35 East Wacker Drive  / Suite 250
Back by popular demand Team !Melk.
A conversation with members of Team !Melk
focusing on their Great Pier collaboration.
An important design event…

!Melk / UrbanLab / HOK / Thirst / Terry Guen
Zoe Ryan / Conservation Design Forum

35 East Wacker Drive  / Suite 250
Back by popular demand Team !Melk.
A conversation with members of Team !Melk
focusing on their Great Pier collaboration.
An important design event…

!Melk / UrbanLab / HOK / Thirst / Terry Guen
Zoe Ryan / Conservation Design Forum

35 East Wacker Drive  / Suite 250
Back by popular demand Team !Melk.
A conversation with members of Team !Melk
focusing on their Great Pier collaboration.
An important design event…

!Melk / UrbanLab / HOK / Thirst / Terry Guen
Zoe Ryan / Conservation Design Forum

Today, Orbit lives on in Landor’s permanent redesign for the Super Bowl and the occasional marketing tie-in to Doritos.

Score an extra point for the refined, long-lasting, good taste of pop culture!

As an aside, we are reminded of a certain pre-game show from 2009. Remember: It’s not the destination, it’s the JOURNEY.

Thanks Jason.

A few books are still available, buy them here.

Team !melk is one of 5 finalist teams to submit their proposed vision for the redesign of Navy Pier as part of its 2016 Centennial Vision. The great plan is called The Great Pier of the Great Lakes.

The MCA Theater was bursting at its seams last night as the crowds poured in to see the unveiling of the initial three plans.

Team !melk’s presentation included a holistic vision of the pier, developed within the context of Chicago’s rich topographic and cultural history, and the voices of the city’s residents. The team explored the pier’s potential through seven key touchpoints, beginning with the Gateway Park, and following the visitor experience through the entire landscape. Past the East end of the pier, Team !melk put an exclamation point on our vision with an impactful icon that will become known as The Glacier.

All of the work will be on display beginning this Friday at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 South Michigan Avenue.

When Team !melk is selected at the end of February, some of Thirst’s greatest typographic explorations will live on forever in Chicago.

We’re proud to announce 3st’s first collection of design in motion, celebrating the new intermedia dimension of our studio.

Design, Direction, Animation, and 3D:
Rick Valicenti/3st, John Pobojewski/3st, Bud Rodecker/3st

Additional Collaborators:
Music: skinny girl with c’s by Charlie Deets
Editing: Micah Gardner, Charlie Smith
3D Animation: Matt Daly, Michael Cone, Ronan Leyesa
Photography: Francois Robert, Hedrich Blessing
Motion Capture: Red Eye Studios
Architectural Rendering: visualizedconcepts, inc.

Rick Valicenti / 3st and John Pobojewski / 3st recently completed a commemorative poster series and folio celebrating the performance of ABACUS at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Running from January 19–29, the legendary festival marks 3st’s first step to Hollywood!

Visionary director/producer Lars Jan and 2012 TED Fellow explains the concept behind the performance:

Riding the wave of TED talk fanaticism and armed with the latest wizardry in media technology and data visualization, the visionary/prophet/madman/cult icon Paul Abacus comes to Sundance to surf the boundary of what is real and what is hyperreal and preach visions of a world without national borders. Culminating in three performances at New Frontier, Abacus delivers a master class in persuasion for the Screen Age that promises to usher civilization into a new era.

Watch the trailer below:

ABACUS first premiered at EMPAC and will leave Sundance to show at the Red Cat Theatre in Los Angeles this February.

Four versions of a very limited edition 24 x 36 inch silkscreened poster show ABACUS crumbling into a pile, and get switched out over the course of the ten-day festival. Expertly printed by Delicious Design League on Curious Black Skin paper. Want your own? Download a hi-res PDF here.

In addition, a 6 x 9 32-page folio serves as a introductory to Paul Abacus’ universe. Designed to be a high-art primer, every spread is a lesson in the ways of the great provocateur, often challenging conventions and preaching a new world order. Illustrations by Valicenti and Pobojewski, with additional contributions (not shown) by Cousins & Sears and Tinne Van Loon.

Expertly printed by Classic Color on Sappi’s Opus Cover.

Rick Valicenti’s So Last Year is both a tribute to the way Steve Jobs
made innovation endure and an artifact of this moment in time.

“His life’s work, his living presence, and this authorized biography,
are already beginning to feel so last year.” – RV

A one day acknowledgement of how elusive brilliance is… Long live freedom,
the internet, and life.

Limited edition
5 in both Black or White silkscreen
$500 each

Book signed/dated verso: Rick Valicenti / January 2012

Colors

Black $500.00 USD White $500.00 USD

3st is now accepting applications for an 3-month internship specializing in digital design, web, and intermedia for spring 2012.

We are looking for someone smart, humble, curious, and eager to learn with an interest and talent set for all things within the interactive and media-rich realms of design.

