Tout au long du processus qui a engendré le deuxième numéro de Pica, plusieurs activités ont été mise sur pied dans le but de faire participer les élèves et d’ouvrir une tribune autour de la thématique de la transformation, qui d’ailleurs,est celle du prochain numéro. L’une d’entre elles consistait à un confessionnal où trois questions étaient posés aux courageux volontaires:

1) Croyez-vous que les médias numériques prendront la place des médias imprimés?
2) De quel façon la transformation affecte-t-elle la profession de designer?
3) En tant qu’étudiant, comment réagissez-vous?

Initiative d’Ariane Perpignani, Serina Tarkhanian, Anne-Marie Saucier, Mahlia Villeneuve et l’équipe Pica.

Pica recommande Parfum de Lila, une B.D québécoise par Samuel Leblanc, finissant 2010 en design graphique à l’Uqam.

Été 1997, Nicolas séjourne chez sa tante Rose qui se relève d’un deuil douloureux. Pour passer le temps, Nicolas l’aide à entretenir son jardin et se découvre une passion pour la botanique. Comme la plupart des adolescents, il se sent mal dans sa peau et se pose beaucoup de questions. Mais Nicolas est loin de se douter que cet été le marquera à jamais.

Avec Parfum de lilas, nous sommes plongés dans la tête d’un adolescent en pleine puberté qui explore sa sexualité. Quelquefois choquant, ce livre amène le lecteur à se poser des questions sur les tabous de notre société.

128 pages noir et blanc. 16.5 x 23.5cm. 16,95$
Couverture souple. Parution: 2010-04-07
ISBN 978-2-922827-46-0

This one is a little book in its case. Inside is a serie of pictures he made for his photo class. Since the pages are accordion, you can look at the photos in spread or in a row. Pretty fun stuff to paste!

Here’s some modular screenprinted plushies he made with his good friend and awesome illustrator Pierre-Nicolas Riou for a school project where they had to design a toy for children. Big thanks to his girlfriend Roxane Daneault who gave them some of her time and helped them with the sewing.

JESSICA GENEST, Révision et correction. Graphic Identity including business cards, letterheads and envelopes.  The client is going freelance, so the goal was to make the best impression with a solid presentation and memorable corrector’s quotes.  Printed on Cougar papers, pantone 576C.

Pica is proud to have Nicolas Ménard amongst other great collaborators in our coming second issue Transformation.  More on this young talent. Here.

Jack Dylan est un affichiste fulgurant de la scène musicale indépendante de Montréal.  Influencé par la bande dessinée , il illustre des clichés dans lesquels on reconnaît les endroits iconiques de la ville.  Jadis, on apercevait ses affiches aux personnages super-héroïques couleur pastelle sur les poteaux du Mile-End.  Aujourd’hui son style évolue proportionnellement à sa notoriété: ses pastiches à l’hebdomadaire New Yorker magazine sont encadrés en galerie.  Bravo Monsieur Dylan!

Le Flaneur: du 27 Août au 6 Septembre 2010. Vernissage, vendredi le 27 Août 19h à minuit.  Red Bird Gallery 135, VAn Horne, Montréal.

par: Thanh Truc Trinh

Le Flaneur, a retrospective exhibition of work by Jack Dylan, explores the medium of the poster through a selection of prints and original pieces drawn from Dylan’s extensive portfolio.  The selected pieces address the general historical theme of the Flaneur in relation to the distinctive cultural flare exemplified by the Montreal music scene. Framed limited edition prints and one-of-a-kind ink drawings will be for sale and an artist talk will be presented at 8pm the night of the vernissage, August 27th, 2010.

August 27th–September 6th. Vernissage August 27th,7pm to 12am. Red Bird Gallery 135, VAn Horne, Montréal.

(taken from invitation)

Design does not equal client work.

It’s hard to make purple work in a design. The things your teachers tell you in class are not gospel. You will get conflicting information. It means that both are wrong. Or both are true. This never stops. Most decisions are gray, and everything lives on a spectrum of correctness and suitability.

Look people in the eyes when you are talking or listening to them. The best teachers are the ones who treat their classrooms like a workplace, and the worst ones are the ones who treat their classroom like a classroom as we’ve come to expect it. Eat breakfast. Realize that you are learning a trade, so craft matters more than most say. Realize that design is also a liberal art. Quiet is always an option, even if everyone is yelling. Libraries are a good place. The books are free there, and it smells great.

If you can’t draw as well as someone, or use the software as well, or if you do not have as much money to buy supplies, or if you do not have access to the tools they have, beat them by being more thoughtful. Thoughtfulness is free and burns on time and empathy.

The best communicators are gift-givers.

Don’t become dependent on having other people pull it out of you while you’re in school. If you do, you’re hosed once you graduate. Keep two books on your nightstand at all times: one fiction, one non-fiction.

Buy lightly used. Patina is a pretty word, and a beautiful concept.

