Ace Jet 170

Pintori

And if Nitsche wasn't enough, get on over to Grain Edit for Pintori!

Nitsche Reminder #01

Jane left a comment on Staff Edition and on her blog there's a link to Erik Nitsche on Flickr which I haven't looked at for a while now. Thanks for the (unintentional) reminder Jane.

It's a Knockout!

Paula Scher has updated her identity for The Public Theater. Read all about it!

Don't miss...

Editor John L Walters and art director Simon Esterson discuss their acquisition of Eye magazine and their future plans for this important publication.

Graphic Design on the Radio
Presented by (soon to be fellow chicken enthusiast) Adrian Shaughnessy
Fridays 4.00-5.00pm GMT
Resonance 104.4 FM
www.resonancefm.com

And check out the schedule.

Paul Rand on cows, Bodoni and relationships

It'll only take an hour at the most to read from cover to cover but it'll be an hour well spent. Better still, watch this old thing first and you'll hear him talking off the page as you read.

Max Burchartz ate my bank balance

Back in 1993, when this boxed set was published by Lars Müller (one of a series) I was stoney broke. I'd seen a few sets pass through a local bookshop, well out of my financial reach and with each one my desire to purchase became all the greater.

I can't remember quite how much they cost (except that it was too much for me), who the subjects of the previous editions were (except that they were similar typographical pioneers) or, for that matter, how I managed to scrape enough together to eventually buy this one (reckless overdraft extension probably).

Needless to say, I'm now very glad I was so irresponsible.

There's more to see you know where.

"Print wasn't meant be perfect"

The god-like genius of Alan Kitching is coming to Belfast. Belfast is ace! I can't believe it really; fucking exciting! Here are the details:

/Designer/Typographer/
/Alan Kitching Lecture /
/University of Ulster Belfast Campus/York Street/
/Thursday 6 March 6.30pm/Admission Free/
/Limited places by reservation/

Alan Kitching RDI AGI HonFRCA is one of the world’s foremost practitioners of letterpress typographic design and printmaking. At age 15, Alan became an apprentice compositor with a letterpress printer in his native Darlington in the north of England. After a subsequent successful career in conventional and corporate graphic design, he decided to return to his letterpress roots and in 1989 he established The Typography Workshop in London. He is renowned for his expressive use of wood and metal letterforms in creating visuals for commissions and limited edition prints. He lives and works with designer, writer and partner Celia Stothard at The Typography Workshop in Kennington, south London.

This is a rare opportunity to hear Alan discuss his work, coinciding with the the last day of the large Font Shop International FiFFteen exhibition at the University's Belfast Campus.

Places are limited so reservation is recommended.
Contact Kelly Gordon
028 9026 7285

Twenty-five years of designing for industry

A few posts back I featured Jonathan's copy of the Crouwel designed de grote bosatlas and referenced his Flickred copy of The Practical Idealists, which I subsequently bought via AbeBooks.

I'm indebted to Jonathan for bringing it to my attention; until it arrived I really had no idea quite how significant this book is. Designed by Herbert Spencer and Hansje Oorthuys, and published in 1969, it first sets out to describe the circumstances in which the early design consultancies were established, specifically focusing on the work of the first of these consultancies; the perfectly named Design Research Unit.

With skills crossing pretty much the full gamut of design: the obvious graphic type, product, interior, townscape and architectural; DRU set the standard high for all the others to follow.

Amongst their many high profile activities were significant contributions to the Festival of Britain (1951), interior design work for BP's headquarters in London and what was, in its time (1956-66), Britain's largest design programme for British Rail that included locomotive design, signage and livery, staff uniforms and a comprehensive corporate ID manual, collaborating with Kinneir Calvert and Associates who designed the corporate typeface: Rail Alphabet.

A strong point for DRU's reason-for-being was to "design for industry" coming from Britain's post-war need to get back its feet, and emphasises the vital role that design played.

