Hasta La Ideas

Olympic Village Training Center, Mexico City (Mexico 1968 Games)

Photographer Jon Pack and filmmaker Gary Hustwit have teamed up to work on The Olympic City, a documentary project that looks at what happens to Olympic cities once the Games has moved on. A selection of photographs from the project forms the next issue of Monograph, out this week with the subscriber issues of CR August…

Monograph is the standalone art publication which comes free with subscriber issues of CR, and the collection of imagery from The Olympic City continues the Olympics theme of our new issue.

The Olympic City project looks at the legacy of the Games in a selection of former host cities around the world. Pack and Hustwit have so far visited Athens, Lake Placid, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Montreal and Rome to photograph the buildings left behind once the weeks of sport are over.

The remains of a 1984 Olympics mural, Los Angeles (Los Angeles 1984 Games)

“In The Olympic City, we’re documenting the successes and failures, the forgotten remnants and ghosts of the Olympic spectacle,” say Pack and Hustwit. “Some former Olympic sites are retrofitted and used in ways that belie their grand beginnings; turned into prisons, housing, malls, gyms, churches. Others sit unused for decades and become tragic time capsules, examples of misguided planning and broken promises of the benefits that the Games would bring.”

Olympic Ski Jumping Complex, Lake Placid, New York (Lake Placid 1980 Winter Games)

The pair plan to visit another eight former host cities and the resulting images will be published as a large-format art book in March 2013 in a limited edition of 1,000 copies, designed by Paul Sahre. An exhibition of the photographs in New York and other cities, plus a digital version of the book and deluxe edition (complete with prints from the project) are also planned.

More details on the project are at olympiccityproject.com. All images © 2012 The Olympic City Project. Subscribers will receive a copy of Monograph featuring images from The Olympic City project with the August issue of CR, out this week.

To receive Monograph you can subscribe to CR for a year here, and save almost 30% on the printed magazine.

The Olympic Velodrome, Athens (Athens 2004 Games)

Tower of Montreal at the base of the Olympic Stadium, Montreal (Montreal 1976 Games)

Francisco Márquez Olympic Pool, Mexico City (Mexico 1968 Games)

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CR in Print
The July issue of Creative Review features a piece exploring the past and future of the dingbat. Plus a look at the potential of paper electronics and printed apps, how a new generation of documentary filmmakers is making use of the web, current logo trends, a review of MoMA New York’s group show on art and type, thoughts on how design may help save Greece and much more. Also, in Monograph this month we showcase a host of rejected design work put together by two Kingston students.

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 to 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.

From left, the collector’s edition and the limited art edition. (Photos courtesy Taschen)

We first heard rumblings of a Marc Newson book to end all Marc Newson books late last year, with word that publication was planned for spring. But by the time April showers brought May flowers, a megatome was nowhere to be found. We busied ourselves with a Pentax K-01 and hoped for the best, because there’s no rushing a 600-page creative retrospective, particularly when it is being produced by Taschen in close collaboration with the Sydney-born designer himself. Reader, it won’t be long now.

Marc Newson will enter the world this September in two deluxe formats: a collector’s edition of 1,000 numbered and signed copies, each in a linen-covered slipcase, and [trumpet fanfare] an ultracovetable art edition of 100 copies. The latter features leather marquetry on the cover and comes tucked inside a slip case made of Micarta, a signature Newsonian composite whose rich brown tone deepens when exposed to ultraviolet light.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The visual communications part of New Designers 2012 presents a vast haul of graduate illustration, graphics and multimedia work. For this post on some of CR’s illustration favourites, I’ve included images of work exhibited by 11 students, plus some further highlights from each of their online portfolios…

From the University of Hertfordshire, Sigrid Rødli’s Encyclopedia of Legendary Monsters is a lovely ABC book of mythical beasts from different cultures, including the yeti (show above), the ‘finman’ and ‘leviathan’, below.

Rødli’s fascination with myths and legends also extends making illustrations for the Grimm fairytales. Here are two images from his web portfolio: Cat-skin and Briar Rose. Rødli’s work can be seen at cargocollective.com/sigridrodli and sigridrodli.tumblr.com.

