CR June Monograph: Pelican flies again

Initial sketches by Richard Green for the new-look Pelican logo (on left). He explains that the bird’s ‘eye’ was a challenge to get right (original Pelican logos shown top left in both grids; Green’s final logos show bottom right in each)

For our latest edition of Monograph, free with subscriber copies of CR, we talked to Penguin Press’ art department about the rebirth of the Pelican imprint which relaunched this month. It was a chance to discuss design decisions, logo sketches and early cover treatments – and also look to where the brand is going next…

Pelican was relaunched this month after three decades in hibernation – and while one might think that the rich heritage of the imprint might weigh heavily on the shoulders of the design team (the brand originally ran from 1937 to 1984), it was in fact the digital era that influenced its new direction as much as anything.

Our new 18-page Monograph – which is available with new subscriptions starting with the June issue – features early Pelican designs by Edward Young, William Grimmond and Jan Tschichold, but focuses on the work that the current design team, led by art director Jim Stoddart, has been doing since last year.

Pages from Hans Schmoller’s notebooks showing the first Pelican logos from the 1930s and 40s

Launching in the late 1930s with Bernard Shaw’s The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism, & Fascism, the non-fiction series was to continue the Penguin ethos of printing quality books at an affordable price. Pelican was about self-improvement – making knowledge accessible to a wider readership.

Indeed, Pelican’s were to be “the true everyman’s library for the twentieth century,” said Penguin founder Allen Lane. Now, Penguin’s art department has resurrected the imprint for the twenty-first.

Pelican covers from the 1940s and 50s

Pelican covers from the 1960s and 70s

Cover experiments by the current Penguin Press art department

Grid and logos for the new-look Pelican books

With a new logo by Penguin’s Richard Green and cover, text and digital design by Matthew Young, the project has put the talents of this tight-knit team to great use.

When the brief was announce last year, Young initially worked on a responsive website for Pelican – and from his experiments with typefaces there, chose Brandon and Freight as display and text fonts, respectively.

The first five editions in Pelican’s 2014 range

The full story of the rebirth of Pelican is in this month’s Monograph – available only with a subscription to Creative Review (it comes with our June issue, a World Cup special). Go to our Shopify page to start your subscription today.

Samplers from the first five Pelican books are now available from pelicanbooks.com – the books are in shops now (£7.99). The full website launches on June 1.

Dave Foster’s hand-lettered tweets

In a commitment to drawn art in an age of digital communication, type designer Dave Foster has been hand-lettering all his @FosterType tweets during the month of May…

The Sydney-based type designer is using the hashtag #MayDave alongside examples of his hand-drawn work, rendering ‘@’ names and the contents of tweets in a range of different styles.

Foster’s tweets have ranged from simple replies (“Nah” or “Thanks!”) or details about lettering workshops, to lengthier statements such as yesterday’s, “It’s times like these when I wish I had more to say…”.

You can see his latest work on @FosterType and via the #MayDave hashtag – and he still has a week to go. Foster’s portfolio is at fostertype.com.

Drygate: Glasgow’s new craft brewery

Glasgow studio D8 has designed branding, packaging and signage for a new craft brewery opening in Glasgow today.

Housed in a former box factory in the city’s east end, Drygate describes itself as the UK’s first experiential craft brewery: the site includes a beer hall, shop, gallery space and outpost of Edinburgh gastropub Vintage and from June, visitors will be able to try brewing their own beer.

We first featured Drygate back in February, when D8 invited Glasgow School of Art alumni to design artwork for packaging. Fifteen designs were selected and displayed at a one-day exhibition in the city, and three have so far been used on bottles.

The initial range of beers includes Bearface Lager, with a label illustrated by Jack Bedford and Linda Sweenie:

Outaspace Apple Ale, with artwork by Patch Keyes and Good Press:

And Gladeye IPA, by Andrew Park:

Large-scale versions of Bedford, Sweenie and Park’s illustrations have also been applied to walls and equipment around the building. The remaining twelve designs will be used on future packaging and some are currently featured in the brewery’s gallery space.

D8’s David Shanks says the choice of artwork was based on “gut feeling and standout. Choosing something that would catch the eye on the shelf and try to bring something new to the crowd of craft beers already out there.”

Illustrations were inspired by flavours in the beer, and each beer’s name is based on the artwork on packaging. Keyes and Good Press’ illustration, for example, depicts funk and soul singer Billy Preston, who was the first signing to the Beatle’s Apple record label. “He’s also apparently the only other person to be name-credited on a Beatles record, bar the Fab Four that is, [and] the name came from one of his classic funk tracks Outaspace,” explains Shanks.

The brewery’s marque is inspired by the German/Nordic translation of Drygate, which mean’s ‘Priest’s path’:

 

 

And the structure fo the building itself. ‘The seven peaks of the Drygate building give it a strong aesthetic, hinting at its industrial past…Drygate wants to take people on a journey from the everyday to the exceptional, but being exceptional isn’t easy, so the path isn’t straight,’ says D8.

