It’s hard to count the times I’ve started to watch a documentary film on a topic that I’m interested in only to become uninterested just over half way through. I’m am becoming quite a fan of Gary Hustwit though. Unlike a lot of documentaries Hustiwt’s films don’t seem long and drawn out. I finally got around to watching his documentary about Helvetica. Listening to all the quirky designers talk about the type face and what they think about design in general was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed segment with Erik Spiekermann who seemed to constantly and purposely contradict himself. You get a little design history too. If you’re a Netflixer you can already watch it on demand.

My boss let me barrow The Visual Display of Quantitive Information by Edward R. Tufte. I was so amazed by the book I thought I would do a little more research on the author. Edward R. Tufte is a political scientist turned statistician and information design expert. I’ve only been through the first chapter of the book so far but am amazed at Tufte’s ability to break down information into understandable visual structures allowing viewers to more easily read and compare statistics and data. He also give a lot of information about the history of charts. Tufte emphasizes accurate data, clear purpose and graphic design. When it all boils down to it, it is about comparison. Can the viewer easily compare data within a chart and is the chart compelling enough that they would even want to? I’m excited to read more. Something I found interesting when looking at Tufte’s Wikipedia is his criticism of PowerPoint and even NASA’s use of it claiming that charts on a piece of paper would let readers look more closely at information during a presentation. I’ve never been a big fan of PP myself.

Jacob Nescobedo is the illustrator/designer behind the great shape driven Broken Bells art work as well as Gnarls Barkley. He’s also done work for T-Pain, Adult Swim and is currently working on a Dark Night of the Soul being released this summer. I also posted one of his patterns which is amazing.  See more of his work here.

My friend at work pointed these ads out to me. Not a new concept, but a funny one. Dragon Noodle Co.’s  ads feature purposefully poor translation (or maybe just made up stuff) and nonsensical imagery to promote their sushi bar in Las Vegas. Floating baby heads, food with legs and bottles of rabbit liquor abound.

Last Saturday Meg and I went to MassMoCA and saw the Sol Lewitt wall drawing project created by an initiative between MassMoCA and Williams College. A team of sixty two artists and students executed the drawings from April to September 2008. LeWitt’s wall drawings from the 1960s and 1970s were usually executed with lead and colored pencil, many of the wall drawings at MassMoCA were as well, but executers also used paint varying in thickness and gloss. The exhibition takes up three floors and is organized in progression from light paint to thicker glossier paint and then to drawing. It was amazing to see such large geometric shapes and colors. At times my eyes couldn’t take the color vibrations. I can’t imagine working on some of these. Posted above are pictures I took of some of my favorites. I only included one crazy color wall. I preferred the more subdued one. Maybe I’m getting old  You can check out MassMoCA’s website to see more.

Broken Bells features artist–producer Danger Mouse and James Mercer, the lead vocalist and guitarist for the The Shins. I’ve only heard the music that’s on the site, but it seems like a great album. Plus if you buy the limited edition music box you get 44-page notebook that includes photos and illustrations, a glow in the dark sticker sheet, a poster and 2 post cards with the cd. I love design work on this package. Even if the music was lame, and is sounds like it’s not, it would be worth it just to get the music box. If I could only justify spending the $40. I may have to just go with buying the album.

Update: My friend Sarah saw my post land in Facebook and let me know that you can listen to the whole album on NPR’s site.