The newly built section of the Manchester School of Art is a real pleasure to behold and complements the old part excellently, making wandering around and viewing the wonderful selection of work showing across the school even more enjoyable this year…
First up is BA (Hons) Interactive Arts student Sarah Unwin‘s thoroughly engaging experimental interaction piece (above). Members of the public were asked to submit a saliva sample on litmus paper and then the paper was meticulously added to an archive.
On the same course, Michael Fowdrey‘s amazingly intricate wooden chain links are set to be kept at the University, displayed in the new reception area.You can see why with the references to Manchester’s industrial past, but also its forward-thinking and unusual appearance.
This great sculptural piece by Tom Bevan – BA (Hons) Interactive Arts – was a real eye catcher, based around the correlation between modern day story telling and original methods in book-making.
This beautiful set by BA (Hons) Three Dimensional Design student Bori Kovács was a total highlight of the 3D section; beautiful craftsmanship with a wonderful attention to detail.
I was really impressed by the execution in Hannah Louise Osbaldiston’s series of images of subjects seemingly, inexplicably, levitating. This image in particular, taken at the Victoria baths in Manchester, was perfect. Osbaldiston is from the BA (Hons) Photography course.
An optical room of trickery awaited anyone who entered the large black box in the Holden Gallery, created by Interactive Art student, Laura Ajayi. The box is filled with mirrors and intricately placed pieces of vinyl that would surely have pleased Bridget Riley.
Fine Art student Jessica Levi Shandley‘s wonderfully haunting abstract images were a real highlight for me. Her use of subtle abstraction created pieces that nodded to stills from Hitchcock’s films as much as they did contemporary collage.
A really compelling body of work was on show by Fine Art student Bijan Amini Alavijeh (links to email) with fantastic uses of both pattern, colour and technique.
This excellently executed poster by Dan Heron was a total highlight from the Graphic Design show, instantly striking and well constructed.
I was unable to find a web address but I would love to see more of Illustration with Animation student Nathaniel Scott’s work, the execution of the piece above I especially enjoyed.
Michael Withington is another Fine Art student with no website or contact details, but never-the-less wonderfully compelling paintings that were incredibly arresting.
Last but certainly not least was Sarah Joanna Walsh‘s amazing sculptures painstakingly created from newspaper, fantastically tactile and thoroughly captivating.
I was really impressed by the standard of work across the board from this year’s crop of new creatives coming out of the Manchester School of Art. The Interactive Arts course was a real highlight and to see the new building in its fully finished state was a joy to behold.
Manchester School of Art degree show is open until Wednesday the 19 June (10am – 6pm). More at degreeshow.mmu.ac.uk.
Mark ‘Eddy’ Edwards is one half of multidisciplinary art and design studio, DR.ME. More at dr-me.com. He also writes for write for We Occupy at weoccupy.co.uk/blog.
Le studio de design FOREAL, fondé par les deux designers allemands Benjamin Simon et Dirk Schuster, présente sa série d’illustrations surréalistes baptisée « Planetary Anatomy », une dissection astrale colorée et dynamique. Un travail étonnant à découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.
The August issue of CR is going to be a Summer School special. We want to look at all the ways in which readers sharpen their creative skills via workshops or similar, or find inspiration in taking part in creative activities outside of their day-to-day roles. So, what do you do?
We want to know what you do to inspire and invigorate yourselves and the staff at your studios and agencies. Do you bring in external speakers for example? Do you take any craft-based workshops, such as paper-making or screenprinting?
We’re also looking for people who run workshops or courses for creatives – anyone who goes into agencies or studios or who runs workshops and courses themselves, whether they are on more ‘serious’ subjects like art direction or coding or more esoteric, fun activities such as toy-making, building a pinhole camera or learning calligraphy.
