FOUND: Stefan Kanchev

From grain edit:

"Absolutely stunning work from Stefan Kanchev (1915-2001) who was a Bulgarian graphic artist. During his prolific career he designed hundreds of logos, posters, stamps, book covers, labels as well as graphics for TV. Much of his work is inspired by Bulgarian folklore and traditions.

In 1994 Stefan Kanchev was recognized as one of the top ten designers of trade marks in the world along with Paul Rand, Saul Bass and etc."

Small #11

Small magazine's autumn 2009 issue came out a few days ago. This kids-design web-mag comes out four times a year, and started in Spring 2007. This is their 11th issue already! Some of my favorite spreads are their fashion shoots. There are also great interviews with people doing things in the world of kids design. This issue included an interview with Kristin Brenneman Eno, the founder behind Little Creatures, a film production group that makes films of children's imaginative play, turning it into a story-line. It sounds really interesting, but I get the feeling Eno guides the kids' play more than she would care to admit.

One of my favorite features was on Ana Serrano and her Cartonlandia project. This city was built entirely of cardboard, taking it's inspiration from the slums and favelas of Brazil and other places. There are even little cardboard people!

Each issue small asks an illustrator or artist they feature to contribute a black-and-white coloring book illustration for their small draw project. The illustrations from the first 10 issues of the mag have been collected and printed in a coloring book that small sells on Etsy. You can also download the individual illustrations for free from small. This fall's drawing is by Isabelle Arsenault:

Camp is Lovey

I've been gone for a week, spending time as a counselor at the most inspiring and (in the words of one of my campers) "lovey" camp I've ever been to. Interfaith Camp is really important to me, and I returned this past week to work there for my second year. I learned how to make dreamcatchers, and promptly gathered supplies to make as many as I could:

Photo at top by puloverchito on flickr.

FOUND: People

1. Rachell Sumpter
2. moebius
3. Ruth Ishbel Munro

Pretty Handmade Icons

These beautiful icons are hand-drawn by mfayaz on deviantART. I love them, but am having a hard time setting some of them up. I've got LiteIcon, which does the job for the system-based ones... but apps I'm having trouble with.

FOUND: Patterns

Clockwise from upper left:
1. Unknown
2. Louise Despont
3. Emma Kunz
4. Unknown

Unlike my last "found" post, I didn't find all of these on FFFound.

My Love for Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau Is one of my favorite styles and artistic movements. It emerged in the late 1800's in Europe, and continued into the early 20th century before it fell out of favor and "modernism" took over. The name "Art Nouveau" is French, and translates to "new art", but this movement is also known by other names in various countries. The other most well-known title is "Jugendstil" from Germany. This came from the German magazine Jugend (youth).

I love the complex patterns and yet the simplicity of the illustration technique. It shows so much detail and beauty while still appearing pure and simple. The colors the artists chose are amazing, and are some of my favorite palettes. The most well-known (and one of my favorite) artists who worked in this style was Alphonse Mucha, and he did most of the examples here. I don't know who did the example to the left from Jugend, but the middle piece below is by Paul Berthon, and left is by Eugène Grasset. All others by Mucha.

I couldn't resist making an Art Nouveau header for the blog...

ANORAK Vol.11

My summer edition of ANORAK Magazine arrived a few days ago, and it certainly lived up to my expectations. The one thing that really annoyed me was a whole spread devoted to obvious H&M product placement. It wouldn't bother me so much had it been an actual ad, but inserting subtle marketing into a kids magazine is not cool. At the front of the magazine there were also a couple pages of "good stuff". A section where the editors put out a collage of things they thought were interesting. Some of the things were not consumeristic, like "passion fruit" and a flower show, but most of them were objects for sale or companies. I couldn't tell if this was product placement, or just stuff the editors liked. I was impressed though that the only "ads" were one on the back cover and one on the inside front. I took some photos of a couple inside pages I really enjoyed:

Charlip-esque

This mural in progress by Erik Tangerud and Chris Magnusson (shown), caught my eye. It really reminds me of Remy Charlip's work, one of my favorite illustrators. All the bright colors and connecting things and creatures. Charlip would totally draw something like a rainbow coming out of someone's mouth or an arm reaching from the clouds.

Here's his octopi getting married:

Cool Stuff

I found kidsmodern, an online shop with great stuff designed for kids. Here are some of my favorites:
(Clockwise from top left.)

1. Gloggomobil by Naef Spiele
2. Satchel by Kundschafter
3. Ndebele by Vittorio Locatelli
4. Cap by Babü

FFFFOUND Geometry

FFFFOUND! is an image bookmarking site, where users can upload images, and then mark ones they like. The site automatically gives you suggestions for more you might be interested in based on your choices, so it's basically a highly-addicting treasure hunt. The only issue: not everyone can join. You have to be invited to the site, which I have not, but it hasn't stopped me from spending hours looking through beautiful graphics and downloading my favorites. I'm going to have to search out an invitation soon though.

These geometry-inspired pieces are by (clockwise from top left):
1. Arnaud Loumeau
2. Jeff Depner
3. Unknown
4. Matthew Rich

Ideas Worth Spreading

Have you heard of TED? Been to their website? No? Then you should. Here it is: www.ted.com. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and their tagline is "Ideas Worth Spreading". They're a nonprofit that hosts conferences bringing some of the most influential and forward-thinking minds from all over the world together. The speakers are asked to give "the talk of their lifetime" in less than 30 minutes. The good part? TED posts videos of all the talks online for free. They post new videos online throughout the year, on topics from "Breaking the Illusion of Skin" to "the Radical Idea of Charter Cities". All the talks are from experts in their fields. The video above is scientist Elaine Morgan, speaking on the "aquatic ape hypothesis", the idea that our distant ancestors lived in water. Seriously, these are some of the most interesting things I've ever found online.

