Laurie Spugnardi

Archive for the ‘on design’ Category

Boston Museum of Science: Mathematica

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

One of the delightful parts of parenting is that you get to go on adventures you may not otherwise have the opportunity to experience. We go to the Museum of Science every couple of years with our kids and it is a different experience each time. Not just because some of the exhibits change, but because the kids change. They absorb the same information in an entirely different way at each stage of their cognitive development. Me too.

My favorite exhibit is Mathematica. It was designed by Charles and Ray Eames (of chair fame) and manages to make math, kind of, well… fun. Have you ever tried to wrap your head around how a Mobius Band works? Trippy.

The exhibit is loaded with interactive fun, while showing how math is the basis for art, architecture, music and design. We humans respond to order in our art. As it turns out, beauty has a mathematical formula.
It reads like this:
images
and it looks like this:
Spiral

Snapshots from the museum…
sm_graphicsmath Mathematical relationships and their graphic counterparts: Organized doodles!

sm_pyth
The Pythagorean Theorem, the Fibonacci Series and the Golden Ratio: Perfection in Proportion.

sm_networks sm_graphic
(left) Network mathematics: Think… the internet or the lymphatic system.
(right) A family of curves satisfying a differential equation. I don’t even know what that means, but it’s much more interesting than my last family portrait.

Posted in inspiration, just for fun, observations, on design | No Comments »

Inspiration: Biology and Charley Harper (Mostly Mr. Harper)

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Where does inspiration come from? I think biology is interesting, but I was never able to wrap my brain around all the names of the parts or processes. What really drew me in were the graphics, charts and illustrations. Designers organize information, good designers turn information into art. Kind of like Charley Harper.

The Giant Golden Book of Biology
EXPLODING WITH STICKY NOTES TO MARK A FUTURE INSPIRATION FIX

Golden produced mountains of books for children (remember The Poky Little Puppy?), so they had a pretty good idea of what drew children in. Hint: It wasn’t biology. Golden commissioned talented artists to make great images and then added lots of color.

harper_cells
CELLS AS MODERN ART

harper_hydra
A GRAPHIC VIEW OF THE HYDRA REPRO DANCE

harper_monkeys
TEXTURE AND LINE SWING IN AN INK AND PAPER JUNGLE

harper_oldsea
AN ANCIENT OCEAN OF MYSTERIOUS SHAPES

These are just a few of the reasons why this book inspires me. Another reason: When my son spied it on the scanner, he said “Hey cool. Can I read this?”

The Giant Golden Book of Biology, An Introduction to the Science of Life.
By Gerald Ames and Rose Wyler, illustrated by Charles Harper.
Copyright 1961, Golden Press Inc.

Want to see more Charley Harper art? Click: Prints

Tags: Charles Harper, Charley Harper
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A Ceramic Tile Mural Begins: Inspire Me Hiroshige!

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Every project starts with a conversation. This one took place while sipping green tea and fawning over Japanese paintings by Hiroshige and Hokusai. The client wants something that will enhance a blank wall in her body wellness center. We talk about creating a sense of place, color, perspective, mood and energy. “Earth, sea or sky?” I ask. “Earth, definitely Earth” she says. …and now the sketching begins. Today, I love my job.

Tags: ceramic tile, custom tile, hiroshige, hokusai, tile mural
Posted in Uncategorized, goings on in the studio, on design | 1 Comment »

glazed and confused (and guilt free)

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

No, I’m not really confused, but I am occasionally dazzled by these little jewels. I can get down right giddy when I find the right color-combo. You should see how excited I get with a successful experimental session of layering different glazes. The opposite is also true… I could tell tales of woe from failed firings. Live and learn.

Here’s a sampling of the glazes I use in most of my work. This line of glaze is called low-stone and is produced by Spectrum. They have the delightful quality of looking like high fire glazes but fire at a lower temp. Kilns, as you can imagine, are energy suckers and these lovely glazes give me the effect I love with a low energy impact, and that always makes me happy.

Tags: ceramic glaze, low-stone, spectrum glazes
Posted in Uncategorized, on design, product design, sustainable design | No Comments »

Urban Art: Local Color

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

One of the things I love most about my ‘hood is the natural beauty of a gorgeous sandy beach just a stroll away. Bonus, I also get an urban cityscape (in monochromatic brick, of course) as I look across the Fore River at Portland. I often leave my salty and sweet neighborhood in search of urban stimulation. I realize urban is a relative term… compared to Boston and New York, Portland is a sleepy little burg, but believe me when I tell you, most of Maine is rural. Really, really rural.

Just a few months ago I was walking back from the farmer’s market with my veggies and local honey and stopped to appreciate these works of urban art.

I don’t know if these are sanctioned or stealth, but I like them, I appreciate their presence in my little city. There is a great deal of thought and artistry that goes into these paintings. The medium may be lo-brow and the gallery may have no roof, but these qualities are part of the urban vernacular. A language perfectly appropriate in presentation and environment.

Tags: portland, street art, tagging
Posted in on design, surface design | No Comments »