tHREADED ED.XIV
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A New kind of Pyramid Scheme yramids. Triangles. Hieroglyphics. What do they possibly all have in common with this, the 14th edition of Threaded magazine? Well, for one thing, the underlying theme of this edition, the supporting structure if you will, is the pyramid. This is especially relevant to Threaded this time around, as a new designer joining the team this year makes three of us working away on the magazine. Working away, that is, in conditions that the slaves who built the pyramids might just recognise!
Visually, we have explored the pyramid theme by making reference to the triangle and the trapezium. However much it sounds like one, a trapezium was not an ancient circus act, but the shape of the early prototype pyramids, which were called 'Mastabas'. Where there is no pyramid or even mastaba, we must look to the triangle. Fun fact. When Ken Adam was designing the famous triangular War Room set for Dr. Strangelove, the funniest cold-war paranoia movie on record, director Stanley Kubrick looked at Adam’s sketches and asked: “The triangle is the strongest geometrical form isn’t it?” Thus, the set designer was able to intellectually justify a creative impulse. We’re not saying, when in doubt, use a triangle. But you could do worse. Of course, when we think of triangles and pyramids, hieroglyphics are never far behind. Archaeologists and designers alike can see perhaps how the hieroglyphic tablet's grid has influenced the layout of this edition, such as the way the horizontal and vertical lines provide directional flow for the reader. And if all that’s as clear as, well, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, then allow us to clarify. To do so, we must turn to Rosetta Stone for the answer. Now Rosetta Stone may sound like the name of a 1970s' soul singer (Afro hair, platform heels) but, actually, it was a slab of stone on which hieroglyphics were engraved. Not just any old hieroglyphics. The writings contained the key to decoding the ancient Egyptian language. Up until then, the comparatively recent year of 1799, all the ancient Egyptian inscriptions were a complete mystery, even to the most cunning of linguists. In our modest way, and wearing our best Afros and platform shoes, we’d like to think that Threaded is a kind of Rosetta Stone – decoding and demystifying the world of design to the casual observer, the consumer and the connoisseur alike. Hey, even Plateau (the font we designed for this edition) is influenced by hieroglyphics. We combined the contemporary with the ancient, to create something that is as slender and sleek as an Egyptian cat. And you can’t say ‘Pharaoh’ than that, as the Mummy said to the Sphinx.
by Scott Alexander Young
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MAPPING THE PRODUCTION
EDITORIAL
Threa
Threaded Magazine
banter
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whanau Uploaded by Threaded studio Photographed by Rebecca Brown
HAPPENSTANCE
CAVE
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BourBon & dry cola
art Direction Kyra Clarke / Fiona Grieve Editor Fiona Grieve lead dESIGNer Kyra Clarke dESIGNer Nick Baillie guest DESIGNer Rebecca Brown 3D DESIGNer Lucas Milner Podium SHOWCASE MASH [AUSTRALIA] Lundgren+Lindqvist [sweden] Sons & Co. [new zealand] Annie Sperling [usA] Anonymous [SINGAPORE]
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galleria showcase Blake Beckford / John Pusateri / Laura Jer /
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Lisa Higgins / Marc Conaco / Mardo El-Noor / Michael Zrobok / Mick Theisen / Rebecca Brown / Terry Chisholm proofing All About Words partners Centurion Print / B&F Papers SUBMISSIONS Submissions for Threaded
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Ed.XV's Galleria section are now open. If you are an emerging creative and would like the opportunity to be profiled please email your work to us at; submissions@threaded.co.nz HARD-COPY SUBSCRIPTIONS magmag.co.nz/threaded digital SUBSCRIPTIONS nz.zinio.com Special thanks to our mothers, partners, friends and whanau who support us in this creative project PRODUCTION Threaded / PO Box 79 382 / Waitakere / Auckland 0656 / New Zealand. No part of this publication can be copied or reproduced in any way, shape or form or by electronic means without written permission from Threaded Media Limited.
