Taipei, Taiwan

My good friend Professor Apex Lin (distinguished designer and educator) is currently publishing a book entitled “設計論語” about “designers’ definitions of design.”

Shown above are a few of the pages I’m submitting—my views on the role design can play re: a better future; a proposal for how a simple, proactive reshuffling of the norm can “raise the bar” as regards ascendant creativity; and a depiction of visualization in relation to the role individual Weltanschauung plays in the conveyance of visual communication (the latter is a re-work of an invitational poster I first created for the GDC@50 celebrations with the statement: Design is the application of intent. Graphic design targets the eye, and ultimately the mind’s eye, of both the individual beholder and the broader audience. Strategy, concept, message, and visual vocabulary connect sender and receiver by means of graphic acuity and attraction… you see?”).

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

It’s been a busy art weekend, helping Ev prepare for the upcoming 8th WAVE Artists Studio Tour this next weekend (13/14 June and then again on 5/6 September)—essentially a self-guided tour of artists’ studios and galleries along the western shores of Lake Winnipeg. We were able to put the finishing touches on several sculptural pieces, including Many more of us live next door… (shown above), our first truly collaborative sculptural work, which went to the Fishfly Gallery yesterday. Ev is hoping this piece might also be cathartic—she’s had the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine song stuck in her head since she first heard it as a young teen some 40 years ago (this ‘song in the head’ is the conceptual premise for this particular sculpture).

Falcon Lake, Manitoba

Word just in from “my muddy little half-brother” John Paul, who it seems is getting faster with age… he just finished in 2nd place(!) in the latest Manitoba Cup race at Falcon Ridge Ski Resort—the only one to beat him in the ‘Expert Men’ category was Paul Benson, who races at the Elite/Nationals level. Congratulations!

When he’s not on his mountain bike or chasing after his hyperactive kids, JP can be found at the controls of Private Ear, a new recording studio in Winnipeg where he is an audio engineer and partner (producing albums for the likes of The Waking Eyes).

(that’s my wee bro with the determined look on his face, number 303…)

Winnipeg, Canada

Geez Issue No. 15—Gullibility

We’re bombarded with a non-stop, high-gloss, soul-numbing onslaught of messages. Many of these messages, whether in word or image, aim to connive, cajole or coerce us. How do we cut through the crap, analyze the agendas and keep from being suckered?

This issue of Geez will consider how to navigate the info-saturated world. How can Geez help readers become a community of resistance against the media-driven, consumer-oriented messaging madness? Help us with analysis and avenues for change. We’re looking for:

•  your deconstruction of imagery used in ads, brochures, fundraising letters, news reports, or elsewhere;

•  your ad jams;

•  your exploration of the particular uses of images in churches, monastic communities and other religio-spiritual settings;

•  your images that illustrate your own efforts to talk back to the noise, jam the message machinery, subvert media agendas or escape the mental clutter.

Deadline: June 25, 2009

Pay: We offer a modest honorarium for published material.

Files: Please send small files or links to online galleries.

Unfortunately we are not able to respond to every pitch. If you do not hear from us within six weeks of the deadline, assume we were not able to use your idea or article. Send emails to: stories[at]geezmagazine.org  Send regular mail to: Gullibility Issue, Geez magazine, 400 Edmonton St., Winnipeg MB  R3B 2M2, Canada.

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

Yesterday evening I had the chance to install the Fishfly Weathervane I built a few weeks back… it’s now swiveling atop the Fishfly Gallery (where Ev exhibits some of her ceramic works). About two meters in overall length, the assemblage piece incorporates a variety of found junk and old objects—the body is a piece of driftwood decorated with brass strips from a hideous old wall clock, the large wing is cut from an old steel snow shovel, the two smaller wings are halves of a hammered brass plate, the head is a copper bowl (with drilled looney-coin eyes), antennae are the ends of two fishing rods, legs consist of old bits of rusted pliers and a rod handle, the hollow aluminum tail strands are from Ev’s old TV antennae (she tossed her set out years ago). The gleaming beast straddles an old railing banister tipped with a wood-fired ceramic arrowhead, and the swivel mount re-purposes an old roller-skate wheel (with nice friction-free bearings).

