New Blog Now Open

We're moving the A+GD blog to a new location: http://blogs.cpcc.edu/agd/. See you there!

Ripped From the Headlines

A+GD students are working together to turn seven nails into a house for a homeless family. They'll do it through trading one thing for another.

Check out their story in today's Charlotte Observer.

Check out their blog: www.swaptotherooftop.org

Where Do Ideas Come From

From Seth's Blog:

Ideas don't come from watching television

Ideas sometimes come from listening to a lecture

Ideas often come while reading a book

Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them

Ideas hate conference rooms, particularly conference rooms where there is a history of criticism, personal attacks or boredom

Ideas occur when dissimilar universes collide

Ideas often strive to meet expectations. If people expect them to appear, they do

Ideas fear experts, but they adore beginner's mind. A little awareness is a good thing

Ideas come in spurts, until you get frightened. Willie Nelson wrote three of his biggest hits in one week

Ideas come from trouble

Ideas come from our ego, and they do their best when they're generous and selfless

Ideas come from nature

Sometimes ideas come from fear (usually in movies) but often they come from confidence

Useful ideas come from being awake, alert enough to actually notice

Though sometimes ideas sneak in when we're asleep and too numb to be afraid

Ideas come out of the corner of the eye, or in the shower, when we're not trying

Mediocre ideas enjoy copying what happens to be working right this minute

Bigger ideas leapfrog the mediocre ones

Ideas don't need a passport, and often cross borders (of all kinds) with impunity

An idea must come from somewhere, because if it merely stays where it is and doesn't join us here, it's hidden. And hidden ideas don't ship, have no influence, no intersection with the market. They die, alone.

2010 Portfolio Show

New book by A+GD students

Students in Jenna MacFarlane's Typography 2 course wrote, designed and published a book about the future of design in Mecklenburg County. Artwork was supplied by students in classes taught by Jane McBee.

You can view the online version here: http://issuu.com/kenncompton/docs/culvtivating_a_chronicle_ii

Achieving the Dream

From the Richard Zollinger, VP of Learning at CPCC:

Congratulations to Kenn Compton and Jenna MacFarlane, instructors in the Advertising and Graphic Design Program, for integrating Achieving the Dream (ATD) into a class project. Students in the GRD242 classes were asked to work collaboratively in a team and design a creative solution to encourage CPCC students to “finish what they start.”

Watch this short film about Paul Rand

Paul Rand Retrospective from Jeremy Cox on Vimeo.

Name that Logo

"Major brands have become so recognizable, so ingrained in our minds, that simply covering them up won't do the trick. Here, we present a slew of logos that have been tampered with: color altered, text removed, shapes magnified--a logo generally obscured and totally out of context. See how many you can still recognize, even after being un-logo-fied."

via FastCompany

READING LIST

Interesting stuff to read from here and there:

Positive Posters

Good Stories make Good Brands

How graphic design can prevent the spread of HIV

The design challenge of the decade

The Future of Books

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.