ALR designletter [5.2]
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Welcome to a new issue of the ALR designletter. As always we welcome your comments, suggestions, criticism and/or praise. Thanks for reading.
Noah Scalin, president
ALR design
socially conscious graphic design
http://www.ALRdesign.com
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[01] ALR NEWS
ALR contributed one of the over 400 glyphs that are part of Font Aid III: Fleurons of Hope. The project, which was created by The Society of Typographic Aficionados (http://www.typesociety.org/fontaid.html) and Building Letters (http://www.buildingletters.org/), a UK based charity design magazine, is a fundraiser for tsunami relief in the Indian Ocean region. Designers from around the world were asked to donate a fleuron (a floral symbol used in design and printing), which was then made into a charity-ware font. The proceeds from sales of the font, which is available from MyFonts,com (http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/fontaid/fleurons-of-hope/), go to Direct Relief International (http://www.directrelief.org/). The font will also be bundled with the next issue of Building Letters.
ALR's work is used to illustrate the article "Green Printing" in Dynamic Graphics Magazine’s April/May 2005 issue (http://www.dynamicgraphics.com/PUBS/DGM/dgm.aspx). Pieces used include our self promotional Haiku Postcards, posters for New Georges, and brochures for Target Margin Theater.
ALR's brochures for the 2003-2004 season of Target Margin Theater are featured in Rockport's new book Best of Brochure Design 8.
ALR's Anna/Bella/Eema poster for New Georges was given a Merit Award by the Richmond AIGA (http://richmond.aiga.org/) at their GRADE 2005 event.
[02] ACTIVISM
On March 13 The New York Times handed media conspiracy theorists fodder for a great big “I told you so.” According to the article, government agencies including State, Defense, Agriculture, even Health and Human Services have been circulating pre-produced video releases intentionally designed to slide right into a news broadcast line-up. Networks have not always been careful to note that the segment was produced by the very government agency the report invariable gives glowing praise to. If this bothers you http://www.stopfakenews.org/ makes it easy to tell the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission just what you think.
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Planned Parenthood is making sure every voice counts, especially those angry ones outside the clinic. The Austin, Texas Planned Parenthood has started the Pledge-a-Picket program. Like a charity run or a dance-a-thon, donors pledge between 25 cents and a dollar for every picketer in front of a Planned Parenthood facility on a given day. More demonstrators means more dollars! Get the whole story at http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/webzine/insidepp/ipp-041217-picket.xml
[03] WAR AND PEACE
Of all the things said about the United States’ foreign policy regarding Israel, journalist Joan Didion may have put it best when she compared it to an unclaimed bag on a bus: no one’s too sure of the contents, and everyone’s uncomfortable. Just Vision is a group committed to drawing attention to Israeli and Palestinian grassroots peace efforts through documentary film. One tool they’ve created is a timeline of the conflict from the Biblical period through the present with historical and personal mile markers. Learn more at http://justvision.org/timeline/timeline.php (thanks to list member John Emerson for telling us about the timeline, which he designed!)
[04] DESIGN
RSA Design Directions—a contest that recognizes new designers whose work addresses social and environmental issues—has launched its online exhibition for the winners from 2004. Lucy Hibburd’s postage stamps are especially provocative. At first glance, her series of brightly illustrated images, a tomato, a butterfly, a flower, and a leaf, seem like the lovely and innocuous illustrations from children’s books. But each image is squared and misshapen. The fine print labels them genetic modification experiments. See Hibburd’s work and other award winners at http://www.rsa-design.net/directions/2003-04/exh/09-LH.htm
[05] RESOURCE
Radical Reference, at http://radicalreference.info/, brings research into the realm of hip. The site is staffed by library volunteers committed to the free exchange of ideas and information. Radical Reference initially formed to help activists and independent journalists get information during the Republican National Convention this summer and it’s kept on growing ever since. Check it out for stats and sources for whatever project you’re working on.
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From blogs to e-surveillance, our friend John Emerson at Backspace provides a comprehensive primer for everything you ever needed to know about activism online. The guide, which uses a blog-like interface to allow comments and updates, is Creative Commons licensed to encourage distribution and further refinement. Let the learning begin at http://backspace.com/action/.
