You never heard about me.

Workshop @ MNAC

Stefan Lucut — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:48:28 +0000

All I want is to share with you all, my great experience at MNAC workshop organized by Embassy of France in Bucharest. They invite me and Ovidu for a week to present to high school students from different cities our job. All they know is that after high school they could go and do Medical UNI or engineer and so on and so far. They rarely heard about other jobs. So we were there to present them the beauty and the hard parts of our job – graphic designer, and also to try do something together and see who has the call for this job. Is important to say that this was our first workshop, and we were worried because they were not professional so we had doubts of how we should present it so they can understand it properly.

So what I wanted to say is: I had a great time in Bucharest during the workshop. I love how Embassy organized this. I love the location (MNAC). I was amazed about some of the works. Kids had a great time working on different themes and the results were unexpected. And Short’s Up was very cool. You can see photos on the VizaMedia website.
Conclusion: I want to be a teacher.
Problems: Need to finish the fucking UNI…

Busy Bee!

Stefan Lucut — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:46:58 +0000

Yeah….been busy lately, so nothing much to say. Just that everything is going slowly. But things are looking good and a lot of cool projects are in work right now. A good year seems to start and I hope yours is the same. I have a lot of plans with Baubauahus and I need to thank Andi for the help and support, and we will continue to develop new features and to update it. Also a public release will happen later this year, after a huge amount of requests. Now I want to disappoint you or not and announce that I’ve never been to the University this year…damn…but I intend to go to exams and see what’s happen. Be right back with a cool new project made with my mates Ovidiu and Eugen, next week.
Check my new work on www.stefanlucut.com and have a nice weekend.

Art vs. design

Stefan Lucut — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:18:21 +0000

I think not once I had this question and every time I discuss this topic with any of my friends we are getting over excited and started to fight. One day a good friend of mine link me to this article of Craig A Elimeliah (producer at Firstborn Multimedia) from AIGA. I read it and seems to be fair but still doesn’t convince me, and I feel that Craig himself is not 100% convinced about it too. Is this a hard topic? Yes it is. Why? Because I think it depends of every person; it depend of how you feel it…I feel like a designer, is that wrong? People tell me that I am an artist, even if I try with all my heart to stay away from artistic field. What makes you designer, the fact that you are hired by ? The fact that you are dressing like a designer, think like a designer act like one…what makes you a designer? Same questions for artist; what makes you and artist? I want to be an artist, where do I start? What makes me an artist, or even better – WHO?

Are these two close to each other? Yes they are. That’s why I always choose to compare them with girls and boys. Are girls close to boys? Does they have things in commune? A girl could inspire a boy and reverse? Sure they do, But are they equal? Are they the same thing? … Why did I compare art with a girl? Because art is more sensitive is more feminine, sentimental exactly like a girl. Design is like a boy, acting sharp, straight and some time stupid. And I can continue to compare them but what’s the point? I’ve heard opinions like “design is supposed to sell, but art is not” and right away I was thinking about Michelangelo who worked most of the time for clients under a brief. Michelangelo was an artist right? How about Rembrandt’s portraits? almost all of them were commissions. Then Valentin Vica send me the link to the “Art” definition according to Wikipedia. I hate definitions but couldn’t agree more with Wikipedia when it says “The term also is used to denote highly skilled people in non-”arts” activities…” So is it design a form of art? In art you can be universal – in design you solve a specific problem…? Did I solve the problem? Negative.

A more important question is how does an individual find their voice of expression? I find myself as a graphic designer until I become an artist. So what do I learn? There are questions that don’t have answer. Is this possible? Don’t know. What do you think? What do you think you are?
I want to end this with a short paragraph of Craig A Elimeliah article.

Many designers are artists and many artists are designers, the line between the two is complex and intriguing. I was perusing some art books and something strange caught my eye, I had noticed that many of the artists were not creating a unique, almost chaotic portrait of their innermost selves or inspirations rather they were clearly using popular trends to capture the attention of the viewer. I noticed that many of the pieces being shown were “throwbacks” of past artists styles or color and simply refreshed for public consumption. The very fact that older artists inspire newer artists seems to contradict the whole definition of art. These artists are following a method, a pattern or a standard that has already been established by another artist and therefore they are not creating something completely new rather following instructions laid down by a previous artist rendering that piece to be more design than art.

⇥ Read the rest of it

Now if is possible I would love to hear as many opinions as I can get, and start a nice conversation. Tell me about you, about others…even if I presume you re convince that there is no answer.

