Le studio de design londonien Campaign a eu l’ingénieuse idée de proposer une librairie entièrement faite comme un pop up book. Créée à l’occasion du festival d’architecture de la capitale anglaise, cette installation temporaire permet de mettre en avant les livres d’art.
The Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase at the Cannes Lions festival had an unusual presenter this year… Paul Arden. The legendary creative, who died in 2008, appeared as a spookily realistic 3D hologram. CR finds out how it was done…
While in previous years the Saatchi & Saatchi showcase has had dramatic, gala openings, this year’s one started off deceptively simple. Richard Myers took to the stage to introduce the event, noting that it was 20 years since the first S&S Directors’ Showcase took place, and that it had been Arden that had presented it back in 1990. As can be seen in the film above, Myers then welcomed Arden to join him on stage.
The Arden hologram was created by Square Zero production company in London, who conjured him up via a “combination of footage, a specially shot body double, a specially recorded voice double, facial motion capture with additional lip-synch and also CGI modelling on some of the features,” according to director Najma Bhatti.
“We felt it was important to use at least some footage, so that it really was Paul Arden and not a body double or a complete CGI model,” Bhatti continues. “The upper part of the face is from real footage which underwent quite a number of processes before we could use it in the final piece. It was taken from an interview where the camera moved around quite fast and Paul moved backwards and forwards whilst speaking, so all the footage had to be stabillised considerably. Also, as there was so little material, we had to keep re-using it in order to create the duration we needed for his speech.”
Instead of using real recordings of Arden’s voice in the piece, Square Zero used them simply as reference material for a voice artist. “We studied Paul’s interviews at length in order to direct the voice artist to emulate his voice as closely as possible and also add in all the signature pauses and hesitations that were characteristic of his speech,” explains Bhatti. “The voice casting was quite tough and we tried out Steven Berkoff and Paul’s son Christian before going with Peter Temple, who did an amazing job.” Despite all the high-tech wizardry involved in the creating the hologram, Square Zero used an old-fashioned technique, Pepper’s Ghost, to project the Arden hologram into the theatre.
After opening the event, the Arden hologram returned at the close to sign off, before disappearing in a puff of smoke and dropping the microphone. The whole effect was quite uncanny, with the audience not really sure whether to cheer or sit in reverential silence. The Arden family gave their permission at the start of the process, but were then largely uninvolved in the making of the hologram. Bhatti understandably therefore describes the first showing to the family as “unnerving”. However, their reaction was positive. “After we had finished the piece, Toni, Paul’s wife asked to see it in our demo space before it went out in Cannes,” she explains. “So we conducted a rather nerveracking viewing with Toni, their son, grandchildren and two of Paul’s best friends. We were told by his family that ‘Paul would have loved it’, which was really the biggest compliment of all.”
Royal College of Art graduate Ian McIntyre presented his range of tableware at the graduate show last month, including these cups intended for Chai tea. (more…)
Back in early May, we told you that our pals over at Studio 360 had launched another contest to re-brand something iconic (following their redesigns of Valentine’s Day and the Gay Pride flag). This time, it was Uncle Sam, just in time for July 4th. They’ve released the follow-up episode, showing off the entries and talking about the process, which found both superb illustrator/designer Kate Bingaman-Burt getting her Portland State University students involved with the project, and our own former co-editor Alissa Walker doing the judging to find a winner. So no more talk for this writer, as you must go look and listen immediately:
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Dezeenwire: British architect Lord Norman Foster has surrendered his seat in the House of Lords in order to retain his non-resident tax status and avoid paying full British taxes. Foster will be able to retain his title despite his resignation – The Press Association.
Our subscriber copy of Wallpaper* magazine’s August edition (The Handmade Issue) arrived in the post today – sporting a front cover that we designed ourselves here at Creative Review…
Regular readers of this blog might remember that just over a month ago we posted about Wallpaper* magazine’s nifty online app developed specially to allow subscribers to the magazine to design their own front cover using a variety of graphic assets supplied by artists including Anthony Burrill, James Joyce, The Hort, Kam Tang and Nigel Robinson.
