Artful Vines

Some years ago a friend gave me a bottle of Bonny Doon Cardinal Zin. The label art was very different from most I'd seen and peaked my interest in wine just by its unique design. I decided at that moment that I would start a wine collection based on label art alone. I'm no wine connoisseur, I know nothing of the process, the grapes or the regions. All I know is if I've tried it and liked it. My collection has not grown much over the years. I think I've added 2 more from the same Vineyard with similar designs, and one of them was just opened and enjoyed yesterday taking it out of the collection. So in searching for another bottle, I found a website for the artist who designed those unique labels I like, Ralph Steadman.

You know the old saying "small world"? Well, sometimes I feel like everything in my little world connects. A few weeks ago a friend was telling me about Hunter S. Thompson and then a week later we watched Where the Buffalo Roam. Well, it turns out that the artwork for this movie's cover along with many illustrations related to the life and works of Thomspon were all created by the same artist who designed my Bonny Doon wine labels, and illustrated one of my beloved tales, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland! I guess there was a reason his work caught my eye. Its a style that embodies many of the works that interest me...wild, sketchy, and imaginitive.

Graphic Arts Exhibit at AI

A couple months ago I paid a long overdue visit to the Art Institute. Near the end of my walkthrough I discovered the museum's first ever exhibition devoted solely to graphic design. Being that this is one of my primary interests in fields of art I was ecstatic to see that it featured works that I had just been reading about that very week! Graphic Thought Facility is a well known British design firm progressively bringing innovations in print publishing, packaging, brand identity, product, and exhibit design. Having landed in the packaging industry for the past 5 years, I take particular note of the MeBox organizational storage system. Its exactly the kind of creative twist I would like to bring to my design department and say, "Hey! Why don't we do cool stuff like this?"

One designer I am familiar with is Tord Boontje whose distinct designs were featured in Target stores during the 2006 holiday season. The careful research and development of his work has resulted in 13 awards including Best Lighting Design, Innovation Prize for Textile Design, and Product Designer of the Year. He is, I believe, an inspiration to artists and designers of all facets.

Google Rocks Art!

I've been seeing a lot of artsy images and ideas through Google lately, which must mean that they have their eye on the arts. I think it was just last week that I noticed a change in my iGoogle homepage, "Get artist themes", and today I was greeted with a pleasant sunny image created by Google's Doodle 4 Winner. Apparently the masterminds at Google have invited K-12 students to reinvent Google's homepage logo around the theme "What if...?" Kudos to Google for inspiring creativity in all of us!