Hasta La Ideas

Graphic artist Yoni Alter’s solo show at London’s Kemistry Gallery presents a colourful series of artworks inspired by urban geometry. We spoke to Alter about the exhibition, his creative influences and his recent idents for TV channel London Live…

Yoni Alter likes interesting shapes. He is inspired by Heatherwick’s new London buses, by skyscrapers that defy convention, and crowded cityscapes like London’s and New York’s that contain a mix of old and new.

This passion for urban architecture, and London’s in particular, forms the basis of Alter’s solo show at Kemistry Gallery. Through screen prints, sculpture and a striking mural, he explores some of the capital’s most iconic structures in bold multicolour.

Exhibition photography by Sam Scott-Hunter

A creative at JWT, Alter studied visual communications in Jerusalem and worked as an intern at Barnbrook studio before completing an MA in graphic design at LCC. He moved to London permanently in 2006.

While working at JWT, Alter was struck by the view from nearby Hyde Park. “At a certain point, you can see the London Eye interesecting with the Shard, and you can see the BT tower. The geometry is very interesting, and I thought it would be fun to play around with it,” he adds.

This gave Alter the idea for Shapes of Cities, a series of prints in which structures are reduced to simple shapes and overlaid on top of one another to give a sense of scale. He has created 35 prints so far, some of which are on display at the exhibition.

Some prints in the series depict cities that Alter knows well. For others, he researches skylines by finding photographs and blueprints, and asks residents about their favourite buildings.

“The research is one of the things that excites me most. It’s like exploring a new city without actually going there,” says Alter. “I gather all the interesting shapes I can find, then I contact people who live there and ask for their favourite buildings, or ask online.

“The next step is deciding on the most interesting arrangement – if you have too many skyscrapers it just looks like rectangular blocks, which is what I try to avoid,” he adds.

Alter’s work features a striking use of colour. Selecting them is an intuitive process, he says, as he often knows what shade a building will be before he is finished drawing it. Overlaying graphics creates some unusual combinations, a technique Alter previously experimented with for The World Coming Together, an artwork inspired by London 2012.

Alongside his cityscapes at Kemistry are prints depicting various modes of London transport, including the Routemaster buses and London Underground cars. “I travel on the Picadilly Line everyday and the cars are so iconic. Like the Routemaster, the front is almost flat so they work perfectly for posters,” he says.

There is also a perspex sculpture featuring models of the Shard, the Gherkin, Big Ben and Battersea Power Station which can be taken apart and re-arranged. The structure has been lit from underneath to show etchings on each model.

It is Alter’s fascination for urban architecture and his distinct visual style that first caught the attention of Kemistry’s Graham McCallum and Ricky Churchill. As well as hosting his work at the agency’s gallery, the pair recently commissioned Alter to design a series of idents for London Live, a TV channel launched last month by newspaper the Evening Standard.

The channel itself has received mixed reviews but Alter’s cityscapes have featured in cover wraps, on the walls of the channel’s office and on London buses, as well as in the idents. Five have been released so far, and another five will launch later this year.

“Both Kemistry and the client had seen a lot of my work and really liked it, like my aerial and isometric views of New York. It was really a case of ‘just do your stuff’,” he explains. “I went about finding interesting compositions in different London areas, and the client picked the most recognisable ones. It had to be immediately obvious which area it is,” he adds.

Alter is now working on a project for the Tate group, which will see his art used on merchandise and shop installations. He is still working on his Shapes of Cities series, but says the list of requests he’s received is growing by the day.

“I’m not able to do it so often now but I add to it once a while and I’m always on the lookout for unique buildings. In London and New York especially, there seems to be a growing awareness that new additions to the skyline need to be original – that’s why we’re seeing things like the Cheesegrater, the Shard and the Walkie Talkie – and it’s exciting, because I can make new versions of my work.”

City is on display at Kemistry Gallery, 43 Charlotte Road London EC2A 3PD until May 3. See kemistrygallery.co.uk for details or see more of Alter’s work at yoniishappy.com

The minimalist cover of Yale University Press’ new catalogue for artist Carl Andre uses a version of one of his text-based artworks from the 1960s to introduce the larger body of work inside…

Designed by Purtill Family Business, Sculpture as Place – 1958-2010, accompanies the first retrospective Andre has had since 1970 which opens at the Dia Art Foundation in May.

