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Now available: The EPUB version of iPad Design Lab: Storytelling in the Age of the Tablet, ready for download via Amazon.com for Kindle:
http://tinyurl.com/8u99txw.
TAKEAWAY: Mario Tascón does not let those 140 characters Twitter limits us to intimidate him: the Spanish designer and media strategist is creating a new form of art via what he calls Twittergrafia Take a look here.
Meet Mario Tascón : the man behiind the Twittergrafias
Lines: Mario Tascón tells me that these are an intepretation from the Latin: “Nulla dies sine linea”—“we must do something eveyrday; we must train; we must write. Even in a crisis like we have in Spain, we must not let despair stop us. Sometimes I put the lines there as if in a lined notebook, to inspire people to write what they want on the lines….”
Use of italics
Soup of letters
Disobedience
Sea of facts
Chess
Trapped
Matrimony
Spain is the new Greek tragedy
You’ve Got Mail
Swimmer
Arrows
Barca-Madrid
Think Twitter and we see those very limited 140 characters dancing on the screen, with the speed and precision of the Rockettes, and often reminding us that we are over -8 characters or -18, which means it is time to rethink that sentence, to rewrite the message and to edit those surplus words.
Enter Mario Tascón , one of Spain’s most gifted and best known media designers, and his concept of what he calls Twittergrafia, the art of graphic storytelling within the confines of Twitter’s precise and limited canvas.
Mario is well known for his groundbreaking work, especially with Spain’s innovativeEl Mundo newspaper. He has won international and national awards and samples of his work have appeared as examples in a variety of magazines, textbooks, as well as in lectures and seminars.
But, today, Mario Tascón seems to be having fun with this new medium called Twitter.
“I try to tell stories in every way I can,” Mario says. “But everything I do in Twitter is , in a sense, experimental because, as you well know, it is quite difficult to take advantage of what one can do with only 140 characters, without multi media, without typography.”
Yet, Mario manages to tell little stories, to make us think about ordinary or extraordinary things, as we see in the illustrations here.
A few years ago it occurred to me that I should investigate this new medium called Twitter and its expressive possibilities, so I began to experiment, limiting myself to what I know Twitter can do within the unicode international standards.
“So, I began to create messages modifying letters, adding icons (the few that Unicode allows), or approximating Twitter Art or Art 140, although I do fewer of those,“he said.
Primarily, says Mario, he is interested in the culture of the remix and of modification.
We have a selection of Mario’s Twittergrafias here, some of which are based on specific news events, so they may appear a bit out of context, but they do give you an idea of what can be done if one thinks beyond the 140 characters of Twitter as mere letters.
Three questions for Mario Tascón
Mario Garcia:
What inspires you? I notice that Spain is a constant muse in your Twittergrafias?
I am inspired by all that takes place around me, like the situation for the people of Spain today, as well as other countries, and the historical changes we see around us, but I also want to make people think for a few seconds.
Mario Garcia:
I see a future for this type of graphic thinking on Tweeter. Why should we limit ourselves to just letters in those 140 characters, when we can tell visual stories? You pave the way for us, Mario. What is the biggest challenge to do this?
Mario Tascón
What I do is much inspired by Neurath and his dream of a universal language (like all designers, right?), also by the visual poetry of Joan Brossa. The idea is to get the most from limited resources and to try to make communication universal.
Mario Garcia:
How frequently do you post these Twittergrafias?
Mario Tascón
I have been doing them for about two years now. What I do is to sprinkle them among my more normal and professional Tweets.
About Mario Tascón
Ask Mario Tascón what he does today and his answer is typical of someone who lives in Spain:
I do what I can
He is a partner/principal in Prodigioso Volcan (Prodigious Volcano), a consulting firm devoted to strategic planning, information architecture and new media design. Mario has been a director for digital media for the Prisa Group, but it was his long and successful career from 1989 to 2000 at El Mundo, one of Spain’s leading dailies, that made him a well known name and frequent speaker at conferences worldwide. The author of two books: “Twittergrafia” and “Ciberactivismo”, Mario is an associate professor at the University of Navarra, in Pamplona.
Take a video tour of iPad Design Lab
“iPad Design Lab” trailer on Vimeo.
Read the Society of Publication Designers’ review of The iPad Design Lab here:
http://www.spd.org/2012/10/must-read-ipad-design-lab.php
WAN IFRA Asia Conference Nov. 27-29
Still time to join the WAN IFRA Asia Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 27-28.
Online & Social Media
27 November
Smart Media Digital Business Innovations
28 November
Mobile & Tablet Publishing
29 November
For more details, please contact:
Ms. Christine Chin, Events Manager Email: christine.chin@shangri-la.com Tel: +60 (3) 2074 3556—¨Fax: +60 (3) 2078 5990