This song / video is making me really happy right now.

Seriously.

For my Editorial (magazine design) class, I’m working on a magazine I named “Covet”. Covet is about obsessions and addictions in a variety of flavors. Articles will range from The Severed Head as a Fetish Object (below), to OCD and hoarding and world domination and consumerism and gambling and drug addictions and and and and…

I was originally going to do a horse magazine, because I thought I had paid my dues with other topics and it was finally time to do a pony project. My very first creative exploits consisted of drawings horses–all told I think I probably made 1000s of them–but at some point in highschool I was told to give the equines a rest, and I did. For a good…plenty of years. Horses would be a fun and easy magazine topic. I would be able to take my own photography and practice the photo retouching skills I’m learning in another class.

But alas, it was not to be. I was bored to tears almost instantly. The thing I forgot–or maybe just didn’t realize in my horse-crazed teenage years–is that magazine about horses are more than a little dry. Not to mention poorly written. When Nik (our department chair) sat down with me for lunch in the cafeteria last week and asked what I was working on this term, “Trot” was not sounding particularly promising, even to me. We tried (rather unsuccessfully) to figure out how to bring this rather unpromising magazine to life, but it turned out I was just beating a dead horse (ahem), as it were. You can lead a boring project to water, but you can’t beat it to death once you get there.

Starting over week 5 (more than 1/4 through the term) is always fun. My first attempt at the feature article about decapitation is below. Yummy. (Click to make them bigger, and please don’t talk about my widows–I haven’t worked on the type yet.)

For my cover I’m going to have a flap of paper covering the main image, to be lifted off for a reveal of the (very understated) masthead/logo. I’ve been playing with some fun imagery to hide, and I’m excited to mock it up.

Here’s looking at you, projectors.

If I had to pick two things to only eat for the rest of my life, they would be frozen yogurt and pho.

Editorial is in a room where they also hold a Drawing Concepts class. This is a snake.

Blood.

Brains.

Kelsey drew this picture of my cat in a coffee cup in another late night Winchell’s expedition.

Typestudies for my new Editorial project.

When Kelsey and I stay up late working, we occasionally make midnight donut runs to the Winchell’s near her house.

And donuts displays fit into modular dreams very well.

These are my birthday shoes from Angeline Tournier in London.

I call this one “floral bag, out of focus”

Sean teaches the chillins about oldstyle numerals and when to use them.

A riveting Communication Design 4 critique. Obviously the TA’s job is to look for photo-ops.

Sometimes you find broccoli in the weirdest places.

This weekend I took a little field trip to the famed Rose Bowl Flea Market to get some props for my Editorial project. I’ve been hearing about this monthly event since I moved here, but never thought much of it or had the time. Turns out it’s GIGANTIC. I was on a deadline so I didn’t get to browse like I wanted to, but hopefully next time I’ll get a chance to do some serious treasure hunting.

The flea market is held in the parking lots surrounding the famous stadium. Cars and gates and police officers are everywhere. It’s $8 to get in, but a lot cheaper than a day at Disneyland.

I acquired two plastic steeds to photograph for class (post coming soon), and used the rest of my energy taking pictures of nick nacks.

The collections of weird things were astounding. Here you can see an assortment of scissors of various lengths. Some other highlights included a box of sheriff badges and a whole booth devoted to vintage Playboys.

I want–nay I NEED this gold chair. Doesn’t everyone?

Too bad my house is already decorated to the gills–some of these little chotchkies would fit right in.

When I work on executing the grunt-work portion of my projects, I often watch television. Recently I started watching Dexter, from Showtime. The title sequence, designed by Digital Kitchen, is absolutely genius and I just had to share.

Dexter is a show about a serial killer who kills serial killers. The prior of the killers happens to work for the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood spatter analyst. The genius is in the implication and anticipation of violence, when in fact Dexter is simply getting ready for work.

Rainy Saturdays are for doing homework in bed. Also, living at the top of a big hill reassuring.

Way back in first term–knee high to a grasshopper as I was–we were assigned in Communication Design 1 to make a magazine cover for Architectural News using the idea of “fused metaphors.” We were told to make lists of each of the things to be represented (in our case America and architecture), and find a way to combine them metaphorically. Our reference material was a series of such covers, inspiring at the time, but not memorable in my over-stimulated mind.

This term, in the same class (which I now TA), Sean is showing presentations of noteworthy designers each week. My job is to compile images and make a slideshow to share with the kiddies and help them with their visual literacy. When we chose Alvin Lustig and Ivan Chermayeff, I was excited to do the research, but I wasn’t expecting to find so many ingenious examples of this “fused metaphor” business. In my further inspection of the Architectural News covers by Chermayeff & Geismar that I hadn’t seen since first term, I found new inspiration in the simple yet intelligent solutions.

“Interiors” Architectural News, Chermayeff & Geismar, 1964

“The Architecture of Storage” Architectural News, Chermayeff & Geismar, 1967

“American Institute of Architects in Washington” Architectural News, Chermayeff & Geismar, 1965

“American Institute of Architects in Denver” Architectural News, Chermayeff & Geismar, 1966

Communication and Control in Buildings 1966

“Building Systems” Architectural News, Chermayeff & Geismar, 1967

“Building Performance and Architect’s Responsibilities” Architectural News, Chermayeff & Geismar, 1965

“Joints” Architectural News, Chermayeff & Geismar, 1964

“Hospitals” Architectural News, Chermayeff & Geismar, 1965

“Load Baring Masonry” Architectural News, Chermayeff & Geismar, 1964