Michel Platini likes it – the official logo, identity and slogan for football’s 2012 European championships have been unveiled…
And, in comparison to the stuff usually dreamed up for these events, the logo’s not half bad. Well, at least it’s, er, interesting.
Designed by Portuguese group Brandia Central, it features two flowers symbolising the joint host nations Poland and Ukraine who will, as the official slogan has it, be “Creating History Together” at the tournament. Platini, who is Uefa president, said at the launch (the whole painful event is captured here) “The symbolism of a plant that grows is fully in line with the aspirations of the two host countries, and I am sure that we will be creating history together with the staging of the Uefa European Football Championship in central and east Europe for the first time.”
According to Uefa the logo symbolises “the emotion and passion of the competition, while the stem denotes the structural aspect of the competition, UEFA and European football. Nature has inspired other features of the visual identity, with woodland green, sun yellow, aqua blue, sky blue and blackberry purple being the crucial tones of the palette of colours to figure in official tournament branding.”
A film here attempts to justify the cost involved explain the thinking behind the symbol.
The deadline for the CR Annual has been extended until 15 January, so you still have time to enter your best work of the year
Each year, The Annual brings together the finest work of the year from graphic design, advertising, digital media, music videos and other fields of visual communication. Work is selected by a panel of judges drawn from the industry and showcased chronologically over some 90 pages in a special double edition of the May issue of Creative Review.
This year’s judges will include: Phil Clandillon – creative director, Sony Music Entertainment UK Jonathon Jeffrey – founding director, Bibliothèque Laura Jordan-Bambach – executive creative director, Lbi London Jane Scherbaum – deputy head of design, V&A Museum David Simpson – creative director, Music Kate Stanners, creative partner, Saatchi & Saatchi London Alexandra Taylor, art director Claudio Vecchio, design director, Pearlfisher
Seasonal tote bag by Playne Design, kindly sent in to CR as a Christmas present
Designer Jitesh Patel is currently putting a book together on tote bag design. It’s set to be published next year and the deadline for submissions has just been extended to 15 January…
The basis for Patel’s book will be, as he writes on his call for entries website, “to plot the journey of tote bags from their functional roots, to their manifestation today as a fashion statement” and will include “the most striking, inventive, ironic and original of printed examples”.
Tote Bags is set to be published in 2010 by Laurence King.
For a dose of those “ironic” bags – totes, after all, are a bone of contention for many – check out Patrick’s post I am not another smug canvas bag from earlier in the year. Also worth checking out is Dmitri Siegel’s designobserver.com piece on canvas bags’ green credentials, which we subsequently ran in CR.
(And, finally, here’s a shot of Playne’s pressie. They sent the bag over in a small cardboard box that can be re-used to house pencils and the like. Nice.)
Since our last blog post showing Christmassy stuff, we’ve been sent a lot more – but these cards (above), created by Pedro Meade at KK Outlet in London’s Hoxton Square, are the thing that made us laugh the most…
“These are made using found photos of children that don’t seem to be enjoying their time with Father Christmas,” explains Meade. “They were original only going to be used as a window display at KK Outlet – but there has been so much interest in them that we are considering selling them in packs of 5 in the shop.”
Everyone loves a pop-up card – especially one that features santa in his sleigh. This card was created by Changzhi Lee, a third year design student from Singapore. “The card comes in a red velvet jacket and is removed by pulling a red ribbon,” he explains. “It’s not for sale this Christmas, I’ve just made a few for friends and family. But I’m looking at getting the die cuts made so maybe I can make more and sell some next year.” No one ever asks for socks for Christmas, but actually, you can never have too many! These fetching stripey numbers were sent out to clientts by agency ICG along with a small promotional book of their “highlights of the year”. Really like these cards by illustrator Jane Massey featuring a little sausage dog called Hubert taking advantage of some mistletoe. The cards can be found on Massey’s online shop at notonthehighstreet.com/string
More double-sided Christmas cards, this time from designer and illustrator Lydia Leith whose cards marry Christian and non-Christian seasonal iconography.
Remember the Peter Saville designed wallpaper from my previous Christmas stuff post? Remember that it was designed in collaboration with Howard Wakefield of Suffolk-based Studio Paris Wakefield? Well, these are the studio’s cards for this year. You can buy ’em from parriswakefieldadditions.com/shop
We can hardly believe it ourselves, but yes, it’s Christmas. Again. We were sent one of these rather beautifully letterpressed posters (complete with litho foiled gold star) by Construct. Printed at Hand and Eye on GF Smith Colorplan.
Not a Christmas card but a pop-up restaurant with a stunning snowflake theme… This is the interior of The Patrón Silver Reindeer pop up restaurant in Hackney which is only open this weekend and is a collaboration between the duo behind Bistrotheque (Pablo Flack and David Waddington) and tequila brand Patrón. Young set designer Gary Card designed the monochrome snowflakey interior. Head chef Tom Collins reveals that the tequila brand tie in will, naturally, soak into the menu: “Guest will experience references from a seasonal English feast, with an abundance of luxury, opulence and dishes delicately infused with Patrón Tequila.” More info at patronsilverreindeer.com
To mark the end of the decade we still can’t get used to calling the ‘noughties’, New York magazine invited imagemakers to come up with their own takes on 00
New York subscribers received their copy bearing a cover by Todd St John/Huntergatherer (above left) while Fellow Designers created the newsstand cover (above right).
