Cerysmatic.Factory

Wim Crouwel 1928-2019

2019-09-20T23:01:00.000+01:00

The highly influential graphic designer/typographer Wim Crouwel died on 19 September at the age of 90. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.

Whilst Wim did not directly work with or for Factory Records, his 'New Alphabet' typeface was famously used by Peter Saville on the cover of Joy Division's Facd 250 Substance 1977-1980. Crouwel commented on this in 2011 in the catalogue of the 'Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey' exhibition at the Design Museum in London, as part of an interview with exhibition curator Tony Brook:

"I discovered this at the end of the 1990s, and I was flattered that people had used it. I have seen it in pop magazines - mostly as headlines, and sometimes made a little more readable. They always made it by hand and didn't always follow my strict rules and guidelines. Suddenly, at the end of the 1990s, there was interest in this thing that had been developed 25 years before. That was also the time The Foundry came to me and asked if they could digitize my typefaces for their series of experimental typefaces by people like Jan Tschichold. I was greatly flattered. I immediately gave them permission, and I worked on the project with David Quay from The Foundry."

Crouwel also worked with the 8vo design collective and commented on this too in the same interview:

"I was invited by 8vo to do an article on lower-case typography for their magazine, Octavo. By doing this I got to know the three of them - Hamish Muir, Mark Holt and Simon Johnston - and I was impressed by their work. Hamish and Simon had trained in Basel and there was a strong influence from Swiss design, but different from what the Swiss did. I was impressed by their work, and also by the work, and also by the magazine, the layout of the Octavo magazine."

From a personal point of view, Crouwel's typography has always seemed indelibly Factoryesque, and, when it was time for a website redesign some time in the distant past, I chose to put the new masthead in his Vormgevers typeface which was also used on the cover of Fact 290 'Electronic'.

Rest in peace Wim.

Octavo Redux - progress report

2017-08-25T12:58:00.002+01:00

Here is an Update via Kickstarter / Unit Editions on the redux version of Octavo currently being prepared for publication.

Hamish Muir and Mark Holt are overseeing the final round of photography, with material that wasn’t included in the journal: subscription card mock-ups; full page proofs for ads in Eye magazine (1992/3); metal punches for numbering the Octavo boxed set; and other rarely seen stuff.

Retouching of images is underway
A foreword has been written by 8vo co-founder Simon Johnston
10,000-word interview with Hamish and Mark has been edited
 A final dummy has been ordered from the printer
 Poster artwork completed
 Bookmark designs completed

hallowed articles interview

2017-07-27T07:50:00.000+01:00

The hallowed articles independent record label was launched in 2013 by Mark Holt (ex-8vo) with his San Francisco-based nephew Matthew Holt who produces electronic music as 'Denley' and in the groups Broken Figures and Latent Sea. The first hallowed article, HA_01 featured Latent Sea's Serial Chiller with the b-side a remix by Oakland's BOATS. I caught up with Mark and Matt to decode the first five hallowed articles and to see what lies in store.

The hallowed articles roster, such as it is, is quite eclectic and spans a few genres. What was your approach to choosing artists to work with? Are there any other artists you would like to see on the label?

Matt: When Mark and I first decided to start a label, we were sitting eating sandwiches in front of the Cutty Sark in London and I asked him if he missed doing graphic design for musicians and if he'd ever want to start doing it again. When he said yes I just thought of how many talented artists I've met in my 11 years of making electronic music who's material never gets physically released and so we started there. I'd definitely say the broad genre of the label is electronic but we don't favor any one particular sub-genre within that. I have a personal connection to our first 5 artists, which was nice in the early days of the label, but by no means is that a pre-requisite. I love the music of Mo Kolours and provided there's no conflict of interest, I'd love to release two new songs from him.

What is the inspiration for the generic cover approach to the graphic identity? Other labels have had in-house designers (e.g. Peter Saville, Vaughan Oliver) but not many have used a themed design approach for every release.

