‘rare Belgian newspaper article on the publication of Jan Tschichold’s ‘Typografische Vormgeving’ (unfortunately no information on the name of the newspaper nor the date)’

Found via typojo

Years ago Step By Step was a graphic design magazine that showed complex design solutions in a ‘step by step’ process. So was HOW, which broke out HOW things were designed.

Today we assume computers just design everything. Not true. Not everything.

Pictured is the work of Dmitry Karpov. And at Behance, here is the Step by Step breakdown of HOW they were done.

Found via Designcollector Network

Last week I attended TYPO in San Francisco and noticed that my notebook was full. No room for notes.

My solution was the #typo13 hashtag, Twitter, plus big fingers and cranky iPhone. Everything I attended I tweeted, autocorrect had other ideas, TYPO ended up meaning typo.

Typically if I go on a tweeeeting binge like this, I lose ‘followers’ and get bitched out a bit. Instead I ended up meeting some cool people from around the planet.

Sol Kawage lives in South Tyrol, a ‘german speaking region in northern Italy.’ Her tagline on her Twitter account states: ‘Annoying people since 1980.’

Pics are from her blog, cool holdings of a small Museum of Modern Art in the City of Rovereto. More here and here.

In 1998 I attended this over-the-top crazy creative conference in San Francisco.

It was called FUSE: Beyond Typography and it was a Neville Brody gig, named for his font magazine. The whole shebang overstuffed itself into San Francisco’s Masonic Center on Nob Hill. And what happened inside was really ‘beyond typography,’ in that the typophiles I knew were complaining where’s the type? It made sense. It was BEYOND.

It was many days. I think a week. Maybe a month, a year? I don’t remember. Nob Hill is up in the clouds, which was fitting. But what I do know is the speakers – which ranged from budding architects Zaha Hadid and Michael Sorkin to author Karrie Jacobs and a slide show from soon-to-pass-on Tibor Kalman – left me recharged about graphic design and what a real creative can do.

Then, turned out the week of FUSE Phil Hartman died.

And

2001 changed everything.

And the economic disaster that followed also put a lot of creative plans on hold. I quit my corporate job right after FUSE and moved on to more meaningful work, eventually landing in teaching. I kept doing the fun work, but bread-n-butter work started to take over. Survival became more important as creativity was pushed aside.

In 2007 I left my position as president of the Art Directors and Artists Club of Sacramento and from a distance, saw it shut down early 2012. BUT I did remember the spark of FUSE (which was a money-loser for the organizers) and kept side projects going. I started this very blog, released a few fonts.

Mike Monteiro: ‘never work for someone you can’t argue with’

Last year TYPO came to San Francisco.

And turns out – TYPO is a smaller FUSE. Same group, been around a bit longer, but leaner. Two days of great speakers – Tina Roth Eisenberg, Jessica Hische, Jim Parkinson, Rod Cavazos, the snarky Mike Monteiro and the crazy colors of Morag Myerscough (we compared nail polish, clothing) – with last year’s event punctuated by a keynote by Neville Brody with emphasis on how all of us sort of dropped the ball on creativity since 1998. It is important to make time for play. Difficult play, going forward. Making what’s next.

This year’s TYPOsf: CONTRAST starts tomorrow. I’ll be tweeting live. And planning my next move.

Modern graphic design has roots in Russian Suprematism and Constructivism. Here’s a trailer for a film by Sergey Shanovich that looks at what’s been happening since.

Facebook page here.

Found via Motioncollector

I will be giving a talk on April 19 at American River College. Covered will be the history of the Bauhaus (1919-33).

And as an add-on, I’ll be subtly previewing how the Bauhaus, Futurism and early Modern Art has inspired my new educational project, FLomm: THE BATTLE For MODeRN 1923 (which already has a tumblr presence here and twitter here).

For additional information, please visit the Art New Media at American River College Facebook page here.

Andrea Stinga and Federico Gonzalez’s The ABC of Architects.

Visit their architectural tumblr here.

‘Cieślewicz always compared himself to a journalist; but he referred to himself as a visual journalist. So Graphic designer, as a profession, is very close to that of journalism; except that it is about articulating clear ideas through the justaposition of imagery and layout – it’s a question of wanting to say something.’ –Professor Andrezej Klimowski, Royal College of Art

Above, a BBC overview of the work of Roman Cieślewicz (1930–96), which was part of a retrospective this summer at the Royal College of Art in London.

Click image to view video/jump.

Found via BBC News

Lady Gaga performing Just Dance from last year’s HBO special.

Caught the rerun this week.

‘The Largest Magazine Ever Produced by Guinness World Record. No shit!’

Gaga, photographed by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin for Visionaire 61 – the ‘Larger Than Life’ issue.

