Found this really good article on the Design Observer today, it explains exactly what it is a graphic designer does. Also has good guidelines on good and bad design.
Marian Bantjes, Graphic Designer
The future of aesthetics lies in random generative software such as Processing, but which will become less random as designers gain control of its abilities. The digital will merge with the hand-made like electric guitar and bagpipes, and together they will break down the rigid tempo imposed by increasingly prescriptive and powerful template software.
My posting is getting a little lazy lately, not because I am lazy (of course not) but because I am busy. Anyway I have a little video I want to post today. I took it in the Alahambra in Granada, which by the way was really beautiful, on my extended trip this summer. There is something about it that is alluring and no it’s not my feet. I hate feet and I have been advised on many occasions that my feet leave a lot to be desired. I am working on them though, making them do sit ups and push ups and all sorts of other ups. I am proud to say they are coming on, soon I will have six pack feet, and not many can boast that! So anyway the Alahambra… I wanted to take a different angle of it, show it in another light as my pictures given I was alone were getting pretty repetitive. So I videoed it from wait down…
And so Kilkenny were in the All Ireland Hurling final, again.
Of course we weren’t going to lose, in fact not only were we not going to lose, we were going to make history. Five in a row, never been done. Before the whistle had blown for the match to begin, we had already won. In my eyes we had won almost two weeks previous. I sat in front of my computer and smiled at my genius as I designed tshirts, bookmarks and cards that were to make my millions. Feck the recession, when your from Kilkenny you’ll always have hurling.
Minute by minute as the game played out my jaw began to slacken. Surely not, sure Tipp can’t be that good! No the lads are missing Shefflin, watch they’ll come out the second half and blow those blue and yellow ****** out of the water. Then the second half came and my jaw fell further. When the final whistle blew the room was silent, we lost, never, Kilkenny never loses, it’s not in the blood.
Tipp were walking the steps, blue and yellow jerseys tried to climb the hill barriers and storm the field and it was a Tipp man making the speech, thanking names I’d never heard of. Then it hit me. We’d lost. My tshirts, postcards and bookmarks resigned to history but not in the way I wanted. Millions swept from under my feet in 70 minutes.
The fruits of my optimistic labour are above and if anyone wants a piece of history just give me a bell…
Welcome to Dalis houseNothing has been touched, the chair is covers in lightbulb packages (nice idea)Nice broochStoreroom for paintsDali's BedroomGalas Dressing roomMore MemoriesBrendan Behan (I think)More MemoriesCircular RoomGardenPiano in a wall (looked brilliant)Lips by the penis pool
So I went to Cadaques and I fell in love with Dali…
I can’t remember the day but I remember the bus journey, needless to say, it was long, it was hot and the bus meandered many hair pinned mountains bends on the way to Cadaques. I have to admit, I didn’t know much about Dali before this trip and I won’t profess to be a expert now.
So we got to the little fishing village and wandered around, we were told Dali’s house (now open to the public) was going to be easy to find, we were told wrong. We walked up one mountain and down another until we found two little locals girls who became our guides, I suppose you could call them girl guides! They couldn’t speak English but we all spoke pigeon and got on fine. The two girls took us back into town and to the tourist office where we found a map and booked our slot to Dali’s place (I now know viewings must be booked!)
With map in hand we found our way through the back streets of Cadaques to a little inlet and the home Dali shared with his wife Gala. The setting was perfect and I could see why he choose this place to live. His home sat perched on a cliff edge overlooking the sea. Inspiration was everywhere. Our time was called and we were greeted at the door by a polar bear holding a light. I loved him already…
As we walked through the house lots of little quirks appeared and I slowly began to get a feel for the man. He had a mirror on the wall opposite where he slept so he could see the sun rise from his bed. He cut a hole in the floor of his art studio so he could remain seated as he painted a large canvas. Gala had her own walk in wardrobe, the glass panel of each door filled with pictures of Dali and a wealth of stars, some of the pictures now beautifully brown and grained with age.
Just off the dressing room was a room Dali created especially for Gala, eleven years his elder she was both wife and muse. A surreal experience, the room was circular, seating hugged the walls and as I walked to the middle every sound felt as if inside my head, it’d send a sane man mad and a mad man mental. Outside there were disembodied heads on the roof, a giant man in the garden and a penis pool.
Dali was a mad man and I love him for it. Eccentrics are the best sort!
PS “Did you Know?”… Dali designed the Chuppa Chups logo (I didn’t but I do now)
Some nice little design bits I picked up along the road.
PECADOS is a sweet shop in Santiago de Compostela. The walls of the shop were lined with boxes of coloured sugar and cakes made from marshmallow and fizzy jellies sat on tables down the center. I felt like I had won a ticket to Willy Wonka’s. The rainbow branding, which really caught the eye among the shop fronts of stone, ran through the whole shop even as far as the little cups which were used instead of plastic bags. I loved the design so much I had to take a few pictures and post them up.
