Evan Roth

Evan Roth is a designer & media artist deeply rooted in the realm of graffiti, open source development, and popular culture. Born March 5th, 1978 in Okemos, Michigan, Roth developed his ambitions as an artist early on. By the time he graduated from the University of Maryland he received B.S. degree in architecture. After graduating he moved to Washington, D.C. for two years to work as an "autoCAD monkey".

Soon he traveled back to New York to get his MFA from Parsons The New School, graduating valedictorian. While in school he began to hone his craft, developing projects under the name "fi5e", namely Typographic Illustration, Explicit Content Only, Graffiti Taxonomy.

After he graduated he worked on open source projects at the Eyebeam OpenLab for about two years. Open source technology is a method of development that bares the "goods and knowledge" of a product to the public, specifically its inner workings and how it was created. This is done most notably with software development and even some hardware development as well.

One would assume, given Roth's dedication to open source and graffiti, that the designer's motives were certainly that of raw, personal freedom. This came together most prominently when he collaborated with OpenLab fellowship co-worker James Powderly and formed the Graffiti Research Lab in 2005. The GRL was designated to be an art group dedicated to supporting graffiti artists and protestors in combination with open source technology to be utilized in urban communication. Much of the projects led by GRL were documented on video as well as accompanying instructions for viewers to take on the same projects for themselves.

One of most notable projects was the invention of "LED Throwies", which were small LED lights used for the purpose of non-destructive, graffiti-based light displays. Another great achievement was a project entitled "L.A.S.E.R. Tag", which was a system set up that allowed for graffiti writers to non-destructively tag (or write on) the side of a building via a projector and laser pointer.

In 2007 he helped form the Free Art and Technology Lab, which describes itself as "an organization dedicated to enriching the public domain through the research and development of creative technologies and media". The projects done by the collective are often in relation to sociopolitical statements. One project entitled "China Channel Firefox Add-On" allows you to surf the internet from an IP address located in China; many sites, such as ones containing information about Tienanmen Square, are blocked off and your connection is terminated for 10-15 minutes. Projects such as these signify the new technological movement that designers such as Evan Roth are leading with regards to graffiti and political statements.

Today Evan Roth lives in Hong Kong with his wife's work is posted on his own personal website, www.evan-roth.com, which details just about all of his work since the beginning of his career. He currently teaches at Parsons The New School for Design, specficially courses on visual programming, internet fame, even "geek graffiti", a course that has come under fire from anti-graffiti city council member Peter Vallone, Jr. Roth's work still continues on as usual, just completing a video for Jay-Z's latest single "Brooklyn (We Go Hard)", an open-source video that displays typographic illustrations of rappers Jay-Z and the Notorious B.I.G. using only the word "Brooklyn". The video has been a great success, just like much of Roth's portfolio as a designer, artist, and political activist.

Blog Commentary: Week 9

Chinese architect Gary Chang makes the best use of of a 344 sq. ft. apartment in Hong Kong. Recommended for anyone living in a tight space. Granted you have the money to make the same sort of adjustments.

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Stoplight with a Timer?

"Eko Stoplight" concept design by Damjan Stankovic. His description below:

The way a person becomes smart is to store in their brain only the information that they have to know, dismissing the rest. If it’s written down, I don’t need to know it. That’s what Albert Einstein would have you believe. But not Damjan Stanković. In an ideal Damjan Stanković world, you’d know how long you were at that stoplight because it would tell you what it’s up to. Tell me what you’re up to, stoplight!

Don’t hold back your secrets, you stoplight you! I would love to know how much time I have before I am able to race to the next copy of you. I want to know how much time I have so I can hurry up and stop again!

Truly.

Stanković promotes this stoplight as an eco solution in the following ways: If you’ve got the amount of time you’ve got to stop in front of you, you can shut your engine off, wait, be calm, and turn it back on again when the time is almost up. This not only lessens the amount of gas you use sitting still, but it lessens the amount of crazy madness you have wondering if the stoplight is stuck, or just really, really long.

Definitely a good idea, though I don't know if anybody should be turning off their car waiting for a green light. Unless somebody finds a way to take care of the texting / make up / other distractions behind the wheel issue as well.

Blog Commentary: Week 8

8-Bit Destroys the World!



New York invasion by 8-bits creatures !
PIXELS is Patrick Jean' latest short film, shot on location in New York.

Written, directed by : Patrick Jean
Director of Photograhy : Matias Boucard
SFX by Patrick Jean and Onemoreprod

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YouTube's New Design Sucks

If it isn't broken, don't fix it. YouTube's old design wasn't perfect, but at least it had the right direction. The new design, released (and made permanent) earlier this month, has taken a step backwards in usability and overall aesthetics. There's too much white space, and content (especially video comments) is laid out in a confusing manner.

The image to the left is a look back at the old design.

Here is a (live) version of the new design. Judge for yourself.

Blog Commentary: Week 5

!!!!!


Preview of "Content-Aware Fill" feature in upcoming version of Photoshop. There is a God.

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Nerd Deco

Computer cursor pointer turned into a coat / cable / anything hanger. Hand-made by "Meninos" company.

