window. He was fired for refusal to assimilate to corporate culture. Instead he followed his passion and started his studio "the Apollo Program" where he designed a series of fonts. David Carson and the "grunge" movement were in full force in the mid 90's, design was pushing boundaries never before possible thanks to the computer. But even in this chaotic environment Elliot stood out. He was the first designer that I had known to successfully blend the boundaries between fine arts and graphic design. His work had layers of meaning and depth that simply hadn't been explored by anyone at this point. He was a true innovator in every sense of the term. When I saw him speak it was his first time, he was promoting his new multimedia CD "Throwing Apples at the Sun" along with a new font "Venus Dioxide". It was an awkward engagement, nobody knew what to make of what they where seeing, even the Venus Dioxide poster was a bit disturbing since it had a twisted image of his naked wife as the main subject. The strangest thing was the Q&A, nobody knew what to say about what he presented, it was so far out there. So everyone focused on the music he created for the Multimedia CD when making comments. Someone asked if he was a musician and he laughed, quickly saying "no", he claimed to have thrown the music together in a program on his computer and had little interest in music. Since that day Elliott has become head of the Design Department at Cranbrook Academy. He pursued music, releasing a few albums with various bands, and became a very successful performance artist. Not to mention the posters and fonts that he has designed over the years that have gained him national notoriety. I ran across this video and it sparked my memory of meeting Elliott and it reminded me of how much his message had stuck with me to this day. It also made me question if his story would resonate with young designers today, where there seems to be very little debate about whether design is art, or if art even has a place within design. Self expression? High level concept? What's that?

Oh Shatner...Oldie but Goodie

Given our SciFi flavored branding, I couldn't resist the “Shatner Show” by UPPERCASE. The book includes over 76 images inspired by Mr. Shatner, quotes from Shatner, and commentary by the artists on this everlasting pop culture icon. Get one before their gone. 

 

Timeless album cover designs

During my research for an album design I ran across a few that, well, have stuck with me.

Post-it Love

You are what you do. A man is defined by his actions, not his memory. 

...Kuato (Total Recall)

My...how times have changed!

From I'm Glad I'm a Boy, I'm Glad I'm a Girl. Written as satire by Whitney Darrow Jr. circa 1970's. Apparently this was written to be satire, but readers and reviewers at the time took it seriously. See the whole thing.

In preparation for Easter 5 Million marshmallow chicks and bunnies are prepared EACH DAY throughout the year.

“You've enjoyed all the power you've been given, haven't you? I wonder how you'd take to working in a pocket calculator.

...Master Control Program (TRON)