The reception for Bases Loaded was a success! Great turn out and all of the Chicago Hot Dogs were consumed.
There has been a great response to the show and it's been invited to be included in the Big Ten Graduate Exhibition at the Big Ten Headquarters in the Chicago area, as well as to the Sports & Society Conference at Lambeau Field. Very happy about the response and look forward to seeing where it goes from here...
The Bases Loaded Series website has gone live today. It's been a few months in the making, but all 18 banners are designed and finished. I'm in the process of screenprinting the banners now. They measure 26"x40" 2 color on wool felt with a 1" felt border. The first exhibition of the banners will be from November 25 - December 1 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
To learn more about the series and take a peek or to inquire about hosting the exhibition, head on over to www.BasesLoadedSeries.com.
It's safe to say that the design industry is a different beast than it was pre-Steve Jobs. He was the designer's designer. We all huddle around Mr. Job's creations day after day with expectations that he created. The explosion of the creative industry is no doubt a reflection of Steve Jobs' work.
We know what Apple is to us. It is creativity, it's reason, it's just what we need when we need it.
The jumps in the design and creative world have been taken for granted for decades. We all assume and wait for Apple to take us to the next level. I'm not talking in the quality or conceptual aspect of graphic design, but sure as hell in the productivity and work flow. Our lives are tangled in the network of iphones, Macbooks, iMacs and ipods. Since my first Mac as a designer, the Blueberry iMac back in 1999, I have bought into the vision of Steve Jobs. My middle-school self is thankful for allowing Macintosh to be my first encounter with the digital world.
Thank you Mr. Jobs for sharing your mind with the world. You left the design world & the world in general, a better place.
Congrats to the new class of ADC Young Guns 9. The poster above, designed by Nessim Higson, is one of my favorite pieces of design works/campaigns in awhile.
Go to the Young Guns website to see the list of the new young guns of the design industry. Some real talent and loads of inspirational work that I'm sure you've seen before...
For an interesting read that questions the premise and message of YG, and this campaign directly, read this. It's good to think about the consequences and message of design campaigns. The creative fields always do a good job at questioning and keeping each other in check. What's your take?
This is the video I wanted to post, but cannot embed on this site (It's more recent). Click the link and watch this one: James Victore Live at AIGA SF.
The video below is more interview style and from 5 years ago...
I titled this post James Victore, because there's no need for any other introduction. Watch the video, if you don't mind strong opinions and F-bombs.
Here's a recent design for a tattoo and t-shirt graphic. Shaun will get inked with it later in August, making it his second Newbaric original tattoo. That's some serious dedication.
Once all the magic of the tattoo artist is applied it should look pretty amazing. Some shading in the towers, shield, stars and waves will bring it all to life.
Amazing video from OK GO, once again. Check out the full interactive version on Google Chrome here.
This video, and all of OK Go's other videos, should be posted on every website on the internet. After all, this is what the internet is for, right? I'm thinking about starting a TV station that plays music videos all day long.
I've had the pleasure of being surrounded by a lot of both my grandpa's belongings. Some great designs from these relics of the past. I will continue to post photos of them. The one above is the cover-shot from my grandpa's flight school book. Great illustrations on the inside as well that I will post over the next week.
Great talk from Andrew Byrom at TEDx UCLA. He sees type in everything and creates amazing pieces of work from his abstract visions. Two words: Typography Kites. (Via Print)
Had a great time with the Infinity Boehne family in town. We had fun and took care of business. This shot is from a photo-shoot we did out in the country-side of beautiful Wisconsin.
Team Infinity was in Madison for the Midwest Stand-Up Paddle festival. Mr. Dave took 3rd on this 12'6" beauty. The board is still in town and for sale if any of you Midwestern watermen/women are interested! Head over to the Flickr set to see more photos.
A Newbaric Client, JSK, came to me with the slogan "Natural Born Shooters" and wanted a t-shirt graphic. This is the result. You can see it on Dribbble as well. Thanks for looking, it's been awhile! Going to try and start posting regularly again like I used to. Hope you're having a great Summer, drop me a line to say hello!
Vampire Weekend - "Giving up the Gun." Still a favorite video of mine. Aesthetically pleasing and Jake Gyllenhaal playing tennis with girls. Win-win, right?
This has nothing to do with anything, except that I have had Vampire Weekend on loop all day today while designing. Just wanted to spread the joy.
This is the longest break between posts since I started Newbaric's blog 5 years ago. Not sure where the time went, but a lot has been going to on around these parts. First of all, I have conquered my first Wisconsin winter. Yup. This Californian just went out today in short sleeves in 47 degree weather, because guess what? That's warm!
So I guess that pup in the photo above is the easiest excuse I have for my lapse in posts. She frowns upon computer time outside of design projects, so I try and comply :) Our little buddy is Wrigley, aka, Wrigs, Wigley and her official AKC name, Wrigley Helvetica Lindstrom. She is a Bears, Cubs and Badger fan. We picked her up near Green Bay, so we figure when she gives us attitude it's because she is really a Packers fan.
Since the last post I have been posting work on dribbble and still getting in some Twitter time. Stop on by and say hello. In the long process of updating and improving the website. In a constant state of change, which is gooood.
CBTL has launched an "Above and Beyond" program internally to recognize its employees. We finished up this Above and Beyond logo for them to roll out with the program.
