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Commercial art is the art of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. The term has become increasingly anachronistic in favor of more contemporary terms such as graphic design and advertising art.

Commercial art traditionally includes designing books, advertisements, signs, posters, and other displays to promote sale or acceptance of products, services, or ideas.

Skills of commercial art[link]

Most commercial artists have the ability to organize information, and a knowledge of fine arts, visualization and media. Communication is often vital in this field. Usually, the art department is relatively small, consisting of art directors, perhaps an assistant director, and a small staff of design and product workers. Commercial artists work a variety of situations doing many things in the artistic world such as advertisement, illustration and animation.

Genres[link]

Commercial art can include many genres of art and categories of art technique, including:

• Commercial Character Design
• Illustration
• Graphic design
• Industrial Design
• Motion graphic design
• Photography
• Television commercials
• Music videos
• Animation
• Computer art
• Fashion Designer
• Interior Design

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Steve Lambert is an American artist (born 1976) who works with issues of advertising and the use of public space. He is a founder of the Anti-Advertising Agency, an artist-run initiative which critiques advertising through artistic interventions, and of the Budget Gallery (with Cynthia Burgess) which creates exhibitions by painting over outdoor advertisements and hanging submitted art in its place.^[1] Lambert's artistic practice includes drawing, performance, intervention, culture jamming, public art, video, and internet art. He has worked with the Graffiti Research Lab, Glowlab, and as a senior fellow with Eyebeam Open Lab.

Lambert is member of the New York based artist group Free Art and Technology Lab. He has won several awards including from Turbulence, the Creative Work Fund, Rhizome/The New Museum, Adbusters Media Foundation, and the California Arts Council.^{[citation needed]}

Biography[link]

Steve Lambert was born in Los Angeles in 1976. He and his family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area four days later. His father was a former Franciscan monk, and his mother, an ex-Dominican nun. He dropped out of high school in 1993, but went on to study sociology and film, receiving a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2000, and a MFA at the University of California, Davis in 2006.^[2] He has taught at Parsons The New School for Design as well as Hunter College in New York.

Projects[link]

[edit] The Budget Gallery

Before creating the "Anti-Advertising Agency", Lambert founded The Budget Gallery with the help of several others. The Budget Gallery is a non-profit organization that works to set up art galleries in public spaces, such as vacant walls and fences, located throughout the city of choice. Effort is put forth beforehand to publicize and prepare the shows, and such shows are often accompanied by "hundreds". The goal of such shows is to "bring art into public spaces that need diverse messages expressing emotion and depicting issues that represent the depth and breadth of humanity."^[3]

The Budget Gallery allows and encourages people to organize an outdoor guerrilla art gallery in their own town. They provide a how-to manual for how to choose a place, make calls, and sell art for the gallery.^[4]

[edit] Add-Art

Lambert has made a free Firefox Plugin, called Add-Art which replaces ads with art in conjunction with the Firefox Plugin Adblock Plus. The art work used in the plug-in is from contemporary artists that curators set up and each show is shown for two weeks. There is also information about the current artist and curator for each selection of art pieces displayed. All of the art submitted has the opportunity to be displayed in the bimonthly exhibit.

Adblock is supported by a small website which also contains information on the current artists and curator, as well a schedule of past and upcoming AddArt shows. Every two weeks, 5 to 8 artists are selected by emerging and established curators. Images used have to be cropped in order to fit properly in the banner space.^[5]

[edit] Self Control

In 2009, Steve developed "Self Control" at the Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology. The application, which is open source and licensed under the GPL, was developed for Mac OS X to block access to incoming and outgoing mail servers, as well as websites for a specified period of time. The application acts as a tool to remove the temptation to access sources of distraction to those who have trouble with self control. Steve came up with the idea from his own personal experiences with being distracted on the internet. This would help him, as an artist, to block out outside stimuli in order to get focused work done. Once the timer has been started, the process cannot be undone.

