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Cartoon by Bruce Mckinnon for the Chronicle-Herald (Halifax, Canada); thanks to friend Keith Leinweber for the link.

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As a child, I was raised and imbued with fundamental Christianity (which I’m more than a little ashamed to admit at times like this—though thankfully my parents’ and their community’s focus was primarily on love, compassion, tolerance, and nonviolence). The fanatical antics of Floridian pastor Terry Jones are right up there with the “crusade(r) mentality” of Christendom that has long since driven me to discard all but the most basic tenets of faith.

Randburg, South Africa

You do know about DESIGN> MAGAZINE, right?

You don’t!? DESIGN> is a free subscription information platform “where the worlds of creativity, innovation, knowledge, technology and business converge.” It seeks to engage designers from all disciplines, inspiring the design-conscious and the design-curious throughout Africa… and beyond.

DESIGN>’s editorial content is rich and diverse and covers a broad scope including the fields of advertising, architecture, the built environment, cinematography, communication design, construction, exhibitions, fashion and apparel, industrial design, interior design, intellectual property, jewelery, packaging, paper, production design, retail and technology. It also explores “contemporary meta-disciplinary convergences within the fields of arts & crafts, design promotion, education, popular culture and business, among others—so that it appeals to a wide cross section of readers.”

Check out the latest issue online, here. The images above are posters by designer Harry Pierce, from a feature article about his work, values, and process in the current issue (#17).

(Congrats to good friend [and former Icograda board colleague] Jacques Lange, DESIGN>’s Group Editor).

Toronto, Canada

An essay I compiled for Applied Arts Magazine (pulling from various articles I’ve penned over the past years) appears in the current issue (Vol. 25, No. 4, October 2010) with the following pull-quote featured on the cover…

“NEED is the father of thought. I would like to think that designing and dreaming have traveled in lockstep since our species began to walk upright… Graphic design ignites passion, identifies, informs, clarifies, inspires, and enables communication… Design shapes culture and it influences societal values.”

Read or download the whole essay here (384 KB PDF).

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Thanks Gregor—you know I like these… actually static optical illusions that only appear to be animations—fix your eyes on one part of the above image for a moment and the almonds stop moving… cool, eh?

(original image source unknown)

Banff, Alberta

I’ve just returned from my annual holiday sortie to the Rockies, a first with my “new” 1988 VW Westfalia Camper Bettie Blue (which I bought a year ago from her original owner—who I met by chance at Lake Louise). For her part, Bettie Blue performed beautifully (aside from one blown coolant hose that I was able to fix en route) traversing the 3300 km return trip across the prairies in style and comfort.

The weather, unfortunately, crapped out a mere two days after I arrived in the mountains this year (always a risk in late August)—a whiteout on my first summit sortie, snowfall well below the treeline, freezing overnight temperatures in the valleys, and an extended forecast for cold precipitation conspired to push me back eastward earlier than planned—though this did allow me to make it back to Manitoba in time to assist Ev during the past days with The Wave Artists Studio Tour.

Photo: Bettie Blue posed in front of Cascade Mountain on Tunnel Mountain Drive above The Banff Centre (just before the weather turned nasty).

Washington, United States

The By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 collection consists of 908 boldly colored and graphically diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal (WPA = Works Progress Administration). Of the 2,000 WPA posters known to exist, the Library of Congress’s collection of more than 900 is the largest. These striking silkscreen, lithograph, and woodcut posters were designed to publicize health and safety programs; cultural programs including art exhibitions, theatrical, and musical performances; travel and tourism; educational programs; and community activities in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. (The posters were made possible by one of the first U.S. Government programs to support the arts and were added to the Library’s holdings in the 1940s).

View the WPA poster collection here.

Thanks to Phred Martin for the link.

Prague, Czech Republic

By dent of having an interest in vintage graphics and ephemera, I hear from a fair number of folks around the globe who are really into retro stuff from yesteryear… to wit, the persistent Boris Adamicko from Prague, who would really love to sell you some of his (admittedly impressive) label collection. You can contact him directly at badamicko[a]upcmail.cz

Bonne chance, Boris.

WTF?

Stare at the “+” sign in the middle of the square above for a little while. You will see a green dot circling between the pink dots… pretty cool, eh? Keep looking at the “+” sign for a while longer… the pink dots eventually disappear. (Cool becomes freaky).

I’m somewhat of a fan of whacky visual phenomena (witness past posts such as this, this, and this). Though I have encountered the above example before, I stumbled across it again today on Eric Karjaluoto’s fine blog, here. (There is a Wikipedia entry that attempts to explain: Lilac Chaser).

Wichita, Kansas

Dominic Flask has created an interesting online collection of graphic design history: Design is History, developed as part of his graduate thesis at Fort Hays State University.

(Does the fact that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting or associating with many of the designers whose work is featured on this site make me historic? No—don’t answer that). Thanks to Martyn Schmoll for the link.