Rick Valicenti recently spoke about his passion for real human presence in design at TEDxMillCity.
He traced the thread of human presence through recent and classic work from 3st as well as recent work from Moving Design.

Here are links to the projects he discusses:
Fluxus Vivus
Circa 2525
Vancouver Lecture Series Poster
Miami Lecture Series Poster
AIGA/Unisource Poster
Toronto Lecture Series Poster
Juice Ad
Notes To Self
Arik Levy Video
HMI Neocon
Hoboken Memorial
Third Coast Audio Festival
Works 1
Call to Action
One Drop

Rick will present Thirst and Moving Design’s latest work and thinking on design at the TEDx in Minneapolis on Wednesday, June 16.

The theme of TEDxMillCity
How today’s business leaders can use creative methods to gain insight and inspire change. Attending this invitation-only event at the Guthrie Theatre will be many of Minnesota’s business leaders, thinkers, strategists, and marketeers.

Other presenters include Captain Dale A. Dye, USMC (Ret) and Philip Enquist, FAIA of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
Learn more about TEDxMillCity and its presenters at tedxmillcity.com.

Moving Design’s Call to Action: A Design Intervention on Water is now underway! Participants were welcomed with a Chicago must “see and do” – a cruise of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Martin Felsen, Director of Archeworks was onboard to share facts and figures about the city’s water system and its (ab)use of Lake Michigan. On June 3, participants attended the Infrastructures for Change Conference which focused on the design and planning of the next 100 years of Chicago, Lake Michigan, and the built urban environment within the Great Lakes Basin.

Tuesday, June 15th the Call to Action Speaker Series begins. Four guest speakers will share their experiences. The evening with be filled with information and inspiration as we experience the beginnings of our collective energy.

June 15, 2010 Guest Speakers:
Martin Felsen / Director Archeworks
Phil Enquist / Head of Urban Planning, SOM
Sarah Herda / Director Graham Foundation
John Bielenberg / Founder, Project M (virtual)

We will broadcast the Call to Action Speaker Series live online.
To watch visit the event on Vokle at 6:10 pm (CST) tomorrow evening!

Mark you calendars for Moving Design’s Call to Action Speaker Series
Monday, July 5
Monday, July 12
Monday, July 19
Monday, July 26
Monday, Aug 2

2,000,000,000 gallons of fresh water go down the river every day.

Participants capturing the sights.

This weekend, Rick Valicenti and I went up to the Hamilton Woodtype Museum with the STA. It was an all-weekend workshop that included some Hamilton history, a crash course in letterpress by Paul Brown (the distinguished Indiana University professor/printer), and Hamilton director, Jim Moran. On day two Rick and I were left to our own devices in the print room.

Operated by volunteers of the Two Rivers Historical Society, the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum is the only one of its kind—dedicated to the preservation, study, production, and printing of wood type. With 1.5 million pieces of wood type and more than 1,000 styles and sizes of patterns, Hamilton’s collection is one of the premier wood type collection in the world.

If you haven’t been to Hamilton, I recommend you make the drive. I came away from this weekend with a deeper appreciation for our region’s rich design and printing history.

Hamilton is one of the few places that actually produces new wood type, and is working to preserve the art form. Above, Jim Moran demonstrates how to use a Pantograph to cut wood type.

That’s a 6′ (72″) tall wood type two! enough said.

The Hamilton Type Museum always seemed like a million miles away, but as every Chicagoan migrated north into Wisconsin for Memorial Day Weekend, the three-hour drive zipped by as Bud and I talked the whole way.

Expectations usually deny discoveries and so I did not try to pre-visualize the experience and if I had, I never could have imagined being in a group with my friend, Jack Weiss; Phil Hamilton who built the esteemed letterpress program at UW Madison; Renee Ramsey, Columbia College educator; and Carol Ross Barney, architect to name a few. Adding to the buzz were members of Chicago design’s next generation. Time well spent, indeed.

