Motion Graphics

Having been a fan of film for some time now, I have seen my fair share of opening titles.
For decades now, people have animated them using various forms of media. Some of the earliest include the works of Saul Bass. The majority of his works were of a simplistic affair, including the credits for "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," and "West Side Story."

For Mad, Bass decided to incorporate elements of the end credits INTO the opening. This was done in an effort to illustrate compression. Something especially the case when you have a vast number of A-list actors of their day all in one film. Similar design themes have been used for more contemporary films such as Soderbergh's "Ocean's 11" series. However, the influences merely stayed within the 2d static image medium.

However, one can't mention motion graphic without mentioning one of the most influential of all.
Say what you will about the prequels, but the Star Wars films have influenced numerous mediums and art forms. Whoever thought to scroll the title upwards like that? If continue looking it seems almost as if everybody's ripping ideas off of one another in terms of creativity.
Another case - albeit most 2d - is the end credits for David Fincher's "Seven." When was the last time you saw the end credit scroll the opposite way, designed as a serial killer constructed them?

Frank Gehry

Yet another artist with Jewish roots!

Born Frank Owen Goldberg, Gehry has been influential in the field of architecture predominantly.
Having created - seen by many - some of the most influential/important works of contemporary archietcture. Over the years the vast majority of Gehry's work, including the Disney Concert Hall in California, and apparently his own house.

The intriguing thing to me about Gehry is that he never seems comfortable with a simple straight line or flat walls. Everything has to be about shape and movement. There must be flow. The other explanation - although highly unlikely - is that he is riddled with ADD and can not cope with a simple wall.
The majority of his work falls into the category of destructivism, referring to the ability to go outside the common bounds of achitecture. In the constructiono of these buildings, Gehry seems to throw the notion of "form follows function" out the window.

Several of his works have been seen on television and film. Most recently the Disney Concert Hall made appearances in "Get Smart" and the first 'hour' of 24: Season 6.

Milton Glaser

Being Jewish myself, I found it inspiring to see successful Jewish artists in my field of interest.
When said Jew is highly successful at what they do, that makes the gratitude all the greater.
Milton Glaser happens to be one of two successful artists who apparently have Jewish roots.

Living most of not all of his life in NYC, Glaser has made quite the impact on young up and comers such as myself. Having been prominent in the field now for decades, Glaser has produced numerous form of iconography that have been seen by millions. Whether it be the "I Love New York" logo or the DC Comics shield - a personal favorite - that run from the late 1970's up to 2005. On a brief note, having grown up seeing his logo for DC, if I had to pick between the new logo or his I would probably pick his. In comparison both logos have similar elements. The stars and shield with the proper letters in identifying the brand. However, Glasers is more simplistic. The new logo in comparison looks muddled, almost sloppy. The main difference is instead the logo directly facing you in a symmetrical circle, now it skewed to the right. Also his logo allowed you to alter the colors without changing the feel of the image. If one were to look at the new logo recolored for the Green Lantern film, you would see my point.

In recent years, Glaser has been spending most of his time teaching. It was in fact one of his students that came up with the Target bottle color coding. Something that would have been ignored if it weren't for his influence and connections.

Again, to see a fellow Jew be so successful at what he does is encouraging. Especially in today's job market...

Shepard Fairey

A contemporary artist, graphic designer and illustrator from the skateboarding scene, Shepard Fairey first became known for his "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign. Later on this campaign evolved into what is known as the "Obey Giant" campaign.

After graduation fro

m the Rhode Island School of Design, Fairey founded various businesses such as Alternate Graphics, which allowed Fairey to continue pursuing his own artwork while specializing in shirt and sticker silkscreens.

Other businesses include the BLK/MRKT Inc. which specialized in guerilla marketing, and "the development of high-impact marketing campaigns." In 2003, he and his wife Amanda founded the Studio Number One. Through this agency, Fairey designed numerous recognizable products, such as the poster for "Walk the Line," the cover for the The Smashing Pumpkins "Zeitgeist," the Black Eyed Peas cover for "Monkey Business."

