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Typographic interpretation of Detroit for Metropolis Magazine
| Thursday, March 13, 2008 9:40 AM |
Page for Metropolis Magazine |
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Beautiful Detroit, the "motor city." In the year 2008 what could be more American? Black for oil. Green for dollars, greenhouse gasses and green technologies all wrapped in computer aided design and manufacturing.
In February I was asked by Dungjai Pungauthaikan at Metropolis Magazine to typographically interpret the city of Detroit for the march issue of Metropolis Magazine. I was simultaneously working on a kind of protean wireframe graphic language for Cranbrook Academy of Art. This project struck me as an opportunity to examine these forms in offset lithography prior to the roll out of the Cranbrook Posters. The more important point however is the issue of "appropriateness." The formal language of both projects struck me as conceptually consistent.
It's on the newsstand today
Poster and Website Design for Cranbrook Academy of Art
| Saturday, February 9, 2008 9:13 AM |
Logo, poster and web design |
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Over the course of the past two months I've been working with Reed Kroloff the new Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art on a complete re-design of the Academy's website and catalog. The catalog will take the form of ten 26x40" posters. The logo posted above is part of an identity system that I created for the project.
Through the poster design process I've been working to synthesize a new body of work that's drawn from the many disparate elements within my oeuvre. The new work strives to incorporate experimental typographic forms with three dimensional modeling, photography, tempera painting and flat graphics. I hope to post images soon.
The deadline looms.
Request the poster set here....
Elliott Earls workshop at Anderson Ranch Arts Center. July 7-11, 2008
| Friday, January 18, 2008 12:39 PM |
Workshop in Colorado. July 7th-11th 2008. |
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In July of this year I will be running a workshop at the Andeson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado. Among other things, this represents an excellent opportunity for individuals interested in grad school at Cranbrook. Sign up now.
Download the Anderson Ranch catalog in PDF format by clicking here...
The immateriality of offset lithography
| Saturday, January 12, 2008 9:17 AM |
Untitled from 2000 added to the catalog |
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In 1999 and 2000 I was working a lot with the amazing Rudy Vanderlans of Emigre. It was an extremely productive period for me. With a frantic pace and on a regular basis, I was producing graphic objects that were incorporated into work published in Emigre Magazine.
Over the course of the past eight weeks in addition to a complete web site re-design and work on my film, I've been working diligently on a set of ten new posters for Cranbrook Academy of Art. One of the things that I've realized through this process is that I have always created relatively exquisite (if I don't say so myself) "graphic objects" for incorporation into my work that is meant for print production. Unfortunately offset lithography (commercial printing) renders these objects immaterial. The image above is one such object.
So why wouldn't I just show the work produced for the new posters? I don't want to show the posters before they're done.
Click here or on the image above for a larger representation...
Where have you been Elliott?
| Thursday, January 10, 2008 1:31 PM |
Work continues on The Saranay Motel |
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Over the course of the past eight weeks I've been working hard on a complete re-design of the web site for Cranbrook Academy of Art.
I have also been working on principle photography for The Saranay Motel, and posters designs for the Academy. Both the video clip above, and the still frame below are from the shoot. Click on the image above for video.
Adam meets with stylist and image consultant, Pico. |
Documentation by Benjamin Teague. |
The first porcelain head from The Saranay Motel is posted
| Monday, December 17, 2007 10:22 AM |
Hard paste porcelain head #1 from The Saranay Motel |
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The Saranay Motel continues to develop with the addition of The Ides of March, number one in a series articulated in hard paste porcelain by Benjamin Teague. Click on the image above for more information.
The first table top bust from The Saranay Motel is posted
| Friday, December 7, 2007 9:56 AM |
Table top busts from The Saranay Motel |
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Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man (Dedicated to Friedrich Nietzsche) was a large bronze bust that I created for my exhibition entitled Bull and Wounded Horse. I continue to explore this form in The Saranay Motel. I worked with the artist Benjamin Teague to produce the piece above entitled Holy Roman Emperor. The object is a 9.35"x3"x 1.75" hard paste porcelain bust with interchangeable heads. As the other heads are fired, I will post more comprehensive information and photographs.
