Keep Calm and Carry On
Though the now recognized british poster found huge popularity during the Christmas of 2005, it was originally produced in 1939 for the Ministry of Information and was only to be distributed should the Nazis succeed in an invasion of Great Britain. The third in a series of three it was designed as a motivational poster for the British Government.
Printed and stored, the poster didn’t see the full light of day until the year 2000, when a copy was discovered by a bookseller Stuart Manley and gained popularity shortly after it was featured as a newspaper supplement Christmas gift idea.
Below is the original image along with a parody found on ffffound. While the typography is clearly off the mark, the British stiff upper lip sentiment surely gets turned on its head.
RELATED LINKS & RESOURCES
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7869458.stm
http://ww2poster.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/1939-3-posters/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On
Sol LeWitt & Serendipity
Sometimes something happens and for an odd moment it seems like the world is in sync and that fate is telling you something, revealing its pearls of wisdom…you may only catch a glimpse and it may be fleeting but all the same you can appreciate.
In a place where homes are more often referred to as apartments than houses, where the art of space saving has created its own booming industry, it’s no wonder that one isn’t often a physical house caller in New York City. So when you do find yourself in the privacy of an acquaintance’s home, it’s always something of a exploratory discovery.
Personally, my first gravitation is to the bookshelf, since there is usually at least one, even if it’s a single plank of wood, in a one room studio with a murphy bed and other space saving articles of dual purpose furnishings. In a recent experience, as the resident of said abode stepped into the bathroom I found myself perusing the pages of a book by Sol LeWitt. I’d never heard of him and hadn’t again till recently.
But his drawings did stay with me, I can’t really say why, the boldness, the simplicity…and yet I put it down and never thought about it again, that is until today, when I came across this quote randomly in the header of http://www.boym.com/blog/ I liked it and having a little widget of collected quotes added it and googled his name. When I found the drawings of said book, from said apartment, I wanted to know the full context and this is what I found:
Space Invader in Varanasi
You couldn’t help but notice the small, slightly dilapidated markings – discrete and yet so out of place in this ancient city by the sacred Ganges River. I do believe it is the work of the french graffiti artist known as Space Invader.
Christmas Greetings
When it comes to design during the holidays, nothing seems to speak more about Christmas than the 1950s. World War 2 had ended and the United States’ baby boom was in full swing. It translated into an increase in manufacturing, birthing an age of advertising to help “educate” the 79 million new babies and their parents. In fact, the decade between 1950 and 1960 would see a an annual spending increase of approximately 6.3 billion dollars.
And while the 1955 religious magazine Christianity and Crisis lamented the pressure on Americans to “consume, consume and consume” it did provide the framework for eye-opening works on consumer psychology, namely that of Vance Packard, who wrote the best-seller The Hidden Persuaders in 1957.
Soundtrack for a Revolution at VIFF
Dynamic and powerful, the title while fitting, almost diminishes the musical artistry with which the film is woven together. The film artfully employs musical dynamics, taking the viewer on wave after wave of emotion. With performances by John Legend, Wyclef Jean, The Roots, Joss Stone, Blind Boys of Alabama, Mary Mary, Richie Havens, Anthony Hamilton, and Angie Stone, the film naturally packs a powerful pitch.
SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION tells the story of the American civil rights movement through its music -the freedom songs protesters sang on picket lines, in mass meetings, in paddy wagons, and in jail cells as they fought for justice and equality. The purposeful non-violence stance that marked the Civil Rights movement is poignantly embodied in the act of raising ones voice in song against heinous acts of ignorance and hatred and captured beautifully in film with both painstakingly restored archival footage and big budget studio shot recordings.
Tacombi
It was a completely last minute affair. The paint job on the Tacombi truck, Aaron Sanchez’s latest project, was barely dry. In fact the fashionistas were already amassing and the truck was yet to be seen at its destination in front of The Smile. Just saving the parking spot alone took a team (another story entirely). I showed up just wanting to snag a couple of tacos and give some support to my peeps. We had thought there would be a crew ready to shoot and document, so when that fell through, all we had to go on was my point and shoot canon.
While the footage may not be ideal, it captures the spirit of the evening and we all look forward to the actual launch of the restaurant, which we hope to see happen sometime in March, permits pending…
Art & Design
One of the first things you talk about in design school is the definition of design, what makes good design good and conversely the opposite. Oddly, I think it was my color theory teacher, a painter, who taught it best – good design is what the majority of people find good – plain, simple, to the point. So yes, it is to some degree a matter of personal preference, but to leave it at that would do designers the world over a disservice…at least the good ones. Inevitably the quest for a definition turns towards the difference between design and art.
Art: the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power
Design: the art or action of conceiving of and producing a plan
Perhaps the most marked and overlooked distinction is the fact that design is both a noun and verb. By the strictest of definitions design involves a direct intention, a plan, something most often divorced from art. Hence the maxim “art for art’s sake.” But I’d like to argue that good design is to some degree art, it touches the unconscious and has the power to evoke emotion and alternately that art whether conscious or not has within it a most decisive intention, albeit sometimes hidden even from it’s creator.
The Preamble
To and Fro: A constant movement backwards and forwards.
I have had many a history lesson, classes focusing on every subject of history from Shakespeare and Chaucer to the History of Love to the standard, dry, fall asleep while eyes open slide presentations of Art History 101. I can recall with a dull vividness the bottomless cups of coffee while pouring over slides and dates for exams that would test a knowledge all too soon forgotten.
It makes one question what exactly it is that makes a thing memorable, what qualities must an event have to make a deep impression; so deep an impression that its mark is left indefinitely to be recalled and revisited, not as some random piece of information but as an occurrence whose effects and meaning are felt and understood, shedding light on the past while simultaneously penetrating deeper events of the present. T.S. Eliot put it well in his selected essays ‘Tradition and the individual talent,’ when he wrote,
“What happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all works of art which preceded it. The existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new work of art among them…Whoever has approved this idea of order…will not find it preposterous that the past be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past.”
What it boils down to is CONTEXT, the set of circumstances that surround a particular even become just as crucial as the event itself. It is what’s led me to my own foray into history, a search for meaning in context, not just to place events solidly in memory but to create a wellspring of knowledge that has no bounds, shedding light on both past and present…and thus begins design:to&fro.