From the monthly archives:

May 2009

Teach Yourself Graphic Design: An Online Self-Study Course

by Kurt S. on May 25, 2009

principlesPSDTUT‘s has put up an interesting post I think you should check out and then come back here and discuss:

“Fortunately, it isn’t required to go to design school in order to be a graphic designer. A good foundation in graphic design history, theory, and practical application will help you hit the ground running. There are plenty of resources available in which you can learn graphic design on your own. Don’t set your expectations to high at first, as it will take enthusiastic study for years to become great. You can do it though!

If you would like to learn graphic design from the ground up, through self directed study, then this article lists some great resources that will get you started with your design education. Also, even if you do go to design school, at least three-fifths of your education will be through self directed study anyway. Let’s get to it!

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Pablo Ferro Will Receive the AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement

by Kurt S. on May 22, 2009

Pablo Ferro, the creator of such film title classics as Dr.Strangelove and The Thomas Crown Affair, will receive the AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement this year. It is well deserved, too. Also this year Pablo Ferro, the movie will be released. You can see a short trailer of this partly animated extravaganza here.

The film, directed by Richard Goldgewicht, is a live action/animation documentary. For those who do not know, Ferro, a former animator and comic book artist who became a legendary designer behind dozens of renowned movie main titles, graphic sequences, and commercials, worked with the greatest names in film–everyone from Bill Tytla to Stanley Kubrick. The  documentary will be narrated by Jeff Bridges. Here’s a link to his PROMAX/BDA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. And check out his title sequence reel below or here.

Via: Daily Heller by Steven Heller

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YouTube Upload Rate Reaches 20 Hours Per Minute!

by Kurt S. on May 22, 2009

This has been true for some time, but now more than ever, it’s impossible for any one person (or even a team of reasonable size) to keep up with all the clips uploaded to YouTube.  According to an official blog post, about 20 hours of video are introduced to the site in every minute of real time.

YouTube Logo

Ryan Junee, a product manager, marked past milestones by writing, “In mid-2007, six hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute.  Then it grew to eight hours per minute, then 10, then 13.  In January of this year, it became 15 hours of video uploaded every minute, the equivalent of Hollywood releasing over 86,000 new full-length movies into theaters each week.”

And now we’re at 20, with no end in sight.  Junee, in fact, is already aiming for the rate of 24 hours of video uploaded every minute, and a new feature (an after-the-clip icon that encourages people to record video responses) has been introduced to promote more user participation.

But at the 20-hours-a-minute rate, YouTube would have needed at least 1,200 people on hand to manually screen every second of new video, and so catching and removing the clips has been a less-than-instantaneous process.

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The Onion’s Best Art Headlines: “I Don’t Have Time For Non-Controversial Art Exhibits.”

by Kurt S. on May 14, 2009

Hard To Tell If Wikipedia Entry On Dada Has Been Vandalized Or Not

“This is either totally messed up or completely accurate,” said Reed College art history major Ted Brendon. “There’s a mustache drawn on the photo of Marcel Duchamp, the font size keeps changing, and halfway through, the type starts going in a circle. Also, the majority of the actual entry is made up of Krazy Kat cartoons with abstract poetry written in the dialogue balloons.”

The fact that the web page continually reverts to a “normal” state, observers say, is either evidence that ongoing vandalization is being deleted through vigilant updating, or a deliberate statement on the impermanence of superficial petit-bourgeois culture in the age of modernity.

Folk Art Museum Acquires Rare Visitor

“Ms. Schneider is a real find, definitely a one of a kind,” said head curator Natalie Kiernan, who estimated the historically significant attendee’s value was priceless. “You could go years without seeing one of these.” Kiernan admitted that, while the visitor had clearly seen some wear and tear, she appeared to be in surprisingly good shape for her age.

I Don’t Have Time For Non-Controversial Art Exhibits.

Bottom line: If people aren’t protesting, becoming nauseated by, or threatening lawsuits against an artist’s work, you can look around for me, but I’m not going to be there. Using light and shadow to mythologize the pastoral and create a setting where human beings and the natural world can coexist peacefully? Best of luck to you. If you need me, I’ll be watching a heroin addict use his own HIV-positive blood to paint Hiroshima victims on the side of a school bus. You know, with all the other real art buffs.