Benjamin is the mandolin player in The Venomous Sons of Jonah, as well as an amazing artist and ceramist.
A limited edition of 10 back stamped and numbered Holy Roman Emperor busts will be sold
$650 (us dollars) plus shipping.
Place an order before (or on) Friday December 15th and you will have it by Christmas.
Call the studio directly to place an order at 248.645.3083
University of Georgia Residency Booklet is posted
| Wednesday, November 28, 2007 9:12 PM |
University of Georgia booklet (1.7m download) |
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As a part of my recent residency at the University of Georgia, I was asked to design a document of the event. The result is a 32 page booklet. Click on the link below to view the PDF in your browser window. If you'd like to download it to your desktop and print it out, RIGHT CLICK on the link below.
Download Elliott Earls at the University of Georgia a 32 page document (1.7m PDF download)
Zoom in Online posts The Pursuit of Design: Elliott Earls with Debbie Millman.
| Sunday, November 18, 2007 8:39 AM |
Debbie Millman |
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Design Matters Live is an on-going series based on the Adobe/AIGA live version of Debbie Millman’s highly acclaimed and much listened to internet radio show, Design Matters. In this first episode, Debbie talks to the multimedia artist, Elliot Earls, about his experimental non-linear digital videos, spoken word poetry, music, typography and the inspirational leap he made from commercial graphic artist to teacher, mentor and self-made artist.
Click on the image above to watch the video (eight minutes)...
Athens media covers Elliott Earls residency and exhibition at UGA
| Wednesday, November 7, 2007 4:10 PM |
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The Athens Banner Herald reviews the exhibition
"On a recent afternoon, two students walking through the gallery make a negative comment about the violent aspect of a series of photographs from his "Saranay Motel" series. It's almost funny, the comment, if you really look at the work. Yes, there are blood droplets - at a glance. The photographs depicting a man jumping into or out of a bed in a cheap motel seem to indicate a bloody shoot-out.
But on closer examination, there's something synthetic about the blood - it's clearly been added to the photographs after the fact. And the composition itself is comic, the figure balancing, hovering even, in seemingly impossible positions - something like a low-rent version of "The Matrix." On that note, the violence in the photos is hardly the level of more realistic depictions at any multiplex.
Earls says that's part of the commentary, a "hyper-violence" to "cue the viewer in to the falsity of it all," he says. "It's certainly calling into question this form of cinematic violence," he adds, noting other works not included in this particular show are even more shocking, though the violence is synthetically manipulated to the point of ridiculousness....
The Red and Black, an independent student newspaper covers the residency.
"He was interacting with video, playing characters on the video and using instruments to trigger different stuff," Callahan said. "It was really innovative and really kind of blew my mind."
(Name dropping)
Eating dinner at Nobu Miami Beach after discussing Heartfield at The Wolfsonian Museum
| Tuesday, November 6, 2007 8:30 AM |
Announcement designed by |
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On thursday evening I gave a lecture at The Wolfsonian Museum as part of their exhibition on the work of John Heartfield. My lecture used the work of Heartfield as a kind of foil against which we can begin to understand a more powerful role for the contemporary graphic designer. In the lecture I primarily used the work of Heartfield as a way of attempting to place my own work within an historical context and to provide it a cohesive conceptual framework. To radically simplify the lecture, initially I pit John Heartfield against Paul Rand1 (Lord Vader) and discuss the goals of the post world war one avant-garde. In the lecture, I frame my own work in terms of the spirit of oppositional cultural practice exemplified by Heartfield – and by extension El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko et al. "You've got to be kidding me? I've seen your work. Clearly you've got some steel testicles equating that fetishized crap with Heartfield!"
