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COLAB Interview

I was recently invited to give a talk on socially conscious design & my Skull-A-Day project at COLAB at Syracuse University. COLAB is a wonderfully creative collaborative design program run by my friend Chris McCray which "was created to bring together students and faculty from various disciplines, with diverse skills and experiences, to learn how to approach problems collaboratively and share multiple perspectives while working toward creative solutions." Good stuff. As part of my visit I was interviewed by a student and the end result has just been posted online...


Noah Scalin for COLAB from COLAB on Vimeo.

I was also asked some more fun questions for their Off The Cuff series, and the answers are here...


Off the Cuff: Noah Scalin from COLAB on Vimeo.

The Power of Theater

Epic Theatre Ensemble, one of my clients, created this moving video to talk about their recent productions & honors and shows how theater can be a powerful tool for changing lives...

Groundswell Journal #1: Crisis Folklore

Our friends at Groundswell Collective have just released the first issue of their printed journal! It focuses on what they call "Crisis Folklore"...

How we imagine future stories that describe our current time period can give us an alternative glimpse of the cultures we are shaping in the here-and-now. To get outside of the modes of analysis we typically offer, we look for the future storytellers, asking what are the tales of resistance in the post-crash era? Crisis being a daily reality, where do we locate our collective daydreams? Can we accurately envision these future stories for ourselves and for others?
Topics include:

• Counter-cultural or resistant reworkings of contemporary problems
• Shifts in the language of dissent, movement, and movements
• Sociological mis/understandings of shifts in folklore in response to crisis
• Possibilities for subversion, especially via art
• Imagined criticisms, counter-hegemonic creation myths, forecasted histories, pre-emptive sense-making, etc.

Including offerings from Real Estate for Ransom, Team Colors, Basekamp, Chris Kennedy, and other influential authors yet to be announced.

Get your issue directly from Groundswell or find out where to buy a copy in person HERE.

Pennies in Protest: Turning Hate Into Change

The hate group Westboro Baptist Church (Wikipedia article on WBC) is visiting my hometown of Richmond, Virginia and some clever locals (including my good friend Sara) have decided to use the group's negative energy to make something positive happen. They developed Pennies in Protest as a non-violent peaceful anti-protest. Rather than just go down to the locations where they will be protesting and shouting back at them (as amusing as that can be), they're encouraging folks to donate for each minute the Westboro bigots will be in town to the causes that they are against!
Pennies in Protest has already collected over $4,000 and the donations will be split evenly between The Virginia Holocaust Museum, The Weinstein Jewish Community Center, the Jerusalem Connection, and the Hermitage High School Gay-Straight Student Alliance (GSA). The anti-protest was inspired by a synagogue that was targeted by the group in New York City that raised $10,000 in 50 minutes!

You can add your own pennies to the cause by visiting the Pennies in Protest website HERE.
You can also join them on Facebook HERE.

Image made with Absurd Sign Generator.

Recent Work - Websites

Just finishing up the process of adding new work to the portfolio section of my site and I wanted to share some websites we designed that have recently gone live...

EpicTheatreEnsemble.org

StellinaSport.com

OandMco.com

And my personal art portfolio website: NoahScalin.com

Special credit should go to my friends at Top Dead Center Design who provided the programming on all of these sites.

Passion Play Poster in New York Times

The New York Times' Arts Beat blog posted a nice interview with me about the art I created for Epic Theatre Ensemble's latest production Passion Play by Sarah Ruhl. You can read the entire article HERE.

Literature versus Traffic

How powerful are books? Well they can apparently stop traffic if there's enough of them. The clever folks at Luzinterruptus, whose temporary light-infused guerrilla art installations we've written about before, are back with a surreal and lovely scene in Brooklyn that I wish I could've encountered in person. More pictures and information about the piece can be found HERE.

ALR on Tour: Virginia Festival of The Book

I'm delighted to announce that I will be taking part in this year's Virginia Festival of The Book! The five-day event in Charlottesville starts March 17th and features tons of opportunities to hear from a wide range of authors from all over the state of Virginia. I will be doing a talk called "Visual Literacy" about my Skull-A-Day project/book alongside steampunk author Nick Valentino at 8pm on Wednesday, March 17th at Random Row books. The event is Free and should be a lot of fun. Please stop by and say hi if you're in the area. More details can be found HERE.

Visual Literacy
at the Virginia Festival of The Book
March 17th @ 8pm
Random Row Books
315 West Main Street
Charlottesville, VA
434.326.5501
Free!


image shown: Skullphabet #1

Recent Work - Direct Mail

I'm still in the process of adding some new work to the portfolio section of my website so I thought I'd share some more of the pieces we've recently completed...

