Caldas da Rainha, Portugal

I had the pleasure today of delivering one of the keynote lectures at day one of Comunicar Design, an annual three-day event organized by graphic design students at ESAD in Caldas da Rainha (the other keynote presenter was Rui Afonso Santos, an art historian and design critic from Lisbon). Students, teachers, and visiting designers (including quite a few alumni from across the country) were warm, welcoming, and enthusiastic.

The next few days will be filled with master classes and a variety of design-related workshops (including a collective examination of “Portuguese identity and persona,” further to the recently-published article I wrote for Communication Arts magazine.

Photos (from top): yours truly, giving the talk; my friendly host Miguel Macedo on the rocky coast at São Martino do Porto, just north of Caldas; the bay at Foz do Arelho at sundown; the daily fruit and vegetable market on the square in downtown Caldas da Rainha.

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Allegedly, love is also blind
(it knows no colour, and is “no respecter of persons)”
it transcends time and space
(i.e. it’s timeless, ageless, and universal)
it knows no postal code or income bracket
or popularity index (it’s classless)
and it’s certainly not limited
by I.Q., BMI, shoe-size, or
the number of natural teeth
one may or may not still possess…

Who, being loved, is poor?
—Oscar Wilde

(image source unknown)

Victoria, British Columbia

If you’ve visited this/my blog in the past, you probably already know that I’m somewhat of a fan of unusual and vintage ephemera, oddball ideas, and assorted graphic juxtapositions and eccentricities… so of course I was happy about the serendipitous encounter I had today with an engaging and creatively stimulating online collection of “wacky” imagery.

Enjoy, eh?

Lisbon, Portugal

The May/June 2010 (#374 Illustration Annual 51) issue of Communication Arts magazine contains a feature article I’ve written entitled “Visual Communication Design in Portugal: Land of Discovery.” The piece investigates Portugal’s unique attributes, history, culture, and current realities in relation to visual communication—the article is accompanied by a selection of design and illustration by Portuguese designers.

I visited Lisbon in 2009 as a speaker at OFFF 2009 Oeiras (International Festival For The Post-Digital Creation Culture), an event attended by nearly 4000 enthusiastic participants. After the conference, I drew from dozens of attendees who contacted me following my talk in order to crowd-source opinions on Portuguese design and related issues, as well as suggestions for representative works.

I have been contributing in-depth foreign feature articles to Communication Arts magazine since 1994, including pieces on design and design events in Russia, Portugal (the XVI Icograda General Assembly in 1995), Uruguay, Australia, Korea, Japan, Brazil, China, Denmark, Cuba, and New Zealand.

Read the full feature article (with full creative credits for works shown, CA issue #374) or download the entire CA Portugal design feature here (1.1 MB). Note: this feature article from Communication Arts magazine appears with permission by Communication Arts ©2010 Coyne & Blanchard, Inc. All rights reserved.

A special thanks to the numerous Portuguese designers and design educators who enthusiastically contributed their insights, viewpoints, and suggestions regarding works that appear in the article, in particular; Sarah Chaves Brasseur, Carla Carrão, Aurelindo Ceia, António (Tózé) Coelho, António Costa, Ana Farinha, João Cardoso Fernandes, Antero Ferreira, Afonso Figueiredo, Margarida Fonseca, Bruno Franco, António Silveira Gomes, Carla Ponte Júlio, Ana Lopes, Miguel Macedo, Mário Moura, Fernando Oliveira, João Maio Pinto, Rosa Quitério, Luísa Ribas, Catarina da Silva, Paulo Silva, and Patrícia Sobral.

“Breaking News” from the Huffington Post…

Thanks, Gregor, for the timely and ironic link…

Ivrea, Italy

Just a sampling from a very nice Flickr collection of design for Olivetti…

(Thanks to Danielle Autran in Montreal for the link).

(at the risk of disastrous consequences all around)

(They can be such jokers at times…)

Georgian Bay, Ontario

Stretching from the vast wilderness of Algonquin Park in the east to the windswept shores of the Georgian Bay Islands in the west, the famed District of Muskoka includes the treasured towns of Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, and Huntsville, and the townships of Georgian Bay, Lake of Bays, and Muskoka Lakes.

The handsome new coffee-table book Muskoka captures the rugged beauty, pristine lakes, and charming settlements of this favoured cottage destination over four dramatic seasons. Translated from the Algonquin native language, ‘Muskoka’ means ‘land of the red earth’—unforgettable sunsets, stunning autumn tree foliage, and the region’s signature crop of cranberries—all relate back to the red earth theme and become the canvas for this keepsake photographic collection of one of Canada’s most cherished regions.

Author/photographer Mike Grandmaison (a close personal friend, a long-time client, and a former partner of mine some 20 years ago, when we both taught together as part of Praxis Photographic Workshops) is an award-winning Canadian photographer specializing in nature and landscapes. Working in the biological sciences for several decades instilled in Mike a deep appreciation for nature and the great outdoors. His work has been widely published in leading magazines and books and has been used by some of North America’s top corporations and organizations. Mike travels from coast to coast to coast in search of evocative images that capture the spirit of this great land we call Canada.

Look for Muskoka at top-quality local book vendors (ISBN-13: 978-1-55470-260-2).

Congratulations, Mike!