George Carlin on Diminished Choices

Calendar page © Dana Potter (2013)

Above Layout for a calendar page (its theme determined by a quote) by Dana Potter, graphic design student, Department of Art, University of Northern Iowa.

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George Carlin, in an interview in David Jay Brown, Conversations on the Edge of the Apocalypse (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p. 191—

We're given many choices to distract us from the fact that our real choices have been diminished in number. Two political parties. Maybe three or four large banks now. Credit card companies, just a couple, a handful. Newspapers, reduced. Ownership of media, reduced, down to five or six companies now. Big stock brokerage firms, reduced in number. In all of these important things we have less choice. Then we're distracted with these frivolous choices: 21 flavors of ice cream, 35 flavors of popcorn. You see specialty shops with 35 flavors of popcorn, like chocolate walnut popcorn. These are absurd distractions from what we are doing to ourselves…

Blind Leading the Blonde

Calendar page (2013) ©Rob Bauer

Above Layout for a calendar page (its theme determined by a quote) by Rob Bauer, graphic design student in the Department of Art, University of Northern Iowa.

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Dr. Peter H. Gott, "Health Q&A" in The Fresno Bee (Fresno CA), 4 May 2000, p. E-6—

After my father's bypass surgery, he felt so dreadful that he insisted his doctor stop most of his medication. Thereafter, he felt fine. While such a drastic action is not everyone's cup of tea, you would have to know my father to appreciate how relentlessly stubborn he was. He claimed to have "accurately misunderstood" his doctors, didn't want them to put [all] his "aches in one basket," was fearful of "dying for nothing," and wished as an adult to be "the blind leading the blonde."

Robert Craft in Stravinsky: Chronicle of a Friendship (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1994), p. 344—

[The poet W.H. Auden] says that in the train club car on his way to lecture at Yale, some students sent him a note: "We can't stand it a minute longer: are you Carl Sandburg?" He wrote back: "You have spoiled mother's day."

Dan Gable Graphics | UNI Poster Exhibit

Above are installation views of about eighty posters currently on display at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum at 303 Jefferson Street in Waterloo IA. As explained in earlier posts, these posters were produced by undergraduate students in a beginning course in graphic design, in the Department of Art at the University Northern Iowa. They commemorate the achievements (as both a wrestler and a coach) of Iowa-born Olympic wrestler Dan Gable, shown here in a recent photo (by museum director Kyle Klingman), when he stopped by to see the posters.

Graphic Design | Dan Gable Poster Project

Poster by Austin Von Ehwegen

Above In the fall semester of 2013, graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa designed more than one hundred posters to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. These were produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), and are currently on exhibit at the museum. Shown here is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Austin Von Ehwegen (©2013). Other student posters can be viewed online here and here.

Dan Gable Poster | Chelsea Reicks

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Chelsea Reicks (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Mackenzie Kane

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Mackenzie Kane (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Riley Place

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Riley Place (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Kelsey Frerichs

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Kelsey Frerichs (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Duke Dohrn

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Duke Dohrn (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Maicol Josephs

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Maicol Josephs (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Josie Wolter

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Josie Wolter (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Abby Bachman

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Abby Bachman (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Emily Morrison

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Emily Morrison (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Alexander Rogers

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Alexander Rogers (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Kate Green

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Kate Green (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Robert Bauer

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Robert Bauer (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Paul Ochoa

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Paul Ochoa (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Jacob Earp

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Jacob Earp (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Kaitlyn Cuvelier

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Kaitlyn Cuvelier (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Jordyn Victoria

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Jordyn Victoria (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Courtney Tovar

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Courtney Tovar (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Travis Tjelmeland

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Travis Tjelmeland (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Laura Thomsen

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Laura Thomsen (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Kathryn Ryherd

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Kathryn Ryherd (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Morgan Sanders

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Morgan Sanders (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Trey Bush

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Trey Bush (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Rhiannon Rasmussen

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Rhiannon Rasmussen (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Lisa Remetch

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Lisa Remetch (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Andy Snitker

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Andy Snitker (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Dana Potter

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of five posters designed by undergraduate designer Dana Potter (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Bethany Chatterton

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Bethany Chatterton (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Aaron Von Fossen

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of four posters designed by undergraduate designer Aaron Von Fossen (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Rachael Bair

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Rachael Bair (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Austin Montelius

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Austin Montelius (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Mackenzie Pape

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Mackenzie Pape (©2013).

Dan Gable Poster | Austin Von Ehwegen

Above One of more than one hundred posters designed by graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, to promote the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo IA. Produced as a community project in a beginning graphic design course (as taught by Roy R. Behrens), this is one of three posters designed by undergraduate designer Austin Von Ehwegen (©2013).

