Posts tagged with "Work"

Day of Silence

By Ari | May 7, 08 02:23 PM

Check out GLSEN's new Day of Silence Blog, designed by Shirari Industries. This year's DOS fell on April 25th and drew record numbers of participants. Hundreds of thousands of students from more than 7,500 middle and high schools took a pledge of silence to bring attention to the bullying, name-calling, harassment and other violence that silences queer folks every day.

This year's DOS was held in remembrance of Lawrence King, a 15-year old California student who was shot and killed because of his sexuality and gender expression. We had the honor of designing a quick skin for Lawrence's MySpace page, another GLSEN project.

Save the date - the next DOS is on Friday, April 17, 2009. In the meantime, anyone can take action year-round to create safer schools and communities for queer youth. Visit GLSEN for information and ideas.

My Feminist Review: Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men

By Ari | Apr 12, 08 01:13 PM

My review of Lori B. Girshick's Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men is up at Feminist Review. This was a really good one! I'm genderqueer and have read quite a bit on this subject, but I learned a lot. I loved reading the words of the people Lori interviewed for the book, and seeing their photos - I found it really made me care for all of them, identify with them, want to be in unity with them, to change things so we all have a safer, happier world to live in. Any book that can do that is a good book, I think.

The Shirari Update: Recent Work

By Ari | Apr 11, 08 08:00 AM

So we're gearing up for this trip, and churning out a LOT of work before we go. In the past couple of months we've done quite a bit, much of which we've already written about. But here are some projects we haven't blogged about yet:

I worked with GLSEN to design a new look for StudentOrganizing.org and put fresh skins on their Day of Silence and Remembering Lawrence King MySpace sites.
We co-created a brand and launched a placeholder page for the new documentary Lioness, currently making the rounds at festivals. Posters and a full site are on the way... follow this film, it's a good one.
I made posters and other collateral for the freeDimensional / Casa Frela production OFF THE WALL.
Shira designed the DVD for the doc Innocent Until Proven Guilty, soon to be available for purchase at Arts Engine.
I handled the International Women's Day and May Day issues of The Socialist, the magazine of the Socialist Party USA. The May Day issue inaugurated our brand spankin' new redesign.
We designed a new film distribution brochure for Scenarios USA and rebranded (and re-designed and re-authored) their DVD collection. We also handled the collateral for their 2008 REAL DEAL Awards and Gala. (I made their site, too - though that was a few years back!)
I did a launch postcard for The Plant Republic's new site.
Shira's been a pre-screener and has been coordinating the jury process for Pangea Day, a project of TED Conferences.
I designed a guide to US citizenship and naturalization for South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) and a fresh cover for the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), through the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).
I made invitations, posters, programs, and a million other things for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center's Broadway Backwards 3 and Center Dinner 25th Anniversary Celebration.

I'm sure I'm missing a million things, so if we worked on your project and haven't mentioned it, apologies! We really love all of our work, though it can be hard (I got up at 7am and am currently running on empty...), and we've been very lucky in that we can choose to work only on projects we really want to stand behind politically and ethically. It's a good life, this. Thanks to all of our clients and friends who continue to bring these amazing projects to us.

Uncle Samantha

By Ari | Apr 10, 08 03:25 PM

I've been working for New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center for a while now, and a little job I did for them has recently gotten some new life, being put into use by Burgundy Crescent Volunteers in the DC area. Here she is! Uncle Samantha (or Aunt Sam) was meant to be a drag queen but is frequently mis-identified as a hot lesbian. Either way, she seems to be a crowd-pleaser. I originally drew her for the Gay Center's Volunteer Program and she appeared on the cover of the Center's newsletter, Center Happenings. Now the folks at Burgundy Crescent are using her to recruit new volunteers for DC Pride events. You can even get her on a shirt or mug!

Anyway, had to post this - I'm so happy to see Sam getting out there and hopefully bringing in some new recruits for the Gay Agenda. If you're queer and looking for something fun to do, I highly recommend volunteering with a local organization like the Center or BCV. They can always use people with skillz and are, I've found, generally full of really awesome people doing great work for people who really need it.

