Six Flags New Orleans - post Hurricane Katrina

I can't watch this video enough... and I check the comments often to see if it's still standing, because it was set to be knocked down in January 2011. I was on there today, and noticed that someone mentioned in the comments that it might end up becoming the set for some horror movie.

I don't know which fate is worse.

People still ask me why I like abandoned buildings so much… and I still can’t really explain why. Al least, not in a way that won’t sound super cliché, haha. But there’s something magical about a building that’s simply been left behind, without anyone trying to turn it into something it isn’t. There’s the excitement of finding left behind possessions, furniture, documents, pictures, like everything’s been trapped in time. Of course, I’m not the only urban explorer in the world, but we all have a code that most of us follow (I hope). We are never to force entry or break in, vandalize, or take anything we’ve found. We try to leave everything as is. I do take that very seriously… and if you do remove an object from somewhere, it sort of loses its personality… because the contrast of the object in those surroundings gave it a story.

I almost decided to go into historic restoration, but I think that would equally break my heart. So weird, I know. I’d rather see something rot and remembered as it was, than to see it resurrected?

I remember going to Pennhurst for the first time, and how I wanted so badly to go back because it got dark almost as soon as we got there. I never did make it back… and then I found out that last year they turned it into a lackluster haunted house. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against haunted houses. But knowing that it was gutted for something so phony, completely ruins the experience of going back. I do have some great memories of the place, even if it was for a few hours, and I am lucky to have them. But it would never be the same.

But nothing ever really is the same, when you go back a second time…

The constant re-evolution of package design

For the past four years, I've been in package design. I've dealt with fighting my intuition to make things look clean and elegant with the client's desire to make 458 claims super-duper important on the primary design panel. But have you all noticed the trend that's taking place? Simplicity! Oh it makes me so happy! Super huge cropped logos, single colors, less and less blurs, embossing, and crazy gradients.

I guess I have the public to thank for this, all you suddenly health conscious consumers who can really make the connection that simple packaging probably means less unnecessary crap in their products. You go into a Whole Foods, and all the packaging is simple and beautiful, for the most part. Companies are realizing this, and trying to live up to that expectation. Not only that, but when you're walking down a cereal aisle and every box has sooo many visual cues on it, what really stands out and grabs your attention? Possibly nothing, possibly the next aisle with the Pepto because you're so nauseous from all the colors. However, now you'll notice many companies are cleaning it up. I think I noticed Grape Nuts first. It was just a white box with their logo and a large beautiful image of wheat cropping off the box. So now, among a sea of craziness, there is this clean, beautiful oasis of type and image. I've been a big fan of Kashi packaging as well, because it's clean, but they also have fun with it. I don't know if it's always true, but even though I've been both designer and consumer, it somehow subconsciously says, "Less crap on the outside, less crap on the inside". The trend branches out further from this notion as well, because I've seen it in things like beer packaging, and lets face it, we aren't buying beer for our health. Well, mental health maybe...

It's inevitable, once everyone follows this trend, everyone is going to strive to stand out once again... but I'm going to enjoy it as long as I can. Who even knows what the next trend will be... maybe we'll just be eating food capsules...

Word art!

Oh how I want some of these!

http://www.harmonie-interieure.com/

From paper to pixels.

I know I'm way too young to even be posting anything like this, considering I only graduated school 4 years ago with a BFA in Graphic and Interactive Design... but it's more than obvious that everything is going digital these days and I'm more than a little bummed about it.

Don't get me wrong, I am constantly amazed by what we can do digitally. Geez, even since my days at Kinko's it's been game changing. Call me a hypocrite even, because I swore I'd keep more journals but here I am, blogging! I can send proofs to freelance clients instantly, and upload their files to print in a matter of seconds. I just miss the paper and the ink. After all, that's the reason I became so addicted to art and design in the first place. 

When you begin art school, or at least when you begin each semester for each class, you get that awesome shopping list that puts you so deep in the financial hole, but it's still so much fun. Getting to try out all these new mediums, all these new kinds of paper with different weights, colors, and finishes! I remember how blown away I was by the use of white or cobalt blue conté crayon on grey paper and how striking it looked in foundation drawing class. How much of a difference red text looked on cream colored paper instead of regular white. I remember all those wonderful textures of Strathmore paper in etching class. I've learned all these great techniques, and I was going to get to apply them all to the art of communication in graphic design!

I can't even get started on my fascination with printing in itself. Kinko's was one thing, we printed everything digitally, and I was still pretty fascinated with how a color copier worked. But I remember my first day working at a rinky-dink printer years later, helping out a woman with her graphics work because her husband just passed away. I walked into that place for the first time and it was like a museum to me. REAL printing presses, metal plates, rubylith, darkrooms, and a million cans of Pantone ink. Oh I loved it. I remember how sad it made me to meet the printer and how much he didn't care about what he did, and I guess I can't really be surprised. I don't think anyone is that much of a geek about printing! I always wanted to learn how to run the press, but I was the only graphics person there, and since I had to spend so much time bringing the software up to speed from 1980 (well, not really, but Photoshop 2?? This is 2005!) there wasn't much time for me to go jumping from one to the other. I did get to learn to operate this really cool platemaker that was in fact, digital, and worked like an inkjet printer! But when everyone left I'd go play in paper stocks and inks, I won't lie.

However, as time goes on, paper and ink become less and less of an art, because everything is moving so quickly. Our interaction with paper and ink is becoming so much more archaic, and it does certainly make me sad.  I do agree, it's much easier, it's more instantaneous, and this world is moving so fast that even the internet isn't fast enough for us anymore. People are reading books on iPhones! Everyone's reading the news on RSS feeds! They say printed magazines are becoming a thing of the past as well. Even as I send out resumes, most companies are asking me for a PDF. I'm worried it's becoming a lost art, and it can add so much to the experience. 

What can I say? I can't believe I'm saying such things at the ripe old age of 28, the whole When I was your age" nonsense. But I have to admit, when I'm in a coffee shop and I see someone reading a real newspaper among a sea of laptop screens, it gives me a little hope.

While we're at it, can we  not let digital cameras take over darkrooms as well? Don't even get me started...

:-) 

Hello, internet!

I will write something super interesting on this thing very soon, I promise!