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NADA / No bullshit
“It’s time to take our power away from the oil companies and the car companies and the greedheads who run them. We’re going to get smart and say no. Now is the time for a whole movement that says no. No gas. No foreign oil. No cars. No paint. No gears. No logos. No lycra. No bullshit.”
The Nada Revolution has begun, and the frames are going fast. Nada bikes are a fresh take on the cycling culture coming from Project M and Maverick founder, John Bielenberg. A while back, I was gifted a medium Nada frame to custy out and test ride.
Yo, check me and my bike out on the official NADA bike site...BIKE #011.
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SoftSpot WIN$$$ / Sappi Ideas that Matter Grant
Sappi's Ideas that Matter presented a generous grant to The SoftSpot to keep the project moving and to aid in any communication vehicles. The grant will be utilized as a means of Softy advertising for future growth. There were almost 300 entries and only 16 grant recipients. Throughout the country, 6 out of the 16 winners were from San Francisco! Among the recipients are some of the original Softies... Michael Osborne from Joey's Corner and Emily Pilloton from Project H Design. Big ups Bay Area.
Visit TheSoftSpot.org for updates.
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The Urban Forest Project / And, my new friend, Ben
I was asked back in May to be a part of a Worldstudio initiative called The Urban Forest Project. AIGA San Francisco kicked off the mentoring component by inviting professional designers and creatives from diverse studios (such as local hotties Autodesk, Google, Vehicle, oh, and me) and were paired with "at-risk" high school students from various San Francisco youth programs to design a street lamp banner revolving/evolving around the subject of a tree (a metaphor for sustainability, like duh).
My mentee, Ben, age 16, born and raised Bay Area, is an outstanding visionary with supurb artistic talent stemming from the local youth arts organization, Southern Exposure. We've been diligently concepting, drawing, and refining his extremely thought provoking design. The banners at the close of each exhibition will be recycled into totebags and auctioned off to raise money for a local non-profit organization.
Stay tuned for details on the upcoming big banner revealing day!
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Boisset Award for Design Excellence 2009 / Yeah that's right
Excited doesn't cut it...The Boisset Family Vineyards Award for Design Excellence was awarded to myself and Carl Bender, a fellow friend and graphic designer extraordinaire. A big shout out to all of the fabulous design instructors and to all the hardworking designer friends I've had the pleasure to spend time with over the past few years.
Mad love <3
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Academy of Art Spring Show 2009 / See you there, or be square
The Academy of Art University is playing host to it's annual Spring Show Exhibition. Once again, BFA and MFA graduates continue to create spectacular contributions to the international contemporary art industry. The SoftSpot has set up shop and will be exhibiting some more Softy goods for your viewing pleasure. I will also be sitting at a table all day long showcasing some personal projects, as well as, revealing my final portfolio. Come check it out, if not for the design, come to meet this guy.
Deets:
Academy of Art University | 601 Brannan Street, San Francisco
Thursday, May 15th, 2009 | 5-9pm | pce y'all
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Thanks for being a Softy! / That's whatsup
Just wanted to thank everyone for coming out for the WHAT THE *#&! IS SOCIAL DESIGN opening reception on March 12th! It was a fabulous evening filled with inquiring minds, design enthusiasts, and soft serve ice cream cones. We absolutely enjoyed every moment of the night and got to meet some fantastic new softys. You can check out some photos and some short videos from the event on the softy crew facebook page here (but you gotta friend us first, word)! As the exhibition comes to a close this upcoming Saturday (March 28th) we hope that those of you who didn’t make it to the opening can check it out before its finale.
You can also catch up on a bunch of fabulous softy stories and blog postings about our exhibition and project…
Metropolis Magazine
http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20090312/a-softspot-for-social-design
Interior Design Magazine
http://www.interiordesign.net/blog/1860000586/post/1220041722.html
Felt & Wire (Mohawk Fine Papers)
http://www.feltandwire.com/?p=842
Dwell
http://www.dwell.com/articles/the-soft-spot.html
The SF Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/x-533-SF-Art-Examiner~y2009m3d12-Design-for-social-praxis–whats-your-soft-spot
The Earth Times
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/academy-of-art-university-joins,750539.shtml
Props to Linda, Pam, Kim and everyone at Williams and House, oh, and Phil Hamlett for assistance with the crazy PR blitzin. <3
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Core77 covers WHAT THE *#&! IS SOCIAL DESIGN / Big time
So, in the whirlwind of the opening night of our SoftSpot exhibition, WHAT THE *#&! IS SOCIAL DESIGN, there seemed to be a many lurking reporters/bloggers disquised and hiding behind soft served ice cream. Cuz, Core77 has specially prepared a very accurate blog posting to their massively/worldwide viewed website!
Check the posting yourself...
http://www.core77.com/blog/education/what_the_is_social_design_12875.asp
Word up.
