LOVE

Whilst on placement at Love I was given one of their Love bags. The copy is great and definately the best out of the three. They are available over at the Love shop, something you don't find on many design studios website. But then again the Love website is quite unique compared to others within the field. Take the Who? part for example, where some of the likenesses are just uncanny!

Trevor Jackson

I have been a big fan of Trevor Jackson for a long time (I say a long time, I mean since the start of 1st year ate uni, prior to that I had no clue as to what actual graphic design was). I read an interview with him in one of my first computer arts projects magazines and liked him more for his career path than actual work, designer/ dj/ producer. Then when I was aware of what was good design and what wasn't, I liked him even more. This copy for a club tote bag makes me smile everytime.

Soulwax

After looking through his work, it seems Richard Robinson has quite a few clients in the music industry. One piece that did catch my eye were these soulwax sleeves. Something I saw a while back but thought that Trevor Jackson was the sole designer on them. It seems I was mistaken though and it was though a collaboration with Richard Robinson he designed them.

An obvious statement to the sometimes over designed music artwork currently out there, these sleeves create interaction with the audience, a two way conversation where the meaning is not instantly recognisable but requires a certain level of input from the viewer and doesn't treat them like an idiot who has to have it spelled out to them.

Rankin

Rankin has recently launched his new site with a huge archive of his work. Great site design and the ability to browse through images using the keypad is especially nice.

Le Mans Classic

I'm amazed with Laurent Nivalle's photographs of Le Mans Classic. Some perfect crops and loving the soft colours which make you uncertain as to how recent these photographs were actually taken. His passion for cars is obvious after a look through the rest of his stunning portfolio.

Volkswagen literature 1936-2005

A huge selection of Volkswagen product literature, with some dating back to 1936. An amazing archive and well worth setting some time aside for a good look.

Fresh

Whilst writing my last post I spent longer than initially intended looking through Rands work. One piece which stood out particularly was the abc logo designed in 1962 yet still looks as fresh as ever and still being used on print ads for the American Broadcasting Company.

Paul Rand

Whilst were on the subject of headstones, the Swiss modernist Fred Troller's memorial for the influential Paul Rand is quite an unusual piece. The headstone is made up of two cubes with his name and life dates chiseled on the top cube, and the bottom cube inscribed with Hebrew (unsure as to what that says).

Anthony H Wilson

For many people Anthony Wilson will be remembered mostly as the founder and manager of  The Hacienda nightclub and one of the founding members of Factory Records. Since his death in 2007, it has been three years but that doesn't seem too late for Peter Saville and Ben Kelly to pay tribute to their friend and collaborator.

Via Creative Review

Iraq War Logs

The leaked Irag war logs provide a shocking account of Civilian casualties, US authorised tortures and murders by the Iraq police mapped using Google Fusion tables.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/interactive/2010/oct/23/wikileaks-iraq-deaths-map

Willy Vergineer

Willy Verigineer is an Italian sculpture who creates amazing human figure sculptures which have a real sense of character for an inanimate object, brought to life by the added colour.

Glass Microbiology

Some amazing sculptures being used to broaden our knowledge about disease. Beautiful but when you know what they represent, quite chilling.

"These transparent glass sculptures were created to contemplate the global impact of each disease and to consider how the artificial colouring of scientific imagery affects our understanding of phenomena. Jerram is exploring the tension between the artworks' beauty, what they represent and their impact on humanity".

More at http://www.lukejerram.com/projects/glass_microbiology

Just one glass

This strangle looking red wine glass was featured at the Korean Design Week 2009. The device consists of a bulb shaped container with the glass below. When the amount in the glass decreases, a constant amount is poured from the tank into the glass, never overflowing from the glass because of air pressure and water pressure.

Some other pretty kool things over at Kyouei Design

O.Ont

For a spacecraft it's a little bit different, but that perfect once in a lifetime photo rarely comes for most people. Maybe you've had it but missed it because you left your camera at home, or maybe you were just too slow. I'm talking about the kind of photo that you can look at all day and never get bored of it. Maybe its the shot that will make you a small fortune one day.

The iconic photo of O.Ont as she runs naked down the road after being severely burned on her back after a napalm attack is a prime example. The Pulitzer Prize winning photograph taken in 1972 by Nick Ut, it shows the horrific civilian casualties suffered as a result of the Vietnam war, a scene rarely seen by the rest of the world.