On the cover, the words that appear in the five line Preface to My Work Itself (1963) are simply arranged by length – from “in” to “interchangable” – and offer a playful way into Andre’s work.

The piece itself treats the words as objects of different sizes and – as a cover device – lets the reader arrange them into statements which may, or may not, be relevant to his wider body of work in abstract sculpture.

So “my art is made of the same stacked broken pieces; the work piled, interchangable” could be one way of ordering half of the words, for example.

It’s an interesting way of getting the reader to categorise Andre’s work – much of it having garnered its fair share of both positive and negative reaction over the fifty years he has been working (the controversy generated by The Sunday Times over the Tate’s acquisition of Andre’s firebrick piece, Equivalent VIII, in the 1970s being an infamous case in point).

In addition to ten essays, the book includes images of many of Andre’s sculptural pieces made from materials such as timber planks, concrete blocks and plates of metal, alongside concrete poetry, postcards, letters and documents relating to the installation of many of the artworks.

Carl Andre: Sculpture as Place, 1958-2010 by Philippe Vergne and Yasmil Raymond is published by Yale University Press; £45. See yalebooks.co.uk. Details on the Dia Art Foundation exhibition in New York are here.

Matthew Young at Penguin has designed an austere cover for a forthcoming edition of Robert Graves’ Good-bye To All That, published as part of the company’s ongoing First World War-related series…

The type-only design is a sombre take on Graves’ autobiographical account of his wartime experience; with centred text and in a brushed gun-metal grey the A-format design is akin to a field manual or handbook (and similar in appearance to Warne’s Observer’s Books from the 1930s).

The date set bottom-right signifies that the text is of Graves’ original 1929 version of his memoir which he revised and republished it in 1957. The strange, unsettling first edition cover of the book is shown at the bottom of this post.

Good-bye To All That is republished by Penguin on May 1; £5.50. Details here. More of Youngs work is at mymymy.co.uk.

Ireland’s creative community has launched an online archive documenting visual communications in the country. We spoke to designer David Wall about the project…

At this year’s Offset conference in Dublin last month, the three-day schedule featured a range of talks from Irish creatives: photographer Richard Mosse discussed his stunning images from Eastern Congo, Chris Judge spoke about his award-winning children’s book, The Lonely Beast, and street artist Maser reflected on his colourful and thought provoking public artworks. On smaller stages, studios and educators spoke about their creative heroes, getting commissioned and judging good design – and several mentioned the 100 Archive.

The 100 Archive is a website documenting visual communications in Ireland – from illustration and animation to album covers, packaging, identities, exhibition graphics and logos.

The site is divided into two parts: 100 Future, which acts as a rolling record of contemporary professional work in the country and 100 Past; an archive of the 100 finest projects submitted each year, as well as examples of great graphic design and communications dating back to the 1960s.

The project was initiated by four Dublin studios – Atelier, Conor & David, Detail and Studio AAD. Atelier founder David Smith first suggested the idea at AGI Open in Barcelona in 2011, when he became the first Irish member of AGI, followed by Johnny Kelly a year later.

The archive was officially launched late last year and since then, it has received hundreds of submissions: a curatorial panel are in the process of judging the finest projects from 2010-13 for 100 Past, which launches next month, and they have also trawled archives and personal collections for interesting items from the past five decades.

“Ireland has a rich visual culture and history of visual communication,” says Conor & David co-founder David Wall. “Design competitions have played a vital role in the setting and raising of standards, but they haven’t left us with an extensive record of the work done here. The ultimate goal of the 100 Archive is to establish such a record,” he adds.

To submit work to the 100 Archive, creatives pay a 20 Euro fee and their entry is assessed by a professional panel who decide if it’s suitable. The panel is currently made up of Johnny Kelly, Alastair Keady (Hexhibit), Susan Murphy (Ogilvy & Mather), Gillian Reidy (Penhouse) and Eamon Spelmen (Limerick School of Art & Design).

The criteria for submissions is broad, says Wall, and any work that has been produced in response to a commission and led by an Irish designer or created in Ireland, is eligible.

“If the work can be described as any of the following: good, interesting, different, unexpected, simple, modest, clear, well executed, considered, culturally relevant or noteworthy, it can be added to 100 Future,” he adds. If three out of five judges opt to include a project then it is uploaded, and judges aren’t aware of how their peers have voted.

