Austria, or wherever…

This is one of more than 350 vintage travel posters in an online collection compiled by The Boston Public Library’s Print Department—most date from the 1920s-1940s, the “Golden Age of Travel.” Enjoy the rest here.

(image source unknown)

Boston, Massachusetts

My friend Chaz Maviyane-Davies, a Zimbabwean expat and Professor of Design at the Massachusetts College of Art, has for the past few years stuck a new tear-sheet flyer each month with a different quote on it outside his office door in the college… above is the current offering, and following is Chaz’s explanation…

Paul Peter Piech (1920–1996) was a mentor, teacher and friend. He was perhaps the most prolific, skillful and passionate graphic designer I will ever meet and whose influence on me still resonates. His obituary in the UK Independent began “Some remarkable individuals keep on believing, throughout their lives, that the world could change for the better. The artist and printer Paul Peter Piech was one such man.” They concluded “In our current climate of fin de siecle despair at the state of the world Paul Peter Piech stood out as a man who knew how to turn any anger about man’s inhumanity to man into creative work with a disturbing social message.”

Even as a troublesome upstart, he supported me totally and in 1980 just before I completed my BA at Middlesex University, he graciously illustrated (lino-cut) this identity for me for my stationery needs. A kindred spirit, this quote reminds me fondly of him as we need the likes of Paul more than ever today.

Winnipeg, Canada

Three years ago, the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, Manitoba Chapter held its first PechaKucha Night at the Park Theatre on Osborne Street. Thursday, 7 March 2013 will mark the 13th such event organized under the auspices of GDC — as these gigs have consistently been “standing room only” events, be sure to get there early…

For anyone not yet familiar with the concept, PechaKucha 20×20 is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and you talk along to the images. Begun by several young architects 10 years ago in Tokyo, PechaKucha Nights now take place in over 500 cities around the world. Why the name PechaKucha (pronounce it Paw-Chalk‘-Ahh-Cha)? It derives from a Japanese term meaning “chatter.”

As I was perusing the PechaKucha/Winnipeg website, I saw that a talk I gave at PechaKucha Vol. 7 is featured online. Watch ‘Causes and Effects’ here. Another talk worth watching from the same night is by artist friend Diana Thorneycroft, ‘Various Bodies,’ here.

The great poster shown above is by GDC colleague Jeope Wolfe.

(re-posted from Ars Technica)

A new hypothesis from economist Andrew Francis argues that the terror of syphilis was so great among US residents that the sexual revolution of the 1960s simply wasn’t possible without getting the dreaded disease under control first. In his view, the development of effective treatments—most notably, penicillin—had a more profound effect on culture than even birth control measures.

This may be hard to grasp at first, since the fear of syphilis has fallen off so dramatically today. But there’s an easy way to transport yourself back in time 70 years or so, just before the rise of common antibiotics, to get a sense for life in a world where infectious diseases could prove so much more difficult to control. Thanks to the Work Projects Administration (WPA), a federal initiative in the late 1930s and early 1940s that put hundreds of thousands of American to work on public projects, we have an incredible visual archive of life at the time: 2,000 posters created by government-employed artists.

A surprising number of them relate to syphilis; indeed, it’s the largest public health issue addressed by the posters, many of which are now archived at the Library of Congress and available online. The posters are alternately terrifying, paternalistic, comforting, and informative, but they are never uninteresting.

View more many more posters on syphilis here, each with a written rationale for its design… Thanks to Gregor Brandt for the article link.

Vancouver, British Columbia

Prudish. Flirty. Whore. Proper. Cheeky. Slut. These are just a few of the words that could be used to describe a woman’s sexual behavior based on her appearance alone, and 18-year-old college freshman Rosea Lake chose to display them starkly—on a young woman’s legs in a photo that has since gone viral. (Read the full Huffpost story here).

“Working on this project really made me examine my own opinions, preconceptions and prejudices about “slutty” women and women who choose to cover all of their skin alike. I used to assume that all women who wore Hijabs were being oppressed, slut-shame, and look down on and judge any woman who didn’t express her sexuality in a way that I found appropriate… I’d like to think I’m more open now.”

Rosea Lake is studying graphic design and illustration at Capilano University in Vancouver, BC. She likes dancing, salty things and watercolour.

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English entomologist and engraver Moses Harris (1730-1788) devised the first full-colour wheel in 1766, creating the foundation of modern colour theory.

“The 18 colours of his wheel were derived from what he then called the three ‘primitive’ colours: red, yellow and blue. At the center of the wheel, Harris showed that black is formed by the superimposition of these colours.”

Thanks Moses. (source)

—R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)

Adieu mon cher ami… Guy-A Schockaert (1949-2013)

Boston, Massachusetts

My friend Chaz Maviyane-Davies is a Zimbabwean expat who is now a Professor of Design at the Massachusetts College of Art. Once a month for the past few years he has stuck a tear-sheet flyer with a different quote on it outside his office door in the college… above is the current offering.