Hasta La Ideas

The new D&AD Annual launched yesterday at the London Design Festival. The members’ edition, art directed by Peter Saville and designed by recent graduate Luke Sanders, is to be followed by a version that will go on general sale next year, published by Taschen…

The design of the new members’ edition highlights D&AD’s work in education via a series of graphic statistics, as Saville explains.

“Garrick Hamm created the opportunity for me to guide Luke through the design of this year’s Annual, as a way for us to express D&AD’s educational program through practice,” he says. “The aesthetic of the design has been inspired and informed by the statistics of D&AD’s many activities and achievements.”

For Sanders, a recent design graduate, it was the navigation of D&AD Annuals past that inspired him to look at how this year’s Annual should take shape.

The latest edition sees the sections Advertising, Design, Crafts and Digital each separated by their own fold-over cover (see teal coloured Design section cover folded out, above). It gives the appearance of four separate book spines making up the Annual. On the main hardback spine itself, the work that D&AD does is divided up in a set of statistics that relate to the hexagonal cover graphic: Awards 30%; Online Content & Community 27%; Student Education 17%; Annual 5%; Professional Development 13%; Exhibitions & Lectures 8%.

“The design of this Annual explores a relationship between visual aesthetic and distilled functionality and how the two can begin to amalgamate,” says Sanders. “It documents the ‘metrics’ of the design industry, in particular, D&AD’s many achievements this year.”

Sanders also believes that choosing him to design this year’s member’s edition is indicative of D&AD’s commitment to education.

“I’m extremely thankful to D&AD who believe so wholeheartedly in their message of education that they would risk innumerable problems and potential disaster by nurturing an unknown to design their Annual,” he adds.

“Working with Peter has been a real privilege – as working for a person whom you genuinely admire often is. I have learnt from him that I do not need to be apologetic about evaluating everything from the minutest detail to the broadest concept, and that design is at it’s most interesting when integrity is at the core of its foundation.”

Next year, in a new partnership with Taschen, D&AD will publish a hardback version of the Annual, designed by Jeremy Leslie and distributed worldwide.

Our highly unscientific survey of designers’ summer reading revealed rave reviews for David Barringer‘s There’s Nothing Funny About Design (Princeton Architectural Press) and its Felix Sockwell-designed cover. In his first collection of essays, the writer and self-taught graphic designer takes on topics ranging from blood-soaked DVD cover art and his father’s business card collection to the work of Chip Kidd and why drug names overdose on the letter “X.” The take-home message? There’s a whole lot that’s funny (funny ha-ha and funny strange) about design, including Barringer’s update of the Kubler-Ross Model, “Nine Emotions of the Working Designer,” which comes in the section of the book devoted to the business of design. “I used it as a funny way to advise young designers today, but I let the form evolve into something stranger, part fiction, part philosophy, some of it contradictory, poetic, satirical,” he has said. “You should laugh at some parts, shake your head at others, but at some point nod and think, ‘Yes. Exactly.'”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What do Konstantin Grcic‘s Chair One, the Model-T Ford, a candy-colored slipdress from Matthew Williamson‘s 1998 debut collection, and galoshes have in common? They all changed the world, according to a new series of books from London’s Design Museum. The four volumes highlight 50 chairs, cars, dresses, and shoes that have had a substantial impact on the design world, from the bentwood seating of Michael Thonet to the seamless, wave-patterned Lacoste boots designed by Zaha Hadid. At just over 100 pages each, the books make for quick reading and good entry points for young design fans. Publisher Conran Octupus plans to release the series stateside later this year, but copies are already selling briskly at the Design Museum, which is offering the four-volume set for £35 (about $58, at current exchange rates).

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It’s no secret that we love us some Bob Garfield. If NPR decided to scale back and just start airing back-to-back repeats of On the Media, we’d be the very last to complain. And while we don’t always agree with his TV commercial reviews in Ad Age (actually, it’s been running at about a 50/50 agreement rate, lately), we read every single one as soon as they’re posted. We haven’t read his new book yet, The Chaos Scenario, but we’re eager to, following this semi-poor, semi-friendly review of it by advertising heavy Jeff Goodby. The founder of Goodby Silverstein doesn’t see directly eye-to-eye with Garfield’s critique of the ad world in the book, wherein the author says the masses are rejecting advertising through things like their DVRs and internets. Instead, Goodby agrees that the industry certainly in a state of chaos, as are many types of businesses across the board, with agencies still trying to figure out how to speak to an audience that can suddenly speak back, but sees the future not nearly as dim as does Garfield, having faith that the business will adapt and prevail. That Goodby’s review appears in Ad Age itself should tell you that there isn’t a lot of bite or bile to it, but it’s a fun piece to read, a sort of discussion between these two powerhouses from across their respective fences.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Dezeen and publishers Spotlight Press have joined forces to offer five readers the chance to win a copy of the inaugural edition of the London Design Guide, written and edited by Max Fraser.

The London Design Guide is a new annual publication highlighting the best design shops, galleries and institutions of London’s cosmopolitan design scene.

The guide features personal tours through different areas of London – written by knowledgeable locals and accompanied by maps – recommendations for bars, restaurants, cafes and hotels, and topical features.

The cover design is a collaboration between Alistair Hall, David Pearson, and Paul Finn, and the book has been designed by Richard Ardagh.

To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “London Design Guide” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers.

Competition closes 28 September 2009. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter and at the bottom of this page.

Subscribe to our newsletter, get our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter for details of future competitions.

Photos are by Ed Reeve.

More info from Spotlight Press:

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London Design Guide
2010 Edition
Edited by Max Fraser
Publication Date: 24 September 2009
Price: £10 Paperback

London Design Guide is a new annual publication dedicated to the vibrant and multi-faceted designscape of London.

London’s design scene is widely considered one of the most energetic, diverse, and innovative creative communities in the world. The city is vast and it can be a daunting task discovering its design offerings. London Design Guide has done the hard work by selecting and reviewing the leading design shops, galleries, and institutions and celebrating the rich mix of design choices in the cosmopolitan capital today.

Organized by key areas, the guide reviews the design retailers of contemporary and 20th Century furniture and products; the design galleries dedicated to collectible design; the museum institutions that educate on design history; as well as the bookshops that comprehensively cover the subject of design. Each area is accompanied by a clear map and a personal tour through the area, written by an informed local. This is supported by restaurant, bar, cafe, and hotel recommendations.

Due to its annual nature, London Design Guide includes several topical editorial features – many written by external experts. A key feature is design tribes, which identifies groupings of designers working with similar philosophies. Each ‘tribe’ is given a name including The New-Modernists, Escapists, Reactivists, Digitalists and Revivalists. These tribes are featured in a series of exhibitions across London during London Design Festival in September 2009.

About the Editor
Max Fraser is the author of several design books: the bestselling Design UK series and Designers on Design co-authored with Sir Terence Conran (Conran Octopus); and the Piet Hein Eek monograph (De Boekenmakers). Internationally, he contributes to a broad range of publications, curates exhibitions, produces video content, judges competitions, and lectures extensively.

Fraser is also the publisher of London Design Guide – his first solo venture into print publishing.

Specification:

Retail Price: £10
Publication Date: 24 September 2009
Publisher: Spotlight Press
Frequency: Annual
Pagination: 192 pp
Format: 208 x 135mm Portrait
Binding: Paperback, thread-sewn
Availability: Worldwide
ISBN: 978-0-9563098-0-8