Animated K

Heraldry

Here's my heraldry project, I used my initials and I enjoy birds so I included one. I wanted to have the knight's helmet because it seemed really classic...

Carlyle/PAM Benefit

I've been working on a student project for my typography class featuring Carlyle restaurant and a donor benefit for Portland Art Museum. Here's what I came up with.

My Hockney

I chose to attempt a David Hockney-like portrait of myself through my workspace at home. It was really more difficult than I thought it would be. The transitions between objects on the wall, understanding and warping the space... tricky. I'm not sure I'm really happy with what I've come up with, but it got me thinking more spatially which is good. Feel free to click on the photo for a closer look.

David Hockney Project

For the next project, I am working on a self-portrait in the style of David Hockney. I've decided that instead of a landscape or a direct portrait of myself, I will do a portrait of my workspace, and then place a real photo put together in my empty frame on the wall. If that makes sense.

Chupa Chups!

So for the logo re-creation project I chose to do Chupa Chups, a candy company that was the first to have keep children in mind in the creation of their candy. In 1956 inventors at Chupa Chups had the idea of making a candy that could be held on a stick. The inspiration came from two facts: the largest consumer of candy is the child audience, and the fact that kids tend to remove the candy from their mouths with their very own hands!

The logo needed to appeal to kids as well, and surprisingly, the famous surrealist Salvador Dali was commissioned to create this logo. It was made in 1969. Dali drafted the basic idea of it on a newspaper in about an hour. Later in life, Dali used himself as a brand, even having a his own logo.

For my process, I made a crude slideshow telling the steps I took in re-creating the Chupa Chups logo. See me for further notes. I thought they were boring…

Ellen Lupton Final

I was challenged with this project, in that choosing Ellen Lupton I had to actually have a good concept. I really wanted to reflect her approach to the D.I.Y. movement and put a bit of myself into it. I designed with materials I had in my house. I tend to bake a lot and happened to have everything I needed to make cupcakes. I whipped up a batch of cupcakes and some frosting and decorated them with Ellen's name, letter by letter. Not so easy. Then I took a bunch of pictures with them. I placed them on a an on my open sketchbook with the thought that she does a lot of work with books and publishing. Sort of symbolic.

I had the though after I did all of this that maybe I was supposed to use Illustrator for this project. I'm slightly worried, but I put a lot of myself into this project and I used what I had, so here it is. It was a lot of fun!

About Ellen

I couldn't decide who to do my designer postcard on, Jill Bliss or Tibor Kalman... So I did neither. I did a little more research and tried to find someone that no one else had chosen. Someone really significant. Ellen Lupton. I read a little about her and all I could find were books. Then I watched interview after interview with her and became entranced with her theory.



She really values concept over style, she advocates thinking more and designing less. It is shocking how much she has contributed to the field of graphic design. Before her, not a lot of non-designers really knew what graphic design was. She has changed that though her work in curating current design work and making design knowledge more available to the public. This has led to an increased appreciation for good design from the general public and also contributed greatly to the whole do-it-yourself movement.

The back of my postcard reads:

Ellen Lupton is an inspiration to many, designers and general public.

Upon graduating from Cooper Union in 1985, Ellen worked as a design curator. Using her writing and creative talents to document current design history on a slim budget, she began to bring clarity to the public and an understanding of graphic design.

Ellen mentioned in an interview that even into the early 90s, The New York Times still called the field of graphic design, “graphics.” A personal goal of Ellen’s was for her mother to actually understand what it is that she does.

While teaching at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Ellen has been active in promoting the design-it-yourself lifestyle, even publishing a book with some grad students titled Design It Yourself. She has been involved in writing and publishing many books and has spoken on the subject of designer as author. Author not in a sense of writing per se, but in having a strong visual signature.

Ellen advocates sharing design knowledge with the general public. In stark contrast with other designers in history who wouldn’t share secrets, fearful of losing the deep professionalism within the field of graphic design. Ellen believes a well informed public raises the bar.

Ellen is a strong believer in thinking more and designing less. Substance over style. Conceptual depth is a true indicator of good work.

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Florence Broadhurst

While searching for wallpaper inspiration I came across the work of FLorence Broadhurst, an australian wallpaper/textile designer. I'm disappointed that she is dead though. :( Here is some of her amazing work, more can be seen and purchased at Signature Prints.

Paper the Walls

Wallpaper inspiration via flickr.