Man Ray has one of the coolest names in the history of art. However, he was born Emmanuel Radnitzky. He rejected his birth name moved to Paris in 1921 and became the sole American in the vanguard of Parisian Modernism. This transformation represented a conflicted identity and his deep desire to escape the limitations of his Russian Jewish past.
Opening this Sunday at The Jewish Museum in New York City, is an impressive survey of Man Ray's art. The show entitled Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention includes a stunning collection of drawings, paintings, sculptures, photographs, "rayographs," poetry, and short films. This work is evidence of a curious mind in the fast lane of continuous experimentation.
Man Ray is also an artist that any graphic designer could love.
His art is direct, raw at times with a pervasive sense of design. His photos of nudes are sensuous. His paintings are bold and poster like. His sculpture is provocative. Man Ray's art simultaneously fits into the categories of Dadaism, Surrealism, and Modernism. There's plenty of Duchamp, Magritte and De Chirico influence here but in the end it's all Man Ray. Some of his most celebrated works are in the show.
This is the kind of show that The Jewish Museum does best. Curated by Mason Klein, it is well researched and authoritative with a deft balance of the iconic and the new. The exhibition designed by architects Imrey/Culbert provides an elegantly spare backdrop and stays out of Man Ray's way.
As a designer, I'm always looking for sources of inspiration. Man Ray's work provides me with an easy bridge to visual possibilities for commercial application. In fact, he also leveraged his creativity to pay the bills. I have a few Harper's Bazaar magazines from the 1930s that contain Ray's fashion photos. As with much of the work from this period, these images looks strikingly contemporary.
In the short biographical film on view, Man Ray, looking like a disheveled Woody Allen, proudly claims that he is a "free man" This is quite apparent in the liberated spirit that twisted and turned stylistically whenever it pleased while producing an inspiring body of work, all in disguise.
[The Jewish Museum; opens on November 15 and runs through March 14, 2010]
Ken Carbone is among America's most
respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its clarity and
intelligence. He has built an international reputation creating
outstanding programs for world-class clients, including Tiffany &
Co., W.L Gore, Herman Miller, PBS, Christie's, Nonesuch Records, the W
Hotel Group, and The Taubman Company. His clients also include
celebrated cultural institutions such as the Museé du Louvre, The
Museum of Modern Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art.
The conservative columnist George Will once said football combines the two worst things about America: violence punctuated by committee meetings. As a designer who occasionally gets caught up in the fury of the game, I'd like to add graphic design to what's wrong with football.
With the help of Skycam I spend as much time enjoying the color, patterns and graphics that add to the spectacle of the sport, as I do enjoying a deftly-completed pass. Now that the Yankees have won the World Series and the season shifts from batting balls to banging heads, I've been musing about NFL helmet design. For inspiration (and some truly bizarre helmet design), I visited the Art of the
Samurai: Japanese Arms and Armor at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York. Created centuries ago, these designs (left) are more about shock and
awe than waging battle but are truly extraordinary.
Today's high-tech helmet with its wireless headset and polycarbonate visor has come a long way from the padded leather ones of yesterday. It not only serves its essential protective function but is also a gleaming sign for a team's brand. Yet in many cases the graphics are blunt and formulaic, usually involving slapping the team's primary logo on both sides of the helmet.
This bilateral approach is sometimes successful for teams such as the Minnesota Vikings, St. Louis Rams and Philadelphia Eagles. Horns and wings usually come in twos making these symmetrical designs feel natural.
The Dallas Cowboys' blue star on a silver field is crisp and a clear reference to the Lone Star state. As for simplicity, I guess the Cleveland Browns score highest. They use no logo at all but why do the Browns have orange helmets?
However, the absolutely best team helmet belongs to the Cincinnati Bengals. The tiger stripe pattern embraces the whole spherical form. There is nothing else like it in the NFL. It looks fierce from any angle and boldly breaks from tradition.
