Hasta La Ideas

Marc Valli, owner of the Magma design bookshops, is to launch a new visual arts and culture magazine called Elephant. Why?

The first issue of Elephant magazine, with design and art direction by Matt Willey of Studio8, will be published in October. We asked editor Marc Valli why Elephant and why now?

CR As the owner of Magma, you better than anyone know it’s a pretty tough time for magazines right now, so why launch a new one?
MV Yes, times are difficult. Sales of books, expensive showcase books in particular, have been hit by the credit crunch. Yet from where I’m standing (and that’s often behind a shop counter) the magazine market looks more alive than ever. The drop in advertising revenues is hurting a lot of people, I know, but again, maybe that will encourage some renewal. Hopefully some of the fat old magazine clichés will die out and some fresh new ideas will emerge. In fact, if I curse the credit crunch on a daily basis (every evening when I get the sales figures from our shops), I cannot help but think it’s a healthy and necessary process. At the same time, it’s very scary…

CR What’s the idea behind Elephant?
MV The visual art world seems to be sadly divided between, on one side, the world of contemporary art, with museums and galleries and collectors and, on the other, the applied arts, or commercial art. I feel these divisions do not reflect the reality, and the richness, and the complexity of the current visual arts scene. More seriously, I think this division has meant that some of the most interesting work went right under the radar. I want Elephant to sit squarely in the middle. I believe that by looking at different art forms from that position, you can create a whole new kind of discourse. I had this dream of doing the kind of magazine a group of beat friends would have done in the 50s, before the art world became the art world, and the creative industries took over, a time when artists didn’t measure the worth of their work according to auction prices, but by the opinion of their peers. I think the credit crunch may have taught us a few lessons… Maybe this is a time for less cynicism.

CR Who is the audience?
MV Difficult question. Some magazines have a very narrow target audience. I don’t think that’s really the case with us. We would like to reach as wide a market as possible. It’s a risk. I suppose in my mind, I see the audience as being made up of people who are enthusiastic and curious (I was going to say ‘young’, but you don’t need to be young to be that), not snobbish, but very ambitious about the quality of the art they look at, use, collect, think about, and produce.

CR How will it be structured? Will it be the same each time?
MV Yes, the basic structure will remain the same. I think that creating a structure that makes sense of a diverse range of material is the second most difficult thing when starting a magazine – the first being coming up with a name…

We divided Elephant in 5 parts:
Part 1 is called Meetings and consists of long interviews with people that I see as visual thinkers, people who have ‘thought up’ or changed our time up through the medium of visual arts.

Part 2 consists of a series of Research Subjects. We pick a few themes and explore those. For example, in issue one we looked at how artists and illustrators have started to use collage again. We also tried to revisit the idea of art in the internet. Visual artists seem to have fallen in and out of love with it rather quickly… We also looked at people who use text as the main subject of their artwork, and at the work Scandinavian fashion designers, and even bike polo and the culture of customisation that revolves around it!

Part 3 is called Studios. We visit the studios of a number of artists and showcase their work.

Part 4 (Economies) looks at how artists are taking matters into their hands and starting businesses based on their own creative output. How are things made?

Finally, in part 5, we take a city and write a creative guide to that city, showcasing the work of artists from that place and asking them about their relationship to that city: how they feel about it, why they moved there, where they hang out, shop, eat, etc.

CR Do you have anyone backing Elephant or is it your own venture?
MV Originally, the magazine was backed by BIS publishers in the Netherlands. But BIS is a relatively small book publisher and we have now transferred the magazine to Frame, who already publish Frame and Mark magazines. They are a very dynamic magazine publisher and we should benefit from their network and experience.

CR Where will it be distributed?
MV Worldwide, both in newsagents and shops.

