RISD faculty biennial exhibition opens tomorrow, 2/25 in RISD’s Chace Center. Open to the public through 3/20, showcasing 190+ works of art. (via @risd_edu)
When RISD President John Maeda, Liisa Silander and the Media + Partners department decided to reinvent their alumni magazine, they decided to do it from the ground up. Renaming it RISD XYZ and shifting from a more traditional focus on the school to instead celebrate the accomplishments of its graduates, they knew they had to do something about the design too. While previous versions typically tasked three alumni with a section each, the resulting layout felt disjointed and made it tough to read.
Handpicking a few alums to pitch, they chose RISD alum Criswell Lappin to realize the new vision of the concept. Lappin—who in addition to running his own design consultancy Wellnow, has art directed the award-winning magazine Metropolis for the past decade—recently answered a few of our questions on how he and his crack team of fellow alums pulled off the fresh new design in just 10 weeks. Read on to learn more about some of his favorite designers, the project’s reality TV potential, and the beers it took to unwind when he was done.
An interesting retrospective for those thinking about it.
Preparing to paint a self portrait. This was the final assignment of my oils fundamentals class. Daunting…
This was the first nude I ever painted. There were two, two-hour sessions we got to work on this. This is as far as I got (I wished I’d got to start blocking in her right hand). It was ridiculously harder than anything else we did in the oil fundamentals class. But, looking back, I’m really glad Michael (the teacher) made us do it.
A magnificent book on limited palettes, complements and mixing colors. This was recommended by my first instructor and is the basis for his palettes. I feel like I’ve learned what may have taken ten years (or maybe never) to otherwise grok in fullness.
RISD Materials & Techniques - week 4. Glazing. Still learning how this layer by layer process works, and yes the red pear (especially) is too saturated.
Materials & Techniques week 3. The Dead Layer. This layer is close to finished, I just need to work on the reddish pear and blend it better and blend one of the cast shadows. Next week we will be glazing over this layer.
Materials and Techniques week 2. Bruno underpainting. This is painted in burnt umber only over an indian yellow imprimatura. I’ve no idea how this layer by layer renaissance painting process works yet, so I’m just following along and will learn as we go. (crappy iphone photo)
RISD Materials and Techniques week 1. Making a stretched canvas. You start with separate spacer bars that you assemble into the frame and then use a door jamb to form into shape. The pics explain the rest pretty well.
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