LOS ANGELES — Designer Genis Carreras attempts to distill complex philosophical topics into clean, minimal posters.
graphic design
While many people know Magritte’s Surrealist art, most probably don’t know his Art Deco commercial work.
LOS ANGELES — West Hollywood, known popularly today for its thriving design culture and LGBT community. During the day, you can visit any number of design studios and the sprawling Pacific Design Center complex. At night, Santa Monica Blvd. lights up with raucous bars and bouncing clubs catering to the local community. Affectionately known as “Weho,” the city, which is independent from Los Angeles, has also been a site for numerous citizen actions, from Proposition 8 protests to protests against the Hyatt. It’s only natural, then, that a new show, Decade of Dissent: Democracy in Action 1965-1975, should open in West Hollywood’s terrific new community library, just across from the Pacific Design Center.
In their quest for a unified logo, the Occupy Movement sifted through 8,319 submissions from 1,591 designers until they agreed upon a minimal design by maspoji™ — and no, we’re not sure if the trademark symbol is ironic or not.
Boulder bookstore owner David Bolduc said of artist and graphic designer Tina Collen’s “artobiography,” titled Storm of the i (2009) and published by Art Review Press, “I’ve been in the book business for thirty years and have seen a lot of books. But I’ve never seen anything like Storm of the i.”
I agree with Bolduc that Storm of the i doesn’t look like other books, but Storm’s uniqueness is also what hinders it most. The book defies traditional design and layout, like a watered down, less haunting version of American author Mark Z. Danielewski’s popular House of Leaves (2000), and it’s a confusing book formally and conceptually. It vacillates throughout all three hundred pages between various different styles—photo album, scrapbook, self-help, personal memoir, maudlin diary, autobiography—and none of them seem to help its author’s intent.
Last week, I visited MoMA’s new exhibition, Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Object and spoke to the institution’s senior curator of design and architecture, Paola Antonelli, about the show, some poignant objects, the American insecurity towards design, her online habits … among other things.
In 2008, not only did Obama and the Democrats win the US Presidential race but they hands down won the unofficial graphic design competition that vies for the hearts and minds of voters (even if on a subconscious level). As things are gearing up for 2012, the question is … did the GOP learn anything about graphic design?
The Tony Shafrazi Gallery is currently showing a rare collection of 95 rare Soviet Constructivist film posters, circa 1920-33, and a model of Vladimir Tatlin’s influential “Monument for the Third International” (1920/1967). These gems of early 20th C. graphic design were cutting edge for their time and they still look fantastic today. The visual imagination of the designers synched up quite well with the heady films during an era when the Soviet Union was still a major center of cinematic production and innovation.
Designer Andrea Gallo has created a series of six posters that boil iconic works of architecture down to their minimalist details. The stark, black and white posters cut out silhouettes of the buildings and zoom in, with an eye towards the key elements of famous buildings.
Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s latest book, 1Q84, has become a blockbuster hit in the author’s native country, but the English edition is still forthcoming. As a preview, Knopf has released images of the book’s cover, by famous graphic designer Chip Kidd. Using transparent vellum as a jacket, the cover represents the book’s engagement with alternate realities.
