Real Not Real

Cathy Horyn has a piece up on the nyt that inspired me to purchase my second copy of Acne Paper. I bought my first issue when I lived in New Haven back in ‘07, and since then I’ve been following the publication (and gorgeous design) online. Acne Paper is part of a larger enterprise, but it feels intimate in-hand. It’s sexy, but readers are left drooling over the photography and type treatment as much as the content itself. This season’s issue is devoted to eroticism and pleasure, and for ten well-spent dollars, it’s approaching the realm of cheap thrill.

I finally got around to making the agua fresca that caught my eye last week. Yummy. I used what I had on hand, which included fresh limes and excluded mint. I also didn’t need to sweeten my watermelon as it was good and ripe, and rather than tap water I used sparkling mineral water. The hint of minerals brings out the fruit taste, and the carbonation isn’t overpowering. Summer in a glass couldn’t be easier.

My version:

1/2 icebox watermelon
3/4 liter sparkling mineral water
1 lime, halved and squeezed (plus additional halves for garnish)

Scoop watermelon from the rind with a spoon and blend the fruit to a pulp (I used a food processor); pour into pitcher. Add sparkling water. Roll whole lime on work surface to soften it, then halve and squeeze into pitcher. Refrigerate for 1 hour, then serve in glass with another lime half.

Yields 6 eight-ounce servings

A couple months ago, I read this post on Craisglist.

Here’s an excerpt:

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THOUGHTS FROM A HOMELESS GUY NOW THAT I’M BACK ON MY FEET

I was homeless for about 4 years until the manager of a car dealership took a chance on me and now I am the manager of our detailing department.

Okay, so what are the things that I really appreciate?

- Weather: I don’t pay much attention to weather anymore. On the streets, weather is your life. A homeless guy rummaging for newspapers only wants one section, the weather report. If you can read, and you know the weather, you will have every dude you know asking what is coming.

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After reading that, I began to think about how simple it is to tell someone the weather. I love weather. I read the weather in four cities every day: San Francisco, CA, Palo Alto, CA, Richmond, VA, and New York, NY. I used to check more cities, but I’m whittling down. And if someone on the street asked me what weather was coming up, I could probably tell them. The weather is available to me at the push of a button: on my BlackBerry, on my Mac’s dashboard, on the internet at any hour, delivered to me on NPR every morning. The weather is around me just like stock reports or the time of day: basic information that I take for granted.

So I thought it would be nice to make some modular weather fliers to post around SF. A little project to make something in black and white that could be cheaply and easily produced week-to-week, but that would give all the information necessary to know the weather.

The flier is a grid of two weeks, in 7-day rows. Each day has four weather options—sunny, cloudy, rainy and windy—that can be highlighted or circled. Highlighting looks the cleanest, but it also fades in the sun. Depending on the location (and sun exposure), I’ve been using different markings. There’s also room to write-in the date range at the top, the days’ dates on the grid, and each day’s high and low temperature. I designed this specifically for San Francisco, which is why there is no sleet or snow or hail. We just don’t get that kind of weather here.

So I’ve been posting…

Some of the fliers remain for awhile after I post them, others disappear. A homeless man who sometimes sleeps on my block refers to them, and my first post sparked questions from a couple of tourists curious about SF weather. It’s been a nice little exercise.

If you’d like to post weather reports in your own neighborhood, you can download the flier here. For now, it’s SF-ish weather types only.

So last summer, I saw the Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. I think I described it as “underwhelming” or, more pointedly, “superflat.” I thought the Louis Vuitton store in the middle of the exhibit was the most interesting bit, and it seemed sad that none of the pieces showed a trace of handwork. It isn’t that the collision of art and commerce is lost on me. I get it. It fascinates me. It’s part of why I’m a graphic designer.

I think the exhibit seemed uninteresting because the aesthetic didn’t really appeal to me and Murakami’s own celebrity goes over my head. If I were more enamored with him, or if he were more present in his work, I might’ve felt some connection to the pieces. As it was, it just seemed like an exhibit by a company that didn’t capture my attention.

