24 January 2010

There is a blog coming soon here, I promise it. I know, I know, blogs seem rather gauche and tired these days, but no, really, sometimes I find myself alone and gasp in horror at...say...an oddly hand-warped serif on a tea box (COUGH numi COUGH) or...oh...yet another xeroxed pamphlet written by some self-serving housefrau trying to sell me Mary Kay set in 25 pt. comic sans...

And I just need to tell someone about it. I need to get it out because otherwise it builds up inside and becomes harmful to one's wellbeing. Or something like that. And besides, if I didn't get out the bad and the terror-inducing when I saw it, I would have no energy to blubber uncontrollably and with great admiration at my heros both new and old...the Tschicholds and the Miedingers OF COURSE, but also heros of mine that have been around a little more recently...

NetworkOsaka, who's amazeballs work with posters (usually adorned with his own completely spot-on custom lettering) make me weep that we aren't a communist society who's dictator forced Mr. Hansen to design all government propaganda, forms, etc. Sure, we'd be a communist society, BUT WE WOULD LOVE FILLING OUT BEAUTIFUL FORMS.

Or Scott Hansen of ISO50. Sigh. This guy knows his way around a fricken awesome illustrated (often modernly vintage) poster. Seriously. Everything on his site requires that I hiss I WANT THAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTT at my besmudged laptop screen.

Or Paul Lee's incredibly elegant work with photo manipulation and type. It's like...minimal maximalism. Or maximal minimalism. Or something. You can tell he's worked so meticulously and thoroughly with each piece, but they're all as finely crafted as a tuning fork and when struck, resonate as one single, perfect, powerful tone. I also admire the fact that his commercial work looks as beautiful as the work that seems more self-initiated. I don't know, maybe it's all commissioned, but it's all breathtaking.

And don't worry, ladies, I'm not leaving you out. I recently came across Yulia Brodskaya's redonkulous work with paper cutouts that blurs the line (for me) between craftwork, fine art and graphic design. Seriously. GOOGLE HER. And then look down at your hands sullenly and curse them for being NOT AS SKILLED as Yulia Brodskaya's hands.

Anyway, if you haven't guessed by now that I'm no expert, well, let me just reveal, between you and me, that I'm no expert. But sometimes I feel like I have a lot to say. Maybe someday I'll be the Carrie Bradshaw of design journalism. Wouldn't that be so heady (and outdated?! Jeez. Blogging AND a SATC reference. It's like looking into what everyone else got tired of FIVE YEARS AGO.) "And so, as Miranda finished flowing live text into the template, I wondered...would men and women EVER see eye to eye on user interface capabilities?"