In 2008, Fairey was com

missioned by the Obama campaign to design the now famous "HOPE" poster. Fairey distributed 300,000 stickers and 500,000 posters during that campaign. Instead of pocketing all the money, Fairey instead put

all the money earned during that campaign into producing more work. The poster itself was acquired in 2009 by the US National Portrait Gallery making it part of its permanent collection.

The Merchants of Cool - A Response

Titled "The Merchants of Cool," a Frontline documentary produced in the last 1990's/early 2000's discussed the influences that pop culture has on our society. Specifically addressing the influence of the pop culture movement and teenagers, early on the documentary addresses the notion that 'cool' or the idea of cool is so elusive that many people fail to capture the essence of what is 'cool.'

At one point an interviewer gives a group of teenagers a sheet of paper with specific logos and photos on it. The teens are then instructed to circle what they deemed to be cool and what was not at the time. In terms of graphic design this is evident on a daily basis, in advertising espeically. One can create a flowing, beautiful design, but if it doesn't effectively convey a message or has arrived too late or too early, it risks losing its audience or missing it entirely.

This is one of the struggles that the advertising agencies in the documentary constantly face. For instance the Sprite ads, initially using Grant Hill and a catchy tactics of bags of money it helped to convey a message of "buy this product." After some time, the ad grew stale and people were tired of the joke, thus forcing the creative minds at Sprite to think of something new yet again.

One of the topics the documentary also addressed is that of the "mook." This character lacks any central identity, instead being an all-encompassing label for a stereotype of sorts. Labeling one type of person, in this case a Johnny Knoxville-type of person. This "mook" for advertisers is someone they can use, in the reverse, many people look at that type of person, ultimately wanting to BE that person. In some designs this is evident, such as posters and magazine ads.

Late in the video, the notion of hidden messages and iconography is also addressed. This again is a recurring theme in graphic design. Examples of this include propoganda style imagery.

Helvetica

Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface, developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger.

Trained as a typestter in the late 1920's, Miedinger eventually went to work for Edouard Hoffman, the director of the Haas Typefoundry. During his time there Miedinger worked primarily as a sales

man. Eventually, he was approached by Hoffman to do something more in his spare time. As a result of this initial behest, Miedinger sought out to design a sans serif typeface that over time would become on of the widely known and sought after typefaces to date.

Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, the typeface design was based on Schelter-Grotesk and Haas' Normal Grotesk. Miedinger's aim in creating this new design was to create a neutral typeface that lacked a general

clarity, no intrinsic meaning and could be used in a wide variety of forms.

In the 1960's the typeface was renamed Helvetica in order to make a more marketable product. In doing so this helped to put Miedinger on the map. Earning royalties from this seemingly simple breakthrough, Helvetica's influence on society shows no signs of slowing down, even after Miedinger's death in the early 1980's.

Since it's initial inception, various Helvetica interpretations have appeared, such as the Helvetica Light and Helvetica Compressed

Family (consisting of Compressed, Extra Compressed, and Ultra Compressed Fonts). The next iteration of the font appeared in 1978, under the title Helvetica Rounded. In relation to the original design, this variant contained rounded stroke terminators. Since then at least 2 other variants and countless imitators have appeared, many of which are still around today.

The simplicity of the typeface seems to be the greatest attribute it has to offer, with countless companies and organizations adopting it. For some though, it appears to have something of a dark side. As philosophers, scholars and the like see the government and corporation love of Helvetica in a more ominous manner. Leslie Swan wrote that these corporations "can come off seeming more accessible, transparent, and accountable, which are all buzzwords for what corporations and governments are supposed to be today. They don't have to be accessible, transparent or accountable, but they can look that way."

Found Items and Art

When is something old new again?

What exactly does it mean when one man's trash is another's treasure?

Over time it seems that something once thought old and obsolete is suddenly new again. Whether it be an elevator door such as the picture above, or pool balls turned into home decor, the second life of a product can often be more fascinating and creative than the first.

