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Icograda: Omar Vulpinari
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TAXI
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Icograda Design Week in Seattle was an international design forum which took place in Seattle, USA last 9th July till 15th July 2006.
Defining Design on a Changing Planet, Icograda invited 22 international speakers to discuss on the role of design in this global awareness of evolution; how design has and may serve the economy and society and will also address the major topics design faces: cultural, political, economic and environmental issues at work in a global society. Last year’s Icograda Design Week is first in history to be held in USA and is in partnership with AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design.
TAXI Design Network proudly supported Icograda Design Week in Seattle as the Major Media Partner. The editorial crew from TAXI Design Network proudly reported the conferences live and delivering to you our interaction with the presenting design leaders.
For every week from April to June 2006, TAXI Design Network conducted exclusive interview sessions on the speakers based on their opinions of design in the growing world of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Please visit Icograda Design Week in Seattle for more information.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Omar Vulpinari
in the eye and explode in the mind. If it's not a knockout punch it has to be an orgasmic caress. And true stories when possible, because truth is what people want to take home in the evening.
TAXI >> On 29 September 2005, your lecture is titled as, ”I want to see a portfolio that will melt my face” at Teach Me 2005. How detailed do you think should a portfolio and what is it, in your opinion, which makes a good portfolio that is able to leave a mind blowing impression?
Omar Vulpinari>> I was inspired for the title of that lecture by Jack Black in the movie “School of Rock”. When his rock band of junior high students needs encouragement for their first gig, Black roars out at them “don’t worry... JUST GO OUT THERE AND MEEEEEEEEELT FACEEEEEEEEES!”. By this I mean that a portfolio has to immediately hit the viewer with the force of an atomic bomb. Why? Because it has to leave an impression as big as a moon crater. Starting from the first glance it has to astonish, without shocking gratuitously of course. It has to be a tsunami of creativity and appropriateness. Whether its direct and provoking, poetic and delicate, social or personal, it has to have the attraction power of sex! I see a lot of portfolios, so this is what... I’d hope =)
Of course a successful portfolio has to be based on good work and references but this initial “battering ram” effect is crucial. It’s where a portfolio gets actually examined or immediately dropped in the “portfolio pick up bin” at the office entrance. Why? Because people who regularly view a lot of portfolios often:
don’t dedicate to each portfolio more than 15 seconds unless something surprising hits them
don’t give the designer the possibility to present directly
don’t bother with CVs or recommendation letters if they don’t first “see” anything special
To directly answer the question I can mention a few that impressed me recently: a Swiss designer arriving at Fabrica dressed as a Swiss mailman, riding a Swiss mail bicycle, and delivering a giant postcard (1.5x1m) from Switzerland which was his portfolio; from a Brazilian student I received a wax cast of his entire head, containing his work. An Italian designer sent me, along with the work, her collection of illustrated thongs.
TAXI >> Is there a specific message that you look forward to share over your presentation at Icograda Design Week in Seattle?
Omar Vulpinari>> In recent years many western design schools have boomed in opening new branches and offering their programs, and teachers to developing countries worldwide. Many American and European Universities license and franchise their degrees to public and private design schools in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Many Far East schools are more eager to employ western design teachers and methods. I find this beneficial on one hand because the students aren’t forced any longer to leave their countries for a better education, which means that important human and economical resources will remain where they are probably more needed instead of ending up in the designer crowded western capitals. But most important, the native graduates will also become the future educators of their own country.
On the other hand, in this context we see too many young designers from cultures with strong native identities losing their heritages in favor of western aesthetics and topics. This cultural crisis is extremely dangerous but not necessarily definite. Japan resolved it in the 70s when western and eastern design cultures merged. China, Korea, India and the Middle Eastern countries should hopefully get over it soon.
Unfortunately balanced globalization at the moment only regards markets and not cultures. Education more than other areas, should be about growth through harmonic human exchanging and sharing. We need to be “people” identifying ourselves through relations with other “people”, we all need to be loved and considered. Exchanging our cultural differences is vital to our freedom and self-actualization. So, to have something to exchange we must cherish and cultivate our differences.
For this reason school systems worldwide will have to do their best to treasure regional cultures and to evolve them in the respect of their native roots and through the understanding and combination with all brother cultures.
And what about the students and teachers? Because of the booming capitalistic growth of developing countries and consequential need for communication and design, we are witnessing the design student population raising to the most numerous student categories on the planet. Universities in China alone produce 70.000 designers each year.
This gives teachers an even greater responsibility than in the past. Because of the speed of change today in the design education programs, teachers will have to adopt new forms of relationship with their students. Dialog and mutual learning will become a central concept. An interesting expression of this need to exchange on a more balanced ground is the “Teach Me” conference project organized in the past two years by the IUAV University of Venice. During a three-day get together teachers and students from around the world share roles, work together, play together and teach each other through experimental procedures.
If this massive force properly embraces its immense media power and social responsibilities, design schools could become extraordinary fulcrums of a so desperately needed global change.
