Binary Prints by Alex Trochut

Binary Prints by Alex Trochut

These portraits of electronic musicians and DJs by Spanish illustrator and designer Alex Trochut show one image during the day and another at night.

Binary Prints by Alex Trochut

Alex Trochut screenprinted two different images onto the same surface using black and phosphorescent ink in a checkerboard grid of tiny squares. When seen in the light the portrait printed in black is visible, but if viewed in the dark a different image suddenly appears.

Binary Prints by Alex Trochut

Trochut told Dezeen that he developed the technique first and then decided on a suitable subject matter: “I thought that if I could show two different images it made sense to work on the idea of there being two sides to someone’s personality.”

Binary Prints by Alex Trochut

The portraits reflect the notion that the musicians and DJs depicted, including Four Tet, Acid Pauli and Damian Lazarus, transform and come alive at night.

Binary Prints by Alex Trochut

Binary Prints was first shown earlier this month at Sónar+D, the innovation and technology area at the Sónar arts and music festival in Barcelona, where many of the musicians have previously played.

Binary Prints by Alex Trochut

Trochut initially used the idea of a camouflaged image for the cover of his monograph More is More, which featured a hidden pattern printed in glow-in-the-dark ink.

Binary Prints by Alex Trochut

A concept for glow-in-the-dark roads was presented at Design Indaba in Cape Town earlier this year and we previously featured a book with a glow-in-the-dark cover and spine that was displayed in a room where the lights turned on and off automatically.

Binary Prints by Alex Trochut

See more graphic design on Dezeen »

Here is some more information from the designer:


Recently launched at Sonar Music Festival, Binary Prints by illustrator and designer Alex Trochut, is an ingenious technique that he’s invented to allow him to illustrate two completely different images on the same surface, one visible by day the other only visible by night.

For his first series Trochut has teamed up with some of the biggest names in electronic music such as James Murphy, Four Tet, Damian Lazarus, John Talabot and many more to create a series of portraits that explore the people behind the music.

Binary Prints by Alex Trochut
Trochut’s More is More monograph

These nocturnal images wake up when the lights go out, just as DJs come alive at night, they glow in the dark to reveal a nocturnal persona, an icon of music and sound.

The inaugural exhibition of Binary Prints will present this first series of DJ portraits, which will continuously grow as more artists are added and the show continues to tour music festivals and galleries around the world.

The post Binary Prints by
Alex Trochut
appeared first on Dezeen.

Google doodle celebrates Antoni Gaudí’s birthday

Google doodle celebrates Antoni Gaudí's 161st birthday

News: today’s Google doodle honours the work of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who would have been 161 today.

The illustrated interpretation of Google’s logo depicts stylised versions of some of Gaudí’s most famous works, including Park Guell and Casa Mila in Barcelona.

Sagrada Familia by Gaudi from Miguel/Shutterstock
Image of the Sagrada Familia courtesy of Migel/Shutterstock.com

Gaudí is one of Spain’s most celebrated architects and his hometown of Barcelona is home to many examples of his organic, Gothic-inspired architecture.

The Sagrada Familia church, which Gaudí designed before his death in 1926, is still under construction and is scheduled for completion between 2026 and 2028.

Gaudí’s work has influenced many contemporary designs, including Dutch designer Bam Geenen’s chair based on his method for designing arches of optimum strength.

Park Guell by Gaudi from Shutterstock
Image of Park Guell courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Previous Google doodles include an animation based on the famous film title sequences by American graphic designer Saul Bass, and an illustrated version of its logo resembling the architecture of Mies van der Rohe.

Yesterday Google Street View launched its first skyscraper interior, which allows users to explore inside the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

See all our stories about Google and design »

The post Google doodle celebrates
Antoni Gaudí’s birthday
appeared first on Dezeen.

Laser tattoos to replace sticky labels on fruit

Laser tattoos to replace sticky labels on fruit

News: fruit may no longer come with sticky labels thanks to an EU ruling approving the use of chemicals applied with a laser to brand fresh produce.

The European Union has approved the use of iron oxides and hydroxides on the skin of fruit, which are used to make laser markings stand out more clearly without penetrating the peel.

Laser tattoos to replace sticky labels on fruit

Alongside company branding and information on country of origin, the tattoos could include barcodes or QR codes that shoppers would scan to access more details about the produce.