My Feminist Review: Bipedal, By Pedal!

By Ari | Apr 5, 08 11:47 AM

My review of the great critical mass zine "Bipedal, By Pedal!" is up at Feminist Review. Anyone out there done a critical mass bike ride? I'm embarrassed to say I haven't yet gone on one - I'm afraid of cars when on a bike. But this zine made me want to join up...

Shirari Industries Bought by News Corp for 2.5 Million

By Shira | Apr 1, 08 12:22 PM

We were as surprised as I'm sure you are right now when Rupert Murdoch himself called us this morning to "make a deal." We know that News Corporation is on a mission to take over the world, one media entity at a time, but we're still not quite sure why he wants our little queer, vegan operation. He must be getting pretty close to owning the entire "long tail" and Shirari Industries is just another notch on the empire's belt.

Stay tuned for a dramatically redesigned site, starting with our tagline, which is now "let's be mean!" - it has a certain ring to it, don't you think?

...April Fools!!!

I Never Thought I Would But Yes, I've Launched a MySpace Music Page

By Shira | Mar 30, 08 02:28 PM

shira playing
Originally uploaded by arimoore

There are many reasons that I dislike MySpace -- bad design, obnoxious advertising, the fact that it belongs to Rupert Murdoch -- but, the word on the street is that it's a good way to promote your music, so I've bitten the bullet and put up a page at myspace.com/shiragoldingmusic.

You can only put up six songs, so I tried to choose ones that represent the spectrum of music I like to make. Have a listen and let me know what you think. All of this is part of a plan to release an album, so I'd love feedback and any encouragement.

OFF THE WALL - Opening tonight in NYC

By Ari | Mar 21, 08 02:13 PM

I've had the privilege to work with freeDimensional on an event called OFF THE WALL: Celebrating Arts and Human Rights, opening tonight at Casa Frela Gallery in Harlem. Click here for more info and be sure to check out freeDimensional. They're a growing non-profit that's doing some very important work for artists in need of asylum, all over the world.

Drawing Truth

By Shira | Mar 21, 08 01:18 PM

My article about animation in documentaries is up on MediaRights.org. I got to interview filmmakers Brett Morgan, Judith Helfand, Dan Gold, Emily Hubley and Jeremiah Dickey for the piece - it was a lot of fun.

I really want to get more into animation myself. I've done a few simple pieces in Flash, but After Effects is calling my name...

Vegan Treasures from My Mom

By Ari | Mar 17, 08 06:05 PM

My mom runs an online business selling vintage women's clothing: Vintage Lucy. I wanted to help her make the leap from eBay to her own shop, and I thought I could make her a PayPal shop using Movable Type - but I don't usually do jobs that involve animal exploitation, and Mom's amazing collection happens to contain some wool, leather, and feathers. I did end up making the site, and am now helping her do some outreach.

I have to admit that I'm really glad that I compromised my ideals to work with her on this site! 100% vegan though it may not be, it can help my mom make a living. And it so happens that Mom has become increasingly open to animal rights ideas over the years. She dabbles in vegetarianism and veganism and is constantly educating herself and changing; she cares for and loves many animals, and recently has done a little animal rights activism. She added a new category of items to her site called Vegan Treasures - as she points out, "wearing vintage & pre-worn is recycling, saving precious animals & the Earth." Check it out - there's some very beautiful stuff in there (all of the photos above are from this category): Vintage Lucy Vegan Treasures (No animal products used in these beauties.) Who knows, maybe this is only the tip of the vegan iceberg for my mom...

Fight Military Recruitment in Schools

By Shira | Mar 1, 08 07:21 PM

The New York Coalition of Radical Educators (NYCoRE) have recently released a curriculum that helps teachers educate their students about military recruiting tactics. The goal is to empower students with concrete information and to make sure they know about alternative ways to access education and career-building tools after high-school.

