MANDELBROT- [O]

Arthur C. Clarke on the mathematics of fractals and beyond. [O]

-via Debbie Millman

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS QUESTIONNAIRE

Questionnaire to see where you stay in terms of your willingness to lie:



1. Design a package to look bigger on the shelf.

2. Design an ad for a slow, boring film to make it seem like a light-hearted comedy.

3. Design a crest for a Vineyard to suggest that it has been there, in business, for a long time.

4. Design a jacket for a book whose sexual content you find it personally repelling.

5. Design a medal using steel from 9/11 to be sold as a souvenir and make a profit out of the World Trade Center tragedy.

6. Design an Advertising campaign for a company with history of known discrimination in minority hiring.

7. Design a package for children whose contents you know are low in nutrition value and high in sugar content.

8. Design a line of T-shirts for a manufacturer that employs child labor.

9. Design a promotion for a diet product that you know doesn't work.

10. Design an Ad for a political candidate whose policies you believe would be harmful to the general public.

11. Design a brochure for a SUV that turned over frequently in emergency conditions and was known to have killed 150 people.

12. Design an Ad for a product whose frequent use could result in the user's death.


Milton Glaser - 2003

" Good Design is Good citizenship " Milton Glaser

" The designer should be professionally, culturally and socially responsible for the impact his/her design has on citizenry " Milton Glaser

NIKLAUS TROXLER

Niklaus Troxler retrospective at the Cooper Union Gallery.

COMPLETE WORKS HERE

STEFAN SAGMEISTER : YES, DESIGN CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY

Analyzing a list of things that have made him happy, graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister realized that almost half of the items were in some way related to design. In this intensely personal talk, he shares the details of some of those moments, and gives props to three artists whose work has had a positive impact on his world. Concluding with some examples of his own work, Sagmeister offers a real insight into his aesthetic and philosophy of work -- and life.

DESIGN CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY

STEFAN SAGMEISTER on the coutch with JOSHUA DAVIS

Josh and Stefan cover many topics that surround designers, including how they deal with the famous and their own fame, how to avoid boredom and stay fresh, things they have in common with eachother, how the public perceives their work and finally the artists that inspire their work.

PART 1 -
FAME AND FORTUNE

PART 2 -
STAYING FRESH

PART 3 -
THINGS IN COMMON

PART 4 -
CONTROVERSY AND PUBLIC PERCEPTION

PART 5 -
INSPIRATION AND THE ART SCENE

HILLMAN CURTIS DESIGNER SERIES

STEFAN SAGMEISTER



MILTON GLASER



PAULA SCHER



JAMES VICTORE



JOSHUA DAVIS interview while working on the Z4 BMW. A slice of his process.

PRE DNEFIED RAEINDG

The dssaminotin of wrods is a tset dnoe by the Cabmrgide istnitute taht no man aacutllay rdeas the wohle wrods, olny pratailly. Ipmotrant are olny the frsit and the lsat ltetrs of the atclual wrods.

Deos tihs hpaepn whit the vsuial lnugaege as wlel?

Is it psioslibe?

TIME TO THINK

FIRST THINGS FIRST MANIFESTO 2000 part3

Revisited Manifesto Emigre Nr.51 1999 by Rick Poynor

First things after 37 years

-----------------------------------

They

(
Jonathan Barnbrook
Nick Bell
Andrew Blauvelt
Hans Bockting
Irma Boom
Sheila Levrant de Bretteville
Max Bruinsma
Sian Cook
Linda van Deursen
Chris Dixon
William Drenttel
Gert Dumbar
Simon Esterson
Vince Frost
Ken Garland
Milton Glaser
Jessica Helfand
Steven Heller
Andrew Howard
Tibor Kalman
Jeffery Keedy
Zuzana Licko
Ellen Lupton
Katherine McCoy
Armand Mevis
J. Abbott Miller
Rick Poynor
Lucienne Roberts
Erik Spiekermann
Jan van Toorn
Teal Triggs
Rudy VanderLans
Bob Wilkinson )


signed this Manifesto.

