Promotional sign for the Penguin Crime series, designed by Romek Marber, on the floor of the Minories Gallery space. Image courtesy The Minories Galleries
Colchester School of Art’s Minories Galleries has launched a new exhibition on the work of graphic designer Romek Marber. Best known for his innovative Penguin Crime Series, the show also provides a chance to see his work for The Economist, the Observer Magazine and a range of other clients…
Born in Poland in 1925, as a teenager Marber was deported to the Bochnia ghetto in 1939. Three year’s later, he was saved from being transported to the Belzec death camp by the actions of a sergeant Kurzbach, the commander of the forced-labour workshop in the town.
Various Penguin-related material designed by Marber
Marber arrived in the UK in 1946, reuniting with his father and brother, and studied at St Martins in the early 1950s, before attending the Royal College of Art in 1953.
Having worked on covers for The Economist, in 1961 Penguin’s Germano Facetti commissioned the young designer to design two book covers for the author Simeon Potter before giving Marber the chance to work across an entire sequence of titles for Penguin Crime.
“To launch the new Crime series I was asked to do twenty titles,” the designer recalled in a talk given to the Penguin Collectors Society in 2007 (later published in the book, Penguin By Illustrators). “The month was June and the books had to be on display in October. The ‘grid’ and the rather dark visual images, suggestive of crime, had an immediate impact.”
Penguin Crime covers
The design approach – the ‘Marber grid’ – which evolved from his work was so successful that, as Rick Poynor suggests, “Facetti applied it, effectively unchanged, to the blue Pelicans and to the orange covers of Penguin fiction. Before long its spirit pervaded the entire list.”
Some examples of Marber’s covers for The Economist from 1960-67. Image courtesy The Minories Galleries
While Marber’s Crime series has become a classic of modern book design (though at the time his role in its development was underplayed), the Minories Gallery covers his wider graphic output, and includes images of his earlier covers for The Economist (which had led Facetti to invite him to Penguin), New Society, Robert Nicholson’s London Guides, Town, Queen and the Observer, where he worked as the Magazine’s first art director in 1964.
From 1964-65 Marber was appointed as art director launching the Observer Magazine and continued until 1966 as design consultant. Image courtesy The Minories Galleries
Curated by Kaavous Clayton, Graphics also has displays of Marber’s lesser known logo and identity work (below, left), including a series of panels of designs for the wire fencing company, Norvic (second image, below) in which a familiar shade of green pops up once again.
Now in his 88th year, Marber has rightly assumed his position as one of the most interesting and important graphic designers to have worked in Britain – his efforts in book publishing alone are worthy of an entire exhibition. This new show looks to widen his appeal to those interested in the history of book design and also in the development of mid-century graphics.
Romek Marber: Graphics is at the Minories Galleries, Colchester School of Art, 74 High Street, Colchester CO1 1UE. until October 26. More details at colchester.ac.uk/art/minories.
News: the story of how architect Le Corbusier defaced the interior of E.1027, the seminal house designed by fellow modernist Eileen Gray, by painting sexually graphic murals over its walls is to be the subject of a movie.
Called The Price of Desire, the movie stars Irish actor Orla Brady as Gray, with Swiss actor Vincent Perez as Le Corbusier and Canadian musician Alanis Morissette as Gray’s lover Marisa Damia.
Alanis Morissette and Orla Brady in The Price of Desire. Photo: Julian Lennon.
Filming is already underway at E.1027, the pioneering modernist home Gray completed at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin on the French coast in 1929 and which is still undergoing a lengthy restoration.
London furniture retailer Zeev Aram, who became a close friend of Irish-born Gray in her later years, and who owns the rights to her designs, provided furniture for the film, and visited the location last month during filming.
“A film is being made on Eileen Gray’s life,” said Aram. “It will be a proper feature film and we were invited to come and see the film site. The renovation [of the house] is not quite finished but it’s progressing.”
E.1027 house
Gray designed and built E.1027 with her lover, Romanian architect and critic Jean Badovici – played by Italian actor Francesco Scianna in the movie – but then moved out of the house when they split up.
E.1027 house
Badovici, an admirer of Le Corbusier, subsequently invited the Swiss-born architect to stay at the house on several occasions between 1938 and 1939.
