You wouldn’t think that moving from the 7th floor of a building to the 8th would be a big deal, would you?

Well then… you haven’t been a busy design practice with a bunch of gotta-save-everything designers on staff. Collectors. Catalogers. Archivers. Designers!

The good news is: Minimal change to our address… just a new suite: SUITE 812.

New phone number (not yet confirmed) is easy to remember… a bunch of 8’s: 301-270-0888.

In its entirety, our new info:

designfarm
6930 Carroll Ave
Suite 812
Takoma Park, MD 20912

P: 301-270-0888 (unconfirmed but we are crossing our fingers)

I’ve let my New Yorker subscription lapse recently and not because I don’t enjoy reading this entertaining and smart magazine. Politics, literature, reviews, humor… it’s all there. The problem for me… it’s sort of too all there. As a weekly jam-packed text-heavy publication, TNY tends to pile up on the dining room table, leaving me with feelings of intellectual laziness and/or guilt. Confession: Sometimes I just read the cartoons. (Come on, so do you!) Look, I’m a busy mom with a job and a half… give me a break! I just don’t have time. But make no mistake, I love The New Yorker. One thing I actually often make time to read is the front section that describes the goings-on at the NYC galleries, movie theaters, etc. It somehow makes me feel connected to, if deeply lonesome, for the great city where everything happens about a year before it hits DC (if it hits at all).

Oddly, my subscription seems to have ended with the controversial Obama + Michelle as Islamic Terrorists cover. The mag wasn’t in my mailbox this week, so I heard about this from my mom, pulling up the image later on my computer.

So, we’ve established that I am a TNY magazine reader and bigtime fan. For the purposes of this essay, let’s also just go out on a professional limb and establish (in case it’s a secret, ha!) that I am also a political progressive. Very left of center. I like Obama and I want him to win the Presidency. There you have it, my cards are on the table as I am about to offer a bit of harsh criticism to my beloved TNY.

What I’d like to say simply is this. MEMO TO THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??! AND &%$#!@.

What I’m going to say instead is: The New Yorker covers, and not just this one but particularly this one, often suffer from a big failure of communication, a failure of design and marketing. A big fat FAILURE OF MESSAGE CLARITY.

Shame on you TNY. You are much too sophisticated for that. Aren’t you?

If you know the magazine, you know that the cartoons are often satirical. Heaping dollops of irony. A long time ago, I felt intellectually ashamed when I didn’t “get” a TNY cartoon. What was I missing? More importantly why was I missing it? I’m smart, political, savvy and cool… why don’t I understand the humor?? Is it because I didn’t go to Harvard or Yale? Later I realized, it’s a running joke among readers: While some cartoons are quick and easy, and laugh-out-loud funny, others can be so obtuse that the humor is buried under such opaque layers of literary or political or some other reference that most people aren’t getting the joke. Whew!

The covers, which are marketed and sold by the magazine as framed works of art, employ illustration, a graphical tool that brings point of view into play automatically by its very nature. Sometimes the illustrations are simple, a gently sweet comment on the season. Here is one such cover from 2002 by Gahan Wilson. Easy peasy, right? My 10 year old would “get” this, and importantly: NO caption is needed. We all get it: Fall, Halloween, witches, broomsticks, etc, whatever!

There are many many such TNY covers. Friendly, easy non -satirical, non -ironical subjects. Treated non- satirically and non- ironically. Played straight, by the art director and the illustrator, who have worked together to come up with the image. The message, if there is one, (It’s Fall! Enjoy!) is clear. But the covers are not always lacking in social and political commentary.

Here is another, from 2007 by Anita Kunz.