Spanish company Laser Food, which has developed a machine that can apply laser logos to as many as 54,000 pieces of fruit an hour, has been campaigning for the ban on the chemicals to be lifted since 2009.

Laser tattoos to replace sticky labels on fruit

The company claims the technique could have environmental benefits by reducing the paper, plastic and glue used in stickers, as well as preventing fruit being sold on without details of its supply chain.

Other packaging design we’ve reported on recently includes medicine packs designed to fit in between Coca-Cola bottles to take advantage of the company’s vast distribution network and limited editions of famous products with no brand names on the packaging.

See more stories about food design »
See more stories about packaging »

Images are by Laser Food.

The post Laser tattoos to replace sticky labels
on fruit
appeared first on Dezeen.

Ads with a New Purpose by Ogilvy & Mather for IBM

These billboards by creative agency Ogilvy & Mather stretch outwards to double as street furniture (+ movie).

Designed for IBM‘s Smarter Cities campaign, the strategy fuses advertising with helpful additions to the street such as benches, shelters and ramps.

Ads with a New Purpose by Ogilvy and Mather for IBM

Ogilvy & Mather designed one billboard that curves over at the top to form a rain shelter and another that peels up from the wall to create a seat. A ramp covering steps assists those wheeling bicycles or suitcases through the streets.

Ads with a New Purpose by Ogilvy and Mather for IBM

Each ad uses simple graphics in bold colours to represent its function, with text encouraging users and passers by to interact online.

The billboards were first launched in London and Paris, and IBM intends to roll out the designs across other cities around the world.

Ads with a New Purpose by Ogilvy and Mather for IBM

Last month we reported that researchers from IBM had redesigned the bus routes across Ivory Coast’s largest city using data from mobile phones.

Other stories about street furniture include a bollard with a foot rest and handle to help cyclists keep their balance at traffic lights and a perforated street lamp.

See more street furniture design »

Ogilvy sent us the extra information below:


IBM & Ogilvy France Create Ads with a New Purpose

IBM is committed to creating solutions that help cities all over the world get smarter, in order to make life in those cities better.

That’s why IBM and Ogilvy are working together to spark positive change with the “People for Smarter Cities” project, and unite city leaders and forward-thinking citizens.

To spread the word, Ogilvy created outdoor advertising with a purpose: a bench, a shelter and a ramp that are not only designed to be beautiful, but to be useful to city dwellers as well.

Initially launched in London and Paris, IBM has plans to take this idea to cities around the world and inspire citizens to think about simple ways they can help make their cities smarter.

The post Ads with a New Purpose
by Ogilvy & Mather for IBM
appeared first on Dezeen.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

Competition: Dezeen and UK designers Dorothy have teamed up to give readers the chance to win one of five prints that group Hollywood actors into constellations named after films they have starred in (+ slideshow).

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

Dorothy‘s pair of Hollywood Star Charts feature constellations named after culturally significant films since 1927 and the group of stars that form the clusters are the actors that appeared in them.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

Films on the Golden Age chart include The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca and fifty-nine more classics.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

The names are mapped onto the Los Angeles night sky as it appeared on 6 October 1927 – the release date of Al Johnson’s The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length motion picture with synchronised dialogue.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

The Exorcist, Star Wars and Pulp Fiction are among the 108 movies on the Modern Day print, based on the night sky over New York on 16 June 1960 – the date and place that Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho debuted.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

Titles were included if they are chosen for preservation in the US National Film Registry, Academy Award winners or the designers’ personal favourites.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

A key at the bottom of each print lists featured actors, date of their Oscar win or nomination and position of their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

Readers have the chance to win either a dark blue Golden Age or dark grey Modern Day open edition chart, worth £25 each.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

The litho prints are also available as signed limited editions in gold and silver, which cost £100 each. All prints are available to purchase at Dorothy’s online store.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “Hollywood Star Charts” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers. Read our privacy policy here.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

Competition closes 4 July 2013. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

We’ve previously run competitions to win maps with locations names after films and prints that feature bands and songs with colours in their names next to corresponding hues on the colour wheel, both also by Dorothy.

Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts by Dorothy to be won

See more graphic design »
See more design by Dorothy »

The post Competition: five Hollywood Star Charts
by Dorothy to be won
appeared first on Dezeen.

Fan outcry prompts Everton FC to ditch new badge design

Everton FC new badge

News: English football club Everton FC has promised to consult fans on a new version of its crest after the latest redesign prompted a furious backlash.