Le Corbusier painted eight large murals both inside and outside the house, some of which contained sexual imagery. Gray’s supporters feel the architect deliberately defaced the work of his rival, but due to Le Corbusier’s greater fame, the murals have been preserved.
While Le Corbusier became the most famous and influential of the early modernists, Gray’s career was largely forgotten until after her death in 1976.
E.1027 house interior
Last month Aram launched a website, www.eileengray.co.uk, dedicated to her career and designs. Aram spoke to us about his relationship with Gray in an interview we published yesterday, saying she was “disappointed she was forgotten”.
The Price of Desire is a co-production between EG Film Productions Limited and Saga Film. No release date has been announced.
Partenaire du magazine Fricote, nous vous proposons de découvrir « Binômes » une série d’infographies combinées à des photographies résumant la relation entre divers duos français présents dans l’univers gastronomique ou graphique. Une série fruit de la collaboration entre William Roden et Richard Banroques.
Cette série photographique est à découvrir dans le nouveau Fricote Magazine n°12 dont la couverture a été réalisée par Fat&Furious Burger. Retrouvez aussi dans ce numéro un article « Eat and Hits » signé par l’équipe de Fubiz sur la nourriture dans les clips. Magazine disponible depuis le 5 septembre.
“Cricklewood is a community with no public space: no town hall, no library, no square, not even a single bench,” explained the designers. “The square will take the form of a civic folly on the back of a rickshaw bicycle, housing everything necessary to create a bona fide town square, including benches, stools, a clock tower, games and signage.”
The miniature square will be installed at a number of temporary locations, including outside a DIY superstore, on a pavement near a bingo hall and a rooftop car park. It will be used to host events for the local community such as dances and film screenings.
“The project aims to show what public space can do for a community, and how even these scraps of land can be used to create a sense of place,” said the designers.
When the town square is fully installed it covers 10 metres squared. The mobile folly including the bicycle is 1.22 metres wide and 2.8 metres long. It rises to 3.2 metres in height.
It has a custom-made five-wheeled base with 12 millimetre plywood covering, faux-brick cladding and a hand-made clock. Inside, there is a collection of furniture including umbrellas, benches, tables and chairs.
“The structure is both a practical solution – a vehicle to move the kit around – and a folly, providing a civic backdrop, helping to frame the spaces,” said designer Kieren Jones. “I hope this playful solution can be the town hall that Cricklewood never had.”
Cricklewood Town Square will be travelling around north London until 28 September. It will also be exhibited at the RIBA Forgotten Spaces exhibition at Somerset House in London, which runs from 4 October to 10 November 2013.
Spacemakers produce the world’s first mobile town square
Spacemakers, the civic design agency behind the successful transformation of Brixton Village market, has enlisted Studio Hato and Studio Kieren Jones to create the world’s first mobile town square. Constructed from a clever kit of parts, the innovative town square will travel by bike and move across north London from 31 August to 28 September, inhabiting patches of disused land and turning them into vibrant public spaces for all.
Cricklewood, north west London, has an intriguing history but little civic amenities left to show for its heritage – not only is there no town hall or library, there’s not even a single public bench. Now the team that created the cult Brixton Village renaissance are turning their attentions north, seeking to highlight the dire lack of public space in Cricklewood via their ingenious mobile town square.
Designed and built by Studio Kieren Jones, the mobile town square will emerge in a series of forgotten spaces: from an unloved patch of grass next to B&Q, to an empty pavement outside a bingo hall, and even a rooftop car park. The square will take the form of a civic folly on the back of a rickshaw bicycle, housing everything necessary to create a bona fide town square, including benches, stools, a clocktower, games and signage.
To bring the Capital’s newest public space to life Londoners are invited to join in, with a dynamic programme of events running throughout the installation, from dog shows and chess championships, to tea dances and debates. Many of the events play on Cricklewood’s little known past, with film screenings on a car park roof referencing the area’s long lost film studios, and a DIY library where locals can read books by the town’s famous literary progeny.
Designer Kieren Jones explains: “In response to the relative lack of civic space in Cricklewood, I have created a miniature and mobile town hall, which will enable the activation of places and spaces within the town centre that have been previously underused. The structure will also house a set of bespoke furniture, using local suppliers, that can be flexibly deployed. The clock tower is a reference to the Smiths clock factory that used to exist in Cricklewood, and to the decorative clock that used to exist on Anson Road, but which was sold for scrap during the war.