And now we should tell you something else about the TNY covers. Each cover, each illustration actually has a caption, a title if you will, but this text is nowhere in sight. You will have to look very hard to find this title, it’s on page 3 or 4, tucked in with the Table of Contents and in rather small type. Are you beginning to see a problem here? W/r/t the cover above… I think I get it and you probably do too. But I’m not 100% sure. Clearly, this image is a commentary on religion and women, sexuality, freedom of expression, east, west, and… maybe, California? But, who is the blonde? Frankly, at the risk of admitting my ignorance here… I am thoroughly unsure if she is someone specific, perhaps some political scandal chick, vs. a generic representation of free-wheelin’ Western (or at least rumored and depicted as such) feminine sexuality and bodaciousness. I just don’t know. I’m simply not sure. I’m sitting here thoughtfully considering it… and I’m still not certain. If I walked past this image on the newsstand, it would register quickly and with no small amount of blurred uncertainty. Just what is the New Yorker trying to tell me? What is their position? What are they promoting, supporting, criticizing? WHAT IS THE MESSAGE?

I’m left in my intellectual wonderland. And perhaps so are you. As is the rest of the world, because this is a globally published image. I found it in about 3 seconds with the help of Google.

The point, dear consumers-of-good-design is this: When text and images are not handled intelligently (no matter the intelligence of either or both), responsibly, hierarchically and with regard for BASIC principles of graphic design… it can be, and sometimes is, a very dangerous thing.

Finally, way down here at the bottom of my post, is the catalyzing subject of this rant. It would be more like me to place this image top, front, and center on the FourthWall blog because it would get your attention more than the TNY logo will… but guess what? Unless you had more context than even my title suggests, THAT would be graphically irresponsible, creating an instant blur of meaning and message, wide open for (mis)interpretation. What is designfarm saying? Isn’t Jodi a liberal? Why is she furthering the storm over that terrible image? Doesn’t she want Obama to win? YES, she does.

So, while I do love seeing Michelle in a big bad afro, it’s funny and cute, and I’m all about ‘fro’s these days… I just don’t think this is funny. It’s certainly not responsible, politically or editorially. It’s bad design, and it’s dangerous. Because when people walk by the newstands, they have no reason NOT to think that even good old liberal TNY magazine recognizes that Barak Obama MAY JUST BE A MUSLIM FUNDAMENTALIST, and his bigmouth sassy wife is PROBABLY A TERRORIST.

Why?

The answer is simple, but let’s push the point, just in case. A POWERFUL, COMPLEX IMAGE WITH NO CAPTION. NO WORDS. NO INFORMATION HIERARCHY.

Now, let’s open every designer’s friend, PhotoShop, just for fun, adding the cover image’s title, where, of course, it belongs. Let’s forget about fonts, placement, and other surface matters that we designers do care about but since this isn’t a real project, let’s just stick the title/caption on there, with a hierarchy that MAKES CERTAIN everyone “gets” it.

I think my point is clear, if ugly. And ugly is better than confusing, any day. The New Yorker, of course, was commenting on the fear generated by rampant rumor-mongering about Barack Obama, and his wife. They stand by their decision and are not apologizing. But they should. Don’t get me wrong, bad design is forgivable, no apology necessary…. when it’s toilet paper packaging, or toothpaste, and in many other contexts. Not this one.

The New Yorker made a big mistake in assuming that the 1 million people they allege as viewers of the magazine every week bring a level of context and understanding to their presentation of information, to their graphic design and editorial. Well, we don’t. Not those of us who are actually thinking about the barrage of images coming at us a mile a minute every minute of every day, and certainly not those of us who are less attuned.

MEMO TO THE NEW YORKER: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING when publishing potent, challenging, multi-level, complex ironic satiric visuals without accompanying text in a purposeful and clear information hierarchy?

OR, ARE YOU THINKING AT ALL?

And, if not, why not?

Everyone who knows me knows I love clothes. Never completely content with the work of (most) other designers, I’ve been creating my own clothes for a long time. Sadly, I can’t sew worth a dang! But that, my friends, has not stopped my creativity… oh, noooooo. This little hurdle only means that my designs must be constructed from found bits and pieces, embellished, recycled, deconstructed, reconstructed.