Found via art8amby

‘The range moniker pays homage to The Third Mind, a 1978 book and concept by William Burroughs and Brian Gysin, which showcased the ‘cut ups’ technique originating from the Surrealists – a form also adapted to film making by Kenneth Anger and Maya Deren. In this mode, unrelated texts and images where literally cut up and rearranged to form radical narratives and vistas.’

Abbey Lee Kershaw, shot by Elle Muliarchyk for ManiaMania. Info here.

Found via Fashionising

The work of Robin Rhode.

Below, image from Rhode’s Variants.

‘For a decade, Danny created art for musicians – album covers, event posters, and logos, among others. Now those artists are paying tribute to Danny with a free, downloadable 35-song album titled ‘DJG Was Here.”

Danny J. Gibson’s been a friend for years – and he’s one of the most prolific, experimental artist/designers I know. In a few days Quietly Contributing – Poster Art of DJG Design will open at the 1819 Event Space + Gallery in Kansas City.

More details here. Snag the free album here (please use the tip jar).

Article here. And visit Danny’s site here.

The work of Hannah Höch, Tailor’s Flower, 1920.

Yan Saquet: Les Djinns (Trentemøller Remix)

Found via Venetian Red

‘I am interested in the female form and the objectification and dismemberment of women. I try to make sense of this dismemberment by the very act of dismembering  . . .  more often than not, the artworks manifest themselves through the female gaze.’

The mixed media work of Thelma van Rensburg.

Coco? Are you out there?

Chanel shop, London, 2009.

Found via Self Interest and Sympathy

Art Nouveau meets Russian Constructivism. Motion design by Matt Duplessie.

Superman, as portrayed in Mark Millar’s Red Son (2003).

Motion comic here.

Found via Raving Toy Maniac

‘A typeface designed to reflect the aesthetic qualities of Soviet Union product design and manufacture. The typeface uses a unilateral x-height, cap height and faux Cyrillic to create a blocky, angular and awkward response. To allude to the dated methods of production, I produced the entire face as printing blocks.’

Andy Barnes’ Eastern Block typeface. Website here.

Found via Arts Thread

Two short interpretations of the work of Suprematist Malevitch and Constructivist Lissitzky.

Jostein Finnekaasa’s Suprematism/Constructivism

‘Suprematism, considered ‘the first systematic school of abstract painting in the modern movement,’ was developed by Kazimir Malevich in 1913 and introduced at the 1915 0-10 exhibition in St. Petersburg.’ –Alexander Boguslawski

This is my favorite Suprematist piece, Malevitch’s Sensation of Flight, c. 1914-15. Pure objects, any meaning comes from the viewer’s own interpretation.

Constructivism by Ukraine-based video art/vj collective, Shifted VJs. Music by Evol Intent.

‘In an extended metaphor, Manson compares his own often-criticized music to the entartete Kunst banned by the Nazi regime’

Videos for Marilyn Manson’s Mobscene and This Is The New Shit. Made in collaboration with Gottfried Helnwein. From 2003.

‘Avant-garde German artists were now branded both enemies of the state and a threat to German culture.’

In 1937, the Nazi party hosted ‘Entartete Kunst.’ This traveling exhibition showcased modern art as the work of madmen, ‘degenerates’ out to destroy the world.

Confiscated art – works of Kirchner, Nolde, Beckmann, Ernst, Chagall, Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh, Dali, Klee, Kandinsky, Lissitzky, Grosz and many others – filled the show. After, the pieces were either destroyed or auctioned off.

For more about Entartete Kunst, watch David Grubin’s powerful 1993 Degenerate Art documentary here. Read more here and here. The show’s exhibition catalog is posted here.

Art, ideas, original thoughts: All dangerous.

This past weekend I saw a documentary on The Inquisition. Things such as inquisitions, persecutions – Entartete Kunst, McCarthyism – cycle throughout history.

What beliefs, doctrines and laws exist today that limit freedom, individuality and progress?

Images from the Weimar blog post ‘From Calgari to Hitler,’ named for Siegfried Kracauer’s book on German cinema (1910-40).

Jakob Steinhardt, The City, 1913

Robert Wiene, Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari, 1919

Original sketch for a scene in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari from Lotte Eisner

Erich Godal, Die Straße (The Street), 1923

Louise Brooks in “Pandora’s Box” (G.W.Pabst, 1929)

Rudolf Klein Rogge in Lang’s The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, 1933

Otto Dix, The Actor Heinrich George, 1933

George Grosz, John, the Lady Killer, 1918

Art director Erich Kettelhut & crew create the futuristic city set of Metropolis


Raoul Hausmann, Mechanical Head (Spirit of Our Age), c. 1920

John Martin, Illustration to Paradise Lost, 1825

Magnus Zeller, The Orator, 1920

Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will, 1934

Ever wonder what Germany may have looked like if the Weimar Republic kept going?

