kill poet press: i made it into issue 7.

i'm not sure how it happened, but i got a piece into kill poet's latest issue. i think this is my third time submitting and i finally made it in. i'm honored to be published with the likes of kill poet. scheck it out... killpoet.com

happy accidents: always something fresh.

david carson defined graphic design in the 1990's. "the grunge" look was at it's peak and designers were rebelling left and right, and creating design materials by digitally spewing on the page. i'm so guilty of it and as a matter of fact, that's one the reasons i was attracted to this field. on the regular, i'm all about order, but there's something about controlled chaos that really fits my personality. the ability to use a computer to make things precise and call it art was the answer to my lack of knowledge in art, and now, ironically, i love the printmaking-splatter ink-brush stroke-torn edge-crinkle smudge stain, kneeling-on-the-floor-sweating, hands-on aspect of the work i do.

today, "grunge" has found it's place (mainly in extreme sports and occasionally the wanna-be-youth marketeers) subsiding from the mainstream. and for a little stint, the ornate, curly-q, massive-layered-patterns reigned the mainstream, but now it's all about functionality. clean, clear, concise design with the the purest of typography. driven by, i believe, the explosion of 'screen' media.

the more i experiment with "the cut-up" process and relate it to design, the more i realize that i'm way behind the current times. and i'm fine with that. cutting up design is very similar to what david carson stamped on the industry years ago. my studies this semester led me to understanding rhythm more and it's active role in visual patterns, deconstruction, book design – including syntax and the grid, and in graphic design’s general flow. (paper 1 | paper 2)

now that the semester has gone to the wayside (or wastebasket), the thought-bubble just popped and david carson splattered all over my walls. i should have been researching him much earlier. his latest werks seem to still be very contemporary to me and not necessarily '90's'. check'im out:




david carson: the new architecture book by paul anderson(harvard) and david salomon(cornell)"the architecture of patterns" covers designs in progress, june 2009.


david carson: lucky disasters. art w/out intent.


david carson: cougar paper promotion.


david carson: part of the worldwide rebranding of western union. 2009.

more resources on th eking of happy accident s:
http://www.davidcarsondesign.com
http://www.creativereview.co.uk

on another note, i've been retrospecting, or contemplating my time in this program (and yes, still wondering the what, why, and how's of it) and went back one year to spring 2008 to see the work i did. none of it is related to my visions now, but it's still a piece of me. here are a few pages of my semester-end notes from ayear ago when i was supposedly just getting my feet wet. i believe it's even pre-projectartschool.com blog.


















umm, yeah.
i'm still getting my feet wet.
hmm.

cut-up: preliminary concepts for show in january.

i have my first solo show in january and it's going to be based around the thread that holds my being together: words. since the beginning of my career in graphic design i've been concepting with words. and now that my run as an MFA graphic design student nears its end, i want to explore my time in words. there will be more than words in the show, including experiments with montage, the roller poem and the flicker machine strobing mad ambiance, but what it comes down to is what i see myself as – a word lover, as i've always believed: 1 word presents 1000 images in my head.

january 19, 2010 is set for the opening but the ideas are still brewing. it will be in the Center Gallery of the Titan Student Union at Cal State Fullerton which is a pretty small gallery, but will be nice and intimate with the dreamachine as the centerpiece.

the working title is CUT-UP: Words Are Image, but very well may end up as ONE WORD PRESENTS A THOUSAND IMAGES. there will definitely be a handful of poems i've written. and i may feature a cut-up and/or visually stimulating works from a couple other artists.

- - - - -
from my proposal:

At a surrealist rally in the 1920s Tristan Tzara, the man from nowhere, proposed to create a poem on the spot by pulling words out of a hat. A riot ensued wrecked the theater. André Breton expelled Tristan Tzara from the movement and grounded the cut-ups on the Freudian couch.

A poem encourages, if not forces, one to focus on imagery, theme, and associative relationships, rather than on chronological causal structures as found in a novel or longer works of literature.