The sweets were nice too though!!
The colouring pencils I thought were a nice little touch from Renfe, which is the Spanish train system. I love the way the picture was printed across all the pencils and I have to look into prices for getting this done here, it’s a really nice effect. It also is a nice little idea for parents and kids to stop boredom on train journeys. I have them sitting on the shelf here though, the poor pencils are probably dying for a work out, a bit of colouring in to sooth the soul but they are too nice to use I think!!
Camino Scallop ShellAnother version of the shellThe beginning of the walk in my beautiful new trail runners!My Camino Passport complete with Shell Stamps!Colourful Shells and Pilgrims
So I am back and blogging again… where was I…well partly work, partly travel brought me to the shores of Spain and a little around Europe. I began my mini adventure in Santiago de Compostela and undertook 110km of the pilgrimage walk, I was a puppy snapping at the heels of walkers with more than 400k under their belts. I hadn’t researched this walk at all, I knew I wanted to do it but research would have taken the adventure out of my adventure, Indiana Jones surely never researched. So I set off for the city of Lugo with no clue of how to find my way back…
They appeared like a beacon on a misty Spanish morning, a yellow signal amongst the grey. I thought it was a once off but these yellow shells just kept going and without question I followed them across the north of Spain. Sometimes the shells turned to spray painted yellow arrows and at the beginning I wasn’t sure if I could trust the imposters, were they leading me down a path the shells wouldn’t follow, after a while I was won over and I eagle eyed the stone walls and back roads for my little yellow friends. I was hooked, needed my milage fix and found myself in a panic if one didn’t appear but like rain on an Irish day they didn’t let me down and lead me the whole way to Santiago where I sat with other weary pilgrims on the Cathedral steps and rubbed my weary feet happy.
My designer head sat on my shoulders quiet a bit as I walked the route, what a brilliant signage system I thought. I haven’t ever seen anything so effective. Each pilgrim I met swore by and at the signs depending on their humor. The symbol (as you can see above) is simple, it comes from a mythical tale relating to the arrival of St Jame’ bones on a ship to Spain. The story tells how a bridegroom was riding to his wedding on a horse as the ship pulled in. Spooked, the horse jumped with rider on board into the sea and was thought by all to be lost. Miraculously (with a little help from St James) both emerged from the sea unharmed and covered in scallop shells, famous in that part of Galicia. The bridegroom rode off into the sunset forgetting his fiance, must have been second thoughts! The shell also works two fold, the grooves on its surface represent the many routes of the pilgrimage which all meet in Santiago. The yellow colour is very effective for view finding and it means the shells and arrows are easy to spot.
Have a look at some of the images above and see what you think yourself…
What is it they say, when it’s not broken don’t fix it!
I couldn’t believe when I saw this on Creative Review today (by the way I have a few posts last couple of days, you would think I wasn’t busy, funny thing is I am busier than I’ve been in a while, think it’s procrastination!) anyway back to Waterstones.
I don’t get it, their new branding is a modern version of the old and doesn’t fit their business at all. What happened to the old book shop aesthetic which the serif type fitted perfectly. The new “contemporary” style just doesn’t suit the business. I like to think of a book shop as a placed filled with dusty (I know they are not but it’s my imagination) books, wooden lob-sided shelves piled on top of lob-sided shelves and lots of hidden hollows where I can sit undisturbed and mull over a book, a book full of Times New Roman. This new look just doesn’t fit the dreamish qualities a book shop holds for a lover of books!
Anyway have a look above and decide for yourself, maybe I’m stuck in the bookshops of old!
Really like this artists work. When I first saw it I couldn’t believe that these works were paintings but they are. He has an unbelievable drawing talent combined with a brilliant imagination, a lot of his stuff looks like surreal photographs.
Just found this artists today and I love his work. His name in Brandon Boyd, I never heard of him before but after a little googling I found out he is the member of a band (pretty big one I think) in the States called Incubus (excuse me if I’m a bit slow on that, I’m trying hard to increase my musical knowledge, struggling through Tom Waits at the moment).
Anyway, I love his style really nice sketches, love the detail in his work, also he seems like a real relaxed character from his bio.
Hi All, a good friend of mine (although Denise if you are reading this you know you’re not really a good friend of mine but I have to say it for the purposes of this post, it’d look bad otherwise, you think?), anyway so yes, a good friend of mine Denise Nestor has been given her own solo exhibition in the Bernard Shaw in Dublin, it’s opening tomorrow night and running for a month. Her stuff is brilliant, I have a piece and hope that in maybe 5/6 years it’ll be worth millions and I can travel the world on an elephant all because of the girl in the rabbit ears.
So if anyone is around or will be around during the month of May, call by, I mean it when I say her stuff is brilliant, you can see for yourselves above, it’s worth a look. She’s going to be the next big thing, an Irish Warhol (she’s even dying her hair platinum blonde and fashioning an American accent, she’s not strange just a little unhinged, she’s from Mayo!)
