NY Times Buzzwords of 2008

The New York Times once again comes out with its Buzzwords of 2008. 

Of course, many of them are related to the election. Each one of the words is accompanied by an illustration by Jessica Hische in that all too "right now" style of bubble block lettering that i've come to see on just about everything in the past few months. 

New Red Sox Logos

Its been out for a week or two now, but the greatest Baseball team in the world, The Boston Red Sox have unveiled some new uniform logo updates. This team has been around for over 100 years and the uniforms, branding and logos have barely changed at all during that time period. You have to take a bit of a deep breath when they announce any sort of "change"


They basically are using the "hanging sox" which appear on a lot of unofficial off-field fan targeted merch. Is it necessary or just an attempt to generate more income? I mean if every superfan in the Red Sox nation buys a brand new fitted New Era hat or alt official team jersey with the new alt logo that equals lots and lots of extra cash...

They will be wearing this sox logo on special alt uniforms this season instead of the tried and true "B". You can read more about the changes on Brand New.

Best & Worst Logos of 2008

Via DesignObserver and Brand New the Best and Worst Logos of 2oo8

The Best two snippets:

"The Oklahoma City Thunder / You can take the Supersonics out of Seattle but you can't take the lame out of this logo."

"Animal Planet / This logo is neither animal nor planet. Discuss."

That smell...

If there is one thing that is a great conversation starter over the years is the natural smell of my car. It is a smell that every owner of my car, A 2001 Volkswagen Jetta will instantly agree with as they have it in theirs as well. As soon as you mention it there will be laughter followed by a "me too!!!!!". Yes ladies and gentlemen. That smell is that of Crayons.

If you google the phrase "jetta smells like crayons" you'll get a phone book of forums and websites talking about it. Every single person who's ever gotten into my car has noticed the smell within the first few seconds. It is undoubtedly a chemical smell...combinations of plastic, vinyl and synthetic fabric appolstery creating a reminiscent smell of crayola. Car interior designers should conduct focus groups with materials to see what smells they crate.

As an artist it's always been quasi fitting. Tonight my GF and I had Tapas with another couple. When it was uncovered that he too owned a 2001 Jetta, i just had to ask the question....

"Stop me if this is a weird question but...does your car smell like crayons?"

hilarity ensues. friends are made. good times.

Human Rights

This past summer at Art Center, I participated in a sponsored transdisicplinary class through our Designmatters program. We created 25  posters for the 61st DPI NGO conference in Paris, France celebrating the 60th Aniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. I was honored to have 6 of my designs chosen by jury to be part of the final show, which can be seen on my website.

Tonight, I attended the local reception and show opening at the Pasadena Central Library. The mayor various Pasadena Socialites and various county and state representatives were in attendance. It was great to be a part of such a great project. There is so much emphasis (at least for me) at Art Center about making strong design work that builds a great portfolio that will open doors and land me a great job. It was refreshing to "use my design powers for good" and remember that communication can help people and be a force for real change in the world. 

For me the most exciting part of the evening was one one of my instructors set me up with a writer from PRINT magazine to do a brief interview about our class project that may run in their next issue. Fingers crossed and knock on wood about that happening. The other part was when i was interviewed on camera for local Pasadena TV. Yeah um that was kinda sorta fun but i felt a lot like Ricky Bobby....."i'm not sure what to do with my hands" kinda thing.

The Stories Behind Hollywood Studio Logos

As a kid I used to watch alot of movies on VHS and BetaMax (Beta was better!!!) which all happened to be from different decades. I'd see these logos evolve and i'd always have opinions about them.  I was intrigued by the animations, and complexity. How some would seem to jump or be integrated into the opening titles, or ow they were just strong graphic images.

I eventually started to associate these studio logos with certain genres or particular movies based on my favorites. The rumbling drums and 3-d type building of 2oth century Fox became associated with Star Wars. The Paramount mountain meant Indiana Jones. The MGM lion/United Artists Icon always came before James Bond. And finally the WB shield always came before my favorite cartoon series; Batman the Animated Series (as well as Tiny Toons, Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain)

Without being aware of it, this was my first real exposure to graphic design and identity was through watching these movies.

So needless to see i totally geeked out once I found this  great article on neatorama.com about some of the most recognizeable logos in pop culture...movie studios.  Definetly worth checking out. 

Printing

Today i took a field trip to Downtown LA to visit one of the West Coast's biggest printers. It was pretty insane to see how much equipment and manpower it takes to go from my computer screen to a printed page. Whether it was the car sized vats of ink that feed the presses, or learning how it takes 5 months to fully install a brand new web press, it was pretty amazing to say the least.

I found these old vocational films somewhere on the internet...pretty interesting to see how much has changed since the 40's...its even interesting to see how much as stayed the same...


Watch Printing 1947 in How to Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com


Watch Linotype 1 in How to Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

New-ish Website

I've updated my personal design site www.christopherkosek.com with a new color theme and some design updates. The best part about updating your site is that with each new thing on your "wishlist" there often is a technical challenge that arises. In my case, replacing my masthead with my logo seems simple enough, but in a program like dreamweaver, its a bit of a challenge to make sure the columns don't bounce around from page to page. Needless to say I figured it out and learned something in the process. 

Pro Tip: having problems getting your color choices to take? make sure you have that pesky # symbol before your color code. Its a total "DUH" thing that you (me) will overlook and just might cost you (me) a significant amount of time wondering why your (my) sites color choices aren't obeying your commands.