Monthly Archives: December 2011

Dec 30 2011
2 Comments
Uncategorized

This town ain’t big enough for the both of us

Design trends come and go whether in graphic design, fashion, and even fine art. One that has popped up recently is this old western wanted poster aesthetic. It became really obvious when I first saw the “True Grit” movie poster.

True Grit movie poster

I thought it was so ingenious to use a completely typographical solution for a movie poster. Since when have you last seen a movie poster without a photo or even image on it? On top of that it is almost monochromatic, black text on a beige background. This is except for the bullet hole with blood running down which brings a wonderful organic, bright detail to an almost symmetrical layout.

This style of course was not an intentional style at the time. In the 1800′s, color reproduction of images was in its infancy. Therefore, people who created these posters (would they would have called themselves designers yet?) had to use different fonts in different styles and sizes to illustrate their points. Also, the letters were so large they had to use wood type because carving the letters out of metal would be just too expensive. The wood type, though cheap, deteriorated much faster and caused much more inconsistency in the letters. Today, this inconsistency is considered beautiful, a response to designers and the public alike who are bombarded and bored everyday with computer-perfect graphics and images.

I too, am guilty of this of this Western revival. In fact, I based my whole identity on this fully justified typographical solution instead of a traditional logo.

shameless self promotion here {ssmurphydesign.com}

However I have always loved this wood type, western style since my first design class. As proof I have included one of my very first design projects, from an Intro to Type class.

So it almost makes me sad that it is a trend because doesn’t that mean it will go away eventually? It kinda goes with this whole handcrafted, letterpress, hand drawn trend that has evolved and has been applied to everything from wedding invites to websites. I suppose we will have to see what sticks and what slides away.

More examples of projects in this Western style acquired from various design blogs:

Tagged , , , , ,
Dec 29 2011
5 Comments
Uncategorized

Tarof is not a French word

If you are offered dessert in an Iranian household it is customary to initially refuse the cake, cookie, fruit or whatever it is the first time you are offered it, no matter how much you want it. You insist that you are full, that you couldn’t possibly. The host gently pushes back, saying that the dessert will go to waste, that it’s really not that good anyway. There is an abundance of sweets and you have a large selection to choose from. After a couple more rounds you’ll end up with a chai and a sweet, and you don’t have to worry about losing out.

If you are offered dessert in a French household and you want to eat it, take it. Be clear that you’d like it. Take it. Take it the first time because you will not see that dessert again if you refuse. There is just enough dessert for the guests present and if you try to politely refuse your piece of cake, it will simply be divided up among the remaining guests. No second chances.

I’m sure I’m generalizing here a bit, but coming from a place where tarofing is expected, I was genuinely surprised when I had dinner with my French in-laws for the first time. It’s pretty stressful eating with your boyfriend’s parents when you don’t know the rules…they probably thought I was a little off for not wanting dessert or flaky for first saying no, and then yes. And I felt like I was in an eating frenzy, panicked by the thought that I might actually not be forced to eat dessert.

Even if by some freak occurrence you do not end up eating a sweet in the Iranian house, you can count on something being wrapped in aluminum and tucked under your arm on your way out the door. (At least, this is what I know of my Assyrian relatives.) The French traditionally don’t do leftovers. You will not get an extra lunch out of this dining experience.

But hey, once you know the rules, it’s easy to play. I just throw on a different cultural lens depending on my dining companions, and I always politely end up with dessert.

 

Tagged , , ,
Dec 25 2011
3 Comments
Uncategorized

Tarof and Other Christmas Rituals

We were raised in an Assyrian-Iranian American household. “Tarof” takes up a large part of the day. It’s a set of rules to follow in social situations. Just Wikipedia that shit. You can’t come right out and say what you think or ask for what you want. That’s rude! It often involves insisting that others take things – food, tea, clothing, art and other decor, if it’s not nailed down it can be offered to you, and heartily insisting that you are not worthy of such wonderful things. Here is roughly the exchange that occurred late Christmas eve (1:45 am Christmas morning to be precise) between my aunt and I. As we’re preparing to leave,

“Take some food, let me pack some food for you,” my aunt says.

“We can’t possibly, we’re making a lot of food tomorrow,” I reply.

“But we’re only two people, it’ll go bad,” she rebuts.

“OK, maybe a little, just because I love your food so much.” I throw an extra compliment in there for flavor.

[filling of multiple tupperwares ensues]

“That’s really too much.” I threaten to leave some behind.

“Fine, I’ll throw the rest away.” My aunt is a tarof expert. I’m losing.

“Well, no, it’s just I’m making food.”

“You can freeze it. It freezes great.”

This persists for several more minutes. I end up coming home with rice, ghormeh zabzi, shirin polo, pork, boushala (2 tubs), pumpkin seeds, chocolates, and mysteriously, a pack of gum.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Dec 16 2011
1 Comment
Uncategorized

Cubicles are the New Cigarettes

In twenty years we are going to look back at cubicles and shake our heads. A magazine spread promoting cubicle-esque office furniture will be today’s equivalent of finding an ad that touts the relaxing effects and medical benefits of Camels or Virginia Slims. “What were they thinking?” The youngsters will say.

