When: July 24, 2010
7pm to 12am
Where: WonderRoot Community Arts Center
982 MEMORIAL DR SE ATLANTA, GA 30316

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When: Saturday, July 3, 2010 from 7pm-11pm

How Much: FREE!

More Info:
MINT gallery is proud to host an amazing group exhibit featuring art inspired by our beloved country. Come out and salute the flag, have a PBR, and be proud to be an American. Each artist created a piece about their feelings and views on our great democratic republic. Come to the show! It’s fun, it’s free and It’s your civic duty. Support the arts.

Featuring work created by some of America’s finest citizens: Tindel and Michi, Sam Parker, Stephanie Dowda and John Paul Floyd, Brandon Crawford, Bethany Collins, Teresa Bramlette Reeves, Ashley Anderson, Jessica Scott Felder, Mike Germon,Brandi Supra, Erin Bassett, Jim O’Donnell, Chris Walter, Katy Malone, Andrew Cho, InKyong Chun, Katie Coleman, James McConnell, Paul Rodecker, Claire Paul, Bean Summer, Baxter Crane, Preston Snyder, Jessica Orlowski, Don Robson, Travis Smith, Andrea Sanders, Jimmy Alvarez, Marcy Starz, Kelly O’Brien, Beau Torres, Edward Smucgyz, Edie Gonzales, Nikki Grote, Jessica Miller, Mike Devine, Egg Tooth, Ben Goldman and many many more.

So, what happened to that design legacy when it came to London’s 2012 Summer Olympics logo?

Back in July of 2003, several cities were vying to become the host city of the 2012 Summer Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) narrowed the field to London, Madrid, Paris, New York, and Moscow, and by March 2005, had visited and reviewed them based on very specific criteria set by the IOC. That July, the IOC announced London and Paris were neck-and-neck, but London was ultimately selected.

As London celebrated the announcement, they also immediately created an Olympic Committee to begin program and project management of this large endeavor. One of the first tasks, was branding and logo design.  Designed by Wolff Olins, the first logo was revealed in June 2007. It consists of the numbers 2-0 and 1-2 with the classic 5-ring Olympics symbol within the zero. The numbers are stylized, jagged, brightly colored and graffiti-like.

The intent of the logo, was to engage young people, while creating a brand that was easily flexible to adapt similar logos for Olympic sponsors, such as Adidas, Lloyds Banking Group, and British Airways. And ultimately, the logo would be plastered on t-shirts, hats, bags, souvenirs, athletic gear, etc to bring in revenue to the U.K.

When the logo was first released, there was public outrage about the sheer ugliness of it. According to Wikipedia, early reactions to the logo in the U.K. was largely negative: “more than 80% of votes gave the logo the lowest possible rating.” Many have complained it looks like a swastika. Others say it resembles Lisa Simpson engaged in a sexual act.

The controversy didn’t stop there. A segment of animated footage that appeared on the Summer Olympics website reportedly triggered seizures in a small number of people with photosensitive epilepsy. Shortly after the controversy, the video was removed from the website. The London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, said the company who designed the film should not be paid for what he called a “catastrophic mistake.”

Alice Rawsthorn of The New York Times and a Londoner herself, writes, “Blessed with so much talent, London has no excuse” not to produce creative and innovative graphics for these Olympic Games. She goes on to say the organizers have “already squandered their opportunity to commission great architecture by replacing some of the original designs, except Zaha Hadid’s aquatic center, with inferior ones…But it isn’t too late to make the [logo] design much, much better, and they could start by dumping that dodgy typeface.”

Jan Moore, of The Sun, wrote that the Olympic organizers say the design will grow on us. Her reply: “so does foot fungus.”

All in all London has paid out over ₤400,000 (approximately $615,000) for this controversial logo design. Is this appropriate? Is this the best or the worst logo you’ve ever seen? Will Londoners and people worldwide eventually like the logo? Should the Olympics just be about the sports and athletes and not so much about the logo? These are the questions I asked myself, and now you.

Past Olympic Logos

Personally, when I first saw the logo, with its garish colors and odd arrangement, I didn’t immediately recognize that it said “2012.” The loudness of the shapes prevented me from even understanding what it was. When I finally realized that there were numbers, I thought perhaps there was a kindergarten design competition for the logo – surely, London got this for free. It just looked so unrefined, not well-thought out, and well, dated. It looked like something out of ’80′s music video. Or perhaps that 1960s Batman and Robin series, when Batman is attacking evildoers, and “POW!” shoots across the screen.

