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The 2009 AIGA National Design Conference’s theme was “Make Think”.

“Make Think focuses on taking on the dichotomy of designers as both the makers of artifacts and masters of integrative thinking, and exploring the contrast between tangible/physical solutions and the strategic/innovative ways that designers use their creativity to defeat habit. This issue is especially relevant today, as we position design and its competitive advantage to emerge stronger and even more essential to business and society coming out of the current economic downturn.”
- Taken from “How does AIGA come up with a theme for the design conference?” by Richard Grefé

Passing this theme along to her students, Karyn Jimenez – Johnson & Wales University Design Professor and AIGA Rhode Island member – assigned a project to her students which she hoped would inspire them to “Make Think”.

“This project was assigned to my Digital Media Perspective Freshman Class. Each student was given a female and male t-shirt template and asked to hand draw a t-shirt design for AIGA that conceptually was around the idea of “Make Think” or actually contained the saying “Make Think”. Each student was given 2 days and presented their idea to the entire class.

Being the Digital Media Perspectives is a class where the computer is not used, It was an introduction for them into basic design practices involving, composition, color, hierarchy and hand drawn typography.”
- Karyn Jimenez

Here is a gallery with what the students designed.

The shirt design that wins the voting will be printed.

 

Voting

Choose which one you like best and then vote for it below. Use the number listed under the image as circled below.

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For the past month or so I’ve been reading a lot up on Augmented Reality in the flash environment. According to Wikipedia, Augmented Reality is “is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality.”

I observed many examples including useful applications like the United States Postal Service Virtual Box and GE’s Smart Grid. I wanted to develop something similar but on a simpler scale. After a couple of hours of work, and a few energy drinks later, I created a virtual world for my DME1020 class using Augmented Reality. I’d like to share this experience with the JWU AIGA community.

1 ) There are a few files we need before we begin the project. The Flash Augmented Reality Toolkit (FLAR), some attributes from the Flex framework, the Papervision3D library, and a small adobe air application to create our marker, as well as a .dat file that will control the parameters for our webcam. All of these files can be downloaded via this link.

2 ) We need a 3D object to load whenever we see our marker. Since it is so close to Thanksgiving, I’ve decided to use a turkey. Using Google SkethUp’s 3D warehouse I found a .zip of a turkey to use, which includes the necessary files and textures needed. First, click on “Download Model” and “download Collada .zip”. Extract the zip to a folder on your desktop.

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Over the past 6 months or so, I have been noticing an increasing trend in advertising for both print and television ads. A growing number of companies are joining this trend, and after this blog post, I hope that you will be more aware of it, and recognize it as you go about your life. The trend is minimalist and kinetic typography.

Pepsi

The first example I noticed was from Pepsi. They launched their “Refresh Everything” campaign that was the first major advertising campaign with their newly redesigned logo. They used the 2009 Presidential Inauguration as a vehicle to get their message out there. They launched their campaign and put it EVERYWHERE replacing all ‘O’s with the new Pepsi logo.

 

They also launched a television spot:

South Park

Mocking Pepsi, South Park Studios used this same ad format and produced a parody ad, which was played on Comedy Central last Winter.

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Recently I was contacted by the Event Chair for Relay For Life of Johnson & Wales, Tracy Weaver. She expressed a real interest, and recognized the creative possibilities of our group teaming up with the event planning committee for JWU’s Relay For Life.

Here is a taste of what she mentioned:

“Here are a few things we are looking to create:

• A JWU Relay specific logo (something that would incorporate aspects of the official American Cancer Society Relay logo but with a little JWU flare).
• A t-shirt design for the committee to wear to promote the event and cause.
• Any kind of poster designs we can get!  We are looking to do some event promo after the first of the year.  But we are also looking to do an informational/educational campaign on campus as well.”

Tracy will be attending one of our upcoming meetings to better explain what the committee is looking for, and even though the event is a long ways off, it is not too early to start brainstorming, and/or drafting designs.

If you are interested in participating and helping out with this cause here are some resources for you:

1. Relay For Life Logo – The American Cancer Society’s Logo for the Relay for Life event.
   • .gif format
   • .eps (vector) format
2. Johnson & Wales University Logo – JWU Crest Logo
3. Johnson & Wales University Identity Guidelines – While we are not designing for official university print, it is good to have a familiarity with Johnson & Wales’ logo and font-face guidelines. Download the PDF

While we do not have specific guidelines for any of these things, feel free to draw up some ideas and get a head start!

Looking for some inspiration for your Obscure Holidays Posters? Below are some links you might find helpful:

69 Stunning Gig Posters

30 Amazing Retro Posters and Fliers

Scientific Designs and Tutorials That Will Inspire You

60 Concert Posters From Ten Amazing Artists

40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters

45 Stylish Posters

Some Good Tutorials:

How To Design A Rockin 80’s Party Poster

Make An Inspiring Artistic Poster With Drawn Elements

Freebies:

The Ultimate Collection of Vector Freebies

60 Free Illustrator Brushes

Recently, AIGA produced a video encouraging people to get inspired, and to become involved in AIGA.

This video tells the story of AIGA: 94 years of history; a diverse membership from across the country, spanning all professional levels; a vast array of programs encompassing conferences, competitions, exhibitions, galas, awards, publications, democracy, solving global issues; and so much more.

AIGA is what you make of it – Sean Adams, AIGA President

Get motivated! Get excited! Get inspired!