When Robert Murdock aka Postmammal got married, he put together a wonderfully designed wedding invitation detailing the exploits of himself and his bride, along with details for the actual event. The pages themselves are self-explanatory (literally) and would make great mini-posters on their own.
The work of French graphic designer Malika Favre (until recently of Airside in London) is perhaps best described as “Frank Miller meets Shag.” Sure, we’ve seen artistic styles like this before, but Favre just pulls it off… so well. I could lose myself in these images for hours and be just as intoxicated with them as in the first few minutes of staring.
More after the jump; some images N(quite)SFW.
Illustration by Damien Correll
The Reverence Library Volume One is a rather lovely mix of short stories and illustration published by Edinburgh’s independent press Sing Statistics
The idea, say founders Jez Burrows and Lizzy Stewart, is to create “a series of abridged pocket encyclopaedias ‘inspired by fact and reworked by fiction’. Essentially, reference books with lies in.”
Short stories from a variety of writers around three themes are mixed with illustration. In Volume One, the stories are on Galleons, (scientist) Nikola Tesla and the Trans-Siberian Railway.
In the Galleons section, for example, Joshua Allen‘s story about a cursed ship, The Spire of Ice, is illustrated by Portland-based Always With Honor
This graphic short story is by Luke Pearson
Meg Hunt illustrates a story by Matthew Allard in the Tesla section
And in the Trans-Siberain Railway section, John Moe has written a hilarious reimagining of a journey by Tsar Nicholas II on his own luxurious train: “It’s all built around being really comfy for ME! Nick the Deuce!” Illustrated by Gavin Potenza
Also featured are William Goldsmith
and Josh Parpan
Plus Lizzy Stewart herself
and Richard Sanderson.
The Reverence Library Volume One costs just £10 and is available here. Worth every penny I’d say.
Don’t miss out – there’s nothing like CR in print. Our August Summer Reading issue contains our pick of some of our favourite writing on advertising, illustration and graphic design as well as a profile of Marion Deuchars plus pieces on the Vorticists, Total Design, LA Noire and much more.
If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine and get Monograph.
In 1998, the School of the Visual Arts in NYC held a symposium on Paul Rand, the preeminent designer of logos such as IBM, ABC, and UPS. A extremely limited edition book of Rand quotes on design was given out to attendees. For the first time, the book is now available in PDF form here courtesy of Steven Heller.
Highlights from the book include:
Good design adds value of some kind, gives meaning, and, not incidentally, can be sheer pleasure to behold; it respects the viewer’s sensibilities and rewards the entrepreneur.
To design is to transform prose into poetry.
What the designer and his client have in common is a license to practice without a license.
There are designers with a sense of humor and there are those without. Given the same content, the success is in the delivery. Groucho Marx can make anything funny, while others with similar material might just be tiresome.
Leeds-based Thompson Brand Partners has created a new identity for the UK’s National Railway Museum, the largest rail museum in the world
According to Thompson, “The new logo has been designed to reflect the direction the museum is moving in. It is modern, simple, easy to read and dynamic with a clear indication of speed and momentum. It is based on the many angled slashes that can be found in the iconography and architecture of railway throughout history. It also makes subtle reference to rails.”
As well as the logo itself, new typefaces, colours and imagery will be applied across all uniforms, signage and so on at the main museum in York and its Shildon site in the coming months.
The museum’s previous logo recalled the bygone days of steam and great British railway companies with its three-dimensional lettering. While the new look lacks the charm of its predecessor (and may not look so great on merchandise), it’s clean and simple and unlikely to date rapidly. It will probably invite criticism for being too obvious or “easy” a solution but, as opposed to some of the other museum identities we have seen in recent times, it is not trying too hard or making a conceptual promise that its execuition can’t deliver. It’s a museum about rail, past and future and the new mark does a fine job of conveying just that.
We haven’t seen anything beyond the basic mark yet, so it’s unfair to judge what the overall success of this identity might be. However, it may need some bold and imaginative applications to avoid seeming overly bland and corporate.
Don’t miss out – there’s nothing like CR in print. Our August Summer Reading issue contains our pick of some of our favourite writing on advertising, illustration and graphic design as well as a profile of Marion Deuchars plus pieces on the Vorticists, Total Design, LA Noire and much more
If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine and get Monograph.
