Hasta La Ideas

The March issue of Creative Review is an illustration special with pieces on the relationship between writers and illustrators, the making of New York Times Magazine covers, Pick Me Up, an impassioned call for illustration to get involved in bigger issues and a profile (and cover design) by the estimable Clifford Richards

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

Gavin Lucas profiles Richards, the former adman turned illustrator who has been creating his own line of charming products since the 60s

London graphic art fair Pick Me Up is coming round again this month – we profile four of the emerging illustrators showing there

Mark Sinclair looks at the relationship between illustrators and writers – such as that between Hunter S Thompson and Ralph Steadman

And Arem Duplessis of the New York Times Magazine takes us through the process of creating covers for the title, showing the various options explored before he arrives at the final design

And to round our illustration coverage up, the LCC’s Lawrence Zeegen makes an impassioned plea for today’s illustrators to create work with greater influence and meaning: illustration has become entrenched in navel-gazing and self-authorship, he argues. It’s time for it to stop pleasing itself and engage with the wider world

If illustration is not your thing, we also have a great piece by Eliza Williams drawing on research from her new book to create a list of ten top tips for making great ads

And in our Crit section, Jeremy Leslie visits an exhibition to mark 50 years of the Sunday Times Magazine

and Gordon Comstock looks at the relationship betwen advertising and the film world

Our Monograph booklet this month, for subscribers only, features highlights from the ICA’s exhibition on artist magazines, In Numbers

Monograph is printed on Curious SKIN Ivory 270gsm for the cover and Conqueror Print Excellence Diamond White 120gsm for the text pages, from Antalis McNaughton antalis-mcnaughton.co.uk

Unfortunately, this month’s issue of Monograph was printed with the wrong paper credits. Our apologies to Antalis McNaughton for this error

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

final illustration by Andrea D’Aquino

When you work with illustrator Andrea D’Aquino, be prepared for her enthusiasm, generosity and amazing talent! Andrea illustrated the cover of issue #9 (which is one of my favourite covers) and so I asked her to illustrate an article in the current issue about quilting and community. She outdid herself with so many great images to choose from. She called these “roughs” but they’re all publishable quality, that’s for sure! Look at this abundance of riches:

Thank you, Andrea. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing.

You can read more about Andrea in Work/Life 2: the UPPERCASE directory of illustration, international edition.

Issue 14 and 15 of ARC

The roots of the Royal College of Art‘s student-run journal, ARC, go back over sixty years. But unless funding for the production of the next issue can be found, it may already have printed its last. So the students have started a Kickstarter campaign and have several great packages on offer to encourage donations…

ARC is a continuation of the RCA’s Ark magazine which ran from 1950-1978 and saw the likes of designers Alan Fletcher and Ray Hawkey, writer Len Deighton, and artists David Hockney and Patrick Caulfield involved in its art direction and design. In 2004, students restarted the magazine as ARC and, since then, the journal has been edited, designed and published entirely by the college’s students with a different team brought in to work on each issue.

The forthcoming edition, archly titled the Death issue, will be the first to be created via Kickstarter. It is being edited by Charmian Griffin, Natalie Ferris, Elizabeth Glickfeld, Sarah Jury and Jamie Sutcliffe, while the designers are Matthew Stuart and Pedro Pina.

“We all work for free: the designers, the editors, every single contributor, even those who are usually better reimbursed for their time,” say the ARC students. “All funds raised here are exclusively for print, packaging and postage.”

Various RCA student magazines, including The Beam (1896), ARK 7 (1953), Ark 13 (1955), ARK 36 (1964). Alan Fletcher worked on Ark 13

While neglected in the 80s and 90s, the magazine has helped launch the careers of many emerging designers who are keen to work with print. “Many of our readers, practicing artists and art students, spend their time in the studio covered in the muck of their medium, not plugged into a laptop, ” say the students. “For them, and for you, and a little bit for tradition, we would like to make something on paper.”

As a further incentive to those willing to donate to the students’ cause, ARC say that “every backer will have their name printed in the magazine. Depending on how much you can pledge, we will also send you the magazine, limited edition posters or works of art.” Contributors can donate upwards of $1 to ARC on Kickstarter here or pre-order ARC 16 for $12 (£7.50 inc p&p). Full details of the students’ plans for the new issue are also listed on the page.

