DesignYak

Boys 'put off' by art & design at secondary school

I just read an article on the Guardian website about how boys in particular are being 'put off' by art & design at school. This is being put down to there being too much drawing and painting rather than computer design and digital photography. Ofsted have said that half of schools in their latest report show that art & craft are underdeveloped, and going further down in education, two-thirds of primary schools art & craft activities were not good enough. Is this underdevelopment the reason for many young people being turned off by art & design further on in their education? I might be naive, and I probably am, but as a child I always found that art was quite an inexpensive activity, all you need is some scrap paper and a pencil. 

I think this topic is important because school is the starting point at which all designers, artists etc began their careers. It makes me quite sad that kids are beginning to not relate to drawing and painting, this is the building blocks of discovering and developing natural talent. I understand that kids going through school now are the first to have grown up from year dot with computers and the internet, but if they are not exposed to drawing and painting, key skills for any creative, I think it will seriously harm the quality of art & design. Obviously linking this with new technology is fine, but kids should be allowed to develop talent and explore ideas. Read the full article here.

Festive and celebratory Google logos

We all know the Google logo, we see it everyday, pretty standard in it's design yet one of the most recognisable logos around. What interests me is the special holiday logos they release during the year. Did you know that there is someone who's job it is to design these logos? Yes, it's true, his name is Dennis Hwang, and he designs festive logos for Google on special days. He creates about 50 logos each year. He is employed as an international webmaster and spends about 20% of his job on Google logos. 

They quite often celebrate people's birthdays, especially famous artists and cultural figures, two of the best are these for Van Gogh, Pollock and Escher.

 

I've featured this logo at the time, celebrating The Hungry Caterpillar books by Eric Carle. This is probably one of the best Google logos I've seen, it lends itself really well to the subject, and was designed by the Eric Carle Studio.

 

I really it when the logo doesn't even use letters, celebrating innovations such as braille and more recently, morse code. It still works, mainly down to the combination of colours that instantly recognise as Google.

Celebrating the phenomenon of Lego. I really like all of these examples of holiday logos, but quite often you get some dodgy cartoon execution, like the one below which was seen recently. Fair enough, I like the idea of combining St. George's Day and Shakespeare's birthday, but I don't like the drawing, compared to the others, it's just a bit dodge.

I always find the Google logo quite fun, and hey, educational at the same time. You can see every festive or celebratory logo by Google stretching back to 1999 if you click here. You can also click here to read about the evolution of the Google logo which is really interesting to see.

Swine flu - today's squiggle

Swine Flu continues to spread around the world, as the threat of a pandemic mounts.

Turner Prize 09 shortlist announced

The shortlist for the Turner Prize has been announced for 2009. The shortlist suggests a return to the more traditional arts. It looks promising, I went in my third year at Uni and I was really disappointed with what I saw. Looking at the artists, I've decided I'm supporting Enrico David, his work looks visually interesting and looks pretty surreal.

Enrico David, who now works in London, was born in Ancona, which is where my Grandma was born and raised, always a good reason to support someone. You can read about the shortlisted artists on the BBC website.

DesignYak on twitter

DesignYak is now on twitter, and is another way to follow DesignYak. Click here to go to the DesignYak twitter and to start following or use the link on the sidebar

Creative Suite pillows

Here's some cool Creative Suite pillows. Buy here. Via swissmiss

Writer's block kit

Writers, designers, artist and many other creatively minded professionals often find themselves lacking inspiration. Finding new ideas or new approaches to motivate themselves can often be tricky, but Elizabeth Dilk, a New York based designer has created ‘a kit to thwart writers block’. while specifically designed with writers in mind, the kit can help many people kick start their creativity. As a graphic design student dilk was asked to 'find something I hate, change it and make it better, and then advertise it’ for a project. as she states ‘because I hate getting writers block, I researched the many ways to solve it, and created a packaged kit.’

I think the Pre-chewed pencils are a classic.

Visit her website for more images of the kit. Via Designboom

WWF 'Give a hand to wildlife'

Ads for WWF seem to be flying out at the moment, here's another set of ads by Saatchi & Saatchi. Via DYT

The end of New Labour?

Is it the end of New Labour? Last week's budget would suggest so. Has the red rose of Labour turned brown? Or is the whole political system we have wrong? I like getting political here at DesignYak, especially if it means adjusting logos.

The Prodigy new video - Warrior's Dance

New video from The Prodigy, directed by Corin Hardy. The video features some characters made from cigarette packets having a bit of a mash up in a pub.