Great Ideas from Penguin

Speaking of Penguin, I discovered their "Great Ideas" series at Orca Books here in Oly the other day. I bought Machiavelli's The Prince from this series a couple years ago, but I didn't realize it was a series until I saw them all laid out in the store. The covers are great, beautifully designed, and each seems to fit the content perfectly. They feel wonderful to hold too, as they are nicely textured, and the designs on some feel embossed. There are three series so far, each with a different color used on the cover.

Designer Penguins

I like books that are well-designed. And some of the most well-thought-out covers I've seen are classic covers published by Penguin Books. Their simple layout and design made their entire line cohesive and beautiful. A couple books have come out lately about them, the one I most want to read is Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005 by Phil Baines. My library doesn't have it, so I can't read it at this point, but it looks great. Not only does it show examples of books, but it gives an overview of the history behind the design of their books. You can find a bunch of great examples at this flickr set by Joe Kral.

Uppercase Magazine, from Canada, featured artist M. S. Corley's re-imaginings of Harry Potter covers. He's done this with a couple of other series, following the design of classic Penguin covers. Here's some of his work:

Goodwill Treasures

I found a great stack of cheap books yesterday at Goodwill. I love going through the book section at Goodwill, it's even more of an adventure than used bookstores, because I'm always even more surprised when I find something good there. And the books are so cheap! There was a great selection there yesterday, and I picked up a french translation of Harriet the Spy, Kenny's Window by Maurice Sendak, Running Out of Time by Margaret Haddix (used to be one of my favorite novels), and one of my childhood favorites: The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble. It's a Native American story about a girl who belonged more with the horses than with her own people, and she eventually becomes one of them. The illustrations are beautiful, and I love how stylized they are. This book actually won the Caldecott Medal.

Another book that I'm really exited about is the sequel to one I mentioned before, Free to Be... You and Me. This one is called Free to Be... A Family, and was written in the '80's. Again, like the first book, it was a multi-media project, and you can buy a CD with recordings of all the artists performing their songs, poems, and stories. I love the illustration on the cover.

Bubbleman

This is Samsam Bubbleman, attempting to break the world record for the largest free-floating soap bubble. His bubble was 20ft by 5ft by 5ft, and he's pending confirmation from Guinness World Records. I love how this bubble looks, it's so luminous and filled with life. Almost as if it has a mind of its own. I found this at Junior Society.

Mail! Mail! Mail!

Magazines. I love getting magazines in the mail, and I did when I was a kid too. Anorak is an amazing kids magazine from the UK, filled with beautiful illustrations and well-designed spreads. There isn't a lot of advertising, it's just pure fun and wonder. It actually makes you think about the world around you and stretch your imagination. I actually subscribed to it, I just couldn't stand not being able to touch and absorb its pages. Why isn't there something like this over here? Now I just need all the back issues!

I am seriously thinking about starting something like this here in Olympia. I love design and layout, although I don't really have much experience with software. Well, here goes a new project!

I've been on a web-surfing streak, and have been coming across all these awesome blogs and magazines. Some of my favorites are two online mags: small and papier mache (based in Australia). Both of them also maintain blogs full of inspiration. Again, why not in the US?

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T

I came across this movie from my childhood the other day, and so last night I sat down and watched it. When I was younger I was terrified of it, but nonetheless would consistently check it out of the library. It was released in 1953, and is the only feature film Dr. Seuss wrote. (He did the story, screenplay, and lyrics.) Watching it again, I was struck by how "experimental" it seemed, but also how evident it was that it was produced in the 1950's. In fact, it still scared me a little bit.

From Wikipedia, (Because I don't really want to write a synopsis..) :

Young Bart Collins lives with his widowed mother Heloise. The major blight on Bart's existence is the hated piano lessons he is forced to endure under the tutelage of the autocratic Dr. Terwilliker. Bart feels that his mother has fallen under Terwilliker's sinister influence, and gripes to visiting plumber August Zabladowski, without much result. While grimly hammering away at his lessons, Bart dozes off and enters a fantastical musical dream, in much the same fashion as Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz.

In the dream, Bart is trapped at the surreal Terwilliker Institute, where the piano teacher is now a madman dictator who has locked up all non-piano-playing musicians in a dungeon and constructed a piano so large that it requires Bart and 499 other enslaved boys (the aforementioned 5,000 fingers) in order to play it. Bart's mother has been turned into Terwilliker's hypnotized assistant and bride-to-be, and Bart must dodge the Institute's guards as he scrambles to save both his mother and himself. He tries to recruit Mr. Zabladowski, who has been hired to install all of the Institute's sinks ahead of a vital inspection, but only after much skepticism and foot-dragging is the plumber finally convinced to help. The two of them empty their pockets and construct a noise-sucking contraption which ruins the mega-piano's opening concert. The enslaved boys cheerfully run riot, and the "VERY atomic" noise-sucker explodes in spectacular fashion, bringing Bart out of his dream.

Money Complicates Everything

"Why We Must Ration Health Care"
By PETER SINGER
Published: July 15, 2009
NYT Magazine

This was a great essay on the debate over "rationing" heath care now going on. Not only is Singer sensible and convincing, but his clear and straightforward voice helped me understand the issue.

"Rationing health care means getting value for the billions we are spending by setting limits on which treatments should be paid for from the public purse. If we ration we won’t be writing blank checks to pharmaceutical companies for their patented drugs, nor paying for whatever procedures doctors choose to recommend. When public funds subsidize health care or provide it directly, it is crazy not to try to get value for money. The debate over health care reform in the United States should start from the premise that some form of health care rationing is both inescapable and desirable. Then we can ask, What is the best way to do it?"