On the second day, I spent my morning making peace with a box of broken letterform misfits. The beautiful patina on each and every wooded letter fragment was rich with a history of the many impressions it had transferred. These pieces were moved into a rigid lockup on the Vandercook where metallic gold ink came in contact with black paper. Truth be Sold is an edition of 15.

I spent day two printing a poster edition inspired by Nick Adam’s “We/Us=USA” series. 8 unique 18 x24″posters titled “The Greatest Show on Earth.” The title says it all. They will be released on richardaily.com.

Jim and Bill Moran will be in Chicago on Friday June 25th at Columbia College, they’ll be presenting on “The Wood Type Museum of the Future”

The Moran brothers have a long history with the Hamilton Wood Type Museum and are now leading it into the future. We will hear about how today’s technologies are helping to preserve a rich past—from digitally archiving the skills of the last surviving employees of Hamilton Manufacturing, to using CNC routers to produce new wood type for generations to come.

They will also be hosting a workshop that weekend, see all the details at bookandpaper.org.

This past February Rick Valicenti gave a presentation at IIT College of Architecture. Enjoy…

Call to Action

Rick Valicenti, of Moving Design invites passionate, fearless, and brilliant designers to join forces inside the Archeworks Studio. Come together to advance powerful ideas in response to the glocal issues underscored in Archeworks’ Infrastructures for Change Conference. During 11 summer-evening sessions over 6 weeks you will convert design into a tangible and real social currency.

Visit calltoaction.movingdesign.com to sign up for more information as it is available.
Details and application form to follow.

We’re excited to announce that our very own John Pobojewski and Bud Rodecker are participating in the upcoming Printervention exhibition. Their modern WPA poster will be displayed alongside posters from over 70 of the best designers, print-makers, and artists from across the country.

We have asked artists from around the country to create works that raise awareness of social and political issues of our day. Printervention underscores the necessity for the support of artists and the idea of civic responsibility to the greater society…

A true collaboration — this poster results from John’s custom programming,
handwork from Bud, and impassioned direction from Rick Valicenti.
Printed at The Post Family with help from Ina Weise.

Give a shit and do some good means stand up, care about others, and do something;
hold the elevator for a stranger, volunteer, donate to a charity, or even fill out your census.

Other contributors to include:
Alex Valentine / Angee Lennard Spudnik Press / Bryan Baker / Chad Kouri The Post Family /
Chris Roberson / Christi Jo Mace / Christina Vantzou / Cody Haltom Public School / Colin Matthes Justseeds / Cynthia Juarez The Printstitute / Damon Locks / Dan S. Wang / Danimal / Delicious Design League Billy Baumann and Jason Teegarden-Downs / Derek Dietrich-Muller / Dominic Fortunato /
Ed Marszewski / Eric Nyffeler Doe Eyed Design / Gregory Calvert / Ina Weise / Jennifer Farrell Starshaped Press / Jenny Beorkrem Ork Posters / Jessica Owings / Jessica Taylor / Julia V. Hendrickson / Justin Cox Public School / JW and Melissa Buckanan The Little Friends of Printmaking / Kathleen Judge Judgeworks / Katie McCauley Strangelight / Katy Keefe / Keith G. Herzik Alamo Igloo / Kenton Quatman / Laura Klein / Letterform, Inc Julie Morelli & Andy Schwegler / Lise Haller Baggsen / Luke Williams / Marvin Chan The Printstitute / Mary Tremonte Justseeds / Michelle Mashon Spudnik Press / Nick Adam / Nick Bahr / Nick Du Pey Young Monster / Nicolas Lampert / Rand Renfrow / Rebecca Ann Rakstad Rar Rar Press / Richard Repasky The Printstitute / Ryan Duggan / Sanya Glisic Spudnik Press / Seripop / Shaun Lind Public School / Sonnenzimmer Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi / Steve Walters Screwball Press / Superkonductor David R. Head, Jr. and Jen Hazen / Thirst John Pobojewski & Bud Rodecker / Tyler Galloway / Veronica Corzo-Duchardt Winterbureau / Will Bryant Public School

Print has invited 12 leading visual artists including Rick Valicenti to choose a cause they would like to support and create a design for tote bags that will be sold on MyDesignShop.com. One hundred percent of the profits from these bags will go to the causes chosen by the artists.

