For those of us with an unambiguous interest in The Past, the archives of British Pathe are nigh on gold. The century old company has its roots in the development of both motion film and the newsreel, and had stake in news and film from 1896 through the 1970s. As a result they’ve been there to cover some of the most crucial, terrifying and inspiring historical moments of the 20th century. Their archive is entirely digitized and available online, most notably on YouTube, where you can browse over 85,000 of their original film segments for free. Most also feature original commentary, clarifying and historically situating moments many of us have only heard about. Titanic footage? Nazi rally? Fatal suffragette political demonstrations? Early Schwarzenegger show reels? They’ve got it all.
While the vast majority of footage features newsworthy social or political subjects, matters of culture and humor are certainly included too. As counterbalance to the playlist of Days That Shook the World, consider perhaps 20th Century Hair, or The World Cup. For video art dabblers, history wonks, and folks who enjoy feeling like they were born at a better (or worse) time in history, this is an especially good rabbit hole.
As an introduction to the breadth and specificity of their archive, here are a few choice samples of technological inventions British Pathe found it worthwhile to cover.
As a designer, John-Michael Ekeblad has long been interested in repurposing and recycling materials from the deteriorating urban landscape. Whether in his native Sweden or adopted home of NYC, Ekeblad finds nostalgia in such rubble, yearning to connect the past and present…
The Inside Awards will showcase interiors from across the world as part of the Inside World Festival of Interiors, set to take place from 2 to 4 October at the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore.
Sustainable Industries Education Centre, Tonsley Tafe, Adelaide, Australia by MPH Architects – Creative Re-use category
“It’s fascinating to see submissions from all over the world and how they differ from continent to continent, it makes one reconsider what is good design,” said Nigel Coates, who is sitting on the judging panel for Inside 2014. “Winning projects must be of spatial interest, not just a dressing.”
This year the awards features 60 nominations from 21 countries across nine different categories, and the winners will be announced during the festival in Singapore.
Cine Times, Hong Kong, China by One Plus Partnership Limited – Civic, Culture and Transport category
Harrods Escalator Hall, London, United Kingdom by Make Architects – Retail category
As the official media partner, Dezeen will be at the awards night to bring you the highlights from the speaker programmes and interview the category winners. Watch all our movies from the 2013 festivals »
» Johnnie Walker House, Seoul Cheong Dam, Seoul, South Korea by Asylum Creative Pte Ltd » Christopher’s, Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom, by De Matos Ryan » Manhattan bar, Singapore by Distillery » Mott32, Hong Kong, China by Joyce Wang Studio » Auriga, Mumbai, India by Sanjay Puri Architects » Riviera Bar, Sao Paulo, Brazil by Studio mk27 » Central Writers House (CDL), Moscow, Russia by Wowhaus
Mott32, Hong Kong, China by Joyce Wang Studio – Bars & Restaurants category
Civic, Culture and Transport
» The Chapel, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam by a21studio » Regional Terminal at Christchurch Airport, Christchurch, New Zealand by BVN Donovan Hill in association with Jasmax » The Sodoh Higashiyama, Kyoto, Japan by FHAMS » Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Tasmania, Australia by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp » Cine Times, Hong Kong, China by One Plus Partnership Limited » Nanchang Isun International Cinema, Hong Kong, China One by Plus Partnership Limited » National Design Centre, Singapore by SCDA Architects
» FIT! The Canary Islands Tourism and Innovation Factory, Adeje, Spain by gpy arquitectos » Architecture Factory, Cork, Ireland by Marc O Riain (CIT) & Neil Tobin (RKD) » Sustainable Industries Education Centre – Tonsley Tafe, Adelaide, Australia by MPH Architects » Design Republic Design Commune, Shanghai, China, by Neri&Hu Design and Research Office » Architect’s office at Kim Yam Road, Singapore Park by Associates Pte Ltd
