live from bklyn has gone dark! we've printed all of the buildings in black, and because the process is much simpler when printing in one color, we can offer them to you at $10 each. And $40 for a set of all 6.
you can find them at any of the following online stores;
randy hunt is a designer/entrepreneur who works from greenpoint, brooklyn. he is the founder of citizen scholar design studio and co-founder of supermarket, a marketplace for fresh design. randy was kind enough to give the fantastic interview below.
dc: what does your workspace look like?
dc: what’s you desktop wallpaper right now?
rjh: my desktop wallpaper is “solid gray dark” in Mac OS X System Preferences.
dc: what prompted you to pursue graphic design?
rjh: i used to play in bands, and i’d make packages, t-shirts, and posters. i originally went to college planning to study music technology, but i got distracted by other requirements in the art department at the school and i came to realize not only what design was but just how integral it was to so many varied parts of our culture. i wanted to get my hands in that.
dc: what kind of things do you do to ensure that you continue to grow as a graphic designer and improve/expand your skill set?
rjh: i think specific skills pop up as necessary for certain tasks, say photographing something built for an illustration, and i go through the pattern of trying and failing until something clicks and there is, to one degree or another, a discovery. i don’t really focus on developing any specific “hard” skills outside of project needs at the time. it’s the “soft” skills, that i think can be nurtured. things like thinking techniques, maintaining focus, etc. i like to read about and experiment with those kinds of ideas.
dc: what’s one lesson that you’ve had to learn the hard way as a designer? how would you do it differently the next time?
rjh: even though our studio has a specific range of clients and projects we work on, i’ve found myself bidding on and putting time into projects that aren’t the right fit. it is so important that there is mutual interest and respect in what the other party is doing. i learned this the hard way and have had to both work through bad-fit projects, and in a rare case, cancel a project mid-way. i learned to follow my gut from that experience. if the first meeting or two doesn’t feel right, i know not to pursue the project.
dc: when you’re not designing, what are you doing?
rjh: eating, reading, or wandering the city, often in pursuit of food or books. i like to read about social/political issues, non-fiction classics, literary theory, or architecture. of course, design and pop business books creep in too. i’m also a sucker for competition reality tv shows, especially the fashion and modeling ones.
dc: being creative and creating; what steps do you take to make sure that you are actually producing instead of just thinking up pie-in-sky ideas all day?
rjh: i try to constantly remind myself that if no one is seeing it, then it’s no good. that might be a little harsh, but i like the motivation. ideas are a dime a dozen. the value is in making ideas happen.
dc: who are your top three design heroes and why?
rjh: i think this list would probably change on a daily basis. so the top three for today are:
peter bilak – he creates gorgeous typefaces that are part of very well executed families and is a design entrepreneur in every sense.
stefan sagmeister – i love that stefan is a serious thinker. i don’t think he gets nearly enough credit for how thoughtful his designs are. if there’s one thing i learned as his student, it was about that thoughtfulness and “making it happen” can take a design a long, long way.
naoto fukasawa – fukasawa’s industrial designs embody a sense of patience that i connect with deeply. the idea that a design and its materials become more valuable over time, as you experience them again and again, is an important one I like to consider when working, especially on interactive projects.
dc: what is your greatest fear (pertaining to design)? what haunts your dreams?
rjh: i don’t think my biggest fears pertain to design, and, sadly, i don’t remember any of my dreams.
dc: what, in your opinion, is the highest possible function that design can have?
rjh: i think that design at its best makes a person’s life more pleasant. that’s all relative, given any person’s current situation, but i think that is generally a good goal to aim for.
for the sake of differentiation, and to make the lfb blog more useful, we will now be dedicated to interviews conducted with fellow graphic designers. we’ve tried several subjects over the years with this blog, the chief subject being the work of other designers. but there are already several blogs that focus on that subject much better, and with much more regularity than lfb (like the strange attractor, form fifty five and the best part). we think it will be interesting and useful, and helpful to those reading this blog to look into the world of fellow designers, and see how they go about solving problems very similar to the ones we have.
we’ve done a few interviews already, but we would try to write a unique set of questions for each interviewee, which really just took a lot more time than we have on our hands right now. so, we developed a standard set of questions to use. designers are coming from so many different backgrounds, that we’re sure there will be no shortage of variety of answers.
we’ve already got the questions out with several designers right now, and the questions are posted below as well. if you’re a graphic designer (define that as loosely as you want), we’d love for you to answer the questions and return them to dailey{at}livefrombklyn.com for us to review and post. in the meantime, enjoy the most beautiful chapel in the world.
1. what does your workspace look like? (send a picture please)
2. what’s you desktop wallpaper right now? (send the image file or screen grab)
3. what prompted you to pursue graphic design?
4. what kind of things do you do to ensure that you continue to grow as a graphic designer and improve/expand your skill set?
5. what’s one lesson that you’ve had to learn the hard way as a designer? how would you do it differently the next time?
6. when you’re not designing, what are you doing?
7. being creative and creating; what steps do you take to make sure that you are actually producing instead of just thinking up pie-in-sky ideas all day?
8. who are your top three design heroes and why?
9. what is your greatest fear (pertaining to design)? what haunts your dreams?
10. what, in your opinion, is the highest possible function that design can have?
the live from bklyn blog was included in this book, “blogs: mad about design.” i’m definitely honored by the inclusion.
if any you have actually been following this blog for a couple of years, you’ll notice that the images included in the book are from way back in the day. that’s when i was first contacted about participating in the book. so, it was a pretty awesome surprise when i received it in the mail yesterday. now i feel obliged to restore this blog to it’s formal usefulness, rather than the breeze shooter that it has become. i have some ideas up my sleeve, and on monday, i plan to launch into the revived live from bklyn with the new thrust.
i did want to mention print and pattern, a blog that is also featured in the book. how i do love brightly-colored, heavy duty patterns.
