I recently attended the AIGA design education conference New Contexts/New Meanings at North Carolina State University and participated in the “Social Economies: Enterprise and a New Cultural Geography” topic group as a co-author. While I enjoyed the discussion, I’m uncertain if I ever truly understood the premise of the debate—or contributed anything of value. However, [...]
The Booty Pop Variations
One of the below-the-fold front page stories of the July 22 Wall Street Journal told the tale of the increasing popularity of the Booty Pop. For some reason, this information was passed along to my two kids before departing on a drive from Brooklyn to Massachusetts. Along the way, the game became creating rhyming variations [...]
I Proclaim You Cultish
For Eye magazine’s summer 2009 “Agenda” section, Steven Heller produced another cult alert. By titling the piece “Cult of the Squiggly,” he obviously meant to invoke his earlier, infamous “Cult of the Ugly” essay. It’s a fair reference: both articles decry and advocate suppression of anti-Modern graphic design phenomena Heller deems disadvantageous to the field. [...]
Authenticity is a Groove
Years ago, I worked at a national historic site on Boston’s Freedom Trail. A frequent question of visitors was “How much of the building is original?” I knew what they meant by the question but sometimes I felt waggish (or was a smarmy asshole, depending upon your point of view) and would answer that it [...]