And, of course, D&AD runs an extensive programme of courses under its Workout scheme
If you’ve been on anything like this, anywhere in the world, or if you run such courses yourself, please let us know in the comments below. Please also let us know about anything you do internally at your studio or agency to keep yourselves inspired and energised
Pink Floyd fans may recognise the cover of our June issue. It’s the original marked-up artwork for Dark Side of the Moon: one of a number of treasures from the archive of design studio Hipgnosis featured in the issue, along with an interview with Aubrey Powell, co-founder of Hipgnosis with the late, great Storm Thorgerson. Elsewhere in the issue we take a first look at The Purple Book: Symbolism and Sensuality in Contemporary Illustration, hear from the curators of a fascinating new V&A show conceived as a ‘walk-in book’ plus we have all the regular debate and analysis on the world of visual communications.
You can buy Creative Review direct from us here. Better yet, subscribe, save money and have CR delivered direct to your door every month.
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 updates with new content throughout each month. Get it here.
Subscribe to Creative Review before midnight GMT on Sunday June 16 and you will receive a free Uniqlo T-shirt designed exclusively for CR by Anthony Burrill
Just go to our Shopify page here and the shirt will be automatically added to your order when you buy a subscription
Earlier this year, Creative Review teamed up with Uniqlo and 12 more magazines and journals around the world in the UT Creative Journal Direction project. Each magazine commissioned a local designer or artist to create a T-shirt for the range which went on sale in Uniqlo worldwide.
Each participating magazine (including Étapes in France, Surface in New York, Design in Korea and Look At Me in Moscow) was asked to submit half a dozen proposed designs (see them all here). They were not allowed to be overtly self-promotional (ie no logos) and should feature the work of a local designer. We submitted various ideas, but +81 and Uniqlo chose Anthony Burrill’s reworked version of the image which he created for our April 2010 redesign issue.
Anyone taking out or renewing a CR subscription (including those taking advantage of our student offer or any other offers) before midnight GMT on Sunday June 16 will receive one of the shirts for free. Just go to our Shopify page here and the shirt will be automatically added to your order when you buy a subscription
Pink Floyd fans may recognise the cover of our June issue. It’s the original marked-up artwork for Dark Side of the Moon: one of a number of treasures from the archive of design studio Hipgnosis featured in the issue, along with an interview with Aubrey Powell, co-founder of Hipgnosis with the late, great Storm Thorgerson. Elsewhere in the issue we take a first look at The Purple Book: Symbolism and Sensuality in Contemporary Illustration, hear from the curators of a fascinating new V&A show conceived as a ‘walk-in book’ plus we have all the regular debate and analysis on the world of visual communications.
You can buy Creative Review direct from us here. Better yet, subscribe, save money and have CR delivered direct to your door every month.
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 updates with new content throughout each month. Get it here.
Focus sur le travail du designer graphique estonien Anton Burmistrov qui a réalisé 3 posters pour « Sputnik Event » qui n’est pas sans rappeler le style de l’artiste israélien Noma Bar. Dans cette série, il propose une double lecture de ses créations, dissimulant une image dans l’image avec beaucoup de poésie.
McCann Erickson Melbourne’s Dumb Ways to Die and 4Creative’s Meet the Superhumans were the big winners at this year’s D&AD Awards, with Black Pencils also going to Gov.uk and Thomas Heatherwick’s Olympics Cauldron
Heatherwick’s magical Olympic Cauldron (above) won a Black Pencil in the Spatial Design: Installations category.
The 4Creative Meet The Superhumans spot, directed by Tom Tagholm, won Black in TV & Cinema Communications: TV Promotions & Programme Junctions. Meet the Superhumans also picked up three Yellows, in Film Advertising Crafts: Editing for Film Advertising, Film Advertising Crafts:Direction for Film Advertising and Film Advertising Crafts: Use of Music for Film Advertising.
The other two Black Pencils this year are for public service or at least public information projects: Gov.uk and McCann Erickson Melbourne’s Dumb Ways to Die for Metro Trains.
Gov.uk won its award in the Writing for Design: Writing for Websites & Digital Design category, curiously missing out on any Pencils in the digital design area.
