Hasta La Ideas

Newsstand copies of the November issue of CR come in a revolutionary new bag that simply dissolves in hot water. No waste. No landfill.

Anyone buying their copy of CR on the newsstand this month will find that the issue comes in a transparent bag bearing the words ‘This bag dissolves in water’. And it does.

We are the first magazine anywhere to trial a new packaging material called harmless-dissolve which was created in the UK by Cyberpac. Here’s what you do:

1, Take the magazine out of the bag

2, Cut off the sealing strip – the glue of the strip is biodegradeable but will not dissolve in water

3, Place the bag in a receptacle filled with hot water (60+ degrees recommended by manufacturer)

The clear plastic dissolves into the water almost immediately

The printed area takes a little longer to break down – here’s ours after about a minute

After a couple of minutes, the printed area has broken down sufficiently for it to disintegrate when rubbed between finger and thumb – it’s a bit gunky and sticky but washes off straightaway

4, Pour the residue down the drain

We are assured that any residue is perfectly harmless. Apparently you can even drink it – we tried, it tastes horrible, so we wouldn’t recommend this.

A quick sluice around with water clears up any remaining residue both in the sink and in the receptacle.

CR is working with Cyberpac on a range of experimental packaging solutions. Subscribers received our September issue in an envelope that could be re-used as a binder for our Monograph series (see here), while in October we gave subscribers one of six static prints of images from the Photography Annual (see here).

Why do a bag at all? We needed to bag this month’s issue on the newsstand because it contains a free CMYK colour guide from Heidelberg. Rather than using a traditional polybag, we tried this. If subscribers would like one of the colour guides, please contact aminah.marshall@centaur.co.uk and we will send you one.

Subscriber issues come in regular, non-dissolvable, packaging this month – next month, though, we have something special for you.

UPDATE
More details from Cyberpac on how it works, also in the comments below: “The hot water is just to show you the biodegradability at speed. You don’t need to boil it, just chuck it on the compost heap! We use this to package fish food as it dissolves in the water releasing the bait.

“Harmless-Dissolve is made from a hydro-degradable substrate which is 5 times stronger than normal polythene. It is a readily biodegradable, water soluble polymer which completely biodegrades in a composting environment, in a dishwasher or in a washing machine. It has no harmful residues and will biodegrade into naturally occuring substances – the bugs love it.

“It’s non-toxic and is degraded by micro-organisms, moulds and yeasts. These organisms can occur in both artificial environments, such as anaerobic digesters, activated sewage sludge and composts and natural environments such as aquatic systems and soil. The micro-organisms use Harmless-Dissolve as a food source by producing a variety of enzymes that are capable of reacting with it. In the end the bag becomes carbon dioxide, water and biomass.” More here

If you’d like to know more about harmless-dissolve, please contact Will Anderson at Cyberpac, willanderson@cyberpac.co.uk

One of the most eagerly-awaited design elements of the London 2012 Olympics was launched today – the pictograms

To many designers, the Olympics pictograms are one of those dream projects: Otl Aicher’s set for Munich in 1972 (below) and the Mexico 68 collection both figure in most designers’ mental lists of most revered works.

Tough gig then, a fact recognised by ‘Yasmine” of the London 2012 Brand Team who was put up to explain the 2012 version on the official blog today, which features efforts from previous games, including 68 and 72.

CR understands that the 2012 pictograms were the work of SomeOne, although Yasmine is strangely silent on this fact. Nevertheless, she explains that “The agency had to come up with something that fitted in with our brand identity but at the same time create something new and exciting.”

“Traditionally,” she tells us, “pictograms are used for way finding and signage at Games time, so people generally see them as just an Organising Committee’s way of doing their own toilet sign! [Really?] We wanted to create an asset that we, our licensees and our partners would use in more creative ways than just at Games time – and they’ll be vital to the identity of our ‘Look’ programme (how we ‘dress’ the city).”