The artists included in this project are:
Atélier Telescopique: Fondation de France
büro destruct
Christoph Niemann: Doctors Without Borders
Deanne Cheuk: Smile Train
Ed Fella: KPFK Radio
Geoff McFetridge
HORT: Amnesty International
James Joyce: Save the Children UK
Laurent Fetis: World Wildlife Fund
Rick Valicenti / Thirst: CASA of Cook County
Si Scott: World Wildlife Fund
Spin: Bone Cancer Research UK

Last week Rick was on Design Chat with Ryan McGovern. It was a great session with 60–70 people online that covered subjects ranging from the founding of 3st to Rick’s dogs. You should watch it, it’s informing and entertaining. After you’ve seen this one, head over to designchat.info to watch the rest.

Attention all student design groups, we have set aside an entire Saturday at the Thirst office for you. We will host 4 student groups on Sat, September 25th. To reserve a spot email info@3st.com.

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

First come first serve. Don’t worry if all the slots fill up, we’ll be have another tour day in the spring 2011. Please try and limit your group to 20 if possible.

TYPEFORCE : The Annual Chicago Show of Emerging Typographic Allstars

Be sure to stop by the Co-Prosperity Sphere tomorrow night and show some love for Thirst’s John Pobojewski. He’ll be exhibiting a mix of personal and professional typographic work that showcase his unique digital sensibilities.

At the Co-Prosperity Sphere
3219 S Morgan St in Bridgeport
Opening: Friday, February 26, 2010
Runs through: March 14, 2010

John is in good company, other contributors include:
Jeremiah Chiu, Renata Graw, David Weik, Billy Baumann, Matthew Hoffman, Chris Eichenseer, Chad Kouri, Ryan Thurwell, Luke Williams, Tnop, Andy Luce, Darren McPherson, Lora Fosberg, Margot Harrington, Greg Calvert, Aaron Pedersen, Duncan MacKenzie, Will Miller, Nick Adam, Damian Abraham

Brought to you by Public Media Institute and Firebelly Design
Sponsored by AIGA Chicago, Graphic Arts Studio, Unisource Paper & I Shoot Rockstars

Since the start of the new year, we have been preparing for an exhibit titled: Curiosities: Rick Valicenti + the 21st Century Thirst . The exhibit opened on February 13. It is free and open to the public until April 3rd at the Schmidt Center Gallery on Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus.

The exhibition includes Thirst work from the past decade. In an effort to display the various types of work Thirst, we recreated our office environment. The Curiosities exhibition is a place where professional work mixes freely with personal explorations, where there is no boundary between “serious” play and “serious” work. Curiosities invites you to step into the fertile creative grounds that exist in the minds at Thirst. If you are in the south Florida area visiting a grandparent or parent or planning Spring break on the beach, be curious and visit the exhibition.

An opening reception celebrated the collaboration between FAU and Thirst — nearly 200 people were greeted upon entering by Thirst founder and owner, Rick Valicenti and designer Bud Rodecker. For the full Thirst experience, attendees were able to talk to senior designer John Pobojewski and Thirst intern Jason McAloon and get a glimpse into the office via live webfeed.

Freestanding walls display posters, and prints—professional, political, and playful—of Thirst’s varied and fascinating history.

Collaboration is at the core of what we do and it is reinforced immediately upon entering the exhibit.

The concept for the inevitable Iraqi war memorial, made for print, gets a new life as a 3D print.

Rick Valicenti, Bud Rodecker, and Jason McAloon have collaborated with Diana Mighdoll Hoffmaster, MFA in Choreography, to premiere a new work using dance, lighting and graphic design elements. Text’n Motion premiered February 5th on the FAU Boca Raton Campus and coincides with our Curiosities exhibition.

