The Morning After
I took this picture yesterday morning on my way out the door to work. Sometimes I forget how awesome my apartment is. Anyway, I shared it with Philebrity and they shared it with the rest of Philly, so I’m happy.
Back in Action – Mad Screen Printing Skillz
So, obviously I haven’t posted in a while. Mostly because I haven’t had much to write about. I’ve been working very hard at Electronic Ink which has been a ton of fun. Last year one of my coworkers took a screen printing class at the University of the Arts, only a few blocks down Broad Street from our office. He made it sound really fun, and my interested was piqued enough that I signed up for the class which met once a week for 12 weeks and ended early in December.
Honestly, I’ve been wanting to do some illustration work for some time but I haven’t been able to motivate myself and I was hoping that dealing with assignments for a class would force it out of me. Also, I was excited to get back into a classroom and learn about a process that I’ve always been a little interested in.
On the first day I knew that it was going to be a great experience. There were only four students, including me, and our teacher, Greg Pizzoli, was really enthusiastic. It was clear from he start that Greg is very passionate about screen printing. The process, the materials, illustration, Greg definitely knew what he was doing and seemed excited to teach his craft to the four of us novices.
Greg Pizzoli and our first poster crit
I learned the most about screen printing during the second project. I was assigned to do a movie poster for “Return of the Jedi.” At first I was a little disappointed to get a movie that carried so much baggage. Although it was the end of the first trilogy, in my opinion, it was the worst of the three movies but, Greg was adamant that we not be able to change our assigned movie.
My first few ideas were nothing special, in fact, they were pretty cheesy. I was talking about the project over a beer with a friend of mine and he mentioned how much he hated the Ewoks and would love to see a poster of the Ewoks getting their asses kicked by The Empire. So, obviously I had to sketch that out. As pleasing as it was to sketch that idea, I felt like it might not hold up as a poster. Then, doodling during a meeting at work, I came up with the whole “playing card” idea. It felt comfortable right from the start: good vs. evil, light side of the force vs. the dark side, father vs. son. I moved from sketch to illustrator very quickly and I spent nearly twice as long refining the drawing than I expected.
Ewok sketches
First playing card sketches
Luke and Darth Vader sketch
The first two layers of printing (the blond color, then the green-to-red split fountain) went pretty smoothly. The final black layer gave me many problems. My image had areas with lots of flat black as well as extremely thin lines that caused a lot of ink to build up underneath the screen. I spent a day wrestling with it before deciding to wait and let Dr. Pizzoli give me his advice. Together, we made a few adjustments and the next session of printing went much more smoothly.
Cleaning emulsion off of the screen
Final poster
For the third poster, I knew I wanted to try something with simpler shapes. A while ago I doodled this drawing of a single mountain with a “beard of clouds” in my sketchbook, and the image had been sitting in my head ever since. I saw this final poster as an opportunity to expand on this idea. After I drew the mountain range, I knew that was the image for the poster. The hardest part of this final poster was the registration. I printed the pink and blue layer first. I then used tracing paper to get the black layer exactly how I wanted it; however, the line was very thin and difficult to register on each print. As hard as it was to print, I was very happy with how it turned out.
Bearded Mountain sketches
Printing the pink mountains
Final "Bearded Mountains" poster
Screen printing was a ton of fun but I just don’t think that it’s for me. It’s a very time consuming process and as a beginner, it can be frustratingly imprecise. It forced me to think about layers and colors in ways that I hadn’t considered before. I have a completely new appreciation for the process and the style of images that screen printing produces. It really is a craft that needs to be refined with plenty of respect and practice. I may continue to create illustrations “in the style of” screen prints, but I don’t know if I’ll be wrist deep in emulsion any time soon.
If I ever miraculously develop musical talent…
…my bands’ album cover will elegantly combine typography and imagery. The end.
The Branding of The xx
The xx is a new band out of England who have absolutely exploded onto “the scene” this year. Their album, xx, has reached the top ten of numerous important-music-people’s “Best Albums of ’09″ lists. As awesome as their music is (listen to the track below) I’d rather talk about the band’s branding.
How amazing is that album cover?! So simple and effective. And once you’ve heard the record, it makes even more sense. It perfectly describes The xx’s stripped down, minimalist “dub step”(my friend Billy at coolthanks.net tore me a new one for calling The xx “dub step”) sound that exists somewhere between alternative rock and r&b. In an age when the physical artifact of an “album” is quickly disintegrating into our ever-shrinking, pixelated futures; this iconic album cover is equally effective as a 1″ by 1″ icon on my iPod as it is on an 18″ by 24″ gig poster.
Below are some examples of covers of The xx’s singles and remix albums. Each is an equally iconic extension of The xx’s brand. Even when they perform live, the table that holds the equipment of the band’s dj/drum machinist is fitted with two large white glowing x’s on a black background. The xx is a great example of how a strong brand can be used to create a truly enveloping experience for any product, be it an object or music.
Graphic Design in Comic Books
The most recent storyline of “The Invincible Iron Man” has been exciting, dramatic and, overall, very entertaining. The past few issues in the “Stark Disassembled” series really caught my attention with their fantastically designed covers by Salvador Larroca and Rian Hughes.
