Changethethought

An important and timely exhibition about the life and work of Buckminster Fuller entitled, ‘Starting with the Universe’ opened this week on Thursday at the Whitney Museum. It looks like a really amazing exhibition about a person more people need to know about now more than ever. If you are in the area, do yourself a favor and attend. I wish desperately I could go but I am currently enslaved in the system Bucky railed against and even if I could go, I wouldn’t be able to afford to. So if you can, go for me and tell me how it was. I’d love to hear. Here are the details and explanation of the show from the official Whitney Museum website.

About the Exhibition

on view June 26 – September 21, 2008

One of the great American visionaries of the twentieth century, R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) endeavored to see what he, a single individual, might do to benefit the largest segment of humanity while consuming the minimum of the earth’s resources. Doing “more with less” was Fuller’s credo. He described himself as a “comprehensive anticipatory design scientist,” setting forth to solve the escalating challenges that faced humanity before they became insurmountable.

Fuller’s innovative theories and designs addressed fields ranging from architecture, the visual arts, and literature to mathematics, engineering, and sustainability. He refused to treat these diverse spheres as specialized areas of investigation because it inhibited his ability to think intuitively, independently, and, in his words, “comprehensively.”

Although Fuller believed in utilizing the latest technology, much of his work developed from his inquiry into “how nature builds.” He believed that the tetrahedron was the most fundamental, structurally sound form found in nature; this shape is an essential part of most of his designs, which range in scale from domestic to global. As the many drawings and models in this exhibition attest, Fuller was committed to the physical exploration and visual presentation of his ideas.

The results of more than five decades of Fuller’s integrated approach toward the design and technology of housing, transportation, cartography, and communication are displayed here, much of it for the first time. This exhibition offers a fresh look at Fuller’s life’s work for everyone who shares his sense of urgency about homelessness, poverty, diminishing natural resources, and the future of our planet.

written by Christopher | tags: Buckminster Fuller, Starting with the Universe, Whitney Museum

As you can see, I redesigned the poster last night. This time I decided to make it less about the typography and more about Buckminster Fuller. I wanted to better unify the marriage between the organic and the geometric, since I think that says a lot about what Fuller himself accomplished, especially with the geodesic dome. I actually think it works better than the last poster and serves as a better commemoration of Fuller. Ironically, by making the type smaller but centering it in the circle above the image of Fuller gives it more brevity and buries it deeper in memory. I decided not to do any erosion edging to the poster as well because it kind of impedes on the integrity of the geometry. I think I am going to print this leaving the white border as well so when it is framed, there will be a nice border around it if someone wants to center it with a black matte. Again if I print it, I will also probably use a heavier white stock. Anyway, its a done deal now and is going back in the book.

written by Christopher | tags: Buckminster Fuller, Changethethought News, Graphic Design, Posters

Well, there has been some debate and backlash over the poster I created for Buckminster Fuller sharing some similarities to the work of Scott Hansen AKA ISO50. Scott’s work has always been a huge influence on me and my work. A lot of his imagery has been burned into my memory and I think is buried pretty deeply in my subconscious. A user left a comment today linking to the poster above comparing it to my own and I admit there are definitely some similarities. The embarrassing thing is, I hadn’t even seen that particular poster by ISO50 in quite a while.

I had an idea already in my mind of how I wanted to lay the Fuller poster out beforehand and I didn’t really know where I got the idea. It was just in my head. I used the strong diagonal lines as well to give the poster a forward direction to kind of help communicate the ‘progress’ Fuller stood for and also emphasize his upward gaze.

I have always liked the way Scott annotates his posters as well and I have started trying to do something similar on some of my recent posters by kind of signing off on them and numbering them in some way. It wasn’t until I saw the poster Hansen had done that I realized how close I was getting to the way he had done it on some of his own posters.

So, I am going to answer the call and do something totally different. I will pull the poster down and do an entirely new one sometime this week or later this week. When I am finished I will post the new one and you can have at it and see what you think. I am going to use the same vector image of Fuller along with the same colorway. I’ll just do a totally different layout. Then you can fire away and see what you think.

I just wanted to address this directly and nip it in the bud. I thought that would be the best way to handle it. I didn’t want to leave it out there for people to stew upon. I know how angry designers can get over things like this.

written by Christopher | tags: Buckminster Fuller, Changethethought, Ctt News, Iso50