Visual Arts Briefs

SVA alumnus Keith Lapinig (BFA 2008 Film and Video) has a lot to be thankful for this year. The 25-year-old graphic artist recently edged out a thousand contestants to win “Macy’s Great American Elf Adventure,” earning him the honor of having his Gazer Elf design turned into a 34-foot-tall balloon for the 85th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It’s only the third time in the history of the parade that Macy’s has let someone other than its own designers create a balloon, and Lapinig’s will soar above the heads of approximately 3.5 million New York City spectators and be seen by 50 million television viewers. The Briefs caught up with Lapinig via email recently to discuss his achievement.

How did it feel to be chosen to design a balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
As an artist, this is probably one of the greatest honors one can receive. I will definitely walk away from all of this feeling accomplished and also have more confidence in my talents.

I can’t even say that this was an immediate dream of mine that has ever crossed my mind simply because the idea of having your own Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon is so far-fetched. Instead, this achievement goes beyond my dreams, and I’m thankful for it every single day.

How did you come up with the idea for the design?
I figured everyone would have a typical holiday elf approach, and I wanted to stand out from that crowd. I wanted to challenge myself to see what else can be designed out of this blank elf figure other than the obvious. With its rotund body and head, I was inspired to transform the figure’s face into a moon with the New York City skyline for a body.

Where will you be watching the parade from?
I was given VIP tickets for my family and myself, so we should be in the grandstands right in front of the Macy’s store!

Photo: Keith Lapinig with his Gazer Elf at the Macy’s Parade Studios.

For a recent story about Lapinig and the contest, visit the New York Daily News; For an up-close look at the Gazer Elf and a behind-the-scenes tour of the Macy’s Parade Studios, watch the video below.

MFA Fine Arts Department faculty member Marilyn Minter was recently featured in The New York Times Style Magazine for her new paintings, currently on display at Salon 94 Bowery (243 Bowery, New York City) through December 4. In the article, writer Linda Yablonsky notes that Minter’s works are perhaps most recognizable for their excessively close attention to the topography of flesh—beads of sweat, open pores, or freckles—and that the excessive closeness causes those imperfections to look more like glorious costume jewels. “Everything I do is wet and sweaty,” Yablonsky quoted Minter as saying during the show’s installation in October. “I don’t know why—maybe because I sweat so much? But my mother used to tell me that when I was a baby I’d turn on the water in the tub and watch it run for hours.”

Minter begins her process by staging photo shoots with film, using conventional darkroom processes and without cropping or digitally manipulating the resulting photographs. Her paintings, on the other hand, are made by using Photoshop to rearrange combinations of negatives to create new images. The reconstrued image is then turned into a painting. “It’s all illusion!” Minter told Yablonsky. “That’s why I love painting. The images in these may fall apart when you get close, but that’s why I’m not photo-realist. I hate it when people call me that. I’m a realist!”

To read the full article, visit The New York Times Style Magazine.

In a recent Adweek feature, writer Brian Braiker opined that “political branding today is in a word, bad,” despite the fact that there is so much at stake. With the 2012 presidential campaign season now in full swing, Braiker consulted experts in the advertising industry, including SVA Acting Chairman Milton Glaser and MPS Branding Department Chair Debbie Millman, to see how they felt about the way branding is being used in the current race for the White House.

“Nobody is taking the branding seriously,” said Millman. “It’s really laughable. And it’s shocking, given the sophistication of Obama’s branding…. Obama really changed the way in which design can be used effectively for a candidate…. He had a really powerful message—that ‘change’ message—and he repeated it over and over and over again.”

Glaser agreed, and pointed out the challenge of creating an effective political logo. “It attempts to produce a sort of atmosphere and attempts to be memorable the next time you see it,” he said. “It always traffics in the existing symbolism and things that people have already seen. So you will see the endless variation of stars and stripes and Statues of Liberty—and everything becomes banal.”

To read the full article, including critiques of the logos of the GOP presidential candidates, visit Adweek.

Image: Screenshot from Adweek.

SVA and NYU are teaming up for Found in Translation: A Typo-Philharmonic Conference, a one-night-only performance and panel discussion featuring top designers, composers and musicians (Thursday, November 17, 6pm at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street, New York City). Presented by SVA’s BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department, the conference sprouted from an assignment in faculty member Olga Mezhibovskaya’s Typography class Visual Music, in which students translated pieces of music into typographic compositions. For “Found in Translation,” a selection of these compositions will be performed by the New York University New Music Ensemble, led by Dr. Esther Lamneck, director of Instrumental Studies and of the Graduate Music Program in Italy for NYU. Joining the panel discussion afterward will be Mezhibovskaya and Lamneck, as well as musicologist and composer Theresa Sauer, motion graphics expert Jakob Trollbäck, and designer and writer Gail Anderson (BFA 1984 Graphic Design). For more information about this event, visit the Found in Translation Web site.

MFA Interaction Design Department faculty member John Zapolski was featured in Forbes recently for his innovative humanitarian venture Fonderie 47. “Our vision is an Africa free of fear from assault rifles,” he told Hannah Elliott in Forbes. “We create wearable art from AK-47s that we remove and destroy from Africa—and the pieces that we make are made by some of the world’s most inspired creators.”

