Our favourite small publisher in London, Nobrow, has announced a brand new imprint called Flying Eye Books by releasing a charming animated promo created by James D Wilson (aka Jambonbon) and Ben Newman…
Wilson’s animated promo makes good use of the illustrated menagerie of animals Newman originally created to adorn some smart printed packaging tape used at Nobrow towers when packing up Very Important Parcels:
As far as the new publishing imprint goes, the creative team at Nobrow tell us that Flying Eye is committed to “sustainable manufacturing and to quality above all else”, promising to publish “fairly priced books that… will adorn your homes with the most enchangting art and stories we can create, for many years to come”.
Here’s a look at one of Flying Eye’s first publications, Welcome To Your Awesome Robot by Viviane Schwarz (£8.99) – a book designed to be the ultimate guide to creating the robot costume of your dreams from objects that would normally get thrown away or recycled:
CR in print The March issue of CR magazine celebrates 150 years of the London Underground. In it we introduce a new book by Mark Ovenden, which is the first study of all aspects of the tube’s design evolution; we ask Harry Beck authority, Ken Garland, what he makes of a new tube map concept by Mark Noad; we investigate the enduring appeal of Edward Johnston’s eponymous typeface; Michael Evamy reports on the design story of world-famous roundel; we look at the London Transport Museum’s new exhibition of 150 key posters from its archive; we explore the rich history of platform art, and also the Underground’s communications and advertising, past and present. Plus, we talk to London Transport Museum’s head of trading about TfL’s approach to brand licensing and merchandising. In Crit, Rick Poynor reviews Branding Terror, a book about terrorist logos, while Paul Belford looks at how a 1980 ad managed to do away with everything bar a product demo. Finally, Daniel Benneworth-Grey reflects on the merits on working home alone. Buy your copy 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, or 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.
Illustrator Mat Maitland (who is also creative director at Big Active Design) has created a suitably vibrant film to promote fashion label Kenzo‘s Resort 2013 collection. Colourful swirling patterns and brightly coloured animal prints abound…
“I wanted the film to be an extension of my illustrative world, to bring that to life, so the jungle itself is quite surreal and otherworldly, a kind of electric parallel universe,” Maitland explains in a short interview posted this morning here on kenzo.com.
“I also wanted to blend the model with the clothes as much as possible so used the Kenzo patterns as an integral part of the story, sometimes over her face and sometimes embedded into the scene,” he continues.
“I imagined the story as though dreamt by a wild cat, lucid snap shots of a neon jungle world that only make sense in a dream.”
Electric Jungle cedits:
Art direction Mat Maitland Direction Smith & Read / Mat Maitland Animation Natalia Stuyk Production Alastair Coe at Big Active Music Mädchen Amick by Buffalo Tide
CR in Print The February issue of CR magazine features a major interview with graphic designer Ken Garland. Plus, we delve into the Heineken advertising archive, profile digital art and generative design studio Field, talk to APFEL and Linder about their collaboration on a major exhibition in Paris for the punk artist, and debate the merits of stock images versus commissioned photography. Plus, a major new book on women in graphic design, the University of California logo row and what it means for design, Paul Belford on a classic Chivas Regal ad and Jeremy Leslie on the latest trends in app design for magazines and more. Buy your copy 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, or 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.
If you want to tell an engaging story of unrequited love, then why not tap into the work of filmmakers who really know how to shoot this stuff, as director Keith Schofield proves in this brilliantly assembled video for Darwin Deez track, You Can’t Be My Girl…
No spoilers, just watch and enjoy this slice of Eels-like tunesmithery and visual collage. (Then try and imagine where any of it could conceivably be used in anything other than this video.) See also Women Laughing Alone With Salad.
Label : Lucky Numbers Music Ltd. Commissioner: Stephen Richards. Production Company: Caviar London. Executive Producer: Laura Tunstall. Producer: Helen Power. Directors Rep: Joceline Gabriel. DOP: Ben Fordesman.
