Memo Random by Black and Ginger, Liverpool

via http://www.flickr.com/photos/sensing-owls/4098190568/

via http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UC0QPc9gOzw/SozMAitp4tI/AAAAAAAAAiI/Ksd3EmwdtGY/s1600-h/toko-cranium-1.jpg

via http://www.tumblr.com/dashboard

It's not surprising that the most refined and spare presentation I've seen at NY Design Week so far took place at the Jil Sander store in Soho, where Kvadrat celebrated one of its best-selling fabrics, Hallingdal 65, by inviting over thirty young designers to use it in new works. Since Hallingdal was designed by Nanna Ditzel in 1965 , it's become famous for its durability and rich color palette. It's been used in homes, hospitals and schools, but it's never been used for more artful purposes until this show for NY Design Week, at least not on this public scale.

Jonah Takagi's vintage camping gear-inspired Basecamp (above) that got such a positive response when it was shown in Milan was placed front and center. Around the corner was Stephen Burks' Play, a set of wooden room dividers covered in bright shades of Hallingdal 65. The dividers are joined by a zipper, allowing you to attach as many panels as you want to suit your space.

On the other side of Burks' dividers was the largest piece, Jonathan Olivares' Chaise for Hallingdal 65, which asks "What if a piece of fabric wanted to relax?" Surely, if any fabric deserves a break from all its hard work over the past 45 years it's Hallingdal 65. "Since fabric is normally used to upholster furniture designed for humans, Olivares thought it would be a fitting gesture to instead make a piece of furniture designed only to hold a piece of fabric." By setting up a roll of yellow Hallingdal 65 on aluminum castings and letting it roll out and drape naturally, Olivares invites the fabric to "stretch out, and maybe...relax."

(more...)

Furniture designer Tamara Petrovic is one half of 0 TO 1—a studio that she and architect Garner Oh founded in 2009—but she presides over their showing for NY Design Week at Con Artist NYC. Called Industrial + Industrial, the exhibition is the result of a project to create design objects from the remnants of industrial manufacturing.

Petrovic came up with many clever design solutions by making simple alterations to materials like felt, cork and cardboard. Fruit Play is a fruit plate made from a thick slab of cork with holes cut out in different sizes. Bright fruit not only looks great in contrast with the natural brown cork, but the softness of the material and the size of the holes ensure that the fruit makes minimal contact with the container, "extending fruit shelf life and staging each piece openly."

Snowflakes is a series of trivets and coasters made by stringing felt balls together in a circle. Flowers also repurposes wool felt, this time into a set of hairpins, but the real standouts are Cylinder 14 and Cylinder 16, two chairs made from recycled cardboard cores that were once used as rolls to wrap fabric or packaging materials. The challenge here was to "reuse the material and reveal its intrinsic beauty."

(more...)

seokim:

Here’s a metaphor for what happens typically when I have an art related epiphany. If you know me, you know that this describes my life. 

:) :( 

Cartoonist and Comics Journal columnist Frank Santoro is about to start the second of his correspondence courses, with a deadline for applications of May 30th. Complete details here. You might know Frank from his books Cold Heat and Storeyville, or more recent turns in Sammy Harkham’s anthology series Kramer’s Ergot. Frank’s approach to comics-making is one of the more unique ones I’ve seen, rooted in old school printing techniques and renaissance-era “golden ratio” -type harmonic compositions, and increasingly based less on black lines and more on building colors in layers.

It’s fascinating stuff, even though I only understand about a third of it, and am only half convinced of even that (another ratio!). But if I had the time and cheddar, I’d take his course in a hot minute. I’m probably not the only one out there who could stand to look at his own approach to drawing and mark-making and composition from a whole new angle (I’m looking at you, Everyone). For more on Frank, I recommend his series of Layout Workbook posts on tcj.com, which go through a lot of his ideas about grids and the harmonic points in compositions. 

Also hello! This is my first post as a Drawn! contributor; first-time caller, long-time listener. If you don’t like it, I suggest you blame… Frank Santoro. 

Alex Turvey's immersive eight-minute film showing at KK Outlet in east London takes you beyond the city and into a headspinning landscape of colour and sound...

Created to accompany the live shows of Blanck Mass (aka Benjamin John Power, one half of fuzzy noiseniks Fuck Buttons), Turvey's new films centre around a series of spinning reflective forms. What looks like a leaping deer at one point, a weirdly drippy arm the next hold centre and project out of landscapes of various blobby masses.

Here's his trailer for the show:

Despite a penchant for the psychedelic, Turvey's style is hard to pin down as he has, among other things, directed surrealist music videos for Zulu Winter (see below) and We Have Band; designed the set, masks and a mirrored dress for a forthcoming Shakira SEAT spot; put together installations for Levi's and Nike stores; while bashing out a rather fine badge logo for Cooper Bikes. And he's made a proper kite.

But Hollow Earth focuses on the live visuals he created for Blanck Mass's recent live foray and a right psychedelic trip they are too. Prints of some of the imagery created in the making of the films are also on display (and for sale) at the gallery.

When I went along the BM soundtrack just wasn't loud enough to get anywhere near the live experience – but then there was just one small door separating this netherworld from the calm of the KK gallery and shop. So get along before May 27. (And ask them to turn it up, just for you.)

Hollow Earth is at KK Outlet, 42 Hoxton Square, London N1 6PB, details at kkoutlet.com. More of Turvey's work is at alexturvey.com.

The Northern Oddities showing at Ivana Helsinki Concept Store features "eight curious Finnish design brands on their crusade to New York City." This is the first time any of these designers have sent their work "beyond the borders of the Old Continent," and their colorful, graphic patterns and fun, approachable products are a safe bet for a warm reception during NY Design Week.

