Shepard Fairey at the ICA

Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston plans a Shepard Fairey retrospective in February. From the ICA's press release:

On the 20th anniversary of the Obey Giant campaign, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston opens the first museum survey of Shepard Fairey, the influential street artist who created the now iconic Obama poster. Stickers and posters of the artist’s work have appeared on street signs and buildings around the world as part of a guerrilla art campaign of global scale. Featuring over 80 works, Shepard Fairey: Supply & Demand traces the artist’s career over 20 years, from the Obey Giant stencil to screen prints of political revolutionaries and rock stars to recent mixed-media works and a new mural commissioned for the ICA show. In complement to the exhibition, Fairey will be creating public art works at sites around Boston. On view at the ICA from Feb. 6 to Aug. 16, 2009, Shepard Fairey: Supply & Demand is accompanied by an expanded, limited-edition version of Supply & Demand, the retrospective publication of the artist’s work.

Also, if you're into his work, purchase a copy of the Supply & Demand book directly through the OBEY store. They come signed by Shepard.
There will also be a day-long AIGA event to coordinate with the show. Design as Social Agent will take place Saturday April 4th. No word yet on tickets, but it has an impressive lineup. More information to come!

Project Never

Finally, an awards competition for the losers. The rejects. The concepts that never made it to completion. The ideas before they got watered down. For the first time ever, there is a competition dedicated specifically to these design projects. The clever contest, Project Never was co-founded by our friends at Hart-Boillot, a Waltham, MA based marketing and communications firm and Strange Ways, out of Stockholm, Sweden. So dust off those crusty old files. As long as its been designed between Jan 2007 and Dec 1, 2008, and never been mass produced— its eligible. You only have until January 16th. Come on… get on it!

Happy New Year!

White "House" Christmas.

2008 Christmas Card, by Maine artist T. Allen Lawson

1961 White House Christmas Card from the Kennedys.

2001 Christmas Card, by artist Adrian Martinez

One of the rarest White House Christmas cards from 1963, as it was never sent following President Kennedy's assassination.

A week or so ago, The Daily Heller, brought us a post about the White House Christmas Card. Heller claims that the design for the White House Christmas Card is one of the more difficult decisions that the First Couple makes together— I really hope, for our country's sake, that that is not the case. In our house, however, that is probably true. Both being designers, we are very critical of the cards we send. Our cards have ranged from CDs (most of which didn't work) to painstakingly hand-punched "lit" Christmas trees (thank you, Ryan)— this year however, we settled for a store-bought design.

President Coolidge was responsible for the first Christmas message from the Capitol in 1927. Watercolors, oils, an occasional family photo… for the most part the cards since then have been pretty traditional. It will be interesting to see what kind of "change" if any, happens with the elected First Family's card. And I wonder how much longer we'll see the White House sending a Christmas and not "Holiday" card in our nation of political correctness. I know who he could call when its time for a Christmas rebrand.

Sexy People

The Sexy People portraits blog is fierce with a capital "F". I don't know about you guys, but I definitely have a couple of gems to contribute.

trend: tech friendly winter gloves

"Tech" gloves are allover the place right now. Most of the available styles lean towards being pretty masculine looking, so I doubt I'll ever rock em. I know it's nothing new, but kudos to designers for trying to fit this need. Seems ridiculous, but it really is a pain to have to take your gloves off when you want to text someone or skip a song on your iPod. Smart design.

1: Tävo Gloves
2: Dots Gloves
3: Stretch, Freehands
4: ETIP Glove, The North Face
5: Patrol Glove, 180s

luxurious ads

I caught these ads for the Greater Chicago Food Depository on the L last weekend. Initially, I hadn't realized what they were advertising, but when you actually read the ads... aha! "Food Shouldn't Feel Like a Luxury." I thought it was ingenious to set up a text donation system so that train/bus riders could donate on the fly. Liz Von Hoene is credited as the photographer.

feed a need

The Feed A Need Project matches volunteers willing to give at least 2 hours of their time with a charity in need. You can contribute by donating your time to a general web project like tagging images and data entry, or you can tell them your particular skill (designer, programmer, lawyer, etc.). Participating volunteers are eligible for some cool prizes, by the way. Even if you can't volunteer your time, you can vote for which non-profit will get chosen.

Thanks Damian!

