tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9792920442259760132024-03-13T08:47:54.272-07:00ac4designOn matters of design & art directionAlex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-48543969484757339382012-05-08T08:34:00.001-07:002012-05-08T08:37:49.019-07:00Fuse: light touch paper & stand well back<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZipOWcl5EesoFhT216PMxIGPgUwQaGX3q5HAoFTm9oBEPXuENyEBCTzp99imDag_W1RmahVwlk0q3y9RaXpkUU3SRWMgOWD2nri-_YlQ_Mat1Mt6TfOGQOU1xVN1i-RyjW4x6ZaG750LN/s1600/fuse-magazine1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZipOWcl5EesoFhT216PMxIGPgUwQaGX3q5HAoFTm9oBEPXuENyEBCTzp99imDag_W1RmahVwlk0q3y9RaXpkUU3SRWMgOWD2nri-_YlQ_Mat1Mt6TfOGQOU1xVN1i-RyjW4x6ZaG750LN/s1600/fuse-magazine1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fuse magazine</td></tr>
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The electronic revolution in communications that characterised the last two decades of the twentieth century demanded a new and dynamic visual form. Fuse magazine was at the forefront of these revolutionary times.<br />
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Fuse was a quarterly experimental type magazine launched by the designer/editor partnership of Neville Brody and Jon Wozencroft and was produced in association with Fontshop International. Fuse would facilitate a dialogue between the visual arts and design communities internationally. It attracted artists, type designers, graphic designers and art directors to its project of redefining [visual] language for the digital age.<br />
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While the Fuse project set its sights firmly on a multi-dimensional, multi-media and digitised future, it pragmatically employed traditional forms of printed communication to inspire and critique. Each issue of Fuse was packaged in neutral-brown corrugated cardboard and contained a ‘floppy’ disk with experimental typefaces and five A2 posters. The editorial team commissioned four leading typographers to design an exclusive font with a poster showing an example of a creative application. A fifth poster provided information about the contributors, typefaces and that issues theme. Fuse was edited by Wozencroft and designed by Brody.<br />
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Throughout the 1990s the experimental spirit nurtured by the magazine was further consolidated through its influential annual conferences in the mid-nineties. Conceived as an area free of the commercial considerations of the client/designer/user relationship Brody saw the necessity of the Fuse project in terms beyond mere commercial application. In an interview with design critic Rick Poynor in Design Without Boundaries, Brody laid out the aim of Fuse as, ‘divorcing the look of the word, from what the word says’. At its core, the scope of the Fuse project, while rooted in the creative industries, lay beyond a mere critique of graphic design and looked towards an exploration of the very social relations that give rise to it.<br />
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Fuse offered one of the few industry-wide international forums for disparate, like-minded, experimental type designers. The interface between the individual digital authors and the majority of their users would remain the printed poster. Brody saw this conundrum as ‘a platform to promote a dialogue on the extent to which the digital code alters communication’.<br />
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Over the next decade, Fuse offered a multi-layered and multi-dimensional aesthetic that would attempt to employ type as image and image as story. This use of type and graphic marks as complete, story-telling devices, implicated the type designer as central in the creation of a new visual language. Brody proclaimed, ‘I’m divorcing the look of the word from what the word says’. In its new digital form typography had to be more than an invisible form in the service of the written word. Beatrice Warde’s analogous Crystal Goblet would be smashed on entry to the brave new digitised world. Fuse employed abstract and organic architectural forms in its type designs. Little distinction was made between image and type. The new visual language would reject this hierarchy in favour of a more harmonious and equal value relation between word and image in future-oriented digital communications.<br />
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The premier issue featured four British designers, Phil Baines, Malcolm Garrett, Ian Swift and Fuse founder, Neville Brody. The paper engineering of the understated branded packaging that safely delivered each issue of Fuse gave only a glimpse of what was waiting inside. The magazines editorial poster, also designed by Brody, set the authorial design and editorial tone for subsequent issues. Fuse employed the language of revolution, but with some contemporary prejudices. While speaking of breaking with convention it did so with a spiritual and sometimes irrational timbre, where ‘typography [is] practiced as an occult art’. It attempted to rally the troops behind a new visual language that would kick against the established design and typographic leadership by ‘liberating typography’. The design aesthetic included layered, bold and blurred typography, creating a sense of depth and space. The steely blue background colour evoked a modern, architectural digital aesthetic.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirDFnQhqbKkvjFM1XMcDsh3cB_5soWkWZ9PP9leuKTlneJjWcPgEFQFbcXAYWwo2_HPmtz-gDoI-cOeyzFZGX0BGqjggYQOj2dCPLe4uNdIVPG_Js8dmSJ62P7lro4__6Y2TvT_oSSxYc/s1600/stealth1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirDFnQhqbKkvjFM1XMcDsh3cB_5soWkWZ9PP9leuKTlneJjWcPgEFQFbcXAYWwo2_HPmtz-gDoI-cOeyzFZGX0BGqjggYQOj2dCPLe4uNdIVPG_Js8dmSJ62P7lro4__6Y2TvT_oSSxYc/s1600/stealth1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FF Stealth, Malcolm Garrett, 1991</td></tr>
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Fuse 1 ‘Invention the trouble with type’ saw editor Jon Wozencroft aim his initial volley of intellectual firepower at typographic convention and tradition and ‘the impossible pursuit of the “classic” typeface’ instead, arguing for the creation of ‘type for the present environment’. While the editorial poster design set a creatively professional but radical tone, it is the contents of the disc that offers the challenge and contemporary critique. Malcolm Garrett’s ‘Stealth’ offers semi-abstract, but still individually recognisable type forms, reversed out of black squares. An overt critique of the traditional typographic notion of the legibility of words, formed by upper and lower case letters, being read as complete shapes and not as a collection of individual letters. ‘Can You (read me)?’ by Phil Baines, hints at classical proportions, while removing as much of the individual character as he dared, and then a little more. Ian Swift’s more sharply angular, ‘Maze’, attempts to lose the viewer in their attempts to ‘read’ his designs. Brody’s own design, ‘State’, gives equal weight to the positive and negative space of his characters, creating a visually sharp, cutting and slashing, but conjoining face.<br />
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The first issue launched us into the murky, highly contested waters of typographic legibility and demands a response. The critical force behind the Fuse project was not simply about challenging typographic convention in its function and its form, but required a reassessment of how we communicate, both as designer/users and as receiver/users. As Wozencroft would have it, ‘Producers and purchasers are urged to experiment with digital language in a context liberated from client/commercial constraints – contributors are briefed to push the boundaries of both the printed word and its fusing into electronic language so that typography’s professional representation in graphic design is revolutionised’. Practically this was no empty gesture from the new electronic publisher, at least technologically speaking. Subscribers to Fuse were encouraged to not simply visually interpret the ‘fonts’ but actually redraw them using widely available software as they were free from industry standard, copyright restrictions.<br />
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Fuse 2 ‘Runes: wind blasted trees’ saw a further push towards abstraction. Contributions by innovative Dutch typographers included ‘Niwida’ by Erik van Blokland; Gerard Unger’s ‘Decoder’ font with ‘Fixel’ and ‘Linear Konstrukt’ by Just van Rossum and Max Kisman respectively.<br />
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With the arrival of Fuse 3 ‘Disinformation: point to line and plane’ the experimental editorial line, while still questioning, could be said to be on more conventional ground with its concentration on information design. Designs of a more familiar form were offered by German designers Erik Spiekermann’s ‘Grid’, Martin Wenzel gave us ‘InTegal’, Barbara Butterweck’s offered ‘Dear John’ and Swiss designer Cornell Windlin added ‘Moonbase Alpha’.<br />
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Following on from what might have been considered more recognisable fonts came representatives of the American ‘new wave’.<br />
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Fuse 4 ‘Exuberance: a type of death’ announced ‘Caustic Biomorph’ by Barry Deck, ‘Lushus’ by Jefferey Keedy, ‘Uck n Pretty’ by Rick Valicenti and ‘Yurnacular’ by David Berlow and rounded off the first year and 4 publications of Fuse.<br />
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The Fuse project had a mission to bring together type designers conversant in the new digital technologies with a background in experimental design. Attempts at challenging notions of language and how we communicate was evidenced not only in the professionals attracted around it but also the number of designers engaged with it through the publication and its conferences. Three Fuse conferences were held, in London (1994), Berlin (1996), San Francisco (1998) and a special event in Tokyo, 1999. The conferences brought together speakers from the creative disciplines of design, architecture, sound, film and interactive design and the web. The conferences played an important role in broadening the appeal of the project to new audiences.<br />
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Through the development and application of new digital technologies under the initial authorship and guidance of leading, international designers, a fledgling visual language arose through and on digital technology that promised a dynamic visual alternative to a new generation of designers. It was a visual language that spoke of revolutionary change at a time of social and cultural flux. It was a visual metaphor that favoured the new and struck out in favour of changing the way we see and how we communicate.<br />
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Fuse nevertheless attracted it share of critics, most vocal among them was the designer/critic Michael Rock who, after 10 issues countered, ‘Perhaps the most curious aspect of the magazine is the poster collection that serves as a showcase for each issue’s assembled talent. But next to the lively type design, the compositions seem loose and unfocused. Each is a two-colour font specimen demonstrating one of the featured alphabets, although most of the posters seem to shirk that feature of their job. Rock’s criticism exposed the limitations of experimental work whose founders saw their role as disconnected, if not hostile, to the commercial world. Many of the contributions by Fuse designers further suggested the anti-commercial strategy was problematic – as illustrated by their rejection of Brody’s request to further abstract their type forms towards illegibility.<br />
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Historically, typographic experimentation has played a crucial role in the development of language and its graphic representation. In the last century typography has been a central factor in the way we see and read the world. The Futurists used typography to uncover the ever-increasing speed of early twentieth century society, while the Modernists searched for the universal typeface. Herbert Bayer’s phonetic alphabet carried on the work of his predecessors well into the 1950s. The 60s saw further experimentation with a new alphabet by Dutch designer, Wim Crouwel. All put language and typography under the spotlight, and in the service of better communication.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCsAR2Gi7LTYVeyzk5pPL_hC9Gw22LvT2uivHg3hk2wNm9-mebqwLfqRuGGsHAWPlIf2B323CgidBJLsDL4R0Ysggrvv7gN0F0DsyLX3qubkUZ5_nw9DBGfxXO9C5FpuOmV3z3PGHk2UCk/s1600/NewAlphabet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCsAR2Gi7LTYVeyzk5pPL_hC9Gw22LvT2uivHg3hk2wNm9-mebqwLfqRuGGsHAWPlIf2B323CgidBJLsDL4R0Ysggrvv7gN0F0DsyLX3qubkUZ5_nw9DBGfxXO9C5FpuOmV3z3PGHk2UCk/s1600/NewAlphabet.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Alphabet, Wim Crouwel, 1967</td></tr>
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The Fuse magazine project similarly asked some fundamental questions about the way we communicate and the visual language we employ to further refine and illuminate the process. But its rejection of commercial considerations – a contemporary impulse – that would necessarily restrict its potential and application and would consign it to the radical art ghetto. Nevertheless, it highlighted the need for a new approach to an unfamiliar mode of communication and certainly contributed to an emerging new media aesthetic.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-54300788377167053642012-05-08T08:10:00.001-07:002012-05-08T08:10:33.339-07:00Rehabilitating Blackletter<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW0tg644V6VZxFHCjSMQ0UITrt5tHkL-Iqum6gbAzvBynmpqrSbNhhl0qqF7ZPnTTwqgrkxMbyJ6qaJDMFIwyelEuvAucZZfRfSfLlyGZOfKnH3EdTpcHHUCqHPgRgBZTrMK6DFq-O44KB/s1600/JonathanBarnbrook-BastardEvenFatter-1995.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW0tg644V6VZxFHCjSMQ0UITrt5tHkL-Iqum6gbAzvBynmpqrSbNhhl0qqF7ZPnTTwqgrkxMbyJ6qaJDMFIwyelEuvAucZZfRfSfLlyGZOfKnH3EdTpcHHUCqHPgRgBZTrMK6DFq-O44KB/s1600/JonathanBarnbrook-BastardEvenFatter-1995.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bastard – Even Fatter, Jonathan Barnbrook,1995</td></tr>
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The contemporary use of Blackletter [aka broken script or gothic] is
far from ubiquitous, it nevertheless occupies a prominent and important
place in the post WWII British counter-cultural landscape.<br />
