Hasta La Ideas

To mark the launch of a new website for Hermann Miller furniture, Part of a Bigger Plan has created a short animated film telling the story of the illustrious company’s 108 years in 108 seconds

Amsterdam-based Part of a Bigger Plan is headed up by Christian Borstlap, who we profiled in our May issue (you can read the piece here). The agency has made a range of charming animated brand films for clients such as Louis Vuitton and Mr Porter.

This latest short was commissioned by Hermann Miller to launch its new digital platform, WHY. It’s an animated timeline of the company’s history and the designers it has worked with

Credits:
Agency: Part of a Bigger Plan
Direction/art work: Christian Borstlap
Animation: Jos Ngonga Wabeke
Music: Shawn Lee
Sound: Jasper Boeke

Commissioned by Herman Miller, Zeeland Michigan, USA
Clients: Amber Bravo, Everett Pelayo

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The July issue of Creative Review is a type special, with features on the Hamilton Wood Type Museum, the new Whitney identity and the resurgence of type-only design. Plus the Logo Lounge Trend Report, how Ideas Foundation is encouraging diversity in advertising and more.

Over the course of this year’s degree show season, CR readers will be guest blogging reviews of shows up and down the UK (and beyond). Here, Melly-Em Clark visits the University of Lincoln Degree Shows 2013

Illustration

Jon Cottam

Jon Cottam’s innovative re-workings of iconic film posters (above, below and top) give modern classics a fresh new aesthetic, challenging stereotypical colour palettes so commonly associated with the horror genre. As well as being visually arresting, Jon’s images express an in-depth observation, understanding and appreciation for the films’ concepts, themes and narratives.

Stephen Sharpe

Stephen Sharpe’s Final Major Project focused on illustrating engaging quotes from beloved comedians such as Jo Brand and Eddie Izzard. Stephen’s work both displays his expertise in usage of colour and composition and portrays the lively, bizarre and comedic aspects of the quotes, encapsulating the highlights of British wit.

Rachel Sanson

Rachel Sanson’s impressive usage of collage and mixed media creates a uniquely textured aesthetic within her expertly rendered images. Rachel’s quirky character design and memorable visual signature makes her a promising new voice within the industry of Illustration, her work ideal for children’s picture books and book jacket design.

FINE ART

Christopher Bagnall

Portraiture is an art form that, at times, can heavily rely upon a knowledge of personality and attributes. Christopher Bagnall’s paintings are based on observations of strangers, people he knows nothing about. Working in this way focuses the portrait to appreciate the immediate and external aspects of a person. With its expressive nature and fascinating composition, Christopher captures the anonymity of strangers and the fleeting moments in which we encounter them.

Chloe Leach

Chloe Leach’s exhibit communicates the impossible preservation of organic life and its inevitable decay and death. In her installation, Galanthus, Nivalis and Narcissus, she entraps a vast amount of elegant plants within a small doorway, As the show ran its two week course, visitors were able to witness the transformation and gradual decline of vitality. As the display slowly withers, we are encouraged to appreciate and notice nature for its beauty, while it lasts. Looking into Chloe’s work arouses curiosity and admiration for the life and death of nature.

Claire Elizabeth Slade

Within the art industry, identity is crucial, we analyse and display ourselves, our interests and influences. Within her work, Claire Elizabeth Slade explores identity through the most commonly used part of the artist, the hands. Claire’s focus on the physical aspects of character, such as teeth and fingerprints, rather than personality or presentation, is a refreshing approach to the concept. Claire’s exhibit is beautifully arranged and displayed, with intricate attention to detail, creating a very elegant aesthetic.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Chris Jellinek.

Chris Jellinek’s book cover design for Ken Kasey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest uses simplistic imagery with strong connotations to represent the story’s theme. In his strongest design, he uses the powerful iconography of cogs, a visual signifier for intricacy, technology and complication. With Kasey’s story being arranged within a psychiatric hospital, this image work perfectly. With a beautifully rendered illustration and gentle typography, Chris’ cover represents the book with professionalism and understanding.

CONTEMPORARY LENS MEDIA

Chiara Simpson

Chiara Simpson’s work, Older People in Havana, Cuba, are vibrant, energetic portraits that reflect the warm and vivacious nature of the cultural landscape of Cuba. Her approach to the camera is simplistic, drawing the focus to the lively and charismatic subjects encompassing the frame. These images, part of a series, are a fascinating documentation of one person’s reaction to a culture with many layers of history and beauty.