Back up punk. One of the central points that I attempt to establish is the notion that from an historical perspective the enemy has changed. And while I posses a vitriolic hatred for the Bush administration and their full frontal assault on civil liberties (among countless other vices), contrary to the moronically popular left wing party line, we are not in fact dealing with the brown shirts. The enemy has changed and so must the tactics, just as Heartfields' work changed after the war.
After the lecture, Gary Wasserman was gracious enough to take the amazing designer Tim Hossler and me out to dinner at Nobu (at the Delano). This was a wonderful end to three days of lecturing and work shopping at the Miami Ad School. How can I possibly reconcile work shopping at an ad school with the content of this post? Well, my lecture and workshop dealt with these issues and the administration and the wonderful students encouraged the discourse.
| John Heartfield |
Paul Rand |
1. The IBM logo be damned. Contemporary graphic design has suffered far too long under the ridiculous self-loathing tyranny of base commercialism epitomized by Paul Rand. Paul Rand was a pygmy raised by giants, and his ideological and philosophical progeny are a race of subservient dwarves toiling their lives away in the salt mines of indentured corporate servitude.2 Like Ishmael in the closing pages of Moby Dick, mainstream design and it’s institutions are hopelessly adrift in a malevolent ocean of commerce and greed. Designers play first mate to the great mass of men, as they continue their painfully inevitable mudslide into a hyper-mediated, increasingly technologically facilitated, and materialist future. It’s essential that we fight like drowning men to reclaim those things in danger of being lost with the ship.
The things we need to reclaim (a new Nicene Creed):
* An unwavering belief that Art has true transformative power and can be an agent of positive social change.
* A definition that posits Design as a form of Art.
* A rejection of Nihilism in all its forms.
* The importance of self-reliance.
* Allegiance, through work, with the oppressed.
So if Paul Rand was raised by giants, to whom do I refer? El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, Kurt Schwitters, Piet Zwart and John Heartfield (to name a few). This is our forgotten history and our birth right. These men play Frank Lloyd Wright to Paul Rand’s Walter Gropius. To paraphrase Tom Wolf, Sixth Avenue in Manhattan is a monument to a history of an american architecture that will never be. Look at all those bland skyscrapers lined up like so many bowling trophies for an architectural history hijacked. In turn, look at so many pages in the ID Magazine Design Review populated with the latest biomorphic vacuum cleaner, or the hottest new web design firm, and play a funeral dirge for what we could have been.
As they say on the street. "Pour one out for my dead homies."
2. Of course I have the luxury of being able to say this because I'm a tenured professor.
Note:
I'm not a tenured professor. If truth be told, I have the luxury of being able to say this because I'm the scion of an ancient welsh shipping family and although I've rejected the family business, my father has yet to cut me off. In 1993 I rejected my father and the family business in favor of the cliche and bohemian life of the artist. Initially I fled to an expatriate artist community in Mexico City, but after I kicked "horse,"3 I moved back to Greenwhich Connecticut to rethink things.
3. I've never actually used "horse," nor do I condone drug use of any kind.(Seriously).
The University of Georgia.
A workshop, lecture, screening, exhibition, colloquium and performance.
| Tuesday, October 23, 2007 8:40 AM |
Selections from The Saranay Motel and Bull and Wounded Horse |
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I just returned from a one week residency at The University of Georgia. To suggest that it was intense would be a dramatic understatement. Mark Callahan the assistant director of ICE – an interdisciplinary program at the university – proposed an incredibly comprehensive week. The week began with a workshop with students from different disciplines. For the workshop we conceived and shot two scenes for my film The Saranay Motel.
Athens Georgia has a rich and amazing musical history. The bands REM, The B-52's, Vic Chestnut and Danger Mouse all hail from Athens. In the workshop we began by considering this rich history and conceiving a scene that showed the protagonist (Dougy-G) struggling at the bottom of the Athens musical food chain. We decided to take the protagonist into a series of "open mic" nights in character, and perform a version of Cluck Old Hen that fuses hip-hop rhymes with claw hammer banjo. The scenes were shot incognito by our camera man Sean Mills (in High-Def). The image on the left below is from the club DT's. Katy Brown, a chemistry student, plays Tammy a pregnant female member of the entourage. Jordan Dalton (an undergrad with a triple major; computer science, music composition and interactive media) plays Dantrel the bass player.