If you make your way past Ivana Helsinki's dresses and blouses you'll see a table set with Northern Oddities' wares: kitchen accessories, lamps, toys and paper goods, like the plywood notebooks by Private Case. The notebooks come in two sizes and are made from birch wood, a material indigenous to Finland, where they use it for everything from "hand tools and furnishing to bridges and churches." The wood is thin enough not to be bulky and hard enough to provide a sturdy surface to write on. There's even a handy little pencil holder on the side.

Sanna Pelliccioni made the boldest statement with Bombo, her line of colorful kitchen accessories (above) with bright blue and yellow graphics of families printed on hand towels, serving trays and plates.

(more...)

Years ago a Frank Lloyd Wright sketch of what appears to be a globe stand (above) surfaced at the Foundation in his name, which holds archives for more than 20,000 of his drawings. A Chicago-based company named Replogle Globe, the world's largest manufacturer of globes, approached the Foundation seeking permission to realize it. Permission granted, they produced the Wright Globe, a walnut pedestal supporting an antique-hued globe and standing at 39 inches.

The drawing is an unidentified concept for one of the Prairie Homes that Mr. Wright designed in the early 1900s. The only marking on the drawing is in his handwriting and says, "Something like this." The proportions, and interpriation, of the drawing were calculated based on the scale of other drawings from this time period.

They apparently met with some success, as they then produced an entire line of Foundation-authorized Frank-Lloyd-Wright-branded globes, the others not drawn from sketches but rather cobbled together from a combination of Wright's design signatures.

I have mixed feelings about this. But I think it would be awesome if a missing next page in the sketchbook surfaced, and it turns out that the scale was all wrong, and that Mr. Wright actually intended to venture into outer space to encase the Earth in a really big walnut pedestal space station.

In my wildest dreams, it comes to light that the sketch had been doctored to remove the following annotation:

(more...)

Designer Roy McCarthy's alternative Olympics brand is for people who want to celebrate the Games in their homes, shops or pubs, without fear of infringing the usage laws of the official 2012 branding...

On the BBC's Andrew Marr show last weekend, Lord Coe was interviewed about the legislation relating to the use of the London 2012 branding. His remarks were later quoted by Owen Gibson in The Guardian in an article McCarthy read and was inspired to act upon.

Coe claimed that the legislation was essential "in protecting the sponsors who come to the table with a lot of money to help us stage these Games". For McCarthy, while this remained an understandable attitude to take in regard to regulating the involvement of the event's major sponsors, such a heavy-handed approach has already prevented much smaller businesses, not to mention ordinary individuals, from using any element of the Olympics identity in their celebrations.

McCarthy's solution was to create Pymlico, a free-to-use brand kit featuring a logo, posters, and various supporting identities people could download and use to show their support for the Games.

Centred on a target design very similar to the one designer Daniel Eatock proposed as an alternative 2012 logo a few years ago, McCarthy's device also works across a "LOOK HERE" TV and "HEAR HERE" radio-themed poster.

"The aim is to combat something that could become a problem for people who want to show support," says McCarthy. "I wanted to turn that into an opportunity to help people, rather than moan about it, to fight a negative with a positive. Someone on Twitter called it 'a great piece of pragmaticism' – that's a nice thing to say."

 

Pymlico posters could alert passersby to the fact that this pub is screening the Olympics

And unlike the official visual identity for London 2012 and the numerous brands which have a presence on posters, press ads and TV broadcasts, there are no restrictions on the use of the Pymlico brand.

"I see it as a way of putting posters up in windows and saying 'we're watching the Olympics' without using the rings," says McCarthy. "I suppose I want people to respect the needs of the official sponsors, and at the same time show that they don't need to use the official branding, if it's unavailable to them."

How the Pymlico brand might look on a black cab

More on the Pymlico campaign at roymccarthy.com/pymlico and on Twitter at @VivaPymlico.

By Jody Barton, Big Active

Two creatives at Fallon, Pete Lewis and Omar Karim, have joined forces with Wesley Merritt at Debut Art to launch A Family Affair, a charity project to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. The trio will be cycling from John O'Groats to Land's End in June, and have also commissioned a number of artists and illustrators to create bike-themed limited edition prints to help raise money...

The limited edition A2 prints will be exhibited at Fallon in London next Thursday evening (May 24), where they will also be for sale for £75 each. Here's a selection of some of the lovely works that will be on sale on the night:

By Wesley Merritt, Debut Art

By Paul Bower, Pocko

By Ryan Todd

By James Dawe, Pocko

By Celyn, Debut Art

By Owen Gildersleeve, YCN

By Morgan Guegan, Made In Fallon

Even if you're not that into bikes, there's a lot of lovely design work to admire here. The exhibition will be held at Fallon, 20-22 Great Titchfield Street, from 6.30-9pm on May 24, or alternatively, you can purchase the prints online (there are 29 in total) at afamilyaffair.co.uk/shop. Dig deep people!

The Association of Photographers' Student Awards have been announced with Jordi Ruiz Cirera from London College of Communications named as the 2012 Student Photographer of the Year

Ruiz Cirera's series of portraits of members of the Mennonite communities in Eastern Bolivia won him the top prize. The Mennonites emigrated to Bolivia in the 50s hoping to be able to preserve their traditional lifestyle away from the trappings of the 20th century. "This series of portraits intends to showcase the relations and the family roles within the Mennonite community, as well as their deep isolation from contemporary society," says Ruiz Cirera.

Ruiz Cirera originally hails from Barcelona but graduated from the MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at LCC last year. He spent a year working on the Mennonite project, a second series from which (one shown below) won him a Merit at the AOP Student Awards.

