Grafik 193

graphic design magazine—Vol ume #1— 2011

G193—featuring Studio8 Design / A Practice for Everyday Life / George Hardie / David James and Gareth Hague / Daniel Baer / Julian Morey / Malcolm Garrett / D&AD at 50 / FL@33 / Matt Judge / Gail Anderson / The Entente in Profile plus Special Feature—Design Criticism

EVERY

THING

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Is Relevant

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As well as lots of new work and regular features this issue of Grafik takes a special look at design criticism in our special feature Critical Mass. grafik 193 192 Preview—3

Don’t miss our roundup of essential design events, exhibitions and dates for your diary

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Repeat pattern— Chair_One, Konstantin Grcic, 2004, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, © ZHdK

G193—Kaleidoscope 008—Semblance at Protein Space / Dazed & Confused at Somerset House / 009—Terence Conran at the Design Museum / 010—Graphic Design: Now in Production at the Walker Art Center / 011—Alice in Wonderland at Tate Liverpool / Jean-Paul Goude at Les Arts Décoratifs / 012—Black and White at the Museum für Gestaltung / 013—Robot Invasion at the Brighton and Hove Museum / 014—Ghosts of Gone Birds at the Rochelle School / Taylor Wessing Photography Prize at the National Portrait Gallery / 015—Carsten Höller at the New Museum / 016—Wildlife at Stolen Space / 017—One of Many at the Bethlem Gallery / Hidden Heroes: The Genius of Everything at the Science Museum For updates visit ‣ grafikmag.com/feed and download our free iPhone App

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Christopher Doyle Identity Guidelines 2008

Colour palette

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COLOUR VARIATIONS Secondary palette

Secondary palette

Core palette

Core palette

Secondary palette

Secondary palette

Above Full Colour Vertical_Variation

Tota l D es i gn Graphic Design: Now in Production Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Until 22 Jan A major international exhibition about graphic design is always something to shout about, and this one at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis looks like it’s going to be essential viewing. Looking at how graphic design has become democratised with the introduction of user-generated content and easily accessible software, it also looks at the trend for designer as author and producer, creating both content and designing the way we experience it. The exhibition covers everything from magazines and books to typeface design, film titles, posters and data visualisation.

There’s an impressive list of curators including Ellen Lupton and Brand New’s Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio, as well as our own Jeremy Leslie of ace magazine blog Magculture.

And, if you happen to be around on 1 December, you can catch a free talk by Anthony Burrill. ‣ walkerart.org 6—grafik 193 Preview

Above Full Colour Vertical_Variation

Designers have responded by becoming more expressive and experimental.

Their work is more conceptual and analytical: a quest for autonomy and alternative modes of practice. We now have the designer-as-author, as entrepreneur, as editor, as producer, as publisher and as curator.

—Andrew Blauvelt, curator of architecture and design, Walker Art Center

Clockwise from top left— Information graphics for The Truth about Sex by Sarah Illenberger, published in Neon magazine, 2008; Felt-Tip print, Daniel Eatock, 2006; Christopher Doyle identity guidelines by Christopher Doyle, 2008; Dear Lulu by James Goggin, 2009; Uncorporate Identity by Metahaven, 2010

Alice in Wonderland Tate Liverpool 4 Nov–29 Jan Although it was written over 150 years ago, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland has had an enduring appeal—probably because, like all the best children’s stories, it speaks to adults and children alike and, while it has a happy ending, it’s just a little bit scary.

With its surrealist themes, questions of perception and reality, and host of grotesque cartoon-like characters, Carroll’s story has been a big influence on visual art since it was first released.

This influence is explored in a new exhibition taking place at Tate Liverpool. As well as the original manuscript featuring Carroll’s own illustrations, a selection of Victorian Alice memorabilia will be on show, along with John Tenniel’s preliminary drawings for the novel’s first edition. Works by Surrealists such as Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, Pop artist Peter Blake and contemporary artists including Anna Gaskell, Annelies Strba and Torsten Lauschmann will also be displayed. ‣ tate.org.uk/liverpool

Cu r io u s er and Cu r io u s er

Alice Pleasance Liddell

by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), 1858 © National Portrait Gallery, London

A lt er E go Jean-Paul Goude Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris Until 18 March

Models are there to look like mannequins, not like real people. Art and illusion are supposed to be fantasy.