Now that this kind of patched-together DIY fashion is all the trend, I’m happy to be able to make things not just for myself, but for other people too. The dear monsters from designfarm’s little sister company, myright2right.com were chosen to grace our fun, recycled-wallpaper altered composition book journals. But in my mind they were always begging–in their text-message kinda way–to be printed onto clothing!

Now, anyone who knows me also knows that I can thrift like nobody’s business. So off to Value Village we went (on a Thursday… 25% off!) to snag some adorable, gently used clothing that fit within the MR2W design aesthetic. Bright-colored tees…

Pink-striped drawstring pajama’s…

And super fun kid-friendly gear.

Each one-of-a-kind article of clothing is bundled with a mismatched (but adorably so!) journal and for each combo sold, we’ll donate TWO composition books to our recipient school, Piney Branch Elementary, located just 2 blocks from the studio here in Takoma Park. We’re doing a small range of these and they are selling quick!

To see the clothing up close and personal, visit us later this month at Washington DC City Paper’s brand new Silver Spring CRAFTY BASTARDS crafts show at Pyramid Atlantic, Saturday June 28. We are proud to have been one of a small group of 50 vendors selected out of hundreds of applicants!

When bandleader/singer Roddy Frantz got in touch last week to discuss the design of a poster for the Urban Verbs‘ upcoming gig, May 24 at the 930 Club, I knew my life in this profession had come full circle. The poster above, featuring the iconic photo of Chris Morse by Peter Muise and updated New-Wave-for-the-21st-century-logo by Bill Harvey, will be for sale at the show.

If, like me, you are of a certain age (ie, you graduated highschool in the 70’s), and you were living here in the Metro Area toward the end of that very decade, then you know about the legendary Urban Verbs… and you know that back then the now world-famous 930 Club was just a dank hole-in-the-wall called the Atlantis Club… located in the Atlantis Building at (you guessed it) 930 F Street. There were but a handful of bands at first, until the scene gained momentum.

And now, 30 years later, many of those bands are back in town and rockin’ hard. I’ve heard them jokingly refer to themselves as Geezer Rockers, but having attended some of the shows, I’m not buying that tag. Lest this turn into a 4-mile-long post on the early days of punk & New Wave in the Nation’s Capitol, suffice to say that my relationship to the bands of this era was as a member of a close-knit circle of co-conspirateurs and bona fide club kids. We ruled the nights, and the Urban Verbs + a few others wrote and played the soundtrack.

To get back to the point of this post, I also created some of the earliest Verbs gig flyers to paste around town. With photos we took ourselves AND printed in our home darkrooms. With xerox machines, press type, xacto knives and an ancient device called a waxer (don’t ask). Some efforts were better than others. The specimen above? NOT one of my best! To my credit, at the time I was studying photography and fine art at UMD, not design. And really, I just wanted a sulky, artsy self-portrait plastered around town.

A scant few years later I discovered my fine arts degree to be about as valuable in the job market as today’s real estate, so I began to actually learn the craft of design & production, on the job. I created the flyer pictured above for a little vintage clothing business called Flip Flop that I ran out of my big old house in Takoma DC. What you are seeing is the “mechanical,” a tissue-overlayed paste-up to be supplied to the printer. Photo of the beautifully iconic Dot Steck by husband/photographer/bass player Charles Steck.

Despite a hideous first job creating mechanicals for a Civil War reenactment magazine (!), I continued making photographs and printing them in a closet darkroom at home. Flip Flop moved to an antiques Emporium in historic downtown Frederick MD and was renamed That Girl! Photo by yours truly of the amazing Melissa Flipski, then a young teenager in a cool vintage dress.

Ahh, those really WERE the days. But, so are these. We’re still rockin’. Still wearin’ vintage. Still making photos. Life is good.

