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1. Paula: Owls #1

Playing with owls and patterns...

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2. London Doodles

 

London-Doodles-by-Floating-Lemons

Yes, I'm in London. Which is wonderful, especially as I'm with family, about to go on an amazing trip to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday ... yet a wee bit frustrating as well, as I'm missing two whole weeks of the e-course that I've been so thoroughly enjoying ... But yes, I am definitely counting my blessings.

I did manage to take some time off and doodle. We're having a few internet connectivity problems so I'll keep this short and sweet, and post it before I get cut off. Here's the black and white sketch:

 

London-Doodles-sketch-by-Floating-Lemons

 

I'm not sure if I'll be able to carry on blogging much till I get back home, but I'll be posting photos and updates over at the Floating Lemons Facebook page so pop by there if you'd like to accompany me to Istanbul ...

Have a wonderful day. Cheers.

 

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3. On the Scene: WonderCon 2013, ‘What Makes an Icon?” with Nocenti, De Matteis, Mahnke, Slott, Waid

A panel on Friday, March 29th, the first day of programming at WonderCon brought together a rather iconic cast to discuss “iconic characters” and what keeps a character “true” to their origins over long periods of time. Mark Waid opened as moderator by pointing out that the table full of seasoned pros had more than 125 years of comics experience between them and most had worked on longterm characters and newer creations alike. The essential question posed by Waid was how to “vault” characters “into the 21st century without losing what keeps them special”. The question seemed particularly pertinent to Waid, whose ongoing work on DAREDEVIL has evoked critical acclaim. Waid asked his panellists how they handle the “core elements of characters” to face this challenge.

mbrittany mwaid 1 255x300 On the Scene: WonderCon 2013, ‘What Makes an Icon?” with Nocenti, De Matteis, Mahnke, Slott, Waid J. M. De Matteis introduced an image that stayed with the panellists as a reference point for discussion. He felt that creators handling long-lived characters work “within a cage”, so they can’t “go wide” with the character in term of change, but they can “go deep” in terms of making new discoveries. For De Matteis, personally, it’s all about the “Big Why” of characters, figuring out what makes them tick. He prefers working with super-villains to pose questions about the formative impact of their past histories because there’s “always a little corner of the psyche to dig into”. Ann Nocenti, however, in her recent work with Catwoman found that “her archetype was pretty clear” as a troubled kid originally, “on the streets” originally, and moving through “foster homes”. Her intuitive approach is to “play with a character and see what feels right” and she doesn’t mind the fact that later creators will do the same with long-term characters. It’s “like treading water”, she said, “You give a sense of constant, dynamic action, but you’re really not moving far”, and she expects later creators to be under the same constraint.

mbrittany nocenti slott dematteis 300x117 On the Scene: WonderCon 2013, ‘What Makes an Icon?” with Nocenti, De Matteis, Mahnke, Slott, Waid Doug Mahnke’s challenges, as an artist working on long-term heroes, is rather specific, handling costumes and their overtones. He observed that heroes, even today, often don’t look “contemporary” because their appearance has become iconic and we no longer question the anachronism, like Superman’s “underwear outside his pants”. Other features like capes and boots, Mahnke said, “made sense at the time” they were created based on a “swashbuckling” influence. In fact, he explained, an artist’s job is to “bring out the majesty in the character. It doesn’t matter so much what they’re wearing”, but you can use costume as a “tool” to use to your advantage.

mbrittany dematteis mahnke 300x145 On the Scene: WonderCon 2013, ‘What Makes an Icon?” with Nocenti, De Matteis, Mahnke, Slott, Waid Several of the panellists then commented on the fact that objectively, some of the nomenclature and costumes of characters created decades ago would seem “stupid” now. Nocenti’s example was a resurrection of a minor character, Zebra Man who was “visually fantastic” but the name and concept bizarre. Slott felt that once an icon is an icon, “the fact that it’s an icon gives it weight”, preventing further critique from readers. Even Waid’s considered opinion was that “Green Lantern” is a “stupid name for a character, but after 75 years”, it has “gravitas”.

mbrittany nocenti slott 300x161 On the Scene: WonderCon 2013, ‘What Makes an Icon?” with Nocenti, De Matteis, Mahnke, Slott, Waid The panel then tackled the question of when and how exactly a character becomes officially iconic, and they set the bar high on awarding this status. De Matteis opined that “nothing about the character idea makes it iconic. It’s the execution”, and not every character reaches this status despite reasonably strong storytelling behind them. Dan Slott interjected that it only takes “one writer and one artist to do it”, like Frank Miller on DAREDEVIL. The discussion often drifted into slap-stick commentary on the more absurd aspects of superhero lore like the possession of a super vehicle as an icon accoutrement. Nocenti provided the little known detail that Cat Woman’s car is known as a “Catillac”. Slott confessed to proposing in a “meeting with real adults” that Superman’s car should be known as “Superman’s Ford Taurus of Solitude” with disasterous results.

