Linefeed » Graphic Design

What’s Up #65: Luis Mendo

Michael — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:07:07 +0000

Luis Mendo is the driving force behind Good Inc. [goodinc.nl], an Amsterdam-based ‘company of one’, but part of a network of many (ie as founding member of The Goodfellas Network [goodfellasnetwork.com]). Luis also is a fellow magazine and publishing enthusiast with a sideline in ace illustration. Inspired by a recent three month sabbatical in Japan, Luis has produced this totally useful and elegantly designed personal guide to Tokyo using images taken from his sketchbooks. You can see images from aid Tokyo diary via [flickr].

Trend: Remake Remodel

Michael — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 10:41:33 +0000

We, the scientists at linefeed, believe Graphic Design hasn’t got any easier (if you think it’s easy, you’re just not trying hard enough) but it has definitely got quicker. Remaking modern media into mid-century modern media or, indeed, into something simply deemed to be ‘better’ than the original effort is more than possible now because of this. Designers with a love of cinema or literature are making their impassioned pleas to the marketing managers by designing new versions of ancient and recent classics. Cue Olly Moss [ollymoss.com] and his re-imagined movie posters and the mysterious astrodesigner ‘Spacesick’ [spacesick.blogspot.com] (Temple of Doom cover above).

You see, current marketing thought dictates that any promotional material should mimic something else that was released previously and was sort of successful (depending on how you measure success… in this case it’s with numbers). So horror movie posters should always have a black background and some murky ‘grunge-y’ artwork. Comedy posters should always be white by contrast with big red type, preferably in Futura Extra Black because that’s what ever other comedy movie poster ever has looked like. Boicozine has banged on about marketing to the LCD before (that’s Lowest Common Denominator, in case yer wondering) and how it says more about the marketing bods than the audience [linefeed/1253]. So it’s understandable that designers are striking out to try and bring a little creativity and sanity back into the proceedings. Also see All City Media [linefeed/557].

BTW Press Publish will be releasing our own take on this current trend in the next little while under the title of ‘The Cinephile Collection #1′ [presspublish.info]

What’s Up #47: Praline

Michael — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:33:56 +0000

Mr Blumenthal’s Little Chef revamp may be the current talk of the town [channel4.com] and put Popham square on the map, but little attention has been given to the designers behind the over-hauled interior and identity. No, Heston and pals didn’t do it all by themselves. They had a lot of help from the fine folks at Praline [designbypraline.com] for a start. They’ve designed a spiffy new book for the Fat Duck too [fatduck.co.uk]. Now when do we get to see the episode where the designers are trying to produce the new menus with only hours to spare before the opening. Well. We’re waiting. Update: Oops! I almost forgot to mention. You can read and see more here… [creativereview.co.uk/crblog].

To Elle with Format

Boicozine — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:04:07 +0000

The French edition of Elle magazine has taken the bold step of employing Non-Format [non-format.com] to add a new dimension to the Elle magazine format with their bi-annual, Very Elle [veryelle.elle.fr]. They’ve designed a typeface called Heroine for it that plays on Elle’s Futura international obsession. The previews look fab. I’m going to have to try and get a hold of this one.

Need to Know Basis: November 2008

Michael — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:34:02 +0000

Bargains! Bargains! Bargains! Get on down to Somerset House for the åbäke Garage Sale tomorrow to pick up cheap and cheerful Kitsune CDs [kitsune.fr] and loads of other stuff as part of the top Wouldn’t It Be Nice exhibition [somersethouse.org.uk] (sweeps the floor with the Design Museum’s ‘Design Cities’ exhibition [see 959]) ❤ Boicozine’s favourite ex-i-D Art Director, Stephen Male [via Flickr], has taken to helm at US Vogue [vogue.com] although you can’t tell just yet. We’ll be keeping a close eye on those butt-ugly horizontally scaled cover lines to see if he can make them right ❤ It’s all about collectives these days. This week’s collective (don’t worry, it’s this isn’t going to be a regular feature) goes by the name of the Goodfellas Network [goodfellasnetwork.com]. The Goodfellas are a truly international group for creative types including ex-Boicozine contributor Luis Mendo, who now runs the very excellent BladBlog [bladblog.nl] and Joachim Baan [anothercompany.org] amongst others ❤ Matt Pyke aka Universal Everything [via Vimeo] has been curating a collection of moving image works on the theme of synasthesia through his Advanced Beauty website and has just announcing the first Advanced Beauty DVD, available for pre-order now [advancedbeauty.org] ❤ Another ex-mitDR [thedesignersrepublic.com] employee, Michael C Place is a name any design geek will recognise instantly as Mr Build, well just ‘Build’ really [wearebuild.com]. He is currently doing a nice line in graphic interactivity through his Flickr site. Join in… [via Flickr] ❤ Every band should have an archive like this, for the lovingly collated artwork alone… [niagara.edu/neworder]. A weirdly elaborate version of the usually stark record sleeve for New Order’s True Faith is shown above.

