I agree that the “I” is a pretty heavy concept and hope you didn’t get uncomfortable if I should go into some deeper stuff here.

My friend Willem is travelling around the world and documenting all the cool stuff he sees. This was something he saw written on a white board on his trip from Alberta to B.C.

Sir Ken Robinson discusses the negative effects of school on children’s creativity. Are we just educating children to become professors? Professors who feel their body is just a tool to carry their brain around?

In the end, what is all of this for? Does it make us happy?

Incredible and inspiring movie about the power of Influencers in our culture. My favourite quote: “When you get to a certain place - if someone has helped you get to where you are - you must help identify younger talent and be the mentor for somebody else” —Sky Gellatly

See the full website.

The show runs from May 15-22, but I wanted to be among the first to see it. I arrived at the exhibit just 2 hours after it had officially opened, but to my surprise, the students were still setting up! At first I was slightly disappointed that my long journey was rewarded by a half finished show. Fortunately, most of the work was there to be viewed as the pieces were still in the process of being arranged. The majority of the students were present, working hard to complete their show. It was actually quite a laid-back environment and many students were kind enough to walk me through the show and explain their ideas about the exhibit - an opportunity I may not have experience had I visited during the reception.

Off the Wall is a unique kind of exhibit where, as the name would imply, all of the work is off of the wall - it’s on the floor instead. This model distributes student work randomly throughout the gallery, thereby flattening any hierarchy that may occur in a traditional gallery setting. The idea behind this approach is that design is not art; it does not need to be place on a pedestal (maybe just two-inch thick foam platforms). It also encourages the idea that design needs to be presented in its true form and that is has to be accessible to the viewer.

One technical drawback to this set-up was that due to the overhead lighting, all of the pieces printed on glossy paper was difficult to view straight on - some things just don’t become apparent until they’ve finally been executed.



In a traditional gallery setting where work is hung on a wall, there is a predetermined orientation from which the work should be viewed, but since having the work on the floors allows viewers to walk around the work, the orientation of the work is left to the viewer’s interpretation.




Thesis books produced by each of the students of the graduating class.

Gallery window display, using Replica.

I should mention that screen work will also be presented on digital screens, laying flat on the ground, just like the print work. Unfortunately that portion was not fully complete by the time I had to catch my train back to NYC. You can view all the pieces on the Off the Wall website.

You can watch the full interview I did with Daniel Koppich, who was part of the space planning group for the show.

A warm thank you and congratulations goes out to all of the graduating students who welcomed me into the setting up process that day. Your hospitality and passion for the show made it an afternoon I will not soon forget. I wish you all the best.

Music: Four Tet - Love Cry

March 5th, Basics: A general overview of photography equipment to help you understand the functions of a camera and overcome any technical challenges. Bring your camera!

March 12th, Faces: Focusing on portrait photography and studio lighting. Also covering the RAW workflow for editing your portrait photos.

March 19th, Places: Focusing on landscape photography, street photography and event photography. Also covering the RAW workflow for editing your landscape photos.

March 26th, Things: Focusing on product photography, studio lighting and how to shoot your design work.

The workshops are open to everyone, so please feel free to join us, even if you’re not a YSDN student. Every Friday in March from 2-6PM at the TEL building, YSDN Lab 4, York University. Check out the Facebook event for more details.

And here are some more music videos:

I recently came across the work of Kyle Cooper while browsing on Motionographer. His work on the OFFF 2009 Main Titles absolutely blew me away. The harmony between skillful typography, graphic forms and beautiful cinematography create a hybrid that makes me drool!

Cooper earned a M.F.A. in Graphic Design from the Yale School of Art (what I currently consider to be the best place in the world to study design, and a place I wish to study at one day), where he studied independently with Paul Rand. He is responsible for starting Imaginary Forces in 1996, and Prologue in 2003, and has since been credited with almost single-handedly revitalizing the main title sequence as an art form.

I had the great pleasure of attending Cooper’s keynote presentation at Design Thinkers 2009, and had a chance to hear his stories from his days back in Yale, as well as his views about his career. Perhaps the most inspiring thing I took away from the keynote was this: Cooper used to feel like a frustrated director, wishing he could be a filmmaker, but feeling like he had not fully achieved his dreams since he was only doing open title sequences for movies. However he now feels the open title sequences are essential to setting the tone and the mood for a film, and therefore he has devoted his career to producing a ‘Prologue’ for some of the best films made today.

I had been getting quite tired and bored with conventional print graphic design, and was considering just becoming a photographer after I graduate this year. But after experiencing Cooper’s work, I have once again seen the light; maybe there is a way to do both design and photography. I want to take my love for photography (light/composition/cinematography) and output it as a time based medium - video. I want to combine this with what I have learned about typography and graphic design, to create the ultimate medium of story telling. I don’t necessarily want to create open title sequences, but over the next few years I would like to experiment with different ways of telling a story through time-based media. I have almost undoubtedly decided to pursue a career in this field, rather that print.

Thank you Kyle Cooper; I hope to have the privilege of working with you one day.