Design Philadelphia Starts!
This past Thursday marked the start of Design Philadelphia, a 10 day celebration of design culture and appreciation. Kicking off at the Liao Collection at the 300 block of North 11th St., Design Philly presented May Michael A. Nutter with the Design Champion Award “for his unwavering support of the regional creative community and his initiatives to encourage innovative design solutions to improving and greening the urban environment.”
The event was $50 a head, so I wasn’t in attendance, but I was across the street at the very free event taking place at Vox Populi soaking up the Penmanship show, and drinking some free beer courtesy of the venue.
Penmanship is the collaboration of some 25+ artists (full list of participants over at the Facebook page given the same basic parameters for creating a unique typographic work.
The pieces themselves look gorgeous against the black painted walls of the gallery space, and hung in a way that gives the room a good rhythm and movement. The works are of a large format and really command the attention of the viewer. Personally I was overwhelmed with the diversity of the work and spent a good time examining each piece’s underlying tone and character, which at it’s heart is the very essence of the show.
I was lucky enough to speak with Dave Bailey briefly after noticing him examining his own piece hanging in the space. A lettering, type and logo designer with a passion for all things design, Bailey is no doubt a perfectionist with a strong dedication to his craft. His print for the show was a testament to this. A meticulous white on black illustration of a quill pen and the word “Practice” painstakingly crafted in Adobe Illustrator (at the time of writing this I’m waiting on confirmation).
Bailey was approached by a curator of the show named Dan Gneiding, and asked to design a piece with art direction limiting him to a greyscale color palette. When asked about his process and thoughts behind the work, Dave had this to say “The concepting process took me a little over a week, which involved a lot of research on late 19th century penmanship styles along with the methodology for decorative flourishes and illustrations of that same time period. I knew I wanted to feature the phrase Practice, but didn’t come up with a composition until I fell in love with the obtusely decorative illustration style coupled with Spencerian scripts of the late 1800s. Once I had seen enough inspiration the final piece was created in a few full days of obsessive bezier wrangling’.”
Dave Bailey (right)
Dave’s work, like so many others, is a craft that seldom goes appreciated for it’s complex and in-depth process, but Design Philadelphia seeks to change all that, at least on a regional level. A plethora of other events, lasting the span of Design Week (Oct 13th – 23rd) are currently planned in the city, many of them free to the public.
“Philly Design Week” as it’s being hailed is supported by The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, The Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage, and numerous venues, galleries and participants. For a full list of events, sponsors and other details visit DesignPhiladelphia.org.
I hope you’ll make it out to the events. I’ve got about a half dozen more planned to attend.
There’s a lot of free booze at these events so have fun and be merry, Philadelphia, but above all else: be safe!
Stay creative,
Jim Viola
Follow me on Twitter @JimViola
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