Source: 24-7 Design Heaven
Her images jump right up off the page.

No, seriously.

In her cut-paper books especially. But on nearly every page she touches --- whether it's painted drawn or designed --- artist and writer Andrea Dezsö makes things that jump, hop and wriggle.

Andrea Dezsö is a maker. You feel the love of the handmade throughout her brilliant, quirky, dark work. Formally, it has as much in common with medieval illuminated manuscripts and Renaissance medical tomes as with modern design; at the same time it seems completely at home in the '00s sharing some of the sweet/bitter tastes of the westcoast graffiti/tatoo/manga scene, but remaining distinctive and un-pigeon-hole-able. Perhaps it's partly because she is steeped in the bizarre black-is-white, yes-is-no irony of the former eastern block.

Originally from Romania, teaching at Parsons in NY, and currently on a residency in Japan (I am really looking forward to the sketchbooks and work that will result from her Asian experience), Dezsö has a directness and no-fuss attitude toward her work in interviews that is charming and deceptively simple. No matter how she downplays the quirks, it is mega-quirky, and delightfully so.

It's no wonder the cool McSweeney's gang got her to do the cover for their spectacular Issue 23.

I am also a fan of sketchbooks and hers are some of the best I've seen in a long time!

Source: 24-7 Design Heaven
One of the most striking images of this summer, for me, is the nearly finished CCTV (Chinese state television) headquarters, designed by Rem Koolhaas and looming above the new Beijing. Dubbed the "pair of pants" by locals, it is one of my very favorite buildings of the decade.

The gigantic building is holding its breath right now for the Olympics --- construction is on hold as part of the program to reduce smog --- and its frayed holes and incomplete sheathing are a precious moment in the history of architecture and the culture of our times.

Once it's all done and the building's covering is complete --- albeit wonderfully asymmetrical and quirky --- it will not be as delightfully post-postmodern as it is right now, August 2008.

My favorite way of keeping track of the building is not through any of the official sites, Koolhaas's office or the CCTV's  professional-but-bizarre web presence.

No, once again, I'm drinking in the weird glory of the structure through an encyclopedic Flickr image set by the man they call Dutch Tom ---- Thank you, Dutch Tom! You're doing a great job! ---- that has been chronicling the rise of the pants for many months.

Koolhaas has taken a lot of heat for even agreeing to work on the single-party state's centralized propaganda headquarters, but for my own part, I'm glad it's him rather than another, more symmetrically-inclined designer. If form has any power at all to affect the lives lived within it, perhaps the dogged refusal of this building to resolve to balance or comfort with gravity or "centralization" will help liberate the thinking within? Idealistic of me, I know, but I just love the look of this thing!

The restless bizarreness of the form, the sense of motion, the masking of its scale, the refusal to divide into regular visible sub-units --- all of these things make me like it the way I like bold, abrasive, emotional new music.

It looks . .  . well . . . as human as an ol' pair of pants.

Source: AIGA Design Forum: Home
What purpose do manifestos serve, and why do they appeal to designers in particular? Ellen and Julia Lupton declare their reasons.

Source: 24-7 Design Heaven
Sometimes things need to be simplified before you can see them.

Not that, as designers, we don't already know how full of typography the urban world is --- how it reaches for your eyes like a pointed stick . . . pointed at your brain, as it happens.

Type in the environment shouts, seduces, taunts . . . begs and bullies to be read, reacted to, and remembered.

In the short film Kapitaal, white type floats in an eerie black landscape as the camera rides the train and walks the streets of modern Europe. Simple, stylish and smart, the film is a powerful and  . . . well . . . graphic reminder of the appeals our eyes tend to filter all day every day.

What really strikes me in the clip is the way typography swims in our vision when our gaze is in motion. Turning our head, walking, riding, all send type sliding and swirling around us in predictable patterns it took seeing this film for me to fully realize. Created motion graphics simply look different from environmental graphics viewed from a moving human head. For all the oodles of experimentation with motion graphics this simple movement of letterforms in a visual field is something I've rarely seen duplicated.

Financed by De Beyerd Museum of Graphic Design in the southern Dutch town of Breda, the film has won numerous awards.

Source: 24-7 Design Heaven
There are times when one good idea plus another good idea plus ANOTHER good idea equals a kind of idea orgasm.

Imagine my delight, therefore, when I learned of a custom Gary Baseman toy  (Baseman being one of the leading exponents of the postmodern gothic/cute illustration & vinyl toy movement --- you've seen his stuff, whether or not you know his name), the Modman Mimobot . . .

. . . that is ALSO a powerful 1-to-8 Gig, you choose, USB flash drive . . .

. . . that ALSO contains the new issue of an interesting zine, the mimoZine, which includes an interview with Baseman himself, and music and festival reviews!

It's been tried before, but maybe this particular combination of cultural content piggybacking on reusable technology will become a model for culture distribution.

If so, the secret is the collectible toy aspect. The idea of vinyl toy flash drives itself is genius. They're just so darned cute. And horrifying . . . if you study them closely. *laughs*

Now if I can just get my GarageBand music onto some designer blank writable CDs . . . Hmmmmm . . .

 

Source: 24-7 Design Heaven
He started out as a cartoonist and magazine editor in Japan, he taught type in Qatar, he's made films  --- Erik Brandt has filtered his experience through the lenses of multiple cultures. Perhaps that's why he's particularly skilled at work that is a "slow read" . . . work that invites participation in the form of translation . . . work that is comfortable placing its viewer out of context, away from home.

Produced in conjunction with the Face the Nation show (also at Minnesota Center for Book Arts) which explores national identity and typography, Brandt's show of serious play along the ragged border-zones of communication adds a contemporary dimension to the theory discussed downstairs in Face the Nation. (Kudos to MCBA for this trio of shows!)

Brandt's work crowds you like a Tokyo subway, and it often rewards your patience with sensitivity that goes beyond the styles-in-a-blender surface. He loves the voyage of the slow read . . . and so do I.