Later edit: I got these great quotes related with the subject from Andrei Ograda.
Apparently the discussion get overloaded here.

Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It’s a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda, and philosophy.- Erik Adigard
Art is what you get away with. – Andy Warhol

Things I need to mention

Stefan Lucut — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:52:40 +0000

Kaboom!! The new year is here with us. I feel a huge hunger for drawing and designing new things and facing new challenges. I know the challenges will come this year I am 100% sure. Because of my lack of time, last year I forgot to mention some important things. (for those who really watch my blog) An important thing was the launch of the 100 To Watch book. This is like a Young Guns Contemporary Artists – designers, musicians, actors..etc. The book is made by a great team from Bucharest – Its Saturday. I was honored when they select me to be featured in the book along a few others great contemporary designers. The book is not for sale and is only for Exhibition and Cultural Institutes. Because I don’t have a camera I’ll just show you the cover for the moment but if you want you can see more on the website. All the content is available online at www.100towatch.ro

Another boom this year wast the Vienna Design Week, but I already mention that. What I want to mention is that Ovidiu Hrin and me got featured in Die Presse one of the well known local newspaper. We were invited to fill a whole page regarding our experience at the Schaulabor. I that period one of the main topics was “20 Years After” so we though this could be a good idea to represent. So we came up with this 89 points for Victory and 20 for…. I was very pleased with the result and also got a good experience working again along Ovidiu. Hope you’ll get the idea straight.

A lot of other great things happen in 2009 but some of them need time to get life and you will see what I am talking about soon.
So 2009 was a success, 2010 will be better that’s for sure.

Michael Jackson.

Stefan Lucut — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:20:25 +0000

I know is too late but yeah I discover this on one of my Moleskine so I thought I should share it with you and put it up. This is just a sketch I’ve made after I came home from Lille where I first heard the news. I think I am not the only one who loved Michael Jackson music and for sure not the last one who will do a tribute to him. I still love his music and his original style of dance. My favorite tracks from him is ” They don’t care about us“. You can also see it bigger and some details here and don’t forget: high rez PDF file is available on request. Thriller huh …

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American musician, dancer, and entertainer. Referred to as the King of Pop, he is the most commercially successful and one of the most influential entertainers of all time. His unique contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with a highly publicized personal life, made him a prominent figure in popular culture for over four decades.

Alongside his brothers, he made his debut in 1964 as lead singer and youngest member of The Jackson 5, and later began a successful solo career in 1971. His 1982 album Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time, with Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995) also among the world’s best selling albums. He is widely credited with having transformed the music video from a promotional tool into an art form with videos for his songs such as “Billie Jean”, “Beat It” and “Thriller” making him the first African American artist to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk. His distinctive musical sound, vocal style and choreography has inspired numerous pop, rock, R&B and hip hop artists and is credited with breaking down cultural, racial, and generational barriers.

One of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, his other achievements feature multiple Guinness World Records—including the “Most Successful Entertainer of All Time”—15 Grammy Awards (including the “Living Legend Award” and the “Lifetime Achievement Award”), 26 American Music Awards (24 only as a solo artist, including one for “Artist of the Century”)—more than any artist—, 17 number one singles in the US (including the four as a member of the Jackson 5), and estimated sales between 350 million and 750 million records worldwide making him one of the best selling artists in history. He was also a notable philanthropist and humanitarian who donated and raised over 300 million dollars through support of 39 charities and his own Heal the World Foundation.

- Wikipedia

Limited edition year – 2009

Stefan Lucut — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:12:47 +0000

You probably all have a huge wish list as I do. But hey from time to time I check a few of them and of course every day I add some more. This time of the year is a good time to spend money. Why? because is so quiet and no one call or email so you can count your money in quiet. Right after you count them you kinda want to give you a little bit of attention. So i took my wish list and I tried to see what I would love to buy me this time. I ‘ve been a fan of Ugmonk since they launch the shop so I though I should have them right away. I choose 3 of them, size, shipping and etc. Since I’m a big fan of shoes I immediately open my wish list of shoes (witch is the biggest) and check two pair of shoes from the list. One of my favorite are the Adidas Campus Mid Diagonal and with a bit of help from Filip I manage to cook them from Germany yesterday.

