Christine's Design Blog

Renowned designer James Victore explained that he titled the AIGA event, held at F.I.T., with a ‘How To’ because that draws people to attend. He probably should realize that people would attend without the ‘How To’ anyway,  since he is, after all, James Victore. A tall, commanding man with a mustache.

As a volunteer, I was given the task of passing out programs standing here at one of the bottom entrances:

Settling into our reserved back row seats, the other volunteers and I were treated, along with 280 other attendees, to the thoughts, profanities, and silly little insights into the man who has created some of the most thought-provoking posters of our time.

James said, ‘Young designers … you really want to get into museums because you can get so much action.’ At which point he showed the slide below, and said that when your work is up at the museum like this, girls will come up to you, giggling, wanting to take photographs.

Yet all the action aside, James explained that his work had been exhibited in museums worldwide for some years, but that recognition always comes last at home. Last fall, his work was accepted by the MOMA, and they gave him a call to inform him of the happy news. Excited, he asked, ‘Will there be a party?’ The guy replied, ‘No.’ ‘Will there be an announcement of some kind?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do I get like a plaque or something?’ ‘No.’ ‘… Do I get a formal letter telling me that my work has been accepted by the MOMA?’ ‘No.’ Finally, he asked, ‘Can I at least get a letter for my mom? She’d be so proud.’ And he showed us this slide below, a photograph of a letter addressed to ‘James Victore’s Mom’ that arrived the next day or so, and is now on his mother’s refrigerator (click to enlarge):

It’s always fun to hear designers mention other designers, and James constantly brought up Paul Sahre, with whom he is great friends. From driving out to Long Island to buy blank surfboards to paint on (James said that he painted on four of them within weeks, and Paul produced one in two years — ‘I’m too impatient,’ he said. ‘Why do you think my work looks the way it does?’) to Paul designing James’s monograph, the two are a duo that makes you go ‘aww.’ Paul was supposed to be in attendance, but had twins over the weekend (James added, ‘His wife helped, too.’), so was occupied.

Some fun things James said that he does to keep himself constantly thinking and enjoying downtime are Coffee Notes and Picture Wars. Coffee Notes is something James and his wife do every morning. The idea is that whoever makes coffee that day writes a note for the other person. He showed us examples of the notes covering one of the walls in his kitchen, and they were many and varied — collages, simple text (‘We think too much about coffee’ or something to that extent), drawings of one another (‘Apparently it’s very easy to draw me — you just draw a mustache’), and so forth. And once in awhile his kids will join in, too.

Picture Wars, he said, has caught on with those around him, and Paul couldn’t wait to have a son to continue the Picture Wars tradition. Picture Wars take place when you’re sitting at a restaurant, waiting for service, and you whip out a pen to draw on napkins your dining partners in compromising positions. One example came from a day when Paul was feeling ruthless and mean, and he drew James’s 12-year-old son, Luca, with his pants halfway down, and somebody exclaiming, ‘Luca wears Hannah Montana underwear!’ James said that this really hurt his son, who never gets hurt, and so in retaliation, James drew a picture of the Dalai Lama (spelled ‘Dali Lama’ in the picture) saying, ‘Paul is being a jerk.’

The event was a special one, because also in attendance were students from New York City’s High School of Art and Design, who were mentored by James through the AIGA/NY Mentoring Program. Their work, part of a project called ‘I Have a Voice,’ was exhibited in the lobby, but I couldn’t get a photo before some of them were cleared away by their owners.

All in all, though the man can swear like a pirate and ooze a good dose of cockiness, I’d recommend seeing James Victore speak. His great work ethic and passion for design and creating meaning are pretty darn inspiring.

Hope: Give Yours
Friday, May 22
12-5 p.m.
Union Square

Two students from SVA’s BFA Graphic Design program, Krzysztof Piatkowski and Victoria Abrami, also students of wonderful professor Lara McCormick, are finally going to be able to gather hope in their big yellow box legally in Union Square tomorrow!

Hope: Give Yours is a project that recognizes the necessity and abundant existence of hope in the world today. Whether it’s a grand hope for world peace and a healthy planet, or it’s a smaller but still powerful hope to find true love, the yellow box will take it all. Come to Union Square, write down your hope, deposit it into the box, and share in others’ hopes.