Ari and I had the pleasure of designing the cover for Camouflaged: Investigating How the U.S. Military Affects You and Your Community, which you can preview and buy online through Lulu.com.

If you're a teacher who want to get involved, you should come to the meeting this week...

NYCoRE's Counter Recruitment Project Meeting
Thursday, March 6, 5:30-7:30
CUNY Graduate Center 34th St. & 5th Ave., Room 5489
Please bring ID

Topics of discussion include:

Bringing teachers together to develop a workshop for other teachers around unpacking military recruitment in New York City Schools and across the country
Outreach to bring teachers and administrators from Upper Manhattan neighborhoods to the workshop
Strategizing ways to share the ideas developed by New York City teachers in NYCoRE's recently released curricular guide Camouflaged
Developing ways to be a voice in the events acknowledging the anniversary of the war in Iraq

If you are interested in attending or getting involved, email Edwin at NYCoRE.

And here are some great videos about recruiting and the impact of war on veterans from Media That Matters: No Child, All That I Can Be and Night Visions

The Oscars Have Come and Gone and What Have We Learned?

By Shira | Mar 1, 08 02:02 PM

Unfortunately, this was one of the whitest, most male-dominated awards ceremonies in recent history, which makes me feel less sad that I missed it this year.

I recently illustrated Judith Mahoney Pasternak's great article about racism and sexism in the Oscars for The Indypendent. Check it out: The Oscar’s Minority Report

Arts Engine Meets VH1's Pop-Up Video

By Shira | Mar 1, 08 01:25 PM

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of putting together a video for Arts Engine's big 10 year anniversary party at Southpaw. Having recently left the staff after almost six years to join forces with Ari, it was a pretty nostalgic experience. I'm not sure this will be in any way entertaining for folks not intimately familiar with the ins and outs of Arts Engine/Big Mouth Films, but feel free to take a look.

The Indypendent Printed My Illustration for "Revolutions: Read All About ’Em"

By Shira | Feb 3, 08 06:22 PM

I had fun working on this piece to accompany Chris Anderson's review of the new "Revolutions" series from Verso Books.

I'm really looking forward to checking out the series. I'm especially excited about Slavoj Žižek's intro to Mao's "On Practice and Contradiction."

Hotelling, coworking, and other evolutions of work

By Ari | Jan 23, 08 10:57 AM

zora's tummy
Originally uploaded by arimoore

I just read Treehugger's post on "Hotelling". Apparently this is an old practice that's come back in vogue, whereby businesses keep a lot of their workforce mobile, rather than providing office space and expecting people to stay there all the time. Honestly, I don't see how it's very different from telecommuting. Except that the name is cuter. Anyway, this earth-friendly practice (as Treehugger points out, it results in "few people commuting, [and] less space being built, heated and cooled") got me thinking about connections between work, play, and learning.

I'm a fan of unschooling (self-education without the institution, or even the structure). The educators who advocate for unschooling point out that kids learn naturally while playing, all the time. And studies have shown that if you let kids learn on their own, they'll learn the material better than if you force it on them.

Work seems to be similar: People actually like working. Nothing like the satisfaction of a job well done, right? (Read Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano if you don't agree.) But if you make people work, and force them to do it under circumstances over which they have no control, it becomes less attractive. Take away the desk, let people roam (or better yet, make the business a worker-owened cooperative), and you've got a recipe for increased happiness, and efficiency.

This isn't a too-good-to-be-true pipe dream, either: Hotelling, telecommuting, freelancing, coworking and other alternative forms of fitting work into one's life are all in active use all over the world.

For an application of similar ideas to a conference/ meeting/ retreat setting, see Opening Space for Communication and Collaboration with Open Space Technology. (Link via Josh A.)

