Hasta La Ideas

This Year… prints by Supermundane (left) and La Boca

For its latest series of New Year mailers NB Studio asked four contributing artists to create something on the theme of planetary exploration…

It’s something of an annual tradition at the London studio, to commission artists to make a limited edition print that they then send out to friends and clients. To welcome in 2013, NB worked with artists and illustrators La Boca, Jonathan Burton, Katie Scott and Supermundane to create a new series of signed, limited edition prints.

“Each year we try to pick a topical theme and collaborate with a new group of creatives, working in a different medium to the previous year,” say NB.

For 2013, they say, their ‘curiosity’ (ahem), got the better of them. “NASA’s Mars rover will be reporting back on its mission to the Red Planet and potentially uncovering information vital to the survival of the human race. Or not. Either way, we couldn’t wait to find out what it comes back with, so we asked four friends to take a guess.”

Previous This Year… projects going back to 2008 are detailed on NB’s site. 2012’s effort, for example, featured the work of Andy Smith, Dan Funderburgh, Jean Jullien and Paul Davis. And very nice it is, too.

This Year… prints by Jonathan Burton (left) and Katie Scott

Each 10” x 8” HP Indigo 5500 print is on 270gsm Curious Metallics paper. Designed by NB. Printed by Gavin Martin Colournet.

CR in Print
The January issue of Creative Review is all about the Money – well, almost. What do you earn? Is everyone else getting more? Do you charge enough for your work? How much would it cost to set up on your own? Is there a better way of getting paid? These and many more questions are addressed in January’s CR.

But if money’s not your thing, there’s plenty more in the issue: interviews with photographer Alexander James, designer Mirko Borsche and Professor Neville Brody. Plus, Rick Poynor on Anarchy magazine, the influence of the atomic age on comic books, Paul Belford’s art direction column, Daniel Benneworth-Gray’s This Designer’s Life column and Gordon Comstock on the collected memos, letters and assorted writings of legendary adman David Ogilvy.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878, or buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.

Looking for back issues of the magazine, or a copy of the current issue? Wanting to take out a subscription to the magazine, or the iPad app? The CR shop is now open for business.

We know that some of you have occasionally had problems finding the current issue of the mag, or trying to get hold of specific back issues. We’ve introduced a new online shop, which makes it easy for all of you (whether you’re based in the UK or overseas) to find and buy back issues, purchase the current issue, and take out a subscription to the magazine, or the iPad app.

You can even get the current issue of CR for free if you take out a year-long subscription to the magazine. Of course if you do take the subscription you’ll also receive our special print publication, Monograph, every month, as well as access to our online archive, priority invites to Creative Review events and training courses, and make a saving of more than 10% on the cover price.

You can find the current issue for sale here, as well as a selection of back issues from 2012.

CR in Print
The January issue of Creative Review is all about the Money – well, almost. What do you earn? Is everyone else getting more? Do you charge enough for your work? How much would it cost to set up on your own? Is there a better way of getting paid? These and many more questions are addressed in January’s CR.

But if money’s not your thing, there’s plenty more in the issue: interviews with photographer Alexander James, designer Mirko Borsche and Professor Neville Brody. Plus, Rick Poynor on Anarchy magazine, the influence of the atomic age on comic books, Paul Belford’s art direction column, Daniel Benneworth-Gray’s This Designer’s Life column and Gordon Comstock on the collected memos, letters and assorted writings of legendary adman David Ogilvy.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878, or buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.

Parisian bus users may find life a little easier from this month thanks to a new LED display font created by French type designer Jean Francois Porchez

If you’ve used public transport in Paris in the last 15 years, you’ll be familiar with type designer Jean François Porchez’s work. The RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisien) is one of the biggest and most efficient urban transport networks in the world, with 10 million passengers using the Métro alone every day. In 1996, it briefed Porchez to update Adrian Frutiger’s iconic Univers-based font created for the Paris Métro which was inaugurated in the 70s.

Porchez explains the advantages of Parisine over its predecessor on his Typofonderie website

In response, Porchez created Parisine, a customised font family which pays homage to Frutiger’s creation, but with a slightly more feminine feel that’s as sexy and elegant as the city itself. Parisine was extended in 1999 to a full family of 12 fonts for all wayfinding and directional sign systems and maps. Parisine Office was added in 2005 for advertising and internal and external communication. In 2006, Parisine Pro was launched, an updated version which includes small caps and is available to all users.

This month sees the introduction of Porchez’s latest work for the RATP – a version of the font to be used on LED panel signage for Paris’s buses.

