CreativeMornings with Michael Bierut of Pentagram

How incredibly excited and honored am I to announce our January CreativeMornings speaker, Michael Bierut? (gasp!)

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. Prior to joining Pentagram in 1990 as a partner in the firm’s New York office, he worked for ten years at Vignelli Associates, ultimately as vice president of graphic design. His clients at Pentagram have included The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Harley-Davidson, The Minnesota Children’s Museum, The Walt Disney Company, Mohawk Paper Mills, Motorola, Princeton University, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the New York Jets.

Bierut’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Montreal. He has served as president of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 1988 to 1990 and is president emeritus of AIGA National. Michael was elected to the Alliance Graphique Internationale in 1989, and was elected to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 2003. Michael is a Senior Critic in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art. He writes frequently about design and the co-editor of the four-volume series Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphicpublished by Allworth Press. In 1998 he co-edited and designed the monograph Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist. His commentaries about graphic design in everyday life can be heard nationally on the Public Radio International program “Studio 360.”

HOST
This month’s event will be hosted by the folks over at the amazing Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO. If you are not familiar with the space, get ready for a real treat. Also, this will be the first time ever there will be a bar (!) serving Mimosa’s and Bloody Marys. Yes, you read right! We are starting off the new year with a bang!

Interested in attending? Make sure to get your free ticket over on creativemornings.eventbrite.com quickly as we usually fill up fast. Please tell us your name and what industry you’re in. CreativeMornings start at 8.30am, end at 10am and are FREE of charge.

BREAKFAST SPONSORS
A big thank you to this month’s breakfast sponsors Blurb and Behance Outfitter.


At this month’s CreativeMorning Behance Outfitter will be celebrating the launch of a new line of yet-to-be-announced products, designed for productivity. I can’t wait to see what Scott and Matias came up with this time!


Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the joy of books – reading them, making them, sharing them, and selling them. Blurb developed a creative publishing service simple and smart enough to make anyone an author – every blogger, cook, photographer, parent, traveler, poet, pet owner, marketer, everyone. (This means you.)

Be the first to know when r.s.v.p’s open up, follow CreativeMornings on twitter!

Check out pictures of previous CreativeMornings over at Flickr.

View all the taped CreativeMorning talks we’ve put up on the web so far over at Vimeo.

CreativeMornings? ‘CreativeMornings’ is a monthly morning gathering of creative types. Each event includes a 10 minute lecture, followed by a 20 minute group discussion. The gathering begins at 8:30am with the topic presentation starting at 9:00am. The whole thing closes down at 10am. The events are hosted at studios/gallery spaces in NYC. (We are always looking for potential hosts that are willing to accomodate 50+ people. Please email us if you’re interested in hosting or sponsoring one of our events!)

new years resolution generator

New Years Resolution Generator by Monina Velarde.

Corner Chair

Michael Roopenian’s Corner Chair is made of laminated poplar and takes advantage of structural properties of the corner. Made me look!

rotating kitchen

I’ve always wondered what our kitchen would look like if I’d turn it upside down. Given G is a kitchen designer, I am sure this will make him chuckle.

rotating kitchen from Zeger Reyers on Vimeo.

(thank you jon)

Japanese design principles

The Zen principles of Aesthetics are derived from the Buddhism beliefs of Anicca or Impermanence where “everything, without exception, is constantly in flux, even planets, stars and gods”. (Wikipedia)


THE PRINCIPLES:

FUKINSEI (imbalanced)
Asymmetry, odd numbers, irregularity, unevenness, imbalance is used as a denial of perfection as perfection and symmetry does not occur in nature.

KANSO (simple)
Elimination of ornate and things of simplicity by nature expresses their truthfulness. Neat, frank and uncomplicated.

KOKOU (austere)
Basic, weathered bare essentials that are aged and unsensuous. Evokes sternness, forbiddance, maturity and weight.

SHIZEN (natural)
Raw, natural and unforced creativity without pretence. True naturalness is to negate the naive and accidental.

YUGEN (subtle profound)
Suggest and not reveal layers of meaning hidden within. Invisible to the casual eye and avoiding the obvious.

DATSUZOKU (unworldly)
Transcendence of conventional and traditional. Free from the bondage of laws and restrictions. True creativity.

SEIJAKU (calm)
Silence and tranquility, blissful solitude. Absence of disturbance and noise from one’s mind, body and surroundings.


Source: Aen Direct

(via Thinkingalaud)

Phillip Niemeyer | Picturing the Past 10 Years

Phillip Niemeyer | Picturing the Past 10 Years

Graphic Design Study of the Snowflake

Graphic Design Study of the Snowflake by Andrei D. Robu.

