No, designers are not artists. Visit site »
Really cool, unique art pieces designed from a series of letters. Great for decorating, the abstract fields of color remind me of Rothko. Very reasonable prices, too. Visit site »
Sarah pointed me to this stop-motion animation today, and my jaw dropped. It’s incredibly beautiful, but beyond that, I can’t even begin to conceive how difficult and tedious it must have been to make. Truly an amazing work. Visit site »
I’ve mentioned here before (to much controversy) that I’m a Shepard Fairey fan. Well, his latest work is these incredible posters in support of Barack Obama for President. Love ‘em. Want one. Visit site »
March 10th, 2007–March 11th, 2007 in Austin, TX
I”m a fan of Shepard Fairey, so I am no doubt biased. But, I don’t see why it strikes anyone as surprising that Fairey uses other people’s imagery in his work.
To me, Fairey is much more graphic designer than he is artist. Us designers make quite a little habit of compiling graphics, type, photos, and the like from disparate sources into new compositions. It’s what we do.
Fairey shouldn’t try to pawn off the appropriations of other people’s work as his own any more than Dr. Dre should claim that he wrote the musical hook for California Love (he didn’t, it’s from Joe Cocker’s “Woman to Woman”) or Notorious B.I.G. should claim he created the groove for Big Poppa (it’s a sample from The Isley Brother’s “Between the Sheets”) — but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t use it. Borrowing bits and pieces of material and working them into a new original composition is hardly plagiarism.
Fairey samples, just like musical artists do all the time. What’s the big deal? Visit site »
Peek inside 70 Moleskines by international artists, designers, architects, illustrators, and writers. Really nice stuff here. Thanks, Veerle. Visit site »
Beautiful illustrations of famous folks. Visit site »
Great portfolio of graphic design and art from an Indonesian designer who calls himself Amenth. Beautiful stuff. Visit site »
A nice short film about the letterpress process. Very cool. By Firefly Press in Somerville, MA. Visit site »
The incredible Kansas City-based letterpress studio has a new website and includes ridiculously affordable prints of band posters and other great letterpress art. These guys are amazing — possibly the best letterpress work I’ve seen. I just saw several of their pieces in person the other day, and they’re mind-numbingly great. Check ‘em out. Visit site »