Sketchitecture

Frank O. Gehry’s sketches of architecture are so odd in subsatnce and design and yet so complete  that one can envision the whole thing as though they are walking through a building.  This Canadian-American is an award winning arcitect whose work is now considered a tourist attraction in Santa Monica, California.  This attraction is his home which was a major factor in his famous status.  His style is considered contemporary and perhaps one on the most talented and influential of our time.  But, it all started with his amazingly intricate sketches.

Like most true talent, he had very early beginnings in architecture, building villiages out of wood shavings with his grandmother, working with scraps in his grandfather’s hardware store, and drawing with his father.  It is the kind of ability that one is not able to falsify or duplicate.  Although he has received many awards, he, like so many others, has had his share of criticism as well.  He shapes and design has been said to go outside the guidelines of purpose and locational climate.  Although they may have a point, the opinion can be held that art has no guidelines.  That there is no set criteria of how one has to design a building.  Having seen many of his buildings, they far outway any expense for unnecessary materials to create amazing archetecture out of a detailed sketch. Unfortunately, his clients were not always thrilled with the budget overage that came with his massive works of art.  In fact, one of his projects, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, went almost $175 million beyond the budget, but now we all have a tourist attraction in Los Angeles.


http://www.arcspace.com/studio/gehry/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry

'Crum' I love NY, and Motion Graphics

Milton Glaser, a graphic designer since the 1960s, is considered one of the best graphic designers today.  He is undoubtedly the most well known for his design of the famous logo “I love NY”.  He actually recently updated this logo to include a black spot on the heart and the addition of the words “More Than Ever” to the bottom in hopes to rekindle the love after the 9-11 attack on the Twin Towers. Glaser’s original work, which he thought would only last a matter of months, is now considered a symbol of pride for state and since the attack, pure patriotism.  The logo is now splashed on everything from t-shirts, bumper stickers, key chains, movies, to even car commercials (which many New Yorkers were not pleased about).  In addition to this wide spread success, he designed the well known Bob Dylan poster, the Brooklyn Brewery logo, and the DC Bullet of DC Comics.  He also co-founded the New York Magazine with Clay Felker.  He opened his own graphic design company in the 1970s which got him a large variety of jobs from album covers to building art.
Glaser is most recently known for his newly designed logo for the Brooklyn Brewery, which would be the first since the Prohibition Era.  Tom Potter, co-founder of the brewery, brought Glaser in to design the bottles for their products.  A very sensible decision, since Glaser is so well known for his “I Love NY” logo.


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

http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Milton+Glaser/stories/0.html

Revolution

Saul Bass revolutionized graphic design.  His work not only changed the era in which he lived, but has resulted in a complete new strategy for movies.  Back in the 1950’s, when attending a movie, one would not have seen the movie credits.  However, when Bass designed the credits for the movie The Man with the Golden Arm, history was changed.  His use of the black cut out arm immediately struck audiences, where they would have normally seen Frank Sinatra’s face.  His use of lines, colors, and lack thereof were a change to the normally boring mundane credits that normally flooded the screen.  He made it into an art form.  This was only the beginning of his notable movie credits.  He is well known for the work that he did with Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, and Martin Scorsese.  Although these movies could have been just as distinguished without the artistic credits at the beginning, we will never really know.

Bass’s credits are indeed one of his most famous works of art.  However, that is not all that he accomplished in his lifetime.  He also designed many of the logos that we are so familiar with today.  Some of which are Continental Airlines, Bell, Exxon, AT&T, Avery, Girl Scouts, and Kleenex.  His work is in so many places that not many Americans could truly say that they have not see Saul Bass’s work.  He completely changed art as it was known and I am sure that most if not all graphic designers strive to achieve his success.

http://designmuseum.org/design/saul-bass

http://www.thelooniverse.com/movies/west/saulbass/logos.html