In the summer of 1959 Brion Gysin, painter and writer, cut newspaper articles into sections and rearranged the sections at random, formalizing the cut-up method bringing the collage to writers, which has been used by painters for fifty years. Writers will tell you that often their best works are accidents and manifest out of a stream of consciouness that cannot be explained. The best writing seems to be done almost by accident, but for writers, until the cut-up method became explicit, all writing is in fact cut-ups. You cannot will spontaneity. But you can introduce the unpredictable spontaneous factor with a pair of scissors. (my first experiment ://here)

Graphic Design is, by nature, completely planned mainly because the end result must be universal and legible. but i don't think the process has to be...

William S. Burroughs, who is most know for this process said,“The cut-up is actually closer to the facts of perception than representational painting. Take a walk down a city street and put down what you have just seen on canvas. You have seen a person cut in two by a car, bits and pieces of street signs and advertisements, reflections from shop windows - a montage of fragments. Writing is still confined to the representational straitjacket of the novel ... consciousness is a cut-up. Every time you walk down the street or look out of the window, your stream of consciousness is cut by random factors.”

The cut-up is a mechanical method of juxtaposition in which Burroughs literally cuts up passages of prose by himself and other writers and then pastes them back together at random. This literary version of the collage technique is also supplemented by literary use of other media. Burroughs transcribes taped cutups (several tapes spliced into each other), film cutups (montage), and mixed media experiments (results of combining tapes with television, movies, or actual events). Thus Burroughs’ use of cutups develops his juxtaposition technique to its logical conclusion as an experimental prose method, and he also makes use of all contemporary media, expanding his use of popular culture.

The cut-ups can be applied to fields other than writing. Dr. Neumann in his Theory of Games and Economic Behavior introduces the cut-up method of random action into game and military strategy: assume that the worst has happened and act accordingly. If your strategy is at some point determined . . . by random factor your opponent will gain no advantage from knowing your strategy since he can not predict the move.

The cut-up method could be used to advantage in processing scientific data. How many discoveries have been made by accident? We can not produce accidents to order. The cut-ups could add new dimension to anything — film, photography, ceramics, writing, and even graphic design. There is no reason to accept a second-rate product when you can have the best. And the best is there for all. “Poetry is for everyone.” The word is image and this will be an exhibit of image and theme, mainly through the cutting and reforming of words.

My thesis will consist of the my own personal explorations of Burroughs’ and Gysin’s experimental ideals. This exhibit is an introduction to those explorations with hopes of finding a new purpose and place for graphic design in the cut-up arena.
- - - - -

i'm excited to finalize the details in the fall. but for now, summer will be spent with the family on the road...

the dreamachine: sommerville & gysin's vision of flicker.

it's been about six months now since i told myself that i was going to build my own dream machine (or flicker machine) and i've finally accomplished it. it's my first but definitely won't be my last. i used the template provided by "FLicKeR" the movie's web site (flickerflicker.com) but as i read Chapel of Extreme Experience: A Short History of Stroboscopic Light and the Dream Machine by John Geiger, i'm finding that there are many ways to make the flicker-inducing machine.

on my first dreamachine i used a world map for a couple of reasons — one to represent that the effects of flicker are universal and the visions or "drug-less high's" produced by the machine have no boundaries. secondly, as i study the Cut-Up in literature resulting in poetry, i wanted to explore the splicing of informational graphics. the idea to cut-up something is to make it your own. cutting into the world map makes new names for the places that we already know and at the same time eliminates places we know, just as the effects from using flicker — creating a new world by tapping into our memory and the imagination and bring them to our consciousness, visioning unexplained instances. i will go into the effects of flicker in another blog post.

i plan on writing down my experiences when using the dreamachine in the form of directly-written poetry. This way i can create a Cut-Up Poem without cutting it up after it's written, rather going through the cut-up process in my mind first.

here are some pics of this beautiful creation:

steven heller called out my fate.