“The pictograms of the past have nearly always taken their cue from the Munich Games pictograms designed by Otl Aicher,” continues Yasmine, “Therefore, they are generally based both on old technology (things have moved on!), and are often stationary and frozen.” Well the results of that “old technology” still look pretty good to me…

Here’s what she has to say about the 2012 set: “One of the joys of London 2012 is the coming together and connection of the world’s people, and so a more contemporary approach to pictograms offers an opportunity beyond pure informational signage. We really wanted to push the concept for the pictograms and one of the outcomes of this was to create two style versions – a silhouette version used for high visibility and information-based applications,

“and a dynamic version used both as decoration and where a more exciting version is called for, such as on posters or banners.” Supposedly, these were “inspired by the London Underground map”

This is how the Track Cycling ‘dynamic’ pictogram, with the silhouette version inset will work

“Do I believe they could rival the Munich Games’ versions?” asks Yasmine. “Absolutely, because I strongly believe these will touch and inspire everyone – whether in London, the UK or more widely around the world.” Hmmm….

First impressions are that the “dynamic” set are more interesting than the somewhat clip-arty ‘silhouette version’ but neither has the charm of 68 or the beauty and rigour of 72, which remain the gold standard. Given that they must work with the logo and so must have at least some stylistic similarity or ability to exist in proximity to it, perhaps that was too much to ask.

Having two sets – the ‘silhouette’ and the ‘dynamic’ – smacks of compromise. I suspect, and this is pure conjecture, that SomeOne would have liked to push  the dynamic set and its ‘tube map’ references as it’s a stronger, London-themed idea. The dynamic pictograms look like they might have real potential when animated or, for example, rendered in 3D. They also work well with the logo and typeface (see above) – something that would be incredibly difficult to pull off.

What do you think?

UPDATE

Some additional images from the SomeOne site showing the ‘dynamic’ set in use:

Note also the similarity to the Atlanta pictograms by Malcolm Grear (thanks Wim for pointing this out in the comments below)

Image from olympic-museum.de, see more here

Not for CR readers’ kids the humble drawing book of yore. No, you want something that’s going to put your youngsters on the path to being the next YBA, like Pentagram‘s workbook for Cass Art Kids…

OK, well maybe you don’t want that – my own son is far more interested in the Guinness Book of Records or his Match Attax annual than anything ‘creative’ I attempt to foist on him, but I might give him a go with this. The Cass Art Workbook was art directed by Angus Hyland and features illustrations by Hyland’s wife Marion Deuchars

The basic concept may be reminiscent of Taro Gomi’s Doodlebook but with more of a knowing, art world twist, hence the lead image on this post.

Other spreads invite kids to design their own comic

Or merchandise for, ahem, Cass Art

And, of course, there’s a reminder of all the great things you can buy there

But also fun spreads like these

Also for Cass Art, Hyland has art directed an ad campaign featuring artist Scarlett Raven half naked and covered in paint (shot by Nadav Kander), and thereby hangs a tale…

Scarlett Ravenscroft, as she was then, came to CR on work experience a few years ago when she was still at school. She was very nice. Needless to say, she didn’t dress like this in the office…

No, not street art in the Banksy sense – but art exhibited in the streets – on fly-poster sites…

Superfly, the brainchild of designer and illustrator Jon Gill, is an exhibition of fly-posted artworks currently running on the streets of Dundee.

“Dundee has an abundance of fly posters advertising, bands, gigs, shows, exhibitions, clubs, etc,” says Gill, “so why shouldn’t the artists who created these posters, or any other artist for that matter, get to show their work in this space? Street advertising services do a fantastic job managing the poster space legally, with the consent of the local council, so why not make use of this system for art, not just commerce?”

And (above) is one of the artworks submitted to the Superfly exhibition

Gill set up website superfly.org.uk earlier this year (a link to the call for entries was posted in the Monitor section of this blog in the summer) and encouraged submissions from artists, designers and photographers. The artwork went up a couple of weeks ago, displayed in special exhibit posters labelled clearly as Superfly posters so people looking at large swathes of fly posters around the city can easily spot which ones are part of the project. Here are a few photos showing posters in situ on the streets of Dundee – where they will remain on show until November 1. 

To have a look through the submitted artwork and to find out more about the project, visit superfly.org.uk/gallery/

This hilarious scenerio between a graphic designer and his client is all too familiar. Ironically this video was made using xtranormal, a ‘text-to-movie’ service that turns users’ scripts into mini-films using its predesigned characters and backgrounds.

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