design:related - Henry's inspirations

The Big Picture: New Stories in Photographs - boston.com

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:08:45 GMT

I just came across this great photo blog for the Boston Globe.
Incredible news photos with great captions.
Check it out:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/

The Big Picture is a photo blog for the Boston Globe/boston.com, compiled semi-regularly by Alan Taylor. Inspired by publications like Life Magazine (of old), National Geographic, and online experiences like MSNBC.com's Picture Stories galleries and Brian Storm's MediaStorm,

The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery - with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting.

That '70s Type!

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:37:00 GMT

Here’s a great collection of typography from the ’70s.

Ugly? Yeah.

Cool? Oh OK. Yeah, Kinda.

Nostalgic & Groovy & Macho? Definitely.

But all fun and experimental in it's own way and all built up and coming straight at you.

I miss Letraset press type.

LONG LIVE LETRASET!

And POLAROIDS!

Don't forget to click on Part 2 of That '70s Type for more bell-bottomed grooviness.

Written by Gene Gable for CreativePro.com

The Catcher in the Rye: Maroon paperback

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:32:26 GMT

If you really want to hear about it, my beat up copy of The Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorite books. And this plain, all Times Roman typeface, solid Maroon and Yellow type paperback is one of my favorite cover designs. A perfect marriage of content, form and memories. The cover demands that you fill in the rest yourself. Compared to the simplicity of this, all other designs are just plain phony.

JJ Abrams Video Interview on TED.com

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:41:26 GMT

As the Emmy-winning creator of the smart, addictive TV dramas Lost, Alias and Felicity, J.J. Abrams' name looms large on the small screen. As the writer/director behind the blockbuster explode-a-thon Mission: Impossible III, Cloverfield and the next Star Trek movie, these days Abrams also rules the big screen—bringing his eye for telling detail and emotional connection to larger-than-life stories. Abrams' enthusiasm—for the construction of Kleenex boxes, for the quiet moments between shark attacks in Jaws, for today's filmmaking technologies, and above all for the potent mystery of an unopened package—is incredibly infectious. "As a boy, JJ Abrams was fascinated with magic. As a television writer, director, and producer, he has beguiled audiences with a masterful use of suspense, plot reversals, and special effects." —Wired { Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 18:02 }

Chip Kidd Interview

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:37:03 GMT

DWELL magazine video interview with book jacket designer/singer Chip Kidd.

Indy Jones 4 Movie Poster

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:01:17 GMT

Harrison Ford has dusted off his fedora and bullwhip and reprises the title role in INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. I know this because the movie teaser poster just came out. Once again illustrated by movie poster master Drew Struzan (born 1947). I love his work. It says summer blockbuster. Seeing his posters brings out the kid in me. Popularly known by his signed first name Drew, Struzan has one of the most recognized styles in the industry. A favorite artist of film directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, he’s illustrated over 150 posters, including many of the best-known films of all time. Read more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Struzan

Action Comics, No. 1

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:41:27 GMT

In June 1938, DC Comics issued Action Comics No. 1. The comic book that introduced SUPERMAN. The first major hero character to have mythic "super" powers. Created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, whose lives inspired Michael Chabon's novel, THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY. The most valuable comic in the world in any condition with only 100 copies known to exist. I can't believe that someone placed this gorgeously tattered copy on the scanner. But I'm glad they did. And check out the back cover. Suh-WEET!

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Chuck Close, artist, 61, New York City

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:44:43 GMT

Interviewed by Andy Ward | January 2002 for Esquire Magazine —Inspiration is highly overrated. If you sit around and wait for the clouds to part, it's not liable to ever happen. More often than not, work is salvation. —Virtually everything I've ever done has been a product of-or has been influenced by-my learning disabilities. I don't recognize faces, and I don't remember names, either. But I have almost perfect photographic memory for things that are two-dimensional. —The choice not to do something is almost always more interesting than the choice to do something. —I wasn't a good student, I wasn't an athlete, and I think that helped focus me early in my life. I distinguished myself by being more intensely engaged and more intensely focused because I knew if I blew this artist thing, I'd be screwed. —Get yourself in trouble. If you get yourself in trouble, you don't have the answers. And if you don't have the answers, your solution will more likely be personal because no one else's solutions will seem appropriate. You'll have to come up with your own. —It's always wrong before it's right. —A face is a road map of someone's life. Without any need to amplify that or draw attention to it, there's a great deal that's communicated about who this person is and what their life experiences have been. —Being a critic is like being a meter maid. All you do is bring pain into people's lives. —I'll tell you an interesting thing that's happened to me since I was paralyzed twelve years ago. I'm six foot three, and when walking around, I very seldom got approached by anybody. But being in a wheelchair has made me more accessible. I have people coming up to me on the street now. One of the great pleasures in that is the accessibility has made it possible for people to engage me in a different way. It's very moving to hear someone say my work has had some meaning for them. —Painting is the frozen evidence of a performance. —If you're by nature an optimistic person, which I am, that puts you in a lot better position to be lucky. —My father died when I was eleven. That was a real tragedy, a horrible thing to happen when you're little. But one of the gifts in that experience was that I learned very early in life that you can get past something and you will be happy again. Losing my father was extremely important in accepting what happened to me later in life when I became a quadriplegic. —It happened suddenly, a spontaneous event within my body. I just found myself all of a sudden paralyzed from the shoulders down. It's like a car accident, in a way. There's a sense of calm; time slows down. It's not scary in the way you imagine something like this is going to be scary. —I'd rather not have these particular rocks in my shoes. —After a few days in the hospital, I was thinking, Oh, gee-I was raised in a church, Protestant upbringing, which I'd rejected as an adult-I'm lying in the bed thinking, Hmmm, maybe I ought to pray. They always say there are no atheists in a foxhole, and I thought, Here I am in a pretty good-sized foxhole and I thought, Naahhh. I wouldn't respect any God who would listen to me after I rejected him so vociferously. —If you're overwhelmed by the whole, break it down to pieces. —An event like this, a catastrophic illness or whatever, it doesn't happen just to you, it happens to everyone around you. I sit in a wheelchair, but I look out at the world and it is unchanged. It looks the same as it always did. But people who love me look at me and they see a loved one in a wheelchair. —I miss being alone. Being alone is not the same thing as loneliness. —Painting is a lie. It's the most magic of all media, the most transcendent. It makes space where there is no space. —My favorite painter of all time is Vermeer. —Nuance and subtlety are where it's at. It's those little adjustments. You get something 99 percent of the way there, but it's that last 1 percent that really makes the difference. —You don't have to have a dramatic story. It's all in the telling. —I really miss the subway. —When I was first in the hospital and things were really grim, someone said to me, "Oh, you'll be alright because you paint with your head and not with your hands." And at first that really pissed me off. I thought, Easy for you to say. But it was absolutely true. Once you know what art looks like, you're gonna find a way to make it again. —Quadriplegics envy paraplegics. You think, Man, they've got it made. —There's always somebody worse off than you are. —Painting's been dead several times in my career already. And that's always the best time to start painting. —Being self-involved and having the arrogance to think that you have something to say and somebody else should pay attention is a necessary component of an artist's life. —I didn't get into art for therapy. I go to therapy for therapy.

The view of the East River outside my window.

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 03:21:20 GMT

Out my window. Time Lapse Movie Friday, July 13, 2007 07:45 PM - Saturday, July 14, 2007 10:45 AM