Apply now!

when

january 30–april 30, 2012 (start/end dates are flexible within a week or so)
monday–friday 8:30-5:00 (plus an occasional late night)

you will

- gain exposure to the design process and engagement in the work of thirst
- receive serious mentoring from john pobojewski and other designers within the studio
- explore, experiment in, and experience our visual research lab

you get

- letters of introduction and recommendation from rick v + john p upon leaving
- access to the chicago, national, and international design community
- a monthly stipend of $1,200

previous interns have said

“You might think you know your stuff pretty well until Rick, John or Bud sits down next to you and leaves you scratching your head, swearing there was some sort of magic involved in what they just showed you.”

“Becoming a part of Thirst will certainly propel you to a new level.”

“I would not be where I am now without the experience that I’ve gained at Thirst.”

you will need

a portfolio that showcases typographic + design talent
as well as case studies that show experience in programming:
HTML
PHP
CSS
JavaScript

we also would love to see

Experience in programming:
ExpressionEngine templates
Processing
C++ / openFrameworks / Cinder
OpenGL

Application deadline is January 22nd.
Finalists will be asked to interview the week of January 23rd.

Apply now!

Rick Valicenti appears in this month’s edition of WIRED, commenting on the huge influence of Steve Jobs on the design of letterforms. He falls right after Penn Jillette, but before Bruce Sterling… somewhere between magic and the future.

: )

Two days ago, it was Rick’s birthday, so happy birthday Rick!
30 years of fun-employment and 60 years of life! Here’s to many more!

The exhibition showcases a diverse range of recent works by more than 60 Chicago artists utilizing letters and text in a wide array of mediums through April 2012.

Rick Valicenti / 3st

The four sumi ink drawings come from a recent series of stream of consciousness word associations triggered by the economic downturn and political/media response.

Valicenti drops ink on heavy Fabriano paper and simply moves the paper encouraging the ink to draw on its own with gravity. While the messages Valicenti focuses on are simple and delightful to say, the issues he speaks of are considerably more complex and messy.

John Pobojewski / 3st

Common Ground is a video installation with custom sound composed in Live using sound-sampled text from different texts of faith, logic, reason, and reflection.

Pobojewski reminds us that “as human beings we search for meaning in our lives, focusing attention on various keys along the search for truth. As time goes on and the video continues, the areas of focus stack on top of one another as the pile grows higher and higher on common ground.

In addition to the video, Pobojewski has two 24 x 36″ images which reveal through typography how much is shared between cultures.

The script words ‘Salam’ (in blue Hebrew) and ‘Shalom’ (in green Arabic) are woven together like a basket. S-L-M is the triconsonantal root of both Salām and Shalom, and has been used throughout history as a sign of peace between the two cultures.

Bud Rodecker / 3st

Bud Rodecker displays his Ode to Carl series of silkscreen prints created in early 2011. The passages are from Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago” and pays homage to Chicago’s roots, honors Carl Sandburg and brings his words to a new audience.

“Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.”

C2F/ Cybu Richli & Fabienne Burri are very pleased to announce COMMERCE ART, an exhibition at the Weltformat Poster Festival in Lucerne.

COMMERCE ART presents a selection of contemporary, commercial posters of artistic quality and distinctiveness. According to the curators these posters “clearly demonstrate that it is still possible to make high-quality art for commercial clients.”

Rick Valicenti/3st is thrilled to have been included with three posters. Selected posters are from all over the world and their makers range from individual graphic artists to large-scale agencies:

Eboy (Berlin)
Jianping He (Berlin)
Jung von Matt Donau (Wien)
KNSK (Hamburg)
McCann Erickson (Dublin)
Ogilvy (Singapore)
Out of the Box (New Dehli)
Stefan Sagmeister (New York)
Sulzer Sutter (Zürich)
Alex Trochut (Barcelona)
Rick Valicenti (Chicago)

We are proud to announce that Thirst’s Intelligent Design is represented in the newest exhibit at the Walker Art Center: Graphic Design: Now in Production. This is the largest museum feature of graphic design since 1996. As the Walker puts it:

This major international exhibition explores how graphic design has broadened its reach dramatically over the past decade, expanding from a specialized profession to a widely deployed tool.

The exhibition is on display until January 22.

Other designers exhibited include Daniel Eatock, Experimental Jetset, James Goggin, Lust, Project Projects, Stefan Sagmeister, and many more.

Intelligent Design credits
Concept: Rick Valicenti
Design: John Pobojewski and Rick Valicenti
Programming: Robb Irrgang and John Pobojewski
Illustration: Gina Garza
Production: Classic-Color, Inc.

Thirst shares the national design award: John Pobojewski, Rick Valicenti, Bud Rodecker

Rick and the maestro, Milton Glaser (I <3 Thirst)

Milton’s original I Heart NY sketches on display at MoMA

Rick Valicenti and Sigourney Weaver who presented the national design award for architecture.

Stefan Sagmeister presented the National Design Award and hosted John and Bud for a studio tour.

Sagmeister at the podium.

Lifetime Award winner, Matthew Carter, hangs with Bud and John.

The 2011 Design Mind Award recipient, Steve Heller, feels the joy. Design Observer’s William Drenttel in the background

Stephen Doyle, the 2010 National Design Award recipient, passes on the glory to a very happy-boy Rick.

