I bought my 2010 calendar at the Legion of Honor here in San Francisco about three weeks ago to replace the Liechtenstein one I used in 2009. It’s a compilation of work by early 1900′s artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I hadn’t heard of him (maybe..?) but the style of his work is very avant-guard and Mucha-esque, which is something I’ve been really into since I visited Prague in the summer of 2008. Interesting thing about Mackintosh is that his work is really spread throughout a number of mediums–stained glass, architecture,  furniture, sculpture, etc. Below are a few samples that really speak to me:

Larkspur Walberswick (August 1914)

Waves (1915)

Stylised Rose (Early 20th Century)

“Three Machines” by Wayne Thiebaud (1963)

“Three Machines” Close-Up

This painting is on display at the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. I really didn’t like (understand?) it at first–but it keeps coming back to me, and it’s one of the only pieces I distinctly remember from when I visited the DeYoung a few weeks ago [others: "Anti-Mass" by Cornelia Parker, a suspended composition of charred wood collected from the grounds of church subject to arson, and a hallway on the second floor lined with 30+ chairs from different historical periods].  I think there really is something beautiful about the character of the painting. Use of perspective is sloppy, the subject matter is mundane, yet the experience of the piece is off-beat and interesting.

I’m no art critic (sorry if it sounds a bit like that on occasion, anyone who writes a blog is somewhat victim to vanity and/or arrogance from time to time), but my point is this: communication arts have to imprint an image/emotion/message in the heads of viewers/consumers/etc. to be effective, and this piece has a little of that magic glue that holds an idea in place. It is not the likability of this painting that has me writing about it over two months after the fact–it’s the itch of having not quite figured out how to define or categorize the piece’s impact.

Maybe what is INTERESTING perpetuates memory more deeply than what is LIKABLE.

Crispin, Porter & Bogusky (http://cpbgroup.com), a hot Miami-based ad agency, seems to live off this principle (and their client list should be enough to convince you that their methods work). If you know those  Old Navy mannequin commercials or Burger King’s ‘The King’ campaign you may understand what I’m talking about.

Until next time…

Here are my first offspring from my new life as an Ad Kid from one of my classes. These aren’t completely finished–the third REI campaign in particular needs a little more work to fully get the message across, I feel. Each of these pieces represents one of three–I’ll post all of each campaign when they’re more polished–but I figured I’d post them anyway since I’m sure some of you are interested to see what I’ve been up to since I haven’t been posting for a while.

“Hello. I want to tell you something important or interesting or useful or funny. It’s about you. I won’t take very long and there’s a prize if you stay till the very end.”

- Paul Keye

This is a picture of the quote pinned to the wall in my bedroom, next to my desk. Pretty good guidance on how to create effective advertising, if you ask me.

WCC Day Six:

Screen printing–when done for real, not mocked on digital software–involves breaking a design into its basic shape elements, which are painted onto “screens” (think just like the ones covering your windows) by color and then pressed onto a blank surface, such as cloth or canvas. One of the most beneficial factors of this process is that an imprint can be made over and over again with the same screen, which allows for large-scale production of the design. Andy Warhol made the process famous in the art world, but today the technique has largely faded out due to more efficient means of production. The style, however, remains influential; just take the iconic Obama poster from last’s fall’s presidential election.

Adobe Photoshop, 700 x 700.

WCC Day 5:

As mentioned earlier, I’m trying to improve my overall skills in Adobe Illustrator. This piece is the product of a tutorial I found at (www.ndesign-studio.com). Stumbling through tutorials is really the best way (in my opinion) to become proficient in Adobe, and probably any other creative-based software system. These flowers were created by selecting two differently colored paths and blending them using the “specified steps” tool under “object>blend>blend object>specified steps.” The number of “steps” refers to the number of lines that will be created between the two initial paths (or lines). See, we both learned something new today!

Adobe Illustrator, 700 x 700.

WCC Day Four: 

Had to trop up to SF for a few days, sorry for the break in posts. Tonight marks (by some accounts) the transition to the fifth sign of the zodiac, Leo. According to Wikipedia, this sign is considered to be a “positive(extrovert) sign.” 

Adobe Photoshop, 700 x 700.

WCC Day Three:

Happy Shark Week! I’m not nearly as comfortable in Illustrator as I am in Photoshop, but of course practice makes perfect, so expect to see a lot more posts like this.

Adobe Illustrator, 1266 x 844.

WCC Day Two:

Playing with a photo I took of  San Marco Square in Venice, Italy. Inspiration draws from the idea that places of such historical representation often seem to get lost in the mediocrity and indifference (represented by the juggling tightrope walker, who acts as a visual foil to the rest of the piece) of the hyper-sensationalization of the media and commercialization by the tourism industry.

Adobe Photoshop, 1800 x 1200.