Making Life Count

The design world was shocked by the passing of Sylvia Harris on July 24, 2011. Citizen Research & Design, the business founded by Sylvia Harris, contains an announcement of her passing as well as remembrances and links to still more eloquent memories. I didn't know Sylvia Harris. I certainly knew of her and her admirable work.

Sylvia Harris's work was important, had a point, a cause, and was about leading people to great / greater purposes—no easy feat. "Voting by Design," a poster Sylvia art directed for the University of Minnesota's Design Institute, struck me with its clearly successful "communications map of the American voter's experience." I included the poster in Layout Essentials, headed by "Make Space Count."

Sylvia Harris made many things count, including the curtailed time she had to leave a rich legacy of thinking, planning, guiding, and communicating. For me, Sylvia Harris's work speaks for itself.

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Including links to the easily-found (and wonderful personal) recollections seems a bit vulture-like. Besides, a quick search yields all the sites I mentioned. But below is the spread which shows Sylvia Harris's Voting by Design, an extremely disciplined breakdown of a crucial process.

I'm melting!

My friend Scott Meadows is an extremely talented commercial photographer,

but he's also added a twist: time lapse!



We've been emailing a lot about the State of the Animated Gif (aka cinemagraph, cinemagif), and web videos...I've been reading a lot of blogs that mention them, like this viral dandelion time lapse on Gawker, hair cinemagraphs and other gifs on Art Fag City, the Gif Shop link on Swiss-Miss, and the fascinating I am not an artist animated gif collection.

Scott's also been working the animated gif to get the time lapse thing like this great sparkler!

Digits and digital

Recently, I saw a great non-Italian combination of gli antichi ed i moderni—in the thesis project of Juliana Frankovich, a recent Rutgers graduate and student of former mentoring colleague Jackie Thaw. Using old-school embroidery techniques (which are based on squares akin to pixels), Juliana created a series of thirty hand-sewn cards.


In her thesis statement, Juliana Frankovich notes that the series and signage for her installation

. . . together emphasize the general relationship between modern technology and the DIY work ethic as well as more specific design-related topis with an emphasis on hand-crafted materials.

Kudos for the way Juliana Frankovich threads together digits and digital.

The naked cookbook

An article by Josh Friedland on the blog The Food Section is talking about how cookbooks are being printed without dust jackets—they have only the paper-on-board cover. (Dust jackets being the paper book cover that wraps around the whole book.) I'm thinking that I agree with the basic premise: that cookbooks really don't need a dust jacket. Maybe they're a bit fussy and in the way. And of course we know it's cheaper to print without.

But a cookbook I just took out of the library recently didn't look cheap at all...in fact, it's positively sumptuous. Phaidon has put out a glorious cookbook titled Tuscany — each chapter is dedicated to the regional specialties of the different Tuscan towns.

Each recipe gets its own spread. On beautiful paper. With fantastic marbled endpapers.



















And there are not one, but two! finding ribbons (aka markers, registers, signets, or bookmarks); one in deep sienna, the other a lovely ochre. The design is a great blend of gli antichi e i moderni(the ancient and the modern).



















And the recipes are sbalorditive, including one for celery that is stuffed (and tied) and floured and fried. You'll have to check it out yourself for that recipe.

And naturalmente the book sports a dust jacket.

Summer Icon with a DIY twist

To me, nothing says summer like a Chocolate-dipped Mister Softee. The truck at Bleecker and Broadway sports a panel with a charming DIY twist: hand-made cone art atop toweling and phonetic spelling. "Sprinks" wrks as an abbrev.

Radcliffe Bailey: Artist. Great Client

Recently, I've read a number of articles about the artist Radcliffe Bailey, whose work is currently on exhibit at Atlanta's High Museum, among other galleries.

I like the work—and vapidly think the artist is movie-star handsome. In addition, Bailey's respect for collaborators impressed me (and ties into some of our discussions about clients, what they want, and how they work with designers). Part of an article by Candace Jackson in The Wall Street Journal (Friday, July 8) describes how Radcliffe Bailey commissioned his wonderful ultra-contemporary home-with-studio from the architecture firm Mack Scogin Merrill Elam.

Mr. Bailey said he showed the architects slides of his artwork, letting them take the lead on style and layout. "A collector sometimes comes [to me] and says 'I don't like that color.' And that is annoying to me," said Mr. Bailey. "I wanted to treat them like artists."

Now there's a good and "qualified" client.

Designer Quandry, Update!

Earlier this month one of my students found herself in a familiar design quandry...how to please a client who already had a design from a previous designer...discussed in this post.
Here's the update:

When I met up with my client, I addressed my concerns about using the poster design [the previous design, done by another designer] as a webpage layout, and he said it was fine to do that and that the poster designer is someone who works in the same place (that's a relief!) As for the decision of whether to go with my design or the poster design, it seems like the client definitely wants to stick with the poster design. My supervisor decided if that's what the client wants, then we'll just have to go with it.

Well, I guess that's the gist of it for my first client! I was definitely paranoid about whether it was okay to just copy another design, but I'm relieved to hear that the poster design belongs to the workplace.

Thank you for posting my question on your blog. It was very helpful to read comments from people who have experienced this many times.

Designer Quandry

A former (wonderful, thoughtful, talented) student sent me an email the other day with a classic designer's dilemma...what do you do when your client wants you to base work on another design? And how do you sell a client on your design when they love something from before?

Tricky, sticky, complicated? Thoughts, please!

Hi Professor,

I have a bit of a problem, and would like to ask you for some advice.

