Infinite City

Infinite City is one of those books it's practically impossible to write about, because it is too eloquent to be summarized. As Rebecca Solnit's title suggests, it simply cannot be contained. So accept these meager photographs as valentines to what has been the most enchanting read I've had in years. The most conceptually-pristine project of recent memory. The perfect integration of three passions of mine: writing, design and cartography. Each map in this atlas is juxtaposed in a manner that evokes more than their literal meanings.

Loveliest flourish of the whole book: not placing a period at the end of the essays. Rather, each essay ends with the glyph for infinity ∞

Forgotten Dreams

Werner Herzog's new documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, is mesmerizing. Cave paintings are the original watermark ... the oldest traceable record of man. This film takes us inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France to witness 30,000 year old cave paintings. I have only been in two caves in my lifetime. Caves have that way of dwarfing mankind; diminishing how I feel about my place in the universe. The patience of stalagmites and the pristine way caves preserve their caches really make me second-guess the Rocky Mountains I see every day of my life. We have no way of knowing how many mysteries are unaccessible to us. So it's fortunate when discoveries like this are made. I understand the primitive impulse of marking, but seeing the hand prints of ancient man in such a fresh way only provokes questions upon questions for me. And absolute respect for humans; for our creative spirit; for our brief time on Earth and for our unifying desire to leave something behind.

Making Faces

I just received my copy of Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century. Making Faces is a documentary by Richard Kegler of P22 Type Foundry showcasing Jim Rimmer, master typographer, who passed away in January 2010. The DVD came with a lot of extras: a specimen book of Stern—the first (and perhaps only) font released simultaneously in metal and digitally; a chapbook of Rimmer's type designs (pictured above); a cast metal lower case 'k' from the Stern family (also pictured above); and a copy of Rimmer's font Loxley, made for an edition of Robin Hood.

In the spirit of connecting this to entry to my blog—metal type is a perfect watermark. It leaves an impression beyond the letter forms and the paper fibers. It's a watermark of type designers and their lives, of craftspeople and industry; a watermark of both time and history. Kegler's drive to capture Rimmer at work on film is a valentine in the nick of time.

Full Bleed

Held at the Mandate Press in Salt Lake City, here is a synopsis of a recently-attended exotic AIGA event: Full Bleed.

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On Thursday, October 28, the world of contemporary art and body art will merge as AIGA joins with professionals from the Yellow Rose and Cathedral Tattoo shops for 'Full Bleed: The tattoo and design experience.'

Tattoo culture has seen an influx of new artists, many of whom have impressive technical and fine arts training. From drawings, prints, and paintings to skin, the art and culture of the tattoo industry crosses traditional boundaries by telling life stories. Using the iconography of experiences, from classic Tattoo Flash to the Old West, from Asia and Polynesia, each design carries it's own special meaning.

Join AIGA Salt Lake City as we explore the graphic perspective on today's global tattoo culture. Entry gets you two drinks on us, access to top local artists, local artwork, and plenty of ink!
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Empire

New York City in October. An island between seasons; an ephemeral escape; a sublime dislocation.

Like my previous color palettes based upon travel, I use my iPhone camera; then the Pantone application to extract colors from those images; e-mail ASE (Adobe Swatch Exchange) files; and complete the project in InDesign when I return from my trip. The goal is to be open and receptive to what turns up; not to force the colors. Brownstone's are a surprising conglomeration of hues I wouldn't have selected as brick. Yet the Brooklyn bridge colors are precisely what I recall. Incidentally, the green patinas on old edifices and sculpture share a lot of attributes with the emanations from electronic signs and monitors.

My airplane reading material for this trip was Maira Kalman's illustrated edition of Strunk's The Elements of Style. I read it in anticipation of her new book And the Pursuit of Happiness. So with Maira in mind, I feel this palette could easily have come from her ineluctable and intuitive character studies. That's the thing about New York ... everyone's personality is in the foreground, but we must find something to focus on before we spin out of control. It allows you to see and appreciate everything for what it is, and then forces you to move on before you can understand it.

Exposed Grid

University of Utah Health Care's Information Technology Services hadn't updated their strategic plan in a decade. This decision-leading document needed to be progressive, confident and engaging. I felt we should be front-and-center about infrastructure by leaving the booklet's grid exposed on the cover. The spare cover also adds a nice counterpoint to the photography-rich interior. Each spread has a health care photo where technology is integral to medical practice.

The table of contents is also left exposed on the cover. The booklet is split in halves: The Introduction has an orange background; The Plan — a yellow ground with a faux watermark. The photo well and type columns adjusts with each half of the book. All images have a shiny UV gloss. UV also adorns the vertical and horizontal lines on the cover, as well as our title. It's a great finishing effect that helps emit the back-lit technology photos used throughout. Principal photography is by Kevin Lee.

