"TA-NEHISI COATES TO WRITE BLACK PANTHER COMIC FOR MARVEL" (AND WE'RE NOW EVEN BIGGER FANS OF MARVEL!!!)

And Ta-Nehisi Coates (see his recent Atlantic monthly magazine article on 'The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration') article should be tapped to write the screenplay for the film debut of this superhero as well! We look forward to peeping out the comic, Black Panther's film costume design, movie posters, etc! 

From the New York Times online:

Ta-Nehisi Coates can be identified in many ways: as a national correspondent for The Atlantic, as an author and, as of this month, as a nominee for the National Book Award’s nonfiction prize. But Mr. Coates also has a not-so-secret identity, as evidenced by some of his Atlantic blog posts and his Twitter feed: Marvel Comics super fan.

So it seems only natural that Marvel has asked Mr. Coates to take on a new Black Panther series set to begin next spring... (read on)

('CAUSE ACCORDING TO P-FUNK'S GEORGE CLINTON, NI***RS ARE IN OUTER SPACE TOO (PART 2))!!! "INSIDE THE RISE AND FALL OF NASA’S BELOVED WORM LOGO"

We continue offering more intergallactic insights regarding NASA and design with the story behind NASA's "worm" logo  (see our ''CAUSE ACCORDING TO P-FUNK'S GEORGE CLINTON, NI***RS ARE IN OUTER SPACE TOO" PART 1... post) and what, if anything, George Clinton and his funked up P-Funk fantasies had to do with this ish. 

ONE OF GRAPHIC DESIGN’S most famous love triangle begins, as most graphic design stories do, with a request for proposal. It was 1974, and Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn, founders of New York design studio Danne & Blackburn, had just responded to such a request, one asking the firm to re-brand NASA. It came under the Federal Graphics Improvement Program, an ambitious effort to revamp the visual identity of government agencies, most of which were, in a word, ugly.

Danne & Blackburn’s proposal hinged on a futuristic wordmark that came to be known as “the worm"...

(read on)

And what does George Clinton and P-Funk have to do with all of this? He/they have absolutely nothing and also everything to do with NASA, its "funky" "worm" logo, and space exploration! There's no Connection save a Mothership one if, like us, you grew up Black w/a telescope at your disposal, a love for sci-fi, a love for graphic design and art, watched the space shuttle take off and land live on TV, had a turntable (maybe two) at the ready, and a pair of fly parents with the Funk Mob's music in their record collection! We did, so, whenever we think of anything having to do w/space exploration we get good and ready to rock steady and sweaty while imagining that sweet chariot might actually swing down, stop, let us ride into space, and make that connection with the Mothership. George Clinton calling out that funkafied roll call y'all, adding us to his list of "n***ers in outer space too".

('CAUSE ACCORDING TO P-FUNK'S GEORGE CLINTON, NI***RS ARE IN OUTER SPACE TOO) NASA GRAPHICS STANDARDS MANUAL FREE DOWNLOAD (PART 1)!!!

For anyone out there that grew up loving the NASA logo, looked up into the stars w/your own telescope, couldn't get enough of Star Wars, Star Trek, and anything else sci-fi related (including George Clinton's funked up mission of putting "n***rs in outer space" on P-Funk album covers), this one's for you! It's a FREE DOWNLOAD of the NASA Graphics Standards Manual made recently available by... NASA! This is truly straight up fly! And scroll down to get lifted by connecting w/the 'Mothership' as it lands. Enjoy!

"Swing down sweet cherriot, stop, and let me ride." --P-Funk

The Power of Grace Jones ("Pull up to that bumper baby!")

Style icon. Provocateur. New memoir. NY Times.

THE SUPERFLY! FOUNDRY'S WORK: 'BALTIMORE MIXTAPE PROJECT' LOGOTYPE DESIGN

We designed the logotype for Professor Lester K. Spence's 'Baltimore Mixtape Project' youth Rap, hip-Hop, and Spoken Word album compilation back in 2012. The project centered on the Black youth school to prison pipeline. You can see the design below. We're re-visiting this project now as we're working on another youth related rap, hip-hop, and spoken word album project for an new author's upcoming book--a book soundtrack/score hybrid. it's gonna be dope! 

You can also read Professor Lester K. Spence's thoughts on the purpose of this project under his photo at the bottom of this post. We were honored to be on the team for this project contributing this mark and other creative direction. It was a privilege!

Read Professor Lester K. Spence's thoughts on the purpose of this project here. 

CNN FILMS: 'FRESH DRESSED'

“Fresh dressed like a million bucks...” --Slick Rick 

Peep this flick on CNN on the 3rd!

"HARLEM ON MY MIND: CULTURAL CAPITAL OF BLACK AMERICA” REVISITED

From Steven Heller's WEEKEND HELLER column in PRINT magazine. 

"Last week, Holland Carter in The New York Times wrote a recollection of the famously and harshly criticized Metropolitan Museum of Art 1969 exhibit “Harlem On My Mind: Cultural Capital of Black America.” Curated by Allon Schoener, cultural historian and organizer of exhibitions that focus on topics such as African Americans, Italian Americans, Jewish Americans and the history of the Lower East Side, it was a courageous yet politically charged, and criticized, attempt to represent the black experience in the citadel of art. Black artists were up-in-arms over the employ of a white curator and whites were offended by the catalog, which contained an essay by a 17-year-old high school student that was “laced with anti-Semitic slurs …”

"GRAPHIC DESIGN IS AN ART BROTHER!" COMEDIAN JB SMOOVE BREAKS IT DOWN ON THE BREAKFAST CLUB RADIO SHOW.

Didn't know that one of our favorite comedians, JB Smoove of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and 'The Real Husbands of Hollywood' fame, was once a graphic designer owning a t-shirt graphic design and printing shop in the 80's before getting on the stand up comedy tip! You can peep JB talking about his experience as a graphic designer on 'The Breakfast Club' and his work on 'Curb' below. Loved JB before and love him even more now!

Peace!

RANDI GLOSS’ WEARABLE ACTIVISM: HOW A T-SHIRT LINE IS STANDING UP FOR BLACK VICTIMS OF POLICE BRUTALITY

Randi Gloss’ wearable activism is a different kind of conversation starter. Read about her T-shirt designs at THE FADER

THE SUPERFLY! FOUNDRY'S WORK: MORE COPIES OF THE 'LOGOLOUNGE' BOOK 3 ARRIVED! WE'RE IN THERE!

More copies of the 'logolounge' book--number 3 in the on-going bestselling series--just arrived in the mail! We’ll be giving these to new corporate identity clients as gifts! If you design logos or need one created for your business or professional organization, the logolounge books are dope corporate identity design info resources.

We received the logolounge love treatment, appearing in book 3, for our logo design for Wyclef Jean's YClef records company. You can see the design below. A forever shout out to the Fugees! "One time!"