Designers to Talk About Minnesota Nice at Design DLH

Hard to believe we're nearing the end of another great Duluth Art Institute series. This one has been titled Design DLH, a series in which professional designers from various industries have been making presentations around various themes. This Thursday's topic is Minnesota Nice: Good, Bad, Nice? The programs begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Red Herring Lounge, 208 E. 1st Street. in Duluth.

This sixth and final session  of the series will feature Sean Elmquist, Chaperone Records; Candace Lacosse, Hemlocks Leatherworks; Chris Benson, Frost River; and the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial Committee.

The program, if you haven't been to one yet, goes like this. Each Design DLH gathering incites local designers and creative thinkers to present ideas around a prompt that addresses some aspect of Duluth's visual identity. The focus of Session Six is the pros and cons of "Minnesota Nice": the politeness, the aversion to confrontation, and a tendency towards the stoic. As with all our other themes, this was looks to be again an interesting and potentially lively topic. Because space is limited, you will need to RSVP at info@duluthartinstitute.org.

Sessions are free and open to the public. Can't make it? You can also join the conversation via Twitter, using the hashtag #DesignDLH.

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Also slated for Thursday is the Carlton Trunk & Tent Show at Carlton Bike Rental (CBR). Joelene Steffens, founder of CBR, also has an art framing business called Art Dimensions. Her work is of the highest quality. Though this event is designed for bicycle enthusiasts, I recommend CBR as a stop for creatives as well. The Trunk & Tent Show runs from 3 - 8 p.m., so theoretically you can make it to both events if (a) you are not working that afternoon and (b) begin in Carlton.

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This month's Design DLH topic might be interesting as a starting point for more discussion about the roles of art and artists in general. Occasionally we hear expressions of the sentiment "we can't afford for our artists to be politically neutral." Perhaps being Minnesota Nice keeps us from discussing this and other potentially divisive themes in the open square.

The designers who have been speaking all year at the Design DLH events are professional and commercial artists. There are some who might suggest that art and commerce should be separate from one another, but then I'd respond with this... do we want homes and appliances and cars with good design or bad design? It really is possible to let function become all that matters and ignore design. Aesthetics play a role in what we value.

Then there is the matter of motivation. Outside our Western art scene we learned from a Tweevening lecture this past year that in other parts of the world, especially the Orient, artist make objects of beauty for their own sake as opposed to making art to make a name for oneself. Art is a contemplative aiming for perfection versus self-absorbed self-expression.

Like life itself, we there are many paths we can explore. Fortunately there's no law that I know of that requires us to check our motivations at the door when we create.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Engage it.

How Is Duluth Home? Tonight's Theme for DAI's Design DLH #4

If you have been following this year's Duluth Art Institute (DAI) announcements and mailings, you would have heard about the series of events and presentations called Design DLH. The fourth of six Design DLH sessions will take place tonight at Trepanier Hall, home to the American Indian Community Housing Orgamization (AICHO).  Tonight's topic: "How Is Duluth Home?" The presentation will feature Michelle LeBeau, AICHO Development Director; Nick Smith, musician and AICHO staff; Jacob Vanio, spoken word poet and musician; and AICHO artists.

Design is all around us, from the structures we live and work in to the shape of tools we use, the clothes we wear, cars we drive and the computers we surf the Internet with. It's actually a very exciting field. And I have been pleased to see the DAI recognizing design as an art form through this series of events and discussions.

Each Design DLH gathering has invited local designers to present ideas around a prompt that addresses some aspect of Duluth’s visual identity. The theme for Session Four, “How is Duluth Home?” will embrace cultural diversity in Duluth and the reclamation of Native American space. Tours of AICHO will be offered following the discussion.

Sessions are free and open to the public, but due to limited seating, RSVPs are required at info@duluthartinstitute.org.  All of the events so far have been borderline overcrowded, though no fire marshall have been called in as yet to determine if we were over capacity.