The structure is both a practical solution – a vehicle to move the kit around – and a folly, providing a civic backdrop, helping to frame the spaces. Cricklewood has a thriving community, but no space for this community to exist. In a way, I hope this playful solution can be the town hall that Cricklewood never had.”
The fully installed space will be up to 10 metres squared, the mobile folly including the bicycle is 1.22m wide x 2.8m long x 3.2m tall and made from a bespoke, dip-coated 5-wheeled bike base, a steel frame, with 12mm plywood covering, faux-brick cladding (polyurethane, resin and brick dust) and a hand-made clock. The square’s furniture is made from a welded steel base, dip-coated in Cricklewood by local car-resprayers and finished with locally sourced, reclaimed wood.
Studio Hato were tasked with creating the signage and graphics for the square. Their solution was to come up with a DIY sign-making workshop, where local people could use stencils to create their own signs, and set their own rules, for the space.
A unique font, based on the standard British ‘transport’ font used on street signs across the country, has been created, and will be applied using stencils to pre-cut, temporary boards, with marker pens in official signage colours: blue, red, green and brown. Wayfinding signs will also be created, pointing towards the square, and re-positioned each time the square moves.
For Spacemakers it’s the incidental activities which take place on the structure which will be the most fascinating element of all, as project director Tom James reveals: “It’s these unplanned elements that will really generate the social life of these squares, attracting passers by. Our project is all about giving local people permission to sit, rest, play and meet in these spaces. This free, public space, open to everyone, is vital to making any place feel like a real community.”
James notes that the project aims to show people what’s possible, even in these scraps of land, but more than this, it aims to start a conversation. “We hope to use this project to get an idea into Cricklewood, to set a precedent that local people can use to help them work towards a permanent public space. The structure will stay in the community long-term: but just as important is the inspiration.”
Cricklewood Town Square is funded by the Mayor’s Outer London Fund, as part of a set of interventions in Cricklewood, led by Gort Scott Architects.
Cricklewood Town Square director Tom James is a writer and urbanist. His previous projects include GO, a cult fanzine about Sheffield which was named as one of Britain’s Top Ten Arts Secrets by the Observer, featured at the Venice Biennale for architecture in 2006, and is part of the V&A’s Permanent Art Collection; and Sheffield Publicity Department, an imaginary tourist board for Sheffield.
Furniture
Kieren Jones is a designer and maker. His award winning work includes the Sea Chair project, a method of harnessing waste plastic in the oceans to make furniture, and the Blue Fence project: a proposal to reuse olympic fencing to create social furniture. In 2006, his ‘Flatpack Rearranged’ project, repurposing Ikea furniture, gave rise to the ‘Ikea Hacking’ subculture. Kieren leads the Materials Futures MA course at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
Le designer Paulsberg présente la première rocking chair à base de fibre de carbone. Faites de lignes épurées qui donnent à l’objet une dimension résolument moderne, la chaise est une véritable réussite tant du fait de son design que pour le confort qu’elle apporte. À découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.
Visiting Jörg Mennickheim in his studio is like stepping out of the city and into the jungle. The flat-roofed building—a former park café—is tucked away in the trees of the Klettenbergpark in south Cologne, and I am greeted with freshly brewed coffee and a selection of snacks from a local bakery. Jörg is a product and retail designer, brand consultant and design lecturer and has been working from this studio with various collaborators since 2003.
Upon entering the studio, the surroundings change from leafy and laidback to clean and industrious, with concept sketches, mood boards and design magazines lining the walls, a conference room full of neatly sorted material samples, and a well-equipped workshop.
The Vitra chair miniatures dotted around the shelves hint at his work for the Vitra Design Museum, one of the institutions where Jörg leads workshops and lectures. “I like to take the students out of their comfort zone” is how he describes the approach to his teaching work, the student groups include craftsmen, design students and architects alike.
A long pinboard shows inspirations for a retail design project he is currently working on – a fashion brand that went from wanting just new shop interiors to deciding to change the whole brand strategy over the course of the project.
iN.cline is a sculptural audio object that’s as functional as it is funky. The playful form allows the user to rotate the single directional speaker a full 360°. Better yet, the Bluetooth speaker can be undocked from the tilted stand and easily taken on the go with its nifty handle!
