Hasta La Ideas

Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey – Digital Catalogue is an iPad counterpart to Unit Editions’ excellent printed catalogue accompanying last year’s Crouwel show at the Design Museum

Designed by Spin and edited by Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy, the iPad app repeats the beautiful presentation of Crouwel’s work that was such a feature of the printed catalogue – significant posters are presented by means of a shoot in the Crouwel archive, each one pulled from the stacks and shot in situ.

It also repeats the catalogue’s idea of presenting additional work as a series of shots of archive boxes, allowing the user the sense of being able to delve into the archive themselves

However the app includes extra content, including a filmed interview with Crouwel, photographs of the Design Museum exhibition itself and animations of significant Crouwel letterforms

From the initial opening screen, the app takes the user to a simple menu from which the sections (posters, interviews, boxes, logotypes, exhibition and type animation) can be accesed. Each section has an opening page, captions to content are revealed by means of a + button on screen.

A very slick, elegant app which, at £3.99 is an attractive alternative to the printed catalogue (priced £16.95). Our only quibble would be that it is not possible to zoom into the images of the posters to examine details up close, although there is an additional close-up image of one of them. Otherwise, well worth getting for Crouwel fans.

More info here. Available from the app store here

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

CR in Print
The August Olympic Special issue of Creative Review contains a series of features that explore the past and present of the Games to mark the opening of London 2012: Adrian Shaughnessy reappraises Wolff Olins’ 2012 logo, Patrick Burgoyne talks to LOCOG’s Greg Nugent about how Wolff Olins’ original brand identity has been transformed into one consistent look for 2012, Eliza Williams investigates the role of sponsorship by global brands of the Games, Mark Sinclair asks Ian McLaren what it was like working with Otl Aicher as a member of his 1972 Munich Olympics design studio, Swiss designer Markus Osterwalder shows off some of his prize Olympic items from his vast archive, and much more. Plus, Rick Poynor’s assessment of this year’s Recontres d’Arles photography festival, and Michael Evamy on the genius of Yusaku Kamekura’s emblem for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

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