Diana initiated the process with this direction, “We have begun to work based on what community means to us”. This experience represents our first collaboration in the dance medium and with that we consciously took a baby step to comfort in the discomfort zone. The piece exceeded all expectations.

Here is a glimpse.

Our previously announced exhibition, Curiosities, is coming together nicely. Above are some images of our over the top installation. We are thankful to all the design students of Florida Atlantic University for bringing our work to life.

The exhibition opens with a lecture by Rick Valicenti on Friday February 12th.

For more detailed information about Curiosities see the press release below.

Boca Raton Graphic Design Exhibition Features Rick Valicenti and Thirst

CHICAGO (February 12, 2010) –A retrospective exhibition of work from graphic design studio Thirst opens Saturday, February 13 at the Schmidt Center Gallery on Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus. Thirst is a graphic design firm based in Chicago that was founded in 1988 by internationally known designer/artist Rick Valicenti.

This marks the first national retrospective exhibition of Thirst’s work. The opening reception for the exhibition will be Friday, February 12 from 7 to 9 pm, beginning with a free public lecture by Valicenti.

The exhibition runs through April 3 and is open Tuesday–Friday 1:00–4:00 pm, Saturday 1:00–5:00 pm and is at the Schmidt Center Gallery & Ritter Art Gallery at Florida Atlantic University: 777 Glades Road Boca Raton, Florida 33431. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

The show, entitled Curiosities: Rick Valicenti + the 21st Century Thirst displays both commercial designs created for clients and personal art from the past decade. Over 150 pieces cover the gallery walls and display tables to showcase the energy and connection to human emotion inherent in Thirst’s designs.

Some of the work shown includes designs with designers Adrian Smith, Jeanne Gang, Arik Levy, Martin Felsen, and for clients like Richard Wright, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Herman Miller, and more.

Thirst is a studio devoted to “art with function” and serves a collection of clients from the worlds of design + culture: architects, industrial designers, furniture designers, engineers, and artists. Thirst’s work continues to lead the industry and express intelligence, high fashion, and a connection to the human spirit within today’s world of communication.

Thirst is opening a 21st century retrospective exhibition in Boca Raton at Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt Center Gallery. The show opens on February 13th and will run until April 3rd, and ultimately migrate to NYC and then to one other national university setting.

Curiosities, Rick Valicenti + the 21st Century Thirst is work from the past decade curated to underscore the collaborative balance and value between the professional commission and the personal research.

An opening reception for the exhibition, beginning with a lecture by Valicenti, will be presented on Friday, February 12 from 7 to 9 pm. In association with our exhibition, the department of theatre and dance’s FAU Dance Ensemble will premiere a work on February 5–7 that Rick Valicenti is collaborating on with graduate students in dance and visual arts.

We’ll be posting more detail and images very soon!

Floor-plan of the Thirst show.

As you enter the show you’re greeted with a collective gasp.

3ST Designer/Musician John Pobojewski and Percussionist Andrew M. Bliss performed The Metaphysics of Notation by composer Mark Applebaum at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center this past Friday.

Applebaum explains the piece as a score of “visual art teeming with evocative glyphs and dense arranged pictographs. The meaning of its visual figures is deliberately left undefined… Each performer is invited to make their own sonic realization of the score.”

Pobojewski and Bliss performed four panels over the course of an hour using different percussion instruments ranging from snare drum to squeeky toy.

Accompaning the duo was an ambient electronic landscape programmed by Pobojewski to respond to the movement of those passing by as detected by a webcam.

This electronic programmed environment also allowed Pobojewski to “play” found sounds, speech, and synth instruments via his iPhone.

All programming was built with Processing, using TouchOSC to connect the phone with the laptop.

Pobojewski and Bliss have performed together since undergraduate days at Northern Illinois University’s Percussion Performance studio.