Matt: Mark and I wanted a name that nodded at the fact that both my mom and dad's side of the family are from working-class north of England. I was raised on Kitchen Sink Realism films and my producer name, Denley, is a nod to Denley Moor, the town in "The Testing of Eric Olthwaite", the episode of Michael Palin's "Ripping Yarns" that parodies life in the north of England. I was looking through an old sheet metal cutting book that belonged to my grandfather, Mark's dad, and there was a chapter on how to make "hollowed articles". We switched "hollowed" to "hallowed" (greatly revered or respected) and the name was born. The generic cover approach speaks to this in that Mark describes it as a "boiler plate" approach. A nod to Mark's days at Factory where everything was given it's own FAC # and we hope the design appeals to the collectors and completists out there.

Mark: The "boiler plate" approach is like stamping something out - every time it's the same. That idea appealed to me a lot – the sleeve is the label, the disc is the music. All the music and musicians are treated the same. We are not trying to interpret the music by means of the sleeve. That's way too subjective. The graphic on the covers alludes to a series of sleeves sitting in racks – if you like, a library of hallowed articles – they are removed, listened to and put back. The graphic device is in fact the 'A' of the hallowed articles logo rotated. It's a flexible device which can be played with in numerous ways. It appears on the record centres and appears on our first T-shirt.

I have noticed a trend in the covers from 1 thru 5 given that the geometric arrangements are becoming progressively more minimal and wonder if the gradually receding graphics will reach an evolutionary point in HA_06 and beyond?

Matt: The shapes on the cover are meant to represent ones record collection, which we view as a living, breathing, ever-changing entity. If you have friends over and play records all night you may have a different number of records in your collection at any given time. A record collection is a collection of ones own "hallowed articles", music you've loved and return to over the years.

Mark: Yes, the sleeves have become minimal but only as a by product of this idea of music being removed to play. We may generate a different boiler plate at some point in the future but it is likely to contain similar graphic elements, and in so doing, provide the vinyl with a democratic vessel or container.

The 7-inch single was in danger of becoming extinct but is undergoing something of a revival. Why do you think that is and how key is it to HA to have a tangible physical product?

Matt: Both sides of my family love music, but my father and his brothers instilled in me how rewarding having a big music collection can be. I have great memories of my parents playing records in the living room, letting their friends hold the albums and trading stories about the artists, using the music to bring people together. My father passed away in 2002 and I think that on some level, by stressing physical product we are honoring his legacy.

Will there be any 12" singles or even a compilation LP?

Mark: Probably yes, but for the moment we are focusing on the 7" format – it's a common currency and probably the most hallowed.

Are there any plans for hallowed article 06 and beyond?

Mark: We are deciding on our next move. We are also thinking about packaging the first 5 as one. We want to continue to play our part in what is now the established revival of vinyl. As a label we are not driven by quantity of releases or by financial turnover. We put stuff out when we are ready.

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hallowed articles 1 to 5 are available now direct from the label.

Octavo Redux

2017-05-19T07:00:00.000+01:00

Between 1986 and 1992, 8vo did plenty of ground-breaking and, let's face it, simply stunning design for Factory Records (c.f. various Hacienda posters and covers for The Durutti Column). They also found time to do loads of other work and publish Octavo, International Journal of Typography. It's been long out of print but Hamish Muir and Mark Holt of 8vo (which itself disbanded in 2001) have reunited to make all 8 issues available once again in a very special 384pp book that is currently in the last week of seeking Kickstarter funding.

The book will be made using high-end production techniques to faithfully reproduce the original publications.

To quote the editors: "Octavo Redux is as close as you can get to the originals without holding them in your hands."

The Kickstarter is at 90% of its total with less than 7 days to go so there is still to contribute and make sure this important graphic design project sees the light of day.

New geometric typefaces by MuirMcneil

2014-02-20T20:24:00.000+00:00

MuirMcNeil, the typographic design company formed by Hamish Muir (ex-8vo) and Paul McNeil, has announced four new parametric typeface systems: Panopticon, Intersect, Nine and Interact. Each is available to download via muirmcneil.com and there are four very snazzy four large-format day-glo posters to complete the package.