 

The other Merit this year went to Beomsik Won from the Slade for the Archisculpture photomontage series (two shown below).

 

The Judges' Choice section, where each judge chooses an image or series they particularly liked, featured another isolated rural community in Norwegian photographer Christiane Ylven Vibe's Transhumance Seterfjell project (chosen by Harry Hardie).

 

While Slovenian Ciril Jazbec documented life on Kiribati, a chain of South Pacific islands threatened by climate change (chosen by MIchael Regnier)

 

Perry Curties' choice was this shot by Fiona Osborne of the BA(Hons) Photography course at Bournemouth

 

Julia Fullerton-Batten chose this landscape series by Melissa Tullett who is on the BA (Hons) Photography course at Falmouth. The series is called Homeland – each image is comprised of several shots "disorientating the viewer to establish a sense of disconnection".

 

And finally Nick Meek chose this shot by Sally Rose McCormack, an Editorial & Advertising Photography student at The University of Gloucestershire

 

To see all the selected work, go to the AOP website here, or visit the exhibition at the Hoxton Gallery, The Basement, Corner of Drysdale Street and Hoxton Street, London N1 until May 19.

(The Illustrator by Julianna Brion)

luclatulippe:

I recently had a very interesting exchange with a fellow illustrator about reps, so I thought I’d share some of what we talked about here. 

I don’t think illustrators necessarily need representation. I’ve said before: An illustrator without a rep is STILL an illustrator. But a rep without illustrators is just someone with nice business cards. (I sound like a big jerk there, and I’m sorry. If you’re a rep I’m sure I’ll hear from you and that’s totally cool.) 

Click the “read more” link to see the full list and read all my opinionated blathering:

Read More

Lead Interaction Designer - Touch Interfaces & Applications
Bresslergroup
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bresslergroup is seeking an experienced (5+ years), full-time interaction designer to join our team of UI designers, researchers and industrial designers. The designer will work on an interesting variety of projects including interfaces within consumer products, medical devices and industrial equipment as well as stand-alone applications.

» view

The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

(more...)

Brazilian agency AGE Isobar has grown real fruit into the shape of juice boxes in order to promote the supposedly 'all natural' Camp fruit juice brand

The agency made molds in the shape of juice boxes which were hung on fruit trees on farms near São Paulo. As the fruit ripened, it grew into the shape of the mold, complete with Camp logo and even a 'straw'.

This rather annoying video explains all:

The 'juice boxes' (around 1100 were produced) were placed in supermarkets and on fruit stalls, as well as at trade fairs, with a sticker. At the checkout, customers could exchange them for a carton of Camp.

So, not really 'juice boxes' per se, more a neat bit of in-store promotion, albeit on a very small-scale for what is reported to have been two years' work. Was it worht the effort? That depends on how much 'earned media' the idea generates.

And before ad awards juries start reaching for those 'yes' buttons, it should be noted that growing fruit into amusing shapes is not an original idea. Back in 2009 the world, or at least the Daily Mail, was wowed by the efforts of Chinese farmer Gao Xianzhang to grow pears into the shape of Buddha.

While Japanese watermelon growers have been producing novelty-shaped fruit for years

 

 

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

CR in Print
The May issue of Creative Review is the biggest in our 32-year history, with over 200 pages of great content. This speial double issue contains all the selected work for this year's Annual, our juried showcase of the finest work of the past 12 months. In addition, the May issue contains features on the enduring appeal of John Berger's Ways of Seeing, a fantastic interview with the irrepressible George Lois, Rick Poynor on the V&A's British Design show, a preview of the controversial new Stedelijk Museum identity and a report from Flatstock, the US gig poster festival. Plus, in Monograph this month, TwoPoints.net show our subcribers around the pick of Barcelona's creative scene.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

Artist: lunchbreath
More: View all cartoons

(more...)

Husband-&-wife team Sarah Labieniec and Ryan Meis form the creative team Lab Partners in San Francisco. Clearly a talented team! 

(via Lab Partners » Colors Are Magical, with a hat tip to Mia Hansen)

Screen explorations by Stdio Title: Ada Lovelace Similar: Photographs of tube televisions the moment they are switched off by Stephan Tillmans Atley

The British are coming! Tom Dixon continues his global takeover with the launch of London Underground, an independent satellite event staged during NY Design Week/ICFF. Held in the basement of the Bleeker Street Theater, the show will debut the Luminosity lighting collection in the United States as well as host a special off-line Fab.com x Tom Dixon pop-up store. In addition, visitors can grab a cup of Stumptown Coffee or check out Surface Magazine's retro-'60s inspired broadcasting station.

Core77 had an opportunity to chat with the trailblazing designer about being a Brit in New York during Design Week, the future of manufacturing and his opinions on light, love and rock 'n' roll.

London Underground
Bleeker Street Theater Basement
45 Bleeker Street and Lafayette
Through May 22nd

Core77: We're counting down tonight's kickoff of 2012's New York Design Week. A lot of European designers skip over New York after the madness of Milan. As a designer who has had a consistent presence at ICFF and New York Design Week, why is it important for you to be here every year?

Tom Dixon: Well, we've always thought it was an interesting market and we like hanging out in New York anyway. We decided several years ago to invest in the United States properly. We've been taking baby steps to get the infrastructure in place—having a little office there, a partnership with the warehouse and taking it seriously. A lot of people just think that because I speak English they can just go to New York and sell things and people will understand. For anybody who's ever been in, I dunno, rock and roll—you've got to tour. You've got to be there. You've got to invest and spend time.

