There are aspects of history you must know in order to recreate.

Chris Jordan

My friend Dennis just passed the work of Chris Jordan my way. Shocking. In case you’re in need of another reason to think critically about our society’s consumption habits (as if you haven’t seen enough already) check his website.

After looking through his work I had to be still for a while. I can’t remember a series of photographs that has made me feel simultaneously enthralled / heartbroken / pessimistic / pissed off. Apparently it’s that way for a reason. “I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination,” Jordan says. “The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity.”

“These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

“To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.” - Chris Jordan, October 2009

Michael Bierut’s Journals

If you’ve been here before or met me in person you know I’m a sucker for journals; over the past 5 years I’ve filled my fair share (12) with drawings, words, t-shirt sketches, coffee stains and the occasional food label. I recently came across this video of Pentagram’s Michael Bierut’s process and was struck by a rush of solidarity. It’s nice to see there are others making friends with small tablets of paper.

Renowned graphic designer Michael Bierut claims that he’s not creative. Instead, he likens his job to that of a doctor who tends to patients – “the sicker, the better.” Digging into the 86 notebooks he’s kept over the course of his career, Bierut walks us through 5 projects – from original conception to final execution – extracting a handful of simple lessons (e.g. the problem contains the solution; don’t avoid the obvious) at the foundation of brilliant design solutions. Via 99%.

Milton Glaser Draws & Lectures

Today I got the chance to talk through a couple of years worth of drawings to art students at HC. Over the course of these sessions we talked a lot about drawing and this video seems to summarize my feelings on the subject.

Scott Thomas: Designing the Obama Campaign

“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

Shepard Fairey

A little process never hurts.

What the World Eats

When I was a little kid the only things often left on my plate were the remnants of noodles and a dreaded heap of vegetables. At that point you could count on a loving prompt from my mother that somewhere someone was starving (which is true) and I should be thankful for having food to eat (which is also true).

Recently I came across the work of Peter Menzel, a photojournalist with a stunning / convicting / enlightening body of work.  In his book Hungry Planet he and author-journalist Faith D’Alusio set out to capture “families from around the world, revealing what people eat during the course of one week.”  Some scarce and some gluttonous, the resulting work is a beautiful survey of the diversity of diets this world has to offer.  Flipping through it imparted more gratitude than all of my mom’s auditory attempts (if only she would have recognized I was a visual learner).  Below are a couple of excerpts from Time’s three part recap of the book.

Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53
Family recipe: Okra and mutton

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
Favorite foods: soup with fresh sheep meat

United States: The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week: $341.98
Favorite foods: spaghetti, potatoes, sesame chicken

Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55
Family recipe: Potato soup with cabbage

Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Favorite foods: pizza, crab, pasta, chicken