Hasta La Ideas

A few minutes ago the Alan Fletcher archive, Work and Play, went live online. It looks to be both a fantastic resource and tribute to the late British designer’s work…

The site covers Fletcher’s design work from his student years in the 1950s right up to work completed shorty before his death in 2006.

There are sections dedicated to his work at studios Fletcher Forbes; Fletcher Forbes Gill; Crosby Fletcher Forbes; and, of course, Pentagram, formed in 1971 when the expanding studio realised it could not simply keep adding surnames to the company name.

The site also includes various pieces of writing on Fletcher and his work by, among others, Emily King, Mike Dempsey, Craig Oldham, David Bernstein, and Steven Heller.

“We want this to be the very best collection of Alan’s creative legacy,” runs the brief introduction to the archive, which is maintained by Fletcher Studio, the company set up in 2010 by the designer’s daughter, Raffaella.

On a brief first look around, it certainly looks like it will be. See for yourself at alanfletcherarchive.com.

Pink Floyd fans may recognise the cover of our June issue. It’s the original marked-up artwork for Dark Side of the Moon: one of a number of treasures from the archive of design studio Hipgnosis featured in the issue, along with an interview with Aubrey Powell, co-founder of Hipgnosis with the late, great Storm Thorgerson. Elsewhere in the issue we take a first look at The Purple Book: Symbolism and Sensuality in Contemporary Illustration, hear from the curators of a fascinating new V&A show conceived as a ‘walk-in book’ plus we have all the regular debate and analysis on the world of visual communications.

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Becky Crew spent her childhood in the picturesque Blue Mountains in Australia, with her (human) family and a menagerie that included dogs, cats, pigeons, crabs and all kinds of critters. Suffice to say she has always had a bit of a fascination with…

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Pink Floyd fans may recognise the cover of our June issue. It’s the original marked-up artwork for Dark Side of the Moon: one of a number of treasures from the archive of design studio Hipgnosis featured in the issue

The lead feature in our June issue is an interview with Aubrey Powell who looks back on his relationship with the late great Storm Thorgerson and the work the two of them created for bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and, of course, Pink Floyd at their Hipgnosis design studio.

For the piece, Powell allowed CR access to the Hipgnosis archive so that we are able to show, for the first time ever in some cases, treasures such as the original contact sheet for Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma album, revealing how the final repeating image was made, a rejected sketch for the Animals sleeve and contact sheets for Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy sleeve.

We have a special effects theme for the issue. While Storm and Aubrey created most of their work ‘for real’ we contrast their approach with the latest R&D from leading CGI houses

Plus we take a look at an intriguing collaboration between artists Rob and Nick Carter and visual effects house MPC which brings old master paintings to life as digital artworks.

In contrast, we interview the authors of a new book on hand-drawn illustration – The Purple Book explores symbolism and sensuality in contemporary work with five original pieces created in response to key literary texts.

Also dealing with illustration and storytelling will be an ambitious new show at the V&A. Novelist Hari Kunzru was commissioned to write a new piece for the Memory Palace show which illustrators and designers are helping to turn into a ‘walk-in book’. We talk to those behind the exhibition.

In Crit this month we have an excellent piece by designer Michael Rock which re-examines his On Unprofessionalism essay for the digital age, arguing that the idea of the ‘professional’ graphic designer was just a pipe dream.

We also have a tribute to Ray Harryhausen by our own Paul Pensom and, in his regular column This Designer’s Life, Daniel Benneworth-Gray considers the use and usefulness of Twitter

Gordon Comstock wonders why Charles Saatchi wrote his new book Babble and Paul Belford uses a Waterstone’s ad from 1998 to illustrate the dangers of over-restrictive brand guidelines

Plus, Jeremy Leslie looks at the indie football titles giving the game some more nuanced coverage and Michael Evamy asseses Venturethree’s identity for The Palestinian Museum amid brands’ new-found desire to be talkative

Our subscriber-only Monograph booklet this month is rather special. During theis year’s Pick Me Up festival, we organised a felt toy-making workshop with Felt Mistress. This month’s Monograph is a record of the day featuring some of the work made

You can buy the June issue of Creative Review direct from us here. Better yet, subscribe to make sure that you never miss out on a copy – you’ll save money too. Details here.

