Design Week
21 February 2008
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A new breed
21 February 2008
Next week, the first fruit of Jaguar’s new design direction you can actually buy – the XF four-door coupe – goes on sale. Guy Bird spoke to two of the advanced design team helping to ditch the brand’s ‘pipe and slippers’ image
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A way of finding an affordable non-executive director
21 February 2008
Anton Jerges is right (DW 14 February), we all need someone to lean on, especially when running a small business. Unlike big consultancies with numerous specialists, smaller groups have one or two people doing everything. A non-executive director, who can take an objective view of a business, is a great idea. But designers should be aware that legislation has changed the role of non-execs, and good people may be less keen to commit. Being a non-exec is now riskier, and ...
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Airport lounges for Etihad in Abu Dhabi
21 February 2008
Etihad Airways will unveil the latest stage of its airport lounge and retail design programme next month, with the opening of its business class lounge in Abu Dhabi Airport and a second store in Abu Dhabi city centre.Above Consultancy has designed the new store and lounge for Etihad, which is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates.Above chief executive Ian Woodhouse says that the consultancy was employed by Etihad in November to design its business class and first ...
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Always in Vogue
21 February 2008
Flicking through the recently published book Vogue Covers - On Fashion's Front Page, you're struck by how these magazine covers so eloquently sum up the spirit of their age. Design, media, fashion (and even politics in the bleak October 1945 'Peace and Reconstruction' issue), ...
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Design industry welcomes creative economy programme
21 February 2008
The design industry has broadly welcomed the publication of the Government's 26-point 'plan' for the creative industries, published jointly by the Department for Culture, the Department for Business and the Department of Innovation last Friday.Two years in the making, the strategy document - Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy - finally emerges after a series of delays and redrafts prompted by the departures of two culture secretaries and the challenge of legislating ...
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Designers still need to watch out for the dreaded 'D' word
21 February 2008
Well done, Adrian Shaughnessy (DW 14 February). It is ironic that designers are rejecting the 'design' word when business has spotted that it can mean more than a quick website or new logo.
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Enterprise development company NStar
21 February 2008
Enterprise development company NStar is inviting companies in the North East to undergo assessment as part of its Step Forward diagnostic scheme. The benchmarking will allow companies to apply for up to £120 000 from its design and creative fund.
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Fat chance of designers tackling obesity threat
21 February 2008
Sarah Woods' article on obesity and design (DW 14 February) made me wonder if design has a responsibility. We've all been in a supermarket, drooling over certain products, encouraged by their enticing packaging. No one has a problem with this any more. These days, most packaging doesn't try to hide the guilty secrets of what's inside. Instead, it flaunts it, playing on our weakness for food treats. Gü - need I say more? However, while design has an important role to play ...
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Finnish design brand Littala
21 February 2008
Finnish design brand Littala will release its bi-annual limited edition Unique Days range between 26 and 29 March. This season's focus will be on pieces by iconic Finnish designer Alvar Aalto, post-war Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala and Finnish glass designer Oiva Toikka. The range will be available from Skandium, as well as Littala's own shops.
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Green path to a better world
21 February 2008
Promoting sustainable principles can mean more profits for you and your clients, says Sophie Thomas, and it’s good for the planet, too
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Indie band Elbow
21 February 2008
Indie band Elbow releases its latest single on 10 March with a sleeve crafted by Red Design. According to the consultancy, the artwork has a classic feel through the use of the Caslon font. A series of watercolour illustrations by Oliver East depict scenes of Manchester.
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Inspired, Gavin Tuck - Small Back Room
21 February 2008
My inspiration died a couple of months before I started on my foundation course. That didn't come out right. Raymond Loewy died in 1986, but it is the sheer variety of his work that has always inspired me.I'm no flag-waving fan of Americana, but have always been drawn to the beautiful execution of a simple idea. The medium of delivery being irrelevant.I can still remember coming across a Loewy book at college and being blown away by the scope of work. From the reflective ...
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Instrument manufacturer Violin Makers Scotland
21 February 2008
Instrument manufacturer Violin Makers Scotland has released a brochure and marketing materials by Nevis Design Consultants.
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Knoll Studio and Dovetail have joined forces
21 February 2008
Workplace furniture manufacturer Knoll Studio and contract office furniture group Dovetail have joined forces to create a roadshow of classic Ludwig Mies van der Rohe furniture from the 1930s. The aim is to celebrate more than 70 years of the designer's work, while showcasing some of his lesser known designs. The roadshow will visit various architects, including Gensler, GMW, BDP, Shepherd Robson and others in the London area.
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Love has developed a website for The Neighbourhood
21 February 2008
Manchester-based consultancy Love has developed a website for animation specialist The Neighbourhood.
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Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre
21 February 2008
Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre has unveiled new brochures and marketing materials designed by Funnel Creative.