[edit] Why They Hate US

In 2006 Steve Lambert, with the help of Steve Calderon, launched Why They Hate US. The project invited users to tag photos on Flickr with "whytheyhateus", acting as a display of pictures that users suggest contribute to a negative view of the United States or have the potential to be misinterpreted as negative. Some of the themes include gun violence, war, crude humor, consumerism, obesity and Big Government and Big Business.

The site is an open forum and images displayed are not curated, edited, or censored. Anyone is allowed to contribute any image to the forum. Eventually, any image brought to the site will be shown in the random display.^[6]

Simmer Down Sprinter[link]

Simmer Down Sprinter is a two player, sit-down, arcade style video game that Lambert designed and programmed in which players compete to move runners around a track. The game is controlled by player’s bio-feedback. The more relaxed the player becomes, the faster the runner moves around the track. It is essentially a competitive relaxation.^[7]

The game uses what is essentially a polygraph test, as the player rests his or her arm on a metal pad. It senses changes in the users' body temperature and galvanic skin resistance. Exciting warm-up music is played before each game, to make the challenge of keeping calm more difficult.^[8]

[edit] NY Times Special Edition

Lambert was recently in the news for helping with the organization of the New York Times Special Edition, a hoax edition of 1.2 million copies of the venerable paper that was distributed for free on the streets of New York City.^[9] A team of 35 people wrote and edited the paper, including representatives from The Yes Men, CodePINK, and other activist groups. The paper was post-dated for July 4, 2009, several months into President Obama's term, and envisioned a world where the Iraq war was over, Bush and Cheney were tried for war crimes, and congress had passed a maximum wage cap. The stunt created a stir, as many people were temporarily fooled by the otherwise reliable newspaper.

The Anti Advertising Agency[link]

Steve Lambert founded the AAA in 2004 and has acted as CEO since. The goal of the Anti Advertising Agency is to change the role that advertising has played in our day-to-day lives, an unavoidable nuisance. They believe that through long-term commercial saturation, it has been understood that advertising has the right to occupy and control every inch of available space. Their work calls into question the purpose and effects of advertising in the public space. Using the tools of public relations industries, they constructively parody today's marketing media. The AAA's work ranges from traditional styles (images, stickers, signs, etc.) to more conventional artistic formats (performance, artist books), as well as combinations of the two. It was through this company that Lambert released Add-Art.

Other projects[link]

He has also been a part of another project Wish You Were Here! Postcards From our Awesome Future. He worked on this project with Packard Jennings and within the project they questioned “What would you do if you didn’t have to worry about budgets, bureaucracy, politics, or physics?" The finished result was satirical commentary on civil engineering. The project developed into six posters for the Art on Market Street Program. The posters were installed on city streets. All posters are available for use and have been released into the public domain without copyright.^[10]

Exhibitions[link]

2009 - (October) Eyebeam Open Studios, New York NY | "Uncommon Ground" - "Uncommon Ground is a sound installation created in collaboration with Victoria Estok. Using stethoscopes against a five by five foot planter box, people can hear the plants commentary, discussions, and inner thoughts – which are normally inaudible to human beings. The plants are voiced by comedians and neighbors."^[11]

2009 - Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles CA | “Everything You Want Right Now!” - "Lambert takes on the vernacular of commercial signage with a regional emphasis unique to Los Angeles. Visually, he is interested in what makes certain styles of signage feel so innately familiar, and in the methods that signage employs to grab our attention."^[12]

References[link]

Additional References[link]

• Web Fight: Blocking Ads and Adding Art by Andrew Adam Newman New York Times, May 14, 2007
• Operation: Anti-Ad by Caitlin Moneypenny-Johnston, Xpress Magazine February 14, 2007
• "Advertising Counterprogramming" by Elise Soukup, Newsweek October 11, 2004
• "Wish You Were Here! Postcards From our Awesome Future." by Steve Lambert and Packard Jennings

External links[link]

• Steve Lambert Website

Dianna Agron
Agron at the Glee Hot Topic Tour, on August 17, 2009
Born	Dianna Elise Agron (1986-04-30) April 30, 1986 (age 26) Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, singer, dancer
Years active	2006–present

Dianna Elise Agron^[1] ( /ˈeɪɡrɒn/;^[2] born April 30, 1986) is an American actress, singer, and dancer best known for her portrayal of Quinn Fabray on the television series Glee^[3] and Sarah Hart in I Am Number Four.