Wrapped up this poster for "Year in Review" UW graduate show. Come on out to the 7th floor gallery and the Art Lofts to see what's been happening this last year.
This is the poster for the 2011 Spring Colloquium at UW. Last semester it was the transporation map, this semester it's an Encyclopedia collection to represent the speakers. Sent to print and plastered all around campus. One BIG poster is between the Chazen and Humanities building...
Few companies in the world have the brand presence that Starbucks carries around. You can watch movies, TV shows and see ads in magazines from the last decade that all use that white coffee cup with a generic "green circle." For a brand to be that ubiquitous that it can be summed up in one shape and color, it's been doing something right. World, take note. Few "brands" in the world can lay claim to that level of brand awareness. To a certain degree, Japan owns the red circle, Apple owns, well the apple, Nike=Swoosh and UPS can claim brown.
The most recent redesign by Starbucks is the exact reason why they own the green circle. They DO NOT stray from it. They know who they are and know it would be silly and destructive to the brand to try and reinvent the wheel. They had a vision and reason for their redesign, and carefully applied, or deleted, from their logo what they needed to reach that vision. The power of brand and knowing who you are and what your customers expect from you will get you a long way. This last year has been a huge year for Starbucks in getting back to who they are and where they want to go from here.
Two main critiques that people have made about this new logo, that I DON'T agree with:
1. "Will Starbucks be able to pull off a logo without their name attached to it?"
Huh? Please, if you can name one other company in the world that is more able to do so, I would love to hear who it might be. I don't see Starbucks as an impulsive company, and with Mr. Schultz at the helm who are we to question? They have done their research.
2. "The new logo is boring"
You can't take people's critiques too serious in the internet age, simply because everyone has the ability to voice them, just as I am doing. They turn into opinions rather than constructive critiques. And we all know that person that always has something to say. The sky is purple... For the sake of this debate, their NEW LOGO is their OLD LOGO, without the text! They are not trying to reinvent themselves here. They are a green circle with a siren. Finished, no need to over-do something just to impress the public with killer design skills.
I read some of these design blogs and business sites and cringe at the opinions of fellow designer, business people and even worse, journalists. They sound like the nightmare that we all dread. Unless you have something constructive and well thought out to say, please turn your keyboard over.
Kudos to Starbucks on many levels. It's a bold move for a bold company. Looking forward to seeing how the rest of the identity system is applied.
Small type reads: "Grid Iron is a mono-spaced display font that should not be used under microscopic circumstances. Consult your designer if blurred vision, headache or upset stomach result in the use of Grid Iron. This may be a treatable, but serious, side effect of an overdose or mis-use of the font. The use of Grid Iron and it's effects haven't been endorsed by the FDA or AIGA. Use at your own risk."
This wraps up my the Fall semester of grad school at Wisconsin. I designed, developed and have finished my typeface "Grid Iron." It was a great process that gives me a much greater understanding and appreciation of type. Every designer should design their own typeface at some point. Good or bad it is a priceless way to really grasp the nuances of type. We use it every day and owe it to the design and type world. I have a new found respect for good typefaces and the typographers who create them. What an experience and reward to be able to type using your own typeface.
With Wisconsin Rose Bowl bound I found it fitting to finish off with a Rose Bowl themed project. I did a series of 6 one-off prints for my final screen-print project. This is one in the series and was shown in the Graphic Attack show in the 7th floor gallery. It's 5 colors printed on 100# French Paper with a nice dark wood frame. The series is a spin on the vinatage Penguin book covers back in the day, which was a Wednesday. Then overprinted with diffferent layers and varying graphics. You can see the "book cover" behind the Badger with text set in Stymie Bold. Every print is one of a kind. On Wisconsin!
With the addition of Nebraska to the BIG 10 in 2011, there was an opportunity to rebrand the conference and unveil a new logo. The one above is just one mark within their new identity system. Stay tuned to Pentagram Design's site for more of the identity system as it rolls out over the next few months. I have yet to form an overall opinion of the logo, but that's all it would be, an opinion. Everyone has one and it doesn't matter in the grand-scheme of things. The new logo works, it's safe and will take on a personality of it's own over time. I do like the mark above and it's effort to have more there than meets the eye. The old BigTen logo with the hidden "11" was clever and I think many were looking for a hidden "12" in the new logo, which isn't feasable.
What I am most excited about are these academic conferences taking an appreciation of design and the role it plays. With the new PAC-10 (soon to be Pac12), and with this logo for the Big10, they have reached out to well-known design firms and paid BIG money for their identity. Good stuff...
My fellow Urban Graphics humans and I are having a show this next week. I just wrapped this poster up this last week to promote the show. It's being screenprinted by Mr. Rees as we speak. 2 color, simple with a battle between a Storm Trooper and Rock'em Sock'em Robot... What? It makes perfect sense. Fun poster, good times ahead...
Just picked this poster up from print. Designed it for our first year show on Friday.
THIS FRIDAY, come on out and see the UW-Madison first-year grad work at the Art Lofts. Some good work to dwell over at and snacks to toss in your mouth. Don't be a stranger, come on by and say hello. Art Lofts Gallery, 111 North Frances Street, Madison WI 53703
It's the event of the year that everyone is talking about, haven't you heard?
