We Made This

Summer Shows: CSM BA Graphic Design

2009-06-29T13:57:07+01:00

We trundled along to the Central Saint Martins BA Graphic Design show last week, and from what now seems like thousands of students, picked out a few of bits for your viewing pleasure.

First up, above, is the Animal Collective project from Sroop Sunar, a tasty collection of screen printed images based on the collective nouns used for groups of animals, styled in the form of Indian matchbox labels.

Sticking with dogs, we rather liked Anya Belikova's Little Monsters book, which supplanted babies' heads with dogs' heads.

We were also impressed with the entrepreneurial spirit shown by Charlie Kwai, who created a vending machine "...that aims to positively influence the future of those who participate. Over the course of the exhibition 70 people bought a box. The most popular category was Love closely followed by Career and Power. Orientation sold well, but Finances and Possession were the least popular."

The prophecies were a £1 a pop, and sticking with the crowd, we picked Love - our fortune was "Love knows not time but patience. Be patient and love will find its way to you." So we will be patient.

Next up was Ben Lee's very polished Exponere zine: "A publication exploring and exposing the deception of law, the treachery of our government and the fraudulent corporation which we live for." Strong stuff...

We were also very taken with Louise Naunton Morgan's Human Graph Paper, which consisted of a series of graph paper pads drawn by hand rather than machine, and was oddly beautiful.

And finally, a special mention to Francesco Boni, for having the best business cards in the show.

Good stuff all round. And great to see that the students had (a) got their acts together so that most of them have their own websites and (b) had set up a shop at the show to sell their work. Interestingly, they'd decided not to have a show catalogue, instead relying on the show website and their own sites. There's a sign of the times...

Richard Long at Tate Britain

2009-06-25T12:01:34+01:00

We nipped along to Tate Britain (we're so having to hold ourselves back from inserting a definite article before that...) yesterday to check out the new Richard Long show, Heaven and Earth.

If you don't know his stuff, Long is part of the loose set of artists whose work gets grouped under the heading Land Art (check out Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty and James Turrell's Roden Crater as good examples from that gang; or pick up the Land and Environmental Art book from Thames & Hudson).

Long's art revolves around taking walks. Short walks, long walks, and some giant walks - in Walking to a Lunar Eclipse he treks 366 miles in 8 days - heck he must go through a lot of socks. He then creates a variety of pieces out of his perambulations. Sometimes he creates site-specific installations during the walks, as with Dusty Boots Line (below): these are ephemeral pieces, which may last days, weeks, months or even years, but which can only really be experienced in their locations. Long does photograph the pieces though, often presenting those photographs framed, with carefully hand lettered titles - and thus creating new works.

He also creates beautiful text pieces (such as Heaven and Earth, top), combining poetry, typography, art and historical record. These vary in scale, and many of them are presented in the exhibition as full size text pieces made out of cut vinyl, often occupying a full wall.

Long also creates stunning sculptural pieces for exhibition, such as South Bank Circle (below), relocating materials found during his walks, and arranging them in stark geometrical forms. They're quite magnificent.

The show is brilliantly curated (largely thanks to Long's close involvement, writing the captions for the exhibition, and designing the guide too). The moment when you step from a room of photographs into a room of installed works is really brilliant.

It's also interesting to see an artist whose work is so closely allied to graphic design - a large part of his output is in the form of artists books, all beautifully designed and typeset. In fact, walking through the show is a bit like taking a walk through a sumptuous book...

The exhibition runs until 6 September, but don't dilly dally, get yourself along there as soon as you can.

The Gigantic Robot

2009-06-23T12:18:31+01:00

Tom Gauld is one of our favourite writers / illustrators, and his latest book, The Gigantic Robot, has just been launched.

He describes it as "a wry fable concerning the production of an impressive secret weapon whose promise goes unfulfilled".

You can pick it up from the comic store at Cabanon Press (the site he shares with the lovely Simone Lia, who also has her own site). And check out some more Gigantic Robot production shots.

