Nuremberg, Germany

A selection of the unmistakable posters of Pierre Mendell (along with preparatory sketches and small collages) is on display until 14 October at Neues Museum für Kunst und Design, Nuremberg.

See more and learn more here.

San Francisco, California

Results of the international poster competition (with participants from more than 30 countries) on the theme of “Occupy: What’s Next?” have been announced… winners were chosen for their graphic impact and creativity in confronting the challenges of economic inequality, greed, corporate influence, political corruption, and environmental tragedy that were identified by the populist Occupy Wall Street movement of fall 2011.

See more and read more here and here.

“Viewed together, these posters convey the intensity of discontent with the status quo maintained by a hyper-priviledged 1% while demonstrating the role that designers around the globe can play by engaging constructively in social debate. Designers were urged in the briefing to go beyond the conventions of protest by creating positive messages. The submissions and the jury’s selections make clear how difficult that task is.”

(Thanks to David Peters, [no relation], one of the gig’s organizers).

Melbourne, Australia

“Respectful depiction and referencing of Indigenous visual iconography has become an important issue around the world—especially when designers and their clients choose to visually represent national identity. This new emphasis on cultural authenticity raises ethical issues of appropriate engagement and knowledge ownership.”

On 9 August 2012, Russell Kenedy will give a talk entitled ‘Appropriate or Appropriate? Strategic considerations when representing Indigenous culture in communication design and branding’ at The Museum Theatre/Melbourne Museum (full information here). He will speak on the need for the design profession to establish a framework of engagement with Indigenous knowledge, which will educate and inform practitioners on issues relating to cultural ownership and respectful development processes. He believes a dedicated policy in this area will help facilitate the transition to an authentic national identity, one that celebrates Australia as the home of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.

My good friend Russell Kennedy is a Research Fellow at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (RSA) and a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia (DIA). He was Chair of the International Design Alliance (2009- 2011) and is currently serving as immediate Past President (2011-2013) of Icograda, the International Council of Communication Design and is Co-Chair of INDIGO, the International Network of Indigenous Design.

The poster design shown above is entitled “Peace Roo” (done for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games) and is by another Aussie friend, David Lancashire.

Dublin, Ireland

This is a great illustration project by The Project Twins—bold graphics and visual wit are used to interpret and represent a collection of strange, unusual, and lost words (see the words represented in the graphics above and all 26 prints here). The full collection was exhibited at the MadArt Gallery Dublin during DesignWeek 2011, and consisted of 26 individual 50cm x 70cm Giclee Prints on Hahnemühle 100% Cotton Rag, each in a limited edition of 10.

(thanks to GDC Listserv colleague Lesley Casson)

London, UK

Royal College of Art graduate Gaspard Tiné-Berès has designed slippers made from just one piece of felt and a shoelace. “The shapes are die-cut from sheets of 5mm thick felt with minimal, simple and affordable tooling – making this product very suitable for small-scale local production. The slippers are delivered flat-packed and come with coloured laces that the user has to thread along the seam, which curls around the edge of the sole and over one side of the upper. The act of self-assembling the slippers increases the sense of ownership and emotional connection with them and allows for personalisation through the choice of laces used.”

(source)

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In concert with the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) a large outdoor installation of fish made of discarded plastic bottles appeared on Botafogo beach. The sculptures are illuminated from the inside at night creating a spectacular light show… see more images here.

(source)

(from almost anywhere in the Incarcerated States of America)

I’ve blogged about this before, so please forgive me if this sounds like a broken record (those over 50 may actually “get” that reference). I find it incredible (literally) that the nation that wraps itself in the flag of “Land of the free, Home of the brave.” imprisons more of its citizens by far than any other nation on earth. With only 5% of the world’s population the U.S. boasts 25% of the world’s incarcerated population…

Thanks to Linda at the Online Criminal Justice Degree who provided me with the very effective info-graphic shown above. 

[My father was a pacifist pulpiter, so I rant about things like this quite naturally—is that a valid excuse? He taught me maxims such as “if you live by the sword, expect to die by the sword,” and “you can tell a tree by its fruit…” Geez, that sounds self-righteous!]

Victoria, British Columbia

Prolific art director, designer, illustrator, and poster-proficienado Andrew Lewis is conducting the first Summer Poster Workshop from 6-10 August at the Vancouver Island School of Art in Victoria. This follows similar workshops Andrew has held in El Paso, Texas and Bogota, Colombia. You can find further details here.

Best wishes, my friend!

(of potential interest to collectors)

This blog attracts attention from a wide variety of folks (+/-10,000 unique visitors per month). Today I heard from a chap named Michael Tyler in Bath, UK, who writes: “I came across your blog which featured some Cuban propaganda art.  I have a small collection of OSPAAAL posters which you may be familiar with. I have been looking for collectors to trade as I have a number of duplicates… I’ve attached images of the duplicate posters I have to exchange. They are all original (some are very rare) and in excellent condition.”

Anyone who might be interested can connect with Michael via email at: m_w_tyler@hotmail.com

Montréal, Quebec

There’s a good reason I have not posted to my blog in nearly a week… I have been completely immersed in Icograda meetings—with our great Secretariat Staff, the Interview Committee that is charged with replacing outgoing Managing Director Brenda Sanderson, and with the Icograda Executive Board, meeting for the third time in this 2011-2013 term. All of this is by dent of my having agreed to take on the interim role of ‘Acting Director’ with Icograda to help with the transition between Brenda’s departure at the end of April and the start-date for the new Managing Director (likely in mid-July).

On a personal note, I realize this may be of little interest to those of you who do not know what Icograda is or means; on the other hand, those who know me will likely also know that over the years Icograda sort of grew to be the “family I never had”—for better or worse (I wrote about this in a post back in 2007, here). It’s wonderful to back in a tighter orbit with Icograda, and also a little overwhelming, to be perfectly honest…

Captions for photos above: Members of the current Icograda Board, left to right, who were present in Montréal this past weekend: Jeffrey Ho (Singapore), Sophia Shih (Taiwan), Yesim Demir (Istanbul), Leimei Julia Chiu (current president, Japan), Iva Babaja (Croatia), Gaby de Abreu (South Africa), Kyle Kim (Korea), Sali Sasaki* (France), and Gitte Just (Denmark)—missing were Russell Kennedy (Australia), Vesna Brekalo (Slovenia), and Lawrence Zeegen (United Kingdom) | Brenda and Leimei at the farewell dinner for the outgoing Managing Director | Gaby, Iva, and Sali at the same dinner | Sophia, Iva, and Yesim—”smokin’-hot” outside the hotel, to quote another board member. | The view from Mount Royal on the evening following the board meeting (we were hosted to a dinner in the pavilion there by Culture Montréal along with international delegates from the UNESCO Creative Cities Network).

*On Sali’s behalf, I feel I need to explain why she is wearing sneakers and not fancy shoes by Jimmy Choo or the like in the top photo… unfortunately Sali was hit badly by a luggage cart (commandeered by a rude and pushy woman) when she landed at the Montréal airport, causing serious harm to one foot.