Visual Culture

MFA Interaction Design Fall Lectures: Matt Mullenweg from MFA Interaction Design on Vimeo.

The MFA Interactive Department at SVA brought in Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automatic to share his insights on design, entrepreneurship, and open source. It runs over an hour, but is worth it.

Good 50X70 is an international initiative that we at Visual Culture have been both participants and huge supporters of over the last three years. Recently, we’ve had the pleasure of dialoguing with Good 50X70 co-founders Tommaso Minnetti and Pasquale Volpe on how it all began, the evolution, and the knowledge gained within the journey.

VC: Congrats on your third year of Good 50X70. Could you share a few highlights with us?

TM: I’d say that one of the most interesting things we did this year was to organize 3 workshops with 3 of our jury members here in Milan. It has been truly great to see how much people we gathered for the event and I’m really proud we managed to do something that might be an important and meaningful experience in the future career of the students who participated.

From Woody Pirtle Workshop in Milan

VC: What began as an idea has evolved into a growing initiative to raise awareness on pressing issues our world faces. What sparked this concept and how did you make it happen?

TM: We just wanted to do something that gave us a good feeling while being effective for the client. We don’t despise professional work for commercial clients, it’s something you can’t avoid doing. A smart client who gives you some trust can bring a lot of satisfactions too, but there’s nothing like doing the job you like for causes that you can really believe in. (more…)

Barcelona based designer/illustrator who goes by the philosophy of “more is more” is one of VC’s favorites. His illustrative style is fluid, complex, original and simply amazing. Recently, Trochut along with 51 other leading designers channeled their talents to raise awareness on Tibetan human rights in association with the non-profit Designers Against Human Rights Abuse.

Check-out The Takeover’s interview here.

Thanks Jason

CranbrookDesign.com, an independent site created by alumni from the Cranbrook Academy of Art design departments, recently sat down with Jonathan Barnbrook. The dialogue is quite good and well worth 5 minutes of your time. We’ve included an excerpt below:

We are not perfect although we try very hard. we do have a definite policy about who we work with and if somebody wants to work with us we will check them out. There are quite a few companies that we have turned down but I think it is now at the stage that certain people would not be silly enough to ask us. Its important that designers make a stand and let companies know they are not completely mercenary. Often people will argue they can’t afford to turn down work, and I know its not a case of them being starving…so they are changing it to a black and white situation that does not exist….

To read the full interview, visit this.

Good 50X70 just released the first in a series of video interviews with one of their acclaimed jurors, Yossi Lemel. We’ve included the three interviews below for your perusal.

Yossi Lemel—How can communication help to resolve conflict?

Yossi Lemel interview – How can communication help to resolve conflict? from Good 50×70 on Vimeo.

Yossi Lemel interview—What’s a good example of a social poster?

Yossi Lemel interview – What’s a good example of social poster? from Good 50×70 on Vimeo.

Yossi Lemel interview—What does it take to design a good poster?

Yossi Lemel interview – What does is take to design a good poster? from Good 50×70 on Vimeo.

Thanks to fellow Visual Culturist Greg Paone for the heads-up!

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Call for Entries: Good 50X70
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Good 50X70 Catalog is Out. Get it While You Can
Missing the Point

Portfolio Center recently spoke with design master Stef Geissbuhler about his career, process, and the future of design. To read the interview in full, you know the deal.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your enormous design career?

“I learned that I don’t know anything; I thought I knew, but actually I don’t. Everything is a new thing. I like the idea that I am constantly learning new things through projects and clients–everything that comes at me is something I don’t know, and then I have to immerse myself.”

photo by Chryseis Golden

Part 1:

Part 2:

Sol Sender, reflects back and sheds lilght into the conception and birth of the Obama ’08 logo, including the strategy behind it, developmental concepts and finalist that were presented to the Obama camp. It’s over 13 minutes long, but well worth the time for anyone interested in the process of developing identites and and innovative brands.

The Los Angeles Earthquake: Get Ready project met with great success. In all there were over 5.4 million participants prepared to drop, cover, and hold on during this unprecedented effort. The Get Ready Rally was organized by Designmatters at Art Center along with government, private and public sector agencies to inspire Southern Californians to get ready for “The Big One.”

Designmatters co-founder Mariana Amatullo shared her unique perspective of this ambitious 3 year project and gave valuable insight into some of the challenging, yet inspiring experiences she gained in the process.

VC: Tell us a little about the energy at the L.A. Earthquake: Get Ready Rally.

MA: We designed “The Get Ready Rally“ as a high octane and immersive multimedia environment that was visually stunning and conveyed upbeat energy. Choosing a public space that could support our intent for a very impactful experience was key. Again, thanks to our partnerships with the City of Los Angeles (more…)

Design can be a powerful tool to inspire change, promote thought and raise awareness. We recently had the pleasure of speaking with acclaimed graphic designer and typographer Marian Bantjes. The recent AGI inductee provides insight into her recent poster series “Design Ignites Change” and gives with a glimpse of what is to come in 2009.

VC: What sparked “this change” you speak of 5 years ago to do more personal inspired work?

MB: I was just worn out by the daily grind of working in the regular model of graphic design, doing merely good work, running a studio etc. I was sick to death of it and wanted out. I desperately wanted to do something that was more connected to me, more artistic and personal. (more…)

We recently had the pleasure of chatting with Envirosax co-founder Mark David-Tooze. If you’re not familiar with their hip, eco-friendly bags, prepare to be informed. In addition, he gave us the inside scoop on their new line of bags called “Botanica” that will be available just in time for the holidays.

Brief History:

Belinda and Mark met in Tokyo, Japan in 1990 and were married in Cornwall, England in 1993, before settling in Australia. They now have three children, James 9, Luci 4 and Grace 3 and live in Currumbin Valley in South East Queensland. The idea for making eco-friendly bags came from a discussion had over a glass of wine in October 2004 after returning from a shopping trip. Belinda decided that the polypropylene green bags on offer at most supermarkets were dull and unfashionable and saw the need for a more fun, fashionable item that everybody would like to be seen with and at the same time still spread the message of reusable bags over cheap throwaway plastic bags.

VC: Your bags have a sustainable sensibility when it comes
to material, usage of water based inks, fair trade production. What are some of the challenges that you face to stay eco-friendly, while maintaining a healthy business?

E: The success and sales of our polyester graphics bags, even though they are made of a crude oil product have allowed us to expand our business very quickly and allowed us to experiment with a range of natural fibers like bamboo viscose, linen and hemp. We made a decision very early on to never go down the polypropylene path even though this would have been very profitable for us. We see the stronger more durable polyester envirosax bags as the new generation of reusable shopping bags. The whole point of a reusable bag is REUSE, so why make it out of a material that decays in the UV rays of the Sun has inferior tensile strength properties and rips easily as do the cheap polypropylene bags. (more…)