11 January 09
At the tender age of ten, my first career aspirations were to become a comic book illustrator. It seemed like every comic I was attracted to and every character that I tried to copy was drawn by Jack Kirby.
Kirby’s influence on the medium is undeniable. He created the visual language that transformed the one-dimensional, drab, square panel style of comic strips into electric, action-charged pages where characters exploded from the frames. When Kirby’s characters punched, you could feel it in your jaw.
I recently treated myself to a beautiful hardcover book that celebrates his life in comics. The book contains many pieces of his work in raw form, and is the next best thing to seeing his art in person.
If you haven’t been lucky enough to catch one of the rare exhibits of his work, merchants of original art abound at your local comic convention.
09 January 09
Palm showed off the new Palm Pre today at CES - complete with their new platform webOS. The folks at CrunchGear caught a demo on video.
The Synergy feature looks very promising. It integrates calendar and contact info from your various email accounts and social networks into a single source.
You can certainly see the iPhone and the HTC TouchFlo influence on aspects of the UI, but Palm has definitely brought some fresh ideas to the table.
Sources are reporting that the Pre’s interface is faster and more responsive than the iPhone, but that doesn’t seem to be the case in the above video.
With the Blackberry and iPhone capturing so much market share in recent years, many believe that this is Palm’s last stand. While not revolutionary, with the early reviews pouring in, the Pre looks like it just might keep them in the game.
06 January 09
What attracts us to the objects we surround ourselves with? How do they define us and how we see ourselves?
Helvetica director Gary Hustwit brings us behind the curtain to meet the masters of industrial design with Objectified.
02 January 09
Living so close to Manhattan, it can be easy to take the plethora of art venues for granted and thus put off visiting them. The family resolved to change that behavior, and we all took a trip out to The Whitney to check out the Alexander Calder and William Eggleston exhibits.
19 December 08
Over the past few weeks the new Pepsi brand has been gaining critical mass on the streets of New York.
The clean, minimalist design aesthetic gives the product a futuristic look that, I feel, successfully supports their youth-focused, Generation Next positioning.
If you’re wondering whether the mass market is ready for a design like this, just put it next to a picture of the ubiquitous iPod and I think you’ll find the answer is, “yes”.
For such a high profile brand, it’s not surprising that there’s been a lot of criticism. Some even believing there’s an intentional connection to the Obama campaign.
In the context of their last identity, I think this new move is a major leap for Pepsi in the right direction. I for one feel it’s refreshing — pun intended.
Update: 01.29.09
Pepsi executive Frank Cooper addresses the Obama allegations directly in this 3 Minute Ad Age video. While he denies the connection, he also makes it clear that Pepsi is looking to take advantage of the conversations that have arisen around this topic. Peter Arnell, who’s agency created the new logo also explains the clear differences in the concepts behind each logo.