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PIGEON-HOLE
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THE PRATLEY COMPANY
1. The Pratley Co. Smartphone App 2. The Pratley Co. Pop View Device 3. The Pratley Co. Team
THEPRATLEY.CO
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WHAT WE DO Within the next few months, The Pratley Company will be launching their new device, the ‘Pop-View’, and a corresponding smartphone app on Kickstarter, which will enable users to take, post, comment on and share 3D photos and videos on a beautiful and simple platform. The project aims to revolutionise the blogging experience and ultimately enable users to literally add another dimension to the way they view and take photos and videos. The spearhead product will be released initially for iPhone 5 and, with additional funding, the duo aims to expand to Android based smartphones. OUR BRAND The Pratley Company is a collective group of creatives who are based across London, Sydney and Auckland. The essence of the brand is the simplicity, honesty and quality of the old-school aesthetic and function working in harmony with today’s technology. The idea was spawned by UK-based Peter Brennan, in late 2012, after he realised the potential in the 3D market. He was soon joined by Oscar Fernandez, an industrial designer recently returned from Germany. The two teamed up and are in the process of closing in on final designs for both the product and the application platform. The product will be released on Kickstarter later this year.
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TEN DOLLAR FONTS TENDOLLARFONTS.COM
Ten Dollar Fonts (TDF) is an international digital typography foundry with a difference.
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TDF is based in New Zealand and was created by Daniel MrQueen who, after struggling to find a suitable platform which would put his typeface in the spotlight, realised that many other designers and typographers were having the same problem. So he created TDF which has resulted in a finely curated selection of typefaces. The typefaces on TDF come from all around the globe; many are exclusive to TDF and are available for prices beginning at $10. The foundry has been open a little over a year and is growing at an impressive pace with many exciting new plans for the future.
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1. ‘Laudanum’ typeface Carl Rylatt
4. ‘INFINITUM’ TYPEFACE Angelica Baini
2. Love ‘homeward’ typeface Claire Pedersen
5. Miami ‘damier’ typeface Jacopo Severitano
3. NEW GOD FLOW ‘ECHELON TYPEFACE Samuel Mensah
6. ten dollar fonts online store tendollarfonts.com
Stay up to date by liking their Facebook page. Also, if you sign up and create an account, you receive a 15% promo code!
FRANK STATIONERY FRANKSTATIONERY.COM FACEBOOK.COM/FRANKSTATIONERY
The art of scribbling and jotting things down is a way of life for FRANK founders Jason and Jess who over the years, have filled the pages of many notebooks with their ideas, illustrations and experiences. With used notebooks lining the shelves of their small apartment, it was only natural to start a business that married their two passions: stationery and people. With the view that learning requires creativity, FRANK was born. The aim of FRANK is to bring together two seemingly different worlds through the commonality of education and stationery. For every item you purchase, FRANK will give away the same item to a child in need in New Zealand. Currently one in five New Zealand children lives in poverty and many do not have access to basic school supplies. Through inspiring design, FRANK is providing a conscious buying choice for all those creatives out their who believe there doodles can become something so much more than just pen on paper.
WIN A SET OF NOTEBOOKS LIKE frank ON FACEBOOK, SUBMIT A notebook doodle AND be in to win.
COVO – i.o.u COVO.CO.NZ
Covo has been around for five years now. Its Fort Street and Richmond Road restaurants are institutions of Italian dining in Auckland. Ivan at Covo was a generous patron to Threaded’s Ed.13 launch and his antipasto platters were winners. Whether it’s a quick pizza, a cheeky chianti or the operatic flavours of freshly made pasta, Covo never fails to deliver on its promise of fresh, authentic Italian cuisine. And when they say authentic, they mean “just like mamma used to make”. When you go to Covo, you get much more than you bargained for. You don’t just eat at Covo, you become part of the family.