Cassini

Some unbelievable photographs taken by the Cassini spacecraft of Saturn and its moons. Amazingly abstract shots which look more like the paintings of a geometric modern art fanatic than of the solar system.

Click here to see more

Timothy Saccenti

Timothy Saccenti has new site up and running, designed by Build. He has an amazing portfolio with some surreal pieces and others which are just weird! The shots of women with bizarre alien head pieces on are possibly the strangest photographs I have ever seen! Yet for some reason I can't stop looking at them.

Ian Crawford

Some amazing photographs by Ian Crawford

Mum, I want a pet mouse...

Ever thought what it would be like to live in a Rococo style world with a giant mouse?

Marc Da Cunha Lopes via the Behance

Polanski

No more than a sexist depiction of women or a celebration of the female form?

The creators of Polanski describe it as "A project designed to provide a commentary on, celebrate and show up the shameless pillaging of the internet and disgraceful disregard of artists’ ownership in the world of blogging, taking the form of a minimalist library of fashion photography".

Whether you believe in this approach or not, the site received 75,000 page views within 2 weeks of its birth and within a month, Polanski rose to be inside the top 150 tumblogs.

So quite a few people obviously agree.

Tom Ford

The awards mentioned in the previous post are restricted to French publications, but if they looked elsewhere I'm sure these would have made it into the shortlist.

Congradulations Dolce & Gabanna

After flicking through a recent publication of Pop magazine it takes more than 50 pages to reach any editorial copy. Like most magazines of its kind, it's full of advertising campaigns for fashion brands. Until recently, I had not really given too much thought to the sexist depiction of women in these adverts. But then I found that in 2008 Dolce & Gabbana won the 2008 Macho prize for this advert. I was surprised that this award even existed and whether it's a good or bad prize to win I am still unsure of.

What's The Problem?

So what's the problem with the world? I'm sure we all have our own opinions but do any of us ever take the time to listen to anyone else's opinions? J.r.carnest decided to ask people for his final major project for Vancouver Film School.

"I’ve been always interested in people’s different opinions and point of views, especially what we as human beings think about our little world and what better question than ask people what they think the problem in the world is and not just that but also, if they gave me an answer, ask them if they have a solution for that problem or if they have been doing something about it and that is what this documentary is about. The objective was to show people’s different point of views and put the question out there to people think about and maybe start doing something".

An interesting insight into peoples thoughts about the world we live in. Delivered in the form of a 16 minute documentary with some great animation at the start.

Watch the film here

The Endurance

Currently on display at Liverpools Maritime Museum are photographs from Ernest Shakletons 1914 Artic Expedition. Frank Hurley was the official photographer on the ship and 150 of his photographs are featured in the exhibition. I was blown away by the collection, especially the shots taken during the 10 months the boat, The Endurance, was trapped in ice) and how he was able to battle the fierce weather conditions to capture the harsh reality of the Antarctic.

After this he went on to capture images of WW1 and WW2, taking considerable risks to photograph his subjects.

Internet Art

If I were to buy a piece of art, it would be to have on display in my home. I would buy it because it would be a physical thing which would add character to the room. The point of displaying it in my home would be that I would see it everyday and I would enjoy looking at it.

So what happens when the art you buy isn't a physical piece of art that you can't touch?

Rafael Rozendaal makes interactive art through the form of a website. So if you want to purchase his work, you purchase the domain name. As well as the domain name, you get a certificate, which is also a contract stating that the website must remain open for the public. It's a great way to own the piece and to share it with the rest of the world. But why pay to own it when every time you want to see it, its free? Although you do get 'collection of...' in the title bar of the website which is a nice touch.

I think it's a great idea and an interesting way to bring art to the masses, but the idea of paying for it when it's free seems strange to me. I must admit though, I think his work is amazing. I could spend hours playing with the websites. And yes, I did unravel the whole toilet role.


www.newrafael.com

Pop Art

Love or Hate?

Who likes Contemporary Art? If you do, why?

I found myself asking this question during a trip to the Saatchi Gallery the other weekend. I must admit, I could walk past some of the pieces with little or no interest in them, wondering what the hell the curator was thinking when deciding what to include in the exhibition.

