To celebrate its 1 Millionth booking since its August 2008 launch, Airbnb has put together a whimsical group of infographics charting some of the fun facts surrounding their online vacation rental service. Some fun facts: + 899 Villas, 99 Boats, 55 Castles, 37 Tree Houses, 47 Cars, 1 Geodesic Dome and an Igloo are part of their Database + Teachers are the Top Profession, Harvard is the Top School and Google is the Top Employer represented amongst Airbnb Users + You can rent an entire Eastern European Village…in Liechtenstein + You can rent Obama’s Vacation Home in Hawaii + You can rent a Frank Lloyd Wright House in Two Rivers, WI
See the infographics in their full glory on the Airbnb Blog or check them out after the jump.
Raw War by graphic designer and artist Richard Hart
Cape Town’s annual Design Indaba conference kicked off yesterday and already the sold out 1,500 capacity crowd in Cape Town International Conference Centre has been treated to some great talks, with presentaions by a bevvy of British speakers including Michael Wolff, David Kester, Deborah Szebeko and Luke Pearson and Hat-trick’s Jim Sutherland and Gareth Howat. Here are my highlights from a great first day…
First to speak was Michael Wolff who elected to gallop through a range of his branding projects created over the last 40 or so years – including a redrawn VW logo, the painted P&O flag motif, the Labour logo with a red rose, and the apple motif used on the central vinyl labels of Apple Records – explaining only the core (excuse the pun) idea behind each piece of work. For example, he explained how making the livery for Camden Council trucks and vans bright orange would mean that locals would actually see the council out and about doing things around the borough.
Wolff identified Lyle’s Golden Syrup as the first client to pay him for not designing new packaging. “This was the first time we were paid to tell someone not to change their branding,” he told the audience. “Even though it does depict the carcass of a dead animal surrounded by flies!”
Actually, as Wolff zoomed through projects, it became clear that animals have featured a lot over the years. He showed a logo drawn for Quintessentially which featured a yellow gibbon, and foxes (beautifully illustrated by Maurice Wilson) appeared on Wolff’s work for Hadfields paint. Apparently the idea for including a fox on the packaging was inspired by a particularly wiley looking client, and this approach, Wolf revealed, nearly caused “the first break up” of Wolff Olins.
The packaging for seed company Carters, Wolff told the audience, was a project that highlighted to him just how much language is a critical part of branding and, he went on to say, humour in particular can play a big role in building client / consumer relationships.
Wolff left the audience with the interesting thought that one idea can prevent you from having another, potentially better, one. “When you get an idea, he said, “throw it away, because then you’ll have more.” Along the same lines he said that he mistrusted his experience. “If you think you know how to solve something based on something you’ve already done, then that’s not nearly such a good place to start as ‘I don’t Know’, which is”, he says, “a wonderful context to work in.”
Dana Arnett of VSA Partners spoke about his obsession with motorbikes and muscle cars and how that led to him contacting Harley Davidson when just 25 to see if he could work with them on their communication as he didn’t believe Harley Davidson’s squeaky clean brochures really spoke to the brand’s devotees.
He showed some fantastic work for the brand which embraced the idea that the brand could be both good and bad. Clean and also a bit dirty. As well as some fantastic posters, the work shown included a spread from an annual report which featured a photo of a biker’s beard with the words “Read the financial section. That’s my favourite part.” The image was funny but made even more amusing by Arnett’s revelation that the man in the photo was later found to be the head of a stolen bike ring. Oops!
After showing a preview of a recent project to design 100 different iterations of IBM’s logo, Arnett signed off with a quote by furniture designer Henry Bertoia: “… the urge of great design is much like the urge to go on living, the assumption is that somewhere hidden there is a better way of doing things.”
Product designer Dror Benshetrit of New York based practice Dror, wowed the audience next with his infectious fascination with simple forms and concepts. He demonstrated how a love of an idea or concept has led him from designing products and furniture to designing shape-shifting buidings – and even a whole island resort called Nurai Island off the coast of Dubai based on the idea of hiding all the structures on the island “under the carpet” so as not to spoil the views across the tiny island:
Dror then spoke of his most recent project, called QuaDror – a simple folding interlocking frame structure that has the potential to be utilised in a large array of architectural ways – and not just for swanky beach-side homes. He’s been developing a bracket system that could allow local materials such as bamboo or tree branches to create the QuaDror structures.
The idea that good design can make the world a better place was a strong theme throughout the day, and David Kester – chief executive of the UK’s Design Council – spoke about the potential for design to encourage social change.