Second, the Vans TNT2 Mid are so madness and I love their junky look. The last thing I got was this lovely limited edition theme from Information architects witch looks lovely don’t you think? So it seems I’ve been a good guy this year; not so good to be able to have the Converse RED Leather Jacket Shoe and this just because people like me from Europe can not buy from their site. American clients only!! seems to say the Converse policy when it comes to the special edition RED products. Thank you very much Converse for your “kindness” … for them probably dollars have different colors or maybe they just don’t want money…their business…

Looks like this year I got some limited edition things..it was the limited edition year anyway.
Voila, new year is coming and I am so excited to face the new challenges ahead. This will be another limited edition year like all of them so enjoy it like it is the last one. Btw let me know what Santa broth you this year.

Free prints, giveaway

Stefan Lucut — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:30:16 +0000

Yep this is what you think it is. Two years ago I’ve done something similar with 13 artworks, giving away the print sources on high rez. Now I just want to give away 3 of my latest works. Lately I got 2 great collaborations, one is the “Obama facing the colors” done with my young friend from Germany – Magomed Dovjenko and the second is about “Marché de Noël” done with my old good friend Radu Popescu. But I’ve said I got 3 prints to give away, so yeah you probably already guess, is about “Khs“.

When you work just for fun or you have some rejected works that you feel they are top, your work remain just on your computer then you got a bad feeling that something is unfinished, something is missing. So I print them and they came up to live, and you got a nice feeling. So I thought I should expand this great feeling in a very easy way. To give them free for all who wants and expand the happiness that this pieces will never die on the internet or on my computer. I think this should be a good way for every designer who feels like this.

Now what you need to do is to let me a message here (comment) with your email address or email me at stefan.lucut@gmail.com with the subject “Free Prints” and also specify witch one you want ( all files got a number on it, so it will be easier to nominate; you can see it bellow ) and I’ll get back to you with the link for downloading the PDF file; after that is up to you to choose a good print shop and enjoy them. So if you want the No1 piece let a comment here witch need to sound like this: “No1 / and your email”.

Is important to say that you can have them all and also is important to say that I will give away prints until 15 of January 2010. And if you could also spread the word that would me more than awesome.
It will be really nice if you could send me some photos to post them here. Take care of you and I am waiting your messages.

Size: 50X70 cm

Size: 100X141.4 cm

Size: 100X141.4 cm

Size: 100X141.4 cm

Size: 50X70 cm

Update: I’ll get back soon with available sizes.
Update2: Sizes updated and apparently no one want’s Obama…wonder why?
Update3: until now 24:12:2009 / 14:34 PM I’ve honored over 70 requests. Hope I did everything well if not please let me know. No4 is leading right now with over 30 requests.
Thank you.

Marché de Noël

Stefan Lucut — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:23:34 +0000

Me & Popescu Radu have been working on something we like to call bonding. When this happened was some weeks ago and what came out was the poster for Marché de Noël event.
It’s been a pleasure working aside such a character like Radu and things always turn out lovely in the end . This is just one step , next time we’ll probably do it a million times better.

We wish you small sugary toy airplanes , hot cinnamon tea , unfound treasure cases , keys lots of keys , broad strange jewelry , Christmas flavored perfume and many trains with sweets for you and your misses.

Merry Christmas!

Vienna Design Week – Schaulabor

Stefan Lucut — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:32:15 +0000

Yeahhhh…Vienna was absolutely awesome, and I am not talking about the city now. The Schaulabor experiment was totally madness and we so enjoy it. I think is my first time when I worked together with another graphic designer – Ovidiu Hrin. This was an experiment and it turn out really well, and we both agree that we should generate more project together in the near future.
Also there at Schaulabor some of my experimental work that I never been able to push them into commercial came to life. I already feel very inspiring about some of the work we did and you will probably seen them mixed in the future projects. Thanks ICRV, Ovidiu & Erwin Bauer for inviting me there.

You should now check the photos (by Eugen Neacsu) or the Stop frame animation made by Erwin and also the result.

Interview – opinion about redesign in Hungary

Stefan Lucut — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:10:22 +0000

The Society of Hungarian graphic designers and typographers – matt.org.hu – is running an international graphic design competition. The title is “Annoying? Redesign it!” Everything imaginable found in Hungary can be redesigned: well-known logos, signage systems, passports, money, identity cards, magazines, shop graphics, street signs, tax forms etc.

This short video is featured on the competition’s website where internationally acclaimed designers tell their opinion about redesign in Hungary.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Created by Bence Csernák – bencium.hu