Frith Kerr and Studio Frith have designed an extraordinary book for an extraordinary artist – the avant-garde dancer and choreographer Michael Clark
As well as being one of the foremost dancers of his generation, Clark was renowned for his collaborations with the denizens of London’s post-punk scene. In his costumes (many of which were designed by Leigh Bowery) and staging, Clark has been consistently provocative and imaginative resulting in the wealth of spectacular imagery that populates this 348-page retrospective from Violette Editions.
Clark’s idiosyncratic way with punctutation and capitalisation in the titles of his work is referenced by Kerr in a series of title pages in fluoro yellow throughout the book while the type playfully alludes to dance.
A really stunning piece of work. Michael Clark is published in September by Violette Editions, £45
Don’t miss out – there’s nothing like CR in print. Our August Summer Reading issue contains our pick of some of our favourite writing on advertising, illustration and graphic design as well as a profile of Marion Deuchars plus pieces on the Vorticists, Total Design, LA Noire and much more
If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine and get Monograph.
Here at CR not much gets done before the first cuppa of the day. Bags, loose leaf, we don’t mind how it comes but three Kingston graduates have come up with an idea for tea in pill form. Hmmmm…
Rosy Lee’s Remarkable Remedy is a range of soluble tea pills. They were created by Kylie-Ann Homer, Senwelo Foster and Sadie-Marie Dedman in order, they say “to illustrate the medicinal qualities of tea. Tea is often used to relieve the stresses and strains of everyday life, and Rosy Lee’s allows for a quick release in the form of five soluble tablets that will dissolve in boiling water to create a relieving brew. Rosy Lee’s comes in three varying strengths to suit different needs, the coloured dot on the packaging signifies the strength of the tea.”
Don’t miss out – there’s nothing like CR in print. Our August Summer Reading issue contains our pick of some of our favourite writing on advertising, illustration and graphic design as well as a profile of Marion Deuchars plus pieces on the Vorticists, Total Design, LA Noire and much more
If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine and get Monograph.
A Boy Dreams by Graham Coxon
For its Autumn/Winter collection for 2011, Liberty Art Fabrics has worked with a group of collaborators from the worlds of art and music to create a new series of music-inspired print designs. The results are rather lovely…
Liberty has chosen to work with a group of musicians with links to the art world, including Graham Coxon and Florence Welch, and artists with links to music, such as John Squire and Storm Thorgerson.
Dancing Ladies, chosen by Florence Welch
Grace, chosen by Florence Welch
A wide range of designs have resulted. Some of the collaborators, including Florence Welch who selected the two fabrics shown above, visited the Liberty archive to choose patterns that could be revisited. Welch picked the Dancing Ladies design, which was popular in the 1920s, and Grace, a 19th century vintage hand-drawn lace pattern.
Ornithology by Edwyn Collins
Vonetta by John Squire
Many of the others created entirely new designs for the project. Edwyn Collins’ features a selection of the delicate bird sketches he drew as part of his rehabilitation after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage in 2005 (Collins drew a bird every day for six months), while John Squire has produced a lino-cut, geometric print for the series.
Thorgerson (in two different colours) by Storm Thorgerson
For one of his designs, Storm Thorgerson incorporated the iconic prism graphic from his sleeve design for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Thorgerson’s second contribution, a graphic of birds, is based on his design for Australian band Powderfinger’s album Golden Rule.
Tomary by Mark Mawston
by Emilia de Poret
Alongside the collaborators’ contributions, the Liberty design team has also created a selection of prints inspired by different musical eras and music lyrics. These include paisley prints as well as 60s style geometric patterns. There is also a range of fabrics featuring digital images, a first for Liberty Art Fabrics. The full set of designs can be viewed online at http://crmag.co.uk/owe5Tu. Prices are from £19.95 per metre.
Thanks for reading the CR Blog but, if you’re not also getting the printed magazine, we think you are missing out. This month’s bumper July issue contains 60 pages of great images in our Illustration Annual plus features on Chris Milk, Friends With You and the Coca-Cola archive.