CR Are you still publishing Graphic?
MV Elephant replaces Graphic. Graphic never found its feet as a magazine proper, and ended up as more of a book series, with every issue looking at one theme in particular. Making a whole magazine on just one theme can be tricky. Sometimes a theme works, and the issue sells, sometimes it doesn’t, and then…

Above: Jaime Hayón’s huge chess set will be set up in Trafalgar square throughout The London Design Festival

Starting tomorrow, The London Design Festival encompasses an impressive array of creative events, talks, installations and exhibitions taking place across the capital. We thought we’d put together a list of highlights of the forthcoming week’s activities – focusing on the more graphic (rather than product) design-led events…

September 19 – September 27
London Posters
curated by Pentagram

Pentagram partner Domenic Lippa and Sir John Sorrell, chairman of the London Design Festival, have commissioned 20 UK-based graphic designers to create posters with a London theme for this year’s event. The posters will be on display in the V&A’s Sackler Centre during the festival. The 20 designers who have produced a poster for the project are: Alan Aboud, Alan Kitching, Angus Hyland, Bibliothèque, Jonathan Ellery, Damon Murray and Stephen Sorrell of fuel, Derek and Fred Birdsall, Fernando Gutiérrez, Henrik Kubel, Jeremy Leslie, Matt Willey, Michael Wolff, Mike Dempsey, Nick Bell, Morag Myerscough (her poster shown above),  Quentin Newark, Studio Frith (shown below), Tom Hingston Studio, Tony Brook and Andy Altmann.

10am-5.45pm daily; 10am-10pm, Friday

at
Victoria and Albert Museum
Sackler Centre
Cromwell Road
London
SW7 2RL

For a chance to win two of the posters, check out the gallery page in our October issue (out next week).

Full details of the show: londondesignfestival.com/events/london-posters

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September 20 – 25
UP ALL NIGHT
Central Saint Martins

The Up All Night exhibition showcases student work from various courses including MA Communication Design, MA Design; Ceramics, Furniture or Jewellery.

10am-6pm Mon-Friday

at:

Innovation Centre
Proctor Street
Red Lion Square
London WC1B 4AP

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September 21 – 27
It’s Nice That / The Dock

It’s Nice That preview their second publication at Portobello’s White House as part of The Dock. 

10am-6pm, Mon – Sat; 10am – 4pm, Sunday

at
The Dock
Portobello Dock
334 Ladbroke Grove
London
W10 5BU

More details at porobellodock.com 

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September 22
Panel discussion on copyright issues in art and advertising
Own-It 

6.30pm – 8.30pm

Own-it has invited a panel of experts from advertising and film-making to discuss inspiration & copyright issues. Chaired by CR’s own Eliza Williams. 

On the panel:

Charles Swan, head of Swan Turton’s Advertising & Marketing and Photography & Visual Arts Groups; Johnny Hardstaff and Matt Smith, director of strategy at The Viral Factory 

Admission is free, however places are limited. To reserve your place you must register and book via the Own-it website: own-it.org/

Full details here: londondesignfestival.com/events/art-ad-about-moral-legal-and-aesthetic-consequences-current-trend

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September 22-27
MAKER DIFFERENCE – Pop-up Letterpress studio
Cockpit Arts And SORT (The Society of Revisionist Typographers)

Watch SORT design and print bespoke books, cards and curios using antique letterpresses and try your hand at printing…

11am-6pm, Tues & Wed, Fri& Sat
12pm-8pm, Thurs; 12pm-2pm, Sun

at:
3 Lowndes Court
Newburgh Quarter
London W1F 7HD

Full details at: londondesignfestival.com/events/maker-difference-pop-letterpress-studio

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September 10 – October 2
BRAZIL ILLUSTRATED
Embassy of Brazil

An exhibition by three up-and-coming Brazillian illustrators: Bruno Kurru, Wagner Pinto and Eduardo Recife

Gallery 32
32 Green Street
London
W1K 7AT

Full details here: londondesignfestival.com/events/brazil-illustrated-bruno-kurru-wagner-pinto-eduardo-recife

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September 22-24
Grafik presents Olympik

Olympik celebrates the rich relationship between graphic design and the Olympic Games. To celebrate London hosting the 2012 games, Grafik magazine has commissioned thirty-nine of the UK’s most talented designers to create a poster interpreting an Olympic sport or discipline. 39 Sports, 39 Designers, 39 Posters. The project is a collaboration between Grafik, SEA Design, GF Smith and Team Impression.