St John’s piece is a physical model…
While Fellow Designers’ is 3D
Other versions are featured within the magazine, from
Digital agency Saint and Karsten Schmidt have created a generative marketing campaign for the V&A’s new show of digital art and design, Decode. And you can make your own version…
Saint commissioned Schmidt to create an ever-changing open source artwork (above) that will be used for the exhibition identity (a detailed description of the process is on Schmidt’s site here. Documentary pics here). Visitors to the Decode website can then interact with the piece and create their own version, either at a surface level by manipulating Schmidt’s piece, or at a deeper level by downloading the open source code (here). The visitors’ efforts can then be posted to the Decode site. Check out the Recode gallery to see the submissions so far – here’s one by Austrian artist Lia who is also exhibiting in the show:
A selection of the best will then be featured on digital advertising screens on the London Underground.
A review of Decode will appear in the January issue of CR, out on December 18, but in the meantime here are a few highlights:
Daniel Brown’s On Growth and Form at the entrance to the show. An ever-changing array of exotic digital flowers is created using images drawn from the V&A’s collection
Decode’s exhibits are not confined to the gallery – Jason Bruges Studio’s Mirror Mirror (commissioned for the show) is located in the pond of the v&a garden. A group of light panels each contain a camera to detect the presence of visitors walking into the garden. The visitors’ movements are captured and displayed across the water
Also commissioned specially for Decode is bit.code by Julius Popp, which sits in the Museum’s Grand Entrance. Rotating tracks form words drawn from a variety of websites monitored by the work
The sound-reactive Dune by Daan Roosegaarde (photo: Daan Roosegaarde) which visitors to Decode pass through on their way into the show
Daniel Rozin’s Weave Mirror uses 768 motorised laminated c-shaped prints which go from light to dark. The user stands in front of a screen: the shadow they cast behind them is then translated into a ghostly portrait on the Weave Mirror as each element whirrs and clanks into place acting as a mechanical pixel
Decode is at the V&A’s Porter Gallery until April 11
There are two weeks to go until the deadline for entries to this year’s Creative Review Annual, bringing together our pick of the best work of the year
Each year, The Annual brings together the finest work of the year from graphic design, advertising, digital media, music videos and other fields of visual communication. Work is selected by a panel of judges drawn from the industry and showcased chronologically over some 90 pages in a special double edition of the May issue of Creative Review.
This year’s judges will include:
Phil Clandillon – creative director, Sony Music Entertainment UK Jonathon Jeffrey – founding director, Bibliothèque Laura Jordan-Bambach – executive creative director, Lbi London Jane Scherbaum – deputy head of design, V&A Museum David Simpson – creative director, Music Kate Stanners, creative partner, Saatchi & Saatchi London Alexandra Taylor, art director Claudio Vecchio, design director, Pearlfisher
To enter The Annual please go to the dedicated website here
Looking for an unusual Christmas gift? Head down to Advanced Graphics Gallery, where an exhibition of work by letterpress specialist Alan Kitching is on show…
Kitching is marking 20 years of work from The Typography Workshop with the exhibition, which he is holding in conjunction with his partner and creative collaborator Celia Stothard. The show provides an overview of the past two decades of their work, and a number of the prints will be available for purchase.
Homage To Hendrix, 2008
The Typography Workshop Anniversary Exhibition is on until December 19, more info at advancedgraphics.co.uk.
Being based in offices overlooking London’s busy Oxford street, it certainly hasn’t escaped our notice here at CR towers that Christmas is nearly upon us. And, as ever, it’s great to see enterprising creative types creating lovely cards and other seasonal treats for fans of their work. Here are a few of our favourite such Christmassy things so far this year…
Hand lettering artist Alison Carmichael created packs of 10 Christmas cards which she is offering for sale to friends and clients at a thoroughly reasonable £6 for 10 cards. “It’s a totally non profit making enterprise,” she tells us, “but cheap enough that if you felt guilty about buying non-charity cards, you can still afford to fling a couple of quid to a charity of your choice!”
No Brow commissioned Bristol-based illustrator Bjorn Rune Lie to create four Christmas card designs for them which they’ve hand screenprinted in their Shoreditch studio so that each card comes in four different colourways. The cards are made using 100% recycled stock and you can buy a pack of four for £9 (including p+p for UK buyers) direct from the nobrow.net.
A hand grenade-shaped bauble may not seem like the most festive of decorations for your Christmas tree – and that’s actually the point of these grenades, conceived and designed by Manchester-based Dorothy for Ctrl.Alt.Shift in association with Suck UK. Entitled Chistmas Declarations, the grenade baubles are meant to remind people that despite the joy of Christmas, all is not rosy in the world.