Using the app, here’s the design we submitted (using graphic elements created by James Joyce) to be printed on our very own subscriber copy of the magazine:
You’ll notice that on the submitted design, we placed a graphic label that says ‘The Handmade Issue’ top right of the cover design – under the masthead. This was mandatory – you had to place it somewhere on your cover design. Today it became clear why.
What we couldn’t work out originally was how Wallpaper* were going to make sure every subscriber taking part got the right cover. It turns out that the label device is used for the address details that you had to enter into the site when creating your design, so that they were printed out on the cover and were visible through the clear polywrap that the magazines were sent out in.
Oh no, we thought, we don’t really want the address label visible on our custom cover! But Wallpaper* had thought of that…
Included in the polybag was a sticker to place over the address in order to make the magazine design exactly as we’d designed it. Clever!
Above – our self designed cover in the flesh. Below, two more copies that came to our office – although neither subscriber in these cases had actually designed their own cover. These ones were randomly generated to ensure each cover (whether designed by the subscriber or not) of the August issue is unique.
The user could even choose from a choice of nine Rolex ads to appear on the back cover…
Hats off to Wallpaper* for making this work. We only have two minor gripes – that the graphics on our cover have a rather nasty drop shadow that wasn’t visible when we did the original design and that the address label is still visible through the sticker, making it look a bit untidy. But, having looked into the logistics of doing this kind of thing ourselves, we know how difficult it will have been to pull off, so congrats to everyone involved.
To see the gallery of submitted user-designed covers, visit wallpaper.com/custom-covers/gallery#4714401.1
 | Imagine an Icelandic country lodge so cool, there’s not only horseback riding and bird-watching, but ATV tours and river rafting! How about so cool that even celebrities are known to frequent the Four Star hotel that’s not only green energy powered, but only uses hot water heated by actual nearby springs! But the coolest part about this Icelandic hotel is probably just the view of Mount Hekla and its oozing goo of fire, not to mention the Jeep-guided and helicopter tours of the active volcano. Actually, cool is truly synonymous with Hòtel Rangà for the subpolar climate. There’s nothing better to heat you up, though, than the outdoor hot-spring hot tubs, which happen to offer premiere seats for eruption sightings and glacier-action underneath a sky illuminated by the Northern Lights (best seen between September and April!). With views and activities abound, there’s always time to relax at a fine dining establishment situated beside a world ranked salmon river when not in your newly renovated room. Speaking of rooms, its 15 room collection of World Pavilion suites feature continent themed decor with authentically crafted furniture from each of the world’s 7 geographic regions. Regardless of the themed rooms, your cultural immersion within the host country trumps all, as the hotel sits right in the heart of southern Iceland’s most scenic adventure-land and most exciting cities. With celebrity sightings, adventure, and beauty galore, your stay at Hótel Rangá will be the trip of a lifetime! Checkout the slideshow for some of the sights that Hótel Rangá has in store! |
THEKEY.TO celebrates its third edition with the motto
ACCELERATION. This concept aims to provoke a new
perspective on green products. No longer ar..
Amsterdam isn’t quite like any other city in the world – something New Zealander Toby Morris quickly realised when he relocated to Amsterdam a couple of years ago to work at ad agency Wieden + Kennedy as a studio artist.
Enjoying seeing the behaviours and various quirky traits of the city’s inhabitants, Morris decided to document Amsterdam’s peculiarities each day in an illustrated journal. Now over 300 of his invariably humorous but keenly observed Amsterdamisms have been published in a new, A5 hardback book, Alledaags, A Year in Amsterdam (self published using ezbook.nl and priced at €30). Here are some of examples of the work inside…
Oops, a bike dangles by its lock from a bridge over a canal
Children and people with a weak constitution, please look away!
Looks like Spiderman’s really ‘let himself go’
To find out more about the book and to potentially purchase a copy, visit alledaags.bigcartel.com/product/alledaags-the-book
Please note – all the typed captions are mine – they don’t appear in the book!
Un projet original “Secret Stash” par Yi-Ting Cheng afin de de dissimuler des objets dans nos lieux de travail. Les espaces cachés et les messages ont été conçus dans 8 objets tels qu’une planche, des lampes et des tasses. Une sorte de camouflage visuel, à découvrir en vidéo.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
