The 47th Precinct

I knew it was happening, just maybe not the extent of it: the meeting of Obama fever with the DIY design world.

I saw this smart Obama tshirt design this morning, thanks to kelly, promptly bought one, and then wondered if there were more.

Turns out there is lots more! 22 pages and counting…

a few things I am really tickled about this weekend:

1. just received my lines & shapes subscription (with the first three volumes), providing not only ample reading material, but hopefully a spur for 47!

2. lena corwin (a creator and contributor of lines and shapes) also just put out a book printing by hand. I am pretty excited about a few of the ideas that are nothing like things I have tried (ironing transfer paper to fabric in order to enable clean stencil/stipple printing! brilliant!), so hopefully I’ll have a few things to show before the weekend is out.

3. and on the topic of printing and pretty books, I also happened to spot lotta jansdotter’s (one of my favorite names of all time) print book lotta prints (nothing hooks me like a play on words) right next to ms. corwin’s and couldn’t resist it. a few years ago, steven’s sister was wrapping presents in homemade potato print paper, and it was just so lovely. this scrappy little book has a bunch of ideas in a similar vein, from leaf prints to simple screening techniques.

While working on the lens chipping process, my father showed me this article about the amazing work of Pascal Dangin. Retouching not being quite the right word for it, Dangin’s services are kept on-call by various A-list celebrities, whose photos will not go into a publication without Dangin’s subtle touch. An interesting intersection of creativity, art, and technology are woven into lush and uber life-like portrayals.

Here is an example:

I am intrigued by his take on digital photography in general (his lab has created a software package to imbue digital photography with a film-like sensibility): “I believe the way that digital photography is done today is so wrong,” Dangin said one day. “Photography as we knew it, meaning film and Kodak and all that, was a very subjective process. With film images you had emotions. You used to go out and buy film like Fuji, because it was more saturated, or you liked Agfa because it gave you a rounded color palette.” With a ten-dollar roll of film, he explained, you were essentially buying ten dollars’ worth of someone’s ideas. “Software, right now, is objective. ‘Let the user create whatever he wants.’ Which is great, but it doesn’t really produce good photography.”

One fun fact: somewhere in every picture, Dangin likes to sneak in something red.

Another: this article sparked a bit of a controversy over the Dove “Real Beauty” campaign — while staying true to the portrayals of “real women”, all of these images were aesthetically (and antithetically?) retouched by Dangin.

I now officially have an RIK-built “chipped” macro lens on my digital camera and my ttv experiment is progressing. Except for the burlap beach bag fragments that added a little extra weather to these shots, I am pretty excited at the results in bright sunshine. Next step is to build the box (which should help to protect from lens flare and glare) and make a trip to the New York State Fair!

while on the topic of imaginary forces, here’s a fun moment of syzygy:

1. I am watching “Long Weekend” (episode 10 of Mad Men)

2. I just finished posting the Paul Rand tribute video

and

3. I have a note here to post the Number 23 main titles

What do all these things have in common? Amazing work from Imaginary Forces. Also the folks behind the incredible Koppel on Discovery main sequences and the video displays at the MoMA.

Paul Rand : Thoughts on Design : a short with a plethora of Paul Rand’s work and words, brought to life in witty animation (and sassy beat) by Imaginary Forces. One important part of the Paul Rand philosophy: “Don’t try to be original, just be good.” This striving towards creation of work “with quality” is exemplified in the cornucopia of projects which, even broken down into fragments and still frames, bears a concentrated beauty.

the small stakes (aka jason munn) has a new graphics series for insound: 20 graphics for 20 bands on tshirts, sweatshirts, and limited edition posters.

grain edit has a nice little feature on the jose gonzalez concept, from sketch to finish:

although some of the old popstick crew have never forgiven me for the impulse moments of all girl summer fun band hopping (the place needed just a dash of girlyhood once in a while), I bet they will be thrilled to learn that the all girl summer fun band is back with their third album after a hiatus of five years.

I, for one, am counting down the days until september 23 when the album is released. perhaps I can pull at the family ties to get an early release album (the lovely and talented kim baxter is my cousin’s cousin!)?

one day I happened upon my friend johna’s flickr photosteam and noticed these incredible images. beautifully situated inside a curved frame, with some interesting artifacts and weathering, some soft focus around the edges: what are these images? turns out, it is a brilliant method: through the viewfinder photography! take an old press camera (mine is an argoflex 75, bought on eBay for $5), set up your digital camera to shoot through the viewfinder (some build a box, which I haven’t tried yet), and voila! plastic camera interesting images with great ambiance. I love it!

Building a little light box will help with the framing and hopefully holding the focus. I am really excited to try more of this!

(my pops gets pretty excited about camera related experiments. hence, he shot these images of my mom and I heading out on a little kayak adventure)

while on the topic of contests, I am belatedly challenging the precinct to the this american life tshirt contest. I may be submitting something very similar to my corelle plate concept. ha! or might try using this as inspiration for an impulsive photoshoot tomorrow while on a run on old route 10.

Here are the guidelines. You have one week!

Deadline: Midnight - Monday, July 28, 2008

Design Guidelines

• Your design can be inspired by This American Life in general, or maybe an iconic story or episode.
• Your design should include the words “This American Life.” Best not to have other words, though that’s not a hard and fast rule.
• The design could just be typographical in nature. So you type designers, go nuts.
• The shirt should be something that someone would want to wear even if they don’t know the show. In short, universally esthetically pleasing. Easy, right?
• It should be inspired by the TAL radio show, not the TV show.
• Do not include existing TAL logos. If you want to include a logo of your own design, great.
• We don’t normally use Ira’s image to promote the radio show. It’s not inconceivable that we would like a design with Ira in it, but honestly, it’s pretty unlikely.
• Your design can only be on the front of the shirt.
• You may submit up to three designs, but they must be submitted as separate entries.
• Your design must be wholly original. By submitting a design you are guaranteeing that you hold rights to everything in it, and that it does not contain any copyright material. This is really important. It will keep you from being sued.