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Conference of the Birds

Tue, 17 Apr 2012

The Conference of the Birds is a  beautiful graphic novel that places a 12th Century Persian epic poem firmly into the 21st Century.

Northern Arts Uncovered

Mon, 16 Apr 2012

A new event focused on art and design in Leeds.

Olympic design

Fri, 13 Apr 2012

Getting under the skin of some iconic Olympics projects.

For the Love of Books

Fri, 13 Apr 2012

A new show treats books as a work of art.

Look Like Love

Thu, 12 Apr 2012

Irked by the lack of support available to graduates, chums Kate Brewer and Eden Asfaha decided to take matters into their own hands, creating the cute, alliterative Look Like Love initiative.

Southbank Centre to focus on contemporary Indian design

Wed, 11 Apr 2012

The Southbank Centre is putting Indian design high on the agenda of its Alchemy Festival of South Asian Culture this month.

How digital technology and packaging build brand experience

Wed, 11 Apr 2012

Osborne Pike’s Steve Osborne looks at how packaging can harness new technologies.

Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts

Tue, 10 Apr 2012

Next week sees the opening of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts, an 18-day celebration of art that curators say focuses on ‘the real, the physical and the very tangible.’

Nike brings athletes and designers together for Boxpark exhibition

Thu, 5 Apr 2012

Nike has paired 11 UK athletes including Mo Farah and Perri Shakes-Drayton with East London artists including Lucas Dillon and Matthew Bromley for an exhibition this evening at retail development Boxpark.

Things We Like

Thu, 5 Apr 2012

Our weekly round-up of things we like on the Design Week news desk.

It's Dark in London

Wed, 4 Apr 2012

‘Here we see a city of looming towers, shadowy embankment and subterranean sleaze; of public bars and private vices; of huckster artists, strippers, vandals, thugs and addicts.’

Benetton’s survival guides

Tue, 3 Apr 2012

Benetton is holding an exhibition at London’s Design Museum and silmultaneous shows across its London, Milan, Barcelona and Paris stores inspired by the its recent Colors magazine trilogy.

Bare Bones

Tue, 3 Apr 2012

Waging war against the ‘facile and pointless’, publication Bare Bones is an unflinching upholder of rawness, creativity, experimentation and the notion of the free press.

Create 2012

Mon, 2 Apr 2012

Arts organisation Create - part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad - has announced its summer programme, featuring works from David Bailey, Something & Son, Dominic Wilcox and Jeremy Deller.

Things We Like

Fri, 30 Mar 2012

Our weekly round-up of things we like on the Design Week news desk.

Where are all the women in design?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012

Where are all the women in design? The question has been a hot topic in over the past couple of weeks.

British Design from 1948: Innovation in the Modern Age at the V&A

Thu, 29 Mar 2012

Yesterday saw the opening on the Victoria and Albert Museum’s exhibition British Design from 1948: Innovation in the Modern Age - a cornucopia of the best of British design from the ‘austerity games’ of 1948 to the present day.

Art at Latitude Festival 2012

Wed, 28 Mar 2012

Now in its third year, Latitude Festival’s Contemporary Art prize is back with what’s set to be a dazzling woodland exhibition of nominated works from Linder Sterling, Tom Dale, Andy Holden, George Young and Lisa Peachey.

Jamaica Street Artists Collective announces open studio weekend

Wed, 28 Mar 2012

Bristol’s Jamaica Street Artists collective - which comprises 42 artists - is preparing to host its annual Open Studios event to share the work of editorial, comic book, children’s book, animation and conceptual illustrators.

Making WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing

Tue, 27 Mar 2012

Nakedness is almost always an excellent idea.Cleanliness is next to impossible (but keep trying anyway)

Museum of London youth panel commissions Olly Gibbs to work on Roman exhibition

Mon, 26 Mar 2012

As the Museum of London awaits an overhaul of its Roman Galleries - a project expected to take some years – its youth panel, Junction, will oversee the gallery’s short term curation.

Malcolm Garrett and Kate Moross discuss Music x The Graphic Arts

Mon, 26 Mar 2012

Bands, artists and record labels - as we’re sure you don’t need us to point out - are frequently as recognisable for their graphics and record sleeves as for the music they release.

