Frequencies: Paper Sculpture

[Frequencies is a semi-regular post series focusing on the random design/pop/pointless/happening trends I pick up on from time to time. This particular episode may have suffered slightly at the hands of my busy schedule...yet I think it's still fresh enough to be worth posting.]

There seems to be something inherently playful about paper sculpture. Maybe it's the ephemeral nature of the medium, or the lightness and lack of weight to a blank page. There's something about this unmarked, wide open medium that allows certain artists to expand beyond the page's edge, creating altogether new forms.

Peter Callesen

First up, we have Peter Callesen, whose meticulous cutting from single sheets results in often bittersweet visual puns:

Olivier Gondry

You may have seen this playful yet lovely commercial already. Olivier Gondry recreates the Beringer vineyards in paper:

Jen Stark

Finally, there's Jen Stark, who takes paper sculpture in a completely different direction. Breaking away from the all-white page, Jen uses color and abstract geometrics to transform her medium into something with rigid and almost weighty form:

Roll Your Own

If you're digging these, you can always try your hand at making your own paper sculptures. As a writer and graphic designer, I love the idea of using the paper itself to tell a story, rather than relying on marks on the page.

How to Create a DIY Art Gallery

The Budget Gallery is a "temporary art show in co-opted public spaces" that are curated, promoted and executed with the intention of making fine art accessible to the general public. Stay Free/Anti-Advertising Agency man Steve Lambert has now created a wiki for staging your own DIY Budget Gallery.

Now hop to it!

The Accidental Politics of Graphic Design

"'What does it mean,' he asked the other day, after sifting through his work, 'to live a meaningful life?'"

"...His portfolio would soon start filling up with routine projects: the cover of the department's phone directory, photo manipulations showing what freeways would look like with new carpool lanes. Then, in the 1980s, pedestrians started getting killed on California interstates with alarming regularity."

From "The Artist Behind the Iconic 'Running Immigrants' Image," LA Times.

Engaging Environment: The NYC Air Bear

I've mentioned Italo Calvino's Marcovaldo, or Seasons in the City, before and I'm reminded of it once again. The book is about a man who manages to see the bits and pieces of our environment that the rest of us overlook. I love what the Air Bear does: it captures what we can't see, using it to engage and entertain.



The work is part of a series by artist Joshua Allen Harris (if anyone can point me to his website, which I couldn't manage to dig up, please do).

Ben Huff: Deadhorse

The quietude around here should be broken - my apologies for not being around much. Seems fitting, then, to mention Ben Huff's photographs of Alaska. They're quiet, too, but they carry something in them that connects Alaska to the greater 48.

Free "Recycled Packaging" Rubber Stamp Art Redux

When I posted the free-to-use artwork for a "Recycled Packaging" rubber stamp last fall, I had no idea how popular it would be. Now, thanks to Anodyne Design, you can see what the finished product actually looks like:



I think it looks gorgeous! And of course, the green ink is the perfect touch. If you'd like to have your own rubber stamp like the one above made, you can download the artwork for free and follow the instructions.

Thanks to everyone who's left comments, and don't forget to spread the word!

Ambigramtastic

My pop gave The Captain a great book this Christmas—Wordplay: The Philosophy, Art and Science of Ambigrams by John Langdon. It offers an inside-out look at how an ambigram—a type-based graphic that reads the same both upright and upside-down—is born. It's a great reminder that the process of seeing and creating altogether new solutions to what might seem to be stale or already-solved problems are really remarkable skill sets. And some of them are just plain cool!



For more ambigram goodness, check out this ambigram photo set on Flickr and read Typographic Doppelgängers, an article by Langdon on the subject of creating these masterpieces.

Sorted Books Project by Nina Katchadourian

This is so up my alley. Artist Nina Katchadourian's Sorted Books project groups titles to create a flash of meaning between texts. Each arrangement is intended to reflect the library from which the books were pulled.



I'm tempted to see what my own bookshelves say about me...

[via Swiss Miss]

Frequencies: Graffiti Chic

[Frequencies is a semi-regular post series focusing on the random design/pop/pointless/happening trends I pick up on from time to time.]