The term "found object" often refers to smaller objects found by chance which captures the imagination of the 'finder' therefore giving the object a second life. such an object can stand alone or form the basis for a collection such as a collection of bottle caps, or walls littered with old license plates. Going into several 'theme' restaurants such as Applebee's the walls have been adorned with thousands of found object

s.

So what makes these found objects so appealing?

Often it's the feeling that these objects appear in a 'lucky' occurrence or the sense that "its a free gift from the world."

Much of the college age crowd has at least one item that at one point or another served another purpose. This is largely due to the lack of funds said college students seem to have. As a result much of the younger crowd has been forced to be more creative in terms of home decor.

Other people have taken the found item phenomenon to other extremes. This past June, a North Carolina man was arrested for creating a statue from three road blocking barrels. Cutting and screwing the pieces together Joseph Carnevale, 21 sealed his fate later being charged with misdemeanor larceny causing reportedly $360 in damages. Perhaps the ultimate in found object art, this most likely will be more present in the coming years.

Graffiti in the West Bank -- Sept 29, 2010

Over the years, the use of graffiti to make statements on politics, culture, economics and the sort has steadily risen. While it may seem that gradually less of the work seen illustrates work in an activist sense, the atmosphere in other countries is strikingly different.

Case in point: The Middle East

Largely seen by the UN, Israel started building a massive wall in the early 2000's in an attempt to curb the violence in the region by separating Israeli's from their Palestinian counterparts. Lined with barbed wire and guard towers, one could liken to the wall as the world's longest prison wall (current records have it measuring around 425 miles long).

The construction of this wall has led to numerous instances of graffiti, ranging from beautiful to out-and-out offensive. Some instances illustrate a sense of hope between the warring sides. Many of the examples depict a "grass is greener on the other side" outlook with a strong sense of hope. This can be seen as a strong contrast to other works,

consisting of anger against the government and the existence of the wall itself.

For a fee one can have a message painted on the wall without having to be there. A

group of Dutch and Palestinian activists charge interested parties a mere $40 to compose message at www.sendamessage.ni to have their words spray painted on the wall with a photo sent to you shorty thereafter. One letter, on the Palestinian side reads "Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? In your land, we are seeing something far more brutal, relentless and inhuman than what we have ever seen under apartheid."

Guerilla graffiti artists such as the single named "Bansky" have seen this massive wall as a vast canvas much too tempting to simply resist. Packing his supplies Bansky made his way to the Middle Eastern region and set to work creating nine separate illustrations on the wall. Some of these images are surreal, others poignant as Bansky has tried to avoid the overtly political statements littering the area as a whole.

Many of these illustrations depict a sense of hope, a hope for peace that will one day come to this war-torn land, and perhaps this wall along with these paintings --some beautiful, others haunting -- will cease to exist, in its place a beautiful landscape of peace will be in its place, one where paintings won't have to depict a hopeful future. The question is, will it happen in our lifetime?

Horror Vacui -- Sept 27, 2010

Ask yourself, would you rather be in a building staring at blank walls, or with something that has some form of ornamentation?

If this ornamentation was to hang on the wall would you rather it be confined in a box, or would you prefer it to fill the space?

Is it more important to allow artwork to breathe or is it more socially acceptable for beauty to be confined in a box, seen or unseen?

There are hundreds of considerations to be made when constructing a piece of art, more so in the display of said piece(s).

For many there is a certain degree of fear in the notion of empty space. Known in the art world as Horror Vacui, the morbidly sounding art movement unsurprisingly had its start in places such as 19th century psychiatric hospitals and insane asylums. One such patient a Richard

Dadd, become one of the pioneers of this movement. Locked away in his cell, Dadd had little to do. Managing to acquire some art supplies, Dadd set to work on a project that would eventually take nine years to finish. "Fairly Feller's Master Stroke" was one of the first, most influential pieces in this movement. Upon its release, the art community seemingly didn't know what to think. The notion of opening the borders was a new concept to some, but the breathing room enabled in such a movement helped to grow a relatively new movement in the modern art community (at the time).

