Design and digital culture NEWS // July 2008
A
Brief History of Avant Garde by Duane King
“As a fan of typography, the work of Herb
Lubalin and Avant
Garde magazine I wanted to share what I had learned about the colorful
past of the magazine’s namesake font. Many of the people associated
in the tale are personal heroes of mine, but if you are a bit of a
design geek, I think you’ll find it’s quite an amazing
story.”
Release
The Freaks replenishes the store with a new collection of cool
vinyl and plush toys. Shown, Colorblok's Mono by DOMA.
Sportingood
becomes SPGLAB! Mostly into live
action and motion graphics. Check their latest reel!
My
good friend Philippe Gully who
is one of the founders of the longest running French design portal Praktica has
updated his portfolio site which about sound design and music either
for motion, TV, Web and radio for a roster of impressive clients.
A
work space is currently available at La Banque. If you are a visual or
new media artist, designer, architect, video artist, computer programmer,
name it! and are looking for a work space, please contact me, Emmanuel
(sevigny@playmind.com).
La Banque is located on the Plateau Mont-Royal (corner Roy E and Hotel-de-Ville).
It’s a large, open space (formerly a bank) with a mezzanine that
hosts the work desk. The central space on the ground floor can be used
for building projects or events. There is also a basement that can be
used for working on dusty materials or for storing equipment.
The space is approximately 1400 square feet, 15 feet of ceiling + mezzanine
500 square feet and basement of 1400 square feet.
If
anyone running their own studio in the NYC area would prefer to focus
less on business development and more on doing great work, but also has
a firm distaste for “sales guys”, we know a candidate you
should think about speaking with. He's more at home with designers than
account people, a welcome addition to any brainstorming session, a great
writer, and equally comfortable discussing strategy with the clients
and ideas with the designers.
He cares more about bringing designers interesting projects.
If anyone is interested, let
us know... write NYC in subject line and we will forward your inquiry.
StudioK has
got a new interface and is reloaded with new works spanning across many medias.
De
Barbaren is a Belgian based multidisciplinary design studio that
masters - except for barbaric - many languages. Sounds like grizzly?
IWANT design luvs
birds and design and as a small creative agency working across a range
of media they are presently looking to expand their team.
Recently
discovered new photographers who
have in common awesome portrait and lifestyle portfolios:
/
Ron Berg humoristic twists
/
Chris DeFord in your face and more
/
Harold Lee Miller reality check contexts
/
Espace Urbain puts the fun back into photography
/
Quarto studio beautiful website btw
/
David Sacks highly conceptual staging
Jaime
Hayon Works by Jaime Hayon, publisher Die Gestalten
He is Spanish, a designer and artist, has interned at Fabrica and this
first monography of his work is the total deal. I've discovered his work
about 3 years ago and was enthused by the sheer elegance and beauty of
his pieces.
The book which he has written, takes you to a bird-eye view into his
fanstatic imagination and what he perceives as good design. In his case,
good is simply exceptional. He has garnered a network of dedicated
craftmans from wood turning, pottery and ceramics who fully supported
his creative process which yielded some of the most beautiful and sometimes
extremely large pieces ever displayed and designed by a single artist.
Not satisfied with turning his doodling into 3D renditions and real-life
accessories, he was commissioned to design interiors and shops which
all bear the same refinement and simplicity of form and colors.
This book is stuning by its quintessential value and the
best investment to stock your design reference bookshelf. So much inspiration
was sparked and encouragement to forge ahead.
Hyperthesis
Visual Lab has a knack for strong editorial layouts with unexpected
creative solutions. Gotta luv the Fall font. There is a mix of strong
contrasts and soft textures.
After all these years, still going strong!
Maywa
Denki is famous for his out of this world construction of the most
eclectic and fully functional and automated music instruments ever
to be created. More like robots than conventional he has travelled
extensively doing performance installations.
He's also designed toys and a fish spine looking electrical cord and
various widgets. He runs contests and experimental labs as well.
zeixs has
just released their new cool format collection: great new characters,
t-shirtdesign and websites2.
/
T-post® blew me away! A collection of tees for both gender
and the concept of the website is around that. Now have a look at spoofy
and fun photograph. But there is more.
Illustration comes current news and the wayit works is that it is by
subscription. Upon becoming a member your receive your first tee, then
every 6 weeks, a new one, all to a flat fee.
Now that is one heck of a smart business model.
Michael
Wong of the top toy designer is launching a limited edition at the Taipei
Toy Festival 2008. Shown the special DIY Galaxie Bunch 8" Alpha
version. Vew the new collection and
sketches.
Elephant
design promotes the development and production of innovative products,
designed to meet individuals needs and preferences in various industries,
regarless of mass marketing contrainsts.
By using its unique `Design to order` (DTO) technology, when enough
products have been voted, the proceed towards a feasibility assessment.
ChauhanStudio is
a product design agency based in London and run by brothers Tej and Sach.
They produce slick and elegant products, mostly related to tech and garnered
exceptional awards for doing so.
Well
well, their Ideas are still Skinny but
also have gone Fat and vice-versa
and more! Hats off to Veer for pulling another visual stunt! You guys
rock!