(thank you keren)

Pastebot

Pastebot is a clipboard manager that stores text & images copied from your iPhone/iPod Touch. Organize, apply filters to, and copy clippings to be pasted or sent to other apps.

(thanks dad)

Tiny Little Chairs

Tiny Little Chairs is a series of precious metal pendants celebrating mid century design. I would like an Eames Lounger, please!

(via Tim)

Downloads: Arrows

Whenever the Wire&Twine Team encounters the need for arrows in a project (and what project doesn’t require arrows?), they reach for a little file they’ve kept over the years with a bunch of the pointy things in vector format. So today they combined all of their arrows (along with some vector cursors) and posted them on their blog for everyone. Feel free to use in whatever project that might need some… pointers.

DOWNLOAD ARROWS : Illustrator, Freehand and PDF archive.

(via fictivecameron)

Video: Matt Mullenweg Fireside Chat

I had the pleasure to attend this Fireside Chat between Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic and WordPress and Liz Danzico a few weeks back. I was seriously impressed by Matt: he is eloquent, incredibly smart and has a warm personality.

Watch the video for Mullenweg’s insights on design, entrepreneurship, and open source.

(I am so excited that Roland Lazarte who is filming all of our CreativeMorning events is now filming the MFA in Interaction Design Videos. Congrats Roland)

Modern Swiss Fireplaces by Rutz

One day, I will own a home with a big giant modern modular fireplace by swiss company Rutz. They’re a small company located in Rehetobel, 10minutes from where I grew up, on the swiss country side. Their simplicity and playfulness are stunning. Have you ever seen a swivveling fireplace? I am gasping for air looking at these.

Abstract Mobile



When I got home last night, our doorman handed me a huge box. For me? I asked? Yup, he said! I went upstairs and inside was this unbelievably awesome Calder-Looking Abstract Mobile by CB2, a lovely gift from my friend BB! Being a huge Calder Fan and dreaming of owning a real Calder Mobile one day, this totally made my holiday season.

Thank you BB!!

The Honest $10,000 SPAM

What happens when an unbelievable offer of $10000 risk free money is actually genuine?

(via thinkalaud)

Reading One Book a Week for a Year

Michael Surtees put together an interesting Interview with Inaki Escudero who he rightfully describes as a ‘creative’s creative in that he’s extremely genuine, curious and open to new ideas. While a lot of people are living in an outdated model to pursue ideas, Inaki is embracing everything and anything which I highly respect.’

Inaki read one book a week for an entire year. Yes, that’s 52 books! Inspired to perhaps try such a thing himself, Michael had to find out more about how Inaki accomplished the readings and why. Click on the link below for their email conversation.

Talking About Reading One Book a Week for a Year, the Interview

Bakery Calendar

Bakery Calendar. Made me smile.

Cinder Block Necklace

Cinder Block Necklace: An iconic city symbol and the foundation upon which ideas are built. Designed by Kiel Mead.

Nesting Tables/Step Stools

How fun is this set of three nesting tables/stools each opens at top, with safety hinged lids for inconspicuous storage. Designed by Paul Loebach. Perfect for a kids room, no?

(via I.D Magazine)

Wim Wenders Movie for Leica Camera

(via likecool)

Paper Roll Forest Cutout

Paper Roll Forest Cutouts by Yuken Teruya — a master in transforming everyday objects into beautiful works of art.

(via lushlee)

CardsInk

CardsInk is for notecard design what Threadless is for T-Shirts. It’s a place where you can buy cards that are crowdsourced designs by its audience. The users vote on cards and the highest rated ones get printed. The designer gets paid $100. If they reprint the card the designer gets $50 for each reprint.

funaction

Funaction is a cushion that you can fill with air that is supposed to make your seating more ergonomic and comfortable. It’s all about good posture while working. Designed by Funaction.

The fabric of “f.Cushion” used 100% PET bottles recycled fabrics. Each woven meter of this yarn uses seventeen recycled PET bottles(0.5l). It has water-repellent function. The Fabric is by Christian Fischbacher, a company 10 minutes away from where I grew up in Switzerland, in a town called St.Gallen. Wheee!
.

Best Made Co. Axes

Who knew I could drool over the design of an Axe? Check out these by Best Made Co.

(via made in england)

Fireplace of my dreams

This is officially the fireplace (and room around it) of my dreams. It’s part of ‘Raumstation Irnharting’ in Gunskirchen / Austria by x architekten (AT).