Hasta La Ideas

While this writer has spent some time with some of the most recently famous “art games” like Passage and The Graveyard and certainly appreciates them for what they are, he hasn’t been particularly moved by any of the experiences beyond a basic “Huh” as everything a video game seems to try to pull off as “Art” with a capital “A” doesn’t seem to quite make it, beyond maybe the pure craft of the job at hand. But perhaps that’s because he’s showing his aged form, as video games seem to have become one of the new hot mediums of expression, at least according to New York magazine’s coverage of designer/artist Mark Essen, who has become a huge part of this video game-as-art movement, particularly with his game Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist, and has all the makings of becoming something of a big deal in the art world thanks to his prominent place in the New Museum‘s “The Generational: Younger Than Jesus” exhibit, which opens next week. So if you want to be considered “with it” and/or “hep” (and/or “hip”) you should read up on him, before it’s too late and you end up like a bland, base metaphor for life like in Passage.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

Npower commercial, agency: Beattie McGuinness Bungay; Creative director: Bil Bungay; Copywriter: James Loxley; Production company: Aardman; director: Merlin Crossingham

It’s Friday, so it must be time for a round-up of great new advertising work, along with some other treats. First up is a new Npower ad from Beattie, McGuinness, Bungay. The ad stars Wallace & Gromit, fresh from their stint as fashionistas in a campaign for Harvey Nicks. Here the charming duo demonstrate the advantages of an energy efficient boiler.

Ray Ban Super Chameleon, agency: Cutwater, San Francisco
Next up is the latest spot in Ray Ban’s Never Hide campaign. The low-fi feel of the earlier spots continues in this viral ad, where a chameleon is tormented in the name of fashion.

Schweppes posters, agency: Mother London; illustrator: David Hopkins

Mother London has created this new poster campaign for Schweppes. Inspired by 18th century artist and satirist William Hogarth, a new ad will be released every two weeks until the end of the year, all of which will reference current affairs. Naturally then, the first ads in the series remark upon the current financial crisis.

8 Kilomètres, agency: Mother London

Also from Mother is this viral campaign for Stella, which sees Die Hard, 8 Mile and 24 reimagined as French cinema classics. Shown above is 8 Kilomètres, and the rest of the films can be viewed here.

Ikea PS, agency: Nordpol; production company: Parasol Island

Ad agency Nordpol in Hamburg has created this ethereal ad for Ikea.

Child Bereavement Charity posters, agency: BBH; creatives: Claudia Southgate, Verity Fenner

Bartle Bogle Hegarty created this poignant new poster campaign for The Child Bereavement Charity which aired to coincide with Mother’s Day in the UK.

Pictoplasma Conference opening animation, directed and designed by David O’Reilly

Moving away from advertising, here is David O’Reilly’s (a former CR Creative Future) beautiful opening animation for the recent Pictoplasma Conference in Berlin.

Vellum, Slices of a Virtual Sculpture by Robert Seidel

Finally, we end on an artwork by Robert Seidel, which is currently on show at the SKT Tower in Seoul. The beautiful “virtual sculpture” is shown across multiple LED screens within the space.

Farrow resumes its longstanding relationship with the Pet Shop Boys with the sleeve for the duo’s latest album, Yes.

“When we had our first meeting about this album, Neil and Chris said that this was their most ‘pop’ album in a long time and the idea of creating something very bright and colourful – as we had for their ‘Introspective’ album – really appealed to them,” says Mark Farrow. “They had also been inspired by the Gerhard Richter 4900 exhibition at the Serpentine gallery which featured panels of brightly coloured squares.”

Gerhard Richter 4900 Colours: Version II, 2007, Enamel paint on Aludibond, 49 Panels, each 97 × 97 cm, La Collection de la Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la création, © 2008 Gerhard Richter

“Although the Richter paintings look stunning on a gallery wall, as an idea for a CD cover it felt a little tired and we felt we had ‘been there’,” Farrow says. “The tick was obviously inspired by the album’s title ‘Yes’. Reducing the title to a symbol that encompassed the other elements the band had requested just seemed to work; it’s instant and memorable and pop. The tick is made up of eleven coloured squares, one for each track on the album. It’s made up of eleven coloured squares, one for each track on the album.”

While the standard version of the album has a white background (shown top) a limited edition double disc version comes in black.

The coloured blocks continue on the inside of the package where the tick deconstructs and both merges and clashes with photographs of the band.

In addition, there will be a highly limited edition vinyl version of the album which will consist of the album tracks split over eleven separate vinyl records, each in a coloured sleeve, all housed in a smoked Perspex case.

When correctly arranged the eleven album sleeves will allow you to make up your own tick, measuring some eight feet in length.

Rick Poynor looks back over two decades of the Designers Republic plus, Spanish type case art, Alison Carmichael and our very own Mumbai taxi – all in the April issue of CR

April is our special issue on type and typography and all things letter-related. As detailed here, our cover features a Mumbai taxi covered in typography specially designed for the issue (watch an interview with the artists here)

We also have a profile of hand-lettering artist Alison Carmichael, whose work has a ribald charm that is proving very popular with ad agencies (hence the punning headline)

And a feature on the recent Art of Lost Words show in which selected designers and illustrators each based a piece on a word that is fast disappearing from the English language

Plus, from Barcelona, Jordi Duró and Meri Cuesta reveal how the remarkable ingenuity of Spanish printers gave rise to a unique form of modernist design

And Rick Poynor’s aforementioned tDR piece (which, in part, draws on his intro for the ill-fated, never-published-despite-what-they-said tDR book), which stretches over six pages and follows up our exclusive revelation that the studio had closed its doors earlier this year

Our subscriber-only Monograph this month features Synthesis, a series of organic forms created by Jeff Knowles

The April issue is on sale from 25 March. Next month: The Annual