I sit all day long. I sit in a grey cubicle with grey metal framing and padded grey walls. The walls are taller than I am when I stand, which you know, I don’t. The desk is mounted into a “hot” frame so that if I say, came in on a Saturday when no one else was around and tried to dismantle it, I’d probably electrocute myself. I sit in front of a computer which is mounted into the desk 8 hours a day. I sit through meetings, interviews, lectures. I sit. My muscles atrophy. My joints stiffen. I sit.

One hour a day I break the routine. I leave the cubicle environment and exercise. The problem is that one hour a day is not enough to counteract the 23 other hours that I’m sitting or lying down. There’s a ton of literature on the subject. Just google, “sitting makes you fat.” You’ll find it all: studies that discuss what sitting does to the physical body, studies that show sitting so many hours per week increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes, articles that describe alternatives such as treadmill desks, raised meeting tables, and how to form walking groups at work.

And I’m not a total hater of office furniture. I enjoy studying work places and organizational design to make day-to-day life better for workers. I can go observe office spaces, talk to the employees about their daily routines and preferences, construct design parameters within a tight budget for how to improve the space, etc. But sitting is still the norm. Cubicles persist. Change will be slow. It’s not exactly environmentally-friendly to go throw out all the cubicles and replace them with human-friendly spaces. For now, I’m working on solutions to improve my personal grey cube and trying out new ways of working.

I used to be a smoker after all. If I can stop smoking, I can give up sitting, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They look fit, don’t they?

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Dec 14 2011
1 Comment
Uncategorized

Canceled Exhibit at Artissima Reeks of Censorship

 

 

 

 

 

Arte Povera did not exist. This was the central thesis for an exhibit developed by Triple Candie which was to be included in the Artissima Art Fair in Turin last November. Triple Candie gained approval and developed its concept for months. The entry which was accepted for publication in the art fair’s catalog read:

“There is no arte povera. / It never existed; / As we’ve determined from the evidence, / Which is unreliable, contradictory…We don’t believe Celant. / His story has changed too many times.” Celant is the art critic who coined the term arte povera and had a hand in developing the movement. The exhibit was to include hundreds of photo reproductions and dozens of sculptural “surrogates” of work included in the art movement – but no actual artwork.

ANXIETY

Before Triple Candie was able to execute its plans, however, the exhibit was pulled from the show. Francesco Manacorda, Artissima’s director, who had originally been very supportive of the concept, noted that it could be “potentially very offensive to artists and gallerists who participate in the fair” and “negatively impact government funding of the arts in Italy, and potentially threaten the viability of Artissima.”

The events that led up to the cancelation of the exhibit are described in detail on Triple Candie’s website: http://triplecandie.org/Archive%202011%20arte%20povera.html

The events  that occurred and the emails exchanged between Triple Candie and Manacorda were made into a script and read aloud at California College of the Arts in San Francisco last Thursday, 12/8/2011, with a heartfelt slide show accompaniment to provide context for the messages.

Curators are held to very different standards than artists. We expect artists to push boundaries and take risks and we expect curators to assume the role of celebrating the artist. Most art exhibits do not challenge the viewer. We pat ourselves on the back for visiting art museums and galleries and are spoon-fed artwork in chronological order. Or we pass from one thematic room to the next, moving from landscapes to portraits to abstracts. It’s boring and thoughtless. But when a team such as Triple Candie takes a risk and dares to challenge art, artists, and viewers we can’t handle it. We push back. We destroy, shut down, censor, cancel, threaten, feel threatened, and worry about sponsors, funders, friends…what would they think? We mistakenly assume that critique is negative. I see Triple Candie’s proposed exhibit as a way to revisit the facts, to raise a discussion. They called Celant’s essays contradictory, but they also called him a hero. Being critical and being respectful are not mutually exclusive, and I think Triple Candie sought both in their exhibit. We should be celebrating daring curators. Triple Candie is brave, provocative, and rigorous and I hope we see more from them and more from thinkers like them.

Tagged , , , , , ,
Dec 07 2011
1 Comment
Uncategorized

Ken Okada window in Paris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, I promise, last post about Paris (maybe). I passed by this Ken Okada window on my way to dinner two weeks ago on rue de la Chaise in Paris. Its cool, eerie glow combined with delicate strata of tissue seemed to lift me off the ground and pull me in through the window. What icy snow models live in these couture caves? Let’s grab our snow boots and find out!

Dec 06 2011
1 Comment
Uncategorized

Headphones remind me I’m in a public space

 

 

 

 

 

When I was in Paris last week (yes, my body has returned to the Bay Area, but my heart and mind have not, so please indulge a few more posts about France) I was struck by all the headphones. Headphone ads all over the walls of the metro, on those rotating billboards on sidewalks, and on TV. There were headphones on everyone’s heads. Big honkin headphones, brightly colored, pimped out headphones. How come I didn’t notice this at home?