To put it simply, most comic book covers are garbage. The presence of “graphic design” is nearly non-existent. Much like a bad movie poster, most comic book covers simply feature the most dramatic image they can muster and try and involve as much “action” and “sex appeal” as they can fit (see below).
Salvador Larroca and Rian Hughes‘ covers for this story arc of The Invincible Iron Man really add a sense of traditional simplicity and taste to the genre. I love the lack of center-aligned text, the use of horizontal rules, the simple geometry, and the modest use of black sans-serif font. All of these factors come together to deliver a refreshing dose of design into a medium that can seriously use it.
More covers from Larocca and Hughes' series
ACTION PACKED ISSUES!!!
Al Franken: Comedian. Senator. Artist?
Here is a video of Senator Al Franken drawing a map of the United States, freehand. It’s pretty incredible. Thanks to Core77.
Futurama Figures
I know it’s been a while since my last post but I have been pretty busy recently. Well now that I have a steady source of income, I can actually buy things for myself, like these awesome Futurama vinyl figures! They were released a few weeks ago and I’m a huge Futurama fan so I just placed an order for 3 figures so I can begin decorating my desk at work. They’re all pretty funny looking so I’ll be happy with any one that I get, but I’m really hoping for a Zoidberg. On a similar note, I’m really excited that Comedy Central is raising the show from the dead; I can’t wait for new episodes!
Product Design Gospel in Pixar’s “Up”
A few days ago I saw Pixar’s “Up” in theaters and I highly recommend that anyone who hasn’t seen it yet drop what they are doing and go RIGHT NOW! It’s another home run from Pixar who (with the exception of a certain automobile-centered film) cannot seem to make a bad movie.
However, there was one scene in “Up” that really disturbed my inner product designer. Without ruining the plot of the movie, at a certain point, the main character, Mr. Fredrickson, must relieve some weight from his balloon-levitated home. Until this part in the film, Mr. Fredrickson has shown a great emotional attachment to every item in his home, but now he won’t be able to “fly” his house without getting rid of these objects. After a few seconds of inner unrest, Mr. Fredrickson then proceeds to carelessly toss all of his belongings from his home damaging and destroying them in the process.
As a recent product design graduate, I just spent four years learning about how to add value and meaning to everyday objects through design. I felt insulted as I watched Mr. Fredrickson destroy product after product that clearly had importance in his life. I felt like Pixar was preaching a message along the lines of, “The things that you surround yourself with are not as important as the memories of those objects.” But where would those memories come from without the interactions with those products in the first place?
I have always been sort of a pack-rat because I enjoy connecting worthwhile memories in my life with the meaningful objects that helped make those impressions. I guess I’m a little worried that by throwing away those objects, I will be throwing away part of that memory. Pixar has always been a company that clearly valued the importance of design, so I could not help but feel betrayed by Pixar during this scene of the movie.
After my brief moment of inner turmoil, I still enjoyed “Up” greatly. In my opinion, it is the funniest and most dramatic Pixar film to date. Also, as a jobless college grad struggling to find direction at this point in my life, I really give Pixar credit for arousing such an emotional design issue. Touché, Pixar… touché.
My Nerdy Comic Book Rant on Why Wolverine was a Disapointment
I have been anticipating the Wolverine movie for THREE YEARS. While filming, there had been dozens of rumors about issues between Fox Studios and director Gavin Hood. While reading about them I simply (maybe ignorantly) kept the faith that the right people behind the scenes would make sure that one of Marvel’s most popular characters would be adapted faithfully to his own movie. I was wrong.
What makes Wolverine’s character so intriguing is his constant struggle between his urge to do what’s right and his mutant, animalistic instinct. The movie did a terrible job of translating this struggle to the big screen. The only way it was addressed the whole movie was with characters just talking about it: “I’m not an animal!” “Yes you are.” What also makes Wolverine so great is his complex and fragmented past, which was completely glazed over in the film. The movie simply seemed like an excuse to cram as many “popular” mutants (Gambit?! What a lame character! He doesn’t even do anything in the movie!) into a film that simply had Wolverine moving the plot (if you can call it that) forward.
I should give credit where it is due; Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, and Danny Huston all portrayed their characters superbly. Even Ryan Reynolds was PERFECT for Wade Wilson/Deadpool but he only had maybe 3 minutes on screen to shine in a role that he was born for!
The most glaring issue I had with the film were the comically awful special effects. For the first “summer blockbuster” of the year, it seemed clear that Fox tried to cut costs in post production. The effects are so poor that they are distracting from the plot in a few scenes specifically: the scene when Wolverine is first getting used to his metal claws in a bathroom, when wolverine is fighting the Blob, and then any scene taking place in a moving vehicle.
I place all the blame on Fox Studios. According to the rumors I referred to before, Fox is one of the most difficult film studios to work for and it must be true. I know it is a little cliche to say this in our “post Batman Begins era” but the movie should have been darker. Wolverine is very similar to Batman in his moral ambiguity (ignoring the means to achieve an end) but the Wolverine movie looks like a Saturday morning cartoon compared to the recent Batman movies.
I can only hope that if Wolverine SOMEHOW makes enough money to warrant a sequel, they take a drastically different approach before more movies like this are made and kill the current streak of quality comic book movies.