Creative Review articles from March 2009

Creative Review archives from March 2009

BOOKS: A Private View.
March 6, 2009... A new book reveals the scribbles and sketches contained in the most personal of a designer's possessions: their notebook A visual communications title like CR tends to focus on the finished article: the work that made it into production....

BOOKS: EMPRNT.com.
March 6, 2009... EMPRNT is a new site by web creatives Jeff Mehlhoff and Dennis Eusebio of Thought and Theory dedicated to, they say, "books for design enthusiasts". Although the book reviews will largely be generated by users (currently these are a little...

BOOKS: Ginza Graphic Design series: Neville Brody.
March 6, 2009... Neville Brody's reputation has always been big in Japan and it just got a little bigger. The esteemed graphic design book publisher, ggg, is set to release its first monograph dedicated to a British designer's work, in the shape of an...

TOP TEN BESTSELLERS: Baltic Centre bookshop.
March 6, 2009... 1. Yoko Ono: Between the Sky and My Head, Thomas Kellein and Yoko Ono, Buchhandlung Walther Konig; #14.95 Accompanying Ono's exhibition at Baltic, on until March 18 2. Learning to Love You More, Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher,...

WEBSITES: The grid on screen.
March 6, 2009... Want your webpage to conform to the tenets of your dream graphic grid system? Why not use online tool Grid Designer? In last month's CR we featured thegridsystem.org - a website devoted to all things graphic grid-related. This month we...

WEBSITES: I can read movies book jackets.
March 6, 2009... Despite their authentic 60s look, these I Can Read Movies book covers are not long-lost book design classics but digital mock-ups created by illustrator Spacesick, aka Mitch Ansara, as a self-initiated project based on his love of film. The...

WEBSITES: Bounce to the music.
March 6, 2009... This is a screengrab of interactive designer Paul Neave's web toy, Bounce, which can be found - along with various other webtoys - on his website at neave.com. Bounce is a simple but engaging application which uses your computer's microphone...

LINKS: Save the words.
March 6, 2009... Did you know that 'stigmatypy' is the art of creating portraits using dots of different sizes? Would you ever describe a darts player as 'teliferous'? savethewords.com looks to breathe new life into old, forgotten words by reminding us of...

LINKS: Dropular.(Website overview)(Brief article)
March 6, 2009... Dropular is a media bookmarking site where you can make notes of cool things you've seen on t'internet (such as this old Linotype Helvetica magazine ad, above) and see what other people have 'dropped' onto the site. In terms of function,...

LINKS: Superbowl ad archive.
March 6, 2009... Need to brush up on Super Bowl commercials? An archive at commercial- archive.com has 37 years of Super Bowl adverts for you to peruse by year from 1969 to 2009. tinyurl.com/superbowlarchive Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and...

LINKS: Tape covers.
March 6, 2009... Bruce Jamieson of design studio I Love Dust is behind this inspiring online archive of blank cassette tape covers from the 70s and 80s. tinyurl.com/tapecovers Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

KIT: Globe-Trotter 110 Suitcase.
March 6, 2009... Luxury luggage manufacturer, Globe-Trotter, marks its 110th anniversary this year by releasing this, the 110 case. Designed by Ross Lovegrove, the case is made from a specially developed and exclusive carbon fibre/Kevlar weave that is both...

KIT: Burgerman MacBook sleeve.
March 6, 2009... Available from illustrator Jon Burgerman's spanky new website, burgerplex.com, are these laptop sleeves designed for use with Mac Books (#40) and Mac Book Pro's (#42). They're made out of neoprene laminated with jersey which is then printed...

KIT: Denon AH-D7000 Headphones.
March 6, 2009... It's not every day one beholds a pair of headphones that cost #800, but then Denon's AH-D7000s aren't your average cans.... The earpads are made from glove-soft leather and, yes, those are gloss lacquered mahogany earcups.... Also note the...

KIT: Vita Audio R4 Hi fi.
March 6, 2009... UK-based Vita Audio's R4 is a solid piece of audio kit. The slot- loading CD player will play audio, MP3 and WMA music discs, and a port on the top is ready for your iPod. There's also a USB socket to plug in your laptop or other MP3 player,...

KIT: Toy Watch Amethyst Watch.
March 6, 2009... Italian watch brand, Toy Watch specialises in diver-style fashion watches, making them available in a huge variety of colours, materials and jewelled versions. Amethyst is the latest, 'sober', colour option from the New Fluo Plasteramic range....

ONE TO WATCH: Emily forgot.(graphic arts designer)
March 6, 2009... Emily Alston is the designer and illustrator behind the moniker, Emily Forgot. Since graduating in graphic arts from Liverpool School of Art and Design in 2004, she has been creating her often darkly surreal illustrations as a freelancer; her...

GRAPHIC DESIGN: ZerodB.org website.
March 6, 2009... This Is Real Art While much of the world is rejoicing at Barack Obama's decision to close down Guantanamo and the secret prisons, there still remains the use of torture within military prisons around the world. In this campaign, the...

PHOTOGRAPHY: Standard Hotel video.
March 6, 2009... Marco Brambilla/Crush Travelling in a hotel lift has just become a little more interesting - if you visit the Standard Hotel in New York that is, where a video artwork by artist Marco Brambilla and production company Crush can be...

TYPOGRAPHY: FUTU 8.(Brief article)
March 6, 2009... Frost* Design Frost* Design is the guest art director for the latest (February/March) issue of futu, a Polish magazine which approaches a different design studio to art direct each issue. Throughout futu 8, which has the theme of...

CRISPIN, PORTER + BOGUSKY: Loved, loathed but never ignored.
March 6, 2009... It has been impressive year for the US agency, with its work for Burger King tipped for awards success. Yet still the haters gather. Eliza Williams asks why Crispin, Porter + Bogusky is an advertising agency that, to say the least,...

A library full of dead trees.
March 6, 2009... Reading material in Crawley's brand new library building is not restricted to the pages of the books on its shelves, thanks to a series of typographic tree sculptures created by artist Gordon Young and a team of collaborators that includes...

Harry Beck: the Paris connection.
March 6, 2009... The Royal Mail commemorated one of the UK's greatest works of visual information design last month when Harry Beck's London Underground diagram was included for the first time on a British postage stamp. The importance of Beck's rectilinear,...

Creative outlet for LA's Latino community.
March 6, 2009... For 20 years, LA's Self Help Graphics & Art has provided a creative outlet for the city's Latino community. But now, writes Alissa Walker, its future is under threat... Four miles east of downtown Los Angeles is a real neighbourhood,...

At work and play.
March 6, 2009... Dogs fly, children breathe fire: it's all in a day's work for the German photographer, Jan von Holleben. Daniel West meets him in Berlin I am squatting on a bare concrete floor strewn with baubles. In front of me, two people are...

FREEHAND: Freehand Anonymous.(graphic design)
March 6, 2009... Michael Johnson My name is Michael... and I use Freehand I discovered recently that this (allegedly) high-tech industry of ours is populated by a whole tranche of designers who are quietly hanging on to an old, obsolete piece of...

ADVERTISING AND PORN: Did somebody order a sausage pizza?
March 6, 2009... Gordon Comstock When people ask me what I do these days, I just tell them straight out: I make porn. Really it's not that different to advertising I say, you still spend all day in a brightly lit room with someone you can barely stand,...

CREATIVE CIRCLE: Squaring the circle.(design and art direction)
March 6, 2009... Mark Denton has brought some characteristic energy and fun to the Creative Circle. How has it gone down in adland? Under the presidency of Mark Denton, a re-invigorated Creative Circle has defined itself as a distinctly British awards...