Kaleidoscope
Wim Crouwel —A Graphic Design Odyssey Design Museum, London 30 March–3 July Crouwel fever hits London this spring as Mr Gridnik’s long-overdue (by a good twelve or so years, we reckon) retrospective hits the Design Museum in London. This major exhibition will cover sixty years of Crouwel’s illustrious career, from his corporate work for the likes of IBM, KLM and Olivetti at Total Design to the cultural work for the Stedelijk and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, via the experimental and groundbreaking Neue Alphabet, which is still being appropriated left, right and centre by graphic designers today. Curated by Tony Brook with a catalogue designed by Spin, this landmark exhibition is in good hands. There will be a series of extra talks and events, including a discussion between Wim and his architect son Mels, plus lots of goodies (including some Crouwel wallpaper and Crouwel-inspired screenprints) in the Design Museum shop. Young designers could learn a lot from Crouwel, and we’re not talking about how to design a poster. Crouwel epitomises everything that’s good in a graphic designer—humility, generosity, curiosity and a real belief in the power of graphic design to change things for the better. We salute you, Mr C. Roll on 31 March. designmuseum.org
Hero Worship beelden in het heden (pictures in the present) by Wim crouWel , 1959
Semi-Permanent
La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris
Hong Kong Exhibition Centre 11–12 March
02 March
Semi-Permanent kicks off another busy year with its first foray into Asia. The two-day conference at the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre in March brings together the usual eclectic mix of speakers from many different disciplines. These ‘rock stars of the design industries’ include interactive designer Theo Watson, the Dainippon Type Organisation, visual-effects guru Danny Yount and everybody’s favourite, Stefan Sagmeister. If you can’t make it to Hong Kong, why not catch one of SemiPermanent’s other forthcoming events in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Auckland or Perth? s e m i p e r m a n e n t. c o m
Paris gets a brand-new arts space entirely devoted to all things digital this March. La Gaîté Lyrique was previously a centre for street theatre and an amusement house, but has been closed for the past twenty years. In its shiny new incarnation, it will host concerts, screenings, talks, workshops and exhibitions on digital culture—one of which opens in April and is a solo show by Universal Everything’s Matt Pyke, featuring fourteen (count ’em) new installation works. We can’t wait. g a i t e- ly r i q u e . n e t
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Best of British
from top— city of Westminster street name plate designed by misha blacK, 1968 and british rail symbol d e s i g n e d b y g e r a l d b a r n e y, c.1964 / pacKaging and stationery for ilford limited, c. 1946. p h o t o g r a p h s b y j o h n m a lt b y, courtesy of scot t broWnrigg
Design Research Unit: 1942–1972 Tate St Ives 5 February–2 May If you missed the Design Research Unit exhibition last year, there’s another chance to catch it at Tate St Ives in February. The DRU was one of Britain’s first multidisciplinary design behemoths, and was founded by Marcus Brumwell in 1942. As a consultancy, it combined expertise in graphic design, architecture, industrial design and beyond; catering to an emerging postwar market for creative thinking and technological awareness within corporate design, it was responsible for an extensive range of high-profile architectural and industrial projects in the four decades leading up to 1970 and became one of the largest interdisciplinary design consultancies in Europe. The Tate’s exhibition examines the origins, attitudes and key works of the DRU, from its early exhibition designs to later infrastructure-related projects, and sheds lights on an important and influential chapter in British design history. tate.org.uK/stives 013
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Kaleidoscope
British Music Experience Talks The O2 Bubble, London 13 January onwards
Cover Stars