Already clearly a talented comic book artist, Issac Lenkiewicz’s work takes a refreshing trip into the strange and wonderful. A graduate of Plymouth College of Art’s illustration course, his Night of the Giants strip about fighting behemoths (below, in black and white) shows some great penmanship and humour; while another printed comic on display depicts the adventures of a series of root vegetables (below in blue).

Lenkiewicz has some earlier images from his fighting giants comic up on isaaclenkiewicz.blogspot.co.uk. Here are two colour pages:

He also worked with Nobrow and Luke Pearson on this great poster for last year’s Comica Festival (detail below the poster). More giants, gremlins, fighting and madness etc at isaaclenkiewicz.blogspot.co.uk.

A slight change of tack with the work of fellow Plymouth College of Art graduate, Kelly Walton. I really liked her watercolour illustrations which feature three mischievous girls on the hunt for strawberries (they use bows and arrows to get the fruit).

If there is one thing that New Designers does suffer from this year, it’s a glut of rather similar folksy illustration, but what I liked about Walton’s style was the discernible glint in the eyes of the characters. Cute they may be, but there’s something a little disconcerting about them, too, which made me want to look through the great wordless comic, The Straubs, that Walton has on display (spread below, followed by the single giclée print, Victory).

Here’s another page from the comic, from her portfolio up at cargocollective.com/kellywalton, and a picture from her Wicked Annabella series. Walton also shows work at kellywalton.tumblr.com.

To Cambridge School of Art now (which overall has an excellent stand this year) and here’s one of Tim Parker’s prints from his Wolf God series up on display, followed by a detail.

Parker seems to like referencing four legged friends in his work (lupine or canine). Here’s a nice series from his site, timparkerillustration.com, which brilliantly puts dogs in various office party situations. Down boy! (See also timmydraws.tumblr.com.)

Also graduating Cambridge School of Art is Ines Vilares who displayed a series of atmospheric prints based on German author Judith Hermann’s 2011 novel, Alice.

Vilares’ website is at inesvilares.com and she also blogs at ivilaresillustration.blogspot.co.uk. From there, here’s an intriguing single print entitled Carrying the Body, one of a series of 12 linocuts inspired by the Gabriel Garcia Marquez story, The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World, which is told from the viewpoint of the drowned man.

Illustrator and printmaker Andrew Berwick of Glyndwr University showed how important it is to realise and produce a project well. His illustrated story, The Bear and The Salmon, is beautifully printed in this unusually wide format, which gives the work inside (four pages shown in the frame) a real sense of dynamism and movement.

And from his site at andrewberwick.co.uk here’s Berwick’s poster for Noah & The Whale’s album, Last Night on Earth, which makes use of an interesting crop of said marine mammal. The image is completed when the vinyl record is pulled half-way out of the sleeve of the album itself, see below. Nice).

From University College Falmouth, Josh Hurley’s spiralling screenprints which he solds at gigs by Touché Amoré (below left) and MewithoutYou (right) certainly caught the eye. Details taken from joshhurley.co.uk.

And like an analogue Olafur Eliasson, Hurley’s print for a screening of Danny Boyle’s film, Sunshine, worked a treat, with the mess and blotches of the print production really adding something to the finished work. Shown below that pieces are some self-promotional prints. Hurley also blogs at joshhurleyillustration.blogspot.co.uk.

The range of styles coming out of University College Falmouth is really impressive – and the work of two other students stood out for me: the bizarre, highly detailed drawings of Sam Brookes, and the more expressive, visceral imagery that Sam Kerwin has on show. Brookes’ drawings really are something to behold – a kind of Pieter Brueghel the Elder meets psychedelia, with extra nightmares. Here are two:

On Brookes’ site, sfbrookesillustration.com, some sketchbook work offers clues to the gestation of some of these images, and there are also some examples of perhaps a more straight forward approach to portraiture (though these are strange enough).

As a contrast, Sam Kerwin’s work is bold, aggressive and painterly – but nonetheless has a real sense of mystery, too. These schoolboys, if that’s what they are, look like exam season may have just got the better of them.

The above image, taken from Brookes’ portfolio on samkerwin.co.uk features in a large collection of work by the illustrator as part of the Falmouth stand (see below).