Architect’s office at Kim Yam Road, Singapore Park by Associates Pte Ltd – Creative Re-use category
Display
» Line Soul, Beijing, China by Hallucinate Design » Sales & Exhibition Centre of ZhongShan Vanke Baiyue Wan, ZhongShan, China by Mission & Associates Limited » IDC SpaceL research and display space for the International Design Centre, Singapore, by Singapore University of Technology and Design » Zi Garden/Tangquan Tea Club in Huizhou, Huizhou, China by Taiwan DaE International Design Career » Zen Resort & Spa Sales & Exhibition Center, Yichun, China by Taiwan DaE International Design Career
Zen Resort & Spa Sales & Exhibition Center, Yichun, China by Taiwan DaE International Design Career – Display category
Education and Health
» Dalarna Media Library, Falun, Sweden by ADEPT » Abedian School of Architecture, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia by Cook Robotham Architectural Bureau LTD » Cove 2, Singapore by Lekker Architects Pte Ltd » Architecture Factory, Cork, Ireland by Marc O Riain (CIT) & Neil Tobin (RKD) » Toshin Satellite Preparatory School, Kobe, Japan by Matsuya Art Works » Interior renovation project of the concert hall of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Taito-ku, Tokyo, Japan by Nikken Sekkei Ltd » South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, Australia by Woods Bagot
Dalarna Media Library, Falun, Sweden by ADEPT – Education and Health category
Hotels
» The Tent, Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa, Vietnam by a21studio » Tama Hotel Phnom Penh Tower [D22H22], Phnom Penh, Cambodia by FHAMS » Hilton Sukhumvit Bangkok, Thailand by PIA Interior Company Limited
Hilton Sukhumvit Bangkok, Thailand, PIA Interior Company Limited – Hotels category
Offices
» ASB North Wharf, Auckland, New Zealand by BVN Donovan Hill in association with Jasmax » The Barbarian Group, New York, United States by Clive Wilkinson Architects » DonorsChoose.Org Headquarters, New York, United States by Eight Inc. Sahibinden.com, Istanbul, Turkey by Erginoğlu & Çalışlar Architecture » Arkwright, Oslo, Norway by Haptic Architects » ANZ Tower, Sydney, Australia by Hassell » Hub & SCL 5, Nokbeon-dong, Eunpyung-gu, Seoul, South Korea by Hyunjoon Yoo Architects » Flamingo Shanghai, Shanghai, China by Neri&Hu Design and Research Office » Architects office at Kim Yam Road, Singpaore by Singapore Park + Associates Pte Ltd » Architects 0ffice, New Delhi, India by Spaces Architects.ka » Factory office renovation, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam by Vo Trong Nghia Architects » National Australia Bank, 700 Bourke St, Melbourne, Australia by Woods Bagot
Architects 0ffice, New Delhi, India by Spaces Architects.ka – Offices category
Residential
» Cavendish Heights Residence, Hong Kong, China by Affect-t » Stanhope Garden Project, London, United Kingdom by Architecture Project » The Avenue, Sydney, Australia by Arent+Pyke in collaboration with TFAD » Ganna Design, Taipei, Taiwan by Ganna Design » Idunsgate Residence, Oslo, Norway by Haptic Architects » Xintiandi Penthouse, Shanghai, China by Joyce Wang Studio » Chu Lin Road Apartment, Singapore by Manor Studio Pte Ltd » Montee Karp Residence, Malibu, United States by Patrick Tighe Architecture » Chiltern House, Singapore by WOW Architects/Warner Wong Design
» Adriano Zumbo Patisserie, Melbourne, Australia by Elenberg Fraser » Harrods Escalator Hall, London, United Kingdom by Make Architects » Camper Showroom/Office, Shanghai, China by Neri&Hu Design and Research Office » Just Cavalli, Bangkok, Thailand by OpenAir Studio » Zeeen Shop, Tehran, Iran by Persian Garden Studio » Cultura Bookstore, Sao Paulo, Brazil by Studio mk27
Adriano Zumbo Patisserie, Melbourne, Australia by Elenberg Fraser – Retail category
News: New York studio The Living has completed this year’s MoMA PS1 gallery pavilion – a cluster of circular towers built from bricks that have been grown from corn stalks and mushrooms (+ slideshow).