Thirst + Moving Design are now accepting applications for an intern specializing in digital design for the summer of 2010. We are looking for someone smart, capable, with an interest and talent set for all things within the interactive and media-rich realms of design. This is an unpaid internship.

you will
gain exposure to the design process and engagement in the work of thirst + moving design
develop a project aligned with your interests together with rick valicenti + john pobojewski
collaborate on the design development of one semester-long moving design initiative
receive serious mentoring from experienced professionals

you get
letters of introduction and recommendation from rick + john upon leaving
access to the chicago, national, and international design community

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.”

and experience in software:
Flash
After Effects

we also would love experience in programming:
Flash AS3
Processing
C++
OpenGL

and experience in software:
Maya/Cinema4D/Comparable 3D Software

If you happen to be in New York right about now, you should make your way over to The Cooper Union for the Lubalin Now exhibition opening reception. Thirst work to be exhibited includes:

i4 design
Thirst’s Top Five Love Songs
Classic Las Vegas Poster
Lyric’s 2009 Damnation Poster
Aiga Miami Poster
The Unisource Poster.

Some details about the show

The inaugural exhibition in the newly re-located Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography.

Herb Lubalin (1918–1981) is best known for his wildly illustrative typography and his groundbreaking work for the magazines Avant Garde, Eros, and Fact.

On view in Cooper Union’s new gallery, the installation includes recent posters, publications, and motion graphics by internationally recognized graphic designers that spotlight an emerging trend toward expressive lettering and typography.

Original sketches, magazines, logotypes, and posters selected from the Lubalin Center Archive will illuminate Lubalin’s influence on contemporary graphic design.

Opening Reception
Thursday, November 5, 2009, 6 – 8pm
The Cooper Union
41 Cooper Gallery [ MAP ]
This event is free and open to the public.

Exhibition On View
November 5, 2009 – December 8, 2009

As one of the prime design events of the Icograda World Design Congress Beijing 2009, 24-30 October, 2009 the “Post__: Contemporary International Poster Retrospective” hosted by the Central Academy of Fine Arts, will exhibit 300 award-winning posters from the past 30 years. The collection will demonstrate an exploration of global cultures and styles. Such curatorial blending lends a unique documentary-like characteristic to the exhibition, making it one of the most inimitable retrospectives to take place, exposing the contemporary scene of poster design to both Chinese and international design professionals, as well as the general public, and hopes to instigate design dialogue between Eastern and Western audiences.

The posters exhibited are:
Lecture Series Vancouver, 2005
Lecture Series AIGA Miami, 2007
AGI StudentConference, 2008
ESPN Money, 2000
Harvard Loeb, 2008
Classic Las Vegas, 2009

Go to archeworks.org to RSVP online for Rick’s lecture, call 312.867.7254 to reserve your seat.

This event is free and open to the general public.  Archeworks is located at 625 N Kingsbury (at Ontario) in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. Find directions on the archeworks website.

Guitar and DJ Heroes you can’t see anywhere but here! If Thirst’s Rick Valicenti were to make the final selection on behalf of our friends at Pentagram, these are his selections:

btw
Rick’s long-time collaborators, Bill Cornman at Real Eyes and Thirst’s John Pobojewski and Bud Rodecker, were all instrumental in turning up the volume on these variations.

Read the about the rest of the project on Pentagram’s site.

We at Thirst want to give Rick Bayless a shout out and a big congratulations for winning the title of Top Chef Master! We always knew our hometown hero had the chops to bring that prize money back to Chicago’s farmers.

The picture above is at The Green City Market Chef BBQ where Rick V received from Rick B a delicious Taco.  In return RV zapped his new best friend with Thirst’s palm-sized iPhone Tazer App™.

While making the rounds to all the booths we met this lovely lady who informed us that our tote bag design was successful beyond all estimates.

Cheers to you Ricky B!

We are proud to announce Moving Design, a social enterprise dedicated to expanding the culture of design, founded by Rick Valicenti and John Pobojewski.

