Motion Graphics Designer- Lyle Owerko

Lyle Owerko was our second guest speaker and he is a hofstra alumini! Hes a motion graphics designer as well as a photographer and film maker. He told us about 'The design of attitude' which deals with developing a creative consciousness and making something out of it. He stressed the importance of understanding light and is very inspired by music and likes bmx skateboarding. Punk music taught him D.I.Y. He explained the demand for designers in todays market and how many people are selling their own designs over the internet on 'istock'. 2 years ago he switched to digital photography and he explained MORES LAW= computer power doubles every 18 months. Also 'the golden rule is to follow the gold' lol that was funny! Mr. Owerko showed us some of his project in Brasil which was very cool. Many were about beer or funny stereotypes such as hairy chests! He told us of his love for the engineering in Norway and the importance of exhaling when taking photographs. His September 11th photos were quite emotional so were his 'Thorntree project' photos from his trip to africa. However he managed to bring in some humor to the serious pictures by telling stories, for example when he said

that the chief was calling him a girl (in an African language) as he was photographing him. Mr. Owerko was very interesting and it was cool to learn about his experiences in the design industry and his traveling adventures.

MTV Speaker -Nusrat Durrani

Nusrat Durrani, the Senior Vice President of MTV World came to give a speech to our class. He is originally from India where there wasn't much choice in terms of work except for doctors. He worked in electronics which gave him business experience and in Dubai he was hired by Honda as Marketing Manager. It wasn’t until 1993 when he first saw MTV. He saw a David Bowie MTV video which he was fascinated with and it led him to research MTV. He traveled to New York but was denied a job so 6 months later he quit his job in Dubai and came to New York where he enrolled in a masters degree in media. He went back to the same interviewer in MTV who was shocked and told him to consider taking an internship and enter the company that way. Mr. Durrani took the internship and was offered a job, 14 years ago , and he has been at MTV ever since.

He showed us MTV IGGY which shows all different international bands. He said IGGY stood for Intelligent Graphication for Global Youth. His typical workday is very busy with many meetings and working on projects. He also makes deals with business developers and partners. He was a very interesting speaker and taught us a lot!

Term Paper - The Life of Paul Rand

Peretz Rosenbaum was an orthodox Jew born in Brooklyn, New York in 1914. It was later on that he changed his name to the world recognized Paul Rand. Growing up Rand painted signs for his father’s grocery store and also any events at his school. He attended the Pratt Institute from 1929-1932 and the Art Students League from 1933-1934. He also taught ‘Design’ at Yale University at multiple periods during his life. Rand was mostly a self-taught designer and read many issues of European magazines such as ‘Gebrauchsgraphik’. He was particularly interested in the works of Cassandre and Moholy-Nagy and eventually transformed many European styles into his own unique designs.

The beginning of his career saw Rand working part time creating stock images for various newspapers and magazines. One particular cover page which he was acclaimed for was the 1940 December issue of ‘Direction Magazine’. The cover showed a barbed wire cross across a package with a casually written ‘Merry Christmas’ tag. This image represented the contradictory aspects of mans behavior. Such emotional and thoughtful images are present throughout Rand’s work. At the age of twenty three Rand accepted a full time job as the director for the Esquire- Coronet magazines. He was offer the job a year earlier after his talent was noticed in an ‘Apparel Arts’ magazine, but decided to decline the offer feeling he wasn’t ready. Later on in his career Rand left the field of editorial design and moved to the more challenging field of advertising. It is his work with logos for large corporations in the 1950’s and 1960’s that Rand is most recognized for. His 1956 IBM logo was his first big success in corporate advertising. In addition to designing their logo, Rand designed packaging materials and posters for IBM. United Postal Services original logo was designed by Rand where he acknowledges the incorporation of humor into his work. ‘..To take an escutcheon- a medieval symbol which inevitably seems pompous today –and then stick a package on top of it, that is funny.” The UPS logo has been changed to the more futuristic design we see today. This caused much agitation amongst much of the designing community. In an interview with Steve Forbes the inventor of Apple computers, Forbes stated that Paul Rand was a very unique person to work with. He claimed that Rand would not offer any options to Apple for their logo. Instead he would provide a single ‘solution’ which he figured would best suit the company, and any alternatives can be obtained from other designers. Forbes admired Rand’s business-like attitude as well as his designing abilities. Besides these corporations Rand also worked with Ford Motors, ABC news and Westinghouse. He published many articles and publications during his career but possibly the most influential to the design industry was his 1946 text’ Thoughts on Design’.