I find it a love or hate relationship. If the piece does not affect me in any way, then I think it to be pointless and in most cases, over hyped. But when the piece affects me in ways I least expected, then I find myself loving the piece and wanting to tell everyone about it. Littlewhitehead's It happened in the Corner (second from top) stirred a mixture of feelings. Making the viewer curious to find out what everyone is looking at in the corner and why, but at the same time creating a great sense of unease and nervousness as to the reason for the crowd and a reluctance to pursue your curiosity.

Another Blog - Continued

The design blog and its purpose is something which I have questioned before in recent posts. They range from those which are updated a number of times on a daily basis, usually offering a limited commentary on the work like Form Fifty Five or It's Nice That. To the design blogs which posts lengthy essays on a less regular basis than the previous examples, such as Design Observer. Both kinds of blogs are good in their own right and have people reading them for different reasons.

Interestingly, on a recent post on Form Fifty Five, its purpose is questioned and the question is asked whether they should provide a 'more shared thought' on the designers and their work. Here's an extract from the post:

One thing that does seem a little negative about all these sites is that there is very limited information on the work found or shared thought.
This is something the FFF Team have been talking about for a while now. Should we spend more time writing in more detail about single projects, rather than just linking a designer with the obligatory ‘Mr. X has updated his portfolio’. In the next couple of months we’re going to restructure FFF’s design and team and see where we can take where we can take things in the future.

Also, read the second to last comment for an interesting view on the subject:

Glenn, I use this website as a quick and easy browse to see what is going on. I tend to read a bit of the blurb that the editors write but mostly click straight on the link and view for myself. I do not come here for a lengthy read merely to look at the pictures and click on the links.
Also, the speed and number of quality posts that FFF feature is what is key for me. Nearly every day that I come back there is something new to look at. I know you all have jobs outside of FFF and therefore if you had to post a lengthy indepth essay a lot of the time then a majority of the editors would be put of (I assume).
This website (FFF) is targeted to, IMO, the design community therefore a lunch hour is all we have really, considering the rest of the day is consumed by a multitude of guff. If I wanted to more indepth look and education I would pick up a book, and if I wanted to read specifically online I would go to other blogs (Design Observer, Thought of the day, etc…).
If it ain’t broke…

Print On Demand

With long print runs being more cost effective, there are always going to be left over magazines. A thorn in the side of publishers everywhere. Various print on demand services have been popping up recently, but MagCloud seems to be leading the race, combining print on demand services with distribution. Could this be the start of an exciting new era for print?

Distribution

 
As mentioned previously, distribution is a factor causing dwindling magazine sales. Consider the Newsagent is a great essay on the subject.

The Future of Magazines

The demise of the magazine industry can be put down to many contributing factors, such as environmental pressures and rising distribution costs, but none so much as new media technology which allows the consumer to access media-rich entertainment, news, analysis and opinion delivered the instant they are relevant. Blogs fall into this category, delivering daily posts on all that is relevant (and sometimes irrelevant) about the world we live in. In this case, lets take design blogs. They deliver constant updates on design, photography, illustration, architecture, installation, and art amongst many other things which are accessible at only the click of a mouse. What's even better about this experience is that when the blog has said all it has to say, the click of a link will introduce you to more pieces of work by the creative through their website, enabling you to learn more about the work and the creators, something which magazines can never compete with due to their physical limitations. This, combined with the standards of design blogs being so high at the moment and for free, their seems little future for design magazines.

We Make Magazines

After looking through the book We Make Magazines, it is hard to imagine the statement in the my previous post being true. After just a quick flick through you will find yourself browsing a directory to over 700 of the most cutting-edge independent magazines. It creates a great sense of warmth knowing that inside those magazines their is so much creativity waiting to be read and admired.

This directory is only a small ending to the book though. We Make Magazines includes spreads from some of the best independent magazines the world has to offer. Not only does it show over 100 creative and diverse magazines in detail, it offers an fascinating insight into them with mini interviews on cetain topics such as; What is your relationship with advertising, What is the secret of your success, Where do you want your magazine to be in five years, as well as many others. This provides a valuable insight into these magazines on surface level but I would have preffered some more in depth answers than were given.

Dispersed throughout the pages are 'Tell us everything" interviews with selected magazines. These give a much more in depth insight into that specific magazine concerning the beginning, how it is made and the future of the magazine which make for an intriguing read.

We Make Magazines is a great source of inspiration and reference when it comes to magazine design and layouts and along the way offers some interesting (although not hugely thought provoking) interviews.