Paula Scher: Once you know what you're doing, it's not as good

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Sometimes you have to ignore the brief, says renowned designer and artist Paula Scher. With a dry wit, Scher takes us behind-the-scenes on four landmark projects -- from revamping MoMA's identity to reinvigorating a Pittsburgh neighborhood through design -- to illustrate how asking questions, pushing into uncharted territory, and doing something you've never done before leads to great work.

​I love the work of Paula Scher. She has created some of my favorite arts marketing identities, including this poster that actually made me stop my hustled walk towards the subway so I could stare at it for a little while:

In this talk, from this year's 99u conference, ​she continues to explore themes she's shared before. In the talk, as in the past, she discusses failure, demonstrates those things that they don't teach you in design school and displays her love for typography. For more check out her TED Talk on serious play and how her career took off because she hated Helvetica. 

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

Jason Santa Maria: On Web Typography

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Achieving a thorough grasp of typography can take a lifetime, but moving beyond the basics is within your reach right now. In this talk, we’ll learn how to look at typefaces with a discerning eye, different approaches to typographic planning, how typography impacts the act of reading, and how to choose and combine appropriate typefaces from an aesthetic and technical point of view. Through an understanding of our design tools and how they relate to the web as a medium, we can empower ourselves to use type in meaningful and powerful ways.

Jason Santa Maria, filmed at the Build conference, gives what is surely a preview of A Book Apart's forthcoming Book #9. 

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

PBS Arts: Off Book, Exploring Cutting Edge Art - The Complete Series

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PBS Arts: Off Book is a web-based series that explores cutting edge art and the people that make it. The 13 episode series focuses on the process, motivation and meaning of a new generation of artists. For the pass several months we've been following the series. Here are the 13 episodes compiled in one location. Visit the links to the individual posts to find out more about each episode.

 

Episode 1: Light Painting

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook Light painting dates back to Man Ray, but contemporary photographers are taking the practice of "painting light" onto long-exposure photographs to a new level.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook Type is everywhere. Every print publication, website, movie, advertisement and public message involves the creation or selection of a fitting typeface. Online, a rich and artistic typographical culture exists, where typefaces are created and graphic design seeps in to every image.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook For decades now, people have joined together online to communicate and collaborate around interesting imagery. In recent years, the pace and intensity of this activity has reached a fever pitch.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook Steampunk art evokes an alternate reality where steam is the primary source of power. Technology, though highly advanced, has taken on a very different look and feel, and fashion is heavily influenced by Victorian styles. In this episode, we explore the Steampunk aesthetic and art movement.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook As we become more and more engaged with the internet in every aspect of our lives, powerful questions have arisen regarding the ownership of digital media and information, the relationship between corporations, governments, and individuals online, the power of pop culture influence, and the dissolving border between the digital and physical worlds.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook The street is a space where art thrives, and a place where artists can shape the public aesthetic. Olek, a sculptor whose medium is crochet, and Swoon, a mixed media artist, disrupt daily life with work that creates wonder, emotion, and humor.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook America has a long tradition of handmade arts and crafts. In the manufacturing age, however, much of this work was overshadowed by the homogenizing force of retail culture. But the passion for handmade arts didn't disappear, and persisted through the years in local craft fairs.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook Video games are important. They are a storytelling medium, a place for self-expression, a sandbox for the human imagination, and an extension of an ages old tradition of gaming.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook Although not every artist is as attentive to fashion as Kanye West, style does make its way into their lives. Sometimes driven by practical purpose, other times by personal expression or as part of performance, fashion plays a role in the aesthetic landscape of many artists.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook An intriguing combination of programmers, artists, and philosophers, these creators embrace a process that delegates essential decisions to computers, data sets, or even random variables.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook We swim in an ocean of products. Behind each one, there is someone (hopefully) thinking about the way we experience it. In this episode of Off Book, we explore three aspects of product design: build quality and engineering fundamentals, humanism and sustainability, and speculation on the future of the product experience.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook Books are in a conflicted state. Should they still exist in a digital era? Will they all be replaced by Kindles and Nooks? These questions dominate the discussion of books in our time.

Subscribe to the new Off Book channel at http://www.youtube.com/pbsoffbook As the 90s came to a close, the business of music began to change profoundly. New technology allowed artists to record and produce their own music and music videos, and the internet became a free-for-all distribution platform for musicians to promote themselves to audiences across the world.

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

In a world of gadgets when is digital type art? The Type Directors Club Judges Night Salon

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A panel discussion with Roger Black, Matthew Carter, Paul Shaw and Erik Spiekermann. Moderated by Maxim Zhukov.

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.

All About Fonts‽ Simon Garfield's Just My Type

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Book trailer for Simon Garfield's "Just My Type: A Book About Fonts," designed and directed by Naresh Ramchandani and Michael Bierut at Pentagram.

​The Leonard Lopate Show at wnyc.org

Simon Garfield talks about the history of fonts, from font "pirating" dating back nearly as far as Gutenberg to the creation of Comic Sans and Ikea's font-change controversy. Just My Type: A Book About Fonts shows how something as simple as font choice can speak volumes about our cultural climate and personal tastes.

Garfield will be speaking at the Type Directors Club on September 20, 2011.

The following trailer for the book, featuring 999 fonts in 60 seconds, was designed and directed by Naresh Ramchandani and Michael Bierut at Pentagram.

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Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz has always been an autodidact with an eclectic array of interests. Fascinated with technology, advertising and culture he has forged a career that combines them all. In 1991 Antonio developed one of the very first websites to market the arts. It was text based, only available to computer scientists, and increased attendance to the Rutgers Arts Center where he had truly begun his professional career. Since then Antonio has been an early adopter and innovator merging technology and marketing with his passion for art, culture and entertainment. For a more in-depth look at those passions, visit SmarterCreativity.com.