Architecture Festival 01 June — 30 June
dConstruct, UK Technology/Culture Conference 06 September
Paris Design Week, France
CT NOV
JUL London Festival of Architecture, UK
Łódz Design Festival, Poland
Design Festival 17 — 27 October
Typo London, UK
Barcelona FADfest, Spain
Design Festival 09 — 15 September
Design Festival 25 June — 11 July
Helsinki Design Week, Finland
Dutch Design Week, Netherlands
Design Festival 12 — 22 September
Design Festival 19 — 27 October
Best Awards Deadline, New Zealand
London Design Festival, UK
Design Award 05 July
Design Festival 14 — 22 September
DW Design Weekend, Brazil
Circles Conference, Texas
Design Festival 15 — 18 August
TypeCon Portland, USA
Creative Conference 19 — 20 September
Taiwan Designers’ Week, Taiwan
Typography Conference 21 — 25 August
Design Festival 27 September — 06 October
Illustrative Berlin, Germany
Vienna Design Week, Austria
Illustration Festival 31 August — 08 September
Design Festival 27 September — 06 October
Beijing Design Week, China
World Architecture Festival, Singapore
UN
Design Festival 08 September
Tallinn Architecture Biennale, Estonia
Architecture Festival 02 — 04 October
Semi-Permanent, Stockholm
Architecture Forum 04 — 08 September
Creative Conference 07 — 08 October
World Stage Design, UK
Aiga ‘Head Heart Hand’, USA
Performance Design Festival 05 — 15 September
Creative Conference 10 — 13 October
DESIGN AGENDA DESIGN EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS WORLDWIDE
Typography Conference 18 — October
Semi-Permanent, Melbourne Australia Creative Conference 25 — 26 October
Tokyo Designers’ Week, Japan Design Festival 26 October — 04 November
Semi-Permanent, Brisbane Australia Creative Conference 31 October
Ampersand, USA
Web Typography Conference 02 November
Art in the Dark, New Zealand Art Festival 07 — 09 November
Neue Räume, Switzerland Design Festival 27 November — 01 December
MASH Purveyors of the fine
mash Purveyors of the fine
SUNSHINE
PALM TREES
KWIJIBO
Vistas
mashdesign.com.au
COCONUT
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The disruptive artvertising wonderland.
Motel Mexicola, bali
Dom.M.Roberts (co-founder of Mash) INTERVIEWING
Dom.M.Roberts (co-founder of Mash):
So Dom, what is Mash? I’ll let Tom answer this one; Tom? Tom: Mash is the Artvertising emporium of everlasting beauty, seductive imagery and sunshine 366 days a year. A disruptive creation tool of branding evangelism to break organisations out of their proverbial ruts. Fathered and mothered by Dom Roberts and James Brown in Australia, Mash installs artefacts and experiences with detail, proportion and playfulness. They can make people love you, your cents become dollars, foes become friends, and friends become fanatics. Mash doing their ‘Thing©’ has earned them some serious global accolades. Their work has received gold statues from Graphis and big yellow pencils from D&AD and, recently, had their work adorning San Fran MoMA’s walls (just a room away from Señor Dalí and Mr Klee). I heart Mash; I know you will too. “Come to the other side of the fence. Why? Because all the good stuff is happening over here!”
I first met Dom when he was a very young lad in Adelaide, South Australia. He was a shy, yet intelligent child with a sparkle in his eye and a quietly confident smile that said: some day I will do great things. By the age of six Dom had developed a severe bowl cut, which meant he was often mistaken for a LEGO man and so I thought I may have misread that high achiever toddler smile. But then the bowl cut was gone and, once again, Dom was on his way to greatness.
industry commonalities to disrupt the industry and make people actually pay attention again.
Is there an employee of the month? If so, who and why? If not, make one up.
What’s happening in Mash land at the moment?
We actually used to do this, fun times, we should bring it back. The winner always earned their prize by some kind of obscure act. So it wasn’t at all serious, or necessarily productive, but always got a laugh.