The RATP wanted to optimise visibility on their bus fleet and to make it visually coherent with the Parisine font family, a complex brief with several challenges.

Firstly, the LED displays used can only handle a one-size-fits-all font with no measured spacing between letters. The maximum letterheight on the buses’ front panels is just 18 centimetres. Secondly, the low resolution of LED lighting combined with the roll-sign and flip displays previously in use caused great problems for passengers with impaired vision. In addition, Parisian bus termini often have excessively long names such as Mairie d’Aubervilliers or École Vétérinaire de Maisons-Alfort. Finally, according to Porchez, there was no way to produce a working prototype; the design would have to go straight from printout mock-ups to implementation.

Unfazed, Porchez produced Parisine Giroutte, a complete family of three upper and lower case LED fonts. The project took him over a year with a team of six RATP project managers and an official from the French Ministry of Transport coordinating with the RATP’s Accessinilité pour Tous (Accessibility for All) division.

“The letterform design was the principle issue,” says Porchez. “We designed several versions, tested various weights and proportions until we found a solution that worked for everyone. We proposed using static text, in a smaller size than necessary, as preferable to large-sized moving text. Non-static text moves too fast to be read comfortably, especially when the bus is in motion, too.”

Parisine Girouette Frontale is used for the destination on the bus front, condensed to allow maximum word length. Parisine Girouette Latérale Bold is used for the terminus name, Regular and Light are used to indicate intermediate stops. Great care was taken on the counters’ design (for instance, the lowercase n is not squared like the o), while some letters have several variants to make kerning possible, something of a hallmark with Porchez’s font creations.

The new design, it seems, has gone down well with the travelling public, who, in these days of instant online protest, perhaps paid it the highest of compliments – nobody noticed a thing.

[Ed: type design in this highly practical context is perhaps like a referee  – working best when no-one notices it!]

Typeface designer: Jean François Porchez, with Mathieu Réguer and Sonia da Rocha. Website here.

This video explains more about the project:

CR in Print
The January issue of Creative Review is all about the Money – well, almost. What do you earn? Is everyone else getting more? Do you charge enough for your work? How much would it cost to set up on your own? Is there a better way of getting paid? These and many more questions are addressed in January’s CR.

But if money’s not your thing, there’s plenty more in the issue: interviews with photographer Alexander James, designer Mirko Borsche and Professor Neville Brody. Plus, Rick Poynor on Anarchy magazine, the influence of the atomic age on comic books, Paul Belford’s art direction column, Daniel Benneworth-Gray’s This Designer’s Life column and Gordon Comstock on the collected memos, letters and assorted writings of legendary adman David Ogilvy.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878, or buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.

Created by design agency The Beautiful Meme, The English National Ballet‘s new rebrand features a logo that is “both opening quotation marks and ballet shoes en pointe”, a logotype created using Dalton Maag‘s Aktiv Grotesk typeface, plus an ad campaign shot by Guy Farrow featuring clothes by Vivienne Westwood…

“‘We have something to say’ was the starting point for the brand identity,” explains The Beautiful Meme’s Ben Haworth of the rebrand. “We created a logo that is both opening quotation marks and ballet shoes en pointe, with a dash of Bauhaus aesthetic (a big influence on Tamara Rojo, the ENB’s artistic director) thrown in. It means that all that follows the logo – be it imagery, words or dance – is part of the artistic statement the Company is making.”

The above image shows the tweaks performed by Dalton Maag to the new logotype, the most notable of which is the replacing of the standard Aktiv Grotesk “g” with a specially created two-storey version.

In terms of the choice of Aktiv Grotesk as the new brand typeface (the agency wrote and set the above ENB brand manifesto in the Dalton Maag font), Haworth says that it seemed to be the perfect vehicle to profess the English National Ballet’s new position: “It’s clean and contemporary feel has a degree of neutrality, which is key for future collaborative projects across a wide range of the arts to enhance the vision of the ENB being the UK’s most creative company.”

As well as the new logo and corporate typeface, The Beautiful Meme has also art directed a new ad campaign for the dance company. “The identity is built upon the idea of working with different creatives, fashion houses, artists and photographers each season,” Haworth explains. These ads (above and below) from the launch campaign of the rebranded ENB features dancers wearing Vivienne Westwood clothes shot by Guy Farrow. “Our art direction was as much about bringing [Farrow’s] rich, sensual style to the adverts as it was about celebrating the dancers,” says Haworth.

Above: the new look ENB website

To coincide with today’s launch of the new ENB campaign and brand refresh, Dalton Maag are launching eight new styles of Aktiv Grotesk, Hairline, Thin, Exta Bold and Black – each with a matching italic. Find the typeface here.

