Recap: Rivers of Steel - Babuskas & Hard Hats Tour

Photo from Rivers of Steel Archive, Mark Fallon Collection, women in Babuskas posing in front of the Carrie Furnaces: http://riversofsteel.pastperfect-online.com/32278cgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=90FC3B9A-66DE-4DDF-9308-118872677844;type=102 (Beware: clicking on 'Random Image Search' may result in the loss of several hours to viewing thousands of fascinating images:)

Ever wonder why there is an abnormally high amount of hometown & neighborhood pride in Pgh? Or, why the love of the Stillers is in the DNA of every homegrown & transplant resident alike? Or, why there are so many bars in South Side? Or, why Pgh weddings have a cookie table? Or, the history behind the Hot Metal Bridge and its namesake? Or, what all those industrial relics are called and what they were originally purposed for that line our city's trail system and reclaimed brown areas (like Station Square, The Waterfront, South Side Works, etc)?

Then, I highly recommend taking the Rivers of Steel Babuskas & Hard Hats Tour. In addition to answering to the aforementioned questions, you'll also quickly discover that our great city was build with the blood, sweat and tears of several generations of men & women in this geologically and culturally unique, mini-melting pot of a region where the Three Rivers meet.
http://www.riversofsteel.com/things-to-do/event/babushkas-and-hard-hats-tour/

AIGA PKN Recap: Lessons from Siberia

It's been a few wonderfully exciting and eventful weeks since AIGA + AIA's PKN event on Thurs, 6/17 at the Rex Theater. This post has been on my mind and to-do list for some time, but a great meetup with other internationally-minded folks helped to bump it up to high priority on my list. To give them a quick shout out: check out the Pgh Foreign Language Enthusiasts meetup group here (really great people): http://www.meetup.com/lauraslanguages/

To set the stage, PKN is short for Pecha Kucha Night -- a Japanese word, pronounced 'pay-cha-cha' and loosely translated as 'chit-chat'. It is a presentation format that keeps you from being long winded; you've only got 6 mins 45 secs and 20 slides to communicate your points and then you 'sit the hell down' according to the AIGA event description:)

Gypsy Punk: Renewed Interest in Roma Nations

Oh, man... I double-heart Gogol Bordello and Eugene Hütz even more after seeing this movie -- The Pied Piper of Hützovina. Loved, loved, loved it for three reasons:

1) Mainly because I share a similar passion of getting back to my heritage. My grandparents are from the same general area that Eugene and his family are from; grandma's parents were from Lithuania and grandpa's parents were from somewhere in the present day Slovkia. They played a major role in my life during my formative years -- visiting them 3x/week for my first 15 years; until their passing in '96/'97 -- at their home in a ghost-town of a former coal mining community in SwPA called, Bakerwhitely. In their old age, they still had some of their Eastern European cultural tendencies and superstitions -- ones that had seemed so unassuming to me until I visited Russia/Siberia and saw them first hand for myself as part of everyday life.

As we've been tracing our genealogies, my cousin, Rebekah, and I have hypothesized that our grandfather's family is of gypsy descent... based on the fact that they made special effort to leave the past behind when they came to America and did not tell their children (my grandfather or any of his many siblings) any particulars of their heritage; also based on the family resemblance to photos of certain Roma peoples and because we can only trace the lineage back so far -- to the region where the former Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Ukraine meet. Records changed hands (and languages) so many times in the early 1900s that we continue to experience trouble tracking their name/details down.

2) It reminded me so much of my trek to Siberia in 2007. The limited photos that I took could only capture a small portion of the people, places and things that I experienced. The Gypsy camp in Carpathia that they visit in the documentary looks just like some of the villages on the outskirts of town that we visited daily during my trip. Such a sharp contrast between the 'modern, city-life' and the old country life co-existing in such close proximity. Now I have a video to show to friends and family to help them to see another part of the world and culture as I had seen it. The documentary even follows Eugene to Siberia, to a city called Chita, which is only a little way east of Irkutsk where I spent most of that month in Russia. Very well done!

3) I understand now why I am so drawn to belly dancing and gypsy music. It is the nature of the culture and music... it has almost a spiritual aspect to it. The human spirit -- the history/tragedy of that dispersed and discriminated group of people who even still have a wonderfully contagious resilience to find joy (laugh, dance and sing) in otherwise miserable circumstances -- is so ingrained in the culture and expressed through that music and dancing. It's given me renewed interest in studying the language and culture again... with a new focus on the gypsy nations. I must find ways to return to Easter Europe at least once time per year and connect with more folks who share similar interests in this culture.

 Photo from Irkutsk, Siberia: Babushkas (grandmas) are everywhere, here I am stalking three.

I Heart Constructivism (Part 2 - Contemporary)

(Note: see history examples via Part 1: http://onthevinecreative.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-heart-constructivism.html)

On all the applications below, you'll notice a consistent color theme: black, red, white (or off-white). Almost 20 years since the end of the Cold War, it's still a challenge to use this pallet without instilling visions of the Communist Manifesto.