A lot of conceptual work lately which has also incorporated space design and interior fit-outs. Mash recently worked on an amazing space in Bali. A Mexican extravaganza called Mexicola with amazing illustrative and decorative detail. We are art-directing fashion shoots with an amazing team including photographers like John Laurie and stylists like Belinda Humphrey from Claire Inc. We are doing some poster work for filmmakers and we are about to start tackling our third consecutive Adelaide Festival branding project. Other projects include working on our favourite food publication Rare Medium, wine branding/imagery and packaging design for wineries such as Adelina in the Clare Valley, Barringwood in Tasmania and Le Grappin in France. We have also set up a little studio space in Melbourne so we are keen to see how this pans out too. Describe your favourite object in the Mash office?
Words by Tom Cruise© (creator of the colour pink)
Tough one, maybe our Magic Mountain giant fibreglass hand.
Thanks Tom. Sooooo… what is this category disruption you talk of?
What is Mash’s favourite colour of the month? And why?
We take what everyone else is doing; then we turn it upside down, inside out, shake and stir it. It’s rattled, yelled at, reasoned with. It’s a bandwagon intervention. This is category disruption and this is what we do. The first step in our recipe for disruption pie is to identify industry commonalities. What’s the industry bandwagon and how do we get you off it? Then we decide how to leverage
Faded, depressing office green. We artdirected a photo shoot where the brief was to make the most depressing, dated, faded office environment you could imagine. The obvious colours were faded-green palettes. So in a reverse physiology kinda way this is our favourite colour of the month. Love a good set build, especially when you’re working with good people.
What is Mash’s favourite book? Why? Mmm, maybe the golden Dali cookbook we have here at the studio. Cause it’s got food and Dali; what else do you need in life? Great chatting with you Dom. No, no it was my pleasure, No mine. No mine.
oo A rhhh S hhhh H aaa
James Ye-ha Brown Mash Boss Guy VIII INTERVIEWING
James Ye-ha Brown Mash Boss Guy VIII
What’s heaven for you? Diving in the water on a hot day and lingering at the bottom, getting on a plane to a place you have never been, Burning Man festival, being in the desert of Real de Catorce and eating the cactuses that reside there. Cold coconut and an avocado await on the shore. There are an infinite number of answers to this question, James. Describe the flavour of the colour blue in four words. Aquifer’s Oceanic Liquidismic Refresher™. What’s hard for you? Obeying the clock, being lured away before finishing the task at hand, not losing phones, not doing things last minute like this interview, singing on stage whilst playing a splintered and heavy percussion instrument, wearing shoes. What would you do with a brick? Platform shoe extension, make a carving from it of a tapir, juggle with a small yet heavyboned dog, throw it at an earth excavator trying to dig up an old-growth forest, tell it secrets, put it in Kaspar’s bed next to a whole packet of Corn Flakes* in French sheets* on the bed he stole from me. When stung by a bee, the second word you yell would be? Not Aaa or Cee but probably Dee. Do you think sausages resemble genetalia too much and that’s why you didn’t name your company “bangers and mash?” We once had side arm called “bangers and mash” when Mash was just three. Our old business partner Tik Gyenees aka Tosh Janash was the instigator. He loved adding small-print jobs on the edge pieces of bigger print jobs. B&M was one. Plus fake dollar coin cards to trick people there was money out the front of our studio. If you had to replace each Mash team member by a cartoon character, who would they be?
