Ace Jet 170

Michael and Len

 

 

Len Deighton is 90 today. 

International man of mystery, no other author has had such a constant presence in my life, and not just for his works of fiction. The film adaptation of The IPCRESS File is high (sometimes at the top) of my top ten favourite films, with the book remaining in my top ten favourite books since the first time I read it a long, long time ago (I've re-read it numerous times).

His love of fine food has been a contributing factor to this presence – the books this spawned have not been uninfluential too. I have a number of his cookbooks, including his iconic Action Cookbook, which I blogged about here way back in 2006.

His famous cook strips (below) expose both his interest in good food and his skill as an illustrator. The latter is another factor that makes the man so interesting.

After spending his National Service in the RAF, Len studied at Saint Martin's School of Art (now Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design) alongside the brilliant Raymond Hawkey, who would go on to design covers for Deighton. After graduating later from the Royal College of Art (for which he won a scholarship in 1952) Deighton worked (surprisingly) as an airline steward for BOAC and then (less surprisingly) as an Art Director in New York, before his writing career took off.

Clearly, a man of facetted talents and passions; Deighton's life story is littered with revealing anecdotes…

It is rumoured, for example, that his interest in spy stories began in 1940 when the 11-yr-old Len witnessed the arrest of his next-door neighbour Anna Wolkoff, a British subject of Russian descent who turned out to be a German spy.

The image above was taken during the filming of The IPCRESS File. The story goes that when Michael Caine came to do the omelette making scene he couldn't get the hang of cracking an egg with one hand (I've mastered the art now) so it's Deighton's hand doing it in the movie.

 

Pot Heads

Back in November 2012 I posted about Faythe Levine and Sam Macon’s book, Sign Painters. It’s a fabulous book, you should probably buy it. But the book was really a mere forerunner, a prelude, to their film of the same name.

The film, like the book, is a celebration of the challenged world of hand-painted signs in the US. As it says on the movie’s website, “What was once a common job has now become a highly specialized trade, a unique craft struggling with technological advances”.

With contributions from some of the trade’s most skilled practitioners and characters, Sign Painters is beautifully filmed and gives brilliant insight into a hidden culture of craft, adversity and precariously balanced paint pots.

The book is superb – the film is even better. You can watch it now online here. 

Earley Works

We were researching illustrators recently, for a project we might be working on. Can't say much about the actual project but it could be amazing. While I was digging around, I remembered Eyvind Earle.

Artist, author and illustrator, you might know Earle's work for Disney from around the 50s; he worked on background illustrations and styling for things like Sleeping Beauty.

Earle died in 2000 but he left behind a stunning legacy of artwork. You can see lots of it here and  watch a revealing autobiographical video. I think it's his serigraphs (screen prints) that are the most remarkable. Astonishing work.

RSA Animate - Changing Education

This is superb and makes it really clear just what we're doing to our children.

The Tetracontagon

You've probably seen this by now: Pentagram at 40. Beautifully written by Naresh Ramchandani and Tom Edmonds. And nicely performed by some bits of paper.

The clattering and the clicks

Er…it's Linotype: The Film. Thursday 17 May at the Unviversity of Ulster. Complete with rattling doohickies of typographical automations. Excited. Much.

Favourite Film as Board Game

Around Christmas a mysterious package arrived at work. I often get brown paper wrapped stuff but it's usually small. Books. This was different. It was big. It was The IPRESS File, the board game. Circa 1966.

Now The IPCRESS File, if you didn't already know, is my all-time, tip-top, favourite book and film so even though I'm a fairly old and grumpy bloke, I felt like squealing like a little girl. It was from Johnny, from Euston, Do You Copy? He'd found it in a charity shop and very kindly thought to send it my way. I've got a few vintage games stashed away but this one is pretty special. So if you're reading this Johnny, thanks again!

Fixed

Old news I know but BÖIKZMÖIND - man alive! - what a beautiful film. I'm no hard-core cyclist - more a fat, small-time total-amateur - but this peek into the fixed wheel sub-culture of Bristol exposes an enviably warm and ultra-enthusiastic community. Caught it tonight on the Build Conferene Film Night bill, along with P22's Making Faces and a special preview of the sure-to-be-amazing Linotype: The Film. Great to meet and hear Doug Wilson too.

Linotype: The Film at Build 2011

…and for that matter, this too!

"Linotype: The Film" Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film

Making Faces at Build 2011

Hope to get along to this in November at the Build Conference Fringe Film Night.

Tickets on sale now!

Typeface

 

 

Talking of films: I was gutted I couldn't make it to see Typeface a couple of weeks back. Gutted. Big job on/had to work. Thankfully, ace reporter and very soon to be ex-desk-buddy Jodie rose to the occasion with this full and in-depth review:

A thought-provoking exploration of the 'real shift in the way we are printing', Typeface focuses on the Hamilton Woodtype and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin where James Hamilton began printing type in 1880 and after 20 years was the largest producer in the United States.

Beautifully shot and complimented by the wonderful clunky-whirly sounds of the presses in action, as a 'computer-age' graphic designer, it was inspiring to watch. Endearing, sometimes heartbreaking, stories are told. Of why and how individuals became part of the Museum. Fifteen years of working for large agencies and design firms left Greg Corrigan (the Museum's director at the time of filming) burnt out. He was drawn to Hamilton Museum, feeling the importance of 'preserving this part of American printing history'; a theme of craving nostalgia in our modern age of speed and mass-production, runs throughout the film. 

Other stories are from Norb Brylski, an 83-year-old retired pantograph operator and Bernice Schwahert, an 84-year-old former type trimmer, who was once told that a woman could never learn how to trim type. Norb explains that, 'he is as good at what he does, because he's the only one left doing it', and so, 'has nobody else to compare himself too'. Younger volunteers worry that the process will die with the last pantographers and trimmers and that nobody is documenting the process, an interesting point, since the film itself is documenting the process. In an interview, Jan Nagan explains the reason behind making a film 'about obsolete technology': "I became fascinated with exploring the changing importance of analog technologies in our digital age. There is this theory that as we as a society sit at our computers all day, in the off hours, tactile and sensual experiences become all the more important. People are craving things with texture that they can hold in their hands – whether it’s knitting or playing guitar…Then there’s the whole nostalgia factor: LPs vs. ipod, film vs. video, letterpress vs. inkjet." 

Corrigan explains, to young graphic design students visiting the Museum, that Hamilton continued to produce type, commercially, until 1985. Which, not surprisingly, coincided with the arrival of the first Macintosh computer. Dennis Ichiyama, an artist and professor at Purdue University holds workshops at Hamilton and explains the benefits of allowing graphic design students to visit a working museum, where nothing is pushed back behind glass cases. Instead students can handle the individual letters, traces the edges, understand the space between the letters and within the letters. The results are unquestionably stronger, more thoughtful designs. 

I recognised and related to the idea that creatives can crave for the tactile; for that which they can hold in their hands (I recently took up knitting as a 'creative outlet'). The museum's future is clearly about it's past, it's heritage; and how the letterpress pieces, with all their inherent flaws, are ideally suited for a return to 'letting the aesthetic be affected by the tools with which an item is made'.

Find out more about Typeface and the Hamilton Woodtype and Printing Museum here.

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Jodie Young is a really very good independent designer, working in Belfast.

Copy Cats

Everyone knows about this I imagine but worth mentioning anyway. It's Art & Copy at UU this Friday as part of the Cathedral Quarter Festival. I'm really looking forward to it, it's supposed to be brilliant.