Iain is Three

My best boy, my little prince, my creative muse and inspiration for all things turned 3 on Sunday. He didn't want a party and didn't want "people to come over to the house." So we had a quiet, lazy day of opening presents, re-hiding them in a box, and opening them again. In the early evening we went to the beach. I selfishly made my favorite cake: carrot with loads of cream cheese frosting. It was a perfect day. Thanks for being born, Iain.

Moving Type

My students are all abuzz about motion type animations on youtube. They are very cool: like little type studies that exist in time and space, set to a soundtrack. A student just showed me this today (and I love it):

Posh as Mulch

I am neither a very experienced, nor competent, gardener, but I like to read books by them. I also have an ongoing fantasy that my rather barren backyard houses a lovely potager overflowing with colorful chard, sweet sugar snap peas, and an array of fragrant herbs. Alas, my backyard contains no such thing, but I did work up the motivation to stick a few tomatoes and peppers in the ground. I've heard from serious gardeners that newspaper makes great mulch and, hey, what a wonderful form of recycling.

So when I planted my little tomatoes a few weeks ago, I had the serendipitous experience of using Posh as mulch. I love that Juergen Teller shot Victoria Beckham being devoured by a giant Marc Jacobs shopping bag. Truth be told, I don't always get Juergen Teller, but I certainly appreciate his twisted sense of humor on this one. Besides, Posh always looks so extreme and alien-like with that ironed bob and skeletal face, but one can't deny that the gal has great gams.

One Precocious Designer

Let me introduce you to an utterly charming young designer. His name is Ethan Bodnar, "graphic designer, author and entrepreneur." He is currently working on a project (Grab Bag Book) to be published by HOW Books in which artists will make visual contributions based on creative tasks selected at random and distributed by Mr. Bodnar. His belief and mission is: "To use creative thinking to change the world. To spread messages and share ideas through my life and work." What lovely thoughts.

Upon investigating his spiffy little website, I discovered that Ethan Bodnar is an 18-year old high school senior. Since I regularly come into contact with 18-year old designers in training, I was surprised at the level of professionalism and passion for design exhibited by this precocious young man. I hope that after four years of design school his optimism and zest for design remains intact. To learn more about Ethan, check out the Speak Up site.

Starbucks: Old vs. New Logo

For a short time only, Starbucks has returned to their original twin-tailed, Rubenesque mermaid logo. People are all whipped up into a cappuccino lather. Why depart from the ubiquitous green gal? Is the old logo drab and lifeless? What's up with the new-old gimmick? According to CEO Howard Schultz: “I think the logo’s going to be somewhat disruptive. . . .We want people to talk about it.”

My understanding about the development and re-design of the Starbucks logo is that it was simplified to remove the shocking parts: breasts (!), voluptuous flesh, unkempt siren's hair, and worst of all, that tail crotch (?!). I don't know; I find her quirky and appealing in that small, independent coffee shop with a hideous amateur logo kind of way. Let's just say that I don't frequent my favorite local coffee shop based on their identity, but on the artistry of their foam and caramel smoothness of their espresso shots.

Starbucks, I'm afraid you can never go back. You're a slick, corporate coffee giant. Better bring back the green gal before your loyal customers get confused.

Official Olympic Mascots 2008

I am totally non-athletic/non-sporty in any way, but I love love love the Olympics. Especially the Summer Olympics with all the bad-ass track stars and super sexy, super high-tech swimsuits. How excited am I for the academic quarter to end and the Olympics to begin—well, there are no words to describe it.

From a design standpoint, past Olympics serve as fantastic case studies in identity and icon design. Mexico 1968: a design classic. Barcelona 1992: Javier Mariscal's controversial Cobi, the Cubist Catalan sheepdog. Nogano 1998: that sweet and poetic Snowflower. London 2012: an absolute debacle.

I haven't had time to thoroughly investigate the Beijing graphics, but I did just discover the Official Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games: Beibei the Fish, Jingjing the Panda, Huanhuan the Olympic Flame, Yingying the Tibetan Antelope and Nini the Swallow. They are just lovable in the way that only Asian cuties can be.

As a side note, I feel that the Olympics should be free of politics and that protestors/boycotters are naive fools whose actions primarily harm the athletes who deserve to compete on the global stage. I was shocked to find that I agree with President Bush (or his handlers) who said that the U.S. would take a stance of "quiet diplomacy" rather than boycotting the Olympics' Opening Ceremony (sorry, Hillary, I'm not with you on this one). Eight years in is a little late for diplomacy, but hey, better late than never.

Stay tuned for a thorough analysis of the Beijing 2008 graphics.

Free Little Font

I just found this sweet little free font—Unibody—available for free download from Underwear. It's only intended to be used at 8pt., which makes it just right for captions or other applications where small text is appropriate. Thanks to the folks at i love typography for continuously finding cool, sometimes free, fonts.