Hy-Fi was the winning project in the annual Young Architects Program (YAP) contest, which each year invites emerging architects to propose a temporary structure that will host MoMA Ps1‘s summer events.
Designed by The Living principal David Benjamin, the structure is built from entirely from biodegradable materials.
Each of the bricks used to construct it were grown rather than manufactured, using a combination of agricultural byproducts and mushroom mycelium – a kind of natural digestive glue.
Specially designed moulds were used to cultivate the bio-bricks. These were coated in a light-refracting film developed by materials firm 3M and some were then built into the structure around the top, helping to bounce light down inside.
Gaps in the brickwork also help to naturally ventilate the interior using the stack effect, drawing cool air in at the bottom and pushing hot air out at the top.
According to MoMA PS1, the tower is designed to create a “pleasant microclimate” throughout the summer.
“Hy-Fi offers shade, colour, light, views, and a futuristic experience that is refreshing, thought-provoking, and full of wonder and optimism,” said the gallery in a statement.
Ahead of the announcement of the winners of this year’s Type Directors Club awards, we have the judges’ choices of their favourite projects this year
July 16 will see the opening reception and exhibition of the 60th Type Directors Club Communication Design Competition (TDC60) and the 17th annual TDC Typeface Design Competition (TDC 2014) in New York. In addition, each judge chose his or her personal favourite from all the entries, which are shown here.
Oliver Reichenstein (Information Architects) chose Hajime Tsushima‘s posters for the Japan Graphic Designers Association Hiroshima declaring ‘antiwar’ (below) and ‘peace’ (top)
Debra Bishop (More magazine) chose notebooks by Susanne Hoerner and Strichpunkt Design for typehype.com. “The Luise collection portrays the young Queen Luise of Prussia and the styles prevalent at the turn of the last century. The pages are completely blank with a deep-embossed hot-foil cover, which is available in 36 individual varieties from A to Z and 0 to 9. The endpaper protecting the brilliant-white pages features decorations to match the cover.”
And Ted Halbur from Target’s choice is the Drop Caps series of Penguin books, with covers designed by Jessica Hische, “a series of twenty-six collectible hardcover editions of fine works of literature, each featuring on its cover a specially commissioned illustrated letter of the alphabet”. Art director: Paul Buckley. Publisher and editorial director: Elda Rotor
Debbie Millman (Design Observer) chose the newly renovated Public Theater in New York designed by Pentagram‘s Paula Scher with Andrew Freeman, Courtney Gooch, Rafael Medina and Ennead Architects. “In the two decades since Paula Scher first designed the identity for the Public Theater, the exuberant graphics have become an iconic, welcoming presence in New York. For a major revitalization of the theater’s home in the historic Astor Library, Scher worked with renovation architects Ennead to translate the identity into an environment that celebrates the Public as a theater for the ‘public’. The reconfigured lobby centers on a circular front desk that doubles as a dimensional, large-scale version of the logo, while the various theaters are identified with typography inset into the building’s distinctive arches. The box office has been sniped with a colorful collage of Public posters designed by Scher. Outside, the restored façade features the logo rendered as a glass marquee canopy”. Principal type: Knockout
Photography: Peter Mauss, Esto Photography, and James Shanks
Will Staehle (willco)’s favoruite was the 3D-Printed book jacket by Helen Yentus which we feature in our March issue. Design: Helen Yentus and MakerBot (Thomas James). Project manager: Lisa D’Agostino and Nicholas Joshi (MakerBot). Production manager: John Sharp 3D consultant: Leonid Yentus MakerBot studio director: Lane Feuer. Publisher: Riverhead Books. Principal type: Futura
Paul Sych (Faith) chose this poster by Wing Lau for Menace, an exhibition by illustrator Chris Yee at the Kind Of gallery in Sydney.”Instead of filling the poster with selected pieces of the artist’s work, they have been left out completely. The design resembles the grid structure of comic books, capturing the essence of how Yee wanted us to explore an epic world that is dangerous but exciting”.