CR in Print
The January issue of Creative Review is all about the Money – well, almost. What do you earn? Is everyone else getting more? Do you charge enough for your work? How much would it cost to set up on your own? Is there a better way of getting paid? These and many more questions are addressed in January’s CR.

But if money’s not your thing, there’s plenty more in the issue: interviews with photographer Alexander James, designer Mirko Borsche and Professor Neville Brody. Plus, Rick Poynor on Anarchy magazine, the influence of the atomic age on comic books, Paul Belford’s art direction column, Daniel Benneworth-Gray’s This Designer’s Life column and Gordon Comstock on the collected memos, letters and assorted writings of legendary adman David Ogilvy.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.

American Airlines has unveiled a new brand identity from Futurebrand, replacing the 1967 Massimo Vignelli classic with a 3D ‘flight symbol’ and plenty of the good ol’ red, white and blue

Anyone who is familiar with Mad Men will have an idea of just what a central place American Airlines has in corporate America. Don and the boys are forever holding it up as the ultimate account, the piece of business that could transform an agency’s fortunes. In design terms too, American Airlines, along with perhaps IBM, FedEx and UPS has been one of the greats – the last survivor indeed of the golden age of US corporate design when Rand, Bass, Vignelli et al branded America.

Unimark/Vignelli’s 1967 classic has now gone the way of Bass’s AT&T logo and Rand’s UPS, with American Airlines unveiling a new brand identity by Futurebrand (read Rick Poynor’s piece for CR on Unimark here). This video partly explains the airline’s thinking and Futurebrand’s reponse (more here).

UPDATE: Read our interview with Vignelli abut the new identity here

This is evidently an important time for the airline. Though mired in financial difficulties it has made a major investment in a new fleet of planes and wanted to signal very clearly the changes that will bring. It has also been in merger talks with US Airways so that may well have affected both the decision to rebrand and the work itself.

Key to the new look is what is being referred somewhat clumsily to as the ‘flight symbol’ (above). This 3D device combines several AA ‘assets’ – the letter A, a star, an eagle and the red, white and blue livery.

The ‘flight symbol’ is combined with the airline name (set in a custom face named American Sans) in a new mark.

The tails of the planes will feature red white and blue stripes

Twitpic via @avphotographic

It’s interesting to compare the stated intentions of the Futuruebrand work with that of Vignelli’s original. The latter, was all about stressing “the professional, no-gimmicks attitude” of the airline. It is, Vignelli’s site says, “one of the few [logos] worldwide that needs no change”.

Obviously, AA thought otherwise.

Perhaps relying on a “professional, no-gimmicks attitude” just won’t cut it in the airline business these days.

The Airline has stressed its desire to show that it has made a lot of progress – on its planes, its service, its cabins and so on. It talks about a “a clean and modern update to the core icons of our company”. They’ve changed and they really want you to know it.

For its part, Futurebrand says its work reflects “a more modern, vibrant and welcoming spirit” for the airline, while “the livery expresses American’s origins but also the spirit of modern America: innovative, progressive and open to the world”.

Well, the ‘flight symbol’ is certainly more modern in the sense that gradients and 3D effects are a (relatively) recent phenomenon in graphics. The way the various assets have been combined is undoubtedly ingenious (although a colleague thought it looked like a pair of 3D glasses) and it will be interesting to see how it works in motion and in airport lounges etc. But the type is disappointingly anodyne and to me really doesn’t feel “modern” or “vibrant”. Nor does it have the spirit of “brightness and optimism” which Futurebrand’s Sen Seger hopes for in the film above.

The highlight for me is the tail livery. Combined with the AA planes’ silver bodies (which I always thought looked stunning) it looks really beautiful and indisputably American. Apparently, though, the materials used to make many of the new fleet mean that the raw silver fuselages of old will no longer be possible in some cases. Instead the silver will be faked using mica paint. Sigh.

UPDATE: Read our interview with Vignelli abut the new identity here

CR in Print
The January issue of Creative Review is all about the Money – well, almost. What do you earn? Is everyone else getting more? Do you charge enough for your work? How much would it cost to set up on your own? Is there a better way of getting paid? These and many more questions are addressed in January’s CR.

But if money’s not your thing, there’s plenty more in the issue: interviews with photographer Alexander James, designer Mirko Borsche and Professor Neville Brody. Plus, Rick Poynor on Anarchy magazine, the influence of the atomic age on comic books, Paul Belford’s art direction column, Daniel Benneworth-Gray’s This Designer’s Life column and Gordon Comstock on the collected memos, letters and assorted writings of legendary adman David Ogilvy.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.