You've got to be consistent in your presence, otherwise, America just doesn't happen. So, we made a decision and we're pleased we did because people seem to like what we're doing. It feels just like a beginning of something a bit bigger. We also think that the United States has been quite conservative for a long time. We thought it was time to breathe a bit of fresh air.

We're definitely seeing more and more of your work here in the United States. In fact, this week you launched a pop-up store with Fab.com both online and in a physical pop-up at the London Underground exhibition.

America is so good at defining new business models. I think it's the same thing with the furniture industry worldwide—it has been very acting very conventionally. It's only really Ikea that does things in a really different manner. It is really interesting to see how fast and how quickly Fab.com is gaining traction and how it really challenges the way you distribute things. Things just went online this week so we don't know what the results are yet, but it's kind of fascinating to see that there are a million people over there that are interested in design in a slightly different way.

That brings us to your current collection, Luminosity. One of the things that I really enjoyed was the way that you're really playing with transparency and the process of actually creating these pieces. What were some of the design considerations you were thinking about when crafting this new collection?

We tend to think more about the sculpture of the object rather than what it's really doing. It was time to think a bit more about the effects and the functionalities—the effects that these lights were giving and whether we could think a bit more about how you build a character and the lighting in space rather than just thinking about the surface and the shape of the object itself.

It's still a really fantastic field in lighting at the moment because it's something which really is evolving and changing rapidly—through government legislation, technical development and more efficient ways of lighting things. People feel slightly nervous about using these new lighting technologies. I mean, everybody is much more comfortable with the incandescent bulb—you know what 100 watts does and you know that you're going to like the light quality.

(more...)

Audi is known for their four-wheel drive prowess, with the Quattro mentality embodied in their very logo. But at yesterday's Worthersee AutoNews 2012 show in Austria, they pulled the sheets off of a two-wheeled creation: Their lithium-ion-battery-powered E-bike Worthersee concept.

We've seen automakers design bicycles to tuck in the trunk before, but this one isn't intended as a crunchy green adjunct to driving; instead it's meant to be an unabashed display of Audi's design and technology prowess. They make no bones about the fact that the bike is intended for "sport, fun and tricks," which explains why the thing produces more torque than my VW Golf did and has a top speed of 50 freaking miles per hour.

The Audi e-bike Worthersee combines the Audi brand's principal competences - design, ultra, connect and e-tron—and explores the limits of what is technically feasible in terms of design, lightweight construction, networking and electric mobility. [The] ultra-light carbon-fiber frame weighs only 1,600 grams (3.53 lb). It makes use of bionic principles derived from nature. Material reinforcements are needed only at the points where loads actually occur. The swinging arm for the rear wheel is also made of CFRP. All in all, the Audi e-bike Worthersee represents the full extent of the brand's expertise in ultra-lightweight design.

The bike has three levels of power: You can either provide all of the juice by pedaling, provide some of the juice with the electric motor taking up the slack, or have the electric motor do all the work. Beyond that are two somewhat bizarre-sounding "Wheelie" modes, where you're meant to tip the bike back on its rear wheel and ride it like a Segway, with the motor taking care of the balance and braking or accelerating when you lean forwards or backwards.

Click here to read more details.

(more...)

If you thought Field Notes, the now famous 48-page memo book, was just another Futura-fueled riff on retro design, you obviously never read the statement on the back flap. "Inspired by the vanishing subgenre of agricultural memo books, ornate pocket ledgers and the simple, unassuming beauty of a well-crafted grocery list, the Draplin Design Co., Portland, Oregon—in conjunction with Coudal Partners, Chicago, Illinois—brings you "FIELD NOTES" in hopes of offering "An honest memo book worth fillin' up with GOOD INFORMATION."

Draplin Design Co. is the brainchild of Aaron Draplin, a thoroughbred American who's serious about graphic design and how it's evolved over the past century, especially when it comes to everyday items for everyday, working people. After two decades of trawling to swap meets, flea markets, yard sales and antique fairs for gems of Americana (otherwise known as junking), Draplin has amassed an incredible collection of old memo books, simple, saddle-stitched pocket books that were once given as freebies to farmers and those in the agricultural business to advertise products like feed, tools or machine parts.

Draplin wasn't only interested in the books as ephemera, he wanted to know who designed them, who printed them and who stitched them together. He describes them as "purely utilitarian and free of anyone attaching anything cool or uncool or ironic to it...Some are really colorful and others are really, really spare. They're all different, so I want to think that someone was actually going through and laying every little bit and piece out."

(more...)

This invention is the opposite of the Schticky situation we posted about earlier, where you've got a mundane product and need to spice it up with a lively video; the Une Bobine coil is such a good idea, with merits so instantly obvious, that the boring video (below) does nothing to increase its appeal.

A great example of exploiting material properties, the Une Bobine takes the segmented, flexible metal cables of the sort used in industrial light fixtures and adapts it for iPhone charging, allowing the cable itself to serve as a stand.

While the idea is simple, manufacturing it isn't so easy: "Each end of the connector requires multiple injection molds to create the custom fitting in the housings that we need to securely attach to the flexible cable," writes designer Jon Fawcett in his Kickstarter pitch. "The connector housings are also sonically welded together, which requires additional tools to produce each end. Your pledges will directly pay for these startup costs required to produce the cable."

Perhaps he should change "will directly pay for" to "have directly paid for;" at press time this was yet another wild Kickstarter success, with the $25 device garnering $70,000, handily smashing its original sub-$10,000 goal with 29 days to spare.

And now for aforementioned boring video:

(more...)

During the recent CicLAvia, cyclists stretch as far as the eye can see on 7th St. from MacArthur Park into Downtown. All images by the author.