Waid observed that some characters are iconic in pop culture without necessarily being long-lived, like Woody Woodpecker, who’s highly recognizable, but not a currently active character. Waid commented that the tendency toward merchandizing may encourage the slow-down or freeze of new developments in a character since “every character becomes a beach towel” in the end. The entire panel segued into a long and fairly serious discussion of Wonder Woman as a character and why she has, or has not, lived up to her iconic status in terms of actual comic storytelling.

mbrittany mwaid 2 251x300 On the Scene: WonderCon 2013, ‘What Makes an Icon?” with Nocenti, De Matteis, Mahnke, Slott, Waid

Most felt, like De Matteis, that Wonder Woman comics have not always been “all that good”, nevertheless the character definitely qualifies as “iconic”. Waid had a fairly idiosyncratic theory behind why this is the case. He observed that there was a strong “sexual element” to the “first 10 years of the strip” that was later removed to render the character more “plain vanilla”, and that now, lacking that “x-factor of sexuality”, stories fail to live up to the early days (an issue, he said, he frequently discusses with Grant Morrison). Slott disagreed pointedly with Waid’s assessment. He instead blames the lack of verve in Wonder Woman comics to the fact that comics are essentially a “make dominated industry” that has not explored the “many angles of the character” sufficiently. Slott still feels that if the right team is put together, the stories can rise to iconic status again, without recourse to the “weird quirky bits”. His choice of phrase caused plenty of giggling among the panellists.

This led Waid to ask his panel how they decide what elements are most essential to a character, what continues to translate, and what can be left behind. De Matteis advised to “always approach the characters psychologically and emotionally” and not worry too much about the “other stuff”, and sometimes that psychological appeal can be found in lesser known characters. Nocenti commented that her current work on KATANA based on the strange but intriguing concept of a “girl with a sword” produced “good potential” for developing “obsessional love triangle” elements between herself, her murdered husband, and his murdering brother.“The less iconic a character, the more fun you can have!”, she enthused.

Slott agreed with Nocenti on  this idea, up to a point. When you’re handling an iconic character, readers lose the fear that their reckless lifestyles will do them in, whereas if a character is “unknown”, “Everyone is worried”, wondering if they will survive from issue to issue. Slott and Nocenti shared an interesting moment of commiseration, albeit brief, about their mutual killing off of Spider-based characters, and the emotional reaction of fans. “Screw letters from emotional fans”, Slott concluded, laughing, but Waid intervened by informing the audience that he’s sure Slott “weeps himself to sleep at night with 6 year olds’ fan mail” over the death of Spider-Man .

mbrittany comics 300x200 On the Scene: WonderCon 2013, ‘What Makes an Icon?” with Nocenti, De Matteis, Mahnke, Slott, Waid The panellists didn’t always find their subject matter easy to decipher, nor did they feel that there’s always an easy answer for why some characters “click” as icons and some don’t. Batman, particularly, has a mysteriously successful dynamic, they said. But some things do change. Waid observed that he “couldn’t have imagined a world where I walked down the street and everyone knew who Tony Stark was” until after the Iron Man films had been made. Waid suggested that iconic status for characters might be measured in the number of imitators who have sprung up. De Matteis returned to his general position that archetypal patterns determine iconic status, however. Slott provided examples, stating that Superman is like Hercules, Batman a being on a vengeance-quest, and Tony Stark is, too, iconic in formula, as a combination of “Man and Machine”, an icon that the world is ripe for right now.

mbrittany nocenti slott 2 300x190 On the Scene: WonderCon 2013, ‘What Makes an Icon?” with Nocenti, De Matteis, Mahnke, Slott, Waid The panellists’ parting thoughts during the Q and A period focused on an interesting point made from the audience about the superhero/villain ratio. With so many more supervillains than superheroes in comics, “recycling” them is the norm, but at what point do they become “stale” and need to be retired, at least for awhile? De Matteis was firm about the roles of the artist and writers, insisting that there are “no stale characters but stale interpretations of characters” and that good work will prevent this problem. “Every character is great if you did into them in the right way”, he said. Waid’s closing example to support De Matteis’ point was that “20-25 years ago, no one would have thought that GREEN ARROW would become 2 times the best selling DC book, and then get his own TV show”. His bottom line: “If you dig deep enough you can find something that resonates”, and that’s the key to creating an icon, something that may not happen overnight.