Octavo - More Madness Than Manifesto

2013-11-21T19:46:00.000+00:00

Hamish Muir, one of the founding partners of 8vo, presents a talk about Octavo, the subscription-only design journal published from 1986 to 1992. This will take place at the JWT Building in London on Thursday 28 November from 7pm. For more details see the event page at Typocircle.com.

In the fully-illustrated talk, Hamish will cover the development, design, production and closure of the Octavo project. This will include a rarely seen reconstruction of part of the final CD-ROM issue from 1992.

Tickets are available via Eventbrite with prices ranging from 6.00 to 16.00 GBP.

Serial Chiller [hallowed article 01]

2013-08-21T21:52:00.000+01:00

Hallowed Articles, the new label set up by ex-8vo man Mark Holt and his nephew, has released its first record.

The 7" vinyl single of Latent Sea's Serial Chiller is available in a limited edition of 500 copies, each coming with a download code to access a free mp3 version.

Buy 'Serial Chiller' now with Paypal via hallowedarticles.com

hallowed articles

2013-03-08T16:42:00.000+00:00

Mark Holt (ex-8vo) has launched a new independent record label called hallowed articles together with his Seattle-based nephew Matthew Holt who produces electronic music under the moniker 'Denley' and in the groups Broken Figures and Latent Sea.

Visit their new site, hallowedarticles.com where you may view the first 7" (which will be released in 3-4 months) being made.

You can sign up to receive the newsletter if you wish to be kept up to date with developments and they are also on Twitter and Facebook.

Obey The Time by The Durutti Column

2012-11-13T08:11:00.000+00:00

Expanded notes, new imagery and the hunt for the elusive DAT...

FACT 274 Obey The Time

Working With Wim (and Factory Records)

2011-05-21T16:22:00.000+01:00

8vo's Mark Holt and Hamish Muir talked about their work at the Working With Wim event at the Design Museum in London on 9 May 2011.

Meanwhile, the catalogue for the ongoing Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey exhibition itself features an interview with Wim Crouwel by exhibition curator Tony Brook. There are couple of snippets for Factory fans:

Were you surprised to see New Alphabet used on the cover of a Joy Division record cover (Substance 1977-1980), designed by Peter Saville and Brett Wickens?

I discovered this at the end of the 1990s, and I was flattered that people had used it. I have seen it in pop magazines - mostly as headlines, and sometimes made a little more readable. They always made it by hand and didn't always follow my strict rules and guidelines. Suddenly, at the end of the 1990s, there was interest in this thing that had been developed 25 years before. That was also the time The Foundry came to me and asked if they could digitize my typefaces for their series of experimental typefaces by people like Jan Tschichold. I was greatly flattered. I immediately gave them permission, and I worked on the project with David Quay from The Foundry.

During your time at the Boijmans Museum you started working with the renowned English design group 8vo - how did that come about?

... I was invited by 8vo to do an article on lower-case typography for their magazine, Octavo. By doing this I got to know the three of them - Hamish Muir, Mark Holt and Simon Johnston - and I was impressed by their work. Hamish and Simon had trained in Basel and there was a strong influence from Swiss design, but different from what the Swiss did. I was impressed by their work, and also by the work, and also by the magazine, the layout of the Octavo magazine. In Holland during the 1980s, nothing of that direction was visible. I was so impressed that I immediately invited them to do the posters and catalogues for the museum. That was quite difficult, because we had a production manager in Holland, and a printing company in Belgium, and they were in London. We didn't have enough money to have them travelling back and forth all the time, so they invented a way to do it all by fax machine - we didn't have email at that point, so it was all done by fax and telephone.

Working like that must have been difficult. What did 8vo do that was so different?

