If, like myself, you enjoy a combination of vintage ephemera and serendipitous discovery… then meandering through pilllpat (agence eureka)’s Flickr collections could make you a happy camper too.

If we are to create balanced human beings, capable of entering into world-wide co-operation with all other men of good will—and that is the supreme task of our generation, and the foundation of all its other potential achievements—we must give as much weight to the arousal of the emotions and to the expression of moral and esthetic values as we now give to science, to invention, to practical organization. One without the other is impotent. And values do not come ready-made: they are achieved by a resolute attempt to square the facts of one’s own experience with the historic patterns formed in the past by those who devoted their whole lives to achieving and expressing values.

If we are to express the love in our own hearts, we must also understand what love meant to Socrates and Saint Francis, to Dante and Shakespeare, to Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti, to the explorer Shackleton and to the intrepid physicians who deliberately exposed themselves to yellow fever. These historic  manifestations of love are not recorded in the day’s newspaper or the current radio program: they are hidden to people who possess only fashionable minds.

Virtue is not a chemical product, as Taine once described it: it is a historic product, like language and literature; and this means that if we cease to care about it, cease to cultivate it, cease to transmit its funded values, a large part of it will become meaningless, like a dead language to which we have lost the key. That, I submit, is what has happened  in our own lifetime.

—Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) Values for Survival, 1946

…is give peace a chance.

(just step back… or move to the side)

Caldas da Rainha, Portugal

I’d like to say a huge Obrigado! (thank you!) to the kind folks who invited me to Portugal this week—the students, instructors, school administrators, and design colleagues who welcomed me with such open arms and kind hospitality. Special thanks go to graduating student Bruno Franco (my first contact at ESAD), Miguel Macedo (who initiated my participation with Comunicar Design), the driven and passionate Cristiana Pena (you rock, girrrrl!) for the inspirational and organizational effort, Anabela Figueiredo Machado Monteiro for the logistical support, and the rest of the ESAD/CR team and community…

Saudades!

Photos: Design… is a verb.—the title of my keynote presentation; event propaganda designed by the students; Bruno Franco (on the right, in the white sweatshirt) and others at the hands-on graffiti workshop (one of many diverse topics addressed during the event); some of the 3rd-day participants in front of the school (designer/author/presenter Nuno Coelho with doggy in foreground).

Caldas da Rainha, Portugal

I had heard (and written) about the enigmatic cartoon character Zé Povinho—the wildly popular “Portuguese everyman” created by the artist Bordalo Pinheiro in 1875, portrayed as a poor, somewhat passive-aggressive peasant known for flipping irreverent hand-gestures to uppity-ups in positions of privilege and power… so it was a delight to have the chance to visit the ceramics factory founded by Pinheiro here, and to view hundreds of his original drawings, maquettes, and signature ceramic creations. (Although the factory closed, sadly, in 2009 with the laying-off of over 100 employees, one of the kind women working in the retail shop made an exception and allowed Miguel and I to view the private museum collections).

Photos (from the top): Zé Povinho giving his classic salute (Pinheiro’s original piece); “The walls have ears…,” from the factory’s private museum; Zé Povinho as an installation piece; aside from the ubiquitous porcelain vegetables and cabbages the area is known for, the most popular object in any of the souvenir shops is ceramic penises*—ranging in size from baby’s pinky to a lumberjack’s forearm (and larger), including many cleverly attached/concealed on figurines of every description (and gender, for that matter), with the “members” in question “activated” by the pulling of a string—here a sweet little old lady shows off a small selection of the phallic wares she peddles in the local market square and from a tiny shop below her home; and, a few of the sculptures outside of one of Caldas da Rainha’s several sculptural museums (I’ll likely plan a return visit in the future to take these in).

*The tradition of making ceramic penises in Caldas da Rainha is said to have started when King Dom Luis, who ruled from 1861 to 1889, suggested that local potters “make something more interesting.” :-)

Óbidos, Portugal

Situated just a few km from Caldas da Rainha, the 14th-Century castellated village of Óbidos bristles with antique charm. Winding cobblestone streets inside the fortified walls are lined with an interesting mix of well-preserved Portuguese architecture spanning over 600 years (now most buildings are occupied by galleries, shops, and watering holes to serve the hordes of foreign tourists that apparently descend on Óbidos every summer—thankfully we encountered only a few handfuls of vacationing Brits and Germans in the narrow, nearly-deserted medieval laneways). I found myself drawn to the remarkably variegated patina and age-worn textures of the old facades, structures, doorways, and signage—what an incredible resource and palette for those in the visual arts living in this region!

My new ESAD/CR design-instructor friends Miguel Macedo and António Costa guided me on a meandering tour through the ancient castled village, and we enjoyed the local cherry liquor known as ginjinha, regional vinho tinto, and excellent fish dinners over spirited conversation as the sun sank into the Atlantic.

Methinks a person could get used to living in as civilized a place as this…

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.

.

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)

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.