Gotta
luv their type! Village has got all kinds
of fonts. I think their flashing placeholder is a smart brand placement
with the 'Hi' faintly appearing through the semi-transparent layer.
Ah!
Fantastic flash website! That's a really creative navigation! Luv it
- mouse over and the little circles expand with an animated punched out
hole which is part of the project in Wilhem
Arnoldy portfolio website.
He states being an independant graphic and web designer. From France
with luv!
Manystuff 
compiled
a .pdf Around the Process that
was answered by designers who were all asked the same questions:
“When you work, do you think in terms of forms or in terms of
a creation process? Do you have a clear vision of your final image or
does it come only from an upstream creation process?”
Each reply is illustrated.
Wayne
Harris is still running around in his brief in the top left portion
of the interface and since being first added to the illustration directory,
much critter evolution took place.
As always, his characters are just delightful, full of spunk and pretty
harmless. Oh, and beautifully executed.
Kim
Rosen is
a freelance illustrator and does what she loves. Her editorial projects
are outstanding somehow always locked in an invisible moving flow.
Bold,
loud, in your face and driven, Nathan
Fox has got one of the coolest interface design I've seen in a while
that totally enhance the core of his skills as an illustrator!
Luv the retro yet edgy look and feel. Must see!
Wanna
own a Nanibird? Or design one?
Josh (McKible) is alway looking for artists and designers? All the lil'
birdies are free for you to enjoy. Download, print, cut and play! Batch
Two is out!
Toolbox
updated with new stock photography websites:
/ Blend Images
/ Shutterstock
/ Snap Village
/ Stockfood
Ryan
Robinson is probably one of the most gifted photographer I know
and who has tremendous conceptual abilities. Gotta luv his new work!
Getting better and better!
Look
ma, no flash! Another list of links only on a bared white page as a website?
Yepp - but nice scripting that makes all projects thumbnails appear nicely
upon click. Nice handy work by Mirko
Zarkovic, currently based in Singapore.
JUXT
Interactive one of the first proficient agency on the web that
started designing with flash in its infancy, produced some fancy flash
3D freshness for Adobe
Creative License.
Have
a look at Martin Klimas photography
of exploding porcelain figurines which he captured as if in movement!
Wonder how this was done?
_ _ _ _ _
via _Blank_Issue_3
Get
blown away by the sheer genius of Yves Behar who is behind the product
design and packaging of Fuseproject.
Luca
Laurenti aka MKLANE has a forte
in illustrating striking portraits of the well-known and not so well-known
people.
Aaitski! is
coolafied T-shirts! Me wants a Roxygirl! Luv the bold graphics!
Robert
Stadler is another talented and off the main route product designer.
He has done the Alquimista lamp that became the book cover of Furnish,
which I highly recommend.
Postpanic Postman
Returns has got some excellent 3D animations and rendering in this
short promo film.
Compelling! Simon
Duhamel is an upcoming new rising star which photographic works
have appeared in many different magazines. Already mastering light,
composition and retouching.
Some of his portraits are outstanding.
Benbenworld is
a graphic designer living in Belgium who luvs typography, neon patterns
and colors, print and web design.
Watch this cool animated
poster! Nice!
Max
Hergenrother has cumulated an impressive education background and
does commercial art, retouching and commissions. His artwork is both
well-executed with a slant charicactural comic side to it.
Ashkahn is
an art director at Ubiquity
records in Newport Beach and also run a small design studio and makes
wierd videos / shirts / posters to sell. Check this
awesome cover he did.
Quote
of the day: “Risk and survive. Stall and die. Jump and rise.
Fail and learn. Defeat your insecurities. The unknown is
not comfortable. Nothing is missing. Creativity is the sheer and pure
manifestation of intelligence mixed with a high dose of imagination.
Be inventive when facing delicate requests, unmanageable deadlines and
unreasonable expectations. Learn to do with what you don't have and pretend
you can.”
From the archived articles Carole
Guevin wrote to feed your mind!
Design
by Twopoints is a communication design bureau founded in 2007.
It is specialised in coordination, creation, development and implementation
of visual identities. Especially for festivals and editorial projects.
Besides directing and teaching a master on communication and editorial
design at the private design school Elisava, they are teaching regulary
at different design schools around Europe, but as well organize our own workshops.
Verve:
endurance, fire, force, gumption, gusto, intensity, moxie, passion, spunk,
stamina, strength, toughness, vigor. Photographer and photo editor Geoffrey
Hiller has created Verve to feature photos and interviews by the finest
young image makers today and a reminder of the power of the still image.
Geoffrey and I go back a while and I've always admire is directness
and passion for whatever he enterprises. Verve is the demonstration of
his skills as editor and photographer and the willingness to explore
our world without much compromises in regards with fantasy.
His picks are of extraordinaire quality! You into photography? This
is a must bookmark.
Me
luvs fresh, vibrant, colors used by Eve
Duhamel in
her pseudo-psychelia like paintings and illustrations all containing
a little dose of whimsical doodles.
