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Managed to catch Jean Jullien’s first solo show in London this saturday. Allo? runs at Kemistry gallery in shoreditch til the 27th of March, well worth popping by if you’re in London.
Always been a huge fan of his work (previous posts here), it’s the sort of clever wit that I really enjoy, as well as a very keen sense of humour. Allo? is full of funny observations about modern life and how we interact with each other in a digital world. It’s not just silly however, do get the feeling of an underlying skepticism or disappointment. Not surprising considering his work is full of smart observations of the world around him, things you would probably miss with your face in your phone all day long!
You can follow Jean Jullien on tumblr at newsofthetimes.tumblr.com/ a blog of news based editorial illustrations that he runs with two others. Kemistry gallery also have a tumblr at kemistrygallery.tumblr.com/
Posts about other exhibitions I’ve been to can be found here (been a while but got a few more to write up).
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The Ideal Studio is another project from Represent, following last years excellent series The Ideal Candidate. It’s in collaboration with It’s Nice That and Hypekit (who designed the website). Here’s what Represent say about it;
“We’ve asked studio founders, creative directors, freelancers and consultants which factors combine to create the perfect workplace.
From chairs to lighting, management structure to client relations, philosophy to free pilates, they all provided some real food for thought. So over the next four weeks we’ll reveal what they see as the key ingredients for the ideal studio… “Really interesting project, so interesting to see the workspaces of different companies! I found this was one of the nice things about having interviews at lots of studios before I got my job. Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the month holds. So far it’s been a really diverse selection of very good design agencies!
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Illustrator & designer Jim Datz has launched a new website (http://jimdatz.com/) and online shop (http://www.neitherfishnorfowl.com/). Big fan of his work, especially the 4 images above that make up his city series. A lovely mix of map, illustration and typography, with a very mid-century feel about them! As has much of Jim’s work.
Shame the London print is sold out, very high on the list of posters I’d want framed on my wall!
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Winter Warmer by Exeter based creative studio Buddy.
“Each year we send out a festive ‘Mulled Wine’ to clients and friends. Mulled wine is a traditional winter drink served warm, making it the perfect tonic to banish those winter chills…This year saw the birth of BUDDY’S ORIGINAL WINTER WARMER. The only sure and trusted way to ward off the icy claw of winter, and survive the manifold strifes of the festive season.”
Bit late for a christmas related blog post but couldn’t resist sharing this, so beautiful, definitely up there with Stranger & Stranger’s christmas projects (1,2 & 3). -
Happy Birthday Massimo Vignelli! He is 82 today, and definitely one of the great living designers. A modernist and a purist, as well as graphic design he has also been involved in many other disciplines including product and furniture design, which is lucky considering he is famous for saying among other things; “If you can design one thing, you can design everything.”
You can find more of his work here, plus lots more about him in this excellent post on Brain Pickings. But most of all you should read The Vignelli Canon, a free E-book published online back in 2009.
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Today is the 150th anniversary of the first journey by London Underground, seems a very good time to revisit my most viewed blog post ever; The Evolution of the London Underground Map :
Above left to right - 1908, 1908, 1910, 1911, 1927, 1933, 1937 and the present day. (Old maps are from here)
Before the development of the iconic diagram style map in 1931 the tube map was constantly changing, never sticking to a consistent style. Some maps showed what was going on overground too and most of them attempt to be geographically correct, showing the curves and turns of the lines. By 1927 the map has become much clearer and easier to follow.
The problem was that the train lines were getting longer and this made it impossible to fit everything into one map. Keeping it geographically accurate would have meant that the centre became smaller and harder to read, and the centre is the most densely packed and most important part. In comes Harry Beck in 1931, inspired by electronic circuit diagrams he had the idea of scrapping geographical accuracy and making all lines straight with only 45 and 90 degree angles. Design history was made and the map has barely changed since, becoming an icon and one of the easiest to use maps in the world!
I was disappointed not to see any commuters in party hats today, but very glad to see quite a lot of coverage online celebrating many of the great pieces of London Transport related designs from over the years.
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Currently reading: Hawksmoor (Penguin Decades) which has a nice cover designed by John Squire, as part of the Penguin Decades series for the 1980’s. More on that here.
