Creative Review articles from September 2004

Creative Review archives from September 2004

Not our type.(type designs)(Editorial)
September 1, 2004... You could argue that we have the best and worst of type and typography on show in this month's issue. Penguin's new Great Ideas series, exclusively revealed by us in a feature starting on page 56, is a tour de force of type design. The covers...

The best we can do?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... So Johnson Banks wins the only Gold D&AD for graphic design with their interactive stamps for the Royal Mail [above and CR June]. They are the best piece of design we have to offer this year? Honestly, look at them and ask yourself if that's as...

Discuss discussed.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... Firstly may I take the opportunity to thank everyone involved in making Discuss happen [see CR August]. It was great to hear such respected figures within our industry give their opinions first hand and to have the opportunity to actively...

Perpetual conflict.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... Re What Is Design For [August]: In answer to Rick Poynor's question "does design want to be market driven?" I'd like to put forward that by definition, design as a commercial practice does. A company has a need to communicate a particular...

Dutch Olympic Committee posters.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 1&2 These two posters for the NOC/NSF, the Netherlands Olympic Committee, are part of a campaign created by Alvin Chan and Paul Postma of Amsterdam-based studio Koeweiden Postma through Utrecht agency ALTA. The posters, appearing on bus...

Systematic/Subjective Colour Selection book.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 3&4 Andrew Bellamy, who graduated from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth last summer, wrote and designed this book in order, he says, "to increase awareness of colour as one of the designer's most important and useful tools, up there with...

Zembla website.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 5&6 emeryfrost have created a website for literary journal Zembla. The site is based on an alphabetic menu built in Flash: users select a letter to read articles of a quote pertinent to that letter. For example, choose A and you can read A...

Commemorative Routemaster poster.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 7 To celebrate 50 years of the Routemaster buses in London and also to mark the sad occasion of their retirement, graphic designer Sharif Moran has produced posters and a DVD in association with London's Transport Museum. "I chose the 19...

CD packaging for ZX Spectrum Orchestra.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 8 Birmingham-based independent music label, Warm Circuit specialise in music that "doesn't fit easily into today's mainstream music industry," according to founders Syd Ewart and Brian Duffy. One of their acts, ZX Spectrum Orchestra,...

Royal Court autumn season brochure.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 9&10 London's Royal Court Theatre commissioned Neville Brody's Research Studios consultancy to create their autumn season brochure. Strong use of type and photographic image is predominant throughout and harks back, says Brody, "to the...

Selfridges Lab Cafe redesign.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 11 Illustration duo Container were commissioned to create a new look for the Lab Cafe on the second floor of London department store Selfridges. Container's Luise Vormittag and Nicola Carter had an open brief: "Selfridges asked us to come...

CD packaging for Thought Universe.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 12&13 Michael C Place's Build studio designed the artwork for new release Mixed Messages by Thought Universe on the Thought Universe label. Place used his own photographic images of analogue tape and of trees in creating the artwork. This...

Levi's print/poster campaign.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 1-3 Unfeasibly narrow doorways, low-slung cars and impossibly high chairs are the props subtly inserted into a new pan-European press and poster campaign for Levi's 501. "We had to come with a simple idea about the 'Anti-fit' of the 501,...

Metropolitan Police press/poster campaign.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 4 The Metropolitan Police commissioned this new press and poster campaign in the run up to the Notting Hill Carnival. This year the Met is spending 5.6m [pounds sterling] on policing Carnival, drafting in 10,000 extra officers and...

Nike press/poster campaign.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 5 In an attempt to impart more of their sporting knowledge to the public, Nike are to hold Running Sessions throughout France and Europe. These gatherings will enable the brand to share its "running related intelligence" with its consumers...

The Prodigy promo.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 6 The Prodigy return with their first release since 2002, the comeback single Girls, sporting a shiny new promo to boot. Since Jonas Ackerlund's controversial work for Smack My Bitch Up, their videos are usually relatively twisted affairs....

Dr Martens global ad campaign.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 7 Dr. Martens' first global campaign takes its cues from brand-generated content. The campaign--the first in four years for the brand--comprises print, outdoor, and TV. A series of six documentaries entitled Veer, Outside of Ordinary, shot...