Things We Like

Fri, 23 Mar 2012

Our weekly round-up of things we like on the Design Week news desk.

Street artist ROA heads to London for book launch and exhibition

Thu, 22 Mar 2012

Belgian street artist ROA’s towering monochrome animal murals have become a regular sight in many cities.

Mind the Map

Thu, 22 Mar 2012

Where would we be without maps? Lost, probably - particularly when it comes to navigating the labyrinthine London transport system.

Photographer's Gallery's new home's opening festivities

Wed, 21 Mar 2012

The new Photographer’s Gallery in London is set to open the doors to its new home in May, and its naissance will be accompanied by a jam-packed schedule of talks, events and two wonderful opening shows.

Art & Sole collaborates with Nike on Cortez project

Tue, 20 Mar 2012

Book and blog Art & Sole - run by purveyors of sneaker culture and graphic designers Intercity – has shoe-horned the creative talents of artists including Rose Stallard and Matthew Nicholson into the NikeiD Studio shop in the Boxpark shopping mall, East London.

Fierce Festival 2012

Tue, 20 Mar 2012

There aren’t many festivals where it doesn’t raise an eyebrow that one of the line-up highlights is set to be a full reconstruction of the United Nations Congress, where each delegate is represented by a dachshund.

Experiments in analogue and digital in The Frontroom

Mon, 19 Mar 2012

Illustrators Jack Featherstone and Max Parsons are taking Template, a new site specific work, to The Frontroom Gallery in Cambridge where they’ve experimented with analogue and digital processes.

Editorial - Making it easier to break into the industry

Fri, 16 Mar 2012

Last summer, as news was breaking that universities would be able to charge up to £9000 per year in tuition fees, I remember discussing with colleagues a follow-up piece that would look at alternative routes into the design industry for people who were unable to afford to pay for a degree course.

Things We Like

Fri, 16 Mar 2012

Our weekly round-up of things we like on the Design Week news desk.

Designing for the birds and bees

Thu, 15 Mar 2012

Designs for urban bee hives, bat boxes and bird boxes are going on show in London as part of a project that aims to provide wildlife habitats in the capital.

Alan Turing commemorated by Science Museum

Wed, 14 Mar 2012

Alan Turing, the scientist credited with a string of computing firsts, including the invention of the Bombe machines which broke German Enigma codes in WWII, is to be celebrated in a new Science Museum exhibition designed by Nissen Richards.

Flatpack Festival 2012

Wed, 14 Mar 2012

Misspent youth, vampire motorcycles and attic explorations will all be making an appearance at this year’s Flatpack film Festival, which opens across various Birmingham locations today.

Are these chairs making you hungry?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012

A new show at London’s Viaduct furniture showroom aims to examine the relationship between food and design by tasking three top chefs to devise a series of menus in response to 15 chair designs.

Making Magazines

Mon, 12 Mar 2012

Editorial design gurus Jeremy Leslie of Magculture and Simon Esterson of Eye are organising new one-day conference Making Magazines, which is being held on Friday.

How to increase the value of your consultancy

Mon, 12 Mar 2012

If you’re thinking of one day selling your consultancy, or just want to plan for the future, Jonathan Kirk and Jack O’Hern offer advice on making your business more valuable.

Join us at the Design Week Awards

Fri, 9 Mar 2012

Come and join us at the 2012 Design Week Awards night - to be held on 13 June.

Designer Breakfasts are back

Thu, 8 Mar 2012

The Designer Breakfasts series of talks is returning for 2012 at a new venue - the Design Museum in London.

British Posters: Advertising, Art and Activism

Thu, 8 Mar 2012

Although it goes without saying that in an age driven by digital, the role of the poster is rapidly changing, British Posters: Advertising, Art and Activism demonstrates the enduring importance of posters as a hugely powerful medium.

Paul Schütze’s multi-sensory Air into Light

Wed, 7 Mar 2012

While much of his work is, indeed, smoke and mirrors, the stunning photographic prints of composer-cum-artist Paul Schütze also take in skulls, typewriters, frozen ink and dissolving flowers.

Kenneth Grange and David Adjaye on collaboration

Tue, 6 Mar 2012

The Society for Environmental Graphic Design is bringing an impressive host of speakers to London for its 2012 International Symposium.