Pledge around the $50 mark and you’ll also receive one of the three posters shown below, along with a copy of the magazine (with your name inside) and an invite to the launch event.

ARC’s own website is rcamagazine.co.uk.

The cover of Ark 46 (Spring 1970), one of three selected for reproduction as a poster by writer Michael Crowe. The actor Alan Rickman also worked on this issue (as a writer). Poster: A1, inkjet, printed at RCA. Please add p&p to your pledge as follows $4.50 (UK), $6 (Europe) or $9 (rest of the world)

Cover depicted by (then recent) RCA graduate Patrick Caulfield. Poster: A1, inkjet, printed at RCA. Please add p&p to your pledge as follows $4.50 (UK), $6 (Europe) or $9 (rest of the world)

The issue this poster depicts, edited by Derek Hyatt, was on colour symbolism and originally sold 3,000 copies in three days. Poster: A1, inkjet, printed at RCA. Please add p&p to your pledge as follows $4.50 (UK), $6 (Europe) or $9 (rest of the world).

Turn your iPhone into a racing car, ice cream van, or river boat with Chris O’Shea’s first app, Makego. Then, if you like, give it to your children to play with…

First off, you will need to download the Makego app and select your vehicle. Then you’re going to need to house that car, van or boat accordingly – a Lego construction for cars is good (see above), while a pencil case makes a great boat. Then you can interact with the drivers via some very cute animations and sound.

There are currently three different modes of transport in the first version of the app with more promised. According to artist and interaction designer O’Shea, the app “encourages fun, open-ended collaborative play between parent and child.”

The racing car, for example, features motion-activated engine noises, a ‘turbo boost’ option, a speedometer and a petrol gauge which you – obviously, I mean, your child – can refuel when the tank is empty.

The ice cream van (above) has a bit more interaction to it as users can also serve customers and work the till, while the river boat model (below) chugs along nicely, lets you feed passing ducks, and even has a tendency to spring a leak mid-journey (leaving you to fix those holes).

Here it is in action:

Download the app at makegotoys.com. Sound and music by Repeat to Fade, repeat-to-fade.net. There’s also a Flickr group where users can add images of their own vehicles, flickr.com/groups/makego.

More of O’Shea’s work at chrisoshea.org.

CR in Print

If you only read CR online, you’re missing out. From the meaning of beans to the power of love, the February issue of Creative Review features our 20 favourite slogans of all time and the stories behind them.

What makes a great slogan? We investigate the enduring power of these clever little phrases in our special slogans issue, dedicated to our choices for the top 20 slogans.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

Creative consultancy Figtree has completely rebranded PoliticsDirect from its name through its brand identity. As a result the public affairs consulting service (now called Brevia Consulting) sports a clean, no-nonsense identity, and a set of unique icons drawn by illustrator Chris Gray…

The identity (website screengrab, above) follows a branding review by Figtree that took place over a five month period. Figtree’s research found that PoliticsDirect had a name that no longer clearly defined what it actually did, but that it had a reputation for being “straight-talking, considered, quick and precise.” It’s this insight that informed the change of name to Brevia Consulting, and which also informed the straight-forward, black and white graphic approach to the identity.

“We wanted to create a set of icons that felt intelligent, sophisticated and ownble,” says Figtree’s Melanie Townsend of the 20 icons created specially for Brevia’s new identity system. “There are lots of icons out there and we wanted to try our best to make them look different. Our approach was to try and put a certain level of detail in them using keylines, though we had to ensure they would work at small scale as well as larger.”

“Chris came in to be briefed after we identified what areas we needed icons for,” explains Townsend of the icon-creating process. “We chatted about what the icons could be at that point and then he went away to craft them. On certain icons he had free reign to come up with ideas, but some we had already agreed how they would look i n our briefing. It was then a process of him emailing me with the options and working together to get them just as we wanted.”

See more of the work at brevia.co.uk

figtreenetwork.com

CR in Print

If you only read CR online, you’re missing out. From the meaning of beans to the power of love, the February issue of Creative Review features our 20 favourite slogans of all time and the stories behind them.

What makes a great slogan? We investigate the enduring power of these clever little phrases in our special slogans issue, dedicated to our choices for the top 20 slogans.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.