8vo developed a direction for each department in the museum, and if you see the whole range of catalogues, you will see that they created a very recognizable series. It was difficult for me to be a commissioner, but when I started with them I said, the only thing you have to do is use Futura, because that was the museum's typeface. The size of the catalogue and the size of the posters was more or less fixed. The biggest difficulty they had was with Futura - they were really Helvetica people. For them it was a shock to have to work with Futura. But I think what they did was fantastic. I was very happy with that period. For about five years, they did all my catalogues and posters.

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Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey
Unit 04

Catalogue for the exhibition
Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey
at the Design Museum, London
30 March - 03 July 2011

144pp, 152x230mm
Cover No. 3
Printed in the Netherlands

Unit Editions
www.uniteditions.com

ISBN: 978-0-9562071-3-5
£16.95

Working With Wim

2011-04-19T21:46:00.000+01:00

Former 8vo partners Mark Holt and Hamish Muir join Adrian Shaughnessy and Ben Bos on Monday 9 May at the Design Museum in London for a two-part conversation with Tony Brook, the curator of the current Graphic Odyssey exhibition of the work of highly influential graphic designer/typographer Wim Crouwel.

In the first part of the evening which is themed around the experiences of those who have worked with Crouwel, Brook will interview Shaughnessy and Bos and this will be followed by Brook plus the two ex-8vo-ers Holt and Muir.

Tickets are priced at 15 GBP (non-members) and the price includes admission to Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey.

MuirMcNeil has also designed a rather good poster for the exhibition which is available from the Design Museum Shop.

Factory clearance

2010-11-05T00:12:00.000+00:00

Mark Holt (ex-8vo) is selling a few items from his Factory collection including FAC 2 A Factory Sample, FAC 6 Electricity by OMD, FAC 86 Hacienda model kit, FAC 235 Blue Monday flicker book, FAC 245 Madchester postcard set and FAC 251 Factory HQ opening invitation plus cd.

He is also selling a copy of the mega-rare Sordide Sentimental SS 45005 Enigma / Danny by The Durutti Column.

Mark's eBay ID is yellow_mark and you can find a complete listing of all his items here.

The typographic story of Octavo

2010-11-01T20:50:00.000+00:00

Idea (#343), a Japanese language typographical / design magazine features the full story (with pics) of Octavo the 8vo-designed journal of typography, first published in 1986.

The mag is a tad pricey at 2,829 JP YEN (about 21.50 GBP) and is available via Amazon.co.jp and other outlets.

Tephra

2008-02-22T15:00:00.000+00:00

Developed with Dalton Maag, Tephra is a new font family based on the lower-case typeface designed by 8vo in 1994, for interact, a special issue of the American Center for Design Journal and later used for the 1997 Flux New Music Festival poster series.

Previously unavailable commercially, the original type has been extended and updated to include full upper- and lower-case character sets, numerals, punctuation and European accents. Available in OpenType Format, as a family of six fonts – solid and five related outline versions – Tephra was released by Dalton Maag on 15 January 2008.

Hamish Muir (ex-8vo) tells Cerysmatic Factory about the new font Tephra which he has designed with Bruno Maag and which was released last month:

"Tephra began life as 'interact' which was designed by 8vo as a screen font for an invited submission to 'Interact' a special issue of 'The American Center for Design Journal' in 1994.

This was later developed by us into a font for print use and was used on a couple of 8vo jobs, including the type in an outline version for the 1997 Flux New Music Festival publicity.

The initial development is fully described in '8vo On the Outside' pp 438-473.

'Interact' was lowercase only + numerals and a limited set of punctuation but no European accents. Bruno Maag made the original fonts from our drawings.

'Interact' was never released commercially or distributed.

I have always been fascinated by geometrically constructed letterforms, and as the original screen-based version of 'Interact' was designed to overcome certain problems with on-screen font rendering, it was natural that one looked to Wim Crouwel's modular letterform designs for inspiration in terms of both process and form, and in particular his 'New Alphabet' and the modular lettering he designed for the 1968 'vormgevers' poster. The original version of interact is in some ways like a much bolder version of the latter.

