http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY
SHAG (Society For History And Graphics Event)
FREE program. All are welcome. Vintage Avant Garde Films – Experimental Shorts from the 1920s and ’30s
December 15, 7:00-9:00pm, MICA, Mail Building, M110, 1300 Mt. Royal Avenue
Info posted at:
This SHAG program is sponsored by Dolphin Press & Print at MICA and MICA’s programs in Graphic Design and illustration. SHAG website is sponsored by AQUENT, the talent agency for marketers and designers.
MICA Illustration Event—This Sunday
There’s an exhibit by MICA illustration alumni opening on Sunday. (It also looks like a great opportunity to score some early holiday presents.)
Here’s the info:
WHAT: IL NXT: Illustration Next at Case[werks]
Curated by Whitney Sherman, director of the new M.F.A. in Illustration Practice at MICA, IL NXT is an exhibition of illustration practice today. With our daily lives awash in technology, we crave handmade items as our cultural narratives play out on clothing, personal items and environments. This show—with works by MICA alumni Lauren Castillo, Emily Flake, Pamela Hobbs, Colin Johnson, Elena Johnston, Daniel Krall, Alyssa Nassner, Jess Neil, Jessica O’Brien, Jill Popowich, Joey Potts, Brian Rea, Whitney Sherman, Gina Triplett and Alex Uyeno—represents some of illustration’s new storytelling models interwoven with time-honored traditional methods.
The exhibition is sponsored by the MICA Alumni Association, MICA’s Office of Research and in partnership with Case[werks], a national supplier of archival exhibit furnishings and gallery products located in the heart of the Station North Arts District. www.casewerks.com or http://www.facebook.com/casewerks
WHEN: Sunday, Nov. 14–Wednesday, Dec. 29, open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
OPENING: reception on Sunday. Nov. 14, 4–6 p.m, refreshments served
WHERE: Case[werks] Gallery, 1501 St. Paul St.
For more info …
http://www.casewerks.com/news/2010/11/03/illustration-next-opens-nov-14th/
Pulp, Ink & Hops Recap
Last week, AIGA members, creative professionals, and passersby congregated in the newly-opened Baltimore Print Studios for AIGA Baltimore’s 13th Annual Pulp, Ink & Hops paper show. While many years have passed since the attendees had trick-or-treated, this region’s largest paper show came very close to replicating that cherished childhood tradition.
Equipped with yellow Neenah Paper shopping bags (instead of pillow cases or those jack-o’-lantern plastic baskets that seemingly every child owned growing up), attendees moseyed from table to table. More than 20 vendors shared information on design services and the latest trends in papers while a local microbrewery offered free hops.
(For those with a sweet tooth, an assortment of candy greeted the attendees at the registration table.) Baltimore Print Studios provided live demonstrations in their new space, and Dave Plunkert was present to sign the Pulp, Ink & Hops posters he designed for the event. Attendees left this year’s Pulp, Ink & Hops feeling inspired and reassured that print is surely not dead, and they 
proceeded home to pour out their goodies on the floor and share with friends.
And thanks to Aura Seltzer for writing this post. Check out her website when you get a chance.
Pulp Ink & Hops Shirt …
An interview With John Starling of Smith Growth Partners…
Meeting John at his Mill Centre office was a nice, quiet experience in the midst of a hectic October.
This interview ended up being vastly different from some of the other interviews we’ve done (and not in a bad way). In seeking to gain insight into what John does, I really ended up being the subject of his approach, with the meeting starting off with our initial casual conversation, which touched on Baltimore politics and other local issues, where we caught up a bit (I had met him at a BLEND event), eventually squared by having us share our similarities. It was almost as if I had interviewed a designer and by virtue of what she does, she just starts designing a poster on the spot for me.
John Starling represents a calming, attentive force, helping to craft vision and achivement strategies for companies, as he recounted in our conversation. And while I can’t vouch for his clients, I had a real sense of his understanding, just by the way he listened. Real easy, disarming. Our conversation, in which he revealed that he’s a black-belt and former MP, touched on how he worked to surpass his own limiting beliefs to be a better person for his family.
He has also shared his vision with kids from his Hampden neighborhood. The resident of nine years says that the kids essentially need the same vision training that CEOs need. He reminds them of their path and helps them clear the mental roadblocks that stand in the way of reaching that vision. Converting the meeting into a “Chris Jones Mindmap” working session, John asked me to identify three goals. That actually took some time.
