Swivelarms - The Art and Design of Paul Panfalone

FITC Toronto

April 22, 2012 - Comment on this

I’m off to Toronto to attend FITC, so it’ll be quiet on the blog this week. I wasn’t able to attend last year’s conference, but I did shoot up to Toronto just to hang out with some Twitter friends at a meet up they had thrown together. It was well worth the drive. Met face to face for the first time with some really awesome designers.

This year, I’m crazy excited to actually be attending the conference. I’m sure to have some good stories to share in a recap post upon my return; if FITC is anything like Montreal Meets though, I will need a couple of days to recover.

Really stoked to see the great Aaron Draplin drop some design science this week. I had the pleasure of seeing the big guy speak at WMC Fest in Cleveland last year and the guy had me in stitches the whole time. Wise words wrapped up in some hilarious comedy.

I’ll do my best to get some good photos and post them on the Facebook page again. I have a ton of ideas swirling from my recent Montreal adventure and FITC should just add more fuel to the fire. Pumped!

Vintage Computer Magazine Covers

April 18, 2012 - 3 Comments

Vintage magazines fascinate me, they’re like paperback time capsules. Ones that focused on technology or computing are particular favorites of mine. The cover shown at the top of this post is central to a hazy memory I have from when I was a child. I can’t remember where I saw it, but I’m assuming by the date on the cover that it may have been in the school or public library. My memory didn’t come complete with the magazines’ title, so it took few specific Google searches to track it down. Fittingly, the name of the magazine was simply: Computer.

According to the IEEE Computer Society, Computer has been their flagship publication for over 40 years. Out of the entire run, most of the late 70′s and early 80′s covers had the best art direction by a country mile. I wrangled a bunch of them over here to share, but you can see view all the back issues in their entirety on the IEEE Website.

In a time when computing was such an exciting new frontier, these covers really captured the imagination. The covers seemed so alien and mysterious to me as a youngster, but that’s really what was so great about them, and the reason they made such a lasting impression.

Computer Magazine : February 1971

Computer Magazine : April 1971

Computer Magazine : October 1971

Computer Magazine : May 1976

Computer Magazine : October 1976

Computer Magazine : November 1976

Computer Magazine : July 1977

Computer Magazine : September 1977

Computer Magazine : August 1979

Computer Magazine : May 1979

Computer Magazine : November 1980

Computer Magazine : June 1983

M.A.S.K. Poster Availability

April 13, 2012 - Comment on this

M.A.S.K. Monday

An extremely limited number of M.A.S.K. Posters will find their way on to the Shop Monday morning at 11:11am EST. Yes, that time is correct.

There will be less than ten of these available, all are hand numbered and signed from an original run of 20 posters. The posters are printed on 18″ x 24″ 100# heavy poster stock and will be going for $35 + shipping. Every poster also includes a swag bag of bad-ass stickers.

To the die-hard M.A.S.K. fans out there that have requested an opportunity to grab one of these things, this is for you. See you Monday…

Montreal Meets Recap

April 12, 2012 - 5 Comments

Montreal Meets 2

I returned from Montreal late Monday night and it took me a couple of days to really digest everything that went down over the weekend. I had an absolute blast hanging out with some fantastic people over those three days. Some stimulating design talk sprinkled in around hilarious shenanigans. A perfect mix.

Huge thanks to Francois Hoang who created Montreal Meets with his blood, sweat, and tears. He and his team poured their hearts and souls into the event and it definitely shined through. Great people, really made me feel welcome there.

Speaker Panel during the Q&A session. Some heavy-hitters right there.

Every presentation lived up to some pretty high expectations; Fabio Sasso, Radim Malinic, James White, Shelby White, and Rik Oostenbroek each took a turn tearing the roof off the place. They showcased a truckload of beautiful work and provided essential insight into their design processes. Some never-seen-before work even crept its way into a couple of the talks, awesome stuff. As a whole, the entire weekend was one heavy dose of inspiration; got the adrenaline flowing and the wheels turning.

James White laying it down something fierce.

James White's 8-bit Design Renegade. Press Start!

Shelby White sharing some heavy thoughts.

Thought provoking quote from Shelby White's presentation.

Rik Oostenbroek keeps the crowd in stitches with an assist from Francois Hoang.

Insanely great work from Rik Oostenbroek.

I regret not bringing my DSLR on the first day because I didn’t end up with many usable shots from my iPhone due to the lighting. I learned my lesson though, and brought the Canon along for day 2. I tossed up a photo gallery with more images from the weekend over on the Facebook page, give it a once over if your interested.

With Canada on the ropes from MMTWO, FITC Toronto may very well be the knockout blow. It’s only 10 days away. I’ve got a lot of work to do before then, and still have to recharge my batteries from Montreal, but I’ll be ready. See you soon Toronto!

Montreal Meets

April 6, 2012 - 2 Comments

Montreal

I’m hitting the open road today for the Great White North and Montreal Meets. I’ve got the car packed with T-Shirts, Posters, and Swag to supply my Canadian friends with while I’m up there. I’m looking forward to rubbing elbows with some massively creative people this weekend and maybe grabbing a few beers along the way. James White’s Design Renegade presentation should be killer, super stoked for that one! I’m sure to be juiced up from the heavy inspiration on the drive back home Monday, should be a crazy productive week ahead.

I plan on updating all the happenings on Twitter and Facebook so if you’re not attending ‘Meets’, but are interested in the conference, check them out this weekend…I’m your inside man.*

(Wi-Fi permitting, as I’ll be roaming up in Canada)

M.A.S.K. Poster Giveaway

April 2, 2012 - 40 Comments

M.A.S.K. Poster Giveaway

M.A.S.K. Matt Trakker / Spectrum Poster

M.A.S.K. Miles Mayhem / Viper Poster

M.A.S.K. Poster Giveaway

Alright children of the 80′s, here’s your chance to snag one of the few Swivelarms M.A.S.K. posters I had printed up last week. There’s been tremendous interest in these posters since I unleashed them a few months back and I finally decided that it was time to them into people’s hands. There’s only 20 of these bad boys in existence ( 10 of each ) and they are all hand signed and numbered accordingly. 1 lucky duck will land the Matt Trakker: Spectrum poster, while another will get the extra-evil Miles Mayhem: Viper version. That’s 2 posters, 2 winners. I will make the decision on who gets which. The posters are both 18″ x 24″ and are printed on super-thick 100# semi-gloss poster stock.

I’ll be carting the remaining posters up to Montreal Meets this weekend, if you happen to be attending and are interested in purchasing one, track me down. Any remaining posters may find themselves in the Shop next week, stay tuned for more on that once I return from the Northern badlands.

To enter your name is simple: leave a comment on this post. Multiple comments will only be counted once. The Giveaway wraps up on Thursday April 5th at 12pm EST. I’ll be announcing the winners later that evening…

So leave a comment to get yourself in the running. Good luck to everyone!

** The Giveaway is officially closed for entries, I’ll be posting the winners this evening via Twitter, thanks to everyone who participated! **