Hasta La Ideas

The history of the London Underground is the history of visual communications. We celebrate 150 years of the tube in CR March, where you can read about the evolution of the world-famous roundel, the Underground’s own instantly recognisable typeface, its long tradition of great posters, platform art, maps, merch and more…

Our cover is by Robert Samuel Hanson – we asked him to imagine the London cityscape 150 years hence. The idea was inspired by Montague B Black’s fantastic Underground poster from 1926, This Is All In The Air, a vision of what London might look like in 2026 (and featured on our contents page).

As for the features, Mark Sinclair’s opening piece introduces a new book from Mark Ovenden, London Underground by Design (Penguin), the first study to comprehensively examine all aspects of the tube’s design evolution, from architecture and signage, to lettering and logos.

Next, writer, blogger and public transport devotee, Ian Jones (author of 150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com), selects ten interesting things for CR readers to look out for on the Underground network on a design-spotting day out.

And Mark Sinclair asks Harry Beck authority Ken Garland what he makes of a new London Underground map concept by the designer, Mark Noad.

Gavin Lucas investigates the enduring appeal of Edward Johnston’s eponymous typeface, commissioned 100 years ago.

Michael Evamy reports on how Parisian street signs, bull’s eyes and perhaps even a total eclipse of the sun all played a part in the design story of the Underground’s word-famous roundel.

And Patrick Burgoyne takes a look at London Transport Museum’s new exhibition of 150 key pieces from its archive and speaks to some of the panel of experts who selected them.

The Underground is also home to many large scale public art and design projects: Mark Sinclair takes a look at the history of platform art and talks to artist Annabel Grey about her commissions for Finsbury Park and Marble Arch stations.

London Transport Museum’s head of trading, Michael Walton, talks to Patrick Burgoyne about TfL’s clever approach to brand licensing and merchandising which earns it millions each year.

And Anna Richardson Taylor explores the Underground’s communications and advertising, past and present.

It’s not all about the London Underground; the issue also has a feature in which Patrick Burgoyne talks to designer Mark Farrow and John Lewis brand creative Paul Porral about their collaboration on the identity of Kin, a new range of fashion basics at the department store.

And in Crit, Rick Poynor reviews a new book, Branding Terror, which brings together the graphic symbols and logos used by terrorist organisations.

Regular columnist Daniel Benneworth-Grey reflects on how working home alone gives him the time to concentrate, reflect and talk to inanimate objects; while Paul Belford looks at how an ad art directed by Helmut Krone in 1980 managed to do away with everything bar the product demo.

Plus, in this month’s Monograph, we showcase a number of photographs by Adam Hinton of political graffiti in Egypt, with an introduction by Paul Belford.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. If you would like to buy this issue, or subscribe to CR, you can do so direct from us here.

Competition: we’re giving readers the chance to win one of five copies of a new book containing over 800 drawings by the Bouroullec brothers.

French designers Ronan & Erwan Bourourellec have compiled a selection of their drawings from sketchbooks, loose sheets or digital archives between 2005 and 2012.

The sketches show the brothers’ form and pattern studies for furniture and installation designs.

The book contains over 800 images originally drawn in pencil, ballpoint pen, felt-tip pen or on a graphic tablet.

Drawings ranged from the size of a Post-it note to an A1 sheet, but have been formatted to fit the A4 pages.

Published by JRP Ringier with art direction by Cornel Windlin, the paperback book is now available to buy in bookstores worldwide.

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

Competition closes 19 March 2013. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

We filmed a movie with Erwan Bouroullec in which he describes the textured tiles launched at Clerkenwell Design Week last year – watch it here.

See all our stories about designs by the Bouroullec brothers »

The post Competition: five copies of Ronan & Erwan
Bouroullec – Drawing to be won appeared first on Dezeen.

