Hasta La Ideas

Following its successful inaugural run last year, the Cheltenham Design Festival is back this April, with another amibitious line-up of design luminaries and thoughtful discussion.

This year’s programme, under the banner ‘Who Cares About the Future of Design?’, explores the role design plays in everyday life, and how that role should evolve in the future, with talks from design leaders such as Neville Brody, David Hillman, Sir John Sorrell, Sir John Hegarty and Bruce Duckworth.

Taking place at the Parabola Arts Centre from April 11-14, the festival will again explore the importance of design from a variety of angles – covering areas such as education, the environment, an ageing population, urban design, technology and business.

For example, Sir Christopher Frayling and D&AD’s Tim Lindsay will discuss the impact of the marginalisation of design in education; Adrian Shaughnessy, Wayne Hemingway and Craig Oldham will debate the future of design with UCAS chief executive Mary Curnock Cook, the Design Council’s Bel Reed, Martin Horwood MP, and Vice Chancellor of the University of Gloucesteshire, Stephen Marston; and Brody, David Constantine, Sir John Hegarty and Deyan Sudjic discuss ‘Does Good Design Make us Happy?’

Sir John Hegarty, who is also president of the Cheltenham Design Festival, discusses whether good design can make you happy

Other highlights include John Sorrell outlining his belief that nations are increasingly turning towards creativity and design to achieve growth and success; Nat Hunter and Steven Johnson clarifying what ‘sustainability’ should really mean in design; Tristan Manco extolling street art from around the world, and Aston Martin’s product development director and design director – Ian Minards and Marek Reichman – talking about the evolution of car design over the century.

Steven Johnson, creative director at The Hub, and Nat Hunter, co-director of design at the RSA, explore the true meaning of sustainable design.

Alongside auditorium events, there are also more intimate studio events and workshops for 8-16-year-olds.

The festival is organised by a group of local businesses and individuals that volunteer their time, and all proceeds feed back into the charitable foundation.

Details of ticket prices, including special offers and student discounts will be available on the festival’s website towards the end of next week, alongside the detailed programme.

Cheltenham Design Festival takes place at Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham GL50 3AH, from April 11-14.

CR in print
The March issue of CR magazine celebrates 150 years of the London Underground. In it we introduce a new book by Mark Ovenden, which is the first study of all aspects of the tube’s design evolution; we ask Harry Beck authority, Ken Garland, what he makes of a new tube map concept by Mark Noad; we investigate the enduring appeal of Edward Johnston’s eponymous typeface; Michael Evamy reports on the design story of world-famous roundel; we look at the London Transport Museum’s new exhibition of 150 key posters from its archive; we explore the rich history of platform art, and also the Underground’s communications and advertising, past and present. Plus, we talk to London Transport Museum’s head of trading about TfL’s approach to brand licensing and merchandising. In Crit, Rick Poynor reviews Branding Terror, a book about terrorist logos, while Paul Belford looks at how a 1980 ad managed to do away with everything bar a product demo. Finally, Daniel Benneworth-Grey reflects on the merits on working home alone. Buy your copy here.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878, or buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.

wants a Lead Designer – Women’s Fitness
in Lawrence, MA
Lace up and take the lead in this Designer role with New Balance. They’ve been running strong for 100 years and are looking for equally impressive design talent.

You’ll be in charge of establishing the DNA of their critical women’s training/walking business at New Balance, which means you’ll work on product line development, defining market strategy and managing a team of designers.

If you’re on the fence about applying, check out the details on their work/life balance and benefits package.

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(more…)

Alexander Chen combines music, coding and design to create charming interactive experiences, one of which turned the New York Subway system into a musical instrument

CR is at the Design Indaba conference In Cape Town this week in and we’ll be reporting back from some of the most interesting talks. A Day 1 highlight was definitely Alexander Chen.

Alexander Chen speaking at Design Indaba in Cape Town

Perhaps one of his best-known projects is Conductor which translates the movements of NY subway trains into music (after doing our special issue on the tube, seems like every where we turn at the moment were seeing underground-related stuff!). Chen discovered a database of the departure times of subway trains online. He combined this with code he had written for earlier projects to set up a system whereby departing trains trace their route in the style of Massimo Vignelli’s subway map. As they intersect with another train, they ‘play’ a note. The whole thing (which you can watch here) plays through an accelerated loop, switching at 6pm to a black background.

Chen showed a number of music-related projects which start with a simple line. Baroque, for example, visualises Bach’s cello compositions:

This experimentation eventually led to the hugely popular Google Les Paul Doodle, which Chen created in collaboration with his colleagues at Google Creative Lab in New York where he is now based.

Chen is now working on the team developing Google Glass, which is beginning to look like this:

See more of his work here

CR in print
The March issue of CR magazine celebrates 150 years of the London Underground. In it we introduce a new book by Mark Ovenden, which is the first study of all aspects of the tube’s design evolution; we ask Harry Beck authority, Ken Garland, what he makes of a new tube map concept by Mark Noad; we investigate the enduring appeal of Edward Johnston’s eponymous typeface; Michael Evamy reports on the design story of world-famous roundel; we look at the London Transport Museum’s new exhibition of 150 key posters from its archive; we explore the rich history of platform art, and also the Underground’s communications and advertising, past and present. Plus, we talk to London Transport Museum’s head of trading about TfL’s approach to brand licensing and merchandising. In Crit, Rick Poynor reviews Branding Terror, a book about terrorist logos, while Paul Belford looks at how a 1980 ad managed to do away with everything bar a product demo. Finally, Daniel Benneworth-Grey reflects on the merits on working home alone. Buy your copy here.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878, or buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.

A quelques jours du salon de l’automobile de Genève 2013, le constructeur britannique McLaren a dévoilé sa supersportive P1. Cette voiture hybride au design splendide concurrence les performances de vitesse de la Bugatti Veyron. Un modèle supercar d’exception qui ne sera produit qu’à 375 exemplaires.

Al Roker, one of America’s favorite morning weathercasters, appears on NBC’s “Today” Show, has his own show “Wake Up with Al” on The Weather Channel, owns his own production company “Al Roker Entertainment,” has co-authored three mystery novels, written a couple of cookbooks, and a has penned a couple of New York Times Bestsellers.

So how did Roker go from being a flannel shirt and overall wearing student at SUNY Oswego to media kingpin? Al said his first big break came from being in the right place at the right time when someone said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

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