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Blackletter is a visual identifier of the ‘outsider’ status of many
counter-cultural groups – it has been adopted by ‘anti-capitalist’
protest groups and ‘alternative’ musicians from punks, metalheads and
rappers, and by the ‘street’ sports of skateboarding and BMX as well as
‘Hells Angels’ motorcycle clubs in multiple visual forms like tattoos,
logos, artwork and apparel. It has also been co-opted by more mainstream
associative, consumer brands from Nike to Paco Rabanne in their
attempts to appeal to alternative sub-cultural consumers.<br />
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The use of Blackletter in counter-cultural visual matter symbolises an
anti-establishment sentiment that has a peculiar resonance in Britain –
one that is inextricably linked to Britain’s war with Germany. For a
short time, the Nazi regime in Germany promoted Blackletter forms as the
true German typeface. At the time of their rise to power, half of all
German books were still printed using Blackletter – and it was the only
country left that still used it for continuous reading text [1].<br />
By the time war broke, the Nazi propaganda machine seized on this
cultural anomoly with customary zeal, as was evident in an early piece
of Fascist print communication; ‘Feel German / think German / speak
German / be German / even in your script’. The idea that Blackletter is
particularly Germanic seems to have some historical credibility.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhqDSshFPK_D6aQBu1-q1m8LQSqsmoJqfCNYN8wHb0aQzv394vGeIJUZfdtFs631hv7l3oMPPXvwEjepg1HxY9_EkeGytaydbbmj83WT7637LDqtui07C9bH0l799K7wcdPDF-9g9b5qaX/s1600/Bible.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhqDSshFPK_D6aQBu1-q1m8LQSqsmoJqfCNYN8wHb0aQzv394vGeIJUZfdtFs631hv7l3oMPPXvwEjepg1HxY9_EkeGytaydbbmj83WT7637LDqtui07C9bH0l799K7wcdPDF-9g9b5qaX/s1600/Bible.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Johannes Gutenberg’s 42-line Mazarin Bible, [c. 1454-55]</td></tr>
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Blackletter was immortalised in print by Johannes Gutenberg’s 42-line
Mazarin Bible [c. 1454-55] that used the Blackletter typeface, Textus
Quadratus [or Gothic Textura] throughout. Bible’s printed thereafter
would use Roman letterforms. Nicholas Jenson’s Veneta in Urbe [1470] and
Aldus Manutius’s De Aetna [1495] were set in Jenson-Eusebius and Bembo
respectively.<br />
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The spread of roman letterforms in print throughout fifteenth and
sixteenth century Renaissance Europe marked the demise of Blackletter
[2]. Although some exceptions, such as Martin Luther’s New Testament
[1522], set in Schwabacher Blackletter, would serve to cement the
association of Blackletter and Germanic-speaking countries. By the end
of the eighteenth century Blackletter was perceived as a German
provincialism [3]. Germany’s cultural association with Blackletter was
more a case of historical accident rather than Blackletter possessing
inherently Germanic characteristics. The emergence of a modern, and
increasinly connected, Europe cemented Blackletter’s decline.<br />
<br />
But for all the Nazi regime’s rhetoric around Blackletter their reading
of its history was as selective as their support was pragmatic. When it
served propagandistic purposes, Blackletter was used to evoked the
spirit of the German people or ‘volk’. But when more important national
needs demanded it, Blackletter would find itself consigned to the
dustbin of history. In 1941, Blackletter was outlawed by decree as a
‘Jewish’ typeface. As Hitler’s armies invaded and occupied European
countries their need to communicate clearly superseded notions of
cultural histories [4].<br />
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For post-medieval Europe, the story of Blackletter has been one of
contestation and demise. The needs of modern European countries had cast
aside a letterform that was of the past and had found new letterforms
more suited to its expanding economic, cultural and technological
challenges [5].<br />
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So with its recent history apparently conspiring against it, it is
somewhat surprising that Blackletter would have anything other than a
negative cultural significance in Britain today. Irrespective of the
Nazi Party’s abandonment of Blackletter it would become synonymous with
Germany and with Adolf Hitler and fascism. As Nazi propaganda used
Blackletter against Jewish people, so Britain would in turn use it
against Germany. These conditions would persist as long as the moral and
ideological imperatives, formed through the collective experience of
WWII, remained intact.<br />
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By the 1970’s, Britain’s post-war political and cultural landscape began
to unravel and found its cultural expression, most visibly at least,
through punk rock. Punk embodied a wider social malaise that was fearful
of the future and contemptuous of Britain’s post-WWII past [6]. It was a
visual expression of a new cultural elite that would go on to cohere
around the theory of postmodernism. An elite that had lost faith in the
enlightenment project of continuous human progress and scientific
reason, as expressed in modernism [7]. In its form it was
anti-establishment, anti-royalist and anti-future. It was an aesthetic
that mirrored the collapse of relative economic stability and post-war
Victorian values. It set its sights on the last British taboo – fascism
[read Germany], and subverted it by utilising its symbols, in particular
the use of the swastika and Blackletter type.<br />
<br />
Past historical type revivals of the late nineteenth century – by the
Arts & Crafts movement in England led by William Morris and in
Germany by Rudolf Koch – were marginal in their influence of political
life [8]. What distinguishes them from contemporary postmodern revivals
is best measured by their ideological influence. The rise of modern
industrial Europe meant a Europe in political and economic flux. The
expansion of markets and technological innovation found a conservative
cultural reaction in the Arts & Crafts movement. Its influence was,
however, largely ineffectual and limited to the margins of the cultural
sphere in Europe. Today their template has been adapted for new times
but has a broader mainstream appeal.<br />
<br />
Where the rehabilitation of Blackletter is concerned, the postmodern
cultural reaction is a degenerate, backward-looking one. It possesses
little of previous revivalists concern for ‘higher quality … [and]
aesthetic standards’ [9]. The Postmodernist plunder of Blackletter in
Britain serves only to regurgitate propaganda and myth and further
discredits the very thing it seeks to rehabilitate, by perpetuating its
bastardised, outsider status.<br />
<br />
……….. <br />
<br />
[1] Burke C, Paul Renner: the Art of Typography, Hyphen Press, London, 1998<br />
[2] Bain P & Shaw P, Blackletter: Type & National Identity, London, 1998<br />
[3] Burke C, Paul Renner: the Art of Typography, Hyphen Press, London, 1998<br />
[4] Garfield S, Just My Type, Profile Books, London, 2010<br />
[5] Spiekermann E & Ginger E, Stop Stealing Sheep and find out how type works, Adobe Press, 2003<br />
[6] Savage J, Ehgland’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock (second edition), Faber, 2005<br />
[7] Poynor R, No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism, Yale, USA, 2003<br />
[8] + [9] Heller S & Fili L, Typology: Type Design from the Victorian Age to the Digital Age, Chronicle Books, USA, 1999<br />
<br />Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-70998450852247099082011-07-01T14:19:00.000-07:002011-09-20T11:27:13.136-07:00Home Invasion of the graphic form<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvq3n2C5F0cH5GtuRNakdf3Zd3G_ZXXD7waPvWELq_P9Fw_hgzC5hjwWWG4iiTyQKut0GPhQnVWN2yB5m84U5RTGsq8adTrLTpsiRT_Co3YGO8gEEmccODXLy9V0qQYD4MpRVxUpyk66f/s1600/Kitcsh.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624512073559037922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvq3n2C5F0cH5GtuRNakdf3Zd3G_ZXXD7waPvWELq_P9Fw_hgzC5hjwWWG4iiTyQKut0GPhQnVWN2yB5m84U5RTGsq8adTrLTpsiRT_Co3YGO8gEEmccODXLy9V0qQYD4MpRVxUpyk66f/s400/Kitcsh.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 280px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdwyYr9YhUEm0sqDmgNe_9m4WVLRUQ4yossl2Ke46GZXlfWYFBhnlPPQ9Vm89zMoppKgFlxGr0WtjJlKt1t7l6-gWTyXVSxBi2PBFhUyUXUr5swcQ7BMgRXd0GaRdrRnhKfP7Vjg9_A5N/s1600/Cassandre.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624511942608549714" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdwyYr9YhUEm0sqDmgNe_9m4WVLRUQ4yossl2Ke46GZXlfWYFBhnlPPQ9Vm89zMoppKgFlxGr0WtjJlKt1t7l6-gWTyXVSxBi2PBFhUyUXUr5swcQ7BMgRXd0GaRdrRnhKfP7Vjg9_A5N/s400/Cassandre.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1sQqNVU3oiE8NN-0rET9XS88h0Vvhqiaxx_onFib_1-u-U2TrRxSJB8nGOyyEK0N6WbZXA8cq7sI401-Z75GZuW0_y5Gmb5BLATsAdsjJJ7QuHjJcH4v9QsKEYNmLg8EXRkZMh7X2ZdX/s1600/Bass.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624511696495902994" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1sQqNVU3oiE8NN-0rET9XS88h0Vvhqiaxx_onFib_1-u-U2TrRxSJB8nGOyyEK0N6WbZXA8cq7sI401-Z75GZuW0_y5Gmb5BLATsAdsjJJ7QuHjJcH4v9QsKEYNmLg8EXRkZMh7X2ZdX/s400/Bass.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
To find that the homes of many contemporary graphic designers<br />
are adorned with posters designed by giants like Saul Bass and<br />
A M Cassandre, is no great surprise. What might raise an eyebrow however, is the growing popularity of such work among a wider public.<br />
<br />
With their vibrant form, evocative content and their craft skills apparent in the work, it is little wonder that these posters are finding a critical art audience.<br />
<br />
American designer Bass is well known for his work on film: Advise and Consent; Vertigo; Bunny Lake is Missing and The Man With the Golden Arm. Bass developed a hand crafted, cut-out style that employed few colours – usually red and black – but to great effect.<br />
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French graphic designer A M Cassandre’s work in Travel: Air Orient (France); Italian Tourist Board, and American cruise company United States Lines – had more of a clean-lined, future oriented aesthetic.<br />
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If, like me, you were raised on an aesthetic diet of religious iconography and aspirational, yet undoubtedly mediocre mass produced art by the likes of JH Lynch or Vladimir Tretchikoff – ‘Tina’ or ‘Balinese Girl' respectively – the question of what adorns the walls of ones home takes on a significance akin to curating at the Tate.<br />
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For anyone with similar memories, the re-appropriation and re-presentation of this type of interior decoration as kitsch popular culture only prolongs the visual nightmare.<br />
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The graphic poster is a very different animal. A sales and mass-marketing aid of the 20th century has been reassessed for a new audience and an altogether different purpose. The graphic poster has become the object of desire where it once was a mediator.<br />
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The growing cultural capital of the graphic poster over the last 20 years is well illustrated on the imaginary walls of TV sitcoms. From the home studio walls of whore-master Charlie Harper in ‘Two and a half Men’ the office-space of Dr Wilson in ‘House’, the poster plays a silent but important bit-part in documenting its growing popularity among a wider public.<br />
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Innovative then, inspiring now, the graphic poster is an aesthetic form that chimes with our media-centric, pop art times and one for the discerning graphic art connoisseur. But the implication for graphic design is that the poster has changed, utterly, and will never again be the communications powerhouse it once was.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-28733361873806006632011-03-20T05:16:00.000-07:002011-03-20T05:50:34.031-07:00Solidarity with Japan<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy7zshBSeoRZ-8RldWltiTyfW3unyQiXNM8mFN9V_k7KUcdRD3KlmsSBDDdL_4vj3iyXsr2SehJjpoo9SAvmpyQVfiBN1kPcX8YUJ5i7qAi4zGuJltogt5lkuzoqwypJkb9mQwL-4CI5Ph/s1600/japan.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 322px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy7zshBSeoRZ-8RldWltiTyfW3unyQiXNM8mFN9V_k7KUcdRD3KlmsSBDDdL_4vj3iyXsr2SehJjpoo9SAvmpyQVfiBN1kPcX8YUJ5i7qAi4zGuJltogt5lkuzoqwypJkb9mQwL-4CI5Ph/s400/japan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586142116801352690" /></a><br />Students of the Design Communication and Digital Media school at Cavendish College in London have rallied behind a fellow student from Japan. To help raise money, they have designed posters to highlight how students, in the first instance, can contribute to the relief effort, following the recent devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Northern Japan.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.justgiving.com/japanposters">view the posters and donate</a>Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-22230489826165561572011-02-27T08:37:00.000-08:002011-04-16T04:36:46.991-07:00R U Ready 4 PP?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjAxW4wQEW4bu78aVVdXWsBw7krHepDKB0tTwfjyQKlj6s0XEDyQNjTESpRW88brWfNimN_KOxNP54ygSXdYYXttwQ1Ya1jNBbfnFIEOqqcCWPZoOHndPcM_NHGVX4fR1HyUxmpBCtgLVm/s1600/PP.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjAxW4wQEW4bu78aVVdXWsBw7krHepDKB0tTwfjyQKlj6s0XEDyQNjTESpRW88brWfNimN_KOxNP54ygSXdYYXttwQ1Ya1jNBbfnFIEOqqcCWPZoOHndPcM_NHGVX4fR1HyUxmpBCtgLVm/s400/PP.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5578410123434717058" /></a><br />Of course product placement is nothing new on television, but from the end of February 2011, product placement in the UK will be legitimised and regulated by Ofcom with the arrival of their ‘PP’ logo. For a minimum of 3 seconds at the beginning of a programme, after adverts and again at the end, broadcasters will be required to show the PP logo on screen.<br /><br />Ofcom’s new rules were conceived to allow broadcasters to access new revenue streams, while at the same time protecting viewers. It is this tension that gets to the heart of the matter. That as viewers we are seen as helpless victims of unscrupulous programme-makers in need of protection is bad enough. But for Ofcom to offer a logo to save our souls is pretty pathetic.<br /><br />Nevertheless Ofcom could be making TV history here in the UK. It is just possible that this is the first time a logotype is held responsible for our visual, financial and moral well-being?