It’s exactly a decade since the epic foot-shooting exercise of Brexit was set in motion. A new design exhibition, ‘The Other Side: Ten Years after the Referendum’, features the work of ten creative practitioners, including graphic designers, type designers, artists, architects and product designers, offering up a graphic view of the current state of play.

Curated by GraphicDesign& and designed by LucienneRoberts+, a team consisting of Lucienne Roberts, John McGill, Rebecca Wright, the show is at Pentagram's Osh Gallery in London’s N1 until Friday 26 June 2026.

The raw material is of particular interest. As Lucienne Roberts explains, ‘In 2020, GraphicDesign& published The Other Side: An Emotional Map of Brexit Britain. The book reads ‘Remain’ in one direction, flip it over and the focus is ‘Leave’. Included are the voices of 26 Leave and 24 Remain voters from throughout the UK. Every MP received a copy.’

It’s safe to say the publication didn’t rock nearly enough boats. Hence the existence of a number of unsold copies. ‘Our distributors got in touch, asking if we would like the few remaining copies of the book pulped,’ Roberts continues. ‘[We decided] we’d like them to become something new. Here are the results of this decision. We sent ten designers, ten (or more) copies of the book, inviting them to make a personal response to this poignant anniversary. “Feel free to draw or write on them,” we said. “Do cut, shred or pulp them.” Here is what happened next.’

Here are the results, and the creatives’ personal insights on Britain ten years post-Brexit.

‘The Other Side: Ten Years after the Referendum’

Hugh Miller: The works draw on post-Brexit financial data, referendum statistics and political contradiction to explore the consequences of separation and nationalism. The paper suit is made in collaboration with Harris Elliott – it’s a symbolic stand-in and a surface for statistics, headlines and contradictory political narratives.

How do I feel about Brexit now? Brexit still feels like a bad dream come true. A decision shaped by false promises that left us worse off, still burdened by red tape. It exposed the corruption of those meant to serve us. In today’s political landscape, hope and optimism feel increasingly distant.

Michael Marriott: [My work is] a small side table for a cup of tea / glass of wine / etc. My first thought was how to make something useful, something that would extend the life of the book, too. A small side table seemed like a good idea. It’s made using offcuts that I had in the studio already, so it’s all 100 per cent recycled – which is more sensible than Brexit!

How do I feel about Brexit now? Still amazed it was seen as a reasonable thing to do. Still annoyed by the complete stupidness of it.

Stefanie Posavec: For Leavers, achieving Brexit must have felt like birthday and Christmas rolled into one. Riding high on hubris and fantasies of ‘British sovereignty’, everything seemed possible. Ten years on, reality has set in and the party’s over, leaving the rest of us (and future generations) to clean up the mess.

How do I feel about Brexit now? I became a UK citizen only four years before Brexit began. I still have a red EU passport (my first UK passport) and, when I look at it while waiting in long EU border queues, I feel both bereaved and cheated.

Lucienne Roberts, John McGill: Our ten books carry the message ‘HELLO HELL’, legible from both sides of the table. The incisions into each book reveal some of the more poignant pages within. Glimpses of Farage, Boris and an SOS projected onto the White Cliffs of Dover, trigger feelings as powerful now as they were then.

How do we feel about Brexit now? We felt sad then and even sadder now. In the book, writer on human behaviour Ian Leslie describes the vote as akin to a marital breakdown, with neither version of the UK hearing the other. Ten years later, no one is unscathed and, if anything, miscommunication prevails.

STORE: With this work, we represent those too young to vote in 2016. Facilitating in-depth conversations with other young people, we want to give them a voice. We are exploring paper pulping and paper pressing to construct spaces that can facilitate these conversations. Shown here are seats used to give voices and space to this overlooked group.

How do we feel about Brexit now? In the last ten years, three million people have become eligible to vote. We are three of those people. Our opinions weren’t sought at the time of the vote. Now, we face the repercussions of Brexit and the disproportionate effect it will have on our lives.

Sarah Boris: Remain Together is a series of ten artworks using the words ‘Remain’ and ‘Together’ found in the books. The pages are painted in colours from various European flags, leaving only the chosen words visible. These pieces act as tokens of hope in these divisive times.

How do I feel about Brexit now? I was born in London to French parents, so I feel European. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the EU stood for peace and togetherness. The UK left, nothing positive materialised, division grew. Now, we must listen to each other and vehemently oppose the far right.

Marianne Mueller, Mia Mueller Kneer: Eurotrash shows the five prime ministers connected with Brexit operating a standard office shredder. Like these pieces of legislation, The Other Side’s deliberation – to remain in or leave the EU – has become redundant in the face of ‘Brexit done’. Reduced to shreds, the remains of the books now lie discarded like trash on the gallery floor.

How do we feel about Brexit now? Brexit has affected us deeply, both personally and professionally. It has been a catalyst for many significant shifts, from becoming dual nationals to moving countries, opening a new office and shifting school systems to remain within the EU. For us, Britain was the ultimate model for a cosmopolitan society, a sentiment spoiled by Brexit.

Ella Krispel: I use weaving to reinsert what has been lost, or deliberately stripped away, from charged subjects like Brexit. For this project, I wanted to explore the aesthetic attributes of historical artefacts, of relics from another time. As it developed, I wanted to situate Brexit in history, to see it at a distance. The imperfect documentation, fragmented narratives and incomplete framing of the piece mirror the fragility of memory and knowledge over time.

How do I feel about Brexit now? I challenge people when they claim Britain has been harmed by immigration. The response is often, ‘But you're not an immigrant!’ They are unaware this reveals misguided beliefs about the identities of immigrants and definitions of immigration. Brexit didn’t create such views, but it did solidify them, with current media and policymakers deepening the damage.

Rebecca Wright: Using the cut-out letterforms from HELLO HELL, the companion piece by GraphicDesign&’s Lucienne Roberts with John McGill, I have sought to take something left behind and turn it into something hopeful. Brexit changed how I felt about and understood my sense of home. It shattered my belief that we were a country where all of us could feel welcome and where we were welcoming to others. But, ten years on, despite everything, a stubborn hope of home remains…

How do I feel about Brexit now? Still sad but also determined. I do not believe that Brexit accurately reflects or should define who we are as a nation, or our core values.

YiMiao Shih: I wrinkled pages [of the book] with watercolour – a literal soaking – as I depicted a variety of British scenes. Then I used torn pages to make paper pulp reliefs embedded with stitched imagery. In these, I revisited the fictionalised Rabbit Referendum of my project Rabbrexit Means Rabbrexit (2019), tiny embroideries that draw on myth.

How do I feel about Brexit now? My version of post-Brexit reality doesn’t scream positivity. In the aftermath, the right wing gathered traction. I fear they will continue to stoke division, while differing echo chambers deepen it further.

‘The Other Side’ runs until Friday 26 June 2026, 11am-4pm, Osh Gallery, The Old Sorting House, 46 Essex Road, London N1 8LN

@oshgallerylondon, graphicdesignand.com, @graphicdesignand_, luciennerobertsplus.com, @luciennerobertsplus_

The Donald Trump administration has long taken issue with modern design, from the architecture of federal buildings to the decor of the Oval Office itself. Now, modern typefaces are under fire – specifically the san serif font family Calibri.

According to a report in The New York Times today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is terminating the use of Calibri in official State Department correspondence. Going forward, Times New Roman will be used in an effort to ‘restore decorum and professionalism to the department’s written work,’ according to an internal memo reviewed by the Times.

Calibri was adopted in lieu of Times New Roman as the official typeface of the State Department two years ago, under the Joseph Biden administration, in an effort to make written communication more accessible to people with learning disabilities and visual impairments.

In the memo, with the subject line ‘Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,’ Rubio criticised the Biden-era redesign deeming it ‘wasteful’ and redolent of the previous administration's ‘radical’ diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. (At the time of publication, the State Department's website was making use of the open source typeface EB Garamond)

Furthermore, Rubio said that Calibri was ‘informal’ and noted that ‘switching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence.’

Lucas de Groot, the Dutch type designer who created Calibri in the mid-2000s, disagrees.

‘There’s nothing woke in it, maybe just a friendliness,’ he tells Wallpaper* from Berlin where he leads the studio LucasFonts. ‘Like most of my typefaces, I try to design with a little bit of a humanistic touch, because I think the subtle voice a typeface transmits is really important in conveying messages.’

De Groot designed Calibri in the mid-2000s as part of a brief to design a san serif that would be easily-read on digital screens of the time. His proposed font family featured pleasingly soft tops and bottoms. Calibri would become the default typeface for Microsoft Office in 2007 and one of the world’s most ubiquitous san serifs. ‘It was really intended to facilitate reading on screen,’ he says.

Times New Roman, by contrast, was developed for the British newspaper The Times in the early 1930s. While ideal for mechanical typesetting, de Groot points out that it is not as legible in digital formats.

‘If you compare a line of text in Times New Roman with a line of text in Calibri on a high-resolution screen, you will immediately see that the Times New Roman is too spindly,’ he says. ‘Times New Roman, as implemented in the Windows operating system, is a low-quality font.’

While some graphic designers aren't particularly thrilled by Calibri — 'It's fine, it does its job,' says Giorgia Lupi, a partner at Pentagram — they suspect the issue goes deeper than a mere font choice. 'This whole situation tells us way more about symbolism and who gets to decide what "looks right" than it does about typography,' Lupi says.

'You could set the most human policy in Comic Sans and it would still be more dignified than cruel policy set in the most "professional" font,' she adds.

De Groot has nothing against serif fonts – he has designed many of them – but thinks there are better alternatives for digital communication. ‘To me, it's just a funny story. And [Rubio] calling Calibri woke is probably more a compliment than something bad for me,’ de Groot says.

If the State Department is looking for an alternative serif typeface, de Groot suggests one designed for Adobe Systems by Robert Slimbach: Minion.

Eurovision Song Contest die-hards may tune in for pop ballads, diamantes and douze points but the international music competition’s visual identity is an equally integral part of the annual proceedings.

Last year’s edition, set in Malmö, Sweden, was inspired by the Northern Lights, while the 2023 contest, staged in Liverpool, England in lieu of Ukraine due to the Russian invasion, was a fusion of both the Ukrainian and British flags.

With just two weeks to go until the competition kicks off in Basel, Switzerland, its artistic directors have unveiled the official 2025 Eurovision theme art. According to images released today, the broadcast’s visual identity is based on a pixelated grid of hearts that will morph, pulse and fade across the stage and onto viewers' TV screens.

The design was helmed by London-based branding and design agency NOT Wieden+Kennedy, an arm of the global advertising powerhouse Weiden+Kennedy. ‘It was one of those emails that just came out of the blue,’ Adam Rix, the studio’s head, tells Wallpaper*. ‘It was like, this has got to be a wind-up.’

Fortunately for all the Eurovision fans in the office, it was indeed a real request. Working with Artur Deyneuve, the art director of Eurovision 2025, Rix and his team worked to come up with an identity that at once celebrated Switzerland (the first song contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland in 1956) and harnessed all the exuberance of the Eurovision spirit.

‘Everybody has a slightly different relationship with Eurovision, and all of them are positive and just joyful,’ says Rix.

The solution? The Swiss grid, a highly-rational graphic design system that revolutionized post-war visual culture. ‘It was Switzerland's gift to the world, and it informs all modern day communication,’ Rix explains.

All of that rationality, though, needed some Eurovision sparkle. Instead of a classic modern typeface like Helvetica (another one of Switzerland’s gifts to the world), the team used an edgy slanted serif by Swiss type designer, Ian Party. The vibrant colours, meanwhile, reference Basel’s history as a powerhouse for printing; look closely and you’ll notice that the hearts are in cyan, magenta, yellow and black—the hues that make up the CYMK colour model.

The designer compares the solution to a Swiss army knife: ‘It’s this simple thing that can do loads and loads of different things.’ Throughout the broadcast, the hearts coalesce to form Swiss icons like mountains, cows and Nemo, Eurovision’s 2024 champion; accent text during the broadcast; silhouette performers; and pop up on social feeds.

The ocean of tiny hearts also serves to underscore the song contest’s theme, United by Music. ‘At a time where there's a number of conflicts going on in the world, I think the fact that everyone comes together around music is a really special thing,’ adds the designer.

So will Rix and his team be headed to Basel to watch the grand final on 17 May?

‘We'll be watching it [on TV] with the rest of you,’ he says. ‘But in a way, that's probably the best way to see it, because that's how the world will see it.’

You will likely have encountered Veronica Ditting’s work, even if you do not know her name. The highly influential creative director and designer – who comes with a string of awards to her name – conceived the distinctive original design for The Gentlewoman (she worked at the magazine for 12 years, from when it was founded, leaving in 2021) and has worked on a slew of projects for brands including Maison Margiela, The Row, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co and Hermès. For the last, she guest art-directed Le Monde d'Hermès magazine, one of the industry’s highest accolades.

A new exhibition in Kyoto, Japan celebrates Ditting’s career so far, particularly her work in printed matter, the medium for which she is best known. Titled ‘Folio Folio Folio: Print by Veronica Ditting’ (until 28 July 2024) and taking place at the city’s ‘ddd gallery’, the exhibition – curated by London-based design historian Emily King – spans two decades of print projects including books, magazines, exhibition design and other ‘printed delights’. These include The Gentlewoman – memorable covers shown as the exhibition include those featuring author Zadie Smith and gymnast Simone Biles – as well as a series of printed ephemera created for the launch of Hermès’ beauty line.

‘Folio Folio Folio: Print by Veronica Ditting’ at Kyoto ddd gallery

For the latter, process images of the ‘colour chapters’ show how Ditting achieved the ’intense and beautiful’ combinations of colour by manipulating physical pages to see how she could replicate it on-screen. Meanwhile, a slim, narrow book echoes Pierre Hardy’s design for the Hermès lipstick. These works – among several others – are displayed in the exhibition on custom stands created by the Veronica Ditting Studio, while a series of vivid large-scale images by Beijing-born photographer Qiu Yang capture models, dummies and proofs in graphic style. The process images were photographed at Ditting’s home in the Barbican, London.

Here, as the exhibition continues in Kyoto, Wallpaper* catches up with Ditting about the career-spanning project.

Wallpaper*: How did this exhibition come about? Do you have a link with Kyoto?

Veronica Ditting: ‘ddd gallery’ in Kyoto is one of the few galleries in the world dedicated to graphic design, alongside its sister gallery ’ggg’ in Tokyo. While their online presence is sparse, I have been aware of some of the shows at the gallery over the years. Then in autumn last year, London-based design historian Emily King asked me if I’d consider a solo exhibition at ddd. Emily had curated a show about British graphic designer Alan Fletcher [a Wallpaper* cover artist] at ggg back in 2008 and she’s kept in touch with the team ever since.

Without being fully aware what I was actually committing to, I pretty immediately said yes. The chance to work with Emily in an in-depth manner and to finally visit Japan – my first time – in such an engaging manner seemed too good to be true.

W*: How has it been to see your work collated in this way? Do you enjoy looking back on past projects?

VD: These days, I mainly work in fashion and it seems like we never pause and reflect. Everything is always about moving forward. Taking the time to go back into my archive and look back on projects has for the most part been quite joyful, and at times also confronting.

For months, Emily and I would meet at my Barbican office, deep-diving into my archive, working on the selection and phrasing the approach to ‘Folio Folio Folio’. As a creative director, my work covers many different aspects – from image-making to graphic design. Therefore a show could take many shapes depending on the approach.

Given the context, we decided to primarily focus on graphic design and particularly on printed matter. You could say the exhibition is a celebration of printed matter and everything it entails. Maybe in a different space it would be a significantly different exhibition.

W*: When it comes to print design, why is it a medium you have gravitated towards? What is it about the physicality of print that is appealing?

VD: Working closely with printers and bookbinders is something I treasure deeply. Print is the aspect that is most closely related to craft within our practice. At the start of my career, I would even press-pass business cards [‘press pass’ refers to the process of travelling to the printing press to run final checks while your project is being printed]. Obviously I don’t have that type of time commitment any longer, but realising how much you can influence at the press has fine-tuned my eye.

When Emily and I started discussing what the approach at ddd could be, we fairly quickly decided to focus on the physicality of my works; a lot of them have a specific construction or folding technique applied to them.

Over the course of many months, my team built display stands by hand, each specifically designed for the pieces on show. 155 in total! Standing at various heights and angles, these stands allow several vantage points on the pieces. The display emphasises the materiality and three-dimensionality of the works, essentially creating a topography that visually underlines the fundamental characteristics and sensibility of the pieces.

W*: What are some of your personal highlights from the exhibition?

VD: It’s hard to pick favourites, but I would say one of the highlights which works really well in the space and the display method is the Hermès Beauty chapter. I’ve been working with Hermès since 2015 on different projects and with the Beauty métier since 2019. In the exhibition, all press publications and invitations created since are shown. The specific ratios and the publications chapter pages are revealed in a significant manner. The communication for the women’s ready-to-wear department of Hermès also stands out as all of the pieces relate to the aspect of construction and folding.

Then two early projects come to mind. In 2008 I designed ‘Andy’, a newspaper to accompany the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Working to an extremely tight deadline and budget, I decided to concentrate on Warhol’s appearance in popular media such as advertising campaigns and editorials. The newspaper shows Andy modelling and acting on TV shows. Footnote images and fun facts are scattered throughout the publication, in the middle of the publication is an index of all people mentioned in its pages. It was an expansion of my graduation project, and these visual devices anticipated the information layering that became a central feature of The Gentlewoman magazine.

Another highlight is the publication A Study on Colour by Dutch artist Katja Mater, published in 2009. It shows Katja’s photographic series ‘The Human Colour Wheel’, an experimental work partly inspired by Isaac Newton’s colour theory and partly by Katja’s own formulations. Designed in close collaboration with Katja, the publication was one of my first projects touching upon art direction and commissioning. It’s a humble publication, but still meaningful to me.

W*: Tell me about the photographic project by Qiu Yang, and how that came about?

VD: Twelve large-scale posters photographed by Qiu Yang show work-in-progress material from my archive. Models, dummies, proofs and design sketches are included and each image relates to a specific focus of my practice. All [of them] are photographed at my office and home in the Barbican. Qiu and I studied together at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and have been collaborating ever since on different types of projects. He documented some of my projects last year and the way he lights and frames my projects feels appropriate. Significantly, the posters speak to the commissioning of images, which is a pivotal aspect of my work as a creative director.

One poster shows a vast amount of dummies created for the Hermès women’s ready-to-wear runway shows. When asked to create a new classic invitation for the shows, I considered both the moment the card would be received and when the invitee would be rushing from show to show. Significantly, the design is small enough to fit into a bag or pocket and rigid enough not to bend in transit. During the design process, we eventually arrived at an innovative construction involving two small rigid cards held together with a sheet of paper. Flipping the invitation open reveals a colour or texture related to the design direction of the particular season. In the exhibition space, the super-large posters are installed on the walls, giving a sense of the process behind the designs on display in this exhibition and also of their tactility.

’Folio Folio Folio: Print by Veronica Ditting’ runs at Kyoto’s ’ddd gallery’ until 28 July 2024.

studioveronicaditting.com

At 94 years old, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon shows no signs of slowing down. The American artist and graphic designer is currently housebound – she tells me over the phone with an immediately captivating vigour in her voice – but, she enthuses, ‘my mind is fine’ and is preoccupied with an upcoming project at SFMOMA. Renowned for her colourful ‘supergraphics’, she is also a keen author: her publications and artist books include Making the Invisible Visible, Utopia Myopia: Plays on a Page, and a memoir, Why? Why not? 

Born in 1928 in San Francisco, Barbara ‘Bobbie’ Stauffacher Solomon worked as a dancer before studying painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute. At 20, she married experimental filmmaker Frank Stauffacher, who died suddenly from a brain tumour six years later, leaving Stauffacher Solomon widowed with a young daughter. She relocated to Switzerland to study at the Basel Art Institute under the tutelage of pioneering Swiss graphic designer Armin Hofmann – a formative relationship that would continue to ripple throughout her career.

In 1962, Stauffacher Solomon returned to the West Coast, later connecting with landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, a founding designer for Sea Ranch – a private community with a utopian vision in Sonoma County, California. Her logo and large-scale interior and exterior signage for Sea Ranch combined minimal Swiss sensibilities with Californian abstract expressionism. Solomon earned a master’s degree in architecture at the University of California at Berkeley in 1981, publishing her thesis, ‘Green Architecture & The Agrarian Garden’. 

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon’s ‘Welcome’ in St Moritz

Now, the nonagenarian is celebrating a homecoming of sorts. Overlooking the lake of St Moritz, Switzerland, Welcome, at 4m high and 29m wide and rendered in steel, is the latest monumental expression of Solomon’s self-created alphabet and typeface – the ‘BSS alphabet’ – which the artist has designed and developed over the years. For Welcome, the artist explains, ‘I had just designed a new alphabet– a very minimal version of Helvetica. The “e”, for example, is three horizontal lines’. The ever-evolving alphabet stemmed from an editorial project in 2019, when Stauffacher Solomon was invited to be a guest designer for Francis Ford Coppola’s literary magazine Zoetrope – the artist reimagined the letters in the masthead to divide the eight stories in the edition.

