Badass Ideas

Pedestrian Type
This typography blog forces you to take notice of ordinary lettering that you may realize upon further investigation, is actually pretty extraordinary. With information overload in our lives today I love a blog that allows me to examine art i may have otherwise overlooked and gives me the chance to appreciate it on a whole new level.

The History of Avant Garde
Designed in the 60s, and released in 1970, Avant Garde is making quite the comeback these days. Maybe its my over exposure to Rockband (via Devklok) , but I see it popping up all over the place. Otherwise check out this site’s beautiful gradation of color over it’s four column layout. Fabulous.

Cat In a Military Tank
Shiiii….. now this is Bad Ass. I currently co-habitate with a cross-eyed Siamese cat who has the personality of Stewie from the Family Guy. She constantly plotting how she will take over the world, or just the apartment… this tank is so perfect. If you can, view the magnified image and check out the fantastic detail that someone put into this thing.

Vintage Magazine Covers
This fantastic flickr collection of vintage magazine covers is a wonderful source of inspiration. Exhibiting a wide range in styles from numerous time periods i felt like stumbling upon this collection was a real find.

Beautiful Surf Board
Ok, if you don’t know by now, I have a bit of a thing for sweet surfboard art. NY artist painted this intricate black and white pattern on a surfboard for her boyfriend, and it is just stunning.

Photoshop Shortcut Keyboard
I suck at keyboard shortcuts. Just about everyone i work with totally schools me on them… I like the mouse… or maybe I just need one of these skins for my keyboard.

My SXSW Typography Panel
Please go register and vote. Not because its my panel, and especially not because of this shameless plug… but because I hope to assemble the most badass group of motha-typographers out there and get them talking about type. Every year at SXSW I hope for some engaging Typography conversation, so this year I’m taking the initiative and try and make it happen. If you have 5 minutes please register and vote. I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

When I was in college I had an insane art instructor who challenged the class to go sneak out late at night unto the hip streets of Harrisonburg Va and engage in politically charged guerrilla art. While extra credit was an incentive, in my college years there were no motives for me to spray paint a mural inscribed “f- the Man” or drape some historical monument in a banner proclaiming some righteous agenda. At the time my belly was full of ramen noodles and getting to 9am classes was at the top of my list of concerns.

Since that experience my instructor’s passion stuck with me, at the time she was some crazy hippy in my mind, but since her challenge I have realized the power of public art. A genre that intrigues me because it takes as much balls at it does skill.

While watching current I saw a pod on Banksy that inspired me to learn more about his work. With a keen sense of satire, the work of this guerrilla artist has managed to catch the attention of millions around the globe. Banksy’ s specialty is exposing the irony in human nature without exposing his own identity. Using stealthy tactics the locations where he chooses to showcase his work are often as thought provoking as the story they are telling. From Israel’s West Bank Wall to New York’s Meterpolitan Museum of Art, a part of the creativity in his process is how he actually gets his work to where it is.

Shepard Fairy’s work, however I have known for sometime…. I just did not know I knew it. Here in the states Fairy began plastering images of Andre the Giant, the wrestler on buildings, stop signs, and spray painting sidewalks. Fairy was more intrigued with the sociology of public art and how it caught on as a trend, rather than its ability to influence people’s perceptions… that was until about a week before super tuesday. Taking a guerrilla approach to distribution Fairy printed up hundreds of posters of Senator Obama and plastered them everywhere he possibly could, bringing street art to the forefront of American politics.

So this brings us to this month’s Refresh DC where Ellen Lupton the author of DIY Design (and a ton of other fantastic design books) spoke on a variety of topics, but the one that stuck with me most was that of the accessibility of design. She brought up the new fad in self publishing and touched on the excitement of crafters reaching people via Etsy.com. Essentially anyone can be an artist or a designer the tools are right there. She said when she published her book there was backlash in the design community, people were afraid that she was giving away our trade secrets, why would anyone want to hire a designer if they could design it their self?