Jackie Seow (Simon and Schuster) chose Uselessness is Gorgeous, part of Sagmeister & Walsh‘s The Happy Show at the Institute of Contemporary Art. Design: Jordan Amer, Santiago Carrasquilla, Simon Egli, Martin Gnat, Esther Li, Verena Michelitch, and Jessica Walsh (AD). CD: Stefan Sagmeister.
In the typeface competition, Ellen Lupton (MICA) chose Sori by Sebastian Moser, “a typeface that combines elements from the Latin and the Korean writing system (Hangul), in particular it takes the letters from the Latin alphabet and the rule of syllable formation from the Korean font system. As a result words are written in ‘block format’ (every syllable fits into an imaginary quadrant) instead of being written from left to right and one after another as we are used to in the English language. Each letter is designed in such a way that it nicely fits into the imaginary syllable block.” Programmer: Alexis Luengas. Concultant: Young-Hun Jung. School of Design of Pforzheim University
Jesse Ragan chose Metro Nova by Toshi Omagari: “The Metro Nova typeface is the next-generation version of William Addison Dwiggins’ Metro design, released into the Linotype library in 1930 as a sans serif typeface that was particularly popular in North America through the early 1950s. Metro Nova was created to meet today’s wide spectrum of digital and print requirements without sacrificing the appeal of the original Metro”
Andy Clymer (Hoefler & Co) chose Odesta by Ondrej Job of Urtd in Bratislava: “a decorative script typeface with detached strokes and pronounced ball terminals”
And finally Georg Seifert (Glyphs) picked Azer by Wael Morcos°, Ian Party and Pascal Zoghbi from 29Letters: “Azer in Arabic means friendly, ready to assist and lend a hand. This typeface combines simple lines with careful detailing to create a serious but approachable look. The Arabic is a Naskh / Kufi hybrid and retains a balance between calligraphic angular cuts and unadorned construction”
Facsimile of the CR launch issue produced for our 30th anniversary
Creative Review launched in 1980 with a distinctive square format and 90-degree logo designed by Bob Bateman who died this week. Former colleagues Michael Chamberlain and Noreen Laurie remember the birth of CR and Bob’s contribution to its enduring success
Bob Bateman (pictured below during his time at Centaur) was one of the great British magazine art directors (write Michael Chamberlain and Noreen Laurie). He was a true professional able to turn his talent from the design or revamp of a myriad of mainly business magazines to the promotional media packs that underpinned their very existence.
Creative Review is a lasting legacy of his success.
In 1979, the late Anthony Nares, then managing director of Marketing Week Communications, Michael Chamberlain, co-founder editor/publisher of Marketing Week, and Torin Douglas, media journalist and first editor of CR, briefed Bob on plans to launch a magazine that would enshrine the best of commercial creativity and design. It would be called Creative Review.
The naysayers were adamant there wasn’t a market – it couldn’t be commercially viable.
Noreen Laurie, former advertisement director of Campaign, agreed and then, in a Damascene conversion, she saw Bob’s first design boards: the square format, the impossibly large logo running horizontally and vertically [set in a version of Advertisers Gothic], the white out of black reversals showcasing colour images and text. To see it was to love it. Creative Review was born and Noreen became its sales director and publisher.
Feature on packaging design from the launch issue of CR, written by Terence Conran
Not without its problems – who, in their right minds, would launch a magazine where all the advertising artwork had to be specially and expensively produced?
Moreover, who would buy a magazine that was (then) quarterly, therefore with no “absence factor” to quote the most esteemed creative of that time, Jeremy Bullmore, chairman of J Walter Thompson.
And could a fledgling magazine company support and sustain such a uniquely beautiful but financially challenged sister? (Marketing Week, in which Bob was also involved in a seemingly endless series of redesigns, was only two years old.)
Spread from feature on the use of celebrities in commercials from the launch issue of CR, written by John Webster
The answer was yes. Bob prevailed. And from the day Creative Review was launched, placed on the seats of delegates to the 1980 Advertising Association conference in Brighton, the magazine was recognised as a stunning and significant addition to the creative world.
