Hasta La Ideas

As part of today’s #1mCR Twitter fun we are giving away a couple of splendid prizes, including this set of six new titles from Laurence King. To be in with a chance of winning them, all you have to do is get your visual-thinking hat and read on…

As we reached 1m followers on Twitter this morning, we thought we would like to say thank you for helping us get there and offer up a great prize for one lucky CR reader.

Publishers Laurence King have kindly dontated six new books for us to giveaway (as displayed above).

They are: Draw Paint Print Like the Great Artists by Marion Deuchars; Fifty Years of Illustration by Lawrence Zeegen and Caroline Roberts; TM by Mark Sinclair; Editorial Design by Cath Caldwell and Yolanda Zappaterra; Post-Photography: The Artist with a Camera by Robert Shore; and 100 Ways to Create a Great Ad by Tim Collins.

As we’re celebrating a digital achievement, for this competition we thought we would turn the focus onto our other love: print. So to win this fine selection of paper-based objects, all you have to do is correctly guess the height of the pile when the six books are placed on top of one another*. Old school competition! (*Not end on end! Books will be piled up on top of one another, you know, in a conventional book-piling manner.)

If it helps, page numbers (and dimensions) of each of the books are available on the LK website. But you’re a canny lot – and we reckon someone can have a decent go at guessing the combined thickness of all six. If you guess correctly, or if you come closest to the exact figure as verified by our ruler-wielding friends at the publishers – you win the stack.

A few pointers:

– Answers in millimetres, in the comments below, please. Remember to leave your name and also email address along with your guess. If you don’t leave an email we won’t be able to contact you if your guess is correct.

– Tt would be wise to try and plump for a figure that no-one else has guessed so far, but in the event that the correct answer is left by several commenters, the first to have left the answer wins. (Instagram users will also be playing along and leaving comments on CR’s page.)

– The competition closes on Monday October 20th at 11am. Any answers posted after this will not be counted. The correct answer and winner’s name will be published on the post later that day.

Good luck!

The Society of Biology vient d’annoncer ses candidats pour l’édition de cette année. Le thème de 2014 est : « Home, Habitat and Shelter » et 800 soumissions ont été comptées, venant de photographes amateurs. Les gagnants pourront remporter 1,000 £ (500£ pour les participants les plus jeunes). La toile d’une araignée ou un oeuf à travers lequel on peut apercevoir un embryon : une sélection est disponible dans l’article.

Photo and caption by Lukas Gawenda / UK Society of Biology Photography Award 2014. “Bisons on Grand Prismatic Spring”. Grand Prismatic Spring, Wyoming, US: Bisons on Grand Prismatic Spring by Lukas Gawenda.

Photo and caption by Robert Cabagnot / UK Society of Biology Photography Award 2014. “A Shelter Designed by Nature”. Antipolo City, Rizal, Philippines: A shelter designed by nature by Robert Cabagnot.

Photo and caption by Krasimir Matarov / UK Society of Biology Photography Award 2014. “Spider Like From Another World”. Bulgaria, Predel: Spider, like from another world by Krasimir Matarov.

Photo and caption by Nagarjun Ram / UK Society of Biology Photography Award 2014. “Courage Doesn’t Always Roar”. Kabini, Karantaka, India: Courage doesn’t always roar by Nagarjun Ram.

Photo and caption by Wolfgang Weinhardt / UK Society of Biology Photography Award 2014. “Spectral Tarsier”. Tangkoko, Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia: Spectral tarsier by Wolfgang Weinhardt.

Photo and caption by Thomas Endlein / UK Society of Biology Photography Award 2014. “Parental Care in Parasitoid Wasps”. Brunei Darussalam, Borneo: Parental care in parasitoid wasps by Thomas Endlein.

Photo and caption by Kelsey Green / UK Society of Biology Photography Award 2014. “Striving Succulent”. Kolmanskop Ghost Town, Namibia: Striving succulent by Kelsey Green.

This complex of interlocking white buildings was designed by Elsa Urquijo Arquitectos to house the different activities of Spanish social charity Padre Rubinos (+ slideshow).

Spanish studio Elsa Urquijo Arquitectos designed Padre Rubinos Complex in A Coruña, a city on the north-west coast of Spain. The charity, Padre Rubinos, was founded in the city almost a century ago to provide social services for the community.

The white-rendered buildings of the complex occupy a 16,000-square-metre site and include a nursery school, sheltered accommodation for the elderly and homeless, and a chapel with a bell tower.

“The construction is conceived as a shelter, a serene space, unpretentious and [designed] to endure,” project architect Xavier Loureiro told Dezeen. “It is space that revolves around those individuals in need.”

Flat-roofed buildings of varying heights frame a central courtyard. A portico surrounds the buildings and the courtyard, creating a connection between the main square and the different areas of the complex.

Large sections of glazing in the facade provide entrance points and lighting for the interior spaces. “It seeks to strengthen the visual continuity between interior and exterior,” said the architect.

The use of covered walkways is intended to reference the cloistered design of historic religious buildings, and echo the charitable and religious purpose of the structure.

