ReThinking The Environment In The Carolinas

The Raleigh AIGA recently asked me to be one of the judges for a poster competition promoting environmentalism in North and South Carolina called: re|THINK. The 20 winning posters, selected by myself and 2 other judges, will be on display (and for sale) at the Designbox gallery in Raleigh, NC for the month of April, with an opening reception on April 4th. Even if you're not in the area you can preview all of the winning designs online now HERE.

Out of The Closet

Like every good New Yorker, I store. That is, I rent a closet where I keep all the things that don't fit into my studio apartment. And, although I was intrigued to discover that Nigerian gentlemen store their Not-Quite-Gucci bags right next to my roller skates and sewing machine, I really hadn't thought much about my rented closet. Until recently..

For the past few years, Manhattan Mini-Storage has been using a series of bold statements in their print ads which mostly came off as bad stand-up jokes. But their newest installment has taken an unusual turn and become blatantly political in an ugly yet eye-catching ad campaign. Take a look:

They are a bit sloppy for my own design sense but certainly have created something worth blogging about. Now that they are getting flak from those who disagree with the statements - they have launched a poll on their site where anyone can weigh in or even submit suggestions for new ads. What do you think, should politics be kept in the closet?

Good Posters

While you've missed your chance to participate in the Good 50x70 poster design competition, which encouraged students and professionals to create posters on five pressing social justice issues, you can see the co-winners and shortlisted finalists, juried by a group of well-respected folks, for each category here:

• AIDS
• Environmental Damage
• Human Rights
• Undersdevelopment
• War

Profits from sales of catalogs of the posters will go to the charities that supported the competition.

Thanks Marc!