Though my love of Russian runs deep, On The Vine lent itself more to an Art Nouveau inspired identity rather than Constructivism. It's my next favorite design/art movement... maybe another design history post next week.

Favorite contemporary applications and interpretations of Constructivism are below.

Neo Soviet Russian Eagle, 2008, source: http://russkieland.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/neo-soviet-russian-eagle/

Franz Ferdinand Album Cover, You Could Have It So Much Better, 2005


Franz Ferdinand, This Fire Music Video, 2004



Stolichnaya Commercial, Born in the heart of Russia, 2007



Stolichnaya Commercial, A Russian Icon, 2007

I like Smirnoff's logo, label and product design better, though... current campaign from website.




White Stripes, Seven Nation Army Music Video, 2006

V For Vendetta, Movie Poster, 2006

Of Course I have to include Shepard Fairy's work... Downtown Pittsburgh Board.

Weird campaign by Shepard Fairy for Saks 5th Avenue. Weird because principles of the Communist/Soviet-era were not about expensive/high-end shopping, consumerism or putting your own 'wants' above all else, but whatever. Another example of a design trend separated from the original ideology of the historical movement. Oh... American Consumerism (... and, dismount high horse).

I Heart Constructivism (Part 1 - History)

Trying to keep engaged on this Friday afternoon, so I thought I would get around to a post that's been cooking in the ol' noggin' for a while.

My-all-time-favorite period of design history is Russian Constructivism (big surprise!). I think I missed my calling as an Art Historian  -- though there's still time to become a Graphic Design Historian; a developing discipline -- because I love how design trends are cyclical and I enjoy seeing how a trend is revamped each time it resurfaces.

Below are prints from some of my favorite original Constructivist artists/designers (Lissitzky, Rodchenko, Schwitters and Müller-Brockman); in the second blog post, contemporary adaptations/interpretations of Constructivism. Enjoy!

 El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919 Lithography

 El Lissitzky, Poster for the Russian Exhibition in Zurich, 1929

Alexander Rodchenko, Dobrolet Airline Poster, 1923, lithograph

Alexander Rodchenko, Lilya Brik,1924, photomontage,

Kurt Schwitters, Photomantage

Varvara Stepanova, The Results of the First Five-Year Plan, 1932

Josef Müller-Brockmann, Weniger Larm (Noise Control), 1960
(okay, so he's part of the Swiss movement, but I heart him, too).

Josef Müller-Brockmann, Beethoven Concert Poster, 1955

Soviet -Era Propaganda Posters

Two years ago, the prolific author of one of my favorite blogs, A Soviet Poster A Day, mysteriously stopped posting. It wasn't too long before I began experiencing withdraw. I loved reading about the history of these posters as well as their translations. Even more, I enjoyed making the connections between US and Soviet propaganda from WWII -- ex. (above) 1942 "Everything for the Victory: Women of the USSR for the Front" vs. (left) 1942 "We Can Do It" aka, Rosie the Riveter).


Friends and family know that I have a (borderline) obsession with everything/anything Russian. With my design background, I particularly appreciate anything graphic from the era of Heroic Realism including Soviet Propaganda Posters. So needless to say that when I discovered that my favorite Soviet Propaganda Poster Blogger was back at it, I was posting like crazy on Fb. The new blog, Art Posters of War, includes posters from all the WWII nations.

In addition to the two blogs going into my delicious account, I discovered a few pages to follow on Fb, Soviet Posters and Propaganda Posters. For your visual enjoyment, I've included all the links below:

• Soviet Poster A Day: http://sovietposter.blogspot.com/
• Art Posters of War: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ArtPostersOfWar
• Soviet Posters: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6215361201
• Propaganda Posters: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=206265709435
• Mr. KGB Design (posters prints for sale): http://mrkgbdesign.com/posters.html
• 1980s Soviet USSR Propaganda Posters: http://aqua-velvet.com/2011/08/soviet-ussr-propaganda-posters/

This week's events and discussions have got me thinking back to my travels to Russia (Irkutsk, 2007). I have submitted a presentation synopsis of my trip, Lessons from Irkutsk, Siberia, 2007, to the upcoming AIGA PGH event called Pecha Kucha (PKN) on June 17th. You can peruse all my Irkutsk/Moscow pics on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/onthevinecreative/sets/72157624725793620/

Russian Film Symposium 2010

One of my favorite Pittsburgh spring events begins again this week -- the 12th Annual Russian Film Symposium at Pgh Filmmakers. Past symposiums have been fantastic. I highly recommend two from 2008 -- Hard Hearted and Simple Things.

http://www.rusfilm.pitt.edu/2010/

Evening schedule and film synopsis: http://pghfilmmakers.org/exhibition/upcoming.html#rusfilm12

See you there!