Realised by St Moritz’s tourism board in collaboration with the Serpentine Galleries, publisher Elena Foster and Von Bartha gallery, Welcome is the first public artwork to be displayed in the Alpine resort – a small surprise given its art-centric character (museums and blue-chip international galleries have taken up residence there, while the latest edition of the Engadin Art Talks recently took place in the nearby town of Zuoz). But the idea for the project first formed further afield in the artist’s native San Francisco after an encounter with Benedikt Wechsler, then the Swiss Consul General of the city. Several locations were proposed and vetoed for various logistical reasons before the installation found a home in St Moritz. ‘We need to find a way of negotiating a space which is both local and global. And interestingly enough, the Welcome sign has a lot to do with that,’ says Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist. ‘Every city needs a “welcome” sign.’

Unable to travel, it’s Stauffacher Solomon’s artistic practice that preserves her energy. I ask her how she wants to be remembered: ‘As a mommy,’ she replies instantly. ‘I have two kids and a granddaughter whose birthday is today. Nobody thinks of me as a mommy. But that’s why I [pursued graphic design] – I needed to make money, otherwise I would have been a painter. That’s what I was trained for in the first place. And that’s why when I was faced with walls at places like Sea Ranch, I thought “Fine, sure, make things big – anything is possible”.’ Ultimately, the allure of Stauffacher Solomon’s work lies in its brash simplicity and scale. After all, aren’t we always looking to commune with something bigger than ourselves? 

‘Welcome’ is on view until April 2023. stmoritz.com; serpentinegalleries.org; vonbartha.com 

SlowMo, a new mental health support app developed collaboratively by design studio Special Projects and King’s College London, uses visual prompts to combat unhelpful thoughts and aims to ‘humanise interactions with technology’.

To create SlowMo, designers at Special Projects united with an interdisciplinary team at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. The app uses visual prompts to support therapy for people with symptoms of psychosis, and has been granted £1.3 million by the charitable trust Wellcome to be scaled up for use in three NHS trusts.

Special Projects works with King’s College London on SlowMo

Special Projects is a self-proclaimed ‘innovation agency’, which seems a vague description for work that is, undoubtedly, extremely specific. Unravelling its wide and diverse portfolio exposes a plethora of creations. It has worked on an app that encourages people to take time away from their phones (by printing information they will need for the day); a collaboration with Google to improve AI’s user experience; and in SlowMo, it has found a way to visualise unhelpful thoughts, allowing them to be challenged more easily.

Intended to be used alongside therapy sessions, the app’s design is minimal and visually calming, allowing users to access it in the more heightened moments of a mental health crisis. Using bubbles and simple animations, it prompts users to scale the severity of their thought, assess its accuracy, and check in on the speed of their thinking. 

The toolkit collated by SlowMo comprises tips for staying calm, goal logging, and grounding techniques, all of which relate to the user’s daily activities. This information is then stored in their device, ready to be shared with a therapist at a time of their choosing. There are also physical prompt cards that reflect similar activities, without the need for a phone.

‘We aimed to create a brand that patients enjoy interacting with to build a nourishing habit, instead of an anxiety-inducing chore,’ says Adrian Westaway, co-founder and director of technology and magic at Special Projects. 

Throughout the process of creating the app, the team at Special Projects needed to learn how to bridge a gap between on-screen and real-life experiences, and a way to ‘humanise interactions with technology’ was key to the process, explains Westaway. In creating this bridge, the app encourages therapeutic processes to become nestled into people’s behaviours, and in time occur independently of the technology. Integrating physical prompt cards into the programme aids the transition from app to reality.

SlowMo’s inclination towards maintaining user autonomy is a key element of the app, while its goal to offer increasing independence to those it works with is a refreshing demonstration of design for a better world, and suggests technology as a building block towards authentically connecting with reality.

specialprojects.studio; kcl.ac.uk

Few films carry more cultural gravity than Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. This pinnacle of the horror genre, adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name, has been celebrated, sampled, conspiracy-theorised and dissected to saturation point. With a cult following, cultural impact and trove of symbolism this big, what’s left to say?

More than 40 years since The Shining first hit screens, a new design book published by Rough Trade Books is re-evaluating the film through contemporary music, art, fashion and gender, and overlooked perspectives. 

At first look, the 400-page book resembles the typed writing project that Jack – the film’s antagonist – pursues throughout the movie to increasing degrees of mania and destruction. But like the film’s symbolism-laden plot, there are layers to unpack. Within the box, loose-leaf pages erupt with original recollections (from lead actors Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd); contributions from cultural luminaries (including Cosey Fanni Tutti, Margaret Howell, Gavin Turk and John Grindrod); and new essays and printed ephemera that seek to re-examine all we think we know about this pillar of cinematic history. 

Craig Oldham, who edited and designed The Shining: a Visual and Cultural Haunting, admits he felt daunted, and somewhat paralysed, by the prospect of taking on such a titanic legacy. ‘People have applied an almost cosmic level of exegesis to the film’, he tells Wallpaper*. ‘There’s no point writing about something if it adds nothing new, let alone a book. But that’s ultimately where we were able to find our angle.’ 

Oldham began exploring not only what had been written about The Shining, but who had been writing about it. He found that an overwhelming proportion of critical analysis surrounding had originated from men. ‘Kubrick is a masculine director and made movies and stories fundamentally and primarily concerned with men,’ he says. ‘So we wanted to know what women might think about that. Or even men that didn’t necessarily fit the hyper-masculine boxes present in Kubrick’s films. I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the fact that I am indeed a white male editing this book, but the difference is that we want the book to be a platform to showcase unheard or ignored views.’

The result is as much an ode as a critique. The creators sought to readdress this apparent gap in critique from the perspectives of women, as well as those who have real-world experience in the more complex themes in the film such as domestic violence and mental health issues. ‘We felt it was pertinent to pick out the stories of domestic abuse and domestic violence, extrapolated beyond that “get out of jail free card” of it being a horror film,’ he says. ‘We wanted to look at isolation and mental health in the context of the closeness we now globally share with those themes after the Covid-19 pandemic.’ 

The book also sought to celebrate and reappraise Shelley Duvall and her ‘much-maligned performance’, which Oldham puts down to ‘consciously or unconsciously, misogynistic male viewpoints. She is an almost unwitting embodiment of all the film’s themes on- and off-screen given her apparent treatment on set and the legacy the film has had on her and he career,’ he says. The book features an interview with Duvall, in which she offers rare insight into her performance and experiences on set. 

For the design approach, creators sought to upend the ‘impenetrable academic analysis’ of the film to create something tactile, engaging and accessible. Conceived as a replica of Jack’s infamous typed manuscript, contributions are printed on yellow script paper in a bespoke typeface that has been coded using punches from the same Adler typewriter used by Kubrick’s character.

Presented entirely unbound, the book has no beginning or end. ‘You can edit it, add to it, and change it to make it mean what you want it to mean,’ Oldham explains. ‘The design is an extension and embodiment of the ideas of digesting a film in different ways, but for people who might just like the film rather than want to study a PhD in it.’

INFORMATION

The Shining: a Visual and Cultural Haunting will be published by Rough Trade Books on 10 October and is available to preorder now, £50. roughtradebooks.com

Few collectives have marked art history of the 20th century like General Idea. Emerging out of 1960s Canadian counterculture movements, the conceptual trio – AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal – spent 25 years pranking the art world with their witty take on societal ills, from late-capitalist consumerism to popular media and the Aids crisis. (Partz and Zontal both died as a result of the virus in 1994.) Now, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa is celebrating the group’s history with the most comprehensive retrospective to date, featuring over 200 works that span painting, video, sculpture, installations and archival material. ‘There are many shifts and surprises from space to space,’ Bronson tells me over the phone. ‘Because of the size of the gallery, there was a possibility to do something pretty amazing.’

While remembered as a sophisticated art threesome, General Idea started out as a commune of sorts when, in 1969, half a dozen friends moved into a small storefront on Toronto’s bohemian Gerrard Street West. ‘Most of us were unemployed and looking for entertainment,’ Bronson remembers. ‘So, we started staging fake shops in our front window to keep ourselves busy and, somehow, that grew into a practice.’ Early projects were ephemeral in nature, involving mail art, experimental performances and other interventions. For their first group show in 1970, they submitted a work titled General Idea, which the gallery misunderstood as being the collective’s name. ‘So, we became General Idea!’ Bronson laughs. Within a few years – after establishing the iconic mock periodical FILE Megazine – the original membership dissolved, largely due to Toronto’s booming real-estate market. ‘We were unable to find another equivalent space where seven or eight people could both live and work,’ Bronson says. ‘It just all fragmented and we ended up with Jorge, Felix, and I.’

General Idea cultivated a queer aesthetic before there even was a language to talk about it. As early as 1970, the group began staging Dadaesque beauty contests as a satirical performance of art and popular culture. Throughout the rest of the decade, iterations of the Miss General Idea concept unravelled in the form of archaeological fragments from the ill-fated fictional ‘1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion’. Once done and dusted, the pageant fantasy was substituted by the equally camp motif of the poodle, which came to dominate the group’s work in the 1980s. Three loose canines first appeared in one explicit painting at MoMA PS1 in 1982 and soon found their way onto custom flags, escutcheon scarves, fluorescent canvases and photographic self-portraits. ‘It would have been the kiss of death to call yourself a gay artist,’ Bronson remembers of that era. The poodles, then, became a coded trope for their ménage à trois at a time when no critics were prepared to discuss sexuality. ‘They wrote about them as being a metaphor for collaboration,’ Bronson laughs. It wasn’t until the mid-to-late 1980s that an appropriate discursive framework emerged. ‘We felt like, all these years, we’d been making work as an excuse for somebody to invent Queer Theory,’ says the remaining poodle.

As the Aids crisis intensified in the late 1980s, the group – who had then relocated to New York – increasingly turned their attention to the pandemic. From that period, IMAGEVIRUS remains their best-known work: an appropriation of Robert Indiana’s famed 1960s ‘LOVE’ logo whose four letters General Idea swapped for ‘AIDS’. Much like the poodles, the Aids motif first appeared on a painting before spreading across multimedia formats – subway posters, public sculptures, an animated billboard on Time Square and advertising banners from San Francisco to Berlin – mimicking the mechanisms of viral transmission long before ‘going viral’ was a thing.

While the work is celebrated today, it wasn’t always the case. Turning ‘LOVE’ into ‘AIDS’ appeared as an obscene semiotic gesture that divided New York’s Aids community. The artistic branch of ACT UP (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power), Gran Fury – known for its safer sex campaigns and guerrilla interventions – soon responded with its own appropriation of the work, this time spelling out ‘RIOT’. ‘There was kind of a cultural split between us,’ Bronson remembers. ‘First of all, there was a generational difference – we were in our early forties, and they were in their early twenties. Plus, we were from a different country, and we couldn't go to demonstrations because we were afraid of being deported – we were living in the States illegally.’

Since Partz and Zontal’s deaths, Bronson – who now lives in Berlin – has continued making art while overlooking the group’s estate. ‘I have to pick and choose so much as to what one can show,’ Bronson says of the countless retrospectives staged in recent years, including at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Museo Jumex in Mexico City and MALBA in Buenos Aires. But this thriving legacy wasn’t always a given. Like many other artists affected by the Aids crisis, the collective had to manoeuvre strategically to avoid the interference of unsupportive family members. ‘Essentially, we incorporated General Idea with the three of us as equal partners, then Jorge and Felix each left their shares of the company to me,’ Bronson explains. ‘That was before the possibility of marriage. That was the only way to truly protect it, otherwise, all sorts of claims could be made.’ After Ottawa, the current retrospective will travel to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and to another yet-to-be-announced venue in Europe. Long live Miss General Idea.

INFORMATION

General Idea is on view at the National Gallery of Canada until November 20, 2022. gallery.ca

The 2022 Venice Biennale has been warmly embraced by the art world after its enforced absence from the international calendar. Curated by Cecilia Alemani, the biennale, entitled ‘The Milk of Dreams’, is presented in a multifaceted exhibition shaped by Formafantasma, with a graphic identity by London-based studio A Practice for Everyday Life (APFEL). 

Founded by Kirsty Carter and Emma Thomas in 2003, APFEL has a strong portfolio of artistic collaborations, both in terms of working closely with galleries – most notably the Hepworth Wakefield and the House of Voltaire, as well as Tate, Kettle’s Yard, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Design Museum, the V&A and many more. The team have also collaborated with contemporary artists and designers and have been outspoken in their desire to ‘focus on what are underrepresented communities too within the art world; different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, emerging and underrepresented individuals’.

Guiding visitors through ‘The Milk of Dreams’ has been a richly varied commission that draws on all these strengths. Named after an illustrated book by the artist Leonora Carrington, originally published in Spanish as Leche del Sueño, Alemani’s show in the Arsenale starts with Carrington’s central theme of transformation and runs with it, with a majority female exhibitor list (90 per cent of whom are first-time Venice Biennale participants), and a mission to rethink and reframe the traditional patriarchal view of art and culture.

Carrington, who died in 2011, was a pioneering surrealist and feminist, and the book was a collection of intense, strange, and unnerving children’s stories. 

Although Carter and Thomas joined the process after Formafantasma had been signed up, Alemani ensured they were an integral part of the planning process. ‘Cecilia had come across our work in the art world,’ says Carter. ‘She had the title of the show at that point and shared some presentations with us, but many artists were still coming on board.’

The scope of this commission is far-reaching, for it embraces not just the overall identity, but also signage, posters, way-finding and information panels, not to mention the substantial publication that accompanies every biennale, also in this case titled The Milk of Dreams. 

‘We're very used to working both in print and in an exhibition context,’ Carter says, ‘as well as with historical work. The book is almost the exhibition in miniature, in a much more literal way than a monograph is in relation to a regular exhibition.’

APFEL has adeptly managed the spatial challenges of the biennale, along with the dense accompanying narratives. Fluidity is one of the defining themes, and central to the studio’s graphic treatment are artists’ works, making this one of the rare occasions when exhibitors have also been featured in the biennale’s identity.

For strong visual markers, Carter and Thomas chose four distinctive eyes, using artworks by Cecilia Vicuña, Felipe Baeza, Tatsuo Ikeda, and Belkis Ayón. These motifs are playful, sinister, and yes, surreal. ‘It’s fun to have these huge eyes on the side of buildings, or on vaporetti or bridges,’ says Thomas. ‘We had this huge pool of artists’ works to sift through, just trying to find interesting and suitable eyes.’

The illustration is paired with strong classical lettering, albeit transformed into a flowing, organic medium. ‘We loved the idea of using a Roman serif,’ says Thomas. ‘Of course, it suits the Italian context of the biennale, but also historically there have been a lot of hard and cold identities for the biennale, and we wanted to subvert that by using a more classical typeface in all caps and then making it more fluid, metamorphic and animated.’

The same treatment is given to the weighty biennale catalogue, a slip-cased volume that – when presented en masse – gives off the same uneasy presence as some of Carrington’s original drawings. 

The end result gives the biennale a sense of playful intrigue that plays on Venice’s image as a magical and mysterious city, as well as the power of art as a catalyst for changing identity and focus.

‘In our work, we are often balancing, extruding and amplifying voices and ideas within artists’ practices and their context, opening this up and developing new ways of communicating this to different people,’ the duo write, and the biennale graphics walk the line between shaping a strong visual symbol of the event as a whole, and the idea of the individual artistic identity. ‘That challenge is what keeps us excited and interested every day,’ Carter concludes.

INFORMATION
apracticeforeverydaylife.com
The 59th International Art Exhibition, The Milk of Dreams’ runs until 27 November 2022. labiennale.org

Mario Pani’s 107th birthday
29 March 2018

Mario Pani played a large part in shaping the design of Mexico City in the twentieth century, with this Doodle - created by his son, artist Knut Pani - paying tribute to them. Pictured is his extensive residential complex, the Tlatelolco Urban Centre in Mexico City, which houses 12,000 apartments in 102 buildings and is characterised by its curved element and triangular tower.

Saloua Raouda Choucair’s 102nd birthday
24 June 2018

Lebanese sculptor Saloua Choucair explored mathematical patterns in her artworks which interlocked together in intricate forms. Her series, ‘poems’, could be dismantled, the movable pieces comparable to the verses of a Sufi poem. Acclaimed throughout her life, at age 97 she was honoured by London’s Tate Modern who put on a retrospective celebrating her long career.

Wilder Penfield’s 127th birthday
26 January 2018

Montreal’s first neurosurgeon, Wilder Penfield’s work in mapping the brain led to new techniques to treat epilepsy. In experiments using electrical probes, he discovered stimulating certain parts of the brain prompted memory cues - such as the smell of burnt toast the Doodle depicts.

Gabriel García Márquez’s 91st Birthday
6 March 2018

Google bring the mystical world of Gabriel García Márquez to life with this Doodle which draws the lush tropical world of Macondo in the Amazonian jungle, the famous setting of his book, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Márquez combined fiction with political activism in a long and distinguished career.

Pi Day
14 March 2018

If you haven’t been marking Pi Day with a slice of pie - why not? The mathematical concept of Pi was recognised in 1988 by Larry Shaw, and represents the ratio between a circle’s circumference to its diameter. This Doodle, baked by Cronut creator Dominique Ansel, pays homage to a mathematical constant which is much more interesting to us when constructed in pastry.

Marga Faulstich’s 103rd birthday
26 June 2018

Next time you grab your shades on the way out the door, spare a thought for German scientist Marga Faulstich who devoted her life to glass chemistry, making your favourite specs possible. She found a way to change a gas directly to a solid without it becoming a liquid, meaning small glass objects could be coated with a vapour, allowing for a glass with anti-reflective coating which blocks UV light.

30th anniversary of the World Wide Web
12 March 2019

‘Mesh’ was Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s working name for the world wide web application, the invention which forever changed life as we know it. Originally a flowchart, it soon became a working model complete with the HTML language, HTTP application and the first Web browser and page editor. Two billion users now use it, hopefully for purposes in addition to reading about Google Doodles.

Erich Ohser’s 115th birthday
18 March 2018

German cartoonist Erich Ohser acted out his political ideology through cartoons and caricatures which depicted his disgust with the National Socialists. Throughout the twentieth century, he balanced his more politically-dangerous pieces with a popular and light-hearted comic strip about a father and son.

Stanisław Moniuszko’s 200th birthday
5 May 2019

Warsaw-based illustrator Gosia Herba paid tribute to Polish musician Stanisław Moniuszko on what would have been his 200th birthday. The director of the Warsaw Opera House, Moniuszko oversaw the production of many of his own works including Halka, which went on to become a classic of Polish culture.

Celebrating Seiichi Miyake
18 March 2019

In 1965, Seiichi Miyake invented tactile blocks to help a friend suffering with their sight. The blocks - one kind which came with dots, the other with bars - let the user know when they were approaching danger, and which way to go. Two years later, they were introduced onto the street in Japan and soon made their way into urban environments around the world, transforming the lives of the visually impaired.

Nowruz
20 March 2019

Google marked the spring equinox and Nowruz, the Persian New Year, with a floral tribute. The festivities, lasting for 13 days, begin on the first day of Farvardin, the first month in the Iranian Hijri calendar.

Parveen Shakir’s 67th birthday
24 November 2019

Pakistani poet Parveen Shakir won Pakistan’s President’s Award for Pride of Performance in 1990 for her Urdu poetry. The first poet to use the word larki (girl) in her work, she subverted male traditions by honestly depicting the female experience.

Nicholas Winton’s 111th birthday
19 May 2020

Sir Nicholas Winton organised the escape of over 600 children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia in the months before the Second World War, a fact he never revealed to anyone. It was only when his wife discovered documents in the attic in 1988 she learnt of his efforts in finding homes, raising money, forging documents and bribing officials, saving the primarily Jewish children from almost certain death.

Celebrating Falafel
18 June 2019

We all love a falafel - why not celebrate it? As India entered high season for the majority of the world’s chickpea crop, Google clearly agreed. Whatever you do with it - Egypt grind down fava beans and fry them, Germany top theirs with sauerkraut - it cannot fail to be delicious.

Tatyana Lioznova 96th birthday
20 July 2020

In a move rare for a female Russian director, Tatyana Lioznova achieved huge success in the twentieth century with her popular programmes, including the 12-part ‘Seventeen Moments of Spring.’ which followed the adventures of Russia’s answer to James Bond, Maxim Isayev.

Julius Lothar Meyer’s 190th birthday
19 August 2020

One of two scientists to discover the periodic law of chemical elements, German chemist Meyer’s periodic tables are ubiquitous in every school in the world.

Barbara Hepworth
25 August 2020

English sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth hammers away at Google in her Doodle which marks the day she arrived in St. Ives in 1939. The seaside town would be instrumental in a career which saw her embrace natural, abstract pieces which were sensitive to the qualities of the raw materials she transformed.

Doodle for Google US winner
23 September 2020

Ten year old Sharon Sara was the winner of 2020’s Doodle for Google competition which invited tens of thousands of students in America to illustrate the prompt: ‘I show kindness by..’ Sara, with her Doodle showing how kindness can be shown through friendship and inclusion, was the lucky recipient of a $30,000 college scholarship, with her school benefitting from a $50,000 technology package.

Dr. Harold Moody
1 September 2020

Charlot Kristensen, a Dublin-based guest artist, depicted Jamaican-born British doctor and racial equality campaigner Dr. Harold Moody for his Doodle, marking the day Moody arrived in the UK from Jamaica in 1904. Moody went on to become the founder of the UK’s first civil rights movement after facing racism which denied him work. His kindness is represented by the children in the illustration, signalling the countless deprived young Moody would treat for free.

