My sense of visual design still feels out-of-whack. After spending 6+ hours working on a corporate America brochure that the client requested look “clean, modern, and utilize space well,” with a “dynamic” front page and “some BIG pictures,” I feel in need of fresh inspiration. Maybe that’s not actually very long to spend on a brochure for design firm billing hours, and I’m just accustomed to the production artist mentality: emphasis on production, decrescendo on the art factor. Maybe I should re-subscribe to HOW after letting it lapse for about 3-4 years. There’s tons of good print design to cull inspiration (and yes, directly copy) from on the web, but much of the cooler, truly exciting stuff is way too “out-there” for daily corporate use, and that seems to be what you mainly find online. In a tactile sense, it feels better to be reading a print magazine about print design, vs. scanning and scrolling on a computer screen. I’ve found HOW to match creativity with realistic expectations of what the client — who may not necessarily be completely dull and drab but nonetheless unable to articulate a defined direction, much less craft it visually —  will actually like. I think that’s why I get so excited any time I have the opportunity (and time and energy) to design something for an art organization or show, because it’s all about vision. Does anyone out there have recommendations of other good graphic design mags to use as reference/inspiration for corporate design?

Pencil, ink, acrylic
January-February 2010

Lately I’ve been doodling a lot, trying to regain a sense of design. It’s funny, because although I’m a full-time graphic designer (and production artist and customer service rep and project manager and copywriter and…), I feel I’ve lost a sense of visual design, of creating and arranging elements within a space. Or maybe I’m just now seeing the differences between the two, because I don’t have any creative blockage when it comes to arranging information (text and images), but in composing an image that’s not an accident, or taken from life, I’m at a loss.

27-6
Reception: Saturday, February 27, 6-9pm
Open Gallery: Sunday, February 28, 12-5pm
Candelabra Gallery, 412 E. 7th St., Tucson, Arizona

You’ve seen 27 online, now it’s time to see the show!

27 is how different artists approach the same theme.
27 is to be excited and inspired by photography.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxed27/

***Come to the Saturday reception for to take part in a surprise interactive photographic experiment!***
Music + refreshments

Work from MAXED ART members not limited to:
Rachelle Diaz, Alex G!, Christian Ramirez, Steven Soloway, Alex Von Bergen (Tucson, AZ)
Molly McClintock, Alex Nelson, Sylvia Sewell (Brooklyn, NY)
Jaxun Doten (Portland, OR)
and others… or perhaps not all of these people.

27 is an international group art project occurring on the 27th of every month. The project began in September 2009 as a collaborative photography experiment among mixed/multi-media artists and friends originally based in Tucson who, over the course of a few short months, found themselves living in different cities and missing the connection once accessible when it was easy to meet in person to share and talk about art.

Each month, we pick a different theme simple enough to shoot on a busy weekday, but one that also requires conceptual thinking and attention to detail. Past themes have included Place, Colors, Reflection, Transport, and Portraits. However, we’ve self-imposed a few technical limitations in order to make us stretch our imagination further within the given subject, leaving room for nuance and surprises. Images can only be taken within 24 hours on the 27th of the month, and only “lo-fi” cameras including disposable cameras, vintage cameras, toy cameras, cell phones, webcams and even scanners may be used.

But 27 is more than just a picture-taking/picture-looking/documentary project. We then share the resulting images online for commentary ranging from introspective aesthetic feedback to humorous quips. 27 has not only provided an outlet for communication within our collective, it has also made us grow as artists through examination of our personal thought processes and technical inventiveness.

[Image by Jenny DuPont: "trophy" from Reddy Set Go]

The theme for this month’s 27 project was “Portraits.” After being in front of the camera twice in the last couple of weeks, I actually didn’t feel like attempting any self-portraits. (Can you believe it?!) I turned my cheap HP scanner on its side and scanned my friends and dog in. I’m calling this method scannerotype because like a daguerreotype, the subject has to sit still for about a minute while it scans. I’m really happy with how these turned out.

Sorry for the vulgarity — this is inspired by this Conan O’Brien version of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster my cousin posted on Facebook earlier this afternoon.

#1) Sometimes I feel like I’m the only white person who’s annoyed by the ubiquitous adage. I mean, seriously? Would you truly do that in a crisis just because a poster told you to?
#2) I don’t have a TV and never watched nighttime talk shows anyways so the controversy regarding network scheduling and humor rhetoric that has all social media abuzz is more interesting to me than which host said what. It’s not so much the hosts who are irritating as it is the fact that that the overall man-in-suit-behind-a-bigass-desk-with-a-coffee-mug late night talk show format is ridiculously outdated.
#3) I do think that “Work Hard and Be Nice” is good advice, although don’t forget about the part that goes something like “As Long As You’re Raking In Millions.”

This one’s more serious. It’s a phrase I’ve had stuck in my head since yesterday, more along the lines of one of my art idols, Barbara Kruger. Particularly her piece “Cram Life Into Death,” which I have in a book but can’t seem to find on the internet. I was also trying to think of what was the opposite of a crown. A dunce’s cap? A jester’s hat? An executioner’s mask? The point of a stiletto heel? A combat boot? Ah, yes. A weird, mocking, mask-like smiley face that looks not unlike the monster in Miyizaki’s Spirited Away. What does “DON’T do” really mean? Verbally? In a public service poster?

I’m not much into party politics, but I find the Supreme Court’s recent ruling highly disturbing. In the vein of the Passing the Buck piece I did several months ago, I just made these two flags, inspired by this Adbusters flag.

Started off attempting to makeup inspired by Patrick Nagel. Duran Duran’s Rio remains one of my most favorite albums for both music and cover art and, although I didn’t know it at the time, his illustrations of men and women were ubiquitous in all the pastel-hued hair salons my mom drug me in tow to in the 80s. But I also had the idea of using this church-lady hat I bought at Burlington Coat Factory in Austin over the Holidays last year, so then the concept turned into kind of a early 1900’s bohemian tearoom sort of costume. But that’s about it. It’s really just a study. This is the part that my photographer friends are better at than me in terms of both concepting and editing. I was at a loss with the editing — all I could think of was just blacking out the eyes, as that was the only thing I kind of liked the look of. Fortunately some good did come out of this: the makeup component gave me some practice for a photoshoot I did with a friend a few days later. We’ll see how those come out.