You’ll notice with a little sleuthing that I haven’t posted any work from my Type 2 class this semester. Perhaps it’s having Type 1 with Ellen Lupton, or perhaps it’s the remedial curriculum, but something has made the class a chore for me, and I do not like any of the assignments or work I am doing for them. Nevertheless, I figured I would post our most recent project. The content is a fictitious event and bad joke (perhaps you’re beginning to see why the class is not my favorite) with some famous designers, most of whom my instructor misspelled. The above solution will be my final, below are some other ideas. (more…)
While chillin’ in the ATL over spring break, I insisted we visit a flea market, a fixture of the south not so abundant in the north. So, I consulted GoogleMaps and found “My Favorite Place” which we visited for an afternoon of boyish scrounging. We came across a lot of fun stuff there, including a cast iron pan we re-claimed from the depths of rusty inactivity, but the best find of the day, in my opinion, was this handmade, rosewood and brass square. As you may know, I love tools, especially beautifully handcrafted, and obviously well used, ones with character dripping off of them. This particular tool will come in handy in my bookwork, as well as pretty much anything else in the shop. Its a perfect size for just tossing in a bag, and I am excited to use it as much as the owner before me did, and hopefully pass it down someday. There is something really exciting to me about this thing carrying the history of the person that made it, and everything it helped create. (more…)
My posting plummeted a bit in the last couple weeks, this is because I was in the midst of midterms and a lovely spring break roadtrip adventure with Anthony Mattox and Dai Foldes. I have returned from my little hiatus and will be intermittently posting again, as usual. Meanwhile enjoy some pictures from the fantastic Georgia Aquarium! (more…)
These are the plans for a rubber band gun I am working on at the moment. It, and its packaging, is going to be my final for GD II, and I am getting quite excited about it. The bloodwood and curly red leaf maple are in the mail!
You should be able to figure out how it works from looking at the diagrams; the tension of the loaded rubber bands (up to 5) is key to its fuctionality. I am still debating whether or not it needs a spring to give the trigger some extra tension. I was originally hoping to lasercut the bloodwood middle parts, but at 3/8ths of an inch thick, our 30watt laser won’t be able to handle it. So, I am going to have to etch it and then cut it manually with a bandsaw. I am very fortunate to have cheap access to a laser for something as simple as marking cuts.
My latest work for Artist Books: A coptic bound piece dedicated to American Muscle Cars. The title page reads:
Great American Dinosaurs
The Muscle Cars of the 60’s and early 70’s were defined by their large engines, affordable price tag, and unmistakable style. They are, in many ways, a representation of America’s Golden Years: inefficient, yet nonetheless beautiful pieces of design and history. Times have rapidly changed, gas prices are an average of 32 times what they were in the 60’s, and these beautiful cars are becoming increasingly hard to find and expensive to maintain. As we grow exponentially closer to a time where fossil fuels are completely unaffordable, these artworks will become extinct.
This book is dedicated to the unique beauty of Muscle Cars and the designers who worked so passionately on them.
The book is 17 individual, single folio signatures with 11 sewing stations along the spine. It took me approximately one million years to bind and it tore in two small places, but overall I am satisfied with the result.
The cover was my first attempt at embossing something and I sort of wung it. I had the letterforms laser-cut from some bookboard and saved all of the negatives and counters. Then, I glued the remaining piece and counterforms on to another piece of book board, wrapped the whole thing in leather from the thrift store, and pressed it after placing the letterforms back in their respective spots on top of the leather. I think it worked out pretty nicely, though the embossed bits may be just a bit too deep. Something to keep in mind for next time.
Hit the “jump” for some more pictures! (CHECK OUT MY BLOG LINGO YO) (more…)
As some of you may know, I have all of my content on both my flickr and my website licensed with an attribution license from the Creative Commons. I am a big supporter of what the Creative Commons is doing, and I am all about the sharing of knowledge, art, and information. A nice young lady named Janeen let me know she used one of my images in a video piece of hers, so exciting! You can see the video, and interesting experiment in visual “speed” poetry, above.
Seriously people. Why was I not told about this? An entire show dedicated to hand made bicycles; I am not sure I can imagine anything I would rather attend. Luckily, the NAHBS has provided extensive photographic documentation of the event and the bikes in attendance. Click on through their galleries and marvel at some true works of art. For some more professional photos, check out Urban Velo’s Coverage of the show.
My blog is more or less an unprofessional mess, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But, that’s mostly because I do not possess the dexterity, concentration, or dedication that is required to author an informative, focused blog. Bryan Connor, however, possesses all of these things, and his blog Young & Freelancing has been a long time coming. Bryan has been a very good friend of mine and a partner in the chaotic, often stressful, world of young freelancing for almost 2 years now. Few people I know show the brand of maturity and composure Bryan carries himself with when dealing with floods of emails, frustrating clients, and all the other fun stuff that comes with being an creative individual in today’s freelance market.
If you are young, or freelancing, or have an interest is the behind the scenes of design, be sure to check out Bryan’s Blog. Despite its infancy, Bryan has already stocked the blog with some pretty incredible and helpful articles. I am sure my habits have made/inspired some of his “what not to do” lists, so if you want to hear from the best, click on through.
I think material is really important in design. Exceptionally important. And yet, many designers don’t seem to pay much attention to it, doing all their work digitally and getting it printed on whatever paper Kinkos or MICA’s print lab has readily available. I have been trying to use alternative materials in my work for some time now, most notably wood, and I have recently taken the dive into working with leather. I had looked into leather in the past, and was immediately and completely turned off by the price and partially by the fact that some nice animals would be laying down their lives for my work. However, I recently visited my local thrift store in search of leather garments I could recycle into my work, and it was much more successful and rewarding than I expected. The variety and quality of the leather found in all sorts of stylish coats, pants, and shirts amazed and excited me. Not to mention the price was more than right.
I got all of the clothes you see pictured above and below for under $30 on half off Sundays at the Village. I managed to get a wide variety of color, finish, and thickness that should prove useful for all sorts of applications. I am ALL about recycling materials, and this was unbelievably cheap and will hopefully get turned into a plethora of very classy, professional looking things.
A few tips if you plan on getting some leather from your local thrift store:
Check tags and use the smell test to make sure you are dealing with genuine leather and not some shitty pleather
Pay attention to the size of the panels in the garments, a giant trench coat made entirely of small pieces is more or less worthless
You will find exponentially more leather in womens clothes than mens
The reason this kind of re-appropriation is so exciting is because its like a scavenger hunt. Its almost as though you are living in some MMORPG when you find some beautiful pair of burgundy leather pants, because you know that whatever you make out of those pants will be one-of-a-kind. Your book cover, or whatever, will have the embedded history of a nice cow, and a bunch of people from the 80’s, tacked onto it. Beautiful.
