Hasta La Ideas

Terms such as “book” or “graphic novel” fail miserably at labeling the latest creation of cartoonist-cum-wizard Chris Ware. His Building Stories (Pantheon) may well be a high watermark for print culture: open the boardgame-sized box to discover 14 discrete books, booklets, magazines, newspapers, and pamphlets that comprise an infinitely satisfying choose-your-own-graphic-adventure. Meanwhile, having spent twelve years working sporadically on the project, Ware is the picture of modesty, describing Building Stories as “follow[ing] the inhabitants of a three-flat Chicago apartment house: a 30-year-old woman who has yet to find someone with whom to spend the rest of her life; a couple (possibly married) who wonder if they can bear each other’s company for another minute; and finally, an elderly woman who never married and is the building’s landlady.” Trust us, there’s more. Last week, Ware joined fellow story builder Zadie Smith, whose latest novel is NW (Penguin), for a conversation at the New York Public Library. Pour yourself a fresh cup of nog, sit back, and enjoy the below audio recording of the two discussing the role of space and place in their work.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Letter from Saul Bass to Stanley Kubrick. Photo: Bobby Solomon/The Fox is Black

Saul Bass, a graphic designer responsible for some of the most celebrated work in film posters, title sequences and identity design, needs little introduction. But famous as he was, it seems he still had time to employ a rather amusing signature on occasion…

In a great post on The Fox is Black blog, designer Bobby Solomon reports back from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art show on Stanley Kubrick. Among the exhibits from Kubrick’s films, one element in particular caught Solomon’s eye: a series of sketches Bass made while making a poster for the director’s 1980 film, The Shining.

Poster sketch for The Shining by Saul Bass. Photo: Bobby Solomon/The Fox is Black

And alongside the designs – which you can see in full on Solomon’s post – are images of some of the correspondence Bass had with the film director in 1978, during the process of making the sketches and sending them over to Kubrick. On two of these letters, the ‘bass’ signature above is employed.

While a more conventionally signed ‘Saul’ follows on from a ‘Best regards’ in the letters, the swoop of the ‘l’ suddenly appears to turn into a bass – complete with the bespectacled face of Mr. Bass. (It’s clearly a stamp, and looks like it would have had to have been made with his face on it.) And in personalising one of the letters even further, Bass went to the trouble of adding a splash of colour.

All of this is, of course, in the context of discussing one of the most frightening films ever made.

Letter from Saul Bass to Stanley Kubrick. Photo: Bobby Solomon/The Fox is Black

The series of Bass’s poster sketches for The Shining are on The Fox is Black, here. Stanley Kubrick is on at the LACMA until June 13 2013, details at lacma.org.

CR In print

In our December issue we look at why carpets are the latest medium of choice for designers and illustrators. Plus, Does it matter if design projects are presented using fake images created using LiveSurface and the like? Mark Sinclair looks in to the issue of mocking-up. We have an extract from Craig Ward’s upcoming book Popular Lies About Graphic Design and ask why advertising has been so poor at preserving its past. Illustrators’ agents share their tips for getting seen and we interview maverick director Tony Kaye by means of his unique way with email. In Crit, Guardian economics leader writer Aditya Chakrabortty review’s Kalle Lasn’s Meme Wars and Gordon Comstock pities brands’ long-suffering social media managers. In a new column on art direction, Paul Belford deconstructs a Levi’s ad that was so wrong it was very right, plus, in his brand identity column, Michael Evamy looks at the work of Barcelona-based Mario Eskenazi. And Daniel Benneworth-Gray tackles every freelancer’s dilemma – getting work.

Our Monograph this month, for subscribers only, features the EnsaïmadART project in which Astrid Stavro and Pablo Martin invited designers from around the world to create stickers to go on the packaging of special edition packaging for Majorca’s distinctive pastry, the ensaïmada, with all profits going to a charity on the island (full story here)

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

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 will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

Dublin’s OFFSET festival will return to the Irish capital’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre for three days in April (5-7) with an impressive line-up of international speakers that include Ben Bos, Bob Gill, Ciarán Ógaora, Craig & Karl, Hvass & Hannibal, Kate Moross, Marina Willer, Oliviero Toscani, Sarah Illenberger and Vaughan Oliver…