The limited edition decorations are available to buy in packs of six from Suck UK (£20) with a donation being made from the sale of each pack to support Ctrl.Alt.Shift’s fight against global conflict. And they’re also being stocked by numerous independents including the Saatchi Gallery. More details and stockists at ctrlaltshift.co.uk. Photographs by Tim Sinclair
We received this charming illustrated postcard from Owen Gildersleeve of collective Evening Tweed. While he originally produced the postcards in a limited edition of 40 on his Gocco home screenprinting kit to send out to friends and clients, Owen tells us he’s hoping to use the jumper illustration on Christmas cards as well.
Ah, wrapping paper – always handy this time of year… We were sent a couple of rolls of this Manchester Gift Wrap, designed by Peter Saville in collaboration with Howard Wakefield of Studio Parris Wakefield for visitmanchester.com. To see what the wrapping paper looks like unfolded, click this link
Last year the Christmas By Colour project saw the good folk at Raw Design ask a host of designers and image makers to submit a pantone reference to a colour they felt summed up the festive season. GF Smith provided the paper that allowed CBC to print posters showcasing the results of the submissions they received. This year CBC asked which of a selection of 40 pantones which featured on last year’s poster were peoples favourite – the top 12 have been made into Christmas cards – which are available this year in two different packs of six:
The top twelve hues (which all have suitable name) are thus:
Quality Street (Guy Moorhouse) Sprouts (John Dowling) Yellow snow (Nick Greenwood) Mulled wine (Tash Willcocks) End of the Sellotape (Pete Clarke) Park Lane & Mayfair (Jez Burrows) Bank balance (Tom Heaton) Granny’s whiskers (Jordan Nelson) After Eights (Shane Phillips) Bucks Fizz (Gil Cocker) Pigs in blankets (Sean Rees) Walking in the Air (Kelly Mackenzie)
Paper company Fedrigoni turned to Studio8 to design their 2010 calendar, which takes the form of a pile of coloured paper, a sheet for every day of the year. A number representing the date is perfed into each sheet meaning users can push it out and stand it up on the top of the pile each morning…
YCN (Young Creatives Network) is set to launch a Christmas shop at its Rivington Street headquarters later this week. The shop will be full of specially commissioned exclusive goodies designed by a raft of interesting creative types including Donna Wilson, Mother and Johnny Kelly. Shown in the image above are some examples of the shop’s stock sent to us by YCN – a sheet of wrapping paper designed by Toby Pennington, two one-off, hand-illustrated christmas cards (the one on the left is by CR favourite Johanna Basford, the one on the right is by Jamie Portch) and a pack of four cards by Valero Doval. Also available will be Dominic Wilcox‘s By A Thread walking stick (below), whereby multi-coloured cotton thread reels have been painstakingly transferred by hand onto a wooden walking stick. Each stick is completely unique with a random combination of coloured thread.
The shop is open from 10am to 6pm Monday to Friday at 72 Rivington Street, London EC2A 3AY. Tel: +44 (0) 207 033 2140. email: info@ycnonline.com
Have you produced something nice to send to clients at Christmas – or created your own Christmas cards? If you have, we’d love to see the work – with a view to doing more of these posts through December. Email me at gavin.lucas@centaur.co.uk
Design studio Brighten the Corners has created a set of three posters entitled Inbox which showcase a selection from 10 years’ worth of incoming emails. And the posters don’t simply show off the positive or amusing ones messages – but also the angry, the confused, the dull and the absurd…
“We’ve always kept ‘good’ emails with the intention of doing something with them,” says BTC founder Frank Philippin, “but it was a recent email that read – Please let me know if you don’t get this – that made us decide to share our back catalogue with the world.”
Dating from 1999, the emails included on the posters include technical queries (Do you have an ISDN thing?), important verdicts (The museum committee has, unfortunately, decided that they don’t like the use of Magenta), overexcited feedback (The pictures are AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), printers’ efficient responses (Message received and understood), and also daily disappointments such as ‘This poster does not meet our expectations at all’.
As well as an alternative documentation of Brighten The Corner’s last ten years in business, Inbox offers a glimpse into the practise of graphic design. “What I like the most about many of these emails,” says BTC partner Billy Kiosoglou, “is the haste with which they have been written and the dramatic backdrop in which it all seems to be taking place.”
It took BTC about a month to go through all their emails, saved on hard drives, DVDs, CDs as well as a few zip discs and floppies and it was an opportunity to remember all the ups and downs each project went through on the road to completion. “The interesting thing was to see how many ‘bad’ emails led to good projects,” says Philippin, “and, perhaps the other way round would sometimes be true also.”
“Heated exchanges are sometimes frutifull,” adds Kiosoglou. “As long as both sides are ‘fighting’ for a successful outcome, and not taking things personally, getting all fired up can be a healthy part of a design project”
Ultimately, a successful project is a successful collaboration, so the work turns out well, everyone is happy and all everything else is forgotten.
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.