 Photo Credits: All photos in this article were taken by semi-professional photographer and pop culture scholar Michele Brittany. She’s an avid photographer of pop culture events. You can learn more about her photography and pop culture scholarship here.

 

Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.

 

 

 

15 Comments on On the Scene: WonderCon 2013, ‘What Makes an Icon?” with Nocenti, De Matteis, Mahnke, Slott, Waid, last added: 3/31/2013
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4. Easter Bunny, Icons, & Pattern

Thought I'd put up some Easter-related items here, since we are into March. This is part of a licensing package I've been working on.

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5. Pattern Icons by Nick Slater



Pattern Icons by Nick Slater



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6. Knot Art (even if Not Icons)



"In 2007, Vladimir Denshchikov suffered a stroke, right before a theatrical premiere, which led to his taking a teaching job at the Simferopol Institute of Culture. While recuperating from this terrible condition, the artist continued working on an icon for the church of Malorechenskoye village, and as he struggled to weave little knots, he felt his partially paralyzed hand moving ever more freely, as if God was guiding it Himself. The artist made a miraculous recovery and continues to create wonderful macrame artworks."


read the rest of this story here     ht to @ChrissiHrt on Twitter.com

I do want to note that this particular artform is not correctly an icon according to traditional Orthodox iconography.   Instead, the artist is here reproducing in macrame what used to be done in precious metal as a not only an adornment but also protection of the painted icon against wear and tear caused by veneration in the form of kissing. Here is an example in metal:

from this site  http://www.crosses.org/icon/ 

 The Chicago School of Media Theory has this to say about this practice:

With the acceptance of the icon as a religious tool well established, the icons’ religious use was further dictated and refined by Church doctrine. The form of the religious icon as it is recognized today, both by art history and the Church, is still easily traceable to these doctrines, the most famous of them being the Byzantine aesthetic rules of “clarity and recognizability,” which limited both the scope of the images which were reproducible and the form these reproductions could take. Functionally, this increased the images’ ability to be recognized as of the church and increased their circulation. First adopted from the Byzantines by the Greek Orthodox church, the images soon after became a central part of

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7. mikelaughead: Critical visual essay for my Graphic Novel...











mikelaughead:

Critical visual essay for my Graphic Novel Literature class. This was really fun to do and I really like that character.











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8. What makes an image an icon?

Image, branding, and logos are obsessions of our age. Iconic images dominate the media. In his new book, Christ to Coke, art historian Professor Martin Kemp examines eleven mega-famous examples of icons, including the American flag, the image of Christ's face, the double helix of DNA, and the heart.

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9. The Noun Project

the nouns project

The Noun Project is a bold idea with a simple mission statement: “Sharing, celebrating and enhancing the world’s visual language”. Essentially, the Project aims to collect, organize and add to the universal library of symbols and images that make up our visual language.

A project like this has many benefits for the design community, but I feel that the simplification of ideas is very helpful. For those people brainstorming, the sorting by category feature is a great way to see a variety of symbols within or near a tangible concept. (Images are viewable by category and also en masse). Also, the images are free to use and place nicely in Illustrator.

As of now, The Noun Project is available only in English — but they are looking for help in translating to other languages.

the nouns project

the nouns project

the nouns project

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Also worth viewing:

Handbook of Pictorial Symbols

Gerd Arntz Memory Game

Paul Ibou: Logos, Posters & Calendars

Not signed up for the Grain Edit RSS Feed yet? Give it a try. Its free and yummy.

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Grain Edit recommends: Karel Martens: Printed Matter. Check it out here.



©2009 Grain Edit - catch us on Facebook and twitter

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10. Apple iPhone icons


Realistic 3D illustration about the many apps and accompanying icons for the Apple iPhone.

Sevensheaven images and prints are for sale at sevensheaven.nl

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11. Herbert W. Kapitzki: Graphic Designer and Teacher

herbert kapitzki

Posters for the International Design Center Berlin (IDZ)

Herbert Kapitzki, a former student of Willi Baumeister, conceived and designed exhibitions for the state industrial inspection board (Landesgewerbeamt) in Stuttgart in the 1950s and the early 1960s. He developed a distinct language of forms modelled on constructive forerunners, and campaigned for the popularisation of functional graphic design. His own groundbreaking work was exemplary in this respect.

herbert kapitzki

Full-page advertisements in the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” a German newspaper.

herbert w kapitzki

System of signs for sporting and leisure pursuits, 1969

herbert kapitzki
Contribution for the Federal Republic of Germany to the Montreal International Exhibition
1967

When Otl Aicher asked him to teach at the Academy of Design in Ulm, where he remained until the closing of the school in 1968, he already possessed mature creative solutions and precise concepts of modern information design.

