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.

When: Opening Event – Friday – Feb. 26th from 6:30 pm until 9:00 pm
Exhibit on display February 12th to March 13th
Where: Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA)
285 Peachtree Center Ave Marquis Two Tower
How Much: Free but a requested donation of $10
The event on Feb 26th will have snacks and drinks

About the exhibit:

Our mind creates wonders we can only imagine, technology allows for explorations beyond our imagination. This exhibition explores the process of creation through computer-adapted design and technologically aided process of making. Objects convinced in the mind were explored virtually and then brought to life through fabrication using computer-aided technology.

Objects of Desire seeks to display a collection of work by various individuals that used the computer as a way to conceive beyond the world of representation. Technology allows for the process of digital fabrication, methods enabling the production of physical objects directly from digital models, allowing for new forms and aesthetics previously unconceivable.

Works exhibited were part of architectural experimentation in spatial interaction originally developed at GaTech – College of Architecture. Participants were asked to evoke a parallelism between the perception of the individual and the perceived object. Within each piece presented issues of topology, structure, pattern, fabrication, detailing, and many others are essential considerations that evoked the design. Many other new works will be displayed as well.

Presenting:
Cassi Niemann, Karen MacKay, Gabe Landes, Lindsay Miller, Ritesh Rathi, Virginia Byers, Sal Lalani, Senya Zaitsev + Others

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

This is amazing, the people over at TatSkinz are giving you a chance to design a cover for an iPod. The contest is open till November 30th. You could win a Macbook 13″ or $1000 University Scholarship. So, while you are home on a break and eating some turkey take some time and make a kick #@$ design. Each person that enters can make up to 10 entries. Some of the rules are:

• Original Artwork Only (Of Course!)
• File size no bigger than 10MB
• Submitted in CMYK
• Adobe Illustrator (.ai) or a Photoshop (.psd)

For the rest of the rules and regulations go to TatSkinz. Leave a comment below about what you think about the contest below.

Source: TatSkinz

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