Graphic Thought Facility Lecture

Tue, 6 Mar 2012

Back in January, Laurence King Publishers hosted a lecture by Thomas Heatherwick, and now, in the second of the series, Graphic Thought Facility will be sharing their knowledge with a design-hungry audience.

Duvel beer glassware design competition winners announced

Mon, 5 Mar 2012

Back in November, Belgian beer brand Duvel launched a competition across the UK, France, The Netherlands and Belgium to create a design for its curvy signature glasses.

Things We Like

Mon, 5 Mar 2012

Our weekly round-up of things we like on the Design Week news desk.

How to succeed in retail design - the client’s view

Fri, 2 Mar 2012

Richard Newland, former global head of design and development at HSBC, looks at how consultancies can stand out to clients in the fast-changing retail world.

Talk About Contemporary Photography

Thu, 1 Mar 2012

What links a man incarcerating himself in a student locker for five days; and a Selfridges ad campaign?

Lufthansa and graphic design

Wed, 29 Feb 2012

Lufthansa and Graphic Design, a new title from Swiss publisher Lars Müller looks at the graphic design history of German national airline Lufthansa, from its beginnings in the 1920s right up until the present day.

No Brow's Brilliant New Books

Wed, 29 Feb 2012

While many profess to ‘lol’, when we imagine they probably aren’t - we did, yes, literally laugh at loud on reading the marvellous new comic from publishers No Brow, Leeroy and Popo.

'The most glamourous flea market' comes to Soho

Tue, 28 Feb 2012

This May will see the grand unveiling of the one-day City Showcase: Soho Flea Market in Dean Street, London, showcasing the work of emerging design and art talent over about 80 stalls - what we’re promised will be the ‘most glamourous’ Flea Market you’ve ever seen.

An Alphabet of London

Mon, 27 Feb 2012

‘Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford,’ wrote Samuel Johnson in 1777.

Printed Matter

Mon, 27 Feb 2012

While Hirst, Chapman and Perry may initially make us think formaldehyde, prosthetic genitals and subversive pottery; a new show opening at London’s Eleven gallery in March will show that there’s another, more two-dimensional side to these figures.

Editorial - The story behind the Boris bus

Fri, 24 Feb 2012

Heatherwick Studio’s new bus for London is finally set to launch, after what’s been a pretty haphazard commissioning journey.

MARK furniture and Kvadrat to reveal secrets

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Cornish furniture brand MARK has teamed up with Danish textile company Kvadrat – no stranger to collaboration - for an exhibition on the making process of furniture.

Broken Fingaz Crew is coming to London

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Israeli street-art troupe Broken Fingaz Crew began working in 2001 in the port of Haifa, and in a few months, the crew will be descending on London for a show at east London’s shop 13 at the Old Truman Brewery.

Pointe Blank

Wed, 22 Feb 2012

June last year saw Birmingham Royal Ballet hosting a collection of beautiful designs based on the ballet Coppélia, and now the company is hosting another crop of dance-inspired artworks.

UCA students work with United Colours of Benetton

Tue, 21 Feb 2012

United Colours of Benetton has turned to the University of The Creative Arts for a global digital window display project.

Lines of Thought

Tue, 21 Feb 2012

A series of installations, photographs and other artworks that explore the use of line are going on show at east London’s Parasol Unit next week, exploring how the meaning and use of line varies from artist to artist and generation to generation.

These drawings were sent to walk amongst you

Mon, 20 Feb 2012

‘I have never found my voice’, says artist Paul Davis, ‘That’s the beauty of it, you never do - it’s an impossibility as an artist.’

Open air street gallery

Fri, 17 Feb 2012

Under an open sky, fully exposed to the elements, London’s Mortimer Street will become a 114m photography gallery next week.

Editorial - A design that’s changed laws in 17 countries? Now that’s effective

Fri, 17 Feb 2012

There were some great examples of the power of design last week at the Design Business Association’s Design Effectiveness Awards - as you might expect.

A cracking project

Thu, 16 Feb 2012

Egg-cellent news for egg-lovers - Fabergé is hosting an egg-straordinary egg-stravaganza of an egg-hunt on the streets of London later this month, and they’re not even yolking.