The Farmers have been busy crafting once again! Introducing the new (Not So) Plain Jane journals, clockwise from upper left, The Sarah (named after you know who!), Contesse du Barry, The Jessica (named after you know who!), Madame Eclore (Eclore means Bloom in French, get it?!), and Marie Antoinette (Jodi’s obsession continues). Made with new (instead of vintage) wallpapers some of which are textural and all of which are oh-so-cool, these are available in multiples, taking the surprise out of purchasing a OOAK journal… What you see is what you get! Also available in $$-saving six-packs. Check them out at www.myright2write.com.

Ever need to reach your audience with important info, but your budget simply won’t stretch to cover fancy-schmancy print materials? Postage alone could cost a small fortune these days! We’ve got the answer. Below is a sampling from designfarm’s portfolio of E-announcements, E-vites, and E-newsletters. Small and efficient, these mini-posters—delivered via email—pack a lot of visual-messaging punch, without incurring print or postage fees. Don’t get us wrong, we LOVE the smell of fresh ink on paper, but in a time of a budget-crunch our clients agree; this is a great alternative.

Above: New Year’s and Holiday E-vites as well as an E-announcement for the AIA.

Above: E-announcement for Arlington County Government.

Above: E-vite for The Phillips Collection.

Above: E-newsletter for the World Wildlife Fund.

Above: E-vite for So Charmed.

Press is so cool! An article in BizBash Washington about the Phillips Collection 2008 Annual Spring Gala gave props to designfarm (that’s us, aka The Design Farm!). We were honored to design the invitation and program for this major fundraising event.

The challenge: How to newly contextualize the museum’s most famous painting, the iconic Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880–81) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

The solution: By placing the painting into the center of an intimate scrapbook-collage (with found objects from our personal collections and photographed here at our studio), we helped The Phillips to charm 350 patrons into attending a very memorable evening. Dining in the museum’s rooms, surrounded by great works of art. The invitation itself references late-nineteenth century Paris, particularly the bal des canotiers (boater’s ball) which was held on Sundays at Bougival near Chatou and was Renoir’s subject for the painting.

Below are photos from the Gala:

If you were asked to describe the photos above of a frog and a spider, you would likely identify them as camouflage—the coloration or pattern that helps an animal or organism blend in with its environment in order to hide from predators. Another iconic representation of camouflage is the patterning used on uniforms in military operations; as shown in the image below. We see this alot at the metro station here at our Takoma office, which is also located near Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Obviously, using camouflage in war has been adopted from nature to simply hide soldiers and their equipment from the enemy. The elements that distinguish camouflage in clothing are color and pattern designed to match the surrounding environment; just like the frog and spider pictured above. Camoflauge tricks the brain and our perception into connecting the lines of printed shapes with the lines of the matching environment; trees, ground, leaves, shadows, dessert or snow.

In the last 100 years the Army Combat Uniform (ACU) has only been redesigned a small number of times. 2004 brought a significant change when military camouflage design turned from the organic shapes of the past toward a digitized (pixelated) patterning.

Why did the shapes change and what does this pattern resemble?

As a designer, I work with these little shapes called PIXELS every day. Pixels are the tiny, impercetible (to the naked eye) squares that make up pictures on a computer screen. The more pixels the in the display, the finer the detail that can be rendered. Pixel is short for Picture Element, a single point in a graphic image.

Today, pixels make up the digital camouflage pattern which is bit-mapped on a computer and printed onto the clothing. Modern warfare has become more prevalent in dessert and urban settings so the color black–which disrupts the camouflage and is not found in these environments–has been removed. The resulting pattern is more blurry and muted, as well as highly effective.

Below are some additional examples of pixels in use that date as far back as the 5th Century and into the modern day:

1. 5th Century Mosaics depict an ancient use of the pixel concept.

2. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884) by George Seurat using a technique called Pointillism. Detail is pictured on the right.

3. 1980’s video games (Atari)

4. Fine artist, Chuck Close uses a similar inspiration and technique in the painting Lucas (1986–1987)

5. Digital images that are made of pixels. The picture to the right is an extreme close-up of the area highlighted by the red box on the Emerge cover design.

