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.

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

It feels great when others recognize work you’re mighty proud of. Thank you STA for a great night.

Here is a sample of our winning pieces.

Right after our fall student tour day, we had the pleasure of being visited by students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China. While on their grand American design tour—including stops in New York, San Francisco, Boston, and of course, Chicago—they chose Thirst and IIT as their Chicago must-see’s. View more of their trip on their blog.

On September 25th we had our fall student tour day. Students from University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois State University, and Northern Illinois University came and learned about the experiences of 4th year Thirster Bud, and 4th month Thirster Tinne. They listened, learned, snacked, questioned, and left inspired.

Missed the fall student tour? Reserve a spot to come visit us in the spring! We have set aside an entire Saturday at the Thirst office for you. We will host 4 student groups on Sat, April 9th. 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 fall 2011.

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.

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.

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.

The Burj Khalifa was designed by Smith while a partner at SOM (read more on SOM.com). Adrian Smith is now a partner at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, which sports a Thirst designed identity system and website.

smithgill.com

The Thirst office will be featured in the forthcoming book Studio Culture: The Secret Life of the Graphic Design Studio from Unit Editions. It shows off images of Thirst office space, a sampling of our work, and an interview with Rick Valicenti. Below is a sample of the interview.

At what stage in your career did the urge to have a studio hit you? Was it there from the start?

Twenty years ago Thirst was founded on the desire to pursue ‘art with function’. When I went on my own in 1981, I was a relatively fresh designer, president of the STA (Society of Typographic Arts) and a new father with a desire to be certain that a paycheck was regular. It took roughly six years for me to discover and come to understand that there is a thin line and a big difference between being a designer who is a preferred vendor and a designer who has a consultant’s seat at the table. In 1988 I no longer wanted to be the preferred vendor. It was this motivation and clear image of the creative life I wanted to design that Thirst came to be.

Pre-order Studio Culture for more insights into the world of Thirst and other fantastic design firms.

Unit Editions is the new publishing company formed by Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy, dedicated to producing high quality books on design and visual culture.

Studio Culture is the first book to be published by the new company. It lays bare the inner workings of 28 studios from around the works, plus contains essays, rare photographs and commentaries.

A birthday card befitting the man with many names. Happy Birthday John!

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