I am very pleased to announce that next year I will be attending The Hartford Art School to study graphic design and the visual arts. The school is a small community of creative indivudals within the atmosphere of a larger unviersity.
The design department emphasizes practice, theory, methodology, and history, which are the foundations of the discipline. Students learn that the visual products of design are a conscious integration of the human factor with technology and aesthetics. The faculty encourages students to become designers who function as interpreters of human communication in a social context. This requires not only specific vocational tasks but also critical thinking and intellectual flexibility. Toward this goal, the program is intended to provide a broad educational background within a professional context.
I have spoken with many of the professors and students as well as the head of design and alumni who are practicing in the design industry. Through what they had to say, I was impressed with the strength and values of the program and all that it had to offer.
Looking forward to sharing my design education experince with you in the years to come. Thanks to everyone for all of your support.
There is the practice of design.
There is practicing design.
Practice of design is the business and art of doing and creating design, like a medical practice. Then you practice design, learn new methods, just like you practice a sport.
Here are four new design projects. This first one was done for Open Mic Night at my school which I hosted with two of my friends. The design is based upon a typeface that I created for this project. They hung on the walls of the school to promote the event.
This was a tri-folded map design for a self guided walk around my town. It brings you to certain historical locations and provides the information about the site.
Permanent signs that I designed to be installed in a new addition to the school that is environmentally friendly. The signs educate the green features. I was responsible for the design, logo, project name, and byline.
Poster designed for the musical theatrical production of Edwin Drood by Rupert Holmes. I have also done the lighting design for the show.
All of this work and other past work can be viewed in my portfolio here.
Out My Window is project started by photographer Gail Albert Halaban in collaboration with the Design Trust for Public Space. The project aims to capture how people live in New York City and what they see outside their windows.
Life has been pretty good these days. Been keeping busy with many aspects of life.
In the past couple days I have had an interview with Armin Vit published online at Speak Up, Josh Spear featured my projects, DesignNotes by Michael Surtees posted about my video of Kate and Mike, and Kate Bingaman-Burt posted about the video. Everybody was amazing with their kind words. Thanks all!
There is around 25 days of school left until I will move on and study graphic design. More about where I will be going to college soon. But school has been busy with tons of end of the year things to do.
Started to design the lights for the musical at school. This year we are doing The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It is based on Charles Dickens only unfinished novel and the show was written by Rupert Holmes. One of the most exciting parts of the show is when the audience gets to choose from hundreds of possible endings and then the we actually perform what they choose. Also have designed the poster for the show which I will post online soon.
I am having the ceremony for Eagle Scout this weekend. Been writing speeches, printing programs, and asking people to speak. Will be sharing some thoughts and stories from that day and from my career in scouting. Some photos should also be coming your way as well.
This past Friday two friends and I produced Open Mic Night for the school community. We had some musicians come play, some people read poetry, tell jokes, and more. One of the artists that played was Matt Carlson who is amazing and has his first record coming out soon. Designed the poster for this event which I will post soon.
That is all for now. Big thanks to everybody that I have been working with.
Pentagramis pleased to announce the publication of the Black Book, a new 800-page overview of our recent work. The book is a compilation of over 400 projects from the last several years, arranged in alphabetical order, like a dictionary, and printed on Bible paper, like a Bible, complete with tabbed sections and ribbons for bookmarking..
I think that this book looks very interesting and look forward to picking it up someday soon. Sure to offer great insight into the work of the firm.
Hand made type base on Helvetica. Made by printing a pattern on sticker sheets and cutting out the letters using a scalpel. Brought to us by Idiot Copenhagen.
This past fall I headed to New York City to see an artist talk with Kate Bingaman-Burt and Mike Perry at the Jen Bekman Gallery. I had arranged to spend some time with them and filmed our conversation.