Virgin Records is launching an exhibition, an art book and a compilation CD as part of a campaign to celebrate its 40th birthday. CR spoke to designer Adrian Shaughnessy, who is working the project, to find out more.                  

In 1973, 22-year-old Richard Branson launched a new record label, Virgin, with Mike Oldfield’s 48-minute experimental composition, Tubular Bells. It sold 15 million copies and earned Branson a $1 million US royalty deal at 23.

After its early success, Virgin struggled to find new acts – assets were sold and staff laid off – but in 1977, it signed controversial punk band the Sex Pistols and in the 36 years since, it’s launched the careers of sellout acts including Daft Punk, Massive Attack, The Chemical Brothers, Culture Club and the Spice Girls.

To mark its 40th birthday, Virgin is launching a new campaign, 40 years of disruptions, which it says will celebrate its history as  “an underdog label … with a reputation for doing the unexpected.”

As well as hosting gigs at Camden nightclub KOKO in October, Virgin is launching a four-CD compilation album, an art book edited by NME and The Face contributor Adrian Thrills, a documentary directed by Paul Tilzey and produced by Leopard Films, and an exhibition that will include seen and unseen photographs, props and memorabilia.

The book and exhibition will be overseen by Adrian Shaughnessy and his colleagues at London studio This Is Real Art, who also devised the 40 years of disruptions concept.

“Virgin approached me and along with Georgina Lee (TiRA’s co-founder) and Haider Muhdi (an in-house designer), we were briefed to work on campaign ideas, the book and the exhibition. Georgina found a Branson quote which stated that disruption has always been one of his key business tactics, so we presented the idea to Virgin boss Ted Cockle and he got it straight away- he didn’t hesitate for second,” explains Shaughnessy.

“Who else would sign the Sex Pistols at a time when other labels were dropping them like sick bags? Or sign Boy George on Top of the Pops in a dress? No other label has had so many tabloid front covers … disruption is [Virgin’s] hallmark,” he adds.

The book, exhibition and compilation album will all be designed to reflect this: album artwork released on TiRA’s website shows Virgin’s famous red logo defaced in various ways (above and below), and Shaughnessy is adamant that the book “won’t look like the usual record company self-promotion book”.

“We are planning one that won’t look out of place in the Tate Modern, but which is true to the Virgin label ethos. I like how Jonathan Barnbrook has done the new Bowie book (below), as it’s something you want to own and keep. There will be a huge emphasis on Virgin as a major force in popular culture rather than just a label that released a lot of good records,” he says.

Details of the exhibition and the book’s contents will remain secret until later this year, but Shaughnessy says both will include unseen footage, “rather than just album covers and press shots.”

“We’ll be using a lot of alternative shots, memorabilia, and stuff that got left on the cutting room floor,” he says. The exhibition venue is yet to be confirmed, but Shaughnessy has been briefed to find “a ‘disruptive location’ – in other words, not the usual white cube.”

“There will certainly be some surprises – but the rest is under wraps until the opening,” he adds.

For more information and for details of this autumn’s events, visit: virgin40.com

Out now, the May 2013 issue of Creative Review is our biggest ever. Features over 100 pages of the year’s best work in the Creative Review Annual 2013 (in association with iStockphoto), plus profiles on Morag Myerscough, Part of a Bigger Plan and Human After All as well as analysis, comment, reviews and opinion

You can buy Creative Review direct from us here. Better yet, subscribe, save money and have CR delivered direct to your door every month. If you subscribe before May 3, you will get the Annual issue thrown in for free. The offer also applies to anyone renewing their subscription. Details here

CR for the iPad

Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month

“The words graphic designer, architect, or industrial designer stick in my throat, giving me a sense of limitation, of specialization within the specialty, of a relationship to society and form itself that is unsatisfactory and incomplete. This inadequate set of terms to describe an active life reveals only partially the still undefined nature of the designer.”

–Alvin Lustig (1915-55) in The Designer Says: Quotes, Quips, and Words of Wisdom, compiled and edited by Sara Bader, new this month from Princeton Architectural Press

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