On a personal level, gleaned from many subsequent, successful design and re-design projects with Bob at Centaur, which included DesignWeek, Precision Marketing and Televisual magazines, we all learned from Bob’s towering patience: “Sleep on it,” was his advice when it came to making design decisions.
Sleep well, Bob. Much of the glory that was and is Creative Review, now one of the world’s largest selling creative magazines, belongs to you.
Your creative flair prevailed and Creative Review is a fitting tribute. Commercially, we just moved it from quarterly to monthly and went with the flow.
Michael Chamberlain, founder editor/publisher Marketing Week & Noreen Laurie (Chamberlain) former publisher, Creative Review
Bob Bateman, Art Director (1952-2014) d.June 15, 2014
I’ve just been leafing through the first ten issues of CR and it’s brought back great memories (as Patrick will remember, I had to lend CR my copy of the first edition to reproduce for the 30th anniversary, since Centaur’s library isn’t as complete as it should be!)
Bob and I were lucky to be given such a free hand in the early days, to try things out in the new format. We loved the fact that the back cover was the mirror-image of the front, so it seemed you were looking through a transparency (until, one day, commercial reality insisted that there should be an ad on the back cover). I remember the shock when it was realised that we’d used 35 separate images to illustrate the ‘celebrities’ feature in the first issue – every celebrity photo in the Marketing Week picture library! And John Cleese, Richard Briers and Billy Connolly opening up about the ads they liked doing and the ones they didn’t….
And of course every creative director in town wanted to write for us. Happy days. Torin Douglas, launch editor, Creative Review
British Airways’ Magic of Flying digital billboard, which saw a child stand up and point when a BA plane flew overhead, has enjoyed a lucrative advertising awards season, capped off last week by the Direct Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. The ad’s charm lies in its portrayal of a simple truth: that planes look magical to children. But it took an awful lot of tech to bring such a simple idea to life: here’s how it was done…
The campaign ran on two billboards in London for a six week period last winter, one in Piccadilly Circus and the other along the M4 route to Heathrow Airport. Both billboards were of course underneath the flight path into Heathrow. As well as featuring the child standing up to point at the plane – impressive enough as it is – the billboard also displayed information on the actual flight, including its number and where it had come from. To do this, the team at OgilvyOne, the agency behind the campaign, mounted a special type of ADS-B antenna on a roof in central London, to read every aircraft’s transponder data within a 200km radius.
The billboards would show other ads for most of the time, only switching to BA’s campaign when a relevant flight flew overhead. “Using data to obtain the planes’ location speed, altitude and call-sign, we created a virtual ‘tripwire’ in the sky, triggering the billboards to display our ads every time a British Airways plane flew overhead,” explains Jon Andrews, concept creator and creative technologist on the project. “Although this sounds relatively easy, what the public saw as magic was actually a carefully orchestrated feat of technology.”
Film of the billboard in action: while relatively few people saw it in the flesh, many more saw the effect online
“Firstly,” he continues, “we needed to create a super low latency, custom-built platform that processed the aircraft data quickly enough – if our ad triggered even a fraction of a second early or too late, the child would be pointing at clear sky instead of a plane and the ad would be a failure!
“Secondly, we needed to know the destination of each aircraft so we could display relevant messaging – something that’s not actually included in the transponder data being broadcast from each plane. We had to build a complex database that pulled in call-sign data from British Airways HQ, something that refreshed on a daily basis, convert it to a flight number and then work out the route. Our billboards also had the ability to know if it was too cloudy to actually see the planes. We linked each billboard to their own cloud height sensor, giving them the functionality to turn themselves off if the base cloud height was too low.”
The campaign even required that the team negotiate a new style of media deal, so that they only paid for each activation of the ad, rather than a full-time booking, which is the typical model. “We worked with the outdoor media company to modify their entire ad serving platform,” says Andrews, “creating a new ‘interrupt’ mechanism for them to use in the future for other innovative campaigns.”
