Hasta La Ideas

Dutch Design Week 2013: graphic designer Kok Pistolet painted over sections of 40 posters around Utrecht to turn them into directions from each location to a venue for a music festival (+ slideshow).

The Ekko music club was one of the hosts for Le Guess Who? festival in November 2012. Pistolet‘s poster design promoting the venue incorporated drawings of hands that point right and left.

The A0 posters were printed in monochrome and put up in various places across the city. The streets and turns from these locations to Ekko were then mapped by the designer.

Pistolet visited each poster and painted over some of the directions with bright colours.

The right and left turns that remained in black and white became a route that led the visitor to the venue. As they got closer, more directions were painted out.

“The concept was based on the basic function of a promotional campaign; getting people to visit the venue,” Pistolet told Dezeen. “We translated this basic given into a map-like system so people would be able to find Ekko from any place they encountered the poster.”

This project was nominated in the category for Best Graphic at the Dutch Design Awards as part of Dutch Design Week 2013. The top prize went to Iris van Herpen’s 3D-printed fashion collection.

The post Waar is Ekko? combined posters and signage
for a music festival by Kok Pistolet appeared first on Dezeen.

Images of fantasy goddesses are hidden in brightly-coloured graphics on the walls, floor and ceiling of this exhibition space in Reykjavík, Iceland (+ slideshow).

Berlin-based Icelandic graphic designer Siggi Eggertsson created a set of eight posters that fit together in different ways to form a seamless, patterned wallpaper across the interior of Spark Design Space.

Eggertsson used a mixture of curved and straight lines to generate the complex pattern. “My work is all based on grids and construction of geometric shapes,” Eggertsson told Dezeen.

“I normally work with warmer and less saturated colours, but for this exhibition I wanted to create something overly colourful, so I decided to use only pure CMYK colour blends,” he said.

On closer inspection, the graphics merge together to form images of women or ‘skvís’, the Icelandic term for a young, pretty and smart girl.

“They are sort of imaginary muses, said Eggertsson. “I knew I wanted to make a system of modular posters that could connect to each other in numerous ways to create a seamless pattern, but didn’t really know what to draw.”

“At first I thought about creating abstract patterns but then realised it would be more fun to draw pretty girls,” he added.

The exhibition continues until 16 November.

Here’s some information from the exhibition organisers:

SKVÍS at Spark Design Space

There is a special relationship between mind, sight, fine muscular movements and hands which, together with its reflection in the virtual world of digital technology, has given birth to a new species of of homo sapiens. The American science fiction writer William Gibson wanted to refer to this new-born species as “Cyber-punks”.

That was 30 years ago. This species has from early childhood had an almost unbreakable bond with a keyboard, a computer screen and a mouse. The infinite virtual world seems to be a dwelling place, an extension, and a reflection of their feelings and thoughts. When this proximity reaches a certain stage they become one and the same, the virtual world and the species.

Siggi Eggertsson is an artist of this new world. He was born in 1984 and will turn 30 next year. His life has been a constant journey in the virtual world almost since birth. He has never paused to consider the ordinary. He dives deep into the basic squares which the visual presentation of the screenshot and the printed matter are based on.

If patterns were a pure geometry without reference to the biological world such as flora or fauna, they were arabic or eastern. Patterns with a reference to flora or fauna, plants and birds, originated in Rome. A combination of the abstract and the real are found in Indian or Chinese mandalas.

The methodology is in fact the same. Squares based on horizontal and vertical lines. The density of the squares, or the resolution as we now call it, is the only thing that decides whether we can read into the pattern a representation of something real. The highest resolution digital photograph can be blown up until it ends up like squares on a ruled page without a reference to anything real. Siggi also uses a quarter of a circle pasted into a square – that is what his personal style is based on.

The exhibition consists of eight modular posters. The nature of the pattern is almost always spiritual – a suggestion of divine beauty. This beauty of infinity is always present in Siggi’s work. This may be related to methods for expanding ones mind, whether by use of substances or meditation.

That world has goddesses floating about, as can be seen in Siggi Eggertsson’s representation. He invites us on a guided journey as someone who has seen a world none of us have seen. This is a journey into infinity where we fleetingly catch a glimpse of the goddesses and make the briefest of eye contact.

The post SKVÍS by Siggi Eggertsson
at Spark Design Space appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch Design Week 2013: a team of ten Eindhoven architecture, design and advertising studios have been brought together as a “virtual” studio to design a new open-source identity for the Dutch city.

Variations of the “raw and rough” logo have been given to local businesses to adopt and design studios have been encouraged to create their own interpretations.

“We did something really unique we think,” said Peter Kentie, managing director of the city’s marketing organisation Eindhoven365, which commissioned the logo. “We started up something called the Virtual Design Agency and we picked the best of the best of the Eindhoven region – graphic and motion designers, fashion designers, architects, typographers – and we put them together as a new company to create the identity.”

