Safety First

Leaving the normal bubble makes me look at things as if they were totally new. Today's revelation, on planes to Denver by way of Minneapolis, was about Safety Cards and Gradients. Gradients often look cheesy. But the inflatable life vest is the perfect use of flat (uninflated) and gradients (inflated). A gradient gives volume to the inflated vest of a preternaturally-calm traveler.

Simple, universal icons aren't so simple to do. On the "Exit if" info shown below, the fire looks friendly (popcorn anyone) and the debris looks like styrofoam.

Of course, you don't want a Safety Card to show terrified people holding their heads and screaming; stylization is the only way to go. That said, panels 3 and 4 are amusingly playful. I particularly enjoy the intrepid "we can do it" woman in the blue skirt, arms akimbo.

Finally, one segmment shows a baby every mother must love in a catastrophe: a child who'll calmly stay with arms outstretched throughout the vest-donning process. I've never been a mother, but I imagine that the instructions will be jettisoned in favor of instinct to make sure the real child stays as calm as the kid below.

Onward, supermelt!

   

The poetry continues.

Maybe you were wondering? Flag drop.

Have you had the experience of owning a flag that you needed to get rid of? Burning it is ill-advised...should you just throw it out into the trash?

Apparently not. And please kids, no mail.

Chelsea Evening

Established and emerging and yet vice versa. Pam Connolly's evocative and exquisite photos and Sebastian Black's witty paintings are both on show in different galleries at 526 West 26th Street in NYC. Pam's work is at Spazio 522 till November 13. Sebastian's paintings are are Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts till October 9. Pam's photos are poetic; Sebastian's paintings are wryly playful. Pam's make me sigh; Sebastian's smile. Because I know both artists (who don't know each other), it's a hoot to see their flyers on the same wall.


NOTE: If you scroll down through pingtingclick—one site for Sebastian Black and his friends, you'll notice they too love Mark Bradford.

Drive by

The urban counterpart to your suburban lanes: bowling lanes on NYC's West Side Highway. I'm happy I didn't strike anything (snapping while driving is ill-advised, I realize). The supergraphics are snappier than the somewhat-dainty 3-D bowling bal..

Pantone...Visa?

Love the idea of the Pantone Visa cards, although I think I'd pick a different swatch...you?

According to their website, the colored cards can reflect your personality.

Regatta is trustworthy, noble, and generous.
Firecracker is cheerful, dynamic, and tuned in.
Beeswax is warm, sincere, and generous.
Blue Curacao is sensuous, tender, and inviting.
Lavender is insightful, intuitive, and spiritual.
Really, all that from a credit card!?

[Why not go for the American Express Black card which just says rich?]

Much Better Mapping

Mark Bradford, a 40-something painter, has a big show at Wexner Center for the Arts, and his map paintings are to die for.

Above: Giant, 2007. Mixed media collage on canvas, 102 x 144 inches 

Below: Los Moscos, 2004. Mixed media on canvas, 125 x 190 1/2 inches

Images courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

And the website...the website for the exhibition is ab-so-lutely spec-tacular. Designed by Resource Interactive, they have a short video about their inspiration.

Speaking of exhibition websites, blogger Tyler Green at Modern Art Notes has a fascinating (and short!) essay today about all the different variations that the online catalogs are sporting, since there is no codified style yet.

(A lot of worthwhile link reading/watching/interacting in here today!)

Signage in the suburbs

The "Unusual Tag Sale" gave us pause. Why unusual? I got a kick out of the juxtaposition of the selling line and the address "Hemlock Drive." Was there something Hemlock and Socratic afoot? We weren't intrigued enough to find the answer to the mystery.

As for the Sleepy Hollow landscaping, I just heart the illustrated truck. The Headless Horseman is the mascot of the area, but I got all silly and wondered if visitors from another planet would think the landscapers planted pumpkins.

Shampoo Bubbles

On a recent trip to Washington, DC, I spotted some great signage for the Glynn Jones Salon (no, not Glynis Johns...and not my old housemate Glen Jones) in Alexandria, Va.

It's a great example of simplicity: two colors (plus white) and two typefaces. And the use of an italic (in this case Helvetica Bold Italic) is a nice change from the usual. If this was one of my student's designs for a logo, they'd get an A!

Bonus points for naming the typeface at the bottom for hair/color/style/spa, which is on the tip of my tongue...grrr!