A couple of years ago I started experimenting with 'outline' versions of the 'interact' print font, carrying on from where I left off with the Flux posters. I wanted to explore the possiblity of developing a series of outline weights of the font which could relate together based on the internal 'design grid' of the letterforms.

The idea was to create a set of related display fonts that could be used together in specific size combinations so that letter size and stroke weights could all 'sit' on an invisible grid underlying the whole page or format. A system for modular, geometric typography, where all the elements are measureable. Why? To limit the range of choice and remove arbitary decision making from the design process. At least that's how I will use it. It's part of the 'job's which design themselves' quest. To find systems and approaches that limit on-the-fly 'push graphics' decision making and more importantly the awkwardness of traditional letterforms when used big on posters. I like the notion of a font that doesn't need letterspacing (as all the characters touch in the solid version) and as well that, as the stroke weights increase in the outline versions, the letterforms merge into each other

The initial sketches were based on setting 'interact' at 50mm body height and subdividing this into 160 units of 0.3125mm. (The original design grid was 19 units for the construction of the lower case letters + ascenders and descenders, I added one unit for space top and bottom; 20 units in the original design became 160).
Starting with the contour of the letterforms as the 'centre' for the outline the strokes, I tested a range of stroke thicknesses as multiples of the 160 unit grid, the thinnest being 2 grid units (1 either side of the contour 'outline') in 2 unit steps, up to 40 units.

Of these, I chose 5 stroke weights (in addition to the solid version, making 6 variants in total) to develop as full fonts based on the following criteria:

a) 2 units - the minimum possible based on the grid
b) 8 units - the point at which the counters on the lowercase 'e' and 'a' fill in and the dot on the lowercase i touches the x-height
c) 16 units - ratio of stroke to inline = 2:1 and inline = same thickness as stroke in b)
d) 22 units - inline = stroke thickness in a)
e) 40 units - the point at which all the counters fill-in

The next stage was to try and re-set the grid to accommodate the range of outlines I wanted within the same body height at any given font size so that for example,'50mm' 'Interact' would be interchangeable across the six versions that would all share the same central contour but of course the stroke thickness would determine the overall real 'height' for each variant. An after-work chat over a beer with Paulus Dreibholz (who knows a lot more about this stuff than me) revealed I would need to convert my grid to 1000 unit height to work with font design technology.

And that's about as far as I got before I met up with Bruno Maag to discuss the development of the font as a live project.

Bruno took my sketches and the original lowercase of the solid version of the font (which he had digitised 12 years ago) and developed the production versions of the six variants, including the design of the entire upper case letterforms, foreign accents, glyphs and other elements required for a complete OpenType character set. My role in the development phase was to comment on the designs as they were being developed by DM. Along the way, and because of the way font software actually works, it was necessary to make minor stroke thickness adjustments to the first and fourth outline weights to get them to fit 'on grid' in the font design software.
I don't know what other designers will make of Tephra, it will be very interesting to see it in use."

An edited version of this article first appeared in the February 2008 edition of Grafik Magazine to coincide with the font's release.

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In addition, Hamish has designed visuals using Tephra for a series of six limited edition screen prints (each 100x70 cm) and which are going to be published by Dalton Maag (www.daltonmaag.com) and will be for sale.

Each of the prints has the same base design, with a different metallic colour overprint - one for each of the fonts in the family.

According to Hamish, they are "anti-content, and are only 'specimen sheets'. I didn't want to invent worthy content (like once again, graphic design saves the whale / world / cosmos / by inventing an excuse for another piece of print). They are only about form."

There will also be an exhibition of the prints at Leagas Delaney in London. Details to follow on hamishmuir.com and here.

Luxury redefined

2007-12-14T23:40:00.000+00:00

Spring 2008 will see the launch of a new joint-branded John Smedley/better thinking Luxury Redefined t-shirt.

