Hasta La Ideas

Visual learners, rejoice. French artist and journalist Philippe Squarzoni—known for his celebrated non-fiction, graphic novel-style works on politics and human rights—lends his eye and storytelling panache to an extensive work on one of the world’s most significant and controversial issues: climate change. Inspired…

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The controversy and academic analysis surrounding the work of French-American painter Marcel Duchamp remains a focal point in art history circles. With Thomas Girst’s new alphabetically arranged exploration of the artist—”The Duchamp Dictionary”—it has never…

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While your Arden edition might be a little easier in the hands, The Folio Society’s new Letterpress Shakespeare titles are a typographic indulgence that attempt a renewed engagement with the bard’s plays and sonnets…

The Society’s aim is to present Shakespeare’s words “in their purest form” and so the pages of each of the plays are devoid of the clutter of notes and glossaries, unlike most regular editions of the playwright’s work.

Of course, for most readers these elements are more than useful, so an accompanying “commentary” edition of the play is also included in each boxed set.

Therefore what the reader encounters in the large-format main edition is just the text: and in 16 point Monotype Baskerville, printed by letterpress onto thick, mould-made paper with feathered – ‘deckled’ – edges, it’s a treat to behold.

This aspect is the real highlight of the project – and the most labour intensive. Each volume was apparently printed just two pages at a time, each page having been put together by a skilled compositor at Gloucester Typesetting Services in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.

This method, with this paper, means that the words are impressed deep into the page. I had a close look at a copy of King Lear and the quality of the lettering on the paper is sublime.

On the outside, each book is quarter-bound in leather with individually hand-marbled paper sides – complete with gilded top edges and a ribbon marker. The plays are divided into three colours: a dark purple-blue for the histories; red for tragedies; and green for comedies.

The solander box which houses everything continues the ‘traditional’ look and if anything is perhaps a bit on the pragmatic side – sturdy no doubt, but it’s overtly functional-looking, which jars a little with the hand-crafted nature of the type and paper within.

Needless to say, with only 300 copies of each volume available, they don’t come cheap: each play is £295; the volume of sonnets and poems, £345; the complete set coming in at £11,555.

So while hardly bringing Shakespeare to a wider audience – there are plenty of other publishers that can do that – these editions do at least honour the quality of the writing within. And there’s something about reading the text on the page without distraction that makes it a worthwhile experience, too.

Folio Society titles are available for purchase from foliosociety.com, by telephone on +44 (0)207 400 4200, or by visiting The Folio Society Bookshop, 44 Eagle Street, London WC1R 4FS.

Ireland’s creative community has launched an online archive documenting visual communications in the country. We spoke to designer David Wall about the project…

At this year’s Offset conference in Dublin last month, the three-day schedule featured a range of talks from Irish creatives: photographer Richard Mosse discussed his stunning images from Eastern Congo, Chris Judge spoke about his award-winning children’s book, The Lonely Beast, and street artist Maser reflected on his colourful and thought provoking public artworks. On smaller stages, studios and educators spoke about their creative heroes, getting commissioned and judging good design – and several mentioned the 100 Archive.

The 100 Archive is a website documenting visual communications in Ireland – from illustration and animation to album covers, packaging, identities, exhibition graphics and logos.

The site is divided into two parts: 100 Future, which acts as a rolling record of contemporary professional work in the country and 100 Past; an archive of the 100 finest projects submitted each year, as well as examples of great graphic design and communications dating back to the 1960s.

The project was initiated by four Dublin studios – Atelier, Conor & David, Detail and Studio AAD. Atelier founder David Smith first suggested the idea at AGI Open in Barcelona in 2011, when he became the first Irish member of AGI, followed by Johnny Kelly a year later.

The archive was officially launched late last year and since then, it has received hundreds of submissions: a curatorial panel are in the process of judging the finest projects from 2010-13 for 100 Past, which launches next month, and they have also trawled archives and personal collections for interesting items from the past five decades.

“Ireland has a rich visual culture and history of visual communication,” says Conor & David co-founder David Wall. “Design competitions have played a vital role in the setting and raising of standards, but they haven’t left us with an extensive record of the work done here. The ultimate goal of the 100 Archive is to establish such a record,” he adds.

To submit work to the 100 Archive, creatives pay a 20 Euro fee and their entry is assessed by a professional panel who decide if it’s suitable. The panel is currently made up of Johnny Kelly, Alastair Keady (Hexhibit), Susan Murphy (Ogilvy & Mather), Gillian Reidy (Penhouse) and Eamon Spelmen (Limerick School of Art & Design).

The criteria for submissions is broad, says Wall, and any work that has been produced in response to a commission and led by an Irish designer or created in Ireland, is eligible.

“If the work can be described as any of the following: good, interesting, different, unexpected, simple, modest, clear, well executed, considered, culturally relevant or noteworthy, it can be added to 100 Future,” he adds. If three out of five judges opt to include a project then it is uploaded, and judges aren’t aware of how their peers have voted.

