Hasta La Ideas

A rare breed of rejection letter. From the editor at arts journal ZYZZYVA

Amnesty of Rejection is a proposed exhibition at the Royal College of Art in London in which letters of rejection, failure and polite decline will be displayed and then recycled to create “a document of positive affirmation”. If you’ve kept any, the RCA are after submissions…

According to the RCA’s Students’ Union blog, chosen letters will be on display in the Union for a two to three week period which will culminate in a “Bacchanal” on 11 December.

All the letters will be destroyed (shredded) and then recycled; turned into a “positive document” that, along with photographs of the process, will apparently be framed and then hung somewhere in the RCA.

More information on the conceptual thinking behind the Amnesty of Rejection proposal (and the link with the cultural output of the 1990s) can be found on the link from the RCASU page.*

If you want to submit your rejection letters for inclusion – you can either hand them in at the Students’ Union office, or email Morgan Quaintance for more details on morg_124@hotmail.com.

* The connection to 1990s popular culture is explained in the post: “Central to the end of display period will be the Bacchanal, in which rejected models of the 1990’s (a period of time we all felt a distinct attachment to) will be reclaimed, and the letters of rejection destroyed.

“The link between rejected aspects of 90’s culture and the rejection of ones self, is made possible through the connection of a prescribed value system, or personal critique, the recipient is alienated from. This, top down, system of judgement is painfully evident in the bureaucratic language of polite letters of decline, and the personal language of letters of rejection, it is something we also found in media representations of 1990’s popular, and sub, culture.”

Following exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney, the series of prints created for this year’s Some Type of Wonderful are now available to buy online…

Some Type of Wonderful is an annual type design project from Lifelounge which invites 12 artists/designers/typographers to each respond to a design brief relating to a month of the year. The resulting designs were then turned into a set of limited edition glycee prints that have already been exhibited in Melbourne and Sydney. The prints are now available to buy online at lifelounge.com and have also been turned into a limited edition 2010 calendar. Each print comes in an edition of 36 and are available for the highly reasonable price of AUS $250. The calendars are AUS $40. Get them while you can.

December by Gary Taxali

This year’s contributors are Jonathan Zawanda (Australia), Mario Hugo (USA), Luca Barcellona (Italy), Maxwell Lord (Russia), PMKFA (Japan), Théo Gennitsakis (France), Jessica Hische (USA), Pablo Alfieri (Argentina), Sebastian Lester (UK), Siggi Eggertsson (Iceland), Jiro Bevis (UK) and Gary Taxali (Canada).

August by Pablo Alfieri

A selection of the prints are shown here and the full set can be viewed online at lifelounge.com.

February by Mario Hugo

June by Théo Gennitsakis

June by PMKFA

September by Sebastian Lester

Collaboration is the name of the game in a new series of art exhibitions called Pic+Mix cooked up by Intercity for 55DSL‘s new artspace, Studio55 above their Newburgh Street store in London…

For each Pic+Mix exhibition a renowned artist or image maker works with another creative of his or her choice – be it a like-minded contemporary, a hot young talent or an artist working in a completely different discipline across photography, sculpture, moving image, furniture design, music and beyond – to create new work specially for the show.

Pic+Mix kicks off with a show that opens this Thursday showcasing the collaborative output of Sanderson Bob and his choice of creative partner – Sheffield-based blacksmith Sam Sherborne. The resulting artworks include sculptural work and a series of prints inspired by objects in Sherborne’s blacksmithery workshop:

“We dont have a specific meaning or narrative for each individual piece,” says Sanderson Bob of the work. “We spent some time with Sam in his workshop, understanding how he works and also discussing how we all thought it would be best to approach the sculpture and prints. We spent a few hours each time we visited taking photos, making marks and rubbings from the machinery and tools in the workshop – we wanted the images to feel as if both the prints and sculpture had been through a similar process. Uninhibited by the fact that we didnt have a real idea of how the final images would look, we tried to treat the images for the prints using the computer in the same way Sam stretches, bends, merges, distorts the original steel material to create the sculpture. So we enlarged, distorted, stretched the images with a disregard for conventional resolution and print practice and used the computer and software in a a way we would not normally do. The final images are our representation of the time we spent with Sam and we feel these images couldn’t have been made by us otherwise.

“It was a great opportunity to grasp a new topic and really get underneath it. We feel projects like these gives everybody a chance to develop new ideas and the opportunity to experiment with new marks that otherwise wouldn’t have been as natural. The sculpture and prints sit proudly next to each other. The original sketch on one side, the finished sculpture at the other and in between an expression of the time spent thinking and doing.”

Pic+Mix Sanderson Bob / Sam Sherborne runs from 29 October to 20 November at 

Studio55,
(above the 55DSL store)
10a Newburgh Street
London W1F 7RN 

For more information about Pic+Mix and Studio55, visit 55dsl.com

The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography has a new home. Curator Mike Essl spoke to CR about one of New York’s design gems

On a recent visit to New York I was fortunate enough to pay a visit to the new home of The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography, an archive of the work of both Lubalin and a host of other leading graphic designers. The Study Center has long been one of New York’s hidden design gems – its recent move to the Cooper Union’s new building now makes it far more accessible (there’s even an exhibition coming up). Curator and designer Mike Essl explains the history of the archive and the opportunities brought about by its move

CR: Could you please give us a quick potted history of the archive – how did it come into being and what is its purpose?

