Noisy Decent Graphics

The Science of Spying

Went to the excellent Science of Spying the other day. I had to really, after seeing Fiona's talk here.

And it was good. Very good. It's lots of fun and it's playful and informative and you know those Pixar movies where they say "it's great for kids on a kid level but it has so much to offer to adults too", well it's like that too.



The graphics are great and strike a nice mix between Orwellesque knowing sci-fi, modern graphics and just ,sort of, clear information.



I particularly liked these shadows which reflect that style you see all the time, most recently seen in Iain's Best Thing Online Ever, Fuzzwich.



These, of course, are the undoubted graphics star of the show. Enough has been said about these already, but they are bloody gorgeous. Who wouldn't want one at home?



Last but not these are these cute little POS devices. A nice way of displaying the obligatory souvenirs.



Some more graphics focused pictures here. Well worth a visit.

The Haçienda: Urbis Exhibition Review by Tom Shaw

I've only ever had one guest post before and that was from the unstoppable Marcus Brown.

Here's another one. Tom, one of my partners at TDC, went to see The Haçienda exhibition in Manchester  last weekend and I thought you guys would like to read a little review and look at some pictures.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Haçienda: Urbis Exhibition Review

It all started with my sister, like all people with an older sibling, they tend to dictate what we grow up listening to. Being 2 years older, she was always first with fashion and music. The 80s were a pretty special time - and Acid House was my Punk. My sister had the DMs with big safety pins, oversized secondhand jeans and Smiley Face tees. She also had a boyfriend who was very into the scene, bought all the records, and took turns on the decks at the local sticky floored nite spot, and went to the Haçienda.

I was 15 when I first heard about the Haçienda - that was 1988, the 'Second Summer of Love', everyone had smiley tee's, jeans were getting baggier, mens hair getting longer and the sun kept shining. I struggled to get into most clubs locally - I looked so young even with fake i.d. they turned me away! I was never asked for i.d. ever to get into the Haçienda, once when being searched at the door, a bouncer took my passport (my i.d. for the night) from inside my pocket... "Alright son, where you off then, on yer 'olidays... Ha ha ha".

Walk through the world famous Fac 51 doors at the Urbis exhibition and you get a really good display of what the Haçienda was all about, grouped both chronologically and thematically, it contains just about everything and anything from the history of the club.

There is a really great family tree which links all the people and events back to the club.

Previously unseen video footage showing the construction of the club, alongside a giant print of Tony Wilson, Peter Saville and Alan Erasmus,  a small amount of early Factory items, setting the scene for the Haçienda, and the visual style of the club.

You then get a great slice of design through the years, with early sketched visuals through to art work and finished items.

Alongside the 2D items, there are numerous videos to view - a whole room is The Fall in performance, as well as original scratch videos by Claude Bessy and Swivel.

One of my favorite items displayed had to be the 'original' neon bar sign for the Kim Philby Bar.

I thought I knew all the design done for the Haçienda, but I found items I had never seen, one of which was the all gold poster for Haçienda90 - a lush print of gold on gold, no copy other than the title...

Also featured are light boxes with Madonna's first UK appearance, a wall of logos, axonometric drawings of the club and lets not forget - FAC51-Y3 The Haçienda 25th Anniversary trainers designed for Y3 by Peter Saville and Ben Kelly.

The exhibition also traces the impact the club had in shaping the economic and urban development of the city.

A final, nice tough was the graphics and items that were created for the crew working on the film TwentyFourHourPartyPeople - Crew tees, invites to after show parties and viewing of the premier.

More pictures:

Global Cities: Tate Modern

I went to the Global Cities exhibition at the Tate Modern t'other day. On the recommendation of Lauren.

It's great, really good.

Scale, scale, scale. It has this really good scale thing going on. It's tall and narrow and crowded, y'know, like a city. (It's also free which is not at all like a city but bloody brilliant all the same.)

Graphics (by Pentagram) are really part of the exhibition. Integral to it, as you can see below.

It opens with this brilliant film which I think you can also see on the website, scroll down. There are some fascinating and useful facts. Dan and Matt would love it.

But the real star of the show are these 3D visualisations of city density. They're amazing. Dynamic, representative, appropriate. Worth the trip alone.

The other thing that struck me was how quickly these satellite style of images have entered the graphic language of 'city'. How familiar they seem now, when, visually, they're actually very unreal. You never actually see a city like that.

It's hard to explain what the exhibition is about. This Flickr set should help. Just go.

I saw a Degas on the way to work

And I saw a Constable too. All part of a campaign called The Grand Tour by the National Gallery, "A collection of priceless paintings set free around the streets of London".

Pretty bloody good it is too. More details here.

The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings

The other day I went to the Monet exhibition at the Royal Academy.

It's good. Very good. Much better than the lame, predictable poster for the show.

I've had an affection for Monet and the Royal Academy ever since my Mum took me to see the famous Monet in the 90's exhibition in 1990. Interestingly, Mum now says it was my reaction at seeing that exhibition that convinced her I was serious about this 'art thing'.

This new exhibition shows never seen before sketches and pastels from Monet, including some really early stuff and some preliminary sketches of some of his really famous works. It's a great exhibition and well worth a visit. It's small, but worth a visit.

There are some great caricatures that I didn't know Monet had started his career with. Alone they're not that stunning, but seen as the beginning to Monet's career they're fascinating.

Two pictures particularly struck me. They struck me because of their graphic qualities.

Seascape:Storm 1866

 

Towing A Boat, Honfleur 1864

Look at the drama. Look at the drama those simple compositions and simple colours convey (although you really have to visit the show to see the full effect). They're almost duotone images yet they're so rich in colour. The compositions are so simple, there's almost nothing in the pictures, yet the stories are so vivid. Really powerful stuff.

I love visiting art galleries. For me they're a huge source of inspiration - after all if you're a graphic designer the chances are you started out loving art and wanting to be some sort of artist. Art can teach you so much, light and dark, shape, form, spatial relationships, layering ideas, communicating messages, story telling and of course chiaroscuro.

Ladies who've just lunched.

One other thing about the exhibition. They had loads of Monet's sketch books which were fantastic, but obviously you couldn't touch them. So instead there was an interactive display. Most art galleries interactive things are shite. Complete bollocks. But this one was brilliant. You could flick through the pages and you could rotate them and you could zoom in and look at pages in really close detail. Brilliant.

A bad photograph taken by a bad cameraphone of a brilliant interactive display of a brilliant sketchbook.

Go and see the exhibition.

One Secret Is To Save Everything

More here.

A decent car design

I saw this car at a thing I went to the other day. I fully intended to give you an in depth NDG review, but I kind of forgot.

No bother, Beeker was there and she will explain all.

 

Only one weekend left

Is this graphic design?

(Before we get started let me restate that this is a blog about graphic design. I make no case for or against the political issues pictured below. There are plenty of political blogs and if you're interested in that sort of thing you could do worse than start here. OK. Pantones to the ready.)

Take a look at this. Is it graphic design?

It's a poster, it's been thought about, it's been considered. Not as obviously 'designed' as Lennon's anti-war posters but that type still fills that space on purpose. The colour has been used to highlight the message. The big text shows awareness that the poster will be read from a distance. All these posters are communicating a message. All of them have been created to get across a clear message to a clear target audience. So, in effect, it's been designed, right?

Except it's not design. It's art. Have a look at this picture.

At the weekend I went to see Mark Wallinger's exhibition State Britain.

For those of you who don't know the back story goes something like this. Way back in July 2001 Brian Haw began a protest in Parliament Square, London. Bang outside the entrance to the Houses of Parliament. He was protesting against the economic sanctions in Iraq.

Obviously, given the events of the rest of 2001 Brian's protest grew and grew. And so did his site along the edge of Parliament Square. It's hard to capture in a photograph but the protest ended up looking something like this.

Better, more comprehensive, pictures here. 

On 23 May 2006, following the passing by Parliament of the ‘Serious Organised Crime and Police Act’ all 'unauthorised' demonstrations within a one kilometre radius of Parliament Square were banned. Shortly afterwards the police raided Brain's protest and took all the posters down bar a short 6ft area.

It so happens that the one kilometre radius bisects Tate Britain (bisects it a little too perfectly for my cynical eye) hence Wallingers recreation of Haw's protest and hence the title State Britain. Each one of the posters (which were destroyed by the Police) were recreated in Wallinger's studio and are now on display in the Tate Britain. So that's art, then?

But a minute ago we thought it was graphic design, didn't we. So is it both? At least we can agree it's a protest, right? What if Charles Saatchi buys it for £1 million, what is it then?

And what about the target audience we talked about earlier. Are they still the same people the posters were intentionally created for? From a visual point of view the posters look better against the lush green grass and historic stone of Parliament Square. The protest had an organic, scrap book feel to it that added to the vernacular of the weathered posters.

I was very quickly stopped from taking pictures by the security guards in the gallery. Why? An art exhibit that charges the police with curtailing freedom of speech but you can't take pictures of it. Does anyone else find that odd? I can take pictures to my hearts content in the Design Museum.

I left with more questions than answers, which is maybe the point of art, but I'm sure these weren't the questions that Wallinger, Haw or the creators of the banners had in mind.

What do you think?

Elevenses with the A list

One of the things I like about blogging is that it gets you out of the office every now and then.

This morning to The Breakfast Club (which is becoming a bit like the Coach and Horses but with planners) where I had coffee with 0.4% of advertising's A list. And some other people. I love those Coffee Mornings. If you haven't been please try and make the effort before the year ends. You won't regret it. Lots of nice people sat around chatting about whatever.

You do not need to be a planner. You do not need to have a blog. You do not need to have a Phd in Brands. You do not need to be there at 11 on the dot. You don't even have to say anything. Just turn up.

On the way back I spotted this on Earlham Street.

So I had a look inside.

It's small but interesting. Graphic designers (or maybe just Airside, I'm not sure) have created screen prints of song lyrics. And you can buy them for Christmas. Particularly good if you're loved ones have this. 

Fletchr

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.

Let's See What Happens

You probably don't know that I'm contributing to Paul's 'Let's See What Happens' blog. As part of this I've reviewed 3 other exhibitions this weekend. If you're interested you'll find them here.

Inside 50 Years of Graphic Work (and Play)

(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.)

A first review of half an Alan Fletcher Exhibition

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.