Love ’em or hate ’em, you can’t deny that Oasis had some of the most memorable record covers of the mid-Nineties—a fact for which graphic designer Brian Cannon can take considerable credit. Now, as part of the British Music Experience’s Visual Identity Series in conjunction with the Best Art Vinyl 2010 award, he’ll be explaining his work with Oasis and other Nineties icons such as the Verve and Suede in a lecture on graphic design and music at London’s O2. Cannon’s one of several respected designers speaking during the series; also on the bill are Gerard Saint of Big Active, Darren Wall (famed for his Hot Chip sleeve design) and even psychedelic king of Seventies cover art Roger Dean. If you liked last year’s St Bride conference on design and music, you’ll love this. britishmusicexperience.com l ef t— no come doWn , t he verve , designed by brian cannon, 1994
Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s Barbican Art Gallery, London 3 March–22 May You’d be hard-pressed to find a more fitting venue in London for an exhibition of playful city-centric performance art than the Barbican Centre—with its walkways and waterways, it’s an urban playground in itself, and is also the biggest performing arts centre in Europe. Clearly the curatorial team there have caught on, as this year the Barbican Art Gallery plays host to Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s, an exhibition of the work of performance artist Laurie Anderson, choreographer Trisha Brown and artist Gordon Matta-Clark. The trio were at the forefront of the New York art scene during the tumultuous Seventies and became known both individually and collectively for their diverse urban works, taking over abandoned spaces in the city and responding artistically to the political, social and economic unrest of the era. It’s a timely exhibition, considering the current recessionbound climate; inspiration, perhaps, for a performance-based protest of your own? Get down there and take some notes.
Downtown Top Ranking
from top— WalKing on the Wall , trisha broWn, 1971 / viophonograph, laurie anderson, 1976
barbican.org.uK
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Screen Grab
clocKWise from top— lite, hor good and slit by aesthetic apparatus, franK l. sprayberry presidential collage s e r i e s , 2 0 0 8 / e a r ly bird by andreW holder, 2008 / gold light by nathaniel russell , print of the month club poster, 2006
Pulled by Mike Perry Princeton Architectural Press Published April 2011 As our world becomes increasingly screenbased, it seems the lure of getting a bit of ink under our fingernails becomes ever more attractive. Like letterpress, screenprinting never really went away—it’s just being rediscovered by a new generation of artists and designers who have fallen in love with the process. Mike Perry is one such devotee, and to celebrate he’s put together a book for Princeton Architectural Press which showcases some of the finest screenprinted work around. Pulled is out in April, and features work by Jim Stoten, Deanne Cheuk, James Victore, Rinzen, Jeremyville and many more—including, of course, Mr Perry himself. papress.com 017
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this page, top— acne paper no. 11, coVer f e a t u r i n g l e i g h b o W e r Y, photographed bY bruce bernard bo t t om , l ef t t o righ t— pages from feature on the basso studio, berlin, photographs bY aleXander husebY and the rochelle school
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feature
Upon the release of Acne Paper’s eleventh issue, Angharad Lewis met its designer, Christoph Stolberg, and discovered how he has an eye on the future of this burgeoning publishing classic. Acne Paper has succeeded, since its launch in 2005, in becoming ‘event’ publishing—that elusive but much-soughtafter status whereby readers are counting down the days till they can get their hands on the new issue. Despite this feather in its cap, desirability is not Acne Paper’s sole triumph and it is not just magazine-heads crossing off the days for its twice-yearly releases—the magazine also has a strong following in the fashion, design, photography and art worlds. Its credentials
were forged from the first, when cult Swedish ‘lifestyle brand’ Acne, formed in 1996, committed its vision to paper with the launch of a journal reflecting the brand’s spirit. Acne ‘the brand’ has made great skinny jeans-clad leaps since its conception as a purveyor of unisex denim, to become a fully-fledged fashion label admired and worn by top fashionistas. Acne Paper, however, is more than a glorified company brochure—it has evolved into an autonomous fashion publication in its own right, with credible fashion stories featuring a diverse range of brands and a progressive editorial stance courtesy of editor-in-chief and creative director Thomas Persson.
