The crowd at Webster Hall, NYC

Cut&Paste 2009 NYC was a sight to be seen. Hundreds of design fans came out to Webster Hall for Saturday evenings’ digital design competition featuring contestants working in 2D, 3D and ó for the first time ó motion. The Cut&Paste, founded by John Fioelli in 2005, has grown from a small apartment get-together to a sort of global hub for pushing the limits of inspiration. 2D design contestants were given 15 minutes. 3D contestants, 20 mins. The Motion contestants had 8 hours (count ‘em! 8 hours) to complete their pieces, working throughout the day and throughout the 2D and 3D heats. Each heat is given a theme to which they are to create a visual response, under all the stress of being on stage, all with good humor.

Stage screen set-up This year’s C&P NYC winners are:

2D / Winner: Miguel Hernandez 3D / Winner: Neil Benjamin Motion / Winner: Jake Guttormsson. Theme: History of Music Check out some of the action here.

I took piano lessons for many years, back during what feels to be a distant but familiar past. I came upon this video today during a conversation about precision, and I was struck by the eloquence with which a man spoke about music, both with words and with his hands. This intrigued me. To talk about the process of music (specifically, of playing music) sounds like talking about language, which sounds like talking about texture, which sounds like talking about design. Talking about a process while simultaneously playing out the process itself, and to be dynamically aware of the changes it creates. In the Masterclasses series with renowned pianist Daniel Barenboim, he speaks about what it is and what is takes to truly play Beethoven. Lang Lang, a colleague and younger talent in Beethoven sonatas (b. china, 1982), gets some intense advice on how he can be better at playing. It is not simply a matter of playing the notes. “It is not just sound. The problem is that this content cannot be really be articulated in an objective, rational, scientific way — with words. If it were possible to articulate it in an objective, rational, scientific way, the music would not be necessary. But the fact that it is not possible to articulate it in an object, rational, scientific way doesn’t mean that it does not have a content. And therefore, the question is, what is this content and how do we realize it?” – Barenboim, intro In another segment, he answers a question about crescendo, how to will a crescendo into being in the piano. It is not just pressure from your hands. I love that he doesn’t use the word “passion” here. To will a crescendo, to imagine the crescendo, and for the crescendo itself, when it occurs, to be the result of this imagining and willing. To relate back to design — I’m thinking about the idea that there is a content that is not the words written or typeset on the page, this content that is not expressed by the colors used, the paper used, the typeface, the size. That there is this something else that one articulates, something that could not be pronounced otherwise. Something that only through some said medium(s), by a hand and mind of a craftsman, can come together and be seen — and perhaps for the first time. And that each time we do this — we, as the presenters of this content — see it and will it into being every time, both in the imagination and into the world.

Spelling Change is a project involving a slew of people, the entire alphabet, and t-shirts. Some really beautiful and thoughtful letterforms have been contributed, all of which are featured on this site. Today begins an open call for contributions to create a letter to add to this vibrant alphabet.

A new book release this month — The Best American Comics 2008. It promises to be a fantastic collection of stories by comic artists working today. The cover art is a fun illustration of people, objects, animals and signage drawn by the very talented Eleanor Davis, whose work is also featured inside. Her techniques and style range and vary from project to project, and she always does such beautiful, lovely and unexpected things with typography in her work. from joe lambert’s flickr, via eleanor’s blog. thank you!

As of the last week of September 2008, JPMorgan Chase owns Washington Mutual, a bank known to many as WaMu. In these tricky financial rapids we are wading through now, it is one of quite a few revealing moments on the state of financial institution as we know them. From a branding perspective, I’m wondering what will happen to WaMu’s identity. Washington Mutual has spent the last several years creating a distinct and extensive brand identity to position itself as the anti-bank bank — a bank that makes you smile. WaMu stands for everything that other corporate-lingo-filled, stuffy blue-and-red banks do not. The design solutions are quite solid. The WaMu’s brand palette employs a rainbow of colors, a slew of funny images and photography, uses a contemporary sans-serif typeface (a customized version of DTL Prokyon / Dutch Type Library) and speaks in a language that makes you see banking as a simple and pleasurable part of your daily routine. That is certainly not JPMorgan Chase’s brand message, as far as I can tell.

[ Of course, at the end of the day, one can argue that all banks, more-or-less, do the same thing with your money. None of them are actually different from each other. But that would be a whole 'nother post on a whole 'nother blog. I'll leave that to someone else. In any case, I do appreciate that WaMu decided to put themselves out there in the world in a very different way than their direct competitors. That's pretty interesting to use such brand strategies in this sector. ]

I am curious to see how long we will see the color bars of WaMu’s printed materials floating around. As a brand, could WaMu exist as the colorful younger brother of Chase? Will we see a shift in Chase’s staid blue-on-more-blue-on-more-blue brand? I already feel the blue coming into play (see below). A friend linked me to this image the other day. Is this real or a spoof? note the copywriting here — its gonna be either terribly inappropriate or brilliant.