Robert L. Peters

8 September 2008

Design Journeys, recognizing pioneers…

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Boston, Massachusetts

The “Design Journeys” project celebrates the stories and work of diverse designers and educators through online galleries and biographical essays, a special collection in the AIGA Design Archives and a traveling exhibition in 2009. The first seven featured designers’ entries have been published… see how the histories and work of these designers can inspire the next generation of young people from all backgrounds to consider design as a viable and rewarding career… view the Journeys here.

Images: three works by Chaz Maviyane-Davies (from top): Poster on the plight of Palestinian people, Self/Iraq Cultural Centre, 1980; Poster to commemorate the 100th year of the death of Toulouse Lautrec, Salon des Cent, France, 2001; Poster on AIDS awareness, Centre of Design of Rosario, Argentina, 2007.


7 September 2008

Harvest time…

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Ste. Anne, Manitoba

With flights of geese honking overhead and overnight temperatures dipping into the single digits, it seems summer is rapidly drawing to a close here in Eastern Manitoba. This weekend was a (long-overdue) time of outdoor catch-up at my place in the woods… mowing the meadow (first time this year), cutting firewood, re-potting dozens of houseplants (thanks, Ev!) and harvesting what remained of several varieties of crab apples (deer have a remarkable reach when standing up on their rear legs—the ‘low-hanging fruit’ was all but gone).

Next up, apple jelly… mmmm.


5 September 2008

Ever greener…

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Stege, Denmark

Morten Flyverbom’s “Green Beetle” at Louisiana… inspiring!


2 September 2008

New Zealand… living on the edge.

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Auckland, New Zealand

The September/October 2008 (#363 Interactive Annual) issue of Communication Arts magazine contains a feature article entitled “Living on the Edge: Visual Communication Design in New Zealand” written by Circle’s principal, Robert L. Peters. The in-depth piece investigates New Zealand’s unique attributes, history, culture, and current realities in relation to visual communication—the feature is accompanied by a selection of contemporary works by Kiwi designers drawn in large part from recent winners of DINZ awards shows (Designers Institute of New Zealand).

Peters visited New Zealand in late 2007, touring design offices in Auckland and Wellington (in conjunction with DINZ lectures in both cities) and acting as an external moderator for students graduating from the Wanganui School of Design. He has been contributing foreign feature articles to Communication Arts magazine since 1994, including pieces on design and design events in Russia, Portugal, Uruguay, Australia, Korea, Japan, Brazil, China, Denmark, and Cuba. Copies of CA issue #363 are available at book stores and major news outlets around the world and may be purchased online from the Communication Arts website.

“To foreigners, New Zealand is an exotically bucolic, clean green land of extraordinary natural beauty—a pristine playground-destination for thrill-seekers, and a place apart from the rest of the world—a view effectively reinforced by the tourism slogan “100% Pure New Zealand.”

To the country’s quietly self-reliant inhabitants, New Zealand offers a peaceful, friendly, egalitarian and multi-cultural haven for individualists who find themselves surrounded by a moat known as the Pacific Ocean. Blessed with a temperate climate, the island nation enjoys a relaxed lifestyle imbued with a love of the outdoors and the waters surrounding it, and an enviable quality of life.

Less known abroad (under the radar, some might quip) is the wellspring of talent, innovation and design prowess emerging from the NZ creative community—it’s at the forefront of this wave that the candidly fresh and vibrant vernacular of New Zealand’s visual communication design finds itself…”

Read more of the article (with full creative credits for works shown) or download the entire CA New Zealand design feature here (1.2 MB).

Note: this feature article from the Communication Arts magazine September/October 2008 Interactive Annual appears with permission from Communication Arts ©2008 Coyne & Blanchard, Inc. All rights reserved.


29 August 2008

A kick-ass web conference…

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Brighton, United Kingdom

I’ve been asked to be a speaker at the <head> web conference, a unique new type of event that is global, green… and online. Here’s the skinny… “<head> is a web conference that brings together some of the most interesting and exciting developers, designers, creatives, and thought leaders from around the web to share with you their passions and expertise. The sessions cover a wide range of timely topics including web standards, accessibility, web application development, Flash, Flex, and scalability.

