Need to Know Basis: November 2008
Bargains! Bargains! Bargains! Get on down to Somerset House for the åbäke Garage Sale tomorrow to pick up cheap and cheerful Kitsune CDs [kitsune.fr] and loads of other stuff as part of the top Wouldn’t It Be Nice exhibition [somersethouse.org.uk] (sweeps the floor with the Design Museum’s ‘Design Cities’ exhibition [see 959]) ❤ Boicozine’s favourite ex-i-D Art Director, Stephen Male [via Flickr], has taken to helm at US Vogue [vogue.com] although you can’t tell just yet. We’ll be keeping a close eye on those butt-ugly horizontally scaled cover lines to see if he can make them right ❤ It’s all about collectives these days. This week’s collective (don’t worry, it’s this isn’t going to be a regular feature) goes by the name of the Goodfellas Network [goodfellasnetwork.com]. The Goodfellas are a truly international group for creative types including ex-Boicozine contributor Luis Mendo, who now runs the very excellent BladBlog [bladblog.nl] and Joachim Baan [anothercompany.org] amongst others ❤ Matt Pyke aka Universal Everything [via Vimeo] has been curating a collection of moving image works on the theme of synasthesia through his Advanced Beauty website and has just announcing the first Advanced Beauty DVD, available for pre-order now [advancedbeauty.org] ❤ Another ex-mitDR [thedesignersrepublic.com] employee, Michael C Place is a name any design geek will recognise instantly as Mr Build, well just ‘Build’ really [wearebuild.com]. He is currently doing a nice line in graphic interactivity through his Flickr site. Join in… [via Flickr] ❤ Every band should have an archive like this, for the lovingly collated artwork alone… [niagara.edu/neworder]. A weirdly elaborate version of the usually stark record sleeve for New Order’s True Faith is shown above.
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Paris by Computer
It’s a given that Paris is a city that’s pretty easy on the eye (unless you have a natural aversion to frippery) but, like any city, it has it’s less sedate parts of town… and now you can visit them from the comfort of your own computer using Google Map’s Street View [maps.google.com]. Which is good because I tried to go visit 104 [104.fr] on Tuesday but it was late… and dark… and the building shown directly below sacred the be-jeesus out of me. Luckily, it looks a lot less monolithic in daylight [maps.google.com]. Other places you can ‘visit’ include Osaka & Tokyo, Rome & Milan, Madrid & Barcelona, most of America and just about every major city in Australia (including Alice Springs). Phew!
Images © Google
Marker
This month marks two years of blog posts on Boicozine. Seems like a lot longer. Can I retire now? Here’s a few highlights:
First ever post, odd subject matter really [024] / Spooky Old Tom Adams [438] / A dash of Nilhism [142] / Phone Booth Fetishisation [340] / Most of the ‘Best Magazines Ever!’… apparently [132] / London Councils in ‘we’re a bit shit’ shocker! [260] / I’ve only just gone and lost everything! [009] / Teenbeat Forever [413] / The Unspectacular German Magazine Thingy [331] / Colophon was a definite highlight. Can’t wait for 2009 [118] [121] [113] [335] / Pyramid Power is a bit good [392] / Ssshhh! It’s typography and it’s a secret [386] / A blast from the Past [046] / London makes me grumpy… and often [425] / DIY Publishing Rules OK [274] / I left my heart (and mind) in Paris [277] / Akkurat is a bit popular [226] / A fever you won’t mind having [087] / Alex Stitt, unsung sing-a-long hero [085] / Review 2008 starts [005] / Boicozine HQ moves to Golden Lane [316] / Behold the sorry tale of ‘My worst job ever’ [144] / We start flogging stuff what we have made [465] / I tried to start a trend. Lucky it was sort of happening already [205] / The Tubes, randomly [380] / Typography is all wrong [379] / Want a Free Font? [366] / Nomi is upset and for good reason [356]
This typeface will repeat on you
Only proper type geeks know the pang of spotting a spanky new typeface and not being able to play with it like, straight away cause it’s too expensive or custom made or whatever. Replica had me converting Swiss Francs seconds after spotting it on the Lineto website [lineto.com/Replica]. It’s by the fine folk with the annoying website called Norm [norm.to] is rigourously designed and has the potential to knock Akkurat off it’s throne. Other recent typeface releases worth investigating: Facebuster [typetrust.com], StagDot (even though it is literally the Guardian’s [markboulton.co.uk] typeface in dot form) [vllg.com/Schwartzco/StagDot] and Doodeka [fontstruct.fontshop.com/doodeka].
Boicovideo #1: Destill Magazine Review
This is a bit of an experiment, partly inspired by a presentation by Jeremy Leslie [magculture.com/blog], Mark Porter [markporter.com] and Richard Spencer Powell [monocle.com] at St Bride’s last Wednesday, courtesy of YCN Live (Thanks James! It were top.) [ycnonline.com/live].
The big question that seems to be floating about at the moment is once you acknowledge the influence online media has had on traditional print media, how do you then make yourself visible when readers may not even be viewing your content through your own website. I’ve often wondered how many people visit Boicozine directly or prefer to view these here posts via a reader such as Google Reader [reader.google.com]. I know many of you still do because of the encouraging (and occasionally negative) comments I get when meeting readers in person. Film is shaping up to be the last vestige of branding for publications starting to aggregate content. So without further ado. The first Boicozine mini-movie thingy. It’s about a new magazine concept called Distill [distilldigital.com]. Let me know what you think of the video. Too fast? Too shabby? Too much like I’m liking the sound of my own voice? Post comments here on on the boicovideo Vimeo page [vimeo.com/boicovideo].
