Beauty Authenticity History &Myth
Sc.2
Transit of Venus ‒ Cook
Sc.32
Lono
Sc.15
Curious Death Rites ‒ Dressing Banks
Sc.10
Cook’s Orders
Sc.54
Fafafine
Sc.53
Arioi Sass
Sc.5
Behind Fort Venus ‒ Stolen Goods
Sc.1
Marine
Sc.19
Webber's Portrait
Sc.44
Seated Hula
Sc.8
Anchors
Sc. 26 Trading Post ‒ Hungry Family
Sc.4
Behind Fort Venus ‒ Taonga
Sc. 27
Provisions Hawaii
Sc.17
Tupaia's Sketch
Sc.11
Banks ‒ Trading Post
Sc.21
Births & Deaths ‒ Audience
Sc.16
Curious Death Rites – Haunting Villagers
Sc.33
Double Flogging
Sc.39
Tahitian Solo
Sc.42
Wrestling
Sc.48
Haka
Sc.6
Gender? Male
Sc.29
Sea Shanty
Sc.23
Curious Death Rites ‒ Mourning
Sc.20
Behind Fort Venus ‒ Sex Trade
Sc.30
Grisly Gifts
Sc.35
Specimens
Sc.42
Sc.3
37
Sc.3
Taking Possession
Sc.57
Man from Bora Bora
Sc.7
Gender? Female
Sc.45
Kava Ceremony
Sc.12
Transit of Venus – Banks
Sc.36
Wero
Sc.51
Chiefly Entertainment
Sc.50
Club Dance
Sc.18
Tupaia & Māori Warrior
Sc.47
Taupou
Sc.24
Curious Death Rites – Marae Desecration
Sc.52
Omai & Queen Obeera Plotting
Sc.14
Tupaia's Ceremony
Sc.46
Bride of Mangaia
Sc.31
Van Gogh
Sc.34
Cook’s Folly
Sc.37
Tahitian Marriage Teaser
Sc.38
Three Polynesian Muses
Sc.43
Hula Instruction
Sc.56
Hawaiian Mourning Dance
Sc.25
Provisions ‒ Tahiti
Sc.41
Slap Dance
Sc.28
Buttons & Atua
Sc.49
Waiata Tangi
Sc.40
Tahitian Duo
Sc.22
Births & Deaths ‒ Arioi Pantomime
Sc.55
The Turtle Tribe
Sc.13
Gift for Banks
Sc.49
Lisa Reihana
inpursuitofvenus.com
Introducing tthe panoramic video by Lisa Reihana: a moving-image interpretation of the French scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages De La Mer Pacifique. In neoclassical France, entrepreneur Joseph Dufour used the latest printing innovations to produce Les Sauvages De La Mer Pacifique (1804), a sophisticated 20-panel scenic wallpaper. Mirroring a widespread fascination with the Pacific voyages undertaken by Captain Cook, de Bougainville and de la Perouse, its exotic themes referenced popular illustrations of that time. Two hundred years later, Māori artist Lisa Reihana employs 21st-century digital technologies to animate Les Sauvages De La Mer Pacifique. Enlivened with the sights and sounds of dance and cultural ceremonies, the vast panorama is populated by a myriad of people drawn from across the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia. Separated by two centuries, both the wallpaper and the video are set against a utopian Tahitian landscape. While Dufour’s work models Enlightenment beliefs and ideas of harmony amongst mankind, Reihana’s reading of the past is darker and more nuanced. The artist foregrounds the complexities of cultural identity and colonisation by including scenes of encounter between Europeans and Polynesians. Differing ideas of ownership and reciprocity resulted in misunderstandings and violent outbursts. Challenging historical and contemporary stereotypes, in Pursuit of Venus returns the gaze of imperialism with
a speculative twist that disrupts notions of beauty, authenticity, history and myth. in Pursuit of Venus [infected] makes visible some historical narratives absent from the original wallpaper, such as the brisk trade of iron and desirable goods for sexual favours. It also includes famous figures like the privileged and inquisitive botanist Joseph Banks, shown terrorising villagers with a Tahitian Chief Mourner and Tupaia, the Machiavellian Tahitian, who was a gifted navigator, politician and artist, and Captain Cook’s invaluable companion. Leading these agents of change is Captain Cook ‒ famous explorer, gifted cartographer and arguably the harbinger of colonisation. As in the wallpaper, Cook’s death is portrayed, albeit from a renewed perspective. in Pursuit of Venus is a major video project that has been in development for several years and has a variety of outcomes. in Pursuit of Venus is eight minutes in duration and presented on two screens ‒ this version reflects the wallpaper’s utopian ideals and has been exhibited in galleries and museums, each environment offering unique presentation opportunities. The final realisation, in Pursuit of Venus [infected] is 16 minutes long and is designed for five projectors; they work together to create an immersive cinematic experience. Accompanying these videos is a series of photographic portraits that will be offered for sale. To see more about this body of work, view: inpursuitofvenus.com