For Epic Theatre Ensemble's current season of productions:

 

For Target Margin Theater's current season of productions:

Book Review: The Paper Bride

The Paper Bride is the latest book from my friend Esther K. Smith, who is part of the duo that runs the terrific NYC based Purgatory Pie Press. With a concern for the environment and an interest in promoting DIY culture, Esther once again presents a wonderful collection of paper based projects that encourage brides and grooms to spend more time at home making things together and less time spending money on wasteful items that will often end up in the trash moments after the ceremony is done. The lavishly illustrated book features plenty of easy to follow instructions for making everything from a unique proposal to a funky photo album and would make a great gift item or a treat to yourself before diving into the world of wedding planning.

The Paper Bride
Esther K. Smith
Potter Craft
$24.99

Book Review: Design Is The Problem

I’Äôve just realized I’Äôve been woefully remiss and have not reviewed what is one of the best books to come out about sustainable design in the past several years. Nathan Shedroff’Äôs Design Is The Problem addresses all manner of designers  and holds them accountable for the potential bad and good their work can do for the world. Rather than dealing with an individual branch of design Shedroff looks at overarching systems of sustainability and how they can be applied to any field. After starting with a thorough review of what ’Äúsustainability’Äù even means and how to measure it, Shedroff then reviews several popular approaches from books like Cradle To Cradle and Natural Capitalism. This section is particularly useful in how it encapsulates several complex theories and then proposes how to make use of the best of all of them. The rest of the book is devoted to breaking down all the areas in which designers have an opportunity to apply sustainable principles using the classic ’ÄúReduce, Reuse, and Recycle’Äù framework even adding a new ’ÄúRe’Äù to the mix: Rethink. Even folks who are fairly familiar with the standard terminology may stand to learn a thing or two when it comes to Dematerialization and Transmaterialization, and Informationalization! The book is rounded out with real world examples that are sprinkled throughout, along with specifics about making sustainable processes a measurable reality, and a useful selection of resources. Nathan’Äôs accessible writing keeps the book from becoming a dry textbook and his points are well-researched & applicable to people with a wide range of knowledge and interest in sustainability. A truly useful guidebook, this should definitely be in the hands of anyone interested in the impact their work is having on the world.

[UPDATE: The publisher is offering a 15% discount on the purchase price if you use the code REBELLION when you buy the book through their site.]

Design Is The Problem
by Nathan Shedroff
Rosenfeld Media
$36.00 print & digital

$22.00 digital only

Recent Work - Logos

I'm in the process of updating the portfolio section of my website with some recent work and I thought I'd share it here as well...

Energy Works is a Chi Kung, martial arts, and acupressure business based in Richmond, Virginia. The overall form is inspired by the symbols of the I Ching.

Passion Coalition is a series of community events surrounding Epic Theatre Ensemble's production of Sarah Rhul's Passion Play. The logo was built with actual tape and photographed.

Ampersands for Haiti

I'm pleased to announce that Font Aid IV: Coming Together, a collaborative typeface to benefit the victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti, has just been released by The Society of Typographic Aficionados. It features ampersands from nearly 400 international designers, myself included (see ampersand below). The font is already for sale at Veer & Ascender Fonts, and will also be available at MyFonts and FontShop later in the week. All proceeds from the sale of the ’ÄúComing Together’Äù font will go to Doctors Without Borders, to help with their relief efforts in Haiti. More details and a full list of contributors can be found HERE.

Spotted in India: Recycled Upholstery

While I didn't encounter a lot of evidence of recycling India I did spot these beach loungers in Goa that had been reupholstered with old advertising banners. I'm not sure if this was a very common practice as they were the only chairs that I saw like that out of the hundreds I passed by on the beach.

Help Renourish Get A $50K Grant

Re-nourish, the excellent online sustainable graphic design resource, is in the running for a $50,000 grant to help them expand and improve their services via the Pepsi Refresh Project. Please take a couple minutes to help them get the grant by registering and voting for them HERE (voting is open through the end of February and you can vote once a day!).

REPRESSED V: FREE TO SPEAK - Call for Entries

From our friends at Gallery 5 in Richmond, Virginia comes this call for activist art...

REPRESSED V: FREE TO SPEAK May 2010

Josˆ© Marˆ‚a Heredia - poet: inspired the Cuban people to stand up and fight against Spain.

Seymor Chwast-designer - illustrator: his anti-war poster "End Bad Breath" indirectly encouraged the anti-war movement of the 70's.

John Lenin and Yoko Ono - famous musicians/artists: created the powerful anti-war campaign stating "THE WAR IS OVER...if you want it to be."

What makes statement driven art so emotionally powerful? It being witness to a piece of work that creates a bond between you, the viewer and the creator of the piece. A bond that can change the direction of thought and purpose.