We're dead excited about getting our copy - Tom's stuff generally sells out pretty quick, so hurry along now...

Summer Shows: RCA: Mark Hayward

2009-06-12T15:04:38+01:00

It's the season of graduation shows, and we're going to get to as many as we can, and any good stuff we come across we'll post up here.

So to kick things off, a tasty little animation from Royal College of Art graduate Mark Hayward.

The second part of the RCA 2009 Show kicks off on 26 June and runs through to 5 July, with work from Animation, Architecture, Communication Art & Design, Design Products, Design Interactions, Fashion Footwear and Accessories, History of Design, Industrial Design Engineering, Textiles and Vehicle Design.

Labuat 'Soy tu aire' interactive promo

2009-06-11T17:06:11+01:00

'Kay, so we try not to re-post stuff we find on the web, but sometimes something truly great comes our way, and we just have to share.

Cast your mind back, and you might remember the rather tasty interactive video for Neon Bible by Arcade Fire. Well, here's something that outdoes it by a country mile. It's the promo for the single Soy tu aire (I'm your air) by recently formed Spanish band Labuat (they opened for Beyonce in Barcelona recently don'cha'know), and it's quite staggeringly beautiful.

During the promo you paint the song, with your mouse moves determining the movement of a beautifully inked line. It's utterly beguiling, particularly as the speed of the line tracks the passion of the song.

It was conceived and art directed by Herraiz Soto & Co, animated by Jossie Malis, with creative programming (we think we're translating that right) by Badabing!

via Very Short List

Banksy Summer Show

2009-06-10T11:27:41+01:00

Looks like that Banksy fellow's got a Summer Show lined up, opening this Saturday, 13 June. The kids over at Vandalog suggest that it might be in Bristol. Stay tuned for more news.

Passive aggressive much?

2009-06-05T15:56:26+01:00

KK Outlet is the Hoxton gallery and office of Amsterdam's KesselsKramer agency, and they've been in touch to tell us about their latest show, Passive Aggressive Notes.

The show features pieces from the Passive Aggressive Notes site, and should strike a chord with anyone who's ever shared a house and found a polite-but-actually-furious note sellotaped to the fridge.

The show runs until 21 June.

The Ride

2009-06-05T11:06:57+01:00

Regular readers will know that we've got a soft spot for all things bike-related here at We Made This, so we were particularly excited to pick up a copy of the second issue of The Ride Journal earlier this week.

And heck, it's just wonderful. The design, art directed by Andrew Diprose, is elegantly understated, mostly consisting of spreads with a single full bleed image on the left hand page, and an accompanying text piece on the facing page. These are then interspersed with occasional longer photographic essays - the illustrations and photography throughout are all really stunning.

It's a wonderfully intimate read, and an eclectic mix of all manner of two-wheeled goodness.

Issue 2 is out now, available from Condor Cycles and Magma in London, or online from the Ride website.

Adobe raising prices

2009-06-04T14:25:59+01:00

The Guardian Technology section today has an interesting report on Adobe's imminent UK price hike of 10% on all its software, which will lead to the Design Premium CS4 package costing a staggering 39.7% more here than in the USA. Kerching!

Check out the full debate on their tech blog post.

Art Car Boot Fair 2009

2009-06-04T12:42:20+01:00

Grab a Turk! Nab a Blake! Spot an Emin!

The ever-wonderful Art Car Boot Fair is upon us again, on 14 June at the Truman Brewery - it's a ramshackle event, with a fine selection of artists and designers hawking their wares out of their car boots. There's also a smattering of burlesque, some customised rides, and lots of food and drink.

See you there.

Armando Iannucci in Milton's Heaven and Hell

2009-05-28T10:20:11+01:00

When's the last time you read a poem? And when's the last time you read an epic poem?

At once, as far as Angels ken, he views

The dismal situation waste and wild.

