the mehallo blog. beta.

‘Just a huge fan of this movie. Wanted to make a exciting trailer with a modern feel’

A reimagined trailer for the original TRON (1982). Reedited and updated by DrewboiX.

Tags: cool finds, design history by steve
Comments Off on TRON, repackaged

Above, artist Sherrie Levine’s Fountain (Buddha) (1996) with Duchamp’s original (1917). From the exhibition, Keeping it Real (2010).

Below, ‘a  personal note from Queen’s Roger Taylor’ (2011).

Roger Taylor: Dear Mr Murdoch

Tags: art, design, design history, exhibitions, music, thoughts by steve
Comments Off on Urinal in bronze, +Murdoch

‘does adding the sticker to your loo make it a work of art?’

R. Mutt sticker. A replicate of the signature on Marcel Duchamp’s ‘readymade’ Fountain (1917).

Snag one here.

Found via Switched On Art

Tags: art, cool finds, design, design history, typography by steve
Comments Off on Toilet tag

The work of Bill Kane. After Marinetti.

For National No Bra Day.

Found via bits&bites

Tags: art, design, design history, photography, typography by steve
3 comments  . . .   

‘Vorticism was a radical art movement that shone briefly but brightly in the years before and during World War I.’

A few months back, I picked up Black Sparrow Press’ reprints of Wyndham Lewis’ Vorticist journal Blast Magazine. Vorticism was the British entry into the realm of modern art.

There were only two issues – which ‘blasted’ old Edwardian forms in favor of the new machine aesthetic that was about to take over the world.

Out with the old, in with the new, as it were.

The two issues of Blast – there were only two – are available for browsing at issuu. Check them out here and here.

I see a connection between Lewis’ work and the original production design of TRON. But that may just be me.

There is also a retrospective now going on at the Tate. Video referencing the work of Vorticist practitioner Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (1891-1915), below.

Tags: art, design, design history, education, exhibitions, illustration, thoughts by steve
2 comments  . . .   

‘On the 4th we celebrate what it means to be American: Consuming more than we need to and making things explode.’ –Andy Borowitz

Pictured, Alvin Lustig’s 1946 cover design for Franz Kafka’s Amerika.

Image found via Scott Lindberg

Tags: design, design history, illustration, publication design by steve
2 comments  . . .   

‘Before there were photocopiers, scanners and printers, there was the Ditto Machine (a.k.a. spirit duplicator), produced by the Illinois-based Ditto Corporation; originally introduced in 1923.’ –mnn

Clifford the Big Red Dog was supposed to be red. But in the handout I got in kindergarten, he was purple.

So was my introduction to the Ditto Machine – a device used to replicate most of the paperwork I’d used in elementary school.

Some of my earliest experiences as a ‘graphics’ guy was playing with one of these machines – seeing what it could reproduce and what it couldn’t. It couldn’t reproduce much. The copies were so smudgy, Dittos were grunge before grunge was grunge.

And the smell of the purple ink was incredible. Fruity and chemically at the same time! Tho it turns out ink ingredients – isopropanol and methanol – are toxic substances. Who knew? [Read more →]

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, education, thoughts by steve
4 comments  . . .   

 
Electronic music pioneer Kraftwerk performing Pocket Calculator. Live.

Remixes below.

Kraftwerk: Pocket Calculator (The Mix)

Kraftwerk: Pocket Calculator (Mixx-It Remix)

Kraftwerk: Pocket Calculator (Tomozo Remix)

Kraftwerk: Pocket Calculator (Alexampler Mix)

Tags: design history, music by steve
2 comments  . . .   

‘Paul Renner’s Futura interpreted in metal’

Handmade model with engine. Cesar Santos Perez’s final project from my most-recent experimental typography course at Ai Sacramento.

Tags: design, design history, education, fonts, typography by steve
Comments Off on Futura Maschine 2011

‘What I did on my summer vacation’

Last week, I spent four full days with a handful of some really cool teens.

I found myself saying, ‘Yes, I’ll do it. What is it?’ to teaching a week-long Summer Studio workshop at Ai Sacramento.

I called the whole thing ‘Designer Mashup’ – and set about having my students mix contemporary designers with historical luminaries.

Design history, research, handmade collages, form studies and handing work off to other students (to reinterpret) were part of the process.

Pictured, some of the final pieces.

Designers studied included Paula Scher, Georges Braque, Josef Albers, El Lisstizky, Rick Griffin, Jessica Hische, Raoul Hausmann, Marian Bantjes, Hannah Höch, Alvin Lustig, Shepard Fairey and David Carson.

Tags: design, design history, education by steve
2 comments  . . .   

Found via Deep Glamour

Tags: design, design history, illustration by steve
Comments Off on Train of Olivetti