First, he spoke about social psychology, and about the fact that as a general rule people don’t want to be told what to do. Rather than telling society what to do, is there a way, he asked, that good design can persuade everyone to eat more healthily or consume less alcohol, or make a change that will actually help them live a better life?
Kester then talked of a few particular initiatives he’s instigated such as Design For Patient Dignity and also the Design Bugs Out project – in which a team of designers worked closely with a host of advisers including nurses, patients and hospital users to work out how objects in hospitals could be function better and be easier to clean, maintain and store. Kester then introduced British product designer Luke Pearson of PearsonLloyd who has, as a result of these initiatives, designed a new easily cleanable portering chair (above) for the and also a new hospital commode (below).
Gando primary school, Burkino Faso
Architect Francis Kéré deservedly received a standing ovation for his hugely charismatic presentation of his work creating public buildings using local materials and local man (and woman) power in the village he grew up in in Burkino Faso in west Africa.
The buildings, which he calls “breathing houses” not only feature a clever air-flow system, to prevent temperatures soaring to the almost oven-like temperatures Kéré himself endured as a boy, but they were built by the villagers most of whom can’t read or write. The sense of community created by this project cannot be underestimated and Kéré perfectly encapsulated the idea of harnessing good design to make life better. Bravo!
Nobody envied having to talk next, but Karin Fong of Imaginary Forces spoke of her fascination with transitions in her animation and film work. This love of finding the best path from one visual to another has led her to creating title sequences – both for movies and for TV series such as Boardwalk Empire.
She showed various projects, revealing the how she’s worked with directors to find the best way to set the scene and transport viewers from their everyday lives to a fantasy place where the following action is about to take place. An insightful look into the often overlooked art of title sequences.
Display Book Shelf, by Daniel Eatock
Durban-based graphic designer and artist Richard Hart opened his talk with a really funny self-illustrated life story to introduce himself. He then shared some projects he described as “totally useless” that nevertheless inspire him, such as Daniel Eatock’s sagging shelf artwork (shown above), the illustrations of David Shrigley, and the turntable animations of Jim Le Fevre. He then showed some personal art projects (including Raw War, shown top of this post), and a collaborative poster project called Them-and-Us instigated by his studio, Disturbance. I particularly enjoyed his One Love neon work, a gif of which is shown below to show how it functions.
Another highlight of the day was Hat-trick duo Jim Sutherland and Gareth Howat who showed a selection of work for various clients which included sets of stamps for The Royal Mail, typographic building site hoardings for Land Securities (see our previous post about it here), The British Heart Foundation, The Salvation Army and a really great identity (more animals!) for the Sumatran Orangutan Society:
Sutherland also showed some personal projects which included a pack of typographic cards and a charming book full of photographs of illustratively arranged objects found in his late father’s garage:
Yes, all this conference joy was had all in one day… I’ve already seen Bibliotheque today so will blog day two’s highlights soon…
In honour of its tenth birthday, creative agency DixonBaxi has commissioned a series of images in a celebration of collaboration…
Titled Join The Dots, the project aims to recognise the wide range of talented individuals, teams and companies that DixonBaxi has worked with over its ten years of practise. The concept is simple: each participant is given a template of a dot in a fixed position on an A2 portrait poster, which they can then interpret in their own way. Shown here are a selection of the finished images.
by DixonBaxi
by Tavo Ponce
More of the images can be viewed on DixonBaxi’s site here. Once 100 images have been received, DixonBaxi will collate the work into a book and exhibition.
Our March issue features a profile of Gerd Arntz, a feature on the return of the great movie poster, and a look at the secretive world of banknote engraving…
The front cover features a selection of Arntz’s pictograms, designed for Otto Neurath’s Isotype language system, while the back cover shows an engraving of a Yemeni man by Tony Maidment.
If you would like to buy this issue, simply call +44(0)207 292 3703. Issues cost £5.90 including P&P for the UK.
Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine. Online only subs are also available, for just £40.
Inside, we have a first look at our iPad app. And one of photographer Luke Stephenson‘s bird images (shown on the iPad below) is our Hi-Res page this month.
Our Case Study feature looks at Honda’s new campaign from W+K London.
As a new book of his work is published (Gerd Arntz: Graphic Designer, 010 Publishers), David Crowley examines the work of the designer of Otto Neurath’s Isotype symbols who brought a human touch to the impersonal world of statistics.
We also feature the intricate work of Tony Maidment, a steel plate banknote engraver with an important cause.
And Gavin Lucas looks at a possible resurgence in the art of movie poster making.
In Crit this month, we have a personal account of the power of Crass’ sound and image by punk art collector,Toby Mott, on the eve of a new exhibition of the band’s visual art.