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© 45‒52
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Editorial
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Pigeon-hole
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Design Agenda
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Galleria
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Mapping the Production
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Podium Lead-in
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Counterspace An Exercise in Style in Seven Maleficent Parts
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Spielerei The Art of Playing Around
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Pie Paper Pie on Pie
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The Letterproeftuin Graphic Laboratories
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David Merritt Landroverfarm Press
CREATING A FEEDING AND CARING FOR IT:
AN INSTRUCTION MANUAL
Editorial
I
t is a subject also of additional interest to the author that this story was begun in the majestic region where the scene is principally laid, and in
society which cannot cease to be regretted. I passed the summer of 1816 in the environs of Geneva. The season was cold and rainy, and in the evenings we crowded around a blazing wood fire, and occasionally amused ourselves with some German stories of ghosts, which happened to fall into our hands. These tales excited in us a playful desire of imitation. Two other friends (a tale from the pen of one of whom would be far more acceptable to the public than anything I can ever hope to produce) and myself agreed to write each a story founded on some supernatural occurrence‌
— Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein
And thus a monster was born: the modern Prometheus, Frankenstein and his monster, the archetype of every mad genius and their progeny.
For once the monster comes to life, you have to nurture and feed and fuss over it.
You watch its first steps with pride, shed tears when it first goes out into the world; it is all part of the process – one that seems to have no end… But it is just this dogged singleness of purpose which unites all visionaries and contrarians, such as the
C ES
APED Working hard for the money is one thing, but these creative practitioners are all motivated by something else in pursuing these projects, something quite different from riches, or fame or glory.
This makes for some of the most interesting profiles it has ever been our pleasure to print.
What surprised us – pleasantly – was how well they all seem to be doing, these single–minded visionaries relentlessly pursuing perfection in whatever area of specialisation they have chosen to master. Cool, calm and collected, each was able to articulate their point of entry and sustained interest in their masterwork. You need a good reason to embark on schemes and dreams that require so much inspiration and perspiration. All of the practitioners we are profiling paddle their own waka so to speak and we have been absolutely star–struck by their degree of authenticity and creative decisiveness.
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go-getters and eccentrics whom we profile in this issue.
THESE INCLUDE:
D
avid Merritt, operates his mobile bookstore as a studio and chat station [it’s always nice to have a writer personally select a poem for your day] as well as a shop. A wordsmith and
poet with a practical streak, David is a one-man, open-source, nonprofit organisation, who clearly has his eye on the long-term gaME.
M
ichael Worthington, out of Los Angeles, is the co-founder of Counterspace. This is a deliberately small-scale collaborative studio whose purpose is to create innovative design for what they
refer to as ‘cultural clients’. How refreshing to see a studio where the bottom line is not the bottom line, especially with such talent at the helm.
Y
orit Kluitman, Timon van der Hijden and Jaron Korvinus, from the Netherlands, are the trio behind Letterproeftuin. They had the bright idea of embracing open-source design – and then taking it on the road.
What’s more, as an anecdote to the ‘one computer program fits all’ ethic, these guys like to get their hands dirty, or at least covered with ink, with a mobile printing studio that is another reminder that small can be beautiful.
