“Learn C++” propaganda poster my cousin Synphen saw while she was working in rural China.

I’m off to the land of my yellow peoples for two weeks - first to Japan, and then to my homeland Taiwan. Now that China is its own economic powerhouse, I don’t quite understand why it still demands to have tiny Taiwan for itself. For the plastic widget business? For the stubborn victory of it all? Or maybe for its C++ proficient nerds…

I’m a sucker for tiny books and I just finished making my own about New York City’s first skycraper and the world’s first curtain wall building. Ever since I learned about it in New York: A Documentary Film, I’ve been wanting to do a project on it. At 11 stories tall, the Tower Building was so ludicrous to people that they nicknamed it the Idiotic Building and waited for it to fall. The Idiotic Building: Who Is The Idiot Now? is 53 pages, less than 3 inches tall, and also includes a section on the tallest buildings in the world through history. See more images here and a link to the full book online!

For a place where real estate is king, New York City sure knows how to take the paradise out of islands… Riker’s Island is home to one of the largest prisons. Randall’s Island is home to a mental hospital and sewer treatment plant. Hart Island is home to the City’s cemetary for unclaimed bodies. And Roosevelt Island is home to depressing architecture and the horror film Dark Water. Welcome to our Bahamas!

Only one island stands apart from this sad crowd. Even though its history is wrapped up in war, Governors Island is a bucolic wonderland. Green with big trees and streets named Comfort, it’s wholesome and full of exciting potential now that the City has chosen a future public park design for the former military base. Last summer I visited the Island for the first time during the public art event Figment. They’re having it again June 27-29 and the open call for art is out until June 1. Bring your comfort art or just bring your good self to NYC’s closest thing to island fun. Shabba!

Went to the inspirational Cai Guo-Qiang exhibit at the Guggenheim and was equally impressed by the thematic outdoor scaffolding to match Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic curved concrete building, currently undergoing renovations. Classy touch.

I posted the visual introduction to my thesis on improving neighborhood communication because it’s been on my mind and I’m a dork. In a built environment where citizens’ flyers are illegal yet businesses can shout about their products on an increasing number of public surfaces, how can public space be better designed so that it’s not necessarily allocated to the highest bidder but instead, reflects and facilitates the needs of communities? Until we have our own neighborhood wall space, we can use these walls thanks to a competition by Diesel.

Jen, the Project Manager for Global Studio, sent me this photo of a “wall newspaper” in Liberia. Neat! A chalkboard becomes a cheap alternative to a printed local newspaper and is a possible model for how we can help the non-profit group Diepsloot Community News spread the local word in their Johannesburg township. It’s a clever hub for information and could also become a place for communication between local government and residents, as well as communication between residents and each other. This reminds me of when I documented flyers in three NYC neighborhoods…

Flyers are spread throughout the interstitial spaces of the city and streetposts have become unofficial billboards for local communication. What if every neighborhood had their own chalkboard? Could it be a flexible (and eco-friendly!) hub for residents to share local information? Or would it be a ripe hotbed of x-rated doodles…

I like what John Thackara says in his book In the Bubble: “Design does not take place in a situation; it is the situation. As planners, designers, and citizens, we need to rethink our spaces, places, and communities in order to better exploit the dynamic potential of networked collaborations.” Good stuff.

As a graphic designer in an urban planning world, I’ve happily spruced up the aesthetics of many a community group. There’s a 90% chance I’m going back to Johannesburg in July to facilitate Global Studio and help the nonprofit organization Diepsloot Community News start up a local news system. In the meanwhile, I’ve been helping them from afar with a logo and letterhead. A shouting “D” makes for a bold mark that’s easy to recreate on the fly, and the font Gotham is a nod to Obama’s current campaign font. We are the change we want to see, rah!

Good 50×70 has come up with a great idea by inviting designers to submit posters for good causes. My Red Antenna cohort James and I collaborated on this poster above for the African Medical and Research Foundation. Typography is the sole element used to express the scarcity of safe water in Africa. Made up of startling facts and a call-to-action, the poster didn’t make the final cut, but it humbly lives on here. Click here to see a larger image and feel a new appreciation for that glass of water you’re drinking…

In Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Near the Nevada Test Site.