Over 23,000 supporters have signed an online petition calling for the recently unveiled badge to be scrapped, slamming it as “amateurish” and “embarrassing”.

Responding to the outcry on the Everton FC website, the club apologised and said: “We regret we didn’t ask every Evertonian about something that matters so much to every one of you.”

CEO Robert Elstone explained that it was too late to remove the badge from next season’s kits, but added that fans would be consulted on a redesign.

“We are turning to you to help us shape and refine the badge we’ll adopt in the future. Evertonians from all sections of the fan base will be pulled together in a fully transparent way,” he said.

Everton FC old badge
Everton’s previous crest

The badge was designed in response to club officials’ request for a simpler crest that could be “reproduced more effectively in the digital and retail arenas”.

Designed by the club’s in-house graphics team, it depicts a more accurate version of the Everton landmark St Rupert’s Tower, as well as the club’s name and the year of its formation, 1878.

However, the badge omits Everton’s traditional laurel wreaths and the club’s Latin motto “nil satis nisi optimum”, which means “nothing but the best is good enough”.

Despite the angry reaction, the club said it remained committed to modernising the logo: “Effective logos are simple and streamlined. Simplicity achieves stand-out recognition. This was our starting point for our new crest.”

We previously reported on Nike’s redesigned away kit for France’s national football team, based on the Breton stripe, and a warehouse in Portugal converted into an indoor football ground – see all football design.

Other redesigned logos we’ve featured lately include a new identity for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and a revamped livery for American Airlines – see all logos.

The post Fan outcry prompts Everton FC
to ditch new badge design
appeared first on Dezeen.

Dublin UNESCO City of Literature stamp by The Stone Twins

Postage Stamp by The Stone Twins

Dutch creative agency The Stone Twins did away with the usual imagery and photos when asked to design this postage stamp, using only words to tell a short story.

Launched by Irish post office An Post, the stamp is intended to celebrate Dublin’s status as a UNESCO City of Literature, but The Stone Twins wanted to promote young literary talent rather than the city’s heritage.

“The design solution is quite unorthodox and avoids the usual visual cliches, such as images or quotes from the giants of Irish literature such as Joyce, Beckett, Yeats and Wilde,” they explain.

The completed stamp features a competition-winning story by teenager Eoin Moore that seeks to capture the essence of Dublin. The 200-word story is printed over a fluorescent yellow background on a standard stamp measuring 40x30mm.

Other unconventional postage stamps from recent years include one that consists of a tiny eight-page book and one with braille surfaces. See more stamp design on Dezeen.

The post Dublin UNESCO City of Literature stamp
by The Stone Twins
appeared first on Dezeen.

Whitney Graphic Identity by Experimental Jetset

Dutch graphics studio Experimental Jetset has redesigned the logo for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York as a slender W that changes shape to respond to its setting (+ movie).

Whitney Graphic Identity by Experimental Jetset

Experimental Jetset developed the graphic identity around the concept of a “responsive W” that forms both a symbol of the Whitney and a framework for accompanying text and images.

Whitney Graphic Identity by Experimental Jetset

“We came up with the idea of the zig-zag line, with the zig-zag being a metaphor for a non-simplistic, more complicated (and thus more interesting) history of art,” say the designers.

Whitney Graphic Identity by Experimental Jetset

“We think the line also represents a pulse, a beat – the heartbeat of New York, of the USA. It shows the Whitney as an institute that is breathing (in and out), an institute that is open and closed at the same time.”

Whitney Graphic Identity by Experimental Jetset

The designers specified Neue Haas Grotesk – a redrawn version of a 1950s Swiss typeface – for any text positioned alongside the logo, while any images can be positioned underneath.

Whitney Graphic Identity by Experimental Jetset

“We began to explore the possibilities of the W as a frame to put work in, or a stage to place work on,” they explain. “The lines [of the W] can be seen as borders, arrows, connections [or] columns.”

Whitney Graphic Identity by Experimental Jetset

The new graphic identity replaces the Whitney’s thirteen-year-old logo, designed by Abbott Miller of Pentagram, and marks a period of change that will see the museum relocate to a new building by architect Renzo Piano, set to open in 2015.

Whitney Graphic Identity by Experimental Jetset

Other logos designed in recent months include one for the estate of Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson and one for Nivea designed by Yves Béhar. See more graphic design on Dezeen.

Photography is by Jens Mortensen.