CR in Print The February issue of CR magazine features a major interview with graphic designer Ken Garland. Plus, we delve into the Heineken advertising archive, profile digital art and generative design studio Field, talk to APFEL and Linder about their collaboration on a major exhibition in Paris for the punk artist, and debate the merits of stock images versus commissioned photography. Plus, a major new book on women in graphic design, the University of California logo row and what it means for design, Paul Belford on a classic Chivas Regal ad and Jeremy Leslie on the latest trends in app design for magazines and more. Buy your copy 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, or 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.
Matthew Frost has directed a satirical new short for fashion brand Viva Vena, that borrows from the clichéd subject matter of every single generic fashion film ever made.
Matthew Frost’s new film for label Viva Vena makes heavy mockery of the stock themes that consistently crop up in fashion films. Starring Lizzy Caplan (previously of Mean Girls and New Girl), the film follows the actress as she delivers a breathy monologue on the benefits of living life as if in a movie. As she says, “When I am alone, I like to pretend I’m in a movie. A kind of movie I don’t quite understand”. Caplan delivers a great performance as the overly self-aware fashion heroine, and the short covers all the other requisite fashion film themes, including:
Retro technology:
Predictable cultural references:
Communion with nature:
And spontaneous performances with obscure musical instruments:
Brothers Matt and Paul Layzell are signed to BlinkInk as animation directing duo The Layzell Bros. They’ve just created the first two films in an ongoing series of self-initiated animated silliness and, seeing as it’s Friday, here they are…
The Layzell Bros. have created various idents for E4 and music videos for the band Mazes. Find out more about the pair and see their reel at blinkink.co.uk – and to stay tuned for further episodes in this new series of just-for-fun films, sign up to the BlinkInk mailing list at blinkink.co.uk/#!subscribe
CR in Print The February issue of CR magazine features a major interview with graphic designer Ken Garland. Plus, we delve into the Heineken advertising archive, profile digital art and generative design studio Field, talk to APFEL and Linder about their collaboration on a major exhibition in Paris for the punk artist, and debate the merits of stock images versus commissioned photography. Plus, a major new book on women in graphic design, the University of California logo row and what it means for design, Paul Belford on a classic Chivas Regal ad and Jeremy Leslie on the latest trends in app design for magazines and more. Buy your copy 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, or 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.
The new video for Jamie Lidell‘s first single from his forthcoming eponymous album sees him performing in a projection mapped cube custom made by Flat-e for Lidell to control himself using a motion control mic and stand…
“The mic contains a sensor board that detects the position and orientation of the mic stand,” Flat-e tells us by way of explanation as to how the gadgetry works. “This is sent to the control software for the visuals which can be mapped onto any of the parameters driving the visualisation. It can also map the volumes of different bands of the frequency spectrum to different parameters so that the visuals react to the music.”
Designed by Flat-e for use with the performance cube, the projected graphics are, they tell us, inspired by dazzle patterns, optical illusions and good ol’ disco lights. Oh, and the microphone stand control unit lights up like a lightsaber and Lidell is set to use it live during his world tour which kicks off in London on March 18.
CR in Print The February issue of CR magazine features a major interview with graphic designer Ken Garland. Plus, we delve into the Heineken advertising archive, profile digital art and generative design studio Field, talk to APFEL and Linder about their collaboration on a major exhibition in Paris for the punk artist, and debate the merits of stock images versus commissioned photography. Plus, a major new book on women in graphic design, the University of California logo row and what it means for design, Paul Belford on a classic Chivas Regal ad and Jeremy Leslie on the latest trends in app design for magazines and more. Buy your copy 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, or 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.
Graphic designer Craig Oldham reports for CR from Curated by, a one-day creative conference in Sheffield which, this year, took as its theme the idea of Narrative
Sheffield. City of steel, the world’s first football club, and Curated by, a one-day conference started in 2010 by two of Sheffield Hallam’s graphic design lecturers, Pam Bowman and Matt Edgar. Centered around a different theme with each year, this year’s subject matter was Narrative, with the intent, as described by the organisers, to explore “how stories are structured, built and crafted to communicate messages through a range of formats and media”.
