How long after you started reading the Missed Connections section did you start making illustrations? What prompted this change – from simply reading to reacting visually?

From the first Missed Connection I read, I saw them as potential paintings. The idea for the series percolated in the wee hours that night and for once I woke up and got on with it! The decision to make it a blog, rather than just accumulate the images for some undetermined project down the line, was purely to enforce self-discipline. I thought that if even one person was looking at the blog, I’d feel obliged to keep producing the work. As all freelancers know, it’s not easy to maintain a personal project alongside all your “actual” work, no matter how enthusiastic you are. I didn’t want this one to go the way of the unfinished novel in the drawer.

The fact that more than one person looked at the blog was, and continues to be, the most extraordinary bonus.

Do you remember the first missed connection you illustrated? What did you find intriguing?

That’s the other great thing about having a blog as opposed to a shifting pile of drawings in a cupboard…it neatly archives everything. I can therefore tell you with accuracy that the first Missed Connections I illustrated was “I Had a Blue Hat,” on March 9, 2009.

You had a guitar. I had a blue hat. We exchanged glances and smiles on the subway platform. I pretended to read my New Yorker but I couldn’t concentrate. You got on the Q and I stayed on to wait for the B. You were lovely.

It felt like the perfect introductory one; it is almost the missed connection formula right there: We saw each other, I look like this, you look like that, I thought you were lovely, I know it’s a long shot but I’d really like to see you again. It was fun and easy to simplify the two characters to their accessories, with subtle details…the hat’s feather inclining wistfully and the guitar’s arrow leaving the scene.

Are you keeping the sources local?

For now I’m just concentrating on New York. There’s a deep well of material here, as colorful and fascinating and surprising as the city itself…but I’d quite like to do some rural ones one day.

Have you ever been contacted by one of your subjects?

Yes! A couple of times. The man who “shared a bear suit at an apartment party” wrote to me and even sent a photo of himself taken that evening in the costume! That was fantastic. The “long, curly haired” woman wrote, as did the “floral jacket,” and many people wrote claiming the “girl with the scrabble tattoo” was their dear friend.

Have you ever listed a missed connection on a site or in the paper?

No. I was tempted once, but it wasn’t a romantic connection, more a misunderstanding I wanted to clear up. I was on a bus, watching a man from the window who was grappling with a very, very big, heavy Ikea box on a very, very small, flimsy luggage cart. I was staring with what I thought was obvious empathy but this guy looked up, saw me and gave me the finger. (He happened to be rather cute, but that is irrelevant to the story.) He took out his iPhone, held it up, snapped a picture of me, and furiously flipped me off again. By this time I was contorting my face into increasingly grotesque grimaces meant to convey sympathy rather than mockery. I may have flapped my hands inanely. I can’t help thinking he enlarged that photo, hung it above his assembled Ikea unit and now uses it as a dartboard. I considered posting a message to redeem myself, but realised he would be way too busy with all those pieces of birch veneer and the wrong sized allen key to be checking Craigslist.

You’ve been working on the Missed Connections project for a little over a year. How long do you plan to continue?

Until I feel like doing something new, I guess. For now, the possibilities still feel infinite.

Is a book still in the works?

Yes. It is to be called You Probably Won’t Read This: A Year of Missed Connections, and will be published by Workman in 2011.

What projects are you currently working on?

I have three picture books on my desk in various stages of completion, and they’re all overdue. (Shh, don’t tell my editors.) One particularly exciting one is Aldous Huxley’s The Crows of Pearblossom. It’s the only children’s book he ever wrote and it’s an honor and an enormous thrill to be illustrating it.

You directed and designed for The Navigators’ music video. Have you ever worked on a project like this before? What was it like to direct the video after designing the matchboxes?

I have never done project like this – this was in my charge from the very beginning till the end. The actual direction wasn’t hard, it was all about the finalized designs, good locations and capable editor (thank you, Petr from asfalt.tv, again.)

How did you get the idea for for the video? Why matchboxes?

I had the idea of matchbox video in my mind for quite a long time. I am a big fan of vintage and retro graphics, especially Eastern European [graphics] (Czechoslovakian, Polish, Hungarian). Matchboxes with its messages had a long tradition in communist Czechoslovakia, they were used mainly for communicating quite dull or weird messages, such as “Don’t stir vegetables while cooking;” “Tetanus kills;” [and] “Fertilize half of the fields this winter.”

How did you make them?