—Grace Jones

Grace portrait by Jean-Paul Goude, New York, 1982

Jean-Paul Goude is probably best known for his iconic images and videos of Eighties pop icon Grace Jones, stretched to impossible proportions and cloned to within an inch of her life. The super-talented Goude’s repertoire encompasses the worlds of fashion, design and advertising—he was responsible for the seminal Chanel doorslamming Egoiste and Coco (featuring Vanessa Paradis as a budgie) ads. His first-ever exhibition to be held in Paris takes place at Les Arts Décoratifs this month, and promises to be a typically theatrical affair. And while you’re there, why not make a day of it and take in Stefan Sagmeister’s Another Exhibit about Promotion and Sales Material, which runs until 19 February. ‣ lesartsdecoratifs.fr grafik 193 Preview—7

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An exclusive Case Study interview with APFEL about its show-stopping work on the V&A’s Postmodernism exhibition

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We meet the young but accomplished Ant and Edd from The Entente in Profile portrait by Ivan jones ‣ ivan-jones.co.uk

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This page, from top— Colophon Foundry logo mark, 2009; Exhibition installation by the Entente, part of A Product of Design at the Scion Installation, Los Angeles, 2011; Typeface specimens for Archive font, bespoke typeface for The Myth of the Airborne Warrior book, to be released in 2012 (left) and Photoworks bespoke corporate typeface, 2010 (right)

Archive

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Photoworks

“A lot of university work is about ticking boxes.

If you don’t meet the criteria then that’s ‘wrong’.

But that’s not how it is in real life… there’s no right or wrong.”

This page, from top— Risograph printed poster for Brighton Life Drawing Sessions, 2010; Specimen for Alston bespoke typeface for Draw identity (in development), to be released 2012

“That was frustrating at university and became a shared ground between us. We wanted to practise and get on with work.” So, over sake in Japan, the pair dreamt up The Entente, the name a reflection of their bonhomie.

“We’re friends first and foremost,” says Sheret, “so it’s a literal interpretation of that. It’s the simplest form of the relationship we have—an understanding.” Returning to Brighton, The Entente’s cordial way of working together soon established a pattern that still sticks, with Harrington developing bespoke typefaces and Sheret devising layouts and identities driven by the type. They soon picked up some regular clients whom they still work with today—chiefly Photoworks (Brighton-based magazine, publisher and organiser of the Brighton Photo Biennale), the Brighton Life Drawing Sessions (an art community event run by artist Jake Spicer) and the South London Art Map (formerly the Deptford Art Map).

Eschewing the conventional design education route has turned Sheret and Harrington into autodidacts. They happily admit to having agreed jobs with clients in the early days, only to leave the meeting and head straight to the nearest bookshop for a manual to give them the skills they needed to do it. Rather than cockiness, this seems to express a confidence in their own capacity to teach themselves, an admirably ambitious can-do attitude and a genuine hunger to learn new things. “That’s something that’s become more relevant in our practice as we’ve gone on, that need to learn,” says Sheret. “If you can’t do something, then you teach yourself—like Edd taught himself how to make typefaces and mastered slowly that side of our practice. Like building web stuff—neither of us had more than basic knowledge but out of a reaction to a need we’ve learnt new skills.”

Alston

Soon after setting themselves up as The Entente, the pair saw an opportunity for an extra creative outlet and a self-made vehicle for generating work. They launched Colophon Foundry with three typefaces—Peggs (from the Peggs & Son rebrand), Perfin (from an alphabet designed by fellow Brighton student Alison Haigh, which they finished and made into a font) and Reader (a self-initiated project inspired by the type found on an old RSPB letter from 1972). Colophon now represents about half of their business and is a platform where they can commercially market typefaces that started life as an aspect of an Entente client brief. Every Entente project is executed either with a completely new bespoke typeface, or with a newly developed version of one they have already created. A typical project might begin, they explain, with a conversation about look and feel, ideas and sketches, and a discussion about what genre of typeface they want to use. Harrington, who is the major type geek of the pair, will then begin drawing letters.