Both the logo and the process of procuring it are intended to reflect the energy and creativity of Eindhoven, which has burgeoning creative and technology industries and which was named the world’s most “Intelligent Community of the Year” in 2011.

“Eindhoven is a city in development,” said Kentie. “The task originally was to create a marketing brand for the city but what we also did was take the opportunity to rebrand the logo, the identity of the city council, of the city itself.”

Graphic designers Raw Color, architect Marc Maurer and creative agency Scherpontwerp were among the studios selected to contribute to the project.

“Eindhoven as a city is about working together,” Marc Koppen of Scherpontwerp told Dezeen. “Everyone knows each other, works together, talks about the projects together. That’s why we came up with the idea of trying to work with many agencies, not just one.”

Koppen added that the open-source nature of the logo reflected the spirit of multi-disciplinary collaboration in the city. “That’s also the theory about the city, that everyone is involved and works together, working on it and with it,” he said. “If you want to do it in your own way, then it’s possible.”

After initial discussions between the ten studios Scherpontwerp, Edhv and Eric de Haas were asked to take the concept ideas forward together. They worked on the project from their separate office spaces, forming the Virtual Design Agency, with designers from the earlier stage acting as consultants.

Together the group came up with a simple grid of lines to create the logo, which comprises three thick zig-zag shapes spaced on top of each other to form an abstract letter E.

“The idea is about energy,” said Koppen. “We tried to find a way to visualise the energy of the city and what people often say about Eindhoven is that it’s a really raw and rough city.”

The grid behind the logo means the angular sections can be filled in different colours and shades, adapting it for companies or sectors across the city. A red graphic on a white background is used for the starting point as the city’s historic colours.

The team also created a font called Eindhoven to accompany the logo, formed in a similar style but without sticking to the grid. “[The font and logo] have the same kind of edginess,” Kentie said. “The typography also gives you the feeling that its not completely finished, like a work in progress.”

The identity was completed in June and has already been applied to civic vehicles, signage around the city and even T-shirts for runners competing in the Eindhoven marathon. Eindhoven365 have given the graphics to local businesses to customise and use as part of their own branding.

“With the energy symbol you can do everything,” Koppen told us. “You can load it with images, make it 3D or 2D, change the colours. You can really build it up with a lot of different pieces and angles. We show it now in a really basic way but underneath there’s the structure that you can use to transform it and everyone can do that in their own way.”

Eindhoven is currently hosting this year’s Dutch Design Week, where Daan Roosegaarde has unveiled an installation consisting of hundreds of wireless LED crystals and Iris van Herpen scooped the top prize at the Dutch Design Awards.

Read the full interview with Scherpontwerp’s Marc Koppen below:

Dan Howarth: Tell me about the origins of the project.

Marc Koppen: We started about one and a half years ago I think and we were asked by Eindhoven to give a short presentation on the city as the designer with ten different companies. They chose three companies to do the job, that was a little bit strange in the beginning because you have your own style of course. We had to find a new way of working together on such a huge project and we are three totally different design agencies. It was a little bit strange in the beginning, but after half a year it started to take off a little bit, it was great.

Dan Howarth: Which other design agencies did you work with?

Marc Koppen: One of the design agencies is called Edhv and the other is Eric de Haas. Most of the time we don’t physically work together, we aren’t in the same room but we try to discuss the work. We make our own work for the city then we bring it back together, to the group and discuss it.

Dan Howarth: Did you work with graphic designers and architects as well?

Marc Koppen: In the beginning it was really a big selection. There were artists, architects, photographers, colour designers, graphic designers and we all worked together on the decisions, but in the end it was really necessary to get the work done so they chose to do the work with graphic designers. But right now, at the moment we are still inviting people to work with us. Raw Color are advising us on the colours, we are still working with a lot of different agencies.

Dan Howarth: And they are all based in Eindhoven?

Marc Koppen: No, one is based in Amsterdam I believe, but they are all originally designers from Eindhoven. They moved to different cities but they are from Eindhoven.

Dan Howarth: Do you think this is the first time that so many agencies have come together to work on a project like this?

Marc Koppen: I’m not sure but coming from the briefing in the beginning we discussed that Eindhoven as a city is about making and working together, taking on different project together. Years ago, for example I worked in Amsterdam and there the agencies are really working for themselves. You don’t often talk with other designers or you’re not supposed to meet with the clients of other designers so its nice to work in Eindhoven, it’s really an open structure. Everyone knows each other, works together, talks about the projects together and thats why we came up with the idea of trying to work with many agencies, not just one. It won’t be the first time but I don’t know about another case.

Dan Howarth: So the logo is designed to reflect the fact that Eindhoven is a place where people collaborate.