A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,

As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames

No light; but rather darkness visible

Served only to discover sights of woe,

Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace

And rest can never dwell, hope never comes

That comes to all, but torture without end

Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed

With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.

The BBC is in the middle of its Poetry season, and last night screened a simply fantastic documentary, Armando Iannucci in Milton's Heaven and Hell.

As the name suggests, the show is presented by the horribly talented Armando Iannucci (the man behind the TV show The Thick of It and the movie In The Loop), and is all about John Milton's Paradise Lost.

Watching the programme is like sitting in on a brilliant lecture: Iannucci is passionate, entertaining, informative, and above all engaging. He fleshes out the historical context to the poem, looking at the social and political environment in which Milton was writing; but also examines the text in detail, honing in on words and phrases, to see how they create their effect.

It's genuinely a real treat, and worth checking out, even if your last experience of poetry was on the inside of a greetings card.

Daniel Haskett

2009-05-22T17:08:25+01:00

A while back we posted about the film Let the Right One In, and how we didn't think the posters did the movie justice.

Illustrator Daniel Haskett got in touch to show us the poster he's created inspired by the movie. Tasty eh?

Be good if more movie posters took a bit of a risk wouldn't it?

Perhaps arthouse cinemas could start commissioning their own posters, as a showcase of new talent? Or do any of them already do this?

Herb and Dorothy

2009-05-15T12:07:54+01:00

We've just been sent this trailer for the award-winning new documentary Herb and Dorothy, which premieres in New York on June 5, and it looks just great.

The film is all about Herbert and Dorothy Vogel. Herb was a postal clerk, and Dorothy was a librarian, and despite their modest incomes, they built up an incredibly important contemporary art collection, living off Dorothy's salary and using Herb's to collect art. The only criteria was that the work should be affordable, and small enough to fit into their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment.

Over thirty years they collected more than 2,000 pieces, including works by Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Chuck Close, and a host of others. In 1992 they gifted their whole collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; despite the fact that thanks to their fine eyes, the collection was worth millions of dollars. How cool is that?

They still live in the same apartment, with 19 turtles, lots of fish, and one cat. They're still collecting.

Here's hoping the film makes the jump across to the UK some time soon.

Mini's 50th Birthday - competition

2009-05-13T14:12:55+01:00

Back in 1957, Alex Issigonis put together the first sketches for the Austin Se7en, the car that was to become that British motoring classic, The Mini. (Read all about the history of the car in the Mini Wikipedia page.)

The little car launched in 1959, so this year it's 50 years old, and Mini (well, BMW, who make the New Mini) are having a whole stack of celebrations.

Their PR kids got in touch, and have given us a set of three tickets to the Mini United Festival at Silverstone Race Circuit, which runs from Friday 22 to Sunday 24 May. They've got load of Mini related stuff going on: stunt driving shows, Mini Se7en racing on the Silverstone circuit, track drives, test drives and so on. On top of that, Calvin Harris is doing a set on the Friday night, and Paul Weller's doing a two hour set on the Saturday, with support from Twisted Wheel and Raygun.

Download Mini

If you'd like to get your hands on all three tickets, all you've got to do is create a picture on the theme of Mini 50. (You can download a pdf of the outlined Mini using the link above). Then email us your picture by the end of Sunday 17 May. Make sure to include your name, contact number, and a mailing address for the tickets. We'll put a Flickr set together with the entries (if we get more than a few) and choose a winner on Monday 18 May, and mail the tickets out to you.*

*It's probably sensible to have some Terms and Conditions: UK residents only (sorry everyone else), you can't exchange or refund the tickets, the judges decision is final.

For Print Only

2009-05-13T09:31:20+01:00

For Print Only is the new blog from the folks at Under Consideration, and it's a really tasty little number.

It's set up to showcase beautiful bits of print, but with the added extra of full production details, including cost, time and technique. That makes it a rather invaluable resource. They're open for submissions, and are eager to keep it up to the minute, only showcasing recent work, rather than stuff that's already a year or so old.

