Talk about your animated signs! We often say that a human being is the best directional sign. Here, we get a sign and a person. And we get motion – real human powered animation. Occasionally annoying, but often entertaining. And so far, the sign codes haven’t figured out how to… Read more »
We’ll line up for almost anything, but seldom for art. Here, on New York’s High Line, artist Richard Galpin has ‘em waiting in line to look through his clever stencil-cut panel that aligns architectural features in the background with cut-out forms in the art (foreground).
Embodying many of the characteristics of the trendy term ‘total design,’ M&Ms are surely one of the best-designed candies. First, M&Ms are colorful, a rainbow of pure primary and secondary hues enhanced by a gleaming high gloss finish. M&Ms are modular — each piece is a perfect round and sculptural… Read more »
Small bits of animated color add much to any environment. Color provides depth, definition and drama to otherwise neutral vistas. Color is counterpoint and contrast. Take out color and the resulting monochrome scene is just not the same.
Around this office, we have some projects which are bi-lingual, some trilingual and even one which has over seven languages involved. Multi-lingual signage for hospitals, airports, and casinos often challenges the designer to layout text before knowing the meaning and translation of the words involved. With Chinese characters, the designer… Read more »
Isabelle Hayeur was tired of seeing the wonderfully beautiful, if not slowly decaying, Vancouver architecture constantly be demolished by uninspired real estate developers. In the darker streets of Canada’s home of the 2010 Olympics, she sparks the imagination of visitors with her piece, Fire with Fire. The fire-lit windows intend… Read more »
They’re everywhere. On walls, in the sidewalk, on bridges, in parks and on statues. Bronze plaques commemorating somebody or something are familiar and friendly elements of the streetscape. Easy to overlook, and sometimes boring to read, these cast metal panels tell the stories of a place’s past. Who did what… Read more »
Pasadena Company Shows the Way to Downtown
By Erick Galindo
Oracle Bones By Peter Hessler (Harper Perennial) If you want to understand what’s happening in China – the single greatest urban migration and most massive urban development in history – this book is for you. In this rich first-person account about a handful of young educated Chinese who leave their… Read more »