Just when you think all the good famous people were already turned into a poster, there he is, running at you with his squeegee and buckets of ink. Shepard Fairey creates a portrait of His Holiness The Dalai Lama. This portrait is done in celebration of both the 75th birthday of the Lama as well as March 10th being Tibetan Independence day. Proceeds from the print will go to a couple Tibet foundations, and all the posters I think should just go to me.
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Hooray! Minneapolis hero gigantic mural painter Isaac Arvold has a new project on his hands here, and he hands it right over to World Famous Design Junkies to put on blast! And so here it is, a relatively mega painting on canvas, 12 feet by 12 feet square, painted, drawn, then painted by Arvold, assisted in part by Paper Tiger*. The painting in question here features Hennepin Bridge & Grainbelt Beer sign from the north side of Minneapolis. They’ve sort of been overgrown by some vine-ridden growth and doughnuts. That’s what Minneapolis really is, so it’s very appropriate to show the truth here I think. To tune up the interactivity of this project, Arvold took a huge long video of the entire process, 10 days mashed into a little over 4 minutes of video.
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What is the internets coming to? I’ve spoken about this before, and I’ll speak about it again, as it’s always important to take note of your surroundings, especially when you work in the environment you study. Now I studied film, movies, in college, which makes me a superior bullshit artist. Movies have lots of elements, lots of people working on the ton-load of pieces that have to be put together to make entertainment or art. And what, since we’re here, does these internets take away from all that? Screencaps. As the internet social scene shares, it is the most micro content, the perfect moments, that get the macro attention.

It’s just like when graphic design got smart, reducing your brand’s name from 5 words to one. Simple, perfect.
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Now I have never seen, in my days of looking, a better description of what it is like to be a modern obsessive design…well…junkie. This person right here, Gabriel Baldessin sums it up as he describes his design collection: “Proof of a constant oscillation between accumulating objects (notably printed matter), and the desire to own the absolute minimum.” What a tangled web we weave when at first we practice to collect ephemera. I feel this, and so should you. You collector of cargo. Below you will see the evidence designer/photographer Gabriel Baldessin describes. Lovely things.
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The original title of this post was Unstoppable Rabbit Poster, but I mistyped it in a very correct way. I tell you about this exhibition event not only because Erik Brandt is a close friend of mine, but because his work is wild and the poster you see above is absolutely out of control, in a very controlled, calculated way. The exhibition is to take place at Virginia Commonwealth University and is a circle completion for Brandt, who there was once a candidate for his MFA. Look, listen, and read please, he is a good teacher.

Rabbits for everyone.
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When you take a seat at your local sidewalk-side business, do you think about where you’re sitting in proximity to the windows? Perhaps if you do, when the windows seem too small, this becomes a non issue. Or maybe if you do, you sit close because you like to show off what you’re wearing, or maybe it’s spring and you want to stay close to the warming of the world? This photo project/collection “Through The Glass” by Stefano Mattia asks these questions, if you ask me, especially the one “what are you looking at, buster?” To the photographer. Or to whoever’s looking.
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When I think of things precious, I think of a ring, I think of something breakable, something special. When I think of a breakable, special item, I think of Bleeding Gums Murphy of the Simpsons, who lost all of his riches spending it on Fabergé eggs, then breaking them in the alleyway. But that’s not this! Nay! This is the works of a Chinese magician artist by the name of Ma Jun. It is his trade to recreate objects of little worth in Porcelain, painting them with fine colors, creating in them a value far beyond the dreams of the original.

Below you’ll find a sampling of his newer and older works.
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For the month of March, our local music brain the Electric Fetus will be featuring the works of Paul Gardner of Flora Fauna! This means posters, posters, and more posters. This is one of those Minneapolis dudes who is hell of prolific and hell of genius. The event is something Electric Fetus calls MinnEconomy which, since they’re a Minnesota based music shop, makes them totally amazing – each month a local artist is featured, all of their product displayed at 10% off their regular cost. Worth it.
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AKA the “Dark Lens” series by Cédric Delsaux. What you’re about to see is a series of photographs of Star Wars characters and ships placed in a real Earth world. There has been a bit of confusion over these photos in the past, especially since they’re so hype-worthy and easily spread without accreditation. There are approximately 3 releases of these photos, each with a few new images added. The first came in 2005, the next sometime before 2007, and now the newest one in 2010. It’s a fascinating set of photos in which after the shock and awe of realizing that that’s a Jawa I see stealing my speeder parts, there comes a sense of fascination, a real new sense of “it’s all true, isn’t it?”
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How hop to get! My friend. My esteemed colleague and partner in interwobbling, Design Professor Erik Brandt, is having so many well-deserved honors in these new days! Today I am happy to pass on the word of his invitation to speak and workshop at an old school and blossoming location of his, Virginia Commonwealth University. Please learn more below, and if you are in the area, it would be a fantastic opportunity for you to go see him speak words to the world. Ask him questions about broken plugins on wordpress.
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Hello all you portfolio havers. Designers and artists, photographers and crazy people. Let me show you a rather interesting development in modern-day internet collections of works: The Grab Bag. That’s what designer Mark Stuckert calls it. It’s a side-collection of works that the artist has done, oddities they’ve found that are exclusive to them, or just wonderful mistakes.
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