London, UK

My friend Paul Derrick has submitted this poster to the 2011 Busan International Design Festival in Korea, in response to an invitation to contribute to the exhibition themed ‘Expression of Peace through Design’ that will show from 1 – 12 June at the Busan Design Center and the Busan Metropolitan City Hall. In Paul’s words, the poster is “a graphic representation of new and different perspectives needed to build steps towards peace and disarmament.”

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of re-connecting with Paul and his wife Cathy in Vilnius, Lithuania… we had become friends a few years back in Havana during the Icograda congress in Cuba.

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

Vilnius, Lithuania

I’ve spent the better part of the past week in Vilnius, capital city of the Baltic state of Lithuania (accompanied by Ev), as an invited speaker and active participant in the Spring: Icograda Design Week. Official activities included attendance of the Icograda Regional Meeting, delivery of a lecture entitle Welcome Change at the International Conference held at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, and acting as a presenter at the European Design Awards 2011.

Highlights of the week included numerous design exhibitions that ran in the old city (concurrent to the Design Week), meeting with old and new designer colleagues from some 20 different countries, and spending time in some excellent art galleries and historic cultural venues. A big thanks goes out to the organizers and to Gediminas Lasas and his colleagues at the Lithuanian Graphic Design Association in particular…

Photos (top three by Ines Subtil): participants of the Icograda Regional Meeting outside the Vilnius Academy of Arts; an on-stage group shot of all of the winners and presenters of the European Design Awards 2011; MTV hostess Ugne Skonsmanaite and I presenting a silver award to Beetroot Design Group from Greece for their packaging work “Konva;” Ev with some of the posters on exhibit at the conference venue.

Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air – explode softly – and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth – boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap, either – not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination.

—Robert Fulghum

.

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.

(No comment… more here.)

Thanks to friend Matt Warburton for the link.

Ottawa, Canada

(from a piece in CBC’s Arts & Entertainment)

…Canada Post has announced that a new stamp featuring the celebrated singer-songwriter will be issued on June 30 as part of the third instalment of its Canadian Recording Artists series. His stamp will join the previously announced stamps of Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Robbie Robertson and Ginette Reno.

“This is very exciting,” the Ottawa-born Cockburn said in a statement. The stamp’s design—a black and white image of him against a red background featuring titles of his hit songs—is “beautiful,” he added. Over the years, the folk-rock singer and activist has won multiple awards for his music, which includes hits such as The Coldest Night of the Year and If I Had a Rocket Launcher. His original songs have inspired covers by a wide range of artists—from Jimmy Buffett to the Barenaked Ladies.

He released his 31st album, Small Source of Comfort, in March and is currently touring the U.S.  Cockburn, who is also an officer of the Order of Canada and member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, is slated to publish his memoir in April 2012.

We were happy to have the honor of designing this latest set of stamps featuring Canadian singer/songwriters (at CIRCLE, our third such series)… look for more news and image releases in the weeks to come.

—Kahlil Gibran

Toronto, Canada

I gave my presentation at FITC Toronto 2011, the 10th-anniversary gig, earlier today… exploring “why” we do what we do, and “to what end.” My talk included a personal existential narrative (tracing back to the 16th-century Holy Roman Empire) wrapped in a “big-picture exposition” on the power of design to shape culture and influence our tomorrows. Thanks to Shawn Pucknell for bringing me back to FITC on this special occasion (my 8th time giving a talk at FITC I believe).

Thanks also to those in attendance for the positive comments and feedback following the session. As promised, anyone who was registered for this FITC event can contact me and I’ll send you a link to download a PDF version of the presentation.

—Francis of Assisi