Among the weakest designs are the Washington Redskins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers , whose visually complicated logos become a graphic mess when televised and, I imagine, even if you're sitting on the fifty-yard line. At the very the bottom of the list are the New England Patriots. The Patriots' helmet is plastered with their logo, which comes dangerously close to looking like a wind-swept John Kerry dressed up like a Minute Man. If there was ever a time to go with the obvious this is it. Why not really play the patriotic card and star and stripe the helmet?
Working with visual elements of each of these team brands, I asked illustrator and retouching whiz Mike Racz, to render a few of my suggested graphic design improvements for what I considered to be The Helmets In Need.
My initial sketches provided to Mike Racz.
For the Washington Redskins I tried a design direction that might be
considered more politically correct in most circles by removing the
Native American portrait, emphasizing the feather motif from the
headdress and using it more dynamically on the helmet.
I amplified the "Jolly Roger" feature of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
helmet to make it more telegenic while retaining the overall team color
scheme.
A team as legendary as the New England Patriots deserves a more celebratory helmet. Here I totally disregarded the existing design and offered a strong, boldly colored alternative that would look triumphant in the end zone.
For dedicated football fans, messing with the team brand in any fashion is "verboten." However, I offer these design suggestions simply as brand enhancements to make these helmets work harder for these hard working teams.
[Original helmet images from Fans Edge, where they are also available for purchase]
Ken Carbone is among America's most
respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its clarity and
intelligence. He has built an international reputation creating
outstanding programs for world-class clients, including Tiffany &
Co., W.L Gore, Herman Miller, PBS, Christie's, Nonesuch Records, the W
Hotel Group, and The Taubman Company. His clients also include
celebrated cultural institutions such as the Museé du Louvre, The
Museum of Modern Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art.
To quote the late, great sportscaster Jim McKay, "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" never looked better than in high-definition TV. The pristine, crystal clarity of the widescreen image adoringly captures an athlete's grace, strength, speed and--in the case of baseball--his saliva.
Major League Baseball is the expectorator sport.
I don't recall seeing Tiger Woods spitting on the green. I don't think Brett Favre would risk letting one loose on his facemask. Roger Federer? No way.
But our national pastime is different. The intensity of the game seems to cause these players to salivate more than most. Blame it on a wad of gum or a jaw of chaw but the spitting during the 2009 World Series seems to be at an all-time high. It's an age-old tradition, honored by players and coaches alike. Can you imagine the dugout floor? Yeah. Don't.
The tight, HDTV camera shots of a pitcher's face and his unflinching gaze acutely focus our attention on this habitual behavior. During Monday night's game, I saw one Yankee relief pitcher stare intently at Jorge Posada's hand signals and hock a double-loogie. Then, before his wind up, he topped that with a triple-spittle.
I became oddly obsessed with this ritual and as I kept a running tab on both teams--the Phillies beat the Yankees in more ways than one, with 72 spits to the Yankees' 59--a strange phenomenon emerged. There appeared to be a direct correlation between the aerial flight of a pitcher's projectile spitting and his resulting pitch! The speed, the arc, the angle of descent, it was all there. Could this be possible? Do home run hitters know this?
I've designed these diagrams as proof of my unscientific study.
Ken Carbone is among America's most
respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its clarity and
intelligence. He has built an international reputation creating
outstanding programs for world-class clients, including Tiffany &
Co., W.L Gore, Herman Miller, PBS, Christie's, Nonesuch Records, the W
Hotel Group, and The Taubman Company. His clients also include
celebrated cultural institutions such as the Museé du Louvre, The
Museum of Modern Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art.
What could possibly drive two men to spend $500,000 of their own money over four years, become employers of a million female spiders, and rekindle an indigenous tradition on the island of Madagascar? The answer: To create an incredibly beautiful artifact that is unique in the world.
The American Museum of Natural History is currently exhibiting a 11-foot-by-4-foot tapestry made completely of spider silk. In this age of everything being "awesome," it is so wonderful to see something that truly is. If you are arachnophobic, seeing this beautiful cloth might cure you just in time for Halloween.
