“Styling and the Experimental Car”

Sponsored by Ford Motor Company in 1964, this consummate design process piece manages to be both expressive and promotional whilst educating its audience about sophisticated ideas such as product design, branding and styling.

I particularly like the segments that focus on the value of design and how the separate disciplines work together — something that still needs defining fifty years later! These design fields are also positioned as something that the audience may not be aware of but consciously or subconsciously respond to, and that these instincts have existed as cultural phenomenon since the ‘dawn of time.’

The film goes on to leverage the company’s design prowess further by saying that it is this attention to detail, embodied in a culture of innovation that makes their products the obvious choice in an evolving consumer marketplace that demands quality, style and [aspirational] luxury.

Enjoy…

Instagramin’

Some of my recent posts from Instagram — I’m focussed on selecting inspirational imagery rather than camera uploads…

#BrunoMunari

#MattaClark

…philosophical instantiations probing a range of ideas—site-specificity, the ephemerality of art, presence and absence, life and death, being and nothingness and on and on and on—they also, in hindsight, seem to be about the texture of New York City as it was then. – STATION TO STATION

#FritzLang

#Solaris – BWV 639

The Trial (1962)
#OrsonWelles #Kafka

#EgonSchiele

#JosefK

#JulieChristie “Petulia”
‘…set against the mid-sixties San Francisco scene’

Auld Lang Syne (to the tune of, Old Long Sine My Jo)

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
and gie’s a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
for auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

–Robert Burns, 1788

Happy New Year!

The Pelican Project

Pelican book covers from the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s–courtesy of Things Magazine.

So inspirational!

Artist Magazines + Ephemera

Saw some great works in this show at 871 Fine Arts in SF – here’s an excerpt from the curatorial statement:

It’s really difficult to successfully show printed works as opposed to strictly visual works of art in a gallery setting. You either have a choice of showing the cover or opening up to an inviting interior page, leaving the rest unseen. It’s the same whether you’re showing artists’ books, periodicals, exhibition catalogs, correspondence or other published ephemera. They are best perused in a comfortable position, at ones leisure, thumb to page. That said, printed matter is an integral part of a comprehensive artistic experience and a highly interesting aspect to boot. So despite the drawbacks of display, the attempt to highlight these materials goes on, and from my viewpoint, it is most welcome…

Work at MASS MoCA

Mass MoCA poster

I designed this poster for a show that Anne was in at MASS MoCA. She showed her video work Cracked Actor which was part of Moyra Davey‘s One Minute Film Festival which is being celebrated with this exhibition:

The One Minute Film Festival took place annually in a barn outside of a small town in upstate New York, on the first Saturday after the 4th of July, from 2003-2012. On that day, artists, writers, film- and video-makers would arrive in the afternoon with food and drink and a one-minute movie. After sunset, everyone took their seats and the movies began, usually lasting two or three hours, and afterwards people danced. The festival was organized and hosted by artists Jason Simon and Moyra Davey.