1‒4
S
imon Oosterdijk and Markus Hofko are New Zealand residents who produce Pie Paper, a magazine which they describe as a ‘non-periodical’. In plainspeak, that means
it comes out whenever they can manage or feel it is appropriate: no less than that, and definitely no more. Read on to discover Pie #5 The Food Issue. The previous edition was dedicated to the wildly unpopular, vastly underestimated lessons and, indeed, joys of failure. What an absolute tonic in these materialist, success-fixated days.
w
hat is in the water of those Dutch canals? Whatever it is, we want it because another of the artists we profile in this issue is from the Netherlands: Johan Moorman of Spielerei. This Eindhoven-based design studio boasts a range of achievements and accolades and, after examining the work for yourself, you'll agree it definitely stands out!
L
isa Reihana, who you probably encountered earlier in the gatefold’s in Pursuit of Venus, has invested considerable resources as well as her even-more-considerable talent, in updating or more like
reinventing an obscure but fascinating ‘scenic wallpaper’ from the days of Napoleon. Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (Savages of the Pacific Ocean) was an idealised vision of life among the native peoples of Oceania.
Of course, Threaded magazine has been something of a magnificent obsession for the editorial and design team. The sleepless nights, the cold sweat of pending deadlines: well, we don’t like to complain about it really. We grew it, so we’ll chew it, as the old saw goes.
BUY.THREADED.CO.NZ
SUBSCRIBE!
So just to make things even more complicated for ourselves, we went international at Ed.XI,
THAT MEANS YOU CAN ENJOY THE DEXTERITY AND TEXTURE OF THE PRINTED EDITION,
‘Worldly Wise, The Cosmopolitan Issue’, As if that wasn’t ambitious enough, the next stage was to go fully digital: breathing life into back issues starting at Ed.XII, ‘The Five-Star Issue’.
!
THE CONVENIENCE AND ULTRA-CLEAN LINES OF THE IPAD VERSION.
As monsters go, we reckon this is a beautiful thing…
or
IPAD!
JUST MAKE SURE YOU SUBSCRIBE AND YOU WON’T HAVE TO MISS A THING – BINARY OR ANALOGUE.
Editorial
SUBSCRIBE!
eL Seed
WIN THIS!
The Paper Rain Project
Pigeon-hole
5‒6
bb-bureau
WIN THIS!
1
14 3
33
Liverpool
Russia
LONDON
44
Ireland
22
2
11 57
12
13
20
China
Taiwan Oregon
48
21
7
55
Canada
38
16
Detroit
NEW YORK
Singapore
Illinois
Design Agenda
40 49
45
8
North Carolina
CALIFORNIA
Florida
28
24
Netherlands
23 Poland
25
32
LOS ANGELES 50
10
34
15
36
Slovenia
35
FRANCE
52
Turkey
Germany
51 Texas
39
Austria
26
BELGIUM
17
9
Finland
18
31
30
54
Ohio
37 56
46
47
Washington, D.C.