Moving from the 1

9th century to the current, many artists have adopted the horror vacui style of art. S. Clay Wilson, Robert Crumb, and Robert Williams leaders of the underground comic movement adopted this art style, eventually becoming masters. This style of art would go on to influence many other comic artists such as Frank Miller and Will Eisner.

This movement also has the distinction of transcending across many national and cultural bounds. Examples of horror vacui can be seen in items as far ranging as the clothing worn by people in Middle and South America to the "Where's Waldo?" children's book series.

The majority of the works in this movement express a wide range of emotions, with paranoid claustrophobia being one of the most common. The denial of "open space" (fascinating term, considering the inclusion of borders could just as easily suffocate a piece) to some could be interpreted as the denial of the future/unknown. To others, this movement seen as an adoption of anarchy, some less minimalist examples of such can be seen in works by Jackson Pollock.

Since its inception in a mental hospital, this form of art can be seen in the works of Joe Coleman, and Todd Schorr. With the ever expanding art world one ought to wonder where the horror vacui movement would take us next, especially seeing as how this raw art style often works on fall wall interior designs among others.

Comic Artist Profile: Todd McFarlane -- Sept. 22, 2010

Known best for the character Spawn, Todd McFarlane has found much success as an artist and entrepreneur in a relatively short amount of time.

Attending Eastern Washington University in the early 1980's, the Canadian born McFarlane hoped to have a profitable career in major league baseball. This proved not to be, suffering a major career ending injury during his junior year. McFarlane, studying graphic art, worked in a local comic book store in Spokane, Washington. It was often here that illustrations of many famous characters in the comic world would be sold as a means to make extra income. Later, McFarlane would the Alberta College of Art and Design continuing to hone his talent, as would soon become the well known name he is today.

McFarlane's first published work was in a 1984 backup story in Epic Comics' Coyote. During a two-year run at D.C.

Comics in the mid 80's, McFarlane illustrated the follow-up to Frank Miller's famous Year One storyline. Shortly thereafter McFarlane left D.C. to join Marvel illustrating characters such as the Incredible Hulk and Wolverine, before starting what is seen as one of the most popular runs of any artists or writers on the Amazing Spider-Man. Working with writer David Micheline in issue #298, the duo introduced a new nemesis for hero Peter Parker.

Eddie Brock, a competing photographer at the Daily Bugle was seen by many as an alternate version of Peter, a "what if" of sorts. During this storyline, Peter is seen largely wearing a new black suit that eventually reveals its alien origins. Rejecting it, Peter returns to his famous original suit while the alien symbiote attaches itself to a vengeful Brock. It was in this run that the now famous villain known as Venom would make his first appearance.

Over the years the character has proven to be so popular that various iterations, spinoffs and ripoffs ensued, some of which turned out to be fairly good.

McFarlane had other plans however, eventually leaving Marvel with a handful other writers and artists. The group set out to form their own independent comic company. Image comics, founded in the early 1990's housed various publishing

houses such as McFarlane's own Todd McFarlane Productions (later retitled as Todd McFarlane Entertainment). The initial issue of McFarlane's Spawn holds the record for 1.7 million initial copies sold, a first for an independent studio.

Over the years as his company has grown, he has had to let other artists and writers work on the Spawn book, and various other works of his. Giving new and upcoming artists a start just like he had many years ago. Producing items in various media such as toys, film, and television McFarlane has been able to make quite the name for himself in a relatively short amount of time. Much of this busy schedule takes a toll naturally, but he often still finds time for the random "guest illustrator" spot on any of the books his company currently produces. He often finds time to illustrate album covers such as the one for the "Follow the Leader" album for the band Korn.

Recently company has put out a new ongoing series about a new tortured superhero, Haunt. First announced in 2007, the ongoing collaboration co-created by McFarlane and Robert Kirkman launched on October 7, 2009. There isn't much word on how it's been doing as of yet. But as with much of what has been released through McFarlane's company, it's likely to have been met with some degree of success.