I like to think answers to this question could be found in the wonderful image sets posted over at kraftgenie’s Weimar blog. Each post is a collection of seemingly related imagery that is simply  . . .  Weimar.

Eugenio Recuenco

Yuval Yairi

Sabine Pigalle

Chantal Michel

Mikel Uribetxeberria

Bill Brandt

Madame Peripetie

Brooke Shaden

Brooke Shaden

Marilyn Minter

Inez van Lamsweerde

Tamara Lischka

***

‘In her 2010 documentary about the Berlin cabaret scene of the interwar period, Fabienne Rousso-Lenoir includes archival material, excerpts from German cinema classics, rediscovered promotional and institutional films, rare modern art experiments as well as documentaries of the time – all restored in high-definition.’

Above, the first five minutes of Fabienne Rousso-Lenoir’s Cabaret-Berlin: Die wilde Bühne (The Wild Stage) 1919-33. This 2010 documentary is loaded with incredible images from an era that went away in the 1930s.

Watch the entire untranslated film here. (Note: Veoh player download required)

Berlin of the 1920s was considered by many to be the cultural center of Europe; home to innovative art, music and a bawdy nightlife – all squashed when the Nazis came to power in 1933.

Above, Walther Ruttmann’s silent (add your own music) Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927), which ‘portrays the life of a city mainly through visual effects and music, not narrative content. The impression it conveys of daily life in Berlin is dynamic, anxiety-ridden, cacophonous – and a helluva lot of fun!’ -Jessica Glaser, MoMA

Below, visual highlights from MoMA’s recent exhibition, German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse. Additional commentary here.

‘in honour of four outstanding type designers’

Spain-based Atipo’s FontFace project.

FontFeed interview here. Store here. Website here.

‘Philip Colbert created a fashion music film as part of his autumn/winter 2011-12 collection, Venus in Sequins’

The Rodnik Band. Rock band, fashion label. Referencing Duchamp, Van Gogh and Warhol.

Website – with free track downloads – here.

Found via Wearable Art Blog

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

‘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

‘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.

 
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)

‘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.

From I Love You. More here.

Found via Refinery29

Video for N.A.S.A.’s Money. Feat. David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, Z-Trip and the work of Shepard Fairey.

More here.

Found via Mr. Mule’s

‘The beauty of Soviet brutalism’

Frédéric Chaubin’s photographs of 90 oddly-designed buildings constructed in the final decades of the Soviet Union.

And thru Taschen, available in handy book form.

Found via RebeccaWho

Video for Pig With The Face Of A Boy’s A Complete History of the Soviet Union as Told by a Humble Worker, Arranged to the Melody of TETRIS. Directed, animated and edited by Chris Lincé.

The work of St. Petersburg-based photographer Serge Lis.

More here and here.

Sybil Andrews’ Speedway (above) is a linotype print commissioned by the London Passenger Transport Board in 1934 to advertise what was a new spectator sport, Speedway Racing.

The final piece – like the famous ‘keep calm’ poster – was never used for its intended purpose.

Found via Gunther Stephan

The work of Natalya Goncharova (1881-1962).

‘Metzinger celebrated the salutory effects of exercise on the male population in his ‘Cyclist,’ which focused on a sport that historian Eugen Weber has described as a French creation, and one affordable to the French working class by 1900.’ –Mark Antliff, Patricia Leighten

In 1913, Jean Metzinger (1883-1956) created his Cubist Cyclist to depict audience, participant and the interaction involved.

(Been doing a lot of reading on early modern art)

‘This approach is a way of asking questions and changing public response to the significance of commercial buildings in the suburban environment.’

Back in the 1970s, architectural firm SITE created some great facades for the BEST retail chain as part of what was titled The Peeling Project. Sacramento was home to the ‘earthquake’ variant (pictured). The pushed out slab could be moved as necessary to reveal the front entrance.

The BEST chain is now gone – tho evolved into Best Buy, which currently occupies the same building, but the cool entrance is long gone.

More info here. SITE site here.

‘joining the baroque Serif with the geometric Sans, the formal with the flourish decorative – ARS Novelty is a typeface that tries to make sense of it all’

A hybrid font designed by Angus R. Shamal. Free download here.

‘With the Stars: Mr. Laupin, the former Mrs. Laupin, the Swimsuit Squad and me, your cool ass pal, Johnny Blue Jeans’

Viva Variety was an odd little take on European variety shows. Created by the same people who went on to produce Reno 911!

Clip (above) features ‘The Human Slinky.’ From 1998.

Video for Patrick Wolf’s Hard Times.

The work of Robert Masciave.