MEGA Whole Foods in Pasadena—Sustainable?

For as long as I can remember, I have affectionately referred to Whole Foods as Whole Paycheck. There is something both extremely seductive, yet insidious about the Whole Foods experience. Look at us: we're beautiful, organic, polished to perfection, and totally dirt-free, cry the aesthetically arranged fruits and veggies. Come hither and partake in our naturally-derived botanical formulas, beckon the emollients and grooming products. We're bright-eyed, just plucked from the ocean and have never ever ever been frozen, coo the fish (even the fish in Chicago). Don't we have spiffy labels with lovely typography and a tasteful colour palette, whisper the 365 Organic® jars of marinara sauce. Buy us, buy us, buy us. Consume and feel good about it because you're shopping at Whole Foods. Well, heck, I just spent my Whole Paycheck.

Although, I rarely read the Sunday L.A. Times, I happened to pick up a copy today. In the Magazine, I came across an article on "The Green Giant," Pasadena's new flagship store. I must say, it sounds like even Whole Foods has outdone itself. According to Christopher Hawthorne:

The Whole Foods regional flagship in Pasadena, designed by the KTGY Group in Santa Monica, is an architectural monument to this idea. Along with the Ecolution hemp shopping bags for $7.49 and the "Certified Organic" cotton candy near the checkout aisle, the store has a salsa bar, a coffee bar, a nut bar, a noodle bar, a tapas bar with 20 wines by the glass, a soup bar, a pudding bar and a charcuterie. And a chocolate fountain. . . .

On the Sunday I visited, a group was settling down in the center of the second floor, just behind the pizza oven and not far from the roast-beef carving station, for a full-blown Champagne brunch. TVs hang everywhere so you can watch PGA golf (that's what was on when I was there) while you pick out fair-trade roses from Ecuador.

Evidently, this store is quite large (as it would have to be to house all of the above), yet somehow, with its sustainable building materials, it's supposed to be ecologically responsible. Hmm, I can envision this store's customer purchasing the brand new H-Green Hybrid Hummer. Thank you very much, but I'll continue to buy my just harvested, dirt-speckled Tuscan kale at the local farmer's market.

Designers Get Green in San Diego

Last weekend, we packed up the Prius and traveled down to San Diego for the 13th annual Y-Conference. This year's theme was Seeds of Change and tackled issues of sustainability in both design and life. I adore this conference, because the quality of speakers is consistently top notch (of course, there are always a few duds, but this is impossible to avoid), the San Diego chapter of the AIGA is eclectic (designers seem authentic and wear colors other than black) and totally non-snooty, the University of San Diego is a lovely location, the weather is glorious in late March, and the conference is very affordable by AIGA standards. I was so excited when I learned about the theme of Y-13 and couldn't wait to bask in the eco-love.

And I was not disappointed. Robert Noble, of Envision Solar is now my hero. For years I've been ranting about parking lots in SoCal and all that sun that could be generating energy. Well, Mr. Noble is covering those God-forsaken, hotter than hell, gigante mall parking lots with Solar Groves™. What a poetic name for and beautiful incarnation of green design at its best. This is just one of Mr. Noble's many innovative and progressive projects; the man is a true visionary and all around cool guy.

Another super duper inspiring speaker was Brian Dougherty of Celery Design Collective, based in Berkeley. Not only does Celery Design create beautiful work, but it is also eco-innovative, big time. They even created a free online ecological guide to paper to help designers make sense of PCW, ECF, PCF, TCF, FSC, etc. Holy cow, paper specing in more complicated than ever. Thank you Brian for proving that a fabulous printed piece doesn't have to include a matte varnish, a gloss varnish, a double hit of florescent ink, foil stamping, tip-ins, and full bleed images. In my view, any designer who does not at least consider issues of sustainability in their work is, well, a moron.

I have only one negative comment about the conference and that is: Organic ToGo sucks. And it sucks on a number of levels. First, the food lacks, well, flavour. Second, every single item is packaged in plastic. Third, and most horrific: BAGGED SLICED APPLES! Now, I am not a proponent of all caps or the exclamation point, for that matter, but the very core of my being is offended by bagged sliced apples. Apples: perfected packed by Mother Nature. Slicing apples drastically reduces their shelf life and necessitates the use of some form of preservative (usually asorbic acid). So instead of biting into a delicious, crisp organic apple, I had to suffer through soggy slices with a faint hint of what can only be described as chewable vitamin C taste: chalky and faux citrusy. The organizers of the conference actually apologized for the food and mentioned that they had hoped to avoid totally plastic-encased lunches. Oh well, these things happen.

All in all, Y-13 was educational, eye-opening, at times mind blowing, and very inspiring. Nice work AIGA San Diego: you guys and gals deserve a big meyer lemon martini for your efforts.