They
design across media and just about any medium, meet Gas
As Interface, a creative platform that gives shape to your imagination.
Ghostly
International is a record label that embodies music of eletronic
methods and humanistic aims.
A
totally cool fashion label * w h
e a t B r e a d L i f e puts emphasis on street digs as a way of
life. Music included!
Not
exactly a beautiful interface design but why is HORT website
still working? Well I guess it reflects on how they approach design,
out of the box, out the trends, out of the expected.. Get it?
Probably one of the top design agency in the world in ref with the quality
of their projects which amply speak for themselves.
Pimp
my shirt man from Coltesse showing
one designed by extra talented artist NDEUR who
is a fashion design rising star!
Creativity?
The pursuit of change by Carole Guevin
While I was looking for something else, I found this article, read it
and thought in retrospect, it is still right on the spot, perhaps
even moreso today. It's a quick dip into the philosophy of creativity,
revolving around 5 key words. A short easy read that will perhaps raise
some relevant pointers.
“Creativity is the capacity to evaluate, organize, deconstruct,
interpret and synthesize chaos. The result? Assigning a systemically
simple well-packaged new proposal to a problem.”
_ _ _ _ _
Free to distribute to fellow designers — make sure you give
proper credit back as to name of author and URL.
From the archived articles Carole
Guevin wrote to feed your mind!
Introducing
the exquisite work of Tatsuro Kiuchi that
retained so much of my childhood favorite (image) books. The website
is in Japanese but the navigation to his work, is in English.
Loads
of original mix-media, editorial and illustration design by Anna
Haas .
Particularly like the tshirt Happy Crowd.
Sam
Flores art and illustrations are bold lined and seem extracted
for many years of tagging and Asian culture influences. As you will
see, there is an enigmatic and recurring central character.
Annie
Wharton beautifully
colorized morphed forms are now collected by renowned museums, collectors
and corporate clients.
Blaine
Fontana mixes excellent sketch skills with tag like more youth
scene vectors and achieves stunning results. His installations are
remarkable.
Vendredi
soir dernier on fêtait les 5 ans d'Urbania au
chic CCA! We attended the Urbania b-day at the chic CCA which slowly
filled with the smart street wise all around cultivated artistic intelligentsia
of Montreal.
A couple of pictures are available on their FB
profile.
Since
January 2008, at the initiative of agence
Marc Praquin, DesignAndDesign website
has enabled designers from all over the world, to have their voices heard,
finally liberated from the monopoly of major publishers. It offers them
a free opportunity to present their work in the first book entirely devoted
to the best of graphic and product design.
The 2008 Design and Design Book of the Year shows the 730 award-winning
designs which were honored each day.
Erik
from M-A-D were spoofing around both
complaining about the weather while stating how hot it was in California.
He sent this video along: Pop
corn with cell phones! Can you fracking imagine what happens to our
neurons?
_ _ _ _ _
nota: Tx to Hasan for watching over us! “The contents
of these videos are fictitious..." Read the full disaclaimer
here...
“What
advice would you give to the young?
Bruce Sterling: I hate to say this absolute bullshit design professor
stuff, but really - follow your bliss! I mean try and do something that
you don't mind doing. if you get into some line of work that's like a
pain in the ass but it pays a lot, it's not really going to be worth
it and you won't do a very good job.”
via Designboom
On
first sight, I thought these were photographs until I paid attention
to the skies and wondered - why is he photoshoping these? Presenting
hyper real paintings by Niklas
Hughes.
Immersive
experience awaiting to discover Mioke hidden
artworks which are an exquisite travel into beautiful flora and strange
fauna. One of the best surrealist artist I've discovered!
Welcome to a new powagirrrl.
BARCODE
PLANTAGE transforms a simple product bar code into a unique
tree in the garden of globalisation brought to you by a design student,
Daniel Becker. Now will someone contact this guy and hire him!
Information design never looked so good! You can see the random or even
punch a code and see what happens!
Let's
do clean! Erwin Bauer just sized
it right - loads of white space - intriguing caption and visual. In Deutsch
only - but you can easily appreciate what I'm referring to. Click one
of the start-up thumbnails to see what happens! Hold mouse and move screen around.
Luv it!
Joseph
Joseph is the a real joint venture: twin brothers Antony and Richard
Joseph launched their company in September 2002. The company has its
roots in a family glass business stretching back three generations.
Joseph Joseph has now developed into a strong brand that encompasses
mostly kitchen and table-ware.
Moytoy carries
the cool Rolito Safari set D. Jean Paul & Jean Piere and Spicy Henry
which are the fourth pair of mini-characters in the Rolitoland Safari
series by the artist, Rolito! Limited to only 300 sets worldwide.
Shown - the one sitting at the base of one of my monitors in my design
workstation and the other on JF code and music workstations.
He'g
got his hands in many pies and don't mess any, meet Maciej
Mizer! Awesome work in 2D, 3D, graffiti, photography... need I say
more? This guy masters the art of light and cultivates an organic and
futuristic vision!
Have a look at some of his illustrations to see what I mean... breathtaking!
via Fairspot
-> more news
^