Case study film for the campaign
Most challenging to Andrews was bringing all this tech together to create a seamless execution of the campaign. “I think the biggest challenge we faced was creating something that worked properly,” he says. “There was so much going on technically behind the scenes that everything needed to be perfect. Like a bad magician, if the execution was poor, the effect would have been ruined.
“The reason I think it resonated with people so well was because all the technology was invisible, letting the idea come to the fore,” he concludes.
Credits: Agency: OgilvyOne Concept creator/Creative technologist: Jon Andrews ECDs: Emma De La Fosse, Charlie Wilson Creative director: Andy Davis Creative technologist: Lorenzo Spadoni Production company: Patricia Murphy Films Director: Patricia Murphy
Pinhole camera afficionado Justin Quinnell has a startling new portrait technique which produces truly ghastly images. Behold, the Awfulogramme
Quinnell says he developed the technique in response to the dreadful British weather which makes obtaining enough light to create standard pinhole camera images a problem. “I came up with this technique when trying to do pinhole photography workshops at universities throughout the winter of 2013 – 14,” he says. “It was so overcast that every day resembled a continual total solar eclipse with exposure times (three seconds in sunlight) going over 30 seconds. This, combined with the usual hurricane conditions which occur every winter in my beloved country, required drastic indoor pinhole action. The Awfulogramme was born!”
According to Quinnell, to take an Awfulogramme you will need the following:
A beer can camera loaded with light sensitive photographic paper (video on how to make one here) and access to a darkroom with chemicals etc.
Two hand held ‘Manual’ flash guns. (As powerful as you can find, 32 guide number is good)
A slave unit (A gizmo which sets off a flashgun when it ‘sees’ another flash going off)
A victim
Several hands to hold and operate all this stuff!
And here’s how to take the picture, in Quinnell’s own words:
1 – Find an indoor area. (This allows the shutter to be removed for a good number of seconds in ambient light before the light sensitive paper gets too affected)
2- Charge up the flashguns and hold them frighteningly close to the subject-victim. The flash guns need to be pointed at the subject rather than the camera. (I find its best to get the subject to hold these in position, which gives them something to do their hands whilst looking scared!)
3- Peel the shutter off the camera then hold it far to close to the subject-victim and set off the flashgun (the one without the slave unit).
4 – When the subject-victim starts recoiling and saying things like “Whoa, that was hot” whist screaming “I can’t see!”, replace the shutter on the camera then apologise for not suggesting they close their eyes before the exposure.
5 – Develop the paper negative then scan into a scanner to make a positive, messing about with inverse and contrast and levels settings if required.
Quinnell’s images are currently on display at the Bear Pit Open Gallery in Stokes Croft, Bristol, where he has a residency until September and where local grafitti artists havebeen adding their own touches to the pictures
The exhibition will evolve over the summer to take in more images and, in its final phase, the Awfullo, a tale loosely based on the Gruffalo illustrated with more of Quinnell’s pinhole grotesques.
Anthony Burrill, filmmaking duo Stephenson/Bishop and design studio Our Place have collaborated on a new identity and brand film for London Sculpture Workshop, a not-for-profit centre open to creatives working in 3D.
LSW was founded in 2012 by artists Giles Corby and Jessica Mello. Facilities include wood and metal workshops and a ceramics space. Mel Fong Brown, a film and advertising agent, has been using the space to practise metal work since early this year and was recently asked to help the workshop reach a wider audience.
Fong Brown contacted Burrill, who created a new typographic logo and recruited London studio Our Place to make posters, postcards, stationery and signage based on his design. The logo features stencilled lettering, which has been abbreviated for posters. The black and orange colour palette reflects safety notices in place around the workshop, and business cards have been printed on to greyboard for an industrial feel.
“Anthony came to us with a selection of logo ideas and typefaces to develop further,” say Alex Gross and Ted Heffernan, who founded Our Place with Corin Kenington last year while studying at UAL. “We wanted to adapt the logo to fit more with the sculptural theme of the project, and created a stencil from the basic blocks of the individual letterforms, breaking it up to reflect the physical construction associated with sculpture,” they explain.
