Except You

A huge highlight of the AIGA National Conference in Denver was Command X. Its original intent was to have fun and be a comedic break from all the design talk. And it was until the last day.

That is when the competitors were given the task to create something to motivate 18 - 24 year olds to vote. A simple task. Right!

Nichelle Narcisi brought an audience of 2000+ designers to their feet, the only time the whole conference with her spot on, well crafted and even better written pdf campaign called Except You.

You can read an interview with Nichelle by Steven Heller at AIGA Voice.

You can also read about it in Nichelle's own words as a guest observer at Design Observer.

For full Command X coverage, all three rounds and all competitors, click here.

Calder and his shadow

While in New York and a visit to the MoMA, I saw a great display of several Calder sculptures. Many were very complex, but this lone figure dangling from the ceiling and its cast shadow kept me mesmerized of its form and its ever changing shadow on the wall.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving to me means many things, but one unique to me is jello. Not just any jello, but the one pictured above.

Many will see it and think, in the words of my thesis advisor, it appears to be nothing more than a "dog's breakfast." But I assure you it is not. Some do not undersatnd the use of a vegetable, carrots, in what they consider a dessert.

I used to think this was some family recipe, but I found out many families make this jello around the holidays! I could eat a bowl of it. I only have it at Thanksgiving and sometimes it was made for my birthday.

The recipe could not be any more easy. Lemon jello, shredded carrots, crushed pineapple and walnuts. The thicker the jello is. . .the better it is!

Dumpling Man

I returned to Dumpling Man this past trip to New York and enjoyed, once again, the delicious pouches of goodness.

A gem of a restaurant, right across from another fave, Yaffa Cafe, in the East Village. They had a dreamy seasonal special of beef, sweet pea and carmelized onion, served pouch style and steamed! I'll just call it another trip to dumpling heaven!

New York Christmas

Light

Fire

Earth

Air

Water

Nothing says Christmas in any big city like department store windows all decorated in their season finery! New York does it rather nicely, although I have never seen them all in full glory. They reveal closer to Thanksgiving and many were under wrap this past weekend.

Bergdorff Goodman, however, had theirs showing in full glory! Two years ago I saw them at night and the pictures were much better as you did not get the reflection from across the street.

This year they used the theme of the Elements. They are spectacular!

Weekend in New York

Last weekend, I was in New York with my sister to see Cirque Du Soleil's winter show Wintuk. It is currently running until January 6, 2008, 10 weeks, and will run for 10 weeks for the next six years and then they say that is it. Or maybe it will move to a new city.

The show was all 100% Cirque fantasy, imagination, wonderment, whimsical, magical and awesome! They made it snw in the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden. I collected a bag of snow and brought it home. It does not show well in the image but it is light and airy and falls just like snow. It was magical!

If you get to New York, check it out.

Other weekend highlight:
• Lunch at Dumpling Man in the East Village
• Teaching my sister how to navigate Manhattan; uptown/downtown/crosstown, streets run east/west, avenues north/south
• Georges Suerat drawing at the MoMA ; studies for Sunday in the Grande Jate
• Staying in the smallest room I have ever stayed in New York at the Paramount
• New store Muji

Two-color print

Here is the two color print from the letterpress workshop complete with the set-ups on the bed of the press. Believe it or not, the registartion is pretty intentional, and a litle more than tricky to do!

Two-Color is no easy task! You work hard to get the first color of the prints looking good and then all can go down the crapper if the second color aint right. Lots of proofs to make sure. Let's you fine tune, move the little eight into the counter of the large eight, create thetension in the two large eights and so on.

I just may use this for my New Year card this year. That was my plan!

Letterpress word of the day: Reglet – noun. a thin strip of wood used in place of leading to space lines of type.

Collaborative print

One of the great things about letterpress is the many layers created as you print. The transparent inks create all new images on their own when applied.

I thought it would be fun if everyone in the workshop added a layer to a print. I started it out with some 8's and passed them along to the other groups. Some came out nicer than others. Some did not understand the whole collaborative thing. Eventually, I asked people to run my "first layer" prints through their presses. When they saw what was h appening they caught on.

This print was one of the best with something added from all three presses!