A number of people have already expressed interest in other commissioned weathervanes… time will tell where this may lead.

Vancouver, Canada

Eric Karjaluoto is a design-focused thinker and a very good writer—he’s also a talented and award-winning designer, ‘serial entrepreneur’, and a founding partner at smashLAB, a strategic interactive agency. Many in our field know him for the Design Can Change initiative he spearheaded in 2007 in an effort to unite designers to address climate change. A piece posted by Eric yesterday on his popular blog ideasonideas is well worth the read, here…

“The invasion of design has begun, fueled by an army of talented newcomers and low-cost offshore services. This new breed trades methodology for mimicry and by doing so radically undercuts pricing, sometimes even working for free. Like it or not, supply and demand in the design industry is undergoing upheaval. Worse yet, for design buyers it’s getting harder to differentiate between good and bad design.” (full article here)

Thanks for sharing your intelligent views, and keep up the good work Eric!

Steinbach, Manitoba

My uncle Jacob Jacob Peters (shown above with his bride Margaret Klassen in August 1949) was born 100 years ago today in Russia, at the height of the Bolshevik revolution. ‘Uncle Jake’ passed on September 18th, 1979… time sure does fly.

(Thanks to cousin Herbert J. Peters [Uncle Jake’s oldest son], a lawyer at Aikins, MacAulay & Thorvaldson LLP, for the heads-up and some old photos; thanks to my brother Jim for the scanned wedding photo).

Worldwide…

The 27th of April is celebrated around the world every year as World Graphics Day (gatherings by designers, exhibitions, etc.)—it marks the birth date of the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda) in 1963, and it provides an opportunity to recognize communication design and the role our profession plays in today’s world. World Graphics Day was officially inaugurated in 1995 to help further Icograda’s goal of “contributing to greater understanding between people, and helping to build bridges where divides and inequities exist.”

Peace; poster designed in 1985 by venerable Canadian designers Chris Yaneff and Manfred Gotthans, and described by Chris as follows: “We designed the ‘Peace’ poster for the exhibition Images for Survival for the Shoshin Society, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. 135 poster designs were selected by leading Graphic Designers in North America and Japan. The joint exhibition of American and Japanese peace posters was shown first at the Hiroshima Museum of Modern Art and then later in Nagasaki Japan, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Ottawa Canada, Paris, and Moscow. The inspiration for the poster came from a photo my son took while in Nagasaki, Japan, where North American tourists are often greeted with a peace sign by the local young children, as Nagasaki was the target of the second atomic bomb. My associate Manfred Gotthans felt that children showing the peace sign might make an adorable travel poster, but wouldn’t drive home the fatal consequences if mankind doesn’t heed the plea for peace and nuclear disarmament. This is why we used a skeleton (an actual skeleton was photographed for the poster); we felt the poster needs no words. The message is a serious reminder and is comprehensible in any language.”

Kootenay National Park, British Columbia

Just three weeks ago I posted about the beautiful Fay Hut designed by my good friend Simon Statkewich (featured on the cover of last month’s Cottage magazine) and re-built with thousands of hours of volunteer effort after a forest fire took the original structure with it in 2003. Today I received the sad news that a group of alpine skiers discovered the hut burned to the ground on Saturday, two days after a previous group departed (they have “assured us that the fire was extinguished, as were all propane appliances before they left the hut” according to an ACC e-mail I received)—the pristinely located hut was “self-insured” by the Club… so it remains to be seen whether it will again arise from the ashes. My feelings go out to you Simon…

Around the world, and all across Canada…

Saturday April 4th is a global day of action against war. The date coincides with the 60th anniversary NATO summit in Strasbourg and is also the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous 1967 Beyond Vietnam speech at the Riverside Church in New York. The Canadian Peace Alliance and the Collectif Échec à la guerre are calling for pan-Canadian demonstrations on Saturday to demand an end to the NATO-led war.

(thanks Grace Warkentin, via cousin Boyd Reimer)