Andy Cameron looks at the digital artists most referenced by ad agencies.
And Gordon Comstock applauds Polaroid’s appointment of Lady Gaga as their creative director (illustration by Stuart Whitton).
Our March Monograph ties in with the extensive feature on Gerd Arntz and features 18 of his Isotype symbols as featured in 010 Publishers‘ new book. The opening page shows him at work on the symbol for an unemployed man.
The March issue of CR is on sale from February 24.
If you would like to buy this issue, simply call +44(0)207 292 3703. Issues cost £5.90 including P&P for the UK.
Garth Walker, the man behind experimental South African magazine i-jusi, has put together a limited edition box set of ten lithographs of art from the publication’s 16 year history. The prints will also form a pop-up show, coming to London in March…
Curated by Jacki Lang, the show at 221 Brompton Road will feature the ten lithographs (seven graphic and three photographic) and a display of back issues of i-jusi, which translates roughly as “juice” in Zulu.
Founded in 1994, the magazine sought to take on the question, “What makes me African?” from the very first issue. 26 editions later, Walker is still curating the best in edgy African artistic talent for the project. With each issue, creatives are invited to respond to a particular topic and themes have been as diverse as typography and pornography (in separate issues), vernacular language and death.
I-jusi portfolio #1 is available, here from the Rooke Gallery in Newtown, Johannesburg but will also be on sale at the London show at 221 Brompton Road, London SW2, March 21-31. The box set comes in a limited edition of 50.
All lithographs in the portfolio are 325 x 500mm and printed on 250g Rives BFK. The printing process used is offset lithography using UV stable inks; the portfolio boxes are hand made and covered with Egyptian linen book cloth.
The latest edition of Glug, the “creative drinks and notworking event”, takes place at Cargo in London this Thursday night. It is hosted by Arts & Business, and is themed ‘Things To Make & Do’…
Speakers on the night include Designers Block, Mark Davy of Futurecity, Toby Barnes of Mudlark, Catherine Lock and Eliza from CR. As an extra treat, Mr Smith is making a special limited edition poster for all attendees to take away at the end of the night. Here are some pics of it in production…
The evening starts at 6.30pm at Cargo, and tickets are £5.50. Tickets can be booked online here.
Penguin is due to release its next big themed series in April. This time the focus is on Great Food with covers based on ceramic styles
The 20 books bring together “the sharpest, funniest, most delicious writing about food from the past 400 years,” according to Penguin. We will be publishing a more in-depth review of the series in a forthcoming edition but, for now, here are advance copies of the first three in the series.
The covers were designed by the Penguin’s senior cover designer Coralie Bickford-Smith. Each one draws on a decorative ceramic style relevant to the period of the writing concerned.
Cover for Love in a Dish and other pieces by MFK Fisher. Cover design based on a pattern from a Century side plate by Eva Zeisel for Hallcraft, 1957
The covers feature embossed lettering and spot varnishes to pick out the details of the illustrations. Note also the special version of the Penguin logo, cutlery at the ready. Bickford-Smith worked closely with picture editor Samantha Johnson and lettering artist Stephen Raw on the series.
Cover for Everlasting Syllabub and the Art of Carving by Hannah Glasse. Cover design based on a pattern from a plate by the Bow Porcelain Factory, 1770.
Cover for Exciting Food for Southern Types by Pellegrino Artusi. Cover design based on a pattern from a bowlby Ulisse Cantagalli, Florence, 1892.
The Penguin Great Food will be published in Penguin Paperback on April 7, priced £6.99 each.
RELATED CONTENT
Last year Penguin teamed up with RED to produce new covers for eight Penguin classics, which we reported on here.
Penguin 75: the stories behind the covers reveals some of the secrets behind Penguin’s cover designs. Read about it here.
Thanks for reading the CR Blog, but if you’re not reading us in print too, you’re missing out on a richer, deeper view of your world. Our Type Annual issue has 100 pages of great content, featuring the best typefaces of the year and great writing from Rick Poynor, Jeremy Leslie, Eliza Williams and Gavin Lucas. It’s printed on four different, beautiful heavyweight paper stocks and offers a totally different experience to the Blog. You can buy it today by calling +44(0)207 292 3703 or go here to buy online. Better yet, subscribe to CR, save yourself almost a third and get Monographfor free plus a host of special deals from the CR Shop. Go on, treat yourself.
It’s a temptation that has proved beyond the resistance of many ad creatives: trawling through old awards annuals for ideas to steal. This year’s One Show Annual makes the process a whole lot easier
Titled in reference to the famous TS Eliot quote To Steal Is Genius, the 2010 One Show Annual, the awards publication for the One Club, features elements from some of the winning work reproduced as stickers. Readers can take these elements – headlines, images, products, interfaces and client logos – and re-arrange them into their own layouts using the spaces provided.