"I have finally come to the realization that my self-education was like a dormant childhood illness that has returned in adult life to haunt me." i had printed this summer-2005-article from eye magazine (eye opinion) just over a year ago and stuck it with my stash of articles that may benefit me or be of interest one day.

just like my box of inspiring printed pieces housing direct mail pieces, brochures and ads as well as my browser's bookmark folder stuffed with cool web sites, i tap into these inspiring archives when i get into a rut. i have an oversized folder with articles that i've collected from the Times, online, or Xeroxs from books and other pubs that i resort to when i seek inspiration.

i have a meeting with some gallery directors next week to discuss a show i planned on exhibiting at the end of this semester. it was for the last project in my Special Studies class in which i withdrew after 85% completion. the space wasn't available any how, but is open for the beginning of fall. my biggest dilemma is if i should still exhibit my intended show — my decades book – progress shown at the end of this blog)? or do i come completely off the wall and make a show from something unrelated?

this is why i began the search in my article archives. i have plenty ideas for an exhibit, just none have ever been flushed out... and the meeting is next week. and now after re-discovering this article, i can't help but to believe that i'm merely a "capitalist tool," as steven heller put so in-my-face-ly. but it's true. i have a knack for pleasing clients, presenting a clear message, and selling the goods. but, is my lack of formal training holding me from finding my purpose in the MFA program? am i really a graphic designer? or just a creative person with the ability to juggle administration...

i should have been accepted into this program based on a social issue/graphic design problem that i wanted to confront over the next 3 years. instead, i was accepted based upon my "corporate" portfolio. perhaps my experience proved that i could think for myself with hopes that something would surface. well, after a year and a half, nothing has surfaced and i find myself completely alone. no comradery. no direction. no push. just a demand to create my own curriculum and plan to present to a committee. the news flash is loud and clear: i just don't have it.

read heller's article published in eye magazine summer '05 issue 56: "Me feral designer" and you will see where i'm coming from.

as for the exhibit in the fall, i'm still going to attempt it. i can't give up that easily. below is where my book was going. the plan was to extract the spreads and blow them up to present in a gallery setting... now, i thinking i'll do something much more interesting. as for the book, i was exercising a flow as the reader flipped through the decades of commercial art in america starting in the 50's. a rhythm would maintain with the chorus of vellum spreads showing a graphic transition of each of the decade "circles" as they separate the decade spreads.

cover:


50s:



60s:



70s:


80s:


90s:


and the NOW is even more incomplete than the 80s and 90s... i didn't have time to massage anything and before i knew it the semester was over. as i've taken the W's this semester, i've also taken a lesson. i know who i am and i will never stop learning, i just don't have control of the time line.

finally, just for fun, even as i discovered that the decades mesh together with fuzzy borders, i wanted to explore type treatments that represent each in a poster:

project artschool: i am a serif.

spring 2009 has ended now, and...

there may be a change soon. on this blog, project artschool. since the last third of my first half of the graduate program withdrew nothing new and injected nothing progressive, i'm forced to rethink my purpose here. lack of direction. lack of motivation. lack of the knowledge or research to create a decent thesis statement. i'm lost. and i'm fine with it.

i have no regrets for anything. the past. especially these last three semesters. i learned a lot. i learned how to learn. i grew an interest in design literature. and discovered my place.

i am a serif. with flare. juggling more. and more. than any (one) thing compared. to. compare... ison. i can be extreme. wear boxers. and sweat passion. a tagline. for the who, what, where, and why. but that’s only the half. as i jeopardize. a reputation. i am alive. a living oxy moron. who dares. death. daily. exposed. knowing that one can only grow. with others around. as you will find on this index to my (school) life. online. is merely on line. and no one will truly know me until they find time. to sit in a coffee house. and sip fine conversations. with cream and sugar. sweet nothings. envisioning. a life that is bigger. traditional. realist. fictitious. dreamer. i am a serif.

so why all the long hours. drawn out. tail chasing. solitude. when i'm finding no purpose. when i dig up a graduate level graphic design problem that i want to explore, i will apply to an art school and hit it head on. i can't burn a bridge that was never built. until then, i will continue to be who i am.

there's no surprise why this time will be eliminated. the summer is now necessary. i need it.

my mind is currently focused on project artschool, the underground art&book supply...

