SOLIDQUALITY

Last night I saw the documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor at the Film Forum in NYC. And they had the director there with an editor from Vanity Fair do a little Q&A afterwards. Overall it was a great experience.

The movie gave a really great insight into one of the last iconic fashion brands and men as they were exiting the fashion industry. As a sign of the times, with hedge funds buying and ruining businesses, the film showed how critical the original creative force behind something as fantastic as Valentino. is crucial to the continued success. Its not to say the Valentino brand is dead as a business. But when he was involved and running the show , it was precisely just that, a show. More than a business, a grand show that made folks appreciate life, but especially the finest things of life. And as one result, a successful business occurred as well.  He created art for the world and we supported him. Perhaps you didn’t even feel like you were being sold something, rather acquiring some of the energy that made him reign for 45 years.

The other touching part was that Valentino’s lifelong partner was essential to his long success and frankly Valentino would not have been around for this long if it wasn’t for Giancarlo Giammetti.

So I say watch the movie. It was good film making, but it is easy when you have such characters as Valentino and Giammetti, set in the backdrop of awe inspiring fashion for the last 45 years.

I also wanted to say a quick note about being a master at something. There are scenes int he movie where you see Valentino sketching and he was so quick. And from sketch he grabbed the fabric and it seemed in a matter of minutes he had a masterpiece. Amazing that after all these years his creativity is still so bright.

And finally I have to shout out his seamstresses. They would make these amazing gowns in record time and they would exactly replicate the sketch Valentino made the day before. Note to self: surround yourself with talented people.

See trailer here:

Luckily my wife travels to Japan often, so we can take advantage of Japanese technology for a cheaper cost than could be had int he states. Recently she picked a Fuji Instax Camera for us to take photos of the baby and such. The Instax is basically a Polaroid. The film format is smaller  and more rectangular but the quality is just as surprising and rich. I will have to eventually scan some of the results but if you find one I recommend it as a good replacement for a Polaroid.

I think the most surprising thing for me is that its the first time I used a real film camera in a while and it made me realize how much better I am with a viewfinder. And with the added pressure of a limited number of shots. The digital camera with 4 gigs of space has really made me lazy when taken photos. So much so, I am almost always dissatisfied with my digital results. But a real film camera , you really need to take a moment to make sure everything is composed right. I should really try real film again.

I never had a formal design education. I picked up something here and there in college, mainly the software. It wasn’t until my first job at a magazine did I meet folks who had a more formal design knowledge. They made me realize how much I didn’t know. So I had set out to try to learn some of the history of design especially looking for folks that I could use as virtual mentors. People who had strong convictions about their work and whose work held similar sensibilities to mine.

Paul Rand became an obvious choice for me. I still feel I need to learn more about him but the way he worked with clients and ultimately ending up teaching at Yale really peaked my attention. Realizing all the iconic logos from my childhood where created by him brought him to historic proportions in my imagination.

So why do I think my work is like his? Well, I think we are both pragmatists. We work with the basic elements that a client has already and try to make them new again. Our solutions are mostly stripped down and usually only include the bare essentials to communicate whats desired. Simple, compact but high impact. I still need to work on the high impact part.

Recently, one of my favorite blogs, the Design Observer, posted a link to a Paul Rand website that has a catalog of his writings and other material, all posted online. Reading these now, after working in the industry for a while now, really is serving as a wake up call to get back to my roots, if that is even accurate. I guess rather to get back to the original reasons why I choose design in the first place.

What is that reason? Well I guess I would say because its fun. And I always liked seeing myself in the context of a larger story.