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Endless USB Adapters

Only a concept. Done by Chinese designer Gonglue Jiang. Hopefully it comes to fruition. Could possibly say goodbye to the need for a USB hub?

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Awesome / Creepy Coffee Sleeve to the Rescue!















An insulating coffee sleeve that blows up into a particular shape when heated. Created by Scott Amron for Amron Experimental, Inc. Located nearby in Westbury. Nice! Doesn't explain how exactly the "swelling" works or how the resulting designs are created or controlled. Click image for full page and video demo. Overswelling in 2nd part of the video scares me.

Blog Commentary: Week 3

Avatar Review on Youtube.



Wow.

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Cardboard Record Player



















Created by GGRP Sound. The idea and the novelty of the thing sounds incredible, but that's about where it stops. Not very practical. Spun with a pencil? Who's going to have the energy / accuracy to do that for a 5-7 minute song? Nice idea but needs work. Solves one problem but creates maybe 3 more.

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Seth Godin: What you can learn from a lousy teacher

If you have a teacher (of any sort) that you cannot please, that you cannot learn from, that is unwilling to take you where you need to go because he is defending the status quo and demonstrates your failure on whatever report card he chooses to use, you could consider yourself a failure. Or you could remind yourself...

1. Grades are an illusion
2. Your passion and insight are reality
3. Your work is worth more than mere congruence to an answer key
4. Persistence in the face of a skeptical authority figure is a powerful ability
5. Fitting in is a short-term strategy, standing out pays off in the long run
6. If you care enough about the work to be criticized, you've learned enough for today

Here's my list:

1. Ratemyprofessor is your best friend come registration time.
2. Find other means to learn the subject. Sit down with the material yourself. Or have the token nerd explain it to you. A bad teacher usually means a bad communicator. Or they just found a way to carry a stick without using their hands. Learn your own way.
3. RATE
4. MY
5. PROFESSOR.
   

Blog Commentary: Week 2

+1 For Clevernosity, Heinz

Make a regular plastic packet look like a glass Heinz bottle. Splaying ketchup never looked cooler. Shock & awe the customer in anyway possible. Even on the little stuff. +1 Heinz

http://theawesomer.com/heinz-dip-squeeze/26554/

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Every Shopping Site Should Be Like This.

Designed by n.design studio. Very intuitive user interface. Probably should be standard for every shopping site.

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Music + New Technology = Always Gets My Attention.

Noteput – Interactive music table from Jonas Heuer on Vimeo.

In Heuer's own words:

“Noteput” is an interactive music table with tangible notes, that combines all three senses of hearing, sight and touch to make learning the classical notation of music for children and pupils more easy and interesting."

I am not child nor pupil and I want one.

I'd like to note he misspells the name of his own product ("Notput") in the first sentence on his own page. Always proofread your stuff if you're pitching something.

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Adobe Photoshop: Culinary Suite?

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

A video made in stopmotion for competition AdobeYouGC.
The simulation of a tutorial which shows how to make the lovely butter cookies with the new Adobe Photoshop Cook!
Whole set was made with cardboard and with kitchen utensils.

Blog Commentary: Week 1

Seth Godin: Making Art

My definition of art contains three elements:

1. Art is made by a human being.
2. Art is created to have an impact, to change someone else.
3. Art is a gift. You can sell the souvenir, the canvas, the recording... but the idea itself is free, and the generosity is a critical part of making art.

By my definition, most art has nothing to do with oil paint or marble. Art is what we're doing when we do our best work.

I partially agree with Seth's definition, though with slight alterations to each of his criteria. Art does not necessarily need to be limited to human beings; we can also interpret creations by other species as works of art. Art does not always change someone, but can still have an impact on them of some sort. What one sees as good art can put them in a better mood, while bad art can either put them in the bad mood or not affect them at all. I do agree wholeheartedly with art and its idea being a gift. The idea is more than likely to be the thing to change a person. As a designer it is our responsibility to touch or connect with a person and have some sort of impact on them, be it for personal or commercial reasons.

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Logorama: A Hard-Boiled Heist Flick With An Earth-Shattering Twist!

Logorama is an award-winning, provative and daring animated short film from the French H5 design collective, directed by François Alaux. The film screened last week as an Official Selection at The Sundance Festival, and it’s on the 2010 Oscar Nominee Shortlist for Best Animated Short Film.

Great film. I love how it isn't simply a short video that personifies the different company logos but actually has a plot -- and a beautifully violent one at that.

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TechCrunch: Think iBooks Looks Familiar? You’re Not The Only One.

Apple just released it's new & useless iPad device, complete with an app called "iBooks", which is meant to store and read e-books. However its interface, nicely resembling an actual bookshelf, is awfully reminiscent of a previously app released by an independent developer, Delicious Library.

Delicious Monster founder Wil Shipley commented, stating Apple definitely copied the idea, and it was much less of a coincidence being that much of his own staff was hired by Apple to work on the iPad itself. The bookshelf-style interface was never copyrighted, so it is seemingly fair game.

Note to designers: COPYRIGHT YOUR WORK. ALL OF IT.

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Can we talk about how cool this is?

Photographer & Illustrator Agan Harahap decided to Photoshop various superheroes into historical photos, thereby making them 10x more awesome. More at Format Mag.