If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine and get Monograph.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s recap of the “Avant/Garde Diaries” launch event, Peter Saville related that the album art for Kraftwerk’s 1974 LP Autobahn was the singular inspiration for his decision to pursue graphic design—a sound decision, considering that his artwork for the likes of Joy Division and New Order has perhaps eclipsed that of their krautrock predecessor. In fact, Autobahn was the first record that he bought with his own money—until that point in his teenage years, he simply borrowed tunes from his older brothers.
The überminimal design gave Saville his first taste of semiotics as an underlying issue in visual communication. To hear him tell it, the abstracted highway represents “time, history [and] travel” even as it resembles everything from a “power station [to a] cathedral.” Saville also noted that the ideograph’s deeper meaning in terms of “history as well as space,” where it has taken on a cultural significance in addition to its graphic one.
Any other graphic designers care to share their “Eureka” moments in the comments? (I’m personally a fan of Stanley Donwood’s work for Radiohead…)
Peter Saville is a British art director from Manchester, best known for his album covers for Joy Division, OMD, New Order and other bands signed with the Factory Records label. His work—for instance the legendary cover for the New Order single Blue Monday in the form of an 8-inch floppy disk or the cover for the Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures—stands out with its quintessential, minimalist style. He runs his own company Peter Saville Associates. Apart from his work with the music industry, he has also worked for customers such as CNN, Adobe Systems, Givenchy and Stella McCartney.
Mike Mills on the set of Beginners with McGregor and Plummer
Long admired for his graphics and illustration work, Mike Mills is now becoming renowned as a film director. His second feature, Beginners, starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer, is out in the UK this week. He talks to CR about making the film, his ongoing love for graphic design, and his views on the state of the music video industry…
Mills cuts a somewhat unusual figure in Hollywood. He came to movie-making via a career as a graphic designer and artist, and has previously created record sleeves for Mo’ Wax records, as well as for acts including the Beastie Boys and Beck. He has also shot music videos for Moby and Air, and ads for Nike and Gap, amongst many more. Mills’ first movie, Thumbsucker, came out in 2005, and won acclaim as an indie tale of teenage angst. His follow-up, Beginners, will no doubt also be cast with the ‘quirky’ tag, but is a delicate, gently funny and poignant tale about a situation very personal to the director. Inspired by Mills’ own father, it relates the story of Hal, played by Plummer, who has come out at the age of 75, following the death of his wife of 45 years. It explores how Hal’s new experiences – he enthusiastically embraces a full and tumultuous gay life, including a relationship with a younger boyfriend (played by Goran Visnjic) – impacts on his relationship with his son Oliver, played by McGregor.
Beginners trailer
The story is also one about grief. Hal’s tale is told from the perspective of Oliver, and begins at a point just after Hal’s death, which occurs only a few years after he came out. Still deeply grief-stricken from his father’s death, Oliver reflects on his own life and family relationships, and the film follows him as he cautiously embarks on a new love affair, with French actress Anna (Mélanie Laurent). Mills avoids mawkishness and sentimentality in the film, and instead uses humour and a delicate touch to tell a story that tackles the universal themes of love, family and death. As a sideline, Beginners also offers a small but amusing insight into the life of a graphic designer, with Oliver earning his crust by struggling to create cover artworks for bands that just don’t seem to understand his vision.
Plummer and McGregor in the film
Despite the parallels with his own life, Mills is keen to stress that story isn’t a documentary. “I felt like this is a great story, and it’s so full of life,” he says. “It’s about incredibly deep things in a way, and it’s what my dad actually did. I just admired him having the bravery to come out when he did, and to risk so much and make himself so vulnerable by falling in love with people… as his real self. But it’s not my dad, it’s Christopher Plummer. And it’s my version of my dad, it’s like a portrait, more than a documentary… I knew that’s what I was doing and I knew I didn’t want to make a narcissistic memoir, I was trying to reach out. I love so many things that come from a personal place, whether it’s Allen Ginsberg’s Howl or Fellini’s 8½… So when I’m directing it on set I’m not like ‘oh, that’s my dad, it’s so sad’, I’m like ‘I’m making a movie, I love film. I love being a writer and director more than anything.’ It didn’t have a heaviness or even a sense of personal-ness around it.”