Los Angeles is a city of cars. This we know. Public space is few and far between, taking the form of long streets like Melrose Ave or the Venice Beach Boardwalk. Public-private spaces like the Grove and the Third Street Promenade create the illusion of a walking city, but most people first have to drive to get there.

But Angelenos are yearning for public space, and recent interventions are pointing at a way to create that space. The most prominent, certainly, is CicLAvia, a biannual event that celebrated its fourth installation this month.

CicLAvia is inspired by the ciclovías of Latin America, a tradition started by Bogotá, Colombia, a traffic-heavy city which shuts down streets every Sunday. In Los Angeles, this means shutting down over 10 miles of streets, stretching west from Beverly and Vermont, through to MacArthur Park, Downtown and Boyle Heights, with a north-south trail from Olvera Street to Central and Olympic. The distance pales in comparison to Bogotá's 85 miles of street closures, but as any Angeleno would attest, 10 miles alone would have been impossible to imagine just a few years ago.

It was my first CicLAvia this year, and it was stunning. The city that I grew up in suddenly felt smaller, more free, disentangled from the traffic that makes it so infamous. I could feel the city air, see the smiles on my fellow cyclists, gaze up at the buildings and notice details I never had time for when driving by. Key areas created an open public space on the streets for cyclists and non-cyclists alike—in MacArthur Park, for example, you could sit down, listen to live music, eat tacos, and just people watch.

CicLAvia's success has been a thrill to witness, but its ambitions and scale are also difficult to reproduce. Costing about $100,000, mostly for street closures and the accompanying safety presence, CicLAvia represents the extraordinary collective effort of a 13-person board, whose talents range from social media strategy to arts organizing to civil engineering. A recent piece in LA Weekly described the original founders, "As if casting for some kind of prisoner-of-war escape film, the group's initial members each had the exact higher-order specialties you would need to produce an impossible-sounding seven-mile, open-air, closed-streets, public event in Los Angeles."

CicLAvia raises much of its funds through donations. In a quieter section on the northern trail, a sign asks cyclists to text in a donation to keep the project going.

(more...)

TOKEN's founder's Emrys Berkower and Will Kavesh have a massive workshop on the ground floor of an old factory on the water in Red Hook, Brooklyn where they're set up to work with glass, metal and wood. They can draw up plans for a chair, for example, and walk into the next room to build it. In other words, it's a furniture maker's dream. A few weeks ago they were nice enough to set some time aside from their busy preparations for ICFF to talk about how they grew their studio, what they're working on now and what makes a good 'hangover chair.' Scroll through all the photos below to see a sneak peek of the new pieces they'll be exhibiting this weekend.

Origins
After Will and Emrys met at Alfred University in the mid 90s, they moved to New York where Emrys settled into the glass blowing community and Will began building furniture for Rogan. When Will needed some help he'd call up Emrys, and the two worked like this, collaborating on lighting and furniture projects until they decided to strike out on their own. They continue to handle Rogan's Objects line, but after doing custom design-build jobs, beginning with their first gig converting an NYU classroom, they needed their own space and so they made the move out to a spacious studio in Red Hook.

Even though custom jobs for clients took up most of their time, their goal was always to start their own line of furniture. "After two years of prototyping we finally just said, we're not going to do it unless we just start making it ourselves and building it," said Emrys. That was in 2009, when they officially began the TOKENnyc product line.

They still take on design-build jobs because, as Emrys explained, "Those custom projects are challenging and inform your own work because you're problem solving and coming up with different production or manufacturing systems to build something."
"It's like still being in school, in a way," Will added.

Ethos
Will and Emrys describe their designs as promoting purposeful and considered living. "It's about living with objects that have a real task in mind," said Will. "TOKEN would never design a really super fluffy down chair or couch that you want to be inside of when you're recovering from a hangover - we would never design something like that."
"Although," Emrys is quick to add, "there's a place in the world for that. But that's not what we want to promote. We would promote something that's more active and engaged."

Take, for example, the TOKEN Lounge Chair. "If you sit in that chair it's definitely a relaxed pose," said Emrys. "It's definitely a comfortable chair, but you don't want to curl up and watch a movie in that chair. You feel a relaxed engagement. You might want to read a book and not fall asleep reading it." That very purposeful aesthetic is evident in all aspects of their work, right down to the joints, which Will describes using the the industry term "work holding, a structural solution that would be used while making something, but we've adopted that vocabulary."

(more...)

At the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland (US) there is a large south facing wall that looks like it might be a piece of abstract public art. Made from 2,352 different samples of stone it is in fact a testing wall where the effects of the weather on building materials are measured...

The wall was built in 1948 in Washington, DC, before being moved to the NIST site in Gaithersburg in 1977. It contains stone from 47 US states and 16 other countries – from varieties of basalt and bluestone, to marble, limestone, sandstone and tuff.

I was led to read up on the NIST Test Wall and its steadfast research into the effects of weathering (as you do) after photographer Thom Atkinson sent over some of his recent pictures of English pavements, or rather of pavement repairs. Perhaps as ordinary a subject matter as you're likely to find.

But the aged asphalt in his photographs shows the recognisable signs of deterioration and the subsequent fixes made over the years. The use of new materials, usually in a much brighter, blacker hue than that of the existing well-trodden pavement, mean that the flooring takes on that familiar urban scarring, with the cracks, cuts, fill-ins and repairs building up across one another.

Simple as they are, Atkinson's images record the imperfections of the streets, the marks of things being dug up and replaced; of electrics being tinkered with, water and gas pipes changed. They reveal that something even as robust as the surface of the street is never stable: when they're not being bashed up by the weather, like that pixellated wall in Maryland, we're busy taking them apart ourselves.

The series English Pavement Repairs is on Atkinson's blog at thomatkinson.tumblr.com. His main website is thomatkinson.com.

