Sunday 16 thru Saturday 22, 2011
This blog will have some history of my work in graphics and my intend to enhance my command of Adobe Illustrator. I believe Illustrator has always saved me professionally. I’ve never been even remotely close to being a “guru” but, honestly, Illustrator got me into the working world of corporate America. I’ve “played” with this application since the 80s. Now I don’t remember how or which Adobe Illustrator version/number I’ve actually used for “professional” work. When I was introduced to Illustrator, the MACs the company had, ran on 4 mgs of ram! I think now computers use DRAM, so, maybe, RAM doesn’t even exist anymore? OK, think of RAM as archaic RAM sticks, does that help? Dude, the new MACs will have flash drives, hard drives will be a thing of the past!
This blog’s background shows my attempts to create my business cards with Illustrator for print. I think I must have tried about 7–9 different angles. I’m not going to delve into specific details about the technique. But, the effect was performed with the simple use of the type, pen and blend tool. If you’d like details let me know and I’ll get them to you. I never had any of these business cards printed. Just couldn’t justify the expense—maybe, these really are hard times. Still, when I created a PDF portfolio, the concept served me well.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55648749@N08/sets/
Much of my “professional” work was for print and very conservative. (If you take a good look at my portfolio, it does take on a rather “industrial” look.) So, I will also reflect a little on my experiences associated with Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and, maybe, Acrobat. Presently, I’m trying to get a genealogical book out but the author keeps adding pictures and editing the text. Patience and prozac really help. We’ve been working on this book for 3 years. We’ll talk?
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Mexican Ramblings
It is so fascinating to watch their surroundings, creativity, innovation, perspectives and use of technology. How interesting, the way they talk and the social strata they make up in that particular part of Mexico. This video brought back memories because my niece used to talk about the Mexican boys and their pointy shoes who used to hit on her in high school.
If you go into most any Mexican “border town,” you’ll get the chance to see the cheap and cheezy artwork for the tourists. They also have some pretty fabulous artwork but it’s going to cost you!
Contemplating on Mexico’s high end, high art, I consider my favorite Mexican Master to be Rufino Arellanes Tamayo, (Oaxaca, Mexico, 1899–1991). How ironic, some of his work ended up as trash in New York! http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Rufino_Tamayo-Tres-Personajes.html. Trust me, his works are anything but trash!!
I’ve had the opportunity to travel into the interior of Mexico and have viewed some of the exotic artworks of Mexico’s indigenous people like the Tarahumara, Olmec, Aztec and Maya. Rufino Tamayo is Zapotec and from Oaxaca. I’ve never had the pleasure of visiting but, someday, I will. I wonder if his ancestors spoke Mayan since that culture extended from the north of Mexico’s peninsula, Yucatan, to Guatemala? I have family in Yucatan. They speak Mayan and told me Mayan is being taught in schools there, and in Guatemala also, since it is part of their heritage and they don’t want the language to die. I love that the legends down there are always in Spanish, Mayan and English.
Why am I drawn to Rufino Tayayo’s work so much more than, say, Diego Rivera’s. I think, this explains it. “Although his (Rufino Tamayo’s) work is embedded with distinctly Mexican roots, both in color and in subject, Tamayo’s art is ultimately a response to universal and not temporal matters.” http://www.mexonline.com/history-tamayo.htm.
Need to make it to Oaxaca, badly!!
Reference listings:
http://ask.lc.mwh.reference.com/related/Rufino+Tamayo?o=10601&qsrc=2892&l=dir
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Art & Money & What It Looks Like
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Typopgraphic Intentions
Form Communication, Second Edition
Quantitative Information
These authors are typographic masters because of their in-depth study and research on the subject. From these books I know: { } are braces, [ ] are square brackets, < > are angle brackets, § is a section mark, ® is a register mark that is always superscript when used in text, & is an ampersand, SM is a service mark, etc. Now I must embarrassingly confess, I haven’t read and studied all books by Jan Tschichold — but I will do so, I promise.
I have produced work in measurements of picas and points, inches and hundredths of an inch, centimeters and millimeters and, now, in pixels. Michael Martin does emphasize the article is not a “scientific” study and should be referred to only as a rough guideline. In my opinion, this study suggests using too many characters per line length since, in print, if the line length is too long, readers loose the visual leap from one line to the next. No matter, read this article, it’s a “Digital Typographic Bible.”