Paul Rand’s creative perspectives seem very simplistic but they repeatedly prove that with equal form and context, even the most simplistic symbol can have several layers of meaning. In his own words Rand says ‘Art is when context and form are indistinguishable.’ An interesting point which he makes is that design cannot have too much content. If it does then it will get boring very quickly and the form has to be just right to capture the imagination. Many logos which are being created by young designers fail because they place too much emphasis on aesthetics. Rand argues that logos must be designed with restraint in order to be successful. The creative perspective which Rand used was also influenced by collages by Picasso. His designs have been known to illustrate a great deal of artistic freedom which makes them unusual and interesting. Even though he had many staff working for him Rand did the vast majority of the work on all his designs, using his staff to organize meetings and set dates etc. In another interview Rand was asked what he likes most about Graphic design and his response was ‘Problem solving’. He claimed that he enjoyed using graphic design to solve realistic problems. This is very true in relation to his logo for Apple computers where Steve Forbes has said that the company was in much need of a universally accepted logo. The unique perspectives from which Rand created his work are still very influential to this day and many of his logos are still in use.

Just prior to Rand’s death in November 1996, Steve Forbes labeled him “The greatest living graphic designer”. He enjoyed challenges and managed to become an iconic figure in the world of graphic design. There is no doubt that Paul Rand contributed greatly to the visual language industry and his additions will be admired for generations to come.

Sources:

http://paul-rand.com/

The Art Directors Club : http://www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/1972/?id=300

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Rand

‘Conversations with Paul Rand’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZzVyL_OpSI

1993 Interview with Steve Forbes :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb8idEf-Iak&feature=related

http://www.logodesignlove.com/all-about-paul-rand

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Slipstreamz!

These Slipstream ear covers allow the athlete cyclist to listen to music whilst cycling, without any wind interference. The inventor, Lonnie Tiegs, noticed that his ears rang from wind noise after long, fast bike rides and this inspired him to invent something to fix the problem, what he came up with was 'Slipstreamz'. As well as keeping noise out, these earpieces also help to keep your ears warm on cold days and they are specially designed to fit ipod earpieces. This simple yet great invention only costs $13!

Check out the NY times Article on 'Slipstreamz' here

The Globus Workstation

This is the Globus collapsable workstation. It was seen in 'Men in Black'. designed by Michiel van der Kley, it has a Baydour shell, with white aluminum cast base and the seat comes in either leather or fabric. It rotates and a table comes out of one of the  half shells. Its a very 'artsy' chair much different from the norm. They cost a lot though! Each one is $9,653!!! I don't think that anyone should pay that much for a chair and it is probably only going to be purchased by very few people or cast in movies because of its price. The design is cool and futuristic, not worth $9000 though, you can purchase much nicer design oriented object for that price.  You can purchase these chairs here

Ducati 696!

This is the Ducati Monster 696, the 2009 model. It is also my favorite bike and the same one which my boss owned in the cayman islands.  It weighs 335lbs which is very like for this style of bikes, It has an extreme amount of torque and a very unusual design in terms of looks. The fact that you can see the all the parts of the engine makes it a unique bike in itself. It looks classical and at the same time modern. The speedometer on these bikes also remind me of the older style bikes, there's a lot of attention to detail in the Ducati line which is why they are such a successful brand!

Check out a video review of the Ducati 696: here 

HYABUSA 2008

This is the Suzuki Hyabusa 2008 model. It's the fastest motorbike in the world and its design is exceptional! This new model will have an even more powerful engine going from 1299cc  to 1340cc! Its obviously a very sporty motorbike with its sharp features. A 4-2-1-2 exhaust meets the European 3 and Tier 2 emission regulation. This new model is available in orange ,blue and black with a price tag of $12000, not bad for 186 miles per hour! Although in terms of looks, i prefer the Ducati Monster!