I was interested in designing each matchbox as if it worked on its own but together they’d build a consistent collection of lyrics. The very first idea was an old mad man showing his collection of matchboxes, as if he just has coincidentally found out that the words on them are very similar to the ones in the song.

Mr Fuksa designed a booklet for The Navigators’ record “My Place.” He created matchbox-style graphics for each track on the album.

How long did it take to design all of the matchboxes? What became of them?

The whole design of matchboxes took four days. I was working overnight and my wife was not very happy…I saved some of them form me and my friends, but the majority of them were handed out at the party for the very first run of the music video. They were handed out for free and became a huge hit! I designed the CD cover and the booklet in the same design style.

How do you know The Navigators?

This was my first encounter with the band. I was trying to find a band who sings in English and have a good song full of lyrics which would be suitable for this idea of mine. My friend got me a tip for the Navigators and we found out that we have similar sense of humour and we literally clicked.

What projects are you working on now?

I am working on a second music video for Navigators, writing some ideas for two more music videos for other bands and meanwhile I do freelance designs for companies from [the] US, Netherlands and Czech Republic.

Do you hope to continue with production work, or do you want to do more design work?

I would like to do half and half. I can’t currently decide what I’d like more, whether shooting or designing. I really like to put my twisted sense of humor into everything I do and I don’t mind if it is moving image or the still design.

Deanne Cheuk is an artist and illustrator from Perth, Australia. She graduated from Curtin University with a degree in graphic design when she was 19 years old.

Cheuk has directed and designed for numerous publications, including a three year stay as art director at Tokion Magazine. Her major clients include Dell, Nike, Levi’s and Target.

Her style is unique: she employs water-color paints, collage and drawn typography. The hand-rendered quality of her work embraces imperfection, making it  more personable.

Color is part of what makes Kolakovic’s style unique: his palette is faded, desaturated. The same teals and turquoises, yellows and oranges are present in many of his pieces. Shapes are simple, geometric and cut-out. Kolakovic applies a subtle texture to his work.

Images taken from the Heart Agency’s website.

Work in Guatamala City by street artist Above during a South American tour in 2007.

At The Journal we spend a lot of time discussing design. More specifically, we talk about user interfaces, graphic design and typography. To take a break from the norm, Inksie’s Dave gives us a tour of one of his inspirations, street art.

Before the computer, graphic design was necessarily tactile. The primary exports of the industry were things like books, posters and periodicals. Type was physical; images were on negatives; layouts were sketched.

Street art and graffiti get back to these sensuous roots. They are art for the everyday, the masses. They manipulate a reality beyond the digital. They are about seeing things in a different way, about an experience, a message. They are about expression.

What’s best part? Its free.

Perspective + Comparison

Street art is, in appearance, similar to the graphic design world in many ways. Graphic arts easily relate to crafts and prints. Even though stencils and spray paint are similar in form, street art and graffiti seem to not be valued in the same manner. Banksy’s work shows up on popular blogs every now and then, but its quite rare to see any other street artists receive recognition. Its a bit frustrating for me, as this was something that sparked my interest in art in the first place. So, I decided to collect a few of my favorite street artists’ work and explain what I find so special about them.

In this time spent studying and finding new things about these artists, I have found a difference between what is considered Street Art versus Graffiti. These artists want to be categorized in their respective fields as it is becoming almost competitive. While searching, I came across a blog that puts this into perspective.

From the position of Graff artists, there has been a lot of apprehension towards Street Art. In one sense it is disappointing to have this perception of dichotomy between ’Street Art’ and ‘Graffiti.’ However the differences between these styles and the tribal politics of Graff have rendered some level of competition inevitable. It is very important to recognize that these differences are major, and that behind them is a vast difference in ideas, aesthetic approaches, culture and history.

Defined: Graffiti is traditional spray painting or tagging while Street Art can be any form of art pasted on walls such as stencils, sticker posting, wheatpasting, street poster art, installations, etc. John Fekner put it plainly when he defines street art as “all art on the street that’s not graffiti.”

Above

"You may not get arrested painting illegally in broad daylight but you sure do get interrupted by curious people passing by," states street artist Above on his website.

I came across Above not too long ago, after reading about his mobile projects that he has ran across Europe, North America, and South America. He started graffiti at a young age. His Above logo, an arrow pointing up, is all over the streets of Paris and Californian cities, an evolution of his Sign Language Tour.