“The colour choices were fairly simple, contrasting the black with the orange used in the workshop itself. Texture was a key theme behind our LSW branding, [and] we felt our use of greyboard reflected the space really well and gave the stationary a gritty, industrial, man made look. To complete this we letterpressed the business cards and made three bespoke versions, giving a unique touch to the identity,” they add. “Postcards are based on workshop signage, and are greyboard on one side and glossy white on the reverse to illustrate the process of “construction to end result.”
Business cards
Postcards
As part of the project, Burrill also suggested making a brand film, and contacted architectural photographer Jim Stephenson, who was due to film Burrill for Lightbulb, his weekly video series profiling different makers and their processes, co-produced by Edwin Bishop. The film features interviews with a range of artists that use the workshop and some beautifully shot close-ups of equipment in action. Stephenson says it aims to capture the sense of curiosity he experienced when visiting LSW for the first time.
“I wanted to pick everything up, and click all the switches and buttons on the machinery and play with things. I think the stills and video we did show that, with all the close ups of the tools and such, the peeks round corners and the incredible bits of machinery…I also wanted the video to pick up on the different ways the artists work and where they get their inspiration from, rather than what they specifically use the workshop for, which is hopefully more implied,” he says.
Stephenson also spent a day shooting stills for the workshop, which have been used by Our Place on posters. “On a purely aesthetic aspect, the space is beautiful – the lighting mixes big soft natural sunlight in one space with all these red heat lamps and tungstens coming through the red plastic curtains next door. I could easily have spent a week in there with my cameras,” says Stephenson.
“Since I rarely use a darkroom anymore, I never really do much with my hands apart from turn dials on my camera. It’s all quite clean and clinical, so I love going to places like London Sculpture Workshop where the mess can be celebrated a bit and where people are breaking a sweat to physically make things with their hands,” he adds.
The identity perfectly showcases the industrial side to sculpture: while artists may be using the space to produce beautiful and refined pieces of art, it’s a noisy, messy, hands-on process and everything in the identity, from Stephenson’s stills to Burrill’s stencil, reflects that. LSW will also be launching a new website in the next few months – for now, membership details and info are available at londsconsculptureworkshop.org
The UK edition of Wired magazine has undergone a redesign, with new layouts, new templates and new typefaces from A2 and Sawdust. We asked creative director Andrew Diprose about the changes, and Sawdust’s Jonathan Quainton and Rob Gonzalez about their striking 3D lettering (above)…
The cover of Wired UK’s August issue is startling. Under a bold red coverline sits a menacing image of Andy Serkis as Caesar in the forthcoming Planet of the Apes, with bloodshot eyes and red warpaint smeared across his forehead.
The cover follows a similar formula to previous issues of Wired but inside, the magazine has been redesigned. It’s not a radical departure in terms of style, but changes include new templates and grids, a new layout and new typefaces from A2, plus some experimental 3D lettering for section openers created by Sawdust. Creative director Andrew Diprose says the changes aim to simplify the reading experience, while allowing for a more generous use of space and imagery…
iPad edition
Print edition
CR: Why did you feel the magazine needed a redesign?
Andrew Diprose: I’ve been with Wired since its UK launch five years ago. We’ve introduced a lot of gradual changes, but it got to a point where it was time to strip things back to the bare bones – right down to the grid, template, guides and type settings.
CR: Was it done in-house?
AD: Yes, but we also brought in Matt Willey to act as consultant in the early stages. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Matt in the past, and it was really important to have him on board. We’re working on the magazine every day, and we wanted a fresh pair of eyes that could approach the template differently.
CR: What are the key changes you’ve made to the magazine? And what issues with the old layout were you hoping to address?
AD: One example would be changing to a 14 column grid. We enjoyed the flelxibility of running two, three and four columns on a 12-column grid. With a couple of floating columns, some of the challenges with mix of stories in the front of book have been solved.
The new template also runs closer to the edge of the trim. It gives us a little more flexibility with space but ensures the word count stays similar. With the floating columns, we can introduce extra sidebars or kickers without disrupting the flow of the body copy as much. We can also add micro stories that don’t require a hundred words.