Dumb Ways to Die, the charming animation promoting safety on Melbourne’s railways, won Black in Integrated & Earned Media:Earned Media Campaigns (where those 46m+ YouTube views must have swayed any doubters) plus four Yellows in other categories: Outdoor Advertising: Poster Advertising Campaigns, Digital Advertising:Web Films, TV & Cinema Advertising: TV Commercials 120–240 seconds and Writing for Advertising: Writing for Film Advertising
Adding to this spirit of creativity in a good cause is the first White Pencil winner since the category (launched last year) was merged into the main awards. Congratulations to Droga5 for a project that offers a practical solution to a huge problem. Help I Want To Save a Life marks the fruition of a ten-year project begun by Droga5 creative Graham Douglas. Donor registration kits are included with packs of Help Remedies plasters. The kits require a small sample of blood, though as the donor is likely to be bleeding anyway – hence reaching for the plasters – this is a simple action. The samples are then sent to DKMS, the donor centre affiliated with the project, which will follow up upon receipt.
In the Yellow Pencils, McCann Worldgroup won in Writing For Design: Writing for Brands for its LOCOG Gamesmaker project for the 2012 Olympics volunteer programme
R/GA won in Crafts for Advertising: Sound Design & Use of Music for Digital Advertising for One Copy Song. Adam Tensta is Sweden’s biggest hip-hop artist. To promote his song Pass It On, R/GA created a Facebook app that allows only one person to listen at a time before passing it to the next person in line.
Mars Petcare: Donation Glasses from Colenso BBDO, Proximity New Zealand and FINCH won in Direct: Direct Response/TV & Cinema Advertising. NZ cinemagoers were given a choice – donate to help rescue abused dogs and receive a pair of yellow glasses, or pay nothing for the red pair. In the ad which followed, those who watched through yellow saw a happy ending
In Graphic Design: Annual Reports, Brighten the Corners won for its Zumtobel Annual Report. For the Austrian lighting company’s 2011/12 annual report, Brighten the Corners worked with artist Anish Kapoor to create a two-volume publication: one book contained the facts and figures for the year, the other was a printed version of a 1998 video piece by the artist, Wounds and Absent Objects
And there was a Yellow in Branding: Brand Expression in Print for Leo Burnett London’s Pantone Queen, a Diamond Jubilee tie-in documents the colours that the Queen wore on 60 different occasions during her 60-year reign, including the Primrose Yellow she wore at William and Kate’s wedding and the Canal Blue she chose for Ascot in 2008
The much-garlanded #CokeHands from Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai picjed up yet another award, this time a Yellow in Crafts for Advertising: Illustration for Advertising
While there was another win for Droga5 came in Film Advertising Crafts: Production Design for Film Advertising for the Kraft Moreing campaign. To advertise the Boost chocolate bar, Droga5 came up with the Boosted Inspiration Series of mock-documentaires. In this first film we meet the artist behind ‘M0reing’, a new trend/art project involving doing everything in multiples: wearing four hats, watching three TVs, walking three dogs. Scarily plausible
PARTY took a Yellow in Graphic Design: Moving Image (Graphic Design) for its Kanji City film. The City of Kyoto is represented as a series of 16 Kanji animations, each of which symbolises a tree, river, temple, gate and so on found in the city itself
In Outdoor Advertising: Poster Advertising Campaigns there was a Yellow for the Parkinson’s: Everyday campaign by The Assembly in which everyday images, such as a cup of tea or a pair of shoes, are mixed up to represent how Parkinson’s can affect messages the brain gives to the body
In Branding: Branding Schemes/Medium Business, 6D-K won Yellow for its charming icon-based identity scheme for Japanese agricultural co-operative, Minds
And Singapore-based WORK won in Branding: Brand Expression in Print for its Louis Vuitton: Yayoi Kusama Fine Book 2012, a limited edition book for Dover Street Market Ginza formed part of a wider collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. The book features images and works drawn from the last 50 years of Kusama’s career.
There was also a Yellow for Sagmeister & Walsh’s Now is Better film in Craft for Design: Typography for Design (of which more later, as the work’s inclusion was the subject of some debate)
The Guardian’s modern-day retelling of the Three Little Pigs, which re-imagined the tale as a contemporary news story illustrating the multiple platforms for news-gathering and reporting utilised by the paper, won in TV & Cinema Advertising:TV Commercials 61–120 seconds. Director: Ringan Ledwidge .