10am-6.30pm daily

at:
The German Gymnasium
26 St Pancras Road
London
NW1 2TB

Find out more at londondesignfestival.com/events/grafik-presents-olympik

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September 21-25
Greengaged at the Design Council

Each day for five days a different expert curates a day looking at green issues in design. The five curators are Ed Gillespie, Founder of Futerra and slow travel expert; John Grant, author of The Green Marketing Manifesto and former co-founder of St Luke’s agency; Michael Pawlyn, founder of Exploration Architechture; Dan Epstein, head of sustainability and regeneratio, Olympic Deliver Authority; and Three Trees Don’t Make a Forest with Anna Gerber, design critic.

9am-10pm Mon-Friday

at
Design Council
3rd Floor
34 Bow Street
Lonodn
WC2E 7DL

Free but registration is needed. Visit greengaged.com to book

More details at londondesignfestival.com/events/greengaged-design-council

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September 19-23 
The Tournament: An installation by Jaime Hayón

For this year’s London Design Festival, designer Jaime Hayón creates a giant interactive chess board in Trafalgar Square. The chess pieces have been inspired by iconic London buildings – their domes and spires. Each of the 32 chess pieces has been handcrafted by Hayón, working wiht Bosa, the Italian ceramics experts in Veneto, Italy. The Tournament Team move the two metre-high creramic chess pieces across a specially built glass mosaic chess board. Seated upon elevated platforms, contestants from the English Chess Federation and members of the public will battle it out over the five days to become The Tournament champion. 

10am-6pm daily

at
Trafalgar Square
London SW1 Y 5BJ

Full details at londondesignfestival.com/events/tournament

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September 17 – December 22 
Somerset House presents
SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution

Major new exhibition by SHOWstudio, the award-winning fashion website founded by Nick Knight.

10am-6pm, Sun-Wed; 10am-9pm, Thurs & Fri

at
Embankment Galleries
Somerset House
Strand
London WC2R 1LA

Book online at somersethouse.org.uk/showstudio

More info at londondesignfestival.com/events/showstudio-fashion-revolution

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September 19- October  3
The Outer Limit – Beyond Zone One
Transport For London

Winning poster designs that celebrate life outside London’s city centre go on temporary display… Featured work is a selection of the best poster entries from TFL’s summer poster design competition. All exhibited designs will be available as print to order posters at the London Transport Museum’s online shop at ltmuseum.co.uk

10am-6pm, Sat-Thurs; 11am-6pm, Fri

at
London Transport Museum
Covent Garden Piazza
London WC2E 7BB

tickets: Adults £10.00*; Senior citizens £8.00*; Students £6.00*; Under 16s free. (* includes voluntary Gift Aid donation)

Full deets at londondesignfestival.com/events/exhibition-outer-limits-–-beyond-zone-one

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September 21-27
A6/Future
Creative [SIN]ergy

Creative [SIN]ergy presents A6 /future/, a collaboration between 22 illustrators from both Singapore and the UK.

10am-6pm, Mon-Fri; 12pm-5pm, Sat &Sun

at
Idea Generation Gallery
11 Chance Street
London E2 7JB

More deets at http://www.londondesignfestival.com/events/a6-future

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September 19 – October 3
There’s No Place Like Home
Ella Doran

Showcase of ‘one off’ placemats designed by artists, designers and illustrators including Rob Ryan, Michael Marriott, Sharon Elphick and Martin Parr. The show will open on Saturday September 19 with a tea party from 2pm-5pm and the sets of placemats will be sold through a silent auction that will close on October 3. All profits go to Shelter. 

