The Handmade

This year, for Handmade 2012, design and interiors magazine Wallpaper* asked all their graphic designer and illustrator friends (pretty much a who’s who of some of the best creative brains in the business) to design a series of covers for the August issue. They also called out to the Twittersphere, inviting readers to give creative direction by asking them to name their preferred cover star and tweet them a brief.

The result is a grand edit of 30 works of art, created by the likes of Alan Kitching, Quentin Jones, Anthony Burrill, Tom Hingston, Rob Ryan and James Joyce, to name just a few.  If you’re quick you can still get your hands on a copy..

FIT. London 2012 Inspired Posters

To celebrate this year’s Olympic Games, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design are hosting an exhibition of posters inspired by London 2012.

It’s an impressive line-up, with a few of our favourites involved.  The group show was curated by Jonathan Barnbrook and Vaughan Oliver and features designs by Ian Anderson, Phil Baines, Jonathan Barnbrook, Bibliotheque, Neville Brody, Catherine Dixon, Fuel, GTF, Angus Hyland, Alan Kitching, Jeremy Leslie, Domenic Lippa, Morag Myerscough, Vaughan Oliver, David Pearson, Michael C Place, Jake Tilson, Tomato, Why Not Associates, Matt Willey, Marina Willer, Graham Wood and Michael Worthington.

A selection of these prints are on display in the Window Gallery at CSM King’s Cross Granary Building until 5th Sept.  The A1 posters are available to buy online for £80.00, and all proceeds will go towards the Student Support campaign to benefit Graphic design students at Central Saint Martins.

Little Tank – Live

Print-maker and artist Mark Hayward is returning to the Interchange Gallery this weekend, where he’ll be running a series of print demonstrations as part of the annual Whitecross Street Party. He’ll be printing ‘Little Tank’ (image above) in the gallery, and talking about the work and how it was created. Everybody is welcome to the interactive event, it’s a great opportunity to take home an affordable print as well as learn about the printing process.

Wondering Around Wandering

Wondering Around Wandering is a new project by Mike Perry, a New York based designer and interdisciplinary artist.  His aim is to host a  3 month, free community exhibition and event space in Brooklyn, with workshops, screenings, gatherings, open discussions and much more.  He wants to offer a space that will be an evolving environment, where visitors will be able to freely explore and create their own unique experience.

Artist Interview: Here & Now talks to Prince Hat

Swedish designer Prince Hat, aka Patrik Svensson, has very kindly taken time out from his busy schedule to talk to us at Here & Now (a brand new feature on the blog).  The designer and illustrator is well known for his simple yet clever approach to graphic design and illustration, working with clients such as The Telegraph Magazine, Wired UK, ICON Magazine, New Scientist and GQ Australia.  Fresh from his signage project for Jashanmal Books in Dubai, here’s what he had to say..

Where do you live and work?
I live and work in Stockholm, Sweden.

Tell us a bit about your background, how did you become interested in illustration and design?
I never drew or anything as a kid, but I’ve been what you may call a voyeur or observer for as long as I can remember, which means I always had a fascination for how things and people and every little thing around me appear and look like. I did some pretentious design on my family’s first PC when I was 14 or so. I downloaded rare Nirvana b-sides and designed my own record sleeves, made home printed t-shirts etc. Internet was just a slow baby back then, and I remember taking hour-long naps in the middle of the night on the couch while a song was downloading next to me. Occassionally, my dad woke up from the computer buzzing and asked me what the hell was going on.

The Brief

How to say the most with the least – a new show by Anthony Burrill in collaboration with Mesa&Cadeira – opened on Thursday at Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch.

Mesa&Cadeira (Table & Chair in Portuguese) is a company specialising in creative workshops, who believe ‘the only way to learn something is through doing it’.  In March this year, British graphic artist Anthony Burrill was invited to lead a six day workshop in São Paulo, attended by 12 local designers, writers and art directors, and focused on how to say the most with the least, an equation Anthony has mastered during his 20 year career working across a range of media, for clients like Wallpaper*, London Underground and Colette in Paris.  The group worked together on a simple brief: to produce a collection of phrases that best expressed their individual life philosophy.

Wayne’s World

Wayne Pate is an artist and freelance illustrator who works and lives in Brooklyn, New York.  Taking inspiration from Picasso and Matisse, he works with mixed mediums to create clear and simple designs, as well as screenprints, limited edition block prints and paper collages.  He also keeps an interesting visual journal which you can view here.  Represented by Art Department, his whimsical style has attracted many well-known clients including Creative Review, Jack Spade and Elle Decor.

Olympic Design

As olympic fever rises to an all time high, many of you (like us!) have probably already had enough of the hype and just want to escape before it’s even started.  However there’s lots more than just sporting events taking place this summer, including the London 2012 Festival, a cultural programme of events and exhibitions to celebrate the very best of British artistic talent.

To celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games, London 2012 has commissioned twelve leading contemporary artists to create a series of limited edition and poster prints.  Showing at Tate Britain until 21st September, the exhibition features specially commissioned prints from Martin Creed, Anthea Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, Chris Ofili, Bridget Riley, Rachel Whiteread, Fiona Banner, Michael Craig-Martin, Tracey Emin, Gary Hume, Sarah Morris and Bob and Roberta Smith.

Great Expectations

Great Expectations is a typographic experiment designed to explore the relationship between graphic design, typography and the reading of a page through approaches to a much-loved text.

Brought to you by GraphicDesign&, the book reveals the power typography has to influence and affect the way we interpret a text.  Page 1: Great Expectations collects the responses of 70 international graphic designers when given the same brief – to design and lay out the first page of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  The text was chosen in part because it directly references lettering as Pip searches for clues about his family from the letterforms inscribed on their tombstone.

The brief encouraged the 70 contributors to explore, challenge or celebrate the conventions of book typography, with each layout accompanied by a short rationale explaining the designer’s decision-making process.  Contributors include A Practice for Everyday Life, Phil Baines, Cartlidge Levene, Tony Chambers / Wallpaper*,William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand, KarlssonWilker, Luke Hayman / Pentagram, Morag Myerscough, and Sam Winston.

HIGH 5!

 

High 5 is a brand new project from Ben Dodgson and Chris Lees of Design Supremo, celebrating 5 years of their contemporary online art gallery by showcasing the work of 5 outstanding creatives.

Ian Anderson, Andy Smith, Natsko Seki, Paul Farrell and Stephen Kenny are the 5 artists who have been invited to take part in the project, each given the same brief – to design a one colour, A2 poster based on the theme ‘High 5’. The prints are available for £65 each (edition of 25), numbered and signed by the artist.