There are local and global awards schemes for Irish creatives who’d like to see their work recognised, of course – some of which are documented online – but Wall says that as a non-competitive scheme, the 100 Archive offers something quite different and is more inclusive.

“As a non-competitive space for showcasing work, the archive offers a celebration of graphic design rather than the exaltation of a small group. Crediting of work is centred around individuals…so as the archive grows, it offers a rich history of the people behind the practice,” he says. “For those at one removed from the day-to-day industry here — whether they’re students or designers based abroad — the Archive [also] provides an overview of ongoing work here,” he adds.

The 100 projects added to 100 Past each year are chosen by an additional curatorial panel, which will change every three years. The current line-up consists of Brenda Dermody, Gerard Fox, Oonagh Young, Linda King and Liam McComish, who have also been responsible for sourcing historical work from archives and personal collections.

As well as its core staff, the site lists a number of ‘founders’ who have made the site’s launch possible through donations. The team has received hundreds of submissions for inclusion so far and Wall says many have dedicated their own time and resources to sourcing archive material. These objects will be launched on 100 Past later this year, says Wall, and include packaging, album artwork and editorial design.

“One of the things I’m most looking forward to seeing is the evolution of the Tayto pack. Tayto is one of Ireland’s longest established crisp brands — their packaging has passed through the hands of many designers over the years so that will make an interesting case study,” he says.

“Another gem that has come to light is Campaign magazine, which came to us from ICAD. They are the oldest representative body for creatives in Ireland and have been working with us to identify projects and individuals of merit from their extensive archive – Campaign was their magazine in the 1960s and 1970s and some of the cover designs are a joy to behold,” he adds.

More recent examples include the cover of U2’s Boy, designed by Steve Averill, which Wall says is one of his earliest memories of graphic design. “I remember being struck by the image on the cassette cover when I was barely older than the boy pictured on it. Steve’s son Jon is also a practicing designer, and part of the 100 Archive community too.”

The 100 Archive is a community project, and Wall says the response to the site has been overwhelming. “At each step, we’ve found more and more people who are willing to help  – one of the exciting parts of the process has been to forge new connections with designers whose work I knew but didn’t previously know personally,” he adds. In the future, he hopes there will be an exhibition of featured work from the 100 Archive, too.

It’s an interesting model and The 100 Archive provides a great platform for the country’s designers to share their achievements, work together and review their practice on a regular basis. The site should also prove a valuable source of inspiration for aspiring creatives, and a useful reference point for designers based abroad.

Images (from top): Dublin UNESCO City of Literature Stamp by The Stone Twins; What Happens Next is a Secret exhibition catalogue by Ciaran OGaora; Insular typeface by Naoise Ó Conchubhair; Le Cool exhibition poster by Rory McCormick and Rossi McAuley; Back to the Start by Johnny Kelly; DIT Masters of Arts programme by Cian McKenna; Ard Bia cookbook by Me&Him&You; David Smith & Oran Day’s artwork for Ghost Maps; Wayne Daly’s Archizines; a 1963 cover of Campaign magazine;  album artwork for U2’s Boy; AGI Open identity by Dan Flynn, album art for Dulra by David Donohoe studio and The Lonely Beast ABC app by Chris Judge. For more info on each project see the100archive.com

Ad agency Grey and stationery brand Ryman have launched a free font which they claim could considerably reduce global ink consumption if adopted worldwide. It’s a clever marketing move, but could it really have a significant environmental impact? We asked designer Dan Rhatigan and Grey’s ECD Nils Leonard about its green credentials and how it differs to existing fonts…

Last Saturday, Grey London announced that it had teamed up with Ryman to launch a free eco-friendly typeface designed by Monotype’s Dan Rhatigan.

Described as “the world’s most beautiful sustainable font”, Ryman Eco’s characters are made up of fine key lines rather than a single solid stroke. At display size, the gaps in these letters are visible but at 8, 9 or 10pt, they are filled by ink splatter or bleeding, making it look like a normal serif.

In tests carried out using Monotype’s Font Explorer Pro tool, Grey claims Ryman Eco used around 30 per cent less ink than Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia and Verdana, and the agency is now adopting it as its default font. If the rest of the world followed suit, Grey claims we could save over 490 million ink cartridges and 15 million barrels of oil.

