* crossed eye *

Vladimir Mayakovsky
Pro Eto. Ei i Mne
About This. To Her and to Me, 1923
Book design:
Aleksandr Rodchenko



Have you ever noticed, the only time you find yourself crossed eye is when you are reading because you have to? Is it just me? When I am reading for pleasure I never think, “my eyes are going to pop out of my head any minute now”.

Today, I sent my parents to my sisters house for the afternoon. I am sitting at the kitchen table with my laptop and a stack of books. When I was in High School, I had to sit here and do my homework every night. Many nights with my mother using ‘old math’ to teach me ‘new math’. No wonder I never picked up on Algebra. I am having bad flashbacks of those vocab. flash cards my english teacher made me make. Just me, no one else. Even with the new red kitchen and although I am better equipped with a laptop, I feel the same way sitting here - some 14 years ago.

Of course, I am not memorizing vocab words at the moment even though, it would do me some good. I am sitting here trying to figure out the difference between Formalism, Structuralism and Constructivism. One seems to flow into the other, but all three seem similar. The same people involved in Russian Formalism are the same as the people involved in Russian Constructivism. Even with my book obsession, I am finding it hard to distinguish one from the other. It is even impossible for me to find anything online that helps me distinguish the three. Is there a lack of interest in these important movements? Is this telling me it is a worthless cause to write about such differences. I think not! It is telling me there is a true need to see why these movements played such a large role in graphic design and the society they were portraying. This may be my call for help. HELP! Anyone?

So far, I am enjoying the works of Aleksandr Rodchenko. Before many he saw the usefulness of photographs in his layouts. He knew how to grab ones eye with the use of unusual Photographic perspectives. The best part was most of his work was calling for social change.

ahhhh, just some random uncomplete thoughts for the day!