Michael Perry runs a small design studio in Brooklyn, New York. Working with clients like MTV, Brooklyn Industries, Dwell Magazine, New York Times Magazine and so many more. Perry just finished his first book titled “Hand Job” published by Princeton Architectural Press. Doodling away night and day, Perry creates new typefaces and sundry graphics that inevitably evolve into his new work, exercising the great belief that the generating of piles is the sincerest form of creative process. He has shown his work around the world, from the booming metropolis of London to Minneapolis to the homegrown expanses of Kansas.
Kate Bingaman-Burt started Obsessive Consumption in 2002 when she decided to photograph all of her purchases and in turn create a brand out of the process to package and promote. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Lowdown Magazine, Money, Print, HOW Design, Craft, Adorn, GOOD, and many others. Her work is featured in the upcoming books Handjob! A Catalog of Type by Mike Perry and Becoming a Digital Designer by Steven Heller and David Womack. She received her MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2004 and is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Mississippi State University.
It was great to finally get to meet them. Both Kate and Mike have contributed work to my book, Grab Bag Book (HOW Books). Thanks to both of them for the time they spent talking with me and their inspiration.
In modern art we have artists statements hung on the walls of the museums.
In design we have creative briefs.
This is not true for poetry and music.
For poetry and music we simply have the language and the words.
Left for us to interpret.
Lately our focus in English class has been on poetry, both modern and from the past. We have be analyzing the poems for tone, metaphors, allusions, situation, symbols, among other aspects. During a discussion we started talking about how the reader never know what the poet intentions truly were with the poem. They do not write about the poem, the just write the poem. This got me thinking.
In poetry and music we get to find the meanings. You can either go looking for certain aspects and symbols or you can accept it simply for the way it sounds. You are not told what it is about or what you should think.
For some people this will turn them off from poetry and music.
For me I think it makes sense having an unspoken meaning.
In my travels yesterday I found myself right next to a brand new building from Cesar Pelli that was under construction. There was a display case in the building next to it where I happened to be for the day and the final product looks amazing as you can see above.
The new science center will be built on a site overlooking the Connecticut River adjacent to the new convention center in Hartford. The new Connecticut Science Center was designed to communicate the excitement of Science. The ambitious and dynamic forms appear to reach out, beyond their physical limits.
Several weeks ago I watched a program on television about his work and what he said was inspiring. It felt great to be around the work of a very well respected architect.
La Bonne Merveille has created some inspiring work. Especially like this work and how they presented the work through the composition in this photograph.
Supplemental material for a presentation of Michael Haneke’s films, realized as a series of eight eight-page film analyses, and one director bio in a string-tie envelope. Each analysis is sealed to prevent the viewer from spoiling the film.
There is some great work at En Bloc which provides art direct and design by Ben Atkins.
As well as graphic design, I love Belgian beer, esoteric music, Robin Day, buying books, eating with friends, modernist architecture, Hector Pottie, Constellation Records, French toast, Gil Scott Heron, riding my BMX, Natalie Portman and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
As an excerise for english class we had to write a poem about an animal.
It is the boxer in the outback, the powerful legs,
It is a tall one, standing strong.
The huge ears jutting from his head, tuning in always.
The short arms contrasting with the long legs.
The tan trench coat it wears twenty–four–seven.
Why does it, why does he hop, leap, jump.
Moving through life, never strolling, walking, crawling.
What is his life about, his family, his friends,
It stops, observes, always looking.
The name is Jack, the marsupial mammal.
The way it moves, the way it thinks.
Living there, here, anywhere.
This morning on The Serif I found a new font being introduced.
FontFont have announced that they are to release Helvetica Serif, following the discovery of drawing of that typeface by Max Miedinger. The sketches which were discovered by Miedinger’s granddaughter have been redrawn to create the digital version shown above. The font has been released today, April 1st.
Welcome. This is a blog about design, the internet, life, and more. It is written by Ethan Bodnar, an eighteen year old designer, artist, and entrepreneur. Thanks for coming and enjoy.
Grab Bag Book (HOW Books)
A collaborative visual book that challenges artists from around the world to explore their creativity. Hitting the shelves in 2009.
Videos for Creatives
A blog featuring videos from the online creative community. Ranging from art and design to architecture and fashion, all in one place for you.
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