10am-6pm, Wed-Fri; 12pm-5pm, Sat; 11am-5pm, Sun

at
Ella Doran Shop
46 Cheshire Street
London
E2 6EH

Full details here: londondesignfestival.com/news/theres-no-place-home-1

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September 11 – October 31
Typographica
Kemistry Gallery

Curated by regular CR contributor Rick Poynor, Typographica is an exhibition dedicated to the eponymous groundbreaking and now legendary graphic design journal which ran from 1949 to 1967.

10am-5pm, Mon-Fri; 11am-4pm, Sun

at
Kemistry Gallery
43 Charlotte Road
London
EC2A 3PD

Full details: londondesignfestival.com/events/typographica

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September 24
i-Design one day conference

i-Design is a one day conference and showcase for anyone with an interest or passion for interactive design and the digital arts. The programme aims to inspire, entertain and explore how our digital future looks set to unfold and the central role interactive design will take in our cultural, work and social life. Events include:

5D: The Future of Immersive Design Panel – an exclusive session on immersive experience design will be convened by the 5D Conference team, flying in from Los Angeles.

Speakers include Nic Roope, Adrian Shaughnessy, Desiree Collier, Andrew Chitty, Bill Thompson, David Taylor, Tali Krakowsky, Martyn Ware, Andrew Shoben and more

Alongside the conference there will be screenings of new work from Onedotzero, an exhibition of interactive work curated by Cybersonica and a Future of Sound panel

9am-6pm

at
The Old Cinema
University of Westminster
309 Regent Street
London
W1B 2UW

The event requires pre-registration at idesign-london.com/

Full details here: londondigitalweek.com/eventdetail.php?id=40&cat=1

In autumn 2007 Koeweiden Postma pitched for a new logo and housestyle for the Dutch government. They made it to the final round but didn’t get the job: here’s what the Dutch could have had

It’s a constant frustration to us here at CR that, due to client confidentiality clauses, design studios and ad agencies are seldom allowed to show the projects that didn’t make it. So often, they are more interesting than the ones that finally get the nod.

Last week at the Designyatra conference in Mumbai, Hugo van Bos of Koweiden Postma showed his studio’s pitch for the Dutch government’s new identity. They proposed two routes.

Route one drew on the Dutch landscape and its characteristic Polders of reclaimed land.

The idea was to translate that familiar gridded landscape into an identity featuring the Dutch royal lion and a reference to the national flag

The identity would be flexible enough to work with all the government departments, using the red and blue device to separate information

It would work like this on a letter

And it could be used on signage like this

Route 2 would reference the coats of arms of the different Dutch regions and cities

Again using the lion, the logo could look like this

Which was refined further to this

Which would then work like this

The squares would vary according to the department or subject

So it could work like this on a letter

And this on signage

But, after reaching the last two, the Dutch Government went with an identity by Studio Dumbar which looks like this

You can see the whole Koeweiden Postma presentation from Designyatra here

Pentagram‘s Harry Pearce has designed an elegant tribute to members of staff at London’s Science Museum who died during the First and Second World Wars

The memorial takes the form of a wall-mounted plaque made from a single piece of cast iron. Each layer represents a world war with ‘19’ serving as a link between the two sets of dates ‘14-18’ and ‘39-45’. A single cross is cut through both layers.

This is the wooden ‘cast proof’ used in production:

We’re suckers for all things Lego here at CR so were somewhat overexcited to hear about the first Lego calendar to be issued in the UK, with all profits going to the National Autistic Society

The calendar features a variety of Lego characters, many of them imperilled by everyday objects in scenarios relating to each month. All the LEGO elements used have been in production at some point – even the terrified expressions come from genuine Lego figures.

The calendar is the work of freelance designer/photographer Ben Watts who works in-house at Lego HQ in Slough. It will be available to buy from UK Lego Stores or at shop.lego.com from this week.

And, talking of Lego (just in case you haven’t seen it)…

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(Thanks Ben)