Rocking Bubbles

You know how we were talking about the proliferation of bubbles as a meme (anti-meme?). BTD is not immune (cue bleating sounds). The project in which chapter openings contain more bubbles than paragraphs scored a very amusing "review" on EW.com. I'm with the writer, who is bemused about how the gorgeous 20-something's "been there and back."

Chim chim cher-oo

Form meets function: I don't know what the metal work on this chimney is called, but it sure looks nice. I imagine it's some sort of brace, but it makes a fabulous decorative statement as well.

More Graff-ics

The wall at Houston Street and the Bowery looked almost too chic last week, but I was excited to see that Barry McGee, who was featured in the wonderful film "Beautiful Losers" had a hand in the art. Even cooler were the process shots on the art collectors.com.

Instantly Obvious On The Street

A thoughtful message on East 9th Street (if I remember correctly!?) from Elbow-Toe.

Really Bad Sign

I'm not going to show the image. The sign for "Koran Burning Site" gives a terrible, unChristian, thoughtless, incorrect, and dangerous message. Even more shameful is the appropriation/perversion of a symbol of peace in the name of the church, The Dove World Outreach Center. The pastor certainly reached the entire world.

Retro fancy

When I was a kid, I thought this furniture store in Montclair, NJ was the epitome of fanciness. That when I achieved Ann-Margret baked bean adult status that I would shop for all my furniture here.

On a recent trip back with my friends Sarah (a NJ transplant) and Tom Pluck (NJ native and fellow blogger), the Hampton House sign remains as evocative as ever.

Show Your Work!

One of my favorite new/young writers is Victor LaValle (and I love the cover design—designer credit?—of his latest book Big Machine). But this great passage comes from his earlier book, The Ecstatic. The protagonist is talking about his philosophy of cleaning houses for money, but it totally applies to the design process as well. Actually, it probably applies to any client relations!

"In the living room I ran the vacuum. I lifted the couch on its side and left it there.

People don't want to return to a neat house. They want to enter fifteen minutes before the finish, when the rooms are still a little disarrayed. If they see no proof that works been done they quibble about hours, swear that the appliances were that shiny before I got there. They cut even cheaper with the tip and I'm not talking about generous clientele to begin with. It's necessary to let people think they're backstage at the theater minutes before the show. They want to be the producers, not the audience."

Safe Terror

One of my most anxious friends enjoys thrill rides because they're controlled fear. I just like looking; most rides are pretty visually rich as well as pretty scary. I marvel at the people who design the rides, taking countless aspects and guidelines into account. I'm also amused but not too surprised that there's a student paper about the physics of The Vortex.

Goodbye Fair Season! Hello school semester! For a last swing around the midway enjoy Rick Lyman's tribute to State Fairs.

Class

An incredibly talented photographer client phoned to say her conversations with other photographers yielded feedback that her website needs to include more work, show it bigger, and update it more often (BiggerBetterFasterMore!). So, having heard about sites developed by a company that caters to photographers and produces photo books, she checked out cost-efficient templates. Apologetically, she blurted that she was telling me—before she went live—that her daughter redid her website using templates from Visual Server.

First: what thoughtfulness and class. Many clients would have simply gone live. Like any expert collaborator, I want respect. At bottom, my (former) client owed me nothing; but she was decent and gave notice.

Second: In a fast, digital, DIY world, good design means something that's easy for the client to do him/her/itself. Heck; our Designerbs diablog is a template you adapted. Another Heck: Paula Scher did letterhead templates for HP. I regret the end of the particular project, BUT I understand the need for a smooth way for a client to control fate in a money-challenged world. I hope the designers and programmers of the Visual Server make some money/residuals from their formats.

Third: The client also paid her daughter (a college student and a photographer) for her time, which makes the client double decent.

All the above said, I do feel wistful. I'm not sure whether I'm sad because the client was so stressed about delivering her bad news to me or because she let BTD go. I'll post the link to her great work once the new site is live.

Your message here

I love your decaying sign—and in general find blank signs fascinating, even in moments of utmost entropy. Sometimes, a decaying sign is just a decaying sign. In a city, may signal lack of advertisers/bad nabe. But to me, especially on a highway, blank signs seem like a:

—pause in a highway conversation
—feeling of endless possibilities
—visual respite
—way to project your own hopes
—defunct way to get a message across