Here’s another shot of Brookes’ wall.

And here’s an illustration inspired by Sedna, the Inuit creation myth, and (below that) a lovely image from Kerwin’s sketchbook.

From Teeside University, a series of illustrations by Selma Roberts for Angela Carter’s short story collection, The Bloody Chamber, made good use or tracing paper to convey the notion of a ‘secret’ contained within each story, and each image. Here are two from the collection.

And the other…

Roberts also details her cover design for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on her website, which was created for the Penguin Design Award (lots of students have work from this brief on show at New Designers). Her idea depicts main character McMurphy’s eye after his lobotomy at the end of the novel, while other illustrations represent found objects, each relevant to the story and character.

Finally, I was really impressed by Matt Clixby’s work, which ably covers a real range of disciplines, styles, and techniques. He has this portrait hanging as part of the Nottingham Trent University stand, and some other examples from the series in his portfolio (show below, grabbed from his website).

Clixby’s poster work is also very strong. As well as concert posters (one for a Music Exchange Live event with a “Northern Soul coat of arms”, and one for a White Hills gig, shown below); he is also showing a series of self-promotional pieces that apply the tone of mid-century government public information posters to modern day internet security issues.

His poster documenting all the chemicals put into and onto his body over a given morning was also really interesting, and well conceived.

Clixby also has a video on display, a piece made for XL Records using the track, Home, by Gil Scott Heron and Jamie XX. On his site at studiodeathray.com, Clixby explains that the brief was to create a visual holding page for XL Records’ YouTube channel, which would allow high quality music videos to be uploaded by the record company. The video, made with Dan Burns, was created using a high powered microscope and traditional stop motion techniques. Apparently they completed it in two days.

New Designers is a huge show, so the above – while it represents my own favourite pieces of work from this year’s exhibitors – is only a fraction of the amount of work on display. New Designers is open to the public until Saturday July 7 at the Business Design Centre in Islington in London. More details at newdesigners.com.

Spread from Studio Culture, from Type Desk’s interview with Unit, typedesk.com

While the Design Museum in London installs its forthcoming Designed to Win show, the ground floor of the building will host a series of free events between July 12 – 23, hosted by graphic design studios, illustrators and publishers…

There are some interesting things going on, including design publishers Unit Editions’ days of talks on studio culture, several discussions on the future of print, digital publishing and book making, and even a pop-up graphics archive installation, courtesy of GraphicDesign&.

Booking is not required for any of the events, simply turn up on the day.

THURSDAY 12 JULY
THE GREAT BRAWL OF CHINA!
A live illustrated battle curated by The Concept Lounge
11am – 5.45pm
Be the first to catch ‘Brothers of the Stripe’ as they depict a canteen battle scene over table tops, walls, stools, china cups and plates on an epic journey across the Design Museum.

FRIDAY 13 JULY
UNIT EDITIONS PRESENT: STUDIO CULTURE
12.30pm – 7.30pm
An informal day of talks, interviews and discussions on the theme of ‘studio culture.’ Visitors are invited to stay all day or dip in and out as they please. No need to book.
12:30: Introduction with Michael Czerwinski (Design Museum), Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook (Unit Editions)
1.00: Lunch break and book signing
2:00: Interview with graphics design agency Spin:
Tony Brook and Patricia Finegan
Followed by roundtable discussion with members of Spin studio
3:30: Interview with graphic design agency Build
Michael C Place and Nicky Place
Followed by questions from audience
4:30: Interview with graphic design agency Julia
Followed by questions from audience
5:30: Interview with graphic design agency Bibliothéque
Followed by roundtable discussion with members of Bibliotheque studio
7:00: Round-up with Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook:
Book signing
Surprise guests
Bar open

SATURDAY 14 JULY
LONDON BIKE KITCHEN
11am – 5.45pm
Event details to be confirmed, please check designmuseum.org for updates.

SUNDAY 15 July
Event to be confirmed, please check designmuseum.org for updates

MONDAY 16 JULY
INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING DAY
11am – 5.45pm
Hear independent publishers discuss examples of their work.
Join us for an open discussion over lunch, 12 – 2pm.
‘Rumours of the death of print have been exaggerated’
Key movers and shakers from the publishing and book selling world discuss the state of the present publishing market, where independent publishing is now and what is the future of the book?