Once they have some workable letterforms—the name of the company or exhibition they are working on, for example—a game of table tennis ensues, with Sheret grafik 193 Preview—13

In this issue’s Graphic Design Heroes Lawrence Zeegan writes in praise of legend George Hardie 14—grafik 193 Preview

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This page— Illustrations for Shoon, 2010

Opposite page, from top— Manual, a limited-edition book

by George Hardie, Broken Books 2004; Illustration Today, Parsons School, New York, 2006

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And then there is the teaching. “I started out teaching for money,” George explains of his first teaching slot at East Ham in 1968, “and soon began to realise I wanted something else from teaching.” What was that?

“Well, firstly I simply had to get out of the studio for argument and debate —I had cabin fever,” he explains, “and later I realised teaching and research made me look at my own practice in a new light.” Joining the dots between practice and research and lecturing on ideas and creativity as professor of graphic design at the University of Brighton since 1990, George has inspired generations of illustrators and designers.

Despite working within a faculty of art and design, for George it has always been about design. “I’m a bit wary of artists,” he admits.

“My work is always about graphics, sometimes without clients, but I’m always speaking graphics—it is a fantastic language and the web of constraints on us are fantastic too.” It is perhaps these constraints that have helped George construct his own visual language, a language that remains essentially timeless.

George is a meticulous draughtsman, crafting a visual aesthetic that perfectly articulates his ideas. The bottom line at all times with a George Hardie pictorial solution is—there is never an image without an idea and a perfectly executed idea at that. I may flatter myself here, but George is the thinking-man’s illustrator and the route into his thinking is through his drawing. A picture-perfect marriage of line and colour, George’s drawings quite simply work. grafik 193 Preview—17

This page, from top— Issue 3, a/w 2006, Fashion section opener; issue 4, s/s 2009, Fashion section opener

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In our regular Future Classics article Gareth Hague reveals all from his tenure designing Another Man This page, from left— Another Man covers from issue 4, s/s 2007 (Ben Wishaw photographed by Nick Knight); issue 9, a/w 2009 (Robert Pattinson photographed by Hedi Slimane)

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G193—Special Feature

Critical Mass

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Ellen Lupton, John L. Walters, Armin Vit, Jessica Helfand & William Drenttel and others write exclusively about the past, present and future of design criticism in our Special Feature. grafik 193 Preview—21 21

Special Feature—Criticism

Certainly, when opprobrium is due it should rain down with full force. And there are critics, like myself, who relish writing and reading such diatribes, especially when they undermine a system rather than some overhyped individual (a star designer, say).

Crusading criticism, if one can call it that, should attack vested interests and systemic thoughtlessness, whether it produces disposable design or crass property development. But I’m also wary of critics who see themselves as industry watchdogs, keeping an unruly profession in check—and there’s little doubt that individual critics have less of that power than they used to anyway.

However, there’s another kind of criticism—classical criticism rather than the newspaper variety—that doesn’t seek to change events but to find meaning in them. This search for meaning is more compelling. At its height it raises the work of criticism above mere commentary on an event and into the event itself. I see this as a creative act distinct from the social act of crusading criticism. And, crucially, the critic doesn’t have to be right. Was Ruskin right to reject mechanisation? The answer in the 1950s would have been no. In the anxious early twenty-first century he looks relevant again. But by asserting a view with conviction—with panache, one might say—the critic earns a longer shelf life.

Have you had to change your approach to design writing since you began your column for the Guardian?

Not much. Naturally I have to be more conscious of being accessible to a broader audience than when I write for design and architecture magazines.

This comes with its frustrations: sometimes you just want to make a quick reference to something so that you can move on and make a more sophisticated point. And that’s not always possible in a newspaper because you have to spell everything out and keep your points clear and simple so that, at the end of the day, the editors know what headline to stick on top.

I also think there’s a degree to which a critic has to earn the right to nuance and the informed allusion. Recently I was asked to spell out what I meant by 22—grafik 193 Preview

“the social contract”, until I pointed out that if that phrase was used in a political column there’s no way it would have to be explained. But, to be clear, this is the nature of the medium—if one wants to be abstruse or intellectual, a newspaper’s not the right place to do it.

Is it important for design writing to establish a place in the mainstream press?

