Zermatt, Switzerland

The first ascent of the iconic Matterhorn (yes, the one on the triangular-shaped Toblerone chocolate package) was made by Edward Whymper, Lord Francis Douglas, Charles Hudson, Douglas Hadow, Michel Croz, and the two Zermatt guides, Peter Taugwalder father and son on 14 July 1865. Douglas, Hudson, Hadow and Croz were killed on the descent when Hadow slipped and pulled the other three with him down the north face. Whymper and the Taugwalder guides, who survived, were later accused of having cut the rope below to ensure that they were not dragged down with the others, but the subsequent inquiry found no proof of this and they were acquitted.

The Matterhorn accident was long discussed in the media, in Switzerland and abroad… newspapers all over the world reported the tragedy and no other Alpine event has ever caused more headlines. Read the full background to this memorable event in mountaineering history here.

Matterhorn photo (cropped) by Juan Rubiano; Illustrations of Whymper et al’s ascent and disastrous descent are by Gustave Doré.

“A single slip,
or a single false step,
has been the sole cause
of this frightful calamity.”

—Edward Whymper

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

Wow, summer’s here with gusto… liberated the old bicycle from the shed this week, and had a pleasant drive along the lake (with water levels several feet higher than normal) with my Sweetie… looking forward to more times in the saddle in the months ahead.

I now ride a somewhat clunky 1980s-vintage 18-speed mountain bike, but I did once mount an authentic velocipede (center bottom in image above, with the huge front wheel) that belonged to a neighbour of ours when we lived on Florastrasse in Reinach, Switzerland, back in the 1960s… and I have owned sleeker road-bikes back in the day.

Vancouver, BC

Keith Martin is a remarkably talented designer and illustrator. I know him through the GDC (Society of Graphic Designers of Canada), our country’s national professional association, as well as from award-shows in which his work appears (including some of the most beautiful stamps every created for Canada Post). Keith is also known to those in our field as an outstanding teacher, and a helpful mentor.

Today he posted a link to the GDC Listserv (an ongoing conversation among Canadian designers that’s been going for over a decade now) along with some helpful advice regarding “keeping life in vector drawings.” I was blown away by the examples of his work that he pointed to in a Flickr set (here) and felt this was just too good not to share. (Hope you’re OK with that, Keith). (-:

Here’s how he described what you see above: “I think it is quite common for thumbnails to loose their energy/life when translated to vector. One way I have found to break out of that is to use a drawing tablet. I keep “drawing” the gesture repeatedly very quickly and then use the bits that work out. If you have never used one there is a bit of a learning curve, but I have found it to be an indispensable tool. Drawing with it (a tablet and stylus) using pressure sensitivity is a great way to capture that energy… here are some examples of my fluid vector work.”

“When I was doing these drawings I built a friendship with Kathryn Ricketts, the owner, dancer, choreographer of the dance school where I did these drawings. She was doing a series of performances where she improvised a dance performance with other art types (singers, musicians, poets,etc). What she created on stage was a conversation between herself and the other person through both artist’s disciplines. So I ended up doing a number of these with her where I was on stage with my laptop and a digital projector and I literally drew on her and the stage around her as she improvised dance movement from my drawings. Between us we had some interesting conversations without a word being spoken. We did this all over Vancouver, notably at the Chan Centre, the Vancouver Centre for Dance, and we even did a couple of the Fuse nights at the VAG (Vancouver Art Gallery).”

Images: part of a series of gestural sketches by Keith Martin of dancers in situ, done while watching dance students practice their craft. “These are quick 1 to 2 minute sketches using a stylus and tablet with a laptop, with the drawing program Adobe Illustrator.” All sketches were done at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Vancouver, Canada as part of the Salon Series, all are © Keith Martin, 2010.

Vienna, Austria

Once in a while you come across an image that just smacks you on the cheek… like these flavour-saturated compositions by Staudinger+Franke, a team of photographers and artists, created for the TMW London advertising campaign for Lipton Tea.

(found on designtaxi.com)

Dornach, Switzerland

This past week I had the pleasure of re-visiting a childhood haunt a few km from where I used to live… the Götheanum designed by Rudolf Steiner. While there, I picked up a reprint of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s colour-wheel graphic from his Farbenkreis (Theory of Colurs), written 200 years ago.

Should your glance on mornings lovely
Lift to drink the heaven’s blue
Or when sun, veiled by sirocco,
Royal red sinks out of view—
Give to Nature praise and honor.
Blithe of heart and sound of eye,
Knowing for the world of colour
Where its broad foundations lie.

—Goethe

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During the “Bush era” I posted (and sometimes included in lectures I gave) “re-mixed” propaganda posters by Micah Wright. In his own words, “I shut down the Propaganda Poster Project when Obama got elected… I stupidly thought that (a) everyone had finally woken up, and that (b) Obama was sincere about ending Bush’s war/illegal renditions/closing Gitmo/helping the Middle Class, etc. Sadly, the last two years have simply proven that I have to be just as vocal with my elected Democrats to keep their asses in line as I was vocal against Bush & his ilk.”

View a whole new batch of re-mixed images (such as the one above) here.

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From designer colleague Miles Harrison (following an exchange of bon mots on the GDC Listserv last week), of course with a nod to René Magritte… sometimes a logo is not just a logo.

Montreal, Canada

An online gallery showing the worldwide contributions to Mother Tongue (a project of INDIGO, the International Indigenous Design Network) is now available for online viewing, (sorry, links disabled).

Manchester, UK

Learn Something Every Day is an ongoing, self-initiated daily project by design studio Young.

Boston, Massachusetts

This year’s William A. Dwiggins lecture, “Graphic Guts,” will be presented by friend Luba Lukova at six this evening at the Boston Public Library, Rabb Lecture Hall (free admission, presented by the Society of Printers and the Boston Public Library).

Lukova’s distinctive art utilizes metaphors, symbols and economy of line and text to succinctly capture humanity’s elemental themes. She employs accessible metaphors in a concise and iconic way, sometimes using humor to present disturbing issues. Social justice and consciousness have long been part of Lukova’s vocabulary in creating public images that invite social responsibility… her new book, Graphic Guts will be published in June 2011.

More about Luba and her great work here.