Page numbers are represented in Hoeffler & Frere-Jones' Dividend, from the Numbers family. Numbers has a pixel-like quality in spite of it's low-tech origins (designed after antique perforated check writing machines) that plays well with the display face Headroom, by TypeTrust. Headroom is a mechanical all-caps face that includes a cheeky ink-trap alternate. The booklet's text face is Scala Sans.

To keep costs down, we constrained the booklet to one parent sheet. To keep the book polished, we had it perfect bound. A companion Web site can be found here.

I Wan'na Be Like You

I recently saw Waking Sleeping Beauty—a documentary about Disney's animation studio from 1984-1994 (e.g. age 11 to the year before I graduated from college). I went in as a patron of the artists ... and left having revisited the entirety of my adolescence through the lens of fantasy and imagination without any other cultural references. What an amazing revisitation. I was stupefied by the flashbacks, and emotions it conjured. It was unique to remember moments and people, but not all the other stuff. I love contradictions and this was a great one: to feel simultaneously connected to this magical realm, and yet to have had a completely objective review of that most bizarre period of life—adolescence.

It was equally unique to review my career decisions that led me away from animation. When I think of the journey of an artist and all the motivations and inspirations juxtaposed against our changing culture ... I can't say I'm sorry. I'm really happy with my life in it's present state. But it's always heartening to have cinema and animation available. Catharsis, fantasy, escape, and ultimately—confronting reality—all seem implicit parts of the viewing experience. Spectating is rarely a passive experience.

Gallery Stroll

Any time I can use Zaner—the lush Spencerian script by P22—I will. Same goes for shiny paper. (In this case, CTI's Aspire Petallics Silver Ore.)

This past Tuesday we had an event for University Hospital benefactor's to unveil the new portrait gallery as well as our wall of engraved donor names. We needed to represent both giving levels, but that made for a lengthy event title. The solution: a type treatment for each exhibit split by a flourish evoking: the unveiling of draped art; strolling; and even a lyrical quality. (It looks like a violin to me. Someone else told me it makes them think of Phantom of the Opera.)

The event was a fine affair, attended by people with interesting relationships to the University of Utah. A recent heart transplant patient spoke about his experience here and that really helped crystalize why we give. From the generosity of an organ donor's family, to the financial gifts that keep our institution a pioneering one, to the time commitments of our volunteer staff, it's always heartening for me to see the underlying passions that keep people connected.

Revinylize

Revynilize is a project by the Salt Lake chapter of the AIGA. It's one of the better concepts I've seen under the rubric of reuse—an overlooked portion of the government waste-reduction campaign: Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Designers love reuse, though. The DIY culture of ReadyMade magazine, and similar tribes, has been a pleasurable and inventive pastime of mine. I think the indie fashion world also makes great use out of repurposing fabric into exceptional, and coveted, commercial pieces.

Just a couple of rescued banners were converted by a local tailor into 8 messenger-style bags that are destined to be envied by U of U employees. It was a proud moment watching our local board members present the program in Memphis at the national design conference last fall. It was even nicer to have them be so eager to help get these custom-made for us. I can't wait to see the faces of the lucky few recipients.

National Suicide Day: A Celebration

“Except for World War II, nothing ever interfered with the celebration of National Suicide Day. It had taken place every January third since 1920, although Shadrack, its founder, was for many years the only celebrant.”

I’ll let you in on a secret … I think I may be the only celebrant today. Maybe you should join in. The passage above is from Toni Morrison’s novel Sula. I discovered Toni Morrison in college … not by curriculum but by a book cover: Tar Baby. Such a bold title—with cover art reminiscent of Henri Rousseau—my curiosity was peaked. And I was instantly absorbed. By the time I had read Sula and Beloved, Ms. Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize. She’s essentially been my spiritual matriarch since.

Shadrack is a veteran who returned from war clearly coping with what we call today Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The townsfolk couldn’t figure him out, but he was making his way the best he could. As a method to make “a place for fear as a way of controlling it”, Shadrack instituted National Suicide Day. He would walk through town with a cow bell and a hangman’s noose crying out to the citizens “that this was their only chance to kill themselves or each other.”

By this point in my life I was already leery of New Year’s resolutions. If something needed to be changed—start now. I already had enough waiting in the future. I didn’t need to plan to fix bad habits; I needed to repair them now. Nevertheless, anxiety seemed to follow me everywhere. And National Suicide Day seemed to be a potential solution.