41
19
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43
ITALY Brazil
5 53
29 Dubai
27 Columbia
6
4
Australia New Zealand
21
Design Week Portland, Oregon 4–11 October 2014
40
One Prize 2014, New York Deadline: 31 August 2014
1
D&AD New Blood Exhibition, London 1–3 July 2014
22
11 Golden Bee, Russia 7–12 October 2014
41
CA Typography Competition, California Deadline: 5 September 2014
2
New Designers (Part 2), London 2–5 July 2014
23
LODZ Design Festival, Poland 9–19 October 2014
42
Graphis Photography Annual, New York Deadline: 24 September 2014
3
Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool 5 July–26 October 2014
24
Biennale Interieur, Belgium 17–26 October 2014
43
A' Design Awards, Italy Deadline: 30 September 2014
4
Spark, New Zealand 11–15 August 2014
25
Istanbul Design Biennial, Turkey 18 October–14 December 2014
44
Neutral Density Awards, London Deadline: 30 September 2014
5
DW! Design Weekend, Brazil 14–17 August 2014
26
Dutch Design Week, the Netherlands 18–26 October 2014
45
CA Interactive Competition, California Closes 3 October 2014
6
Melbourne Indesign, Australia 22–23 August 2014
27
Downtown Design, Dubai 28–31 October 2014
46
Spark Design Awards, New York Deadline: 10 October 2014
7
Type Camp, Canada 16–21 August 2014
28
Brussels Furniture Fair, Belgium 2–5 November 2014
47
Graphis New Talent Annual, New York Deadline: 5 November 2014
8
Hopscotch Design Festival, North Carolina 3–4 September 2014
29
Art in the Dark, New Zealand 13–16 November 2014
9
Helsinki Design Week, Finland 4–14 September 2014
30
Design Miami, Florida 3–7 December 2014
48
10
Paris Design Week, France 6–13 September 2014
31
Art Basel, Florida 4–7 December 2014
The Illustration Conference, Oregon 9–12 July 2014
49
11
The London Design Festival, London 13–21 September 2014
32
Passagen, Germany 19–25 January 2015
TypeCon 2014, Washington, D.C. 30 July–3 August 2014
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12
Type Camp, Ireland 15–21 September 2014
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London Art Fair, London 21–25 January 2015
The Exchange (IDSA), Texas 13–16 August 2014
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13
Designjunction, London 17–21 September 2014
Circles Conference, Texas 18–19 September 2014
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14
Tent London, London 18–21 September 2014
Adobe MAX, Los Angeles 4–8 October 2014
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BIO 50, Slovenia 18 September–7 December 2014
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Detroit Design Festival, Detroit 23–28 September 2014
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Vienna Design Week, Austria 26 September–5 October 2014
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Brussels Design September, Belgium 9–30 September 2014
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World Architecture Festival, Singapore 1–3 October 2014
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Taiwan Designers’ Week, Taiwan 3–12 October 2014
AWARD
CONFERENCE
34
Poster for Tommorow 2014, France Deadline: 10 July 2014
53
Design & Emotion 2014, Colombia 8–10 October 2014
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Fedrigoni Top Awards, Italy Deadline: 30 July 2014
54
Gain: AIGA, New York 23–24 October 2014
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Gentletude Comics Award, Italy Deadline: 31 July 2014
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Hike Con, Illinois 25 October 2014
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HOW Logo Design Awards, Ohio Deadline: 1 August 2014
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Re:Design Conference, California 2–4 November 2014
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Graphis Advertising Annual, New York Deadline: 6 August 2014
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SIGGRAPH Asia, China 3–6 December 2014
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HOW International Design Awards, Los Angeles Deadline: 15 August 2014
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FESTIVAL
Galleria
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Rebecca ter Borg is a commercial illustrator whose colourful, quirky work includes multiple narratives and casts of characters set in lush dreamscapes. These images were created for a salon exhibition at ter Borg’s St Kevin’s Arcade workspace on Karangahape Road in Auckland, New Zealand. Often found on the street sketching and portraiting with the Quick Draw sketch gang, ter Borg creates her own line of prints. This series of work looks at new myths and ritual, utilising symbols of celebration and play coupled with a candywrapper palette and fruity aesthetic to commemorate holidays such as Easter.
LEFT:
RIGHT:
Phil Constantinesco
OLOW-CADILLACHUT, 2014, PENCIL ON PAPER 48.5CM (W) X 58CM (H)
Phil Constantinesco lives and works in Paris. After completing his studies in Visual Communication in Strasbourg, he founded Zurich29 with Dorian Gourg. He worked briefly for MTV in Paris and has been pursuing his career as a freelance motion designer ever since. ‛Faunesque’ is his personal portfolio showcasing his drawings, which are purposefully complex and bound by one common theme: nature. These drawings evoke a vision of nature from several perspectives at once in the hope, to quote Edward Hoagland, of “transport[ing] one’s wounds into nature to find a cure, a conversion, a rest, or anything one may want”.