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Sculpture of Sound was originally posted on Yanko Design)
The Concrete Reader desk lamp creates the perfect spotlight for reading. At about 300x500mm, it’s not too big or too small… just right for illuminating the pages and not the rest of the room. The concrete material that forms the globe has a fun, planetary aesthetic with tactile peculiarity that’s just begging to be touched!
Designer: Alexander Krivoshlykov
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Crazy About Concrete was originally posted on Yanko Design)
Volcanic stone walls feature a geometric pattern of copper-leaf triangles inside this restaurant and nightclub on the banks of the Seine river in Paris (+ slideshow).
Mexico City architects Emmanuel Picault and Ludwig Godfrey collaborated with Paris architect Nicolas Sisto to insert the Nüba nightclub on the upper level of a shopping centre and exhibition hall near Austerlizt station.
The project is inspired by Mexican architecture and materials. “Living in Mexico City for a few years, this project of Nüba brought us back home to Paris through our adopted country Mexico,” said Godfrey and Picault, who both grew up in France.
The trio shipped five tonnes of volcanic stone from Veracruz to Le Havre to build the interior then applied 300 square metres of copper leaf from Santa Clara Del Cobre across the ceiling.
These materials helped to create a dark and shadowy interior with simple undertones of brown, grey and gold, illuminated by low lights and the reflection of the copper-leaf detailing.
The tessellated wall patterns are complemented by triangular cornices. “Simple and sharp geometry is the defining aesthetic of this project, reinforced by the use of the best Mexican handcraft, a tribute to this country,” the architects added.
The space operates as a restaurant during the day, transforming into a concert hall and club at night.
A kitchen and bar area are positioned at the rear of the space, with the restaurant area off to one side. A dancing area with a raised, wooden stage and small backstage area leads out onto a large outdoor bar and terrace.
Small wooden stools are positioned along the front of the bar and grouped together with tables in the restaurant.
The Franco-Mexicans architects Emmanuel Picault, Ludwig Godefroy and Nicolas Sisto have just completed a new restaurant/club in Paris, called the Nüba. Located on the rooftops of Paris, right in the city centre, in the recently revitalised neighbourhood of gare d’ Austerlizt, the generous 1400sqm space is widely open on the river Seine.
This project is the story of a voyage.The journey of Lionel Bensemoun, owner of Le Baron (Paris, New York, London, Tokyo), with the purpose of giving a party in Mexico City made happened our first encounter with him.Living in Mexico City since a few years, this project of Nüba brought us back home to Paris, through our adopted country, Mexico.
According to the genesis of the project, we decided to flight a project from Mexico to Paris. Using Mexican references and materials, we landed a temple on top of the French capital, a revisited one, fit to host a music consecration.
Simple and sharp geometry is defining the aesthetic of the project, reinforced by the use of the best mexican handcraft, a tribute to this country.
Among all materials, the most significant we shipped were, 5 tons of volcanic stones from Veracruz to Le Havre, as well as 200 sqm of leather from Leon Guanajuato to cover the walls, and 300 sqm of Santa Clara Del Cobre copper leaf for the ceiling.
With the help of our friend and ally, architect Nicolas Sisto, we managed to gather together all the materials in Mexico and rebuild the project in Paris, on the rooftop of the cité de la mode et du design, built by architects Jakob & Macfarlane.
Restaurant during the day, and concert hall and club at night, the space is centred around a large terrace providing a fluent and festive runaround for the clients, passing from one interest spot to another, from the inner bar to the outdoor one, enjoying this way either the outdoor DJ set on the terrace, the one inside or maybe the band playing live music on the stage.
Architecture: Emmanuel Picault (Mexico), Ludwig Godefroy (Mexico), Nicolas Sisto (Paris) Conceptual team: Lionel Bensemoun, Jean Marie Tassy, Gael Personnaz, Emmanuel Picault, Ludwig Godefroy, Nicolas Sisto Industrial design: Atelier Antoine Daniel, Emmanuel Picault, Ludwig Godefroy Advisors: Helena Ich&Kar Administration in Mexico: Roberto Ayala Administration in Paris: Alice Stahl Interior finishing: Aaron Yepez, Jose Luis Madrigal Construction: Josue Caniah (JRC)
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