|
|
Posted by Jason Urban on March 13th, 2010 | 
All you designers-turned-printmakers and printmakers-turned-designers should pay to attention to this one. The good people at Rockport Publishers were kind enough send us a review copy of their 2009 release, Dirty Fingernails: A One-of-a-Kind Collection of Graphics Uniquely Designed by Hand by John Foster. As the subtitle suggests, the book is a survey of artist/designers working with “old” media to arrive at interesting (and commercially viable) results. While the book doesn’t focus on printmaking specifically, it is about the current embrace of the human hand in design and by default, plenty of hand-printing is included.
Lots of Printeresting favorites are featured in the book… The Little Friends of Printmaking, The Small Stakes, Ellen Lupton, Tyler Stout, The Decoder Ring Design Concern, and Yokoland to name a handful. Rather than delving deep into the psychology of The Hand-Made with essays, Foster gives us a quick intro about the importance of tactile experience and then let’s the work do the talking. Each piece featured in the book is accompanied by an insightful paragraph or two of exposition explaining the what why, and how.
 Can’t go wrong with a Boston by Little Friends.
Continue reading Book Review: Dirty Fingernails
 2 people like this post.
Posted by Jason Urban on March 12th, 2010 |  Sean Simmons
It’s March in Austin and SXSW excitement is palpable. Some people come for the music, some for the films, some for the interactive media but what I’m most excited about (print nerd that I am) is Flatstock 24. Started by the American Poster Institute, Flatstock is traveling poster show that hits Austin every year for SXSW. It’s a huge exhibition where everything is for sale. With an average price of $20 for a hand-printed poster, almost everyone leaves with something. Established poster veterans and young upstarts are on the scene showing work and mixing it up with each other and fans alike. All and all a great sense of community permeates the giant, table-filled hall. Here’s a full list of the more than 100 exhibiting artists who’ll be in Austin Thursday through Saturday of next week(3/19-3/20).
The big event at this year’s Flatstock 24 will be the a Smokey Robinson/Shepard Fairey poster signing in conjunction with the release of Fairey’s new Robinson poster.
Also, Serie Project, Inc is teaming up with Andy MacDougall of Squeegeeville to do live screenprinting demos for the public. As I understand it, one of the posters they’ll be printing is Sean Simmons’ winning design from The Great Texas Rock Poster Contest (see the picture above). Sean is a student at the Art Institute of Austin. Nice work, Sean!
A great Flatstock tradition is that many of the artists who show their work make posters to commemorate Flatstock itself. Here are pics pulled straight from the gigposters.com Flatstock 24 forum.
 The venerable Jay Ryan’s Flatstock 24 poster.
Continue reading I Can’t Wait for Flatstock 24
Posted by RL Tillman on March 12th, 2010 | Design Work Life points out Kate McCagg’s clever series of blog posts that pair fashionable dresses with fashionable posters. I don’t wear dresses much anymore, but this is hard not to love.
 More here. There are some really astute juxtapositions; this could be a great little museum show.
(Thanks to Christine for the tip.)
4 people like this post.
Posted by RL Tillman on March 11th, 2010 | 
“There’s Something Very Important I Forgot To Tell You” was a 2009 exhibit in Milan by Berlin-based artist Riccardo Previdi. The title of the show is a line from Ghostbusters; this piece is called Test. Printer calibration patterns culled from the Internet were printed on paper, which was crumpled and photographed. The photos were then reproduced on a plank of plywood.
Previdi’s work references print and pop culture in a cheeky exploration of mediated imagery, reproduction, and representation. The following images are taken from a 2008 show called C_YK – Black To The Future:
From the press release:
C_YK – Black To The Future connects an associative web around the culture- and design-history of print technology…Architectural interventions like the magenta coloured transparent foil on the gallery´s showcase changes the original perception of the gallery as a display for art. Looking through the foil, the magenta coloured surface merges with its surroundings as if the foil did not exist. The inner space of the gallery is divided by an additional yellow foil that changes the view of the wall beyond where “convolutions” of paper are installed. Only the mobility of the viewer allows the “real” consistence of the single elements that at the same time changes the view on the “Gestalt” of the others to be seen. The neon writing “C YK” is visible also from outside the gallery. The coloured and shiny letters C YK become a point of attraction, a cryptic code which simultaneously influences its surroundings…
All the single elements of the exhibition “C YK – Black To The Future” are autonomous objects, but seen as one whole, as an architectural intervention, they start to play with the idea of a constructivist stage of perception: C- M-Y- K.