A successfully executed statement driven piece can be the catalyst that inspires the average person into an active agent for change. Art exists in societies to create shared dialogues and experiences. No matter the medium, art and artists can be the spark to establishing a commonality, to allow us to empathize with each other and encourage altruistic pursuits for the greater good.

Dedicated to social awareness, Gallery5 invites visual and performing artists to submit their statement focused work to Repressed V: Free to Speak.

Deadline is March 6th.

More info and an application can be downloaded HERE (PDF).

Recent Work - CD Packaging

I'm in the process of updating the portfolio section of my website with some recent work and I thought I'd share it here as well...

 Soundtrack by Tony Award winner Stew for a production by Shakespeare on The Sound.

Pianist Lisa Moore's latest EP released by Cantaloupe Music.

Design Play

Three of my Skull-A-Day images appear in the new book Design Play from Hong Kong's Victionary. The book is a collection of clever and playful design solutions and a section of it is devoted to their 100 favorite photos of real-life visual illusions...

ALR on Tour: Gel 2010 - Generating Creative Energy

I'm excited to announce that I will be once again be participating in the Gel Conference in NYC on April 29 & 30. This year I will be leading a Day 1 workshop called "Generating Creative Energy". Participants will meet at the Etsy headquarters and will take part in a hands-on exercise to experience the benefits I found in creating yearlong daily art project Skull-A-Day. For more information and to sign-up for the nearly sold-out conference go HERE.

And if you haven't seen it, here's my talk from the 2009 Gel Conference...


Noah Scalin at Gel 2009 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

Greening Your Nonprofit's IT - Virtual Conference

On February 10th I'll be speaking as part of the panel on Sustainable Design & Printing that's included in the online conference "Greening Your Nonprofit's IT ’Äì How to Save Environment and Money. presented by NTEN & the Green IT Consortium. Here's the full schedule:

Keynote Address (10:00 am Pacific / 1:00 pm Eastern) 
Joseph Khunaysir, Founder, CIO & CTO of Jolera Inc., will talk about how non-profit organizations are going green and the role that IT plays in that transition to sustainable operations.  Joseph authored a chapter on Green IT in the recently-released book, Nonprofit Guide to Going Green.

Breakout Track I (11:10 am Pacific / 2:10 pm Eastern)

Introduction to Green IT: What is it, what your organization needs to know
Presented by: Hank Dearden, Virsant

Creating a Green IT Strategy: What is the right strategy for your organization, how to start, what to plan for
Presented by: Jennifer Woofter, Strategic Sustainability Consulting and Jim Lynch, TechSoup

Overview of Green IT Software and Hardware: Types of software and hardware you’Äôll want to know about to green your IT
Presented by: Anna Jaeger, TechSoup 

Breakout Track II (12:20 pm Pacific / 3:30 pm Eastern)

Virtualization: What is it, what it can do for your organization, green benefits
Presented by: Peter Campbell, Earth Justice and Matt Eshleman, CITI DC

Case Studies: How Non-Profits and Foundations are Greening Their IT
Presented by: Michael Sola, National Wildlife Federation and Bill Schaefer, Care2.com

Sustainable Design & Printing: What is sustainable design, what you should know about printing
Presented by: Noah Scalin, Another Limited Rebellion, Amy Hartzler, Free Range Studios and Dave Michaels, Ecoprint

For more information and to sign-up go HERE. If you select 'GreenIT' in the "How did you hear?" field after registering you'll receive the member rate of $60!

Designing For The Greater Good

I'm happy to announce that my work is featured in the newly released book from Collins Design Designing For The Greater Good by Peleg Top and Jonathan Cleveland. The book, which features a wide-range of examples of cause related marketing & non-profit design, has 24 in-depth case studies and the Red Flag Campaign I created for the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Action Alliance (shown below) is one of them!

More info and additional sample spreads can be found on the book's website HERE.

And if you're one of the first to order the book the authors will donate $10 to Haiti relief in your name! Details are HERE.

Spotted in India: Paper not Plastic

Based solely on my observations there India does not seem to have a strong infrastructure for dealing with trash or recycling, but it was nice to see at least that an effort is being made to reduce the use of disposable plastic bags (as evidenced by this sign spotted in Mumbai). Several stores offered inexpensive cloth bags as alternatives and one place even had these nifty bags made from recycled newspaper with a hand stenciled logo on them. Each one was unique and surprisingly sturdy.

Spotted in India: Coke Tree

Since I was in a more Christian part of India shortly after Christmas, there was still a lot of holiday related decoration up everywhere. In one town I saw this large faux Christmas tree covered in soda cans. I was hoping it was just a nice bit of recycling, but upon closer examination the decoration was clearly an advertising ploy as it was covered in only pristine Coca-Cola cans. Coke was also advertising their classic (white skinned) Santa Claus on billboards throughout the area as well.