Design Re:View Celebrates with Opening Reception

April 23, 2009. This year's Design Review was a success beyond all expectations. A diverse turnout of 125+ people came out to celebrate regional design at its best. Professional and students designers, parents and friends, colleagues and spouses came out to support the winners while consuming great food and drink. Winning projects included 55 pieces of design representing the best design from around Michigan, Northern Ohio and Canada. Motion projects looped and interactive projects were showcased while music filled the exhibition space. The Russell Bazaar, though rough around the edges, was a perfect backdrop to showcase design in Detroit.

The evening formally began with thank you to sponsors and numerous volunteers, board introductions, and the presentation of awards. Vernon Lockhart concluded the formalities by giving the crowd a brief glimpse into Project Osmosis: the education and mentoring Initiative he established as a not-for-profit organization to further “design education for underserved minority youth.” This was a particularly timely presentation as AIGA Detroit will be launching a mentoring program late 2009. 

Other Past Events:

Milton Glaser Movie Premieres in Michigan

April 22 2009. Students know an old master when they want to see one. At two well-attended screenings at WSU and MSU, young visual communicators saw exactly why Milton Glaser is revered in the design community. Glaser is perhaps best known for two designs that captured the essence of their respective eras. His portrait of Bob Dylan, with the troubadour's face in simple pen and ink and his wild hair in psychadelic color, speaks both to Dylan's galvanic embrace of both acoustic and electric folk as well as his wariness about fame and iconic status. In the other celebrated design, Glaser used the simple icon of the heart to bring an early 80's ad campaign for his beleagured but beloved New York City to glorious life. Glaser isn't just a man of exceptional technical prowess; he's a man with good ideas.

Glaser reveals himself to be almost outrageously blithe about his considerable gifts. He loves to draw. But even more importantly, he loves to collaborate. The film spends a fair amount of time in his Manhattan studio. As Glaser himself points out, aesthetically, the place is a bit of a disappointment. There is no super modern furniture and no hushed cubicles. Glaser works out an initial design himself and then opens it up for discussion and tweaking with other staff whose desks are nearby. At eighty, he seems to be growing in vitality, feeding on the energy of his young colleagues who exude a quiet reverence for the man listening intently to their ideas.

CA Editor Patrick Coyne Visits Detroit (March 09)

March 15, 2009. A sparse yet attentive crowd was on hand for a lecture by Patrick Coyne, editor of Communication Arts. In a low-key, well-oiled presentation, Coyne charted the history of this seminal design publication, started by his father, Dick Coyne, in 1959. Communication Arts was the first magazine to utilize offset lithograph printing as well as perfect binding.

Coyne offered a number of compelling examples from the magazine’s early layouts that clearly showed the jazzy influence of mid-century high modernism. Later, he discussed, with a wistful smile, the advent of desktop publishing and its inevitable and questionable influence on the magazine’s look. He noted that while the technology allowed for a very clean-looking and efficient product, some of the great craftsmanship of his father’s day was invariably lost in process.

To illustrate just how powerful design technology had become, he showed the trailer for the film, “The Kingdom,” a documentary about the unsavory history of the Saudi Arabia oil theocracy. One could imagine even a bullet-proof, souped-up G5 beginning to smoke as the poor machine fought to render the incredibly complex digital matting and layering appearing on the screen.

Coyne concluded with a lovely discussion of some of the best entries to Communication Art’s annual design competition. Highlights included a divorce lawyer’s business card dimpled down the middle for easy division to warring parties. Coyne emphasized that now more ever, especially since design technology allows anyone anywhere to make aesthetically competent work, strategic thinking was paramount to the success of a design studios in the developed world.

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