ME: The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography in the School of Art was founded in 1985 by The Cooper Union and friends of the late Herb Lubalin. Its mission is to focus on the preservation of design history through both hard copy and electronic means. The Study Center and its archive are important central resources for the students and faculty as well as the professional public and the general public.

Ad for Sudler & Hennessey ad agency

Cooper Union logo

The core collection includes an extensive archive of the work of Herb Lubalin. Included are promotional and editorial design, typography, posters, journals, magazines (U&lc, Avant Garde, Eros, fact), letterhead, logos, identity programs and packaging dating from 1950-1980. Herb Lubalin was born in New York City in 1918, graduated from the Cooper Union Art School in 1939, and joined Sudler & Hennessey in 1946 where he headed the design division. In 1964, he opened his own design consultancy. During his lifetime, Lubalin received more than 300 awards from the New York Art Directors Club, The Type Directors Club, the AIGA and other professional bodies. He died in 1981.

The U&lc draw

CR: As well as Herb Lubalin, other designers’ work is present in the archive – what are the criteria for inclusion?

ME: We have no specific acquisition policy; the evolution of the archive is more organic in nature. We are not currently soliciting new collections due to space constraints, but occasionally we do accept work, which is determined on a case by case basis.

The archive also contains work by European designers such as this poster by Maciej Urbaniec

And American designers such as E McKnight Kauffer, poster shown

CR: How is the archive currently run?

ME: The Lubalin Center’s structure and daily operations are run in tandem between a Curator (Mike Essl) and Archive Associate (Emily Roz) The Curator cultivates the vision and strategic planning of the Center, curates exhibitions, acts as a liaison to the design community, invites guest lecturers, and oversees the development of the student Rhoda Lubalin Fellowship projects. The Archive Associate handles daily operations that include, but are not limited to, hosting and guiding research scholars, arranging class visits from outside institutions, fulfilling image requests, assisting students with project assignments, and arranging the installation and practical aspects of both exhibitions and lectures. Additionally, the Archive Associate oversees the collection itself, with ongoing cataloging and proper housing of archival materials. With the addition of the new Lubalin Center website, the Archive Associate will be blogging about pieces in the collection.

CR: The Archive was recently moved to CU’s new building – what new opportunities has the move opened up for the archive?

ME: We now have a more public presence as the new building has attracted more visitors. We also have access to a larger gallery space. A show with 23 artists, like Lubalin Now, would not have fit in our old gallery. The design of the new space is also more inviting and brighter, and generally more comfortable to do work and research in.

‘Tissue’ for Lubalin’s PAS Graphics logo

CR: What’s your favourite piece in the archive and why?

ME: My favourite works are the original tissues created by Herb Lubalin. These are sketches that Lubalin would make before a final was executed by a hand letterer. The tissues show the clarity of Lubalin’s process as the final logos rarely differ from the initial sketch.

Sketch for U&lc cover

Film for same cover

CR: Tell us about the Lubalin Now exhibition – what is the idea behind it?

ME: Lubalin Now [which opens November 5] is a show of contemporary graphic design that features expressive typography and lettering. We have selected work that directly references the work of Lubalin, and work that shares a kind of formal kinship.Over the last few years I began to notice an increased use of the Lubalin and Carnese typeface Avant Garde. I also became aware of the work of Justin Thomas Kay, a designer that freely references the work of Lubalin. From there the idea began to snowball as I continued to see reference to Lubalin in advertisements, on television, and in design work I found on websites like FFFOUND, Flickr, and Behance. It was at this time that we began to plan the move of the center and were strategizing what our first show would be. It was then that we came up with the idea for Lubalin Now. This exhibition allows us to show work we have in the archive as well as new work that builds on the legacy of our namesake.

An original manual for Die Neue Haas Grotesk, amended with the typeface’s new name – Helvetica

CR: Given that so many of today’s designers work largely on screen, how will it be possible to archive their work for future students?

ME: To be honest I don’t have a great answer for this. My opinion is that if you are going to archive digital work you also need to archive the device that it was conceived for. For example, if we were to try and archive a website we would need to archive the platform for which is created and also the browser version. As we have no set acquisition policy or budget we have yet to tackle this problem. Currently the Center’s focus is on print work, but eventually we will need to create an acquisition policy that covers digital work.

CR: If our readers want to visit the archive, what should they do?

ME: They should email Emily Roz at eroz@cooper.edu

See more images of the collection (pre-move) here

The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography is at The Cooper Union, 41 Cooper Square, NYC. Lubalin Now (to be featured in December’s CR) is on from November 5 to 8. With thanks to Alexander Tochilovsky

This year’s Kyoorius Designyatra conference in Mumbai re-united Michael Wolff and Wally Olins on stage in a session that pulled few punches when it came to their thoughts on modern-day brand consultancies

The session at Designyatra was chaired by CR editor, Patrick Burgoyne. “Some of the quality of work and the quality of thinking that some of the major design consultancies charge people a lot of money for is obscene and absurd,” says Wolff in this extract in which the pair are asked what they think of hostile media attitudes towards branding and how design consultancies should defend themselves.

In this extract, the pair discuss their impact on both branding and anti-branding, during which Olins characterises the larger design consultancies as “machines devised to produce mediocre rubbish” and calls some of their actions “despicable”

While in this one they talk about what led them to split up

And in this more lighthearted session they talk about what drove them mad about each other

All the videos can be seen over on CRTV