mon carnet de bord: April 2013

Clients From Hell: Editor’s Note: This story was submitted with theclient comments in...

Clients From Hell: Editor’s Note: This story was submitted with the client comments in...

clientsfromhell:

Editor’s Note: This story was submitted with the client comments in green comic sans, which was impressive to include, but something I don’t want to subject our readers to.

I work as a photographer in the Middle East, where aesthetic value is depressed across all industries. The demand…

Haha, reminds me of a recent blow up I had on a woman who thought all branding projects should be made into a student design competition so they can get the work free of charge.

Should social design be taught in the art college?

A question and a quote summarising my presentation. Looking forward to further developing this presentation into a more comprehensive research paper.

Damaged books

The Goldsmiths library has impressed me, but I’ve noticed the most haggled books happen to be related to post colonial studies, cultural imperialism (see above) and anything by Foucault, Barthes, Hall, Papanek, etc etc. The one I’m currently reading, a 1991 edition of Tomlinson’s Cultural Imperialism, contains highlighted passages, notes in pen and pencil, underlines and doodles (mostly flowers). It’s also falling apart (but not as bad as Design for the Real World, where I spent a good time reading and scotch taping the pages back in - unfortunately all three versions at the library had pages falling out.) But seriously, isn’t this cover awesome?

The ‘Good’ Design Brief: Examining the effects of social design projects on communities

I will be presenting my brief paper “The ‘Good’ Design Brief: Examining the effects of social design projects on communities” at the Goldsmiths Graduate Festival on the 30th of April at 11:30am.

The festival goes on for three weeks and features a wide array of performances, installations, papers and more by the Goldsmiths, University of London graduate community.

gold.ac.uk/graduate-school/goldsmithsgraduatefestival/

Coffee Shop Jams

I was digging through my Evernote notes and found this gem from May 2010 that I never published on my previous blog, so I’m doing it now!

—

Thanks to Starbucks, the company that is in the business of selling milk drinks not coffee, everyone now has that third place: the coffee shop. Here you can sit down, relax, study, read, etc, etc. Most of the time, there’s music playing in the background. This music can be a) really low b) just at the right volume or c) louder than the heavy metal they play at Chippy’s (Trinity Bellwoods location).

After sitting in a variety of coffee shops, I assembled a list of jams you’re most likely to hear at those places.

Independent cafés

Usually, the staff is allowed to plug in their own iPod and play their tunes. This can be really bad or really good. And depending on when you go, it can be very repetitive (some employees put the same music week after week - Jimmy’s I’m looking in your direction!)

Jams you might spill your coffee too:

"Age of Consent" - New Order (it’s the Tupac for hipsters, aiight?)
The Smiths
Cut Copy
Junior Boys
Toro Y Moi
700 other indie bands

Second Cup

This one alternates. Second Cup employees are required to play the music from the satellite radio, but they have a variety of channels to choose from. However, I’m sure anything with swear words or deemed inappropriate is deemed…inappropriate.

Top 40

This can range from Beyoncé to Nickelback to Lil’ Wayne (radio edit)
Jazz
Either Michael Bublé, Norah Jones or Christmas music

Coffee Culture

This place has terrible lattes and coffee (lunch isn’t bad), but I like the actual space itself because it’s good for working (outlets, tables, space!). They also play kicking jams…

Sippin’ on nostalgia

90s - alternative, grunge, classics

The Cranberries
Blind Melon
Everything but the Girl
Sade

Starbucks

You should already know by now I don’t go to Starbucks, I don’t think I’ve actually sat there since I was 13 except once for a meeting. So how would I know their music? I’ll leave you with this: don’t they have their own label?

Mainmise

Incroyable! 78 numéros publié entre 1970-1978. Archive de Mainmise - la nouvelle culture des années 70 au Québec.

http://mainmise.ca

thesmellofmypyjama:

Ghassan, Faiza & Marwan Kanafani

12 April 2013, the day Marty McFly arrives

Damn. And we still don’t have hoverboards.

Fools Gold

Layout ideas for spreads in Kalimat Issue 08

When I was young and didn’t know any better…

When I was young and didn’t know any better…
Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin, in their book Pick Me: Breaking into Advertising and Staying There, discussed the pain that someone goes through when looking at work from the very early stages of their practice. A few months ago, I remembered the show I helped put together while a member of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights in university. I almost forgot how much effort we put into this exhibition (‘Understanding Conflict Through Art’) at the Saw Gallery in Ottawa to commemorate 20 years since Naji Al-Ali’s passing, until I saw the photos. It’s hard to believe that Summer 2012 marked twenty-five years since Naji Al-Ali’s death and five years since we put this show together - probably the most successful event in my two or so years working with the group.

The images were collected from a book I found at home featuring most of Naji Al-Ali’s cartoons which were then scanned and printed at U of O’s infamous/unofficial print guy on Laurier St. (sad to see he has gotten rid of the slick car background and drop shadow infused logo). Looking back, I cringe at the labels (hand written!), the typefaces, and decorative elements I used. Frankly, at the entire aesthetic, and quoting Descartes? The advice I would have for 21 year old me! I literally had zero design experience/skills at the time - the U of O Communications programme trained us on some Photoshop but mostly focused on Flash (little did they know it would become obsolete a year later) - but I consider it to be one of my first steps into the realm of visual communication.

design imperialism

Writing a paper on design imperialism means carrying these out of the library.