JOYENGINE: Art & Design Life

TRAVIS MILLARD

07.23.08

If you’re not familiar with Travis Millard, hop on over to Fudge Factory Comics and check out his mad illustration skillz!

TAGS: Fudge Factory Comics, illustration, Travis Millard

by: Mark Siebert

SOFT&FURRY™ SNEAK PEEK!!!

07.22.08

The SOFT&FURRY™ logo contest is in its final 2 weeks. We’re getting ready to pull the veil on our top secret project, but not quit yet. Instead, we’ll leave you with a sneak peek… stay tuned!

TAGS: SOFT&FURRY

by: JoyEngine

JIM MAHFOOD > BILLY DEE WILLIAMS

07.22.08

I’ve been a fan of Jim Mahfood for years (thanks Ottocon), but to be perfectly honest I haven’t been keeping up for a bit. Shannon spotted his work in the new Colt45 campaign and sent it my way. Needless to say, I was super impressed with their new aesthetic, 100% Jim Mahfood illustration! On top of their awesome new artist series packaging, they’re running a design contest for the next Colt45 can.

Going back to Food’s site I was pleasantly suprised to find some brand new work and it’s some of his best to date. Check him out. My recommendation to everyone is to go drink some shitty beer while ogling the cans and cruising his website. Mahfood’s art might actually make Colt45 taste good! This is what we in the industry call frosting on a shit cake. Good ass frosting though.

TAGS: Colt 45, FOOD ONE, illustration, Jim Mahfood, package design

by: Josh Holland

WILL THE REAL McCAIN PLEASE STAND UP?

07.22.08

Occasionally we’re misquoted, or say things we haven’t completely thought through. John McCain takes this notion to a whole new level. Real trustworthy, right? Seems like he’s really got a handle on the economy and international affairs… A+ to Brave New Films for some serious guerilla steez.

TAGS: Brave New Films, John McCain, The real McCain

by: TEEBEE

UPPER PLAYGOUND - CITRUS REPORT

07.21.08

Upper Playground just dropped The Citrus Report, with intentions of becoming a major monthly and daily news source for fine art and pp culture info. Looks dope. Reads well. The folks at UP don’t disappoint and seem to have a good grip on their latest venture. From art to politics, atheletes to musicians The Citrus Report is gonna hit it. Check it out, yo!

TAGS: Citrus Report, upper playground

by: TEEBEE

FIRST THINGS FIRST - 2000

07.21.08

In 1999, Adbusters in essence redrafted First Things First 2000, a manifesto originally drafted by British design superhero Ken Garland (Founder of Ken Garland & Associates) in 1963 calling for the exploration and development of new meaning in the world of design. Commercial work, once a means of supplementing a designer’s existence, had become the designer’s primary purpose. In turn, the world began to perceive design as little more than the language through which marketers communicated product. The manifesto challenged designers to turn the tide against this perception. It urged them to reconsider their place in the world, to regain their footing as artists and visual communicators. They were encouraged to begin a new dialogue, one that focused less on the production of consumer need and more on the creation of awareness and action. Designers were asked to temper their commercial pursuits with efforts on behalf of the larger social good. They were called upon to be activists. In all, 33 members of the international design community signed their names.

First Things First Manifesto 2000

We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.

Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.

Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.

There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.

We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication - a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed the original call for our skills to be put to worthwhile use. With the explosive growth of global commercial culture, their message has only grown more urgent. Today, we renew their manifesto in expectation that no more decades will pass before it is taken to heart.

The Original 33 Signatories:

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

You can read Garland’s original draft, proclaimed at the Institution of Contemporary Arts on an evening in December 163, and see the original 22 signatories here as well as view the printed version as published in 1964, below.

What an unbelievably forward and on target piece of literature, both the new and the old. We’d be honored to have our names on that list.

TAGS: Adbusters, First Things First Manifesto, ICA, Ken Garland

by: TEEBEE

“MY DRIVE THRU” VIDEO

07.21.08

Converse launched a new artist campaign featuring music by Julian Casablancas, Santogold, and N.E.R.D. The cut-out paper doll video is pretty impressive.

TAGS: converse, Julian Casablancas, N.E.R.D., Santogold, Video

by: Mark Siebert

BAD ILLUSTRATION IN THE NEWS AGAIN…

07.21.08

Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Rinehart is looking to the power of sequential art to help him achieve reelection and sway voters. His 16-page “comic book” was mailed to his potential voters, and makes his case loud and clear. While I’m normally happy to see comics being used as a respected form of visual communication, this is not what I had in mind.

The book is the most offensive thing I’ve seen in some time. It portrays the devil supporting his political opponents, exposes homosexuals as toga-clad boyscout rapists, contains numerous grammatical errors and appears to have been drawn by a small child. Which begs the question, what the hell is wrong with Oklahoma when something like this gains votes?

I find it incredibly ironic that the “pro-family” conservative movement that once demonized comic books as a major source of moral decay are now using the medium to promote an agenda of misinformation and hate (see the origins of the Comics Code Authority). I’ve seen a few examples of this over the years, ranging from an anti-homosexual superhero to a children’s book that debunked the “myth” of dinosaurs. This kind of shameless propaganda is far more offensive and damaging to our social fabric than any 50’s pulp book ever was!

Congratulations Rinehart, you are the douche bag of the month. I wonder why you can’t even find a high school level illustrator to help perpetuate your infantile world view. Oklahoma get your shit together, this is strike two this year.

Download the whole book HERE via newsOK.com