This daring idea was conceived by Simon Peers, a British art historian and textile expert, and Nicholas Godley, an American fashion designer, both of whom who live in Madagascar. In 2004, they began a seemingly impossible mission to harness spiders to make silk in the same way that silkworms have been used for thousands of years.
The female golden orb spider (Nephila madagascariensis) is large, with long articulated legs. The female is particularly nasty and cannibalistic which makes herding large numbers of them a difficult task. And yes, they bite but apparently it is not dangerous.
This design marvel is an astonishing fusion of science, art, craft, and I imagine, incredible dexterity. The tapestry gets its golden color from the spider's silk which is naturally a saffron hue. The fabric is not dyed. The silk, which is hardly visible when extracted from the spider's spinneret, by hand, is then carefully woven strand by strand into a thread for use on a loom. Dozens of native Malagasy "handlers" are employed in the spider collection, harnessing, silk extraction and weaving. A rich pattern of subtle geometric shapes that reference traditional images of animals and birds are intricately woven into the golden fabric.
Scientists have long pondered the industrial potential for spider silk because of its tensile strength, which is 5-6 times that of steel by weight. The belief is that it could have beneficial applications in medicine, space exploration and the military.
And what do the spiders get in return? Not much. However, Godley and Peers were quoted in the New York Times, saying, "We have become sort of the defenders of these spiders, something we never thought we would be." They keep careful records on spider use and daily release.
The installation at the museum is unremarkable and it leaves one wishing there was more information or some video showing the fabrication process. However, its location in the museum's Grand Gallery and the glow from the tapestry itself, seemed to attract plenty of museum traffic.
I noticed at the exhibit that there were quite a number of foreign visitors speaking in a "general assembly" of tongues. However, as they looked in awe at the luminous golden cloth, they all spoke a single word in unison: "WOW!"
Ken Carbone is among America's most
respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its clarity and
intelligence. He has built an international reputation creating
outstanding programs for world-class clients, including Tiffany &
Co., W.L Gore, Herman Miller, PBS, Christie's, Nonesuch Records, the W
Hotel Group and The Taubman Company. His clients also include
celebrated cultural institutions such as the Museé du Louvre, The
Museum of Modern Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art.
I've never ridden a motorcycle and probably never will. Too fast, too dangerous. However, this conviction was seriously challenged when I visited Full Throttle: Vintage Motorcycles, Custom Choppers and Racing Machines at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont this past summer. Now I can almost imagine leather pants, a cut off denim jacket, and maybe a star-spangled helmet in my designer wardrobe.
The exhibition was a shock to my “less is more” aesthetic leanings, but it was also just what I needed. The more radical the designs, the better they were.
It was also a shock to the Shelburne Museum. Located in the scenic Lake Champlain valley, it's one of the nation's finest museums of art and Americana. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in a beautiful pastoral setting of 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and as such were relocated to the museum grounds. There's even an immense iron-clad steamboat on the grounds.
I visit this museum annually. It usually draws a genteel family-oriented crowd arching to see the impressive permanent collection. This time the crowd was a little different--the contrast between the typical Shelburne visitor and road-hardened bikers with their Fu-Man Chu mustaches and fading tattoos was striking.
Exhibited on all three levels of the museum’s historic 80-foot diameter Round Barn gallery, Full Throttle is organized into three thematic sections.
• Wide Open and Wild: Racing Machines examines the role of racing tracks as testing grounds for motorcycle design.
• Classic Cool: Vintage Motorcycles features iconic examples of Indian, Harley Davidson and Triumph motorcycles.
• Choppers: Art of the Custom Ride includes examples of regional styles and compares old-school choppers to contemporary themed or fantasy bikes.