Also… Frank Gehry as seen from the High Line

and Thom Mayne’s Cooper Union architecture… Mike Essl, head of the graphic design department, provided the personal tour.

and what is a trip to NYC with out a star sighting – Former Rep Anthony Weiner

Tinne Van Loon and Rick Valicenti collaborated on the poster design for the IIT 2011 Fall lecture series.

Original image by Iwan Baan provided by IIT

The design is an imagined virtual conversation between Thirst, Paula Scher, and Wolfgang Weingart.

Weingart’s work, hanging in our office, Paula Scher’s iconic typography, and our design.

Printing handled by Curtiss Haug at Graphic Art Studio in Barrington, IL.
Special thanks to Dean Donna Robertson for her continual support and giving us a long leash for our design process over the many years.

1000 greetings,
Stefan
Sagmeister Inc.

Americana nostalgia made modern!
October 1 is the night to get Show Boat, the commemorative poster for the 2011/2012 Lyric Opera season designed by Rick Valicenti/3st.

Classic Color’s 8-color printing plus a spot gloss UV coating brings that extra sparkle to the already flamboyant digital extrusion, wrapped in Rick’s pixelated bunting.

Rick’s layout to Susan Mathieson-Mayer, Lyric Opera’s director of communications, and to Chicago typographer, Jackson Cavanaugh, served as a conceptual layout and a flash card for design direction.

Jackson Cavanaugh‘s typographic response

The contributing sponsors of Lyric’s annual poster: Rick/3st and Classic Color president, Ray Bell

Rick extends a special thank you to Classic Color’s Rogelio Guzman and Bill Cornman for their digital rendering wizardry.

We recently completed several short films for SOM’s Urban Design team, led by Philip Enquist. For the past two years, 3st has helped tell the conceptual story behind several master plans from around the world.

This film for a new mixed-use community in Nanjing told the story of SOM design concepts through metaphor and organic imagery. SOM director Doug Voigt shared the good news after his presentation:

We have won the project in Nanjing. It was quite an effort and the competition was intense. Working with you early on provided us with more than an amazing film… it gave us a narrative to organize the entire plan. Thanks again for all your brilliant work and collaboration.

Direction + Design: John Pobojewski / 3st, Rick Valicenti / 3st
Editing: Micah Gardner, Mike Cone
Illustrative Mandarin: Baozhen Li
Soundtrack: Air

Baietan is a revitalized city in central Guangzhou, China on the banks of the Pearl River designed to grow sustainably. For SOM San Francisco.

Film: John Pobojewski / 3st, Rick Valicenti / 3st
Soundtrack: Richard D. James

A master plan for a sustainable residential community in Danang, Vietnam, focused on balancing the edge between an “Eco” and “Urban” lifestyle. For SOM London.

Film: John Pobojewski / 3st, Rick Valicenti / 3st
Soundtrack: John Pobojewski / 3st, Rebekka Takamizu

We recently worked with the University of Chicago and HYPa to imagine a new community art program for Chicago’s mid-South side. Visitors were asked to speak ‘Culture Coast’ and have their words rendered into three-dimensional form.

The resulting forms would then be given back to the community at public events through sculpture and interactive inflatables.

A modified prefab photo booth would provide a place to collect the spoken words at cultural events around the city. A camera would also be available to those who wished to share a personal story or connection to the mid-South side.

These stories would then be curated into an online archive sorted by location or experience for all to engage in the richness of the community.

Over time, the collection of 3D forms would grow, and would be used to broadcast the voice of the community throughout the city.

The first phase of ideation is complete, and future phases are planned pending further funding.

Concept + Creative Direction: Rick Valicenti
Design + Programming [Cinder]: John Pobojewski

Two weeks til Rick V heads to Washington to get the National Design Award from the First Lady. We’re not the only ones who are excited…

The 2011-2012 Loeb Fellowship poster is in the mail.

Tinne Van Loon and Rick Valicenti collaborated on this year’s poster design for the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The names of all nine Loeb fellows are woven together into a dense gossamer, visualizing the connectedness within their architecture, planning, engineering, curating, and advocacy work.

Here is the sequence of Rick and Tinne’s presented designs.

We recently completed a new identity and online presence for The Acting Company, the major touring classical theater in the U.S. Founded in NYC in 1972 by legendary producer/director/actor John Houseman and current Producing Director Margot Harley, The Acting Company has shaped the early careers of many notable actors including Kevin Kline and Rainn Wilson.

The launch caused quite a buzz, mainly thanks by Rainn Wilson’s tweet to over 2 million+ followers. We think marketing director Gerry Cornez put it best:

Were you one of the 1859 visitors to our NEW WEBSITE, signing on to www.theactingcompany.org — from 48 states (we’re not big in Montana or Wyoming) and 43 foreign countries?

Special thanks to associate artistic director Ian Belknap, production designer Paula Raymond, Margot, Gerry, and the entire TAC team for the herculean effort in digitizing and modernizing 30+ years of content!

The online presence, designed/programmed by John Pobojewski and Tinne Van Loon, is richly layered with all aspects of TAC’s rich program. The what, where, and when for all performances is presented with clarity. Current events, backstage commentary from the actors, and various education programs are also showcased.