English National Ballet campaign.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... 8&9 This campaign from Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, aims to position the English National Ballet Company as "the people's ballet", while also promoting its Christmas productions. Shot by photographer Nadav Kander, it features dancers...

UK graphics stars at Barbican.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... A major retrospective exhibition of UK graphic design opens at the Barbican Art Gallery, London this month. Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties includes over 600 exhibits from designers as diverse as Alan...

Snickers sway skateboarders.(First Sight)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Snickers continues to harness skater kid culture kudos with this AMV print campaign. Ads appearing in specialist underground skate and BMX mags focus on "spots" of "architectural features that are particularly good for skating on. Generally,...

Laser treatment for Visionaire.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... Art and fashion publication, Visionaire, has a longstanding reputation for elaborate and spectacular production methods. Previous issues have come wrapped in a full-size denim jacket and in a leather Louis Vuitton case. Another famously...

Celebrating the true Olympic spirit.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... The Olympic Games describes its aim as bringing "people together in peace to respect universal moral principles." Never ones to let such puffery pass, Barnbrook Design has released a timely new font, Olympukes. "We have designed 'real'...

One to watch: Corin Hardy.(First Sight)
September 1, 2004... When Corin Hardy was 12 years old, he made a short film on his kitchen table called Chainsaw Morph Meets Yeg. The animated film featured a hand-spun version of the Plasticine TV character Morph, complete with chainsaw, mercilessly hacking away...

I helped Kevin Garnett carry 20 people: visual effects supervisor Alex Frisch enabled NBA star Kevin Garnett to carry dozens of people on his shoulders in new Adidas spot, carry. Gavin Lucas finds out how it was done.(First Sight)(Interview)
September 1, 2004... CR: What's your job title/profession? AF (above): I am a visual effects supervisor/artist. CR: How did you get started in this? AF: I started in the industry as an assistant director, shooting stills and 16mm film in Paris in the...

This is showcase. Each month we explore a different theme bringing you the latest and best work produced in that area. This month's theme is degree shows.
September 1, 2004... Work from the winners and finalists of this year's D&AD Student Awards. 1. Image Illustrating 22 miles (the distance of the channel crossing from Dover to Calais) for ferry company SeaFrance. The brief asked that illustrations be...

Does advertising work? Our extract of Sergio Zyman's the end of advertising as we know it (July 04) has certainly put the cat among the pigeons in Adland. Last month, CDD managing director Caspar Thykier hit back with a strong rebuttal of Zyman's charges of self-indulgence and waste. But the debate still rages ...
September 1, 2004... IT'S NOT ABOUT AWARDS I couldn't help but smile when I read Zyman's article. Finally! Someone who's on the same wavelength as me. I recently took a job as creative director at Singleton Ogilvy and Mather, New Zealand. When it was...

Declaration of independence: much of the most innovative, influential and downright beautiful graphic design of the last 40 years has come from independent studios, says Rick Poynor. Which is why he made them the focus of a major exhibition of British graphic design opening this month at the Barbican.
September 1, 2004... IT CAN'T BE DENIED THAT THE WORD "independent" has a certain glamour to it. Independent record label, independent filmmaking, independent publishing--all of these terms promise cultural experiences that will differ significantly from those...

In with the new: compared to their American peers, British graphic designers have been slow to engage with new media design, claims Nico MacDonald. But, to make the most of maturing interactive and networked media, their imput is sorely needed.
September 1, 2004... LATER THIS MONTH, Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties will open at the Corporation of London's recently upgraded and refurbished Barbican Art Gallery. The Rick Poynor-curated show [see previous article] rightly...

In the beginning was the word: Penguin's great ideas series presents 20 of the most powerful texts ever written. The challenge for the cover designers was to convey such vigour through typography alone.
September 1, 2004... A NEW SERIES OF BOOKS PUBLISHED next month by Penguin celebrates the written word as a vehicle for pioneering and radical thought. Twenty books make up the Great Ideas series (ranging from Seneca's philosophical writings from the first century...

Why do you hate me? From innocent beginnings, Comic Sans has become the world's most reviled font, says Gavin Lucas. We set four designers the supreme challenge: create a poster to make Comic Sans look cool.
September 1, 2004... COMIC SANS IS TRULY awful," proclaims type designer Julian Morey. Another designer, who shall remain nameless, went so far as to use the words "fucking horrible" to describe the font. Harsh indeed, but this is a sentiment shared by many...