Another change is the structure – we’ve moved the longer features to the back, so they can run a little more text heavy, although they’ll still be broken up with snappier, image-led articles so the read doesn’t become too dense. In the back of the magazine, we had a great section called Test, where the team would review new equipment like smartphones and cameras, but I always felt it was in a bit of a ghetto in that position. We’ve now combined it with our Fetish section (which covers the month’s cleverest, most beautiful product) and created a really exciting section, now called Gear.
CR: You’ve also introduced new typefaces from A2 – could you tell us more about these? AD: We’re a big fan of A2’s work, especially ‘Beckett’, but we wanted to move it on a bit for WIRED, so they’ve done some work rounding it off a little. We wanted to push away from Tungsten for display type, but we needed to have something pretty condensed, and wanted the option of running headlines super big. We were looking for a set of three weights in different widths. Beckett seemed like a good starting place – it’s now just a little more lifestyle, a little friendlier.
CR: And what about Sawdust’s new type for section openers? AD: Our old section openers were done by Studio 8 – they were great, but we wanted something new and exciting, something that almost looked like an image.
CR: What was the design inspired by? Jonathan Quainton (Sawdust): The typeface was inspired by Fast Company and Playstation, previous projects of ours which Andrew referenced while handing us the brief. These projects contained very progressive and challenging typography so with this in mind we realised it was a great opportunity to produce something playful that would appeal to and entertain the readers of WIRED…constructing the letters was an exploratory process as the aim was to disregard conventions and preconceptions of traditional typography whilst retaining readability.
CR: How was the type created? JQ: The final typography was treated using Photoshop and was all manually drawn using brushes. We like to explore how light and shadows react by taking our own photography and then using them as a reference point when redrawing on the computer.
Rob Gonzalez (Sawdust): The Playstation and Fast Company work Andrew had referenced gave the typography dimensionality within an ethereal environment. So for us it was a staged process, firstly designing the typeface and later applying the treatment.
CR: The new issue features some great full bleed photography and illustration, too. Are you placing more emphasis on this from now on? AD: Yes, that said we’ve always wanted to be able to show off illustration and photography in a generous manner. Wired and Condé Nast really pride themselves on great reproduction, and want to show off images in a big, luxurious way. In the past, I think we’ve tried to fit too much on the page. Now, I’d rather edit a little harder and show off our art to it’s full potential, whether on paper or a glorious backlit screen.
On the cover, too, I favour simple strong imagery – newsstands are still so important to us, and it’s that balance between keeping things simple and being ‘shouty’. This month’s is a really powerful image, and we’ve added high build gloss varnish to bring out all the cracks and creases in [Serkis]’s face. We always aim for our print offering to feel good in the hand.
CR: What changes have you made to the digital editions? AD: A lot of our readership experiences Wired on tablet and mobile, so it was essential to have a redesign run effectively over all platforms – we wanted to add some new details and a different approach to using the space available on the iPads and Samsung editions. We’ve added rule detailing. We’ve also moved distracting buttons and navigation points into a left hand column, now we can run them with without compromising the main page composition.
Every six months or so, I think everything we knew about the way we approach the tablet edition is wrong. Previously it was very busy – a tight design, full pages, lots of animation – but I don’t think people want to read like that now. They are enjoying simple galleries, video and audio content that enrich the storytelling, the actual reading experience wants to be much lighter and less demanding. The new design, in print and on tablet, feels less claustrophobic – it’s like a breath of fresh air.”
CR: And how would you say Wired UK has changed, visually, since it launched?
AD: As our very visually literate readership and audience has grown and matured, I like to think we’ve grown and matured too. The imagery, layout and the way we approach features in particular is a little more restrained, a little more considered. We get really positive feedback from the creative community, but it’s important to us to keep WIRED design (like the magazine’s content) innovating. I want people to be surprised, to pick up WIRED and be challenged, to think, ‘woah, I didn’t expect that!’
The August issue of Wired magazine is available in newsagents from July 3. To subscribe, see wired.co.uk/subscriptions
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