Creative Review articles from August 2008

Creative Review archives from August 2008

AGENDA: Who's watching?(Editorial)
August 1, 2008... Coverage of the Beijing Olympics will no doubt bring with it a hail of often tortuously-related advertising from the myriad official partners, sponsors and so on whose cash underpins the event. "Official suppliers of potato-based snack...

WHAT'S ON: New York Waterfalls.(man-made waterfalls)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Following his 'sun' at Tate Modern, artist Olafur Eliasson creates four man-made waterfalls in New York City Olafur Eliasson stunned visitors to the Tate Modern in 2004 when he created an artificial sun in the museum's massive Turbine...

WHAT'S ON: Frank Gehry Serpentine Pavilion.(Serpentine Gallery)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... The Serpentine Pavilion, where acclaimed architects are invited to design a temporary structure next to the gallery space in Hyde Park, has become an eagerly awaited annual event. This year's choice of architect, Frank Gehry, is perhaps the...

WHAT'S ON: Tatton Park Biennial 2008.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... The inaugural Tatton Park Biennial sees over 30 artists, writers and performers develop new works in response to the gardens in Cheshire. Based on the theme 'Botanical Collections and Collectors', the Biennial aims to reflect both the...

EXHIBITIONS: Hayward Gallery.
August 1, 2008... For those of you hankering for even more architecture-cum-art, you would be wise to visit the Hayward Gallery's current exhibition, Psycho Buildings. Artists including Mike Nelson, Ernesto Neto, Do-Ho Suh and Rachel Whiteread display...

BOOKS: Bonfires by John Duncan.
August 1, 2008... A timely release from Steidl (#20) brings together John Duncan's photographs of bonfires built by Protestant communities in Belfast, Northern Ireland to be lit the evening before the annual July 12 celebrations. Each is depicted as an unlit,...

BOOKS: Mute Magazine: Graphic Design.
August 1, 2008... In a decision typical of its oppositional nature, the design of the first issue of Mute looked backwards rather than forwards. In 1994, its intention was to examine the way art was interacting with new, emerging technologies but the magazine's...

BOOKS: Practical Workbooks.
August 1, 2008... Sizes May Vary (Laurence King; #14.95) and The Advertising Concept Book (Thames & Hudson; #19.95) are both useful workbooks for the practising graphic designer and nascent ad creative respectively. Essentially a vast sourcebook of readymade...

WEBSITES: Creative clouds of fun.
August 1, 2008... Wordle, a personal project by Jonathan Feinberg, a senior software engineer at IBM Research, is an online toy that creates 'word clouds' from any text (the above is from this month's CR editorial). The more frequently words appear in the...

WEBSITES: Data feeds complex visuals.
August 1, 2008... S how us a pie chart or a bar graph here at CR and we'll decipher it quick smart. Show us an image depicting thousands of fine tentacles sprouting from various areas of an image and we'll probably ask: is this a visualisation of the inside...

ONE TO WATCH: Paloma & Nick.(Creative team Paloma Reed and Nick O'Brien have officially been on the payroll at M&C Saatchi London)
August 1, 2008... Just a few month's into a placement at M&C Saatchi, Paloma Reed and Nick O'Brien were working with director Tony Kaye on their first TV spot. Talk about in at the deep end... Creative team Paloma Reed and Nick O'Brien have officially...

GRAPHIC DESIGN: Made In Queens.
August 1, 2008... Nicolas Randall & Joe Stevens Made In Queens is a short film that lifts the lid on an underground scene emerging in the outskirts of New York's Queens borough. Directed by Nicolas Randall and Joe Stevens, the film looks at a small crew of...

GRAPHICS: Faber Finds.(Faber Finds has launched a service of out-of-print books )(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Faber and Faber Faber Finds is a recently launched service offered by publisher Faber and Faber that utilises digital print technology and affordability to make out-of-print books available once more. Basically, a book is only printed...