Then a sad, strange thing occurred to me. I no longer take the train to work, and therefore, am never really in public space with a lot of other lone individuals. Ever since I (reluctantly) moved from San Francisco down to the Peninsula to be closer to work I’m either on my bike or in the car. Neither really gives me the opportunity to observe people who are by themselves in public spaces, and especially not while they are commuting (because commuting activity is its own beast). When I would take the train down from SF I had 35 minutes to see what people were reading, wearing, what mobile devices they were using, and how they were listening to music!

Remember when people complained that headphones isolated individuals in public? Well, all these headphones helped me realize that I was indeed participating in a public space, or rather in a “transitional space.” They made me appreciate taking advantage of this communal service, really participating in a communal goal – we all want to get where we are going without incident. SLIGHT TANGENT: Actually, there’s a ton of literature that looks at mobility and transitional spaces, sometimes referred to as third spaces, way stations, non-places where “in-between” moments happen. In the US, we often try to make these moments as productive as possible. Two researchers from Intel, Ken Anderson and Rogerio De Paula, wrote a delightful paper about the collective experience that can unfold in transitional spaces. They use an account of their own experiences on public transit in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil to show that mobility can manifest as a social rather than an individual phenomenon. There is a huge opportunity here to move away from traditional forms of technological products that focus on isolation or escapism for the individual in public spaces (headphones) toward products that support a collective, social experience in these public spaces.

BACK TO HEADPHONES: Thank you headphones for reminding me what it’s like to be alone on public transit. Thank you Urban Ears, Beats, WeSC, Skullcandy, and others for boldly and brightly isolating individuals on the metro.

Reference: Anderson, Ken and De Paula, Rogerio. 2006 We We We All the Way Home: The “We” Effect in Transitional Spaces. EPIC Volume 2006 Issue 1, Pages 60-75


Dec 03 2011
1 Comment
Uncategorized

Fresh Produce

Still high off my purchases at Anno Domini’s Fresh Produce last night!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speak Slow by Lacey Bryant

 

and

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You Are the Tiger to My Milk Bar by Faring Purth

Tagged , , , , , ,
Dec 02 2011
Leave a comment
Uncategorized

Any Ever by Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris last Sunday with my husband to see Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch’s exhibit called Any Ever. As soon as you enter the gallery, you know that you’re in for a different kind of museum experience. You enter a world that takes the rhythm of our materialistic, consumer- and career-obsessed US culture and blows it up to Olympic proportions. Out-of-control hyperbole ensues. Encouraged to take flash photography, you move from room to room with an increasing awareness that you are part of the project itself. Each room houses a video installation and a unique sculptural theater in which the viewer is invited to sit in any seat that is accompanied by headphones. You find yourself sitting on bleachers, bed frames, hammocks, picnic tables, and couches, surrounded by hodge-podgery of everyday life (cabinets, sand, chains, hammers to name a few) that make the rooms seem as if they are in the midst of being torn down…or maybe being put up in the first place. Reality is under construction.

My husband’s succinct take on the whole thing, “It was just so annoying.” Although he did enjoy the seating. My own impression on the videos fluctuated between hilarity and fear. The characters are so splintered, multiplied, disjointed, and looped that it is easily the biggest spoof of US mainstream culture and attitudes I’ve ever seen in my life. The characters own their phobias and mania and I’m pretty sure I’ve met versions of aspects of the characters in real life…and hated them/felt bad for them. As hyperbolic and loud (literally) the scenes were, they also weren’t so far from the truth. I heard on the radio today that over 50% of US television is made up of reality TV shows, and its cinéma vérité style is mimicked throughout the rooms. And we are obsessed with our careers! At least in Silicon Valley we are. We’re driven by money or by wanting to get rich and being a do-gooder at the same time. Every other schmo in the valley has his own startup, hoping to make a cool mill off some crap social media idea. Trust me, I study this for a living. So, this is where the “fear” feeling comes into play. I fear that these films are more of a mirror than we’d like to admit.

The New York Times has a great review of the show from when it was at MoMA PS1.

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Dec 02 2011
Leave a comment
Uncategorized

What wine goes with…?

I love Auchan supermarkets in France. They have everything a girl could ever hope for, a whole aisle dedicated to yogurts and mousses, cheese from all the regions of France, and cheap, delicious French wine. Cool part about it are their wine pairing pictograms. Each wine on display is accompanied with little icons that show what wine can be paired with what dish, anything from shellfish to game to cheese and dessert. I can’t quite make out what that entrée symbol is, maybe some kind of pâté, terrine, or pre-made potato salad type thing? In any case, very cool, very easy and helpful! I guess the message is that in France, even the illiterate should be able to drink a nicely paired glass of wine.

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
%d bloggers like this: