Subscribe here
In other Buckminster Fuller news did you know that he loved to Twitter?
No I didn't either. The Dymaxion Chronofile was Buckminster Fuller's attempt to document his life as fully as possible. He created a very large scrapbook in which he documented his life every 15 minutes from 1915 to 1983. Every 15 minutes!
There's a good description on Wikipedia and shed loads more on the Buckminster Fuller Institute's site. Amazing.
Tensegrity - my new favourite word.
Used by Buckminster Fuller it means, "a portmanteau of tensional integrity. It refers to the integrity of structures as being based in a synergy between balanced tension and compression components."
Further more, "Tensegrity is the exhibited strength that results "when push and pull have a win-win relationship with each other". Tension is continuous and compression discontinuous, such that continuous pull is balanced by equivalently discontinuous pushing forces.
Buckminster Fuller explained that these fundamental phenomena were not opposites, but complements that could always be found together. Tensegrity is the name for a synergy between co-existing pairs of fundamental Physical law; of push and pull, and compression and tension, or repulsion and attraction."
How fucking cool is that?
I've just found some quotes from the Rodchenko exhibition that I jotted down when I was there. Here they are.
Rodchenko's maxim was "Our duty is to experiment". Isn't that cool? Imagine if in your job description it said, "Your duty is to experiment". Rodchenko pushed boundaries precisely because he kept on experimenting.
Here's another one, "Enough depicting, time to build". God, I love this. "Enough depicting, time to build". I feel like getting a tshirt done with this on for meetings. After 20 minutes I could stand up and grandly declare, "Enough depicting, time to build".
How many good ideas die of over "depicting". Too much talking no enough doing. You know that bit in the middle of a conversation when people say, "That's it. Do that." But then they keep on talking for days. Let's just stop at the "That's it. Do that" bit.
As my old boss used to say, "The work doesn't get any better the longer it sits around, old son".
Look what arrived in the post the other day! It's Pentagram's Black Book.
It has a lovely softback Wickertex cover. I'm not sure if that's the correct spelling of Wickertex (Marcus?) but I remember that it was once substrate of the year. Every year designers have a substrate that they're desperate to use. It was edge lit acrylic one year, Wickertex one year and bible paper another year.
This use bible paper too. To great effect. The whole book is printed on bible paper, lovely thin, translucent stuff, hence you can see the text through this page. (We used bible paper once).
Continuing the bible theme, they've used these great coloured ribbons so you can book mark pages.
The tabs are gorgeous. That's a great idea you can easily borrow.
In case you hadn't guessed this is a self promotional book. Designers love self promotional books. The thing is a book is a very hard thing to put together. And writing about your own work is notoriously difficult. Pentagram have deftly avoided this by not talking about the work at all. It's just pictures.
Which makes you think about all that self justifying post rationalisation crap you normally read in designer's books, on designer's websites. Next time you do a self promotional piece try using no words.
That spread up there features a digital thing for Bloomberg. I've never seen that before. Looks great, doesn't it?
Anyway. It's a great book, really nice (more pictrs on Flickr). It's 800 pages long and it's only the last couple of years worth of work. Big thanks to everyone at Pentagram for sending me a copy.
More Connect. It occurred to me the other day that Flickr display pictures within a set as squares and they only show six pictures across. So if I could lay out a Connect game that was six squares wide and photograph all of them individually... Take a look at the set here. Not the individual pictures, but the whole set together.
This holiday we played Connect, Ken Garland's brilliant board game (card game?). If you're a graphic designer this is about as good as parlour games get.
I don't know about you but when I see a collection of shapes and lines like that I instantly think - could I make an alphabet out of that?
The Os are normally easy. And seeing as this one is based loosely on a digital style grid the U is pretty easy too. And the N.
The M isn't quite as elegant, but it looks cool.
The connect game doesn't only consist of three lined squares though. And to be honest all these letterforms remind me a bit too much of the Mexican Olympics and all those Helveticalovers. You know the type.
So this M is a little more fun. And more appropriate for the game.
But making a full alphabet is hard. And it's a bank holiday weekend. Easter weekend. So back in the box they go. Until another time.
Still, at least I got enough letters to make COMMUNE.
To end Beauty Week here's some pictures of the wonderful work of Ivan Chermayeff who spoke at the D&AD lecture on Wednesday night.
No words, just amazing work.
Normal, normal service will return next week.
When I went to this I should have mentioned that I also went to Friendly Fire - Jonathan Barnbrook.
I don't like Jonathan Barnbrook's work. I find it too style driven and Ray Gun for my liking. I don't like Adbusters either.
Still, he's a very good graphic designer and he does lots of interesting work. Squeezed behind the Hadid exhibition is an exhibition of his work and I really enjoyed it. It helped that lots of the work was explained better in the 'exhibition' context. Do yourself a favour and make a visit to both exhibitions soon.
There are some more pictures here.
Some fantastic podcasts from the RSA's Royal Designers for Industry here. Mike Dempsey interviews Thomas Heatherwick, Gerald Scarfe and others. Really good.
Coming next, Malcolm Garrett. Well worth a listen. Or a download.
Copyright London's Transport Museum and probably loads and loads of other people. No harm intended.
A complete classic from the late, great Mr Abram Games. I just thought I'd have a little look again. Nice isn't it?
I couldn't make it to the Wim Crouwel talk last night. But Beeker could and she's posted a review here.
There is a weird and wonderful interview with Michael Johnson over on BBC Radio York. Slightly surreal.
Michael is interviewed by Dr Rock. Yes, I said Dr Rock. He talks about graphic design and plays his 20 all time favorite tracks (Michael Johnson, not Dr Rock).
If I tell you that every time a computer is mentioned Dr Rock describes it as "space age" you'll get an idea of what the show is like. Well worth a listen. Michael also says that when taxi drivers ask him what he does he replies, "Posters, logos and stamps."
You have to listen before Sunday, so get clicking. Follow the ‘listen again’ link and click Dr Rock.
I wasn't there, but a fellow Conspirator was, so here are some pictures. Even when I'm not around I strive to bring you the very best in Graphic Design news. Good eh?
Corrrr, isn't that lovely? A few more pics here.
Apparently it was packed and Alan was brilliant. Lots of lovely tales, he even got quite emotional at one point. He also said that print wasn't meant be perfect. Nice.
Did anyone else go?
Down to the Design Museum last night for the Pentagram talk. It was good, very good.
Introduced by Emily King who curated the Fletcher show. The talk clumsily straddled discussing Fletcher himself and discussing how Fletcher influenced the speakers. Obviously some of the audience just wanted to hear about Fletcher and others just about Pentagram. Of the speakers, Scher easily handled this the best.
Scher kicked off the talk by giving us a lightening run down of the Pentagram partners through the years. Her 'Family of Men' diagram in pictured in the Profile: Pentagram Design book and makes interesting reading. Hard to believe now that Saville was once a partner.
The three partners (John Rushworth, Paula Scher and Harry Pearce) then spoke in what seemed like an order dictated by chronological order of meeting Fletcher. Which was sort of reflected in how they felt about him. From Rushworth who sort of considered him more of a contemporary, to Pearce to whom he was more of a hero. Scher was somewhere in the middle and probably the most interesting speaker because of this.
I like Rushworth's work (especially this for Pantone and this for the Waterways Trust) but he was the speaker I liked the least. I suppose it comes back to bridging the 'Flecther's work / my work thing'. He did remind us all of Fletcher's brilliant quote, "Stroking a cliché until it purrs like a metaphor".
As I've said Scher handled the brief the best. For example, she mentioned how much she loved these gates and how that had made her realise that typography could become architecture.
She then showed us some great, dramtic work inside Bloomberg and of course this.
Do you see what I mean about the 'Flecther's work / my work thing'? Scher made lots of nice little connections like that.
She told us how Fletcher (and his personal work) had inspired her to keep doing personal work and how he had pushed these wonderful maps.
Harry Pearce has just become a Pentagram partner and didn't seem to show much work.
He had lots of charming tales about Fletcher, especially the one about the flip flops, I love that. One summer Pearce turned up at Fletcher's house. It was a hot day and Pearce was wearing flip flops. The first thing Fletcher said, before hello, was 'Fuck. Your shoes have fallen off'. Brilliant.
I don't know if Pearce wasn't allowed to show previous work (I doubt it) or if he didn't feel it was appropriate (he shouldn't have worried) but he kept showing these little word puns.
They're very nice and everything, but I found them a bit, dunno, lightweight? What do you think? This one is Freudian Slip. Clever? Stroking a cliché until it purrs like a metaphor?
Pearce also showed these photographs of signs which are great. Really good fun.
Again there was a great story attached. Pearce had taken two photographs (the other being AVENUE ROAD) and he showed them to Fletcher one day. Fletcher loved them and encouraged Pearce to go and take some more. Which he didn't. Fletcher kept asking about the photos and Pearce would reply that they were coming along fine.
When he was wrting Smile In The Mind Fletcher rang Pearce and asked for all the photographs he'd been collecting. Pearce revealed the truth - he only had the original two. Well, replied Fletcher, in that case you've got 3 weeks to get a double page spreads worth.
I'm never sure what I think about Lippa Pearce, and now Harry Pearce and Domninic Lippa. They've always done great work but there's something I can't but my fingers on. Whilst the puns left me a little cold, this poster by Pearce is one of the best bits of graphic design in the last 10 years.
Powerful, simple, dramatic, clever and touching. The image is perfect, the typography is spot on, the message is clear and the effect is stunning.
Anyway. Afterwards there were questions. I've said it before and I'll say it again. A question is usually a sentence followed by a question mark, Not a long rambling paragraph wihich ends in a CV. Stand up Nico.
There were only three questions, one by Nico and two by us. Did no-one else have any questions? Really? Miserable fuckers.
I asked why Pentagram's obviously successful structure hadn't been copied by more design firms?
Rushworth answered that money was the main factor. In effect existing partners let new partners join an already successful company without any goodwill payment which would be an anathema to most businessmen.
Abbott Miller, Lisa Strausfeld and (I think) Domenic Lippa were also in the audience. Strausfeld said that a company called Base Design (anyone heard of them?) had the same structure.
Scher thought that many partners makes for better decision making. Traditional firms with two or three partners can often spend their time fighting against each other. More partners equals more democracy and more equality. She said she thought 5 partners was a good number for a design consultancy which was hilarious as we have 5 equal partners. We thought it was hilarious anyway, not sure anyone else in the audience did.
And that was it.
Good, very good. But then I expected it to be. I suspect the D&AD one will be very different and I hope there are more questions.
This post and this post from Russell have made me think of another reason why the iPhone is so brilliant.
(Picture from the Darth Strategist, with thanks, usual stuff counts)
Yawn, yawn, another Mac fan saying how brilliant the iPhone is. Yes - but listen to these comments from one of those posts about the design of remote controls.
"you realise that remotes would be much better if they could evolve to highlight the buttons you regularly use"
"they should do a "big button" version so that grandparents who can't see so well and have arthritic fingers can use it. That goes for mobile phones too"
"Maybe they should supply his and hers remote controls"
"Why oh why are there no user intuitive remote controls?"
This is exactly what the iPhone will be able to do. The folksonomy of button design, if you like. It could learn which features you use most and only display those buttons.
(Picture taken from Apple, obviously. Usual stuff applies but I'm sure they won't mind. Especially as I'm about to give them $600.)
The best design organises information in the most useful way, but makes that organisation look seemless and elegant. Think Underground map. Not cartographically correct, but the best organisation of the information to aid the communication. That's what the iPhone should be able to do. That's great usability.
I once bought my Mum a calculator from the Early Learning Centre. Why? She kept complaining the screen and the buttons were too small on her calculator.
With an iPhone you could tell it you were 90 and struggling with the buttons and then you could download a bigger set of buttons through iTunes. How simple is that?
Etcetera.
And that is revolutionary. Now you might be thinking, 'yeah yeah, it's not that clever, anyone could have done it'. Anyone hasn't got the iTunes infrastructure that Apple has. Anyone hasn't got the consumer confidence. And anyone hasn't done it. And as we keep saying it's all in the doing. Which is why everyone has phones designed like this.
(Picture of Steve Jobs talking about 'not so smart phones' at the iPhone launch, from Engadget, thanks chaps usual stuff applies)
I wonder if Matt has anything to add?
(My Mum isn't 90 by the way.)
Good profile of Jonathan Ive in The Guardian last week.
Thought I could hold off, but I can't.
Richard at Ace Jet 170 has lots and lots of great pictures from the Fletcher exhibition.
I know some of you (yawn, yawn) are getting bored of the Fletcher posts. If that's the case, look away now.
Millions (well, not millions literally) of people are arriving at this blog looking for pictures of the AF exhibition. Mostly this is because they're overseas and can't make it to London.
Here's two places where you can find superb pictures of the show.
1. Go to Flickr and search for Alan Fletcher.
2. Click on this excellent post over at City Of Sound.
You can look back now.
(I'm never sure if you're allowed to take pictures in the Design Museum. Probably not. All I'm trying to do is get as many people to the show as possible. Usual stuff applies.)
This is rapidly becoming Alan Fletcher week here on Noisy Decent Graphics. I make no apologies for that.
This morning I was thinking that I should write something about Creative Reviews blog (again). There's loads of good stuff on there and they don't get many comments. We all need comments.
Anyway, this morning there's a brilliant post about the new Alan Fletcher exhibition including the following reflections:
That Alan Fletcher had the model design career
That we may never see the like again
That it’s OK to be funny – no, make that witty
That being tidy helps
That he was bloody good
Well worth a read.
Channel 4 did a piece on Alan Fletcher on Sunday night. Click here to watch the video (I've no idea who did the bloody awful animations).
Alan Fletcher - wake up at the back. Pay attention.
The Alan Fletcher exhibition started at the Design Museum yesterday. I've had a busy weekend, lots of functions to go to, you know the kind of thing. But this morning I had literally an hour to spare. So I thought I'd race down to the Design Museum, rush through the exhibition and race home again. It's OK, I'm planning on going a lot and I like visiting museums for a short amount of time. I like challenging them to interest me.
And it was fantastic.
You know how you get excited about stuff and then the actual experience doesn't quite live up to it? England's performance in the World Cup, a new Oasis album, Hollywood blockbusters, all spring to mind. The Alan Fletcher exhibition is the opposite of that. By God it's good. Short (this is the Design Museum) but brilliant.
Lots of stuff from the early days. Lots of stuff that isn't in Beware Wet Paint or Sideways. Lots of commercial stuff that I hadn't seen before. Lots of big stuff. A six foot Reuters logo with the holes cut out. Collages made for Paola.
(That's Alan on the left. I can't help thinking the world would be a better place if creatives dressed like this now, and not like thirteen year olds at a surfer themed fancy dress party.)
You're getting excited aren't you? Sadly after this photograph my camera died. So you'll have to wait for a full review. That's a big, big shame because there was loads of stuff I wanted to share with you, my beloved listeners. Sorry about that.
At the exhibition you get given this lovely thing all about Fletcher. You know those things you get at museums. This one is a little different.
It has all the text and info and stuff.
It also has ten wonderful pictures from inside his home/studio.
This reveals so much about the man. How the boundaries between work and home blur so completely if you're passionate about your job. It reveals the amazing magpie like brain he had and it makes you wish your house / studio looked like that.
I've decided that I'm going to make it my mission to get as many non-designers as I can down to the Design Museum. All you need is an hour to spare and seven of your English pounds. Russell, fancy having a coffee morning there?
I will go back and I will take more pictures and write a fuller review soon.
(Pictures taken from inthenews.co.uk and Pentagram respectively. With great thanks, usual stuff applies.)
I was listening to Howard Wilkinson talking about Alex Ferguson on Football Focus this morning and something he said reminded me of something Paula Scher said about Michael Bierut recently. And what struck me was the common thread running through both the quotes below and how that's often missing in young design students I meet.
Let's look at the two quotes:
"You talk to him about a league, a club, a player in any country in the world and he'll know about it. He's a walking football encyclopedia."
Howard Wilkinson on Alex Ferguson
"Michael Bierut knows every one of you, no matter what your age is. He knows your names, where you’re from, where you work, what you’ve designed, and whether it’s better or worse than the last thing you did. If he liked something you designed along the way, he probably sent you a little note telling you so. He may have even saved a design of yours that he came across, and it’s downstairs in his basement with the million other things he’s saved.
If he runs into you, he might reference something that influenced you, or he may know one of your clients, or he read an article that had direct bearing on something that involved you somehow, or he knew who you competed against on a project you just won. Maybe it was even him, and if it was, he’ll tell you so.
He seems to know all this stuff very naturally, like a guy who just coincidentally, has exactly the same interests that you do.
At Pentagram, he is an indispensible resource. Every partner relies on him for information, no matter how trivial. Mention a book to him and he’s read it and he’ll recommend two others like it that you will also enjoy. Bring up a song, he knows all the words and might entertain you with a stanza or two, and he manages to carry a tune. Reference a movie to him and he’s always seen it and can quote some relevant piece of dialog VERBATIM as if he had spent his entire life rehearsing for that moment when you’d bring it up. Mention a potential new project to him and he’ll know more than a bit about it and recommend the two three things he’s read in The Times on that subject, and then he’ll forward the articles to you.
Michael’s brain is a massive compendium that’s been carefully edited to contain the world’s most interesting stuff. Political stuff, cultural stuff, humanistic stuff, things all about you and me. Stuff that makes up the American experience."
Paula Scher on Michael Bierut (read the full speech here).
OK, there's several things here. Remember this? Look at point number one - find inspiration in everything. Both Fergie and Michael are demonstrating that above. Let's take Ferguson, do you think, at the level he's at, he really needs to know about every league in every country in the world? Probably not. Firstly he's probably got people to do that for him and secondly I imagine (like most professions) potential Man U players are selected from a fairly small pool. The same pool Arsenal, Chelsea, Madrid, Barcelona, etc are fishing from. But yet he's still following the minutiae of global football. Why? Because he has a real passion for the sport. And I'll bet he's inspired by some kid in an obscure league in Corsica.