Highlights from the week:
- Monday began with a project brief and informal lecture.
- On tuesday afternoon I gave formal lecture in the art school, and we began filming.
- Wednesday afternoon and evening we continued both the workshop and the filming.
- Thursday was spent making technical preparations for my performance piece at the club Ciné.
- Thursday during rehersal I was visited by an interactive performance class from the Theater School.
- At 6pm on thursday in a seperate theater, Ciné began screening
my films Catfish, and Ambient Composition in G. - At 8pm on thursday Benjamin Teague joined me on stage for two sets at Ciné sponsored by the University.
- Friday morning was spent installing an exhibition of selected work in the Lamar Dodd Gallery.
- Early friday afternoon I did a colloquium in the school of Theatre and Film Studies.
- Late friday afternoon I had a class visit in the Net Art Studio.
- Friday evening at 6PM the exhibition opened.
- At 2AM on saturday morning i passed out (from exhaustion).
The video posted below is a brief snippet from the first set on thursday night at Ciné. Jordan joins Ben and me on stage for Cluck Old Hen. Sincere thanks to Mark Callahan the Director of ICE and Nora Wendl the Director of the Dodd Gallery for their hard work.
Note: The image above is video. Mouse over the image for video playback controls. The play button is in the lower left corner.
Elliott Earls at the University of Georgia a 32 page document of the event. PDF (1.7m download)
Looking to Athens
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Thursday, March 13, 2008 10:40 AM
| Bull and Wounded Horse |
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Very early in my career I set out to establish what Dr. Howard Gruber refers to as a "network of enterprises." On a practical level this means that at any given moment I have countless projects, in many mediums in various stages of completion within the studio. So even though the major thrust of my current work involves working on The Saranay Motel, there are still numerous large scale pieces from previous bodies of work that I'm dealing with. The image above is one of the larger scale objects from Bull and Wounded Horse.
On October 15th I will begin a one week residency at the University of Georgia in Athens. The images above represent the final push for my exhibition of recent work in the Lamar Dodd Gallery. The piece above is a large scriffito construction that is very close to completion.
During the residency I will perform two sets (accompanied by Benjamin Teague) at the Athens Club Cine. I will lecture and run an interdisciplinary workshop. The university will screen my film Catfish, and I have an exhibition of recent work in the gallery.
Proper images of the work, as well as photographs from the exhibition will be added to the site after the opening.
The importance of Miller® Beer to intent
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 5:18 PM |
Beer Bubbles = Intent |
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I have posted an essay and diagram on the importance of "intent" within work.
In the twenty nine years from that moment, my mind has often drifted back to that unbelievably pure image. That warm glass of wheat colored beer shimmers on the horizon of my minds eye, undimmed by the anesthesia of memory. Nay, time has rectified it’s imperfections. The image of that beer is frozen, and has haunted me like the mystery of the sacred cross to a practitioner of the Greek Orthodox faith. The simple image of the bubbles rising in this wheat colored brew seemed to tap into a reality beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension. I have found that unlocking the mystery of that image has helped me to understand the true nature of my work...
Time well spent in the studio
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 8:17 AM |
Making work |
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Upon returning to the studio from Indiana, I was faced with a number of challenges. Preparations for a residency in Athens, the graduate studio at Cranbrook and an Artist-In-Residence lecture consumed most of my time. Yesterday I completed the retouching and manipulation of six large photographs that will be part of my exhibition at the Lamar Dodd School of Art Gallery. Over the course of the next few days I anticipate completing work on a large screenprint and a number of clayboard etchings for the exhibition. I'll post images as they are completed.