Having practiced more than a dozen years now, what I like about the personal holiday is it’s the one time of the year I let go. Really let go of suppressed thoughts. Things we normally want to avoid. All the irrational things that we fear might actually occur if we think them. I might celebrate by writing down (or saying out loud, or screaming) everything I dread. And then go murder them. Throw them off a bridge. Toss them under a car. Stab them with sharp implements.

It sure beats a resolution because there’s nothing left to do. Yet it comes with the same accoutrements: fear, self-despisal, neglect, guilt. Like all rituals, it makes one feel better. It’s an act of engagement, release and devotion. And who knows—maybe one day after I’ve suffocated myself, shot myself, and burned myself to death, I’ll really be able to start living.

Ode to '09

Drawing Conclusions

Give me a three-hole punch and a binder. Scissors, stapler, and a stack of my subscriptions … I am good to go. Among winter’s many graces are snowy nights stuck inside. I have been organizing the dickens out of my home. The promise of having a place for everything requires removal. I have shed two years worth of Sunset magazine by clipping and filing into binders to match their mission: travel, home & garden, food. I am transferring notes from my monthly Cooking Light into their annual cookbook. This is my ninth year of loyalty. In fact, I am donating three cookbooks other’s have gifted me because I simply won’t use them.

This year-end scrub up and filing fantasia is even more delightful as I completed today both a sketchbook and a diary. I watercolored the last page of my Moleskine notebook bought in San Francisco in ‘06. The first painting was on Labor Day ’08 and I have consistently painted an impromptu picture each holiday since. I also finished a wood-covered journal bought in New York last year. First entry was the day after Thanksgiving ’09. It brings great pleasure to crack open a new Moleskine (scheduled for Martin Luther King Day) and a new journal I bought last month in San Francisco.

In truth, I spoke to soon. I have yet to tackle the filing cabinet. I just don’t think I can do it without a paper shredder. My organizational armory is incomplete.

Memphis Color Palette

I finally found a way to design on my iPhone.

My personal project, while attending the AIGA Make|Think conference, was to capture the local color of Memphis with my phone's camera. Then I used the Pantone application to isolate swatches and e-mail myself ASE (Adobe Swatch Exchange) files. My goal was to be open and receptive to what turns up; not to force the colors. And I must say I'm pleased with the results. One stream of colors is called Mistaken Reds because I found a lot of red objects to photograph, only to discover they were browns, violets, even fuchsia. The Mississippi river eluded my perception and revealed hues that were darker and greener than the silt I thought I was seeing. This palette is inspired by neon, the Lorraine Motel, bricks and graffiti, the Beauty Shop restaurant and it's tasty drink The Crush, flowers growing between benches, monuments, and maybe even a little bit of soul.

Make|Think

One of the coolest surprises on my trip to Memphis was to keep stumbling on these markers. The conference committee tagged our theme all across town and so I felt breadcrumbed in all my ambling. Nice to have a confirmation I was headed to interesting spots. And in classic designer "green" styling ... this ephemeral graffiti will self-vaporize.

Miss the Mississippi and You

Fresh from my trip to Memphis, Tennessee for the AIGA conference, I had to post this photo from Mud Island. During free time before the conference kick-off I ventured across the sky-bridge to Mud Island listening to my iPod on shuffle to see a replica of the entire Mississippi River. The day before the trip Rosanne Cash released her new album The List. In a moment of serendipity, her cover of Miss the Mississippi and You came on as I was looking at this inlaid replica of Memphis on the Mississippi River, having just crossed in reality the model I was observing. It was a trio of Mississippis. A hallway of mirrors.

The next day we were treated to a presentation by Daniel Eatock about "circles". e.g. painting watercolors of water bottles using the water from the bottles as the medium. A tow truck towing a tow truck. etc. These are actually fairly common occurrences, but the point is you have to be attuned to catch them. That's one of many benefits to both travel and conferences: a wider view, new perspectives, a shaking from the norm.

Fastenation

Designers love posters. Designers also love evidence of posters. I was mesmerized by this telephone pole in Midtown Atlanta waiting to cross the street. How many concerts, programs, lost pets, missing people, declarations, yard sales, public notices—you get the idea—have hung here? Designers also love anything that fastens. This is my ode to adhesives and evidence.

Rags to Riches

Rags make paper,


Paper makes money,


Money makes banks,


Banks make loans,


Loans make beggars,


Beggars make Rags.


Anon, l8th.C.

This is a quote I came across in the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum at Georgia Tech. The museum is comprehensive and informative, yet entertaining and something you can experience without the fatigue many museums tend to induce. The most vivid memories I have from that visit are the exquisite and sculptural watermark exhibits. Despite their two-dimensional reality, they really pop off the page. It would feel like a crime to write upon a sheet of paper such as this coronation image of Queen Elizabeth II (above.)