NOISE FIVE LAUNCH

On Thursday evening of last week I attended the launch of Noise Five, the latest design book from ATTIK who have produced a series of Noise books over the last 20 years. It was an excellent opportunity to gain an insight into how the book was made and the design processes which have contributed to the finished product from the faces behind the book, from the designs, to paper stock to printing. As a student designer it was interesting to hear how much experimentation was involved in producing a book which has been in the making for 3 years and took 3 months to print.

After seeing a preview of Noise Five, it looks spectacular and I'm looking forward to getting my copy when it is released!!

ALISON CARMICHAEL

I blogged about her earlier when I came across some of her work, I have just taken a look at her website and there is some truly fantastic stuff on there. If your not familiar with her name you will definitely recognise some of her work ranging from press ads, poster ads, idents, book covers and moving image. Heres a few pieces of Alison's work, but you should take a look at her website.

WORDS LOOK SO MUCH NICER WHEN THEY'RE HAND LETTERED

Typographer Alison Carmichael created these posters as self promotional items for her work which she sent out to different agencies to promote herself, in doing so got recognised winning several awards and working on some great ads. This work is great, especially  the first one because it takes the viewer a while to realise what the word is. She is obviously very talented and not afraid to take a risk to stand out!

THINK NOW, DESIGN LATER

I bought this book last weekend, written by Pete Barry who worked at Ogilvy in London on advertising concepts- an area Im looking into for dissertation. Its a great book, "structured to provide a complete course on advertising and a quick reference on particular topics, the book covers every aspect of the business, from how to write copy and choose a typeface to how agencies work, to the different strategies used for print, TV, film, and interactive media". A great feature of the book is Barry's sketches of some of the best adverts of all time, in an attempt to recreate big ads and show how important the concept is to the final outcome. He states that "without  a great concept you have nothing but mutton dressed as lamb". The books core lesson is that a great idea will last forever. 

DESIGNER TRAINERS

Design Agency accept and proceed have designed illustrations for Nike. "Seduced by innovation" and "Recognise the original" were the concepts chosen by Nike. These designs will be used on the trainers, point of sale, and other marketing and promotional items.

ANDRE JORDAN

Andre Jordan's funny postcards, doodles and stories are all on his website.

BECKS CANVAS

In association with the Royal College of Art, Beck's Canvas places emerging contemporary artists in your hands. These bottles feature one of a series of four artworks, created by: Charlotte Bracegirdle, Simon Cunningham, Ritta Ikonen and Tom Price. This is a limited edition label and it is the first time the iconic green bottle’s original label has actually been replaced in mass-production since 1952 to give these emerging artists a chance to reach a wide audience.
Find out more on this and Beck's arts projects here.

URBAN PLAY

This year there is a new design festival being launched in Amsterdam, Freedesigndom will be running from September 18th- November 2nd. Within this a new exhibition "Urban Play" will be launched, focussing on the theme 'Space and Place' exploring the city as a landscape that we have shaped through design and inspiring people to be creative in the city. The exhibition will move across cities in Europe showing off the latest street art and highlighting how creative urban intervention is something that happens in every city.

"droog event 2: urban play' will be a display of international unauthorized collaborations and urban designinterventions:- often seen as a form of vandalism, the public interventions which are part of this exhibition are the newest waves of projects to hit the streets, challenging public expression in our major hubs as well as altering the language of creativity which is generally spoken in the city." Initiated by droog design and curated by Scott Burnham. http://www.droog.com/presentationsevents/droog-event-ii--urban-play--the-spirit-of-the-city/

FACE ART

Dutch artist, Levi van Veluw recently won the Photographer of the year award at the IPA, International Photo Awards in the USA. He has completely changed the style of landscape portraits by reinventing traditional methods- he literally uses his face as a canvas and becomes part of his surroundings in his art. This is a one man project, Veluw draws and photographs his work himself. These photo's are fantastic, Veluw uses materials from ball point pen to wood, gravel and grass. This series of landscapes was also adapted to video installation. Amazing work.