What I’ll say about that here is there’s sometimes a person deep inside you who still lives the life of some past pain or some past failure. (For me, that’s the person who feels like an outsider, an odd fit). That person needs to be reconciled and it’s revealing to meet with someone like John and within a 35-minute conversation reach that point where you’ve shifted to a deep conversation with him—and ultimately with yourself.
Recently I was treated to a webinar that Smith Growth Partners gave on vision, where John moderated. He spoke at length about this process. So, sitting down, how was I not prepared for the self-discovery that he would engage with me? John, who was a part of the company when it was called Smith Content—when their projects revolved more around writing for clients—focuses mostly on company vision and achievment, although the company still takes on has writing assignments.
The comment from his webinar: “Growth [at the professional level] doesn’t come from addition, it comes from subtraction.” stands out for me. A slide from the webinar below then charts a clear, immediate path to the mindset one should display to themselves in order to be present for what they want.
While I’m no stranger to books about vision, it’s resounding to meet one for whom the listening and challenge-confronting is just a matter of course and who helps one talk out the disempowering belief system that has been archived into one’s mind. The most interesting thing about the interview was the mind-bending it would do. The result was an interview with a writer and vision achievement consultant who would really listen to you and help you hear yourself a little more…
Lastly, John’s conversation supplanted the disempowering belief with a new belief. That belief reinforces the sense that my best is good enough to achieve the things that matter to me. The subsequent sense is that I do belong to the endeavors I choose, and engage in the action of taking them seriously by being present to my desire for achievement and actively working toward that achievement.
Overheard on the web (…not exactly possible) but anyway: What is your best-loved graphic/typographic movie title?
A teacher teaching a class on typography asked a group: “I am teaching a course on typography which will touch on the concepts of type in motion. I would love to hear your favorite film titles.” Here are the answers from a creative group on LinkedIn.
“The Wild Bunch”, Sam Peckinpah
“North by Northwest”, Saul Bass
“Sleepy Hollow”, Tim Burton
“Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events”
“Altered States”
“Helvetica”
“Catch Me If You Can”
“Fight Club”
“Stranger Than Fiction”
“Up In The Air”
“Seven”
Last Minute Vendor Connection Illustrates The Value of “Connecting”
Often, I like to speak about the importance of “connectedness”. In a past post, I described the Mark Simon matrix of “How We Get Hired” and the fact is being good is not enough, it’s about getting in the crosshairs of people who know and trust your work. This message is one that I try to send to the vendor and partner community with regard to AIGA Baltimore and its thriving community of creative people and designers. It’s also a message that the same community (all of you) should heed when it comes to connecting to your respective communities for work.
Here’s an excerpt from an email sent to me when, as the board has been preparing for Pulp, Ink & Hops, our vendor showcase and networking event, I get a call asking if I knew a vendor that could meet a specific need. Well, of course I do!! And no, not just because they are in our vendor showcase. It happens to be no coincidence that some of our partners who continually reach out to us, both in board capacities and off, are top-of-mind when certain projects arise. Such is the case.
“Thank you so much once again for your help. We are very fortunate to have an association like AIGA around – time and time again, I know I can always count on our great membership to help out with all our crazy designer needs 😉
I passed on [vendor’s] info to [contact’s company] president, [contact] (also former [local AIGA chapter] Board Member) who should be contacting him shortly. I made sure to tell [contact] to let [vendor] know that we got his info from you!”
The facts are clear. There is no understatement about how tough a era it’s been with the overhang of a large recession and its slow recovery. I’ve been in conversations with longtime vendors and community partners whom were unavailable for this year’s show because of the specific compromises the economy has made on their businesses—some who are no longer in those businesses. Those compromises, while in some cases are very specific, cast a pall over the whole atmosphere. Yet, we still must move forward, and pick up where and when we can, celebrating the process that brought us here and changing our practices to fit the new way we work.
Design and the businesses in which it circulates, are still, businesses about great skill, but then it’s also business about fit and trust. Sometimes, the best designer or printer isn’t the most skillful, sometimes the best designer is the most reliable and trustworthy. Choose to be a little of both. In an era when the crisis of confidence is often about one’s ability to pay attention, not a question of the ability itself, our ability to dial-in to our communities’ needs and help to service them pays off. Events like Pulp, Ink & Hops help to mind that gap for designers with projects and vendors looking for contacts.
Greg Bennett, aka WorktoDate, The Interview
Greg Bennett of WORKtoDATE is a tour de force. While the accolades pour in, what’ I find most distinctive is his take-no-prisoners approach to creative communication. His approach, “total immersion” hearkens the world view of a method actor, who upon getting an assignment, becomes that assignment through its development and discovery.