Google’s 22nd birthday
27 September 2020

Well if you don’t let everyone know it’s your birthday, how will they know to celebrate you? Google marked 22 years of Larry Page and Sergey Brin deciding to rethink the way people interacted with information on the Web with an appropriately restrained lockdown Doodle - never mind, we’re sure the real celebrations were saved for offline.

Professor Udupi Ramachandra Rao’s 89th birthday
10 March 2021

Professor Udupi Ramachandra Rao’s spearheading of India’s satellite programme led to the 1975 launch of India’s first satellite, one of almost two dozen satellites which addressed poverty by increasing communication to rural areas. In 2013, he became the first Indian to be inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, an accolade which coincided with the launch of a satellite which orbits Mars today.

Kuzgun Acar’s 93rd birthday
28 February 2021

Kuzgun Acar’s artworks in wire, nails and scrap metals rethought modern sculpture in Turkey in the twentieth century. After learning his skills at ship-dismantling workshops, he went on to produce classic pieces such as ‘Turkey’ - a relief in bronze - as well as producing steel and rubber masks for German theatre play ‘The Caucasian Chalk Office’.

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s 140th birthday
9 November 2020

Guest UK-based artist Jing Zhang paid tribute to one of the smaller creations from British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Scott worked on many large designs, including the Battersea Power Station and his first project, the Liverpool Cathedral, but it is the red telephone box he designed in 1924 which captures Zhang’s imagination.

Celebrating Johannes Gutenberg
14 April 2021

Lovers of the written word have German craftsman Johannes Gutenberg to thank. His fifteenth century movable type printing press, which replaced the wooden letters of traditional printers with metal type, made books affordable for the first time. Two decades later, his printing press was the largest in Europe, kickstarting a new direction for mass media.

151st anniversary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
13 April 2021

Founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was established in 1870, quickly collecting a Roman sarcophagus as its first work. Parts of its extensive eclectic collection can be seen in the Doodle, from a Byzante floor mosaic to the armour of Emperor Ferdinand I and a Tetin Sioux beaded dress.

David Warren’s 96th birthday
20 March 2021

Although his first prototype was in red, Australian research scientist Dr. David Warren’s life-saving invention is better known as the ‘black box.’ In the Fifties, he invented an almost indestructible recording device for aircrafts which caught conversations in the cockpit in real time, preventing recurring tragedies.

30th anniversary of Pac-Man
21 May 2010

‘Pac-Man seems like a natural fit for the Google homepage,’ said Marcin Wichary, senior UX designer and developer at Google, in May 2010. ‘They’re both deceptively straightforward, carefully hiding their complexity under the hood. There’s a light-hearted, human touch to both of them.’ The Doodle, which he created with in-house ‘Google Doodler’ (as they have become known)
 Ryan Germick was the first-ever playable doodle, and was on the homepage for 48 hours, because, said Wichary, ‘it’s too cool to keep for just one day’.

The Great Wave of Kanagawa
31 October 2010

It’s an odd thought: a 17th-century Japanese century woodcut going viral. The Great Wave was first circulated the old-fashioned way, via traders and tall ships in the 19th century. Since then, it has inspired Claude Debussy’s orchestral work La Mer, appeared in poetry and prose by Rainer Maria Rilke, and was animated by teamLAB at London gallery Pace. Levi’s and Patagonia used it in marketing campaigns. In 2011, it was preserved in cyberspace as a Google Doodle, and has since been turned into an emoji. Thanks, in no small part to the uncompromising powers of Google Search, it is an image that is as globe-spanning, and enduring, as the ocean itself.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Google and Robert Indiana
14 February 2011

This iconic Doodle (if you can call it that) was created by renowned artist behind ‘LOVE’, and it broke the trend of month upon month of interactive doodles, reverting back to a simpler, stationary symbol. Robert Indiana – poster artist of pop culture – is no stranger to having his work seen in unconventional settings by millions: the US Postal Service carried reproductions of his works on stamps in 1973 as part of its ‘love series’, and he created a work for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign depicting the word ‘HOPE’.

Courtesy of the Morgan Art Foundation / ARS, NY

First Day of Winter by Takashi Murakami
21 June 2011

In the San Francisco Bay Area where Google is based, its typically pretty mild all year round. Craving some seasonal differentiation, it turned to Japanese art superstar Takashi Murakami to ring in the summer and winter solstice in 2011 with a pair of doodles for the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, respectively. Google’s Ryan Germick said at the time, ‘The doodles feature some of Murakami’s quirky characters and signature bold colors. It was a great honor to collaborate with Murakami-san and his Kai Kai Kiki team, who create what must be some of our most “kawaii” doodles yet.’

Mies van der Rohe’s 126th birthday
27 March 2012

Along with Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture. To honour what would have been his 126th birthday, Google created this colourful interpretation of his Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1956). The glass windows are coloured like Google chars, in a way which also nods to Le Corbusier’s use of primary colours in the windows of Unité d’Habitation in northern France.

Jan Kaplický’s 75th birthday
18 April 2012

Only originally displayed on the Google homepage in Czech Republic, this Doodle depicts neo-futurist Kaplický’s highly controversial Prague National Library (nicknamed ‘the octopus’) which he designed before his death in 2007 at the age of 71. The commission, however, was canceled in 2008. As the octopus never got to stretch its legs, its with love that Google remembers its creator in this digital epitaph. 

Keith Haring’s 54th birthday
4 May 2012

In 2012, one-time subway graffiti artist Keith Haring was presented on a different kind of much-trafficked wall. The late-80s pop artist, whose work currently fills the sky-lit lobby of Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, is here copied by in-house Google Doodlers. Widely recognised as creating his own visual language, his famous figures are here bent out of shape, to form a wobbly Google logo. 

150th anniversary of the London Tube map
9 January 2013

Frank Pick’s London Tube Map is a unique accomplishment of graphic innovation, and has become the subject of many artistic endeavours since its creation in 1863 – like Langlands & Bell’s renowned memorial unveiled at Picadilly Circus in 2016. This Google Doodle, a simplified version of the map, rendered in Google’s typical Sans Serif typeface, was only shown in the UK, so we hope its inclusion in this round-up gives the rest of the world pause to acknowledge this beloved symbol of British design prowess. 

Luis Barragán’s 111th birthday
9 March 2013

Even in the midnight hue of the sky, this Doodle transports us to Mexico City. It depicts the brightly coloured pool and pink stable block of Mexican architect Luis Barragán’s Cuadra San Cristobál, an equestrian and estate which is privately owned by the Egerström family since its completion in 1968.

Saul Bass’ 93rd birthday
8 May 2013

Here’s where things get meta. In 2013, Doodler Matthew Cruickshank was given the tricky task of creating a logo celebrating the logo design master Saul Bass. Cruickshank took Bass’ motto – ‘symbolise and summarise’ – to task with a short animated sequence that reimagines Google’s logo in the designers’ unmistakable brand of title credits, set to an upbeat jazz tune composed by David Brubeck. During his 40-year career, Bass, who died in 1996, collaborated with many of the industry’s most influential filmmakers: Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorcese, and Otto Preminger, to name a few. He single-handedly revitalised title sequences in his work for Alfred Hitchcock’s films, devising a revolutionary type of kinetic typography that characterised the openings of classics such as North by Northwest, Vertigo and Psycho.

Kenzo Tange’s 100th birthday
4 September, 2013

Depicting the renowned Structuralist architect stringing up Google bunting across the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo (1961-64), this doodle celebrates the life and work of Kenzo Tange, and was only displayed on the Google homepage in Japan. 

Niki de Saint Phalle’s 84th birthday
29 October 2014

Niki de Saint Phalle’s ‘Nanas’ took over the Google homepage for the French sculptress’s 84th birthday in 2014. Inspired by her pregnant friend, the ‘Nana’ sculptures were de Saint Phalle’s artistic rendition of the everyday woman and became a symbol of femininity. De Saint Phalle described her first ‘Nana’ house as a ‘doll’s house for adults, just big enough to sit and dream in.’

Wassily Kandinsky’s 148th birthday
16 December, 2014

This doodle was inspired by the work of Wassily Kandinsky – the man credited with creating the first ever purely abstract works of art – and was used with special permission of the Estate of Wassily Kandinsky, which is represented by Artist Rights Society. It depicts his pioneering use of expansive coloured masses, cluttered with near-spiritual irreverence, geometry and abstract lines, perhaps best described by The Rider, (1911). In typical Kandinksy fashion, it barely says ‘Google’ at all. 

Lygia Clark’s 95th birthday
23 October, 2015

Famed Brazilian painter, sculptor and teacher, Lygia Clark co-founded the Neo-Concrete movement, which sought to change art from a passive viewing experience to an engaging interaction. Her art pieces, specifically the ‘bichos’, were designed to be modified, re-positioned and folded into new configurations by participants – the participant here being Google. The logo has been stripped of its primary colours, and rendered in greyscale shades favoured by Clark, each letter folding in on itself like origami. These ‘critters’ represent Clark’s early attempts to bridge the gap between artist and viewer, alongside Google’s attempts to bridge the gap between searcher and host.

121st anniversary of the first published timetable in Japan
5 October, 2015

One of the seemingly obscure commemorative Doodles – the 121st anniversary of the publication of the first Japanese railway timetable – is actually more all-encompassing than it looks. It represents, says Google, ‘the advent of time consciousness, and the beginning of efficient and reliable mass transit’. That told us. Google continues: ‘To celebrate this achievement, we decided to create our own, unique schedule with invented names, destinations and times in homage to the humble train timetable. We wanted to reference as many traditional design elements, symbols and typographic styles as possible. To help out, we gathered as many "timetable geeks" as we could find in our Tokyo office. Our team of experts had many brainstorming sessions and came up with more ideas than we could possibly include in the final artwork.’

Yps Magazine’s 40th anniversary
13 October, 2015

Germany’s Yps Magazine published its first comic in 1985. Filled with tales of mystery, peril, and adventure, many would agree that the most irresistible aspect of the slim publication was the toy that came with it, and each subsequent edition. They ranged from the simple (spinning tops) to the sophisticated (kits to build functioning radios), and often the slightly bizarre (a package of Brine Shrimp eggs that young readers were encouraged to hatch and grow themselves). Artist Nate Swinehart endeavoured to recapture this sense of anticipation and mystery with a Doodle that changes each time you see it.

The 42nd Anniversary of Rio–Niterói Bridge opening
4 March, 2016

Brazil’s Rio–Niterói Bridge exemplifies the ingenuity of the human spirit – as captured by guest Doodler Patrick Leger, who crafted a recreation of the bridge on the bay with the Brazilian coast visible in the background, and shadowy Google lettering stretching out across the water. The structure met with great international praise when it opened in 1974 as the second-longest bridge in the world, spanning the vast Guanabara Bay. Its greatest accomplishment is connection. Carrying over 100,000 passengers daily, it unites Nieterói and Rio de Janeiro, cities with populations of 487,000 and 6.5 million respectively.

Juno Reaches Jupiter
5 July, 2016

On 5 July 2016, a NASA satellite built like a tank settled into polar orbit around Jupiter, the mysterious gas giant two doors down from Earth. Juno’s five–year, 500–million–mile journey will culminate in a treasure trove of new pictures and measurements taken by its nine instruments. The latest Juno images were delivered back down to earth successfully on February 7, 2018. Google celebrated this incredible moment of human achievement the best way they new how: with Space Invadors references. The emoji-tastic GIF captures the moment mission control received news Juno had entered orbit.

80th anniversary of the opening of the Moscow Metro
May 15, 2015

Matt Cruickshank’s Doodle celebrates the railway that shaped a city. The ‘Google doodler’ drew inspiration from vintage russian posters. He started with the map in the metro’s current lines colours and distinctive radial-circle structure but decided to combine the old with the new and ended up using sepia-toned fashion of a vintage Russian poster. He also added a classic train with ‘80’ on the front to pay homage to the anniversary.

Celebrating Zaha Hadid
31 May, 2017

The Heydar Aliyev Center, depicted behind a cartoon-style portrait of the late, great Zaha Hadid, sets itself in contrast to the block-like structures that surround it in Baku, Azerbaijan. The architects’ signature fluid style is captured in the endlessly curving lines of the drawing, and the almost-unreadable Google typeface. At the same time, this cultural centre takes inspiration from historic Islamic designs found in calligraphy and geometric patterns to create something entirely new. The building takes an open form to invite the public into its space. The centre has played host to modern art by Andy Warhol and Tony Cragg, and world-class performances from Kitaro and Alessandro Safina.

Meret Oppenheim’s 104th birthday
6 October, 2017

Created by guest artist Tina Berning, this Doodle celebrates Meret Oppenheim on what would have been her 104th birthday. The Doodle nods to one of her most known works, ’Object’ – a famously fur-covered bracelet which is in the Gems and Ladders collection – and honors the surrealist tradition of combining unexpected elements to create something new.

Celebrating the Studio for Electronic Music
18 October, 2017

Google felt the beat as it celebrated the 66th anniversary of the Studio for Electronic Music with this neon Doodle, by Berlin-based illustrator Henning Wagenbreth. It celebrates the noisy diversity of thought and imagination that built this studio, which was to transform the possibilities of music. Known as the first modern music studio, it became a haven for innovative musicians and producers from its base at the West German Broadcasting facility in Cologne, to the rest of the world.

Hokiichi Hanawa’s 271st birthday
23 June, 2017

When Helen Keller visited the memorial house of Hanawa Hokiichi in 1937, she said of the revered scholar, ‘I believe that his name would pass down from generation to generation like a stream of water.’ This Doodle celebates the intergenerational legacy of the thinker. Like a river originating from humble beginnings in Tokyo in 1746, his influence has stretched through law, politics, economics, history, and medicine.

Virginia Woolf’s 136th birthday
25 January 2018

Subject of many ponderous, self-absorbed English Literature dissertations (mine included), and subject of a new exhibition at Tate St Ives, Virginia Woolf is an icon of Modernist literature, and has sparked two centuries of artistic renderings. This year, a Google Doodle was penned by London-based illustrator Louise Pomeroy. It salutes with grace and symbolism Woolf’s minimalist style. Not tonally disimilar to the bust found outside her Bloomsbury residence, the portrait is surrounded by falling autumn leaves (a frequent visual theme in her work). In Woolf’s words: ‘
The autumn trees gleam in the yellow moonlight, in the light of harvest moons, the light which mellows the energy of labor, and smooths the stubble, and brings the wave lapping blue to the shore.’

‘When I was in elementary school, we always had to buy this bag,’ begins the Korean-born, Berlin-based graphic designer Na Kim when I ask about the concept behind her latest exhibition. She tells me about this simple, small bag that in the 1980s and ‘90s was sold at stationery shops across Korea, and contained a number of ambiguous objects that were often used as teaching materials at school. ‘I remember some images of individual objects,’ she continues, ‘but more strong are the memories attached to these objects.’

In ‘Bottomless Bag,’ Kim’s new solo exhibition at Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, the designer’s distinctive visual vernacular forges a framework for considering images as networked components within a relational system of organisation as well as discrete, subjective sites of memory. This unorthodox presentation of Kim’s elemental sense of colour and geometry engages with her longstanding interest in recontextualising forms and patterns found in everyday objects and proposes alternative approaches to graphic design based on dynamic logics of spatial organisation.

Anchoring the exhibition is the most recent iteration of Kim’s installation series SET (2015-present), which reinterprets a range of two-dimensional design elements as physical objects. ‘In many cases of previous SET series it was built up as a wall painting’ she recalls, ‘but here I want to bring these shapes and colours into the space, and that could be a sort of playground for children.’

As a commissioned artist for the museum’s biannual Children’s Exhibition Series, Kim had carte blanche to create a multilayered platform where visitors of all ages can freely interpret and interact with her work. An expansive playground installation at the core of ‘Bottomless Bag’ reflects the constantly-evolving rules of engagement that guide Kim’s aesthetic decisions, enlarging shapes, blobs and squiggles derived from her visual archive to construct an immersive environment of colourful curtains, carpets, stairs and structures.

The origins of these images can be traced to Kim’s daily collage practice, in which she repurposes found objects and mass-produced materials – such as stickers, plastic bags and various papers – in a meditative process of discovery that yields a steady stream of inspiration. She calls these small works on paper Found Compositions (2009-present), explaining that ‘most of them are based on the idea of how to find the hidden rules inside a composition.’ Beyond addressing the impulse to communicate such rules and relationships, however, this methodology also invites the active reinterpretation of specific memories that she associates with each object. By imagining the gallery space itself as her own ‘object bag,’ Kim imbues her images with meaning as visual objects that evoke recollections of the past as well as tools for realising mindful designs that ontologically tether form and function.

INFORMATIONADDRESS

‘Bottomless Bag’, until 13 September, Buk Seoul Museum of Art. sema.seoul.go.kr; ynkim.com

Buk Seoul Museum of Art 
1238 Dongil-ro
Nowon-gu
Seoul

Austrian designer Philipp Doringer took a master’s degree in Information Design at Design Academy Eindhoven. He is currently working at Studio Joost Grootens in Amsterdam, run by the self-taught graphic designer who also helms the Eindhoven course.

‘This was always my dream collaboration, so I am quite happy with that,’ says Doringer. ‘I'd like to work on my own one day and open a studio together with a designer friend of mine.’

His graduation project book, ‘The Imprecision in Precision’, currently awaits a publisher. Doringer’s work focuses on cartographic design, using maps to tell stories as well as highlight their potential for exacerbating conflict and chaos. ‘The Imprecision in Precision’ brings together every border in the world, ‘a growing archive of every line ever drawn to represent borders collected in browsable files, and a world map depicting territorial thinking taken to an extreme’. His intention was to highlight how two-dimensional lines can never capture the intricacies and complexities of a three-dimensional world. ‘In fact, [it] adds more chaos, conflict, uncertainty and imprecision,’ he says.

An earlier project, ‘Jewish Vienna’, is a richly researched cartography of Vienna’s Second District, home of its Jewish community. Ghostly imprints on the surface of the map reveal the scope of the deportations during the Nazi era, with old and new information juxtaposed to provide a historical comparison of then and now.

Another student project, the ‘Atlas Of No Direction Home’, is an obsessive gazetteer of ‘all the locations relevant to Bob Dylan’s career’. The project mixes maps with lists and coordinates, and Doringer’s talent for organising information is evident on every page as he brings together ‘all the places mentioned in [Dylan’s] songs, the towns where his studio albums were recorded, the venues of his tours, and other places that played an important role in his life’.

Dream collaborator: Joost Grootens.

INFORMATION

philippdoringer.com

Our Next Generation showcase of outstanding new talents appears in the January 2022 issue of Wallpaper* (W*273). Subscribe today!

A graduate of the master’s in Type Design at ECAL, Chiachi Chao is currently living in Lausanne. The Taiwanese designer created the Kleisch typeface as part of his final studies, describing it as a Latin serif typeface developed for bi-scriptural typesetting. ‘As a typographic designer with a background in Latin and Chinese, Kleisch is my attempt to bridge the connection between the Serif Latin typefaces with Ming typefaces,’ he says, asking ‘what are the similar traits that can bring together two different typefaces from different scripts?’

By blending Baroque and Neoclassical styles, Chao has created a flexible set of modern letterforms that can accommodate the varying weights of different Ming characters.

Research took him from the history of Western and Eastern writing styles, from the technical limitations of early printing to the speed of brushed Chinese calligraphic writing. The evolution of a moveable type version of Ming made the fluid marks and forms of each character much more formalised, while still remaining very distinct and different from conventional Latin lettering. ‘Inspired by the story of Caslon, I imagined myself as a punchcutter in the early 18th century, cutting a typeface based on the Baroque model, but adding the neoclassical taste of Neoclassical time. This is a transitional face between two transitional models,’ he says.

‘Kleisch consists of 16 styles with a variable font that offers adjustable axes (weight and contrast) to adapt with different Ming typefaces accordingly.’ The final typeface was based on the cuts of the 17th-century designers Miklós Tótfalusi Kis and Christoffel van Dijck and the 18th-century German-Dutch typographer Johann Michael Fleischmann. 

Dream collaborators: François Rappo, Radim Peško and Kasper Florio.

Wallpaper* Next Generation 2022

More young talents to watch – dubbed ‘22 rising stars for 2022’ and from creative fields spanning design, jewellery, transport, architecture, photography, fashion, and visual communication – can be discovered in the January 2022 Next Generation issue of Wallpaper*, and in this ongoing series at Wallpaper.com. 

INFORMATION

instagram.com/chiachi.chao

Our Next Generation showcase of outstanding new talents appears in the January 2022 issue of Wallpaper* (W*273). Subscribe today!

Visual identity for the V&A exhibition ’Alice: Curious and Curiouser’, by Hingston Studio. Video courtesy of Hingston Studio

Art director and graphic designer Tom Hingston is best known for his work with the world’s top musical artists, including Nick Cave, Grace Jones, The Chemical Brothers, The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga and Massive Attack. He’s also widely respected in the world of Wallpaper*, creating visual identities and campaigns for the likes of Christian Dior, Orlebar Brown and Veuve Clicquot. Here, he tells us about three recent projects: visual identities for the Serpentine Galleries and the ‘Alice: Curious and Curiouser’ exhibition at the V&A museum, as well as the newsstand cover of our August 2021 issue, dedicated to Design for a Better World. 