With a line-up consisting of Morag Myerscough (Studio Myerscough), Jack Schulze (Berg), Johnny Kelly (Nexus Productions) and Erik Kessels (KesselsKramer) this year’s thread was woven through the entire creative industry with graphic design, typography, architecture, interaction and product design, film-making, animation, photography, and advertising all ticked-off in polymathic style. The diversity of their respective backgrounds and interests, inspiration and methods, made each speaker’s talk in itself engaging enough to avoid the attention-plummet that’s sometimes a pitfall of such events (although some speakers were inevitably more comfortable on the stage than others).
Studio Myerscough’s Movement Café in Greenwich, which we posted about here
Each speaker had an enviable body of work behind them. Morag Myerscough kicked things off with a slide-show of her work and her years growing up in North London. She jumped through her distinctive ‘supergraphics’, starting with ‘Familiarity’, the hoarding which began her relationship with architects. Using bright colour at a large scale (which the local councils, initially, disapproved of) has always been central to her work, evolving into the bright and bold typographic aesthetic that she is known for today.
Next was Schulze, the entertaining principal at Berg, the studio responsible for (alongside much more envy-inducing work) the much-loved Little Printer. But Schulze’s lecture was far less concerned with work and dealt more with Berg’s approach to it, and their understanding of the world, something Schulze talked about with great passion and humour. Highlights included the analogy he made between examining something and “seeing the whole” with a strip from a Warren Ellis Iron Man comic (below), and his prediction for there being “no more U in UI [as in User]” which was illustrated by a video of kittens riding a Roomba (the latter, he exclaimed, was “How to win at conferences.”).
Kelly (see CR profile on him here) walked a more frequently trodden path, talking through examples of his directing and animation work (including his Procrastination graduation film, below), peppered with the animations and films of others for no obvious reason than he just seemed to like them (which, admittedly, was something you had to agree with him on).
Which left a snow-delayed Kessels to wrap-up. His trademark charismatic and insightful lecture, delivered with his usual humour and honesty, covered the beginnings of the inimitable KesselsKramer and his personal endeavors and evaluations in photography and graphic design.
Kessels talking about Fred and Valerie, the latest in his In Almost Very PIcture series of books of found photography. See our post about the project here
The Curated By… Narratives one-day-er should be applauded for its assembly of a diverse cast (though the absence of a writer-in some capacity-was felt). The perseverance needed to pull off an event in the North of NowhereTM* in snow that would usually bring the entire country to a grinding holt, was admirable.
That said, shortly into the first lecture it became quite apparent that the crux of the conference, narrative, is in itself is a pretty complex thing to talk about. Couldn’t everything be considered narrative, especially when working in a creative industry where arguably all work concerns communication?
It felt to me that the real ‘narrative’ isn’t the process of the realisation of a piece of work, but where the ideas for these outcomes come from in the first place. Whether your personal history filters into the process, your empathy and unique experience of the world provides the source, or whether it’s about striving for simplification or a commitment to a standard of thinking that governs seemingly everything thereafter. The real narrative is that personal story we all have of constantly creating, regardless of our structure, our audience, our format, sequence, or our message.
In the end, the narrative is really in the strength of the ideas. And the ideas of these speakers at Curated by… were as strong as the steel of the city which hosted them.
CR in Print The February issue of CR magazine features a major interview with graphic designer Ken Garland. Plus, we delve into the Heineken advertising archive, profile digital art and generative design studio Field, talk to APFEL and Linder about their collaboration on a major exhibition in Paris for the punk artist, and debate the merits of stock images versus commissioned photography. Plus, a major new book on women in graphic design, the University of California logo row and what it means for design, Paul Belford on a classic Chivas Regal ad and Jeremy Leslie on the latest trends in app design for magazines and more. Buy your copy 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, or 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.
In recent years we’ve noted a few music videos created using live action footage captured using gadgetry other than traditional cameras – perhaps the most memorable of which is Radiohead’s 2008 House of Cards video (still, above) directed by James Frost using footage captured using lasers and scanners.
Regular readers may also recall the New Look video we posted in late 2011 shot using an X-box Kinect ‘camera’ created by directors Tim & Joe at Colonel Blimp (still shown above).
And also worth checking out is UVA’s 2006 video for Colder’s track To The Music (still, above), shot using a 3D scanner, which you can view here.