The interdisciplinary discussions about actual and future ways of communication of the Stuttgart ‘group 56′ inspired Herbert Kapitzki. He was a pioneer in exploring the visualisation of information through graphic symbols or systems of codes to meet the needs of modern mass communication in times of mobility.

With his pictograms and orientation systems for airports he set international standards for a lingua franca which nowadays seems self-evident to us. Systematic form design remained the central theme of his teaching in Ulm and in Berlin, where he taught at the Academy of Arts from 1970 until his retirement in 1990.

(Source AGI)(Via Swiss Legacy)

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Also worth checking: Publicity and Graphic Design in The Chemical Industry. & Icographic Journal

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Congrats to B. Rane! She is the winner

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12. Ad Boy: New Book on Obscure Ad Icons

adboyI’m such a book junkie.

There’s a new one out for all you kitsch-mavens, advertising art gurus, and mid-20th-century style hounds. Warren Dotz and designer Masud Husain have just released Ad Boy: Vintage Advertising With Character, a compendium of cool brand identities culled from what must be a spectacular collection of ephemera. Although it is a followup to his previous book Meet Mr. Product: The Art of the Advertising Character, Warren says this one is quite different. Although I haven’t yet got my hands on a real live copy, there is a preview available on Amazon. The table of contents shows the book is arranged by subject matter: Mechanical Men, Scottish Plaid, Genies, etc.

I asked Warren if he had information on the creators of all these mascots, but he said it’s so hard to trace that he doubts if he has even 10% of the designers’ names. If any of you old retired illustrators and designers are the culprits and you read this blog - gee, a lot of us advertising and illustration historians would sure like to know who did what and when!

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13. Security symbols


Graphic 2D symbols that express security services, used as prints on a company car.

I love creating 2D graphics like these, next to my 3D work.

More at Sevensheaven.nl

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14. Jon Hicks on illustrating icons

Today Jon Hicks posted some sketches and early prototypes of the icons he designed for Linotype’s FontExplorer app.

Also worth checking out are the similar posts he has written about designing the icons for Mozilla’s Firefox and Thunderbird.

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15. A World of Characters

Thanks to the Children's Literature Book Club, I've been looking at the characters of our books in a whole new way. Here's my version of our alphabetical list of guys, gals and critters great and small:

A
Anna
Antonella
Apollo / Apolo

B

Benny
Bobbie

C
Cherry
Claude
Coco

D
Daisy
Dan
Dave
Dougal

E
Eddie / Eduardo

F
Fanny
Figaro
Fox
Fox
Flusi

G
George
Grace
Growl

Guji Guji

H
Hannah

I

J
Jack Russell

Jeremy
Jonathon

K

Kali
Kevin

L
Lisa
Lisa
Lizard
Lucky


M

Madame Coco
Marc
Marta
Minji
Monique
Mustafa

N
Nico

O

Otto

P
Paul
Paul
Perfect
Pip

Q

R
Riley
Rosa
Rosaura
Rose

S
Sala
Sally
Sebastian
Sebastian

Selma
Shau-yu
Snake
Sophie
Sosu


T

Thorfinn
Thomas
Tibili
Troy

U

V

W
Wilfrid
Wombat


X

Y
Yoon

Z
Ziba

And, because we haven't put together a contest lately, the person who provides the most correct number of book titles that each character belongs to will win a FREE set of our fall titles. I'll give you a hint for the fall titles that haven't been released yet:

Thorfinn is from Singing to the Sun
Yoon is from Something for School
Growl ... The Story of Growl
George... The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness
Snake & Lizard from... (you guessed it) Snake and Lizard
Wombat & Fox... (yep) Wombat & Fox
Perfect and Pip from...The Wicket Chronicles (Books 1 & 2: Ely Plot and Fen Gold)

Readers have until August 1, 2008 to respond. Winners will be notified via email and in the K/M weekly newsletter, scheduled to be sent out on August 6, 2008.

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16. Repost: Reading Icons

By request, I'm reposting my "to read..." icons:



( View entire set )

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17. Distilled portrait

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18. Head Hand Heart

Design for a range of gift items...mugs, T-shirts, hats, you know the sort of thing. Done as a quick tiny pen sketch and blown up for the crunchy line effect.

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19. Icon for kid's book

A little fellow called "Bright Spark" to be used in workbooks published by The Primary School Homework Company for 7 year old school children.

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20. Icons for UNISON

Here are some icons commissioned by UNISON, a major British trade union. The images accompany a questionnaire about members' interests and aspirations and replace some unpleasant clip-art. The brief stated that the pictures should be on a circular background.

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