my open door.net » Life interrupts

Found Typography Exercise

opendoordesign — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:21:12 +0000

My Typography students have been out with their cameras looking for interesting letterforms. They’ve uploaded their best examples to Flickr, and here are the results.

Superbowl Ads

opendoordesign — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:16:36 +0000

The economy may be in free fall, but this year’s Superbowl spots were still funny, creative, and definitely worth watching. Doritos used a carbon copy of Kenneth Parcell from hit comedy 30 Rock for it’s ad, one of the the funniest. Among the flashiest, with 3D glasses required for the full effect, was the football ballet from SoBe. But the most bang for the buck has to be the 1-second Miller commercial. Here, in no particular order, is my top ten list. Click the comment link and vote on your favorite.

Blogging a Renewed Neighborhood

opendoordesign — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:37:03 +0000

Yesterday I lunched with David Fox, an old classmate of mine from Cranbrook. We caught up on the past 20 years, and he invited my help on an axciting new project called Green Magnolia. David’s an architecture prof at UT with an interest in inner city redevelopment. He’ll have UT architecture students work with Austin-East High School students to re-envision their neighborhood, and then begin rebuilding it. I’ll be working with Melissa Brown and a team of A-E students doing community relations and research.

David’s previous projects in Chattanooga are impressive. Together with contractors, city leaders, and Howard High School, David taught students how to re-imagine their neighborhood on South Market Street. Over seven years the Urban Program in Sustainable Design Education designed and built eight houses in Chattanooga. It’s one thing to dream up redevelopment, but quite another to get stuff built. David and his students got the job done.

I believe in redeveloping older neighborhoods, and I’m excited about the project. We’ll use blogging, video, photography, and interviews to get students excited about the possibilities in their neighborhood. East Knoxville is a beautiful neighborhood that has been neglected for too long. If things work out Green Magnolia will have students re-imagining their own neighborhood with cameras, pencils, and keyboards within a few weeks. Stay tuned!

My Fall Schedule

opendoordesign — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:28:31 +0000

I just found out my fall schedule:

CGT 1030 Intro to Mac MW 10:45–12:05
CGT 2005 Graphic Design II MW 12:25–2:30
CGT 1110 Typography TR 10:45–12:05
CGT 1105 Graphic Design I TR 12:25–2:30

I’ll likely be teaching CGT 1911 Portfolio as well, but right now we’ve got low enrollment in that course—probably because students are unaware of it. Portfolio prepares students for the faculty portfolio review at the end of the first year. All students enrolled in Graphic Design I should also be in CGT 1911 Portfolio, which must be taken by majors before taking Design II. Help me get the word out! To learn more about Pellissippi’s CGT program, click here.

Unitarian Church Shooting

opendoordesign — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:06:00 +0000

It’s been a tough week in Knoxville. Last Sunday an angry, alcoholic, unemployed Vietnam vet with a history of domestic violence fired 3 shotgun blasts in a Unitarian church, killing 2 and wounding 7 before the church folks tackled the shooter and put him in a martial arts hold until the police could take him away in handcuffs. (Hey—we liberals are peaceful, but we can put a hurtin’ on a gun-toting wingnut.)

According to police reports and a “manifesto” found in his truck, Jim Adkisson targeted the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church because he hates liberals and blames them for “ruining America.” Among the books found in his home were vitriolic liberal-bashing books by right-wing media spokespeople Pat O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage. Police chief Sterling Owen says “We’re certainly investigating it as a hate crime.”

The shooter made threats against his ex-wife who took out a restraining order 8 years ago after he threatened to “blow her brains out.” He recently bought a 12-guage shotgun from a pawn shop. The law requires a background check to purchase a gun, but apparently a restraining order based on a death threat is not enough. Too bad—it might have saved two lives.

And why target Unitarians? Well if you’re a drunken homicidal maniac who hates liberals, you’d really hate these folks. They do horrible things like welcome gays and lesbians in their church, protest wars, and preach tolerance of gays, racial minorities, and people of other faiths. They’ve been at the forefront of liberal and progressive causes for decades, and are the perfect symbols for liberalism, God Bless them.

My daughter and I went to Monday’s memorial service at the Presbyterian church next door. There were 1000 people there. This morning my wife and I helped out at the TVUUC re-dedication service by working in the nursery with other volunteers from our church. There were so many people at this service that they spilled over into two other spaces and the service was televised.

The prayers of thousands have gone out to these folks and will continue to do so. If there is anything good that has come out of this ugly hate crime, it is that thousands of folks have reached out to support this body of believers, including Presbyterians, Catholics, Episcopalians, Muslims and Jews.

Now wouldn’t it be great if conservative talk shows like Michael Savage would condemn this crime and dial down the violent undertone in their rants?