Things heard said in the Flickr ‘Graphic Design’ group: #001
“So typography is basically the study of the design of letterforms. Basically its arranging and choosing font styles, choosing the colour of a font, it’s placement, emphasis, etc… its all so easy really, nothing big. It’s common sense. At school, they didn’t mention anything about typography in my Graphic Design course. All they talked about was art etc… so when it came to design, we just did whatever looked nice.”
[flickr.com/groups/graphicdesign]
Assistance (Psst, Pass it on)
We need help: Press Publish, publisher of this here blog amongst other things, is looking for someone to help out with our many and varied activities. We need help writing and posting blog entries, answering emails, preparing artwork, attending events, documenting projects and generally keeping things moving.
All you will need: is an innate interest in any combination of editorial, design and publishing (hopefully all three). Experience not necessarily necessary. Enthusiasm and a finely tuned sense of fun (‘finely tuned sense of fun’… does that sound right to you? I’m not sure) will rank pretty high.
Register your interest and find out more by emailing michael[at]presspublish.info with the subject line ‘Assistance’. Include anything you think may be relevant. You can send formal CVs if you like, although we’ll probably be more interested in your interests and self-initiated stuff. Most jobs are boring anyways. :) Hope to hear from you soon… whoever you may be.
— The Management
All your back issues are belong to us
You can now pick up all four issues of the super lo-fi Fever Zine from their newly launched online shop [feverzine.co.uk]. Also, get yourself involved with their online network on myspace and facebook — they’ll soon be looking for all kinds of contributors for Issue 5.
Need to Know Basis #3
Spanish design and style magazine, Neo2 has just launched a blog [neo2.es/blog] and it’s pretty darn ace. Be sure to stop by the typography section where you can download some adventurous experiments with various letterforms. ¶ Punchdrunk [punchdrunk.org.uk] make amazing, immersive theatrical experiences. Their shows are guaranteed sell-outs and once experienced you’ll agree that there is nothing else like them. For their last sell-out event, which used the Edgar Allen Poe story ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ as a starting point, saw them taken over most of the Battersea Arts Centre [bac.org.uk]. Inside you were free to roam the many themed and dressed rooms, watching impromptu performances and seeking out hidden treasures. To get the jump on their next extravaganza you can now become a friend of Punchdrunk and help support this unique outfit. ¶ Mike Perry’s ‘Over & Over’ [papress.com] is only slightly disappointing because it follows on the heals of the excellent ‘Hand Job’ [papress.com]. The problem is a lot of the hand drawn stuff just starts to look a bit ’samey’. Still worth checking out. The spread above features the work of Stefan Marx [livincompany.de] ¶ Neon Addict [rampub.com], on the other hand, is deliriously ‘active’ stuff. The theme: nothing Pantone Florescent inks. The contributors: Bright sparks from the Japanese (and International) creative scene such as Adapter [adapter.jp], Alexander Gelman [designmachine.net/gelman], collect.apply [collectapply.jp] and Namaiki [namaiki.com]. This bright little package is then wrapped tight by the design team behind the Japanese edition of Dazed & Confused [nmca], ASYL [asyl.co.jp] and Bluemark [bluemark.co.jp]. ¶ It’s the Graniph annual tshirt design awards again. Check out the winners and grinners at [graniph.com/award]. ¶ Magazine as ‘finely crafted artifact’. That’s how the creators of Popular Noise describe their ace, new(ish) publication [popularnoise.net]. I dare you to find a more elaborate periodic format than this. 3 x 7″ vinyl records are slotted into a concertina’d and letter pressed poster. Editions are understandably limited to 300 per edition. ¶ Cecilia Lindgren [cecilialindgren.com] is Art Editor, and the woman behind, last year’s refresh of the Architects’ Journal [architectsjournal.co.uk]. She dropped us a line to let us know about a musical compilation called Cortical Songs on Non-Classical records [nonclassical.co.uk] which she has lent her design talents to. Cracking line-up too.
BTW Note to indie (and major) publishers everywhere. Keep sending in any announcements you may have and we’ll keep try to post em but if you want images of yer projects up on Boicozine either send us a copy for us the photograph (we love free stuff) or some unique imagery we can use. Cheers!
— with love from The Management
Boicozine Goes to Market
Tomorrow were setting up shop for a limited time only (like 4 or 5 hours) on the Golden Lane Estate [Google Map] next to London’s Barbican as part of their Market Day come Jumble Rumble. We’ll be selling all sorts of a Nik-n-Nak and Bric-a-Brac like second-hand tshirts, books and mags plus some shiny new bits-n-bobs. You’ll be able to pick our brains about stuff from the boicoshop too (we’ll have a couple of samples for you to pick up and fondle too) [shop.boico.net]. The nearest tube is Barbican but you get get there via St Pauls or Old Street or just jump on the 55. So pop along, it’ll be dead fun and nice to see you (faces to names etc). Laters! — The Management