Fullerton, CA

Orange, CA

Long Beach, CA

Big Ant Int'l: Global Coalition for Peace

here is my biggest "Why Didn't I Think of That" moment...

“What Goes Around Comes Around. Stop the Iraq War.”

Global Coalition for Peace
Gold Pencil for Design award (Public Service Poster) at the One Show Design Awards. Four posters were designed to wrap around poles, campaigning for an end to the war in Iraq.








for the other two in the series, check out http://bigantinternational.com under works

Advertiser:
Global Coalition for Peace
Agency:
Big Ant International, New York
Additional credits:
Creative director: Alfred S. Park
Associate creative director: Frank Anselmo
Art director: Jeseok Yi
Copywriters: Francisco Hui and William Tran

Source:

ditch poetry: international feature.

i just received notice that i'm an international feature in the Canadian poetry magazine ditch. two of my poems were selected and can be viewed ://here

thesis proposal: Understanding Poetry to Teach Graphic Design.

i may be on to something here...

Working Titles for Thesis Project.
• Teaching Graphic Design with Principles of Poetry.
• Understanding Poetry to Teach Graphic Design.
• Poetry and Graphic Design: Different Media, Same Approach.
• Poetry’s Principles Are Graphic Design’s Process.
• Poetry’s Principles Solve Graphic Design’s Problems.

Working Statements.
• Overcoming graphic design problems with principles of poetry are specifically understood when the principles from the Imagism Literary Movement are used to create effective conceptual logos, the flow of Free Verse and Narrative Poetry are used to create technical and informational graphic layouts, and embracing Cut-Up Poetry leads to enhancing decorative graphic elements and montages.

• Many visual artists repel the power of words because they are blinded by image and therefore need to be taught the importance of the principles of poetry in order to identify their personal rhythm and intuition when creating successful conceptual, technical and artistic graphic design.

Overview.
Learning conceptual graphic design relies heavily on the students individual ability to translate ideas into graphic form with a sense that is pleasing to the viewer. Teaching it almost seems supernatural and unattainable. There is no formula that guarantees unique, creative conceptual results.

My plan is to improve graphic design instruction by creating methods that exercise a designer’s rhythm and intuition. These methods are rooted in principles from poetry through its literary movements and the study of it as an art form. Many visual artists repel the power of words because they are blinded by image. Conceptual graphic design has much to learn from poetry, old and new. As the outcomes of each are usually different (and sometimes considered one in the same), the processes are remarkably similar.

I plan to prove the direct correlation in the processes of writing poetry and creating multiple graphic design solutions through specific experiments and continued research. This thesis project will specifically address the following:

• The process of creating a logo by explaining the foundation of the Imagism Literary Movement

• The process to clean, legible and organized information and communication layouts through Free Verse and Narrative Poetry principles

• The process of designing decorative and montage graphics dictated by Cut-Up Poetry

My Worth. The Subjects Worth.
As I discover inspiration through poetry and find a personal desire to understand it better, my recent enthusiasm for works of literature trickles into my professional trade – graphic design and advertising, encouraging new methods and experiments for use in the design classroom.

The ideals mentioned in this thesis proposal are worthy of experimentation simply because they propose formulas for conceptual thinking. They have the potential to revolutionize the way graphic design in taught. In addition to teaching design students graphic design principles – type, image, color, scale, I believe it is important to teach a concrete method for developing rhythm and intuition. Rather than requesting students to just “come up with an idea,” relying on life’s rhythm, this alternative approach encourages them to see design in another light and enables experimentation like never before, manifesting conceptual thinking.

The future for applying poetry’s principles to graphic design is endless. This thesis will cover three (3) specific areas of application to get the connections started. Once the lineage is clear, many principles in poetry can be interchanged, overlapped and/or evolved to suit almost any graphic design problem.

When inspiration is lost and research is exhausted, the role of rhythm and intuition suffer.
Applying poetry’s principles to graphic design problems opens new avenues to conceptual, technical, and artistic graphic design.