Feminist Review: Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina

By Ari | Jan 21, 08 11:12 AM

My review of Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina is up at Feminist Review:

Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina is not an oral history, but a small part of a story that is still being told. Something incredible happened in Argentina on December 19th and 20th, 2001. The government had frozen the people’s bank accounts so they could use the money to pay off an IMF loan in order to get yet another one, dragging the country’s economy even further than it had already sunk. Business owners had fled, leaving thousands jobless, struggling to feed their families while their workplaces stood empty... (read more)

I can't recommend this book highly enough for progressive activists and others interested in social change. The folks in this book are doing some really incredible things we can all learn from. Published by AK Press.

Nestbuilding

By Ari | Jan 10, 08 06:47 PM

This image is a screenshot taken during the development of this site - it's sort of embarrassing to look at, so hey, we thought we'd share it. I think it shows how much better we've both become as designers, quite frankly. It also shows how far we can push something when we give it time. This site was about two years in the making, I reckon. This weirdly busy wood look we had going in this earlier version was cool at first, before we coded it prematurely and then struggled to improve what was already tragically flawed, our efforts just making it worse. We didn't figure this out until we'd spent countless hours poking at the thing.

It's kind of shocking how much time we wasted. Don't they say "designers are their own worst clients"? It's true, anyway.

The finished site breaks a lot of rules I usually hold sacred. The home page is a mostly cute splash page devoid of content, a big no-no. The navigation is erratic, jumping around and reordering itself and changing location and size. The sidebar elements vary from page to page, as do the things you find in footers. I'm afraid the Google Blogrolls on the links page don't work for Internet Explorer users (and perhaps others... thanks, Google, sorry visitors). I haven't yet worked out the kinks in the blog's comments and tags, the way they display. And so on.

Every time we broke a convention or integrated content from seemingly disparate parts of our lives into a new weird whole, while making this site, I found myself wondering if we'd end up with something incomprehensible. But it's true to our sensibilities - we aren't just designers, after all. I think (and hope) that it paints us for who we are, and explains in some way the various things we do to occupy and entertain and support ourselves. I also hope the blog will be entertaining. Aaaand I'll stop posting such meta content soon, which I'm sure will help.

Boohoo/Woohoo

By Shira | Jan 8, 08 01:04 PM

I don't think I have fully processed that today is my last day at Arts Engine. I've been having a blast working here for five and a half years, and in the words of Boys II Men, "It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday." On the other hand, I couldn't be leaving my desk on 14th Street for a better reason. I have always dreamed about self-employment, and now it's here. I'm really looking forward to working with Ari on new projects and I'm particularly excited about working on personal projects -- an album of original music is in the works, and I'm editing an experimental documentary with video I shot in India last year.

I was up until 4am last night working on the site and it's 70 degrees outside (yes, it's January in New York), so I woke up feeling like it's the last day of school or the last day of camp - you know that feeling when you've just worked really hard, and you're really tired and some big change is happening? That's how I feel. Woohoo!

Hello and welcome to our brand new blog.

By Ari | Jan 8, 08 11:19 AM

Well here we are. Finally! This website has been a long time in the making. The design couldn't keep up with how fast our work has been growing and changing, and had to be totally redone several times as we reconceptualized what on earth it is we're doing here. Shira will write about her end of things, so I'll just cover my own path to this new website.

I've been blogging in some form or other since 1998 or so; my most recent blog, several years in the running, was called pinkrabbitsays. Meanwhile, I was showing my work at arimoore.com - and was increasingly realizing that my politics, activism and blogging were overlapping more and more with my graphic design and illustration work, as well as with my self-education, art and writing. I've been thinking a lot about connections lately, and seeing the value in looking at things holistically. So I think this new site comes out of that - all of our work and play under one roof.

In college folks constantly mixed up our names. Our friend Diane jokingly called us "Shirari", at one point actually sending us a package addressed to "Shirari Molding-Gore" (our last names are Golding and Moore). So here we are starting a new site and a new business together. We're calling it Shirari Industries, because we're Shira and Ari, and we're industrious. I hope you dig it. Thanks for visiting.

P.S. Please contact us if you run into anything that's not working yet - this site is fresh out of the oven!

Shirari Industries