The premise for <head> is simple: instead of making you come to the web conference, let’s make the web conference come to you. <head> is a web conference with all of the traditional elements. We have live speakers, presentations, question and answer sections, and networking opportunities. The twist is that the conference takes place everywhere—all over the world—and at real-world gatherings called local conference hubs. And we use the Internet to tie it all together.

<head> is an environmentally-friendly web conference. We save on thousands of flights and the resulting carbon emissions by having speakers and attendees interact with the conference locally.

We have not lost sight of the key aspects that we love about conferences: the social interactions, the conversations, the sense of community, the exchange of knowledge, and the forging of new friendships and opportunities. We are building these into our online community where attendees and non-attendees alike can interact before, during, and after the conference.

Attendees and speakers can participate in the conference from the comfort of their own homes or surrounded by others at local conference hubs around the world. Local conference hubs are real-world, local gatherings supported by local venue sponsors (like Yahoo! in London, and the BBC in Manchester) and local community groups such as Adobe User Groups. Local conference hubs make the conference truly global in scope and inject it with the real-world social element that is so crucial to a successful conference.

<head> is delivered live, over the Internet, using a custom conference application built with Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server (FMIS), Adobe Flex, and Adobe Flash technologies. Courtesy of our Platinum Sponsor and Technology Partner, Influxis, we have a rock-solid cluster of FMIS instances that is capable of supporting 10,000 simultaneous connections during the connection.”


27 August 2008

What? the WAVE, and greeting cards…

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Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

We’ve been busy the past few days preparing for the second round of this summer’s 7th Wave Artists’ Studio Tour, which culminates on this Labour Day weekend (Saturday and Sunday) when “the public is invited to tour the studios and participating artists of the Interlake… essentially a self-guided tour enabling visitors to speak with the artists and view their work in very picturesque locations.” Ev’s one of the participating artists who will be flying a distinctive blue-and-white Wave flag outside her studio in Winnipeg Beach.

“North of Winnipeg, take the scenic route through cottage country along Lake Winnipeg’s western shore, experience the vastness of Netley Creek and Oak Hammock Marshes, leave the beaten path for charming country lanes, and take a trip inland to Stonewall. Cover the whole tour in a round trip loop, or make it a day or a weekend adventure. Great restaurants, picnic sites, sandy beaches, a refreshing dip, inspiring historic sites, first class accommodations, and of course, an art experience close up and personal!”

Images: three of the 25 “What?” greeting-card designs that will debut at Evelin Richter’s studio on the weekend (ranging from nonsensical and cheeky to puzzlingly contemplative…).


25 August 2008

350…

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(from the good folks at Free Range Studios)

“What’s it going to take to stop climate chaos? Well, global warming guru Bill McKibben has a simple answer: 350. That’s the parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere that scientists now believe is safe. And it’s the number we have to achieve.”


Meeting the Walrus…

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(from SwissMiss; thanks Adrian)

“In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message.”

Enjoy the moment… here and get the back-story here.


24 August 2008

Special Defects

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Eindhoven, the Netherlands

Check out the “personal experimental project and digital playground” of Antonio Costa at specialdefects.com (and preview a work-in-progress piece inspired by the work of Chris Jordan entitled Running the Numbers). I had the pleasure of meeting the multi-talented architect/interaction designer/podcaster at FITC Amsterdam earlier this year—Antonio’s just informed me that he’ll be tutoring at the prestigious Academy of Design in the University of Eindhoven this coming semester… best wishes!


21 August 2008

Manhua with (an anti-imperialist) twist…

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Beijing, China

Check out Ethan Persoff’s GALLERY OF 35 ANTI-U.S. CHINESE POLITICAL CARTOONS (circa 1958-1960). “Culled and restored from reviewing hundreds of Eastern newspaper pages and illustrations, this set of 35 images represents what we consider the best late 50s editorial cartoons (Manhua) from China and Indochina. Set during a time of escalating western imperialism, these images react against U.S. military actions in Laos and Vietnam, and represent a unique moment of political commentary. It seems to be a hidden history, too.” Most of these comics have never before been re-published, and even fewer have ever been exhibited or documented… a real find for fans of period propaganda art.


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