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Show Your Work Now
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Avatars of Love
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
To Japan with Love
Searching the Web this totally cheesy commercial Web Site packed a punch, at least for me:
http://www.asianartmall.com/woodblockarticle.htm
Retrieved 2011, Copyright Atlantic PC, Inc.
A small excerpt:
During the 19th century, some of the most exhibited and represented artists of Japanese Woodblock Prints are Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769-1825), Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865), Utamaro Kitagawa (1750-1806), and Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858).
I’ve included these names in case you’d like to look them up.
Ok, that was “Old Time” Japan. Feast your eyes on some contemporary Japanese Graphic Design!
Check this Web Site out (now it asks for a donation for disaster relief).
http://gurafiku.tumblr.com/tagged/2010s
Hageman, Ryan. Retrieved March 13, 2011. A collection of visual research that encompasses the history of Japanese graphic design.
Listed in Mr. Hageman’s Web Site Page, to die for work from:
Tadanori Yokoo | Shigeo Fukuda | Yusaku Kamekura | Ikko Tanaka | Kazumasa Nagai | Keiichi Tanaami | Kiyoshi Awazu | Keisuke Nagatomo | Kazuo Umezu.Mr. Ryan Hageman I hope I referenced your Web Site correctly (please don’t sue me!!)
God, now I remember their exquisite calligraphy and unbelievably rich and gorgeous history of “packaging design.” Confidentially, I will confess, I’ve even seen light porno where people “package themselves.” Please don’t freak, we’re talking artistry. It’s a culture thing! See the The Pillow Book, directed Peter Greenaway; written by Sei Shonagon (book), Michael C. Berch; starring Vivian Wu, Ewan McGregor and Yoshi Oida. I dare ’ya, I double dare ’ya!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
450 Million Chinese in the News …
For a better perspective, I decided to visit some Chinese Web Sites. So I went to www.uni.edu/becker/chinese2.html. Viewing most of these sites made me feel very reassured I could do the job. I figure I have the experience and design skills to produce a Chinese restaurant menu any day, right? Then I remembered, somewhere, sometime I’d heard that the Chinese go crazy for any and everything Korean. OK, let’s check out some cool Korean Web Sites (listed below). They do come off pretty “modern.”
My summation is: Great and inspiring artistic design is, always has been, always will be universal and culturally transcendent. Seems like the childish anime art dominates the tastes of the young Koreans (I’m starting to get into it, really). Remember the last Olympics in China? The great Chinese Art Director Zhang Yimou designed the unbelievably fantastic opening where a “digital” scroll was lowered and became a stage onto which “dancers” painted beautiful Chinese calligraphy on a lighted floor. Wow! Imagine requesting a Web Site from this great master? Wonder what it would look like?
Wait! the Chinese government is still communist! Can a government end up controlling the Internet? I suspect that would be determined by the stronghold the government has on the media of its country. China is a communist government and I think they have and, for the most part, try to censor Internet information coming in from the West. For sure, North Korea, is definitely a “dead zone” for most citizens of the world. They completely control all communications their people can get to. I believe the North Korean government has even rewritten their history. Has that happen anywhere around here?. Maybe huge world wide corporate conglomerates could probably get control of the Internet. Do you doubt it? Check out CNN once in a while, it’s really changed, huh?
Internet World Stats: Usage and Population Statistics:
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats17.htm
Best Chinese Websites:
http://www.uni.edu/becker/chinese2.html
KoreanCrunch — Korean Top 20 Web Sites:
http://www.naver.com/
http://me.sayclub.com/
http://www.buddybuddy.co.kr/
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Web sites … a daunting task?
Don’t get scared but I have been thinking and have come to the conclusion that Web sites are like everyone’s own magazine. To design and produce a magazine has always been and still is a major proposition and undertaking. I decided to review and discuss a tiny portion of what’s out there. How simple: just note what the professors talk about and mention Communications Arts Magazine which has always showcased Web sites either for their high technological achievement or their esthetic beauty. OK, simple task.