<br /><br />If the world wide web has taught us anything, it is that ‘invasive’ or unsolicited advertising tends to have more of a negative impact on a brand than than a determining one on the consumer. <br /><br />This issue is moral posturing on the part of Ofcom and the government and tells us little about the effects of design and advertising.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-67796566597295308142010-10-11T06:09:00.000-07:002010-10-29T08:47:10.545-07:00Emerge 2010 poster<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_RF396qcQ5hs5Z00k-k51LXY_qr1XSgVP5ZTE6ibFQUFQ4kQwRx7WKhwyBCx1KO1ng91pT_ZXBbo3p1_lI4s2c-AqUr2en6qSuvmA0KBBg-he_hF8ziZRX4gi3PtzpJ8gw7aTm34EJFAl/s1600/emerge.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 343px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_RF396qcQ5hs5Z00k-k51LXY_qr1XSgVP5ZTE6ibFQUFQ4kQwRx7WKhwyBCx1KO1ng91pT_ZXBbo3p1_lI4s2c-AqUr2en6qSuvmA0KBBg-he_hF8ziZRX4gi3PtzpJ8gw7aTm34EJFAl/s400/emerge.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526777179739555682" /></a><br />'Emerge', in its second year as part of the London Design Festival, is a 'showcase' of design students handpicked by Pentagram's Dominic Lippa. The resulting posters will be displayed in East London tube stations. What at first sight seems like a great idea, quickly and most unfortunately, loses its way.<br /><br />Presuming that I have had the correct information on the 'brief' – 'using only Pantone colours 485 and 361 they were to design a poster based on one of the letters or numbers E m e r g e 2 0 1 0.' – this was a missed opportunity, especially it being for recent design graduates. <br /><br />The above is not really a brief at all. It means the practitioners need think little or nothing of context, audience, purpose or indeed the history of type and typography. <br /><br />Of course this is not their fault! But for someone of the stature and experience of Dominic Lippa we might have expected better. Free reign is one thing but this is quite another. <br /><br />It could have been much more of a challenge for both the practitioner and the audience if the poster project played a part in illuminating the design process, instead we are left with mere decoration. <br /><br />Modernist architect and designer Adolf Loos – author of 'decoration is a crime' – would be spinning in his grave...<br /><br />ac4design.blogspot.comAlex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-16805225828917913682010-09-23T14:10:00.000-07:002010-09-23T14:14:53.615-07:00London Biblio-Geography: A Personal A-Z by Rachel Hazell, ‘The Travelling Bookbinder' (Few and Far, 242 Brompton Road, London SW3 2BB)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhEUrXoS4gz6mlKnF13nEl5FD9xYCPrY4krTbV_AKAJLZZr9jxh2tNDVSxqn_sYjoDGe1NeR9QoXZ1C61ad4WJuRcom99Nqnw5uYMGXutM0amDxvGWqTo0Ff5Udku-CBPESHfYtVJNfWB/s1600/RachelHazell.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhEUrXoS4gz6mlKnF13nEl5FD9xYCPrY4krTbV_AKAJLZZr9jxh2tNDVSxqn_sYjoDGe1NeR9QoXZ1C61ad4WJuRcom99Nqnw5uYMGXutM0amDxvGWqTo0Ff5Udku-CBPESHfYtVJNfWB/s400/RachelHazell.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520220414313449506" /></a><br />On your next visit to the V&A during the London Design Festival (LDF), be sure to build into your day a visit to Few and Far, for two very good reasons.<br /><br />The first is the shop itself – an eclectic mix of fashion, furniture and fair. Few and Far was set up by the buying force behind Habitat and the Conran Shop, Priscilla Carluccio. Priscilla is the sister of Sir Terence Conran, a passionate supporter of UK craft and a photographer in her own right. Part of the shop is given over to exhibitions, and this brings us to the second reason to visit.<br /><br />For the duration of the LDF, Few and Far’s exhibition space is taken over by Rachel Hazell, known as the ‘Travelling Bookbinder’. Her artworks are both cartographic and typographic. Using both the current and found maps Rachel creates exquisite artworks that are steadily being sold off the wall.<br /><br />Over a coffee we talked about how she got here. The answer was as far from what I expected as was possible.<br /><br />Rachel studied English at Edinburgh University, followed by a HND in Bookbinding at London College of Printing and then went onto an MA in Book Art at Camberwell College. So far, straightforward enough, but it is what happens next that beggars belief.<br /><br />Rachel was artist in residence on an Antarctic-bound cruise ship in 2004. She then set sail South with the Royal Navy on HMS Endurance – observing the surveyor’s as they redrew the map of Antarctica in 2006. This was followed by five months as Assistant Postmistress and Penguin Monitor at Port Lockroy, Britain’s Southernmost public post office in 2007/08, her ‘favourite job title so far’.<br /><br />But it was a reading of Mrs Ps Journey (by Sarah Hartley) that inspired Rachel onto existing ground. ‘Mrs P’ was Phyllis Pearsall, a true English design hero. Pearsall, so the story goes, using the 1919 ordinance survey map to get to a party, got lost and through this experience conceived the idea of mapping London. She walked 3000 miles, including 23,000 London streets, wrting and drawing as she went.<br /><br />The result was the first London A-Z. On the insistence of her father, an accomplished cartographer himself, Pearsall set up her own company, the Geographers’ A to Z Map Company. The A-Z Atlas and Guide to London and Suburbs was published in 1936.<br /><br />Talking to Rachel it is easy to see how important this story is to her and her work. She talks passionately and knowledgably about Pearsall and about maps and mapping in general. Her artworks also show the depth of this passion from the hand at work with fine stitching, cut out letterforms to an adherence to strict structures and grids. The works are mounted in box frames giving them a feeling of historic paramountcy.<br /><br />While the art itself is important, for me so is the idea behind it: the celebration of a figure we should ensure is part of the design cannon. Phyllis Pearsall should take her place alongside some of her contemporaries like Henry Beck and his revolutionary London Underground Map (1933) and Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells (1952).<br /><br />As Pearsall often said, ‘on we go’.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-82487538729003023702010-09-22T15:32:00.000-07:002010-09-22T15:41:46.120-07:00Anti Design Festival<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhabXa7Yg5nFcK1eNLbHSZfeh26uQvjAhwdoVZjFH7wWQXRRNg8eRaEpor_gf_8pq6fpREy88wUb8LofCkXmXE1qXA_7klE9EK5EVYxX4FOe1pq52ju7kWQXdcjzOM7o_v_D58NY3Bheery/s1600/ADF.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhabXa7Yg5nFcK1eNLbHSZfeh26uQvjAhwdoVZjFH7wWQXRRNg8eRaEpor_gf_8pq6fpREy88wUb8LofCkXmXE1qXA_7klE9EK5EVYxX4FOe1pq52ju7kWQXdcjzOM7o_v_D58NY3Bheery/s400/ADF.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519870515105685458" /></a><br />From the point of view of graphic design and communication, the printed matter of the Anti Design Festival – ‘default’, ‘punk’, ‘hand-made’ – are signifiers of another time: a time of few resources and even less money. A problem that ADF hardly suffers. At first this was surprising, later turning to a feeling of an opportunity missed. <br /><br />In its first year and based in Redchurch Street in East London’s uber-hip Shoreditch, ADF was launched on the back of what its founder, Neville Brody says is, ‘25 years of cultural deep freeze in the UK’. Unfortunately it appears that the same can be said of the ADF publicity, with its stark use of black, yellow and red colours and the ‘default’ typeface ‘OCR A’ by Adrian Frutiger. <br /><br />The use of the outsized ‘X’ or ‘cross’ along with white out of black, yellow out of black and yellow out of red set text, all off-grid, adds to the ‘not sure that I care you read this’ aesthetic. It looks more like the work that a designer thinks Brody would like than something Brody himself would have produced now or even in the 80s.<br /><br />Before Desktop Publishing (DTP) a fairly significant level of capital was required to produce printed matter of a certain ‘standard’. Political journals, newspapers and magazines of anti-establishment leftists looked the way they did because of a lack of resources rather than any intended design aesthetic. <br /><br />In this respect, the DTP revolution was to a degree a great leveller. It was only redundant, ‘workerist’ politics that demanded that the reading matter of left-wing organisations should look like the ink would still come off on the readers’ hands, long after it was ever necessary.<br /><br />In the 1990s the first magazine I designed, Living Marxism, was criticised for looking ‘too commercial’ and ‘middle class’. The idea being that left-wing politics should be ‘packaged’ to look like it was from the poor and struggling.<br /><br />Of course, this was nonsense then just as it is now. Implicit in this attitude is the problem of style over substance, the reversal of the priorities of the graphic designer. The idea that ‘left-wing’ or ‘anti-establishment’ publications should look cheap or even hand-made today only exposes this further.<br /><br />The substantial questions of design and culture laid out by ADF printed matter deserve and perhaps demand a graphic language to suit, one that is of the moment as opposed to the past. It wasn’t good enough then. That it is seen as relevant today is ironically – anti-design!<br /><br />Originally posted on the <a href="http://londondesignfestival.com/blog"target=_blank>London Design Festival</a> blogAlex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-32846683106902195932010-05-25T03:25:00.000-07:002010-08-27T14:29:24.151-07:00The Vignelli CanonModernist graphic designer, Massimo Vignelli, has recently published, free and in <a href="http://vignelli.com/news.html"target="_blank">portable document format (PDF)</a> <span style="font-style:italic;">The Vignelli Canon</span>. Today when designers self-publish books they tend towards portfolios with high production values. More form than content more often than not. <span style="font-style:italic;">The Vignelli Canon</span> goes against the grain in this respect. It is a considered and concise review of the philosophy of the Vignelli studio.<br /><br />Vignelli offers the studious graphic designer a clear methodological approach to work, guiding him step-by-step through semantics, syntactics, discipline, intellectual elegance and responsibility, to name a few sections. In time honoured fashion for designers of his generation, he also reminds us of the basics from paper sizes to grids and margins, typefaces to type sizes and colour to white space.<br /><br />For me the section on responsibility leapt from the page. In such a short piece Vignelli reminds us that the ethical responsibilities of the graphic designer can be summed up in three parts, 'As designers, we have three levels of responsibility: One – to ourselves, the integrity of the project and all its components. Two – to the Client, to solve the problem in a way that is economically sound and efficient. Three – to the public at large, the consumer, the user of the final design.'<br /><br />Vignelli, perhaps without knowing, deals the 'ethical designer' a sharp blow and shows that clarity of purpose and communication is fundamental in understanding the role of the graphic designer. It shows that we have, through the debate around ethical design, lost our way. Vignelli has shown the way home by publishing <span style="font-style:italic;">The Vignelli Canon</span>.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-76391840188684487532010-02-19T07:45:00.000-08:002011-09-21T13:30:24.915-07:00“Ethical Design”: the End of Graphic Design? (2000)This essay was first written in 2000, it strikes me that the issues raised are as relevant now as they were then! For this reason I publish it online today.<br />
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When should you shut-up and let people have their own say? In Amistad, the Spielberg blockbuster, slave mutineers stand trial in the New Republic, that we now know as the USA. The defendants, speaking no English, are appointed an African-born and English-speaking former slave to act as their translator.<br />
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The mutineers’ defence that they were “free born Africans”, not slaves, was deeply problematic for a government fearing the reaction of the southern states to the notion of a free-born black man that could not be legally enslaved.<br />
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In the courtroom sat the defendants’ judges. But an important addition to the usual players was the translator. The court would ask the questions through the translator to the defendants and vice versa. What a wonderful place to be! To be part of a process of communicating between men from different parts of the world, and to enable one of the great discussions of freedom to take place.<br />
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As the courtroom drama unfolded and passions inflated, damning and irrational accusations were levelled at the defendants, such that instead of waiting for a response the translator screamed his own defence of those in the dock. I imagine, that if I found myself in that place, I too may have shouted back. It was an emotional act based on his understanding of what is right and wrong.<br />
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But the translator was wrong. His attachment to the cause of justice for his people, undermined actual justice, because justice dictates that people should choose their own defence and have their own say. The translator “broke the rules” by momentarily acting not as translator, as facilitator, but as judge and jury.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">New Britain, New Design</span><br />
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In New Labour’s New Britain naturally we have New Design. New Design, a term coined by Kevin McCullagh of the radical Design Agenda group, aptly draws attention to the way that broader ideological currents are gaining influence among leading designers, journalists and design institutions. <br />
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While there has been some critical discussion of the New Labour phenomenon, it strikes me that there has been precious little critical discussion of these trends among graphic designers. Ideas have entered into the mindset of many practitioners without much reaction, most explicitly in the form of ethical design. <br />