ight y chubby A ncient and zes ty S lapped chickens holler for H ushed vampires devouring naked pork chops These are all likenesses to each member – is that what you were after? Dom = Fry Lock from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Ryenizzle = Lovechild of Master Shake and Kenny off South Park, Dazrelite Song = Astroboy, Pat = the lead dude from Mumford & Sons but the cartoon version, Cuttlefish = Lisa Simpson, Clare = the red-head from Scoobie Doo, James Brown = Come and Get It with Peter Russell-Clarke. Have any of the Mash members worn turtlenecks? If so, is it a fashion statement or a lack of style? If not, what is the most awkward piece of clothing worn by a Mash member? Gold award = Dom’s onesies worn daily. Silver award = Dom’s chequerboard Vans. Bronze = Dom’s Adidas Le Coq jacket. Why is the Mash office in a tree house above the botanic? Humanity has a huge disconnection to nature; here we straddle between urban-scape and tree-scape. One day, we will have a farm. It’s amazing that in just 30 strides we can be in front of a pond of Lotus poppies, in 158 strides we can be in front of Amazonian lilies, in 298 strides we can be in a garden of marvellous cactaceae from Brazil to Mexico to Botswanian cacti. Epic. What was the most memorable birthday card made by the Mash members? Dom’s engagement card (sorry not birthday) was one of Dom, pretty-much naked, doing some form of bondage for a failed selfpromotional piece for early days’ Mash: inspired by Sagmeister getting his tackle out. I must admit there are also photos of me in a compromising position where I was tied to a tree. Some of the staff here have them stored on disks off-site for future blackmail. This worries me. If Mash were the answer to a crossword puzzle question, what would it be? Smashed starch.
If Mash were a cover band, whose music would they play? The lovechild of Exuma + Dr Piffle & The Burlap Band (the actual band I ‘try’ to play in) and I have the soul of an old Mexican so maybe Lucho Bermúdez and Armando Hernadez + white James Brown + Dom who would make it a ’90s’ electro/dub Remix + Darren’s love ballad tip. Is Dom short for dominatrix? True. Dom has many nicknames: dominatrix, papadom (when he first had a baby), eyebrows, domanip, don, dan, condom, domanish, robertos, dim dom, you want go show show, d-bot, dr. Who is frazzle dazzle? A kid from Singapore who loves Michael Jackson and is a premium layer of eggs that birth amazingly designed publications. He can be found in our Melbourne office. Describe your favourite object in the Mash office. If it was on fire, I’d take Ryan or the Beerenberg Hot English Mustard. According to the day Mash was born, what is its horoscope today? 16-06-2005 same day as Tupac Shakur. Gemini. Very attractive and popular apparently. Will your life be the same after this experience? No never. Footnote 1: Corn Flakes were created by John Harvey Kellogg as a means to stop young men from masturbating through the delivery of bland wheat-based foods as it was believed in the late 1800s that exotic-flavoured foods increased libido. Kaspar, who is a friend of James Brown, was asked to pose questions for this interview; however, the questions posed were of a highly sexual nature and deemed inappropriate by James. James then used a brick along with Corn Flakes in french sheets to create a practical joke on Kaspar. Footnote 2: French sheets are when you fold a bed sheet in the opposite direction from the sleeping direction of a bed. The bed owner gets into bed and, in turn, breaks their foot when trying to enter the bed.
BARRIO POSTER Adelaide Festival 2012 Collateral
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1. RUDE MECHANICALS PACKAGING 2. L.A.W. XMASH PLATES 3. EVO速 DOES NOT CONTAIN LOOKBOOK 4. ALPHA BOX & DICE PACKAGING 5. ALPHA BOX & DICE SIGNAGE
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6. ADELAIDe FESTIVAL 2012 COLLATERAL 7. LINNAEA PACKAGING 8. PARWANA INTERIOR 9. PARWANA INTERIOR
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submissions@threaded.co.nz
submissions open
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MARC CONACO mcthree.co.nz
rebecca brown
rebeccabrown.co.nz
Marc Conaco’s Once Upon a Seminar is a comic-style summary of Design Assembly’s Autumn Conversations which feature inspiring presentations by accomplished design professionals. The objective of this creative interpretation is to generate interest in future seminars among design professionals and enthusiasts.
Project: Where? Rebecca Brown is a graphic designer who has participated in a number of projects ranging from print-based work and web design to exhibitions, collaboration and curatorial practices. Brown approaches each project individually seeking to successfully communicate the intended message, whilst employing a playful approach to ideas and aesthetics.
threaded’s production partners
Plateau is a modern typeface influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphic forms. It's a stylistic blend of elegance and mark-making. The tall, architectural and roman-like platforms each end with a flat plateau, much like an Egyptian mastaba.
PLATEAU