Marc Koppen: Yeah we started that discussion very early on when we came together to talk about a vision for the city. They came up with the idea to work together, they chose three agencies to coordinate it and do the basic design work. But they are still asking us to talk with a lot of people about it and get a lot of people involved. It was their idea to do it this way yes.

Dan Howarth: So are you still operating under the title of Virtual Design Agency?

Marc Koppen: Yes because it’s the closest idea to what it is! We [each] have our own workspace, we are not sitting together. It was a little strange in the beginning.

Dan Howarth: How did you come up with the coloured zig-zags of the logo?

Marc Koppen: We tried to find a way to visualise the energy of the city. What people often say about Eindhoven is that it’s a really raw and rough city. For example if you take a look at Utrecht or Amsterdam, or The Hague, or Maastricht, they’re cultivated in a certain way and they have a history. Eindhoven is really a rough city where a lot of work has to be done. It’s called the City of Light because [electronics giant] Philips started their lighting company here. So we had to find a visual way to transform the energy and that all started with energy and lighting. That’s the really basic idea about it.

Dan Howarth: The city is encouraging local businesses to use and adapt the identity. Was the idea to have an open-source logo?

Marc Koppen: Yes sure, that’s also the theory about the city, that everyone is involved and works together, working on it and with it. If you want to do it in your own way, then it’s possible. The basics are done but now we have to translate it to other people. So we have to find a way of inspiring other people because we cannot write a book about how to use it, it would be too difficult, everything is possible, but we have to inspire other designers to use it in the right way. We’re working on it right now. That’s a really nice process.

Dan Howarth: What parts of the design allow it to be adapted?

Marc Koppen: The typography is our own. We call it the Eindhoven and you can work with it as a typeface. With the energy symbol you can do everything, you can load it with images, make it 3D or 2D, to change the colours. There’s a really nice grid underneath it so you can really build it up with a lot of different pieces and angles. We show it now in a really basic way but underneath there’s another structure that you can use to transform it so everyone can do that in their own way.

Dan Howarth: Are red and white the colours of the city?

Marc Koppen: Yes, they are really the colours of Eindhoven and we thought about changing it, but the fact that it has to stand for energy and have a rough edge to it. When you see it with other logos, its a little bit rough, its not really “nice”. We have to stand for that energy and the raw hard red does that.

The post Open-source visual identity for Eindhoven
by Virtual Design Agency appeared first on Dezeen.

Graphic designer Cristina Vanko has been writing out all the SMS messages she sends by hand with a calligraphy pen.

Calling the project Modern Day Snail Mail, Cristina Vanko began to answer friends’ text messages with photographs of handwritten replies after finding her father’s old calligraphy pen.

“Basically, calligraphy is something that people just don’t get enough of today,” Vanko said in a post about the project on her blog, explaining that the soft gold tip of the pen allows for different thicknesses of stroke.

“The harder you press down on the pen’s nib, the thicker the line. When less pressure is given, the thinner the line,” she explained.

“I quickly began creating illustrious letterforms with the perfect balance of thick and thin strokes,” she continued. “I wrote out the alphabet, popular phrases, curse words (that looked beautiful might I add) and then I sent doodle-filled text messages to a couple of my design-y friends notifying them about the magic of this pen.”

“After texting some doodles, I decided to send handwritten messages to people for that next week,” she said.

Some friends responded with their own hand-written messages and the designer concluded that “people feel more ‘special’ when they received handwritten messages.”

She also noted that accuracy in spelling and grammar matter much more in a handwritten note and that modern culture relies heavily on emoticons for communication.

Cristina Vanko graduated in graphic design and Spanish from Indiana University in 2011 and now works as a multidisciplinary designer in Chicago.

Other stories about lettering on Dezeen include a typeface with strands of human hair, a font made of impossible 3D shapes and another font made of sugar.

See more stories about typography »

The post Modern Day Snail Mail
by Cristina Vanko appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek has produced a wallpaper collection that mimics weathered wood textures.

Piet Hein Eek‘s second collaboration with Dutch wallpaper company NLXL comprises eight designs.

His original Scrapwood collection was launched with the brand in 2010. This new range expands on the previous designs based on “waste furniture” to include patterns of realistic wood cross sections, beams and planks.

The wall coverings have a matte finish to make them look more convincing. “We chose a new, super luxurious matte finish so the wallpaper looks even more realistic than before,” said the designer.

First shown at trade show ICFF in New York earlier this year, the collection will be on display during Dutch Design Week 2013 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, later this month.

We’ve also featured wallpaper that reveals images of leafy forests and palatial interiors under different coloured lights, plus a jagged wall decorated with patterned graphics.

See more design by Piet Hein Eek »
See more wallpaper design »

The post Scrapwood Wallpaper 2
by Piet Hein Eek for NLXL appeared first on Dezeen.