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NYC Art Director's Club 2009 / I'm going
I've been selected to attend the mad famous NYC Art Director's Club Graphic Design Portfolio Review 2009!!! Creative professionals in advertising, design, and communications meet and review portfolios from 100 of the most promising graduating seniors in graphic design. I'm totally looking forward to meeting and talking with art directors, creative directors, and designers in the NYC area. Check out the official national student selection of graphic designers extraordinaire here. Oh, and see if you can find some images of my work on that site while you're at it.
Deets:
The ADC Gallery | 106 West 29th Street, NYC
Monday, May 4, 2009 | 12-6pm | I'll be posted up all day
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Design Ignites Change / I'm gettin interviewed
The SoftSpot (aka Mike and I) were interviewed for Design Ignites Change at Compostmodern last Tuesday!
We spoke about how our SoftSpot exhibit/project involves so many of the designers involved with Design Ignites Change...hmmm, like, Andréa Pellegrino and Mark Randall who actually started Design Ignites Change and Worldstudio! Our interview was recorded and will eventually be viewable by anyone visiting the DIC site and YouTube. Design Ignites Change's goals are to inspire young designers to give back and instill the importance of mentorship early in their careers (hmmm, sound a lil' Softy-like?). Anyways, we went into questions like why we support Design Ignites Change, talked a bit about The SoftSpot, plugged our upcoming exhibit, and most importantly talked about why is it important to encourage young people to use their talents to give back to their communities.
Interviews. Hmmmm.
A very special thanks to Linda and Pam from Williams & House!
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WHAT THE *#&! IS SOCIAL DESIGN / Brought to you by The SoftSpot
The SoftSpot is an initiative that provides designers with the information and inspiration by which they can solve contemporary issues, and educates the masses about the solutions designers provide for a more healthy world.
Ultimately, the SoftSpot wants to enable more designers to become actively involved in creating a higher quality of life. We sought out to define Social Design, and interviewed socially engaging designers as real-world examples to answer the “what is it?” and “who’s doing it?” part of the equation. We all have a soft spot. Our goal is to empower yours. The first Softy exhibition runs from March 12th-31st. There will be free ice cream, like whoa!
Designed by: Ashley Ciecka & Mike Jeter
Photography by: Jonathan Snyder
Films by: Josh Couto
Visit the official Softy website at TheSoftSpot.org
Deets:
Opening Reception | 79 Gallery | 79 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco
Thursday, March 12, 2009 | 6:30-8:30pm | I'll be pissed if you don't
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CommArts / What's behind those doors, pretty please
I have been working at Communication Arts this summer on their Annual Design and Advertising Competitions, and all of the work and anticipation leads up to this weekend. This upcoming weekend is the first Design Judging Event to be held over a three day period. Now, this may seem like nothing out of the ordinary, but for me being a graphic design grad student, this weekend becomes a moment of truth for many reasons. First off, I have been looking over all of the work that has been submitted since day one. From the first opening of a entry package, I have become somewhat attached to what I would say are some of the most amazing pieces of design I have ever seen. Granted, I have not been alive that long to witness periods of great design, but it sort of makes me shiver when I handle an original Sagmeister piece, or an entry straight from Chermayeff & Geismar, or even an original logo illustration from Michael Schwab. Kind of belittles me, kind of sets me straight, and then kind of sets my dreams soaring.
So, as the weeks have carried on, and pieces of work have been sorted and properly categorized (which seems to be one of the biggest problems, people not knowing exactly how to label or categorize their own work?!?), it has now boiled down to this first weekend of the Design Judging Event. Judges are being flown in from all over the world for a weekend full of ewwing and ahhing. I am so excited to meet the judges, all of whom are amazing and well respected designers in the industry, and to have the opportunity to witness them critique submissions ranging from book design, posters, logos, packaging, environmental design, identity systems, integrated branding, all the way to self promotion and invitations. There happens to be a lot of design out there, and some of it just happens to be not quite up to par, and some of it is absolutely beyond creative belief.
Visit CommArts website here to see when the next competitions are coming up.
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Fabrica Meet and Greet / No biggie
If you don't know Colors, then you just don't know.
Colors, "a magazine about the rest of the world," specializes in breaking down vast, global issues into people-sized stories powered by stunning imagery and design. Colors is published by Benetton-owned Fabrica, based in Treviso, Italy. Fabrica is not a school, advertising agency or university. It is an applied creativity laboratory, a talent incubator, a studio of sorts in which young (all under age 28), modern artists come from all over the world to develop innovative projects and explore new directions in myriad avenues of communication, from design, music and film to photography. Ahhh, a utopian dream come true.
Colors is designed in three bilingual editions, has been sold in more than 40 countries, and is a product of Creative Director Erik Ravelo, with whom I have been given the ***rare opportunity*** to meet and present my personal design work to, courtesy of the Academy of Art University!
The Academy will be partnering with Fabrica for an art exhibition, lecture and student scholarship opportunity, and to present on the magazine’s latest issue, “Money.” My scheduled interview/review appointment with Erik Ravelo is set for April 16th...keep ya posted.
Oh, and check out this dude.
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