The main page of the blog shows one image from each project, with core production details, and from there you jump out to the full posts.

It's interesting to compare this to those design compendiums that litter the shelves of the design bookstores. This feels so much more immediate, and more, well, useful. Although it's surely only a matter of time before the FPO site gets translated into an annual book...

Music to design to - the album

2009-05-11T14:40:32+01:00

Heck, you lot are a diverse bunch.

Following on from our Music to Design to post, here's the Music to design to playlist on Spotify. We've selected (in a fairly haphazard way) some of the more popular tunes from the albums everyone's been recommending. We generally picked the first album mentioned in each case, though not all of them were available via Spotify. The running order is just set to the order the comments came in. We'll keep adding as long as people keep suggesting stuff.

Thomas Allen

2009-05-08T00:00:00+01:00

These have been doing the rounds for a while, but heck, they're just great, so we're happy to join the gang and give them even more air time. They're cut-out dioramas by Thomas Allen - he takes pulp novels and gets busy with a scalpel to create dynamic new interpretations of the covers. And they're lush. They also put us in mind of Lars bon Trier's Dogville, which is no bad thing.

via Very Short List

Music to design to

2009-05-07T13:04:05+01:00

Here's the scene. You've got a deadline looming, so it's time to stop Twittering about what you had for lunch and get on with coming up with some startlingly fresh ideas.

But, first, you need to put on some tunes to get you in the mood. What do you listen to? What's the music that does it for you when you're designing? Is it a bit of Vangelis, some Steve Reich, a dose of Autechre, or a chunk of Radiohead?

Drop us a comment, and let us know your three top albums (in order of preference) for designing to. Or, if you're one of those ~~freaks~~ people who likes absolute silence, let us know that too.

We won't judge. Much.

And once we've got a solid list together, we'll put together a Spotify playlist or somesuch.

Lovely Jubbly

2009-05-06T10:09:18+01:00

Not content with just getting his paws on the Cycle Maintenance Handbook, Alistair also picked up a rather fine (and almost complete) set of trading cards produced by the orange drink Jubbly*, dating from around 1967 as far as we can tell.

The cards, called Adventurous Lives, feature a series of really dangerous jobs for men, of the sort that almost never come up at the job centre: test pilot, crocodile hunter, speedway rider, sea-quarium vet, big game hunter, log roller and atomic worker being some of our favourites.

We totally want to be sea-quarium vets when we grow up:

"The newest way of studying the habits of marine creatures is the construction of large sea-water aquariums. Naturally, like all living things, sea creatures can become ill, so veterinary surgeons have to specialise in the treatment of these illnesses. In the picture a vet is shown treating a porpoise, but it may be necessary to treat sharks, or poisonous rays, or even a whale. As yet there are no Sea-Quariums in Britain, but no doubt one day there will be."

Check out some larger pics over at Alistair's Adventurous Lives Flickr set.

*Interestingly, the phrase 'lovely-jubbly', as made popular by Del Boy Trotter on Only Fools and Horses, comes from the tag-line for Jubbly Orange Drink.

The Cycle Maintenance Handbook

2009-05-05T18:35:29+01:00

Alistair was back in the Isle of Wight this weekend (you probably went when you were a child - everyone does) for the Randonnee, a round-the-island cycle ride, and nipped into what is rapidly becoming a very-favourite-shop-of-all-time, Wight Elephant. It's a bric-a-brac shop, but one that brims with goodness of every kind.

He picked up a copy of the Raleigh Cycle Maintenance Handbook there, which is a pure delight, printed in black and a couple of delicious spot colours, with sections such as "Nature from a Cycle" (spot a weasel, or an otter leaving the water, or even a badger); "Safety Hints" (Never rely on the 'other man' to do the right thing - he may not); "Touring by Lake, Hill or Sea"; as well as a page to record your expenditure on spares and repairs. Gorgeous.

Check out some more pictures over at Alistair's Flickr Ephemera set.