Design Inspiration | Stefan Sagmeister & Chip Kidd

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Stefan Sagmeister speak at the Salazar Awards. He was totally inspirational, but really - what was I expecting? The guy is throughly entertaining and he managed to make all of us polite Canadians squirm and laugh at the same time with his stories of jelly fish exhibits gone awry, leaving his intern to be interrogated by the FBI and simply shouting "shut the f#%k up!" to a noisy bunch on the other side of the room.

He went through his book "Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far" telling us of his process. The book is beautiful, inside and out:

The book design reminds me of Chip Kidd's follow up book to The Cheese Monkeys, The Learners:

Both designers use type that is hand drawn or drawn from the materials around them. The type becomes the image.

Chip Kidd, Geoff Spear, Saul Ferris's book jacket for "Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan"

Also in common is their great one liners:

Chip Kidd: "Good is Dead" "Do you see?"

Stefan Sagmeister: "Trying to look good limits my life."

Check out Chip Kidd's website "Good is Dead" and Stefan Sagmeister website for "Things I've learned in life so far".

Vancouver Olympics Benefit Young Artists

The benefits of being an Olympic host city are far reaching. It’s about more than just athletes, performers and profits for hotels. For the art community in British Columbia, the 2010 Winter Games offer unique opportunities to exhibit work and celebrate the artistic heritage of the province. More importantly, a next generation of artists can be nurtured during this boom time for the city.

A new exhibition at Emily Carr exemplifies those advantages. “The Spirit of Place” opening reception took place Thursday night with the unveiling of 75 images created by young artists from across the province. The students, who range from ages 6-16, worked under the tutelage of alumni from the Granville Island-based school.

“The young artists were initially hesitant to voice their ideas, but confidence quickly grew as we discussed how they might engage with the materials supplied. We exchanged ideas about the meaning of sustainability, and what Vancouver means to them,” says Leah van der Voort MacFarlane, one of the 15 mentors. “To work with professional-quality materials in a ‘real’ studio made the experience a great one for all of us.”

The artwork evokes culture, sport and sustainability in B.C., and was made possible because of sponsorship from Emily Carr, Arts Umbrella, Save the Children Canada and the Cultural Olympiad.

Pica Interactive was honored to create the website, logo and exhibit design for “The Spirit of Place” project. The exhibition, which debuted as part of the Winterrpution festivities, can be seen at Emily Carr through March 8.

The artwork can also be seen on the website SpiritofPlace.eciad.ca

Chiliwack "pod" with Samantha Pedersen (centre) pose in front of her painting

Arts Umbrella Choir perform on opening night

*photography by Julia Pelish Photography

*article written by Adrian Brijbassi 

Crayon Physics

The other day I was surfing the web for a Christmas gift for my niece when I came across something called "Crayon Physics". Not everyone loves physics but who doesn't love crayons? This is a great game with lots of potential and it is free :) you can pretend you are a kid again and play with your crayons! Some of the levels are a bit challenging - but it is a fun way to apply physics to this make believe world. Check it out: 

How cool is that? The only complaints I have (if you want to call them complaints) are; I wish it had more levels because I wanted to keep playing, and it only works on a PC :(

I think it will be a lot of fun playing this with my 5 year old niece - maybe she can teach me a few things :)

You can download Crayon Physics here.