TUESDAY 17 JULY
MAKING BOOKS
11am -5.45pm
Discussion over lunch 12.30pm – 2pm
Let’s not forget that books are physical things. Witness binding in action with Joanna Pereira and learn about paper stock, binding finishing and foiling from Identity Press. Lunch not included, attendees to pay for their own lunch from the Design Museum Cafe.

WEDNESDAY 18 JULY
#DESIGNBOOKCLUB BEGINS
Discussion over lunch 12.30pm – 2pm
Join Kent Lyons, the museum’s first design book club host, and share your thoughts about our book of the month. Follow @DesignMusShop to find out what is this month’s #designbookclub book. Lunch not included, attendees to pay for their own lunch from the Design Museum Cafe.

THURSDAY 19 JULY
DIGITAL PUBLISHING DAY
Discussion over lunch 12.30pm – 2pm
Is digital the future of publishing? Join Julius Wiedemann Design Editor TASCHEN and Sasha Vidakovic for a discussion on current and future trends. Lunch not included, attendees to pay for their own lunch from the Design Museum Cafe.

FRIDAY 20 JULY
EAST LONDON FURNITURE
11am – 5.45pm
Event details to be confirmed, please check designmuseum.org nearer the time.

SATURDAY 21 JULY
GRAPHICDESIGN& EVERYTHING DAY
11am – 5.45pm
Be the first to contribute to the enormous and ambitious GraphicDesign& Everything project: an online archive of all the graphic design that exists in the world!
GraphicDesign& invites everyone (not only graphic designers) to bring along examples of graphic design to be photographed and catalogued in our pop-up lab. Professional and vernacular, familiar and unfamiliar, old and new, weird and wonderful, together we’ll categorise them according to the subject/s to which they connect and create an interactive installation for one day only in the Design Museum project. space.

SUNDAY 22 JULY
Event to be confirmed, please check designmuseum.org for updates.

MONDAY 23 JULY
SPARK+METTLE
11am – 5.45pm
Discussion over lunch 12.30pm – 2pm
Join Spark+Mettle in their pop up workstation as they make up sets of their, soon to be released, Dreamer’s Supply Kits. Build have done all the Graphic Design and then Eugenie, from Spark+Mettle, will discuss the development of the product over lunch including working with Build to create the marketing graphics. Lunch not included, attendees to pay for their own lunch from the Design Museum Cafe.

The Design Museum is located on Shad Thames, London SE1 2YD.

Analog creativity shows an old medium in a new form

Edited by Austin-based creative collective Public School, “Design: Paper” gathers together some of the medium’s more curious recent works, spanning the areas of identity, print, packaging, stationery and papercraft. The book explores the upside of the digital age’s encroachment on paper: tangible projects may be less frequently explored now, but because of this they are now more thoughtfully designed.

“Once used as a platform to hold a message, paper is now being used as the message,” writes Public School designer Cody Haltom in the book’s introduction. Filled with around 300 examples, the image-heavy book illustrates how several young practices are pioneering a relevant paper revolution, and how they envision its place in the future.

This isn’t just a wave of nostalgia, these designers are hoping to create works that are as forward-thinking as they are long-lasting. Essays from FÖDA Creative Director Jett Butler, Kelli Anderson, RoAndCo founder Roanne Adams, Owen Gildersleeve and Because Studio‘s Loz Ives offer a sincere look at their penchant for the medium and how it relates to their design processes. For example, Adams, who regularly uses paper in her graphic design work, relays a few tips on mastering the art of selecting the best paper stock for the printing technique, while Gildersleeve, a talented papercraft artist, talks about the patience paper projects require, and finding beauty in the imperfections the analog format creates.

Alongside an extensive range of works culled from around the world, the book also takes a “Closer Look” at the distinct design process behind studios like Manuel, The Metric System, Bond Creative Agency, Foreign Policy and Chevychase, to name a few. The array of ways in which paper can effectively, and often very subtly, shape an alluring message are fascinating—from a simple business card to elaborate packaging.

“Design: Paper” sells online from Amazon and Rockport Publishers for $40.