Figus Upshaw

Holiday Wishes 2009

2009-12-21T14:38:00.001-08:00

Wish all of you loyal readers a green Xmas! -Figus

re Tin Windmill Sighting

2009-06-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

In the window at Private Screening inFremont

re spatter says it best

2009-05-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

If only there was a book devoted to spatter fonts....it would have to use this latest poster designed by Robynne Raye as a primo example. Although Robynne and her cohorts at Modern Dog have produced a good many graphic pieces using drips and runs and splashes....this one takes the prize.
It navigates that marvelous territory between legibility and illegibility which means it grabs the mind and holds on until you wipe the tears from your eyes with the back of your hand.

Plastic Spoon Sighting

2009-03-04T20:31:00.000-08:00

On a recent walk around Greenlake, I was dismayed to see a discarded white plastic spoon resting on the lake bottom ( Less than 6 feet from shore and at a depth of no more than 3.7 feet). One can only speculate the half-life of such trash, but there is also the hope that this monumental afront to nature will gradually disappear into the lake sediment. If you are interested in a more positive spoon story, please visit:
Plastic Spoon Sightings

re Welcome Mat

2008-08-22T11:17:00.001-07:00

Most WELCOME mats do not make such good use of the opportunity to set the tone for a visitor. There is more to life than just cleaning your feet.

re Suicide Gimmick

2008-07-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

This discarded sign offers a new tack on the challenge of panhandling in the cynical Fremont neighborhood. The full presentation involves lying along a heavily traveled bike path, curling up in the fetal position and draping the cardboard sandwich board style message over the shoulders. A rain soaked hat is placed nearby for whatever funds might be forthcoming. This is the third sign that has surfaced in as many weeks, making it easier to separate the posers from serious players. Makes one wonder how many times this ploy will work. Even the vernacular lettering fails the sincerity test.

Xmas Past

2008-06-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

These Xmas cards from Xmas past might explain why the friends who received them have removed me from their address books.

re BiG NEwS

2008-01-29T21:44:00.000-08:00

More than the brain can imagine. Just plain
amazing. Take a look:
http://moderndog.com/book

Re: Text in Sculpture

2007-12-30T18:11:00.001-08:00

Incorporating text in a monument is a special challenge for the artist. This version of the 23rd Psalm is a small feat compared to the Vietnam War Memorial. Sand blasting is now used to execute the computer output; however, the Kennedy Inaugural Address was over 2,000 hand chiseled characters.

re Birdhouses

2007-12-14T20:59:00.001-08:00

Pick up some scrap lumber. Make some birdhouses. Line them up along a road.
Sell them.

re holiday thought for 2007

2007-12-09T17:19:00.001-08:00

This special holiday photo was taken along Aurora Avenue North near Seattle.

Re Work Disguised as Art

2007-11-17T12:37:00.001-08:00

This is image is quite spectacular if you think that it was created from scratch in Photoshop 5.0 requiring 200 hours of time starring at an LCD screen. Sorry to admit that it is just an unaltered photo shot with a low cost point and shoot camera. Hopefully it still works as a reminder of the luxury of waste.

re txt mssg sgn

2007-10-29T12:33:00.001-07:00

The wind assisted communication when it blew away the superfluous letters and converted this used car lot sign into a text message.

re Pet Rat

2007-10-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

re THINK

2007-10-13T12:05:00.001-07:00

The original IBM ad campaign might seem to have permanently damaged the word "Think",
however this recent pissoir message puts the verb in a new context.

re Please Ring Bell

2007-08-06T11:51:00.001-07:00

San Francisco is a city of doorbells. Pick any street in any part of the city and the visual variations of such technology is compelling. They often betray far more than the owner might realize. After 50 years of over-painting, rusting, fingering, polishing, and labeling, it is still quite likely that a bell somewhere inside will sound the alarm when you give the button a push.

re Back View

2007-07-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

The back view is rarely disappointing. . . even of religion.

re Red Cross

2007-07-07T13:57:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to imagine a more successful rendering of the basic red cross design. Part of the impact might be the context of the vintage handpainted VW bus, but there is also something exceptional about the way the stencil failed to impede the running paint.

re Stone Pyramid

2007-06-22T14:59:00.001-07:00

If someone accidentally knocked down a life-sized balanced stone sailboat....maybe a stone pyramid might be a great plan B.

re: Roadside Shrine

2007-06-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

Roadside shrines appear on various highways to commemorate where people have died in accidents. This shrine is filled with descriptive artifacts that include a toy motorcycle, an unopened bottle of beer, Mardi Gra beads, color photos and Honda logos. Obviously only part of the story. The concept of the roadside shrine dates back to paleolithic time. Early shrines were linked to the worship of pagan gods and provided travelers with a place to rest or worship.

re TV

2007-06-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

A homeless man found a TV set that had been discarded along along a sidestreet. He knew exactly what to do with it. Decisive action.

