Hasta La Ideas

The July, Sex Special, issue of Wallpaper* landed on our desks this week and we noticed some nice type projects featured so we thought we’d flag them up…

Wallpaper* commissioned Airside’s Malika Favre to rework her Alphabunnies typeface (which we posted about last year) into a new, sexy typeface specially for the issue. “I kept my favourite letter – the G – and explored different ways to design the rest,” says Favre. “I feel that the poses are more sophisticated but the spirit remains the same: sexy Amazons exploring the joys of foreplay.”

Visitors to the Wallpaper* website will also find the typeface brought to life in an animated sequence that plays out on the masthead, and fans of the illustrated letterforms will be delighted to hear that Airside are selling individual letter prints, each in a limited edition of 10, via the Airside Shop.

Also in the issue is a preview of work commissioned specially by Wallpaper* and Birmingham-based type-focused educational body, Type for a forthcoming exhibition called Typographical Tart Cards. The magazine and Type, in conjunction with St Bride Library, approached a selection of designers – some well known, some still students – and asked them to create their own version of the calling cards left in London phone boxes. An exhibition of all of the cards will show at the KK Outlet from 22 to 29 June in London. Full details at kkoutlet.com 

One of the designers approached to take part in the project, Mike Dempsey, took a different approach to the cards shown above, as he has been working with the Helen Bamber Foundation for the last three years, helping to create greater awareness of the plight of trafficked women in the sex industry. In the letter he wrote to Wallpaper* accompanying his submission he wrote “what seems to be a light-hearted and even frivolous brief on the surface is actually a horrid world of fear, rape and violence. It is a topic that I can’t approach lightly.” Below is his submission. Wallpaper* posted this and the accompanying letter on their site. 

To view more of these projects and find out more about the Wallpaper* sex issue, visit wallpaper.com

One of 8vo’s posters commissioned by Wim Crouwel in 1989

The International Society of Typographic Designers announces a new series of lectures this week, the first of which is quite a coup: Wim Crouwel on 3 June. The Dutch legend will also be introduced by 8vo’s Hamish Muir, who will talk about the studio’s work that was commissioned by Crouwel in the early 90s

Crouwel’s lecture, entitled Designer and Client, will take place at the The Royal College of Physicians’ Wolfson Lecture Theatre, 11 St Andrews Place, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4LE (7pm – 9.30pm).

Hamish Muir will open proceedings with a talk on 8vo‘s work for Crouwel when he was director of the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen (1989-1994). A Flickr set of some of the work produced for the museum can be found here.

Tickets are £16 (£12 for ISTD members, £10 for students) and are available in advance from istd.org.uk/wim-crouwel.

Attendees will be invited to celebrate the ISTD’s 80th birthday with a complimentary drink in the Dorchester Library after the lecture.

Tickets also includes entry to a raffle for the chance to win a very special prize which will be presented by Crouwel himself.

Brighten the Corners‘ second venture into making books illustrated entirely from type has just been published. In it, Stanley returns home after some time away to find that his sister has had a baby, his brother-in-law has a moustache and his dog, Marvin, doesn’t get walked anymore…

Written and illustrated by BTC’s Billy Kiosoglou, with typography from the studio’s Frank Philippin, Stanley & Marvin uses type in the same way as their previous effort, Victor & Susie (that we wrote about here).

“We like to reduce things to their most basic elements when we design and we have kept to this principle with our story,” explains Kiosoglou. “We like every mark to ‘do a job’ on the page rather than just decorate it.”

Stanley & Marvin deals with the inevitability of change – parents grow old, brother-in-laws can sprout silly facial hair – but reassures younger readers of the importance of friendships which last, as shown in Stanley’s love for his typographic pooch Marvin. Aaaah.

The 80-page pocket book (8x13cm) costs £5 plus p&p and is available from the Brighten the Corners shop.