Tom Hingston and Serpentine Galleries

Ahead of Serpentine Galleries’ 50th anniversary celebrations, Hingston Studio was commissioned to redesign its visual identity in 2019, replacing a much lauded Pentagram design that was introduced in 2013. The brief, which proved prescient when the Covid-19 pandemic compelled cultural institutions to move into the digital realm, was to create a digital-first identity, with ‘a dynamic presence and a greater level of flexibility across multiple platforms’.

Hingston recalls he was drawn to ‘the notion that the urgent voice of the gallery, with its location in London’s Hyde Park, known for its history of protest and free speech, would be coupled with this sense of nature and openness to surround it. Space to think and breathe.’

He created a modular identity to reflect Serpentine Galleries’ duality – championing cutting-edge art and ideas in serene surroundings, occupying a small space compared to its peers while punching well above its weight. The flexible construction of his visual system, and of the individual letterforms, ‘allows a process of deconstruction, a kind of open invitation for artists and practitioners to reinterpret the identity in infinite ways’. On a more practical level, it also lends itself to versatile applications across social media, on the galleries’ website, digital screens within physical spaces, and the physical spaces themselves.

As part of his research, Hingston looked at patterns found in nature – growth rings from trees, wind patterns, the movement of water, and light passing through leaves – and then applied these behavioural characteristics to the typographic system. The headline typeface is bespoke, with bold, condensed letterforms that evoke strength and urgency. Its title, Platanus, derives from the Latin name for the London Plane tree, which dominates the treescape of Hyde Park. ‘Knowing that it will predominantly be in-house teams who use [it] on a day-to-day basis, the naming serves as a gentle reminder to the relationship the identity has to the park and its surrounding environment,’ Hingston says.

Within the wordmark, Hingston introduced radial cuts to the Platanus letterforms, adding a sense of movement and further referencing the irregular geography of the Serpentine Lake. Elsewhere, Platanus is complemented by two existing typefaces – Schick Toikka’s Noe, with large, wedge-shaped serifs that come to a sharp point; and Michael Mischler’s T-Star, a subtler sans serif with laterally flattened, round basic forms. 

Rounding off the system is an extended series of glyphs, including functional elements such as arrows and wayfinding symbols, and more playful forms that serve to add character and personality. As Hingston explains, ‘some reference the motifs you might find in the surrounding element, others act as a playful punctuation to the information system’.

serpentinegalleries.org

‘Alice: Curious and Curiouser’ at the V&A museum

A stone’s throw from Serpentine Galleries, Hingston has designed the visual identity for the V&A’s blockbuster exhibition, ‘Alice: Curious and Curiouser’. The show explores the origins, adaptations and reinventions of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, charting its evolution from manuscript to a global sensation, so its identity is suitably ambitious. 

The museum wanted ‘to express its own interpretation of this iconic cultural figure, but also connect in a much wider sense with a multigenerational audience’, says Hingston. The timings of the show added to the burden of expectation; originally scheduled for 2020, it wound up opening in May 2021, when London’s museums could finally welcome the general public again after many months of closure: ‘So the campaign had to serve a dual purpose – announcing the Alice show, but also welcoming visitors back into the physical space.’

The messaging was complex, ‘and rather than try and work around that, we made a strategic decision to embrace it in a celebratory manner and flip the conventional hierarchy – text and messaging would become hero’, Hingston recalls. So it made sense to explore historical examples of design that featured a contrasting mix of messaging and typography; in particular, vintage circus posters with proclamations such as ‘roll up, roll up’, and ‘the greatest show is coming to town’. These posters would offer an expressive framework for the language of the Alice show, but also offer an opportunity to introduce various characters from the book. 

Within the visual identity, the calls to action became ‘Step Into Wonderland!’, ‘See the Amazing…’ and ‘Don’t be Late!’ Another departure from the vintage circus posters is the use of a sans serif, condensed font, which puts a fresh spin on the typology and allows it to feel more elastic in behaviour.

‘Different segments of messaging are treated as a series of building blocks, which are reconfigured, scaled and stretched to fit any given format in both digital and print. This in turn makes reference to the book’s famed exploration of perspective and shifting scales and size,’ Hingston explains.

Complementing the typography is a cast of characters from the book, including Alice herself, the rabbit, and the caterpillar. The two animals were created in collaboration with BAFTA-nominated puppeteers Jonny & Will in another meticulous process. Natural references such as fur textures and caterpillar skin were developed into sketches and then clay maquettes, and finally remodelled in CGI so they could be moved and manipulated in any way necessary for the visual design. 

Meanwhile, Alice was cast as a young actress who was filmed in live action, always from behind so her face would be concealed. ‘Alice means so many different things to so many different people, [so] maintaining this level of ambiguity around her character, whilst also retaining some obvious visual clues in her wardrobe, was essential to us.’ 

Hingston’s identity went beyond the V&A’s walls and promotional material to include the main entrance to the show, which leads down the striking wooden staircase in the museum’s Exhibition Road Quarter by AL_A. ‘It was an opportunity to transform the entrance into something more unexpected,’ explains Hingston. ‘We designed a glyph set of arrows which could act as a signposting device to help guide visitors in and down the space. These multidirectional arrows were also a nod back to the book itself – where Alice is being pushed and pulled along different paths.’ 

‘Alice: Curious and Curiouser’, until 31 December 2021, Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London, vam.ac.uk

the V&A’s ‘Alice: Curious and Curiouser’ exhibition, and his newsstand cover for Wallpaper’s August 2021 issue

Wallpaper* August 2021 issue cover

Wallpaper’s relationship with Hingston dates back a decade – he was first interviewed in our April 2011 issue about a bespoke typeface and phone icons he’d created for a new Danish mobile phone company called Æsir, and in 2012 he was one of 30 cover artists (selected from 20,000 submissions) for our August Handmade issue. We have long been admirers of his ability to combine striking typography and distinctive forms with contextual rigour, so when we decided that we wanted a typographic newsstand cover for our August 2021 ‘Design for a Better World’ issue, he was our first port of call.

‘It’s wonderful to be invited back to create a cover for what is the new Handmade initiative – it’s a fantastic issue, featuring some incredible thinkers. Plus I share the honour with Piet Oudolf [who created the issue’s limited-edition cover], of whom I’m a big fan,’ says Hingston.

The issue celebrates the creative leaders and projects that are addressing some of the biggest challenges and concerns of our time – among them the Turner-Prize nominated Cooking Sections, who advocate for more sustainable food supply chains, architect Fernanda Canales, whose social housing encourages us to reconsider the meaning of luxury, and artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen, whose epic VR experiences foster attention and engagement with the natural world. In response, Hingston wanted to ‘convey this notion of something that was incomplete, or a work in progress’.

Hingston and his team recalled their early development work for the Serpentine:

We were talking a lot about this notion of flexible systems, or rather, frameworks that were open and invited re-interpretation. That concept definitely seemed to resonate with the themes of the issue, as does the idea of something which is evolving or fluid

The cover typeface, which Hingston had started to draw in 2020 as part of the Serpentine identity, takes on a new appearance: ‘The more open letterforms invite the viewer to fill in the gaps, so there’s an interesting game at play here.’ Because the letterforms are of equal width, they could be treated like a series of building blocks that shift around the grid, which allowed for a more dynamic configuration – two of the lines are indented, and there is a double space between ‘for’ and ‘a’.

Early iterations of the cover design were two-dimensional, ‘about plotting points, defining parameters, and then testing how much or how little was needed to retain legibility’. But Hingston eventually decided on three-dimensional forms, to suggest ‘something more architectural, more physical, like an emerging structure’.

Unlike Platanus, the Wallpaper* cover typeface doesn’t yet have a name. ‘It’s an evolving identity, so I’m sure it will continue to take on a number of manifestations in future projects,’ Hingston says. ‘We’ve also been discussing the possibility of making it freely available. I’m interested in how other designers or individuals might choose to interpret the template.’

The August 2021 issue of Wallpaper* is now available as a free PDF download

INFORMATION

hingston.net

With thanks to Gillian McVey

American graphic designer David Carson knows how to execute a project with unconventional, hand-crafted flair; his latest for The Macallan Concept No. 3 whisky is no exception. 

Concept No. 3 is the latest launch in The Macallan Concept Series, a limited collection of annual release whiskies that blend creativity and the art of whisky-making. Carson’s intervention on the luxury single malt scotch whisky involves a bold new take on the bottle’s label and presentation box.

Carson’s career has not been short of accolades, or variation. He’s created campaigns for the likes of Ray-Ban, and Omega, art-directed 1990s alternative rock-and-roll magazine Ray Gun, designed a Wallpaper* Handmade limited-edition subscriber cover and was named one of only two graphic designers selected by Apple as part of its iconic ‘30 most innovative users’ list. Alongside pushing the boundaries of art direction and revolutionising typography, he’s also a professional surfer.  

Wallpaper*: How did your collaboration with The Macallan whisky come about?

To gather inspiration for the project, Carson visited The Macallan’s 485-acre estate in Scotland’s Speyside – with a distillery designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners – where he spent time immersed in his surroundings and picked the expert brains of The Macallan whisky maker Polly Logan (he even incorporated the letter ‘P’ for Polly into his final creation). Inspiration for the collaboration swung both ways: the whisky’s pale yellow colour, named Californian Gold, reflecting both the blend’s citrus notes, but also Carson’s sun-soaked days on the West Coast surf. 

We speak to David Carson about the creation of The Macallan Concept No. 3, and the beauty of ‘hand-doneness’. 

David Carson: I was visiting an artist friend in Barcelona, Ramon Enrich. Ramon had been invited to take part in a ’creativity day’ organised by The Macallan, and he suggested that I be included. This was my first introduction to working with the brand, and during the experience, I gave a presentation on branding, design, and my work. The day was a huge success and eventually led to our collaboration. It was an unexpected pleasure and rare opportunity to collaborate with such a unique and respected brand on The Macallan Concept No. 3.

W*: How did your time spent on The Macallan estate inform the direction of your work?

DC: The amazing architecture of the distillery really stood out, especially the way it blends in so well with the landscape. The extraordinary grounds, trees and open spaces, the River Spey, and really just the whole environment on the estate seemed to whisper freedom, creativity, nature, colours and humanity. And, like all great experiences, the people helped make it – amazing, warm, friendly people, who are passionate about life and what they do.

Everything provided inspiration – the rich colours of the buildings, the handwritten type which was written in various colours, parts of the casks, and the people who checked on the casks daily. Overall, I think the colours and the humanness of the process influenced me a lot in wanting to do the artwork by hand. 

I also used photos I’d taken as we visited the various areas of the estate, weaving them into my work. I took such a warm feeling from the whole experience, and I hope my design for the project gives people a bit of the same feeling. 

W*: Can you describe your approach to creating the collage?

DC: I took a lot of photos with my phone, and was especially intrigued with the warehouses where the whisky matures in the casks. The Macallan estate is one of the few distilleries able to store and age all whisky on site. 

Taking in the entire experience of my visit, I started working with printouts of my photos combined with various screen prints I had made over the years. It’s a very intuitive, subjective process. I often arrange elements on the floor, with many tweaks, until I am happy, then I photograph the end result with my phone. This allows me to get some depth and texture, even shadows, that a scanner wouldn't do. The very last process is to actually glue the elements down to the art board.

INFORMATION

themacallan.com

The story of X Muse begins in an ancient aquifer, an underground layer of rock that holds groundwater, beneath the Jupiter Artland sculpture park near Edinburgh. This water source had already inspired American cultural theorist and landscape designer Charles Jencks to create Cells of Life, eight site-specific, otherworldly landforms that form the park’s utopian centrepiece. 

In 2016, Robert Wilson – who had co-founded Jupiter Artland with his wife Nicky in 2009 – was looking for another use for this precious water. It took synchronicity and serendipity. Both arrived in the form of a dinner invitation from Vadim Grigoryan, an alcohol industry expert and former global director of creativity and luxury at Pernod Ricard. In his career, Grigoryan witnessed the most exciting and frustrating sides of the alcohol industry. ‘Things were frequently driven by financial aspects rather than an honest desire to bring something new,’ he says. ‘One thing that always surprised me was the emphasis on yield, rather than the quality of the ingredients, such as water and grains for distillation.’ Grigoryan wanted to transcend consumer trends and transactional value to create a brand that would be culturally enriching and respectful of its ingredients.

Synchronicity was served over dinner. Ideas began to germinate when Wilson and Grigoryan found common ground in philosophy, creative spirit and actual spirits, which often comprise 60 per cent water. Cue serendipity: ‘Bingo,’ says Wilson. ‘I had a use for my precious, energetic water, and the idea of creating a luxury vodka brand with art and art practice at its centre.’ 

The result is X Muse (pronounced ‘tenth muse’). Three key artworks give the new-generation vodka brand life, all of which live at Jupiter Artland. The brand’s name is derived from Ian Hamilton Finlay’s sculpture X Muse, created in 2005 and installed and sited posthumously in 2008. It depicts the head of Sappho, the Greek lyrical poet whose extraordinary creative gifts led Plato to dub her the ‘tenth muse’, thus ranking her alongside the Nine Muses of Greek mythology. 

Jencks’ Cells of Life serves as both the gatekeeper for the vodka’s water source and also the inspiration for the bottle shape, which was conceived by packaging designers Stranger & Stranger. It ‘echoed the ridges and gentle sweeping lines of Jencks’ artwork,’ says Wilson. Meanwhile, Anya Gallaccio’s The Light Pours Out of Me, a subterranean grotto lined with dazzling purple amethysts, inspired the processing of the water through an amethyst vortex to increase the energy within it. 

In his role as artistic and brand director, Grigoryan developed a mission statement for X Muse based on ‘the values at the intersection of genuine craft, contemporary art and the alchemical origins of spirit making,’ he says. This would require not only a meeting of artworks but a meeting of creative minds.

London-based graphic design studio APFEL took the reins on the multi-element brand identity, inspired by alchemy, sacred geometry, and the art on show at Jupiter Artland. The main logo draws on the lettering carved into Finlay’s sculpture, with ‘high contrast between the thick and thin strokes and a mixture of serif and sans serif lettering,’ explain APFEL founders Kirsty Carter and Emma Thomas. ‘For the brand illustration, we researched the alchemical symbols that were used in hermetic texts as a form of notation. The Monas Hieroglyphica is an esoteric symbol invented and designed by John Dee in the 16th century, and its meaning is linked to the essence of X Muse – distilling the sun, moon, elements and fire.’ 

X Muse’s outlook is international, but its heritage is rooted in Scotland, with the founders aiming to bring Scottish spirit-making traditions – synonymous with whisky and gin – to the world of vodka. It required science, research and help from experts at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University. Less conventional still was the base ingredient for the drink – not potatoes or wheat, as one might readily assume, but two varieties of heritage barley, Plumage Archer and Maris Otter, inspired by whisky making. ‘Together with a group of experts in a blind tasting, we proved my hypothesis that different varieties of barley have

different tastes,’ says Grigoryan. ‘In vodka, unlike brown spirits or gins, there is nowhere to hide. We wanted to make a sipping vodka that is also great in classic cocktails such as martinis. This is a tremendous task.’ 

Beyond its alchemic innovations, visual appeal and historical significance is the art of ceremony, or what the brand calls ‘ambromoments’. ‘With X Muse, we have involved collaborators of the highest artistic quality, who fully understand the importance of detail, design and creativity,’ says Wilson. To enhance this idea of ceremony, the brand created the Helicon vodka-tasting workshops, which take their name from Mount Helicon, a source of poetic inspiration and the site of two springs sacred to the Muses in ancient Greek mythology. ‘Our Helicon workshops will attempt to recreate that creative blend of experience and pleasure,’ explains Wilson.

Design research studio Formafantasma – Wallpaper* Designers of the Year 2021 – teamed up with crystal glass manufacturer Lobmeyr to bring the X Muse Helicon tasting workshops to life, creating elements such as glassware, bottles, glorifiers, tableware and containers for presenting ingredients. The studio also created the X Muse Temple, the physical embodiment of the brand. Founders Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin sought to avoid ‘certain clichés in the world of alcohol’ and instead sensitively ritualise the ‘good side of drinking’. ‘There is this part of alcohol that should be recognised and not necessarily seen as evil. This is a way of celebrating this,’ says Farresin.

‘We commissioned Formafantasma to imagine our ideal tasting experience, full of hidden cues, artistic references and storytelling. What Simone and Andrea did is a perfect example of showing without saying,’ adds Grigoryan, nodding to the brand’s motto, Plura Latent Quam Patent (more is concealed than revealed). 

The brand’s draw is also its subtlety. Like any great art, it doesn’t give too much away. The creation of X Muse has required many ingredients. It was born from water but brought to life through art, science, design, chemistry, physics and a shared zest for collaboration.

INFORMATION

To buy X Muse vodka (£57 for 70cl), or to find out more about the Helicon vodka-tasting workshops, visit xmusevodka.com

In 1971, American feminist art historian Linda Nochlin asked, ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists’? The issue, she wrote in her essay, ‘lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles, or our empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education’. There had been great women artists, they had just been denied the opportunity of greatness. 

A new graphic art book, The Women Who Changed Art Forever, tells the story of four trailblazers of feminist art: Judy Chicago, Faith Ringgold, Ana Mendieta and the Guerrilla Girls.

Beyond style, era or approach, feminist art was defined by a set of values, those which criticised sexist and racist institutions, strove for equality, and championed a revolution in the perception of women’s creativity. 

Though it didn’t gain momentum until the mid-20th century, feminist art has its roots in the late 1900s and 1920s when women were offered the right to vote in the UK and America. As liberation began sweeping across the world, the first wave of feminist art was born. Women began asserting their position behind the canvas, instead of posing as objects of pleasure in front of it. 

But during this time – with a few key exceptions, including Frida Kahlo – the majority of woman-made artwork did not portray ‘feminist’ themes, and many female artists struggled to ‘de-gender’ their work and find a seat at the male-dominated art table.

This all changed in the 1960s and 1970s with the second wave of feminist art. Progressive ideas emerged as society came to terms with a new ideology that placed value on the role of women in art. Instead of objects of the male gaze, women’s bodies could be tools to challenge the patriarchy. 

Within the book – created by Valentina Grande and Eva Rosetti and published by Laurence King – each artist featured represents one of the four pillars of the movement. Judy Chicago – the artist behind The Dinner Party (1979), widely deemed the first epic feminist artwork – made us reassess the female body, sexuality and championed a new wave of female empowerment. 

Faith Ringgold, known for vibrant quilts confronting everyday racism, taught us that feminism should be universally accessible. Through performative works, Ana Mendieta used her body to confront violence against women, while anonymous art collective Guerrilla Girls continues to challenge male-dominated institutions through provocative, often public interventions. 

The fight for equality is a long road and one that the world continues to navigate. The Women Who Changed Art Forever narrates this unfinished story with an accessible and vibrant approach, told through the art of four pioneers that tirelessly paved, and continue to pave, the way to a more equal art world.

INFORMATION

The Women Who Changed Art Forever: Feminist Art – The Graphic Novel, by Valentina Grande and Eva Rosetti, published by Laurence King, £14.99, hardback, available from 26 August 2021, laurenceking.com

It was in the wake of the 20th-century consumer boom that playtime entered its heyday. Up until then, children’s toys were the source of little attention, and the market was dominated by European manufacturers, with Germany, in particular, funnelling toys into America. 

As society surfaced from the First World War, change was in the air, bolstered by American ingenuity, and a burgeoning consumer culture supported by the media empires of newspapers, radio and television. American toys became ubiquitous in the consumer world, and with them came advertising and all its graphic sensationalism. 

These themes are explored in a new chronological book, Toys: 100 Hundred Years of All-American Toy Ads, published by Taschen. It takes readers down both memory lane, and the aisles of American history’s vast toy store.

The new market for toys was built on desire, and as the emphasis shifted from ‘need’ to ‘want’, compelling visual advertising was at the heart of the drive. Children, and parents, were targeted with verve, first through magazines and comic books and later through television. 

This is where many of the familiar and restrictive social and gender tropes were conceived, underlined with a subtext of 'education' and ‘stimulating developing minds’. Beneath the gleaming grins, familial perfection, fantastic plastic, and American dreams lurks something perhaps subliminally darker and more coercive. 

The book is co-edited by Jim Heimann and Steven Heller. Heimann is executive editor for Taschen America and is also a cultural anthropologist, historian, avid collector, and the author of titles on architecture, pop culture, and the history of Los Angeles and Hollywood. Heller sits as co-chair of the School of Visual Arts’ MFA Design / Designer as Entrepreneur programme and is the author or editor of more than 190 books on graphic design, editorial illustration, and political art.

The next (and ongoing) chapter in the industry’s evolution, was the emergence of the technology revolution. This propelled toy design, and advertising, into a new dimension; playtime became an activity for both children and adults. 

From frisbees to board games, baseball mitts to hula hoops, miniature trains to video games, Toys: 100 Hundred Years of All-American Toy Ads, has the whole story covered. It’s a commentary on the psychology of consumerism and the power of compelling visual design, a record of the American toy industry and a window into American life over the last century.