If you’re still not quite sure what I’m talking about, here’s a video of previous hopes they have collected:

Hope:GiveYours from Hope:GiveYours on Vimeo.

More information on the history of the project here.

This video is so amazing and adorable.

Found on Ben’s blog.

I’ve just finished reading Mark Haddon’s A Spot of Bother, and I really do think that British writers have got a certain knack for dry humor. Something about the way they take normal people and help you see the comedy in everyday living. Or at the very least, they make you feel less bad about your own life.

Another thing the British (and Europe in general) have is a better sense of design, which you can see in the contrast of the first and second covers (you guessed it — UK and American versions, respectively — though the version I read, the American one, does say that the cover illustration was done by the artist, which is great):

This one, apparently, is the hardcover version in the US. It does a pretty good job summing the whole story up in the same style as Haddon’s first book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, though I really do like the UK one.

In a nutshell, the novel follows the Hall family in probably a month or two’s time, as George, the father, starts losing his marbles to paranoia and a fear of dying when he finds a lesion on his hip. Though the doctor reassures him that it’s just eczema, George continues to believe that it’s cancer consuming him, and it really doesn’t help that his wife Jean is having an affair with an old colleague of George’s, his son Jamie’s miserable because he drove his loving boyfriend away, and his daughter Katie is about to wed somebody she clearly doesn’t love.

Though half the time you suspect Haddon’s weaving a tale of madness and hilarity for his own amusement (and it’s very amusing), you realize that he’s also making some very real observations regarding living, growing up, growing old, and realizing how to care for those you love once you’ve figured out that you love them.

A few of my favorite excerpts:

Maybe the answers weren’t important. Maybe it was the asking which mattered. Not taking anything for granted. Maybe that’s what stopped you growing old.

And maybe you could put up with anything so long as you got half an hour a day to come somewhere like this and let your mind wander.

- p. 203 of Vintage Books edition

[Jean] was, perhaps, still upset about [George's] misadventure in the bath. Or about the carpet (the fitters were not coming till the following week). Or about the row she had had with Katie and Jamie. Or about the wedding being off. Or about the wedding being on again. Or about the fact that Katie and Ray were now organizing it themselves so that she no longer had a controlling stake in the event. The possibilities were numerous. And, in his experience, women could get upset about things that never even occurred to most men.

He decided not to pry.

- p. 239 of Vintage Books edition

He used to hate it when Tony complained in restaurants or held Jamie’s hand ostentatiously in public places. But now Tony wasn’t around Jamie could see how important it was. And it occurred to him that there were two parts to being a better person. One part was thinking about other people. The other part was not giving a toss about what other people thought. Sending stale naan bread back to the kitchen. Kissing with tongues on Blackfriars Bridge.

- p. 288 of Vintage Books edition

And I leave you with this puzzle: Why is it that whenever I visit Mark Haddon’s website, I am always told by the abstracted male figure that I don’t have the proper version of Flash Player, though each time I’ve been on his site, I do the necessary update? I may never learn more about the wonderful author.

Paid a visit on Tuesday with Liz to the SVA Visual Arts Gallery, located at 601 West 26 Street on the 15th floor. We went to check out both the SVA Designer as Author MFA thesis show and the Illustration as Essay MFA show.

The first gallery had the design theses, which had wonderful setups, as seen here:

But I’ve already talked a lot about the design students’ work, so today I’ll share some of the wonderful illustrations I saw.

Here are images from Joanna Neborsky‘s work, in which she illustrated Novels in Three Lines.

Lisel Ashlock, who was actually in the gallery at the time with some friends, illustrated the covers of her favorite books.

One of the books was also a favorite of mine, John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Her illustration, which, like the others, was painted on wood, shows Cathy/Kate in all her dark, troubled glory.

Anna Raff‘s R. U. Fauna Department Store.

You Byun‘s thesis, titled ‘The Message,’ really spoke to me. It was almost like an illustrated manifesto. The description read:

I have illustrated four messages about the life I wish to lead:

I want to dream
I want to reach
I want to know
and I want to accept.

Sybille Schenker‘s illustrations for ‘Hansel and Gretel.’

The exhibitions run only until Saturday, so be sure to check out the rest of the great talent that I didn’t get a chance to post.