reactions

MSLK Creative Director and Co-Founder Marc S Levitt was quoted in a recent Atlantic article, speaking about the design profession’s critical — yet largely unsung — role. The article aims to draw parallels between wide-ranging professions from fact-checkers to anesthesiologists, describing them the “Invisibles.”

Citing examples ranging from book design to the now-infamous Palm Beach County “butterfly ballot” in the 2000 presidential election, Levitt describes the careful role designers play in shaping others’ content:

While some may think that the best design always grabs our attention, Levitt counters that great design often shouldn’t call attention to itself. “I’m not as concerned with prettying things up as I am with the end user being engaged in the right way.”

The article seeks to draw a connection between various professions, finding common traits:

Meticulousness, savoring great responsibility, and seeking only internal satisfaction are a trifecta of traits—a near antithesis of our societal ethos of insouciant attention-cravers—as a culture we’d all do well to follow.

Full article, by David Zweig, can be read here: http://mslk.co/zFPIm2

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and MSLK is here to give you exactly what you need to share the love.
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There’s more than one way to say thank you and a great way to show your appreciation is with a well designed personal card. Our friends at Felt&Wire asked us to pick out a collection of our favorite Thank You cards from the Felt&Wire Shop. Out of the many great designs we found we’ve picked out 12 of our favorites. Here are a few of them:

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I recently visited the Met to go see the bamboo installation that I’ve been hearing so much about. And it was not a disappointment! Big Bambú is an art installation created by the brothers Doug + Mike Starn. The impressive structure on top of the roof of the Met is already 100 feet wide and will continue to grow upwards as the artist work on it over the summer, their goal is to reach 50 feet high. If you’re in NY I highly recommend going for a visit, if not have a look at these photos!

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The opening night for Uncomfortable Conversations on Sunday was a big success. The small gallery space in the Meatpacking District was jam-packed with visitors adding to the intimate uncomfortable vibe of the night. MSLK’s pieces were highly appreciated and initiated a lot of conversations about the design and message. Some people saw the “right” message while others saw the hidden unintended one. This often led to humorous conversations about “you see what you want to see” and “what’s really on your mind”. The question is: what do you see?

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What do you see above? Do you read “click here” or something a little, well… different? If your first read made you blush and feel a little uncomfortable, well that’s exactly what can happen when type is poorly set!

Amid all of the comfortable furniture at The International Contemporary Furniture Fair next week, MSLK and 14 other designers will be sparking some Uncomfortable Conversations at a show of the same name. Conceived by our friends and colleagues at Design Glut and sponsored by Fast Company, the show challenges viewers to step outside their comfort zone and willfully engage in an uncomfortable conversation. As designers we are highly attuned to the unsettling feelings poor design can create, especially poorly set type.

For the show we explore five examples of how careless kerning can lead to unintended miscommunication. If you’re in NYC, please join us for the opening reception on Sunday, May 16th. We expect it to be uncomfortably crowded.

MOMA isn’t the only Friday night free museum. The International Center for Photography has pay as you wish Fridays, so if you have time after work, make sure to see this extraordinary exhibition. Twilight Visions: Surrealism Photography and Paris showcases this often overlooked, but essential component of the movement. If you thought Surrealism was only about paintings such as Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory, you need to broaden your scope. Surrealist photographers of the 20′s and 30′s were inspired by the Parisian twilight and produced pieces that either made the ordinary seem fantastical or fabricated imaginary visions through montage.

The exhibition contains an overwhelming amount of photographs, films, books, and periodicals to completely immerse you in the period. Shown here is an excerpt from Dalí’s and Luis Buñuel’s short film, Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog). It’s spirit is supremely Dada/Surrealist; Having no real plot, it is a visual feast of irrational (at times hilarious) occurrences transitioning into one another. According to Buñuel there are no symbols in this, so try not to think too hard about the meaning. Enjoy! (If you want to see the rest, click here)

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World Cup summers are always exciting and it’s great to hear that Nike is making an effort to be green. The new Nike sponsored World Cup uniforms are made entirely from recycled polyester, produced out of, you guessed it, plastic bottles. Nike’s green jerseys have estimated to prevent nearly 13 million(!) plastic bottles from ending up in our landfills. So I guess they can safely claim that these are the “most environmentally friendly soccer uniforms ever to grace the pitch.”

/ Christel Fearon

Did you know that it’s possible to make your website completely carbon neutral and energy efficient? This is something that all of us as individuals can easily do to reduce carbon emissions caused by digital media. Increase your brand value while decreasing your contribution to global warming by getting your site green-certified with CO2 stats.

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Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre have developed a material they call Ecocradle, which feels, functions, and looks almost exactly like styrofoam. It is comprised entirely of organic matter,with mushroom roots acting as glue to hold it together. The only things it needs to grow are darkness, H2O and bio-waste (rice hulls or seed husks that Eben plans to source locally). It doesn’t even need electricity, they have figured out a way to use thyme or rosemary extract and water to clean the seed husks- which actually works better than steam cleaning. Its going to be a long fight to turn around the plastic manufactures but this is an awesome start! Read more at L Magazine online.