Pay close attention to the pixelation concept, technique and patterning and feel free to send in examples that you find in your surrounding environment.

Most of us have a complex, possibly even difficult, relationship to the color yellow. Graphically speaking, yellow is cautionary, a loud warning. Police line, DO NOT CROSS! And, here on the residential streets of Takoma Park, SLOW that oversized SUV Hybrid DOWN! Or lose your transmission. Did you know, there is a difference between a Speed Hump and a Speed Bump?

In our gardens, yellow is often an ugly unwanted weed, pictured above and conspiring to go to seed in order to multiply as April’s winds blow. Personally, I find it hard not to love a thing with a name like Dandylion. And, isn’t a weed just a misplaced plant? Once, my acupuncturist had Molly and I pick and boil bushels of the dandylion weed/plant to concoct an ancient Chinese skin salve. One woman’s weed… well, you get the point.

Regardless, let’s assume you are happier with a more delicate, purposeful yellow. Ruffly Narcissus (that’s daffodils to you non-gardners) are plentiful at the moment. In fact, the Royal Horticultural Society International Daffodil Register lists more than 26,400 named daffodils! Who knew?

I am obsessed and in love with yellow right now. Yellow scares me and pushes me away, but also, it’s seductive and appealing with its super-saturated, bright ‘n sunny, how-can-you-hate-me disposition. Yellow won’t be ignored. Yellow wants to cheer me up, no matter what. Throw in a little sugary pink and a touch of black or gray to hold it all down… and whoa, I am undone.

Most of us were told one of two things regarding wearing yellow:

A. Never, EVER wear yellow, it will make your (likely Asian or caucasian skin) look sallow.

B. Yellow really sets off your beautiful (likely brown) skin.

Despite falling solidly into Category A, I purchased the above pictured cutie jacket at Target this spring. I don’t care if I look terrible in it; it makes me feel so happy, so au courrant.

Surprisingly (or not) often the three of us here at designfarm come to work, from separate locations miles apart in the tri-state area, dressed as if for a color-coordinated photo shoot. I can assure you, no memo was issued. But today, we are all wearing yellow, pink and black.

The photo above–the only photo in this post not taken during my lunch hour today–was the last photo in my iphoto library before I uploaded Speed Hump, Narcissus, Jodi, Jess, and Sarah in our spring fashions, etc. for this essay… a delicious ring I designed this week, using unbelievably irresistable miniature cakes handmade in China. Art imitates life. And life this month is in yellow and pink.

Finding inspiration is a part of my daily life as a designer… and color choices are an element that I make decisions about every day. The colors above have been collected and inspired by the homes in the neighborhood of Takoma Park where designfarm is located. My co-worker and I often take walks up and down the steep hills of eclectic, historic Takoma park where I can be inspired after just 15 minutes.

How simple! Who would think that a color chosen for the exterior of a home might inspire a designer like me, possibly influencing the colors I use in projects. With spring and summer right around the corner, I am excited to see how these colors will apply to my work. It’s great to have an unconventional way to find inspiration for color simply by looking closely at my environment. Color palettes appear in nature, while shopping, at home, in a favorite painting, while traveling, through historical trends, or even in my case—outside the office door. It’s fascinating to simply take the time to reflect on what I’m seeing and how it makes me feel.

Try thinking like a designer. Take a walk in your neighborhood…snap some photos of the surrounding environment with a particular focus on color palettes from houses, buildings, gardens, and trees. Notice how certain colors in nature can especially enhance the beauty and contrast of one another. Go shopping… retail stores are always up on the latest color trends in fashion and interior design. When travelling… note colors from other cultures, even just up the street in Chinatown or on a short weekend trip to another city.

Looking for color might just inspire you when you buy your next outfit or pair of leggings, when you get a tattoo, decorate a room, choose colors for your wedding, or even when painting the exterior of your home. In turn, you could inspire someone simply by the colors you choose, as my Takoma neighbors have inspired me.