FIRST THINGS FIRST MANIFESTO 29Nov1963 part2

We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, photographers and students who have been brought up in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable means of using our talents. We have been bombarded with publications devoted to this belief, applauding the work of those who have flogged their skill and imagination to sell such things as: Cat food, stomach powders, detergent, hair restorer, striped toothpaste, aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion, slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons, pull-ons, and slip-ons. By far the greatest time and effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.

In common with an increasing number of the general public, we have reached a saturation point at which the high pitched stream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise. We think that there are other things more worth using our skill and experience on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books and periodicals, catalogues, instructional manuals, industrial photography, educational aids, films, television features, scientific and industrial publications and all the other media through which we promote our trade, our education, our culture and our greater awareness of the world.

We do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer advertising: this is not feasible. Nor do we want to take any of the fun out of life. But we are proposing a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and lasting forms of communication. We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders, and that the prior call on our skills will be for worthwhile purposes. With this in mind, we propose to share our experience and opinions, and to make them available to colleagues, students and others who may be interested.

FIRST THINGS FIRST MANIFESTO 29Nov1963 part1

First things were said...

DAVID LYNCH INTERVIEW

part1

part2

part3

part4

part5

THERE ARE MANY WAYS OF BEING ALIVE BUT ONLY ONE OF BEING DEAD part2

2. ACTIVE INDEPENDENCE
The individual opens itself out to the world in order to maintain a far-form equilibrium steady state. The equations of the physics of the open systems and mathematics of communication explain how this is done. If the uncertainty of the environment increases, independence from this state can be maintained either by increasing the systems capacity to anticipate [better perception, better knowledge], or by increasing its ability to influence the immediate environment, i.e. through greater mobility [the ability to change the environment] or more technology [the ability to change the environment], as in the case of nests and dens.
If active independence fails and the fluctuations of the environment are so wild that it is impossible to maintain a steady state, there still remains the possibility of …
3. NEW INDEPENDENCE
This is achieved through the combination of certain individuals. Well-proven strategies include reproduction [especially sexual of course], symbiosis and other types of association. In this case, the equations are clear: an increase in the uncertainty of the environment requires an increase in the complexity of the system.

THERE ARE MANY WAYS OF BEING ALIVE BUT ONLY ONE OF BEING DEAD part1

A living individual is an object of this world that tends to conserve its own identity, independently from the fluctuations of the rest of the world [ENVIRONMENT]. And the environment does indeed change. ADAPTATION is the ability to understand the typical changes of the environment. INDEPENDENCE[or ADAPTATION] is the ability to withstand new changes. ADAPTATION referrs to the certainty of the environment, ADAPTABILITY to its uncertainty. They are not the same thing. We could even say that more of the former means less of the latter.
The uncertainty of the world is its greatest certainty. So if there is one question worth asking, it is this: HOW CAN ONE STAY ALIVE IN AN UNCERTAIN ENVIRONMENT? Perhaps the key to understanding biological evolution is not the concept of ADAPTATION but that of INDEPENDENCE. The idea is promising, because physics and mathematics, their laws and theorems, operate not in terms of adaptation but of independence.
There are three main families of alternatives, the first of which is…
1.PASSIVE INDEPENDENCE
The simplest and most banal way of being independent is to isolate oneself. This is when the boundary is impermeable to any change of matter, energy or information. It is the worst way of being independent, because in this case the stern second law of thermodynamics is irremediably applied and the system slips towards the only possible state, that of thermodynamic equilibrium, in other words, death. There are many ways of being alive, but only one of being dead. Nevertheless, life makes use of many good approximations to this alternative: latency, hibernation, resistant forms such as seeds, covering and simple growth [greater inertia]… The idea is to reduce activity or maintain simplicity, cross your fingers and wait for better times.

SVB for FWA

Sorina, Vita & Burger for FWA.