Other projects of interest include Fraktur, an installation that references Gutenberg’s 1455 Bible, and The Last Desire, a series of public billboards.
3 people like this post.
Posted by PRINTERESTING on March 11th, 2010 | Just two short weeks til Copy Jam! For the event, we are producing a small-run, commemorative t-shirt that will be available for purchase. The shirts were beautifully printed by Philadelphia’s own Outlaw Print Co. Get ‘em while supplies last.
 We’ll be hanging out and making copies at Art in the Age from 6-9. It’s free and all are welcome! AITA is generously supplying bottles of their Root liqueur for all to sample at our event and will be hosting a Root Happy Hour next door at Charlie’s Pub from 8-10. Anyone up for an after party? It’s going to be fun so definitely stop by.
5 people like this post.
Posted by RL Tillman on March 10th, 2010 | Hey Kids! “Don’t Sleep On” the PRINTERESTING NOTEBOOK! It’s chock full of great printmaking miscellany.
Don’t be the last person on your block to learn about the latest HOTT Printmaking Craze. Visit the PRINTERESTING NOTEBOOK daily!
2 people like this post.
Posted by amze on March 10th, 2010 | 
West Elm’s near-monthly circular, Design With Style 10/March: Print Shop makes some bold claims, that the Brooklyn-based Modern home furnishing company doesn’t quite back-up.
Like West Elm I agree that prints do have power, even as the warm and whimsical varieties, but they are going to have to do better than some printed towels to add pop or perk to this nest. Don’t get me wrong, who doesn’t like printed textiles? But it’s not like West Elm is exactly the Fabric Workshop when it comes to innovative textile design.
Strangely, the only non-textile print to be found is the enigmatic ‘Naive botanical sketch’ that is ’screen printed in charcoal on glass’. Say What? Oh well, I guess I won’t be adding style to my nest with leafs from their book.
2 people like this post.
Posted by RL Tillman on March 10th, 2010 | 
Obsoletism, a screen print on canvas by Scott Campbell. This one’s for all those who fetishize antiquated technologies.
2 people like this post.
Posted by amze on March 9th, 2010 | 
A recent trip to the local japanese street food-style restaurant yielded this find: Auto Land Printed Bisuits by the Meiji snack company. How could anyone resist that world-weary car face?
You may be familiar with Meiji from their popular chocolate mushroom treats or equally print-tasty Hello Panda cookies, which are filled with a chocolate-like substance and printed with pandas in action.
This photo of winter sports oriented Hello Panda treats is via Pop Kiss Kiss.
Back to the Auto Land cooky taste test, while they have some really great transportation images printed on them (see the full cookie gallery after the jump), they are more akin to a square ritz cracker than any biscuit you are likely to find at any Bob Evans. For now I can only highly recommend the Hello Panda line of printed snacks even though their graphics have a less obvious relationship between form and content.
After some research, it seems Meiji’s only real competition in the printed snack food market is the Belgium Biscuit Line company. They seem to be aiming more at the corporate schwag market than the large demographic of folks hankering for some printed snacks.
Continue reading Printed Biscuits!
2 people like this post.
Posted by RL Tillman on March 9th, 2010 | Long-time readers will remember that Printeresting was originally launched as “the thinking person’s favorite online resource for Jeff Bridges-related printmaking miscellany.” Well, despite our best efforts, that just wasn’t a sustainable business model.
But with an Academy Award in hand and a long-awaited Tron sequel in the works, Bridges is back in the news! So it’s time for a Jeff Bridges Print Update!
Oscars, Schmoscars! You have not “made it” until you have your own Shepard Fairey Parody Poster:
And a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is nothing compared to Another Shepard Fairey Parody Poster:
But then, there’s no shortage of Big Lebowski print merchandise. Why would there be, when it all sells out?
Tyler Stout Screenprint, SOLD OUT!
 Mediocre “Team Dude” Bowling Shirt, SOLD OUT!
The merchandise may sell out, but Jeff Bridges never will. Even when Jeff Bridges designed these T-Shirts for Quiksilver, a portion of the proceeds went to charity. Way to go, Dude!
I strongly encourage any Museum Curators to acquire this “Museum Quality Fine Art Print”:
Surprisingly, that’s all the Jeff Bridges Print News I could find. The marketing team for Crazy Heart could have used a country-style Hatch Show Print-inspired design, but they didn’t. And as far as I can tell, nobody’s producing limited edition lithographs of his insane drawings.
Surely there will be more news in the next… Jeff Bridges Print Update!*
*NOTE: There will not be a next Jeff Bridges Print Update.
3 people like this post.
|
|
