Elliott Earls: Money, Sex, and Power – The Mechanics of a Hybrid Practice
In this presentation, Elliott Earls breaks down the mechanics of his hybrid design practice.
In this presentation, Elliott Earls breaks down the mechanics of his hybrid design practice.
We began George Zisiadis‘s talk by shouting our favorite font and high-fiving our neighbors. This was a great introduction to Zisiadis and his work, which he summarized in the opening of his talk with the quote: “I like to have fun. I use my work to have fun.”
Yasmin Khan of Counterspace began her presentation with a game of Pong. She explained the similarities between her work and the game, how it all comes down to a back and forth. Khan’s work inhabits a space between the familiar and the unknown. Not quite here, but not quite there. She describes it as “the space for becoming.”
His first exposure to using design for a cause was a poster in 2005 created for The Hurricane Poster Project, a fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Katrina. It made a couple thousand dollars, which was at the time more than he could have contributed from his own pocket. That’s when the potential for design to help the world dawned on him. Working closely with Leif Steiner, the creator the the Hurricane Poster Project, Higgins went on to create a similar projects benefiting San Diego after the fire and more notably Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010.
Author, artist, and avid cyclist Lisa Congdon gave an inspiring presentation on embarking on new, unfamiliar paths, and embracing the abyss along the way.
Victor Moscoso was the first of the psychedelic rock poster artists of the 1960’s era with formal academic training. Norman Hathaway interviewed Victor on his life and work. Victor’s introduction to the art world was through animated cartoons at a movie-house when he was growing up in Spain. Victor recalled the magic of moving color. Then through comic books, he learned to draw through copying, as well as to read.
Emmet Byrne is the design director for the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis. He had a great lecture about the work from their in-house design studio and how the different content streams of publishing work in parallel with other departments. His lecture was greatly focused on the framing of content and how it can be lost control of when it enters the world. Loosing control of a project when given to the public raised some new and interesting questions for the institution.
Web typography has come a long way since the early days of the Internet. The pace of innovation has ebbed and flowed, and according to Elliot Jay Stocks (Creative Director of Adobe Typekit) typography on the web is currently experiencing a relative state of calm. This provides a great place to reflect and build a foundation for the future. And since “web design is 95% typography,” it is critical that we do just that.
Dan Rhatigan joined us today to talk about the untold story of type design – the collaborative development process that is often glossed over, especially for typefaces that predate digital drawing tools.
The hour began with Krishnamurthy answering yes or no questions posed by the audience.
“Will you ever fill an exhibition space with balloons?”
“Maybe.”
Maria Popova of Brain Pickings kicked off Typo San Francisco 2014 with a keynote on the science of productivity and being present. Brain Pickings is a log of curiosity and the cross pollination of different fields that enrich each other.