Rick Valicenti and John collaborated on a new identity that is stenciled and strong, inspired by the visual language of the traveling case. 3st intern Rebekka Takamizu imagined future logo variations that could represent specific activities of the company from growing education programs to acclaimed productions.

The Moving Design intervention on bike safety in conjunction with the Active Transportation Alliance began last night and will continue through August 28th. 42 Moving Designers will make art & design that is positive, informative, inspirational and best of class to awakeN the public to issues surrounding bike safety.

Follow our progress at calltoaction.movingdesign.com

The 2011 Call to Action has been made possible in part with the generous support from the Active Transportation Alliance, Trek, REI, VSA Partners, The Elements Group, Biomega, Archeworks, the MCA.

We’re pleased to announce our participation in The Society of Typographic Arts (STA) Archive11 program. With Bud Rodecker / 3st and Rick Valicenti / 3st leading the design, we set out to elevate the archive event, connect it to the Chicago Design Archive (CDA), and increase participation.

We want to emphasize the stability and continuity of CDA. Amid the insecurity, instability, hiring/firing, questions of income and rapid change, the CDA provides an unchanging unsurpassed standard of craftsmanship, insight and beauty of work, while the STA provides a safe haven for personal relationships.

—Bob Zeni, Chairman of Archive11

We’re incredibly proud to be part of Chicago’s design history, and the Archive event provides a chance for all Chicago-area designers to measure up to the masters of Chicago design.
The Archive competition gets a new patina every year, so we started our process by looking to increase participation in the Chicago community. With the help of this year’s tremendous sponsors the Society of Typographic Arts was able to dramatically cut the cost of entry.

We selected a diverse, accomplished, and discerning set of judges including: Stefan Bucher, James Goggin, Robert Petrick, Paul Sych, and Nancy Skolos. Their selections will be displayed for the Month of October at the Harrington College of Design Monroe street galleries. In addition, we created two new awards to recognize the best of all the accepted work.

Our visual statement for Archive11 is one that emphasizes the STA’s connection to the CDA. We designed a trio of commemorative posters that feature a list of every designer ever inducted into the CDA. A selection of 33 pieces represent the best of class work from each decade, including 12 collectible designer cards, variations of which will be sent via mail to those on the STA mailing list.

Posters will be available 21 July at the Gig Poster show + Sale, as well as at all the events surrounding Archive11.

Enter your work now, the deadline is 23 July.
Go to archive.sta-chicago.org for more information

Thirst is extremely proud to announce that Rick Valicenti has been awarded the 2011 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Communication Design. The National Design Award honors the best in American design that demonstrates the importance of design and its impact on the quality of daily life. While the award honors excellence and innovation over a body of work, the submitted portfolio represents Thirst’s present and future. “This is a shared honor, we all did this together.” – Rick V

A little history on the National Design Awards

The National Design Awards were conceived by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to honor the best in American design. First launched at the White House in 2000 as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the annual Awards program celebrates design in various disciplines as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world, and seeks to increase national awareness of design by educating the public and promoting excellence, innovation, and lasting achievement.

“Thank you to our family, clients, and friends with whom we share our life’s work.” – Rick V

Read more about the other award winners on the New York Times.

Attention student groups, we have set aside an entire Saturday at the Thirst office for student tours. We will host 4 student groups on Sat, September 24th. Please try and limit your group to 20 if possible. First come first serve. Don’t worry if all the slots fill up, we’ll be having another tour day in the spring 2012.

group 1 / 9:00 – 10:00
group 2 / 11:00 – 12:00
group 3 / 2:00 – 3:00
group 4 / 4:00 – 5:00

Click here to reserve your spot.

Rick and Bud took a quick trip up to Poblocki Sign Co this week to tour their facility. Let there be no doubt in your mind that they can make your design a reality. I formally submit the above giant Gibson guitar replica as proof. Below are a few more pics from the tour. A teaser of more signage work to come.

Big letters

More letters

A room sized spray booth

Jakes Deli in Milwaukee. Try them you should.

Not too long ago we posted about something you might not see. Well now you have the chance to see Rick’s contribution along with everyone else’s. 17 years of number 17 will be on display Tusday May 17 at the Type Director’s Club in NY.

Other Contributors include:

• Marian Bantjes
• Stefan Bucher
• Seymour Chwast
• William Drenttel
• Ira Glass
• Jessica Helfand
• Steven Heller
• Maira Kalman
• Christoph Niemann
• Stefan Sagmeister
• Paul Sahre
• Paula Scher
• Erik Spiekermann
• Michael Vanderbyl
• James Victore
• Armin Vit

Tuesday May 17
6–9 pm
Type Director’s Club
347 West 36th Street
Suite 603
NYC

During this year’s Salone Domus posted this interview with the color designer Beatrice Santiccioli. 3st and Beatrice collaborated back in our olde days when ESSE was a Gilbert paper. When asked about working on Esse, Beatrice has this to say:

“I created different palettes, imagining brighter, more intense colors—a different direction from what existed. I asked myself what could be a perfect color for a designer now, so I was looking for colors that would tell a story that made sense for today and yet would last about five years. Initially I developed several palettes that were influenced by the sources of inspiration around me—everything from various pink objects to pictures of landscapes.”

