well it’s been a long time since i’ve seen anything that touches the spirit of the simple, bold and amazing graphics of otl aicher for the 1972 munich olympics, seen above. but i’m proud to say that the graphics for the 2010 vancouver winter olympics developed by VANOC (or vancouver organizing committee) with illustrator irene jacobs incorporating elements by xwa lack tun are reminiscent in a way that retains and showcases the importance of one decisive color palette and bold graphic elements. there has certainly been some technological progress made since 1972 and these illustrations definitely show that vector advancement. however it seems as though we’ve returned to the concept that the computer is just a tool and that an idea developed around form and color is just as powerful today as it was in 1972. i’m glad to say i’m not sad to see the novelty of digital rainbow gradients fall out of favor. so i do think the 2010 winter olympic graphics are indeed a step in the right direction.

olympic mascots started to appear as part of the olympic roster in 1972 with the debut of waldi the daschund, seen below. the daschund represents resistance, tenacity and agility, all qualities found in the best athletes. as since we have come to love mascots and they make the games accessible to all mostly by appearing on a slew of merch now standard in all olympic marketing campaigns.

for the 2010 games the vancouver based design duo better known as meomi were hired to create the three mascots quatchi, miga and sumi, seen below. miga is a sea bear or combination of an orca and bear, sumi is an animal spirit or thunderbird and quatchi is the ever elusive sasquatch of lore and my personal favorite. all were inspired by pacific northwest first nations legends. yes they are of course another illustration style completely different from irene jacobs’ illustrations but they have the reinforcement of the color palette which unites them together well enough.

the only thing i wished is that in this day and age and with the 2010 games declaration of sustainability, that a more green approach could have been used in creating some of the merchandise. i see that VANOC did team up with salish artist xwa lack tun to create authentic aboriginal licensed designs for some of their clothing where 1/3 of the royalties go towards the aboriginal youth legacy fund to support education, sport and cultural initiatives. a great program, but is it too much to ask for some organic cotton and eco-friendly materials to be incorporated here in the actual manufacturing? i’m not sure how there can be so many sustainable initiatives going on at the games and yet the end consumer isn’t always seeing this progress because it is so behind the scenes. the easiest and most visible way to communicate sustainability is at that point of purchase - on those hangtags and labels on the merchandise or preferably in the descriptions of the items available online - and i’m just not seeing it. so it seems we’ve made progress in some ways and not in others. visually 2010 vancouver got it right, with sustainability initiatives edging on perfect. 2012 london is already a graphic disappointment, but if it’s eco-superior then progress has been made. but what i’m really hoping for is that 2016 rio will get it right and then we can ‘blame’ all the great advancements on them!

so i will be in the company of some fellow makers tomorrow at this market! jackson heights, queens from 10am - 2pm… a small window so make sure you get there early for all the goods! swigg merch is priced to mooooove…

my mom was in town this week and we took the opportunity to visit the new MAD or museum of art and design where we checked out the slash exhibit. everything was made from cut paper and the sheer patience it takes to create these works was impressive. lee was captivated by adam fowler’s explanation of the ‘quiet intensity and concentration that comes from a meditative state’. lee likened it to ‘a thumb suck’ whereby the artist is metaphorically the baby. i highly recommend going to columbus circle to check it out - the architecture of the new space is equally enlightening - make sure to start at the top floor and walk down the stairs as there is no shortage of interest there! loving their logo too…

so we have the honor of being featured in another book called made & sold. it was curated and designed by the folks over at FL@33 in london. we can be found in the toys section as well as the miscellaneous section. curt meissner from small factory design is also featured as we collaborated on the pandabox collection together! we are surrounded by many talented designers thru-out the book - make sure and check it out! it can be purchased at amazon but also look for it at your favorite independent book seller!

swigg critters, swigg fungi sculptures, swigg stars and the little twin cub and the big twin cub from pandabox collection are featured.

continuing with the theme of bringing the studio site header to life, this assembly of drafting instruments seems to fit in well. i got a few of them from my grandfather who used to do a lot of measuring for fine woodworking. additionally i got some from my parents who used to run their own interior design company together. now my mom does interior renovation design on her own and my dad oversees welding fabrication. they both let me design their logos!

VIEW: work: identity: joan wenzel
VIEW: work: identity: fcf

one thing that helped me decide on the studio site header was that it could be openly interpreted depending on the viewer… is it a bookshelf? the city skyline? trees in the forest? a group of colored pencils? the answer is yes to all of those things. the plan is to gather as many analogies as possible… your feedback is welcome!

in the course of creating a new space for swigg studio to live online, we have also done some re-arranging of the studio itself. lots of editing and making room for more, well… inspiration. some times being surrounded by so many projects can not only clutter your surroundings, but also your mind. so we took the time to assess, organize and simplify…

if anyone remembers our feature in blueprint magazine, you can see it has changed quite a bit! above is a shot from that photoshoot back in january ‘07. the wall color is the same but we got rid of some desks that were cluttering up the flow. we created more of an office zone using the metal shelving that once housed all of my ‘making’ materials on the other side of the studio. the whole organization effort was an exercise in using what you already have to make the space function more efficiently - and that involved taking even more trips to the salvation army and putting things in our building’s ‘free’ zone. it feels good to pass along things that have served you well over the years as ultimately you get to take part in the ultimate perk of living in nyc - the ‘free stuff score’!

been working on this new experiment with daily responses and indexing of color which can be entered into my personal database called ‘dailybase’. don’t have all the sections figured out but more to come soon… any ideas or suggestions, feel free to comment!