The rounded logotype includes a reference to the building, too, says Shanks: the crossbar of the ‘a’ is inspired by the apex of the roof of a walkway that leads to Drygate’s beer garden.

 

 

D8 has also designed a website for the brewery and worked closely with local studio Graven Images on interiors. “The client sought to reflect the grit and glamour of Glasgow, keep the unique industrial details of the space, which was previously a box factory, but still have warmth: somewhere you would want to stay, eat and drink,” says Shanks.

Images: Gordon Burniston

Drygate’s logo and signature zig zag appears on glasses and murals but the overall approach to branding inside is restrained. “There’s no need to over brand the interiors…Graven’s reflection appears subtly, as it should, in furniture details, such as angle stitching in the banquets, edges of tables, dual colour tile work, parquet flooring, [and] trusses between bespoke made beer benches,” says Shanks.

The choice of artwork used on bottles is diverse, but the custom type and Drygate marque give packaging a unified look that should stand out on the shelves against more established brands. Drygate says it will release new guest ales on a regular basis, and the first round is expected in early July.

For details, see drygate.com.

Editorial Illustrations by Nata Metlukh

Basée à San Francisco, l’illustratrice Nata Metlukh fait des dessins éditoriaux pour différents magazines. Ses illustrations s’inscrivent parfaitement dans l’air du temps, l’ère numérique et l’air citadin pollué, le tout avec un style coloré et drôle. Ses illustrations sont à découvrir en images dans la suite.

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Penguin to unveil new covers on WeTransfer

Iain Sinclair, American Smoke. Cover by Nathan Burton

Penguin Books has launched a partnership with WeTransfer where selected book covers for new titles will be showcased via the full screen backgrounds to the file transfer website…

The first series to be shown via the website is for the publisher’s Street Art Series of novels which feature covers by artists: ROA, gray318, Nathan Burton, Sickboy and 45rpm. The series actually launched last year – details on the ten participating artists are here – but today’s launch will pilot what looks to be an ongoing collaboration between the publisher and WeTransfer.

Zadie Smith, Embassy of Cambodia. Cover by gray318

For the Street Art series the covers are photographed as still lives, surrounded by objects which reflect the subject of the books. If users click on the image they are taken to Penguin’s online store.

While the project isn’t launching with an entire set of brand new cover designs (three from this series were released in June last year), the tie-up is an interesting way of promoting forthcoming editions. WeTransfer has 20m monthly users so the cover artwork – and the book, of course – has the potential to reach a wide audience. The next series of covers will be premiered on WeTransfer later this summer.

Nick Cave, And the Ass Saw the Angel. Cover by ROA

Zoë Heller, The Believers. Cover by Sickboy

Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End. Cover by 45RPM

WeTransfer have also recently collaborated with the British Fashion Council, designer Nelly Ben and Where’s Wally.

The art of bank note design

The Bank of England Museum’s latest exhibition offers a look at some fascinating items from its archives, including bank note test prints and sketches by designer Harry Ecclestone.

Curiosities from the Vaults: A Bank Miscellany is open until July 11 and features items collected by the bank since it was founded in 1694. Alongside paintings, rare ceramics and an 18th century sculpture of its emblem are a series of illustrations and tests for notes created by Ecclestone, who was the bank’s first in-house designer.

Top and above: Paste-up of Ecclestone’s Series D £10 note; the complete note (front and reverse)

Ecclestone worked for the bank for 25 years and was responsible for designing the ‘D’ series of notes, issued in 1970. A president of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, he was awarded an OBE for his services in 1979, and he died in 2010.

Designing and printing notes is a complex process: to make counterfeiting as difficult as possible, specialised inks are produced on site and some images are engraved by hand onto metal plates, while others are created digitally and laser etched on to film. Watermarks are engraved using wax and, like the metal foil in bank notes, are embedded during the paper manufacturing process.

Intaglio and obverse litho test prints of the £10 note

Tests on display at the museum demonstrate the various stages of the printing process, which uses a mix of intaglio, letterpress and litho printing, while Ecclestone’s character sketches offer a rare glimpse at the early stages of bank note design.

Original sketch of Nightingale and a master drawing of the Scutari Barracks

Other items in the collection include high value notes signed by Nelson Mandela and George Eliot, a ballot box designed by architect John Soane and a leather trunk used for ‘carrying gold across deserts’, which is thought to have belonged to army officer TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). Lawrence was offered a job by the bank in 1934, a record of which is also on display.

Curiosities from the Vaults: A Bank Miscellany is open at the Bank of England Museum, Bartholomew Lane, London EC2R 8AH until July 11. For details see bankofengland.co.uk

Maclise Britannia £5 note

A thousand pound note signed by the Chosu Five, a group of Japanese nobility who studied at UCL in the 1800s after illegally leaving their home country.