Since 2009, Fonderie 47 has funded the destruction of 6,000 assault rifles stockpiled by the United Nations and the Democratic Republic of Congo, using the scrap metal to make jewelry. One key to the organization’s success is the buyers it curates—philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and billionaires. The group’s most recent project is a pair of $35,000 cuff links designed by Swiss mechanics master Roland Iten—each set sold pays for the destruction of 100 rifles in Africa. “We’d like to directly contribute to the removal and destruction of 1 million of them over the next seven years,” Zapolski said.

To read the full article, visit Forbes.

Director Graham Elliott (BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department faculty member) captures the energy and drive of individuals involved in the motion graphics industry with his new documentary New York in Motion. Fifty interviews with industry bigwigs, including executives from TV networks and top studios, portray the evolution of motion graphics, its current state and its potential for future development. The Briefs caught up with Elliott via email to discuss the project.

Why did you choose this project? What was your goal going into it?
I teach a motion graphics portfolio class at SVA and I realized the discipline had gotten rather murky as to what exactly it was and what was out there for the students. I went to Richard Wilde, the chair of the BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department. I asked if I could get his and SVA’s backing to make a short documentary about the field and the practitioners. He was very enthusiastic, and President David Rhodes also gave his backing as executive producer.

How did you select who to interview? Did you discover anything new through the interviews?
I asked my students to look up who was doing the best, most innovative work. I also asked Matt Lambert from Motionographer for his selections, and I threw in my faves. We ended up with a list of 52 designers, studios and networks. I emailed them, and 50 replied with full support and enthusiasm. Incidentally the film was originally going to be a web-based, 12-minute piece. I ended up shooting more than 100 hours. The rough cut was three-and-a-half hours.

How do you think this documentary will impact the audience’s understanding of motion graphics?
That’s a great question, and I think it is the biggest revelation I discovered. A quote from the film by Charlie No (BFA 2004 Advertising and Graphic Design), an SVA alum and owner of Alien Kung Fu studios—“My mother doesn’t even know what I do.” I thought the film would be embraced by the design community but didn’t realize that the general public would be so interested in the topic. Putting faces behind the work really brings the field to life. I was recently talking to the New York Center for an Urban Future about proposing the city put some backing behind the industry as it does with sports and fashion. Think “Fashion Week.” Why not a “Motion Graphics Week”? The field is growing every day as the ubiquity of all the delivery mechanisms grows and grows. The explosion of iPods, iPads, giant [TV] screens and the global reach of the Internet is making motion design an essential part of a designer’s repertoire. The fact the film got into the biggest documentary festival in the world [International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam] shows there is a great interest in the subject, even outside of the motion graphics and design industry.

What are some of your upcoming projects to look out for?
I am pitching the idea of The World in Motion as a TV series or short film series, an exposé into the global effect of the industry…I am also interested in resurrecting a project that I think I was too close to when I made it 10 years ago for it to reach its full potential, the documentary Greyhound to Cuba, about life in the back streets of a country in exile. I am also teaching a new motion portfolio class next fall called New York in Motion…The students will be immersed in the industry practices and standards.

Watch the trailer for New York in Motion below.

When Stefan Ching, executive chef and owner of the classic Lower East Side gastropub the Clerkenwell, decided to rebrand the restaurant, he left the task in the capable hands of eight seniors in SVA’s BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department. John Allen, Anne De Lillo, Pedro Messias, Kony Oh, Nicholas Saint Onge, Alex Stikeleather, Liz Vautour, and Rachel Wiley got the opportunity to collaborate with Ching through Life Insurance, a course taught by Doug Jaeger, former Art Directors Club president and co-founder of the boutique design consultancy company JaegerSloan. Jaeger initially proposed the class last spring as a weekly meet-and-greet with various leaders in business, but has since evolved into executing large scale, real world projects, like the one undertaken at Kupersmith.

Under Jaeger’s supervision, the students created their own full-service design agency called 21thru24, which has been conceptualizing and executing changes for the project which will culminate in a re-launch on November 11, as Kupersmith (49 Clinton Street, New York City). “Part of the course is having classes in actual professional settings to get perspective from founders of varied creative companies,” Jaeger  said. “It has been really exciting seeing this group work…and now, with their own hands, is transforming a business on the Lower East Side.”

“I don’t think anyone knew what to expect from the class,” Liz Vautour, 21thru24’s spokesperson said. “Overall, it has been one of the most overwhelming, exciting, frustrating, and satisfying things I have ever been a part of.” Over the last two months, students have acquired a number or technical skills, but for many, the most important may be learning how to work with others. “The real and unanticipated challenge for me was internal communication,” Vautour added. “We’re all students, taking multiple classes and in some case working multiple jobs, so it was often hard to coordinate our efforts in the most effect way possible. I have always thought of myself as a good communicator, but this project brought any shortcomings I might have had to light, and I’ve had the opportunity to adjust my performance accordingly. I think those kinds of lessons are totally invaluable and I have no doubt that they will serve me well when I graduate in May.”

