Poster Havana
I’m possibly a bit slow but I didn’t realise Poland wasn’t the only country to hold the title for richest history and dedication to the art of the poster. After looking up foreign movie posters on the internet highway, Cuba kept coming up again and again. Turns out Cuba even have their own poster design superstars (if this is totally old news to you please leave a comment berating my lack of historical… er… thingy). I guess it makes sense when you consider how iconic that image of Ché has become. Here’s a few (slightly digitally enhanced) examples for your perusal by René Azcuy, Eduardo Muñoz Bachs and Antonio Pérez (aka Ñiko).
Melbourne Malarkey
Following on from the ‘Magazine Houses’ discussion about Australian design, I’ve just purchased my copy of the first eva Melbourne Design Guide. Three Thousand describes it as… “Covering built design, product design, fashion design, graphic design, craft, arts, food and nightlife, festivals and events, tours, day trips. The guide is not only comprehensive but also easy to navigate. Editors Ewan McEoin and Viviane Stappmans have worked with lab.3000 and Studio Round to create something that Melbourne is in need of – actual proof to ‘outsiders’ that the city is Australia’s creative capital.” No in built lack of confidence there then. Hurrah!
No Tell Hotel
Fancy crawling through a tunnel dug out from underneath a grotty old warehouse in East London after climbing down through a fridge that was sitting in the corner of a porn den/makeshift boxing club? Thought you might and, I have to say, although it took me a couple of circuits round the installation before getting the guts up to climb into the fridge, the whole experience was well worth it. ¶ What the heck am I on about? Well, it’s Christoph Büchel’s installation entitled ‘Simply Botiful’ at Hauser & Wirth Coppermill in Bethnal Green. This exhibition marks the launch of Hauser & Wirth’s newly acquired space. You can see some images of the empty space here. I don’t want to give too much away about Christoph Büchel’s installation but there is a walkthrough on the Hauser & Wirth website if you’re not too keen on surprises. I guarantee won’t recognise the space from these pictures.
Trés Exclusive Tees
You know you’re pretty exclusive when you only have one store on your stockists list… either that or the To-Orist website needs updating (here’s hoping it’s the later). Still, if you are anywhere near West London’s Portobello Market, check in at Supra to see some of the brightest, most cock-sure and generally pretty darn ace tshirts and sweatshirts around at the moment. Neue Rave ain’t even in it.
Magazine Houses
It could be just me, but it looks like there has been a recent resurgence in magazines on the subject of Architecture. I don’t know if it’s some sort of ‘Mark Effect’ (see link below) or if architecture has suddenly become ‘hip’ or just sheer coincidence, but new magazines on architecture seem to be cropping up every few months. Over at MagCulture you can read about two newbies, Architect [magculture.com/blog/341] and Pin-Up [magculture.com/blog/340]. I have a few favourites already (if you’ve been following this blog you’ll already know how excited I was about Mark Magazine [mark-magazine.com]) so I thought it was worth noting a few down if you were feeling like checking any out:
A10 [a10.eu]
I found this yesterday on the shelves of the Tate Modern bookstore and have become an instant fan. It’s designed and art directed by Arjun Groot [nultwintig.com/groot], who has already lent his witty and typically dutch style to magazines such as Blvd. and Credits and features a ‘noteboard’ style approach where articles seem to run on from page to page with features denoted by scale of images etc. It also includes a quirky selection of fonts that should fight one another but here they add energy to what could, otherwise, be a bit of a staid read.
Volume [archis.org]
Archis was a somewhat bewildering mixture of features about and around the subject of architecture with bizarre and seemingly random page layouts including perforated sections on the bottom of pages so you could tear bits of them off. Volume is a new project by the same team and, although some of the quirk has been knocked out of the format, it’s is still no less intriguing with a theme per issue. The latest version is about China.
(inside) [niche.com.au/inside]
Niche publishing are probably Australia’s premiere creative magazine publishers. Having said that, it’s disappointing to note that they have never seen fit to try and push any of their titles to a wider, international audience, which seems to betray a certain lack of confidence that is common to Australian Design in general. This is not to say they don’t produce some excellent titles. Niche’s ‘Interior Architecture’ magazine, (inside) is particularly good (sort of like an Australian ‘Frame’ [framemag.com]), if not just for the lush covers they produce. Architectural Review Australia [niche.com.au/ar] is also worth having a look at.