© 2003 - 2007 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
Defining Design on a Changing Planet, Icograda invited 22 international speakers to discuss on the role of design in this global awareness of evolution; how design has and may serve the economy and society and will also address the major topics design faces: cultural, political, economic and environmental issues at work in a global society. Last year’s Icograda Design Week is first in history to be held in USA and is in partnership with AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design.
TAXI Design Network proudly supported Icograda Design Week in Seattle as the Major Media Partner. The editorial crew from TAXI Design Network proudly reported the conferences live and delivering to you our interaction with the presenting design leaders.
For every week from April to June 2006, TAXI Design Network conducted exclusive interview sessions on the speakers based on their opinions of design in the growing world of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Please visit Icograda Design Week in Seattle for more information.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Omar Vulpinari
 | TAXI >> From targeted mass and public, what is the most fundamental principle in Visual Communication, which you abide to in your creative output throughout all these years?
Omar Vulpinari>> I see communication as a mirror, for the designer and also for the viewer, where both parts can reflect themselves and hopefully even discover something new or unknown. I prefer provocative images that by many could be considered shocking and gratuitous, but to me they’re the answer to a need to communicate through essential human issues and values. Images that speak a symbolic, universal and unmistakable language, that need no explanation. These "mirrors" are visual archetypes that disturb us and force us to understand our society and ourselves. Only images that disrupt and displace can push the reader to a decisive behavior change. I care about visual narratives that punch |
TAXI >> On 29 September 2005, your lecture is titled as, ”I want to see a portfolio that will melt my face” at Teach Me 2005. How detailed do you think should a portfolio and what is it, in your opinion, which makes a good portfolio that is able to leave a mind blowing impression?
Omar Vulpinari>> I was inspired for the title of that lecture by Jack Black in the movie “School of Rock”. When his rock band of junior high students needs encouragement for their first gig, Black roars out at them “don’t worry... JUST GO OUT THERE AND MEEEEEEEEELT FACEEEEEEEEES!”. By this I mean that a portfolio has to immediately hit the viewer with the force of an atomic bomb. Why? Because it has to leave an impression as big as a moon crater. Starting from the first glance it has to astonish, without shocking gratuitously of course. It has to be a tsunami of creativity and appropriateness. Whether its direct and provoking, poetic and delicate, social or personal, it has to have the attraction power of sex! I see a lot of portfolios, so this is what... I’d hope =)
Of course a successful portfolio has to be based on good work and references but this initial “battering ram” effect is crucial. It’s where a portfolio gets actually examined or immediately dropped in the “portfolio pick up bin” at the office entrance. Why? Because people who regularly view a lot of portfolios often:
To directly answer the question I can mention a few that impressed me recently: a Swiss designer arriving at Fabrica dressed as a Swiss mailman, riding a Swiss mail bicycle, and delivering a giant postcard (1.5x1m) from Switzerland which was his portfolio; from a Brazilian student I received a wax cast of his entire head, containing his work. An Italian designer sent me, along with the work, her collection of illustrated thongs.
TAXI >> Is there a specific message that you look forward to share over your presentation at Icograda Design Week in Seattle?
Omar Vulpinari>> In recent years many western design schools have boomed in opening new branches and offering their programs, and teachers to developing countries worldwide. Many American and European Universities license and franchise their degrees to public and private design schools in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Many Far East schools are more eager to employ western design teachers and methods. I find this beneficial on one hand because the students aren’t forced any longer to leave their countries for a better education, which means that important human and economical resources will remain where they are probably more needed instead of ending up in the designer crowded western capitals. But most important, the native graduates will also become the future educators of their own country.
On the other hand, in this context we see too many young designers from cultures with strong native identities losing their heritages in favor of western aesthetics and topics. This cultural crisis is extremely dangerous but not necessarily definite. Japan resolved it in the 70s when western and eastern design cultures merged. China, Korea, India and the Middle Eastern countries should hopefully get over it soon.
Unfortunately balanced globalization at the moment only regards markets and not cultures. Education more than other areas, should be about growth through harmonic human exchanging and sharing. We need to be “people” identifying ourselves through relations with other “people”, we all need to be loved and considered. Exchanging our cultural differences is vital to our freedom and self-actualization. So, to have something to exchange we must cherish and cultivate our differences.
For this reason school systems worldwide will have to do their best to treasure regional cultures and to evolve them in the respect of their native roots and through the understanding and combination with all brother cultures.
And what about the students and teachers? Because of the booming capitalistic growth of developing countries and consequential need for communication and design, we are witnessing the design student population raising to the most numerous student categories on the planet. Universities in China alone produce 70.000 designers each year.
This gives teachers an even greater responsibility than in the past. Because of the speed of change today in the design education programs, teachers will have to adopt new forms of relationship with their students. Dialog and mutual learning will become a central concept. An interesting expression of this need to exchange on a more balanced ground is the “Teach Me” conference project organized in the past two years by the IUAV University of Venice. During a three-day get together teachers and students from around the world share roles, work together, play together and teach each other through experimental procedures.
If this massive force properly embraces its immense media power and social responsibilities, design schools could become extraordinary fulcrums of a so desperately needed global change.
© 2003 - 2007 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.