Illustrator spotlight: John Kenn
His work holds a heavy inspiration by illustrators Edward Gorey and Maurice Sendak but he’s created his own personal style that makes him stand out.

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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

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 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.

Amazing photographs by Jean-Francois Lepage

This lamp is conceptually awesome. It looks wonderful too.

ABOUT THE LAMP
“The idea is an info-graphic panel show ing the amount of day light and dark ness at a given lat i tude any where in the world. The light beams out of drilled holes on the panes. In each hole there is a diode light which colour and lumi nos ity is con­trolled by the user who can select between built in pre sets. The built in set tings as well as cus tom ones are con trolled by a small con trol board on the side of the panel or by using a remote con trol or even with a phone.
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You can choose between set tings like show ing only one day, where it also serves as a cal en dar, all the year at once, sol stice, equinox or a clock and few other visual set tings like run ning fast through every day of the year. Dial in a name of a city or lat i tude to get the cor rect visual rep re sen ta tion of day light at any given place.
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The material use is brushed steel, acrylic or wood. Dimen sion for inte rior use is 800 x 800 mm.”
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MORE INFO

This is such an awesome piece of furniture- I wish he actually sold it. It’s just fantastic!
Designed by Igor Chak

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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

I recently went to LACMA to see the John Baldessari exhibit. Absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend the show. You can see the stages of his work throughout his life. I love the growth of his concepts–

|— BEFORE —|

|—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.

First and foremost, this video is wonderfully made by motion design studio, Buck.
Infographic style, bright colored, clean layout, great transition, message enforced, cleverly done video. Great job.

Okie, now for the movie, Waiting for Superman is a documentary that will be released in early Fall. The topic – EDUCATION. Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) alarms us of the falling rate of the American education system.

For the synopsis visit of the film visit WAITING FOR SUPERMAN.

Bike-gasms – these are some sexy customizable bikes.

1. Bike by Me
2. PUMA
3. Adeline Adeline

Ridiculously amazing illustrations by Owen Gildersleeve. Cut paper is awesome. This illustration was created for Money Magazine for an article on cutting your taxes.

Giclée print by Tom Gallo. Amazing Work.

Just went to Sprinkles for the first time ever. Sprinkles is a Cupcake Bakery based in LA. Each individual cupcake is to die for. Everything is so perfectly designed and they taste wonderful too!

Photographs by me.