One thing is for sure, publicity over the logo and the Olympic Games has certainly stirred opinions worldwide. In my opinion the logo could have been much, much simpler and still appealed to the younger generation, exemplified good sportsmanship, and met sponsors’ needs. If designers in Europe are out of good ideas, there’s no hope for the rest of us!

Sources:

Wikipedia

The New York Times (article by Alice Rawsthorn)

2012 London Olympics (official website)

While searching the internet, I stumbled upon a website called fOTOGLIF. What is FotoGlif? You may be asking… Well it is awesome. It is a site that allows you access to editorial photos for FREE! Especially, if you are a blogger or a designer this is a site that you should definitely stop by. Check it out and let us know what you think about it in the comments below.

Make Money Making Money?!?!?!?! Sounds crazy doesn’t it? Well it is true. The United States Mint has a program called the Artistic Infusion Program. This program is set up to find designers and artist that create inspiring and sometimes patriotic designs for coins. Yes, I said coins. You may think that is just silly and not worth your time but this is big business for the Treasury,there is a $38 3″ coin of G.W. Bush. Seriously, if you are selected you get paid $2000 per assignment and $5000 if your design is selected. 5000 dollars is nothing to dismiss so easily. Of course, they have some application requirements to be met first:

• U.S. citizenship
• Have specialized training in his or her art form
• Have derived a portion of his or her individual income from his or her art for a minimum of 5 years by the time of application
• Have a history of public presentation of his or her art in a professional context, such as a gallery show, or work that has appeared as part of a curated exhibit, permanent collection of a museum, or in a professional journal.
• Be able to submit 5 to 10 sample pieces
• Design 2 coins based on topics in application

Some of the above requirements are harsh but the money is pretty darn good and if you meet the requirements they are are looking for 6 designers. The application page is here. The upcoming deadlines for applications are March 8, 2010 and July 8, 2010. Good luck to those of you who decided to apply.

Source: The US Mint

The  Art House Co-op is a one of a kind web experience that offers a place for artist of all kinds to come together. AHC was started up back in the Spring of 2006 by Shane and Steven while attending the Atlanta College of Art. They  started off being the organizers of events and then were inspired to open their own space to display art in Atlanta. From there they branched out to have having mini-projects. These mini-projects and events are how they grabbed my attention. So, of course I had to share that with you. This week’s project is to take a picture out of your favorite window. Their new and inventive competitions and projects help to keep the creative juices flowing.

Shane Zucker (left) and Steven Peterman (right) of Art House Co-op.

If just getting your creative mind going isn’t enough for you, there are the projects.  The projects are “a collective of artists participating towards a unified outcome that ultimately turns into an exhibition.” The competitions can have a pretty good pay out, be taken on national tour or be seen internationally on ACH’s website and Flickr. For example, the “Starving Artist Project” has a pay out of $2,000, which is pretty nice for any designer or artist in this economy. Their weekly projects can even get an artist some international recognition, seeing as tho ACH’s website says that they have “interacted with over 5,000 artist around the world.” So even if you do not get the big pay out, you can get your work seen by other artists and art lovers.

Regardless, I would check out the website and sign up for the newsletter. So you can get the notices for the shows and projects. Art House will be relocating from Atlanta at the end of January 2010 to Red Hook in Brooklyn to open the Brooklyn Art Library. The BAL will “be the home to thousands of sketchbooks and a revolving collection of all of your artwork.” Let us know what you think about the Art House Co-op and leave a comment below.

Image: http://www.arthousecoop.com/about

Are you new to web design? Do you know how to turn a photoshop file into a working webpage? Well, like many people I know, I have basic photoshop and dreamweaver skills. So, when I head that you could turn a PSD into XHMTL and create a CSS file. I was all about it. I would rather find out how to take an Illustrator file and turn it into a website, but when I find that out, I will pass it along to you guys. Anyways, while strolling through the internet, I came across these two tutorials. The tutorials are on Six Revisions which is an awesome site and resource for web designers and developers; and were written by Richard Carpenter, who is a blogger, tutorial writer and owner of HV-Designs.

Tutorial One – Design a Minimal and Modern Portfolio Layout in Photoshop
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a portfolio layout in photoshop

Tutorial Two – Minimal and Modern Layout: PSD to XHTML/CSS Conversion
In this tutorial, you will take the photoshop file that you made in the tutorial above and turn it into a working webpage. You will also learn some of the basics of creating a CSS file.

Between these two tutorials, you will be able to develop and implement your website ideas quickly. Let me know what you think about these tutorials?

