Ghostvillage
In the January issue of Blueprint, we included graffiti artist collective Agents of Change in our list of 25 who will change architecture and design in 2010. For its Ghostvillage project in October 2009, the group created paintings on the walls throughout the abandoned village of Polphail in south-west Scotland. The project was carried out [...]
Typeface Architecture
‘If You Could Collaborate’, an exhibition that opens tomorrow night at the A Foundation Gallery in London, features work that marries the creative talents of industries that do not normally have an opportunity to interact. As part of the show, graphic designers Praline, who have worked with clients including Coca-Cola and ICI, chose to work with the model shop of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners Architects.
David Hillman: D&AD President’s Lectures 2009
Last night saw the third in the President’s lecture 2009 series at D&AD, and this time it was the turn of David Hillman to reflect on his life in editorial design. In a remarkable career that has spanned 50 years, he has worked for The Sunday Times, art directed at Nova, became a partner at [...]
TCHO: Graphics and Chocolate
Only in San Francisco could a former NASA space-shuttle technologist hook-up with a confectionary industry veteran and the founder of Wired magazine to launch an organic, anti-slavery chocolate. ‘Silicon Valley start-up meets San Francisco foodie culture’, as its website tells us self-consciously. TCHO (Technology CHOcolate) which launched its first variety to ‘beta testers’ (in the tradition [...]
Secret Wars: 100 Minutes of Havana
This year’s 100 Minutes of Havana event saw the Monorex (the guys behind Secret Wars) and Intercity crews take on the Havana Club’s freestyle drawing challenge. No sketches, no plans, just Edding pens, coloured acrylics and 100 minutes to fill a 16ft high by 40ft wide white wall. This was the first Secret Wars to [...]
Achtung! Erik Spiekermann
We all know that a quick sketch can be both the beginning of a process or the end of it. It all depends on what you call ‘designing’. Does it only happen while actually working on paper or screen, or does a problem, a brief, or a project leach itself to the inside of your [...]
Bibliothèque at the Barbican
For reasons not immediately obvious, 2009 is shaping up to be the British Year of Le Corbusier. RIBA has launched a season of exhibitions, talks, debates and workshops, including the 1:1 scale reconstruction of Le Corbusier’s seaside retreat, the Cabanon. The lynchpin of all this activity is Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture at [...]
SuperStories Graphics
Invitations arrive in the Blueprint post on a regular basis, and some are really good pieces of graphic design. But they often have limited print runs and only get seen if you are lucky enough to be on the mailing list. I usually keep the really good ones even after the event, but I have [...]
Noma Bar at BAFTA
One of our favourite illustrators, and a past-contributor to Blueprint, Noma Bar will be celebrated in a new exhibition that opens at BAFTA in central London this week. From Thursday on, visitors will be able to see examples of Bar’s funny, intelligent and consistently elegant work, focusing particularly on his portraits of celebrities (including Charlie [...]
Interview: Gary Hustwit, director of Helvetica and Objectified
When Helvetica, a documentary about the ubiquitous and famously functional typeface, was released in 2007, it gained more mainstream success than anyone expected. While it was never going to challenge Spiderman III for box office receipts, the film has been shown at film festivals around the world, won rave reviews – particularly from graphic designers [...]
Shepard Fairey: First Hope, then Trouble
Shepard Fairey, designer of the iconic Barrack Obama Hope poster, has been arrested in Boston under graffiti charges. Is this the first time someone on the shortlist for the Design Museum’s Designs of the Years awards has, simultaneously, faced a possible jail sentence? Almost certainly.
Wim Crouwel: A few thoughts
Last night Wim Crouwel, a true giant of graphic design, gave a talk at the London College of Communications. Along with showing some of his great poster designs and experiments with typography, he inspired the audience of design students with nuggets of wisdom from a six-decade career in graphic design. Here are a few choice [...]
