“When people talk about design, they’re really talking about, technically, everything in the universe that has to do with intent.” —Milton Glaser

“Design is by its very nature free. There is nothing in design that says certain things must be done in a certain way.” —Tokujin Yoshioka

“It will always be up to good designers to correct the public opinion and promote quality.” —Massimo Vignelli

What’s on the minds of the world’s leading designers? What matters most to them right now? And how do they interpret the changes and constants of today’s culture?

These were the questions on my mind towards the end of 2011, when I decided to approach eight of today’s most intriguing and prolific designers—Milton Glaser, Massimo Vignelli, Stefan Sagmeister, Giulio Cappellini, Ross Lovegrove, Tokujin Yoshioka, Dror Benshetrit, and Maarten Baas—to gather a snapshot of the modern design world. The result is Design Voices, a collection I’m proud of, and one I hope you’ll also enjoy.

Design Voices includes conversations with design legends, rising stars, graphic designers, industrial designers, and those who defy categorization. Their words provide us an opportunity to reflect on the state of modern design, and reveal the vast possibilities that the term designer carries with it today. I hope these conversations pique and satisfy your curiosity as much as they did mine. Looking forward to your feedback!

And check out the review on Coolhunting.com!

Design Voices
by Anna Carnick
edited by Jeremy Lehrer
Purchase the e-book at Amazon

The very exciting Guggenheim Museum/YouTube collaborative competition – YouTube Play – is on the hunt for the world’s most creative videos. As we reported last month, YouTube Play was conceived to discover and showcase the most exceptional talent working in the ever-expanding realm of online video. Open to the global online community, the competition is accepting submissions now through July 31st.

And now the competition’s all-star and eclectic jury from the worlds of art, design, film, and music has been announced. The impressive dream-team panel includes Laurie Anderson, Animal Collective, Darren Aronofsky, Douglas Gordon, Ryan McGinley, Marilyn Minter, Takashi Murakami, Shirin Neshat, Stefan Sagmeister, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

According to jury chair Nancy Spector:

“We will be looking for work that will test, elevate, and experiment with video as it is manifest online. We are less interested in what’s ‘now’ than in what’s next.” YouTube Play is open to students and amateur video makers, artists, and creative professionals. Submissions may include animation, motion graphics, narrative, nonnarrative, documentary, and music videos. The jury will review a short list of up to two hundred video works that have been prescreened by the Guggenheim from the pool of videos submitted by the international YouTube community and uploaded to youtube.com/play. From the short list, the jury will select up to twenty that they deem the most creative and inspiring, regardless of genre, technique, or budget. The short-listed videos will be on the YouTube Play channel (youtube.com/play) beginning in September 2010.

To learn more, visit YouTube.com/Play.

Established in 2000, the Vilcek Foundation aims to raise public awareness about the contributions of immigrants to the sciences, arts, and culture in the US. This year, the winners of the Fifth Annual Vilcek Foundation prizes will get an extra treat – in addition to a $50,000 cash award, they will receive a special new sculpture created by designer Stefan Sagmeister (an ArtSlope favorite!).

For a Foundation dedicated to honoring the contributions of immigrants in the arts and sciences, the Sagmeister trophies are a particular point of pride. An immigrant from Austria himself, Sagmeister’s impact on both the American and international design has been immense over the years – evident in everything from his Grammy-award winning images for musicians like The Rolling Stones, the Talking Heads, Lou Reed, and Aerosmith to his iconic AIGA posters.

The trophies’ design was informed by America’s collective history of immigration and opportunity. Placed on its base, the trophies form a pyramid, evocative of the upward opportunities available to immigrants in America. When placed on its side, however, the base reveals the individual name of the honoree and the way the name directly shapes the four sides of the pyramid, celebrating the individuality of each immigrant’s achievements and the diversity they bring to American society.

The process by which the trophies were created is also symbolic, a physical example of the fusion between the arts and sciences promoted with the dual-category prizes. The trophies are created via stereolithography, an additive manufacturing process usually reserved for industrial engineering
applications. Using a model generated with CAD software, a stereolithography machine builds 3-D structures using liquid UV-curable resin and a UV laser to carve and adhere cross-section layers. The structures are built a single layer at a time, typically at a width of 0.5mm to 0.15mm each. The use of stereolithography machines has become more accessible and affordable in recent years, creating opportunities for its usage for design purposes.

The Vilcek Foundation was established by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the Foundation was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history, as well as their personal experiences and appreciation for the opportunities offered them as newcomers to the United States. In addition to awarding annual prizes in the biomedical sciences and the arts, the Vilcek Foundation showcases the work of immigrant artists, filmmakers, and others, at its headquarters at 167 East 73rd Street, New York City. Notably for design fans, The Vilcek Foundation’s visual identity was created by designer Abbott Miller and his team at Pentagram, and is based on early twentieth-century Czech typography, in acknowledgement of founder Jan and Marica Vilcek’s origins.

*All images courtesy of The Vilcek Foundation.

Check out Sagmeister‘s latest TED talk. It’s really interesting, and I’m definitely looking forward to the film coming out.

And check out my latest interview with him in Clear Magazine‘s Fall issue HERE.

above: images from Stefan Sagmeister’s 2008 book, “Things I’ve learned in my life so far”

Absolut Vodka‘s ads are immediately recognizable, and over the years, their campaigns have become truly iconic. However, the company’s newest tv ad campaign, produced by  TBWA/Chiat/Day, is a bit too similar to another icon’s work for my liking.

While beautiful, the ad’s imagery and tagline (“Doing something differently leads to something exceptional.”) are incredibly similar in look and concept to graphic design star Stefan Sagmeister‘s  2008 “Things I have learned in my life so far.” A successful design book and exhibit at Deitch gallery in NY, “Things I have learned in my life so far” was inspired by a list of life lessons Sagmeister jotted down while on sabbatical the year before, and then spelled out using creative environmental typographic tools – everything from hangers to body paint, furniture to food, lightboxes to giant, white inflatable monkeys.

I interviewed Sagmeister in 2008 right after the book came out for Graphis. Just this week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sagmeister again for the upcoming fall issue of Clear Magazine. He returns to NY from his latest sabbatical year (in Bali) in September, and told me that when approached for this tv spot, he declined to work with the firm, as he’d committed to only personal design work over the year, and wasn’t taking any new client work.

Take a look for yourself below. And check out my interview with Stefan Sagmeister for Graphis by visiting my Writing Samples page or clicking here: The Art of Introspection.