Photo: File Magazine//citylikeyou

Sad news from London’s Covent Garden – the Dover Bookshop, the walk-in image library specialising in royalty free pictures, is to close at the end of March. We spoke to bookshop manager, Tim Matthews, about the end of a 27-year run on Earlham Street…

Founded in 1986 by Mark Oddie, the Dover Bookshop is hard to miss with its bright yellow frontage and sign featuring a design donated by the artist Eduardo Paolozzi, a long-time fan of the shop. But missed it will be when, at the end of next month, it closes its doors for the last time.

It was originally established as a shop selling the Pictorial Archive range of titles from the US-based Dover publisher, and has since proven to be something of a haven for artists and designers. Its hundreds of books of copyright free imagery feature everything from Japanese border patterns to Victorian medical illustrations.

Julie Verhoeven, Paul Smith and even Vivienne Westwood have used Dover pictures in their work. Artist Stanley Donwood also made use of Dover imagery in the title graphic on the cover of Thom Yorke’s album, The Eraser (above).

Matthews cites “the recession suppressing budgets in agencies, studios, institutions” as having played a major role in the shop’s demise. The economic climate, he says, has also affected “discretionary purchases, gift and casual buyers, lunchtime trade and Christmas buying”. The fall-out from nearby Charing Cross Road as it declined as a focus for bookselling also affected the Dover site, while other local changes have seen the area around Earlham Street move from niche specialist shops to larger chains.

Dover’s own output has also declined in recent years, admits Matthews, with a limited range of new titles being published, but its biggest competitor is now the range of cheap (and free) images that can be sourced online.

In 2006, I interviewed Matthews for a feature on the shop and was soon aware of his unique position as someone keyed-in to the work of the local creative community. Matthews was (and is) well placed to see the ebb and flow of particular fascinations with imagery – back when we met in 2006, for example, heraldic imagery was apparently highly sought after.

For now, the Dover Bookshop is running a closing down sale, with 20% off all Dover titles in the shop or a 10% discount online (with free P&P). Best of luck to Tim and all his staff at the shop.

The Dover Bookshop is at 18 Earlham Street, London WC2H 9LG.

CR in Print
The February issue of CR magazine features a major interview with graphic designer Ken Garland. Plus, we delve into the Heineken advertising archive, profile digital art and generative design studio Field, talk to APFEL and Linder about their collaboration on a major exhibition in Paris for the punk artist, and debate the merits of stock images versus commissioned photography. Plus, a major new book on women in graphic design, the University of California logo row and what it means for design, Paul Belford on a classic Chivas Regal ad and Jeremy Leslie on the latest trends in app design for magazines and more. Buy your copy here.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878, or buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

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.

From Swiss artist Ursus Wehrli comes “The Art of Clean Up: Life Made Neat and Tidy,” a collection of everyday objects that have been obsessively organized into systematic still lifes. Wehrli shows off his penchant for comedy and color composition in the series, which is a follow-up to his…

Continue Reading…

Competition: we’re giving readers the chance to win one of five copies of Todd Saunders’ new monograph of architecture, including artists’ studios on a remote island and a lookout point over a Nordic fjord.

Todd Saunders: Architecture in Northern Landscapes contains projects in Canada, Finland and Norway by Saunders Architecture, based in Bergen.

It includes the Aurland Lookout (above) on the Aurlandsfjellet Tourist Route, which was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2006, and the Fogo Island series of artists’ studios that we’ve previously run as a slideshow feature.

The hardcover book is written by Ellie Stathaki and Jonathan Bell, designed by Swedish graphic designer Henrik Nygren and includes photographs by Bent René Synnevåg.

It also has a preface by Domus editor Joseph Grima and is available to buy here.

Squish Studio by Saunders Architecture was at the top of the Dezeen homepage when it was used in Apple’s iPhone 5 and MacBook Pro launches last year.

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

Competition closes 12 March 2013. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

The post Competition: five Saunders Architecture
books to be won appeared first on Dezeen.