It's fascinating stuff. DRU did some fantastic work; like this beautiful symbol for the Royal Garden Hotel (1965); and pioneered corporate identity sytems, inline with the growing complexity of national industries. The photography is incredibly evocative of a ground-breaking era of optimistic modernism and the principles that DRU introduced resonate with so many things we take for granted today.

The telephone as a tool for the graphic designer

This is one of the few old books that I've conscientiously sought out - and well worth the effort it was too.

As much about the business of being a graphic designer as the "art", when Garland wrote this classic in the mid-sixties certain things were, of course, massively different to how they are today, like most of the section on "the designer's tools" (it's all Rotrings and rolling parallel rulers. Actually, I'd bloody love one of them. Has anyone got one that they don't want?). The exception being the bit about the telephone (he emphasises the importance of clarity and accuracy).

Many things are just the same, like the bit about "useful redundancy"; where Garland suggests that there are times when the urge to simplify should be resisted. And the page on "establishing verticals in the image without a rising front"; the photographic technique of distorting the image within the plate camera to ensure verticals stay vertical. A technique I've never used but a result I've often obtained through the gift of Photoshop (I do like my verticals to be vertical and, for that matter, my horizontals to be horizontal).

And look! There's grumpy old Harry Beck; Garland dedicated the book to him. He doesn't look very happy about his map.
Incidentally, Ken's written a book about Harry's map. Mr Tufte recommends it. Buy your copy here.

Garland Update: By great coincidence, he's on the Thoughtful blog today.

Can you hear at the back?

Chris's mate Adrian was in town on Friday to talk at the Design Futures event. He was really good: talking about the essential attributes of the designer: cultural awareness; integrity and the ability to string a coherent and meaningful sentence together in front of a client (talent being a given). He talked about the need to have a reason for doing everything and how "because I like it" is not one of them; how you need to think strategically and how you need to believe in something otherwise you can't expect your client to believe in you.

Oh, and how the ability to write and/or edit can be a valuable skill. Great and useful stuff. And a lot of that is not disconnected to something I'll post over the next couple of days. Adrian also showed us some work: Intro stuff and later collaborative projects like Varoom.

Before Mr Shaughnessy came on there were two other speakers:

First, Andrew Summers is chairman of Design Partners, "the industry/government body which promotes UK design internationally". And while his presentation lacked snazzy graphics, I think he covered important issues, like how, statistically, good design is good for business. Yes, I know we know that, but this man goes forth and tells the world. I also feel, while perhaps not as explicit as he might have been, he touched on this thing that Ben talks about.

The man in the middle, second speaker Andy Stevens from Graphic Thought Facility, was superb!

GTF do really great work so hearing first-hand accounts was a real pleasure. For example: Andy talked through the work they've done for the Frieze Art Fair; first the branding then the promotional material. Unable to feature artwork (so many artists!) GTF suggested using images of the location, Regent's Park, and over the years have photographed the Park from various view points and during different seasons, while the event was rigging and from the air (amazing images). One year they even shot (er, photographed) the park's wildlife.

He went on to talk about what they've done for Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Reluctant to take it on at first, fearing it too touristy, they took the plunge, proposing the idea of showing a different side of the theatre. Andy showed us fantastic photos of behind-the-scenes: actors, often in meticulous period dress, going about their back-stage business (the examples here are lovely but he showed others that were brilliant and hilarious).

Of course, GTF are also the people responsible for that very lovely Habitat logo (one of those, "I wish I'd done it" designs) and Andy explained how they were asked to look at it because Habitat's lawyers were telling them that they couldn't protect the much loved and enduring type style so needed a unique "fantasy mark". Funnily enough though, because Habitat has always had a type only logo, Andy explained, at first no none noticed that they'd actually done anything.

It was a brilliant Friday night out, made even better by the chance to mingle afterwards and have a bit of a chat and a plastic cup of something boozy.

Well, I've done it again, used images without asking. If anyone's got a problem with this, do let me know and they will be no more.