Category Archives: Design

Patient Problem Solving

Posted by Adam Weiler on August 25, 2010

Today was a super good day. This morning I got to participate in a summit at the Holland Area Arts Council for art educators along the lakeshore. Man, there are so many brilliant / passionate educators living within 50 miles of each other it’s amazing; it also makes me super jealous because my our high school art teacher (graduate from the Art Institute of Chicago) was replaced with a study hall supervisor just as I was freed up to take electives. Meh.

Anyways, Nick Rabkin (who was both intelligent and personable) was the keynote speaker and had some really interesting things to share on the role of art/creativity in student development. His talk spanned almost two hundred years of rationale for including the arts in public education (in the 1800′s it was argued that by teaching music communities could increase the quality of singing in church) and ended with recent studies in cognitive linguistics. Along the way he pointed to the above video of Dan Meyer, a New York math teacher developing an algebra curriculum that helps kids formulate problems in addition to solving them. Inspiring.

It reminded me of a conversation I had last year with Mrs. Propst. After talking through various processes we concluded that art making was nothing more than continuous creative problem solving; acknowledging, exploring, understanding and proposing solutions to the infinite array of problems one confronts when making something of this world. One of the things I loved about having the opportunity to study both art and mathematics was the concrete, abstract and theoretical problems each field forces one to confront. I write all of this to say that as we push forward into the third year (yikes!) of Ambrose we’re going to take a page from Mr. Meyer’s re-written math book and integrate more creative problem solving into our after school art & design program. This route seems most appropriate because regardless of what field we, and our students, enter and exit throughout life there will always need of a toolkit that enables us to ask the right questions.

Joseph Cornell and Found Objects

Posted by Adam Weiler on March 28, 2010

Our recent visit to Seedlings reminded me of Joseph Cornell and his use of found materials and things otherwise thought of as junk. While not exactly the same as the altered books we are working on, the use of collage, memories, and found materials is inspiring.

Joseph Cornell was born in 1903 and lived until 1972. Most of his work was created in the 1940′s and 1950′s. To me at least, his work still looks contemporary today.

Via Wikipedia:
Cornell could create poetry from the commonplace. Unlike Schwitters, however, he was fascinated not by refuse, garbage, and the discarded, but by fragments of once beautiful and precious objects he found on his frequent trips to the bookshops and thrift stores of New York. His boxes relied on the Surrealist technique of irrational juxtaposition, and on the evocation of nostalgia, for their appeal.

In addition to creating boxes and flat collages and making short art films, Cornell also kept a filing system of over 160 visual-documentary “dossiers” on themes that interested him; the dossiers served as repositories from which Cornell drew material and inspiration for boxes like his “penny arcade” portrait of Lauren Bacall. He had no formal training in art, although he was extremely well read and was conversant with the New York art scene from the 1940s through to the 1960s.

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We just fell in love…with Project M

Posted by Becca on March 23, 2010

This morning Shawn and I got together to talk art + design + convictions + etc. He’s a senior at Kendall this year majoring in Graphic Design, and he is awesome. A mutual point of interest is not wanting to use our abilities to manufacture perceived needs for objects which people have no need for. Instead we’d prefer (and who wouldn’t) to use our powers for the benefit of our community. Towards the end of our conversation he told me to check out Project M, a group doing just that. It was love at first site (hehe) and after clicking around I concluded that Project M looks to be the most amazing summer experience a young creative could ask for.

“Project M is an intensive summer program designed to inspire young graphic designers, writers, photographers and other creative people that their work can have a positive and significant impact on the world.”

So, to all you young designers wanting to make a larger impact than the ecological footprint of glossy package remnants piled in a landfill somewhere I strongly encourage you to apply for their summer program! In fact, I’ll make it easy. Here’s a copy of the application…it’s due April 30. GET A MOVE ON, ALREADY!

Scott Thomas: Designing the Obama Campaign

Posted by Becca on October 23, 2009

“As the Design Director for Obama’s 2008 campaign, Scott Thomas led a now-historic political campaign, in which branding, design, and the web played a truly pivotal role. Likening the experience to “building an airplane in flight,” Scott talks about the creative’s need for triage, the crucial role of incremental design improvements, and the importance of getting back to the hand and keeping things simple.” Via The 99 Percent

Charles & Ray Eames

Posted by Adam Weiler on July 19, 2009

The legendary design team Charles and Ray Eames made films, houses, books and classic midcentury modern furniture. Eames Demetrios, their grandson, shows rarely seen films and archival footage in a lively, loving tribute to their creative process. Via TED.