Premium Bond
Following on from the International Herald Tribune’s article on film poster designers. I can’t help having a bit of a go at Casino Royale… Not the film, mind. I saw the film last night and am happy to report that Daniel Craig makes poor old Pierce Brosnon and Roger Moore look like Sophia Loren’s male equivalents. Particularly cruel was coming home and switching on the telly to find ‘For Your Eyes Only’ playing. Yikes! My only critisisms are that most of the women still look like painted monsters stuck in 1989 and the Chris Cornell theme song made me bolt from the cinema at the end of the film. It’s dire.
No, my real critisism is a lot pettier than that. It’s the ruddy font they have used for the title ‘Casino Royale’. I know a lot of people shrug off this sort of thing but getting the right font adds quality to your film and James Bond has to be about quality, right. James Bond is expensive. Century Gothic [identifont] is not. In fact, if you have a look, it’s probably lurking about on your computer as we speak.
Why is it free for anyone to use without, necessarily, having to pay for it? Why do they have a to give it away? Well, for the same reason you didn’t pay for Arial or Impact. It’s another shoddy redraw of a classic font made to avoid having to pay for licensing the real thing. Shame Daniel Kleinman (whose new titles are pretty fab but still not a patch on Saul Bass), when you had the choice of a well cut classic or one the latest crop of rigorously developed cut geometric style typefaces currently available (there’s a few suggestions above). Would Bond have approved?
Want to check out almost every Bond opening sequence eva? Here’s your linkage: [cinematical.com]
New Improved Direct Action
Coming from packaging weary Melbourne, where although there is probably just as much wasteful over packaging as anywhere else, many a suburban household has been ostracised for not wearing it’s recycling ‘badge of honour’ with pride. (I still wonder where all the recycling in Australia goes, I imagine there is a pile of the stuff the size of Britain somewhere in China). I’ve been following Britain’s love affair with the plastic bag and similar over packaged goods for sometime now so it’s nice to see the media and the government finally reacting to what is probably a problem that shouldn’t be too hard to fix. ¶ In typical New Labour style, they have managed to display their complete lack of control of British industry (think runaway train) and put the onus on the consumer to let supermarkets know what they need to do. Surely a little legislation and it’s fixed. I wonder too if the government is suggesting Direct Action as the new way to get things done, in which case we can look forward to storming parliament, unimpeded, in the near future. Sounds like fun, just let us know when you’re ready. Cheers.
Room with a Vujj
Still on a furniture tip but this time from further afield comes Vujj (just don’t ask me how to say it). A frisky young brand from Sweden (close to it’s border with Denmark, they hasten to add in their Bio), with a whip-smart identity from the house of PMKFA. ¶ I can’t tell you what the comfort factor is on these pieces although anyone who visited 100% Design earlier this year would have been able to get a preview of their range and if you have a very slight leaning towards form over function (hey, it’s the modern dilemma) then they may just look lush enough to win you over (‘you’, being someone who can afford designer furniture; ‘me’, being someone who can only paw at it in posh showrooms).
Posh Modernism
Established & Sons take their online magazine very seriously. Twice now they’ve fooled me into searching about their website to see if there is a printed version. Alas, it’s nowhere to be seen, but it’s interesting to see the sort of concessions design agency, Made Thought have had to make to promote online readability. For a start the text is huge (but not unweariedly). The whole site is reassuringly slick and worth having a look as is Mr Tom Dixon’s website. Not as flash (or flashy) as Established & Sons, the Tom Dixon website presents projects and products from the man that helped shake up Habitat and bought it bang up to date.
KDDI calling
Okay, this phone has been around for some time now but I’m still hoping the mobile phone industry outside of Japan will catch up to it’s sleek and rational design aesthetic. Have a look at the now very familiar Neon phone designed by Naoto Fukasawa for the ‘au by KDDI’ design project and help spread the gadget envy.
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