MORE BANTJES...

More stunning work...

"The Audacity of Hov", a piece of typographic work for Vibe magazine for an article on the king of bling J-zay. Intricate work created from glitter.









"Design ignites Change", laser cut design on white paper. No printing required. These are shots of the same poster in different locations to show how differently they can be viewed.

LOVE STORIES

This months Monograph in Creative Review showed off some stunning work, a series called "Love Stories" by Marian Bantjes. She created images about the people she loved, but what is most interesting is the different materials she used to do so and how she used them. Its refreshing to see an illustrator using other means other than the computer, and I think that it what makes here work so appealing. She's not scared of using other materials to achieve what she wants. Similar to a brief we did in first year, Banjes creates her work from materials such
as wood, felt tips, photographs, paints and even cake.

DESIGNERS IN LEEDS

ATTIK
Leeds based agency Attik has come a long way since James Sommerville and Simon Needham founded it in an attic bedroom in Huddersfield. It now boasts an impressive portfolio of works in advertising, branding, broadcast, events, environment, interactive, guerrilla, print and packaging and has offices in San Francisco and LA. Attik is soon to be expanded across Europe and Asia too. Being a design student in Leeds I have heard of the company, but they came to my attention this week when I read that they had just been commissioned by coca cola to do some branding projects.
One of which is the promotion of coca cola to tie in with the 2010 World Cup. The other two are based on the graphics for Christmas and Ramadan festivals later in the year.
Other clients of Attik include Adidas, nikewomen, Mercury records, Formula One, Carlsberg, Virgin Mobile and many more.
Click the link above to see their work- definitely worth a look.

PABLO LOBATO

I love these celebrity portraits by Argentinian Artist Lobato. His abstract style captures the identity and personality of each individual making them recognisable to the audience. Really nice simple and fun illustrations.

BOOK

A brilliant book for anyone interested in the power of visual imagery. A collection of works from 100 designers across the world and their thoughts on graphic design. Thought provoking and enjoyable.

GOOD LOOKING MONEY

Graphic designer, Matthew Dent won the competition for the design of the new coins for the UK. The design is based on the Shield of Royal Arms. An idea which is uniquely and cleverly split over the coins, and then repeated on the £1 coin. This is the first time that a single design has been used across a range of United Kingdom coins. These coins should be in circulation now, although I haven't seen any myself yet, I think Dent has come up with an intelligent idea and solid design which represents Great Britain's history and heritage sucessfully.

HOOGERBRUGGE

This is an image from Hoogerbrugge's Modern Living/ Neurotica series (you can find here, http://ml.hoogerbrugge.com/). He focuses on creating online flash animations, which are often quite dark as well as humorous. He uses himself as the character in his stories, as he is interested in creating a character that will age, and eventually will die. He says, "I wanted the character to have funny moves and gestures. If you loop those moves you've got neurotic behaviour... I like creating a character that is completely self- absorbed, someone that is keeping himself busy with something that is utterly stupid." He is not "suffering from actual neurosis, but its more like..you know, when you're bored and you're just sitting around doing something and suddenly what the hell it is that you are doing."
Visually these animations look very simple, with very few having any text reference in them. The majority of them are black and white, with some music incorporated in some. This is a very simple concept and there is something appealing about the animations even if they are a little strange.
For more of his work visit Hoogerbrugge's website: http://www.hoogerbrugge.com/

EELCO VAN DEN BERG

Designer, Eelco Van Den Berg was showcased in Digital Arts magazine a couple of months ago where I first saw his illustrations. Designs which he developed from being a graffiti artist for over 20 years. His website, www.eelcovandenberg.com, is full of interesting designs with a very distinctive style throughout an array of work spanning advertising, graphic design, music, magazines and some ambient design such as live wall paintings.