[06] MEDIA
Electronic music makes for strange bedfellows. Like when Danger Mouse crossbred The Beatles’ White Album with Jay-Z’s Black Album and gave birth to the Gray Album. Ultra-Red takes mixing to the next level, and when this activist/arts collective out of L.A. introduced art to politics, the Transmissions series was born. Their DJ used samples taken from an anti-deportation protest in the airport in Frankfurt Germany to make a driving house track. Copies of the song were distributed to DJs across the Balkan region—where most of the refugees deported from the airport in Germany were being returned. The DJs reinterpreted the track, put their own twist on it and sent it back. The result is a record that really puts the anthem back in club anthem and proves once and for all that electronica is the folk music of today. The best part is that it’s all licensed under Creative Commons and available for free download here: http://www.ultrared.org/publicrecord/directory.html (Thanks to list member Shannon for pointing us to this one).
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The United Church of Christ is a smallish denomination committed to inclusivity and the doctrine of “extravagant welcome.” But when they tried to buy ad space on television, NBC and CBS thought it was too hot for network television. The ad shows bouncers outside a church turning down certain congregants and then states UCC’s commitment to welcoming everyone. The networks wouldn’t air it because it “takes a position on one side of a current controversial issue of public importance.” See the ad and learn about UCC’s fight for airtime at http://uccoc.org/view3/
[07] SHOPPING
Javalog. Sounds like that mid-morning malaise between first cup of the day and the pick-me-up before lunch. Not for Rod Sprules. According to the Javalog website (yes, even fireplace logs have websites), Sprules was experimenting at home one evening mixing his coffee grounds with candle wax and invented the Robustion Javalog: fireplace fuel made out of recycled coffee grounds. Javalog burns brighter, and cleaner than those dirty chemical-burning logs you find elsewhere and has a sweet (non-coffee) smell. To learn more, visit http://www.robustion.ca/
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Forget the red and blue party cups. The newest thing in disposable party flatware is Potatopak plates from New Zealand. The company extracts potato starch from the local French fry factory’s wastewater to make plates, trays, and bowls that are biodegradable and microwave safe. Potatopak even promises that all of their waste is donated to the local pig farmer to feed his livestock. Order your own at http://www.potatoplates.com/
[08] FOOD
Free beer! Ok, it’s more like free as in “liberated,” than free as in “no cost,” but a group of Norwegian students has publicly released their beer recipe. The beer is protected under Creative Commons, so entrepreneurs out there are free to sell it for a profit as long as they publish the recipe, and everyone else is free to enjoy the open source brew. The innovative recipe includes guarana beans, a natural source of caffeine, to offset the sleepiness beer traditionally causes. Get started at http://www.voresoel.dk/
[09] BOOKSHELF
Kembrew McLeod owns the phrase “freedom of expression” and has made a career capitalizing on the cultural backwardsness his situation highlights. Fittingly, his book Freedom of Expression®: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity—published by Doubleday—is also available as a free PDF download at http://kembrew.com/books/. The book has won praise from Harvard law professors and Chuck D alike, as required reading for those interested in intellectual property law and the free exchange of ideas.
[10] LEXICON
E-Waste (Noun). E-waste is the dark side of Apple’s i-Life, and we don’t just mean the dancing silhouettes in the iPod commercials. The tech industry’s commitment to planned obsolescence means keeping up with the latest trends produces a lot of electronic waste—e-waste—when we clear away old monitors and CPUs. Old tech equipment is full of hazardous toxic materials and there are only a few recycling programs equipped to deal with e-waste. Computer Take Back is an organization dedicated to putting pressure on Apple in 2005 to exercise more responsible product stewardship and help Apple buyers recycle their old computers more easily. Check their website for more information and to find a recycling location nearest you http://www.computertakeback.com.
[11] NOSH
Who owns the rights to your arm? Matthew Reed from TigerLilly Tattoo and DesignWorks in Portland, OR has an artistic bone to pick with another local business in town: Wieden+Kennedy. W+K is an advertising firm that handles all of Nike’s ads. The company used the tattoo on Portland Trailblazer’s Rasheed Wallace’s arm in a spot for some new Nike sneaks. Reed says Nike’s use of the image infringes on his intellectual property rights for his original artwork and is suing for damages. (source: DetNews.com 2/15/05. Thanks to list member Chris Gatewood for sending us this one)
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The ALR Designletter is a semi-regular update on the activities at Another Limited Rebellion design, the world of socially conscious design, and beyond. You are on this list because you have worked with, contacted, or have a personal connection to ALR design. The names on this mailing list will never be sold or given away. If you no longer wish to be on this list, just respond with "REMOVE" in the subject section and there will be no hard feelings. Back issues can be found on our web site in the ISSUES section.
Sources are listed when information was found in one specific location. However, articles are not quoted verbatim in this newsletter.
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