 

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

CR in Print
The May issue of Creative Review is the biggest in our 32-year history, with over 200 pages of great content. This speial double issue contains all the selected work for this year's Annual, our juried showcase of the finest work of the past 12 months. In addition, the May issue contains features on the enduring appeal of John Berger's Ways of Seeing, a fantastic interview with the irrepressible George Lois, Rick Poynor on the V&A's British Design show, a preview of the controversial new Stedelijk Museum identity and a report from Flatstock, the US gig poster festival. Plus, in Monograph this month, TwoPoints.net show our subcribers around the pick of Barcelona's creative scene.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

Neil Donnelly's treatment of the opening page of Great Expectations evokes the layout of a tabloid newspaper

In GraphicDesign&'s first book, Page 1: Great Expectations, 70 designers reinterpret the opening page of the Charles Dickens classic. The results reveal much about the decisions designer's face in setting any text, and what effect these choices have on reader experience...

Perhaps one of the more unlikely, certainly more experimental, tie-ins with this year's Dickens bicentenary, the decision to dissect the opening of his 1861 novel came about because of the references to lettering on its first page. At the beginning of the story, Pip Pirrip's search for clues towards his own identity has led him to imagine how his parents might have looked, based on the shapes of the letterforms on their tombstones. ("The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair.")

So in Page 1: Great Expectations, what may at first seem like rather a repetitive read, the opening page of the novel really serves as the sample material from which the designers work from, with each interpretation of the page offering up a different approach and affect.

Using Caslon, A Practice For Everyday Life built on the symbolism contained within the opening; the obelisk glyphs standing for the five gravestones of Pip's siblings

While there are, perhaps understandably, a number of examples that take a conventional approach to the typography – set in a range of faces from Caslon (above) and Arnhem Pro Blond, to Fabiol and Miller – there is also a range of more outlandish and conceptual approaches, which occasionally push the boundaries of legibility, let alone a sense of linear narrative. But more often these experiments explore the wider notions of reader interaction and even challenge the preconceptions we bring to the experience of reading.

Julian Morey (abc-xyz) used Helvetica Neue 65 Medium to reimagine Dickens for tablet devices

In Aaron Merrigan and Fred North's concept, for example, the text is set over both halves of the page, but readers have to read along with a friend sat opposite, in order to read each alternate word of the sentences. Jon Barnbrook meanwhile, tongue firmly in cheek, has reorganised the words of the opening page in terms of their frequency, the grammar structure, and the use of sentiment which might manipulate the reader's emotions.

Susanne Dechant has detached the words from the page and rearranged them in alphabetical order, so the opening line runs as "a a a a a a a Above all Also am an and and and and and". Vivóeusébio studio, however, reduced the page to its initial word, "My", apparently as a way of "emphasising Pip's great expectations and delaying the readers'."

Ian Noble set his text in Mrs Eaves and used symbols to convey a second level of information about the relationships in the novel

Individually, many of these unconventional approaches could appear just a touch indulgent, but as part of a collection of treatments they work as another (esoteric) voice in the larger mix, and as an interesting counterpoint to the more straightforward and accessible versions of the text.

Workshop's approach was to create a 'tipped in' version of All The Year Round, the weekly journal in which Dickens' novel was first serialised

And some approaches tell us more about the life of the text itself. Alexander Cooper and Rose Gridneff of Workshop, for example, reference the genesis of Dickens' novel, which first appeared in the weekly publication, All The Year Round. When the story came to be published in book form, the first edition didn't sell particularly well so publishers Chapman and Hill 'tipped in' replacement title pages stating that these were new editions, when in fact they were actually from the existing print run. By the end of 1861, Workshop explain, five of these so called 'new' editions of Great Expectations had been published.

In looking at the novel's movement from an ephemeral state (a weekly magazine) to a more permanent one (a bound book), Workshop address how the format of a text, let alone how that text is displayed, informs a reading. As with the other 69 versions that tell of Pip's first reading of the gravestone letterforms, context is everything.

Page 1: Great Expectations is published by GraphicDesign& and is currently available for the offer price of £12.50 from graphicdesignand.com. After May 26 the book will be £15. The CR iPad app will also be showing a selection of different treatments from the book very soon.

 

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

CR in Print
The May issue of Creative Review is the biggest in our 32-year history, with over 200 pages of great content. This speial double issue contains all the selected work for this year's Annual, our juried showcase of the finest work of the past 12 months. In addition, the May issue contains features on the enduring appeal of John Berger's Ways of Seeing, a fantastic interview with the irrepressible George Lois, Rick Poynor on the V&A's British Design show, a preview of the controversial new Stedelijk Museum identity and a report from Flatstock, the US gig poster festival. Plus, in Monograph this month, TwoPoints.net show our subcribers around the pick of Barcelona's creative scene.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

We have a bumper crop of nice ad work to share with you this week. First up is a new spot for EDF energy from AIS London, which features a giant handmade zoetrope...

The ad is part of the EDF 'Thank Yous' campaign, and the zoetrope features a range of prizes that customers can win, including trips on the London Eye and to the Eden Project, as well as tickets to the Olympics. Agency: AIS London. Creative director: Geoff Gower. Creatives: Pete Ioulianou, Ollie Agius. Director: Jason Tozer. Edited and produced by The Mill.

DDB Paris has created this humorous new spot for Playboy Fragrances, which illustrates the various potential outcomes of a handsome man and a pretty gal getting 'trapped' in a lift. Creative director: Alexandre Hervé. Creatives: Paul Kreitmann, Alexis Benoit. Directors: Perlorian Brothers. Production company: Les Télécréateurs.

