Category article | Shaire Productions(DEV)

Featured: My Timeline/Lifestream on Bebo Homepage

My Timeline/Lifestream on Bebo Homepage
Originally uploaded by shaire productions

I’m super duper excited about this! My photos and illustrations are featured on the Bebo.com Homepage (US/CA only) with their new Lifestream/ Photo Timeline launch. It’s a cool feature where your photo albums are placed in a visual timeline–very interactive and clickable piece.

My feature will be up for a week. You’ll have to refresh (F5) the page about 10 times, but I’m happy it’s there! My Bebo Profile

A screenshot of my page is included in an article by Kara Swisher (covering tech issues for The Wall Street Journal and Boomtown) about the new innovations between AOL and Bebo here. It’s also featured in Venture Beat, focusing on the lifestream service.

Shephard Fairey and Copyright Lawsuit

in art / article / fine arts / street art February 16, 2009

The MotionGrapher website posed an interesting poll about Shephard Fairey’s infamous Obama poster and Milton Glaser’s critical review. Another critique of Fairey’s work is on artist Mark Vallen’s blog. Earlier, the New York Times published an article, indicating that Fairey’s suing the Associated Press to combat copyright infringement. “The suit asks the judge to declare that Mr. Fairey’s work is protected under fair-use exceptions to copyright law, which allow limited use of copyrighted materials for purposes like criticism or comment.”

I think it depends upon the intention of the artist, whether or not the work is a commentary (falling under fine arts arena) or promotion/advertisement (commercial arts). Public figures are subject to scrutiny and critique–political cartoons and satire are evidence of this–but money always complicates matters. Andy Warhol displayed familiar faces and icons in his work–it was a social commentary on popular culture, but if you look at his commercial work, it was original. With Fairey’s work, he started out in graffiti/street art. Much like the tattoo realm, street arts sometimes take artwork from their original context and places it into a different medium, with or without the original artist’s consent. It’s the nature of the beast and hard to control. From one point of view, it is plagiarism, but in another view, it’s imitation and sometimes viewed as flattery. For fine arts, there shouldn’t be a limitation on creation/expression as it’s personal and an expression of one’s self, but with commercial arts, there should be greater sensitivity to copyrights.

Blogging Adventures

in article / commentary / illustration / shaire productions / shaireproductions / sherrie thai / sketching May 18, 2008

Hey hey. Thanks for stopping by. This is my very first blog (aka. Public CyberDiary). Let me start off by telling you a bit of myself. My name’s Sherrie Thai. I’m the art director of my venture, Shaire Productions, where I produce graphic design and illustration for clients. I also hold down a full-time job as a designer, but in true freelance mentality, I never believed in putting all your eggs in one basket, so I still keep side projects going (it could also be the workaholic in me too). My background is in the fine arts (drawings, glass etchings, lettering, photography and book arts)–self-taught, but have always kept it separate from the commercial design, and it eventually fell on the back-burner. For many years, I’ve only focused on the commercial aspect of design–mainly for survival–but now, my outlook has become more introspective. The fine arts mentality of “do what you will” has been peeking through more steadily and has fueled me to straddle both commercialism and fine arts expressionism. I’ve been searching for alternative creative outlets; this blog is one method.

Another is my website. I’ve been so busy for the last 10 years working away on client projects that I’ve never had a chance to work on my personal site. Right now, I only have a free site through Coroflot. . . but with more time available, I’ve decided to concentrate specifically on my website, and although it leaves less time for other things, it’s been very fulfilling . . . so stay tuned for an interactive book portfolio in the coming months!

There has been encouraging news within the last couple of weeks that I just can’t contain. I was involved with the design of an online eldercare site (AGIS) which has received an Honorary Nomination for a Webby Award this year. Whoohoo! The same day, I received word that one of my photos would be part of a California Tour Guide. I’ve always enjoyed taking photos, but never thought it would be published. Check it out: Schmap California Events

One of the most encouraging news was a mention in a design tutorial and an inclusion of my sketchbooks. Role of Sketching in the Design Process by Sean Hodge is a discussion on the importance of conceptualizing through sketching. I was honored to have discovered my inclusion in the article, as I wholeheartedly agree with the importance of sketching during the design process. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a decline with some designers when it comes to developing ideas on paper. It’s not all about having the best and cleanest drawings as it is about working through and developing your ideas. I have tried going straight to the computer to knock stuff out, but I’d have a creative block and struggle with the work for hours. I started changing my routine and spent some time sketching out ideas and noticed I was able to cut down on the production time. Art is about experimentation and experience; conceptualizing at the start helps to organize thoughts in a more linear fashion. I suppose I may be a purist in upholding the design process.

Anyway, hope to update this blog with something new each week. . .

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