the mehallo blog. beta.

How are you going to decorate your jail cell?

Found via Brian Hoff, via Frank Chimero, GOOD magazine

Tags: cool finds, design, education by steve
Comments Off on Jailbirds

‘Meet The Kno – a two-touchscreen tablet that folds out like a book’

How it works (above). Article here.

Found via GOOD

Tags: cool finds, design, education by steve
Comments Off on Startup Redesigns the Textbook

We’re closing in on spring finals at the Art Institute. And I just got this note from a student:

School is like being hit by an invisible bus. A bus full of sardines, and being driven by a monkey. After being hit, the monkey flips you off, leaving you speechless and confused. So basically school is stinky and is going bananas.

And I’m thinking the ‘everything is due’ pressure is starting to sink in. And that I’m the monkey. And wow, I get to drive An Invisible Bus.

in perspective
But in all the melee going on right now, I’d like to see something more positive come of this. Usually the positive part hits when standing in a classroom filled with incredible final projects – which I hope happens next week.

This is my spin. It’s what I do these days:

I’m a game show host in a forced labor camp.

But – I was recently talking with web instructor and confidant Bill Mead – and we both agreed that we really love teaching in a creative environment. Because our students really are nuts. In such a great way.

And that’s so cool. It’s fantastic to be around all that creative energy all of the time.

The world needs more creative and fun people. Who work hard. Who can change the world.

more learnt in school
New video (above) from Raina and Brent as part of their totally random What I Learned in School series.

What started as a few photos is now a series. They’ve been making these pretty much on a weekly basis at this point.

Tags: art, design, education by steve
4 comments  . . .   

Flickr set here.

Found via Martin Klasch

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, education, typography by steve
Comments Off on Space Alphabet, 1964

‘Depicts 2.4 million pieces of plastic, equal to the estimated number of pounds of plastic pollution that enter the world’s oceans every hour. All of the plastic in this image was collected from the Pacific Ocean.’

From Chris Jordan’s Running the Numbers II: Portraits of global mass culture. Details here.

Tags: art, cool finds, education, exhibitions by steve
2 comments  . . .   

I’ve said this in the critiques in my design classes:

‘Are you a designer or a decorator?’

The distinction is a designer is a problem solver. In graphic design, a designer is a problem solving communicator. Graphic design is a communication field and the nuance in definition is what can separate novice from professional. [Read more →]

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

From 2007. Here’s a capsule overview of Starck’s work.

Tags: cool finds, design, education by steve
2 comments  . . .   

Another one: Experimental typeface by SJSU design student joanne kwok.

More here. Blog here.

Tags: design, education, typography by steve
3 comments  . . .   

Experimental typeface by SJSU design student Cam Hoa Chau. Website here.

Tags: cool finds, design, education, typography by steve
Comments Off on Identifeel font

Angela Broussard’s hunk-o-clay with Trajan from my experimental typography course at Art Institute of California Sacramento.

Tags: design history, education, fonts, typography by steve
Comments Off on Trajan fu

Raina, Brent

Ever wonder what goes on in a creative classroom?

There is play, but it’s also a lot of hard work. Ask anyone in my Typography 3 course – this quarter, I’ve been doing Project Runway-like timed challenges every single week. Difficult, grueling – but students’ results have been incredible. [Read more →]

Tags: cool finds, design, education, photography by steve
5 comments  . . .