Emigre magazine remembered

I recently shared my collection of old Emigre magazines with some design students. Emigre was quite influential to me in the late 1980s and 90s. It was an early proponent of using the Macintosh as a design tool and pioneered digital typeface design, as well as showcasing experimental design. Later it published ideas about the ethical issues in design, including this article that affected my career. The entire collection of their magazines are in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art.

Urban grit Newberg style part III

Urban grit Newberg style part II

More grungy old typography found in here in Newberg.

I like how this sign blended in perfectly with the blue sky.


Nowadays no one would get a hand painted wood sign like this, they'd get some vinyl lettering or digital output. This ages better...


Although this plastic sign is pretty cool.


One of my favorites; I used it as a backdrop for this Geez photo.



Yes, we have a functioning drive-in theater in town. I like the "of" and "the" ligatures. (And yes, I'm a design nerd.)

die neue Graphik

Spreads from die neue Graphik (the new graphic art), published in 1959. It has all this great modern graphic design from the 20s - 50s. The top spread shown features the designer Piet Schwarz's personal logo, a P and black square (schwarz means black in German), designed in 1927, while the logo on the right is for Stern Brau (Star Brewery); both smart, simple visual puns.

The bottom spread shows ads for Herman Miller by Herbert Matter; he uses dramatic, abstract-looking photos of the structural forms of Herman Miller's modern chairs.

Tombstone type

This is a detail of a tombstone in St. Andrews, Scotland. The historic graveyard there had many beautifully carved old tombstones like this.

Abstract expressionist training

I took these detail shots of some old train cars parked on the tracks near my home. Finding textures and colors like this make me think I'd never take the time to actually paint an abstract painting, since they are out there just waiting for me to find them and take a picture of them.

Felix and Dad

This is a vintage photo of my dad and a Felix the Cat toy, circa 1927. I enlarged it to 20 inches high and hung it on my wall. I like old photos like this.

Diary boxes

These are closeups of a couple of boxes containing diaries written by my grandmother in the early 1900s. The diaries are interesting snapshots of life almost 100 years ago. And the boxes that contain them, while not that old, have their own worn beauty.

Window pain

Photo I took near the Pearl District in Portland.

R is for rust

W is for wabi sabi.

I used to go on inner-city field trips in Indianapolis with Eric Kass; we'd photograph old signs and other deteriorating type. I think I shot this on the side of a railroad car. Eric introduced me to this book about wabi sabi, a Japanese concept of aesthetics.

Here is a definition of wabi sabi from another book: "Wabi sabi is an intuitive appreciation of transient beauty in the physical world that reflects the irreversible flow of life in the spiritual world. It is an understated beauty that exists in the modest, rustic, imperfect, or even decayed, an aesthetic sensibility that finds a melancholic beauty in the impermanence of all things."

Inspiration

When I was a kid, I found this matchbook and it changed my life, inspiring me to pursue art, helping me end up where I am now.

Okay, that's a complete lie. I got this as an adult, and I know it's sexist and stupid, but it cracks me up. (And perhaps I'm secretly hoping scantily-clad women will someday start to lounge around on my desk, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe it's because I don't have a pipe.)

Print Vol. X, No. 3

I have some vintage Print magazines; this one from 1956 has my favorite cover. It depicts a high contrast reproduction of a section of graffiti-covered New York subway wall. This issue also has the winners of the 2nd annual Type Directors Club awards, featuring such names as Herb Lubalin, Lou Dorfsman, George Nelson, Bradbury Thompson, Alexey Brodovitch, Alvin Lustig, Lester Beal, Bob Gill, Saul Bass ... the golden age of graphic design.

Back alley beauty

I like urban grit, the beauty of decay, and typography. When they all come together it makes me happy. Photo taken today in an alley in downtown Newberg.

First Things First

I read the First Things First manifesto in Emigre magazine in 1999. It started me thinking critically about what I did, and about how I'd feel looking back on my life’s work. It led me down a path to where I am now, doing design work only for organizations and people that are consciously trying to make the world a better place. For me, that means education, human rights, environment, organic, fair trade, non-profit, holistic health and the arts.

Another Emigre article that was influencial was Saving Advertising by Jelly Helm. He talked about overconsumption (“If everyone consumed the way Americans do, we would need four more earths to support it”) and advertising and design’s role in that. Advertising’s goal is to create desire, to make you unhappy until you buy something. And as Jelly points out, the danger of materialism is one of the things every major religion agrees on.