The other night I had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by legendary modernist designer Massimo Vignelli. It was very interesting to hear this guy who’s been in the industry for over 50 years now talk about all the projects he’s been involved with, from when he worked with Venini in Milan to his work with Bloomindales, the National Park Service, American Airlines, and The New York Subway System.

Massimo divided his lecture into groups of 5 years, and the beginning of each section he had a cute little black and white of his wife and himself. Massimo really injects a lot of humor into his stories; his pretty strong Italian accent and old-man behavior lend to some funny on-stage happenings.

Over the two hours of lecture I jotted down some things that Massimo had said here and there. Here are a few of the notes I took; things he said, advice, and a few random out-of-context sentences. It should be noted though that Massimo is an unapologetic, opinionated, modernist and some of the things he says definitely aren’t for everyone.

I see graphic design as the orginization of information that is semantically correct, syntactically consistant, pragmatically understandable, visually powerful, intellectually intelligent, and above all timeless.

Don’t trust market research, do what you want.

How can people judge design if [they don't know|it never existed before].

If you can’t find it, design it.

Have imagination, have courage, be fast.

If you listen to the manufacturer you’ll still be making mickey mouse trays.

Stay away from miserable design.

The grid is a lion, and you are the grid tamer. If you stay too long in the grid, the grid will eat you.

Look at my pants!

Luck is very important, you should be lucky.

Never work with middle management, work with the president. Middle management is afraid of losing their jobs.

Adding is stupid, subtracting is genius.

At the end of the lecture I stayed behind for a few minutes to have a short word with Kely Salchow, the AIGA Detroit Education Chair, and of course, Massimo. I had also brought along Massimo’s book, Vignelli: From A to Z, which I had a copy of in my library in the hopes that he’d be so nice as to autograph it, which he did.

As much as I like looking through portfolios all walks of designers, I find it a bit lacking sometimes. I like knowing about the designers, their hobbies, their process, their setups, their work spaces. I feel it lets me see a little more into how their work comes to fruition. So from time to time I like to browse Apple’s Pro Profiles Archive. There’s all sorts of nifty information lurking in the profiles that tells us a bit about their work, their setup, but more importantly we get little (and sometimes big) hints at their processes.

As I was driving home this morning at about 4:30am I saw a meteor streak across the sky and then there was a small green flash and it broke up into tiny pieces which almost immediately burnt out and went dark. I have seen meteors before during several of the large meteor showers during my childhood years, but this one was larger (closer?) than any I had seen before. It almost looked like you could see a faint smoke trail it left against the dark of the night sky.

Back in February I posted an entry about preparing for the career expo and now it’s summer (summer break at least). In the past two months I’ve been getting things figured out for what exactly I’m going to do this summer, work-wise that is.

Now, back to where I left off. After the career expo, each one of my interviewers called me back for a second round of interviews; Q LTD, Michigan Marketing and Design, and Deloitte and Touche. But after interviewing with them I decided to only do a second round with Q and MM&D, Deloitte and Touche was just a bit to “business casual” for me, I was looking for something a bit more relaxed.

I had a second interview with Q and MM&D, both went well, and in the end I was offered a job as an intern with Q LTD for the summer. Though the internship is only part-time, I’m still excited. Part-time means I’ll still have more than enough time for working on personal projects and hanging out.

As of the time I write this I’ve only worked at Q one day thus far and I got to say it was pretty nice. Only three of the employees were there on my first day, three other employees had gone to Vancouver for a business trip. The two designers there had me working on some layout for a big 300 page brochure they’re in the middle of. During work they keep the music flowing to the speakers through the office, and everyone takes a turn putting on a CD of choice. It’s a very relaxed and friendly place.

For lunch I hopped over to Zingerman’s Deli. I had this big ‘ol quarter pound hotdog, with bacon, melted cheese, and homemade spicy ketchup. Delicious. Expensive but delicious; I can see lunch at Zingerman’s becoming an everyday thing.

After lunch I processed a bunch of image files and worked on some more layout then went home.

I’m looking forward to going back to work this coming Wednesday.

