This past week I received my copy of Gary Hustwit’s film Objectified. You can imagine my excitement to have the opportunity to finally press play, but seventy-five minutes later I found myself asking: “–That was it?” Just as with Helvetica, I enjoyed the film, I truly did, but I found it too closed niched, too much in the preference of a certain kind of designer and object.
Where were the Campana brothers? Did the One-Laptop Per Child deny an interview? Was Phillip Stark not available? Javier Mariscal? How come no electric cars made it to the edit? How about Massimo and Lella Vignelli? And those unsung heroes who today produce some of the most amazing work on the sustainability front? How about Catalan designer Juli Capella who constantly writes about Spanish objects, their design and influence in culture? How come Scandinavia’s and India’s work did not make it? And why were there no architects? (they happen to design a large percentage of the objects that surround us) I bet you can also instantly think of a few more examples.
This project being a film, I understand its need for editing and focus. Not everything can make it. I understand that, but… Would it have been too hard to minimize the fourth showing of one person and introduce the perspective of an up-and-coming designer? And how come Latin American design has not been referenced? (I am so shocked about the non-showing of the Brazilian Campana brothers).
As you can tell, I am a bit disappointed, but don’t let that discourage you from watching it. The film offers a rare look into the process and thinking of some of those whose work has changed the contemporary way of living. It is a good reference. It just left me with too many questions that probably only a design nerd like me will ever make…
I recently visited The Bain Project in Raleigh, North Carolina. The thing is, I ended there out of pure luck due to a friend who simply said: I want to stop at “a thing”.
As I arrived on the location all that I could think to myself was: “How did I not know about this earlier? How had nobody told me?”. In retrospect, I did know of the activity. In fact, its promotional poster hung 5 feet from me in my studio for the last 3 weeks of classes.
I am one of those rare graduate students who still makes a bit of time to watch some television. I know… I know… Honestly though, I learn from a good show, story, or plot. Battlestar Galactica, the early Gray’s Anatomy, and the initial seasons of Prison Break, Lost, and 24, are some of the contemporary visual narratives that go beyond the mere entertainment they are meant to provide… and there’s plenty to gain from watching them if you are conscious of this. There are other not so good narratives out there, but it’s harder to admit and share what I see in them in a public manner… ;)
Recently, while watching some of these shows, I noted a change in the commercial advertising landscape: the automotive industry is trying to harness the power of typography and verbal communications to make its pitch to us.
So the big question after getting the button machine was: what was I going to do as a first button set to share with others? I decided to make a gift to my classmates, and I made a button out of every single one of the Design Thinking Posters that we each made for this semester’s studio class. The set has all 16 concepts represented.
A few days ago I found the Insights Incite Change Style Guide webpage for Syracuse University. I was temporarily thrilled, for as an alumnus of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications I could not wait to experience a new visual transformation of my alma mater.
The third in a series of articles published in Mangrove magazine in 2004. These are not deep in academic research, but a fun read.
Photo chop
Fast-food restaurants promote indigestion in more than one way. Customarily, visual references used to advertise the menu –that is, photographs– are more than often fake. Most of the products showcased as value meals were never photographed as a group, but instead “stitched” from different sources. Not only clients save in buying a soda, sandwich and fries. Owners also play cheap by resorting to digital compositions that ultimately deceive the public. To add to the debate about the nutritional attributes of fast food, we can certify it can also endanger visual health. Read the rest of this entry »
The first in a series of articles published in Mangrove magazine in 2004. These are not deep in academic research, but a fun read.
Landscape Muggers
What USA publicists call a junior page advertisement is known in Puerto Rico, more informally, as a “robapágina”, or page mugger. Reference to the “illegality” of a fake full-page has less to do with the crime problems currently affecting the island than with the aggressiveness that permeates most advertising endeavors all over the world.
Armando Rigau currently pursues a Master in Architecture I at Cornell University. He received his bachelor's degree in Philosophy with History and Spanish minors from Georgetown University.
