Posted by
Jason Urban on July 26th, 2010 |
Iceland wasn’t the only country using printing technologies to augment their World Expo pavilion. The idea behind Estonia’s patterned design was that the “pavilion will be literally clad in bright folk costume, distinct from other Nordic pavilions with their more modest shade of colour.” It was if the whole building was enveloped in a layer of disruptive camouflage…
Here’s a close up of the pattern showing its references to folk traditions. Continue reading Dispatches from China: Looking for Printed Matter at the 2010 Expo (Part 2)
Posted by
Jason Urban on July 5th, 2010 |
Watch the promo for the Levi’s Workshop/Print below and if it peaks your interest, head over to The Experts Agree to read Owen Troy’s succinct and well-considered analysis.
Thanks, Alda.
Posted by
Jason Urban on July 5th, 2010 |
A cup of romantic, indeed! As a cultural tourist, often it’s the seemingly insignificant and mundane stuff that catches your attention. Here’s a random photo collection from the streets of Beijing and Shanghai. Some of them are more print-related than others but hopefully it all sheds some sort of light on the graphic identity and trends of the place.
Lacoste has been translated into Chinese. Perhaps their logo revisions were inspired by the famed giant salamander of China?
Continue reading Dispatches from China: Randomness Observed
Posted by
Jason Urban on July 2nd, 2010 |
Hot on the heels of a tour-de-force Olympics extravaganza in 2008, China is currently hosting the 2010 Expo in Shanghai. This blue guy is “Haibao.” He’s the expo’s mascot and he is everywhere in China right now… on taxis and t-shirts, subway cars and shop windows. From inflatable Haibao statues in front of hotels to life-sized Haibaos walking around selling ice cream, he’s become the pervasive face of public service announcement and advertisement alike.
I spent one day at the Expo. While it was definitely a spectacle, looking back it seems like a rare case where the pictures actually appear better and more interesting than the reality. To be fair, as my time was limited, I couldn’t wait in three to four-hour lines to get into the more popular pavilions so there was plenty I missed. As always, I did keep an eye peeled for interesting uses of printed matter.
Leave it to Iceland to print up a big, glacial cube. It stood like some sort of Modernist iceberg in the Expo- not the biggest or the best pavilion, it did have a quiet economy to be appreciated. It was designed by Plús Arkitektar. I wasn’t able to stick around until sundown, but apparently all the printed fabric was backlit so that the whole pavilion became a glowing become of arctic geometry at night (pic from the website below).
More symmetry like the urban camouflage I posted about earlier.
Continue reading Dispatches from China: Looking for Printed Matter at the 2010 Expo
Posted by
RL Tillman on June 30th, 2010 |
Nadine Nakanishi at Sonnenzimmer wrote this helpful post about screenprinting squeegees. I can’t decide what’s best about it. Is it the useful information, or is it this shockingly beautiful color diagram from manufacturer Pfleiger Kunststoff?
No fair! That diagram is better than my art.
Posted by
Jason Urban on June 29th, 2010 |
China has one hundred and fifty cities with populations greater than a million people. To put that in perspective, the US has only nine. Beijing and Shanghai have nearly 20 million each while New York City has less than nine. Needless to say, there’s lots of building going on as China’s city continue to grow. Interestingly, construction sites are often accompanied by allusions to idyllic nature in the form of vinyl signage. Amze mentioned this tromp-l’œil approach to urban camouflage in his Hidden in Plain Site post.
The juxtaposition of building materials and urban growth with images of green grass and trees quickly became one of my favorite sights while traveling around the city. Has this “beautification” strategy evolved as a direct response the high levels of pollution? Truth be told, I saw more images of blue skies than actual blue skies.
One of the best parts of these murals is that they are essentially repeat patterns… the images mirror creating these slightly surrealist moments.
A bunch more pics after the jump… Continue reading Dispatches from China: Fake Nature
Posted by
Jason Urban on June 28th, 2010 |
If you’re lucky, summer is a time for travel. After a few weeks spent in Beijing and Shanghai, I’ve started working on posts to add to the Printeresting Dispatches from China series that Amze started last year. I actually hoped to do the posts directly from China but couldn’t open Printeresting! Plenty of art and design blogs were accessible (notcot, ffffound, swissmiss, & vvork to name a few) so I’m not sure why Printeresting and some others were MIA. Where the world’s most populous nation go when it needs a fix of interesting printmaking miscellany is anybody’s guess.
Since there haven’t been any additions to the series in a while, a review of past contributions seemed like a good idea… click on the pics for links.
Hidden in Plain Site
View from the Street
Art School
Youth Culture & The Multiple
Printing History
And if those aren’t enough for you, here are few more China-related posts…
Hey China! Just ’cause you can, doesn’t mean you should!
Printing Chinese Architecture
Man as Matrix
Obamagraphics: Mao Edition
Posted by
RL Tillman on June 26th, 2010 |
Summer in Baltimore is gross, people! The weather here is just awful. But no matter how much I enjoy my window-unit AC, I always venture out of the house for Baltimore’s annual Pile of Craft show (which is organized by the thriving Charm City Craft Mafia). Too many friends, too much good work, too little time!
This year it was especially important to see Friend of Printeresting Kyle Van Horn working in support of his new project, Baltimore Print Studios. This fall, BPS will open its doors as the only public-access print shop in Baltimore, and KVH was on the scene pulling prints to raise awareness.
This new print space will fill a gaping hole in Baltimore’s arts community. We can’t wait. Kyle is also selling these great screenprint/letterpress posters in support of this much-needed resource:
You can follow the development of the new space here. Wish him luck. Printers Unite!
Posted by
Jason Urban on May 12th, 2010 |
Watch this if you haven’t seen it already…
For any who’ve been wondering, it sounds like Nashville’s recent flooding stopped about two blocks away from Hatch’s storefront location. While the city and community clearly have much recovering to do, it is a relief that this treasure survived.
Posted by
RL Tillman on April 6th, 2010 |
Alert newshound Delia Kovac tipped us off to this National Public Radio Report on Philagrafika.
…All Things Considered, this is a great report! (groan)