There are local and global awards schemes for Irish creatives who’d like to see their work recognised, of course – some of which are documented online – but Wall says that as a non-competitive scheme, the 100 Archive offers something quite different and is more inclusive.

“As a non-competitive space for showcasing work, the archive offers a celebration of graphic design rather than the exaltation of a small group. Crediting of work is centred around individuals…so as the archive grows, it offers a rich history of the people behind the practice,” he says. “For those at one removed from the day-to-day industry here — whether they’re students or designers based abroad — the Archive [also] provides an overview of ongoing work here,” he adds.

The 100 projects added to 100 Past each year are chosen by an additional curatorial panel, which will change every three years. The current line-up consists of Brenda Dermody, Gerard Fox, Oonagh Young, Linda King and Liam McComish, who have also been responsible for sourcing historical work from archives and personal collections.

As well as its core staff, the site lists a number of ‘founders’ who have made the site’s launch possible through donations. The team has received hundreds of submissions for inclusion so far and Wall says many have dedicated their own time and resources to sourcing archive material. These objects will be launched on 100 Past later this year, says Wall, and include packaging, album artwork and editorial design.

“One of the things I’m most looking forward to seeing is the evolution of the Tayto pack. Tayto is one of Ireland’s longest established crisp brands — their packaging has passed through the hands of many designers over the years so that will make an interesting case study,” he says.

“Another gem that has come to light is Campaign magazine, which came to us from ICAD. They are the oldest representative body for creatives in Ireland and have been working with us to identify projects and individuals of merit from their extensive archive – Campaign was their magazine in the 1960s and 1970s and some of the cover designs are a joy to behold,” he adds.

More recent examples include the cover of U2’s Boy, designed by Steve Averill, which Wall says is one of his earliest memories of graphic design. “I remember being struck by the image on the cassette cover when I was barely older than the boy pictured on it. Steve’s son Jon is also a practicing designer, and part of the 100 Archive community too.”

The 100 Archive is a community project, and Wall says the response to the site has been overwhelming. “At each step, we’ve found more and more people who are willing to help  – one of the exciting parts of the process has been to forge new connections with designers whose work I knew but didn’t previously know personally,” he adds. In the future, he hopes there will be an exhibition of featured work from the 100 Archive, too.

It’s an interesting model and The 100 Archive provides a great platform for the country’s designers to share their achievements, work together and review their practice on a regular basis. The site should also prove a valuable source of inspiration for aspiring creatives, and a useful reference point for designers based abroad.

Images (from top): Dublin UNESCO City of Literature Stamp by The Stone Twins; What Happens Next is a Secret exhibition catalogue by Ciaran OGaora; Insular typeface by Naoise Ó Conchubhair; Le Cool exhibition poster by Rory McCormick and Rossi McAuley; Back to the Start by Johnny Kelly; DIT Masters of Arts programme by Cian McKenna; Ard Bia cookbook by Me&Him&You; David Smith & Oran Day’s artwork for Ghost Maps; Wayne Daly’s Archizines; a 1963 cover of Campaign magazine;  album artwork for U2’s Boy; AGI Open identity by Dan Flynn, album art for Dulra by David Donohoe studio and The Lonely Beast ABC app by Chris Judge. For more info on each project see the100archive.com

Anish Kapoor’s first major solo show in Germany was accompanied by a handsome catalogue stained with red oil and designed by UK studio, Brighten the Corners. It has just won them the Grand Prize at the Tokyo Type Directors Club…

Symphony for a Beloved Sun was held at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. The central work of the show consisted of a series of large conveyor belts, set up high in the space, which dropped heavy blocks of red wax onto the museum floor.

Brighten the Corners say that the notion of “tension” created by putting contemporary artworks within the neo-Rennaisance environment of the Martin-Gropius-Bau was something they wanted to reflect in the show’s publication.

Each catalogue’s cover is stained with red oil paint which then seeps through into its first pages. The book is also sewn with a bright red thread and boasts a red ‘cut’ to its edge.

“We wanted our book, itself a reference to the first Martin-Gropius-Bau catalogue of 1890, to be both elegant and unsettling,” say BTC.

“Maintaining the strict classical grid for all text and images meant that landscape images stretched across two pages, occupying the space they needed and reminding the reader of the works’ scale. Finding the right landscape images was a job in itself – hours were spent with Anish Kapoor studio in the photo archive.”

“Typographic chapter dividers grouped the works into categories and played further with scale by visually exploiting the font (Stempel Garmamond) and letting it have its moment in the book.”

The catalogue is published by Walter Koenig. Brighten the Corners are in Tokyo to receive the TDC Grand Prize this week and will also give a talk at the Design Forum, TDC Day. See
tdctokyo.org and brightenthecorners.com.