McGregor works on illustrations in the film
“Again in Oliver there’s part of me,” he continues, “but I’m not really interested in making a self-portrait. This is the only way I knew how to write this story, and I did want to talk about my experiences of love, which I feel are also some of my friends’ experiences, kind of a generational thing. So yeah, I wanted to write about me, but I also really didn’t want to write about me. Whenever I can distance myself from Oliver, I’m very happy, because it’s easier and safer. Ewan isn’t me. We really get along, which is great, and we laugh at a lot of the same things. I think we are similar… we’re somewhat emotive, straight men. Not afraid to do that. So I really can’t imagine anyone but Ewan doing the film – how many movie star guys make themselves that emotionally exposed and vulnerable? So few people work that way.”
Illustration featured in Beginners
McGregor’s expression of the sadness and confusion Oliver is feeling about his father’s death is largely non-verbal. Mills uses Oliver’s interactions with his father’s dog (an exceptional cute and soulful terrier, who occasionally talks back, reflecting some of Oliver’s inner turmoil) and also his artworks to articulate things that are too difficult to say out loud. The drawings in the film are recognisably by Mills himself. As well as being used as an expressive prop, they also form Oliver’s pitch for the cover artwork for a band. Sadly, in a scene perhaps all too familiar for many designers and illustrators, the band in question are not interested in Oliver’s melancholic musings on life and love and instead just want their portraits painted.
Bruise and Fireworks from Mills’ Humans project
While Mills’ graphics output has lessened over the years, Beginners has actually led to some new projects. “The movie brought a lot of it back,” he says. “I’ve been doing this Humans stuff, a line of posters and fabric prints (see here for more details). I sort of reduced all my graphic work down to that project. I rarely do it for hire. But after doing this movie, I did the Beastie Boys’ new cover. And I’m doing the cover for Carrie Brownstein’s new band, called Wild Flag. So I’ve done more record covers in the last six months than I’ve done in years.
“But doing graphic design is hard,” he continues, “and working for clients is hard. I’ve done a lot in the past, and I’m not really into repetition… But graphic design is hugely important to me. I look at websites all the time: I look at Creative Review, I look at Many Stuff, I look at It’s Nice That… I’m not doing it as a job but I still love Cassandre, I still look at my Wolfgang Weingart book all the time, that stuff just excites me.”
Mills’ recent cover for the Beastie Boys’ Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
Mills has similarly reduced his music video output, but this is in part due to the changes in the industry of late. “The music video market has shrunk so radically since I was really making them,” he says. “I still do them now – I did some of my favourite ones just a couple of years ago for Blonde Redhead, which were all quite experimental. But nowadays people want the band playing. And so I do this thing where I’ll present an idea that’s not the band playing and I don’t get the job. I do that a fair amount.
“It’s what everybody wants… or some version. They want a story with the band playing. It’s like, if Jarvis Cocker asked me to do that I would say yes, he’s an amazing performer. But with so many people, it’s like why? I barely did that when I did videos frequently. I don’t want to go backwards.”
Air, All I Need promo
Despite the success he’s achieved with his videos, including his hugely popular All I Need video for Air, shown above, Mills is modest about his place within the promos world, and his ability to get to work with the musicians currently leading the field in more experimental works. “An Arcade Fire video… of course I’d like to do that,” he says. “But you have to get past Michel and Spike… and Jonathan Glazer. I’m like seventh on that list. Or [you have to be] a friend or someone new… To be dang honest with you, I never got that high on the ladder. I just don’t get offered that work.”
Blonde Redhead, Top Ranking video
With Beginners, Mills has been refreshingly candid about his influences for the film, and has written a blog charting them (see here). Among the inspirations listed are Milan Kundera’s Unbearable Lightness of Being and the Parisian graffiti of 1968. The blog offers a great insight into some of the artistic ideas Mills has brought to the movie, which combined with its intriguing narrative make for an unusual and life-affirming film.
Beginners opens in the UK this Friday (July 22). For more info on the film, visit beginnersmovie.com, or Mike Mills’ site at mikemillsweb.com.
Thanks for reading the CR Blog but, if you’re not also getting the printed magazine, we think you are missing out. This month’s bumper July issue contains 60 pages of great images in our Illustration Annual plus features on Chris Milk, Friends With You and the Coca-Cola archive.
If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine and get Monograph.
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