Share your caricature links here.

Politically inspired typography

About the website: Spelling Change was developed by a group of creative professionals to spread awareness and passion about the Obama campaign. Its goal is to encourage one-to-one communication by creating tools that help people get out the word on issues that are important to them.

Artists and designers were asked to create a letter of the alphabet inspired by the Obama campaign. These letters were then printed on t-shirts and distributed to photographers, who shot Obama supporters from all walks of life wearing them. The result is a living alphabet that shows the incredible breadth of Obama’s appeal and a widespread desire for real change in Washington.

Now, you can use this living alphabet to create emails, t-shirts, posters, bumper stickers, and postcards personalized with your own messages of hope and change. You can also design and upload your own letter, becoming part of a creative community fueled by a shared passion to change America from within.

Regardless of your political affiliation, the website is a cool idea. Check it out here.

POSTER POWER

Use the following links to guide your artistic research for our poster design project.

1. International Poster Gallery: TONS of posters online
2. NY Times Op Ed Article: Influence of logos on poster design
3. Graphic Imperative: International Posters for Peace, Social Justice, & Environment (1965-2005)
4. Manifest Hope: Artists & Designers creating work for the Obama Campaign
5. Miniature Gigantic War & Iraq Poster Exhibition: lots of designer links here
6. Shepard Fairey: Controversial Contemporary Poster Artist
7. Create a Fairey-inspired design in Photoshop & Illustrator here
8. AIGA Article: "Design as integral part of nonviolent political resistance"
9. HUGE list of Poster Design links
10. Some like it Red: POLISH POLITICAL POSTERS 1944-1989 Complete archive is here
11. Article on Obama's Contraversial Berlin Posters
12. Posters of Discontent (Current Exhibition at Eastern Michigan University): Large list of Designers w/examples and links
13. ID Magazine Article: Posters Prep us for November
14. Images of Labor Poster Series
15. Intute Humanities Poster Links List
16. Seattle Tehran Poster Show
17. Clever UK Labour Party Poster Designs
18. Great insights about the history of posters
19. The Good 50 x 70 poster project
20. Up Against the Wall: International Poster Design (free online book)

ALSO -- CHECK OUT THIS POST from my Intro to Art Blog

Oh, one more -- Craig Foster (he's the guy whose work is pictured above)

google logo mania

Meet Dennis Hwang, the creator of the google logos. Go here for offical google examples.

Visit logoogle.com for more examples -- authentically google, and some fake logos.

Try your hand at designing your own google logo. Here's the template.

For next week -- you will need to obtain a library card from the Columbia Public Library. Here is a link to the application and the process: http://www.dbrl.org/about/card.html

Links to children's book illustration...

Caldecott Award Winners
Amazon.com Children's Books
Picture-book.com Artist Portfolios
Early Illustrators of Children's Books from the 19th and 20th Centuries
Nocloo.com (BIG ARCHIVE OF EXAMPLES!)
The Children's Book Council - large list of links to individual artists' pages
Childrens Book Central
Female Childrens Book Illustrators

Drawergeeks inspiration

investigating book cover design

Check out these great links on book cover design:

fwis design
how to make a fabric book cover
war of the worlds book cover changing over time
Best Covers of 2007, 2006, 2005
book design blog
book by its cover blog
bad book covers
caldecott winning books

Golan Levin: Using the Computer to make Personal Art

About this video: After sweetly confessing that he never meant to be a performance artist, Golan Levin explains that his art is all about the quest to find a personal way to use a computer. His performance of a work called "Scribble" demonstrates what he's talking about: His customized software allows him to manipulate, change and direct both audio and abstract animated graphics, blending the two to astonishing effect. A sneak preview of a more recent work, "Messa di Voce," emphasizes the potential of his dazzling experimentation.

About the Artist: Half performance artist, half software engineer, Golan Levin manipulates the computer to create improvised soundscapes with dazzling corresponding visuals. He is at the forefront of defining new parameters for art.

Having worked as an academic at MIT and a researcher specializing in computer technology and software engineering, Golan Levin now spends most of his time working as a performance artist. Rest assured his education hasn't gone to waste, however, as Levin blends high tech and customized software programs to create his own extraordinary audio and visual compositions. The results are inordinately experimental sonic and visual extravaganzas from the furthest left of the field.

Many of his pieces force audience participation, such as Dialtones: A Telesymphony, a concert from 2001 entirely composed of the choreographed ringtones of his audience. Regularly exhibiting pieces in galleries around the world, and also working as an Assistant Professor of Electronic Time-Based Art at Carnegie Mellon University, Levin is unapologetically pushing boundaries to define a brave new world of what is possible.

"Golan Levin's work combines equal measures of the whimsical, the provocative, and the sublime in a wide variety of online, installation and performance media. "

-- Onedotzero

(biography courtesy of TED)

Stefan Sagmeister: Design Makes Me Happy

About the artist: Renowned for the album covers he created for the likes of Lou Reed, Talking Heads and the Rolling Stones, Austrian-born, New York City-dwelling designer Stefan Sagmeister invariably has a slightly different way of looking at things.

Stefan Sagmeister is no mere commercial gun for hire. Sure, he's created eye-catching graphics for clients including the Rolling Stones and Lou Reed, but he pours his heart and soul into every piece of work. His design work is at once timeless and of the moment, and his painstaking attention to the smallest details creates work that offers something new every time you look at it.

While a sense of humor invariably surfaces in his designs, Sagmeister is nonetheless very serious about his work; his intimate approach and sincere thoughtfulness elevate his design. A genuine maverick, Sagmeister achieved notoriety in the 1990s as the designer who self-harmed in the name of craft: He created a poster advertising a speaking engagement by carving the salient details onto his torso.

"Sagmeister's CD package designs are what poetry is to prose: distilled, intense, cunning, evocative and utterly complete. His intentions have set a new standard." --I.D. Magazine

(biography courtesy of TED)

Philippe Starck talks candidly about the design process

Philippe Starck talks candidly about his design process.

check this space for assignment information, upcoming dates, links, and more!

drink coke.
period.