Consider for a moment, how many Web site there are now? This is what Netcraft, (2011) says:
“… February 2011 survey we received responses from 284,842,077 sites.”
http://news.netcraft.com/
Keep in mind what Boutell.Com (2011), says: “no one is in charge of the World Wide Web, the question is difficult to answer precisely. After all, there is no one central “server” that runs all the websites in the world. The DNS registrars have lists of the domain names that exist, but not every domain contains a website.”
http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/misc/sizeofweb.html
Amazing and daunting. Millions, even billions will be privy to anything I put out there. This does add a little stress to the situation. So, let’s look at what the academics suggest.
My Web Design I professor and a major “techy.” He is very into all types of applications and programming involved in the creation of Web sites. I’m not sure if I will ever be that consumed by a certain human topic or interest. Still, take a look — it’s whole new world—
• http://www.alistapart.com/
• http://balsamiq.com/
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ — (love this one for sure!!)
If you take a gander at the Web sites my Computer Illustration I professor suggested for our view, you’ll realize he is obviously a product of the 60s. One can really get feel of the subversive artistic tendencies … are they subversive? Maybe it’s just artistic objectivity? Take a quick look:
• http://www.usdebtclock.org/
• http://inflation.us/
• http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/
To round all this out, I decided to go to Communication Arts magazine to check out their following “webpics:”
• http://www.organicvalley.coop/
• http://www.planetpropaganda.com/believe/
• http://www.danielvosovicny.com/
You’re going to need major “RAM juice” to watch the last Web site listed. Of course, this is the one I love. Fashion and it’s implementation of artistic and graphic design always win in my mind. Just gorgeous!!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Inspiration about corporate America
Working for CINTAS Corporation, I noticed the disparity between the salaries of the executives and the people working in production and distribution, “the floor.” These people worked just as hard as the executives and VPs but were compensated so much less. Working for Hearst Corporation’s San Antonio Express-News (SAEN) gave me a sense of how helpless we all are when it comes to the power of corporations. Seems like these American corporations have no allegiance/patriotism to the good old USA — not when they make their biggest profits by outsourcing their work to foreign countries. I’ve always wondered why not one of the journalists, reporters or columnists ever wrote anything, anywhere about the layoffs occurring right before their eyes. Seems like no one felt like fighting Hearst Corporation. (It was probably a contract thing, right?)
For this “genetically modified foods” project, I did some research and watched the movie “Food, Inc.” The research the French journalist accomplished in this film was just amazing. Now, I’m pretty sure I’ve got enough inspiration to represent this complex dilemma graphically. My tangent/perspective: starving people really don’t care if the food they are eating has been genetically modified. With so billions of people in the world now, food will be food.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhOo1oRqH70
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Ying Yang Logotype experiences.
Gregg Berryman’s “Notes On Graphic Design And Visual Communication” was suggested reading in college. Logotypes Mr. Berryman states: “are marks which consist of pronouceable words … often a single word … excellent identity devices because they are related to visual and phonic codes with which we are familiar.” In my senior Graphic Design creating a logotype was a major undertaking. The process took about a month and a half. This very logotype would encompass the entire class packaging project and would count for half the grade -- a very stressful situation.
Before I even went to college, I had produced logotypes for various typesetting houses and printing service bureaus. I saw it as a play with typefaces. The names of fonts intrigued me: Helvetica (I’ve been to Helvetica now!), Didot, Bodoni, Garamand, Galliard, Trade Gothic, Copperplate, Univers, New Times Roman, etc., etc., etc. For many years, I didn’t even know why or how they were named. Academia changed all this. As a Graphic Designer for CINTAS Corporation endless hours working with logotypes: redrawing, rebuilding, redesigning, proportioning, recoloring, creating and specifying them. I did I miss anything? At one point, a VP commissioned the production of an award for the Sales Executives in the form of a “check.” Scary.
As as freelancer, I’ve designed logotypes for various marketing directors, students, and start-up businesses. Here in San Antonio I got the opportunity to design a “Don Quixote” logotype for Don Quixote Imports. It took about 18 edits and redesigns to get their marketing director’s approval. Only with his approval could I go on to design the business cards, brochures, product labels, wraps for the company vehicles, and signature for the store front. Just when you thought drawing could be cool! Take a gander at some of my work (http://www.flickr.com/photos/55648749@N08/sets).
For this logotype at hand I will get inspiration from “Communications Arts” ; Erik Spiekerman’s Blog ; and, Jacob Cass’s “2010 Logo Design Trends” -- this should help.