Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’

Design Inspiration: The Fire Trucks of Flughafen Stuttgart

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

I admit it: I am inspired, in a very nerdy way, by the fire trucks that zoom around Stuttgart, Germany’s international airport, Flughafen Stuttgart.

Painted from bumper to bumper in eye-piercing fluorescent red, the mammoth machines of Flughafen Stuttgart Flughafenfeuerwehr easily catch the eyes of passengers who taxi down the runway of Germany’s Swabian metropolis. These trucks are so bright, I bet they’re visible from outer space!

flughafen stuttgart flughafenfeuerwehr
flughafen stuttgart flughafenfeuerwehr
Two views of engine 7. Source for top image: http://www.feuerwehr-riezlern.at/. Source for bottom image: flickr.com/photos/ackermann_juergen/.

Not only do I love the fluoro-and-white paint scheme, but I also love the minimal stripes that line the sides of these trucks. What’s more, the stripes collide on each truck’s back panel, forming an angular motif accented by the awesome Flughafen Stuttgart logo and a massive Helvetica number.

I’m envious of the talented person who developed the design for these trucks, which have me thinking I wish I would have thought of that!

Side note: The fluorescent limegreen fire trucks of the Berufsfeuerwehr Flughafen Zürich are worth checking out, too. They make me want to paint exclusively in fluorescent paint from now on.

— Grant Wiggins

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Dietmar Winkler: Posters for MIT

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Something really cool happened at work last week. Naturally, it had nothing to do with work! A designer I work with brought in a pair of Communication Arts magazines from 1970 and 1971. Being inspired by the art of that period, I was transfixed by what I found between the covers of those volumes.

What particularly caught my attention were Dietmar Winkler’s posters for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dating to 1968 and 1969. His designs were so good, they had me thinking to myself, “I wish I had painted that!” The second orange poster below (the horizontal composition) especially blew my mind.

dietmar winkler posters for MIT

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Robert McCall

Monday, March 1st, 2010

I learned today that legendary space artist Robert McCall passed away, on Friday, February 26, at the age of 90.


Robert McCall, painting a mural at a NASA center. Credit: NASA
robert mccall

To many, McCall was known as the artist who painted the poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Others knew him as one of the great painters of the NASA program, from the 1960s onward.

I had the pleasure of viewing McCall’s 2008 show, Imagination Unbound, at the the University of Arizona Museum of Art. I keep a copy of the promotional flier for the show on the wall of my studio, by the door. I see it practically every day, and it helps to set the tone for the art I enjoy making so much.

I have been moved by Robert McCall’s bold vision for the future, as well as his precise rendering of concepts and environments that are so challenging to imagine. What’s more, I can never get enough of looking at his work. Especially in his most imaginative works, there’s always something new to see.

Robert McCall was one of the people that made Arizona great. Knowing that he lived here, just miles away, made me feel better about living here. I am thankful that he so generously donated many of his works to the University of Arizona Museum of Art Visual Arts Archive.

Thank you for inspiring me, Robert McCall. We will miss you.

— Grant Wiggins

Below: Fantasia with 23rd Century Megastructures, a 2006 painting I made that was inspired, in part, by Robert McCall.

robert mccall

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Detergent boxes: Graphic inspiration

Friday, January 8th, 2010
detergent boxes
Image via daniele_lavamat on flickr
detergent boxes
Image via daniele_lavamat

Over the holidays, I rediscovered my love for detergent boxes — especially vintage detergent boxes. I love how their graphic swirls and shapes are designed to arrest the eye. Beyond that, there’s something ineffably cool about the way detergent boxes have “all-over” compositions — they use all available space. Throughout this genre of design, it is as if negative space is viewed contemptuously as a waste of space!

That said, thank goodness for Flickr. And thank goodness for people like daniele_lavamat, who photograph and upload their detergent box collections (shown at left). If you haven’t seen this collection, and you like packaging, daniele_lavamat’s photostream is worth a visit. You’ll find fascinating snaps of European brands like Ariel, Dixan, and Soflan.

And there’s also IvoryTide’s photos of classic American detergent and soap brands, such as Fab, Rinso and Dash. The Rinso box below is gorgeous.

detergent boxes
Image via IvoryTide on flickr / http://www.flickr.com/photos/43109834@N07/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Guess I should upload photos of my detergent box collection, which represents brands like Trend and Biz. Wonder why I haven’t already. Regardless, a small part of my vintage packaging collection can be found on Flickr here.

— Grant Wiggins

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Interlocking stripes

Saturday, March 10th, 2007

This may not turn out to be the most charismatic blog post ever. My source of inspiration isn’t the most charismatic. But hey! Whatever.

Glenn Roeder wears a certain tie virtually every game. It’s a pretty straightforward tie, but I think it’s pretty cool. (If you’re not familiar with who Glenn Roeder is, he’s the manager of English soccer team Newcastle United.) I found this photo online to show you what I mean.

I’ve tried to mess with the tie’s pattern. I dig the interlocking stripes, so I thought I could mash them up and make them collide a bit . . . maybe even add more layers of colliding stripes for a more chaotic effect. I’ll have to file this away for future use.

In other news: Today was a glorious day in Tempe, Arizona. A high temp of 88 and not a cloud in the sky. Ideal for opening up the house and letting the breeze roll through the studio. As it gets warmer, the acrylic paint dries faster, which is a very good thing. And so I started work, officially, on Like Antique Shopping 100 Years Ago. (Sketch here.).

interlocking

— Grant Wiggins

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