These two spots for AXA Insurance from Publicis Conseil clearly demonstrate why it is best to get your insurance in order before you need it. CCO: Olivier Altmann. Creative director: Fréderic Royer. Creatives: Thibault Froment, Charles Guillemant. Director: Bart Timmer.

Owen Harris directed this quirky spot for Swedish cider brand Kopparberg. Agency: RKCR/Y&R. Production company: Outsider.

This new VW Polo spot from DDB London focuses on a protective dad's love for his daughter. ECD: Jeremy Craigen. Creatives: Tom Chancellor, Luke Flynn. Director: Thirtytwo. Production company: Pulse.

More dad stuff now: this ad for Hovis focuses on the relationship between a gruff farmer and his young son as they work together in the fields. Agency: Dare. Director: Seb Edwards. Production company: Academy Films.

<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FpCDQsv47v4?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FpCDQsv47v4?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Footlocker staff show off their fancy footwork skills in this new spot from AMV BBDO. Creatives: Charlotte Adorjan, Michael Jones. Director: Scott Lyon. Production company: Outsider.

Projector in Japan, which created the Uniqlock, has released another clock-based piece of utility for Uniqlo, this time in the form of an alarm clock app, which combines online weather reports with original alarm music (created by Cornelius and Yoko Kanno) to help wake you up. You can find out more about the app at uniqlo-wakeup.com. Charming as it is, we wonder whether it will go the way of all alarm clocks and end up being thrown across the room, but perhaps our readers are more cheerful in the morning than we are here...

Back to the quirky now, this time for Ikea. The ad, which was created by JWT Warsaw, features Sven the Swedish Chef, who uses Ikea products and people to cook up the perfect setting for a family Sunday lunch. Director: Tomas Mankovsky.

Even odder is this spot for Ambrosia Rice, from Dare, which features a set of talking picnic snacks. ECD: Danny Brooke-Taylor. Creatives: Danny Hunt, Gavin Torrance. Directors: Perlorian Brothers. Production company: Blink.

Director Marc Reisbig is behind this charming animation, which is advertising the expansion of Oslo Airport (Reisbig's lovely stop frame manages to make the potentially boring subject most watchable). Creatives: Victoria Evensen, Hanne Martinsen. Production company: Four and a Half, Norway/Passion Pictures, London.

We finish this week's epic round-up with a sweet film from DDB Brasil for trends magazine Follow, which compares different fads, stating what's hot and what's not. Creative directors: Sergio Valente, Marco Versolato. Creatives: Caio Mattoso, Rodrigo Mendes. Directors: Jarbas Agnelli, Doug Bello.

Studio AKA director Steve Small has designed and directed a refreshingly charming hand-drawn ident to precede ITV1's upcoming Royal Season of TV programmes which trail the Diamond Jubilee

Double click the image below to play the ident

Before the more cynical of our readers start reaching for the 'meh' button, just imagine how awful this could have been – it's for the Diamond Jubilee! Just think about how much awful junk is already going round to tie in with that happy event. And it's for ITV1 - not exactly universally renowned as the home of great creative work.

Instead, Small's hand-drawn, colour washed design has something of 60s Ealing era film titles about it, perhaps even of the late great Ronald Searle in its many curlicues. Whatever, it's unexpectedly fun, if very short.

 

 

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

CR in Print
The May issue of Creative Review is the biggest in our 32-year history, with over 200 pages of great content. This speial double issue contains all the selected work for this year's Annual, our juried showcase of the finest work of the past 12 months. In addition, the May issue contains features on the enduring appeal of John Berger's Ways of Seeing, a fantastic interview with the irrepressible George Lois, Rick Poynor on the V&A's British Design show, a preview of the controversial new Stedelijk Museum identity and a report from Flatstock, the US gig poster festival. Plus, in Monograph this month, TwoPoints.net show our subcribers around the pick of Barcelona's creative scene.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

In the March 2009 issue of CR, Michael Johnson wrote of a strange phenomenon: the diehard fans of an obsolete piece of software who refuse to bow to the inevitable and switch to more modern alternatives. His story, which has just topped 200 comments, has become a kind of self-help group for FreeHand adherents. A place to reminisce, to mourn the seemingly imminent loss of an old friend. But, thanks to legal action in the US, FreeHand may have a future

I Would Save Freehand print by TDR for ifyoucould.co.uk

Johnson's original piece was prompted by the discovery that, like him, many designers were clinging on to their ancient copies of FreeHand, despite the fact that the software was no longer supported and was becoming increasingly more difficult to use thanks to its incompatibility with newer applications and operating systems.

 

 

Originally launched by Aldus in 1988, FreeHand became a favourite among many designers and illustrators thanks to its ease of use and functionality. Adobe acquired Aldus in 1994 but, citing concerns that Adobe might monopolise the vector graphic software business, the US Federal Trade Commission required Adobe to get rid of FreeHand and not to acquire it again for 10 years. Once the 10-year period ended, Adobe acquired Macromedia (FreeHand's then owner) and, although it continues to sell FreeHand MX, a version dating from that period, promptly discontinued support for the software.

 

 

However, that didn't stop a dwindling ban of FreeHand diehards – including Spin, who used FreeHand on its Logo book (above), Jonathan Barnbrook and DixonBaxi – who continued to use the package, relying on workarounds and multiple re-starts to keep it running on modern machines. And, as the response to Johnson's piece made clear, they are far from alone.

"I thought I was completely alone. I'm so happy. (Sniff!)" typed Frank, holding back the tears as he discovered the post.

"I have eighteen years of archived projects in Freehand, and as a brand identity designer, I'm going grey(er) at the prospect of not being able to continue using my beloved Freehand" said James Goodchap.