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Merger of specialists to create Arts University Cornwall
21 February 2008
The South West region is a step closer to having a specialist arts university with the news that University College Falmouth and Dartington College are to merge.The merger in April between the renowned design, graphics and media school, and the music, theatre and dance institution, will pave the way for the new specialist Arts University Cornwall by 2012, says University College Falmouth principal Alan Livingston (pictured).Livingston explains that Dartington's need to ...
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New chairwoman for The Lighthouse
21 February 2008
The Lighthouse Trust, owner of Scotland's national architecture and design centre The Lighthouse, is appointing a new chairwoman to take over from Janice Kirkpatrick.Eleanor McAllister, currently managing director of urban regeneration project Clydebank Re-Built, will take over from Kirkpatrick this week.Kirkpatrick, also a director of Graven Images, has held the post since 2005. She introduced a rule that the chairperson must only hold the position for three years because, ...
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News in pictures
21 February 2008
Channel 4 digital offshoot E4 this week relaunches its music channel idents, with a new look devised by Mr & Mrs Smith Design.
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News in pictures
21 February 2008
The first details of graphic designer and novelist Chip Kidd's new book have emerged this week. The Learners focuses on Happy, a designer who lands a job with ad agency Sketch during the 1960s. Working on an assignment to design a press ad recruiting people for an experiment at Yale's psychology department, Happy can't resist responding to the ad, forcing him to confront issues of identity.
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Profile
21 February 2008
More men in sheds than men about town, John Holton and Simon Myers created a strategic brand consultancy with top-tier clients from a garage in Notting Hill. Mike Exon explains what drives their success
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Publishing & Design supplement brought to book
21 February 2008
I much enjoyed the Publishing & Design supplement (DW 7 February), but was disappointed at the invisibility of illustrated book design.
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Reconceiving a 'country estate' with Ardill and Sea
21 February 2008
Shropshire country estate Sansaw is being redeveloped in conjunction with design consultant Ralph Ardill and Sea Design to make it a blueprint for 'modern rural living'.The estate's new business park, The Pavilions, will open in May and will include a firm of chartered surveyors, farm shops and architects.James Thompson, manager of Sansaw, says, 'The concept of modern, rural living underpins everything that we are trying to achieve with our eco-friendly retail business.'Ardill ...
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Room for more integration of design and architecture
21 February 2008
Could these be anything other than architects? observed the Brazilian cultural attaché as he surveyed the room at the Royal Institute of British Architects' dinner to bestow the Royal Gold Medal on Ted Cullinan earlier this month.Cullinan was a popular choice for this well-deserved ...
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Rounding up the animation festivals
21 February 2008
New outlets like mobiles and YouTube have boosted exposure for AV film-makers, but, as recent releases show, the ideas and talent are equally innovative, says Yolanda Zappaterra
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Skratch
21 February 2008
Skratch has designed the identity and marketing materials for Edinburgh’s Spirit Lantern Festival, which runs until 9 March.
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The London Festival of Architecture 2008
21 February 2008
The London Festival of Architecture 2008 has been awarded £90 000 towards its forthcoming summer event by the Arts Council England.
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The Public finally goes public
21 February 2008
West Bromwich’s new arts centre has had a long gestation, but the fruits of its £50m budget are soon to see the light of day, says Emily Pacey
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The Royal College of Art’s new Battersea campus
21 February 2008
The Royal College of Art’s new Battersea campus has been given the go-ahead by Wandsworth Council. It will house the college’s schools of fine and applied art.
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Turkish delight for Four IV as it designs Naked Istanbul stores
21 February 2008
A new store, Naked, designed by Four IV, the consultancy behind Istanbul's Harvey Nichols store, opens for the first time tomorrow in Turkey.The store is in Istanbul's Istinye Park mall, while a second will open on 6 March in the Asian side of the city.Unitim, which owns Naked and the Harvey Nichols franchise in Turkey, asked Four IV to work on designs in July, after it worked on Harvey Nichols.The store is Unitim's first retail concept and is intended to be ...
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Universal truths
21 February 2008
British-born painter Gerald Laing was part of the 1960s Pop Art movement, capturing that era's cultural icons with the gloss of advertising's mass aesthetic. This show presents paintings he did in 2004-5, revisiting his old style to depict the harrowing abuses in Abu Ghraib jail, carried out by Allied officers against Iraqi prisoners. It's a strange juxtaposition. These aesthetic tropes appear as capable of expressing uncomfortable truths today as the original Pop Art was. James Rosenquist's ...
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Voxpop
21 February 2008
Bottled-water brands look set to suffer as a result of Thames Water's push to get Londoners to behave sustainably and drink more tap water. How might bottled-water brands rethink their strategy?'Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.' I do know, for hundreds of millions of ...
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What's in store at Terminal 5?
21 February 2008
Air passengers are captive shoppers, a fact which airports have long known and which BAA acknowledges with its plush retail zones at Heathrow’s Terminal 5. But do they enhance the travel experience? asks Scott Billings