Not being a motorcycle aficionado, I found the third section most enthralling because of the sheer gorgeousness of the bikes. These machines are about design, invention, power, individuality, color, and spectacle. It’s bling on wheels and the designs are beautifully over-the-top--in all the right ways. It’s also about love. You can feel it in the exquisite craftsmanship and painstaking attention to detail. All of the bikes are handmade and one-of-a-kind.
Complimenting the gleaming exo-skeletal character of the bikes are the lush colors and fine graphics that cover their frames and gas tanks.
I may never fall in love with motorcycles but seeing this exhibition was like a memorable one-night stand. On two wheels or four, if you're thinking of joining the mass migration of "leaf peepers" that descend on Vermont each fall you must get your motor running and check out this exhibition before it closes on October 25.
Ken Carbone is among America's most
respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its clarity and
intelligence. He has built an international reputation creating
outstanding programs for world-class clients, including Tiffany &
Co., W.L Gore, Herman Miller, PBS, Christie's, Nonesuch Records, the W
Hotel Group and The Taubman Company. His clients also include
celebrated cultural institutions such as the Museé du Louvre, The
Museum of Modern Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art.
Long before the "town brawls", "grass roots vs. Astro-Turf," and "death panels" became the three rings of the health care media circus, an op-ed piece appeared in the Washington Post positing that the U.S. health-care system was critically ill. The diagnosis? Terminal Information Design.
The article ran on January 2006 and was written by Leslie Smolan, a designer and co-founder of our agency. It described her disastrous experience dealing with the Medicare system while tending to her father, who had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage after a fall. However, it also brought to light a fundamental problem inherent in our country's health care system.
Entitled "My Designer Prescription for Medicare Ills," Smolan's article exposed the plague of bad information design that grips our system and bewilders even the highly intelligent. The piece describes the common symptoms of the "diseases" ranging from Information Discontinuity to Information Dysfunction to Information Overdose:
We began to get pounds of paper from Medicare, pounds more from the secondary insurance company, not to mention individual bills from cardiologists, anesthesiologists, oncologists, radiologists, psychologists, urologists, helicopter and ambulance services and hospitals. They contained page after page of doctors' exams and procedures: electrocardiograms, echo exams, Doppler echo exams, Doppler color flow add-ons--and on and on. A quick scan of the individual costs was frightening: $980, $692, $575, $331, $133, $468, $107, $214, $107, $214 ...and 37 more similar charges, all on the first statement!
And then Smolan prescribes treatments based on successful models that exist in the commercial sector:
Take a look at your year-end American Express statement. Using chronology, categorization and clear presentation, you can see your spending "history" at a glance. A comparable system of itemization for Medicare would save patients and doctors countless hours of work.
Many claim that we have the best health care in the world. Probably true but navigating the fine print to make it work requires tons of time, plenty of patience, dogged determination and a Ph.D. in Advanced Cryptography. The medical institutions and the insurance companies mine this impenetrable Web of obfuscation for gold and they benefit from the status quo. Change is bad for business.
I'm as confused as many Americans are about the reform bills being proposed by Congress. This already mirrors the chronic communication and information design problems that Americans deal with everyday. Look at any statement you receive from a health insurance company and the only thing that is clear is its lack of clarity.
This whole problem started with the administration's less-than-stellar communication strategy. The question seems simple enough: Isn't the current health care/health insurance model due for a 21st-century upgrade? Those that agree raise your hands.
The President's team seemed oddly flat-footed when they introduced their plan and were ill-prepared for the politically-motivated opposition to any reform. I'm no pundit but I am a designer and even if a bill is signed into law there is an excellent chance of failure in implementation unless it includes a massive overhaul in how providers and insurers write, design and distribute their customer information. This demands that expert graphic designers who deal with complex information and communication systems be an integral part of the plan from its inception. Even if no bill is passed, these measures should be employed to fix the existing mess.
I have great faith in President Obama. Given all that is on his plate, his high energy, intelligence and drive are essential in these times. I also acknowledge that health care reform is more complex than picking off a few nasty pirates from the deck of an aircraft carrier. However, armed with a S.W.A.T. team of information designers, we can help ensure the President's initiatives have lasting success.