Graffiti has crossed over to the gallery scene some time ago, but art galleries were just the beginning...


The spray can is now a high-end accessory:




Advertisers have long caused a blight on our public landscapes for years using government-sanctioned billboards, environmental advertising and signage. But they're now embracing the practice of illegal public defacement, too, using graffadi to sell more Stuff™:


[For more info on graffadi and other "underground" marketing tactics, see Anne Elizabeth Moore's book, Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing and the Eroision of Integrity.]


And if you want to get your hands dirty but can't deign to use run-of-the-mill Krylon, try Krink:

Map: New Brainland

After studying neuropsychology for a couple of years back during my first attempt at a degree, I sometimes felt lost in this land:



Pretty cool topographical images, created directly from actual brain models.

How to wrap five eggs (or Christmas presents)

When I was first introduced to How to Wrap Five Eggs, an incredible picture book of Japanese packaging, almost two decades ago I couldn't afford a copy of the out-of-print book. Instead, I got my hands on How to Wrap Five More Eggs (now also out of print and not affordable).

I've just pulled the book off my shelf after being reminded of it by the furoshiki instructions posted the other day.

You should see some the stuff in here, it's beautiful:







The idea of packaging something in a reusable container is a brilliant one. It's at once luxurious and—provided the package is produced thoughtfully—sustainable. I can think of several products in the contemporary marketplace that do this...I'll have to pull together some images and do a post dedicated to them.

Some Colors Can't Be Copied

I'm on the road right now, resting in rural Vermont. Internet yes, cell phone service no. Strange dichotomy. Even stranger is the 3-legged dog I'm staying with. Photos to come later (I only brought my film camera). In the meantime, here are a couple of shots from last year's trip:

Varini's Three Dimensional Painted Rooms

I came across some anonymous photos a while back and never knew from whence they came. Just found out that these optical illusions are the work of Felice Varini.



See additional roomscapes.

Design Impact: Architecture of Authority

When designers get all wordy and start saying things like, "you see how this line draws the eye to the main message, while that gentle curve prevents it from being too aggressive..." don't roll your eyes so quickly. Because each design element, when assembled correctly, does impact the viewer/user/visitor/audience.



The Architecture of Authority, by UCSB professor Richard Ross, catalogs and explores "spaces built to communicate with others." The collection of photographs is thought provoking and occasionally disturbing. You really should check out excerpts from The Architecture of Authority and read the interview with Ross.

[via Coudal, of course]

Street Art: Stop War

When a neighbor recently traced the shadow of a parking sign onto our sidewalk using spray paint, it struck me as a fun way to play with light; the sign's shadow would fill up the spray-painted outline only at the exact moment of the day that the painter had done his work.

Then I came across this play on sign shadows:



[via Worst Weather Ever]

Art for the Public, Please

My sister sent me word that Don Fisher, founder of the Gap, wants to open a museum in the Presidio to house his expansive collection of 20th and 21st century art. This would be an incredible resource for San Franciscans; the collection is considered to easily be one of the best in the world. The public has rarely had a chance to see any of the pieces, save for the lucky employees of the Gap who get to encounter particular works during the course of their normal work day (I specifically remember drooling over Warhol's silver screened Elvis in the lobby of the corporate headquarters downtown).

But instead of welcoming the prospect of public art, some San Franciscans are doing what they do best: complaining. Lee Rosenbaum points to an SF Chronicle editorial that raises the specter of a "rich man's playground," and SFist seems "a touch worried" based on the hideous bow and arrow sculpture sullying the Embarcadero. It's all too bad because this city has been driving art and artists away for years now. The cynical side of me, of course, can't help but note that Fisher also happens to be supporting a particularly touchy ballot measure pushing for increased city parking at the expense of public transportation funding. Couldn't hurt to be seen as a public do-gooder during the campaign, could it?

Ultimately, though, this collection would be a remarkable destination, and would remind people that San Francisco celebrates the creative arts. I never thought I'd be siding with Don Fisher on anything!