Beatrice Santiccioli on Domus

Here’s something fun to whet your appetite for Art Chicago 2011: Art Chicago’s identity, designed by Thirst, now lives on a cheeky ad for Classic Color.

Art Chicago® 2011, the annual international fair of contemporary and modern art, brings together the world’s leading emerging and established galleries. Art Chicago offers curators, collectors, artists and art enthusiasts a comprehensive survey of current and historic work, from cutting-edge to modern masters in a wide variety of media including: painting, photography, drawings, prints, sculpture, video and special installations.

Art Chicago opens today, Friday the 29. Get your tickets here.

Ode to Carl is now printed! Delicious Design league did an incredible job printing them, they look fantastic. To celebrate we hosted a small get together at the 3st office. Music was played, drinks were drunk, large quantities of chips were consumed, and posters were picked up.

Posters begin shipping this week; I’ll be mailing them out as fast as I can roll them. Thank you again to all 83 of you who supported my project, and to those of you who helped me spread the word.

Gravity Free poster by Milton Glaser (Sorry Milton, RV)

Gravity Free 2011, The Great Multidisciplinary Design Conference: Coming up this May, Rick Valicenti will be presenting at the 2011 Gravity Free conference in San Francisco. He’ll be sharing the stage with 21 other seriously talented folks.

Shazam! Right in front of our eyes, designers became the Merlins of the 21st century… fearless wizards turn Mad Men titles into Emmy-winning motion graphics… True Grit into a showcase for Oscar-nominated production design…ordinary eyeglasses into fashion eyewear Elton John can’t resist… even John Lennon personal moments into iconic “I Love New York” images. And that’s just the beginning.

This year twenty two of the world’s most remarkable designers—from as many different design disciplines—invite you to join them backstage for an close up look at the “Wonders of Magical Thinkers”

Presenters

• Jonathan Harris
• Ingo Maurer
• Mark Gardner
• Moritz Waldemeyer
• Jess Gonchor
• Andrew Ashton
• Edwin Schlossberg
• Reuben Margolin
• Marian Bantjes
• Matt Chambers
• Rick Valicenti
• Jason Bruges
• Gai Gherardi & Barbara McReynolds
• Bjarke Ingels
• Bob Gruen
• Ari ‘T Hart
• Kevin Slavin
• Marcel Wilson
• Stefano Giovannoni
• Grant Achatz
• Martin Kastner
• Jeff Kuo

May 24–26, 2011
San Francisco, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
www.gravityfreedesign.com

On April Fools Day 1981, I began 30 years of (f)un-employment and have endured numerous recessions, enjoyed special clients/friends, indulged in fantastic collaborations, accepted invitations to six continents, been awarded the AIGA Medal, AIGA Chicago and STA Fellow and Honorary Member of the STA, been included in important collections, authored a monograph on 3st, love for a great family. can’t see the finish line : )

3st is proud to be featured in Liz Farrelly’s recent book Designers’ Identities from UK publisher Laurence King. The book features personal work from many renown firms worldwide.

We were also thrilled to see a mention of 3st in this publication on AdamsMorioka’s blog Burning Settlers Cabin.

Designers’ Identities is available from Amazon.

Chain of Events [2010], for percussion ensemble, actor, and interactive visuals, was performed in Naperville by the students of the Drumshow. John Pobojewski /3st created the music and visuals for this intermedia work, in close collaboration with Drumshow conductor Ben Wahlund.

The piece in is 3 movements that explore a sequence of events taking place after an unexplained dramatic moment:

1. MINUTE LATER
2. DAYS LATER
3. MONTHS LATER

1. MINUTE LATER [2:58] The setting for the first movement is 60 seconds after this dramatic moment occurs — the lead is in a panic reacting to the swirling thoughts and emotions in his head. The ensemble (4 players) is his physiological response: getting more and more frantic as the movement goes on. Psychosomatic visuals by former 3st apprentice Jason Mcaloon punctuate the mood and place the audience into a cold sweat.

2. DAYS LATER [3:30] The second movement takes place two days later, with a group of friends (played by the ensemble) gossiping online on instant messaging about the trainwreck that the lead has caused. Their conversation is displayed overhead in realtime, tightly synced to the score.

3. MONTHS LATER [4:20] The closing third movement occurs much later, as the lead reflects in his journal. The ensemble accompanies here on marimba and vibes, as our protagonist’s thoughts appear scribbled on screen in front of blurry memories coming in and out of focus.

JP/3ST:

After any event… any tragedy, any victory, any birth, any death… we live through a chain of perceptions that embed that event into our memory. Over time, our view of any situation ultimately changes. No one can predict how we will perceive our own history: while some may speculate, the end view is always a mystery.

Recently, 3st announced a partnership with Hedrich Blessing and their photographer Dave Burk in a series of short architectural films called The Moving Image. The first installment focuses on Jeanne Gang’s Columbia College Chicago Media Production Center.