From a Discussions to an Invasion

opendoordesign — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:16:45 +0000

This month we’ll be having a series of events to celebrate the Pellissippi Common Book, David Madden’s Sharpshooter. The novel follows the confused wanderings of Willis Carr, a kid from East Tennessee who rides down to Knoxville to find the Civil War, and finds more than he had bargained for. Events include:

April 9, Earl Hess, associate professor and director of the history program at Lincoln Memorial University and author of 10 books about the Civil War, will discuss a new book about the Knoxville campaign. 9:40 a.m. Goins Auditorium.
April 9: Steve Dean, producer of a new film, Its Memory Alone Remains: The Battle of Fort Sanders, November 29, 1863, will discuss his full-scale reconstruction of the Fort Sanders earthworks, located in East Knox County. 11:50 a.m. Goins Auditorium.
April 9: David Madden, Earl Hess, Steve Dean, and Joan Markel will participate in a roundtable discussion moderated by Edward Francisco, Pellissippi State’s Writer in Residence. 2 p.m. Goins Auditorium.
April 11 and 12: Civil War reenactors invade campus. Members of the 63rd Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Confederate) and the 8th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Federal) will camp, drill, and fire rifles, interacting with visitors as it were April 1863. Infantry drills at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., and 3 p.m. on Saturday.

My CGT 1030 students last semester created flickr pages, t-shirt designs, and Google My Maps in reaction to Sharpshooter, a novel I was privileged to design in 1996. (Confederate currency photo by Benjamin Earwicker)

Ya Think?

opendoordesign — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:57:16 +0000

In a recent article from Jupiter Images’ online newsletter they interview Andre Andreev and Dan Covert about, among other things, the lack of good books describing the transition from design student to design professional. I agree. I’ve been thinking of teaching a special topics course next spring on professional practices where we could learn about pricing, ethics, networking, portfolios, freelance, and other Important Issues From The Real World. Any thoughts on this? Leave your comments below.

Walking in Tombras’ Shoes

opendoordesign — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:06:05 +0000

Next week I’ll be introducing a dozen graphic design professionals to Adobe InDesign. These folks are the creative staff at the Tombras Group, a Knoxville integrated marketing firm that has been using Quark and is making the switch to become an all-Adobe shop. Their website has these great shoe images as a metaphor for their “street-smart branding.” It’s a metaphor too for teaching, where I try to put myself “in the shoes” of graphic design students and professionals. I’ve been on the receiving end of some training sessions myself, which helps me design a hands-on session that will (I hope) flatten the learning curve and build enthusiasm for this great page layout application.

Update: Here are answers to a few questions from our training.

To create a 3-page spread in InDesign CS3, check “allow document pages to shuffle” in the Pages Palette menu. Use this feature to design a tri-fold brochure, for example.
Looking for hidden shortcuts? Here is a downloadable PDF of keyboard shortcuts, including hidden ones that don’t appear on menus or tool tips.
Video tips are available from Adobe here.

Chip’s Chipper Chip

opendoordesign — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:32:54 +0000

Book designer and rock star Chip Kidd’s second novel is coming out this month. His first novel The Cheese Monkeys told the story of a college kid in the late 50s studying graphic design. I loved it, and since I met Kidd and learned he has a sequel coming out, I’ve been looking forward it. It’s called The Learners, and it hits bookstores February 19. This novel is set in 1961, and follows the protagonist into his first ad agency job. One day Happy (no kidding, that’s his name) designs a newspaper ad recruiting participants for an Yale Psychology Department experiment and decides to answer the ad himself. Yikes. Amazon says, “Written in sharp, witty prose and peppered with absorbing ruminations on graphic design, The Learners again shows that Chip Kidd’s writing is every bit as original, stunning, and memorable as his celebrated book jackets.” The cover also features a great ink illustration by Chris Ware.

I’ll See Your Condolezza and Raise You a Rush

opendoordesign — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:47:50 +0000

It’s Super Tuesday, and Chronicle Books has the perfect way to put faces with names in the voting booth. Name That Republican is a set of collector cards with pictures and stats of the GOP elite. To avoid tired visual stereotypes, Design Army ditched the usual “emerican” red, white, and blue color scheme, choosing an add assortment of browns, blues, and even pinks. They also designed the reverse text, breaking it up with graphics for easy reading through beer goggles at those Democratic victory parties. Deadpan drawings by illustrator Alex Fine set just the right tone. Is it serious or a send-up that “The Governator” won a giant rock lifting contest in his younger years? Pick up a pack and for a mere ten bucks you can decide for yourself. Check out the complete article here. Come to think of it, my birthday is coming up in June…