Source: idsgn
Photos: gaia.streetart and Rudolfo Diaz

Bad graphic design is obviously something you want to avoid at all costs. Sometimes when you hire an individual or a graphic design or web design agency or artist to do a graphic design job for you, as a client you end up with an unprofessional website or design, leaving you without a proper website or design and without the money you initially invested in the web project. If you are a graphic designer or web designer, then make sure to give a 100% on every design project that comes across your desk. If you get a reputation for creating awesome work, you’ll be able to charge a substantial amount more, which would then lead to the occasional referrals from the business’s. If you create poor web design or poor graphic designs than you probably won’t get any business or will have to retain your business at much lower rates than your competitors.

What you can do to beef up you’re graphic designs or web design business, in order to retain a larger clientele, is to start a small marketing campaign. Try experiment with new things, adjust what works and what doesn’t You can also create ads and distribute them through various mediums like e-mail, door 2 door, flyers, banner ads, etc. When doing so make sure you are targeting the correct audience. It’s important for every business to learn about demographics and analyze and research what you’re client’s are looking for and trying to fulfill your clients actual needs.

The method to obtaining business and retaining it is real simple; it’s a combination of many types of marketing strategies and having a great web presence and company Identity. Many companies have a professional web designer or graphic designer to design a corporate identity package for them because its permanent. You’re identity cannot be changed later down the road, if a company changed their logo or identity than customers would not recognize or identify the old company identity with the new one, this can be extremely damaging for a business. Having a poor Identity design or web design from the start can ruin a business for life and anyone who has a business should avoid having a non professional design their identity or website at all cost.

What set’s a great graphic designer apart from a poor graphic designer is the motivation and the willingness to complete the work that’s needed to be done. Ambition is the key to my success as a designer I enjoy what I do and am constantly investing in my skill by learning new graphic design and web design software, tips and tricks or whatever I need to know to make my designs better. It’s important that potential clients, or anyone in the web design or graphic design business understand that while some individuals may have been trained and hold degrees as graphic and web designers, It does not certify them as a good designer. A professional web designer or graphic designer already knows the concepts of good design this cannot be taught in a classroom. So if you are looking to hire someone to design websites or graphic design make sure you review their online graphic design or web design portfolio before you go into a contract for web design or graphic design services or pay them to complete any design services.

If you are looking to hire a graphic designer as a part of your full time staff, then a suggested practice is to give them a demo or dummy project to design as a test of skill. There is nothing worse than hiring an individual on the basis of their online portfolio but only later to find out they did not design what was In their portfolio. When hiring anyone its best to check their previous employment background and preferably you should require a letter of recommendation from either their University or their previous employer, this ensures you’re recruiting efforts are a successful one.

Why is bad graphic design all over the web? This is mainly because business do not want to invest the initial cost in creating a proper web presence or corporate identity. Many companies don’t realize how important the two really are. Bad graphic design or bad web design gives you’re customers a cheap impression. Would you buy from a physical store that was messy dirty or had an unprofessional look or feel? No you wouldn’t, you probably keep your physical place of business in tip top shape. So why wouldn’t you want to do the same for your web presence and Identity?

You must understand as a business your identity and web presence is just as important as your physical presence if not more important. Studies show that more than 90% of the population do online research of a business before they buy. If you’re business is non-existent or you’re site is poorly designed, chances are that potential client or business will not even consider buying anything from you.

Think about bad graphic design for a minute, than browse the web for at least an hour go ahead and randomly type different words in the search engine, visit as many sites as you can. Then go ahead and write down what the first thing comes into your mind when you see these sites copy the URLS as well. Then go back and review the information you collected.

You will realize from the study that opinions are formed based on the visually appeal of site and not necessarily on products offered. So having bad graphic design or web designs associated with you’re business identity is not a very profitable one at all. What is even more potentially damaging to a company is having no identity or online presence at all.

Bad graphic design and bad web design can be prevented by investing in the right graphic designer or web design freelance contractor, or graphic design agency. Bad graphic design or bad web design can potentially harm or put you at risk of losing potential customers or clients. Avoid bad graphic design or web design at all costs. For more information and more articles containing valuable free Graphic design Resources please visit 99 Graphic Design Resources.

Click here to get instant access to cutting edge graphic design resources: Bad Graphic Design

Charlotte Payan-salcedo has over 10 years of experience in web design, web development, and the Graphic design field. Please visit a popular blog created by the infamous Digital graphic artist Charlotte Payan-salcedo.

Author: Charlotte Payan-Salcedo
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

To know know more about this event go to http://www.aneventapart.com/2009/chicago/