INFORMATION

Toys: 100 Years of All-American Toy Ads is now available to order
taschen.com

One might associate Ed Ruscha with sun-drenched cityscapes of Los Angeles, a filtered California cool rendered in his unmistakable linear pop and instructive, provocative text-based works. But Ed Ruscha is not from Los Angeles, he’s from Oklahoma, a city which, as a new exhibition at Oklahoma Contemporary proves, left a lasting impact on his career. 

‘The mythos of Ed Ruscha is tied to Americana and the open road, both of which are rooted in his childhood here,’ says Oklahoma Contemporary artistic director Jeremiah Matthew Davis. It was 1956 when Ruscha took his first road trip, aged 18, from Oklahoma to Los Angeles, to forge a career as an artist. 

Four years in the making, ‘Ed Ruscha: OKLA’ marks the artist’s first solo show in his childhood state and looks back on its influence on his 60-year career.

The show is an ode to Oklahoma. It references the city’s geography, vernacular and industry, gazing through the lens of midwestern midcentury American culture through more than 70 works, paintings and a large-scale installation to drawings, prints, books, photos and film. Visitors can expect to encounter iconic pieces such as Twentysix Gasoline Stations and Chocolate Room alongside more recent works such as two Drum Skins paintings. 

The show is structured around five core themes: Oklahoma OK explores the multitude of references to the city directly in Ruscha’s work. Made in U.S.A. surveys the artist’s perspective as an American and his frequent depictions of the decline of American manufacturing industries, to more potent political statements. 51% Angel, 49% Devil explores the artist’s Catholic upbringing and Pop Origins traces Ruscha’s myriad references to the popular culture motifs of his 1940’s childhood, including movies, comics and advertising. Finally, US 66 delves into the expansive vistas and mythology of the route west, a path well-trodden by the artist as he repeatedly returned to his roots in Oklahoma City.

INFORMATION

’Ed Ruscha: OKLA’, until 5 July 2021, Oklahoma Contemporary
oklahomacontemporary.org
edruscha.com

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A year on from when the UK entered its first lockdown, ‘Hang Together' emerges. The aptly named online print store was, like so many digital initiatives that bloomed in the age of physical distance and shuttered shops, born from a desire to remain connected and collaborative throughout the pandemic.

Created by London-based art directors Dom and Jo Murray-Bell, the digital shop works with both emerging and established artists, designers, illustrators and photographers to present an exclusive edit of reasonably priced art prints (starting at £25).

Hang Together: a collaboration

The creative duo – having worked with likes of Wallpaper*, SHOW, Selfridges, Bally and more – have used their network of contemporary image makers to provide a platform for showcasing work, while taking the legwork out of finding unique and alternative art prints and wall art for a receptive global audience. ‘We felt like it was a good time to launch a creative business which was about enhancing the spaces that we live in,' they explain.

The duo site art with ‘a bold, graphic aesthetic' as the driving force behind the launch collection. Pick an architectural still life photograph from Baker & Evans, a Bauhaus-inspired interpretation of building blocks by Mitch Payne, or a surreal landscape from Petra Eriksson. The edit is currently small and select – but Hang Together is always looking for new ideas. ‘We really value the collaborative relationship we have with our artists, rather than simply "stocking" their work,' they explain. ‘We plan on regularly adding new art to the shop.'

Jo and Dom designed the colourful visual identity and website themselves – deliberately wonky ‘Buy' and ‘Read more' buttons hanging oddly like mismanaged picture frames. They also provide a framing service (unlike many print shop start-ups) and print on high quality matte art paper made by Hahnemuhle.

INFORMATION

hangtogether.studio

In lieu of physically visiting a gallery or museum, we suggest you splash some artworks across your torso instead. Luckily, Uniqlo’s latest collection with the Musée du Louvre in Paris, can provide you with all the artistic inspiration you need.

The Japanese retailer’s latest UT (Uniqlo T-shirt) collection features a range of men’s and women’s hoodies, sweaters and t-shirts with graphics and logos which have been inspired by the 35,000 artworks on show in the Louvre’s hallowed exhibition halls, including Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and the ancient Greek statues Winged Victory of Samothrace and Venus de Milo.

The graphic greatness behind the offering? Uniqlo tapped famed British graphic designer and art director Peter Saville to create the collection. Designed around the theme ‘Art and Logic’, Saville has focused on the logic hidden in art, including the concept of the ‘golden ratio’ and the inventory numbers attributed pieces in the museum.

‘I was intrigued by the fact that at the Louvre, the world-famous Mona Lisa is known as painting “No. INV 779” which is its internal inventory number,’ Saville says. ‘I thought that exploring that viewpoint on a T-shirt would be appropriate for this UT/ Louvre collaboration.’

Graphic and colourful, the pieces in the UT collection have a streetwear-centric, merch-focused sensibility, subverting the luxury logo with the numerical listings associated with an artwork. We think the pieces are greater than any you'd find in a gallery gift shop.

INFORMATION

uniqlo.com

For Brody Associates, creating a brand identity for Shiseido was akin to developing a new language. Since it was founded 150 years ago, Shiseido has pioneered a unique approach to beauty, encouraging diversity through inclusive campaigns and offering products that are as equally grounded in nature as they are in science.

They are principals that might have once seemed avant-garde but are today pressingly salient, and evidence of the Japanese brand’s singular philosophy. A philosophy Brody Associates began to piece together as they combed through the archives. 

‘The work in the archives was so creative and unexpected that, in a way, it was a real challenge for us to look back at them,’ says Neville Brody, the iconic creative director, designer, and founder of Brody Associates. ‘How can we find a way to continue and evolve that heritage in a very different world?’ 

Creating the first-ever brand code for a company with a 150-year history is no easy task, particularly now that brands must find a cohesive visual language that can be recognised by an audience on both digital platforms and physical spaces. The changing landscape of visual communication is something Brody understands well, having pioneered some of the most inventive editorial work of the 1980s as creative director of The Face and Arena, before going on to found Brody Associates and work with global giants like Nike and Coca-Cola. 

‘In the past, there was a much less complex world of communication than there is now. They didn't have websites with click through online sales; check out wasn't part of the communication space. I think in the past, you could do one poster, and then that would be the main thing for a whole season. But now there's like multiple products, there are multiple spaces and those products are going to be communicated in multiple countries. So it's less iconic now than it used to be, it’s much less concentrated.’ 

The key to creating that new, multi-platform vision came in recognising the core philosophies that have always been at the heart of the Shiseido brand. Globalism is one. As a French-inspired pharmacy that began in Tokyo’s Ginza district, the brand has always training its eye globally to understand the needs of people beyond one market.

It’s a universal perspective that’s reflected in its formulations, often using Japanese ingredients that are developed in European and American labs, and campaign imagery, which has historically featured models from a diversity of backgrounds.

Yet, while Shiseido has always been a global brand, they have also always maintained a uniquely Japanese aesthetic. Brody Associates recognised this particular ‘Japaneseness’ as an embrace of a certain dualism in both their campaign imagery and product formulations. It’s evident in the brand’s use of natural ingredients and high-tech science to develop their products.

As well as Shiseido’s embrace of wabi-sabi philosophy, or the idea that perfection can be found in imperfection and simplicity in the midst of complexity. It’s a concept Sheisido has promoted through paired-down packaging designs and a less-is-more approach to product formulations. 

‘It's quite hard to grasp,’ says Brody, ‘but it could be anything from [an image captured] close up next to one far away, or from smooth to hard as a material finish, or flamboyance as opposed to thoughtful. So it's looking at how do we bring opposites in to create kind of a richer and more of a narrative, then the consumer and the audience and the viewer can engage with them in a slightly different way.’

‘The defining characteristics [of the brand code] are more about what we're not doing than what we are doing. We're not, we're not showing stereotypical ideas about beauty, or stereotypical ideas about Japanese brand. It’s finding other ways to do that that has been the big challenge, has been a two to three-year process.’ 

Brody Associates also developed a new typeface for Shiseido to align with the rest of the updated visual code. ’It’s not supposed to be a standout font, not supposed to be kind of a big personality-driven headline typeface, but it is supposed to support a lot of the personality traits. So it's, it's a Sans Serif, which means it's kind of a bit less fussy, a bit more rooted in contemporary design, and it's a slightly wider typeface. So this is sort of a sense, of peace, you know, feels more spacious. It was inspired quite a lot by a lot of the archive exploration.’ 

Brody Associates’ new brand code is intended to give Shiseido a long-lasting, cohesive visual language that can be used across all platforms including retail, e-commerce, social media, and product lines. 

‘When you’ve got a brand with 150 years of this amazing archive, you sort of need to de-complexify that and make it something that translates as a very modern brand image tool,’ says Philip Rodgers, studio director and founding associate of Brody Associates. ‘When you've got this sort of richness, there is this desire to overly simplify something or really kind of water down the message. But for us, I think the brand code process comes back to that duality again of finding really modern simple tools to tell a really rich story.’

INFORMATION
brody-associates.com

Making sure that we are fully informed about a terrifying crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic, and that we know how best to behave in different situations, is a fundamental role of design in emergencies. The best-designed public information programmes need to be as clear, accurate and memorable as possible. Sadly, most countries’ Covid-19 information campaigns have been the opposite. But there is one glowing exception, Unite Against Covid-19, which was commissioned by the New Zealand government and designed by Clemenger BBDO Wellington. Alice Rawsthorn spoke to Mark Dalton, creative director of the campaign and Clemenger BDDO, about the development of what she and Paola Antonelli believe is the most intelligently and sensitively designed public information programme in this pandemic.

Alice Rawsthorn: How did the project come about?

Mark Dalton: I think the main reason we were approached is that over the years we’ve done a few, much smaller emergency responses for the New Zealand government. The response to Covid-19 was coordinated across all of government, and the client team leading it had worked with us on some of those previous projects. They reached out to us because they were given a very short time to respond and were looking for people with relevant experience. 

AR: What was your brief and timescale?

MD: The brief was pretty broad. We had to come up with a way of communicating clear and helpful messages to New Zealanders across whatever platforms or media channels we thought would be appropriate. And we had to get it to market within a week.

AR: That’s a very short period of time. Was the choice of key themes and tone left to you, or was the government prescriptive?

MD: It was very much a collaboration. We knew that our best result would be to ask people to do something and tell them why. So, we had to work with our clients to work out what we could say that would be effective and useful. There were moments when we had to go away and think about things for a little while, and then go back in to talk about it. I think working so closely with them led us to solutions more quickly.

AR: How many days did you have to complete the concept?

MD: We were briefed on a Thursday morning. I’m pretty sure our managing director Brett Hoskin got phoned the night before, because he grabbed us that morning saying: ‘Hey, there’s some people coming in to talk to us about a rather interesting issue.’ It was still confidential at that point. On the Friday, we had a strategic and creative get-together at 7am and worked until 11am. We presented that strategic outline and plan to our immediate clients and spent the rest of the day finessing it, so it could go further into the government to seek approval. By early Saturday, we were starting to concept the platform and the way we’d bring it to life to show to New Zealand for the first time. We were all in the same space trying to figure out what the platform would be, and what voice the government needed to project to help people and to make them feel calm. As well as doing that, we were starting to sketch out what it could look like in terms of a brand or a design programme. I think by 8pm on the Saturday, we had something we could present to the prime minister’s office in terms of a brand identity. From Sunday, we were working out how we could make things to be in market by that Wednesday. I think that’s probably about as fast as you could do it.

AR: Could you describe the key formal elements and the design decisions behind them, starting with the typography?

MD: When we looked at what the world was dealing with, uncertainty, sensationalism, confusion and emotive responses were really, really common. We wanted to figure out a voice that would be objective, reasonable and helpful, and how to present it typographically so it would feel approachable and be easy to read and not too shouty with a nice kind of softness. Omnes is a really great typeface. It comes in a massive range of weights, which is useful. We had to work through scenarios in our design process and, worst case, we’d have to talk about people dying, and that’s not something you’d do lightly. You wouldn’t ever do it in Comic Sans, or in an imposing typeface that’s really strong, like a slab serif. That’s where we landed with Omnes, because it has a nice human feel, it’s really versatile and it made things faster, because we could use the same family of fonts for headlines, body copy, everything.

AR: And the choice of colours – the black, white and yellow?

MD: We were trying to find colours that would be really strong visually across different media channels. What we wanted was to balance the heaviness of a lot of the global work we were seeing by using a lot of white, and white space. Black was a logical colour to use, particularly for type and the Unite Against lock-up, and then we used yellow to highlight Covid-19. We were quite deliberate about not making the word Covid-19 and the wordmark bold and shouty, because everyone was so aware of it, you almost didn’t need to say it. The black was also used again in the pictograms. Otherwise it was led with white and yellow, to try and get people to realise that this is serious, but hopefully still approachable, rather than it just being a big scary hazard and safety message. We spent a reasonable amount of time looking at how to treat the yellow: radioactive leak yellow versus hazard yellow, things like that. We landed with a yellow that felt a little warmer and friendlier, without getting into orange, which makes it feel scarier again.

AR: And the pictograms?

MD: We wanted to try to make whatever we were asking people to do seem simple and achievable. We felt that trying to tell a story with a picture could be a good and fast way to help people to recognise what they needed to do, because no one wants to read 15-word headlines on posters when they’re walking around town. The pictograms also allowed us to add a human element. We tried really hard to make them look like they’d been drawn by a person, rather than coming from an icon library, so it felt like there were people behind the campaign who were trying to do whatever they could to help. We didn’t want it to feel like a robotic government announcement.

AR: One of the things I love about the campaign is the focus on unity, that New Zealanders are all in this together.

MD: That’s right. If you’re trying to help people, the last thing you want to tell them is: ‘No, don’t do this’. You need to tell them what to do to achieve a positive outcome. We’d found that in other campaigns we’d done over the years, and it was a strong driver for the pictograms particularly. Whether it’s as simple as coughing or sneezing into your elbow, washing your hands, staying home or being kind, those are all things that are achievable and positive. Just telling people ‘no’ doesn’t work when you’re trying to get them to unite and do something for the greater good. You don’t ever want to say: ‘Don’t go outside’; you say: ‘Stay home and save lives’.

AR: One of New Zealand’s great strengths as a country, but a complication in a national public information programme like this, is that it’s so culturally diverse. How did you allow for that?

MD: The main thing we did was to always have it in our minds. You should never approach these sorts of issues without being conscious of everyone you’re communicating with. What you want to avoid is getting to the end of the process with 50 things all in English, and going, ‘Oh, but what about all the other people that live here that don’t speak English?’ Then you’re in a mad panic to try to fix it. You need to do it all in tandem wherever you can. When we were making the wordmark for Unite Against Covid-19, we immediately made one in Māori. The Alert Level chart that our prime minister held up at a press conference was translated into about 22 languages, because we knew it would be the thing that people would gravitate towards as their guide. And if you don’t understand it, or if English isn’t your first language, there’s a real risk of confusion and fear, which we really wanted to avoid.

AR: How did you organise your team? And what additional complications did lockdown impose on that?

MD: When we first got the project to work on, we realised that we had to bring in as many people as we could from the agency, particularly from a creative, design and strategic perspective, because we had a really short time frame. As we moved on, we had essentially two streams of work. There was stuff that we had to do every day and there were bigger moments when we would be shifting from, say, Alert Level 4 to Alert Level 3, so we had to think about broader or bigger pieces of communication, for example, a TV ad to communicate what the change of level would mean. On a day-to-day basis, there were probably eight or ten of us in the office, which was a little odd in itself because everyone else had to stay home. That would be a mix of strategy, creative, design, copywriting and studio to help make the things we were putting out, and our business team working closely with the clients. There were definitely moments when, even on that first Saturday, I was drawing stuff and thinking: ‘OK, who do I know that will be at home; and will be happy to help whenever I ask?’ One of the lessons you learn as a designer over the years is to be good to the people you work with, so you have a great network. Dean Proudfoot, who helped with the pictograms, is an illustrator in Wellington that I’ve known a long time. He’s very, very good, and whenever something came up, we’d talk and find a way to solve it. Lockdown was an interesting learning curve. We made one piece of AV in multiple locations, with the director in Auckland and the creatives in Wellington, all watching the same camera in what’s essentially a very high-tech version of Zoom used by the film industry. Embracing the fact that you can’t be there and can’t do it the way you used to do it makes things strangely possible.

AR: You worked across a huge range of media. Were there any platforms that you found more, or less, difficult to work with?

MD: For the majority, what we were trying to do worked. It’s a simple formula, which helps when you’re trying to articulate something complicated to a range of people. That has stood us in good stead and helped us to produce new work quickly. What we’ve found interesting is that some of the different media channels have their own personalities. With print media, outdoor and even AV, the conversation is one-way. What you’re saying is: ‘This is the thing I’m asking you to do, and these are the reasons. So please, please take this on board, and go and do it.’ And you don’t really know whether they have read it or done it. But when you move into social media you actually have to adapt to the personality of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or whatever. We were always really clear about who we were, but at times, particularly on Facebook and Instagram, we needed to be a little bit more lighthearted or encouraging by saying, ‘We’re doing well’, or, ‘Thank you’, rather than just going out there with big yellow stripes and a headline saying Alert Level 4. It was a really good lesson for us, because it can be really easy, particularly when you’ve got limited time, to put the same thing everywhere. And to a degree we did, because we had to let people know that washing their hands or staying home was vital, but we had to be a little bit more friendly to have good conversation. A clinical psychologist, Dr Sarb Johal, who had done a lot of prior work on the H1N1 influenza outbreak in the UK, and then helping communities in New Zealand recover from earthquakes, has been really helpful to us. He says that the most important thing you can do is have empathy. Whatever you do, you must try to be empathetic and helpful in your design work and the language you put into it. All people really want to know is what’s the right thing to do, whether they’re doing it, and if it is working.

AR: Where does the Unite Against Covid-19 campaign go from here?

MD: It’s always hard to put a timeframe on a pandemic. If SARS was around for about two years, probably the thing for Unite is to focus on how we can maintain the health of our population over a longer period of time, and how we can do that as a united group of New Zealanders. No one knows what will happen next. The best thing is to try to be empathetic, to help each other, and to be clear about what we do and don’t want to do. For us, Unite Against Covid-19 will be here, doing different things for whatever people need.

INFORMATION

A version of this story appeared in the October 2020 issue of Wallpaper*, guest edited by Design Emergency. A free PDF download of the issue is available here.

clemengerbbdo.co.nz
covid19.govt.nz

There's been a graphic shake-up at YMC. The significant UK label has gained a new logo for its capsule collection, launching this week. The cube-shaped logo, rendered in shades of grey, appears on each piece, including t-shirts, socks, coach jackets and bucket hats. It's a bold move for the label, which has ‘consciously avoided' emphasising logos in the past, says co-founder Jimmy Collins.

But, in a time of forced disconnection, YMC looked to a friendly face to work on the project, as a way of introducing a revitalised energy. Family friend Pref, a British graphic artist working in typography and graffiti, has been known to the brand since childhood. He used the YMC (You Must Create) wording to inspire the logo's design.

‘The unique combination of characters and words in the brand names and slogans gave me an opportunity to create something new with my style,' he explains. ‘Each varying combination of letters offers different visual possibilities. My final aim is to create something that is technical and innovative but at the same time legible, simple and concise.'

While 2020 is now known universally as a year of (not so great) surprises, YMC has relievingly provided us with its familiar, punk-ish and London-centric feel throughout the capsule, with the rejuvenated logo marking the biggest shift.

All involved put the project's success down to the neighbourly, collaborative tone of the partnership. ‘Working with Pref has been a collision of worlds in many ways,' says Collins. ‘His work with typography, strong words and humour was the reason we approached him.'

Pref agrees: ‘It's important to curate the right artist/brand with the right style and ethos, more than anything else – once that’s done the rest of process should take care of itself. Each side of the collaboration must compliment the other and feel free to do what it is they do without being hindered. A successful collaboration should make it possible to stretch beyond what might normally be possible for each of the parties on their own.'

INFORMATION

youmustcreate.com

Milton Glaser, the American doyen of graphic design who created some of the 20th century’s most influential visual identities, and a leading proponent of design as an instrument of social change, died in Manhattan on Friday, 26 June 2020, on his 91st birthday.

Born in The Bronx in 1929, Glaser was educated at the Cooper Union Art School in New York, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, where he was a Fulbright Scholar and studied under Giorgio Morandi. Along with Seymour Chwast, Reynold Ruffins and Edward Sorel, Glaser co-founded the graphic design and illustration practice Push Pin Studios in 1954, which triggered commercial art’s shift from the rigidity of late Modernism to a more expressive, colourful design language. Glaser worked with journalist Clay Felker to launch New York magazine in 1968, ushering visual journalism into a new era. He served as its president and design director until 1977. 

He had his breakout moment in 1966 with a poster of Bob Dylan, commissioned by CBS records for the singer-songwriter’s Greatest Hits album. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s 1957 Self-Portrait in Profile, Glaser depicted Dylan’s silhouette in black, and then rendered his abundant curly hair in kaleidoscopic colours to evoke the psychedelic drugs that defined 1960s counterculture. With print runs exceeding six million, the poster is one of the most widely circulated of all time, and has entered MoMA’s permanent collection. 