As with the last two OFFSET events (which CR’s Gavin Lucas has reported back from), the conference will feature two simultaneous schedules of events: lectures in the main theatre, with a second room of interviews and panel discussions. Here’s the list of speakers announced so far, along with some visual cues:

Dutch graphic designer and author Ben Bos

UK-based illustrator Ben Newman

Designer, illustrator, author, and one of D&AD’s founders Bob Gill will be at OFFSET 2013

Maine-based illustrator Calef Brown

Chris Silas Neal from Brooklyn, New York is also one of the main speakers

Ciarán Ógaora of Dublin-based design studio Zero-G

Australia and UK based design and illustration duo Craig & Karl

London-based live and digital agency Drive Productions

Irish director, animator and filmmaker Eoghan Kidney

Gavin O’Sullivan, Creative Director at Dublin ad agency DDFH&B

Hvass & Hannibal from Copenhagen

Korean designer and image maker Ji Lee

Belfast-based illustrator Jonathan McHugh

French street art photographer JR

Kate Moross from London

New York-based Louise Fili was formerly senior designer for Herb Lubalin and art director of Pantheon Books from 1978-1989. Now she runs her own studio that specialies in beautiful design work, with a specialism in restaurant and food packaging

Pentagram partner Marina Willer

Childrens book author and illustrator Niamh Sharkey

Oliviero Toscani

Sarah Illenberger

The Stone Twins

And British designer Vaughan Oliver is also confirmed.

Tickets are available now at www.ticketmaster.ie or in person from the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre box office.

Early bird tickets (up to March 2013) are €165.
Student tickets are €120.
Standard tickets are €195.
All have types of ticket are subject to a group rate of six tickets for the price of five.

For more info about OFFSET2013, visit iloveoffset.com.

To keep up to date with all the latest OFFSET news, follow @weloveoffset on Twitter.

CR In print

In our December issue we look at why carpets are the latest medium of choice for designers and illustrators. Plus, Does it matter if design projects are presented using fake images created using LiveSurface and the like? Mark Sinclair looks in to the issue of mocking-up. We have an extract from Craig Ward’s upcoming book Popular Lies About Graphic Design and ask why advertising has been so poor at preserving its past. Illustrators’ agents share their tips for getting seen and we interview maverick director Tony Kaye by means of his unique way with email. In Crit, Guardian economics leader writer Aditya Chakrabortty review’s Kalle Lasn’s Meme Wars and Gordon Comstock pities brands’ long-suffering social media managers. In a new column on art direction, Paul Belford deconstructs a Levi’s ad that was so wrong it was very right, plus, in his brand identity column, Michael Evamy looks at the work of Barcelona-based Mario Eskenazi. And Daniel Benneworth-Gray tackles every freelancer’s dilemma – getting work.

Our Monograph this month, for subscribers only, features the EnsaïmadART project in which Astrid Stavro and Pablo Martin invited designers from around the world to create stickers to go on the packaging of special edition packaging for Majorca’s distinctive pastry, the ensaïmada, with all profits going to a charity on the island (full story here)

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

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 will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

Illustrator Ryan Todd has collaborated with digital design studio Enjoythis to create Christmas Gifs, a festive showcase of animated gifs created specially for the project by an international cast of illustrators, animators and directors…

The fun gifs can all be viewed on the project’s website (homepage, above) at chrismasgifs.org where each one can be shared via Facebook, Twitter and Google+, or simply sent to a friend via email.

Here are a few CR favourites currently on the site and available to share:

Dan the Bear by Jane Stockdale

Rooftop Rollin’ by Ryan Todd

Arctic Igloo by Ross Phillips

SLAMta Claus by Paul Layzell

But wait, there’s more: Todd is keen to encourage fellow illustrators and animators to submit their gifs to the site to expand the collection. “The aim of the project is twofold,” he explains, “to create a space for professional animators and directors to produce somethign personal, experimental or just plain fun, and for illustrators and artists who may not have created anything animated before to take their first step into the world of moving image. The humble gif offers the perfect format in which to create something special.”

Artists with gifs already on the site include Alex Grigg, Damien Weighill, Emily Forgot, Holly Wales, James Dawe, Jane Stockdale, Jenny Bowers, Mathew The Horse, Rose Blake, and many, many more.

