Diary comic: Restaurant Interruption

This one is so brief and so silly I couldn’t resist posting it. However, it also marks my first use of two exciting new techniques. I painted (albeit poorly) the ink-wash background of this page on a separate piece of watercolor paper and scanned it in. Coloring it only took a second, Alison Bechdel style. Also, I inked the thickist lines on the page with my new favorite tool — a cut piece of bamboo I bought at an art store in Boston this weeekend. For art nerds, it has the uniform line of a marker except with live ink! It seemed to hold about as much as a Crow Quill nib does.

P.S.: Vote on the below post!

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!

2009 Desktop Calendar

UPDATE: I guess I thought it was self-explanatory, but the calendar starts on Mondays and the weeks are off-set by the next week being opaque. For instance, today is January the 14th, and you can see that it’s three circles into the new week, which should make the rest of the days of the week obvious. I also found this calendar, which is similar but looks like it’s only the weekends.

In this exciting new year you owe it to yourself to know what day it is. In 2009, we don’t flip through calendars any more. I often find myself consulting a calendar with solely number related questions and this reflects that. It was inspired visually by this planner (me being impressed but not wanting to pay for it) and typographically by the Obama campaign (expect HF+J’s Gotham to show up around town a bit more this year). Click on it to get the big size, download it, and use it if you like. Share alike please.

Disposable Europe

We take pictures to supplement our visual memories. Aside from sheer artistic and aesthetic merit, no one needs convincing that pictures we take remind us of people, places, and things. I’ve heard that when we take pictures, it limits and focuses our memories, but it’s easy to give that up for the joy of fondly remembering something from a snapshot. Anyone who has ever had a camera stolen knows what a terrible feeling that can be. More after the jump.

Testaccio Slaughterhouse Street Art

Earlier this week, a professor of mine turned me on to an amazing place. Across the river, in the gentrifying community of Testaccio, is a former slaughterhouse. The complex is huge, and different parts of it are being used for difficult purposes, including the architecture department of one of Rome’s universities. But behind that, is some of the best street art/graffiti I have ever seen.

I don’t think it’s unfair to say that street art is big right now. In fact, the New York Times’ travel section currently features this article on NYC street art, and a less stodgy one about Berlin’s street art, which I will be sure to report on after I visit Berlin as part of spring break. Rome certainly has a lot of street art, especially graffiti. The slaughterhouse seems to serve as a sort of proving ground. It’s a place with a lot of high, blank walls, and well, it’s an abandoned slaughterhouse, which is cool. There are some tags that are clearly old, but there is clearly innovation as well.

Typographically, graffiti tags are interesting to me because a clear understanding of form, composition, and color are essential. However, legibility is often sacrificed, which I have to admit irks me a little. That doesn’t mean I don’t love looking at them though — this place is an awesome find. I took a lot pictures; look your heart out.

Back At Home: Organizing Comics

So, I’m back home, and I finally did what I’ve wanted to do for a really long time, organize all of my comics. Several times I thought I had finished, only to realize that some were still noticeably absent, forcing me to tear through my room looking for another magazine box. In all, there were about 35 titles, from seven magazine boxes.

Also, I loved seeing all the covers again. I’m always shocked I have so much Green Lantern. (That’s the huge pile). My Dad grew up helping at his dad’s newspaper stand, reading all the comics for free. He was talking about one today he couldn’t remember the name of, featuring a little girl “who always had to wear polka dots.” Anyone have any clue? Anyway, my scanner at home is pretty good, so I thought I’d post some of my favorite covers. Click on any for a bigger view.

“Luke Cage, Hero For Hire” was a Marvel comic at the height of blaxploitation. It’s really hilarious and self-aware. Also, I love how characters talk to each other on old covers. Pretty good. Whatever happened to Luke Cage? Looks pretty intense here.

War Machine is kind of like Marvel’s version of Steel. Instead of being the main hero (in this case Iron Man), a black man uses a metal suit to enhance himself. What’s cool about this issue is that Jim Rhodes is using the War Machine armor on behalf of his “Worldwatch,” which is basically an NGO that exposes human rights violations. Pretty tight.

This is kind of a departure from the two above comics with Black superheroes. Fables operates that all fairy tale characters had to leave their homelands because of a terrible emperor taking over and as a result…they all live in NYC secretly. It’s pretty great, and the covers are always amazing. Here’s the North Wind. I mean, this illustration and type treatment are pretty hard to beat.

Anyway, do any of them look particularly interesting? If anyone wants, I’ll scan in the whole thing.