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The ethical designer is the New Man of the New Design world. Ethical design demands of its practitioners that they question the content of any project. In this view, the content of a project is the yardstick by which work is measured. The moral and ethical qualities should determine whether that project or idea should be afforded the designer’s time.<br />
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The ethical trend in design thinking has far-reaching consequences for the practice, and perception, of the role of the graphic designer and indeed the design industry. The result of bringing ethics into design is potentially damaging for all concerned.<br />
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My questioning of ethics might seem odd. After all who wants to be unethical? One’s ethics – according to the dictionary one’s moral philosophy or moral principles – should surely guide one’s life. <br />
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“Stand by your principles young man” is a view I’ve always strongly identified with and tried to act upon. However, it is my contention that in the case of design one must be true to others to be true to oneself. The principle of the designer as mediator should remain the watchword of our profession.<br />
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Design has existed for a long time without the concept of ethical design. Graphic design has flourished with a more commonsense understanding of the role of the graphic designer and graphic design in society. In order for design to advance in any meaningful, practical, creative and lasting sense, practitioners have to be true to their craft. <br />
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The designer as mediator, an uncontroversial idea hitherto, ¬is in the firing line in the form of the promotion of a new model designer, fit for the new millennium, the “ethical designer”. No longer should the designer be allowed to see himself as an effective transmitter of ideas and information, but he must now rise up and challenge the content of the message. It is a current in graphic design that, for those interested in designs future, cannot be ignored.<br />
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Ethical design is the pretty daughter of green design. Many questioned green design on its emergence in the mid eighties, as the applicability of environmentalism to many areas of design was not apparent (a green typeface?). In other areas such as product design there had already been an unceasing attempt to make more efficient use of resources, what was new? However the pretty daughter has been better able to seduce: ethical design unlike its less subtle predecessor targets not so much the practicalities of design itself, but more insidiously the outlook behind design.<br />
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Perhaps crudely we can say that while green design coincided with misgivings about industrial society and development, ethical design dovetails with the even deeper disenchantments in the nineties. This time disenchantment with organisations, institutions, politicians and even politics in general. Throughout the eighties and nineties traditional institutions, methods of political action and protest have been undermined to the extent that the certainties of the past seem to have all but disappeared. These changes have had a big effect on policy making in government and decision-making in the boardroom, but they have also brought into question thinking in design. <br />
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Ethical design in some sense is a response to sense of political powerlessness: designers are urged to get off the fence and act. But what does it mean when design is accorded this role in the world?<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The loss of art and design’s direction</span><br />
The American Institute of Graphic Arts “Dangerous Ideas” conference in the USA, at the end of the eighties, was something of a landmark in changing the parameters in which design and advertising are discussed. The late Tibor Kalman, and co-chair Milton Glaizer raised moral and ethical issues within the design industry that kickstarted a discussion within graphic design about where the designer was situated in the broader context of a changing social and political landscape.<br />
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Kalman’s starting point was an attempt to make designers face up to the seeming contradictions within graphic design. From “...making the filthy oil company look ‘clean’” to “...making the junky condo look ‘hip’”. <br />
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In the early nineties, Cranbrook Academy of Art’s Catherine McCoy took Kalman’s ethical dilemma further when she put it as a choice between “client or content”. In other words, if you don’t like the content ditch the client. By 1993, according to McCoy, the designers who chose the client were acting not unlike the prostitute who provides a service that demands they remain unattached and neutral. While no doubt most designers have indeed felt like prostitutes at one time by another selling themselves to somebody they dislike, McCoy’s couplet is little more than an intellectual slight of hand that disguises an attack on the professionalism and profession of the designer.<br />
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Throughout the nineties the ethical bandwagon rolled on through design schools and design publications, such as Cranbrook Academy of Arts in the USA and the British based Eye, the international review of graphic design, to name a few.<br />
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In early 1999 Kalle Lasn, founding editor of the North American environmentalist/anti-consumerist Adbusters magazine, took the ethical proposition to its logical conclusion, at a talk at the Royal College of Art’s Points of View series in London, when he compared the “unethical” graphic designer to the SS guards at the gates of Auschwitz. The argument ran that designers are responsible for all the problems in society, from children smoking, animal testing, nuclear power, and war.<br />
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Lasn announced that they were rewriting British designer and author, Ken Garland’s key 1964 First Things First design manifesto. By the end of the summer of 1999, the new manifesto had been published in seven magazines: Adbusters in Canada, Emigre and the AIGA Journal in the USA, Eye and Blueprint in London, Items in the Netherlands and Form in Germany.<br />
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The design ethics proposed by the signatories of FTF2000 is at best a call for designers to “design for good” and at worse is a prescriptive set of moral codes. While the prescriptive nature of ethical design is apparent, it is often presented as a matter of the ethics that are the designer’s point of view.<br />
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However, whatever ethics you choose, the very idea of the use of ethics presented in the new manifesto makes two assumptions about design and its practice that are fundamentally flawed and dangerous: that graphic design can play a determining role in how people think and act and that the “end-user” or consumer is powerless and therefore unable to resist.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Design as social engineering</span><br />
The election of New Labour to government had an almost immediate impact on the design industry in Britain. A debate raged soon after, following on from a discussion document by the think tank Demos on the perceptions of Britain at home and abroad. A document that was greeted with derision as much as with excitement.<br />
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Design consultancy Wolf Ollins released some sketches of what the new British flag would look like were the decision taken to bury the Union Flag, with all its associations with Empire and Britain¹s racist past. <br />
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Further discussions raged about how the perception and the seeming reality of Britain could be put right through design. Proposals that have all but been pushed under the carpet were bounced around, from taking foreign delegates to the Ministry of Sound rather than the Tower of London to the positive promotion of Britain as a centre of creative service-providers as opposed to the perception of Britain as a declining manufacturing nation.<br />
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Can the designer change Britain’s image? The problem was and remains that peoples’ perceptions of Britain as a declining power have such currency because it is. A sea change in perception demands a sea change in what is seen. Only with the reorganisation of British society and industry could graphic designers play their part. Without, there is little to spin. Designers would do well to explain that design is at its most effective when it draws on the pre-existing prejudices and beliefs and hopes and fears of the consumer or end-user.<br />
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Another example of the attempt to use design for social change is the legislation banning the advertising of cigarettes in public places. The argument here that stopping the wicked drug barons using the images of purple silk will stop people smoking and thus improve the nation’s health. Again the assumption is that design can have a determining influence on how people act. The resounding silence from the design industry on this question should allow us to assume that the industry believes that advertising makes people smoke. But as recent history has shown just as many people start smoking today as they did 30 years ago, and that is with the continual restriction of where and how tobacco can be advertised. In general people start smoking because they see it as a quick step into adult life. For a thirteen year old this is a more “sexy” proposition that a peeling roadside billboard, passed on the way home from school. And do these teens quit because the ads are not there to tell them to keep going or because of government health literature? No, the overweening influence here is a preoccupation with health, one of the trends currently sweeping our insecure society.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The right to choose</span><br />
An understanding of the impact of “design” in society is necessary in order to develop it further, as well as to allow those who practice to concentrate on their overriding responsibility: to communicate the ideas they are given in as effective a manner as possible. Effective communication, raising the standards of design and its practice enables the consumer to exercise greater choice.<br />
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For the ethical designer choice has become a dirty word. Their concern is that if we allow people the choice between a “good” product and a “bad” product people may choose the “bad” one. This is the logic of the censor, the “old lefts’” argument that “no platform” should be given to those beyond the pale such as fascists and anti-abortion groups.<br />
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During my time at college student activists would often chant “no platform” throughout a debate or, worse, call in the authorities to ban the debate on the spurious grounds of public disorder. Their argument, like that of today’s ethical designer, was that things they disliked (a lot) should not be expressed. In part this showed a fear that they were unable to argue their case against people such as anti-abortionists, but in main the view was that the audience were like sheep. Under no circumstances could people be trusted to hear such dangerous ideas. <br />
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Desperately disillusioned with their fellow man the ethical designer wants no choice of competing products or ideas to be presented. When choice is a dirty word then what does that say about the chooser? <br />
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As ethical designers would have it, if we are unable to resist the messages of the tobacco companies then how can we choose between them. Taking the influence of advertising to the absurd, as is evident in the writings of ethical designers, an image is conjured up where consumers are unable to view advertising without getting on the telephone to order the “vacumeasy” or the “staysharp cutlery”. Having managed to turn-off the tv we only manage to walk ten feet before we are persuaded to buy an alternative brand of cigarettes while at the same time being coerced into buying some perfume that we glimpsed out of the corner of our eye on the back page of an upturned magazine.<br />
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Choice is only possible if we retain a certain level of critical faculties. Choice is relevant only to those who are able to exercise that choice. It presumes a fundamental belief in human agency. It is this rejection of human agency that sets the ethical designer apart from all who came before them. <br />
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What is happening is that the ethical designer takes design both too seriously and not seriously enough. By assuming that the world spins around design, the ethicist treats design too seriously. By concentrating on the content of the message, rather than on how to best get the message across, the ethicist does not treat the craft of design seriously enough. <br />
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Both taking design too seriously and not seriously enough shows a low view of people. Here on the one hand people are sheep that will believe what they are shown and, on the other, not intelligent enough to warrant someone who concentrates his skill and effort in the process of effectively getting ideas across.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">What is the role of the graphic designer?</span><br />
At the heart of the ethical problem is its prescriptive nature. At the outset we should recognise that this is not a question of a “preferred way of working” nor indeed is it an enlightened next step in the progressive and developmental nature of graphic design. <br />
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I would argue that the demand for designers to be ethical is a demand for an end to designer as mediator as we know it.<br />