Letterpress word of the day: Furniture – noun Also called bearer, dead metal. Printing. pieces of wood or metal, less than type high, set in and about pages of type to fill them out and hold the type in place in a chase or on the bed.

Fruits of workshop No. 1

This is one of my prints from the workshop. It was a simple lockup, securing the type, of a single piece of type that I moved around on the bed by swapping out pieces of furniture, spacers. It actually is pretty nice with all the many layers of the overlapping forms. It was a simple print just playing around with form and layers.

Letterpress word of the day: Coin - noun; a wedge used for securing type in a chase; quoin.

Letterpressing!

You know when they say walk a mile in one's shoes to know what they know? Well I walked for a day and a half and have a whole new impression, pun intended, of the letterpress process.

Furniture, reglets, coins, lead, timpan. So many new words, a whole new print vocabulary actually. I was a little intimidated by the actual press, but in reality, it is quite benign and easy to use. Even the cleaning of it is quite simple (brought me back to my deli days and cleaning the meat slicers)!

I got three things done over the day and a half workshop. I made kind of an art print, created a potential image for my New Year card, and tried to get a group print going that was 75% succesful. All will be shared over the next couple of days!

Scrabulous is. . .

FABULOUS!

I love Scrabble. I have been known to vacation and never leave the home of another Scrabble addict (Atlanta with Lori). I have given the game as a gift, bought people the official dictionary, play it whenever I can. Not many will play with me anymore. I seem to get competitive!

Thanks to Mari, she introduced me to Scrabulous through Facebook. I am now hooked with this version. There seems to be kinks, but it is pretty darn cool. Sometimes when playing with people in far time zones the waiting can be awful!

Today I hit a milestone, breaking 400 points in a game. It doesn't happen that often, at least not to me, and I play a lot!


Check it out and invite me to play. I cannot say no!

Another helping of Asparagus!

Tonight was the STA's Chicago Design Archive show. I was honored to have another logo included as an inductee. . .Asparagus.

The STA updates this archive annually with new material from Chicago designers through the Archive show, an annual competition developed to recognize outstanding achievement in Chicago graphic design.

The logo previously received an American Graphic Design award and now will become a permanent part of the Chicago design legacy.

$3.44/hour

Today, I did my civic duty as juror no. 51850326. For that role, the county paid me $17.20 which places a value of my time at $3.44 an hour. That is way below minimum wage. I was there for 5 hours only. They released us early as there were trials cancelled or postponed in the afternoon. Had I been there until 5, or as they said possibly 6, my hourly wage would have dropped to $2.02/hour.

I was in panel 10 which was never called. I watched more Maury Povich than I had ever imagined I would. I also read and did some Sudoku, texted a friend and waited til my time was done.

I have decided to donate the money so that my wasted day has some better purpose. Most of my charities are environemtnal or health based. Suggestions for the donation that has to do with justice would be appreciated!

Jury Duty

I have been summoned.

And I guess it is my civic duty to serve if called upon. But here are a couple reasons this sucks!
1 - I have to go all the way to a court far into the city, about an hours drive!
2 - I have a workshop this weekend that I am leaving Friday for in Two Rivers, WI
3 - This is so far from my home, would the accused really have a jury of their peers with me on the jury?
4 - I have to bring change for the vending machines!
5 - I have class on Wednesday!

This could just mess up a lot of stuff! I am bringing paperwork of the workshop, the hotel reservation and anything else I can think of that will support my needing NOT to be selected on anything that will go past Thursday!

Egg

Today I have just been thinking a lot about eggs. Perhaps it was the huge neighborhood debate about eggs and Halloween. Maybe I am hungry. I have no idea why for sure, but I think I am going to have an egg white omelette for breakfast tomorrow. I will let someone else figure that out anything more than that.

All Saints Day

Today is All Saints' Day, a Christian holy day observed by many Western churches on November 1 and by Eastern churches on the first Sunday after Pentecost. The day now honors all saints of the church, even those not known by name.

David Lee Csicsko did a series of saints and I own one of them, actually 7/20 of Saint Anthony of Padua, Finder of Lost Articles.

Saint Anthony of Pauda is typically depicted with a book and the Infant Child Jesus, two things you should never lose I suppose.