WEBSITE: Ecom website.
August 1, 2008... AP Studio/James Joyce Design studio AP commissioned illustrator James Joyce of one-fine- day.co.uk to create an illustrated online world for their client, recruitment firm Ecom. Visitors to the website enter a bright landscape that can be...

COMMERCIALS: Comfort ad.
August 1, 2008... Ogilvy London Ogilvy's new TV ad recognises the comedy that can arise from some good old-fashioned nudity. The spot, brilliantly directed by Jim Gilchrist, opens in a therapist's office, where a couple - she clothed, he naked - discuss...

PHOTOGRAPHY: Blown book.
August 1, 2008... Christopher Griffith Regular CR readers will remember Christopher Griffith's beautiful, stark photography from our June 2000 issue. His new book, Blown, features the remains of burst tyres, which Griffith has been collecting for the past...

GRAPHICS: Stage of the Art posters.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Maxemilian Nilsson Stage of The Art is a monthly event that looks to set up musical exchanges between international art centres. Each month a programme of live music is presented either in London's ica or in the Palais de Tokyo in Paris....

MUSIC VIDEOS: Radiohead music video.
August 1, 2008... Zoo Films Zoo Films director James Frost has created this stunning promo for Radiohead track House of Cards. In a technological first, the video was shot without the use of any cameras and only using lasers and scanners. The effect makes...

GRAPHICS: BMW campaign.
August 1, 2008... 180 Amsterdam 180 Amsterdam has created this campaign for bmw Motorrad motorcycles, which will no doubt appeal to bikers everywhere. Titled Unstoppable, the campaign emphasises the gps device on the bikes, and encourages riders to use...

GRAPHICS: Mohawk Paper promo.(Mohawk Paper Mills Inc.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... SEA In its US homeland, Mohawk paper has had a long-term relationship with Pentagram's Michael Bierut, producing all manner of elegant promotional items. London design studio sea is handling the UK market, through Mohawk's distributor,...

Made in China.(advertising standard)
August 1, 2008... What's it really like to work in China's burgeoning ad industry? We asked Johnny Tan, BBH China's creative director, to keep a diary for a typical month. The first part of his journal starts overleaf (part two next month) plus, in a separate...

A Month In The Life Of Johnny Tan.(BBH China)(Personal account)
August 1, 2008... Week One Wednesday Sometimes, I feel like a firefighter rather than a creative person. Every day, there are so many blazes to put out. I'm doing so many more meetings as opposed to spending time creating ads and guiding the teams....

Scissors paper fun!
August 1, 2008... In this digital age, the desk of a graphic designer or an illustrator is generally an uncluttered place. A Mac, a monitor, a scanner and printer and perhaps a sketch or ideas book are the telltale traits of the modern imagemaker's work...

A visual vocabulary to take the place of language.
August 1, 2008... No movement in art has found more favour with designers than the short- lived creative revolution that became known as Constructivism. Vladimir Tatlin's Monument to the Third International was its greatest icon in three dimensions, no less a...

Book covers.
August 1, 2008... As the third series of Penguin's Great Ideas is about to go on sale, we look at publishers' attempts to make not just readers, but book collectors of us all.... You'd really need one of Pete Frame's diagrams to unravel the complex...

The art now arriving at platform one.
August 1, 2008... A trip on the London Underground can, at times, feel like an assault on the senses. The close proximity of other human bodies aside, much of this bombardment is visual, with advertisements screaming out from escalators, across platforms and...

Photographic fiesta.
August 1, 2008... Upon visiting the Madrid arm of this year's PHotoEspana, it seems hard to believe that the photography festival is an annual event. Photography appears to have colonised the city, with 32 'official' exhibitions taking place, alongside...

OBAMA IMAGERY: Obama or Kennedy?(Media coverage of Barack Obama)
August 1, 2008... The front page of The New York Times, Sunday May 18 [shown below]. When I saw it, I felt vaguely reassured. There was a great picture of Barack Obama and some beaming South Side kids in Chicago. It was taken by Marc PoKempner, who worked...