Thanks to Meg Lewis of Studio Sweet Studio for the nice write-up!
Here is what she says:
Helen, Josh, and the rest of the folks at Fuzzco recently renovated (or completely revamped) an old turn of the century space into an inspiring new studio for the team. The result is spectacular. It holds so many special features while retaining its old world charm not unlike so many buildings in Charleston. It’s great to take a peek into one of the best design studios today! Lucky for us it’s easy on the eyes.
Since Im such a huge fan of Fuzzco for their amazing print and interactive work, I’m going to sprinkle this studio tour with images from a few of their projects. I think viewing a space in context with outstanding work really will help those of you unfamiliar with Fuzzco get a great feel for their personality and attitude.
We bought the building about a year ago- it was in pretty bad shape and took a fairly invasive renovation to clean it up. It was built in the early 1900s and was previously an ice cream parlor, laundry mat, hat shop, and church. The space used to have a drop ceiling with a number of little rooms in the back and very few windows. The renovation took about 5 months. We collaborated with some friends to build out the custom network of lights and some of the furniture. We incorporated pieces by Blu Dot and Eames in the space as well.
Art Director / Interactive Designer / Graphic Designer
You will have the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the work that we do. You will be a part of the ideation of every project from the beginning. You will participate in projects including naming, brand creation, digital, mobile, print pieces, internal projects, and more.
We have great clients that range from artisan chocolatiers, to microbreweries, to restaurants, to craftsmen, to pharmaceutical companies, to literary publishers, to Fortune 500 companies.
We offer competitive salaries, a plethora of benefits and a great work environment. If you are interested please send us samples of your work. If we like what we see, we’ll be in touch.
Fuzzco was recently given the opportunity to participate in 50 and 50: The State Mottos Project, where one designer is selected to represent each state. We got our beloved South Carolina.
The project was curated by Dan Cassaro of Young Jerks fame. We were honored to be in the company of some of the best designers in the US of A including: Always With Honor, Jessica Hische, Friends of Type, and Will Bryant, to name a few of the many.
The motto that we ran with (yes we have 2) was “While I Breathe, I Hope” the other being “Ready in Soul and Resource.”
“While I Breathe, I Hope.” Take a second and consider that, fellow South Carolinians.
This represented an opportunity to make a statement about the irony and truth in our state’s motto.
“While I Breathe” holds the irony that parts of our state continue to have “failing or near failing grades [by the ALA] in particle (soot) and ozone (smog) air pollution.” (source)
“I Hope” represents the fact that 93% of South Carolinians are Christian, 1% are of a non-Christian faith and 6% are non-religious (source). This ranks SC as one of the most religious and least religiously diverse states in the country.
The poster is reversible, so please flip and enjoy.
A while back I noticed something at a pan-Asian restaurant that made me lose my noodles. This something was a something I had seen a million times but never really seeeeen. A chopstick logo so subtly sinister, that I had to investigate. And I have to say–it’s got miso scared!
Perhaps you have seen it-
that cheery little girl with geisha cheeks and lucky charm smile. At a glance, the design denotes nothing more than standard Asian import. However, turn it upside down and her pretty little face turns into a SKULL! Look at it! The girl’s flat, round face, minus features, forms the cranium. Her black bangs become eye-sockets and the tiara makes the upper jaw and nasal cavity. The inverted logo reveals a wonton semordnilap (a word or phrase that spells a different word or phrase backwards.)
In my dark, conspiracy-mongering opinion, it’s just too skull-like to be coincidental. Either my imagination has gotten the best of me or the designer intentionally snuck this subliminal momento mori on the tables of Chopstick Houses and Oriental Gardens around the world. This begs another question: If it was purposeful, is there an evil enterprise at the beginning and end of this story?
My brief and google-y investigation into the design of skull-geisha yielded nothing. I did, however, locate the chopstick company, the Rhee Bros., “Assi Brand.”
According to their website:
“The word ASSI comes from the traditional Korean title for a young married woman. ASSI brand symbolizes the Korean girl’s wedding costume, and was first introduced in 1976 and has grown into as our flagship brand. ASSI has been recognized as the standard for Korean food products.”
Notice, there is no mention of a skull. Are they oblivious or are they hiding something? I submitted an inquiry for more information on the logo’s seedy symbolism, but so far, all I’ve received is a link to order more chopsticks and fortune cookies.
Via the Huffington Post – “Researchers will attempt resurrecting the mammoth, a species believed extinct for over 5,000 years, after finally obtaining tissue last summer from a carcass preserved in a Russian mammoth research laboratory.”
The plan is to have an elephant carry an embryo that has a mammoth’s genes and then to cross our fingers.
I learned that an elephant has a 600 day gestation period. That’s like Neptune’s 60,190 day year.
This seems like a possible way to protect endangered species. Save their DNA and find a viable host. The problem is then – how do we give a revived species an adequate habitat?
In 2005 there was talk about “rewilding megafauna” in North America. That means the return of the North American Lion, the North American Camel, the North American Cheetah and maybe even the “aptly named” Terror Bird. The idea behind rewilding (that has maybe met too many opponents) is to protect animals that are threatened elsewhere, to restore native ecosystems, and to consequently boost eco-tourism.
Environments and habitats are scarce. Humans need more and more land to meet our agricultural needs. There were only 800 million living people in 1750. There are shy of 7 billion today. The longer we live and the more we are – the more food we need. Not to mention roughly 10% of the world is starving and those who aren’t have appetites that are growing.
For the world to sustain and support all this existing and new life, we need to become hyper-aware of our consumption. If not for our own sake, do it for the woolly mammoth.
Congratulations John Herd, winner of our excruciatingly bad contest, How Low Can Your Logo. His logo depicting a tragically festive penis hat atop some rather depressing type has beat out the almost 1,500 other attempts at awful.
John will soon receive the grand prize which includes:
One (1) Laserdisc player. One (1) copy of Robot Monster(1953), considered to be one of the worst of the worst films ever. Two (2) pairs of 3D glasses. One (1) bag of popcorn.
1 Year Subscription to Print Magazine.
1 Year Subscription to How Magazine.
1 copy of each Graphic Design Referenced, Women of Design, Flaunt and The Word It Book from UnderConsideration.
50 18″x24″ 2-color prints from The Half and Half.
100 letterpressed business cards from Copper Dog Press.
Sincerest of thank yous to all of our sponsors and judges. We couldn’t have done it without you.
We are formally announcing How Low Can Your Logo? – an anti-design competition for all of humanity. The point of the competition is to make the worst logo ever. This is about breaking rules. Sure, designers will probably be more interested in playing, but will they have the upper hand? It’ll be interesting to see what this experiment yields.
I love when packaging is useful and thinks beyond the contents. Tuned Pale Ale is a great concept. It’s as easy as drinking your beer to the line indicated and blowing a well-tuned note. Apparently the bottle has ridges on the back for percussion and the box contains a tongue drum. They need to have an open competition that challenges groups of people to use only their packaging to recreate (or just create) monolithic pieces of music.
Maybe a set of crystal glasses with a similar measure would help people create one man orchestras…
We’re really excited to try Ken Vedrinski’s new establishment, Enoteca, on Percy Street. It will be a great place to head after a long day at the office. via Charleston City Paper