Develop a point of view. Think about what experiences you have that many others do not. Then, think of what experiences you have that almost everyone else has. Then, mix those two things and try to make someone cry or laugh or feel understood.

Design doesn’t have to sell. Although, that’s usually its job.

Think of every project as an opportunity to learn, but also an opportunity to teach. Univers is a great typeface and white usually works and grids are nice and usually necessary, but they’re not a style. Helvetica is nice too, but it won’t turn water to wine.

Take things away until you cry. Accept most things, and reject most of your initial ideas. Print it out, chop it up, put it back together. When you’re aimlessly pushing things around on a computer screen, print it out and push it around in real space. Change contexts when you’re stuck. Draw wrong-handed and upside down and backwards. Find a good seat outside.

Design is just a language, it’s not a message. If you say “retro” too much you will get hives and maybe die. Learn your design history. Know that design changes when technology changes, and its been that way since the 1400s. Adobe software never stops being frustrating. Learn to write, and not school-style writing. A text editor is a perfectly viable design tool. Graphic design has just as much to do with words as it does with pictures, and a lot of my favorite designers come to design from the world of words instead of the world of pictures.

If you meet a person who cares about the same obscure things you do, hold on to them for dear life. Sympathy is medicine.

Scissors are good, music is better, and mixed drinks with friends are best. Start brave and brash: you can always make things more conservative, but it’s hard to make things more radical. Edit yourself, but let someone else censor you. When you ride the bus, imagine that you are looking at everything from the point of view of someone else on the ride. If you walk, look up on the way there and down on the way back. Aesthetics are fleeting, the only things with longevity are ideas. Read Bringhurst and one of those novels they made you read in high school cover to cover every few years. (Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby.)

Stop trying to be cool: it is stifling.

Most important things happen at a table. Food, friends, discussion, ideas, work, peace talks, and war plans. It is okay to romanticize things a little bit every now and then: it gives you hope.

Everything is interesting to someone. That thing that you think is bad is probably just not for you. Be wary of minimalism as an aesthetic decision without cause. Simple is almost a dirty word now. Almost. Tools don’t matter very much, all you need is a sharp knife, but everyone has their own mise en place. If you need an analogy, use an animal. If you see a ladder in a piece of design or illustration, it means the deadline was short. Red, white, black, and gray always go together. Negative space. Size contrast. Directional contrast. Compositional foundations.

Success is generating an emotion. Failure is a million different things. Second-person writing is usually heavy-handed, like all of this.

Seeking advice is addicting and can become a proxy for action. Giving it can also be addicting in a potentially pretentious, soul-rotting sort of way, and can replace experimenting because you think you know how things work. Be suspicious of lists, advice, and lists of advice.

Everyone is just making it up as they go along.

This about sums up everything I know.

À voir si vous êtes dans le coin!  Isabelle Campeau et Maxime Harvey présentent le 21 août prochain sous la forme d’une performance artistique, leur projet intitulé Le souper (couple 01) au Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides.

Le projet développé en 2008, d’abord sous la forme photographique, sera présenté cette fois en performance. Ainsi, l’œuvre s’adapte aux situations qui se présentent, faisant l’objet d’une expérimentation publique. Elle s’insère dans l’exposition d’un autre artiste ou poursuit l’exposition précédente, se modifiant au cours de sa progression.  La performance aura lieu à trois reprises. D’abord dans l’auditorium du musée et ensuite, à même la salle d’exposition en cours de Betty Goodwin.

Isabelle Campeau, et Maxime Harvey travaillent ensemble depuis 2007. Ils situent volontairement leurs projets dans la zone ambiguë entre les différentes formes de design et leur insertion dans le monde de l’art.  Le vêtement redéfini non seulement le corps, mais l’individu et sa relation avec l’environnement. C’est cette fonction spécifique qui en fait une forme d’art visuel et un médium permettant d’exprimer la culture contemporaine. Il ne s’agit pas de mode ou de décoration, mais plutôt d’investir l’image, de soulever un questionnement et de faire évoluer une idée. Il s’agit d’une approche réflexive plutôt qu’une question de médium ou de discipline.

Vernissage ce soir à l’Atelier Punkt.  La gallerie transforme son espace en maison modèle, décorée de mobilier et tapisserie et accessoires conçus pour vous recevoir.  Venez voir le travail des designers industriels et graphiques de Montréal: Alexandre Berthiaume, Bipède, Maria Chronopoulos, Eric Demay, Annie Descôteaux, Feed, Étienne Hotte, Alexandre Landry, Melinda Pap, Yann Pocreau, Alexandre Roy, Rita & Guillaume Sasseville.

Le travail étudiant de la semaine: Le portfolio de Vanessa Duval, future étudiante à l’UQAM cet automne. Elle vient tout juste de graduer du programme de graphisme du CEGEP de Sherbrooke où elle s’est démarquée par son style personnel bien ancré et la qualité irréprochable de son travail. Un nom à surveiller dans les années à venir. blog.