Magnificent Eleven
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G188—Illustration Profile
In the first of our new regular Illustration Profiles, Anna Lisa Reynolds meets Matt W. Moore, the prolific designer and illustrator from Portland, Maine, who seems to embody a new era of illustration. No surface—be it print, pixels or pavements—is safe from his “Vectorfunk”.
This page—MaT T W. Moore aT Work / opposiTe— aLphafoNT CUaTro T ypefaCe by MaT T W. Moore avaiLabLe froM hypeforType.CoM
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Logoform
Woolmark Designed by Francesco Saroglia by Sabine Fasching, founder, Sabina sabina.co.uk
The Woolmark is one of those logos I grew up with. It’s been around my whole life and I have come across it in numerous itchy jumpers I have owned—but only now can I truly appreciate how effortless and timeless the design is.
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Italian graphic artist Francesco Saroglia designed it in 1964 after winning a competition set by the International Wool Secretariat (IWS), a wool industry agency of the Australian government looking for a single universal image for wool quality. Saroglia worked with fellow Italian artist Franco Grignani, the latter’s fluid Op Art style clearly visible in the design. Furthermore, the shape resembles a threefold Möbius strip. Although the Woolmark’s purpose is simple —to indicate that a product contains 100 per cent pure new wool—apparently less than half of those who recognise the symbol globally are aware of this precise meaning. The same people, however, do seem to acknowledge it as a symbol of high quality. It feels like a tribute to the success of the Woolmark brand that IWS actually changed its name to the Woolmark Company in 1997, thereby associating itself more closely with the well-known symbol.
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Three versions of The WooLmark Logo. from Top— WooL bLend (indicaTes ThaT The producT conTains 30% –49% WooL), WooLmark bLend (indicaTes ThaT The producT conTains 50% –99% WooL), WooLmark (indicaTes ThaT The producT conTains 100% pure neW WooL)
Saroglia collaborated with fellow Italian F r a n c o G r i g n a n i , who worked on a series of sci-fi fiction book covers for P e n g u i n that were published during the mid- to late 1960s. Both artists were influenced by the Op Art movement, and for Penguin’s covers Grignani also incorporated his experiments with photograms on a black background.
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fontbook
Process is more imPortant than outcome 1— fs bl ake by fon t smi t h
Go deep 2—korolev by device fonts
Love your Experiments (as
3—piel script by veer
Don’t borrow money. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. 4 — forza by hoefl er & frere- jones
5—opentype foundry wilson by the foundry 100
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John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. his advice : Begin anywhere 6—charlie by typotheque
you would an Ugly Child)
8—mr eaves by emigre
extracts from bruce mau’s 7— redisturbed by jeremy tankard
an incomplete manifesto, 1998 graf ik 188 —101
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Matthias Heiderich Photographer, Berlin
What’s been your favourite project so far? White Noise, because it was shot on the foggiest day ever (I think). I love fog. Especially when combined with good music on my headphones. What’s in your camera bag? Cameras. I use a Pentax K20D, Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex and Polaroid SX70 (to name the most important). Then there are rolls of film, SD memory cards—plus chocolate and other sweets. What would be your fantasy commission? “Take pictures of Siberia, Matthias.”
This page & bel ow righ T— from The series isoberlin, 2010
Tell us about your recent ISOBERLIN exhibition. ISOBERLIN was my second solo exhibition. It took place at Neonchocolate Gallery, Berlin. The owners of the gallery contacted me when they saw my online portfolio, which was pretty cool. The gallery is really nice and we had a good time at the vernissage; everything was totally relaxed—all in all, a good collaboration. I hope I will get the chance to exhibit more often in the future, maybe outside of Berlin or even Germany. Who are your heroes? The photographers Christoph Morlinghaus and Josef Schulz, the musicians Tim Hecker and Richard Devine, and, in real life, my girlfriend and parents. Tell us a trade secret. Professionally speaking, I don’t know how to take a good photo. Describe your work in three words. Lines, colours, no people (oh that’s four, sorry).
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l ef T—
TalenT
from The series color berlin, 2010
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