HVCC ARTS 160

2008-10-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

Serious stampage

2008-10-07T12:29:00.001-07:00

yeah I don't know if it really looks like a stamp but i was trying to figure out how to change things like lifting the dogs ear without making it look pieced together

2008-10-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

This is my stamp. I tried to go for a 70's feel
to it.

My Stamps

2008-10-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

2008-10-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

Hatman (XKCD) and Sushi Stamps

2008-10-07T12:07:00.001-07:00

2008-10-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

Chelsea Stamp

2008-10-07T12:05:00.001-07:00

van gogh stamp

2008-10-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

warhol stamp

2008-10-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

2008-10-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

Here is my ramshackle nutty stamp. I am not too familiar with Photoshop and I think this stamp illustrates that fact. However, practice makes perfect!

Alex's Stamp

2008-10-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

All right, so my stamp's cheaper than everybody else's. What can I say? I had some awful sources when it came to stamp pricing.

My stamp is of Marx Brother and pianist Leonard "Chico" Marx. The picture is a colorized screen capture from the movie Monkey Business. The movie provided the capture; I provided the colors. I used Photoshop layer styles and varying levels of opacity, not to mention oodles of playing around with the hue/saturation of the colors.

I adore colorizing black and white pictures. I just think it's fun. Thought I'd throw that out there.

My actual stamp

2008-10-07T10:40:00.001-07:00

it'd be nice to post this with my blog!

My stamp

2008-10-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

My stamp is a twist off of A Crude Awakening. Oil is a huge issue that all of us around the globe are facing. let it be from our oil peaking levels to our extreme high prices on gasoline. my stamp represents the death of oil and its prices in america. its time to change energy sources. Oil is yesterday what does tommorow bring? any solutions?

My CaRtOoNs

2008-09-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

2008-09-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

"Machin head stamp"

2008-09-18T13:54:00.001-07:00

named after the guy who made them. i really like these stamps. it kind of reminds me of a cameo or something.

chinese new year stamp

2008-09-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

I really like the style of this stamp, the color sheme and the gold foily lettering. It just stuck me as very classy.

PoKeMoN & Mario Stamps

2008-09-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

They speak for themselves

2008-09-18T07:22:00.002-07:00

I saw this and thought it was awesome even though its not a stamp, but it fits the upcoming season with the leaves in the background? ha but this is by Chuck Anderson. He has some pretty impressive stuff he also is know for lupe fiasco's album cover and i think some x games work. great link to his portfolio... http://www.nopattern.com/nopattern/

2008-09-18T07:22:00.001-07:00

2008-09-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

So i love the outdoors and its lke all of the emotions you see outdoors and the colors are amazing and the way they are unified. I was also thinking about maybe using a raven because it means alot. Ravens symbolize magic and mysetry and the form of life not knowing what lies ahead and that fits me.

a japanese postage stamp

2008-09-16T13:36:00.002-07:00

from nippon maybe

2008-09-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

i thought this one was interresting. Looks like a peice of a bill or something.

2008-09-16T13:35:00.001-07:00

Thsi stamp idea reminds me of that Russian ad we saw in class, I believe it was by Lizzitsky? It has a real communist feel to it, but I like the layout and the idea for a stamp.

disney stamps

2008-09-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

These are a few Disney stamps currently available from the post office. I love the strong colors. I have two ideas for my stamp project and one has to do with children's storybooks so Disney fits with my theme.

dali

2008-09-16T13:31:00.001-07:00

Dali is my hands down favorite artists... isn't much else to say about it. He has an interesting face aaaand he's dope so why not

cats eye

2008-09-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

cats are cool and they deserve to be on stamps.

2008-09-16T13:27:00.001-07:00

2008-09-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

Stamps

2008-09-16T13:25:00.000-07:00

While looking for interesting stamps I came cross this site of someones personal stamp collection. There were a lot of really cool stamps that had neat design elements to them, like interesting use of color but I picked this one to share because of it's unique use of line. It is really eye catching and instead of just being a normal stamp that plainly honors an event this one is particularly bold and more outside the box.

http://http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://grainedit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/gert-dumbar-dutch-stamp.jpg&imgrefurl=http://grainedit.com/2008/05/20/modern-design-and-the-stamp-iain-folletts-stamp-collection/&h=353&w=470&sz=48&hl=en&start=104&usg=__mpgF0yXFn36lTpMC3ZYFJhHM-Oo=&tbnid=LVbYLFmJPyyS3M:&tbnh=97&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstamp%26start%3D90%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

2008-09-16T13:24:00.001-07:00

Commemorative stamps are great. Commemorative stamps that make fun of what they are commemorating are even better. It takes a certain audacity to make these stamps and are... well, pretty awesome, I must say. Below is perhaps my favorite example.

<-- This is the artwork that was used to produce two stamps dedicated to the Republic of Abkhazia's communist roots. (NOTE: The country became independent from Georgia only this year, at the end of August.) The stamp directly parodies the ideals of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin (Marxism-Leninism) by using the pop culture icons and very liberal Groucho Marx and John Lennon to represent them.

Considering the sense of humor of Groucho and John, I'm sure the two would have been greatly amused by the presence of Marxism-Lennonism in a formerly-Communist country.

2008-09-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

2008-09-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

I like the use of complementary colors to bring out the overall image

Getting Started Looking at Stamps

2008-09-11T13:34:00.000-07:00

Our next assignment is making a postage stamp. "That's easy," you might say... well, everyone should do some research and begin to look into the intricacies that go into stamp design.

The wikipedia entry on Postage Stamp Design is a good place to start your research.

