Last week at Four Barrel I had a fun–and quite random–conversation with Jean Cooney, one of the local organizers of EpiscoDisco, a monthly music and art party at Grace Cathedral. Their Dia de Los Muertos edition this Saturday is to include the video and audio exhibition “What You Are I Once Was” along with DJ-turned-Reverend Bertie Pearson. Here’s to hoping the work is of the same caliber as Adam Wier’s “Say My Name” installation of EpiscoDiscos past.
My Halloween eve multimedia consumption is primarily geisha makeup prep videos to get ready for Saturday night adventures in the Mission. I didn’t think red eyeshadow and a body paint brush would be on my shopping list (well…ever), but these gals have changed my mind:
I had a blast last night presenting at O’Reilly’s Ignite Sebastopol #2 along with “Question of the Day” author and iPhone app creator Al Katkowsky and memory consultant Chance Massaro (whose business card features five tips for remembering names–talk about context). The slides with advice gained from interviews with female CEOs as part of the Women 2.0 In Conversation series can be found on SlideShare:
Forgoing B School for a Video Camera: Lessons Learned in Conversations with Entrepreneurs
Details on the first Ignite Bay Area event to follow–looking forward to sharing the location and speaker plans for December.
I’m intrigued by emails requesting images that come back with “Retro Helmets.jpg” and “Spine & Bones Design,” and I couldn’t let the chance to write about the Harley-Davidson Museum’s first feature exhibition pass me by.
The Helmet Project will highlight “retooled” helmets and work from Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) students through November 8. It deserves highlighting not just because the conceptual helmets are fantastical but because Wisconsin’s only college devoted to the education of professional artists and designers has taken on a large projec that’s cross-disc
iplinary in every sense of the word. The Museum challenged MIAD Sculpture, Integrated Studio Arts and Industrial Design students to “extend the rich history of helmet design” while Interior Architecture + Design and Communication Design students curated the exhibit with Museum staff. (Which group do you think is responsible for the evolving display space HeadDress where visitors can create helmet art of their own?)
I’ll be playing Angelino next week with a few Southern California events–do join if you’re in town.
On Wednesday, November 4, I’m looking forward to the next Blog Out Loud event about creative and design work (Design Within Reach being a topical host). A recent BOL panel at Bell Jar in SF had a knowledgeable lineup, and this time around I’m honored to join Gregory Han (Apartment Therapy, Unplggd), Laure Joliet (AT, At Home, Dwell), Alissa Walker (Gelatobaby, Fast Company, GOOD), and Haily Zaki (American Express OPEN Forum, Curbed LA, Inhabitat). A group who can multi-task, no doubt.
Next Thursday, LuckyNY co-founder Jonathan Rosen and I will be talking about sports and online media for the event “WHERE’S WALDO: Finding Social Influencers & Decreasing Your Costs.” I’m looking forward to the group, which includes 5ones’ Cameron Olthius, Scott Tilton of Loop’d, photographer Jonathan Nafarrete, and bigMETHOD’s Greg Cargill. It will be at the great cost of free at Blank Spaces and moderated by PacSun social media manager Denise Garciano.
Oxt weekend (phrase courtesy of developer Jeremy Knight) will be the Opportunity Green conference at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. I’ve been looking forward to this for quite a while, and not just because Yves Bahar and Business Week innovation editor Heather Walters will be speaking (to say nothing of Story of Stuff creator Annie Leonard). Seeing Johnson & Johnson and Proctor & Gamble planning sustainability initiatives alongside the X Prize team seems to be a step change to me, and one that indicates that the economic benefits of reducing energy usage is being recognized on a large scale. I’m bummed that I won’t be able to participate in the SF-to-LA bike ride (Tour de OG) but excited to take part.
Simone Nelson of Bay Area Women in Film & Media turned me onto the publication and party for “Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo,” a visual retrospective of local outdoor art. Editor Annice Jacoby captures the work of Precita Eyes Muralists and includes essays from Shepard Fairey and Spain Rodriguez, the author of “Che: A Graphic Biography.” You can celebrate the colorful body of work at the DeYoung’s free Friday Night series on Novemeber 6; it’s described as a “music, dance, visual and literary art extravaganza.” (I just call it can’t miss.)
SoCap producer Amy Benzinger tipped me off to 350.org, the hub of all International Day of Climate Action information today. Both Weekend Edition Saturday andBill McKibben’s organization do more justice to describing the crowdsourced activity, which the latter explains this way:
On 24 October, people in 181 countries are coming together for the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet’s history. At over 5,200 events around the world, people are gathering to call for strong action and bold leadership on the climate crisis.
I couldn’t pick just one image of the groups of 350 surfers and grandmothers coming together in the name of pushing for a binding climate change agreement, but the site’s slideshow and video provide a sense of the mass efforts behind it.
I had a great time interviewing Minneapolis-based designer Celeste Prevost recently for the web magazine Notes On Design. Her work is fresh (as evidenced by the Ridin’ Dirty poster she created for the ARTCRANK poster show in her current locale of Minneapolis), but see for yourself.
Full interview on NoD. Series logo above by Jamie Panzarella, and all other work by Prevost.
After a stint in Colorado where she earned recognition for a clean, often humorous body of work now detailed on her newly redesigned site Designisfine, designer/illustrator Celeste Prevost has landed her creative talents in Minneapolis. In addition to working in-house at marketing firm Zeus Jones she takes on freelance projects that inspire her creatively. Here Celeste describes her career path, shows us the mood boards she creates for inspiration, and let’s us have a look at her design space at Zeus Jones where she and husband (Rob Angermuller of www.lifterbaron.com and designer for ARTCRANK) spend their weekends being creative at their adjacent desks.
NoD: You sometimes make your designs available for little or no payment. What are your thoughts around arguments for creative and media work being shared for free online?
Celeste Prevost: A typeface I created and posted for free download, Hand of God, is kind of gimmicky and I made it to be used publicly. I’m not a professional typographer, but I was happy when a small Boulder company called Humanoid Wake approached me obout using it on one of their wakeboards soon. It will stay free for them.
I got excited about the ARTCRANK bike poster show coming to SF this Saturday pretty early, but my enthusiasm is renewed in finding out that local designer/cyclist extraordinaire Meli Grosa of Bikes and The City will be showing work for sale. Both ARTCRANK and Chrome Bags will be donating $2 per print sold to Bikes to Rwanda. Between “bikes, boys y coffee” and the Portland-based non-profit doing important work to increase African farmers’ profits, there isn’t anything here that’s not to love.
And, because I love the simplicity of the vision:
Besides admission being free and the $30 pieces being eye-catching, the Artcrank organizers’ description is reason enough for me: “Bikes are the world’s most fun and accessible way to get around. Posters are the world’s most fun and accessible art form.”
Most nights I’ve spent in Union Square have included unnecessary shopping on stressful work days, so I’m glad to see that the center of the city will be host to a much more positive cause (even more so than gallery and wine nights) this Thursday. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night Walk will includes teams of people carrying colored balloons–white for survivors, red for supporters, and gold in memory of loved ones lost to cancer. It’s all part of the LLS mission to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, a set of causes that’s close to my heart after meeting the families who benefit from Team in Training-funded research.
And if you need more motivation, remember: an urban hike will be good for you, too.