The other books are Christmas presents, should keep me busy for a while! I like all of their designs as well; Hawthorn and Child which features an image by Tom Darracott. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared has a very long title, but also a nice cover design by Jonathan Pelham. I pretty much asked for The Underground Man based on it’s cover, but not sure who designed it (someone at Faber). Last of all is cook book Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, which is beautifully designed by Here (www.heredesign.co.uk).
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I saw someone tweet about Jessica Hische’s new font Minot today, and had a quick look at her website for the first time in ages. I was quite surprised to see a lot of work I didn’t recognise, since she is so popular I’d usually expect to see all her new work somewhere or other online ( although I’m definitely not looking at as much stuff now I’m working all the time). This advertising campaign for Bing is one such project that is new to me;
“Bing put together a really fun campaign this year that I was pumped to be a part of—each day they had a letterer create a search term, something you would do in the summer. For a week, my lettering was posted one day at a time, but it was really fun to see what some of the other letterers did for the project!” jessicahische.is/doingthingsthissummer
Her website is looking excellent as ever, I think I once blogged about it’s Teen Girl Mode, pleased to see it has now been joined by Swiss Mode and Field Notes Mode (hint: click the heart in the top right corner), quite a fun feature!
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Merry Christmas everyone!
Loved Saturdays festive Guardian weekend magazine cover by Stephen Collins, so thought I’d share it as my Christmas day blog post.
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To get in the festive spirit, here are some of the best holiday themed illustrations that I’ve seen on tumblr recently!
- Jon Klassen - http://jonklassen.tumblr.com/
- Andrew Kolb - http://news.kolbisneat.com/
- Charlotte Trounce - http://charlottetrounce.tumblr.com/
- Meg Hunt - http://showandtell.meghunt.com/
- Telegramme - http://blog.telegramme.co.uk/ (but found here)
- Rob Hodgson - http://robhodgson.tumblr.com/
- Matt Lyon - http://mattlyon.tumblr.com/
Have a good Christmas Eve everyone!
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NY Times- Favorite Book Cover Designs of 2012
“We asked people in and around the world of graphic design to name one of their favorite book covers from 2012 and briefly describe its appeal. “
Some really great designs! And picked by some of the best book designers around, oh and The Casual Optimist (who this link was via). While I’m on about book designers, people in the UK can see Jon Gray (featured here previously) on tv! Check out this on iplayer and skip to 25 minutes in, for a few minutes about book design.
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Screenprints by Two Times Elliott
Love these colour schemes, so simple and bold. £40 pounds each but some of them are sold out now.
Two Times Elliott are a London based creative consultancy doing some very interesting work at the moment, definitely well worth checking out their portfolio. Plus their website is a lesson in how to immaculately present work; http://www.2xelliott.co.uk/
Oh and their Tumblr is worth a follow too! - http://twotimeselliott.tumblr.com/
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Voting is now open for the Cover Junkie magazine cover poll of 2012. Above are my favorite 9, not sure which I like best though!
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Christmas Gift Ideas : #1 Present & Correct
Can’t believe I’ve never blogged about Present & Correct before! Set up by 2 graphic designers (it shows) in 2008, they sell an immaculately well curated collection of things; both modern and vintage. Mainly ephemera, stationary, prints and books which they source on travels around Europe 4 times a year. I absolutely love literally everything they sell, the shame is that the excellent variety means I’ve never actually bought anything from them…
But the good news is that they are opening a shop tomorrow 6th December, in Clerkenwell (info here). I’m hoping to go on saturday and have a look, and finally buy something from them (cheeky christmas present to myself perhaps). If you’re not in London then check the original online shop instead - http://presentandcorrect.com/
But they aren’t just a shop, they also have a brilliant blog, and are great across all social media platforms - Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Their blog has been a great source of images for my Mid-Century Modern blog, which they have very kindly tweeted about a few times in the past, so hopefully this post repays the favour!
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Another excellent branding project by Interbrand Australia ;
“Pearson Australia (owners of the Penguin Group) approached us to create a new brand for Bookworld. Pearson has recently purchased the digital assets of Borders and has transitioned the site and customers to Bookworld.com.au. Our brief was to build a compelling brand and an engaging experience. Our solution was born from asking ourselves a very simple question: have you ever wondered where the characters go when you close the book? The answer is, they go to Bookworld – where books come from.”
Love the logo and the illustrations, great work! Interbrand Australia have done some of my favorite identity projects of recent times, mainly I believe under the direction of English designer Mike Rigby. See more here http://www.standapart.com.au/ & http://www.mike-rigby.com/.