The gesture hunter: photographer Stephen Gill looks at Edward Hopper's creative influence.(Reviews)
September 1, 2004... Being asked to review the Edward Hopper show immediately made me want to avoid referring to the old Hopper book in my studio, or even think about his work prior to my visit. I hoped this would allow me to push aside the paintings that have been...

Art against the elements: Ross Cooper attends a major retrospective of digital art in Taiwan.(Reviews)
September 1, 2004... Every exhibition has its fair share of problems when it comes to installing work and the Navigator: Digital Art in the Making show at The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung was no exception. Digital art is notoriously difficult to...

Competition corner.(Reviews)
September 1, 2004... Our regular column detailing current awards schemes and competitions available to enter plus other calls for entries ESTINGS Once again, E4 and Creative Review are offering readers the chance to get their work on air. All you have to...

Pepsi commercial.(Pick Of The Month)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... FROM ABBOTT MEAD VICKERS.BBDO In CR Sept 03, we reviewed a viral making the rounds at the time. Described by one wag as "Crouching Table, Hidden Tennis", it featured a game of gravity-defying ping-pong, minus the computer-generated special...

WordCount.(Pick Of The Month)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... FROM JONATHAN HARRIS/FABRICA WordCount is an online experiment into how we use language. It presents 86,800 of the most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonality. Simple to navigate, using a sliding scale, WordCount...

McSweeney's 13: the comics issue.(Pick Of The Month)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... HAMISH HAMILTON, 16.99 [pounds sterling] US author Dave Eggers has attracted quite a following with McSweeney's, his "quarterly literary concern" that is now into its thirteenth issue. A special edition it is too, dedicated solely to...

3G mobile ring tone movies.(Pick Of The Month)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... FROM TOMATO According to the CIA World Factbook (our holiday reading this summer) in 2002, 49.677 million people in the UK used mobile phones. In Japan, a staggering 19 million 3G mobile phones alone (capable of displaying moving images)...

Project door commercial.(Pick Of The Month)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... FROM WCRS As the "preparing for emergencies" pamphlet advising on procedure in the event of a terrorist attack lands on all UK doormats, the COI follows up with this ad, aimed at smoothing the furrowed British brow. The pamphlet includes...

To the Five Boroughs campaign.(Pick Of The Month)(Beastie Boys album promotion)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... FROM CONCEIVE MEDIA/CAPITOL RECORDS Director James Frost came up with the idea for this campaign to showcase songs from The Beastie Boys' new album, To The Five Boroughs, which is dedicated to the districts of New York City. Frost decided...

HN Werkman.(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... HN WERKMAN Laurence King, 14.95 [pounds sterling] HN Werkman left tragically little to remember him by. This edition from Laurence King's Monographics series features the best of the small collection on which his legacy resides. Werkman was...

Graphic Agitation 2.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... GRAPHIC AGITATION 2 Phaidon, 35 [pounds sterling] Following on from her first installment 11 years ago, Liz McQuiston takes another look at socially and politically aware graphics, this time within the digital age. There are, naturally,...

False Flat.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... FALSE FLAT Phaidon, 35 [pounds sterling] False Flat is a reference to the subtly sloping Dutch landscape: the result of centuries of reclaiming territory from the waters of the North Sea and the Rhine. This, the book suggests, is also a...

I Love My India.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... I LOVE MY INDIA Dewi Lewis Publishing. 16.99 [pounds sterling] Avinash Veeraraghavan is a young graphic designer who runs a studio in Bangalore, India. His visual journey through a selection of rear and imagined parts of his country offers...

All-American Ads: 70s.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... ALL-AMERICAN ADS: 70S Taschen, 19.99 [pounds sterling] This excellent series never fails to amuse. All American Ads now covers the 30s right up to the 70s (a look at the 20s is currently in production) and this most recent edition of print...

Directory.(Directory)
September 1, 2004... * 3D ANIMATION, VISUALISATION & ILLUSTRATION ARCANA DIGITAL LTD Animation, Imaging and post production for broadcast, interactive & print. Folio available on line or call for CD sampler. Studio 15 minutes from Victoria. Clients...