The portico is made up of stacked slabs, rather than continuous masonry, to give the site a more human scale and provide comfort for visitors approaching the huge complex.

“The use of horizontal lines arises from the search for peace and relaxation, creating a sequence of measured and ordered spaces,” said Loureiro.

At the rear of the paved courtyard, the ground steeply inclines with terraced planting and steps leading to a segment of the complex built above the level of the main square. A bell tower with a simple crucifix affixed to the facade is built into the slope.

A set of wooden double doors off the courtyard leads into the chapel below the bell tower.

In contrast to the stark white and block-like exterior of the complex, the interiors are clad in warm-toned wood and neutral-coloured flooring designed to add “humanity, serenity and warmth” to the space.

The chapel has pale wooden pews and a section of paneling along the lower parts of the walls. Recesses in the walls form overflow bench seating for the congregation.

Circulation corridors in each of the buildings have wood-lined alcoves with coat hooks and cubby-holes for storage.

The largest proportion of the Padre Rubinos Complex is taken up by a nursing home for the elderly, to the right of the central square. Living rooms and treatment areas are situated across the ground floor of this building, while residents’  bedrooms are on the upper two floors.

A nursey school is set on a single floor of the wing opposite the nursing home, with a narrow terrace in between. The nursery is positioned to form a connection between the different generations that use the space.

“A visual and symbolic relationship to the common areas of the nursing home was sought so that both generations can relate and bond,” said the architect.

The left-hand side of the complex is given over to a homeless shelter with a dining area and socialising rooms on the ground floor, and bedrooms on the first floor.

Accommodation for the sisters who run the services and offices that form the headquarters for the charity are housed in the blocks surrounding the shelter.

The post Elsa Urquijo’s campus for a Spanish charity
is made up of “serene” white buildings appeared first on Dezeen.

CR reached 1m followers on Twitter today, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to look at some of our most retweeted stories and, if you’re a CR follower, tell you a bit more about the million-strong gang you’re part of. To celebrate, we also have a great CR subscription offer for you…

Thanks to our followers we’ve just reached a milestone on Twitter – to celebrate that fact we’re offering 30% off all subscriptions packages until midnight (GMT) on Friday October 17 – go here for details.

Our very first tweet, sent out on February 23 2009, read “Creative Review’s first tweet”. We like to think that it was this kind of in-depth yet pithy analysis that helped us on our way to reaching a million followers this morning.

Looking back over our 14,000 or so tweets (exporting data from Twitter Analytics) many of them certainly did OK, plenty did very well, but a select few went RT-crazy.

In fact, two of our most popular tweets ever were sent out within the last couple of months: one linked to a story on the design of Aphex Twin’s highly-anticipated new record; the other linked to images of, yes, some radical Norwegian banknote design. A look back at the stats reveals that our followers are interested in a huge range of subjects.

So, where are you from?

Well, according to TweepsMap, 29.1% of our Twitter followers are in the US, 26.3% in the UK, 3.5% from Canada, and 3.2% in India.

Indonesia represents 3% of our Twitter audience. It’s a very international crowd with a further 8.7% of followers based in 191 different nations. Listed by city, the top five places are London (6%), New York (3%), LA (2%), Jakarta (2%) and Washington DC (1%).

And what do you like?

The results show that it’s as wide a set of subjects as our audience is international – and also reflects the breadth of creativity CR aims to cover.

Using MyTopTweet we can bring up the most retweeted CR tweets of our last 3,200 but, again, exporting from Analytics and reordering the data gives us a better idea of what was popular over the last two years.

Our most retweeted RTs or MTs – i.e. retweets of images tweeted by other people, or links to external sites – include a shot of a Dutch bricklaying machine in action, a Richard Jolley cartoon for Private Eye and the news that twelve of Tom Gauld‘s Guardian strips are now – or at least were at the time – available as prints.

But looking at the most retweeted tweets that link to our own blog stories, there was a really interseting mix. So, here’s the top ten, covering the last two years.

1. We’ve noticed how images have become key to Twitter over the last few years and this one, which linked to details on our just-published World Cup issue, seemed to sum up the state of the beautiful game:

Everything you need to know about what’s happened to football in one image http://t.co/U7uVkVdBIq pic.twitter.com/XyV3SJZFcG

— Creative Review (@CreativeReview) June 4, 2014

2. One of Twitter’s strong points is the ability to get a message out and have it shared by a community with a common bond, even if the news is rather sad:

The great Massimo Vignelli is very ill and will be spending his last days at home. He’d like you to write to him http://t.co/Nf796QIKFY

— Creative Review (@CreativeReview) May 9, 2014

3. Sometimes the subject matter can be a little suprising (here, banknote design) – but when it looks this good, it demonstrates how great work can get people talking about all manner of things:

Norway’s lovely new banknotes ft. pixellated images of a coastline whipped by the wind http://t.co/EHBxTDI4jx pic.twitter.com/4jxpauXEGJ

— Creative Review (@CreativeReview) October 8, 2014

4. No surprises here. Aphex Twin + new album + packaging by the Designers Republic x internet = RTs. A very popular tweet and blog post.