"Resist, resist, resist" cried Rich.

These are just a few of the 200 comments from all over the world that the post has attracted. The initial rush may have fallen away but still a steady stream comes to confess that yes "My name is x and I use FreeHand".

But all is not lost. A US group calling themselves FreeFreeHand is fighting for the future of the software. It aims to pressure Adobe into either updating the programme itself or releasing the code and licensing to the OpenSource community, so that it may be developed by others.

Last year, along with four independent designers, FreeFreeHand launched a class action antitrust lawsuit against Adobe in California. ”Adobe has engaged in unlawful, willful acquisition and maintenance of monopoly power in the market for professional vector graphic illustration software,” the complaint alleged.  “Since acquiring FreeHand, Adobe has significantly raised the price of Illustrator while, at the same time, effectively removing FreeHand from the market by failing to update the program.”

Adobe, for its part, denies any wrongdoing and has been contesting the allegations in the suit. "Even an alleged monopolist is entitled to raise its prices and make its own product decisions," its lawyers argued in a motion to dismiss the action. Adobe has further argued that "all companies have the right to unilaterally discontinue product lines" and that it cannot be forced to develop and support multiple product lines within its own portfolio.

At the end of March, Adobe and the plaintiffs went through a legal process known as mediation which is an attempt to resolve the issue without going to court. Hopefully, compromise can be reached. If not, the case is due to come to court on April 1, 2013.

So FreeHand lovers, don't give up hope just yet.

Read Michael Johnson's original story here.

 

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

CR in Print
The May issue of Creative Review is the biggest in our 32-year history, with over 200 pages of great content. This speial double issue contains all the selected work for this year's Annual, our juried showcase of the finest work of the past 12 months. In addition, the May issue contains features on the enduring appeal of John Berger's Ways of Seeing, a fantastic interview with the irrepressible George Lois, Rick Poynor on the V&A's British Design show, a preview of the controversial new Stedelijk Museum identity and a report from Flatstock, the US gig poster festival. Plus, in Monograph this month, TwoPoints.net show our subcribers around the pick of Barcelona's creative scene.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

Paintings by Landon Metz Title: Aleister Crowley Folkert

Drawings by Paul Noble Title: Halldór Laxness Previous post on this artist: The Neighborhood of Infinity Quote from Independent People via Mythology of Blue Will 50 Watts

Photographs by Ori Gersht Title: Karl Jaspers Atley

Rebecca Sugar writes some of the best songs for Adventure Time, and she also writes some of the best stories for the show. This is an earlier work of hers that demonstrates the further depth of her brilliance.

(via Cartoon Brew TV #21: Singles | Cartoon Brew)

What a beautiful way to spend 8 minutes! This stop-motion animation, carved out of foam and made entirely of highlights and shadows, follows the life (from pre-birth!) of a scientist obsessed with time. Gorgeous.

It has a ginormous list of (well-deserved) awards. And you can see some making-of shots here.

(via The Eagleman Stag: A BAFTA Winning Stop-Motion Short Film by Mikey Please | Colossal)

Jack Davis was born in Atlanta, Georgia on December 2nd 1924. He had his first piece of work published in Tip Top comics at the age of twelve in December 1936. In his teens he carried on working for different pubications, then in 1952 he became one of the founders of the well-known American humour magazine ‘Mad’. (via Voices Of East Anglia & hat-tip to Kevin Church!)

Ah, Mad Magazine’s Jack Davis! :)

And if you’re under 35 you may not know that at one time, movie posters were allowed to have word bubbles on them. According to this post, Davis was once the highest paid illustrator in the world. I don’t have proof to back that up, but am checking with Professor Peng.

“I KNOW THAT VOICE” is a new documentary on voice-over acting by John Di Maggio. 

While I’m generally in the “don’t show me how the magic trick work because then you ruin the magic” camp when it comes to seeing behind-the-scenes anything in animation, I admit I laughed pretty hard when I watched Billy West as Dr Zoidberg say: “Young lady, bring me a sandwich from the dumpster.” 

Also, June Foray is still alive?! 

Satellite photos of actinoform clouds Title: Benoît Mandelbrot Via Modcult Atley

Works by Aldous Massey Title: Roadside Picnic “He had never experienced anything like this before outside the Zone. And it happened in the Zone only two or three times. It was as though he were in a different world. A million odors cascaded in on him at once—sharp, sweet, metallic, gentle, dangerous ones, as crude as cobblestones, as delicate and complex as watch mechanisms, as huge as a house and as tiny as a dust particle. The air became hard, it developed edges, surfaces, and corners, like space was filled with huge stiff balloons, slippery pyramids, gigantic prickly crystals, and he had to push his way through it all, making his way in a dream through a junk store stuffed with ancient ugly furniture…It lasted a second. He opened his eyes, and everything was gone. It hadn’t been a different world—it was this world turning a new, unknown side to him. This side was revealed to him for a second and then disappeared, before he had time to figure it out.” —Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky via Quiet Cool Will 50 Watts

explore-blog:

Maurice Sendak’s unreleased drawings

wild thing by Fred Blunt on Flickr.

I’m remembering old-timey things today, like Letraset. *sigh* Simpler times…

(via Scanning Around With Gene: When Letraset Was King | CreativePro.com)

Photographs by 蒔山 まさかづ Title: Ansel Adams Folkert

Satellite images acquired by the Landsat 7 satellite Title: Frank Herbert (Dune) Folkert

Paintings and title by Julie Mehretu via Ray Sohn Will 50 Watts

Illustrations by John Conrad Berkey Title: Yuri Gagarin via closed listings at Heritage Auctions Previous post on this artist Will 50 Watts