Ken Carbone is among America's most
respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its clarity and
intelligence. He has built an international reputation creating
outstanding programs for world-class clients, including Tiffany &
Co., W.L Gore, Herman Miller, PBS, Christie's, Nonesuch Records, the W
Hotel Group and The Taubman Company. His clients also include
celebrated cultural institutions such as the Museé du Louvre, The
Museum of Modern Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art.
Yesterday, a deafening cry of disbelief was heard from every electric guitarist on the planet. Les Paul had died. He was 94. We all knew the day would come but the shock was seismic.
Guitarist, entertainer, pioneer, inventor, audio engineer, hit maker, Grammy winner, "Architect of Rock & Roll": Les Paul earned all of these titles. He's best known for creating the first functioning solid body guitar back in 1941. Other inventions include multi-track recording and special effects that changed the course of 20th-century music. If you could imagine a Mount Rushmore of innovation featuring Thomas Edison, Edwin Land, and Tim Berners-Lee, Les Paul would be in their company.
What was truly remarkable about "the legend" was how accessible Les Paul was. He chose to appear weekly at a small club in New York City because he just liked to play. His devoted following included special guests like Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, Paul McCartney, and Eric Clapton, who would stop by to pay tribute.
I purchased a vintage Les Paul guitar in 1968, while in high school. The $250 price was a fortune for me at the time. It was 1952 Gold Top, the first Les Paul model introduced by the Gibson Guitar Company. Today, as a collector's item it could command tens of thousands of dollars. A 1958 Les Paul Standard, the Stradivarius of electric guitars, with its cherry sunburst finish, is priced even higher.
The Les Paul is a beautifully-designed instrument with a luscious, warm tone, and sculpted body. The script logo that's stamped on every guitar is not a typographic masterpiece. It's a simple signature and feels a bit like a naïve attempt at elegance. However, its global recognition and the product's high quality reputation, imbues this logo with a magnetism that has attracted a fanatically loyal customer for over fifty years. This logo is a classic and represents what every great brand aspires to be.
If you're not a guitarist, the name Les Paul might look like a French bistro. If you are a guitarist, I feel your loss. If you just love music, think about it this way: His life is the recorded history of music. Everything on your iPod can be traced back to him.
Ken Carbone is among America's most
respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its clarity and
intelligence. He has built an international reputation creating
outstanding programs for world-class clients, including Tiffany &
Co., W.L Gore, Herman Miller, PBS, Christie's, Nonesuch Records, the W
Hotel Group and The Taubman Company. His clients also include
celebrated cultural institutions such as the Museé du Louvre, The
Museum of Modern Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art.
There
they are, sitting side by side in a photographic balance of power. President
Bill Clinton looking his sartorial best and Chairman Kim Jong Il looking his janitorial
worst. This
photo released yesterday by the Korean Central News Agency, is designed to
demand the respect the totalitarian state of North Korean so desperately wants.
This tableau is so perfectly
choreographed that it begs visual analysis.
The
President's delegation, appearing like pallbearers, is standing at attention.
The flanking members are striking the classic "fig leaf" pose. The Premier's
notorious hair do is fortunately subdued against the dark suit behind him, worn
by an aid that is suspiciously diverting his eyes. Is he trying to avoid
looking down on the comb-over before him?
An
international manager at IBM once told me that whenever they did business in
Asia they always sent their tallest salesmen as an intimidation strategy. Hmmm?
It may not be intentional but in the President's team, even the woman
interpreter, looks like she would tower over the diminutive Mr. Kim. John
Podesta, standing behind Mr. Clinton's left shoulder, might be the exception,
but looking like something out of a Bram Stoker novel, he is sufficiently scary.