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The demand for an ethical graphic design industry is rooted in the near total collapse of many of the old institutes that were the product of the expansion of the industry during the 1950s and 60s. Like many other post war institutions they have suffered in the face of a changing social and political landscape.<br />
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From the rejection of the old, a new set of standards and goals are being reformulated. While we should not necessarily simply reintroduce the ideas of the past, we should certainly be wary of throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.<br />
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Few would doubt the need for a more critical and robust review of the role of the graphic designer. The industry is constantly evolving, and we would do well to keep up with developments in the fields of theory, practice and technology.<br />
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Fundamentally, we need to examine what the role of the graphic designer is, both for the purposes of review and for our standard of practice. We would do no harm in having this debate in public as it would show the depth of understanding within the industry and introduce the practices and workings of our industry to a broader audience.<br />
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Fundamentally the graphic designer is a problem solver. The problem to solve is how best to communicate the message that is given, to those identified as likely to use the service. The message can be anything from telling people the price of a fast car and where to get it, to a more challenging problem of how to get people from A to B in a hospital or an airport. In both instances an unwritten contract is agreed: that the designer will draw on all their experience, skill and expertise to mediate that message to those who need or want that information. Again, in both cases, we should assume that the easier the message (or the more effective in design terms) is to understand (the what, the where and the how), the better.<br />
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The challenge is set and the designer is employed to mediate that message at his or her discretion. Importantly, this relationship or contract recognises the expertise of the graphic designer. It recognises the designer as central to the communication process.<br />
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But, perhaps, more importantly as designers we must understand that the people for whom the product is targeted are discerning individuals who are able to make choices, presuming they are given one!<br />
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The ethical designer turns this relationship on its head. The content of the message is questioned, on personal (do I believe in / agree with the content) and on moral grounds (does the message promote “unethical” signs). The role of the graphic designer becomes one of a moral guardian or gatekeeper to the on-message messages.<br />
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While there is, of course, nothing wrong with choosing not to work for a client based on ones own personal opinion, or beliefs, we must make a distinction between what is a personal decision and what is by its nature a prescriptive set of demands on designers and the design industry. A cursory review of the ethical question in graphic design, reveals that the concerns of designers are of course a reflection of the general concerns of society<br />
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A vox pox in Graphics International magazine asked creatives to comment on their companies’ ethical concerns about vivisection. In other discussions you are likely to find these themes repeated with additions like the defence industry, cars and recently GM foods. <br />
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There is often a broad consensus on these ethical concerns. But, thankfully, ideas are still contested. That there is a general attack on the production of GM foods does not mean the attackers are right. Let Monsanto have its say! Similarly “animal testing” has its critics as well as its proponents. The point being that the graphic designer is not responsible for society’s beliefs and prejudices, and as a mediator is limited to repeating or ignoring them, based on the interests of the originator.<br />
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In his introduction to Graphic Design: A Concise History, Richard Hollis says of the role of the graphic designer, “The meaning that images and alphabetic signs convey has little to do with who made or chose them: they do not express their designers’ ideas. The designer’s message serves the expressed needs of the client who is paying for it. Although its form may be determined or modified by the designer’s aesthetic preferences or prejudice, the message has to be put in a language recognised and understood by its intended audience.”<br />
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Ten years on from first writing this essay, the “designer as mediator” is a principle that we would do well to reappropriate.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-46369043609945983202009-12-23T08:33:00.000-08:002009-12-23T09:01:45.171-08:00We Go Further – internal branding campaignAn internal branding poster campaign and logotype for the Knightsbridge offices of Wexas: The Traveller's Club.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8sN_U5v_0BCBLvTwancKsu64YZ7-TjjRcJs-Co_wtXlEoiAQ-Lr6YZEdfwqCic1K0Wb_yc14B_jjp-DBWDd44h1YhIzJ-JbnJkAIKJQS4VmA0vfz-X2gFE4apJB_HeuhAl936TEuH_ylv/s1600-h/wGOf_Logo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8sN_U5v_0BCBLvTwancKsu64YZ7-TjjRcJs-Co_wtXlEoiAQ-Lr6YZEdfwqCic1K0Wb_yc14B_jjp-DBWDd44h1YhIzJ-JbnJkAIKJQS4VmA0vfz-X2gFE4apJB_HeuhAl936TEuH_ylv/s400/wGOf_Logo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418475783603261058" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhXlxjdvKjiR9CR-XHCgClP6AWcVFaRHzxomTung6TV9mu1aLp1-qXltzmh6daaMvdNg9UewDagZ5xyK0yzmqVHnI3xv4puymtHyYMnQf-38N6SOl4kU-hosBi9E-O_E6DsiYBzASm_9z-/s1600-h/wGOf_1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhXlxjdvKjiR9CR-XHCgClP6AWcVFaRHzxomTung6TV9mu1aLp1-qXltzmh6daaMvdNg9UewDagZ5xyK0yzmqVHnI3xv4puymtHyYMnQf-38N6SOl4kU-hosBi9E-O_E6DsiYBzASm_9z-/s400/wGOf_1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418475708348218850" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFzCw4t4BCbjGwzPrtrkaTXAYVT7VnrJyBhQ63HApuG6AffmdCSd3zUhqhkaUBxoulRxT70L77a9vd9TrRgQq-ktdi2veD33R-WWq_9FFj_7W3Uujm3eUN2-LUheIZ4lzDJeSq1Rj5d-Ke/s1600-h/wGOf_2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFzCw4t4BCbjGwzPrtrkaTXAYVT7VnrJyBhQ63HApuG6AffmdCSd3zUhqhkaUBxoulRxT70L77a9vd9TrRgQq-ktdi2veD33R-WWq_9FFj_7W3Uujm3eUN2-LUheIZ4lzDJeSq1Rj5d-Ke/s400/wGOf_2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418475609155830226" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3VtzZBP8u9HNSrWKZ5xMYEODzqEZEfcM39dDtoOD6wvlqW81AXRCuvHh3DbbmDdTi50A7JoyBt5XnOWa7Wn4ypLhkmeXU95WbQcyKkSANsXHL2DNrqWSbw55ynPykocXCMm5R4D6hH6KM/s1600-h/wGOf_3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3VtzZBP8u9HNSrWKZ5xMYEODzqEZEfcM39dDtoOD6wvlqW81AXRCuvHh3DbbmDdTi50A7JoyBt5XnOWa7Wn4ypLhkmeXU95WbQcyKkSANsXHL2DNrqWSbw55ynPykocXCMm5R4D6hH6KM/s400/wGOf_3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418475372481468722" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkTA5VraFDTnWIpmXoVednVfbBuJbM579Img5PW8JBize-rMqMqb1_uoolSZOmpfeHIJOAFDCH4SVxx17Y1dbscbDgLh-HPoLWKSa3b5HfAkSWtYZbHp2G_YyCyJWs7put_3b1y3hwkn9X/s1600-h/wGOf_4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkTA5VraFDTnWIpmXoVednVfbBuJbM579Img5PW8JBize-rMqMqb1_uoolSZOmpfeHIJOAFDCH4SVxx17Y1dbscbDgLh-HPoLWKSa3b5HfAkSWtYZbHp2G_YyCyJWs7put_3b1y3hwkn9X/s400/wGOf_4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418475365464542274" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFveej88Yh3rvOMLxyJcMdpMrY5Y06Sar1mXVU0kO2rQPydKXhahH-62EjGl4Ap1CrCmveQtZs-QFSVBsBF5JUJv94WGNAx2-aA5QzjJmQWT-TfSUqKVg-rCHlEM9Mfe8wAIkXnFv5YDKl/s1600-h/wGOf_5.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFveej88Yh3rvOMLxyJcMdpMrY5Y06Sar1mXVU0kO2rQPydKXhahH-62EjGl4Ap1CrCmveQtZs-QFSVBsBF5JUJv94WGNAx2-aA5QzjJmQWT-TfSUqKVg-rCHlEM9Mfe8wAIkXnFv5YDKl/s400/wGOf_5.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418475360497720786" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhERmrGNxhQi02WC4X9hcGiewJnTEgQSgDU8WRxMoZUL8GCxUx07h8U4wXorFzHk8rO7MHJBPQ7Mq83EL_yCU66Vp9YnoEO_NC8jMcgvBW-2p-M7QNVsQPGyeJjWN9eqR0aub4H6mzw-ZaM/s1600-h/wGOf_6.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhERmrGNxhQi02WC4X9hcGiewJnTEgQSgDU8WRxMoZUL8GCxUx07h8U4wXorFzHk8rO7MHJBPQ7Mq83EL_yCU66Vp9YnoEO_NC8jMcgvBW-2p-M7QNVsQPGyeJjWN9eqR0aub4H6mzw-ZaM/s400/wGOf_6.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418475354592465154" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFl3PbV1lXZDLaYdq8cRxhOifi96E1N_nY4m1Pi56Ycr3ivwLbQDKcReHd0RZIiZTB1BMX5kezb0Gj0-ssywtHekFJibIQjEkENmnuJDHVRF1MCb4AtXEapr8g2ENsj0ZI3uCYdp5Dwk-5/s1600-h/wGOf_7.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFl3PbV1lXZDLaYdq8cRxhOifi96E1N_nY4m1Pi56Ycr3ivwLbQDKcReHd0RZIiZTB1BMX5kezb0Gj0-ssywtHekFJibIQjEkENmnuJDHVRF1MCb4AtXEapr8g2ENsj0ZI3uCYdp5Dwk-5/s400/wGOf_7.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418475352485742530" /></a><br />Design & Art Direction by Alex Cameron and Pieter StanderAlex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-56423636509552551432009-12-08T05:59:00.000-08:002009-12-19T06:09:34.821-08:00Detail in Typography – New Edition<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQiJE6narLIe_yyIqDzChs1bfbpWocUQNTERUWYHCVRNU1wXCj3ST0H1E4pnKpGZLvNo3Fu_kH_pJxqN6EVdkgh28B1G2D6N3GuvOKT4Y9L5y2JOtPWWwV7mqOEggBP3AZXFAl_JKQTKh0/s1600-h/Detail+in+Typography_Cover.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 262px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412983302446328818" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQiJE6narLIe_yyIqDzChs1bfbpWocUQNTERUWYHCVRNU1wXCj3ST0H1E4pnKpGZLvNo3Fu_kH_pJxqN6EVdkgh28B1G2D6N3GuvOKT4Y9L5y2JOtPWWwV7mqOEggBP3AZXFAl_JKQTKh0/s400/Detail+in+Typography_Cover.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Detail in Typography</span><br />Letters, letterspacing, words, wordspacing, lines, linespacing,<br />columns<br />Jost Hochuli<br /><a href="http://www.hyphenpress.co.uk/" target=_blank>Hyphen Press</a><br /><br />The author, Jost Hochuli, is a Swiss typographer and teacher. He is best known for his book design and as an author of books on design and typography.<br /><br />‘... in detail typography, formal elements have little to do with personal preference’. Jost Hochuli, <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Detail in Typography</span><br /><br />One of the reasons why ‘everyone thinks they are designers’ these days is, perhaps, based on the notion that ‘design’ is seen simply as an aesthetic opinion – and one based on one's own taste. A rudimentary knowledge of today’s design tool – the Apple mac – which most people now have, reinforces this notion. But designers have done little to discourage this.<br /><br />The critical acclaim that continues to be awarded to the likes of David Carson by organisations like D&AD is but one example. Carson, the poster-boy of post-modern graphic design, broke every ‘rule’ in the book – not because he intended to, but because, as he admits, he didn’t know them. There is no doubt that Carson captured the zeitgeist, but despite, rather than because of, his ideas. The contempt he held for the reader was best shown in an issue of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Ray Gun</span>, where he was art director, when he set an interview – that he considered boring – with Brian Ferry in Zapf Dingbats, rendering the interview unreadable.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-kT5dWag9gAwzbEA8zknIBjmEFHUR0orxJp5e_qoLjcDgfWN8SWWiXRsUjd6baf66LDDc-KJPgFbEZ16YiCFmbM3ejW800fBZbvuDx-0C1s85b9SVzoRunLKxzYuc9qk5-7VrTJ49prG/s1600-h/Carson+RayGun.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 262px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412979379959604098" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-kT5dWag9gAwzbEA8zknIBjmEFHUR0orxJp5e_qoLjcDgfWN8SWWiXRsUjd6baf66LDDc-KJPgFbEZ16YiCFmbM3ejW800fBZbvuDx-0C1s85b9SVzoRunLKxzYuc9qk5-7VrTJ49prG/s400/Carson+RayGun.jpg" /></a><br />Carson is no ‘straw-man’. He is only one of many mainstream designers who see graphic design as a process of self-expression, a process that is as far away from the role of the designer as a ‘mediator of other peoples ideas’ as one could get.<br /><br />A reading of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Detail in Typography</span> shows that a wealth of knowledge as well as some important rules or standards underpin the practice of graphic design – or should!<br /><br />Furthermore, while it was already quite apparent that many typographic standards have been ignored in much of today's graphic design work – and this is as much true of the mainstream as the majority of marketing and publishing printed matter – it comes as a bolt-lightening shock after reading this work.<br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><br />Detail in Typography</span> offers a coherent analysis of the finer points of typography, what Hochuli himself calls ‘micro- or detail-typography. The structure of the book is such that it eases the reader into the subject – the perfect introduction. The writing style has a gentle, persuasive quality about it and is detailed and illustrated throughout.<br /><br />For those of us who work for and on behalf of the reader it is at least a reminder that there are others out there who are not only interested in, but are adding to, the sum total of knowledge that gives graphic design and typography an historical and practical grounding from which we can learn and improve.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-56706449319179561462009-06-19T08:00:00.000-07:002009-08-26T08:31:25.904-07:00Tart Cards exhibition<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonBbMcks3XPdAAaEi5E-0DKLbKbP5BcXdUUGGF1dwVMvHHNH0Byr2ffoyFL5d_KVLBCdoeZgJUaRztk23Pw-FTqHMZADoRC7EvDsAWVgzF4OVJEZbsS7bhnBq2kGj7toMFoL8A4fW7cnu/s1600-h/TartCard.