Quick Hits
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 1:07 PM |
Interested in citing the work of Elliott Earls or embedding clips in your site? The video clips on this site are in the process of being posted to Youtube. Jameson is posting them Please keep in mind that the videos on this site are of a higher quality than what is on Youtube. |
Friday, September 21, 2007 2:43 PM |
I've posted information on Horst Schicklegrüber and the Barbecue Army. |
Dimitri Siegal and Design Observer Stir the Pot
Thursday, September 20, 2007 8:00 AM |
Placing Elliott Earls in context (?) |
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America's graphic design magazine of record is a blog. Design Observer is the creation of Jessica Helfand and William Drenttel, unequivocally two of America's most intelligent designers. And even though Design Observer's contributing writers are clearly some of the best design writers in America, I must confess that most of the people in my (global)circle and the vast majority of the graduate students at Cranbrook do not read Design Observer. Why? As with everything the reasons are complex. However, the simple answer is that there is a whole "movement" that Design Observer seems (is) completely unaware of. Design Observer does not address their concerns.
So needless to say I was surprised on Tuesday morning, when I received an iChat that read "Check out Design Observer." Dimitri Siegal's post Designers' and Dilettantes, attempts to place my work within the context of "Designer as Author." Dimitri uses Michael Rock's essay Fuck Content and my latest work The Saranay Motel as a rhetorical device to further his argument. It's probably obvious that while I disagree with most of Mr. Siegal's major points, I am very pleased with his post. I would like to personally thank Mr. Siegal for his attempts to contend with these issues. At some point in the future, I'll attempt to deal with the issues he raised more fully.
The most interesting thing for me, aside from his interpretation of my work, are the comments.
Superman Shot Himself Today
Note: The image above is video. Mouse over the image for video playback controls. The play button is in the lower left corner.
Play the video in Quicktime Format (Highest quality option) 
Play on youTube
Monday, September 17, 2007 8:16 AM |
Video from Muncie |
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Possibly the most moving moment I have witnessed on television was a Meet the Press interview with Aaron Broussard President of Jefferson Parish Louisiana, immediately after hurricane Katrina. I was brought to tears by Mr. Broussards' impassioned plea for help. I was overwhelmed by a sense of rage and empathy. As ridiculous as this may sound, my sense of frustration was so profound that I was driven to express this through song. In frustration and sadness I sat down and wrote this simple refrain.
I heard that Superman shot himself today
I guess he finally woke up, and it just blew him away
what should I say to my son when he asks?
It's Killing me...
The video posted above is cut together from photographs and footage taken last friday evening at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. The video was shot from stage left by Benjamin Teague the mandolin player in The Venomous Sons of Jonah. (Benjamin accompanied me on the mandolin for the gig.) The video attempts to show how the song I Heard that Superman Shot Himself Today is incorporated into the performance.
On a side note
This piece addresses a number of issues that are very important to me and yet potentially problematic within my work. As I have mentioned elsewhere on this site, first and foremost I see my work as a form of cultural criticism. This piece seems to foreground issues that deal with the efficacy of the aesthetic in the social realm. The work is plagued by questions such as: In a very real way how effective is "art" in dealing with political or social issues? Is this piece opportunistic? Does it fetishize tragedy? Does this type of intervention supplant true activism? in other words, if the goal is to be a social agent, wouldn't it be more advantageous to travel to New Orleans and volunteer for real labor?
I believe I have answers for most of these questions. Not to be coy, but I belive the answers are in the work.
A Late Night. Muncie Indiana Looms...
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 10:36 PM |
A Busy Day = A Late Night |
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I'm behind the eight ball for my gig at Ball State, so tonight is going to be a late one. Today was "Academy Day" at Cranbrook. At noon I gave a brief lecture outlining my vision for the graduate program. I then spent the rest of the afternoon with the eighteen members of my studio dealing with business. I'll spend the rest of the evening debugging the robotic drums and tweaking the programming. The photo above is my studio this evening. Click here to get a better handle on how this fits into the performance....
Technical setup and rehersal is slated for tomorrow evening 5pm to midnight. I will try to post some images or video from Municie from the stage.