The real
star in this picture is the tremendous painting in the background. It dominates
this cast of characters. Is it a raging symbol of strength? Is it a tsunami of
power? If it's to send a message that North Korea is a force to be reckoned
with, they should probably lose the tacky casino carpeting in the foreground. I
love this painting. It lends energy to a pose that could serve as a model for a
wax recreation in a Pyongyang Madame Tussaud's.
Judging
by this photo, one would never believe that this was to commemorate the
triumphant release of two American journalists who were facing twelve years of
hard labor in a North Korean prison for illegally entering the country. This
event is simply a footnote to Mr. Kim's larger political message.
Fortunately,
Laura Ling and Euna Lee were probably boarding their freedom flight home as
this shot was taken. President Clinton probably knew this. I sense a
twinkle in his eye and pride in his heart at being on the international stage
he so enjoys.
Ken Carbone is among America's most
respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its clarity and
intelligence. He has built an international reputation creating
outstanding programs for world-class clients, including Tiffany &
Co., W.L Gore, Herman Miller, PBS, Christie's, Nonesuch Records, the W
Hotel Group and The Taubman Company. His clients also include
celebrated cultural institutions such as the Museé du Louvre, The
Museum of Modern Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art.
Variations on Ron Arad's Ripple Chair, photo by Jason Mandella
Ron Arad's exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is a lot about "no." No limits. No right angles. No expense spared.
Entitled No Discipline, this show is the first major retrospective of Arad's work in the United States. He is well known for his creative versatility and the experimental way he fuses technology, manufacturing processes and a daring array of materials into objects, furniture and architecture.
Think carbon fiber, acrylic, polyurethane, concrete, glass, polyester, plywood, steel, leather and crystal and you only scratch the surface of his design palette. These materials are artfully shaped into forms that are extreme, mercurial and complex No platonic purity here. These designs are marginally functional, elegant at their best and bombastic at their worst. However, the creativity, craftsmanship and level of finish in every example are superb.
Narrow Pappardelle chair by Ron Arad, photo by Bruno Scott
Many of his iconic works are on view, such as his serpentine metal bookshelf Bookworm and his sprung stainless steel Well Tempered club chair. Other highlights include Narrow Pappardelle, a beautifully lyrical chair made of woven steel mesh that gracefully unfurls from an upright position on to the floor. F7 (Interior) is a complex design that suggests an object and the mold from which it came. In an uncharacteristic display of restraint, his IPCO pendant lamp is a perforated fiberglass sphere that casts calligraphic squiggles of light on the wall.
The real gem of the exhibition is the installation design by Ron Arad. It is a wonder. At the opening, my friends and I debated the nature of the form itself. Is it a gigantic Möbius Strip? Could it be a contorted ellipse? It defied description. This twisted structure serves as a massive display that frames Arad's objects and furniture. Small video screens serve as labels and describe what's on view. The structure is made of Corten steel, customarily rusted on one surface and contrasted by a mirror polish finish on the other. It's a marvel of fabrication. This muscular form is softened by the use of a delicate scrim backdrop for dramatic lighting and shadow effect.
Installation design by Ron Arad, photos by Jason Mandella
MoMA curators Paola Antonelli and Patricia Juncosa Vecchierini have mounted an outstanding exhibition that is sure to be a crowd pleaser. It's an "object fest" that can appeal to visitors unfamiliar with Arad's design. In retrospect, this work is impressive but it feels oddly out of place in the world today. Its material extravagance seems in stark contrast to the present societal mood of making do with less, and risks feeling irrelevant.
Design is at its best when this level of invention, creativity and craft is harnessed to address the needs of the many rather than the indulgence of the few.
Ron Arad is an important designer and tireless explorer of form. It is exactly his kind of "undisciplined" investigation that so often shapes the more utilitarian objects of our lives. However, now is the time for "disciplined" design. If wind turbines are to cover our globe in the future, perhaps Ron Arad as an idea about how they should be designed. The exhibition is on view at MoMA through October 19, 2009.