Each film in The Moving Image will feature a unique soundscape from intermedia designer John Pobojewski / 3st. Below are excerpts from a conversation with John on how he created a consistent sound identity for this series.

Why was there a desire for a bespoke soundscape?

JP / 3ST: In early conversations with Dave Burk, Rick Valicenti, and Hedrich Blessing President Jon Miller, we agreed that any sound or music for these films had to be as unique as the photograph itself, and ideally tied directly to the quality of light found in these moving images. The artful mastery of Hedrich Blessing’s imagery could not afford to be commodified by stock music.

I also felt that a consistent timbre was needed to unite the film series. So we began searching for the right context… the right historical precedent to play against.

What proper precedent exists?

Jon and I discovered a shared love for the neue jazz world of recording label ECM, and their tremendous relationship with art photography. For over 40 years, ECM has been exhibiting the most beautiful austere photographs within album artwork for most of their artists: Bill Frisell, Dave Holland, Keith Jarrett, Marc Johnson, and many more.

It only seemed fitting to reference the ECM sound across all these films… the sizzle of the ride symbol, the upright bass, the sense of mystery all provided the right flavors.

How did the soundscape you created connect to the image?

Any soundscape, like any design, needs an structure to build from. How Hedrich Blessing captures light quality is the unique aspect of our film series and it’s what makes their work timeless.Therefore, it seemed like the perfect question to ask was: what does light sound like?

And how did you answer this question?

Rather literally, actually. We began by choosing the key moments in the film, and then sampled their light values in dark, mid, and bright tones.

From these tones, I took the hue values and matched them to degrees on a color wheel. By then mapping those same percentage values onto a music composition tool called the circle of fifths, we were given pitches that matched directly to the color of the light.

From the color of the light comes the pitches of the sound.

How did it all come together?

The poetry then comes in how you connect these pitches with horizontal melodic lines and vertical harmonic lines. Those decisions were influenced directly from the architecture. Layering plays such a critical part in the success of Studio Gang’s building: layering of translucent textures, layering of view orientation, layering of spaces.

This layering led me to the sound worlds of Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, and the overlapping washes of guitar paired with delay.

From here, I added the upright bass and sizzle ride cymbal as our minimalist rhythm section and a vibraphone duet with the lead guitar in framing the highest tones in our chord set. This “soprano” of guitar and vibes then dialogues back and forth with sounds from the space itself: the reflected conversations off of the concrete walls, the construction sounds of the soundstage sets, the traffic driving by.

Altogether, the soundscape helps propel the film forward, woven tightly together with the moving images. And hopefully leaving the viewer wanting more. — JP/3ST

Cybu Richli of C2f is currently in Chicago on a residency from Lucerne through March 2011 serving as both design ambassador and design observer.

He’s been sent here by his government to meet and engage with the Chicago design community. Last friday he and his collaborator Fabienne led Thirst in a day of play and experimentation.

Bud: “What do you think we should do today?”
Cybu: “Today, I would like to explode something.”
Bud: “OH! well, I don’t think we have any fireworks.
Commences grabbing anything Bud can find in the office.

The rest of the day was spent working on various projects. Cybu made Helvetica out of thick rubber bands. Fabienne made a typeface out of a hair net. Tinne organized office materials. Rebekka made a bubble wrap person. Bud forced inflated rubber gloves into artificial relationships. And John Pobojewski explored some film abstractions of the oddest truths ever heard… he calls them Fuzzy Truths.

C2F’s website describes their practice like this:

C2F is a young communication design company established by Cybu Richli and Fabienne Burri. Our focus is on visual communication for arts, architecture, business, design, education, cultural clients, sciences.

But to truly understand their work, you have to spend time with it. It’s all the right things, smart, clever, surprising, and complex. Do spend some time with it.

This past Friday, Typeforce 2 opened at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Typeforce showcases great examples of lettering work by Chicago’s emerging professionals, including John Pobojewski / 3st in last year’s show.

This year Bud Rodecker / 3st was fortunate enough to be featured alongside some excellent Chicago talents. He displayed his series inspired by Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago” called Ode to Carl. The exhibited work consisted of 2 screenprinted posters and three one of a kind pieces.

Running simultaneously with the show Bud has posted all five posters to Kickstarter — and just 3 days later, it is nearly half-way funded! Hopefully by the time the exhibition closes, There will be enough backers to produce a complete set of screenprinted posters. Go to Kickstarter.com to order your set.

Ode to Carl by Bud Rodecker on Kickstarter

If you didn’t make it to the opening, don’t worry, it will be on display until March 7.

http://typeforcechicago.com
http://coprosperity.org/2010/12/typeforce-ii/

featuring: Andy Luce, Bill Talsma, Bud Rodecker / 3st, Caroline Corboy, Chris May, Emily Vanhoff, Frances MacLeod, Gary Rozanc, Jarred Kolar, Jessica Lynn White, Justin Gilman, Kyle Fletcher, Margo Yoon, Mark Addison Smith, Matthew Hoffman, Meng Yang, Nancy McCabe, Nick Adam, Nicole Briant, Quite Strong, Scott Reinhard, Sean Fermoyle, Sonnenzimmer, Studio 1a.m., Tami Churns

Sponsored By
Firebelly Design,  Public Media Institute, Graphic Arts Studio

Rick Valicenti/3st recently conceived and directed a book for Francois Robert‘s photography exhibition Stop the Violence. This keepsake features a beautiful alphabet painstakingly arranged by Robert. Each letterform is composed solely of human bones.