And, now seeing this article in the LA Times, it sounds like others felt they got ripped off by the fact that Murakami’s hand (or even a context-specific artistic intent) wasn’t all that present in the pieces that sold for $6,000 in the LV store at MOCA. I LOVE this. I just love that this lawsuit is the premise for Murakami’s entire body of work. Is there a statute for the “Emperor’s New Clothes”?

And in other “What is Art” news, I’ve been following the Shepard Fairey/AP story. Unfortunate. A true waste of time, in my mind. But a nice post by Steve Heller here. And some great background information here and here.

I don’t usually post here about products or packaging, but Scott Amron / Amron Experimental’s “New Soap, Old Bottle” just seems lovely all-around. The product is nice (though I’d rather get natural soaps, not Dawn or SoftSoap, in my bottles), the packaging is nice, the site is nice. Since it hasn’t made the rounds of the blog circuit yet (it was just on design*sponge this morning), it seemed worth putting up here.

I know I’m not the only one in America who still gets giddy when hearing the words “President Obama” uttered on the news–but I feel a bit silly admitting it.

Despite that, there are a lot of reasons why I’m enjoying this administration, many of which revolve around the administration’s relationship to design and pop culture. I thought I’d share…

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5.  You released your NCAA bracket and it made the headlines. I mean, really? When we’re all concerned about the economy and layoffs, we also care about your NCAA picks? I LOVE that you put Carolina at the top of the list. They might not win, but they’re my pick, too.

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4. Inauguration 2009 was one I actually watched on TV. THIS (Stevie! Kanye! Aretha!) is a soundtrack that I actually like! I mean, what a surprise that inaugurations can actually be interesting with the right cast of characters. So thanks, Obama, for making that inauguration feel relevant.

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3.  “The Office of the President Elect” sign was classic. So made-up! But you love graphic design and branding, President Obama. And that makes me love you.

(PHOTO VIA WASHINGTON POST)

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2. The day after the election, I flew back to SF. Landing at SFO and driving into the city, I saw this Obama wheat paste in SOMA. And it made me happy that our president-elect had an impact on people across the US, across generations. Pretty exciting to have people wheat-pasting about someone you can actually vote for.

(PHOTO COURTESY MEG PICKARD VIA FLICKR)

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1. Election Night 2008 was one of the best nights of the year for me. I was in DC for work, our all-day meeting ended early, and I made it to Adam’s Morgan by late afternoon. This led to a drive out to VA with my dear friend Bethany Powell for a party with college friends, and a stop on the way back into town to grab an OBAMA-BIDEN sign out of the median of RT 7 in Virginia. On our way back into the city, Bethany had the bright idea to stop by the White House, and when we got there, we found a small crowd gathering, that later turned into this:

(PHOTO VIA MY FLICKR SET FROM THAT NIGHT)

Thanks, Obama, for giving me a great night!

And great set design at your acceptance speech. LOVED that. Oh–and your Flickr set for your own Election Night?! Unbelievable. That was like the icing on the cake the day after the election. You rock.

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So really, Barack. Thanks a lot. I know the economy sucks and all, and we’re still in the middle of two wars, and there isn’t universal healthcare yet, but it’s only been 60 days and you’ve had a lot on your plate. So thanks for all the great graphic design and pop culture references. You’ve been fun to watch.

My latest post is up on visadiaries.com …

A few months ago, a friend told me that if he heard the phrase “In this economy” one more time, he might explode. Little did we know, then, how many more times we’d get to hear it, and, frankly, how much more we’d care about hearing it. How we’d probably come to hang on the words of stories that began that way, and how we’d pray to move beyond it.

This is a story that begins “In this economy.” It’s a story about the joy that consumables can bring us, and the ability to find that joy for under $20. It’s a story about a showerhead that has changed my life, or at the very least, my mornings … (more after the jump)