Manicule tea towels

Lucas and Hayley of Keep Calm Gallery have a great side business where they're selling products based on their very popular line of prints.
Their tea towels are my favorite:
Can't stand the heat
Eat Your Greens

Bummed.

As a designer, I can't decide whether I think this design T from Threadless is totally inappropriate, totally true or absolutely hilarious. What do you think?

cool lettering

I'm really enjoying UK type designer Sebastian Lester's typographic illustrations. The found type section of his site is also worth a look. It's filled with great details.
(via fly)

Strike out

Let me start by saying that I realize I'm probably one of a gagillion design bloggers who will be posting about this very same subject today. The new Red Sox Uniforms. I guess when I quickly saw "A new Red Sox logo, as well as new road uniforms…" on Boston.com this morning, I was expecting to see something a little different than this. I'll admit, I wasn't expecting it to be any good either. However, as I began flipping through the Globe's photo album of the uniform's unveiling ceremony, my reaction wasn't disappointment, it was merely…
Huh?
What's different?
They look pretty much the same to me.
Oh wait, a new ball cap— but it has the old logo.
I don't get it.
I'll end by saying this… I'm glad they didn't ruin the history and integrity of this iconic logo, but when you compare the differences, did they really need to do anything at all? Makes me wonder how much COO Mike Dee paid for his new "tweaked" logo. See what other people are saying…
Images courtesy of Boston.com

All dressed up and nowhere to go?

Lady in Yellow, 1888 Thomas Wilmer Dewing
Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum Collection

Artful Holidays at the Gardener will take place this Saturday. Fenway Court is such a special place, and this is the best time of year to visit the Palazzo's garden. It's a great way to get over the bad weather blues. At night, it's especially magical.

Tickets are $150 for members and $200 for the general public. (The $200 includes one full year of membership for the coming year.)

Artful Holidays at the Gardener
Saturday, December 13, 2008 7:00 - 9:30pm

pencil stache

The set of 5 mustache pencils at Atypyk are friggin hilarious. I'm a notorious pencil chewer (nasty habit–I know), but I also love a good pencil stache. I can't get enough. I think it's hilarious. The set includes Salvador, Zorro, Burt, Django, and Clark. Good clean office fun.

Stick It

There's been an influx of cool tape designs lately. I just have to find things to wrap!
Tinsel tape $9 at Fred Flare
Frame tape $14 at Black Ink
Python tape $16 at Charles & Marie
Lace tape $12 at Chocosho
Digital Message tape $15 at Charles & Marie

gratitude in the form of green beans

Every year, we try to come up with something creative to send out for the holidays. Last year, we tried to suggest some "pinkeresolutions" for your New Year. This year, around Thanksgiving, we sent out these great cans of Pinker Green Beans. In honor of our friends clients and vendors, we donated to The Greater Boston Food Bank. We just moved to the South End, and their new headquarters isn't too far from us, so it just seemed to fit.

Take a hike

As previously mentioned... I love maps, I could look at them for hours! I found Boston.com's interactive map of New Hampshire's 48 4,000-foot mountains by Javier Zarracina particularly nice. Too often it seems maps and info graphics are quickly computer generated and not given the proper attention to detail. Zarracina's work does just the opposite, adding a human touch and an artists sensitivity without compromising information. Besides being nicely illustrated and informative, the map is meaningful to me because my father, older brother, and I recently joined the 4,000-foot club... hiking all 48 mountains.

If you love maps as much as I do, be sure to check this one out.

5th Annual SoWa Holiday Market

SoWa Holiday Market is open December 13-14th in the Cathedral High School gym (right across the street from our studio–we're on the NoWa side). A $5 admission gets you access to over 80 artists and crafters. It's a great place to score some really unique gifts. They have a fun raffle format called Cell Phone Santa to benefit the Washington Gateway Main Street program. You purchase raffle tickets and write your cell number on them, they hold drawings throughout the night and call the winner on their cell phone to let them know!

Global Goodness

From Pinkergreen

Somehow we've become the design studio to approach when you're in need of a map. We've done local maps, regional, directional, national, world— even intergalactic. (We'll show you them someday…) Since this is a recurring assignment, we're always looking for new ways to reinvent this geographic challenge. Since I'm a sucker for anything collaged, I'm nuts for Vitra's world map on their homepage. It simultaneously satisfies my need for texture and function.

Very Fine Animals

New work from Georgia Verey Fiennes...
White Lady

Bantam Bowl

Pink Venti