REAL-LIFE MAD MEN
Nancy Sharon Collins discovered a tantalizing piece of graphic design history in a ‘60s-era slide show. Accompanied by music and a voiceover, the images in this vintage dog-and-pony exercise promoted work done by members of a southern Louisiana precursor organization to the AIGA. “These guys, some of whom are in their 80s and 90s, tell the total Mad Men story,” says Collins, director of special projects at AIGA New Orleans. “Two of them used to get together for three-martini lunches.” Even more captivating than those midday cocktails is the work these gentlemen helped create.

There’s an appealingly earnest quality to the identities, food packages, annual reports and posters in the slide show—not to mention the period custom typography. And Collins has spent the past two years making sure none of these gems—or the stories and people behind them—are lost. She’s working with AIGA New Orleans and several other institutions on the History of Graphic Design in South Louisiana. This ambitious three-part project includes an in-progress documentary film, an online oral history archive and a living database that allows anyone to add design work from the locale and era. www.aiganeworleans.org/initiatives/history

OBSCURED VIEW
If you’ve received a bank statement in the mail lately, the envelope was probably lined with a data protection pattern to hide the stuff inside from would-be snoops. It’s the kind of thing most people don’t give a second glance, but architect Jürgen Mayer H. collects these obscure pieces of graphic design. And you can see how they influence his work at Patterns of Speculation: J. Mayer H., an exhibit that runs through July 7 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The show combines video documentation of architecture with an immersive sound and visual environment that essentially drops you inside a data protection pattern. www.sfmoma.org

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE
It’s the ultimate (and axiomatic) reference: the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Your grandma probably finds it just as trustworthy as you do. But this iconic mark has actually evolved eight times over the years, with the most recent update completed for its 100th anniversary this year. “I wanted the seal to look as though it had always been there,” says Louise Fili, president of Louise Fili Ltd, “classic but not retro, and in a style that exudes reassurance and trust.” She gave the new seal timeless appeal by combining its traditional star and oval with a modern type aesthetic employing Neutraface. Look for the new endorsement on packages in retail aisles near you.

LOVE ME FOR MY MIND
Ziba’s clients kept paying the firm the same compliment: We like how you think. So this Portland design company replaced its holiday greeting with a gift of content. Their strategy recently took the form of two tantalizing cardboard packages—one mailed in December, the second in February—that were blind embossed with the question, “How will you be?” Ripping the packages open revealed answers in the form of three small brochures, each outlining a different trend for 2009. Rather than boring recipients with MBA-speak, each accordion-fold piece feels like a miniature magazine, drawing the reader in with simple touchstone words to describe the trend. The first batch covers ugly, old and happy while the second tackles me, we and human. Inside is the big-picture view, with happy defined as moving from “feeling good in 2008” to “doing good in 2009.” An intriguing mix of text and images fleshes out each concept, leaving the impression that Ziba is both smart and sexy. http://trends.ziba.com

SEX, DRUGS & ROCK POSTERS
From March 21 through July 19, the Denver Art Museum will turn itself into a graphic design time machine, exhibiting posters that might be more at home illuminated by black lights and lava lamps. The Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters from the San Francisco Bay Area, 1965–1971 brings together more than 250 posters from the free-love era. With wild colors, flowing type and trippy illustrations, these posters can take you on a hallucinatory journey without any illegal substances. And if you’re in a more professional mode, you can see how the era’s designers promoted everything from Grateful Dead concerts to poetry readings featuring the likes of Allen Ginsberg. www.denverartmuseum.org

MMMM, BEER
Let’s raise a glass and toast the first-ever Flash on Tap conference. Much like a black and tan, it layers one good thing atop another: an impressive slate of design and development speakers over a craft beer festival. This genius idea came from a Boston Flash users group whose members voiced frustration with the lack of networking opportunities at other conferences. An avid brewer among their ranks responded with the idea for a design/beer festival, and now you’ll be able to improve your professional skills with social lubricant in hand. Study up on your hops and ActionScript May 28–30 in Boston. www.flashontap.com

TRAVELING LOUNGE ACT
While you can rack up credit card charges at the RocPopShop, the real point of this elaborate mobile store is to give you a taste of the Jay-Z experience. “The concept was not to make a full-fl edged store,” says David Ashen, principal of D-ASH, a New York-based architecture firm. “We thought the space should look more like a lounge.” In other words, the kind of space where the superstar rapper might actually hang out. So the design team combined clothes from Jay-Z’s Rocawear line with luxe mohair couches, a 46-inch flatscreen TV and stereo system, and a custom gaming zone. And they managed to fit all these upscale trappings into an expandable trailer that makes appearances at concerts and fashion events around the country. At one venue, Jay-Z even gave the space the ultimate endorsement by kicking it there with his friends. www.davidashendesign.com