The books were created by ad agency Anomaly and come in a set of three volumes (one each for the advertising, design and interactive categories) housed in a slipcase.
And before anyone jumps in, yes, we are aware this was published last month but we haven’t seen it covered anywhere else yet and we thought it was kind of fun.
Credits
For Anomaly: ECD: Mike Byrne CD: Ian Toombs Designer: Nikolay Saveliev
For the One Club: Editor: Yash Egami Production: Jennah Synnestvedt, Ashley Thomas, Tishon Woolcock Editorial Assistants: Emily Isovitsch, Michael McLafferty, Tiffany Edwards
RELATED CONTENT
D&AD’s Annual this year was also an elaborate affair, this time designed by the artists Bob & Roberta Smith, as we reported here But are these big annuals still the best way to present work? Mike Dempsey suggests an alternative here
CR in print
Thanks for reading the CR Blog, but if you’re not reading us in print too, you’re missing out on a richer, deeper view of your world. Our Type Annual issue has 100 pages of great content, featuring the best typefaces of the year and great writing from Rick Poynor, Jeremy Leslie, Eliza Williams and Gavin Lucas. It’s printed on four different, beautiful heavyweight paper stocks and offers a totally different experience to the Blog. You can buy it today by calling +44(0)207 292 3703 or go here to buy online. Better yet, subscribe to CR, save yourself almost a third and get Monographfor free plus a host of special deals from the CR Shop. Go on, treat yourself.
This is the type of thing that can look so good when you mock it up digitally, and usually disappoints in reality. So worth noting just for that, but also quite atmospheric and beautiful, overcoming a fairly dreary setting.
The Brit Insurance Designs of the Year show opens at the Design Museum in London from tomorrow, offering the public the chance to scrutinise the fruits of a year in the fields of graphics, architecture, product, interactive, fashion, furniture and transport…
As in previous years, the exhibition is divided up into loose themes: Home, Share, Play, City and Learn. Within these categories, work from all genres of design are exhibited. Each piece of work is accompanied by an information panel, and details of who nominated the project – every piece in the exhibition was put forward by figures in the design industry, including CR’s Patrick Burgoyne.
By the nature of the space, certain types of projects shine. Furniture, fashion and transport pieces exhibit particularly well, and seem to dominate the show. Many of the architectural and installation projects are represented only by flat images, which do not really do justice to the work, though the few occasions when models are used for these kinds of projects (such as for the UK Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, and the wayfinding signage for the LCC, both shown above) make a big difference.
Digital projects also fade into the background a bit, although the Paint installation (shown above), which was commissioned from Greyworld for Nokia, is available for visitors to play with. The installation allows visitors to place their image into a virtual can of paint and then throw it at the wall. Fun.
The exhibition will be on show for a month before a panel of judges – led by design writer and curator Stephen Bayley and featuring novelist Will Self and graphic designer Mark Farrow – will pick a design of the year. It’s always difficult to pick one project from across so many fields of design but previous winners such as the Folding Plug designed by RCA graduate Min-Kyu Choi, Shepard Fairey’s Obama poster and Yves Béhar’s One Laptop Per Child suggest that a sense of social purpose often appeals to judges.
With that in mind, Laurence Kemball-Cook and Philip Tucker’s Pavegen paving slabs (which harness energy from footsteps to power lighting and signage displays) or another project from Béhar, the See Better Learn Better free children’s eyeglasses programme (both shown above) may be likely winners. And then, of course, there is the iPad (shown top), nominated by no less than five people this year. As a number of iPad apps also form part of the exhibition, it seems a strong contender for the prize. But of course, it all depends on the tastes of the judges, and possibly how many of the larger projects have been experienced in the ‘flesh’.
The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on March 15, and the exhibition can be viewed at the Design Museum until August 7.
RELATED CONTENT
A full list of Award nominees can be seen on our previous CR post here.
CR in print
Thanks for reading the CR Blog, but if you’re not reading us in print too, you’re missing out on a richer, deeper view of your world. Our Type Annual issue has 100 pages of great content, featuring the best typefaces of the year and great writing from Rick Poynor, Jeremy Leslie, Eliza Williams and Gavin Lucas. It’s printed on four different, beautiful heavyweight paper stocks and offers a totally different experience to the Blog. You can buy it today by calling +44(0)207 292 3703 or go here to buy online. Better yet, subscribe to CR, save yourself almost a third and get Monographfor free plus a host of special deals from the CR Shop. Go on, treat yourself.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
