Designing Paradigms

05-05-2011

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I feel like we’ve reached a point in design where the link between aesthetic and purpose has been severed. Like everyone else, I admire the swirls, pen marks, pencil marks, wolf heads on women’s bodies, absurd illustrations, robots, the pinks and the teals, it’s all aesthetically beautiful. However, I find myself going back to the roots of my studies and questioning the purpose of this pile of trends.

Is the new direction in aesthetic a practical one or is distracting us from the problem?

I don’t know but it’s definitely an issue in my mind.

In the mass mountains of modern creativity, I have found a group who wants to utilize design and designers to mobilize the modern paradigm. The Green Patriot Poster project is organized by THE CANARY PROJECT.

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“During World War II the United States was able to mobilize industry and motivate its citizens in breathtaking speed. Factories were overhauled and consumption habits transformed. Strong, graphically compelling posters played a crucial role in the success of this campaign.

These posters presented the actions of individual citizens as vital for the nation and portrayed those who took part as attractive, dynamic American heroes.

Today a similar mobilization is required to address the crisis of global climate change and achieve energy independence. That’s why The Canary Project and its partners have launched Green Patriot Posters.

Green Patriot Posters is a communications campaign centered on posters that encourage all U.S. citizens to build a sustainable economy. These posters can be general (“We Can Do It!”) or can promote a specific sustainability action.”

So, if you’re dying to use design to influence behavior change for the greater good, then here’s the chance. You can upload posters onto the site.
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LINKS
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Green Patriot Posters
Canary Project
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Poster 1
Consequences by Joe Scorsone & Alice Drueding

Poster 2
Efforts Up! by GP43

Poster 3
Golab waminrg by matfal

Poster 4
Mugs Are Great by dsiegel

Poster 5
Let’s Ride by jasonhardy

Mattox’s 0-DAYS

By: Yannell Rodriguez

07-10-2010

art, graphic design, innovation, packaging, Tunes

As technological advances come into the present, the way of distributing old technologies becomes a challenge. In this case, the challenge is music exposure and this applies from the very small to the major industry.
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We’ve all seen the innovative approaches to music distribution with major artists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails but the local scene also has to adapt. With limited resources, where and how does a local band expose themselves? Here, Mattox has taken inspiration from all outlets. The standard approach to passing out CDs at a show no longer produces positive results so Mattox took it a step further. With the use of the internet, they were able to give their music away and although that might seem frightening to bands who are used to making money off of $5 CDs, Mattox knew that the more people were exposed to their music the bigger the audience would become. However, a major piece of the music experience was missing – the artwork that pulled the concept and the tunes together. Instead of making the typical sleeve for a cover, Mattox gave their fans much more than easy manufactured art – Mattox spent countless hours creating individual, one-of-a-kind pieces of art just for you. This approach is much more personal and sincere than any other CD or digital download.
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Each beautiful crafted package comes with a set of three screenprints, CD or digital download code and lyrics. However, this is just the exterior of the music. Once downloading the album or playing the CD, then you enter a completely new world where everything becomes clear, music and artwork combined to produce a very personal concept familiar to the border area.
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If you’d like to hear 0-Days, go their website MATTOX.
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If you’d like to order the beautiful packaged 0-Days for only $7, go to the SHOP.
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Russian Avant Garde Film Poster: Man with a Movie Camera

By: Yannell Rodriguez

01-09-2010

art, graphic design, historical

Russian avant-garde poster. Another of my favs. Designed by the Stenberg Brothers.
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The Movie:
What I love most about Russian film is the absolute subtleness that demands the limits of patience. This isn’t a popcorn stuffing, wine drinking, party type of film, it’s the kind that forces you to sit, watch, contemplate, think and feel. The avant garde movement of Russia encompasses a movement between 1890 – 1930 – a period of shifting ideology. This is the time when Rodchenko, the political and aesthetic revolutionary, looked towards a new form of expression. Constructivism was born, killing the the Bourgeois’ way of life — calling the death of easel painting.
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Film, poetry, design and art expanded their search for a new expression and we were left with a monumental era.
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Man With a Movie Camera is a film through the eyes of a movie camera. Machines and people are followed by the camera’s eyes. Even though the camera aimed at nothing other than the technical approach to what the camera can do – when I saw this movie, it created a heightened sense of paranoia, my heart beat raced and in the end – I felt like the camera itself.
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Great film, amazing poster.