His process is quite involved. Each of these arrow mobiles requires 15 steps to complete. When asked how he makes these:

Good ol’ fashioned wood. I use a jigsaw and still have all 9 of my fingers. So everything seems to be going smooth. After the wooden arrow is cut some other elements such as gluing fabrics, and textiles on to the wood as well as screen printing words and design elements onto the fabrics complete the process.

He even hit up our hometown (Portland, Oregon) and did an interview with a local paper Willamette Weekly. They asked him if people seem to like his arrows. This project took years to create, and his only concern is if it evokes a legitimate human reaction or emotion.

I’m not sure if people like them as much as they seem to evoke a lot of curiosity and imagination as to how they got up there and what they mean. I like that aspect of the arrows: they’re vague. Each reaction holds its own true validity.

There are more and more films being created of these street artists doing their work. It’s always nice to read about them, but getting the chance to see it happen in real-time is a whole different experience. A New York based graphic artist collective recently teamed with Above to create this film of his South Central tour in 2007-2008, making their way from Rio De Janiero to Mexico City.

Banksy

Banksy has proven to be among the most influential artists throughout my ‘artistic’ experiences in life. His work was what initially piqued my interest in art. In  stenciled graffiti, he could ask the most profound of questions and make a bold statement with an ordinary graphic. I found it especially interesting that he kept himself hidden. This seems somewhat necessary in the line of work that he does, but to literally never reveal yourself to take credit for any of your work is quite a feat. This makes a big statement about him as an artist, since he disregards himself and puts his message first. To him its not about recognition. It completely changed my concept of what art was and what it could be.

Apparently, he is releasing a documentary about his work aptly titled Exit Through the Gift Shop. It had it’s first screening at Sundance yesterday. This will be the first-ever recording of him creating his work. I can’t wait for this to be released, it almost makes me want to fly down to Park City this week to see it.

Ellis Gallagher

Keith Haring was a large influence in the artistic community in many different ways. He was a very outside-the-box street artist with his many famous subway pieces in New York. Ellis Gallagher is one that has been influenced by his work and has taken it in his own new direction. He replicates shadows of found objects on the street, tracing them by the shadows they cast. It appears his process is much more involved than Haring’s. He takes so much into consideration with each piece: everything from the size of the object to the different colors of light.

It’s sad in many ways because his works wash away very quickly, usually not lasting any longer than a month. These are all chalk drawings; they become ruined after either foot traffic or rain. This makes the artwork feel much more limited and each piece more unique.

Os Gêmeos

Os Gêmeos, Portuguese for The Twins, is the name adopted by identical twins Otavio and Gustavo. They are among Brazil’s most influential graffiti artists. Birthing out of the South American hip-hop era, they happened to run into not-yet-famous American graffiti artist Twist. They fused styles from both cultures, creating a unique breed of graffiti. This style was usually in the form of uncommon illustrative portraits featuring yellow-skinned people that were “taken from the yellow tinge both of the twins have in their dreams.”

They were forced to create their work outside of popular locations such as subways, and instead created on surfaces of large buildings. This was one thing that drew me to their work: its all on such a large scale, as opposed to so many other graffiti artists who mostly work within their own physical reach from the ground.

Swoon

I was excited to include an artist with a style that seems almost unheard of, wheatpaste. I would love to come across a piece incorporating this style. Wheatpaste is an adhesive created from vegetable starch and water. A print is placed on top of the paste to adhere the artist’s image to a surface. Swoon has been heavily involved with craft-based art projects and uses salvaged materials. The subject matter in these prints varies quite a bit, from very beautiful intricate characters, to purely metaphorical imagery. They are quite striking, very detailed and appear to take a long amount of time. There were so many of these that I want to feature, and it was hard to even pick these five.

108

The Italian artist 108 evolved from graffiti into street art. After spending time reading articles and seeing peoples’ lives devoted to user interface design and information architecture, I thought it quite hilarious when I read 108’s self-described direction: “[the] …firm intention to make visual chaos.”

I must admit: he is quite successful, and I thoroughly enjoy it. 108 seems to love his persona, and the mysterious nature of his large scale works. It’s a very interesting and unique take on street art.

I hope you enjoyed my collection of street/graffiti artists as well as some insights into their work. Please share some of your own, I would love to see some new material.

His expert use of color and composition make for moving, dynamic images. His style is simple yet pleasing, and his organic shapes are compelling.

Images taken from Raúl Colón’s Workbook.com gallery. Colón is represented by international illustration agency Morgan Gaynin, Inc.

