JAMES JEAN

While on the subject of illustrators (see previous post), I’ve come across a lot of different illustrative styles while perusing my favourite concert poster websites. That being said, I was recently blown away by an illustrator who has nothing to do with concert posters. I was checking out one of my favourite culture websites - Lost at E Minor - and came across New York artist James Jean. His work is imaginative and surreal while still maintaining some root in reality. If only my moleskin notepad had similar contents to Mr. Jeans’, amazing stuff - check it out!

Worksheet Four

As a communication designer the more ways you have of communicating the more people you can communicate with. The more people you can communicate with, the more jobs you are likely to get. Design is all about communication.

It is important to understand what is going on around you as a designer, and to tap into media trends, local news, and world news because theses are all forms of communication that are happening. They are informing, and have been informed by relevant factors in the world. Losing touch with these factors will inevitably cause one to lose touch with people, and the jobs those people provide.

One of my favourite illustrators, Tyler Stout, was asked a question about staying current with trends in a recent interview and here is an excerpt from that interview:

Do you think it's important for an illustrator to have a good sense of current events and the world at large? I ask because so much nonverbal communication is embedded in an image, more and more it seems illustrators are expected to express a great deal in their work.

That’s an interesting question. I guess it helps to keep in touch with current events, you can certainly communicate better with the client, deliver what they're looking for. Other than that, I don't know what's important for an illustrator. It’s important they know how to draw, and know what their peers are up to, if they want to be out there competing for jobs. If I was relying on a style like graffiti paint drips, and didn't look around and realize everyone else was doing that, soon I would be lost in the midst of all these other people, so its important to at least realize what is kinda going on in the world of commercial illustration, or snowboard illustration, or clothing illustration. As for seeing Iron Man or voting in the current election, I don't associate those things with something I have to do because of what I do. But, if on my next job the client says "I want this sticker graphic to be the Iron Man of the sticker world", well then I should go out and see Iron Man I guess. But I've already seen it. And I still wouldn't know what he meant.

Ware Has My Life Gone?

Since it wasn’t so long ago that we were all called upon to create some sort of animation for our pictographs in information design, and since we are all probably very stressed out heading into our final week of semester four, I thought I would pass along this very light-hearted bit of animation from accomplished comic illustrator Chris Ware. I couldn’t help but smile throughout the story as the narrators pleasant and sharing tone welcomed me in. 

Photosynth Captures Attention

After watching a fascinating presentation from Microsoft Live Labs architect Blaise Agüera y Arcas on the capabilities of the C Dragon technology and Photosynth software, it was hard not to be impressed. I was especially in awe of the zooming features that Photosynth displayed, and had literally not seen anything like that before. Amidst all the incredible applications I am sure will develop for this software, the one that came to mind first for me was facial recognition. I imagined a situation where criminals, when brought in for a mugshot, are not merely subject to one straight on photo, and a couple of profiles, but are put into a scenario where a camera(s) takes hundreds of digital photos from hundreds of different angles. The software would then develop a three-dimensional model of the face based on similarities, and a witness could then be able to use Photosynth software to rotate and examine faces from a vast number of different angles, and appropriately from the angle that they may have seen a criminal. I am sure I will be hearing more about this software over the next few years and look forward to discovering how the online community realizes this technology’s potential. 

Humph! Humber

Is anyone else a little disappointed in the way that Humber College has handled our class this year, or perhaps less specifically, the summer session? To start with, our course load is condensed from fifteen weeks to twelve weeks, but we knew that going in and despite all the headaches and late nights/early mornings we accept it, and can brag and boast with a kind of pride about the sacrifices we make to get it all done. Fine. The cafeteria located in our section of campus is closed which means we must rely on the coffee cart in the basement of our building, wait no, that was closed too, which means we must rely on the snack dispensers in the basement of our building, wait no, they were taken away, which means we have to go William’s. Fine. The office of our faculty is closed. There is no one to accept assignments, we can’t make photocopies, we can’t use the long stapler (I needed that yesterday), and there is no one to contact when a teacher calls in to the office to cancel class, so an entire class of students shows up to no teacher, and come the following week there is still no explanation until our teacher tells us he was sick. Fine. The printers in the majority of classrooms are disabled, but we’re still paying for them. Fine. We have classes that are divided in half between two teachers and it is obvious that these two teachers have corresponded very little to not at all so that expectations built up over the first half of a course are dashed in the second half, and marking schemes, and expected assignments are thrown out the window. Kind of annoying. But fine. Just fine. 

Classical Coaster

Last week’s class that featured a talk from composer Benjamin Zander was pretty inspiring. I can’t say I’ve been a huge fan of classical music at any point in my life, but I’ve been meaning to start a thorough investigation. My grandmother has a bunch of old classical records up at our cottage that I want to get into, but it means setting up my old turntable, and I’ve been putting that off until I move into my new place (already a year and half overdue...sigh). Our classmate Lisa claims she is a classical flautist, but refuses to provide any proof, maybe this calling out will prompt some action on her behalf. Haha! Having been sidetracked, I return to the point of this post which is to provide the link to this lovely commercial for the Zürich Chamber Orchestra - enjoy the ride!

This Is Ground Control

Most of my communication is of the reactionary sort. I like to gather information on a subject before I respond to it. Like most, I can communicate in many ways. I am typety-type-typing as we speak (so to speak), and that’s certainly one way I can communicate. I can type an email, I can type up a letter to be mailed or handed out as a memo, I can type messages into a phone, or on MSN messenger. Typing is one way I can communicate. 

I can also write or print those same messages.

I can communicate directly with someone through facial expressions and speech . Hello. Can you here me? I do this by understanding a language, and through the sounds and expressions I can make and understand. I can be disinterested with a grunt, angered or pained with a yell, satisfied with a purr, and happy with a smile. 

I can also communicate by recording myself onto video. I can film myself doing any manner of thing on video, and communicate to a viewer through playback. I can put this video onto videotape, I can put it on DVD, CD, Blue Ray, I can send it through my phone, etc. etc. 

I can also record my voice and have that played back to communicate with an audience. This can be listened to on tape, vinyl, CD, DVD, and forth, and forth, and forth. 

Wow! I have so many ways to communicate and I haven’t even listed holograms, crystal balls, mind control, or the subversive ways that humans beings communicate and don’t even realize.