The ‘I ❤️ NY’ logo, created in 1977 for the New York State Department of Commerce, became his magnum opus. The brief was to create an uplifting symbol for a state that was grappling with soaring crime rates and economic decline. While in a Manhattan taxi, Glaser pulled a red crayon from his pocket to sketch on the back of an envelope, doodling the three letters and red heart that became an instant icon. ‘My design had a sense of inevitability. The form and the content were united in a way that could not be taken apart,’ he recalled in a 2011 interview. The eventual stacked form of the logo seemed to pay homage to Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture, first shown seven years earlier, while the serif typeface – an evolved version of American Typewriter – added to its popular appeal. ‘I ❤️ NY’ is said to have compelled typographers to include a heart in every typeface developed since. More than four decades on, it still appears on all manner of memorabilia and seems as popular as it was on day one.

Glaser’s logo may have played a pivotal role in reversing New York’s fortunes, but he never charged a fee for the project, and instead believed that he was fulfilling a civic duty. After the Twin Towers fell in 2001, he would rework the logo into a poster that read ‘I ❤️ NY More Than Ever’, with the red heart slightly singed on the side. He also added a line of smaller text at the bottom: ‘Be generous. Your city needs you. This poster is not for sale.’

Ever a believer in the power of design to inspire civic engagement, Glaser threw his creative muscle behind many social causes. In 1987 he designed the symbol and poster for the World Health Organization Special Programme on AIDS, intersecting two red hearts and turning the overlapping area in the skull to draw attention to the many lives that had been tragically lost. Accompanied by the words ‘AIDS: Worldwide effort will stop it’, Glaser’s design helped usher in a moment of global reckoning. For the 2005 UN World Summit on Poverty, he came up with a memorable image of a black hand with fingers in five different skin tones, captioned ‘We Are All African’ and calling for an end to political and social indifference towards human suffering in developing nations. 

In 2014 he turned his efforts to fighting climate change. With a simple green circle overwhelmed by a black gradient, and the slogan ‘It’s not warming // it’s dying’, Glaser’s campaign moved away from benign language, and positioned environmentalism as an urgent struggle for planetary survival. 

‘The role of the graphic artist today is the role of a good citizen, which is that you participate in the life of your times and try to improve the existing condition,’ he commented in a 2015 interview.

Glaser remained engaged in the world of editorial design, creating memorable covers for the likes of Time, Life and Fortune. We commissioned him for the July/August 2004 Design Directory issue of Wallpaper* (W*70), for which he transformed the coverline ‘Architecture & Design’ into a physical collage of textured and marbled paper and brush strokes, highlighting the continued relevance of analogue methods in disciplines that were rapidly embracing digital technologies.

His creative talents extended to other design disciplines: he was a regular collaborator of the New York restaurateur Joe Baum, redesigning The Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center, and creating The Aurora on 49th Street. He also redesigned American supermarket chain, The Grand Union Company, and did the interiors and concept of the 1987-88 Triennale di Milano international exhibition.  

Glaser was given a lifetime achievement award by the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in 2004. In 2009 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by US President Barack Obama, becoming the first graphic designer to be accorded this honour. ‘He re-defined the way people communicate through innovative graphic design, creating memorable visual artifacts that challenge contemporary artists and delight all Americans,’ read the award citation.

His passion for work was undimmed as he entered his tenth decade. ‘Retirement fit in with the nature of industrial work, but that’s not true of artists and painters,’ he said when he turned 90. ‘I’m still working on a daily basis and nothing could please me more.’ 

INFORMATION

miltonglaser.com

In recent weeks, mass protests and demonstrations have been staged across the US and worldwide following a series of recent killings in the US including Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.

In this time, Instagram has become a space for the global community to move in solidarity, towards a single mission: to demonstrate that black lives matter. The official Instagram account of Black Lives Matter – an international movement founded in 2013 – has now garnered 2.9 million followers and counting.

Many posts across Instagram have come from artists and creatives, making new work, or recontextualising historical pieces to respond to, and give a voice to this moment. What has emerged is art’s role, through the globally communicative force of social media to repeat and reinterpret messages that words often fail to articulate. 

The content of the last week has proved that art has the power to educate, spark debate, initiate change and speak about racial injustice, as well as take action against it. Many artists and creative bodies are sharing links to charities and resources or directing funds from the sale of their work to Black Lives Matter-related initiatives and organisations. These include the Minnesota Freedom Fund the Black Visions Collective and the 15 Percent Pledge. 

Here are just some of the many voices using their visual language to express the collective rage, resistance and solidarity of this moment and beyond, reinforced through art.

Hank Willis Thomas – artist

Fahamu Pecou – artist

Mark Clennon – photographer

Jammie Holmes – artist

Mona Chalabi – data journalist

Nikkolas Smith – artist

Jarrett Key – artist 

Fuzzed Up Bear – artist

Calida Garcia Rawles – painter, in collaboration with Diedrick Brackens – textile artist

Greg Ruth – artist

Lorna Simpson – artist

Deborah Roberts – artist

Adam Pendleton – artist

Eric Rieger (Hot Tea) – artist

INFORMATION

For more information, visit blacklivesmatter.com or follow @blklivesmatter

Regarded as the ‘biggest thing to happen since the industrial revolution’, the web has changed the world. Here, we look to Taschen’s Web Design: The evolution of the digital world 1990 – today to celebrate the moments, sites and people who have made the biggest impact in its 30-year history.

Written by Rob Ford, web designer and founder of the FWA (Favourite Website Awards), the book is based on Ford’s extensive experience being at the epicentre of the web design revolution, observing its progression, new trends and technology since the 1990s – many of which we take for granted today.

From covering the creation of pioneering design sites such as MONO*crafts and Periscope, to the first website to use surround sound – Ford highlights the World Wide Web’s ability to provide a space for unlimited creative experimentation.

Each chapter features fascinating facts of the year that visualise the immense growth of the web – in 1998 Google and iMac had only just launched and 3.6 per cent of the world population used the internet – fast forward ten years to 2008, and 23.6 per cent of the world population uses the internet, Google is the website with the most traffic globally and Apple launches it’s App Store. 

In fact, the web is progressing at such speed we are already in a new digital era – the introduction of AI and smartphones have subsequently made the majority of previous design software redundant.

The most notable rise and fall was Flash software. Launched in 1997, Macromedia Flash changed the online world – which Ford outlines in the first chapter. Flash was and still is responsible for some of the web’s most ambitious and innovative design work.

Other key advances include

2Advanced Studios v3 Expansions – launched in 2001 by the seminal developer Eric Jordan, the website is regarded as the most influential Flash design of all time.
Eye4U – The website’s bright colours and uplifting music made the 1998 page an instant global phenomenon.
Praystation – Another 1998 masterpiece, Praystation was developed by the huge web personality, Joshua Davis. Davis’s Praystation was a pioneer in web art and open-soured code.
Tokyoplastic – Upon its release in 2003 Tokyoplastic gained instant fame and stardom for its exciting flash animation design – quickly scoring huge clients such as MTV. Tokyoplastic still exists today, predominately focusing on animation art and film.

Inevitably all good things come to an end – 2007 saw the introduction of the first iPhone and signaled the downfall of Macromedia Flash. Steve Jobs associated the use of Flash with a bygone era of PCs, neither the iPhone or iPad supported Flash and by 2010 it was dead.

From the ashes of Macromedia Flash emerged a new Internet era: HTML5. Driven by user-friendly interface app experiences, the arrival of HTML5 was hailed as the future of mobile devices and kick-started a new pace in technological advances – but as Ford points out, signified web-design’s move away from the creativity that Flash enabled.

By 2016 Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality had come to the web, already a different world to when HTML5 was first introduced five years ago – 49.5 per cent of the global population now used the Internet and there were one billion active websites.

Web Design: The evolution of the digital world 1990 – today reflects on this by spotlighting how user habits have changed, people have shifted to mobile phones from desktops – web-design is evolving to merge real life with digital and through the power of social media, demand for needs-driven templates overtook long-stay experimental apps.

For example, the launch of iPhone X in 2018 introduced Stinkmoji – a facial-recognition web experience celebrating iconic pop-culture characters designed as an ode to Apple’s Animoji. Users could use their camera to bring the characters to life with facial expressions and then upload their personalised videos to social media platforms such as YouTube and Instagram.

Ford summarises his 30-year observation by looking to our digital future and raising questions over what does web-design mean entering in a new decade. The market is now pointed towards apps that provide information in quick and recognisable formats – this has led designers taking extreme directions to achieve the best new innovations. So, what’s next for web-design?

INFORMATION

taschen.com

Some of the greatest graphic art was born out of necessity. For over a hundred years, using creative ways of conveying information has helped people get to the point, in good times and bad. Graphic innovation has gone hand in hand with telling important stories and spreading the word, whether it's hailing the New Deal or the birth of the welfare state, showing the way on public transport or giving out essential information about everyone's health and well-being.

Never has such a message been so important. And although everyone's worldview has shifted beyond all expectations, there are still vital messages that have to get through. Here's where you come in. Here at Wallpaper* we’re all about showcasing creativity, and supporting the community in these unprecedented times. Today, we announce the launch of our global poster design initiative – Wallpaper* Poster Campaign – to reflect the creative world’s unparalleled ability to communicate. You might want to share helpful advice on social distancing, hand washing, ideas on staying well, or maybe you simply want to share a positive message to uplift spirits.

Who will be the Abram Games of this period?

How do I get involved?

Tag your entries with #WallpaperPosterCampaign and our in-house team of editors – from a global network of home offices and kitchen tables, led by Editor-in-Chief Sarah Douglas – will hand select their favourites. Design A4 so they can be printed at home and put in windows around the world.

Not only will we re-post these on our Instagram, making sure to tag each creator, we’ll build a virtually thumbtacked poster wall here on wallpaper.com of the very best entries. And each designer will of course own all rights, we are here to showcase the designs.

In addition, one very special poster will also be featured in Wallpaper*. The new extended deadline for entries is Friday 1 May 2020.

One thing we’re sure of – creativity blossoms from adversity. Self-motivate in self-isolation, elevate craft hour with the kids, and share your designs with the world. Get creating!

Scottish studio Tom Pigeon has designed a series of abstract prints for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, depicting some of the events Team GB will compete in during the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. The screen-printed artworks feature circles, lines and dots that combine to evoke the dynamic movement involved in six of Team GB’s key sports: sailing, gymnastics, athletics, cycling, rowing and swimming.

‘I didn’t want it to look like a person made out of shapes running on a track because that would just be cheesy,’ says Kirsty Thomas, creative director at  Tom Pigeon, who worked with Team GB’s merchandising team to develop the collection. ‘We talked about including the name of the sport,’ she adds, ‘but the customer will know what it is so then it becomes a conversation piece to see if other people can figure it out.’

Thomas was given free rein to create designs in her signature pared-back, playful style. Inspiration came from classic Olympic posters from the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the bold, graphic aesthetic of Russian constructivist art. As a nod to the host city, each print also incorporates a red circle referencing the rising sun of the Japanese flag. ‘The circle gave the designs some parameters and was fun to play with,’ says Thomas. ‘It represents different things in each print so it took a while to get right.’

Proceeds from the sale of the print series go straight to the British Olympics Association, which receives no annual government funding. According to Thomas, there is a possibility that special editions in gold, silver and bronze could be made for medal winners following the Games. In the meantime, sports fans can purchase their favourite design online direct from Team GB or Tom Pigeon, as well as from selected retailers.

INFORMATION

tompigeon.com

You might associate Jonathan Barnbrook with album covers. His studio has designed plenty, from John Foxx to Gazelle Twin, and every David Bowie album since 2002, including the musician’s final work, Blackstar. 

Now he’s created the cover for his own album in collaboration with his partner in life and work, Anıl Aykan. The electronic music duo goes by the name Fragile Self and as debuts go, this isn’t a quiet entrance. The album comes in three formats: a CD with origami-esque pop-up packaging, a vinyl with cutout cover, and a 480-page tome with digital download. ‘In an age of music being everywhere practically for free, buying a physical product is a good way to support the artist and get something tangible back to them,’ says Barnbrook.

The vinyl’s cover is structured around the Thematic Apperception Test, a psychological evaluation developed in the 1930s, whereby patients were shown ambiguous imagery and asked to construct a narrative in response. Inside the book, we seem to be doing just that, pacing through 19th century photographer Henry Hering’s ‘before and after’ portraits of ‘Bedlam’ Hospital patients. ‘There is supposedly a visual transformation seen in the photos which is clearly partly staged,’ says Barnbrook. ‘Their clothes are better, hairstyles properly done. It felt like a metaphor for how we are all forced into the conventional idea of “normality”.’ 

Provocative but meticulously researched, haunting but cathartic, this book is a window into what would now seem like a baffling mental healthcare system of voyeurism, barbarism and ostracism. Archival images paired with Barnbrook and Aykan’s photographic reenactments, made in collaboration with photographer Teri Varhol, have the flavour of Theodore Gericault’s Portraits of the Insane, and could just as well be accompanied by Bowie’s Aladdin Sane.

A poem by Edgar Allan Poe introduces I loved alone, a track about loving a narcissist, followed by a litany of case studies, more literary extracts, shuddering scenes of so-called ‘hysteria’ and an emetic spread devoted to bloodletting. All told through shapeshifting typography (one based on Ingmar Bergman film titles) and a palette of blacks, umbers and white linear illustrations by artist Peter White. Barnbrook and Aykan assume new characters in Bertha, the former recreating an ominous pose by Sigmund Freud and the latter as Bertha Pappenheim, psychotherapy’s first patient. 

Fragile Self’s sound is hard to place. It’s an electroclash; an intelligent collage of meandering frequencies, unpredictable and agitated beats that make more sense when we learn about Aykan’s background in drumming. The rhythm is cut with vocal samples, bells, and other galvanic, robotic noises, otherwise known as ‘generative analogue modular synthesisers’. Perhaps a parallel could be drawn with Crystal Castles’ acerbic bite or Underworld’s cyclic drone. Either way, it’s not Sunday morning listening, but is utterly immersive. Aykan’s vocals – somewhere between a chant and spoken word – are instructive, hypnotic and virtually in the room with you. ‘We will pass a song back and forth many times. Sometimes argue, change and go back to what we have done before. It is quite an intense process but also the most pleasurable part,’ says Barnbrook. 

Experiencing the book and music separately is like driving without a steering wheel. The chapters navigate the tracks, and vice versa. They also have lots in common: sharp edges, hidden messages (a Barnbrook specialty) and all concocted through software.

The music is the sonic equivalent of Edvard Munch and the book more anthology than accompaniment. These are serious topics and no more pertinent than now: what’s real, what’s constructed and ultimately, what is ‘insanity’? This is an introspective, equivocal, informative, staggering exploration of extreme mental states, Fragile Self’s own sense of self, and by osmosis, yours. 

And that’s just after the first listen.

INFORMATION

fragileself.com

There’s no place like the Museum of the Home, thanks to a new and inviting rebrand by design consultancy dn&co. The new visual identity goes hand-in-hand with the museum’s £18.1 million redevelopment by London-based architecture firm Wright & Wright, scheduled for opening in summer 2020.

While the Hoxton-based institute holds a focus on the diverse perspectives of the humble abode, its new typeface Home Sans further explores the intricacies of our daily residencies. Inspired by household objects obstructing light and casting angular shadows, dn&co partnered with design agency Colophon Foundry to create its letterforms, the shape of which varies depending on the angle of light. Letters transform from attenuated dashes to wide, angular shadows. 

Not only does the type boast the brand's unique expression, Home Sans encourages us as the viewer to reflect on the ambition of the museum, to rethink the ways in which we cohabit and how our environment affects our behaviour.

With its 360-degree adaptability, the typeface allows for a flexible narrative; more sharp and cornered text speaks louder on the page as opposed to daintier variations. Much like our homes, different rooms and spaces make us feel a certain way; the various patterns of the design reflect the same expressions. Extenuated with the trio colour palette, which was taken from the museums surroundings — brick red, sky blue and garden green — the refreshingly white text is offset against the pronounced colour. 

INFORMATION

dnco.com; geffrye-museum.org.uk

Post financial crisis, digital revolution and climate change, the practice of architecture is evolving. We all know it’s changing, slowly, but no-one has done the research and put it into an informative, well-designed and easily digestable format – until now.

Meet Gianpiero Venturini, founder of Itinerant Office established in 2011. His ongoing research project New Generations launched in 2013, when he formed a network of 30 emerging architects and started conducting interviews to document the challenges, daily practice and business values of the studios. Thirty soon grew to 80, and now there are more than 250 practices involved.

This year, Venturini decided to put his findings on paper with the Atlas of Emerging Practices publication. He sent out digital surveys to 95 emerging practices from 22 European countries, and the results were dissected, analysed and organised to create a snapshot what it means to be an emerging architect today. A few from the selection include Kaleidoscope (Finland), MOY studio (Greece), Studio d3r (Germany), Office U67 (Denmark), PiM.studio (UK) and 05 AM (Spain). And thanks to their participation, the book provides a set of tools for fellow emerging talents, graduates and students.

The book traces this gradual evolution of architectural profession through references to articles, bodies of research and quotes back to the economic crisis, and then sees it develop further with the digital revolution and awareness of climate change. It then breaks down how this has affected the profession – from increased international training and experience, nomadism, the gradual dissolution of traditional clients, as well as redefined hierarchies and roles.

Defining the term ‘emerging’ is connected to the challenges that the architects face. Venturini poses questions such as: How do you get commissions? Who do you collaborate with? How did you set up your studio? The research was born out of curiosity, but its aim is to distill down the pragmatic issues related to these initial phases.

The beauty of the Atlas is its accessibility. Broken down into four main themes – Organisation, Business, Media, and Projects – it gradually unpacks the findings of the research through edited interviews, pull quotes, infographics and statistics mapping out the key findings in a visually captivating way.

Evolving hierarchies in the architecture profession

‘Architecture is no longer characterized by the figure of an architects deus ex machine but by a redefinition of top down hierarchies in favour of shared work and Values,’ states Venturini in the Organisation section. Here, a word map breaks down what emerging architects name their practices – what makes an architect choose ‘atelier’ over ‘collective’ or ‘office’ over ‘workshop’ or ‘studio’? The meaning behind these words seems to highlight their expectations and ambitions within the industry.

Concerning gender, a perennially talked-about topic in contemporary architecture, there are some important statistics that jump out from the pages – out of 2220 founding partners involved in the project, 72 per cent are male and 28 per cent female. And out of the employees – 60.7 per cent are male and 39.3 per cent are female. While Atlas has a focus on qualitative information, and approaches its limitations head on, once we start to get to know this group of emerging architects, these statistics on gender only assist in building up a stronger picture of the group.

One diagram shows a collection of reoccurring keywords drawn from the interviews – the largest words represent the highest amount of times they were mentioned. We see: collaboration, social networks, crowd-funding, commission, public space, process, research and multi-disciplinary. While these are perhaps to be expected, it’s satisfying confirmation to see them on the page, and seeing them altogether forges new connections between them.

When architects met filesharing tools

The ability to share files easily, communicate across oceans with a tap and reach the public through social media has changed how architects work, and increased their accountability. The Media chapter opens with a power statement: ‘In just a few years architecture and communication have to become inseparable binary.’ The next few pages break down the findings, and a corresponding diagram of words maps out the most-referenced words – Facebook, Instagram score highest, followed by tools such as Google drive, Skype and WeTransfer.

While a presence on social media is a growing pressure for any brand these days, the publication also highlights how architects are using social media as a tool for research in a positive way. Case studies include Antwerp-based ndvr using Facebook to launch the campaign for the purchase of an abandoned building; Paris-based ABACO using Instagram for a photographic research project; and Athens-based emerging practices using Facebook to set up an open house event, Archpoints, as a way to show the public and new clients their work.

Through the Atlas, Venturini reveals that this new generation of emerging architects are socially-minded, democratic, savvy, public-facing, positive-thinkers. So while the challenges are many in today’s economic, environmental and social climate, hopefully we are all in good hands. We can’t wait to see how this beautifully produced, almost-anthropological project will continue to chart their progress forwards. 

INFORMATION

ATLAS of Emerging Practices: Being an Architect in the 21st Century, by Gianpiero Venturini. Published by New Generations, £30

itinerantoffice.com

LA-based graphic design studio ELLA has created the identity for this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial. It’s colourful, layered and architectural – bringing together the curatorial vision, the architecture of Chicago and the many stories in between.

Inspired by Yesomi Umolu’s curatorial vision that takes a research-led approach driven by architecture in Chicago that performs as site for social action and advocacy, ELLA pulled out three guiding themes – multiplicity, unexpected connections, and open ways of thinking about architecture.

After spending time documenting parts of the city, visiting neighbourhoods and looking closely at architectural details, they decided to build the identity as an ‘open framework’. The structure would be built of signs, posters, classified ads and plaques found all around the city – their edges and shapes would become blocks, bricks, pathways and roads, making to the stories of Chicago.

As part of the research, ELLA came across a 1895 map charting the nationalities represented in the community of the Hull House settlement, Jane Addams and Florence Kelley in 1889. The settlement undertook social research of the community, and mapped it out, using a colour key to show the vast range of nationalities living there.

These colours – a bright, burnt orange; a deep petrol blue; a yokey yellow – would become the base palette for the identity, paying homage to the Hull-House social workers' legacy in Chicago and beyond. It recalls the diversity of backgrounds that the colours represent in the map, and that make up the city. The identity is a joyful celebration of the city.

INFORMATION

ella-la.com

chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org

Wim Crouwel, the Dutch design icon who gave us the ultra-geometric Gridnik typeface, has passed away at the age of 90 in his hometown of Amsterdam.