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 419px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 262px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349063544999009426" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonBbMcks3XPdAAaEi5E-0DKLbKbP5BcXdUUGGF1dwVMvHHNH0Byr2ffoyFL5d_KVLBCdoeZgJUaRztk23Pw-FTqHMZADoRC7EvDsAWVgzF4OVJEZbsS7bhnBq2kGj7toMFoL8A4fW7cnu/s400/TartCard.jpg" /></a>In conjunction with <a href="http://stbride.org/">St Bride Library</a> and <a href="http://www.uktype.com/">Type</a>, <a href="http://www.wallpaper.com/">Wallpaper magazine</a> asked designers – from students to superstars – to find the tart hiding in every type and create their own graphic numbers. Along with a selection in the magazine, all 450 cards can be viewed here. They will also be on display at <a href="http://www.kkoutlet.com/" target="_blank">KK Outlet</a>, London from 22nd to 29th June. <a href="http://www.kkoutlet.com/">Click here for the invite to the show</a>. <div><br />Above is my contribution. Collegues, <a href="http://www.wallpaper.com/sex-issue/tart-cards/al-saleh-kelly/1351" target="_blank">Kelly Al-Saleh</a> and <a href="http://www.wallpaper.com/sex-issue/tart-cards/stander-pieter/1421">Pieter Stander's</a> cards can also be found on the Wallpaper website by searching their names.<br /><br />Unfortunately the 'ethical designer' had to rear his patronising head through the contribution of Mike Dempsey in the form of an 'alternative' tart card. View his card and letter on the Wallpaper website.<br /><br />The 'Tart Card' project was never about the issue of prostitution or sex trafficking – it was supposed to be about type and graphics.<br /><br />The ethical designer is the moody son of a society that can't trust people to make their own minds up about issues without being hectored and berated if we seem to stray away from the illiberal and right-on centre-ground.<br /><br />What has always excited me about graphic design is the very opposite of the ethical designer – the place we occupy between an idea and the people that idea is aimed – we are mediators of other peoples ideas, if we try and set ourselves up as judge and jury, with respect to the content of the idea, we are killing that which is at the heart of the role of the graphic designer.</div><div><br />I for one am comfortable dealing with difficult ideas. Furthermore, I trust people to be able to deal with them too.</div><br /><br />For further discussion on this issue see: <a href="http://blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=255">eye magazine's blog</a>Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-66710271236259427332009-03-29T20:15:00.000-07:002009-03-30T04:43:26.140-07:00The Strad<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUISYXYWXTcmRKH3aODJsHj6O7S0Q5jc8a9h6m2gACPL8EiyZ1W60e9To6UCw-HL9L0vNQsu-TidNW75K3g3g9g-mQv6URqEHWcL2XSwoeonoYeMnAFgsHJhJ0hyphenhyphenaniyu5eY9jPauxJuBc/s1600-h/Strad_Cover.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUISYXYWXTcmRKH3aODJsHj6O7S0Q5jc8a9h6m2gACPL8EiyZ1W60e9To6UCw-HL9L0vNQsu-TidNW75K3g3g9g-mQv6URqEHWcL2XSwoeonoYeMnAFgsHJhJ0hyphenhyphenaniyu5eY9jPauxJuBc/s400/Strad_Cover.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318815896428051522" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGmwnUOJzqtcw8sOZq0UnUBq2fp5Nkk7FzRMXP8ZeuF5DMQAvEEr6SI7-KysBKZPl-JbdC7JRUmX9TtK8JyNeVqcoFH8yjGeqrEuEVQMKBDeHkz2nmsPQxju0pLcEUIBast-ADI6J-BSsy/s1600-h/Strad_DropCaps.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGmwnUOJzqtcw8sOZq0UnUBq2fp5Nkk7FzRMXP8ZeuF5DMQAvEEr6SI7-KysBKZPl-JbdC7JRUmX9TtK8JyNeVqcoFH8yjGeqrEuEVQMKBDeHkz2nmsPQxju0pLcEUIBast-ADI6J-BSsy/s400/Strad_DropCaps.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318815889742123778" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAKQs854uBbnuHtESOah-gBFiJ43_7BkgEv6OZ1IAnn1s4nhSpNOLJryoLM44Nrwca0UJIv6SIvZo9waYCEZkPmVs2pq5SkauK4uwKDdjK3Dl516aJ_fEPRGvv_ZatnVTOam499KnR1XbV/s1600-h/Strad_Contents.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAKQs854uBbnuHtESOah-gBFiJ43_7BkgEv6OZ1IAnn1s4nhSpNOLJryoLM44Nrwca0UJIv6SIvZo9waYCEZkPmVs2pq5SkauK4uwKDdjK3Dl516aJ_fEPRGvv_ZatnVTOam499KnR1XbV/s400/Strad_Contents.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318815893261410546" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDRZCKwcQfwlcUe0JSnOSJIGUjQesIM1dZZmhSJFVIpzK9ZKwqmT90ZTRHu1s8cgOSVPxfeQ0aRIjXMeuRsrBOBiO1ug2h83GVq7xz632ZpAp20plQnFqUQXUpPhUKWAtIaLauTXtVVsq1/s1600-h/Strad_Editorial.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDRZCKwcQfwlcUe0JSnOSJIGUjQesIM1dZZmhSJFVIpzK9ZKwqmT90ZTRHu1s8cgOSVPxfeQ0aRIjXMeuRsrBOBiO1ug2h83GVq7xz632ZpAp20plQnFqUQXUpPhUKWAtIaLauTXtVVsq1/s400/Strad_Editorial.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318815890079326098" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJF6TUDlWiN-olSAN3SYD5pUYqVbUICMxbl-KNPXQBylPSPiCb5H-psG2UnDbH8GtoWgB3NQbmHk8CVvS82SieG03b60aDjS8U9PzSrk6lBm7JoAh9gxjY3yWH8ztwVmwKrFW6r_-Meppk/s1600-h/Strad_coverfeat1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJF6TUDlWiN-olSAN3SYD5pUYqVbUICMxbl-KNPXQBylPSPiCb5H-psG2UnDbH8GtoWgB3NQbmHk8CVvS82SieG03b60aDjS8U9PzSrk6lBm7JoAh9gxjY3yWH8ztwVmwKrFW6r_-Meppk/s400/Strad_coverfeat1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318815195476086642" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3kOxjtVw-vXalvFtX5-7ZwiJwQ0cAi7T_CsZUDGNhfyGHfBxRjeGwVK0neQVDmSkeHhafrCzSstCGcHI4uXrHtNcDRJrG-PI-hFw1ggNQcHOqV5r_Mn8y1baJt6KOmyOTMIjC1_TgdiVK/s1600-h/Strad_coverfeat2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3kOxjtVw-vXalvFtX5-7ZwiJwQ0cAi7T_CsZUDGNhfyGHfBxRjeGwVK0neQVDmSkeHhafrCzSstCGcHI4uXrHtNcDRJrG-PI-hFw1ggNQcHOqV5r_Mn8y1baJt6KOmyOTMIjC1_TgdiVK/s400/Strad_coverfeat2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318815193025469682" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnT5XDsEYHTejX17K2T1clFYqtyV46E1hXUwCpRQIsRjdISH7XPzfKQGtnAkAQjy4eNUu_-vgIw2bmhFQET9R6vngeHZa7k-wuGXYyAScO5hz_73yjBe-B4c2YBZIPraYG5Bp52sBVPfT/s1600-h/Strad_Feature1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnT5XDsEYHTejX17K2T1clFYqtyV46E1hXUwCpRQIsRjdISH7XPzfKQGtnAkAQjy4eNUu_-vgIw2bmhFQET9R6vngeHZa7k-wuGXYyAScO5hz_73yjBe-B4c2YBZIPraYG5Bp52sBVPfT/s400/Strad_Feature1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318815185049714130" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghw4A_UrOEGFBBgx-Q45rfW4dwfkcmNHE-pKcuhEMMLhLZ-ILBvGJuUVywfxGLuY7XbZBuLQeJ4GuJHAE7Kgr3gXkMpJEF96ISl1Xm2NTQB2bFPJyLMQvu2809F5Sxc_l-s_dtieiBXtV0/s1600-h/Strad_InFocus.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghw4A_UrOEGFBBgx-Q45rfW4dwfkcmNHE-pKcuhEMMLhLZ-ILBvGJuUVywfxGLuY7XbZBuLQeJ4GuJHAE7Kgr3gXkMpJEF96ISl1Xm2NTQB2bFPJyLMQvu2809F5Sxc_l-s_dtieiBXtV0/s400/Strad_InFocus.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318815189221631346" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9-dZqZ1smPydLeXInxINLIjHSEIgIOWVXlvGRQhkVP1ZyrWxKusJWVbpqZyYuj-4RanzWhFa9IKcbDo3efzxzn-ch0wBiYh4ZpwN1LSCVECbvX1RJsAbiOPDIO_ezUPHGUETe9M_GnBcj/s1600-h/Strad_Discography.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9-dZqZ1smPydLeXInxINLIjHSEIgIOWVXlvGRQhkVP1ZyrWxKusJWVbpqZyYuj-4RanzWhFa9IKcbDo3efzxzn-ch0wBiYh4ZpwN1LSCVECbvX1RJsAbiOPDIO_ezUPHGUETe9M_GnBcj/s400/Strad_Discography.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318815177488797890" /></a><br />The redesign of The Strad was completed over an eight month period and was in response to a change in editorial direction. The brief was to put the player/instrument to the fore. The idea behind the redesign was 'player/instrument' as icon. Design & Art Direction: Alex Cameron and Kelly Al-SalehAlex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-83342850242386072242009-03-29T12:26:00.000-07:002010-09-20T07:57:07.749-07:00The Guides<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgclrrf28X2MrWoa7zQY5scXEw6_LZpYO8-8FU8PDOOcJ3cN2SHwHGaVmMmP0gYKjehyphenhyphenGgubieeUszQEeUzNKF_nOIT1i1NNjvVKwbNAqN6db34CAnqHkOekrWHA6hfgpECv27ESYm4DQCV/s1600/Vista_Covers+LA+%2B+NZ.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgclrrf28X2MrWoa7zQY5scXEw6_LZpYO8-8FU8PDOOcJ3cN2SHwHGaVmMmP0gYKjehyphenhyphenGgubieeUszQEeUzNKF_nOIT1i1NNjvVKwbNAqN6db34CAnqHkOekrWHA6hfgpECv27ESYm4DQCV/s400/Vista_Covers+LA+%2B+NZ.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519009841702163602" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBMvyhmzxO79oAnNTc_uwdyNPtfiQ2dw76QGQS2o_i-ddiN4fNuHEEqKtSdyumnAZj1dFNIJvV0dqHHqB3nQbydmh1LogZR-M4n5IYa0ln_pqUjjC0TncwdxXjFrQyrSsvxJpja6z0_XGd/s1600-h/Guide_Europe+Winter+6-7.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBMvyhmzxO79oAnNTc_uwdyNPtfiQ2dw76QGQS2o_i-ddiN4fNuHEEqKtSdyumnAZj1dFNIJvV0dqHHqB3nQbydmh1LogZR-M4n5IYa0ln_pqUjjC0TncwdxXjFrQyrSsvxJpja6z0_XGd/s400/Guide_Europe+Winter+6-7.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318695343784788930" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhuRWBqHpT_Xdv5WORSi6X4J_5y6Bj5ZfDTqWw1aAYPliJX6z8TcH2ljEUpHmRfb_W81wa0CcOUWL3lijPfs-cfVbdb1RCr0YDuxLMMYiTynK9MuI6-JvousdEd1e-CAbBDrMEOGKXAxGW/s1600-h/Guide_NAmerica+Winter+6-7.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhuRWBqHpT_Xdv5WORSi6X4J_5y6Bj5ZfDTqWw1aAYPliJX6z8TcH2ljEUpHmRfb_W81wa0CcOUWL3lijPfs-cfVbdb1RCr0YDuxLMMYiTynK9MuI6-JvousdEd1e-CAbBDrMEOGKXAxGW/s400/Guide_NAmerica+Winter+6-7.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318695346354673298" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wjZEp7aoETc4crxY-l0WbXHmj6oyXgJsiskBQ0P6zr5Mhg8sNPYKJxriNWbO17pDE1r4_6ogp3S0m6Rt9haQYK8nrY15u8OxnVMcBTBux5hzGTVxyEyQRW5Lw_HbtN-veL5obp87Jfp6/s1600-h/The+Guides+p18-19.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wjZEp7aoETc4crxY-l0WbXHmj6oyXgJsiskBQ0P6zr5Mhg8sNPYKJxriNWbO17pDE1r4_6ogp3S0m6Rt9haQYK8nrY15u8OxnVMcBTBux5hzGTVxyEyQRW5Lw_HbtN-veL5obp87Jfp6/s400/The+Guides+p18-19.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318695345401260850" /></a><br />Wexas destination supplements, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Guides</span>, are product brochures that go out to the membership by post periodically. They were redesigned alongside <span style="font-style:italic;">Vista</span> and followed the same logic and brief. The key was to let the reader get to the information they wanted in a no-fuss way while at the same time looking like an interesting read in its own right. We developed a colour scheme that, over time, would be readily identifiable to the reader. Furthermore, we hoped that the design would play its part in inspiring the reader to visit new destinations. Design & Art Direction: Alex Cameron and Pieter StanderAlex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-11515894946372575512009-03-29T12:04:00.000-07:002010-09-20T07:47:51.684-07:00White Star Cruises<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQwtht-Q_3vYwvnHIIvE-Lsd4CNWr7y7jGDTDdhzmBGIuDJlWM7PRsQHw4VGk3ONUop8AUcWYLPiYtDQxG-h7N6OOf_zWot_ODptCKywQRVPfjx_kcT-J55r0y-won3eEFuWrt79vAUic/s1600-h/WSC_Logo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQwtht-Q_3vYwvnHIIvE-Lsd4CNWr7y7jGDTDdhzmBGIuDJlWM7PRsQHw4VGk3ONUop8AUcWYLPiYtDQxG-h7N6OOf_zWot_ODptCKywQRVPfjx_kcT-J55r0y-won3eEFuWrt79vAUic/s400/WSC_Logo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418427415709106930" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TmT1baey5R0ytnCjg5fg-3aLv-CIm4aas7Y0_Oxd8ueWEO_6fPeNZKPr_Qfz11yjiiYn570m0QjLya4NPkHTw4vNUM7N5rRb8KvVFRE-EnVojww6odKjLMlw5LfUCIoJtqZBdjRFHiBH/s1600-h/WhiteStar_Stationery.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TmT1baey5R0ytnCjg5fg-3aLv-CIm4aas7Y0_Oxd8ueWEO_6fPeNZKPr_Qfz11yjiiYn570m0QjLya4NPkHTw4vNUM7N5rRb8KvVFRE-EnVojww6odKjLMlw5LfUCIoJtqZBdjRFHiBH/s400/WhiteStar_Stationery.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318692556096163154" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV3zATTrDBlq1edXLpvOmLqRmrAmww3uxrOxHKUGk0BWJy83KH4UmSSU-3e8payKTWXiynn7BtsUWEV5wJ9bItIosVGuuX0b_QqQlpXwXC7g80H0vMAA07Y5ey9wIp4cM9LUoRet1cNAM3/s1600-h/WSC_LuxBrochure_Cover.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV3zATTrDBlq1edXLpvOmLqRmrAmww3uxrOxHKUGk0BWJy83KH4UmSSU-3e8payKTWXiynn7BtsUWEV5wJ9bItIosVGuuX0b_QqQlpXwXC7g80H0vMAA07Y5ey9wIp4cM9LUoRet1cNAM3/s400/WSC_LuxBrochure_Cover.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318692552373795938" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf9h7y8J5ZUTPvB3-VE2DIWhBpTZL28cAOSWP8G_03iAAefyKKMhVsGUKnEEKnUqx-oe5FHBk2HU8naZqYMwtUQPxetGo3hcswPrEapiNakFVe5LcEkdt7mZRaaZ87IctVUDf3Ezu9z47c/s1600-h/WSC_LuxBrochure_Page_p3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf9h7y8J5ZUTPvB3-VE2DIWhBpTZL28cAOSWP8G_03iAAefyKKMhVsGUKnEEKnUqx-oe5FHBk2HU8naZqYMwtUQPxetGo3hcswPrEapiNakFVe5LcEkdt7mZRaaZ87IctVUDf3Ezu9z47c/s400/WSC_LuxBrochure_Page_p3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318692553120867906" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzv_xU0eTbxjQcvQThXKLGsFea77IB1KQzgbz4iy9Grj5eOCxWnpmccepBItI6i6QoqRNgLyJe9jYWh9sVqxnez-N2XGKX_G4ttR98eRz6Quvjv2TV_HT3FmN5yFxOM6gfsTbpeXhCiWDw/s1600-h/WSC_LuxBrochure_Pages26-27.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 178px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzv_xU0eTbxjQcvQThXKLGsFea77IB1KQzgbz4iy9Grj5eOCxWnpmccepBItI6i6QoqRNgLyJe9jYWh9sVqxnez-N2XGKX_G4ttR98eRz6Quvjv2TV_HT3FmN5yFxOM6gfsTbpeXhCiWDw/s400/WSC_LuxBrochure_Pages26-27.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318692552367529042" /></a><br />White Star Cruises was a new company set up by Wexas to focus more on a growing market in travel. The design of the logo, print matter and the website happened simultaneously. We researched the cruise industry – brochures and posters – and paid particular attention to its heyday – the turn of the twentieth century. Our intention with the visuals was to try and give a new company a sense of permanence and trustworthiness. We played around with some obvious nautical elements but settled quite quickly on the 'nautical star'. Typographically, we went for a classical 'european' typeface in Monotype Bembo. This, we felt, gave the identity the required sense of solidity, permanence and trustworthiness that the client wanted. In terms of colour we avoided blue and red – industry standards and, instead, went for a luxurious, 'leather-like' colour.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-81132987985561944232009-03-21T14:23:00.000-07:002009-12-08T13:43:17.017-08:00The Alphabet: and elements of lettering<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2rfAi4hg6jkJfcIQQQ239Naz2ZI4jVa1SRPoEtsOvhripdWR2BZZETe_fYfmVxtaosLOc7KKpwtBLvQcyj9Hi92BujNxQH9nJ33EsKaZ2UeavuwPVhmB3NNVMpsXYRaDsfSX_2ny6s1YE/s1600-h/DPS_Alphabet.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2rfAi4hg6jkJfcIQQQ239Naz2ZI4jVa1SRPoEtsOvhripdWR2BZZETe_fYfmVxtaosLOc7KKpwtBLvQcyj9Hi92BujNxQH9nJ33EsKaZ2UeavuwPVhmB3NNVMpsXYRaDsfSX_2ny6s1YE/s400/DPS_Alphabet.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329362762782821474" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSsOrKdeGvlDHrFD4BIiAjb_lEb3kWQRp-By2bTC33XSwTAqwNuqV4UPGuTJJzv9lmXNS04eXvAIVE1dVU3HzEolSZw7bgDvz6_44xHYG6PvHTLAeR6as5e4kUeeYfUf1JYnYTttFkbsy/s1600-h/TitlePage_Alphabet.