The Michael Bierut example is more obvious. Books, songs, blogs, news articles, all this stuff is essential to a designer. It's one of the things I like about blogging. You can store stuff in your personal online archive and then come back to it whenever you like. It's easier to search than your brain. I don't really know Michael Bierut but we have shared the odd email conversation. And, like Paula says, he has sent me the odd note when I've written something that strikes a chord.
We get lots of students coming to see us. Portfolio surgeries, placements, friends of friends coming for a look around. One question we always ask is, what designers to you like at the moment? I'd say probably 60-70 percent can't name a single designer. Of the 30 odd percent that can name a designer or a design firm, it's always something really, really obvious or slightly off key like, 'Saatchis' or 'Phillipe Stark' or 'Richard Rogers' or something. Nothing wrong with those, but I want to hear NB Studios or Made Thought or GTF or Mark Farrow or even Peter bloody Saville would do.
Do you see what I'm getting at? Being interested in stuff matters. And it keeps on mattering even when you're as successful as Ferguson. Knowing your industry, being really, genuinely passionate about your industry matters. It really matters.
Both these men are senior in their fields. Both of them have achieved enough to sit back and take the plaudits. Both don't do that. Both of them have a passion for their work. Do you think it's a coincidence they're both still successful?
Josef Mueller-Brockmann is quite rightly worshiped by many designers. Via the brilliant Tina here's another chance to remember why. Gorgeous stuff.
(Picture probably owned by Mueller-Brockmann estate, used with thanks, usual stuff applies)
The next few posts are gonna be about cool stuff that you may or may not know about.
(Picture taken from Design Boom with huge thanks, usual stuff applies.)
The man above is called Milton. Everyone say 'Hello Milton'.
Milton Glaser is a genius. He designed this, for example.
Design Boom have a brilliant interview with him which includes this advice for young designers:
"it's a tough business,
you have to be amazingly consistent and persistent.
you have to work like hell.
you cannot become an excellent practioneer without constantly
working hard all your life. it is not an easy way to earn your money.
and... you have to be well trained and you have not to be narrow to
references, because everybody else is doing that at the same time."
Which, in my humble opinion, is invaluable.
Read the article here.
I said I would write something on the sad death of Alan Fletcher and that's what I've been trying to do yesterday and today.
(Picture taken from Culture Guide with huge thanks, usual stuff applies)
But the thing is I can't say any more than has been said here.
I never met Alan and so I can't reminisce like Michael does here. I'm presuming most of you reading this know who Alan Fletcher is, but if you don't I can't really add any more than his obituary in The Guardian, The Times or The Independent.
But I still feel like writing something about one of the greatest British graphic designers that ever lived. I'm very, very wary of sounding cheap or crass and I'm worried that the ephemeral nature of blogging is something that Alan Fletcher would have hated.
But here goes.
I think it might be a British thing and I think it might be a generation thing, but if you're my age (31) and you studied Graphic Design at a British University, then Pentagram are a bit like the Beatles. Sort of.
You hold them in such high esteem that even if everything the partners did from now on was rubbish they'd still be your heroes. The body of work that supports the myth is so strong, so unarguably good, they've earned a place in your personal hall of fame.
Sure people may knock them, or say they not as good as they used to be, but you know how good they are and you know that they invented the whole thing anything away.
You know how new bands (almost) always cite the Beatles as a major influence? It's the same with start up graphic design companies and Pentagram. It is with us.
Alan Fletcher formed Fletcher Forbes Gill in 1962 which became Crosby Fletcher Forbesand then Pentagram in 1972. All of these designers are brilliant in their own right but Fletcher deserves special attention.
Here's why.
1. This logo has it all. Elegance, simplicity, complexity, wit, modernity, longevity and a little twist.
2. He wrote and designed this brilliant book (planners especially will like this I think).
3. These are the gates to his house. Alphabet gates must be the dream of many a designer but few could have carried it off with such a deft touch.
(Picture taken from Essgee with huge thanks, usual stuff applies)
4. Talking of deft touches, he used a pencil more than he used a mouse (but he used a mouse). The sheep seemed relevant.
(Picture taken from Grace Days with huge thanks, usual stuff applies)
5. He designed the best ashtray ever.
And much, much more. I'm sure he would have hated computational creativity.
Recent Comments