With the agency he co-founded, Total Design, Crouwel pioneered a rigorously functional approach to posters, logos and corporate identities, changing the face of design in the Netherlands. Alongside his famed creation of Gridnik and the New Alphabet – an extraordinary cipher script of vertical and horizontal lines – the designer was also defined by his remarkable ability as a ‘spatial organiser’ for exhibitions, spaces and fair stands.

Crouwel used grids consistently throughout his career, which visibly or invisibly directed the balance of his designs. ‘I rarely make even the smallest sketch without drawing on squared paper,’ he said when we asked him to bring his uniquely tight grip on form and space to the limited edition cover and interiors shoot (pictured at the bottom of this article) in Wallpaper's April 2011 issue (W*145). We weren’t surprised to find the grid incarnated in 3D. For the cover he designed (pictured top left), he created the illusion of a depth of space that seems to sink into the paperstock.

When we visited his apartment ahead of the 2011 collaboration, we learned that his tastes as a design connoisseur were considerably broader than the stern principles he employed as a designer. The stylistic nadir between Gerrit Rietveld’s ‘Red Blue’ chair, Charles and Ray Eames’ lounge chair and Frank Gehry’s ‘Power Play’ plywood chair found in his living spaces was typical of Crouwel’s eclectic and expressive taste. ‘There is a constant struggle between what I appreciate in the work of others, and my own ideas,’ he said at the time. ‘But often, when I like something that vastly differs from my own work, it reinforces my own standpoint.’ It was a standpoint of unadulterated functionalism.

Born in 1928, at the high point of the modernist avant-garde, Crouwel's steadily steered career was as unwavering as his vision. After founding the aptly named Total Design studio in 1963 (which he did with fellow graphic designer Benno Wissing, industrial designer Friso Kramer, and entrepreneur brothers Paul and Dick Schwarz), from 1985 to 1993 Crouwel was director of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and, passionate about education, was also a professor at Delft University of Technology (now TU) and at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. His work has been documented and saluted by various retrospectives, notably at London's Design Museum in 2011, and then at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam later that year. He had a relationship with this hometown institution for over three decades. In its exhibition, his unique take on modernism was delivered in a new light, particularly in the case of his typographic achievements, which were read with renewed interest as we pushed into the digital era.

He continued working throughout his life, contributing typefaces to The Foundry at the turn of the decade, ensuring his legacy carried over into today's digital work. His approach was frequently ahead of its time – his 'New Alphabet' of 1967 playfully exploited the limited resolution of the earliest computer monitors, effectively making him a pioneer of the abstract power of pixelation. Other fonts were designed for electric typewriters, taking the fast-moving demands of technology and making them into concrete aesthetic statements. 

Just two months ago, Crouwel received the prestigious medal from the Type Directors Club for his oeuvre. Earlier, he received the Piet Zwart Prize and the Gerrit Noordzij Prize, among a cabinet of accolades that celebrate his original voice. ‘With his grids Wim Crouwel formatted the Netherlands into modernity,' reads an obituary announcement on the Total Design website. ‘He touched and taught beauty by skewing the system.' His vastly influential visual vocabulary stretches far beyond the Netherlands; it will be missed and remembered by the creative world at large.

Studio Kippenberger is a multi-disciplinary studio committed to finding niches in transportation design and promoting them in outré, graphically bold and visually arresting ways.

As well as working on consultancy projects for car firms, chief creative Chris Kippenberger has also launched VÉHICULE, a biannual magazine pitched at ‘avant-garde transportation’ with a typically iconoclastic approach, alongside yet another subsidiary, VÉHICULE Marine. The latter’s first project is a reinterpretation of the classic Floridian ‘flat boat’, a type of vessel originally developed for fishing in the shallow waters of the state’s inland lakes. Also known as bay boats, their flat-bottomed hulls make minimal noise on the water, all the better for luring fish, but also giving them exceptionally low drag and high performance.

With typical bravado, Kippenberger and his team, which includes the Miami-based firm Concept Boats, have taken a design usually powered by a 90hp engine and installed a 300hp racing engine. ‘We have one prototype which reaches a top speed of 95mph, while the new boat we are working on will do 105mph+,’ he says casually. Not so great for fishing, perhaps, but sure to make a statement. If that wasn’t enough, the boat itself will be emblazoned with a dazzle-style camouflage pattern, plus some characteristically bold supergraphics.

Kippenberger also engaged the services of a bona fide supercar designer – whose name is being withheld – to give the Bay Boat its sleek lines. Kippenberger hopes that the VÉHICULE brand will become a collaborative platform, somewhere where designers of all disciplines can infuse an edgier, artistic take on luxury design. The next project is even more performance-focused, with prototypes already up and running. Niche design is becoming increasingly important in high-end transport, and Studio Kippenberger is well placed to make a splash.

INFORMATION
studiokippenberger.com

Festivities for the Design Museum’s 30th birthday have kicked off with the unveiling of a set of commemorative graphics drawn up by dozens of designers in honour of the London institution.

Salutations from the museum's founder Sir Terence Conran, its interior designer John Pawson and the fashion designer Paul Smith are among almost 40 contributions to the series, which began on social media. ‘It started off as a small fun project for social media. It has since snowballed. We realised that designers were enjoying the prospect of a such a simple, perhaps even frivolous, brief,’ says Josephine Chanter, the museum’s director of audiences.

Conran’s own offering to the project he considers the pinnacle of his career is an animated ‘30’ built from candy-hued triangles, circles and blocks. He says of the milestone: ‘[if I was] asked to pick the single most rewarding achievement in my long design career so far, I would not hesitate to say firmly the Design Museum in London.’

The Design Museum opened in July 1989 inside a former banana-ripening warehouse in Shad Thames, where it remained for 25 years before relocating to Kensington in 2016. It was a homecoming in a sense, as it was here in the V&A’s Boilerhouse Project in the early 1980s where Conran first experimented with the idea for the museum, spotlighting the Memphis Group at one of these early exhibitions. Founding member of the Milanese collective, Nathalie Du Pasquier, sent a characteristically patterned token to mark the momentous occasion.

The Design Museum now resides in the Grade II*-listed former Commonwealth Institute on Kensington High Street, remodelled for the purpose by OMA, Allies and Morrison, and John Pawson – who has extended his restrained style to the festivities with a ‘thirty’ inscribed by hand. Illustrator Quentin Blake followed suit with a simply sketched ‘30’, while Peter Saville turned to Roman numerals for his graphic.

Contributions spanning the industry – from the artist Antony Gormley and illustrator Matt Blease, to industrial designers Hella Jongerius and Kenneth Grange, and fashion designer Anya Hindmarch – continue the museum's ethos of exploring the breadth of design today. ‘If I go back to my original thinking about the Design Museum and what had influenced me, it was those wonderful Triennale exhibitions in Milan which showed excellent design from throughout the world, and that’s what I felt was important for the British economy,’ says Conran in an interview with 2019 designer in residence, Ella Bulley, to mark the anniversary. ‘Design is such a fascinating world and only recently people begin to understand how fundamental design is to the quality of life.’

The 2019 exhibition programme makes bridges to architecture and film with ‘David Adjaye: Making Memory’ (until 4 August 2019) and ‘Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition’ (until 15 September); and in the autumn a showcase of the years’s best new design, Beazley Designs of the Year 2019, will be presented alongside a look to the future of space colonisation with ‘Moving to Mars’.

An archival display, ‘Made in 1989 – Celebrating 30 years of the Design Museum’, is on also show until 12 January 2020, with the 30th anniversary emblems are presented online on the museum's website. ‘We have had lots of suggestions of what we should do with the 30s – a fundraising auction, a set of 30th birthday cards, an online gallery, watch this space!,’ says Chanter.

INFORMATION

designmuseum.org

Brand and design consultancy dn&co has designed a new wayfinding system and map for London's V&A Museum. The design helps visitors navigate the maze-like site's seven miles of gallery space, and aims to tempt them to explore the lesser-known parts of the museum.

With seven floors across three interconnected historic buildings, five temporary exhibition spaces, four shops and three cafés, the wayfinding had to be varied, dynamic – and most of all clear. But as Philippa Simpson, the V&A's director of design, estate and futureplan explains, ‘this wasn’t just about getting people from A to B, but about nurturing and allowing for unpredictable behaviours.'

To achieve this, the map correlates both digitally and in print, with vertical circulation points that align across floors. Informed by archival research, the new dn&co design is more legible, compact and easier to carry around – with the hope that visitors will take the path less trodden, with the new benefit of a handy guide.

‘Wayfinding is not a static process, it’s a dynamic one,' explains creative director of dn&c, Patrick Eley. ‘It’s concerned with the way people move through spaces, and the cues they follow. Signs are one of those cues; architecture itself is another, as we are innately guided by it. And what architecture! The V&A is a monumental environment – airport-scale – but richly detailed with no one space the same as another. Our design had to live comfortably in this world-leading museum of art and design and to do so it treads a careful line.

In a building characterised by its range of architectural finishes, quality of signage material was of the upmost importance. Made from tulipwood and dyed black, the signs convey a sense of quality and permanence. Small pops of colour act as beacons, drawing those visitors who have paid for an exhibition through the ground floor to their destination faster, with the intention of supporting revenue generating activities that help to keep the permanent galleries free to enter.

Another central theme will be invisible to all but regulars – the floors have been renumbered. Based on a more coherent sequence, the new numbering reinforces the perception of the museum as one building and aims to make it seem more manageable within a single visit.

But Eley is keen to point of the scheme's limitations. ‘We knew that no wayfinding solution could ever solve all the challenges on its own; not in a building of this scale. Our system is designed to work alongside the unsung heroes of any great museum — the gallery assistants, who are key when it comes to creating an outstanding visitor experience.'

INFORMATION

dnco.com; vam.ac.uk

‘Shaving's other guys' Harry's have partnered with Spanish illustrator and graphic designer José Roda to create the packaging for a special edition razor and kit.

Just in time for Pride Month this June, and continuing the brand's well-known support of the LGBTQ+ community, the illustrations are inspired by colourful community leaders, artists and activists.

Drag artist Shea Couleé (of Rupaul's Drag Race fame), singer and songwriter Leland, and conversion-therapy survivor Mathew Shurka are amongst those who participated in the project. Inspired by these figures, Roda created graphic illustrations that ‘aim to feel celebratory, free and unique, from an LGTBQ perspective', he explains.

At once, they evoke the high camp work of underground 1940s photographer Bob Mizer, Catherine Opie’s vivd portraits, and the ‘Humans of New York' series. Roda's designs offer fleeting snapshots of unique (and eye-catching) individuals, that demand the limelight.

The kit inside is a familiar Harry's offering, including the Aloe gel and classic Winston razor (which comes with a handy cover that keeps the blade on point). Reflecting the individuality of those depicted on the outside of the box, and indeed those using the kit, each razer is cast in a glossy, irridescent coating; no two of which are the same.

Importantly, this collaboration marks the start of Harry's partnership with The Trevor Project – a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer young people. Harry's is donating 100 per cent of profits made from this special set to help them reach 80,000 LGBTQ+ youth in crisis this year.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Harry’s website, and José Roda’s website

Norwegian design and architecture studio Snøhetta has designed the visual identity for one of the country's most important national transport services. The end-to-end redesign includes a dramatic name change – from Norwegian State Railways (NSB) to ‘Vy’ – reflecting recent, substantial changes to the company.

Founded in 1883, NSB was once responsible for the entire Norwegian railway operation. Today, it looks after travellers, but does not manage or own the rails, their systems, stations or trains. What's more, it oversees the nation's electric city cars (a popular mode of transport, particularly in Oslo); and its subsidiary, Nettbuss, is the largest bus operator in Norway and among the top bus operators in Sweden. The change to ‘Vy’ (which roughly translates from Norwegian as ‘perspective’ or ‘vision’) reflects the company's forward-looking, person-focussed outlook, as well as better referencing its role as an all-round transport provider, not just a rail system.

‘Vy is a real, Scandinavian word, which is distinctive in nature yet not widely used in modern language,' explains Kjetil Trædal Thorse, Snøhetta founder. ‘At the same time, it’s short and iconic, easy to remember and visually appealing'.

To embody to Vy ethos in logo form, Snøhetta drew from its Scandi roots. The palette – from pine greens to anthracite greys – is based on colours you might see when you move through cities, fjords and mountains of Norway and Sweden, from the vista of a train or bus window. The logo design comprises a single flowing line, connecting the ‘V’ and ‘Y’, rendered in a snaking, train track-like font. Adding to the sense of compositional movement, the bespoke type family (Vy Sans in three weights and Vy Display) was developed in collaboration with Göran Söderström, type designer at Letters from Sweden, with smooth, sloping edges, creating a sense of speed and efficiency.

This isn't the first time Snøhetta has tackled the visual identity of a well known national body. The Vy design follows the studio's hard-won redesign of Norwegian banknotes, first commissioned in 2014 and completed earlier this year, suggesting an ongoing emphasis on nationally important graphic design projects.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Snøhetta website

Korean beauty brand Amorepacific has a monumental new HQ in Seoul’s Yongsan district.

Designed by David Chipperfield Architects, the glazed cube is punctuated by voids that reveal an internal courtyard. As well as offices, a restaurant, a library and more, it houses the Amorepacific Museum of Art. Chipperfield’s geometric precision set the template for the wayfinding graphics, by Sascha Lobe, a Pentagram partner since June. Lobe’s graphic interface with architecture (and his work on this project) began at L2M3, the Stuttgart studio he co-founded in 1999 and which worked on cultural institutions including Chipperfield’s Kunsthaus Zürich extension. ‘I try to find the right solution for every architecture, brand and function,’ he says.

In Seoul, the award-winning signage, that just won Best Way to Go in the Wallpaper* Design Awards, was shaped by architecture and context. ‘A cube is a challenge for orientation because the symmetry of the building prevails,’ he says. ‘Our solution was to link the building’s wings with its spatial context.’ The four distinct views from within – the Namsan Mountain, Yongsan Park, the Seoul skyline and the Hangang River – create a matrix to orient visitors, rendered as a sparse, elegant pictogram.

Elsewhere, mirrored signage references the beauty industry, with glossy surfaces and a pared-back stencil typeface. Attention to detail is key, with text rendered by laser-cutting and on LED screens, all evoking the stripped-back façade and graphical simplicity of the building. §

As originally featured in the February 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*239)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Amorepacific website and the Pentagram website

‘We may well be hurtling into a future of unimaginable change and opportunity, but it does not need to be one that is devoid of quality, great craftsmanship and intellectual challenge,' reads the opening page of The Hieronymus Journal, a new publication that will be released periodically, whenever it's ready. The first edition was a year in the making.

The hard-won journal is a product of Swiss company Hieronymus, a brand dedicated to the high culture of paper and writing. At Hieronymus, pen-to-paper rituals are just that, moments that ‘give the mind time for thought, for ourselves, and for others’, offering meditative escape from the static of insistent inter(net)connection. As such, this tactile, beautifully bound collection of stories, interviews, photography, and typographic poetry, finds its basis ‘in the firm belief that the analogue not only has a place in the age of digital reproduction, but is essential to its balanced development – to our balanced development.'

Editor Sophie Lovell calls the journal a ‘mindspace miscellany', which is an accurate description of this eclectic, world-wise book. Chapter one sees record-breaking ice-diver Johanna Nordblad on an escape under frozen planes, in a quest for ‘extreme relaxation'.

Next, we float alongside artist, game developer and ‘virtual voyager' William Chyr on a tour of his gravity-defying digital environments, via his real-world inspirations (Tadao Ando's concrete staircases, MC Escher etchings, the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright).

Then, we holiday inside the mind of Irish author Eimear McBride, who attempts to pin down the ever-illusive ‘muse' through a trip along the stacks of the library where she used to work. We trace the spines of Shakespeare, Tsvetayeva, Tennessee Williams and O’Casey as we go.

The narratives continue to unfold, through Jensen & Skodvin-designed cabins in Norway, through composer Max Richter's aural landscapes, through the retro-futuristic, role-playing fashion photography of artist Ryan Burke. What strikes most clearly in each of these tales is their ability to jump between spaces, times and subject matters with sensuality. The vivid punch of ice diving gives way to the mind-bending vortices of digital gaming, which in turn succumbs to the old-book musk of an Irish library. Through these sensitively curated chronicles, we salute a history of the printed word and image, enjoying its timeless value and relevancy, while looking eagerly forwards to the untold potentials of publishing. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Hieronymus website

Standing in the middle of a strip of crumbling 1970s building blocks in Sharjah, the UAE city’s former bank building is currently seeing out what could be its last days. The authorities plan to have it demolished as the seafront area is cleared to make way for a new restoration project that promises to reinstate the city’s historic quarter. However, a temporary but ground-breaking Fikra Graphic Design Biennial hosted by local graphic design studio and education platform, Fikra, may just see its fate reversed.

For the next month, and potentially longer, the derelict building is playing host to the work of over 40 designers from 20 countries which is currently arranged across five of the building’s floors. With an interior overhaul courtesy of Dubai-based T.ZED Architects, the bank building has been transformed into a fictional Ministry of Graphic Design with rooms organized by six themes defined as departments. These imaginary offices include the Department of Graphic Optimism, The Department of Dematerialising Language and The Department of Mapping Margins.

Clearly signposted with sober gold plaques, the departments nod to the building’s own administrative past as a bank as well as some of the country’s real life governmental departments – the UAE has Ministers of State for happiness and an Office of the Future.

Despite the pop-up institution’s tongue-in-cheek approach, its exhibitors have some serious points to make. The show seeks to educate visitors on the history of graphic design in the region and demonstrate its importance; in the UAE, graphic design has not always been recognised as a profession.

‘This is work that looks at graphic design as a discipline but it's also using graphic design to look at the world at large,’ explains artistic director Emily Smith who worked alongside fellow artistic directors Prem Krishnamurthy, Emily Smith and Na Kim to help Fikra founders Salem and Maryam Al-Qassimi bring the exhibition into existence.

‘It's important to us to look at the way that design, as a tool in its critical interdisciplinary perspective, can think about urgent narratives and how to respond to what’s happening right now,’ she continues.

Beyond graphic design, the organisers are hoping that the Fikra Graphic Design Biennial’s success will help to persuade local authorities and developers to rethink how historical architecture can be restored and repurposed in the city and wider region. Restoration of architecture is almost never practiced in the UAE, where space is not in short supply and permission to build is easy to come by.

‘I think that there’s a very serious conversation to be had about how we can actually improve the quality of cities,’ comments Tarik Al Zaharna, founder of T.ZED architects. ‘If you need a new space or you need an architecture to host something it’s always easier in a developing country to build it from scratch.’

‘But actually that’s not where the interesting programme happens,’ he continues. ‘The interesting moments and the moments that you can actually build on to create a very interesting narrative are actually to look back and reuse what you already have.’

INFORMATION

Fikra Graphic Design Biennial is open until 30 November. For more information, visit the Fikra website and the FIkra Graphic Design Biennial website

ADDRESS

Bank of Sharjah/eL seed Building
Heart of Sharjah
Sharjah
UAE

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The National Health Service (NHS), one of Britain’s most cherished institutions, celebrates its 70th anniversary on the 5 July. To commemorate seven decades of universal healthcare – free at the point of delivery and irrespective of wealth – the Imperial Health Charity has tapped seven artists for a limited-edition print sale, with the proceeds benefiting some of the busiest hospitals in London.

The distinct styles of the prints echo the diversity of modern Britain and the NHS, include Peter Blake’s vivid colour blocking and bold typography, Mona Hatoum’s blue and white skeletal take on bed springs, rendered in a calming palette of blue and white, and Chris Orr’s quasi-monochromatic vision of a dynamic London, where nature and industry, exist hand in hand. Other contributing talents include Jeremy Deller, Tom Hammick, Mona Hatoum, David Mach, and Elizabeth Magill.

The Imperial Health Charity, which supports London’s Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea, St Mary’s, and Western Eye hospitals, seeks to unite the patients and staff through the medium of art, with a 2,000-strong collection of artworks that foster a friendly environment for patients, often in midst of daunting medical experiences. It also provides vital funding for medical equipment and research into clinical innovation. Over the past nine years it has raised an astounding £34 million.

David Mach RA, who is a member of the Imperial Health Charity’s art committee says, ‘The way we look after each other in this truly national institution is something we can be rightly proud of in the UK. We can be proud too of art and how it plays a vital role in healthcare.’

Purdy Hicks Gallery in London’s South Kensington will host a reception for the debut of these prints on 4 July, where the prints will first go on sale. The prints, produced by Worton Hall Studios will also be available on CCA Galleries’ website.

INFORMATION

The prints available to purchase online through CCA Galleries. For more information, visit the Imperial Health Charity website

In Saint-Gilles, a residential corner of Brussels, Ananda Escriva and Franck Laÿs have been quietly laboring over Récolte (French for ‘harvest’), an organic and co-operative skincare brand three years in the making.

Between them, the couple has professional experience in engineering, art and medicine, which is reflected in the meticulousness of the brand’s identity. The packaging of Récolte is fuss-free and simple, yet radiates a sense of nostalgia. Created by the Parisian designer Jean-Philippe Bretin, it makes use of a single colour, a single typeface and a few typographical composition rules.