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In a related note, the DAI Member Exhibition will taken down on Sunday. There are still a few days left to see the show which is in the Great Hall. Be sure to go upstairs to see Shawna Gilmore's fantasy paintings and Tweed Museum director Ken Bloom's "Public Domain" photography from 1976-78 Japan.

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More DAI News

The Internet Cat Video Festival, #CatVidFest, is a project of the Walker Art Center in celebration of online cat videos. It will once again return with favorite “celebricats” to make a Duluth premiere, presented by the Duluth Art Institute and Zinema 2 on Wednesday, March 2. Two show times will be offered—at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.—at Zinema 2, 222 E Superior St. Tickets are $9 for adults, $7 for students and $6.50 for senior citizens.

Throughout the month of March the Duluth Art Institute will recognize artistic achievements of area K-12 youth in the annual “Youth Art Month” exhibition. The display will be on view in the Great Hall of the Duluth Depot, opening with a reception from 5 to 7 PM on Thursday, March 3. The opening celebration will include further educational opportunities with free artist demos featuring Laura Gapske on Zine production, Cody Paulson and Tyler Johnson of Stack Prints showing off screen-printing, and Matt Kania demonstrating plein air painting. The reception is free and open to the public.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Get into it.

Design Matters

“Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions, there is no single definition.Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated.” 
~Paul Rand

Paul Rand was one of the 20th century's most influential designers. A prof at Yale, his major contribution circled about the development of corporate identities. The list of clients whose logos he designed famously includes IBM, ABC, Westinghouse

A few years ago I picked up Michael Kroger's slim volume, Paul Rand, Conversations with Students. The conversations distill the essence of Rand's ideas, which I have come to believe are so very important. Design matters. Yes, we keep hearing the mantra "Content is king" as if it were holy writ, but the truth is that great content can be badly hampered through poor presentation.

Whether it's web pages, brochures, invitations, billboards and signs, or corporate logos, design matters. Over the course of my career in advertising I readily acknowledge that the designers who assembled my ideas made all the difference in the outcome.

Rand points out that painting for Picasso was a process of elimination, which means you begin with complexity and move toward simplicity. "That is difficult for anybody," he said.

Other quotes from these conversations include these two which I  highlighted in my copy of the book:

"Design is also a system of proportions, which means the relationship of sizes."

And...

"Content is basically the idea, that is what content is... Form is how you treat the idea, what you do with it. This is exactly the meaning of design. It is the conflict between form and content, form being the problem. I mean how you do it, how you show something, how you think, how you speak, how you dance; choreography is the content, it is the dance itself."

Here are a few additional quotes from other sources which capture his approach to design.

"Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations."

And...

"Asymmetric balance creates greater reader interest. Pleasure derived from observing asymmetrical arrangements lies partly in overcoming resistances, which, consciously or not, the spectator adjusts in his own mind."

When it's not working we may not know why, but we know it intuitively. There's something innate in the nature of reality. Or as Rand states elsewhere, "You can't criticize geometry. It's never wrong."

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This week is the third installment  Design DLH
a wonderful series of presentations hosted by the Duluth Art Institute.

This week's meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Friday, January 8 at Bent Paddle Brewing Co. "How Do We Embrace the Cold?" will feature Greg Benson of Loll Designs, Bent Paddle Brewing Co., and Kym Young.

Each Design DLH gathering invites local designers to present ideas around a prompt that addresses some aspect of Duluth’s visual identity. Last month that symbol was our aerial lift bridge. The focus of Session Three, “How Do We Embrace the Cold?,” is the winter weather.

Sessions are free and open to the public, but due to limited seating, RSVPs are required at info@duluthartinstitute.org. The public is also invited to participate in the conversation via Twitter, using the hashtag #DesignDLH. Additional question prompts and materials for doodling and notations are available at each session.

Westinghouse image used courtesy Creative Commons.