Magical Gallery Transforms Dull Objects Into Art

“Seth Clayton’s devastating Untitled No. 7 captures the despair of urban ennui in a way that’s post-ironic yet somehow pre-pomo,” said David E. Sherry, owner of the David E. Sherry Gallery, while admiring a rusty bucket and tattered boot lying on the gallery floor. “Its eloquence is truly heartbreaking.

International Petty Art Thief Steals Hotel-Room Painting (audio)

“Hotel management says they are fortunate to have nearly 200 identical prints of the art work on hand, but someone with keys will have to go into the basement to get another one. ”

National Endowment For The Arts & Crafts Criticized For Funding Giant Macramé Penis

The macramé-work phallus comprises three discrete elements: testicles, shaft, and head. The testicles are knotted in Double Alternating Lark’s Head style and decorated with black maple beads. The shaft of the penis, knotted of Tammy’s Hemp Cord in flesh tone, is embellished with subtle strands of Half-Knot sinnet cord in light blue and Amy’s Cord in pale lavender. The head, the most detailed portion of the work, is embellished with a spray of silver glitter.

“[2003 NEAC grant recipient] Terrence Colwell’s macaroni ‘Crown Of Thorns’ was bad enough,” DeLay said. “But an enormous phallus made out of colorful, child-safe materials that anyone could buy at the craft store? It’s way over the line.”

This is not the first time an NEAC grant has sparked controversy. Last year, a vocal group of citizens appeared before Congress to protest government funding of C.F. Littman’s “Piss-Soaked God’s Eye,” and in 2002, the NEAC received more than 10,000 letters of complaint over the grant it awarded Rachel Delancey for her shellacked driftwood clitoris “Found It… In The Sea.”

Poster Vandal Enters ‘Phallus In Mouth’ Period

OAKLAND, CA—According to experts at the American Folk Art Museum, the billboard and subway-poster defacer known only as “Suck It” has entered his “phallus in mouth” phase…

Via: ArtFagCity Blog

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Why I Love The Onion

by Kurt S. on May 13, 2009

art-professor-r

Art Professor Revealed To Be Convincing Fake. http://www.theonion.com/content/from_print/art_professor_revealed_to_be

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Rare “Star Wars” Deleted Scene

by Kurt S. on May 10, 2009

“What the what?” is probably the first thing you thought of when you read that title. Where’s the design and artsy stuff? Let’s take a break shall we? I’d like to share with you some of the defining moments that inspired my career as a professional creative person.

I’m looking forward to seeing the new Star Trek movie this weekend. My father was a huge fan of the original Star Trek. So much in fact he thought it best to name his only son “Kirk”. My mother had different ideas so they settled on “Kurt”. People still to this day mispronounce my name as “Kirk” but it never bothers me. It only makes me think of my father.

Here is a rare deleted scene from Star Wars “A New Hope”. After watching this you’ll know why it was cut. It’s something like “The Real World Tatooine” and is so bad I can only imagine that George Lucas shot this trying to recapture the youthful angst from his previous movie “American Graffiti”. Sorry George. Epic fail.

Star Wars was the movie that made me want to find out about how movies were made. I wanted to know who these people were and what made them so aware of exactly what I wanted to see on a big screen.  Years later my father bought me a video camera and then it was off to the races… I hope to someday spend time creating movies but until that time I’ll sit and enjoy the work of so many wonderfully talented people that create those little escapes from reality.

Here are a handful of rarely seen Star Wars images I stumbled across along with some interesting trivia. Click on the image to view them. Enjoy : )

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The Future is Digital: Best Buy Talks Transparency, Marketing.

by Kurt S. on May 8, 2009

This is a very well done piece that may be a bit over-produced at times (at least for it’s core message) but hits a home run in the “make a marketing video about how we are marketing” department. Another must watch video. That’s two in one week!

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A MUST WATCH VIDEO “Did You Know? 3.0″

by Kurt S. on May 5, 2009

If you thought the Advertising world was being impacted by social media, you  haven’t seen anything yet.  This is a must-watch powerful video on the magnitude of digital and predictions for its growth.

Did You Know? was initially created as a PowerPoint presentation for a faculty meeting in August 2006 at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, United States. The presentation “went viral” on the Web in February 2007 and, as of June 2007, had been seen by at least 5 million online viewers. Today the old and new versions of the online presentation have been seen by at least 15 million people, not including the countless others who have seen it at conferences, workshops, training institutes, and other venues.

Via: Michael Gass

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