Re Nice "E"

2007-06-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

The search for a perfect letterform often leads to the most beautiful kind of failure.
Abandoned signage does not require that the meaning must also be abandoned.

re Not Empty

2007-06-07T10:13:00.001-07:00

The problem of space and storage and access is universal and ancient. Is the idea of "random structure" an oxymoron? The unstructured aesthetic.

re Empty

2007-06-06T15:51:00.000-07:00

The space between buildings is often more interesting than the buildings. Things can be added but seldom does anything improve on the beauty of the empty space.

re Stone Sailboat

2007-06-05T16:19:00.001-07:00

What a fine boat. It was made by a guy who loves to stack rocks that are precariously balanced one on another. This sailboat is life size and bigger than life at the same time.

re Water Music

2007-05-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

Mixing the real world with musical notation has its own set of implications. Do the notes have a physical existence? The reflection in the water and the ripples confirm something that is contradictory. But it is rather early in the morning at Greenlake.

Re Controlling Chance

2007-05-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

The interplay between chance and order keeps us guessing. Why the carefully broken plate? Why the numbers? Just waiting for the mapping that will make it a directory for a home page.

re Public Table

2007-05-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

A well designed piece of furniture is one which takes into account intended function, use of materials, and visual context. Being deprived of function, this table mimics the environment in a brutal display of vernacular sturdiness.

Roy De Forest

2007-05-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

Sad to read that the painter Roy De Forest died. He loved dogs. Always had at least two. Often used them as subjects in his painting.

Mr. De Forest identified himself as an “obscure visual constructor of mechanical delights” and quoted a talking dog, named Samuel Johnson, who said, “What is current taste but old desires made palatable by present boredom.” -- from NYT

The Ampersand and the Treble Clef

2007-05-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

There can be considerable pleasure in making a connection between things. Hard to resist drawing a ductile line between heterogenous things, even when it serves no clear purpose.

Pleasure of Things Virtual

2007-05-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

Perhaps we now live in a time when the virtual realities are often the preferable reality. Must confess that the painted curtains make this house far more memorable than it once was with bare windows.

re Toilet Training

2007-05-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

It was recently reported that Seattle's public toilet project is being phased out. What fun they were. Designed in Germany. A product that combined the talents of graphic designers, engineers, medical doctors, plumbers, sociologists, and the homeless beta testers. During their short tenure in this city it was hoped that they would provid a secure and relatively clean place for one, to shoot up, to make love, to get warm, to wash up, and even to read the Sunday funnies. The installation of an outside security camera did not deter the abuses of one facility, since there were apparently 7,418 reports of human waste on the floor in the first two years. Apparently it is easier to toilet train dogs than it is people. Seems it will cost $700,000 to vacate the $700,000 a year maintenance contract that was set to run until 2014. One can only wonder if maybe the project failed because the signage used the wrong typeface. As they say at IBM... "No one ever got fired for using Helvetica." -- F.U.

Just Say Non

2007-05-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

2007-05-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

Before and after concepts are a good way to test the rules. Mondrian was one of the first graphic designers. He made it very easy to steal his ideas, thus insuring his permanent place in history. The Grateful Dead understood this tactic in that they allowed concert goers to freely record and share their music. Even a computer can be programmed to produce a fairly convincing Mondrian.

2007-05-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

Great graphic design is not rocket science . . .but it is like chemistry. A great poster design often starts out in a test tube. -- F.U.

2007-05-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

In the old days all type was set by hand. Each individual letter had to be picked up and placed in position. For better or for worse. . .photography has changed all of that. -- F.U.

2007-05-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

“Take a point, stretch it into a line, curl it into a circle, twist it into a sphere, and punch through the sphere.”

— Albert Einstein

Big News

2007-05-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

The news is out. A big new book is about to fly out of the bindery via Chronicle Books.
Hint: It will be required reading and prolonged looking for every image hungry designer on the planet.

Watch this space for further announcements.

F.U. esq.