Visit the site to view and share the current collection, and to potentially get involved: christmasgifs.org.

CR In print

In our December issue we look at why carpets are the latest medium of choice for designers and illustrators. Plus, Does it matter if design projects are presented using fake images created using LiveSurface and the like? Mark Sinclair looks in to the issue of mocking-up. We have an extract from Craig Ward’s upcoming book Popular Lies About Graphic Design and ask why advertising has been so poor at preserving its past. Illustrators’ agents share their tips for getting seen and we interview maverick director Tony Kaye by means of his unique way with email. In Crit, Guardian economics leader writer Aditya Chakrabortty review’s Kalle Lasn’s Meme Wars and Gordon Comstock pities brands’ long-suffering social media managers. In a new column on art direction, Paul Belford deconstructs a Levi’s ad that was so wrong it was very right, plus, in his brand identity column, Michael Evamy looks at the work of Barcelona-based Mario Eskenazi. And Daniel Benneworth-Gray tackles every freelancer’s dilemma – getting work.

Our Monograph this month, for subscribers only, features the EnsaïmadART project in which Astrid Stavro and Pablo Martin invited designers from around the world to create stickers to go on the packaging of special edition packaging for Majorca’s distinctive pastry, the ensaïmada, with all profits going to a charity on the island (full story here)

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

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 will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

Norway’s Frode Skaren and Rune Mortensen have created another great identity for Oslo’s by:Larm music festival: a wooden sculpture that will grow as more bands are added to the bill…

Skaren’s name may be familiar to CR readers as his work for the 2011 by:Larm festival was used on the cover of our January 2012 music issue (see below – we also profiled him on the blog, here). Since graduating Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2009, Skaren has worked as an illustrator and designer – often alongside Mortensen – and is based in the town of Flekkefjord.

For this year’s by:Larm identity, the pair went for a three-dimensional approach. “We thought of the festival as a place to build a career,” says Skaren, “and that all bands are different, but will together be part of a bigger whole that is the festival.”

Keen to use visual materials that evoked a Nordic feel, the designers chose to work with wood.

“With this in mind we started to make hundreds of bricks of wood in various sizes – each brick would represent one band – and started building this sculpture,” Skaren says. The first few blocks in the sequence, displaying the key information for the festival, are shown above. “It’s still growing with each new artist announced,” he says, “and it will end up being exhibited at the festival in February, in Oslo.”

Here’s Skaren at work on the sculpture:

Skaren and Mortensen have been working with by:Larm for the last few years. For the 2012 festival identity, Skaren created this cheeky character:

While back in late 2011, we liked his poster design for the festival so much, we asked him if he could adapt a detail from it for the cover of our music-themed January 2012 issue (CR cover and original poster shown, below).

Further details on by:Larm 2013 can be found at bylarm.no, along with updates on the progress of the sculpture. The finished object will be on show at the festival in February.

More of Skaren’s work is at uglylogo.no; Mortensen’s website is runemortensen.no.

CR In print

In our December issue we look at why carpets are the latest medium of choice for designers and illustrators. Plus, Does it matter if design projects are presented using fake images created using LiveSurface and the like? Mark Sinclair looks in to the issue of mocking-up. We have an extract from Craig Ward’s upcoming book Popular Lies About Graphic Design and ask why advertising has been so poor at preserving its past. Illustrators’ agents share their tips for getting seen and we interview maverick director Tony Kaye by means of his unique way with email. In Crit, Guardian economics leader writer Aditya Chakrabortty review’s Kalle Lasn’s Meme Wars and Gordon Comstock pities brands’ long-suffering social media managers. In a new column on art direction, Paul Belford deconstructs a Levi’s ad that was so wrong it was very right, plus, in his brand identity column, Michael Evamy looks at the work of Barcelona-based Mario Eskenazi. And Daniel Benneworth-Gray tackles every freelancer’s dilemma – getting work.

Our Monograph this month, for subscribers only, features the EnsaïmadART project in which Astrid Stavro and Pablo Martin invited designers from around the world to create stickers to go on the packaging of special edition packaging for Majorca’s distinctive pastry, the ensaïmada, with all profits going to a charity on the island (full story here)

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

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 will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here