Plus, if you’re a fan of seeing MRI footage of vocals being delivered, wired.com posted a story last week about a research project at the University of Southeren California in which beatboxers were ‘filmed’ using an MRI scanner. Read that piece (and watch the video) here.
CR in Print The February issue of CR magazine features a major interview with graphic designer Ken Garland. Plus, we delve into the Heineken advertising archive, profile digital art and generative design studio Field, talk to APFEL and Linder about their collaboration on a major exhibition in Paris for the punk artist, and debate the merits of stock images versus commissioned photography. Plus, a major new book on women in graphic design, the University of California logo row and what it means for design, Paul Belford on a classic Chivas Regal ad and Jeremy Leslie on the latest trends in app design for magazines and more. Buy your copy 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, or 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.
Aardman directing duo Karni and Saul have collaborated with Atlantic Records on the video for the new single by British folk rock trio The Staves.
Karni and Saul, who have been working together since 2005, have produced a typically atmospheric promo with a cast of fantastical and surreal characters set in an enchanted forest – including the band cast as music-playing trees.
Created for the song ‘Winter Trees’, from debut album ‘Dead & Born & Grow’, the video was inspired by 3D laser-cut wood puzzles, which Karni and Saul had been researching for a while.
The duo admits that they wouldn’t usually interpret a song title so literally, but having listened to the song, “we wrote ideas down separately and we both wanted a forest. So we guess it had to be that way. I’s the feeling the song gave us. So beautiful, but slightly sad and bare too.”
The video was produced in a mix of techniques, including hand-drawn flash and CG animation, but no classic stop-frame. The duo adds, “We wanted that hand-drawn emotional feel with the ease and 3D model feel of the real world that CG can give.”
Credits: Directors: Karni and Saul Production company: Aardman Animations Character design: Saul Freed Illustrator: Owen Williams
CR in Print The February issue of CR magazine features a major interview with graphic designer Ken Garland. Plus, we delve into the Heineken advertising archive, profile digital art and generative design studio Field, talk to APFEL and Linder about their collaboration on a major exhibition in Paris for the punk artist, and debate the merits of stock images versus commissioned photography. Plus, a major new book on women in graphic design, the University of California logo row and what it means for design, Paul Belford on a classic Chivas Regal ad and Jeremy Leslie on the latest trends in app design for magazines and more. Buy your copy 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, or 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.
Illustrator McBess has worked with director CRCR to create a new TV ad for music-on-demand company (it’s a bit like Spotify) Deezer…
The ad, written by Being (part of the TBWA\ group) and produced by Quad, features a host of McBess characters who refuse to bottle music, prefering to let it burst forth in a series of glorious animated musical explosions, culminating with the strap line ‘nothing can stop the music’. Here’s a look:
Director CRCR Design / illustration McBess Ad agency Being (GroupeTBWA\) Creatives Thierry Buriez, Julien Chiapolini, Stéphane Sacuto, Mathieu Camillieri, Riccardo Fregoso, Guillaume Cartigny, Sabrina Perez Agency producers Guillaume Faurel, Fabrice Pouvreau, Philippe Mineur (ELSE, GroupeTBWA\) et WIZZ Production company WIZZdesign/QUAD Producer Matthieu Poirier Animators Paul Lacolley, Nicolas Deghani, Nicolas Pegon, Remi Bastie, Jeremy Pires, Johnatan Djob Nkondo, Xavier Ramonède, Vic Chhun 3D compositing Philippe Valette, Johanes Bellarosa. Marion Loudière
CR in Print The January issue of Creative Review is all about the Money – well, almost. What do you earn? Is everyone else getting more? Do you charge enough for your work? How much would it cost to set up on your own? Is there a better way of getting paid? These and many more questions are addressed in January’s CR.
But if money’s not your thing, there’s plenty more in the issue: interviews with photographer Alexander James, designer Mirko Borsche and Professor Neville Brody. Plus, Rick Poynor on Anarchy magazine, the influence of the atomic age on comic books, Paul Belford’s art direction column, Daniel Benneworth-Gray’s This Designer’s Life column and Gordon Comstock on the collected memos, letters and assorted writings of legendary adman David Ogilvy.
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, or 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.
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.