I recently landed a web design internship, and what I do so far is set up appointments with clients in order to get a feeling of how they would like me to design their page. I mainly do the graphics though, since my coding skills are very minimal. However, I am in a bit of a slump because my first client seems very hard to influence. He wants me to design a layout that resembles a poster that someone else designed for him. By doing so, I feel like I'll only be ripping off someone else's work and ideas.

I decided to create two drafts for the client; one draft with my own ideas, and the other draft with what he wanted to go for. I put more effort into designing my own layout because I wanted my client to consider choosing a better alternative. However, my client still wanted to go for the draft that resembled his poster.

My problem is, how do you influence clients to stray away from ripping off another design? Although the poster was designed for him by someone else, it still feels weird for me to just copy someone else's work. It also seems like he is really set on having his layout look a certain way.

Even though my supervisors prefer my design, I don't know how to get my client to consider a layout that is more practical for a webpage.

Legibility

Ok,

Legibility is very important to me. BUT, as a "businessperson," I'd rather be viable, or successful, or reliable.

That said, it's hard to beat the phrase coined by scammer Hans Peter.

Dear friend my message to you,

I got your contact information from a reputable business/professional directory of your country which gives me assurance of your legibility as a business person.

Love. Loss. Wore.

At a 2009 symposium at the National Gallery of Art, Stephen J. Brooke, Associate Professor of History at York University in Toronto, spoke about the people in Bill Brandt’s photos and mentioned “dress as a signifier of class.”

Dress today is a signifier of a different sort of class: poise, confidence, behavior as opposed to social station. I also mean those who are in a class by themselves, using fashion (couture—haute or not) to project an image, story, or fantasy.

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"Savage Beauty," The Met Museum’s homage to the late Alexander McQueen, immersed me (and throngs and throngs of other beauty-seekers) in imagination, mythology, and some pretty heavy duty themes. What struck me was the combination of superb command of craft and materials (Gaga’s meat dress wasn’t in the show, but a gown enhanced with live flowers was in its beauty-that-must-die glory).

McQueen’s shows seemed like performance art, with his work as costumes in his runway collections/dramas. I loved the dress that was spray-painted by robots while worn by a model on a turntable as well as a gown made of shells. The Japanese ensembles are extraordinary in their fabrics and craftsmanship.




The house of McQueen sponsored this sadly astounding homage to the bright light who snuffed himself out.

Images are screenshots from video narrated by Metropolitan Museum curator Andrew Bolton.

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Somewhere, I read about Patti Smith's strong sense of fashion. I had reckoned that whoever wrote about Patti Smith’s style meant the skinny jeans or white shirts made iconic by Robert Mapplethorpe’s photos. Wrong.

In her poetic, brilliant, bittersweet Just Kids, Patti Smith describes a number of her outfits. If dress is a signifier of class; it can also be a signifier of someone being in a class by herself, not to mention memories, events, or seeking and ultimately finding a style.

These snippets below, about outfits, are supporting details in Smith’s tribute to her extraordinary life with Mapplethorpe (who suggested she wear a white shirt for the Horses cover shoot). For the bigger vision, it’s worth reading the book.

“I was wearing a long rayon navy dress with white polka dots and a straw hat, my East of Eden outfit. At the table to my left, Janis Joplin was holding court with her band. To my far right were Grace Slick and the Jefferson Airplane, along with members of Country Joe and the Fish . . . “ [Oddly, weeks before reading Just Kids, I almost tossed out a 1970s paperback of East of Eden but kept it. Now, I’ll skim it to see what makes an “East of Eden outfit"].
Paperback page 105.

“We had never been robbed before, and Robert was upset not only about the expensive camera, but about what it indicated: a lack of safety and invasion of privacy. I mourned the loss of the motorcycle jacket because we had used it in installations. . . . The thief was possibly daunted by my mess but did steal the outfit I had worn to Coney Island on our anniversary in 1969. It was my favorite outfi, the one in the picture . . . ” [on the frontispiece of the book].
Paperback page 207.

“The stars were lining up to enter the Ziegfeld Theatre for the glittering premier of the Film Ladies & Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones. I was excited to be there. I remember it was Easter and I was wearing a black velvet Victorian dress with a white lace collar. Afterward, Lenny and I headed downtown, our coach a pumpkin our finery tattered . . . “
Paperback page 239.

“Wishing to add a guitar line that could represent the desperate desire to be free, we chose Tom Verlaine to join us. Divining how to appeal to Tom’s sensibilities, I dressed in a manner that I thought a boy from Delaware would understand: black ballet flats, pink shantung capris, my kelly green silk raincoat, and a violet parasol . . .” Paperback page 241.

“[Robert Mapplethorpe says] You know, I really like the whiteness of the shirt. Can you take the jacket off?”
“I flung my jacket over my shoulder, Frank Sinatra style. I was full of references. He was full of light and shadow.
. . . He took twelve pictures that day. . . .
When I look at it now, I never see me. I see us.”
Paperback page 251.

“I wrote the poem for his memorial card as I had done for Sam Wagstaaff. On the twenty-second of May, Fred and I attended the service at the Whitney Museum. Fred wore a suit of indigo gabardine with a burgundy tie. I wore my Easter dress of black silk velvet with a white lace collar. . . .”
Paperback page 288.

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Pluck. Kindness. Loyalty. Love. Strength. Perseverance. Collaboration. Costume.
“Savage Beauty.” Worth the wait. Just Kids. Worth the read.


Just Kids, Patti Smith. Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2010.