Portland, Oregon

I’ve seen a number of these memetic cartoon character depictions in the past and finally stumbled across the source—Michael Paulus. View the rest on his website here. Following is what Michael says about his “character study” of 22 present and past cartoon characters…

Animation was the format of choice for children’s television in the 1960s, a decade in which children’s programming became almost entirely animated. Growing up in that period, I tended to take for granted the distortions and strange bodies of these entities. These Icons are usually grotesquely distorted from the human form from which they derive.

I decided to take a select few of these popular characters and render their skeletal systems as I imagine they might resemble if one truly had eye sockets half the size of its head, or fingerless-hands, or feet comprising 60% of its body mass.

These characters have become conventions that are set, defined, and well-known personas in our culture. Being that they are so commonplace and accepted as existing I thought I would dissect them like science does to all living objects—trying to come to an understanding as to their origins and true physiological make up. Possibly to better understand them and see them in a new light for what they are in the most basic of terms.

New York, New York

A type specimen page (c. 1900) from the Schelter & Giesecke foundry of Leipzig, by way of the blog by the lads at H&FJ—where (if so inclined) one can revel in typographic nerdiness until the cows come home…

Vancouver, BC

You’ve been struggling with your marketing for years. Every time you take on a new initiative you hope for it to make a difference, but somehow you’re left back at square one. Although you have a new website or piece of collateral it hardly ever seems to make a difference. Where’s the disconnect? I suspect it’s in your story and the value you put on it.

“Young, progressive, out of the box”

A few weeks ago we met with a company that was having exactly this problem. They’re a respectable law firm whose website just didn’t seem to be doing what it needed to. They particularly liked a website that we had crafted for another firm, and decided that they should get in touch with us.

The meeting went swimmingly. They were all pleasant and had a lovely office space. They explained to us that they were quite different from other law firms, and that while others were rather boring and stodgy, they are in fact much younger, more progressive, and “out of the box” thinkers*. They didn’t think this came across in their current materials, and were highly dissatisfied with their existing website. They felt that if we built a site for them like the one we built for their competitor, it would remedy this problem…

[Read the rest of Eric Karjaluoto’s well written piece on ideasonideas here].

Madrid, Spain

Touted in the media as “Madrid’s Banksy,” the artist SpY’s work primarily consists of “the playful re-appropriation of urban elements that he replicates or transforms” as street art installations. His underlying attempt is to “break the automaton-like inertia of the urban dweller” by means of surprise, irony, and humour. Lots more here…

Images, from top: Cow; Lazyman’s Rubic Cube (available in six colours); Street Wars; Gardening. (Thanks to Raquel Rivera [who I recently met at OFFF 2009 Oieras] for the introduction to SpY).

(Thanks David Ronnie… via Swissmiss).

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

The last few days have been a blur of activity, helping Ev prepare for the 8th WAVE Artists Studio Tour. More than 130 visitors dropped by for a studio visit, and it was good to receive feedback on the figurative sculptures and other works Ev and I have collaborated on since last summer. Read more information about the event at What? Clay Art & Curios—there’s another chance to take in the self-guided WAVE tour on the September long weekend (5 & 6 September 2009)…

Images above: a tired Ev poses with Wallflower after the tour ended last night; the outdoor display of Uncultured Enigmas proved to be popular with visitors once again; the wall-mounted sculpture Darwin’s Creation (Enigmas offer clues to missing links, in honour of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday this year); and Peer Pressure, Ev’s social commentary re: failing corporatism and the workaholics who drive themselves down along with sinking enterprise.

Wherever…

A nice collection of quirky signs from around the globe here, submitted by readers of the UK’s Telegraph… a sampling above from Paris, the UK, India, USA, and South Africa.

(thanks to Gerald Brandt for the link)

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?”).

(all discovered via today and tomorrow; e.g. here...)

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).