To announce the book, 3st produced a 60 sec short film edited by John Pobojewski/3st and Bud Rodecker/3st which features an original soundscape composed by Pobojewski.

To request a complimentary copy, visit 3st.com/stoptheviolence and fill out your information.

Valicenti juxtaposed these letterforms with a typed transcript of President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech from 2009.

On each of the 26 spreads, the alphabet of bones punctuates the President’s speech as he advocates peace while accepting the notion of a “just war.”

The exhibition opened in Tucson on the Saturday evening of the shooting rampage that killed six people and injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others. The visceral impact of Robert’s work has never felt more relevant or more important.

Classic Color deserves the highest accolades for getting behind this project as publisher. Ray Bell, Classic’s president, believed in Valicenti’s idea and Robert’s imagery and led his craftsman to deliver the most remarkable reproduction we have seen in quite some time.

to justify is tragic
to accept is unacceptable
stop the violence

We are excited to announce a partnership with Hedrich Blessing in a new series of short architectural films we refer to as The Moving Image. Hedrich Blessing, home to history’s most important architectural photographers, now combines their unparalleled view of space, composition, and lighting with 3st’s unique vision in direction, editing, and sound design.

Jeanne Gang‘s Columbia College Chicago Media Production Center is the first in this series.

Cinematography is by Dave Burk/Hedrich Blessing
Direction by Rick Valicenti/3st
Editing by Bud Rodecker/3st
Sound design by John Pobojewski/3st

To date, The Moving Image 01 has generated a lot of interest online from several feeds including
e-architect. Stay tuned for the second installment within the next few months.

For more information, please contact us.

As we prefaced a while back, our Curiosities – The 21st Century Thirst feature exhibition is now open at York College in Pennsylvania. Special thanks to gallery curator Matthew Clay-Robison, professor Melanie Rodgers, and all of the students for their tireless efforts putting up the show.

Please stop by before February 24, 2011.

Cora Miller Exhibit Hall
WOLF 201 B
York College of Pennsylvania
441 Country Club Road
York, PA 17403-3651

More photos after the jump…

We are proud to be featured in International designers’ Network (Hong Kong). IdN is an international publication for creative people on a mission to amplify and unify the design community. It is devoted to bringing designers from around the globe together to communicate with, learn from and inspire one another. It has truly become what the initials of its title proclaim it to be — an international designers’ network.

Our work with our clients Jeanne Gang, Arik Levy, IIT College of Architecture, and Lyric Opera is featured, as well as some personal research that we constantly initiate as a vital component of our art/design practice.

When it rains it pours! Three fantastic new publications just released feature Thirst work. All three are great compendiums of work you may not see anywhere else. Lust and Graphic are available for purchase on amazon.com.

Lust: A Traveling Art Journal of Graphic Designers
by James Victore

What would you do or make if you had an unlimited budget, a visionary client, and complete control? We all dream of high-paying, high-profile jobs and crave for more creativity in our work. Lust is a peek into what is possible when designers are allowed to pursue this dream.

Lust is a documentary of unrealized projects and a traveling report of creativity from around the world; a handmade sketchbook zig-zagging across six continents, gathering steam and collecting documents. In it are designers, dreams, and a peek into their processes.

AGI: Process is the Project

An exhibition catalog from the Mapping the Process show, Process is the Project, catalogs individual AGI member’s process maps.

Graphic: Inside the Sketchbooks of the World’s Great Graphic Designers
by Steven Heller & Lita Talarico

In this new book from one of the great authorities on graphic design, some 100 of the worlds leading graphic designers open up their private sketchbooks, giving the reader an unparalleled insight into their creative development, design philosophies and visual influences. Samples range from typographical explorations to fully fledged illustration ideas, from scrappy scribbles and eccentric handwriting to photographic collages. Contributors include such world-recognized names as Stefan Sagmeister, Christoph Niemann, Sara Fanelli, Christoph Abbrederis, Shogo Ota, Art Spiegelman, Uwe Loesch, Milton Glaser, Michael Bierut, Bruce Mau, Francois Chastanet and Jordi Duro. “Graphic” is a treasure trove of design inspiration for professionals, students or anyone engaged in the visual industries.

Almost one year ago, Curiosities – The 21st Century Thirst opened at the Schmidt Center Gallery on Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus. On January 23 Curiosities 2.0 opens at York College of Pennsylvania.

The exhibition has been dramatically refashioned to include new work and to respond to the fabulous setting. Self-inspired art and design fills Brossman Gallery while Thirst client-initiated work hangs in the adjoining Cora Miller Gallery.

We love to share our art and design, so please stop by York College between January 21 and February 24, 2011. Your feedback is encouraged.