Well, design—if not design writing —has a very established place in the mainstream press. The question is, is it the right kind of design? New fashion, furniture and gadgets are never out of the media. But just as design is no longer merely concerned with consumer products, so we have a battle on our hands to reflect that shift in public perception. When I first took on the Guardian column it was clear that it was an opportunity to try and expand the public conception of what design is—to move the debate beyond chairs and to shatter the notion that design writing in the papers is limited to glorified shopping guidance. So I’ve written about urban planning, the media and public policy, exploring them all as forms of strategic design. I’ve also tried to raise economics wherever possible, whether in relation to designers’ livelihoods or the role of design in stimulating the economy.

All of this would, I suppose, fall under the ‘crusading criticism’ I defined earlier. But the most fun pieces are of the other sort, about the search for meaning in luxury-watch culture, in adventure clothing, in the London riots. This is what I referred to as using design as a lens through which to examine the world.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge facing the design critics of the future?

The challenge, as ever, is to make themselves relevant. Another way of saying that is, how can the design critic avoid being written off as merely diverting—or, to put it cruelly, harmless? ‣ justinmcguirk.com ‣ guardian.co.uk/profile/ justin-mcguirk

ARMIN VIt

Tell us a little about what you do.

I started writing about design in 2002 when I launched the blog Speak Up, which was a general soap box for anything related to graphic design.

At its apex, around 2003–2004, it was the most vibrant and energetic place to have heated discussions about our practice. I instigated most of the discussions but I was also lucky to have a number of fantastic contributors who added fuel to the fire. During those years and up to 2006 I used to also write lengthier articles for magazines or other online publications.

It was enjoyable for a while, but I later stopped enjoying the editing process.

My most recent role as a design ‘critic’ is through my blog Brand New, which reviews new logos and identities for companies, products and services of all kinds.

Do you see yourself as a design critic?

No, not at all. I see myself as someone with an informed opinion and a forum to express it. My goal is to say what I think, not what I think is right or wrong. I just happen to be right most of the time :) And you can quote me on that emoticon to establish my credentials as a critic.

Do you think the web’s democratisation of design criticism has been good for the discipline?

Yes, it just means that there are more places for more people to express their opinion and for more of the ‘targets’ of the criticism to hear about it.

CLAIRE CATTERALL Where do you think the most interesting and progressive design writing and criticism can be found today?

To be honest, I don’t know and I don’t really care. I have very little patience for criticism these days. Either do the work or shut up. Critique with action, not words. Words are so twentieth century.

Should more design critics embrace cross-platform publishing as a vehicle for their work?

Sort of back to the answer above—it doesn’t matter. I think the influence of design critics is only higher than that of Comic Sans in typography these days.

There may be a few people that still enjoy reading that kind of stuff, but I think for the most part design criticism (at least in graphic design) is dead, and that’s not saying much as it never really lived much.

Tell us a little about what you do.

I’ve worked as a design curator for over twenty years, initially doing exhibitions in the more traditional context of museums and galleries—such as the Design Museum, the RCA and the ICA—and latterly working more with commercial businesses and in the public realm with Scarlet Projects, the arts consultancy I set up with Sarah Gaventa in 2000. Since 2008 I’ve been based at Somerset House, which in a way has seen me come full circle back to a gallery setting. But having been out of the rarefied world of the gallery for so long, I find I think quite differently about what curating means. It helps that we are a gallery within a public space rather than a museum.

Is curation a critical act?

I think it’s most definitely a critical act.

In fact, I would lobby to change the emphasis of its dictionary definition from ‘having a duty of care’ to ‘applying critical judgement and discourse’. I’ve long since ceased becoming agitated by every Tom, Dick and Harry calling themselves a curator, whether choosing acts for a music festival or simply rearranging their bookshelves. I think it’s indicative of how the meaning of the word has changed and it should be embraced; although I am rather intrigued by the fact that it’s now been picked up by media think-tanks who talk about ‘content curation’ in relation to presenting condensed ‘need-to-know’ information to clients.

A step too far perhaps?

“Words are so twentieth century.”

What special considerations does the curation of design require that are different from more traditional subjects such as art?

I’m not so sure that the curation of art and design should be that different.

In fact, I’ve always felt that design curation should be closer in approach to art curation. Generally speaking, art curation has at its heart the voice of the curator, who sets out to tell a story, to illuminate a particular viewpoint or idea, not so much through words, but through images and objects. If it’s done well it can change the way people think about art. Sometimes design exhibitions are too linear: objects on plinths with little attempt to look deeper into what those objects tell us. I think design has much more potential to tell us about ourselves and our world than that. If the curation of design requires a new or different approach at all, I would say it is simply to be more provocative. It should be used in more challenging ways to express a critical and philosophical discourse, and hopefully change the way we think about design.

