DesignInquiry 2008
Poster by Satoru Nihei. Download a full-text pdf here.
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Spring cleaning
Finally taken the plunge and moved all my stuff to my new webhost. In the process, I opted to move from Movable Type to WordPress and I’m really glad I did. I’ve also tried Drupal and Textpattern along the way, but this feels by far the best choice (at least for me). There’s still some stuff missing from the old site; if you’re looking for something in particular let me know and I’ll put it at the top of my ‘to do’ list.
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Dissertation: Graphic Design/Graphic Dissent
Today I read an article on Design Observer by Michael Bierut all about the Ernst Bettler story that appeared some years ago in dotdotdot. The ‘Bettler affair’ was a key part of my PhD dissertation, which I finished in 2002. The dissertation, which I hope is reasonably accessible, addresses the politics of graphic design practice and design activism in North America. (I also interviewed a bunch of designers about First Things First 2000, which was very topical at the time.) The plan was to turn the dissertation into a book, but other (good) things happened instead. Here, then, for the very first time, I present my dissertation.
Interviews include: Michael Bierut, Milton Glaser, Jessica Helfand, Marlene McCarty, Stefan Sagmeister, Gunnar Swanson, and Teal Triggs. If you want to cut straight to my take on the meanings of the Bettler affair, it begins on page 134 of the pdf.
First year students create rotoscoped animation
With barely any experience using Flash, the 64 first-year students in my Fall 07 Intermedia class courageously embarked on their first ever rotoscoping assignment. For three intensive weeks, we worked with a wild concert video featuring Girl Talk, which was shot and cut together by Brett Gaylor’s Open Source Cinema Project. The results are very gratifying indeed.
Design Anarchy (Lasn, 2006) - Review
This is the unedited version of a review I wrote of Kalle Lasn’s new book Design Anarchy (ORO Editions, 2006) for Eye magazine.
He’s a West-coast sneaker marketer with one of the coolest brands around. He’s ironic and media-savvy, and he understands his target audience. He has a singular appreciation of the power of graphic design and advertising, and has a deep-seated suspicion of political movements.
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