Whale hunt

An' experiment in storytelling', Whale hunt is a project by one of my* favorite interaction designer/artists, Jonathan Harris. An ex-fabricante, he 'designs systems to explore and explain the human world combining elements of computer science, anthropology, visual art and storytelling'.

I remember seeing two of his pre-fabrica projects, 10X10 and Wordcount long time back and it had fascinated me with its smartness. Most of his projects stimulates our basic instinct of wanting to know, which the seniors say killed the cat. They allow you to play and yet not feel like a stereotypical addict (O.K, read bum) whose thumb can't forget the joystick even while its holding the mandatory burger.

'Whale hunt' retains these attributes but takes us on a journey and offers space (And what a space it is!) to create an experience different from the rest of his works. It is documented like a journey and hence takes us on one too, not necessarily the same for each one. It introduces us to Inupiat Eskimos in Barrow, Alaska, and captures a thousand-year-old tradition, the Inupiat whale hunt. The law allows the community to hunt 22 whales every year to maintain their food supply.

Check it out and see the primeval reds stirring up the dead greys.

*I am that you are not.

Colors

The 73rd offering of the Quarterly that was created in 1991 by Tibor Kalman and Oliviero Toscani (who also funded the venture) is out. The issue is called MONEY and talks about all the many forms the same exists in. The magazine had gone off its provocative ways since the first few issues but nonetheless, has been bringing out well designed / compiled editions on pertinent issues dealing with human rights, value systems and various forms of discrimination.

Their website offers articles as pdf's. It will take a while to load , make sure your browsers are updated. Also, do check out the some additional info including earlier covers, here.

N.B: Michael Bierut cites Kalman and talks about a few of his interesting ways in "Thirteen ways of looking at a Typeface" posted down.

Peter Mendelsund

Peter Mendelsund is also (with reference to Chip Kidd who was featured earlier) a book designer with Knopf. I dont know if he sits next to Kidd's cabin. You could also read this interview to know him better, if that'll ease your life any bit.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Typeface

A brilliant essay by none other than Michael Bierut. Would make up for the entire time you would have spent cursing bad typo plus the time you spent trying to do something about it and couldn't.

Pourquoi?

A small (not really, its 20 mts) video with around 15 not-so-small graphic designers like Paula Scher, Michael Bierut, Chipp Kidd, Stefan Sagmeister, James Victore doing the talking.

Click here.

vow!

Visuals of the World is the longest inspirational website in the world and it calls for designers to upload their work to make it longer as they intend to get into the Guinness Book of Records soon.

Current lenght of the website is 155 meters!

Rodchenko

A bit of Constructivism since we were with Milton Glaser a while ago.

Alexander Rodchenko was a Russian graphic designer, photographer and artist and is considered to be one of the founders of constructivism. Shown are the covers designed by Rodchenko for LEF, which was the journal of the Left Front of the Arts, an association of avant-garde writers, photographers, critics and designers in the Soviet Union. The design on the left was used till the journal was renamed as Novyi (New) LEF in 1927, shown on the right.

If in case you want to see more, this flickr page has a great collection of various posters classified commendably into various countries, eras and movements. I'm still scouting Flickr for people who have put the network into respectful use, and revealing my ignorance about the same, the number is surprisingly high.

Kidd and the Master

A must read. Chip Kidd interviews Milton Glaser.

Chipp Kidd

All these while I was waiting for a good reason to put a post about him in here. Not that all those book covers he designed weren't reasons good enough, but you know, I felt that an occasion of sorts is coming. And here it is. Chip Kidd was recently declared the winner in the Communications Design section of this year’s National Design Awards presented by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, which honours the best of American design since 2000. Kidd, a finalist in 2006, has been creating book jackets and covers for the publishing house Alfred A. Knopf for twenty years. His commonly found designs are 'Kafka on the Shore' (Murakami) and Osamu Tezuka's 'Buddha'-the comic series. Seen here is a part of the cover for 'Dry' by Augusten Burroughs.

Saul Bass

A must see for all the Saul Bass fans.
Also check out http://www.designmuseum.org/design/saul-bass.

You can kiss my ass later for this mother of a goodie.

Zoomorphic Calligraphy

Work by Hassan Musa, a sudanese artist living in France.
More information here

For All Seasons

Since I've gotten myself talking typo, this should be of interest to the ones who have kept aside their social work, kitchen maintenance, baby feeding, pedicure, monthly car wash and rolling joints to read my blog which technorati says is ranked 2,763,138 in the whole blogosphere.

Check out www.hahakid.net/forallseasons/forallseasons.html
The download might take some time but I promise you wont forget this for a long long time to come.

About Face, Limbs and Antennae

Oded Ezer is actually more of a graphic designer than a biologist. Just that he tends to divide his Hebrew type into head, thorax and abdomen at times. The results are not only organic but transcendent.

Help yourself to some pollens at http:////www.odedezer.com/index.html

Reza Abedini

Let me take the honour of introducing Reza Abidini to the mortals who are recklessly ignorant to still not know who he is. Actually, you'll get all the information you need on him if you click on the link given below, but as you read rightly between my first line already, I would like to assert a certain acquaintance about the person in discussion.

Reza Abidini is one of the preeminent Iranian graphic designers whose work (mainly posters) are expressions of a culture that he is deeply rooted in. He is also a professor of Graphic Design and Visual Culture at the Tehran University. Reza just received the 2006 Principal Prince Claus Award of €100,000 (that is Indian Rupees 86,70,000 approximately) presented by the Prince Claus Fund, Amsterdam.

Please follow the link to read more about him and his work while let me sit back and relish this moment when a great artist's portrait is going to be hung on my virtual wall.

http://www.rezaabedini.com/