Kites swoop into The Public gallery

Wed, 15 Feb 2012

Taking inspiration from geometric rock forms found in the US desert town of Quartzsite, Arizona, artists Heather and Ivan Morison have designed a pair of kite structures for West Bromwich based gallery The Public as part of its Art of Architecture season.

Dead men's tailoring as art with Sheridan & Co

Wed, 15 Feb 2012

It’s a sobering thought to think about what will be left behind after we die. Fond memories of us perhaps? An unwashed mug in the sink? For those wealthy and sartorial enough there are also the bespoke tailoring patterns used to make suits, something artist Hormazd Narielwalla uses as the rather eerie inspiration for his work.

Design Week talks to multidisciplinary designer Ron Arad

Tue, 14 Feb 2012

Big or small; practical or impractical; art or design or architecture - there are few things multidisciplinary hat-sporting designer Ron Arad won’t turn his hand to. To slip into a (very accurate) cliché, Arad is a primary example of a designer who deftly defies categorisation.

Back to Basics flyers

Mon, 13 Feb 2012

A stalwart of the Leeds club scene for 20 years, iconic house night Back To Basics is renowned for both its music and its flyer artwork - a familiar sight around the city.

Design Week Awards entry deadline extended to 23 February

Mon, 13 Feb 2012

The entry deadline for this year’s Design Week Awards has been extended to midnight on 23 February, so there’s still time to get your entries in.

Monsters and Marmite - an interview with Pete Fowler

Fri, 10 Feb 2012

Today sees the launch of three Valentine e-cards for Marmite, created by ‘monsterist’ (and illustrator, painter, musician, iPad doodler and producer) Pete Fowler. We caught up with him to chat monsters, psychedelia, iPads and, of course, Marmite.

ICA presents talks inspired by The Themersons

Thu, 9 Feb 2012

The Institute of Contemporary Art will present a day of talks to support its new exhibition The Themersons & Gaberbocchus Press

Works on Paper at EB&Flow

Thu, 9 Feb 2012

Paper is at the centre of a group show opening today at east London’s EB&Flow Gallery, looking at the material’s use as medium, surface and as a tool in preparatory studies.

Muji’s product fitness

Wed, 8 Feb 2012

Japanese brand Muji is to hold an exhibition at the Design Museum next month, which it says will highlight its ‘less is more’ approach to packaging and design.

Designing our future - a guest blog by Mat Hunter

Tue, 7 Feb 2012

A guest blog by Design Council chief design officer Mat Hunter on how the design community might respond to the UK’s aging population

How the Web changed the world

Tue, 7 Feb 2012

Last summer, the National Media Museum in Bradford began a search for artworks for its new Life Online Galleries, which are being designed by Start JG.

British Library Spring Fair

Mon, 6 Feb 2012

The British Library is set to host its inaugural Spring Fair, a huge festival of creativity, with a cast of characters including Jamie Hewlett, Neville Brody and Mr Scruff.

Editorial - new faces in academia

Fri, 3 Feb 2012

A couple of interesting appointments in the higher education world over the last week, one rather unexpected and one slightly more predictable (and very welcome).

‘If you could give the consultancy one piece of advice, what would it be?’

Fri, 3 Feb 2012

Business development expert Jonathan Kirk has conducted hundreds of client interviews on behalf of design consultancies. In this guest blog, he tells us what happens when he asks the question, ‘If you could give the consultancy one piece of advice, what would it be?’

See the entries so far to this year’s Design Week Awards

Thu, 2 Feb 2012

You can see the entries so far to the 2012 Design Week Awards on our Entry Showcase.

NUCA presents The Magic Theatre exhibition

Wed, 1 Feb 2012

Norwich University College of the Arts will present The Magic Theatre next week, an exhibition of works by the Time and Being collective, plus international graphic artists including Audrey Niffenegger. There’s also a new piece from Quentin Blake.

Painting skills from Band of Skulls

Wed, 1 Feb 2012

There’s no shortage of bands creating their own artwork: from John Squire’s Jackson Pollock-inspired artworks for the Stone Roses; to Graham Coxon’s haunting paintings on Blur’s 13 album; to Flaming Lips and  Daniel Johnston’s adorably mournful alien - the list is endless.

Cross-disciplinary design in a church

Tue, 31 Jan 2012

Drift, an upcoming art, architecture and design show, is taking place in a rather unusual venue - a central London church.