A Lesson in Geometry

By: Yannell Rodriguez

29-07-2010

art, graphic design, historical, illustration, miscellaneous

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1. Quote by Erno Rubik
2. Cristiana Couceiro, poster designer
3. Elke Kramer, jewelry artist
4. Antique geometry prints
5. Karim Rashid & Gorenje, product designers
6. Origami
7. New Math by Craig Damrauer

Girl Scouts

By: Yannell Rodriguez

10-07-2010

graphic design, historical

Follow my blog with bloglovin

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|—AFTER —|

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Every now and then a logo comes along that defies all trends, demands ovation and becomes an instant classic. Saul Bass’s Girl Scouts logo is one of those logos. It’s the type of logo that you doesn’t need a redesign, a remake– it doesn’t need any more treatment, it’s fine, it’s perfect just the way it is. However, some forward trending agency or studio pops out of nowhere and redesigns something that shouldn’t be touched. For example, Pepsi, Tropicana, Kraft and now, unfortunately, the Girl Scouts.
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Redesigning a logo brings on many problems– and it all starts at the root of the process.
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Nowadays brands want to reach out to younger audiences, be friendly, be fun, reestablish their target market, attract secondary markets, it’s all a game, a trending game… well, that’s where the problem begins. Making a logo morph every so often is fine for fashion brands who don’t plan on becoming trendsetters or any market who relies on change. However, brands who want to become ageless should probably refrain from trendy additions or changes.
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Saul Bass’s logo worked because it spoke to all girls- everyday girls. The new logo completely destroys the paradigm.
It’s redesign changed
1] add bangs
2] noses are pointier
3] the lips are poutier
4] the neck is straighter
5] the symbol points down at the end
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It seems like the logo went from being everyday girl to trendy girl – the bangs is a sign of the times– she got a nose job and fat pumped into her lips. Really? Is this the symbol they chose to establish that ageless look? What will it be in three years when bangs are out of style? a ponytail? pigtails? maybe add some earrings? haha – it’s so silly, they never should have touched the logo.
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Original Masters of Design rebrand of the Girl Scouts.

Tom Gallo

By: Yannell Rodriguez

21-06-2010

art, graphic design

Giclée print by Tom Gallo. Amazing Work.

Binary & The Brain

By: Yannell Rodriguez

26-05-2010

graphic design

This poster was created by Los Angeles/London based studio, Binary & The Brain. The poster is so wonderfully put together. I wish I had this.

(I saw this on Communication Arts’ facebook a few days ago)

The Music Tee

By: Yannell Rodriguez

24-03-2010

fashion, graphic design

As we all know technology is changing. The music business is taking on new personalities – it’s been an era of trial and error. The way of the record industry no longer works in the digital age. We’ve seen different methods of music exposure through guerilla tactics like Nine Inch Nails to the Dark Night of the Soul collaboration with Sparklehorse, Danger Mouse and David Lynch. Times are changing and musicians are finding ways to be creative in the way that they get the music out to you.

Now comes the Music Tee.
Music Tee is an innovative way to expose the audience to music by embracing the technology that is available today.

How it works:
A limited edition tee gets printed featuring album art on the front, track list on the back and a code on the tag that allows you to download music.

Who it is:
Fashion and music fuses together with Wineberg and his partner Fred Siegel who built the Invisible DJ name. They set up a boutique shop in Los Angeles and have been selling music by pairing fashion [the tee] with the music [the download].

For more info:
GOOD article
The Music Tee

Wonderland by Design Army

By: Yannell Rodriguez

25-02-2010

graphic design, photography

For Valentine’s Day, Neenah Paper and Design Army got together and created a promotion- Facebook fans were to comment and add their own Valentine’s Story and then they would send out a copy of Wonderland (book for Washington Ballet). I received my copy yesterday and it’s amazing!!! I wouldn’t expect anything less than great from Design Army.

I’ve been following Design Army since my internship in NY for the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. I was researching design studios in DC and automatically fell in love with them. They are amazing. The studio is run by Jake and Pum Lefebure in Washington, DC.

Their following has been picking up and recognition seems to be skyrocketing as well. A few months ago, Jake and Pum were were chosen to be design judges for CMYK magazine (I should have entered!). Communication Arts Magazine recently did an in-depth feature story on Design Army. As I pick up magazines from Communication Arts and Print, I know their work will be in the issue, it’s almost a guarantee– I like that I can pinpoint their work. I can go down the page and see a piece and instantly know it’s the work of Design Army. Their style is one that I really gravitate towards – with the use of photography and typography – often having booklets or cards with a brilliant use of color combinations.

I can only hope than I can work for them one day.

Just want to thank Neenah Paper and Design Army for sending me that book.

Design Army
Design Army feature on Communication Arts
Neenah Paper
Cade Martin (photographer for Wonderland)

Strichpunkt

By: Yannell Rodriguez

10-02-2010

graphic design, illustration

Work by Strichpunkt.

The Books

By: Yannell Rodriguez

04-02-2010

graphic design, Tunes

New Poster by one of my favorite poster designers, Dirk Fowler.
Buy print at Poster Cabaret, $40.

Augmented Reality: Magazines on Shirts

By: Yannell Rodriguez

03-02-2010

fashion, graphic design, innovation, Interactive

T-post, a wearable magazine.

T-post have now allowed subscribers of T-post to wear their T-shirt in front of a web cam and play Rock, Paper, Scissors against the computer. The arm actually extends from the shirt.

The way it works: Every six weeks, subscribers will receive a new issue/tshirt in the mail. The news story is printed on the inside back of the shirt. A graphic artist’s design is printed in the front.

This recent issue is designed by Marc Strömberg. The stories revolve around exotic dance research to marijuana horticulture. f

Very exciting.