I've told you about things magazine before. Maybe you took my advice and went over and had a good poke around; maybe you didn't. So, if you need a bit of encouragement, get over there now and have a look at the wonderful 'about a motor car' by the equally wonderfully-named Phyllis Ladyman.
I have to be out for the day - down in deepest Dorset where there is no mobile signal, let alone broadband. So, before I go, there's just enough time to tell you about The Campaign for Drawing.
*and any other design students who happen to stumble across this blog.
Yesterday's post from me was about connections, and about how valuable those connections (although virtual) are to me personally. But connections work both ways, and this week I find myself listed as a reference for this week's assignment for Visual Communications students at Harford Community College, Bel Air, Maryland.
So, welcome my young friends - you're very welcome here. But I do notice (from my statistics) that you're not hanging around for long. That either means that you think you have nothing to learn from someone like me, or you're out getting yourselves wasted and saving up your assigned work until the last possible moment. My first piece of advice to you is: that's not a wise strategy if you want to transition your studies into a design career.
But the best piece of advice that I can give you is to learn to love typography. It's not easy, I know - especially when you're young and hot with hormones. I thought it was the most boring thing I'd ever encountered when I was your age (except, perhaps, double-entry bookkeeping). It may have been my tutor, though - he certainly didn't have the presence (or the beard) of your Professor Kenneth Jones. Or maybe I just started out with the wrong font - Univers. The most unforgiving typeface of them all. But I stuck with it and plodded on (well, I am a Taurean) and gradually I came to like it, and eventually - after ten years or so - to love it.
And the reason you should learn to love typography - and all things type - is that, should you follow a design career, the only thing that will remain constant over the years ahead will be type. Everything else will change - and change several times over. And you will need to accommodate and make those same changes yourself. But if you love type, you'll always find a way to make that happen.
So, good luck with your studies. And don't be shy - drop me a comment and let me know what you think.
(Oh, and one last piece of advice to the student at bottom left: lose the hat.)
Scottish delivery vehicles, part 2
I've always admired people who keep sketch books. It goes back to art school days where we were all encouraged to do it, though most of us failed. But there's something very compelling about looking at someone's book - it's that thing about putting up an easel outdoors and everyone passing by will almost certainly want to have a look at what you're doing.
And it's funny how when the oldest technology meets the newest, and sketch books end up on a blog, that they seem to become more compelling still (like Gwen Yip's Working Holiday in London). One of my favourites is Wil Freeborn's Ghost School - and I'd suggest you go over there now and have a look because "there’s a log just by the water at Gourock that's ideal for eating your supper on".
Don't forget what I always say when I point you to another blog: have a good poke around in the archives - that's where the treasure is buried.
I’m as serious as cancer when I say “Rhythm is a Dancer”
There's a really lovely collection of historic Chinese public health posters over at the United States National Library of Medicine.
Thanks to my good friend Jeanne (who doesn't blog) for pointing me in the right direction.
Give those to most people and they'd soon be reaching for the Band Aid. Give them to Jen Stark, on the other hand, and you end up with something else entirely.
Truly beautiful work at jenstark.com.
At first glance, you'd just think this was some kind of copy of Georges-Pierre Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Which indeed it is, albeit one made up of the number of aluminium cans that the US consumes every 30 seconds.
Just one of the remarkable series of large-scale photographic prints from the series Running the Numbers from American photographer Chris Jordan. A self-initiated project that visually examines the vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.
Chris explains that his only caveat about this series is that the prints must be seen in person to be experienced the way they are intended. As with any large artwork, their scale carries a vital part of their substance which is lost in these little web images. Hopefully the JPEGs displayed here might be enough to arouse your curiosity to attend an exhibition, or to arrange one if you are in a position to do so. The series is still in its early stages, and new images will be posted as they are completed, so please stay tuned.
You can see the series here.
Well, five bloggers responded to Friday's post (thank you, one and all). Four of you got the answer spot-on (not that complicated really - you just had to look up Bauhaus on Wikipedia). Claire got the end date right, but the start date was a million miles out (I did say a short period, remember?). So I'll assume that was a typing error. Which means that I've come up with a couple of extra copies, so no one goes away disappointed.
Richard, Dave(id) and Charles - you need to email davidthedesigner(at)celsius.eu.com and let me have your postal address. David (the Kneelo) and Claire - yours are on the way.
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