Thousand pound bank note signed by author George Eliot

Feel Flavour – An Interactive Poster

La marque Schwartz (Herb & Spice) a fait appel à Print Tech, Novalia et l’agence créative Grey London pour concevoir un poster interactif sur lequel chaque couleur d’épices possède un son quand on la touche grâce une encre spéciale. L’illustrateur Billie Jean est derrière l’illustration de toutes ces saveurs qui se transforment en sons.


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Urban geometry: the colourful work of Yoni Alter

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


 

Chineasy illustrated characters designed to make learning Chinese easy

This system of illustrated characters and animations was developed to help people learn to read Chinese, and is one of the 76 projects nominated for Designs of the Year 2014 (+ slideshow).

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
Tree

Taiwan-born entrepreneur ShaoLan first began developing the Chineasy characters as a way to teach her own English-speaking children to read traditional Mandarin Chinese, by creating a visual connection to the words.

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
Woman

Having struggled to find a straightforward way to negotiate the huge number and complexity of Chinese characters, she teamed up with graphic artist Noma Bar to develop a system of shapes representing some of the most commonly occurring symbols, which can be combined to create more complex phrases.

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
Fire

“I created a methodology that breaks down thousands of Chinese characters into a few hundred base building blocks,” explained ShaoLan. “When these building blocks are combined, they form compounds that can in turn be combined to create phrases. Through this method learners can quickly build a large vocabulary of characters with very little effort.”

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
Mouth

As well as providing users with a memorable way to understand the characters, Chineasy aims to offer those living in the West an insight into Chinese culture in a visual format.

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
Water tap

“It is educational, social, cultural, and I hope, inspirational,” said ShaoLan. “I am demonstrating the beauty of this deep and ancient culture with a modern interpretation through sleek modern design.”

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
Moon

The entrepreneur spent her evenings selecting and sketching suitable characters to form the building blocks of the Chineasy system, which she then modelled on her computer and refined to create contemporary graphic representations that could easily be understood by Westerners.

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
Roof

Having presented the initial idea at a conference organised by innovation forum TED that was published online in May 2013, the interest she received encouraged ShaoLan to begin working on a book and launch a Chineasy website and Facebook page.

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
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A campaign launched on crowdfunding site Kickstarter exceeded its goal of £75000, eventually achieving £197626 of backing that was used to publish the first Chineasy books.

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
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The books are now being published by Thames & Hudson and an ebook and app have also been developed to illustrate how to write and correct stroke order through simple animations and give tips on pronunciation.

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
Door

Chineasy was nominated in the Graphics category of the Design Museum’s shortlist for Designs of the Year and features in an exhibition at the museum until 25 August.

Here’s a project description from ShaoLan:


Chineasy

Chineasy’s aim is to bridge the gap between the East and the West. I want to give the west a real understanding of China and an appreciation of Chinese culture through their own eyes rather than layers of packaging and manipulation.

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
The method – compounds

It is evident that people are hungry to learn about China. People are keen to be able to communicate with the 1.3 billion people. Tet there is not much out there to enable them to do so. Whilst the entire Chinese population is learning English, the west is struggling to comprehend this complex economy and society with their own eyes and judgment. Knowing their language is the key towards true understanding.

Chineasy will become the first step for anyone in the world who wants to understand China, Chinese culture and its language. It is educational, social, cultural and inspirational. I am demonstrating the beauty of this deep and broad culture through a modern interpretation using sleek and simple design.

Chineasy by ShaoLan Hsueh
The method – phrases

Chineasy’s goal is to allow people to learn to read Chinese easily by recognising characters through simple illustrations. The magical power of the Chineasy method is that by learning one small set of building blocks, students can build many new words, characters, and phrases.

The post Chineasy illustrated characters designed
to make learning Chinese easy
appeared first on Dezeen.

Cycling covers from Yellow Jersey Press

With the Tour de France starting in July, Yellow Jersey Press has reissued five classic cycling books with covers referencing some of the most famous colours in the sport…

Designed in-house by Matt Broughton, the series includes broadcaster Ned Boulting’s tale of becoming obsessed by Le Tour, How I Won the Yellow Jumper, and the first British winner Bradley Wiggins’ autobiography, My Time.

Three of the covers reference the colourways of the jerseys awarded to Le Tour cyclists – hence the yellow (worn by the overall time leader) on the aforementioned titles, the bright green of the jersey awarded to the winner of the points competition, and the red and white Maillot à Pois pattern for the ‘King of the Mountains’ – the rider who tops the climbing classification – on Richard Moore’s Slaying the Badger (the ‘Badger’ in question being French cyclist, Bernard Hinault).

The five stripes of the world champion jersey appear on William Fotheringham’s Put Me Back on My Bike, while writer Tim Moore’s retracing of the Tour de France route, French Revolutions, gets a tricolore treatment, complete with up-ended type evocative of the challenge he took on.

All the titles in the series are republished by Yellow Jersey Press (Vintage). More at vintage-books.co.uk.