In addition to sketching and working on personal projects as part of my daily, between classes, ritual at the art building I also take some time to browse design related websites such as Computerlove, NTMY, k10k, The Ad Feed, and Netdiver. With all of this daily information to digest I’ve come to find more and more designers and illustrators out there that I’m absolutely envious of the work they produce. I thought I’d share a few of these folk and mention a thing or two about them.

I had seen an illustration by Karl Kwasny aka Monaux about a year ago and immediately saved it to my folder of photos that visually inspire me, although at the time I had no idea who actually was the artist. Somehow more recently I stumbled upon his website and I was struck by his illustrations. There’s something about his style that grabs me; his use of line and color is superb and his illustrations appear soft and full of fun things to look at.

Si Scott has some of the most stunning type treatments I have ever seen. Ever. The fluid text style he employs is quite mesmerizing. I don’t know what else to say about him other than his text based illustrations are hard to beat.

The only other designer I’ve run across that has type to match that of Si Scott is Marian Bantjes. Marian’s attention to detail and the complexity of her designs are absolutely stunning. From vectors to ballpoint pens, Marian’s calligraphic stylings are at the top of the list. Also, her work is avilable in tshirt form from Veer (all profits from the shirts go to American Red Cross and AIGA’s Disaster Relief fund).

Matthew Woodson runs his portfolio on his website called ghostco which has fantastic examples of his illustrative prowess. I’m not sure where I first encountered his work but I was immediately attracted to his bold figures with high contrast. I really enjoy the effect he achieves when he combines traditional media, such as india ink, with digital artistry. His images remind me of dreamlike thoughts and a feeling of longing.

Steven Harrington is another one of my current favorite artists/designers. His silkscreens are reminiscent of 60s and 70s design aesthetics, if for no other reason than the his color choices. I’m also enjoying the halftone he integrates with his screens instead of just going for solid splotches of color.

Another designer I’ve been watching as of late is Fiodor Sumkin; a designer from Belarus with a thing for type, illustration, and ballpoint pens. Fiodor’s typography takes heavy inspiration from 1960s era rock-posters, and his illustrations commonly involve imagery of the 70s and 80s. I find his style (somewhat nostalgic) is refreshing in this era of vectors, bitmaps, and bright shiny colors.

So those are my current favorite designers? Who’s are yours (not that anyone really reads this though)?

A few weeks back I got wind of the annual Art & Design Career Expo. I have been interested in getting a summer job or internship in the local area for a while now but haven’t had much luck finding a place to apply or actually securing a internship for the summer which is why I was particularly interested in this expo.

As far as having a portfolio to show in person I didn’t exactly have anything of significance, which is a problem when that’s what everyone wants to see if you can imagine. I had a few drawings from studio classes, a poster or two from random projects, and this-and-that lying around. But what I did have was a week; one week to get my work together and get it in some sort of presentable fashion. Luckily time was on my side, barely, though it’s not like I was in some life or death rush, I just wanted to be prepared as well as I could be. (more…)

Wow. I would have never guessed at how busy I could potentially be this semester. It’s actually pretty crazy. My first semester at the University of Michigan has afforded me tons of work and little free time. Combine classes with a not-long-but-not-near-distance relationship and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a lack of ambition and effort when it comes to being creative.

Because of my transfer status with all my credits that I had already amassed I have to take a total of 3 or 4 regular academic classes in the next 2.5 years which means I get to overload with art classes. The overload is going to be, and is, the worst this school year because I’m trying to get all these art credits for my “sophomore review” even though I’m technically a junior. Whomever says art classes are easy obviously never took more than two at the same time; while they may not have a terrible amount of class work, the projects really stack up. Never before have I had more out-of-class work than now.

With that said, I try not to get burnt out, creatively speaking, on all the mundane and redundant projects assigned. How though? I should be burnt out, but I’m not, I just don’t get it. Perhaps because I have lots of personal projects on the back burners I don’t put my all into the assigned work. Do I take the easy way out? I would hope that I don’t, that wouldn’t say very good things about me as a student and as a artist. Maybe it’s because I take brakes frequently enough to look though books, look though other designers portfolios, and sketch (I always have my trusty Moleskine sketchbook close at hand).

I wonder what other people in my (relatively) same predicament do? Do most people have some sort of recharge mechanism for their creative juices?