Game Parody | Kaitlyn Cuvelier

Game Parody © Kaitlyn Cuvelier (2012)

Above Design for a game parody by Kaitlyn Cuvelier, graphic design student, University of Northern Iowa (2013).
...

From Max Eastman, Great Companions (New York: Farrar Straus and Cudahy, 1942)—

[In his later life, American philosopher John Dewey] moved out on Long Island, and preserved his contact with reality by raising eggs and vegetables and selling them to the neighbors… [He received an urgent order one day] from a wealthy neighbor for a dozen eggs, and the children being in school, he himself took the eggs over in a basket. Going by force of habit to the front door, he was told brusquely that deliveries were made in the rear. He trotted obediently around to the back door, feeling both amused and happy. Some time later, he was giving a talk to the women's club of the neighborhood, and his wealthy customer, when he got up to speak, exclaimed in a loud whisper: "Why, he looks exactly like our egg man!" 

Digital Montage | Abaton Magazine

Above A digital montage by Roy R. Behrens (2011), titled Flight of Ideas (aka Attention to Detail) has been published in ABATON: Des Moines University Literary Review. Issue Seven (Fall 2013), p. 14.

Roy R. Behrens, Flight of Ideas (2011) ©, digital montage

Amazing Game Parodies

Copyright © Andy Snitker

Copyright © Aaron Van Fossen

Copyright © Mackenzie Pape

Copyright © Rhiannon Rasmussen

Copyright © Rob Bauer

Copyright © Travis Tjelmeland

A few days ago, in two sections of a course called Graphic Design I, at the University of Northern Iowa, we had an initial critique of the students' solutions to a game parody problem. The problem was essentially this: Using the rules and game components of the code-breaking game called MasterMind, design a new version of the game that has some kind of narrative theme.

Shown above are a few of the finest designs, solutions that I find amazing. Remember that this is only the second problem in the course, and in some cases the students have had very limited computer experience and even less in graphic design. 

About thirty students submitted their work, and a number of others were also very strong, but needed some further adjustment. Everyone now has an additional week to make those adjustments and/or to go back to the drawing board.

Student achievements at this level make teaching well-worth all its challenging days.

Guy Davenport | Lo Splendore

Short story illustrations (1981) © Roy R. Behrens

Above Roy R. Behrens, collage illustrations for Guy Davenport short story, "Lo Splendore della Luce a Bologna' (1981).

...

Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon—

If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of the movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.

...

William Strunk, Jr., The Elements of Style—

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

...

Osbert Sitwell—

Freud Madox Fraud.

...

Guy Davenport—

Max Ernst Ernst Mach.

Luther College Writers Festival 2013

Intersections Between Word and Image

University of Northern Iowa graphic design professor Roy R. Behrens will be among the presenters at the 2013 Luther College Writers Festival in Decorah IA on Saturday, September 28. He will appear on a panel on New Writing, New Media (3:00-5:00 pm), and will talk about "Intersections Between Word and Image." Beginning in the 1970s, as a designer/illustrator, he collaborated with various American writers, including Jerzy Kosinski, Guy Davenport, Marvin Bell and others.

Block of Stamps | Amber Wessels

Synergistic Block of Stamps (2013) © Amber Wessels

Above Synergistic block of stamps on the theme of Art Deco Miami, by graphic design student Amber Wessels (2013) at the University of Northern Iowa.

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Rabbi David Aaron in Endless Light: The Ancient Path of the Kabbalah. Berkeley Trade, 1998—

One man who came to me for advice because he was contemplating a divorce told me mournfully why he thought the marriage went wrong. He said, "I know what my problem was. I was looking for a Ferrari and I got a Ford." I said, "I think the problem was you were looking for a car."

Promotional Poster | Elizabeth Philipp

Promotional poster (2013) © Elizabeth Philipp

Above Proposed promotional poster for the College of Humanities, Arts and Sciences (CHAS) at the University of Northern Iowa, by graphic design student Elizabeth Philipp (2013).

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Eudora Welty in (her autobiography) One Writer's Beginnings. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1984, p. 10—

At around age six, perhaps, I was standing by myself in our front yard waiting for supper, just at that hour in a late summer day when the sun is already below the horizon and the risen full moon in the visible sky stops being chalky and begins to take on light. There comes the moment, and I saw it then, when the moon goes from flat to round. For the first time it met my eyes as a globe. The word "moon" came into my mouth as though fed to me out of a silver spoon. Held in my mouth the moon became a word. It had the roundness of a Concord grape Grandpa took off his vine and gave me to suck out of its skin and swallow whole, in Ohio.