Moving Design is a new model of passionate pedagogy residing at the intersection of experimentation, experience, and education. In the spirit of fusing design research and art‚ we create initiatives that bring together organizations, professionals, and students from different disciplines to present relevant new ideas that shape the public’s point of view.

Much is on the horizon — please stay tuned.

Mel’s powers of observation are as sharp as ever on her last day of work. “Frankie, is that you!?”

More images after the jump.

Massimo Vignelli

Ahn Sang-Soo

David Hillman

Markus Dressen

Neville Brody

Irma Boom

R.O. Blechmann

Grab the corner to flip the pages.

Rick Valicenti has returned to the United States with a refreshed perspective. He spent the 35 days in Italy creating new personal work and exploring his curiosities. Read more after the jump.

On May 25, 2009, at 11:30 PM, Stefan Sagmeister wrote

I am putting a talk together for TED on sabbaticals.

Besides talking about my own experience, I’m giving examples of people who
have done successful sabbaticals in the past. I have heard, but don’t know
if its true, that you did a mini-experimental time every day.
The timing that I’ve heard is that you do client work until 3:00pm and then
do your own experimental work after this.

Could you tell me about it? Yes?

Stefan

Your note comes on my first day returning to the domestic studio and as you can imagine, I am pinching myself to see if indeed I really was away.

I return to this reality with is not so much a body of work, but a renewed sense of being centered in who and what I am. it did not take long to re-learn that I am prolific, curious, and incredibly talented once fully immersed. this in and of itself was a very healthy reminder for this soul that is often misplaced during the day to day of this (sur)real world.

In the mornings I would begin the day with a drop of black sumi ink on a 9 x 12″ piece of Yupo (plastic) paper. I would then relax, take a breath, and hold the sheet in front to of me allowing this drop, located at twelve o’clock, to move and draw a complete circle. I have never really created an exercise for myself that would force me to be so in the moment, and save for an EKG exam, this two minute drawing records every seismic pulse—each exhale, twitch and pause my body experienced while turning the smooth paper yielded a indelible bend in the line.

Like a tarot card reading, these circle glyphs provided me with a visual glimpse into my relationship with the day.

—-

Only on a few days I did work the ’second shift’ with a virtual double dutch in the chicago time zone which was after drinks, dinner and socializing, but for the most part, I held my time for myself. now that I am on the cusp of re-entry, I know I will do it again next year and the maybe year after… for knowing so beats wishing (it could happen).

take care and thank you for the continued inspiration.

Rick

Design Indaba 2009: what can your creativity do? from Design Indaba on Vimeo.

“creativity can spread the best spirit from one person to another.”

Rick Valicenti is set to speak at York University on March 18.

United States Artist's mission is to invest in America's finest artists and illuminate the value of artists to society.

United States Artists (USA) is a grant-making organization dedicated to supporting America's finest living artists working in in a diverse array of disciplines. After decades of dwindling public support, artists now have a home where they may find significant private funding—unrestricted cash grants—to ignite the creativity that makes this country great. more

Our Signature Program—USA Fellows Grants to Artists.
Annually 50 artists are named USA Fellows; each receives a $50,000 unrestricted grant. The program supports artists in all career stages, including emerging and mid-career artists, as well as established figures. The fellowships are awarded across a broad array of disciplines.

Personal Views is a unique series of conferences that brings together an unparalleled group of designers, writers and educators from the world of graphic design. Coordinated by Andrew Howard, and taking place at the Escola Superior de Artes e Design in Matosinhos, Portugal, the series aims to examine contemporary definitions of graphic design by asking these professionals to talk about the values and objectives that have value for them. It is an attempt to explore where the boundaries of contemporary practice lie, to discuss what we might expect of ourselves, and to examine what social and cultural objectives we seek to fulfill.

Rick will be heading to Pittsburgh to judge the AIGA Pittsburgh Annual Exhibition. While there Rick will host the Carnegie Mellon MFA Student Seminar at the home of Professor, Shelley Evansen.