SITE VISIT
Surely there’s no better place to immerse yourself in an architect’s design approach than inside one of his greatest creations. Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward lets you explore the master’s ideas about space—he believed form and function are one—from within the spiraling shapes of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. You’ll be able to view more than 200 original drawings along with models, photographs, correspondence, videos and digital renderings—all while surrounded by a building that feels just as modern as when it was finished 50 years ago. The exhibit runs May 15 through Aug. 23. www.guggenheim.org

SHIGEO FUKUDA, THE IMPOSSIBLE MAN: 1932–2009
“All in life,” Samuel Beckett once wrote, “is figure and ground.” No one in recent memory has exemplified this truth better than Shigeo Fukuda, the Japanese master of duality, who died Jan. 11 at the age of 76. Illusionist, sculptor, graphic designer, maker of “impossible objects,” winner of multiple international prizes for poster design, design activist and advocate, teacher, ICOGRADA board member, Japanese national treasure ... the short list of professional accomplishments, no matter how impressive, seems to do him a slight disservice. But even a detailed list would bring one no closer to fully appreciating the man.

Fukuda was indisputably a character of his own design. He was a man whose reputation as a visual artist was equaled by his reputation as a performing artist. For three days last June, when he served on the jury of the first Chicago International Poster Biennial, I was able to observe something of the man who many have referred to as a “prankster.”

Fukuda arrived in Chicago on a Thursday afternoon, at the end of a long flight from Tokyo. He checked into his hotel and walked the length of the Magnificent Mile, both ways. Upon returning to his room, he attempted to take a nap but was awakened by the phone—his translator wanted to know if he would like to come downstairs to join his fellow jurors for a get-to-know-you cocktail. Five minutes later he walked into the bar wearing a huge smile and the Cubs T-shirt he had purchased during his walk. Everyone in the room embraced him.

For the remainder of his stay he was never far from the center of attention. We saw Fukuda exhort the jury, sing during a dinner party and demand that we compete in a game of skill to see who would win the gifts he brought. He cried tears of happiness in public, put on a dress and danced with my wife, and signed hundreds of autographs. He understood each moment, as well as the limits and possibilities of each. He was quiet and deferential to his colleagues during the judging process but made his opinions plain when necessary. He could have played the enigmatic master but chose instead to be an honest mentor to even the most seasoned and respected designers in the room.

Fukuda was cultivated and childish, wise and wide-eyed, mysterious and completely accessible. The beauty of who he was arose from his ability to express all these attributes at once, in the interlocking patterns of his personality. He seemed to defy physical reality. So it seems appropriate that while we are saddened by his death, we also realize that the light of his genius, left to us in his work and teachings, is more than bright enough to counter the darkness. Lance Rutter

LEADING BY EXAMPLE
With so many people preaching at us to be green, it’s nice to see an all-star cast of designers fan out into the world to inspire others with actions instead of words. The Nature Conservancy is teaming up with prominent designers to transform natural, sustainable materials into beautiful objects. Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi turned Alaskan salmon skin, typically a waste product, into a gorgeous dress. And industrial designer Yves Béhar made his way to Costa Rica to work with a women’s chocolate cooperative, where he developed packaging and a grating tool for raw cocoa. These projects and innovations from other top talents will appear in for a Living World—a traveling exhibit that opens at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York on May 14. The show’s jewelry, handbags and other objects challenge us to think about where the stuff in our daily lives really comes from ... but instead of laying down a guilt trip, it accomplishes its lofty goal with insights into how consumption might actually support the environment. www.cooperhewitt.org

HOT STUFF
It’s hard not to love someone who named his last book Hand Job. Now Mike Perry is turning up the temperature with Iron Me On. These “30 sheets of awesome fabric transfers” let you appoint Perry official illustrator of your wardrobe. Cut out, say, an igloo with legs and slouchy socks for a wacky T-shirt statement. Or fashion not-so-subliminal messages from hand drawn letters resembling records. If you’re a non-conformist, you might even create your own abstract shapes from the full-page patterns. Sounds like more fun than should be legal for $12.95. www.chroniclebooks.com