— faunesque.com —
LE BOUFFE, 2014, 29.7CM (W) X 42CM (H)
Rebecca ter Borg
— rebeccaterborg.com —
— jamesrford.com — James R Ford is a creator of text-based works, videos and object assemblages, producing scenarios that have us pondering over the mundane and/or absurd as he invites us to look deeper into what is taking place around us and how we fill our time. Ford studied in London and currently lives and works in Wellington. He has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand and overseas and in 2013 was winner of the inaugural Tui McLauchlan Emerging Artist’s Award from the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. Ford has recently published a book of selected works, with accompanying texts, interviews and essays from 2008 to 2013, entitled Fail Better.
LEFT:
RIGHT:
CRAZY EYES, 2011, LITTLE HELP COMPETITION TEE SHIRT AND A3 LIMITED EDITION PRINT
Greg Straight is an illustrator, artist and graphic designer known for his strong graphic edge and exciting use of bright hues, often in a pop art style. His iconic range of limitededition prints have gained him a steady flow of attention over the past few years.
Greg Straight
Straight has created signature artwork for an impressive list of clients and illustrated his first children’s book called While You Are Sleeping in 2013.
— gregstraight.com —
THIS, THAT, 2014, CHILDREN’S SEESAW, TWO GLASSES HALF FILLED WITH WATER, 43CM (H) X 198CM (W) X 95CM (D)
Podium
19‒20
THERE’S MORE TO LIFE THAN BOOKS YOU KNOW... {BUT NOT MUCH MORE...} DISCUSSING HOW
Form = / Format Content = / Context Good = Bad = Good Counterspace
AND FURTHER ILLUSTRATING
HOW I LEARNT TO MAKE THE SUBJECTIVE OBJECTIVE & LOVE TYPOGRAPHY WITH
“An Exercise in Style in Seven Maleficent Parts”
THE SINGLE LETTER � THE SINGLE WORD � THE SLOGAN � THE SENTENCE � THE VERSE � THE PARAGRAPH � THE CHAPTER {WITH THE POTENTIAL TO BE READ IN A LINEAR FASHION} without the aid of
G R AT U I T O U S H Y P H E N AT IO N ! featuring
S I M U LTA N E O U S
WRITING, DESIGNING & READING Based On
A TYPOGRAPHIC PROJECT AT CALARTS by Prof.
featuring
Michael Worthington
A Typeface called M c BE A N
AT
COU N T E R SPACE LOS ANGELES
BY Sir
Benjamin Woodlock Esq.
21‒28
The Single Letter
The Single Word
typo graphic
o
The Slogan
The Sentence
WHICH
SHOW only goes to
EverY GooD Deserves Context
The Verse
Design begins with
ALOOK ,
DESIGN begins with
A SEE ,
CONCEPT, CONTEXT, CLARITY.
COMMUNICATION
&
creativity,
C O M P O SI T IO N
CRITIC CRITICALITY. CRITICALIT ALIT Y. Y.