‘Everything we do, we try to do with as little detailing as possible’, say Escriva and Laÿs. The zesty greenish yellow packaging, printed with a 1980s Letraset version of the 19th century Blackfriars font, is testimony to that way of thinking.

The same simplicity is applied to the balms and oils inside Récolte’s fresh-hued tubes and bottles. For their high-quality unisex organic skincare products, Escriva and Laÿs had one core question in mind: can we do things differently? ‘We are not the owners of Récolte, it's owned by the community’, they explain.

This democratic decision-making process and logistic control results in a high-level of transparency: Escriva and Laÿs know where the raw materials come from and how they are produced, source them in a sustainable and local manner, and work with small-scale organic farmers in Europe.

‘We create products from where we stand; using what’s there’, they say. ‘Using only European raw materials means higher prices, much more complex sourcing and less possibilities, but it pushes us to be more creative.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Récolte website

Nendo, prolific Japanese design studio, has added another product to its expansive repertoire: a picture book. Created by Oki Sato, Nendo founder and chief designer, the book features an ordinary cup as the story’s unlikely hero. However, as readers are quickly warned by the book’s title, this character (whose central purpose is typically to house hot tea) is ‘not just a cup’.

In fact, this picture book functions as a kind of design allegory (smartly personifying cups and spoons instead of tortoises and hares). The story follows a cup with no spoon, who tries to solve the problem of stirring coffee. In doing so, the cup transforms – changing itself into different forms as it searches for a solution. This little cup’s journey captures Nendo’s spirit of design. Indeed, ‘Nendo’ in Japanese translates to ‘a modelling clay like Play-Doh’ – changeable, malleable, inventive.

In not just a cup, Sato showcases the multi-purposeful nature of design; it’s not just about creating beauty, but devising imaginative solutions to problems, even if they’re just small inconveniences. Sato believes it is worth giving attention to ‘small and seemingly boring things’, and that the power of design can transform them into objects of excitement and enrichment.

Always looking for playful and surprising possibilities, Nendo’s design-morphing cup truly runneth over, with the firm presenting more than 20 physical objects from the book in its launch exhibition (forget party) in Tokyo. Taking the ethos of ‘not just a cup’ further and further, the company showcased cups with drawers, cups that unwrap, cups that are partial spoons or partial telescopes, clocks, lamps, and flowerpots (the list truly continues). One thing’s for sure, when it comes to Nendo, a cup (physical or figurative) is never just a cup.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Nendo website

It’s an exciting year for the Royal Academy, as it celebrates its 250th anniversary – with David Chipperfield’s highly-anticipated redevelopment that includes a new bridge connecting Burlington Gardens and Burlington House, an auditorium, and redesigned galleries.

Chipperfield described the redevelopment project as ‘a masterplan made of small pieces.’ Perhaps one of the smallest details in that masterplan comes courtesy of London-based graphic design studio LucienneRoberts+, who has contributed to the historic 250th anniversary redesign with a small but very significant shift inside the Academy: a new system for free displays – of which there are many more in Chipperfield’s transformation.

With the aim of ‘drawing on the past – but in contemporary ways just as the RA does’, the studio approached the brief with both function and fun in mind – reflected in the results. They have done away with unattractive and often unintelligible labels, and come up with an easy-to-install idea that looks good while not stealing the viewer’s eye.

‘We developed a modular rod system that allows RA staff to change or reconfigure labels quickly and easily.’ LucienneRoberts+ explains. Their elegant, adaptable brass rods (brass was chosen as it’s ubiquitous in and around the RA, from door knobs to light switches) have several innovative touches, from their flexible positioning – they’re able to be hung horizontally or vertically, to respond to different kinds of artwork installations – to their two-point adhesion, meaning they can cope equally well with painted walls and the buildings’ historic bricks.

The labels that the rods will hold will be printed on luxuriantly thick card, made specially by GF Smith, using one of the RA’s house fonts, the Sans-Serif typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk. ‘We thought long and hard about using paper in some of the RA’s busiest spaces, but the schools’ early emphasis on drawing made it the right choice to complement to the brass.’

No matter the amount of information, the distinctive brass system will make interpretative labels throughout the galleries more cohesive and less cluttered. At the same time, the design of the rods makes it possible for several labels and labels of varying sizes to be hung side by side. While classic white is kept for object labels, they have taken a more experimental tack with the those introducing sections and subsections, with colours alluding to elements embedded in the architecture.

As advocates for graphic design that can distill complex ideas into accessible forms, these carefully crafted free displays prove why LucienneRoberts+ is leading the way in its field – and through the new RA.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Royal Academy website and the LucienneRoberts+ website

Bill Gold was a rare star name in a mostly anonymous field, a prolific designer of posters for classic films by legendary directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Vincente Minnelli, John Ford, Martin Scorsese, Sam Peckinpah, Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, Milos Forman, Ridley Scott and Clint Eastwood. In some cases, his striking graphic images have become more enduring and beloved artworks than the movies they promoted.

Gold, who has just died at the age of 97, enjoyed a long and rich career which spanned seven decades and included creating designs for six Best Picture Oscar-winners. A key signature of his vast body of work is that there is no signature. His versatile style was constantly evolving as he moved from an age of free-hand illustration to our current era of slick digital photomontage. ‘I can’t discern a Bill Gold style, which is a compliment,’ the veteran film critic Leonard Maltin once wrote. ‘Rather than trying to shoehorn a disparate array of movies into one way of thinking visually, he adapted himself to such a wide variety.’

At 21, Brooklyn-born Gold went straight from art college to work as an in-house illustrator at the Warner Brothers branch office in New York. His second ever poster assignment was for the Humphrey Bogart classic Casablanca (1942), a beautifully rendered character montage framed by its elegantly swooping hand-lettered title. Warners requested just one minor tweak to amplify the sense of drama. ‘The client loved it but said there was no excitement, so I put a gun in Bogart’s hand,’ Gold later admitted.

From these traditional artisan beginnings, Gold’s style grew more daring and dynamic. Unimpressed with the lazy Hollywood studio formula of clustering three main character faces onto a flat portrait design, he began to experiment with typographic fonts, saturated colours and asymmetrical framing on iconic posters such as Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951) and Dial M For Murder (1954), Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and George Cukor’s My Fair Lady (1964), the latter an effusive hot-pink collaboration with illustrator Bill Peak.

Gold hit his richest seam in the late 1960s and early 1970s, his increasingly stylised graphics reflecting a splashy new era of explicit sex, gritty violence and mainstream horror. His posters for Stuart Rosenberg’s prison drama Cool Hand Luke (1967), Roger Vadim’s comic-book space romp Barbarella (1968) and Peter Yates’ rubber-burning crime thriller Bullitt (1968) are Pop Art masterpieces, all jazzy custom fonts and vibrant blocks of psychedelic colour. Arresting designs like those for Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971) and John Boorman’s Deliverance (1973) appeared to burst through the poster’s flat frame and menace the viewer with knives, guns and even the three-dimensional prow of a canoe.

But Gold was also a master of understatement, and pointedly avoided pictorial plot spoilers. ‘We try to tell a minimum amount of a story,’ he told CBS News in March this year, ‘because anything more than that is confusing.’ His stark monochrome image for William Freidkin’s The Exorcist (1973), a lonely figure silhouetted in a blinding shaft of light, came about because the studio forbade any religious references or shots of the demonically possessed heroine. Likewise his cryptic teaser poster for Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi thriller Alien (1979), an egg cracking open and oozing sickly green light, reveals almost nothing about the story. Both ended up as design classics in their own right, spellbinding exercises in pure suspense.

Gold forged his longest and most fruitful collaboration with Clint Eastwood, starting on Dirty Harry (1971) and ended with a one-off post-retirement poster for J Edgar (2011). While Eastwood favoured a more literal and functional graphic style than some of Gold’s more feted work, their shared chemistry still produced several superlative designs including Pale Rider (1985), Unforgiven (1992) and Mystic River (2003). As Eastwood wrote in 2010, ‘the first image you have of many of your favourite films is probably a Bill Gold creation.’ A gracious epitaph for an unrivalled body of work.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Bill Gold website

The British art director Tom Hingston is behind some of most innovative album artwork of the post-Peter Saville era. Over the last two decades he has worked with the Rolling Stones, Nick Cave, U2, the Chemical Brothers and Young Fathers as well as collaborating with David Bowie on his final music videos. Perhaps his best-known work though are the covers created for Massive Attack in collaboration with band member and artist Robert del Naja and the photographer Nick Knight, including 1998’s Mezzanine (part of Moma’s permanent collection) and 100th Window from 2003.

To celebrate his studio’s 20th anniversary, Hingston has joined forces with Paul Smith to create ‘Progress’, an exhibition to open in Smith’s flagship store on London’s Albemarle Street. The show (2 – 20 May) will include 16 of Hingston’s album covers reworked as lenticulars. Del Naja, Nick Cave and The Chemical Brothers have also worked with Hingston and Smith to create a superior range of band merchandise. The Nick Cave blue velour bomber jacket features embroidered mermaids based on the artwork for his Lovely Creatures album; The Chemical Brothers knitwear features zig-zags taken from the Born in the Echoes sleeve while del Naja is part printing, part painting some of his own artwork onto leather jackets.

Del Naja, better known as 3D, established a reputation as a graffiti artist in Bristol before helping found Massive Attack and his artwork has been featured on all the band’s sleeves. He has also collaborated with United Visual Artists on Massive Attack’s live shows.

To help celebrate Hingston’s anniversary we sat him down with del Naja to talk beetles, biker jackets and the future of the rock artefact in the digital age...

W*: So, when did you two meet?
Tom Hingston: I guess a year before Mezzanine was released in 1997. Robert had worked with a bigger design studio and there was an impetus on his part to explore a more one-on-one relationship, something that was a bit more collaborative.

W*: Given your background in graffiti art Robert, it was never going to be a case of outsourcing the band’s artwork – did working with Tom make that easier?
Robert del Naja: Yeah, but it’s a very different thing from having lots of ideas and concepts and sketches and having the ability to realise them and see them through and make them into something that has a format and that you can print from. I had always used symbols in my painting and when we collaborated very early on with Judy Blame and Michael Nash, we talked a lot about symbology – that’s how we ended up with the flame and those kind of industrial symbols associated with Massive Attack. So then we talked about how you take that from a concept to something that looks great as a piece of cardboard, to something that you can hold in your hand.

W*: So you worked on the Mezzanine cover for a year, just trading ideas back and forth?
RDN: Yeah, and a lot of that process has to do with materials as much as it does imagery and sources. We looked at a lot of different materials, printing processes and things along the way and that would often define how the artwork went. Rather than finishing a piece of art work and then thinking, 'well how do we print this?’. It was the other way around.

W*: How many iterations did you go through to get to what is now an iconic design?
TH: It is interesting how that whole thing evolved. When he and I had our first conversation there were a whole load of references that he had found, blown up pictures of spider skin and insect skin and then there were these Rorschach images he had been playing around with. That was very much our starting point. And seeing those was the spark that lead us to Nick as there were lots of parallels in the subject matter held been exploring in his work.

Nick had done a whole series of images with Simon Foxton where they montaged fight sequences. They were really kinetic with shattering glass and paint explosions, combined with stuff that was very figurative. That really opened our eyes to the possibilities of creating collage, or photo-montage that had much higher production values.

RDN: Yeah, it’s funny because our music is often described as collage. And it is a collage process. Nothing is written in a traditional classic sense. It would often be a collision of ideas. And I had always grown up with the collage process. When we were designing flyers and doing things for the parties with the Wild Bunch in Bristol, the very process of putting things together was collage.

But when Tom started working with Nick, it was almost like deep collage, working with photomontage, working on Paint Box and using programmes that I hadn’t seen before and after effects that you would normally see in movies you know, to blend things and cut into things, build things that almost snap together in a three-dimensional space within a flat plane. In a way the process was no different from working back in the day but the techniques and the machinery and the abilities, the people you were working with, meant you could get deeper and deeper into a similar way of working.

Nick would take something that had a lot of different elements to it but end up as something very symbolic. You could stand back from it and see a sculptural shape and that really appealed, coming out of the work that used very direct industrial symbology, amongst other things, in terms of Blue Lines and Protection. It was a really interesting evolution in terms of going into the world of photographic collage work but end up with something that was symbolic.

TH: That concept of iconography has always been something has always been an over-arching idea with Massive Attack. You take the flame or the Euro-child or the beetle or the figure from a 100th Window, what connects them all is that they are a series of powerful emblems.

RDN: Yeah, maybe it is an innate need to simplify everything, to break it all down into one thing because to describe it in another way is too complicated and long winded.

W*: It’s a branding exercise in some ways but the way it is a branding exercise has changed over the years?
RDN: Seeing what Public Image Ltd did was really formative, the idea of turning a band into a brand. And in the political climate of the time. I thought was really interesting, the idea of creating an anti-brand symbol. And the promotion and marketing of Massive Attack, right up to Heligoland has always been about that, creating a symbol that under normal circumstances would be considered a brand identity but actually was the opposite.

Mezzanine came out at a time when the whole idea of what branding and identity was – think of Adbusters magazine and Naomi Klein’s No Logo – was being rethought and questioned and subverted.

TH: Definitely, and I think also at the time that Mezzanine was released we were coming to the end of the Brit Pop era. Back in the day that fly posters were the fabric of the streets if you like – it was a very multi-coloured landscape, Spice Girls, boybands and so on. That was something that we were really conscious of and wanted to create the antithesis to that. So the whole campaign had to be monochromatic and black and white because at the time it sliced through everything else that was out there.

RDN: We designed our own typeface. It was a chrysalis moment where we were trying to emerge as something different. In terms of brand identity, we had gone through that whole Nineties thing of being the new kids on the block and becoming part of this movement called trip-hop and that was like a small satellite that was feeding off the giant Brit Pop team. And none of us felt a part of that. We just wanted to firmly establish our own identity and I think Mezzanine was the opportunity to do that.

W*: How did the collaboration with Paul Smith come about?
TH: I’ve known Paul for years as a friend and there were two conversations in parallel really. One of them was that we as a studio are 20 years old this year and Paul suggested it would be great to do a product collaboration to mark that anniversary. He’s curious about artist merchandise; how badly produced it is, how underwhelming the offering is and it is actually a conversation that Rob and I have also had over the years. Paul has this long-standing relationship with people like Patti Smith, Bowie, REM. His passion for music goes back a long way and so he was interested in exploring this idea of very limited edition one-off pieces that the artist or musician could sell on tour or be sold in Paul Smith stores. High end merchandise if you like. But mostly it was about raising the bar on what exists out there at the moment.

W*: And what was the idea behind the lenticular covers?
TH: We have taken 16 of the better-known artworks and represented them as lenticulars. I’ve always been interested in taking more traditional processes and bring something new to them. So we took the original sleeves and we’ve remodelled them into a 3D space and that’s the data we’ve used to create the lenticulars. It gives a different dimension and depth to the image. They are a weird half-way point between the physical sleeve and how you might view a sleeve on screen.

W*: And Robert, you’ve been painting jackets (pictured above)?
RDN: Yeah, it is a sort of throwback to the biker jackets with the album sleeve painted on the back, the way a dedicated punk fan would painstakingly paint an album sleeve on the back of a jacket.

W*: It’s interesting that the more music become immaterial, because of streaming, the more there is a fascination with the physical artefacts of rock or a physical connection.
RDN: Yeah, and that is very much what going to gigs is all about, that special moment that you share with friends and strangers. And that is something that everybody is trying to capture and monetise at the moment. It’s impossible because it is of the moment but I like to think that there is a way of bridging that emotional space with the physical space and something digitally in between. And people can plug into that at any moment and see what’s happening. And that could be location-based, be time-based, mood-based but not in a prescriptive platform situation but something that is more direct between the artist and the listener and vice versa.

And the physical sense of having that object in your hand is not something that will go away. Books and vinyl, they fill that same need for something to touch and hold. But there is a way of transferring that value to the augmented world, there are definitely ways that we are exploring at the moment. You can actually represent the values of what the band is all about, what it stands for, what’s its beliefs are. I think that is where the real interest is at the moment.

As originally featured in the May 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*230)

INFORMATION 

‘Progress’ is on view from 2 – 20 May. Profits from the sale of selected works in the show will be donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust charity. For more information, visit the Paul Smith website

ADDRESS

Paul Smith
9 Albemarle Street
London W1S 4HH

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Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and a giant inflatable rubber duck. The latest exhibition at London’s Design Museum, ‘Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18’ (named after the iconic Shepard Fairey poster of Barack Obama, and the viral Trump meme, respectively) is shocking, surprising, and sometimes overwhelming.

A deep dive into graphic design of the last ten years – a decade that has seen catastrophic shifts in global politics, economy and the environment – the exhibition features everything from beer mats and badges to flags, posters and placards, with plenty of new media and technology, emphasised as perhaps the most insidious way to create and disseminate political ideas.

‘One of our main aims with “Hope to Nope” was to demonstrate that graphic design makes a demonstrable difference and to foreground its role in how people are informed, educated, entertained and provoked,’ asserts Lucienne Roberts. The graphic designer and author curated the show with fellow GraphicDesign& co-founder David Shaw, as well as Rebecca Wright and the Design Museum’s Margaret Cubbage (a book by the same name has also been published by GraphicDesign&).

‘New technology has in a sense democratised graphic design,’ Roberts explains. ‘Utilised by the marginalised and powerful alike, traditional media now rubs shoulders with the hashtag and the meme, making graphic design critical in giving everyone a political voice. Arguably, new technology has empowered grassroots activists but also resulted in targeted campaigns by political interest groups, designed to set people against one another and even destabilise political systems.’

Slogans reverberate off the walls: HOPE TRUMPS HATE, I’M IN, JE SUIS CHARLIE, I AM THE 99%. Organised into three sections (Protest, Power and Personality) ‘Hope to Nope’ makes the relationship between politics, technology and design apparent, moving from local to global campaigns, worldwide initiatives and more DIY forms of subverting the status quo, there is urgency, hilarity and absurdity here: not least in a rap video produced by the Chinese government.

‘Hope to Nope’ also reminds us of the success stories – moments that these designs propelled action. One reminder is the blue bra that was painted on the streets of Cairo in solidarity with the woman who was violently beaten by the military during civil arrest in 2011. The images proliferated online, garnering global media coverage, and prompting thousands of Egyptians to march into Tahrir Square.

Whether effective in their purpose or not, Roberts argues, graphic design – especially once out in the public space – is always political. Her own studio has worked with NGOs, trade unions and public health and education organisations. ‘Graphic design is a carrier of messages, a tool of influence used to persuade. The question we have a responsibility to ask is, “Persuade to do what and to whose benefit?”,’ she says. ‘Graphic design is rarely about graphic design after all.’

INFORMATION

‘Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18’ is on view until 12 August. ‘Hope to Nope’, £15, published by GraphicDesign&. For more information, visit the Design Museum website

ADDRESS

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London W8 6AG

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Ever wondered what exactly goes through the weird and wonderful mind of a comic illustrator? Throughout April, visitors to Apple’s Regent Street flagship in London can explore a new theme in comic book illustration, from storyboarding, to character creation, lettering and composition.

During the Comic Art Series sessions, participants will have the chance to lay a three-frame strip of their own, using an iPad Pro and Pencil. The sessions have so far been led by illustrators Sam Taylor, Dan Woodger, and Stephen Collins, while Ruby Elliot will guide the final session, taking place on Monday 30 April (free registration here).

The comic illustration workshops are part of Today at Apple, an initiative of free educational sessions offered in all 502 Apple stores across the globe, including photography, video, art and design, music, coding, and more. The hands-on sessions are led by experts and highly-trained team members, covering everything from the basics to professional-level programmes.

We caught up with illustrator Stephen Collins to find out more about his creative process and approach to digital creation...

W*: How long have you been involved in design?
SC: I’ve been an illustrator for 15 years and making comics for about 10.

W*: What does the iPad Pro allow you to do that traditional tools didn’t allow?
SC: Weirdly it’s actually a kind of return to more traditional techniques – typically in recent years most illustrators have performed at least part of their process by drawing on a Wacom tablet on a desk, while keeping their eyes fixed on a screen above the tablet. That’s always been quite an unnatural drawing experience, whereas integrated tablet computers are much more like drawing on paper, because you see the lines appear beneath the pen as you draw.    

W*: How does iPad Pro help your practice?
SC: It’s a very useful addition to my workflow - it can’t quite replace full Photoshop on a desktop yet but I use it to add finish details once I’ve tamed the layers down a bit. It’s also very handy for doing the detail work on the graphic novel I’m working on. 

W*: Any tips or tricks for creating comic book design or characters on iPad Pro?
SC: You need to just play around with it to find how you can do your own thing on one of these devices. You’ll probably want to think small at first rather than just decide to do a big graphic novel on it, but once you’ve got the hang of how it can work for you it can be a really useful tool.

W*: Any favourite apps to help creation?
SC: I mostly use Procreate to do finishing details on the artwork, but I’ve just got the Clip Studio app – more familiarly known by its old name Manga Studio – and that seems very good. It’s designed to make comics on the iPad Pro alone, without recourse to a larger computer, so it’s the closest thing you have to a full-scale desktop app.

INFORMATION

Sign up for the next Live Art session with Ruby Elliot, taking place at Apple’s Regent Street store in London on 30 April, 6.30pm-8.30pm. For more information, visit the Today at Apple website.

ADDRESS

Apple
235 Regent Street
London W1B 2EL

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