Strengths and Weaknesses.
In order to articulate the benefits in this proposal, it demands an author who has an equal passion for both, poetry and graphic design. That is my main strength. With a background of experience in conceptual advertising and with corporate structure, I am able to visualize the big picture and organize creative mayhem.

As a young student to poetry and real graphic design, I will continue to research the processes of each, digesting their parallels and noting their differences.

Creating a curriculum for the design classroom should flow directly out of the relational studies between poetry’s principles and graphic design problems. This is an area that will take much focus as I fervently critique the three parts of this proposal.

The Goal.
Opening the creative mind can be dangerous. It often leads to procrastination, misdirection and frustration. Learning poetry’s principles and applying them to graphic design problems is a guided process with a solid foundation.

Success will be determined when a design student who shuns the written word, finds and appreciates the process of poetry and understands its power in every individual’s rhythm and intuition. Over time, when there is a method to control conceptual design, this will have been proven and opened to further exploration of more principles and more problems.



Proposed Bibliography.
Lupton, Ellen and Phillips, Jennifer Cole. Graphic Design The New Basics. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2008.

Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style (Second Edition). Vancouver, BC: Hartley & Marks, 1996.

Flynn, Keith. The Rhythm Method, Razzamatazz, and Memory. How To Make Your Poetry Sing. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest Books, 2007.

Butler, Mark J. Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006.

Hurtik, Emil and Yarber, Robert. An Introduction to Poetry and Criticism. Lexington, MA: Xerox College Publishing, 1972.

Woolman, Matt and Bellantoni, Jeff. Moving Type. Designing for Time and Space. Geneva: Rotovision SA, 2000.

Tufte, Edward. Visual Explanations. Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, LLC, 1997.

Tufte, Edward. Beautiful Evidence.
Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, LLC, 2006.

Tufte, Virginia. Artful Sentences. Sentences as Style.
Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, LLC, 2006.

Wigley, Mark. The Architecture of Deconstruction. Derrida’s Haunt.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993.

Lyne, Sandford. Writing Poetry from the Inside Out. Finding your voice through the craft of poetry. Naperville, IL: SourceBooks, Inc., 2007.

Drury, John. Creating Poetry.
Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest Books, 1991.

Bennett, Audrey. Design Studies: Theory and Research in Graphic Design, A Reader. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

download the pdf ://here. it lasts longer.

typography, the original instrument.

not only an instrument or tool, but a necessity. as the gentleman referred to jazz in this video, you need to learn the instrument or the music will be horrid. typographic care is evident in a good designers work and attributes to both, the rhythm and intuition of good design.



as the famous alex "ajax" jackson once said:
"i was a better designer before adobe allowed for multiple "command z's" (edit undo's) because i had to think about every move i was making."

AIGA-OC: 4th annual student design contest.

AIGA-OC, The American Institute of Graphic Arts, Orange County chapter held its 6th Annual Portfolio Review and 4th Annual Student Design Contest last saturday, april 18th at Chapman University. i arrived with about a half an hour until it ended with shorts and flip flops on. as i walked in, i was surrounded by over 100 students from so cal design programs with portfolios in-hand, dressed to impress, being reviewed by 30 creative professionals from local companies like Y&R Brands, Oakley, Walt Disney Imagineering, Pencilbox Studios and many more (see list of reviewers here). i quietly made my way to the back where the projects for the contest were.

to my surprise, i managed to take Honorable Mention for my Chicago 2016 Campaign that i designed last Fall '08.



The campaign consisted of a logo, poster series, welcome package including event tickets, and temporary tattoos.













i left with a certificate that graced my misspelled name, but they promised to send me a corrected one next week.



to find out more about the contest and a complete list of reviewers, click //here.

JoAnn Kuchera-Morin: AlloSphere

t(wo w)ords: holie molie.



JoAnn Kuchera-Morin demos the AlloSphere, an entirely new way to see and interpret scientific data, in full color and surround sound inside a massive metal sphere. Dive into the brain, feel electron spin, hear the music of the elements ... (Recorded at TED2009, February 2009, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 06:28.)
source