David Ricart

On August I attended a workshop conducted by James Victore, Paul...

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:34:00 -0400

On August I attended a workshop conducted by James Victore, Paul Sahre and Jan Wilker. The assignment that Jan Wilker gave us consisted on making a public intervention with a restricted amount of vinyl (the material mostly used as a commerce language). We had at our disposal a vinyl cutting printer and we could also cut the vinyl by hand. I choose to use the printer to cut out the letters that constructed “WE APOLOGIZE FOR GIVING YOU NIGHTMARES WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD”. My motivation for doing this was because I have a very dear friend that used to have nightmares when he was a kid, thinking he was definetely going to hell because he was “sinning”. This action is dedicated to him and anybody who used to have nightmares when they were a child.

More on the Eurotrash Chair! The Chair Project Exhibition at the...

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:29:00 -0400

More on the Eurotrash Chair! The Chair Project Exhibition at the ICFF was a success and the SVA MFAD booth was blogged everywhere. SVA won the award for best booth which happily surprised everyone. A website was created showcasing all the chairs created by the students. For more shots of my interaction with the Eurotrash Chair, go ahead and click here.

As promised a while ago, here is the link to the photos about...

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:04:53 -0400

As promised a while ago, here is the link to the photos about the whole end of first year exhibition and a link to the website, designed by the wonderful Gustavo Garcia, explaining the whole extravaganza.

Allan Chochinov (one of the 3D Product instructors at SVA MFAD)...

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:52:57 -0400

Allan Chochinov (one of the 3D Product instructors at SVA MFAD) gave this talk at the PSFK Conference New York in Spring 2008. This relates to the first assignment he gave our class which consisted on making pooper scoopers. What happened when we were asked a supremely stupid question in the hopes of driving innovation? Lots of bad and good shit!

Todo lo que empieza termina...

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:44:00 -0400

So the school year has been over for nearly a month now and I’ve been busy relaxing and getting back into the real world. I still continue to post frequently on The Critical Eye for the CRIT Blog and I am really excited to be interning at EMPAX starting this Wednesday. New York City is beautiful right now, full of green everywhere. Soon some posts on the “fashion show” and the “chair project” so come back and don’t forget to bring your eyes.

This is the logo that I created for the end of year fashion...

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 21:24:03 -0400

This is the logo that I created for the end of year fashion runway show and exhibition taking place May 5th… In a week! (For more information on the show click here). I am doing a line of five umbrellas that make statements about freedom of expression and human rights. Hopefully everything will turn out alright but one week right now just doesn’t feel like enough. Time sucks.

Adobe Suite CS4

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:29:55 -0400

Some Adobe guys just came to give us a taste of what Adobe Suite CS4 will be all about. Basically there is more integration between the programs. InDesign CS4 can export to SWF and you can set the transition of your pages in your Flash file right from InDesign CS4. Extremely simple. They also talked about After Effects and Flash integration (which is an obvious one) and about Adobe Media Player, Flex and Air Applications. We have to wait until Spring 2009 before we can play around with Adobe Suite CS4 but I think the wait will be worth it.

This week John Carlin, CEO of Funny Garbage, came to give us a...

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:02:00 -0400

This week John Carlin, CEO of Funny Garbage, came to give us a Guest Lecture at the MFA Design program here at SVA. I was in charge of making the poster announcing the event. I finally choose to use the one I show above on the right although Steven Heller approved the left one also. Now I wished I had sticked to the one on the left. Not only because it’s less “web 2.0” but because it’s more daring and works better to present his talk.

His ideas about the future of digital entertainment made me think a lot. He talked about having songs that you own respond and sound differently depending on who is listening to them, the weather, the speed at which you are walking with your mp3 player, etc. He also talked about digital images aging like live things do. He talked about how digital content (music, videos, images) could interact with the information on your computer (resume, itunes library, etc) and provide a much richer and evolving experience than digital content provides to date.

Click here to see a larger version of the posters.

I just received an e-mail from The Webby Awards! My FIT...