Photos by Dominic Clark

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The July issue of Creative Review is a type special, with features on the Hamilton Wood Type Museum, the new Whitney identity and the resurgence of type-only design. Plus the Logo Lounge Trend Report, how Ideas Foundation is encouraging diversity in advertising and more.

Dutch illustrator Stang Gubbels has brightened up the ward of an Amsterdam children’s hospital with some cheerful illustrations of UFOs, rockets and helicopters.

The transport-themed designs are aimed at four to 12 year-olds at the Emma Children’s Hospital – one of The Netherlands’s largest paediatric centres.

Gubbels worked on the project for two years while the ward, for long-term patients and those with serious illnesses, was being re-developed. Interior designers Opera Amsterdam Art Associates and architects OD205 have also re-designed and commissioned illustrations for other wards at the centre, including a neonatal care unit with sensory rooms and botanical paintings.

The printed illustrations are based on digital images created using Illustrator and covered with a protective layer. The colour palette was chosen by Opera, but Gubbels was free to design modes of transport of his chioce, from polka dot horses to unicycles, cranes and monster trucks.

“My agent [Art Associates] was asked to nominate an illustrator for the project by Opera Art. I was chosen because my work fits well with children – it’s bright and humorous” say Gubbels.

“I’ve made quite a lot of illustrations in this style – although never for interiors,” he adds. Gubbels has also designed exterior window installations in Rotterdam (photo: Scagliola/Brakkee / CBK Rotterdam).

UK hospitals have also teamed up with illustrators and design agencies to inject some colour into an unsettling place for young children – you can read our feature on The Royal London children’s unit (below) designed by Vital Arts in the April issue of Creative Review, and see Chelsea Children’s Hospital’s healing spaces here.

Buy the current print issue of CR, or subscribe, here

The July issue of Creative Review is a type special, with features on the Hamilton Wood Type Museum, the new Whitney identity and the resurgence of type-only design. Plus the Logo Lounge Trend Report, how Ideas Foundation is encouraging diversity in advertising and more.

As the world waits with bated breath for the latest addition to the British royal family to arrive, communications company and gallery KK Outlet London have collaborated with illustrator Lee Boulton to create a ‘Royalphabet’ poster to mark the occasion.

The regally themed alphabet chart features 26 specially created illustrations, with each letter representing something associated with British royalty and the escapades of the family. The more customary Q is for Queen and J is for Jewels, are mixed with the slightly more controversial D is for Divorce and I is for Inbred. Ouch.

KK Outlet had previously created a series of commemorative souvenir plates for Kate and Will’s wedding in 2011 – quirky alternatives to the standard royal wedding memorabilia.

The bone china plates included messages such as “Thanks for the free day off”, and “It should have been me”, along with a design featuring an imagined Facebook post announcing the nuptials, with ‘likes’ from Prince Charles, The Queen and 6,000,000 others.

The limited edition poster is available to buy from KK Outlet, 42 Hoxton Square, London, N1 6PB. www.kkoutlet.com

Check out Lee’s other work at leeleelee.com, including some Julian Opie-esque pet portraiture and tour posters for the Kaiser Chiefs.

Buy the current print issue of CR, or subscribe, here

The July issue of Creative Review is a type special, with features on the Hamilton Wood Type Museum, the new Whitney identity and the resurgence of type-only design. Plus the Logo Lounge Trend Report, how Ideas Foundation is encouraging diversity in advertising and more.

Finn Dean has won this year’s Book Illustration Competition, beating over 500 other entrants all attempting to interpret the Aldous Huxley classic Brave New World

The Book Illustration Competition is a partnership between the charity House of Illustration and The Folio Society. Open to all illustrators over the age of 18, both student and professional, the winner receives a Folio Society commission worth £4,500. Five runners-up receive £500 each.

This year’s brief was to illustrate Brave New World, Huxley’s classic 1931 novel about a dystopian future society. Dean’s winning work (below) will appear in a new Folio Society version of the book to be published in September. Dean is 33 and a graduate of Bath School of Art. See more of his work here

The runners-up were:

Maria M Carrasco

Vitali Konstantinov

Claire Malary

Varvara Perekrest

And Kit Russell

More images here

Buy the current print issue of CR, or subscribe, here

The July issue of Creative Review is a type special, with features on the Hamilton Wood Type Museum, the new Whitney identity and the resurgence of type-only design. Plus the Logo Lounge Trend Report, how Ideas Foundation is encouraging diversity in advertising and more