Has the web affected audience’s expectations of exhibitions or the way work is perceived in its final context?

I don’t think the web has really changed an audience’s expectations, but I do think it can add a different dimension to an exhibition, by adding live content or allowing the visitor the chance to be more involved. In this way, it can give an exhibition a kind of ‘restlessness’, a feeling that it’s not simply a collection of static objects to be looked at, but an experience that can be responsive and can change. For example, in the SHOWstudio exhibition we did at Somerset House with Nick Knight and his team, much of the content was live-streamed, and impromptu events such as photo shoots of and interviews with artists, models and pop stars were tweeted or announced online. We also included work that could be altered via the SHOWstudio website. It was appropriate to this exhibition as it was, essentially, about a website.

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Julian Morey interviews Malcolm Garrett and Kasper de Graaf about the heady days of New Sounds New Styles 24—grafik 193 Preview

This page, from top— Cover, July 1982, featuring Simon Le Bon, photography by Andy Earl; Cover, March 1982, featuring Depeche Mode, photography by Iain McKell; Cover, New Sounds New Styles launch issue, April 1981, featuring Steve Strange and Perri Lister, photography by Robyn Beeche

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Classically trained, Garrett introduced a three-column horizontal grid to work alongside the compositor’s vertical grid; this allowed the creation of dynamic graphic elements that interplayed with the vertical text, editorial elements and pictures.

Opposite page— ‘Phase 2 Issue A’ featured a free flexidisc

by Animal Magic and included instructions for a DIY record sleeve, printed on the magazine’s centre spread This page, from top— Various spreads from New Sounds New Styles featuring Bauhaus photographed by Sheila Rock, The Foundry photographed by Mark Lebon (main image) and Nigel Wingrove (small images) and David Byrne photographed by C. Starr

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Feel the quality —we focus on bespoke fonts in this issue’s Font Book

Were you with a lady last night sir?

Did she want it sir?

Ooh, suit you sir!

1—Austin Hairline

It’s always the badly dressed people who are the most interesting.

2 —Decadedance

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Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width 3 —India

4 —Joyous (Blanche)

,

Class isn t something you buy. Look at you.

You have a £500 , suit on and you re still a lowlife.

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Another quartet of fresh Talent comes under the spotlight

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Describe your work in three words…

104— Peter Crawley precise, textural, obsessive ‣ petercrawley.co.uk

102— Victoria Ling clean, graphic, colour ‣ victorialing.com

View extended profiles at ‣ grafikmag.com/talent

108— Jamie Mills mountains, mountains, mountains ‣ jamie-mills.com

106— Jennifer Evans tangible fragments of dreams ‣ jennifer.evans.carbonmade.com

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Victoria Ling Photographer, London

What’s your most invaluable piece of kit?

Gorilla Snot, which sticks everything. Love it.

This page, from top— Colour Block, House and Garden magazine, styled by Olivia Gregory; Hack It Better, Viewpoint magazine, concept and art direction by FranklinTill Opposite page, clockwise from top— Ral Colour Trends, art direction and styling by FranklinTill; Eggs, personal project, styled by Victoria Ling; I Dream Domestic, Volt magazine, styling by Katy Kingston

When did you first pick up a camera?

I first got interested in photography whilst studying Fine Art at Newcastle University. I had used the darkroom a bit at school but never really done that much beyond that. I became interested in the theory of photography and then the process of image making, and spent a lot of time in the darkroom at university and made pinhole cameras, but I wanted more technical knowledge. So I started a HNC in commercial photography at the local college and studied the two courses in tandem for the last two years of my university course. It was a really good mix of technical stuff and creativity.

What’s better—working with a team or going it alone?

I like both—working in a team is great as the input of another perspective can lead you somewhere unexpected and it challenges you to look at things differently. However, I also enjoy shooting on my own and being able to be more spontaneous. I try to shoot personal work as often as possible, and often these are the last-minute ideas I put together myself.

What are you working on now?

Today I’ve been shooting embroidery for Wired USA, and over the next week or so I’ll be shooting some creative stories for Viewpoint magazine, and more creations by Kyle Bean.

I’m looking forward to it.

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