Kartell is taking the 10th anniversary of its famed Bourgie Lamp, the classical baroque silhouette preserved ironically in plastic designed by Ferruccio Laviani, quite seriously. Earlier this year, the Italian…
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Bourgie is certainly one of the most recognizable lamps of the last decade—as well as one of the best sellers for famed Italian brand, Kartell. Designed by recordOutboundLink(this,…
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Ten years ago Catherine Bailey’s interest in lending a design hand to the small but established California pottery company Heath Ceramics took a detour that resulted in Bailey and her husband serendipitously buying the Sausalito-based company….
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Thirty designers pay homage to three decades of inspiration
2012 marks the 30th anniversary of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), the nation’s premier professional design organization. In honor of the celebration, AIGA/NY reached out to 30 NYC design stars to each create a poster for the festivities based on the following brief: “AIGA, New York City, and/or the number 30: capturing your personal experience with the AIGA’s NY chapter.”
The roster of participating designers reads like a who’s who of New York design with names like Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast, Paula Scher, Michael Bierut, Mirko Illic, Maira Kalman, and Debbie Millman, among others. Design-wise, the limited-edition posters are as eclectic as the city, genre, and organization they celebrate.
Michael Bierut saw the assignment as a chance to dig through his basement for the mix tape he made for AIGA/NY’s launch party three decades ago, which he then scanned. Describing his poster, Scott Stowell, proprietor of Open, says, “It’s a receipt for your donation. It’s a message from me to AIGA/NY, from AIGA/NY to you, and from you to your friends (assuming you buy one and hang it up somewhere). The poster both connects us and makes our connections clear.”
“Since it was being printed, we tried to play up the use of color and the celebratory energy that it provides,” says Adam Michaels at Project Projects, who approached the commission as what he calls a kind of “poster as birthday card”. He goes on to explain that “Color gradients both reference the history of poster printing (split fountains and all that) as well as ideas of change and transformation. The poster also represents the studio, so we asked everyone here to give us one or two 30s of their own design to throw in the mix—the result is both multi-vocal and collective.”
Of course, the anniversary—and the poster commissions—provided an opportunity to look back and reminisce on AIGA/NY’s role in the city’s design scene, and the recurring theme that multiple players point to is the sense of community the organization has provided its members. As David Heasty of Triboro points out, “It’s the way you first get to meet your design heroes. The best AIGA events are like Hollywood premiers—a room full of creative legends chatting and drinking wine. What could be cooler?”
Stowell concurs, “AIGA/NY is the gateway drug for design in New York City,” he says. “How else can we connect with so many resources and people and ideas? With more and more events and programs every year, I don’t know what it would be like to be a designer here without it.”
“AIGA/NY was entirely about community for me,” recalls designer Sam Potts, noting the importance of face-to-face opportunities in an increasingly digital era. “Before I joined, I was just a naive kid working in the living room with a 90-pound laser printer and a Metrocard to get in to Manhattan for client meetings. Participating in the NY chapter, seeing amazing people speak live for real and in person while holding a cold beverage in my hand, meeting people whose work I’d long admired, feeling the warmth of sunlight on my face—these are not pleasures and benefits well-afforded by our creeping online social networks—at least not until WordPress comes out with a sunlight plug-in. So yeah, it was a big deal to me and opened a lot of doors to do things like teach, collaborate and pitch for the Red Sox (which has yet to happen, technically).”
The limited-edition series includes just 100 posters of each design, and 10 copies of every design are signed. The commemorative posters are available for purchase through Etsy, and all proceeds will benefit AIGA/NY.
For more information on the anniversary celebrations, including the upcoming June benefit, visit AIGA/NY.
The complete, interactive history of a literary legend
Charles Dickens is like the Madonna of the literary world. Two centuries later, the progressive British novelist remains as relevant and legendary today as he was at the height of his career. Marking the bicentennial of his birth this year is a series of events around London, dubbed Dickens 2012, and a new book by Dickens’ great-great-great-granddaughter Lucinda Dickens Hawksley.
“Charles Dickens” is an interactive reference guide to the notable author’s entire life, shedding light on his early years and his first work of fiction—a play called “Miznar, the Sultan of India” that he penned at age nine—and working through to the end of his life, when he passed away while finishing “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” at 58-years-old. The book is packed with printed materials pulled from Dickens’ personal archive, which are tucked away between the pages in fold-out inserts. Family photographs, manuscripts proofed by Dickens, marriage certificates and more make up the assortment of rarely or never-before-seen documents included in the comprehensive tome.
The book also delves into Dickens’ role as a social commentator, which undoubtedly grew from his upbringing. Much of his work, like “Olivier Twist” or “Nicholas Nickleby” for example, reflected his interest in and understanding of the cultural injustices of his time, although he tried to keep his own past experiences hidden. His father went to debtors’ prison and as a child Dickens had to work as a laborer at a blacking factory—a time that had a huge impact on his writing and overall outlook on life. In an unfinished autobiography, he wrote, “I do not write resentfully or angrily: for I know all these things have worked together to make me what I am: but I never afterwards forgot, I never shall forget, I never can forget, that my mother was warm for my being sent back.”
The ultimate Dickens compendium covering his career as a prolific writer and budding actor, “Charles Dickens” offers a fresh perspective on the complexity of his character. The book is brimming with illustrations and photographs that reveal the essence of his life during the Victorian Era, allowing for a full grasp of the events that inspired much of his literary works.
“Charles Dickens” sells online from Amazon and Carlton Books.
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