What’s Up #44: House of Kids

Michael — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:29:45 +0000

You can’t talk about design and illustration studio House of Kids [houseofkids.fr] without mentioning French record label, institubes [institubes.com]. The two are intrinsically linked through House of Kids members Jean-René Etienne and Lola Raban-Oliva, although each has their own outstanding bodies of work and institubes continues to team up with some of the more interesting Parisienne pop-’artists’ such as Akroe [akroe.net] and Gaspirator [myspace.com/gaspirator].

What’s Up #43: Buchanan-Smith

Michael — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:58:41 +0000

Buchanan-Smith [buchanansmith.com] are the talented bods behind Paper [papermag.com] magazine’s graphic re-invention. They have just released the first in a series of ‘graphic still lives’ (‘lifes’, surely… am I wrong? I dunno), investigating various graphic anomalies (we heart graphic anomalies at Boicozine), the first being all about dots. On their website you’ll find an intriguing mix of the personal and the professional that seems quite unique in amongst most graphic design circles.

What’s Up #42: Leslie David

Boicozine — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:03:28 +0000

Leslie David [leslie-david.com] is junior designer at Petronio Associates [petronioassociates.com] and has just completed design and art direction for the quality French free mag, Redux [reduxmag.com]. Having a solid grounding in both Graphic Design & Illustration (having worked with both Deanne Cheuk [deannecheuk.com] and Sylvia Tournerie [sylvia-tournerie.com]), Leslie took on the challenge of hand-drawing every headline with the magazine. There’s some lush illustration courtesy of Lola Raban-Oliva [lolalola.fr] and Amandine Urruty [amandineurruty.free.fr].

Rant: Design City, My Arse!

Boicozine — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:43:02 +0000

Hey London, did you know this year marks a design explosion in the nation’s capital not seen since the Industrial Revolution or Le Corbusier bringing modernism to Paris the inception of the Bauhaus in Dessau! No me neither. Although this is what a recent exhibition entitled ‘Design Cities’ at London’s Design Museum supposes [designmuseum.org]. If it’s true that London is ‘The’ ‘Design City’ of our era then why are there no amazing new buildings going up in the central London? Why is it that London’s current visual motif seems to consist of ‘Dallas’ style glass monoliths and loads and loads of roadworks? Why is free pitching rife and designers often shown a lack of respect for their skills by being asked to work for free? If you take the take that design is decision making then why are there so many bad decisions being made in terms of architecture and design in soggy old London town? Not knocking Britain’s many and varied, über talented creatives (and there are loads of ‘em) but ‘Design City’? My arse.

The ‘Design Cities’ exhibition is such a transparent attempt to assert some sort of lame authority over all that is designed everywhere in the world when the real truth is that (pre crunch) London was simply very good at recognising and buying good design. If anything, we are in an age where territorial boundaries are being broken down. Where design from anywhere is more and more accessible. In this respect London has become a city where you can find out more about design trends from at home and abroad. It is a bit like a sort of big, international design scrapbook (without the scrap), but hardly a city in the midst of a ‘design-led revolution’.

On visiting this exhibition, my heart sank when I guessed the ending after reading the first board (ie modern design started in London and ends in London. It’s all about London etc etc). The saddest thing is that the exhibition tries to hide this attempt to assert the city’s authority behind so many truly inspiring periods and pieces plucked (as the British has always had a want to do) from throughout design history. And, in doing so, talks down to the visitor, assuming them to be empty vessels you can simply top up with knowledge and then send them out to regurgitate what you have ‘told’ to them, at will.

Exhibitions at the Design Museum have a reputation for being a little touch-and-go. Their recent foray into English Graphic design legends has upped their game but ‘Design Cities’ does not bode well for the future… and it’s going on tour! How embarrassing. See Alan Aldridge [designmuseum.org], visit the shop, have a cake, but I wouldn’t be too bothered about the jingoistic, overpriced and overblown, ‘Design Cities’.

What’s Up #41: Sacha Hurley

Michael — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:55:10 +0000

Not that I think Editorial Designers have any sort of right to lord it over any other sort of designers but *ahem* we do have any particular aptitude and respect for the written word as a basic requirement. This is what makes the work of Vancouver based designer, Sacha Hurley [lovebysacha.com] a unique joy. Along with Jonah Gray and Matt Booth, Sacha publishes the awesome art mag Pyramid Power [pyramidpower.ca], as featured on Boicozine way back when [see 392]. He’s now set up a foliosite where you can see some of his non-PP related work.