Area_2

Its official come June 10th I’ll be taking my first graphic design course and I couldn't be more excited. One of my classmates gave me a crash course last week so that I could make the (very amateur) logo below for my Commercial Design Concepts class.


I’m particularly interested in graphic design because at its root much of graphic design is ultimately about reinterpreting images and re-purposing them to fulfill a new function. Thus I was elated when I stumbled upon Area_2 : 100 Graphic Designers, 10 Curators the newest volume in Phaidon’s acclaimed “Area” series, which features 100 of the world’s most interesting emerging graphic designers, as chosen by 10 of the most respected figures in the field. More than 1,500 images reveal the talents and trends of contemporary graphic design as it has evolved over the past five years. It’s literally eye candy for the soul. Each of the book’s 100 four-page sections is devoted to the work of a single designer, and includes a critical essay written by the relevant curator.
Priced at a cool $90, Area_2 may just have to go on my ever growing list of things to buy when I finally get my stimulus check.

p.s. I have a feeling I’ll be eating my words in a few weeks when I’m struggling to master Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop but a girl can dream...

-whitney

Daily Door

Keep Calm Gallery

A friend of mine recently turned me on to Keep Calm Gallery. The site is loaded with prints bearing quirky and yet poignant sayings. Below are just a few of my favorites...

Which brings me to my love of maps. I've been eyeing some vintage maps at Aria in North Beach, but they are a bit out of my price range. OK, more like $300 out of my price range but they have the USSR on them - I can't resist!  The Soviet Union itself fell under less pressure than this!

Buck up!

-whitney

Daily Door

Mission Dolores

My mother once remarked that the Mission reminds her of a Wes Anderson Movie. While I've yet to spot any Gypsy cabs, I have found that the Mission does seem to possess the same idiosyncratic eclecticism and questionably ironic self-awareness that make Mr. Anderson's films so enjoyable. Below are just a few of my favorite neighborhood sights...

Lunch with my friend Tony at Tartine.

The endlessly entertaining X-21: a vintage/collectible warehouse which boasts a disorganized array of everything from a Styrofoam superman to crocodile hides. While trying to navigate the chaotic quagmire that is their basement I ran into an older British gentleman ailing from a tequila-induced hangover.  In the course of inquiring about several of their unique wares, he not only proved less than helpful, but managed to insult every item I showed any interest in. When I commented on his poor salesmanship he scoffed and said he was the store's visual design person. Go figure.

More X-21 treasures...

Time to shop!

My neighborhood liquor store which I secretly think is run by the Russian mafia.  If this is the last blog post ever, you'll know that the owners were Light Telescopic fans who were less than happy that they'd been outed.

This sign was posted in the window of vintage housewares shop The Apartment.   The shopkeeper looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if I could take a picture of his "Photo Menu." Apparently, he failed to see any humor in "3 persons photos men & Womens".

More from The Apartment...

-whitney

Art Spotlight: Dennis De Bel

I just tripped across the work of Dutch artist Dennis De Bel today, and I couldn't wait to share it.  The piece which really caught my eye was 'Naaitafel', in which De Bel re-engineers a vintage Singer into a record player (probably appealing because it marries my two favorite vintage appliances into one twisted monstrosity of nostalgia).  The title is derived from the similarity between the Dutch words for "sewing table" and "turntable."

Check out his website for many other quirky objects, many of which toy with off-beat overlaps of form and/or function, as well as our culture's unholy reverence of technology.

Another gem is the 'Stratenspeler,' which signifies a "street-player" as opposed to a record player.  It amplifies the sound of whatever textural surface it's placed on, allowing the user to create a looped feed of say, a crack in the sidewalk, the sound of grass on a warm summer evening, or the sweet song of hot inner-city asphalt.

--gillian

Procrastination is the name of the game

Am struggling with the worst sort of ADD so instead of actually buckling down and working on my commercial design project, I thought I'd share a few images I've found inspiring thus far. 

The final project for the class is to design a retail space via perspective drawings, material boards and CAD drawings. I was originally going to design a vintage/furniture store similar to Swallowtail on Polk St. (see below) with lots of architectural elements...




...however, as I became more involved with the project I realized that my favorite part of that space was an area housing design books that I had dubbed the Library....so I decided to scratch my original idea and am now designing a vintage bookstore.

A (very illegaly shot) picture of Will Wick's library at this year's Designer Showcase.

OK, this picture is not so much inspiration for any of the architecture or interior design of my project, but it's exactly how I'd like to look if I owned such a bookstore. hehehe.

My apologies if the image above is a bit blurry - I just took a shot of my inspiration board at home.

The last 4 pictures were orignally posted by the lovely Automatism --one of my new favorite blogs.

-Whitney