Ken Carbone is among America's most
respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its clarity and
intelligence. He has built an international reputation creating
outstanding programs for world-class clients, including Tiffany &
Co., W.L Gore, Herman Miller, PBS, Christie's, Nonesuch Records, the W
Hotel Group and The Taubman Company. His clients also include
celebrated cultural institutions such as the Museé du Louvre, The
Museum of Modern Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art.
The unintended consequence of industrial design and manufacturing is the parallel humanity that lives in the objects of our lives. It's a global population and they surround us. A wall outlet seems to be expressing a face of fear. A baby's pacifier possesses a bulbous nose. The front end of a vintage roadster can suggest some fierce facial features.
Welcome to the beautiful obsession of photographer François Robert, whose anthropomorphic perspective transforms door handles, mops, tools and parking meters into uncommonly curious creatures.
This summer, FLOR the manufacturer of carpet tiles made with renewable and recycled content, has reinterpreted Robert's images in a product called "Find A Face". They are bold, graphic and modular, a natural fit for FLOR. The system allows you to customize each piece to your space by combining both playful six-tiled versions, or change the shape by adding complementary solid shades. This product is ideal for introducing a touch of sophistication into the wilds of a kid's room without compromising fun.
For decades François Robert has been an intrepid photo anthropologist exploring our industrialized world in search of these hidden "faces". His photographs have been widely exhibited and published and have appeared in other products such as gift cards, books and posters.
The universality of this idea and our fascination with what makes us human is what fuels Robert's work and enables us to see the world through his lens.
Ken Carbone is among America's most respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its clarity and intelligence. He has built an international reputation creating outstanding programs for world-class clients, including Tiffany & Co., W.L Gore, Herman Miller, PBS, Christie's, Nonesuch Records, the W Hotel Group and The Taubman Company. His clients also include celebrated cultural institutions such as the Museé du Louvre, The Museum of Modern Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art.
With the help of Skycam I spend as much time enjoying the color, patterns and graphics that add to the spectacle of the sport, as I do enjoying a deftly-completed pass. Now that the Yankees have won the World Series and the season shifts from batting balls to banging heads, I've been musing about NFL helmet design. For inspiration (and some truly bizarre helmet design), I visited the 
I've never ridden a motorcycle and probably never will. Too fast, too dangerous. However, this conviction was seriously challenged when I visited 
I visit this museum annually. It usually draws a genteel family-oriented crowd arching to see the impressive permanent collection. This time the crowd was a little different--the contrast between the typical Shelburne visitor and road-hardened bikers with their Fu-Man Chu mustaches and fading tattoos was striking.
Entitled "My Designer Prescription for Medicare Ills," Smolan's article exposed the plague of bad information design that grips our system and bewilders even the highly intelligent. The piece describes the common symptoms of the "diseases" ranging from Information Discontinuity to Information Dysfunction to Information Overdose:
Guitarist, entertainer, pioneer, inventor, audio engineer, hit maker, Grammy winner, "Architect of Rock & Roll": Les Paul earned all of these titles. He's best known for creating the first functioning solid body guitar back in 1941. Other inventions include multi-track recording and special effects that changed the course of 20th-century music. If you could imagine a Mount Rushmore of innovation featuring Thomas Edison, Edwin Land, and Tim Berners-Lee, Les Paul would be in their company.
The Les Paul is a beautifully-designed instrument with a luscious, warm tone, and sculpted body. The script logo that's stamped on every guitar is not a typographic masterpiece. It's a simple signature and feels a bit like a naïve attempt at elegance. However, its global recognition and the product's high quality reputation, imbues this logo with a magnetism that has attracted a fanatically loyal customer for over fifty years. This logo is a classic and represents what every great brand aspires to be.
The unintended consequence of industrial design and manufacturing is the parallel humanity that lives in the objects of our lives. It's a global population and they surround us. A wall outlet seems to be expressing a face of fear. A baby's pacifier possesses a bulbous nose. The front end of a vintage roadster can suggest some fierce facial features. 
This summer, 