Lupton’s talk reminded me of a book that is collecting dust on my shelf “DIY Guerrilla Art”. Its true, a little piece of me wants to hit the streets of suburban Alexandria and spray paint signs to make mindless businessmen on their way to Cosi stop and think about health care. I mean, heck… I bought a book that tells me how to fold up a stencil so I can run from authorities more quickly. I have the instructions, I even have the passion, but what is it that keeps me from going all Banksy up on this piece? Probably the same thing that keeps all of those aspiring designers from ditching their day jobs and making custom business cards that are detailed in Ellen’s book. Sometimes the inspiration does not come fromactually doing it yourself, its the fact you know its there to do it if you really wanted to. One day maybe a mysterious mural will appear on a street sign overlooking I395 and I will be all tired and disheveled from running from the cops, but why when there are so many badasses who do what they do so well?

Surfers are constantly thinking about catching their next wave. A secret spot is when they find an awesome break that is hidden from the world….. where they can float amongst the waves, relax, be inspired, and get away from the hustle and bustle of the better known beaches. Just as surfers are looking for that wave, I am always looking for that typographic groove… that spot where all the elements come together in harmony to give a design that little extra something.

People look for inspiration all over the place; there are countless web galleries, flickr sets, lists, and design magazines, but when I really just want to get away from it all and find something different I turn to the surf community. Already known as a place for great design and fantastic photography, there is some really interesting typography being used. Here are some of my favorite spots…

I am a big fan of Jeff Canham’s retro style. His t-shirts, fabric prints, logos, and signage throw me back to another time… a time that I am too young to have actually ever experienced…perhaps that is why it is such a warm and fancifulness feeling that I get inside.

Thomas Campbell is about to release his 3rd surf movie (The Present) in a series of films that take a unique approach to documenting surfing as a lifestyle. When watching Sprout its hard to not notice the carefully crafted handwriting all throughout the film. Check out the lettering in the trailer for a taste of what the movie is like.

With bookshelves full of surf magazines (Courtesy of Jim), its hard to ignore the fantastic type throughout every issue. While I love the clean classic layout of The Surfers Journal, Surfing Magazine has a wide range of really creative typography. Check out this flickr set I put together.

Design Loom
I really think the design of this site is very beautiful. The soft color, subtle texture, inviting shapes, and fantastic typography make me a fan. Launched recently, I can’t wait to see what this design blog has up it’s sleeve.

Visual Complexity
Recently my Action-Script addicted colleague Erik O, attended the Flashbelt(Oh yes.. check out those ligatures) conference. Knowing I am a sucker for nice information design he sent me this fantastic site that is chalked full of example of online interactive information design.

You Work For Them Freebies
You work for them has an excellent selection of design related goods, including books, fonts, posters, & vectors. If you check back once in a while they give away some free stuff… I think this one is particularly nice.

Figs on Etsy
While breezing through Richmond on my way back from the beach, I stopped at this great little artsy shop next door to my favorite sushi joint. They carry a lot of fantastic local art, including a fantastic handmade necklace that I HAD to have (not the one pictured above). Check out the artist’s work on her Etsy page.

Lohman’s Pics of Ripple at Art Whino, National Harbor
My friend Eric Lohman invited Jim & I to a great Surf/Skate exhibit happening at Art Whino, but unfortunaltey we were out of town. However Eric took great pictures that made me wish I would have blown off my plans to see the awesome surf art.

Upcoming Events:
Things that are happening in the near future that you should get out and do!

• TypeCon 2008: July 15-20, Buffalo New York
• Refresh DC with Ellen Lupton: July 24, Washington DC
• Interact 2008: September 29-30, Washington DC
• FlashPitt08: October 10, Pittsburgh PA

Recently at Viget Labs, we had a Flash Mob where members of the design team spent 4 hours making desktop wallpapers to give away on the blog. This gave me the idea to design a few Bad Ass Wallpapers for this blog. It was a lot of fun, enjoy!

Below I cropped each one in just a bit, be sure to download the size you need to see the full view.

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• iphone

• 1920×1200
• 1680×1050
• 1600×1024
• 1440×900
• 1280×1024
• 1280×800
• 1024×768
• iphone

• 1920×1200
• 1680×1050
• 1600×1024
• 1440×900
• 1280×1024
• 1280×800
• 1024×768
• iphone