Ein Hungerkünstler

‘the letters and punctuation marks were carved into lino plates and digitized to portray the bipolar nature of the protagonist by using lettering with a harsh edge.’

Juergen Schlotter’s interpretation of Kafka’s Ein Hungerkünstler (A Starving Artist). Details here.

Found via Communication Arts

The Trial tee



Opening line of The Trial with Kafka’s ‘Man At Table’ sketch. On a tee. Here.

Kafka Chandler 42

Even more free wallpapers by Arno Kathollnig  . . .

Franz Kafka Trilogy – featuring my own Chandler 42 fonts (with some pointing hands from Alta California).

Amerika!

‘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

Ditto!!

‘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 →]

Pocket Calculator

 
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)

Err: Art of the factory

Factory mistakes become art. Curated by Jeremy Hutchison.

Details here.



Found via Gregg Berryman

Futura Maschine 2011

‘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.

Summer Studio 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.

George Charles, I Madonnari

My cousin – former Disney Animation engineer George Charles Polchin – has taken up painting. Pictured, his most recent work from the Santa Barbara 2011 I Madonnari festival.

Train of Thought

‘A short film in paper by Leo Bridle & Ben Thomas’

More info here.


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