Motion graphics artist Tomas Nilsson made this short animation for a school project to reinterpret the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. It is visually simple while containing complex information. Its a fun, unique take on the classic story. Enjoy!

After this flood of top 10 of 2009 lists over the past week, it was really refreshing to see Wolff Olins post a list of ten things they believe are to come in the year of 2010. Its always interesting to read future predictions others have for technology. Some are realistic, and some seem like they will take a bit of time to be comfortably implemented. Designers and artists alike need to be thinking with this mindset, of the future in relation to inventions of the past.

Here are the ideas:

• Augmented reality - The world expanded
• Better place – Making green cars work
• Crossbreed - A wheel that folds
• Dime – Magic sand
• Enhanced editions - Reinventing reading
• Gapminder - Truth made visual
• Nokia money - Pay by mobile
• PICO Projectors - Small screen to big
• RockCorps - Volunteering made cool
• Worldwide telescope - Experience the universe

I really like the title they gave to the first one. It makes the idea sound ultra-futuristic, like “augmented reality”, what is that? It just makes me think of some new kind of drug, I can already picture people saying ‘Hey man, let’s go get totally augmented’.

A lot of these have already been created, like the folding wheel, but it hasn’t been effectively combined with a product as of yet. Wolff Olins mentions on the page that it’s been placed on wheelchairs. who is in a wheelchair that can get up to fold it’s wheels, and why would they need to?

The second idea is fantastic, making green cars work. It goes back to the very origins that hybrid cars and asks why they were made in the first place (which no one seems interested in anymore for some reason). Yeah, you own a Prius, but what does that mean to me? Do you know how your car has directly effected the environment? What is to become of your car when it’s worn out? There are so many questions that need to be asked and solutions to be found to truly attain sustainable transportation. Hybrid cars are barely even scratching the surface of our earth’s environmental issues.

I really liked the summing up of the post with the three points they outlined, I heartily agree with these statements.

• Richer online experiences, normally small and flat, are becoming big and multi-dimensional
• East to West, people are bringing inventions or information from the developing world to the West
• Do the impossible, and all over the world, inventors are once again setting out to do the impossible

I want to reiterate how important, aware, and open we need to be of these developing trends. It’s difficult to embrace these positive changes that are open to us if we aren’t aware of their coming. Designers won’t know to think outside of the “small and flat” if they don’t know we’re headed for “big and multi-dimensional”.

I really hope 2010 is a 2nd Industrial Revolution (more like the 3rd, and this time without the child labor) for the whole world. Because, hey, I miss the early 1800’s. So tell us, what’s your favorite out of these ten new and exciting things to come of 2010, or which do you feel is unrealistic? We want to hear your thoughts.

Oh what to preface this article with? How about one exceedingly strong, opinionated, yet slightly exaggerated statement? Photoshop tutorials are one of the top ten most annoying things of this decade.

Things that these tutorials have provided:

• Emphasis on tools instead of process and original thought
• Confidence in abilities that don’t exist in the first place
• People ripping off other designers
• Mindlessness!

The one thing that bugs me the most is the emphasis of tools instead of process. Photoshop is a fantastic tool and has provided designers a new method of making their creations come to life. But, for many designers it is destroying the conceptualization and process stages that were always carried out before projects even began. Sadly, pencil (pen for some) and paper are beginning to be used less. While they are, without a doubt, the best tools in a designers toolbox for the initial stages of design.

Design provides answers to problems and beauty amidst the vast amounts of information that are consumed on a daily basis. These tutorials are baseless, colorful, and unoriginal ideas mashed together in a how-to guide for design. If anything it’s a manual of conformity based on someone’s absolute view of what design is. This in itself does not make any sense. There is much more to design than putting together pretty pictures on a computer.

It’s frustrating to see art devalued like this, it’s things like this that give people a skewed sense of what designers do. I heard a great quote on Read Between the Leading (fantastic show, you really should give it a listen) in reference to art movements making statements through their content,

“…We need a backlash against the idea that designers make things pretty. It’s been said in an offensive way and it’s been said in a place of ignorance, where, maybe you think that’s what a designer is.”

In the end I’m left at a bit of a loss, or a question I should say. Does the blame lie in the hands of the people providing these so called tutorials? Or the people following the tutorial? What do you think?

And by the way, it was a very painful experience to make these images… I hope you like our homage to our favorite typeface and browser.