Students have also been fortunate to make professional connections through the course, visiting companies including Grind, Behance, Mucca Design, and Night Agency, each expressing enthusiasm for each student’s potential and making themselves available as future resources. Working with clients to implement something real outside the classroom provides important challenges that aren’t always addressed in more traditional courses. “Since finishing my three-year term as President of the Art Director’s Club, which was a significant time commitment, I wanted a way to share what I have learned with the next generation of creative talent,” Jaeger reflected. “I am excited to have SVA as a platform to do this, and excited to see what impact this class can make.”

To read more about the project, visit Bowery Boogie and The Lo-Down. To see the menu for Kupersmith, click here.

Images: (top, clockwise): Rachel Willey, John Allen, Anne Di Lillo, Alex Stikeleather, Pedro Messias, Nicholas Saint Onge, Liz Vautour, and Kony Oh. (middle) Stefan Ching. (bottom) John Allen.

For Performa 11, artist and BFA Visual and Critical Studies Department faculty member Liz Magic Laser presents I Feel Your Pain, a new mixed-media performance that restages America’s recent political contests as a romantic drama. Drawing on a variety of agitprop theater tactics, particularly the Russian Constructivist idea of a “living newspaper,” the performance examines how emotion is used to establish authenticity on America’s political stage.

Performed by eight actors (Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree, Ray Field, Annie Fox, Kathryn Grody, Rafael Jordan, Liz Micek and Ryan Shams), I Feel Your Pain features live voice-overs, pantomime fight scenes, and mute commentaries by a clown, as well as a live-feed of projections, edited in real time by Laser herself.

Sunday, November 13, 8pm and Monday, November 14, 8pm, SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street, 212-592-2925. For tickets, visit Performa. To read “10 Picks for the Performa Biennial, From Simon Fujiwara to Liz Magic Laser,” visit Artinfo.

Image: A still from “I Feel Your Pain” by Liz Magic Laser.

The popular podcast interview series Design Matters, hosted by MPS Branding Department Chair Debbie Millman, was named the winner of the 2011 People’s Design Award at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s 12th Annual National Design Awards gala on October 20.

“Design Matters began in February of 2005 with an idea and a telephone line,” Millman said. “I thought it would be a great way to ask my heroes everything I wanted to know about their lives and their thoughts and their careers without seeming stalker-y…I realized the opportunity to share the brilliance of my guests with an audience I never expected was the gift of a lifetime.”

To clinch the People’s Choice Award, thousands of votes were cast for Design Matters, which edged out nominees including the High Line, the iPad2 and WordPress software.

“Design Matters harnesses the power of online radio to communicate insights about design, great design minds and the lives of designers,” said Bill Moggridge, director of Cooper-Hewitt. “I’m thrilled that the public has chosen to honor it.”

Upcoming guests on Design Matters include architect James Biber (November 11), designer Martin Venezky (November 18), book cover designer Peter Mendelsund (November 25) and designer and MFA Design for Social Innovation Department Chair Cheryl Heller.

New episodes air weekly on Design Observer, which also features the complete archive of past shows. To subscribe to the Design Matters podcast, visit  iTunes.

In addition to being faculty members of the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden are also the editors of The Best American Comics series. Comic Book Resources recently caught up with the real life couple to discuss what kind of work grabs their attention, trends in the world of comics, students at SVA, and much more. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

CBR News: How did you both first become involved in the Best American Comics series and what exactly is your role as series editors?

Jessica Abel: I was approached by the then-house editor from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt who asked me to take over the series editor job. I said I would do it if I could get help from Matt. What that means is that we are responsible for collecting and reviewing as many comics published by North Americans as possible and choosing the short list, basically, to send to a guest editor. And then we do a lot of administrative work and other stuff that’s not worth getting into, but that’s the main gist of the job.

CBR News: Having done this for a few years, is there anything that stands out as far as larger trends you’ve seen in recent years?

Matt Madden: Michael DeForge. He’s a new trend. We’d never heard of them two years ago. He’s in his early twenties and is one of these rare talents who I’m sure has been working at it since he was very young, but he seemed to spring fully formed two years ago. It seems like every week there’s an amazing innovative new comic from him appearing in some anthology or website, on his blog. It’s bewildering to keep up with. That’s the big new trend in comics.

Abel: We’ve done it for a while and there was definitely a major trend a few years ago for everything to be cute. Even things you wouldn’t really expect to be cute were done nice and cute. That’s fading a little bit. There’s not as much cute for cute’s sake stuff. And now there’s definitely a lot of people who were very influenced by the successors of the Fort Thunder movement. There’s a lot of that stuff coming down now. You see these told very straight kind of space stories—

Madden: —With Dungeons and Dragons elements thrown in. Video games, role playing, stoner humor thrown in with some hip hop references. That [description] would be a parody of it—

Abel: —And a really simple drawing style. Almost childish—

Madden: —Which is clearly directly influenced by Brian Chippendale and Mat Brinkman and CF, Christopher Forgues.

To read the full interview, visit Comic Book Resources.