Think about things that we have talked about like positive and negative space, choice of fonts, choice of color combinations, shape and size, and the messages conveyed by the stamps. When thinking about YOUR stamp design, you should ask yourself what is the purpose of your design. Is it a commemorative stamp? Is it a sports stamp? Is it a stamp in honor of a social movement or idea? This is a design project with in certain constraints, but it also muist convey a message. What is YOUR message?

i heart trees

2008-09-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

this picture was found through a google search. I view trees as a reflection of the human body from the roots in the ground, symbolizing the human need to be grounded, and the branches signifying the constant reach for something much greater than we can comprehend.

Public Discourse - the movie

2008-09-11T07:44:00.001-07:00

We will be watching part or all of "Public Discourse", a documentary about illegal art in class. As part of your assignment over the weekend, please leave a paragraph response to the video as a comment to this post. I look forward to hearing reading them. Thanks to everyone who has posted examples of research so far. Let's keep it up!!!!

2008-09-10T23:38:00.000-07:00

I looked out the window of the taxi on the drive into New Orleans and remarked 'There's
still so much devastation - I can't believe they haven't cleaned this mess up' to which the driver stared at me and said ' this part of the city wasn't affected by the hurricane - its always looked like this.'
Another Banksy piece. After seeing the ones posted I had to do a little research to see which piece would catch my eye.

here is my stencil

2008-09-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

pretty self explanatory...

Found Graphics Assignment

2008-09-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

Found graphics assignment: in the spirit of some of the design research blogs we reviewed in class, do some digging until you find a designed object/image that you admire, and then post it to the class blog.

I found this image on postsecret. Which is a gallery of postcard-sized images posted anonymously to unveil a secret. Basically they are shared confessions in art form. Every post card has a meaning behind it and are created by everyday people. I particularly like the way this one is laid out with the images in opposing corners. I find these post cards inspiring for their messages.

2008-09-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

While looking around the internet for ideas for my stencil project, i stumbled upon this uk stencilist, Hutch. He does street art and makes canvases. I love how he mixes old 50s advertising style with war imagery. I think the bomber jesus really makes a statement about the war over religions. It made me think that is how jesus should really be portrayed, considering the current times and the fanatic evangelists that are all obsessed with jesus yet totally condone the killing of innocent people over their belief in a supposedly all forgiving immortal man. Jesus doesn't need a bulletproof vest! Would anyone care for another slice of atom bomb?

For more stencils by Hutch go to http://hutchpiece.co.uk/

2008-09-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

There is so much space and its a large open area ... and if you can kind of see there is a stencil of a person letting go of an umbrella. It reminds me of someone just letting go and being free in this open world.

America's spirit

2008-09-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

This would be a interesting stencil to create. I was looking at some antiwar stencils and I found this image. I believe it says a lot about the spirit of America. I like it because it’s in contrast to what the majority of antiwar images symbolize, and speaks of the strength that is needed to withstand our own ugliness

Ispirational stencil artwork

2008-09-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

Here is some inspirational artwork by a world famous street artist named Banksy (no one knows his real name). He is one of my favorite artists and i thought this would be very relevant since we are currently working on the stencil project. His art work is very political and also very funny. checkitout! here is his website

iPod Ads

2008-09-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

I love the design of the iPod ads. The black silhouette against a bold color creates strong contrast that is visually appealing. I enjoy using silhouettes in my work. I use it quite often in my photography.

Home Work for Tuesday 9/2: inspiring design

2008-09-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

I find Michal Levy's work inspiring. We talked a little about the use of graphic design with music and she is an example of a graphic designer that blends music and visual effects together. I love the way the music lends itself to her designs especially in her animation "One", it gives the feeling of concrete forms using abstract shapes. I recommend watching it: http://michalevy.com/one . It's nice not only to see a designers finished work but how they ended up with that product. Michal Levy's website also shows her storyboards allowing us to see her process of design.

Homework For 9/2: Testing The Blog Waters

2008-08-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hey! This is Alex Merges, and I finally decided to check my HVCC e-mail. Here's the blog assignment for the week, just so we're on the same level:

Look over some links on class blog and try posting/commenting to the blog some examples of design that you feel influence you.
- Andrew Lynn, Professor

Well, I'm a firm believer in having a sense of humor. I'm a big fan of silliness, parody, and farce in general, and that permeates my work. Most of what I do has a touch of humor to it. So my biggest inspiration in terms of design comes from a company that has made its name basically through humor:

RiffTrax sells hilarious commentary for movies (think Mystery Science Theater 3000 in MP3 format), and they have a very fun way of advertising their wares. They have a graphic designer whose job it is to basically parody the movie posters of the movies that they are releasing the commentary for. The posters go beyond simply Photoshopping in a new head over, say, Brad Pitt's. These posters have full-blown caricatures, recreated scenes from the movie, and even similar sets. They are, in a word, awesome.

This stuff inspires me because not only is it funny, but the designer goes above and beyond what is expected for these posters. He pulls out all the stops and makes some absolutely incredibly works. And despite the fact it's all silly, it's still very professional. This is what I strive for in my own work.

Below are a few examples of the RiffTrax posters. (They're hyperlinks because I couldn't figure out how to get multiple images on the same line, and I didn't want to make this post longer than it needed to be.)

The Grudge | Memento | Saw (An official parody poster)

Del.icio.us Links for this Class

2008-08-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

Everything we look online at in class will be listed here:
http://del.icio.us/breathingplanet/graphicdesign

If you have links that you want to share with the class please post them to this blog or add them as a comment!!

Early Advertisments - Digital Archive

2008-08-25T08:43:00.001-07:00

This is a great digital archive of early advertisements from Duke University - check it out!

Welcome to our blog

2008-08-22T18:54:00.001-07:00

This is where we will discuss readings, and share our work with one another (and the world).