Read on more information from the Whitney:


As the Whitney approaches the opening of its new building in 2015, museum staff are taking stock of all aspects of programming and operations. While much of this work is happening behind the scenes, one very visible aspect of this focus is the Whitney’s graphic identity. While the museum has changed considerably in the thirteen years since it introduced the word mark designed by Abbott Miller of Pentagram, even more extensive institutional changes will come with the move downtown.

Two years ago, Museum staff began a thoughtful internal dialogue regarding the Whitney’s graphic identity and selected the design studio Experimental Jetset to develop an approach which embraces the spirit of the Museum while serving as a visual ambassador for our new building. The result is a distinctive and inventive graphic system that literally responds to art — a fundamental attribute of the Whitney since its founding in 1930. This dynamic identity, which the designers refer to as the “responsive ‘W'” also illustrates the Museum’s ever-changing nature. In the upcoming years it will provide an important point of continuity for members, visitors, and the public during the transition to the new space.

The post Whitney Graphic Identity
by Experimental Jetset
appeared first on Dezeen.

The History of Typography by Ben Barrett-Forrest

Hundreds of cut-out paper letters tell the history of typefaces in this stop-motion animation by Canadian graphic designer Ben Barrett-Forrest.

The History of Typography by Ben Barrett-Forrest

Starting in the fifteenth century with Johannes Gutenberg’s Blackletter font, The History of Typography charts the major innovations in font design up to the present day.

The History of Typography by Ben Barrett-Forrest

Barrett-Forrest explains the variations between early serif fonts such as Caslon and Baskerville and how they evolved into modern sans serif fonts such as Futura and Helvetica.

The History of Typography by Ben Barrett-Forrest

Cutting out and animating the letters took Barrett-Forrest around 140 hours over a period of two months, on top of dozens of hours of research and post-production.

The History of Typography by Ben Barrett-Forrest

“It was fairly tedious cutting out almost 300 paper letters, especially the serif typefaces with their tiny spikes, but it soon became almost meditative,” says Barrett-Forrest.

The History of Typography by Ben Barrett-Forrest

“I feel that I have a much closer connection with each of the typefaces that I addressed, now that I have laboured to create each one.”

The History of Typography by Ben Barrett-Forrest

Originally from Whitehorse in the northern Canadian territory of Yukon, Barrett-Forrest is currently studying multimedia at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He also runs Forrest Media, a graphic design and media production company.

The History of Typography by Ben Barrett-Forrest

Other fonts on Dezeen include a typeface of impossible shapes inspired by artist M.C. Escher and graphic designer Neville Brody’s reworking of the Royal College of Art’s house font – see all fonts.

The History of Typography by Ben Barrett-Forrest

We recently featured an animation of the best-known buildings of 26 architects, one for each letter of the alphabet – see all animations.

The post The History of Typography by
Ben Barrett-Forrest
appeared first on Dezeen.

“The grid is the underwear of the book” – Massimo Vignelli

New York graphic designer Massimo Vignelli compares the grid used to lay out a publication as “the underwear of the book” in this movie by design consultancy Pentagram.

Massimo Vignelli Makes Books

Vignelli explains how he begins a book design by laying paper over a simple grid for positioning images and text, which can’t be seen in the finished article. “The grid is the underwear of the book,” he says. “You wear it but it’s not to be exposed.”

Massimo Vignelli Makes Books

He lists different layout options made possible by his grid system, including several pictures per page, one full page image and one smaller opposite, or double-page photos for the “wow” effect.

Massimo Vignelli Makes Books

Vignelli sketches the images by hand when mocking up the layout as he believes it’s faster for him than using a computer.

Massimo Vignelli Makes Books

He compares the design process to making a movie. “The scale and the pacing of the images makes the book, it’s just like a film,” he says. “The scriptwriter is the author of the book, and I’m the director and cinematographer.”

Massimo Vignelli Makes Books

The film was designed by Michael Bierut of Pentagram for paper manufacturer Mohawk‘s What Will You Make Today? campaign. It features the publication Richard Meier, Architect: Vol. 3 released in 1999.

Massimo Vignelli Makes Books

Earlier this year it was announced that Vignelli’s logo and livery designs for American Airlines were to be replaced by new graphics by FutureBrand.

See more graphic design »
See more architecture and design books »

The post “The grid is the underwear of the book”
– Massimo Vignelli
appeared first on Dezeen.