In Film Advertising Crafts: Cinematography for Film Advertising, F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi in Brazil won for Leica Store São Paulo: Soul, teling the story of the Leica M camera and its role in 20th century history. The film also won Yellow in Film Advertising Crafts: Direction for Film Advertising
There were three Yellows for R/GA and its work on Nike+ FuelBand, in Integrated & Earned Media, Integrated Digital Advertising: Digital Solutions and Mobile Marketing: Mobile Interaction & Experience
Wieden+Kennedy New York’s Southern Comfort: Beach won in TV & Cinema Advertising: TV Commercials 41–60 seconds
While another Brazilian agency, Leo Burnett Tailor Made, won in Integrated & Earned Media: Earned Media Campaigns for My Blood is Red and Black. To combat a shortage of blood donations in Bahia, Brazil, local football club Esporte Clube Vitoria changed its red and black striped kit to white, pledging to change it back stripe by stripe until donations reached the target amount.
Film Advertising Crafts: Special Effects for Film Advertising saw a Yellow for 4Creative for the 4Seven idents it created with ManvsMachine
In Snickers’ You’re Not You When You’re Hungry Twitter campaign, five celebrities were asked to tweet out of character. Katie Price tweeted about economics and Rio Ferdinand confused his followers by talking about his new hobby of knitting before eventually revealing the gag. It won Yellow in Integrated & Earned Media: Earned Media Campaigns forAMV BBDO/AMV Pulse
Radio produced two Yellows this year. In Radio Advertising: Radio Advertising over 30 seconds, Y&R New York won for Campbell’s Soup: Poetry in which the opposing characters in a passive-aggressive mother-daughter row describe the action as it happens, with much door slamming and storming off. Listen here
And in the same category, DraftFCB New Zealand won for Prime Television: Call Girl. For a new season of TV show Secret Diary of a Call Girl, DraftFCB hired an actress to engage in ‘call girl-like’ behaviour across the road from a radio station. The watching DJs soon started commenting on what they saw
In Packaging Design: Packaging Design there was a win for Family Business for Absolut Unique. Some four million unique bottles of Absolut vodka were created by converting machines on the bottling line to spray paint randomly onto them. Each one was numbered
Film Advertising Crafts: Direction for Film Advertising saw a win for We Are Pi and director Körner Union for Human Arabesque. Introducing the TEDX Summit event, this film combined dancers and kaleidoscopic effects to create beautiful patterns from the letter x.
ONLY Jeans: The Liberation won for Uncle Grey Copenhagen in Crafts for Design: Sound Design & Use of Music for Websites & Digital Design. A combined movie, catalogue and game, produced by North Kingdom, click at any time and the film would freeze and load a still via which users could like, share or buy clothes
Volkswagen: The Bark Side, by Deutsch LA and directed by Keith Schofield won in Film Advertising Crafts: Use of Music for Film Advertising
And these Long-Tongued Animal Shoehorns for Closed by gürtlerbachmann won in Packaging Design: Packaging Design
And Johnny Hardstaff’s eerie David viral for Prometheus picked up Yellows in Film Advertising Crafts: Production Design for Film Advertising and Film Advertising Crafts: Direction for Film Advertising
In Digital Design: Websites there was a Yellow for The Martin Agency and its JFK Presidential Library & Museum: Clouds Over Cuba project. In this interactive documentary experience about the Cuban Missile Crisis, extra background material in various forms was made available at key points of the narrative.
