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What happens to good ideas?

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What happens to good ideas? Here you’ll find the answer. I am sure that not only once client interference or management watered down your good ideas during the creative process. It is all about finding the right balance between the original idea and the input from outside. This drawing from the Motmot office was printed at Die Presse Freiraum, a page in one of Austria’s daily newspaper I am actually reading, dedicated to designers, artists and creative thinkers. If you have any comments on creativity and how it works, submit your ideas. Here you can download the application.

Was passiert mit guten Ideen? Diese Frage versuchten wir mit dieser Zeichnung, die in der Tageszeitung Die Presse heute ganzseitig auf der Freiraum-Seite veröffentlicht wurde, zu beantworten. Der Weg von der ersten Idee zum fertigen Produkt ist niemals geradlinig. Input von außen ist gut, allerdings verwässern zu viele Kommentare oft die guten Ideen, und das Ergebnis ist nichts als ein großes Blablabla! Wenn ihr eine visuelle Antwort habt, wie Kreativität funktioniert, dann schickt sie ein. Hier findet ihr das Briefing zum Download.

Posters for Iran

iran1I just got an email from a design colleague here in Vienna forwarding this message from Morteza Majidi, an Iranian photographer. SocialDesignZine invites artists and designers from all over the world to create a poster for Iran’s opostion movement. Morteza Majidi has sent a group of photos and the request, for the international community of graphic designers, to project a poster on the theme “Where is my vote?”.  The first results are already online. Why wait, send in your ideas now!

Morteza Majidi, ein Iranischer Fotograf lädt Künstler und Designer aus aller Welt ein, einen Poster für Irans Opposition zu entwerfen. Das SocialDesignZine zeigt bereits die ersten Resultate. Fotos zum Thema stehen dort auch zum Download bereit. „Wo ist meine Stimme?“ – folgt  dem Aufruf von Morteza Majidi und sendet eure Ideen ein!

Jim Flora

jimfloraI don’t know if you are familiar with Jim Flora. He is an illustrator who worked on many children books, record covers and other commercial illustration in Connecticut. The featured illustration is from 1955 and is used for a Benny Goodman LP cover. What I find interesting is that the band Pearl Jam adapted Jim Flora’s illustration for their tour poster in Detroit in 1999. The funny guy playing the trumpet becomes the singer. Also the yellow orange pattern was reused on the Pearl Jam poster. To find out about other artwork by Jim Flora go to http://www.jimflora.com

Jim Flora ist als Illustrator für Kinderbücher und Platten-Covers bekannt geworden. Die gezeigte Arbeit ist von 1955 und zeigt Benny Goodman und seine Band. Ich finde es interessant, dass Pearl Jam mit dem Tour Poster in Detroit sich an Jim Floras Arbeit anlehnt. Der Trompetenspieler wird zum Sänger, das gelb orange Muster wird ebenfalls wiederaufgenommen. Mehr zu Jim Floras Illustrationen sind hier zu finden http://www.jimflora.com

Hasnerstraße

HasnerstrasseYou can find Hasnerstraße in the 16th district in Vienna. On my weekly bikeride to the Wiener Wald I am passing by these wonderful old shop signs. Inspired by the book “Stadtalphabeth” I started taking these pictures about a part of Vienna that will soon disappear. Allright, I admit it, I am a big typejunkie. If I get to it I would love to start digitizing these fonts and start creating a typeface. That could almost be a summer plan!

Die Hasnerstraße befindet sich im 16. Bezirk in Wien – Vorstadt pur. Auf meiner wöchentlichen Radtour komme ich daran vorbei und angeregt durch das Buch „Stadtalphabeth“ knipste ich diese Schilder. Ich liebe Typografie und glaube, es wäre einen Versuch wert, die Schriften zu digitalisieren. Ein guter Vorsatz im Herbst wieder den Fontlab Kurs auf der Grafischen in Wien zu besuchen.

Paul Rand

Check out this video about Paul Rand, one of the most iconic graphic designers of the 20th century in the USA. You might know the logo IBM and its illustrative variation Eye - Bee - M. Paul Rand did not only work on corporate designs as Next, UPS, ABC, Enron etc. but he also illustrated a lot of childrens’ books, all conceptual, colorful and bright. It may not be obvious in what we do, but his unique work has always been a great inspiration. Have a nice weekend watching the video.

Stadt Alphabet Wien (City Alphabet Vienna)

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This is exactly the kind of book that sends my inner-design-geek into a tizzy.
If you’re a design geek, when you travel to a new place, you can’t help but notice the interesting signage. If you walk around Vienna, when you notice the signage, you are treated to something that is uniquely Viennese.
These old Viennese shop signs seem to defy many conventions of typographic style, many of the shop signs feature custom scripts and sans-serif fonts. Very few of these signs make use of an identifiable or recognizable typeface. These designs were all made by master sign makers, but not by typographers or graphic designers. The signs are all amazingly crafted, yet you can still see the mark of the sign-maker’s hand. This is before the advent of Arial, laser-cut signs, and the Cooper Black-ifcation of every sign on the block.
Photographer and Graphic Designer Martin Ulrich Kehrer set out on a exhausting mission; he spent 4 years exploring all of Vienna’s 23 districts, and took over 2000 photos. The book is 144 pages long and features over 200 color photos of street signs from all of Vienna’s 23 distinct districts. Stadt Alphabet Wien, captures the distinctive typography of a bygone era-before it’s completely gone. This book gives you a unique view of a city and it’s particular visual language. It serves two purposes; it’s a book about design and typography, and it’s a book about a city.
Stadt Alphabet Wien (City Alphabet Vienna)
By Martin Ulrich Kehrer with and afterword by Walter Pamminger (In German)
144 pp. paperback, Swiss brochure binding
€18,- in the Motmot Shop

for more information: http://www.stadtalphabet.at/

Margaret Kilgallen: In the Sweet Bye and Bye

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What else is there to say about Margaret Kilgallen?Margaret Kilgallen has become a major artist. Her work is highly influential, she’s one of the leading lights of the art movement that’s been dubbed “Beautiful Losers” She was highly prolific, and she died from breast cancer at the age of 33. In a short amount of time, she left behind an incredible body of work. Her work echoed and fused elements of folk art, contemporary urban life, sign painting, and a lost era of Americana. She managed to combine these elements into something entirely new. The best documentation of her work is an exhibition catalogue titled, “In the Sweet Bye and Bye” Most of the 200 + page book contains color reproductions of her work, as well as a few short essays, and an informative interview. The book itself is a work of art; seeing the book design and cloth binding, you know it’s something special. Looking at this book you can see her legacy; yet somehow feel a certain sadness knowing that such a creative person’s life was cut too short, and be left wondering what amazing work she would have gone on to make.
We the Motmots, love Margaret Kilgallen’s work and we wanted to carry this book in our shop for ages. I went to the Redcat Gallery and purchased them myself, and I actually lugged these copies over from Los Angeles, stashed in my suitcase. Just so we could hustle you a few copies at the entirely great price of € 35,- I believe we are one a very small number of shops in Europe to carry this book. Just so you know.

Vienna on fire!

schnitzel Our pal Jürgen has been stopping by our shop since we opened up. He also runs a kick ass design studio called OPEN. He has been working on a top secret design project that is finally finished.
It’s called OPEN # 121: Vienna on Fire. It is a 98 page newspaper about the city of Vienna. It features some amazing photography, and some interesting and unusual facts about our adopted city. We were lucky enough to score a few copies and they are available at the Motmot shop for a mere € 15,- (Deluxe edition is € 17,-!)

For more information:
http://www.open121.com/