Noted author, Jim Collins, of the book “Good To Great“, characterizes such proliferation as “disciplined person + disciplined thought + disciplined action.” The loudest thing about Greg is his quiet sense of resolve (e.g. “In 1997, I decided I would make my mark on the world through my graphic design”) meted out through his words and his works. And if by works, you have no idea what I’m talking about, take a gander at the sheer body of work he uploads to his online portfolio, his website, and who he’s looking at… impressive. All that and a full-time gig to boot.
So, it’s no wonder that he’s getting national and international attention. Yet, he’s approachable enough to meet at a conveniently placed north Baltimore coffee shop and to bend his ear a bit on greatness, AIGA and subjects in-between.
Greg: Let’s do a round-up: You were recently profiled in Communication Arts (CA) and billed as a fresh mind in the field of graphic design. A quick tour of your website reveals more than enough to introduce you including the recent inclusion in the Graphis Poster Annual 2011, among many other accolades. And of course, you were gracious enough to design the Pulp, Ink & Hops poster that debuted last year. Thanks again and welcome.
What’s the newest thing on your drawing board?
I’m preparing a presentation for the Art Directors Club. They invited me to participate as a judge and asked if I would give a presentation about my work and design process to the club.
How would you describe your style?
Rather than focusing on a particular style, I’ve always focused my time on searching for unique concepts which separate my clients from others. Once I find the concept, I let the idea drive the execution.
The economy has changed the nature of projects. Describe how that has played out for you in your projects at all.
Now—more than ever—clients recognize the value in and need for standout creative in order to achieve their business objectives.
Describe how York, PA—as the base of your education and your current home—informs your design process, if at all. … And does the commute to Baltimore add or subtract from that process?
My creative process is the same no matter were I am. I always start a job with a strategic brief which is a list of questions which I’ve compiled that ensures both parties are starting a job with the same business objectives. With my client’s objectives top of mind, I begin researching the product, service or brand that I’m designing for. While I’m researching, I’m writing unique differentiating details and concepts which separates my client from others. Concept exploration with a pencil and paper is still the most efficient problem solving method for me. Regarding my commute, I spend 8-10 hours a week in my car. At first, it was a real drag until I began utilizing that time making daily hit lists. These lists help me capitalize on every opportunity I’m presented with.
You seem to be thriving amongst the divide of “day-lighting,” as senior design director at Siquis, while freelancing through WORKtoDATE. What advice might you have for those who work in-house or are working in an environment where they feel they could use more fulfilling assignments and outlets for their work?
My advice is to stay selective and only take on freelance opportunities which have both creative merit and monetary gains. I pass on a lot of opportunities because they don’t meet both criteria. By staying selective and patient, I’ve been able to build a portfolio and reputation that has begun selling itself.
Talk to me a little bit about productivity: I recently read a book on the development of ideas. I’m curious to hear your take on productivity, because you furiously update your portfolio, website, and/or present your work, (genuflection) etc. Is there a specific approach regarding productivity that informs your approach?
I live my life supporting the concept of total immersion. My work life and personal life are one. If I have an idea or think of something that will strengthen my presence in the world, I stop whatever it is I’m doing and do it. Talk is cheap.
This year, you were profiled in CA, but you’ve definitely been around for a while. Your work is receiving a boon of national and international attention—and rightfully so. Describe how and why your world view has resonated with these sources.
In 1997, I decided I would make my mark on the world through my graphic design. That has always been my intention but it takes time to prove yourself to both clients and colleagues. Respect is earned, not given.
A while ago, I saw a commercial where a Heineken commercial where a regular guy was among a “hall of superheroes” all of whom had super-powers. Each of them displays their super-power and when they got around to the regular guy, it turned out he could magically make bottles of Heineken appear. So, as a regular guy, what might your super-power be? Your weakness—your kryptonite?
My power is my passion for creative excellence and my kryptonite is spending more time on a job than what the client is paying for.
Why AIGA? (What value does AIGA help you connect with, if at all?)
AIGA helps remind the world that design is both a process and profession.
Talk to me about your philosophy: (excellence and always seeking to stand out—CA, 06/10). Expanding on this a bit, I think many, to some degree, agree with this philosophy, but I’m curious to delve into what you view as the path to extraordinary that many people don’t take.
I consider every job a creative opportunity no matter what the budget, scale or scope is. I could be designing a mint wrapper or a wine bottle label or an international branding campaign. They all get the same attention to detail from me. I believe you’re only as good as your last achievement.
What have you learned?
A proven reputation of creative excellence instills confidence into clients. A confident client will take more meaningful risks with you.
Find Greg Bennett on the web at WORKtoDATE.com. Interview by Chris Jones.
