CLIENT: Change Advertising / Vancouver Skateboard Coalition
ROLE: Art Direction / Illustration / Design

This project came about as a result of the Vancouver City Council’s proposal to shut down China Creek, one of North America’s oldest skateparks. Being a pro bono initiative, there was a great deal of creative freedom to be had on this. I made it a personal goal to develop a look for the site that was more illustrative that straight design in its execution. There was a story to tell and it needed to appeal to, and keep the attention of, a younger audience.

The design is influenced by graphic novels, in particular DMZ by Brian Wood, and the horizontal navigation of the site is meant to further emphasize this linear storyline style. There is an underlying political statement about the present state of the world to be unearthed, but what the design ultimately came to represent was the classic David and Goliath story — of the little guy fighting against the system — a universal allegory that anyone can get behind.

The 2nd example he gave was of a multi-disciplined research facility. The different departments had been originally quite segregated with separate entrance ways and staircases. But the new design featured a central staircase that all personnel used to access their labs. What began to happen was that researchers from different fields would run into each other coming and going from their days and, in the discussion that ensued, interdisciplinary connections and discoveries were suddenly being made that had previously gone completely unnoticed.

In thinking of these two scenarios this evening and how, just as in architecture, as web designers we can put up unintended barriers to information, or create unpredicted niche communities or a tool that gets used for an unforeseen purpose. What always needs to be accounted for is the human variable and despite all the efforts of content strategists and usability engineers, the main secret weapon in creating a successful website will always be flexibility and a willingness to adapt to your users’ needs.

–Jessica Helfand
“Stan Brakhage: Caught on Tape”

View “Mothlight” here.

and

“Pollock might argue that it’s the process of abstraction that’s dynamic, not the end result, which in his case is a static painting. In my own work, the end result is never static; by making room for as many anomalies as possible, every composition generated by the programs we write is unique to itself. I’ll program the “brushes,” the “paints,” the “strokes,” the “rules”, and the “boundaries”. However it is the software that creates the compositions — the programs draw themselves. I am in a constant state of surprise and discovery, because the program may structure compositions that I may never have thought of to execute or might take me hours to create manually.”

-Joshua Davis

The design is by Tadanori Yokoo, a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter who was not just a contemporary of Mishima’s but also a friend and collaborator (he actually makes a brief appearance in the movie). All of which makes his contribution of the DVD art appropriate not to mention that his design and art are fantastic. A decent survey of his work can be found with a Flickr search.

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