WOLF 201 B Cora Miller Exhibit Hall
York College of Pennsylvania
441 Country Club Road
York, PA 17403-3651

Guided by the mantra ‘art with function’, Thirst has explored the leading edge of design experiences since 1988. Today, John Pobojewski/3st leads the studio’s focus on intermedia through conceptual designs that integrate visual and sound.

“We define Thirst’s immersive experience as a holistic ecosystem: one that blurs the worlds of visual and sound into our passionate pursuit of the compelling. We call this design space where we play ‘Intermedia.’” JP

Interdisciplinary
Interconnected
Interdependent
Intermedia

Coined by Dick Figgins/Fluxus in the 60s, ’Intermedia’ describes “the ineffable, often confusing, inter-disciplinary activities that occur between genres.”

Intermedia moves Thirst beyond the cross-discipline of today into the cross-platform of tomorrow
where pulp, pixels, motion, space, and sound collaborate.

Captivate
Elevate
Percolate
Stimulate
Resonate
Reverberate

Tune In: There’s More to Come.

On 4 December our friend, Ilene Smith, held a very special event designed to fill her spectacular new home in Phoenix AZ with the spirit of generosity and beautiful hand-crafted objects. Before moving in, Ilene and her husband, real estate developer Bill Smith, turned their home into a gallery and for a one-night only reception and modern quilt exhibition of 74 quilts, designed by the best artisans of the region. Proceeds from the sale of quilts went to the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center /SARRC.

Tinne Van Loon/3st, under the direction of Rick Valicenti designed the 36-page catalog.

More images after the jump.

Last summer, Moving Design organized Call to Action: A Design Intervention on Water. The 6-week, 18-night workshop included an intense line-up of speakers ranging from Bruce Mau to Jeanne Gang, Daniel Eatock, Ed Marszewski, and 14 more. The Moving Designers were also informed on water issues by local expert thought leaders.

Catalyzed and very prolific, the Moving Designers created inspiring site-specific, multi-media projects which were conceptually one with the subject: downtown data projections, frozen water messages, a Google flight from Lake Michigan to the Gulf, water murals, and a poster campaign… Water was also personified through Twitter exchanges between the The Chicago River, Lake Michigan, and City Hall called “We Really Need to Talk.”

The intervention ended with big splash March on Water, a police-escorted parade from the original Water Tower on Michigan Avenue to Oak Street Beach complete with their very own mascot – “The 2 Billion Gallon Man.” Projects and speaker presentations are available on the workshop blog and ItsOurWater.org

Moving Design is a coalition of designers and artists, working with community partners, leading initiatives that inspire change through the power of design. We use creativity as a catalyst for change, moving our community to action.

A comprehensive record of Call to Action is now available as a Blurb book!
More images after the jump.

Design director:
Bud Rodecker/3st

Designer:
Colin White/3st Fall 2010 Intern

Editor:
Lyndon Valicenti
Department of Environment
City of Chicago

Moving Designers:
Nick Adam
Claire Cahan
Todd Childers
Julie Heyduk
Dawn Hancock
Matthew Hoffman
Rich Klevgard
Lisa Korpan
Bill Linehan
Stacy Peterson
Bud Rodecker
Scott Reinhard
Killian Tobin
Matt Wizinsky

Moving Presentors:
Activists
Daniel Eatock
Andrew Fenchel
Lincoln Schatz
Christopher Baker

Curators
Clare Lyster
Ed Marszewski
Iker Gil

Educators
Robyn Waxman
Elliott Earls

Idea Catalysts
Donna V. Robertson
Jeanne Gang
Alan Bell

Subversives
Leslie Thomas
Bruce Mau
Mike Essl
Robb Irrgang
Maria Scileppi

Thought Leaders
Sarah Herda
Phil Enquist
Martin Felsen

Donna Robertson, Dean of IIT’s College of Architecture and her husband, Robert McAnulty, architect, educator, and writer have joined their professional expertise under one architecture consultancy – MACRO.

At the MACRO-level this logotype is simply a legible and modern identity. For those who prefer to take a closer look, the continuum of mid-20th and early 21st century modern design in is on full display.

1 Helvetica Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann, 1957
2 Gotham Tobias Frere-Jones, 2000
3 Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk Super H. Berthold, 1896
4 Univers 75 Adrian Frutiger, 1957
5 Arial Black Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, 1982

Note: only Robert M(a)cAnulty Donna Robertson could stake a legitimate claim on this moniker!

Letterpress by AccuColor Plus

Thirst recently finished an editorial illustration for this week’s The New York Times Week in Review feature on Wikileaks, written by Scott Shane. Text from four released documents posted on the Wikileaks’ website is blasted from the keyhole of American Government, and is frozen in a violent ricochet. Conceived, designed, and digitally generated by Rick Valicenti and John Pobojewski.

Beginning with RV’s sketch shown here in the lower right, the text itself was typeset in Courier (as it is online) and rendered in Processing using a simple particle engine. Several studies led us to chose the study where the violent aftermath seems just about to break…

Thanks to NYT’s Art Director Kelly Doe.