“Logos and branding are so important. In a big part of the world, people cannot read French or English–but are great in remembering signs.”
–karl lagerfeld
live from bklyn will be participating in the renegade craft fair this weekend. come out and give us a high-five.
feeling rather generous (and yes, wanting to generate a little buzz about lfb) we’re offering 10 free “thinking of u” postcards to the first 50 people to do two of the following:
• tweet about lfb
• post to facebook about lfb
• become fan of lfb on facebook
• blog about lfb
you can talk about anything in the portfolio, link to items in the etsy shop or whatever. be creative, make it funny. if your twitter feed is linked to your facebook status, or if your blog feeds into your facebook profile or anything to that effect, you can count that as both!
then send an email to dailey@livefrombklyn.com with links to posts and we’ll send you the postcards free, including shipping!
the amount of info, and the organization therefore, is making me drool. mmmmm data umnumm mum nm….
this past weekend, the gothamville companies (live from bklyn and goose grease) were vendors at the anti-depression session at the brooklyn lyceum. you can see more pictures of the event here.
generally, graffiti makes things look like poo, but this spray paint stenciled butterfly on a construction wall on powers near manhattan ave. is a definite improvement upon an otherwise unsightly construction wall.
dan funderburgh is full of good ideas, and this one is no exception. especially for all of you north-brooklynites, check it out.
live from bklyn gets a little love from such cool stuff and the chopping block. thanks friends!
live from bklyn and goose grease will be at the anti-depression session hosted at the brooklyn lyceum, this saturday and sunday, may 2nd and 3rd. if you’re in the new york area, come by and say hello and check out our prints and goosegrease’s hand-painted dolls!
do right by your mom and dad! get your folks some mother's and father's day cards at livefrombklyn.supermarkethq.com and livefrombklyn.etsy.com.
sorry for the craptacular-looking blog. i goofed, again and am too lazy to fix it right now.
i did a little experiment on a scout book with some rubber block printing here at home. i think it turned out nice… yes, i have a mohawk.
pinball has some super cool printable products. i’m particularly drawn to the scout books.
live from bklyn would like to know your take on this thank you card design that we are working on. cool? lame? let us know what you think.
i love the unashamed inconsistencies of the printing on this orange box. the larger-than-life halftone screen, the in-your-face ink edge, the misaligned registration and the color shift caused be the trapping are all just glorious. i hope you can enjoy them too.
so it’s another building. the process you’ve seen already so i’m just gonna throw the link to the etsy store item up here;
the live from bklyn “thinking of u” postcards are finished and available for purchase. we will be opening our own live from bklyn design shop very soon, but for now, visit livefrombklyn.etsy.com
every once in a while one comes a cross a designer that makes one say, “oh NO! i’m gonna have to stay up late every night for the next month and a half to improve my design skills.” jessica hische is that designer. oh look, she also has a blog. super. it’s gonna be a long night…
last weekend i attended the wedding of melissa and brannon mcallister. as a gift for the guests, they had these fine, fine letterpress posters created by hatch show print.
friends of live from bklyn, i’m pleased to announce that we have opened a live from bklyn etsy shop (livefrombklyn.etsy.com). you can purchase fine art friday prints, as well as other prints of buildings in williamsburg, brooklyn and ornamental letterforms.
i haven’t been able to be as consistent as i want to be for fine art friday, but i was able to do another print (you’re going to be seeing a lot of lincout/rubber block prints on here. it’s super easy to do, especially in an 8×10ft. space.).
so this past friday, i chose to do another williamsburg building. whilst not the most bucolic of the brooklyn neighborhoods (think brownstones of brooklyn heights), i think that williamsburg is definitely one of the most architecturally varied neighborhoods. so, i can find many many houses and buildings without ever doing two that look too similar.
this one is an early 20th century row house whose stylistic integrity has been been preserved quite well.
i start by printing a grayscale photo of the house and tracing the general outline of it with a pencil:
then, i tape the printout onto the block face-down and burnish the pencil tracing onto the block:
after that, i trace the pencil image on the block with a sharpie and add in any details i would like to include in the print:
then the carving:
and finally the printing. i chose chartreuse(ish):
so there you have it.
“mies, my great mentor said: “God is in the details.” that is the essence of syntax: the discipline that controls the proper use of grammar in the construction of phrases and the articulation of a language, design. the syntax of design is provided by many components in the nature of the project. in graphic design, for instance, they are the overall structure, the grid, the typefaces, the text and headlines, the illustrations, etc. the consistency of a design is provided by the appropriate relationship of the various syntactical elements of the project: how type relates to grids and images from page to page throughout the whole project. or, how type sizes relate to each other. or, how pictures relate to each other and how the parts relate to the whole. there are ways to achieve all this that are correct, as there are others that are incorrect, and should be avoided.
syntactic consistency is of paramount importance in graphic design as it is in all human endeavors. grids are one of the several tools helping designers to achieve syntactical consistency in graphic design.”
take from the vignelli canon.
so, a non-design post today, but it’s something that we all should be involved in.
becoming more and more of a laissez-faire libertarian, i’m often at loggerheads with the obama administration (or anybody besides ron paul for that matter). but this usaservice.org is a fine, fine initiative. instead of having the government spoon-feed us, it gets regular people involved in service in their own communities and neighborhoods. well done team obama.
found here.
