Monday, November 14, 2011


Of the 3 classes I teach at the School of Visual Arts, some of the more profound awakenings are in my second year typography class. With little background in design, students start to encounter the vast realm of expression offered through the lowly letterform. It's a strict course—intended to be meditative, and designed to create many quiet moments where students ponder the nuances of what make typographic expression so powerful and important.
The below represent some of the more successful executions for a unique project where students are randomly assigned both a well-known musical act, and a famous designer from 20th century history, then must synthesize their characteristics into a 12" record cover.


Jenny Wu designed this Neil Young 12" via Jan Tschichold


Heesang Lee's design for an Otis Redding 12" inspired by Bruno Monguzzi




Christopher Eustaquio's rendering of Led Zeppelin's untitled 12" in the style of Wolfgang Weingart

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Message


President Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner
Directly at the end of a comedic thread about the presentation of his birth certificate, Obama shows his "secret birth video", a sequence sampled from Disney's The Lion King, where Simba is presented to the animal kingdom.
youtube video at 3.23-3.24 min.secs (see the above typography flashed). It's hidden, being flashed for just a millisecond. But, given our heightened sensitivity to messaging, and our ability to parse high-speed information, it seems downright overt.