Let’s Make Some Great Fingerprint Art by Mrion Deuchars and art directed by Angus Hyland won in Crafts for Design: Illustration for Design
R/GA picked up another Yellow Pencil, this time in Branding: Digital Brand Expression for OneNike which nified more than 70 Nike brands, plus commerce and social media functions
And Apple (it wouldn’t be D&AD without an award for Apple, would it?) won in Product Design: Consumer Product Design for the 27-inch iMac
In Film Advertising Crafts: Animation for Film Advertising, Good Books: Metamorphosis, animated by Buck for ad agency String Theory won Yellow. A Hunter S Thompson-style character goes in search of a copy of Kafka’s Metamorphosis in this film promoting Good Books, the online bookseller in aid of Oxfam
In Digital Advertising: Web Films, AlmapBBDO’s From Love to Bingo for Getty Images, a love story told in 873 stock images, won Yellow
And in Digital Design: Digital Design, Local Projects won for Cleveland Museum of Art: Gallery One. Interactive installations, including a 40-foot multi-touch Collection Wall, allow visitors to explore the permament collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art
In Art Direction: Art Direction for Poster Advertising The Monkeys/MAUD won for their Diageo: Mixionary campaign where series of cocktails are broken down graphically into their constituent parts
And the final Olympic-related project to win was Barber Osgerby’s torch, which won in Product Design: Industrial Product Design
A supplement listing all the winning work, plus details of the President’s Award, will be published with the July issue of CR, out June 19
La française Alizée Lafon nous propose sa dernière série d’illustrations graphiques : « Movie Hipster Kit ». Elle illustre quelques uns des films les plus cultes comme Pulp Fiction en stylisant des objects directement identifiables à ceux-ci. Un travail ludique et visuellement très réussi à découvrir dans la suite.
L’artiste malaisien Tang Yau Hoong nous livre sa vision de l’espace dans sa série « The Art of Negative Space ». Sans délimitation réelle, ses illustrations confondent le plein et le vide, le ciel et la terre, donnant à voir non pas un mais des espaces qui se complètent et s’opposent au sein de chacune de ses créations.
This year Liverpool John Moores’ Graphic Arts graduates shunned the traditional gallery space in favour of a bar – London’s Social, just off Oxford Street. Here wall space was unavailable, so work was projected in a slideshow onto a screen. The course is multidisciplinary, and output falls broadly into the categories of graphic design and illustration. Here are some of the highlights:
Thomas Fowler‘s intricate pencil drawings showed an impressive balance between spontaneity and control.
Risograph printing (see CR Oct 2012) was very popular with the students this year. The catalogue (for which this was the launch) was printed Riso, as well as several of the projects. I particularly liked this two colour poster for Ping Pong Party II, by Rachel Davey.
This two colour Riso publication by Adam Ward appears to be inspired by Neville Brody’s early magazine work. It’s a bold response to the theme of Buddhism, using a self-generated typeface derived from circles in a nod to the symbolism of Zen.
Elsewhere Mark Frances displayed a canny eye for a striking poster with this beautiful series of modernist inspired tributes to europe’s footballing greats. Note the subtle allusion to the famous Cruyff Turn
There was more modernism on display in the work of Sam Howard. Especially notable were his posters for a lecture by Ken Garland, a long-time associate of the college who was also at the Private View.
Another style much in evidence was that of skate graphics, particularly the Robert Crumb influenced variety that seems popular in the north west at the moment (see our CR Liverpool special issue, Dec 2011). A memorable example of this approach is provided here by Rueben Barr, in a poster for James Randi’s Educational Foundation.
On a similar note, this poster for legendary Liverpool skate shop Lost Art by Aaron Givens was fun. You can never go far wrong with a giant robot in my opinion.
Overall, this was a strong year with a good variety of work. I expect to hear more from some of these names in the very near future.
Paul Pensom is CR’s art director and a graduate of Liverpool John Moores University
Pink Floyd fans may recognise the cover of our June issue. It’s the original marked-up artwork for Dark Side of the Moon: one of a number of treasures from the archive of design studio Hipgnosis featured in the issue, along with an interview with Aubrey Powell, co-founder of Hipgnosis with the late, great Storm Thorgerson. Elsewhere in the issue we take a first look at The Purple Book: Symbolism and Sensuality in Contemporary Illustration, hear from the curators of a fascinating new V&A show conceived as a ‘walk-in book’ plus we have all the regular debate and analysis on the world of visual communications.
You can buy Creative Review direct from us here. Better yet, subscribe, save money and have CR delivered direct to your door every month.
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 updates with new content throughout each month. Get it here
by Adam Štěch Komfort Magazine was founded in 2008 by an industrious group of Czech creatives, including typographer Radek Sidun, graphic designers Olga Benešová and Robert V. Novák, editor and writer Pavel Turek and director Tomáš…
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