The Paragraph
� T H E PA R AG R A P H � THE CHAPTER
1. A man walks into a bar with a condensed sans serif. The barman asks: “Why the long face?”
THE VERSE
+
�
sequence �
THE SENTENCE
hierarchy �
�
composition �
THE SLOGAN
contrast �
�
scale �
THE SINGLE WORD
meaning �
�
language �
THE SINGLE LETTER
letterform �
How can you possibly decide what makes GOOD BAD typography? Does your criteria centre around a style you like? Or just what is new, what you think is cool? Is GOOD typography purely functional, invisible? Suavely neutral? Is GOOD typography experimental? Full of energy and expression? How do you know? Really (really?). The term GOOD is highly subjective. It’s a loose, lazy, flabby term that, more often than not, should be eradicated, while something more thoughtful is put in its place. It’s just too vague... there are too many variables, too many things it can mean. Yet there are ways to break down typography to figure out whether it is GOOD or not. Typography is made up of many aspects so you can begin by breaking it down into more concrete criteria for judgement. To start, typography is a TRANSLATORY craft, the typographer uses letterforms to communicate messages to the audience. There are certain rules related to readability — certain concrete rules you can’t mess with — when you should use a hyphen, an en-dash, an em-dash and curly not straight quotes and how long a comfortable line length should be, etc. You can't argue with the empirical rules... can you? Sure you can. It depends what context you are making the work in. You might be deliberately putting 15 hyphens in a row in your block of text. Or you might just not know how to set the H+Js in InDesign. Context and intent make a large difference; they can turn GOOD to BAD and vice versa. And what about the content itself? If my text is about waiting, for instance, does that make it OK for me to track everything out by a D Y S F U N C T I O N A L amount? Can I make the reader experience the design in tandem with the content? And what content is it appropriate to do that for? When designing the instructions to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, you might want to rethink that DYSFUNCTIONAL , but overly POETIC , letterspacing. Breathe. Slowly. Take your time. Perhaps that’s not the best design idea for an emergency situation. There are various criteria for appropriateness in what the type says and other variables relating to the amount of type itself. It’s simple but we often forget: different amounts of type are able to do different things. Here’s a single letter. Let’s start with that. What does it say? A or I might be words but the other letters have no additional meaning attached to them: they are read only as the letter that they are. What they do have is typographic form. A single letter can express its typographic form in a variety of ways and still be read as only that letter, or the form can have connotations... here’s an X . Is there treasure under it? Is it some DYSGRAPHIC ’s signature? Something erotic? A drug? Poison? When typographic form is denied language, it’s the typographic form itself that must communicate. What comes after the letter? The word. A few letters get together, decide they want to hang out together and, before you know it, they've made a word! Collectively, the letters create something larger than the sum of their parts: they signify something not being represented by the form (i.e. the word ‘horse’ doesn’t look like a horse). But now we are designing with language, that language gives form, a context. Suddenly there is a relationship between form and language to be considered. Is it one of affirmation (the word ‘horse’ does look like a horse after all)? Contradiction? Irony? Ambivalence? Snobbery? Comedy?1 The word is the script and the typographic form the tone of voice, the intonation, the expression. The typography is how you say what you say. And, for that to be GOOD or BAD, you have to know what you want to say. Hmmm, that’s right. You need a concept to act as a criterion for judging success. Then a few words get together, and decide to make it a party! And things get a little out of hand: narratives start dancing with sub-narratives; metaphors play hide-and-seek with meaning; directness and indirectness double up on the decks for a complex mash-up. The slogan and the sentence exist at a level where the (literal) volume of type allows the typographer to play with the language and the form in great detail and nuance, if you are so inclined. And when even more sentences join the party, it just gets too big for the page and you have to move the party out into a number of other venues, and, before you know it, there are several smaller parties, all connected and operating as a network: footnotes, chapter heads, pull quotes and page numbers: all kinds of smaller extras! And so the emphasis shifts: it becomes less about the letterform, more about the composition. Macro instead of micro. The content grows, the reader wants to be entertained by the dramatic moves less and less; after all, there's much more to read now, much more to experience.
The Chapter
THERE’S MORE TO LIFE THAN BOOKS YOU KNOW... {BUT NOT MUCH MORE...}
DISCUSSING HOW
1
typo graphic 3
2
4
WHICH
SHOW
5
The Maleficent Seven
only goes to
HOW I LEARNT TO MAKE THE SUBJECTIVE OBJECTIVE & LOVE TYPOGRAPHY
6
S I M U LTA N E O U S
THE SINGLE LETTER � THE SINGLE WORD � THE SLOGAN � THE SENTENCE � THE VERSE � THE PARAGRAPH � THE CHAPTER without the aid of {WITH THE POTENTIAL TO BE READ IN A LINEAR FASHION}
EverY GooD
G R AT U I T O U S H Y P H E N AT IO N ! featuring
WRITING, DESIGNING & READING Based On
AND FURTHER ILLUSTRATING
A TYPOGRAPHIC PROJECT AT CALARTS Deserves Context by
featuring
Prof.
A Typeface called M c BE A N
Michael Worthington AT
COU N T E R SPACE LOS ANGELES
7
BY Sir
Benjamin Woodlock Esq.
8
Deserves Context
WITH