Grey ECD Nils Leonard said the agency came up with the idea for Ryman Eco when looking at businesses and industries that could benefit from reducing their carbon footprint. Leonard tweeted Ryman’s owner Theo Paphitis about the idea and a little over a year later, it was released.

Of course, Ryman Eco isn’t the world’s first ‘eco-friendly’ typeface – Dutch company SPRANQ has won numerous awards for its Eco Font type family, released in 2008, which uses holes in letters to reduce ink waste. But Leonard and Rhatigan claim that Ryman Eco is more efficient (in testing, they say, Ryman Eco uses considerably less ink than “the leading sustainable brand”) and more aesthetically pleasing than its rivals.

“I feel other eco-friendly fonts have compromised on design,” says Leonard. “If you use them for anything other than an invoice, they’re just not very pretty. [With Ryman Eco], we wanted to create something that looks like a classic serif from a distance but is also a beautiful font to work with when you blow it up. It was critical that it wasn’t just functional,” he adds.

Ryman Eco’s more detailed letterforms won’t be seen as a selling point for all, though. Eco Font was designed to be suitable for use in any context, at any size, by any company, without proving a distraction or looking out of place. Ryman Eco’s decorative appearance, however, particularly at larger sizes, may mean some organisations deem it inappropriate for widespread adoption.

Rhatigan and Leonard are adimant, however, that this will not impact people’s willingness to try out Ryman Eco. If anything, Rhatigan says it will encourage people to use it, because it’s more visually interesting and beautiful to look at than other ‘green’ fonts available.

The environmental impact of printing has, of course, been a headline topic this week: 14-year-old Pittsburgh student Suvir Mirchandani’s claim that the US Government could save $400 million if it switched from Times New Roman to Garamond has made the front page of news sites around the world.

Mirchandani’s estimate has ben questioned – for a start, it appears to be based on the US government using standard inkjet printers – but his research highlights the point that even small changes to our daily ink consumption could have a dramatic long-term impact, given the amount we continue to print in a supposedly digital age.

His research also raises the question, why don’t we all just use existing ‘lighter’ typefaces such as Garamond or Century Gothic, which the University of Green Bay-Wisconsin adopted as an alternative to Arial in 2010, rather than a new design like Ryman Eco?

Rhatigan and Leonard acknowledge that doing so could reduce companies’ ink consumption, but Rhatigan says that the problem with traditional ‘lighter’ fonts is that their faint strokes are difficult to read at small sizes.

“Garamond is an elegant display type but it’s just not suitable for reading at five or six points,” he says. “When we tested Ryman Eco’s ink usage, it beat everything but hairline display fonts, which just aren’t suitable for small text.”

When designing Ryman Eco, Rhatigan says legibility was his key concern – he was inspired in part by the Linotype Legibility Group, a classic series of typefaces designed for use in newspaper columns, but later realised that they wouldn’t work well on one column layouts, so studied more contemporary typefaces such as Georgia and New Century Schoolbook.

“Essentially, we looked for great examples of legible styles then worked out how we could create a similarly versatile model in the most efficient way possible,” he adds.

Leonard also believes that merely switching to a lighter typeface such as Garamond or Century Gothic is a bit of a half-hearted compromise. “Garamond might be better than something else, but why not try and make something better than Garamond? We should be aiming to use the most efficient fonts possible,” he says.

Ryman Eco isn’t a purely philanthropic venture – having Ryman’s name appear in font books and drop-down menus around the world would provide priceless publicity, and by launching a sustainable font, the company is seen to be addressing the negative impact of its printers and cartridges by attempting to offset it. But both Rhatigan and Leonard say Ryman Eco is more than a gimmick.

“We wanted to make something experimental and constructive, a tool that can help people reduce consumption and gets them thinking about waste,” says Rhatigan.

Linotype’s Legibility Group

If we really want to save large amounts of resources, of course, we should all just stop printing unless absolutely necessary, but as long as people continue to print, any free products aimed at reducing its environmental impact are surely a good thing.

There is no Ryman Eco Sans, but webfont versions have been released and Leonard and Rhatigan say they are keen to keep developing the font, and working with other designers to do so.

“I’d like to see eco fonts become a category, in the same way you have sans and serifs, and I hope it will get people talking about and investing in them,” says Leonard.

Download Ryman Eco here.