The Wolfsonian Museum lecture
Tuesday, September 4, 2007 9:22 AM |
Lecture Preparation |
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After an extremely intense week of work on The Saranay Motel, I spent a few days with the family lounging around the pool. This week as I prepare for a performance at Ball State University, an exhibition at University of Georgia and a lecture at The Wolfsonian Museum, I find myself reexamining my Heroes series. My lecture at The Wolfsonian Museum will deal with the importance of the post world war I avant-garde to contemporary graphic design. The lecture coincides with their John Heartfield exhibition. What I will be attempting to articulate is a vision for contemporary graphic design practice that draws more from John Heartfield than it does from Paul Rand. I will attempt to make a case for work that descends from a genealogy rooted in post world war I art practice and rejects corporate hackerey. Of course I will be using examples from my work as a vehicle for discussion.
The image posted above, first appeared in Emigre magazine as part of a serial examination of the idea of hero worship, as seen through portraiture. In preparation for the Wolfsonian lecture I've been looking at my older work. Click on here to see a larger version of the image.
(Re)shooting "garage dentistry"
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 11:34 AM |
Photo and HD video Shoot |
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Kosta Stratigos, Joshua-Ray Stephens, Kei Shiraishi and I spent sunday night attempting to reshoot the "garage dentistry" scene. After a very intense and draining shoot, it was a bit disappointing to role off the HD footage and find problems with the audio and exposure. However as with almost all of the scenes in the film, the set was also used for purely photographic purposes. A suite of large scale photographs is being produced along with the film. These photographs are not the traditional stills drawn from the actual scenes, rather the sets are used to produce a suite of tangentially related photographs. By contrast, this element of the evening – the photo shoot – was a success. The results are posted here.
Ed Fella, joins the cast of The Saranay Motel
Note: The image above is video. Mouse over the image for video playback controls. The play button is in the lower left corner.
Monday, August 27, 2007 10:52 AM |
HD video Shoot |
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On sunday afternoon American graphic design legend Ed Fella joined the cast of The Saranay Motel. Ed dropped by the studio for our annual "coney island" lunch, and was persuaded to assume the role of cultural critic M. Lazzard. A brief video clip from the shoot is posted above.
The Selection process for triptych #2
Saturday, August 25, 2007 10:35 AM |
Photo and HD video shoot |
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Friday was spent at Walkabout Farms shooting HD footage of the Unholy Seer (Joshua-Ray Stephens) in rapture. This morning as Benjamin Teague and Joshua-Ray Stephens sleep, I've begun the process of attempting to systematically evaluate the photographs from Thursday night. The goal is to compose another triptych for The Objects from The Saranay Motel. This composition should relate to triptych #1 as well as the film.
Kei Shiraishi joins the cast. Photo shoot and (RE)constructing the triptych
Friday, August 24, 2007 8:45 AM |
Photo and HD video shoot |
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Last night saw the beginning of the fourth full session of principle photography In a seemingly never ending push to flesh out the narrative arc of The Saranay Motel. Kei Shiraishi joins the cast as a rather impassioned fashion and image consultant. Kei is the gentleman with the yellow gloves in the photo above. The focus of the day was placed on both photography (above), and HD video (below). The shoot continues with a B-roll footage shoot at Walkabout Farms. Images and video from the shoot should be posted in the morning.
Note: The image above is video. Mouse over the image for video playback controls. The play button is in the lower left corner.
Clay on Board #1 from The Saranay Motel is completed
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 10:16 PM |
Object from film |
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Neotestudina Rosati 01:11:03:01
Although aproximately fifteen objects from The Saranay Motel exist in various stages of completion within the studio, Neotestudina Rosati 01:11:03:01 is the first outside of the photographs to be completed. Measuring 10"x13" and fabricated from clay on hardboard, this piece appears within the current edit of the film at timecode 01:11:03:01. A larger photograph of the object is posted here.
Information on the complete suite of objects is posted here...