Early life[link]

Dianna Agron was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in San Antonio, Texas and San Francisco, California. She is the daughter of Mary and Ronald S. Agron, a general manager of Hyatt hotels.^[4][5][6] Agron's father's family is originally from Russia, and their original surname, Agronsky, was altered by Ellis Island officials.^[2] Her father was born Jewish and her mother converted to Judaism;^[7] Agron attended Hebrew school and had a bat mitzvah.^[7][8] Agron attended Burlingame Intermediate School and then Burlingame High School in Burlingame, California.^[3] She has been dancing since the age of three,^[9] and began teaching dance as a teenager.^[6]

Career[link]

Agron in NYC, 2011

Agron has appeared on television shows such as Shark, Close to Home, CSI: NY, Numb3rs,^{[citation needed]} and had a recurring role on Veronica Mars. She then appeared as Harper on a 13-episode series of short films called It's a Mall World, directed by Milo Ventimiglia, and airing on MTV, and then on the second season of Heroes as Debbie Marshall, the head cheerleader/captain of the cheer squad at Costa Verde High School. Dianna has also hosted a mini Music Festival for 826LA in Los Angeles called Chickens in Love.^[10]

She was among many young Hollywood stars selected to be in Wal-Mart's Ocean Pacific spring 2010 marketing campaign. The national campaign debuted in fashion, lifestyle and entertainment magazines such as Elle, Teen Vogue, Seventeen and Cosmopolitan, outdoor and online at the official Ocean Pacific website.^{[citation needed]} In addition, the celebrities hosted an Ocean Pacific party in Los Angeles in late April and made personal appearances on behalf of the brand.^[11]

Agron's most notable role to date is as Quinn Fabray, a high school cheerleader, on the Fox series Glee. The show has received high ratings and critical acclaim, including a Screen Actors Guild cast award in 2009^[12] and two Golden Globes for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.^[13][14]

In 2010, Agron directed the music video for "Body" by Thao with the Get Down Stay Down.^[15]

In 2010, Agron played the small role of Natalie, fiancée to main character Ali's love interest Jack, in the movie Burlesque alongside Christina Aguilera, Cher, and Stanley Tucci.

Agron was chosen by People to be part of their Most Beautiful 2010.^[16] She also came 8th in the 2011 Afterellen.com "Hot 100" list.^[17]

Agron appeared alongside Alex Pettyfer and Timothy Olyphant in the 2011 science-fiction action thriller I Am Number Four, directed by D. J. Caruso.

Agron appeared as herself in Punk'd.

The Biography Channel aired a Glee documentary named "Glee: Don't Stop Believing" on April 10, 2012, where Agron was interviewed about her role in the show.

Agron will host GLAAD Media Award on June 2, 2012 in San Francisco. Her co-stars of Glee, Naya Rivera and Cory Monteith hosted them on March 24, 2012 in New York City.

Agron came 13th in the 2012 AfterEllen.com "Top 50 Favorite Female TV Characters" list, thanks to her character, Quinn Fabray, on Glee.^[18]

Personal life[link]

Agron at the Glee premiere party, May 11, 2009

Agron is a vegetarian and a supporter of PETA.^[19] Also an avid supporter of gay rights, Agron worked with The Trevor Project in 2012 to raise money in honor of her birthday. She promised to match all donations made to the organization by April 30, 2012.^[20]

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dianna Agron

• Website
• Dianna Agron at AllRovi
• Dianna Agron at the Internet Movie Database