the coolest thing i didn’t blog about in 2009 -OR- how i got published by spike lee

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Friday, January 1st, 2010

the coolest thing i didn’t blog about in 2009 -OR- how i got published by spike lee

to say that 2009 was a busy year for me would be a incredibly gross understatement. looking back, there are still several big things that i just simply couldn’t find the time to blog about (some are still coming, hopefully). one of those things i found out way back in april, came to fruition in november and yet, i still couldn’t steal away a few minutes to post the news.

as indicated by the second half of the post title, i managed to get published in a book project that was edited by spike lee and design for obama creator aaron perry-zucker (with editorial content provided by steven heller, former art director for the new york times). so, how did this all come to be?

in early 2008, i became aware of a project/website called design for obama. in essence, this is a project in which designers could upload and share posters that supported the campaign to elect barack obama. here’s the about blurb on their website:

Design/ers for Obama was created when Design Observer essentially asked the question, “how can graphic designers best support Barack Obama?” Our answer ended up extending the question to cover visual communicators at all levels. In addition to supporting Obama for America we jumped at the opportunity to bring the spirit of grassroots style organizing and collaboration to poster design which, to us, meant not only forming communal bonds but sharing the fruits of our efforts equally and in such a way that anyone can enjoy and benefit from (because most of us do not own our own printing presses).

so, naturally, i decided to contribute. i submitted two posters, which you can see here and here. without too much follow-up or afterthought, i received an email nearly a year later from taschen books requesting to use one of my prints (the second one) in an upcoming collection of selected prints from the submitted designs on the site.

wow.

so, on the 1-year anniversary of obama’s election, taschen released the book Design for Obama – Posters for Change: A Grassroots Anthology. the book is really beautiful and it was incredible to see many of the posters from the site in their printed glory.

so, it was a pretty exciting project to be involved with. i wish i could have stolen away 2 seconds in november to blog about it. nevertheless, here it is now and i thought i would share some photos of the book (or you can feel free to go buy it).

(click on the photos to see them larger and in greater detail.)