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSsOrKdeGvlDHrFD4BIiAjb_lEb3kWQRp-By2bTC33XSwTAqwNuqV4UPGuTJJzv9lmXNS04eXvAIVE1dVU3HzEolSZw7bgDvz6_44xHYG6PvHTLAeR6as5e4kUeeYfUf1JYnYTttFkbsy/s400/TitlePage_Alphabet.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329362760535236738" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqJpQxQrensxFwHUcwpStV3AFjsqbLUIH6aK2sVujhMcL9vVHJBOnxbLRy2pAlBG9KAUR5BZ-RGvblTPpyNLeu38B0ruNygAgU3XxA-z0FGv_YZnPdpJSvhr1lSgGuMsKbPRpTdIfDN4hz/s1600-h/Ch1_Alphabet.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqJpQxQrensxFwHUcwpStV3AFjsqbLUIH6aK2sVujhMcL9vVHJBOnxbLRy2pAlBG9KAUR5BZ-RGvblTPpyNLeu38B0ruNygAgU3XxA-z0FGv_YZnPdpJSvhr1lSgGuMsKbPRpTdIfDN4hz/s400/Ch1_Alphabet.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329362761138358946" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBe2HUNT0RUTqpXvHRgh8t7SUMtA2bPo_OKtr9dIzMTuT_iOhfV1xpP_NU8A9Zmw0A907EDWq7CcZYiktROqp-AqaoAK7B0UhtF1gA-o-k2-_GOMb56v6_GnaW9V6Dk_h7PmXhWsLXiHdj/s1600-h/PlateA_Alphabet.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBe2HUNT0RUTqpXvHRgh8t7SUMtA2bPo_OKtr9dIzMTuT_iOhfV1xpP_NU8A9Zmw0A907EDWq7CcZYiktROqp-AqaoAK7B0UhtF1gA-o-k2-_GOMb56v6_GnaW9V6Dk_h7PmXhWsLXiHdj/s400/PlateA_Alphabet.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329362756855808658" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The Alphabet: and elements of lettering</span><br />Frederic W. Goudy<br />John Lane, 1918 (University of California Press, 1942)<br /><br />First published in 1918, I am the proud owner of a 1918 copy of this phenomenally beautiful and insightful work by one of the true typographic masters of our industry. The book is split between 27 hand-drawn plates – each plate shows fifteen forms of one letter of the alphabet, including; a rendering of the lettering from the Trajan column at Rome; slanted pen capitals, black-letter capitals; Lombardic Gothic versals; Italian round-hand minuscule; black-letter minuscule; transition type from Gothic to Roman; type of Nicolas Jenson, first pure roman typeface; with the remaining being designed by the author with the exception of a Bodoni letterform and another designed by Caslon. The rest of the book comprises of an introduction and seven chapters on the history of letters, and essays on type debates pertinent to that particular era.<br /><br />It is a truly beautiful book and one that thrills me each time I dare to take it down from the shelf. It is a brilliant typographic history. A better introduction to the history of typography I have yet to come across.<br /><br />While a great idea to republish by University of California Press (I am also pretty sure it was republished more recently but for the life of me I can't find who and when?) it lacks the quality of the original imprint in terms of paper stock, binding and printing. Nevertheless even in its facsimile form it is a worthy buy and will delight the reader.<br /><br />I paid £15 through ebay for this - its one of my few prized possessions - and consider it priceless (although you are welcome to test my resolve) – I still feel guilty 10 years on, I feel like I mugged the guy. I have on occasion used it to gauge the likelihood of a potential creative relationship by their reaction on seeing the book.<br /><br />This is not about coveting something old and ‘authentic’ it is as a book to learn from that I get most of my enjoyment. So, don’t wait to come across the next original before you purchase a copy of <span style="font-style:italic;">The Alphabet: and elements of lettering</span> by Frederic Goudy, buy the reproduction – until an original becomes available.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-47444713879992281092009-03-21T14:20:00.000-07:002009-03-21T14:21:17.574-07:00Finer points in the spacing and arrangement of typeGeoffrey Dowding<br />Hartley & Marks<br /><br />This book has been my bible in all things typographic for as long as I have been practicing graphic design. Dowding’s care and attention to typographic detail is very much of its time. First published in 1966 it was a time when typography under the care of the ‘compositor’ or ‘typesetter’ was a time consuming and mechanical affair – using metal type set ‘backward’ – and bore little or no relation to the working methods of today’s designers. Nevertheless, you might be forgiven for thinking – save for the language and description of typographic tasks – that the book was written today, such are the similarities of concern over typographic standards.<br /><br />Finer points covers questions of setting reading text and display text with the consideration of a master craftsman who’s career included both publishing and teaching – at the London College of Printing for over 20 years. <br /><br />On the question of typographic standards Dowding reminds us that it is the minutia that deserves our attention for if we care little for the finer points it will infect our work throughout and therefore the finished product. My own experience in arguing that it is necessary to find the time to kern display matter or set small caps or indeed copy-shape reading text has often met with, no doubt familiar to most designers, ‘we just don’t have the time, no one will notice anyway’.<br /><br />Dowding’s Finer points has considered all things typographic and takes great care in explaining, and showing through illustration, the reasons why setting text in the correct manner matters. It is a book that all graphic designers should both read and refer to continually as it is a book where both answers and inspiration can be found.<br /><br />As was the case when Finer points was first published so today it remains the case that typographic standards must be aspired to, practiced and defended – constantly! The move from the mechanical setting of type through to digital typesetting is not responsible for the decline in typographic standards. The digital age has brought with it more control and sped-up the production process such, that we have fewer reasons for not attending to the finer points of typography. Unfortunately other forces are eating into the craft. Now like then it is up to the individual designer to stand up for what is right and what is in the best interest of the reader and the craft. Dowding’s Finer points is a good ally in this fight.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-20989387723377968572009-03-21T14:07:00.000-07:002009-12-23T03:24:09.633-08:00What is a designer : things, places, messages<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYp7Pq2FyrcoxrUge4Io4pwHYpDhsQxt4mV12R4ex-ap0gZMEkzPQg_kKmTJs4x7iqISSMf-YIiwNxMmamhVmFUNhCUHa27TgjmoHGt9Td8YEhq8N1wSe3dMhG_b2FLZuUft5oFuw9gJhk/s1600-h/What+is+a+designerF%2BB.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYp7Pq2FyrcoxrUge4Io4pwHYpDhsQxt4mV12R4ex-ap0gZMEkzPQg_kKmTJs4x7iqISSMf-YIiwNxMmamhVmFUNhCUHa27TgjmoHGt9Td8YEhq8N1wSe3dMhG_b2FLZuUft5oFuw9gJhk/s400/What+is+a+designerF%2BB.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417699815466902946" /></a><br />Norman Potter<br /><a href="http://www.hyphenpress.co.uk"target=_blank>Hyphen Press</a><br /><br />This book is one of a number of design books that I return to frequently, in this instance it is mainly because each read reveals yet another insight into the role of the designer – an idea that finds little common ground among designers and their institutions in Britain. This is a central theme discussed in What is a designer. Importantly, Potter warns us that the description ‘designer’ can “become hopelessly abstract”, before offering us the following as a working description; “… whose work helps to give form and order to the amenities of life, whether in the context of manufacture, or of place and occasion.” While Potter himself admits to the clumsiness of this definition in doing so he manages to give the reader his first instruction in reading this particular book. The book is not one where answers are easily found – except in the ‘reference’ section of the book, which is perfectly highlighted by a change in paper stock and colour – but answers are indeed there and to the big questions in design; the role of the designer in the production process?; is a designer an artist?: and the role of method in the working life of the designer.<br /><br />Potter was an English cabinetmaker, designer, poet and teacher. Inspired by and active in the modern movement, he makes no secret of his ‘libertarian left’ views and their influence on his thoughts, writings and methods, His book, now in its forth edition, speaks of a designer who brings a wealth of experience and a thoughtful, and thought-provoking, wisdom to the table.<br /><br />What is a designer is a brilliant and challenging book that deserves a wide readership. It is a real back-to-basics tour de force and is a book that will earn its keep both as a tool for best practice and one that inspires to reach newer and greater standards in ones work.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-63572224187481935022009-03-21T13:58:00.000-07:002009-12-23T03:26:25.148-08:00Helvetica: homage to a typeface<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxTRoR9bZRZ6aoG42EdfX1-H_pj9aHEsHfOXjBqjfGzdvrSQZvTM_mj_hwfBDfYeDPfDwixUtwTAT9TGy2vsWzFtpZllbdnqp5XxcJE5VXYttUTglv03uAHwxNK9uzlNav8JfSKRvtHTxi/s1600-h/Helvetica.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxTRoR9bZRZ6aoG42EdfX1-H_pj9aHEsHfOXjBqjfGzdvrSQZvTM_mj_hwfBDfYeDPfDwixUtwTAT9TGy2vsWzFtpZllbdnqp5XxcJE5VXYttUTglv03uAHwxNK9uzlNav8JfSKRvtHTxi/s400/Helvetica.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417695668039891090" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Helvetica: homage to a typeface</span><br />Lars Muller<br />Lars Muller Publishers<br /><br />Love it or loathe it! Helvetica is one of the most successful typefaces of the twentieth century. From its birth in the 1950s through to today, Helvetica has rarely been out of favour. Each decade since, designers have found Helvetica to be the typographic expression of that particular time.<br /><br />Of course Helvetica has its detractors, but for every one of them there are probably thousands of leaflets, posters, logotypes and signs that help people through their everyday lives. This is where Lars Muller comes in. <span style="font-style:italic;">Helvetica: Homage to a typeface</span> is a handbook of Helvetica in-situ. With 256 pages, of which 7 are written introduction and 2 for acknowledgements this is very much in the recent tradition of ‘design’ books, but with one very important distinction.<br /><br />Unlike the majority of ‘visual essays’ – which have been wildly over-intellectualised – or the more unapologetic ‘vanity publications’, from the self-proclaimed current avant-garde, Helvetica tells us much more about the visual landscape of the city and the designer’s impact on it. As Muller puts it, ‘cities are the melting pots of visual culture…it is structured and kept alive by a sea of codes and signs, signals and commands. Where there is friction between the ambitions of professional design and the pragmatism of daily problem-solving.’<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Helvetica: Homage to a typeface</span> will confirm, remind and surprise. With poster classics by the likes of Paul Rand – who once told a student in whispered tones that Helvetica was a display face and should not be used as body text ‘because it looked like dog-shit’. You will also find inspiring work by the likes of, Hans Hillmann, Wim Crouwel, Alan Fletcher, Josef Muller-Brockmann, Massimo Vignelli and Chermayeff & Geismar. Enduring corporate identities for, AT&T, Amtrak, Bayer, EMI, logotypes with a creative nod and a wink for AGFA, Knoll and Letraset and even an ethical slight of hand for so called ‘no brand goods’ store Muji. Helvetica is seen to stand for all things to all men – the napoleon Bonaparte of typefaces if you will.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihr60lHaXzZMnMVR8MNgB9JOIypUJvrB4pk6Tf6YdoazYM6c-8VAmI15NsAE6NQ3jLguK6l3vwrSENr8sTTc8kWZGkUqUkl-PH2796Y6BbCB0D_gLTvptSicM7WX9-Dr4y8yoGXDkevvxp/s1600-h/Helvetica2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihr60lHaXzZMnMVR8MNgB9JOIypUJvrB4pk6Tf6YdoazYM6c-8VAmI15NsAE6NQ3jLguK6l3vwrSENr8sTTc8kWZGkUqUkl-PH2796Y6BbCB0D_gLTvptSicM7WX9-Dr4y8yoGXDkevvxp/s400/Helvetica2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417695672285977538" /></a><br />Helvetica began its life as Neue Hass Grotesk and was drawn by the hand of Max Miedinger – in-house designer at the Hass Foundry – in 1951-53. A traditional grotesk, it was commissioned to fulfil a demand. The explosion of advertising graphics during this period along with the proliferation of the use of sand-serif typefaces (Akzidenz Grotesk, first cut by Wagner & Schmidt and Univers, by Zurich-based Adrian Frutiger being the most popular) and the increasing influence in Europe and the USA of the Swiss ‘Neue Graphik’ became the basis for the emergence and the domination of Helvetica – as it was to be named in 1957 – a warped version of the Latin for Switzerland.<br /><br />Helvetica’s rise to dominance throughout the sixties was through name and association with some of the most influential designers in Europe and America. Towards the latter part of the twentieth century it would receive a further boost in its march towards supremacy when it became a system font on the Apple macintosh computer and the default font in the desktop publishing programme QuarkXpress. As a commercial success, this was by no means unimportant. But it was as a display face that Helvetica reigned supreme.<br /><br />Take a cursory glance through almost any design history book and Helvetica will feature prominently. A walk down any high street – in Britian at least – and you are likely to find it fighting for your attention, whether by the hand of an amateur or that of the professional.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Helvetica – homage to a typeface</span>, is one of the few ‘picture books’ I would recommend. It is an honest attempt at telling a story through pictures, and it is a story that is in this instance, perhaps, best told that way.Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-5629351733128563042009-03-07T07:10:00.000-08:002010-09-20T07:44:51.087-07:00Blueprint Architecture + Design magazineThis work was done on a consultancy basis but was not developed further. Nevertheless it was an exciting process. After a year of wrangling we learned that the project was 'cancelled' when the money men got involved.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3fMxW3fLqISgtyWqUmuCa4m1Uj7cXS5pRcYvL5yTQ6N5ZiMIGzAkT_GEiAdLBhTKn78xo4tJQ66wgxKpAeJYMfYK2cuSuYJ2A-z6R_LU3AUrx3b2I-sV86PU2H940t5dProZaJOGhiinr/s1600-h/Blueprintcover.