A look at the full artwork for Aphex Twin’s forthcoming album, Syro, by The Designers Republic http://t.co/T858gcNvER pic.twitter.com/gj6iuRn8Tk

— Creative Review (@CreativeReview) September 2, 2014

5. This one for a homeless charity in London also did well – a clever idea which produced some great artwork:

Street artists create murals around East London to promote youth homeless charity Depaul UK http://t.co/hUwvd5rgIB pic.twitter.com/m3e8AZbYkI

— Creative Review (@CreativeReview) March 21, 2014

6. And this is powerful stuff, too. Also, the campaign certainly seems to have had an effect, as Lego recently ended its links with Shell:

Greenpeace launches scathing new ad urging Lego to end its partnership with Shell http://t.co/GGwpeu7lXr pic.twitter.com/nNNDO8ZN2v

— Creative Review (@CreativeReview) July 8, 2014

7. This is great as it’s our most retweeted tweet which links back to the Feed section of our site. Great creative work from Istanbul:

Check out this Land Rover Topographic Calendar from TBWA Istanbul http://t.co/5kercPNX5a pic.twitter.com/odJS4fj9Ab

— Creative Review (@CreativeReview) June 11, 2014

8. Transport for London are a perennial CR Twitter favourite when it comes to communications projects produced for them. Add cycling into the mix and you have yourself a tweet with legs:

These new TfL posters for the Tour de France caught our attention http://t.co/7ABvP9DuiH pic.twitter.com/4qKCzaksBP

— Creative Review (@CreativeReview) June 16, 2014

9. And back to the World Cup. How to design a football kit – keeping to the FIFA rules:

So you want to design a World Cup kit? Better comply with FIFA’s 92-pages of rules http://t.co/u2LBOAHXiq pic.twitter.com/Z9bQc24Wjc

— Creative Review (@CreativeReview) June 4, 2014

10. Our tenth most retweeted tweet was news of Peter Chadwick’s launch of his fantastic archive of images of Brutalism:

Graphic designer Peter Chadwick to launch photographic archive of brutalist architecture http://t.co/jcvohOaPVW pic.twitter.com/lmRxbVICoy

— Creative Review (@CreativeReview) March 11, 2014

The above is certainly an eclectic mix – but the link between them all is great creativity.

To say thank you for following us, keep an eye on the blog today for new offers on magazine subscriptions, plus we have an Anthony Burrill print and a great selection of books from Laurence King up for grabs.

CR is on Twitter at @creativereview.

To celebrate reaching one million followers on Twitter, we’re also offering 30% off all subs packages until midnight (GMT) on Friday October 17 – go here for details.

Ziba turns 30 this year, and the renowned design company is understandably proud. To celebrate the diverse and lasting work of founder Sohrab Vossoughi, he and other design veterans discussed the future of product design. On the panel were Vossoughi, Allan Chochinov of SVA and Core77, John Jay of Wieden+Kennedy, and Aura Oslapas, previously Chief Design Officer for Best Buy, with questions and moderation by Carl Alviani. These folks had strong opinions, punchy advice, and more personality than your average lineup of industry heads. Here’s our synopsis of the key questions and insights.

The definition of “product” has shifted over time. What does it mean now and why?

Oslapas started off clarifying that a product has come to describe services and software, in addition to hardware. Vossoughi agreed, but pointed out that even as design becomes more integrated with business the consumer still thinks of “product” in physical terms. Jay, as a communications and advertising pro, disagreed, pointing out that in his field of design creating an emotional response and relationship to another product is itself a product. Chochinov jumped on this, noting that Product Design has never been a particularly clarifying term, and now the growth of interaction design has made things even more complicated: “I can never hope to have a career moniker that makes sense. If it weren’t so funny it would be cruel.” Referencing the recent Facebook/Ello debate, he pointed out that point of view is everything, since from one angle Facebook is the product, but in reality it’s us the users who are the profitable product. Oslapas countered that consumers still call the product by what it is, unless there’s an issue—”product” is just a business term for the thing that we sell, rather than name or noun used by the user. In Allen’s words: a product is something that needs to be fixed.

What are new impacts on the field and practice of design?

Social media was the first, albeit obvious, theme. In Jay’s estimation, user engagement is empowering enough that it’s changing everything. Ideas necessarily have to come from different places, and the production process is no longer a Push theory from the producer’s end. Oslapas credited design methodologies and tools that cross disciplines. Prototyping tools and new work models are both rapidly shifting expectations towards greater collaboration.

User-centeredness, as Chochinov put it, is design’s current but deeply problematic frame. “Users are part of the problem! Earth-centric design won’t fly with consumers, but it’s essential that we use the privilege of the design community towards making something of use at all.” This shifted into a scathing critique of what he sees as the main goals in design, namely providing convenience, beauty, pleasure to anyone with the disposable income to afford it.

From left: Allan Chochinov, Aura Oslapas, Carl Alviani, John Jay & Sohrab Vossoughi

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