Ink

Think Ink.

Designers that work with print, hopefully think about ink on a regular basis. Ink is the primary vehicle used to complete your printed vision. No matter what your work looks like on screen, the way it is printed, the paper it’s printed on, and the quality of the ink used will impact the final outcome. The video below isn’t new. It actually came out about 6 years ago, but it’s worth watching.

This short film by The Printing Ink Company in Canada takes you through the process, techniques and craft of ink creation. That’s right, the “Craft”, because making ink is a complex process requiring skills and experience to get the best results. The Printing Ink Company shares their methods used to create every color in the PANTONE spectrum and beyond. The challenges they face getting it right, and the attention to detail they put into making every can of ink.

This is a must watch for art students, designers and everyone else in the business that is designing printed materials.

PBS, Off Book, on Illustration.

Thank you PBS, and the Off Book series for creating this wonderful short film on Illustration, and what Illustrators do. This seven minute short film is worth watching whether you are an illustrator, designer, artist, or anyone that is interested in the visual arts at all. It features Steven Guarnaccia, Sean Murphy, Yuko Shimisu, and Molly Crabapple.

Illustrators articulate what a photograph cannot. Using an array of techniques and styles, illustrators evoke stories and meaning in a variety of mediums, from editorial illustration in magazines and newspapers, to comics books, to activist media. And as their tasks over the years have become less informational and more expressive, their individual voice as artists becomes all the more critical and beautiful, revealing an exciting and awe-inspiring age of illustration.

Featuring:
Steven Guarnaccia, Professor, Illustration Program at The New School
Yuko Shimisu, http://yukoart.com/
Sean Murphy, http://seangordonmurphy.com/
Molly Crabapple, http://mollycrabapple.com/

The Art of Pain — Forever: The New Tattoo

I don’t have any tattoos. I have no piercings either. That doesn’t mean I’m against it, I just never did it, and now I’m pretty much past the idea of it.

Now, with that said here is an interesting little video from the folks at Gestalten that highlights the emerging art form of tattooing, and the direction it is going. In the video below, Alex Binnie and Duncan X talk about where tattooing is going, and a new book by Gestalten titled “The Art of Pain — Forever: The New Tattoo”.