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310465077583722962" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 267px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3fMxW3fLqISgtyWqUmuCa4m1Uj7cXS5pRcYvL5yTQ6N5ZiMIGzAkT_GEiAdLBhTKn78xo4tJQ66wgxKpAeJYMfYK2cuSuYJ2A-z6R_LU3AUrx3b2I-sV86PU2H940t5dProZaJOGhiinr/s400/Blueprintcover.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqUE5Pw1YdkBFqUMkR_ycjO7Em2DrAgH5zMH2jsv43Yn2kbmbDGMVkradBzmZ3yZyWIyTeIiq3t4RJi_CSd3jDVP9ZeTGiZE43HNx4NxJpfhscoPEL-4x61O3I2tNq9hxzHVfMt-NaV08d/s1600-h/Blueprint3.jpg" rel="lightbox"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310465095333685458" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 314px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqUE5Pw1YdkBFqUMkR_ycjO7Em2DrAgH5zMH2jsv43Yn2kbmbDGMVkradBzmZ3yZyWIyTeIiq3t4RJi_CSd3jDVP9ZeTGiZE43HNx4NxJpfhscoPEL-4x61O3I2tNq9hxzHVfMt-NaV08d/s400/Blueprint3.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNuC5Ct8EkTgjjZnMZqjwk5aQa7rGmyQ5YN54g26Zq2hyphenhyphentPLI1jSk7gFSYWLzjYjaL12GhqBzfR9Uy4qOQuTirJFFZkcKGwar2wyAPdZ_2Ht8SJNtIh8S-Fu1EWO43qzGvIkja5girCKbL/s1600-h/Blueprint2.jpg" rel="lightbox"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310465089015355474" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 307px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNuC5Ct8EkTgjjZnMZqjwk5aQa7rGmyQ5YN54g26Zq2hyphenhyphentPLI1jSk7gFSYWLzjYjaL12GhqBzfR9Uy4qOQuTirJFFZkcKGwar2wyAPdZ_2Ht8SJNtIh8S-Fu1EWO43qzGvIkja5girCKbL/s400/Blueprint2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZf50VPKakEfYiacYApOblWRA1y9OX26Dacsfy3xsyMWzoe8F3uaajY8vDXSjtWXL0Zw4wx5v5LkdMdptlYWl0CR7WClJXhfFq9XF58Vc2zfhY8HjJ2S2RcH2AI8n7i18kDBG_XGGUs21x/s1600-h/Blueprint1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310465083653426354" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 301px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZf50VPKakEfYiacYApOblWRA1y9OX26Dacsfy3xsyMWzoe8F3uaajY8vDXSjtWXL0Zw4wx5v5LkdMdptlYWl0CR7WClJXhfFq9XF58Vc2zfhY8HjJ2S2RcH2AI8n7i18kDBG_XGGUs21x/s400/Blueprint1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Design & Art Direction: Alex Cameron and Kelly Al-SalehAlex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-35080593365187334802009-03-01T11:54:00.001-08:002010-12-16T14:17:55.249-08:00Personal detailsAlex Cameron<br />Art Director / Graphic Designer<br /><br />Hackney<br />London<br />E5<br /><br />07536 117319<br />ac4design@yahoo.co.uk<br /><br />Employment history<br />> April 2007 – present: <br />Senior Designer & Art Director, Wexas (inc. <span style="font-style:italic;">Traveller</span> magazine)<br />> October 2004 – March 2007: <br />Art Director, de-sign (creative co-operative)<br />> June 2003 – October 2004: <br />Art Director / Studio Manager, YMCA<br />> May 2000 – May 2003: <br />Art Director / Studio Manager, cScape<br />> 1996 – 2000: <br />Freelance Art Director, <span style="font-style:italic;">Living Marxism</span> magazine, <span style="font-style:italic;">Community Practitioner</span><br />> 1993 – 1996: <br />Designer / Studio Manager, Junius Publications<br /><br />Magazine design<br />> <span style="font-style:italic;">Traveller</span><br />> <span style="font-style:italic;">The Strad</span><br />> <span style="font-style:italic;">Sfz</span><br />> <span style="font-style:italic;">Classic Record Collector</span>*<br />> <span style="font-style:italic;">Living Marxism</span> (<span style="font-style:italic;">LM</span>)<br />> <span style="font-style:italic;">Novo</span>* (German)<br />> <span style="font-style:italic;">New Humanist</span><br />> <span style="font-style:italic;">International Journal of Pharmaceutical medicine</span><br />> <span style="font-style:italic;">Insight</span> (YCare)<br />> <span style="font-style:italic;">Under 5</span><br /><br />(All the above magazines were either redesigned to a new brief or I designed the premier issue for launch. Except <span style="font-style:italic;">Classic Record Collector</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">Novo</span> both of which I art directed using each magazines original designs) <br /><br />Extra curricular activity<br />> Studying for an MA in Design Writing Criticism, LCC<br />> Lecturer on design and pre-press, University of East London, Docklands Campus<br />> Organised and delivered talks on design at various conferences in the UK<br />> Editorial Board, Design Agenda (design think-tank) co-editor, <span style="font-style:italic;">Great Expectations: the creative industries in the new economy</span>.<br />> Author of chapter on ‘Ethical Design’ in <span style="font-style:italic;">Becoming Designers</span>, Intellect 2000Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-80392582064157672712009-03-01T11:30:00.000-08:002010-08-23T06:18:16.134-07:00Traveller magazine<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguvp3jei1y6dy_qr2PZ2pLdKCtBbuWsfQEyHrkIs6lfmVXM2d2okX51WJORsOhiUGXesMMJYjI7ATyy6zBPgoOcT8_HiUb5lnILOfbtZP309ebgyG1PpfCl1ujZdFq8B9MslFIcRBsm-ef/s1600-h/Traveller_Covers+Summer%2BWinter08.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguvp3jei1y6dy_qr2PZ2pLdKCtBbuWsfQEyHrkIs6lfmVXM2d2okX51WJORsOhiUGXesMMJYjI7ATyy6zBPgoOcT8_HiUb5lnILOfbtZP309ebgyG1PpfCl1ujZdFq8B9MslFIcRBsm-ef/s400/Traveller_Covers+Summer%2BWinter08.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400588621994168402" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm7DwYATfTRwPHkwHLij3dKuY3jAyuq54puQU2dnUL6Aa5aiZ8NdNx0LkDqp8YQecxF643Tar6jBOVf6BVpJ2RiAmOoUfa5WdcsYjdHdj_TYYtXStFTVO_ELAXQmpYbPfqnOoOlQ76-DTz/s1600-h/038-39_Tigers_Final.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm7DwYATfTRwPHkwHLij3dKuY3jAyuq54puQU2dnUL6Aa5aiZ8NdNx0LkDqp8YQecxF643Tar6jBOVf6BVpJ2RiAmOoUfa5WdcsYjdHdj_TYYtXStFTVO_ELAXQmpYbPfqnOoOlQ76-DTz/s400/038-39_Tigers_Final.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318686193025784914" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge8gqCTMg66FcZh2JICUJ-Z689lCUR_Ba-A9I7J_V8TUuwNYrIgqST_GTXLxmJVYRUXajU6QNM3bovbTPC1DQv0b_PdvwIZmNE9AJWr9FPv5XgptSGN3V3JVoWkQqOxINwnyTSLT8UCqsB/s1600-h/040-41_Tigers_Final.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge8gqCTMg66FcZh2JICUJ-Z689lCUR_Ba-A9I7J_V8TUuwNYrIgqST_GTXLxmJVYRUXajU6QNM3bovbTPC1DQv0b_PdvwIZmNE9AJWr9FPv5XgptSGN3V3JVoWkQqOxINwnyTSLT8UCqsB/s400/040-41_Tigers_Final.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318686192379973298" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8jA1MCgeT6_4vL_283r6lAzers5AOgS-czVzzWNgCLaB9yYNzmCgdg3QR7-DqvcuRYWsghqIndOfwCxfshNbYKPRudsV1aig2auhTzhVGdSLFJJBy9xmOFbwPcXh4Z22_3-8oxAhWWxW-/s1600-h/042-044_Tigers_Final.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8jA1MCgeT6_4vL_283r6lAzers5AOgS-czVzzWNgCLaB9yYNzmCgdg3QR7-DqvcuRYWsghqIndOfwCxfshNbYKPRudsV1aig2auhTzhVGdSLFJJBy9xmOFbwPcXh4Z22_3-8oxAhWWxW-/s400/042-044_Tigers_Final.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318686184177479442" /></a><br />The redesign of <span style="font-style:italic;">Traveller</span> was more about 'tightening-up' the design of the magazine as opposed to a radical redesign. Nevertheless, we rebuilt the templates in In-Design and rationalised 'the space' - altering margins, columns and gutter widths etc as well as attending to type. We also suggested a new typeface family - Thesis - that, we believed, gave us more flexibility and was more in keeping with the editorial ethos of Traveller. Furthermore, we introduced keylines between columns of text giving <span style="font-style:italic;">Traveller</span> a more 'grown-up' look. Design & Art Direction: Alex Cameron<br /><br />For more Traveller articles and photography go to <a href="http://jamesinneswilliams.com" target="_blank">jamesinneswilliams.com</a>Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-5923533995934002732009-03-01T11:25:00.001-08:002009-12-23T05:32:07.930-08:00Vista<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrq9pPga489Qx-j8rvDaL5gALoWTrb-kfkbJNFprgaS06w1MVsOKWjYjRKKRWAApKV5v59_RQnE5CK0IZKfTwU01deIlH7nPrkiJS4hQewTUR9t-R6WwVElr6oVZVtN5reWGpTE1XyM58/s1600-h/Vista-Autumn+Spring-'09-cover_small.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrq9pPga489Qx-j8rvDaL5gALoWTrb-kfkbJNFprgaS06w1MVsOKWjYjRKKRWAApKV5v59_RQnE5CK0IZKfTwU01deIlH7nPrkiJS4hQewTUR9t-R6WwVElr6oVZVtN5reWGpTE1XyM58/s400/Vista-Autumn+Spring-'09-cover_small.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317862655464770098" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivYkw2bQhSBLExCmKyrvuj3wvvsk4hjV3QoSMQqDZDa-IuzIa3705A7LHlowNC4XswmhFraExIk4-rnBHGedpPeYW6LnV7fn9wqZYuF3wYdMjjzSikyWc5mT4zqCIxwhESU53CHBwCMfIu/s1600-h/Vista-Winter-'09-p16-17.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivYkw2bQhSBLExCmKyrvuj3wvvsk4hjV3QoSMQqDZDa-IuzIa3705A7LHlowNC4XswmhFraExIk4-rnBHGedpPeYW6LnV7fn9wqZYuF3wYdMjjzSikyWc5mT4zqCIxwhESU53CHBwCMfIu/s400/Vista-Winter-'09-p16-17.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418417641226534354" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwO2FjW30XDGYoWEE6Fn71pLUxCpejQwWlI-wb5K6uR6Y9JntSisx3-lgmXEqaOgIiOhXy6Xfa3W9rnkuWQP5fCjty72GnxQjc8vGF3flq9ZzvsY7p_ymXEE_EtQou-Ub9IB0qlCo3RZf7/s1600-h/Vista-Spring-'09-p16-17.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwO2FjW30XDGYoWEE6Fn71pLUxCpejQwWlI-wb5K6uR6Y9JntSisx3-lgmXEqaOgIiOhXy6Xfa3W9rnkuWQP5fCjty72GnxQjc8vGF3flq9ZzvsY7p_ymXEE_EtQou-Ub9IB0qlCo3RZf7/s400/Vista-Spring-'09-p16-17.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317862396943405314" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2hI0wVyR1I8NSMjZHbXIeuh3HjEOuT79QSqd9_ByVPrgeHew5tdl00nxBp4M_jSTcIdxxraMo6frB-nmo4mXqnrsiHHHYOUI5ip3CAc3R9O-Gn0MmeFL_c7j1dJ8N5D_PJnueMCy4nR7F/s1600-h/Vista-Winter-'09-p22-23.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2hI0wVyR1I8NSMjZHbXIeuh3HjEOuT79QSqd9_ByVPrgeHew5tdl00nxBp4M_jSTcIdxxraMo6frB-nmo4mXqnrsiHHHYOUI5ip3CAc3R9O-Gn0MmeFL_c7j1dJ8N5D_PJnueMCy4nR7F/s400/Vista-Winter-'09-p22-23.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418423720595798882" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODVheZh4_tB-ESeQ9x_dtARSsvjI3AnSV_BhX-V-JtTckuqUrPH6tzjKWsijm5z6ieHbvdYRxn2wKFuZV_Kb044iEH6xxh1kPn8KLY2c-nq1Os4cnYwzh5SEosOfU8ZzHLP5mlN0Ab740/s1600-h/Vista-Winter-'09-p28-29.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODVheZh4_tB-ESeQ9x_dtARSsvjI3AnSV_BhX-V-JtTckuqUrPH6tzjKWsijm5z6ieHbvdYRxn2wKFuZV_Kb044iEH6xxh1kPn8KLY2c-nq1Os4cnYwzh5SEosOfU8ZzHLP5mlN0Ab740/s400/Vista-Winter-'09-p28-29.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418423709868953570" /></a><br />Vista was redesigned around the idea that a more modular aesthetic and structure would allow the reader to get to the necessary information with minimum fuss. We also felt that the redesign should further help the reader navigate through the content and help them identify, quickly, the content that most interests them – whether it be inspirational type articles or product. This was an important division inside too. While we wanted to achieve a more magazine-like publication it was still very much a selling-tool for the company. The articles and product pieces are based on the same grid but they have a different look-and-feel on the page they are separated by a double page spread picture, introduction and an outsized chevron indicates that a change in pace/content is coming. Vista also works alongside 'The Guides' – destination brochures - and were designed alongside each other. See 'The Guides' case study. Design & Art Direction: Alex Cameron and Pieter StanderAlex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979292044225976013.post-45301189883998604872009-03-01T10:11:00.000-08:002009-12-23T03:23:03.849-08:00Letter by Letter: an alphabetical miscellany<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20kGAvVflBl-2wArgiWLNi8ttT4C_wceEJ-lMbtzsA7TJEYHd0WuOOa-YR3XR8W7hSU0FQcG4TZ54CJqAWzqK-LQY1xfC8uWE2ZTI7ilMvptfdDQP1QrzmCLH1FmlobTdkOy9zkj1Pzyi/s1600-h/LbyL+Cover.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20kGAvVflBl-2wArgiWLNi8ttT4C_wceEJ-lMbtzsA7TJEYHd0WuOOa-YR3XR8W7hSU0FQcG4TZ54CJqAWzqK-LQY1xfC8uWE2ZTI7ilMvptfdDQP1QrzmCLH1FmlobTdkOy9zkj1Pzyi/s400/LbyL+Cover.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417717349549797810" /></a><br />Laurent Pflughaupt<br /><a href="http://www.papress.com/html/our.home.page.tpl?cart=126141093475107"target=_blank>Princeton Architectural Press</a><br /><br />This is a brilliant, scholarly work on the alphabet. It is a significant contribution to the development of language and as such is a book that will find readers beyond the typographic/graphic design milieu.<br /><br />The book offers excellent and precise descriptions of letters, and illuminates them with beautiful illustrations throughout. Letter by Letter offers a thorough introduction to the history of our alphabet before taking each letter in turn to give the most comprehensive description of each letter I have come across. Each letter is given its own timeline – a very useful devise for showing the development of a letterform.<br /><br />This is a book that can be dipped in and out of and as such will prove useful to designers of type. But it is an academic work and deserves study. Anyone interested in language and letterforms will benefit from studying this book.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_EgHcU9T6LkgPsSiKiW2xgz5f0Q7Ys9kxIbJQ8uRdBMwEoxD-MmNlAT0c-4FhNadLj79tn0iPJUU7_tgpCVgAo1JNiOKJFG-Tfg4-gh5WhJRtkT3mwyd5jkXRDlQszlRwG1A7YM7Le1cT/s1600-h/LbyL+1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_EgHcU9T6LkgPsSiKiW2xgz5f0Q7Ys9kxIbJQ8uRdBMwEoxD-MmNlAT0c-4FhNadLj79tn0iPJUU7_tgpCVgAo1JNiOKJFG-Tfg4-gh5WhJRtkT3mwyd5jkXRDlQszlRwG1A7YM7Le1cT/s400/LbyL+1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417717578488536354" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvsXJBdURjWQ8OSDYhchf4ORVci0UuKHcsBoSI3She6335uJhprfIfypzTVrsfrbha0zIIrMjxj2URSwDjig4ZRpXiFpvrP-D6g4g8CL6vv9fT-9MVy6bsYPL8AfRrGWSmxc-w7XnJ9y7/s1600-h/LbyL+2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvsXJBdURjWQ8OSDYhchf4ORVci0UuKHcsBoSI3She6335uJhprfIfypzTVrsfrbha0zIIrMjxj2URSwDjig4ZRpXiFpvrP-D6g4g8CL6vv9fT-9MVy6bsYPL8AfRrGWSmxc-w7XnJ9y7/s400/LbyL+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417717572565622082" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOyHfY5FgqQ5MhB6o2gCozGH0zztlYfNpeoPhDp1lrlKVTg6sq20hCjFBpHab4BZ8BKlfwq2I-iGW7pqKAHG-vVRmpwvMhTGqoh6Qd-IHaeXJFbA7sbCrPC-EwEn8hoL7VIn0WA3VSAL9T/s1600-h/LbyL+3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOyHfY5FgqQ5MhB6o2gCozGH0zztlYfNpeoPhDp1lrlKVTg6sq20hCjFBpHab4BZ8BKlfwq2I-iGW7pqKAHG-vVRmpwvMhTGqoh6Qd-IHaeXJFbA7sbCrPC-EwEn8hoL7VIn0WA3VSAL9T/s400/LbyL+3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417717568997625586" /></a>Alex Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17246431458148888109noreply@blogger.com0