New Shift

Hello!

This is the archive blog of my musing and RISD MFA thesis writing. I’m moving everything over to my independent practice Design Axl. Please check out new work or drop me a line james@axl.design

On the Threshold…

The 1st show of the semester is opening at the RISD Sol Koffler Gallery on Tuesday September 13, from 6-8pm. One of my works – full circle – will be on display with a selection other 2nd year grad students from all departments. I also designed the poster and postcard. Hope to see you there!

show poster

In her book, How to Do Things with Art, Dorthea von Hantelmann describes the “threshold of something else, something other” as a place where artists build confidence in their process and push forward into new territories. This exhibition features 46 artists from 15 different departments entering the final year of their RISD graduate programs. Incidentally, it provides a rare opportunity to see work from many departments and disciplines in one space. With half the graduate experience complete, our potential energy is on the verge of expanding, condensing or taking a completely new direction. One last year remains, another step towards a destination that will lead us into a wider context.

But right now, right here, we are at the threshold of something else, as expressed by the works in this exhibition. Ranging in technique and format, they represent a variety of transitional states—demonstrating control and overindulgence, confusion and clarity, endurance and ephemerality. Being aware of this threshold moment, while maintaining a state of openness, informs how our diverse interdisciplinary work approaches and surpasses something else and something other. This moment is not always easy or recognizable. Yet, what else is being an artist but the understanding that this threshold is only one of many to come as we pursue the creative challenges that lie ahead?

RISD Visiting Designers

RISD spring semester starts in 2 days and I’m really looking forward to it. I say that now while I’m fully rested and amped to get going… We’ll see how I feel in a couple weeks. I’m especially excited for the visiting designers course. Four weeks throughout the the spring semester visiting designers come from all over the world to teach an intense four day workshop. This spring the esteemed visiting designers are: Jonathan Barnbrook, Jan Van Toorn, Lars Müller, and Vaughan Oliver. I was honored to be asked to design the poster for the visiting designers lecture series that takes place prior to the workshops. Click here to view the dates and times. The RISD graphic design visiting designers lectures are free and open to the public. Here is the selected poster I designed. Enjoy.

RISD Visiting Designers 2011

traveling

 

I am. They are. We are. Traveling.

Inspired by my daily commute from Boston to Providence via MBTA commuter rail during my first semester at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Course: The Urgent Vignette
Instructor: Cavan Huang
Fall Semester: December 2010

Medium:
Video, Kinetic Typography, still photos, all footage shot with Canon 7D, and edited in Adobe After Effects

A huge thank you to David Ricard for providing the original music davidricard.com

all aboard!

Select an object that inspires you. This object along with your choice of one of the following categories from Aristotle’s The Organon will be your starting point for this assignment.

1. substance
2. quantity
3. place
4. quality
5. place
6. time
7. position
8. state
9. action
10. affection

PART 1: Design a pair of posters, one that is primarily conceptual in it’s design and one that is primarily sensate in it’s design.

PART 2: Design one poster that is equally conceptual and sensate. This poster is required to be a completely new idea and not simply a merging of the first two.

My object was the train my category was time. I’ll leave it up to you to determine if I succeeded. Cheers!

train time poster

train time poster

train time poster