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:50:00 -0400

I just received an e-mail from The Webby Awards! My FIT SONG type animation has been selected as an Official Honoree. This basically means that I didn’t win and that I didn’t get nominated but I got Honored over 10,000 entries. Cool enough.

Extract from the e-mail: It is my pleasure to inform you that Fit Song has been selected as an Official Honoree for the Student category in The 12th Annual Webby Awards. The Official Honoree distinction is awarded to work that scores in the top 15% of all work entered into the Webby Awards. With nearly 10,000 entries received from all 50 states and over 60 countries, this is an outstanding accomplishment for you and your team. Your listing on the Webby site is located here.

Proudly wearing a fez I created in Maira Kalman’s...

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 23:58:06 -0400

Proudly wearing a fez I created in Maira Kalman’s class/home. We were told the beautiful textile is from Russia but maybe it’s not. That’s ok. What a great way to start the week…

Just came back from an exhibition by Gary Panter...

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:25:42 -0400

Just came back from an exhibition by Gary Panter (http://www.garypanter.com/) and accidently bumped on Michel Gondry. Cool. Really cool.

Being the Barack Obama supporter I am, this assignment was...

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:27:47 -0400

Being the Barack Obama supporter I am, this assignment was harder than one might think… But it was a lot of fun!

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to...

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:00:00 -0400

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in one’s head at the same time.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald. Scott Stowell (www.notclosed.com) gave us this assignment. It consists in producing two compositions which exist in complete contradiction with each other. We were given six themes to pick from: My Country, Equality, Peace, Barack Obama, Television or Wal-Mart. Being the Barack Obama supporter I am, I choose Barack Obama and made two different set of pro-Obama and anti-Obama buttons. I am frankly very happy with the whole process and the final result.

"In the future there will be no more designers."

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:04:00 -0400

“In the future there will be no more designers.”

- Phillipe Starck: Design is Dead, Sorry

Spell with Flickr!

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:35:00 -0400

This is fun! Check out the site for yourself here and spell your own words using other people’s photos of letters in Flickr.

This last Saturday (yesterday?) I participated in The Future...

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:02:54 -0500

This last Saturday (yesterday?) I participated in The Future Families Workshop at the MoMA with ten other graduate students from SVA, Parsons and NYU. The whole day workshop was conducted by Elio Caccavale and it was purposefully being held in conjunction with the exhilarating exhibition Design and the Elastic Mind. The purpose of the workshop was to explore how designers might contribute to the social, cultural and ethical debate surrounding modern reproductive technologies and new family forms. Our group decided to work on the relationship between an intending mother and a surrogate mother. After some research and a quick visit to the exhibition we decided to explore how we could facilitate an exchange of information (blood and urine) between these two individuals, thus provoking an empowerment from both sides. Hopefully also creating a naturally dignified detachment from the surrogate mother towards the child and a closer pregnancy experience with the mother (egg donor/intending parent).

I just finished cutting up a world map for a book I’ll be...

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:26:00 -0500

I just finished cutting up a world map for a book I’ll be creating soon. During the process I became ruthlessly despotic and also enjoyed listening to an interview with Paola Antonelli, the curator of the MoMA exhibit Design and the Elastic Mind that I will be seeing tomorrow morning with some classmates.

I am going to Wisconsin over the weekend and staying until Monday so I can vote for Obama! Check out...

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:38:45 -0500

I am going to Wisconsin over the weekend and staying until Monday so I can vote for Obama! Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY&feature=related if you haven’t done so yet. Obama, here I come!

For a 3D product class, we had to transform a chair into a...

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 22:52:00 -0500

For a 3D product class, we had to transform a chair into a random given concept. The concept that I was handed was Eurotrash and this is the chair I came up with. The song “Eurotrash Girl” by Chicks On Speed played in some hidden speakers under the chair. The large disco ball also rotated during the presentation.

Design Crit

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:11:11 -0500

Design Crit: The new CRIT design blog! I will be working mostly on the Critical Eye section.