De Stijl Lego Sculpture

So I’m back at home, and last night I took out some legos because I wanted to do something with my hands. I took everything apart and put all the colors together and this is what I had:

These are the colors of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. He was influential not only in painting but also design, and he owns these colors:

Above is “Composition A.” I decided to make a version with legos. I had two yellow flat pieces that together formed a 32 x 32 lego unit square. Here’s where it gets nerdy. I took the image you see above and laid a grid over it in photoshop:

Note the Icon Factory icons in my dock. The lines didn’t match up exactly, but I was able to figure it out and start laying down the legos:

As you can see, I wasn’t able to keep the level the same throughout or have the black lines from the original painting. However, I’m pleased with the final product, which was best captured with the camera’s flash on. Maybe next time I’ll try something more difficult.

Just How Healthy Is The New Yorker?

The rumor mill has been churning recently about the health of one of my favorite magazines, The New Yorker. There’s no question that almost all magazines are hurting, especially those owned by Condé Nast, but the question remains as to how badly The New Yorker is being wounded by this recession.

While interning with the production at The Atlantic, I’ve learned about the way that specific issues of magazines can by compared through analysis of their advertisements. There are two specific measurements that are particularly telling: the ad-to-edit ratio and the ads in the beginning of the magazine. Each magazine has a specific balance of ads and editorial content that it strives for in each issue. The most expensive ads are in the beginning of the magazine. For an anecdotal, qualitative approach, I’m looking at two issues of The New Yorker.

May 18, 2009: This is most recent issue of the magazine. Of 86 pages, only 13 were ads, at 15.1%. The rest was editorial content, taking up the remainder of 84.9%. Some advertisers request that their full page ads are in the first 20% and other request placement in the first third, so I looked at which ads were place in the first 25% of the magazine. In this issue, there was BMW, Fidelity, Verizon, RoC, and their “showcase,” which has a lot of small ads in it.

July 21, 2008: The famous “terrorist fist-jab” cover. This magazine comes to us from a past where the print media looked far less dead than it does at this moment. Though we were officially in a recession last summer, every sector of media was riding the wave of interest in the Presidential Election. So, was the magazine in better shape? The first sign is that the magazine had over ten more pages, clocking in at 98. 23 pages were ads, giving the issue 23.5% ad content and 76.5% edit content. In the first quarter appeared: Citi, Embassy Suites, Mercedes, Chevron, Vanguard, Westin Hotels, Verizon, Express, and two spreads — Exxon Mobil and Bridgestone.

This is obviously not an exhaustive study, and it would be difficult to draw conclusions from this data alone even if it was taken from magazines over a period of several years. I even pulled out another issue from 2007 and it fell in between the two looked at here on both counts. However, it is interesting that these two issues diverge so greatly.

Best Week Ever Contd.

Not only did I get into the best graduate school ever this week, I found out that I won a design show here in DC. My entire graphic design class (of eight people) submitted a board to the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington’s annual Real Show. I’ve been told that over 400 people submitted from around the country and there were 48 winners. I was one of 12 winners in my category. Here’s the list: my name is under “Naked Décor Stationery.”

Above is a bigger view of my logo. The challenge was to design an identity (logo, letterhead, envelope, business card) for a hip home decor company. I tried to go and see my work hung in the Corcoran but it had already been taken down by the time I got there. From my teacher’s pictures, I could see that other entrants had pursued ideas tossed around in class. More fun than your average school project!

Photo courtesy of flickr user Pedestrian Typography, who is also AU Adjunct Prof. Carolyn Sewell. Thanks!

Simulacra & Slackline

UPDATE: I got in to CCS! I’m going in fall!

This weekend I completed part two of my application to comics U. As you can see above, it is a stylistic departure from my previous work, and I’m extremely pleased with the result. The resulting two page whimsy is called Simulacra & Slackline, and it’s available here in PDF. It shows intersection of casual tight rope walking and thinking about Baudrillard. Wish me luck.

Lame April Hiatus

It’s no secret that I’m a “semi-regular” blogger, but I’ve been slowing down to an embarassing rate recently. I’m really pushing my drawing this month (for reasons I’ll explain later), and because I’ll probably have to start going crazy with work for the end of my last semester of college, so I’m gonna opt out of blogging for at least April. That’s not to say that I won’t blog, but this gives me an excuse to not. Keep an eye on my flickr if you are interested in new drawings or photos.

The Telephones of the Past’s Future

This three page ad, originally in color, ran in the Febraury 1968 issue of The Atlantic.

Click on the last image to see it bigger. The ad purposes all sorts of fantastic future phone technologies, including versions of cell phones and the internet. The one on the top right reads, “Home telephones may be able to reach computers for figuring income tax, getting information from the library, or helping your son with his algebra.” A laugh comes at the bottom where it reads, “We may be the only phone company in town, but we try not to act like it.” Maybe not the only any more, but certainly still the biggest.

Reprinted without permission, but with humilty and in tribute to looking ahead. All rights are retained by AT&T.