Made in Derbyshire from organic, Fairtrade, extra-long staple Peruvian cotton with an exceptionally low water footprint – the Luxury Redefined concept takes sustainable design and communication to a new level. Supported by a product brochure and web site that tell the story through beautiful, evocative photography, the t-shirt combines the ultimate in luxury with the ultimate in sustainability.

Better Thinking Ltd – a sustainable strategy, design and communications consultancy – has considered every aspect of the t-shirt’s environmental and social impacts since initiating the project in October 2005.

Since mid-2005, Mark Holt (founding partner of 8vo) has been a founding partner of Better thinking. To coincide with the launch, Better Thinking is holding a competition for to design a graphic, slogan or logo (around the theme of sustainability) to be printed on a limited edition of 10 of the t-shirts.

The deadline for submissions is 12pm, Friday 15th February 2008.

The winning submission will receive an original 8vo Hacienda Nine poster from 1991, screenprinted in two colours (and also a luxury redefined t-shirt carrying your design). The remainder of the t-shirts will be auctioned globally with all proceeds going to a Peruvian education programme (helping to support the t-shirt cotton farmers).

The Luxury Redefined t-shirt will be available online and from John Smedley stockists in Spring 2008.

Underground magazine in Creative Review blog

2007-08-08T13:51:00.000+01:00

Underground magazine was a short-lived but highly influential (at least in graphic design terms) magazine which ran for 13 issues in the late Eighties. The Creative Review blog has an interview with its art director Rod Clark who, it turns out, once shared a flat with 8vo's Simon Johnston and they both shared Wolfgang Weinart as an influence. It would also have to be said that Underground was "a bit 8vo".

The copiously-illustrated piece includes a shot of the cover of issue 12 from March 1988 which features Ian Curtis from Joy Division.

Wim Crouwel interview on the CR Blog

2007-07-10T23:43:00.000+01:00

There is an excellent interview with highly influential graphic designer and (even though he doesn't think of himself as one) typographer on the Creative Review blog. 8vo and Peter Saville are both mentioned.

Hamish Muir designs the 8vo cover for Creative Review

2005-12-29T17:43:00.000+00:00

The new edition of Creative Review [January 2006] features a special 8vo' cover designed by Hamish Muir in the 8vo 'Interact' screen font and printed in four special fluorescent inks. The cover reads "8vo were treating typography as the image whereas before it was the bit that you put at the bottom of the poster after you had the idea. They exploited the fact that you could make the typography entertaining in itself".

The magazine contains an illustrated critique of the 8vo book 'On the outside'.

Creative Review
www.creativereview.co.uk
Jan 2006
5.50 GBP
A Centaur Publication

8vo: On The Outside book launched

2005-11-04T11:40:00.000+00:00

Thanks to Hamish Muir on the Cerysmatic Factory Message Board for the following info about the book 8vo: On The Outside:

"The book was launched at the LCC (LCP) in London last Friday, 28th October, and will be in the shops soon...

'8vo: On the outside' by Mark Holt and Hamish Muir. Lars Muller Publishers. 536 pages, hardcover, 16 x 12 cm, 395 colour illustrations. 32.50 GBP, ISBN 3-03778-019-3 www.lars-muller-publishers.com

Includes in-depth accounts of working for Factory (Durutti Column / Wilson/ Hacienda) and a stage by stage documentation of the design of the Hacienda Four poster and the 'Guitar and Other Machines' album sleeve."

The Designer and the Grid and the New Alphabet

2005-11-01T16:43:00.000+00:00

The Designer and the Grid by Lucien Roberts and Julia Thrift is a design book that has been around for a while but has recently been republished. Interestingly for FAC fans, this variant of the cover design is set in Wim Crouwels "The New Alphabet" (the same type as the FAC 213 Joy Division 'Atmosphere' sleeve). Furthermore, the book features a good 3 or 4 pages dedicated to Hamish Muir and the use of Grids by 8vo. Meanwhile, 8vo's monograph 'On The Outside' is supposed to be out this week.

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Thanks to C.