Community Kite Project

Mon, 30 Jan 2012

Designers and social innovators Tom Tobia, Jo Peel and Christopher Jarratt are bringing together leading illustrators and the public in a free Community Kite Project.

Robert Montgomery - It Turned Out This Way Cos You Dreamed It This Way

Mon, 30 Jan 2012

Design Week catches up with artist Robert Montgomery at what must be a very frustrating moment.

Jealous prints coming to Heal's

Fri, 27 Jan 2012

Heal’s flagship store on London’s Tottenham Court Road is set to be transformed into a creative hot-house, thanks to Jealous printmaking studio and gallery, who are setting up a print workshop in the windows.

Pick Me Up returns to Somerset House

Thu, 26 Jan 2012

Graphic art event Pick Me Up will return to Somerset House in March with its fair and exhibition, with new features including a residency space hosted by ‘Heroes and Legends’ of the industry.

Marcus Lyall and Adam Smith on bringing Chemical Brothers Don't Think film to life

Thu, 26 Jan 2012

Terrifying snaggle-toothed clowns; enormous bugs sprawling in the mud; bionic dancers; white elephants - all par for the course in a Chemical Brothers live show. Whatever your views on the duo music-wise, there’s no doubt that the visual side of their shows is a force to be reckoned with - as documented in the visceral, vibrant and downright scary Don’t Think film. The concert film, shot at Fuji Rock Festival last year,  is directed by long-term visuals collaborator Adam Smith and produced ...

Daniel Eatock adds one and one together

Wed, 25 Jan 2012

What does a horse have in common with a sheep? What unites a radiator and a fan? And who knew a watermelon could look so chic in a swimming cap?

Award-winning British design

Tue, 24 Jan 2012

With the Victoria & Albert Museum finalising plans for its spring blockbuster British Design 1948-2012, the museum’s publishing division has released a small aperitif in the form of new book Award Winning British Design.

Weighted Words at the Zabludowicz Collection

Tue, 24 Jan 2012

‘Words are stupid, words are fun, Words can put you on the run’, stated Tom Tom Club, in their hit Wordy Rappinghood. They went on to question, ‘what are words worth?’

Trafalgar Square to host giant child on rocking horse

Mon, 23 Jan 2012

A subversive equestrian statue - a child on a rocking horse - is set to grace the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square from next month.

Renault looks to students for car design competition

Fri, 20 Jan 2012

Renault has launched a student graphics competition to design a paint job for its new two seater Twizy and offered to pay the winner’s tuition fees for a year.

Things We Like

Fri, 20 Jan 2012

Our weekly round-up of things we like on the Design Week news desk.

How (and why) to rescue HMV

Thu, 19 Jan 2012

Should ailing high-street brand HMV be rescued? Guest blogger Steve Price says it should. Here’s why and how.

Is a Hockney painting still a Hockney painting when it’s created on an iPad?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012

David Hockney’s latest exhibition, A Bigger Picture, is made up of  more than 150 colourful landscapes of the Yorkshire countryside, 51 of which are blown up prints created using an iPad app.

Random Postcard Project

Wed, 18 Jan 2012

The Random Project was born back in 2006, when the former London College of Communications Experimental Type students who make up Random collective decided to take their typography-led design onto postcard format.

Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and Designersblock at Interiors UK

Tue, 17 Jan 2012

This weekend sees the opening of the Interiors UK show in Birmingham, featuring more than 600 exhibitors showing work including fabrics, furniture, flooring and other homewares.

Smile, please

Mon, 16 Jan 2012

Travelling on the London Underground is rarely a laugh-a-minute experience, but rush-hour Tube commuters might have something to chuckle about from today onwards, thanks to the Word In Motion animated poetry initiative.

Augmented reality porcelain plate

Mon, 16 Jan 2012

What if we could make pottery more exciting? What if, like in Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn we could we could, well, make it come to life a bit?

Things We Like

Fri, 13 Jan 2012

Our weekly round-up of things we like on the Design Week news desk.

Comics, illustrations and music

Thu, 12 Jan 2012

Ninja Tune artist Strictly Kev, of DJ Food, is such a fan of comic book illustrator Henry Flint - whose pensmanship can be seen in 2000AD and other titles - that he commissioned Flint to create the cover of his forthcoming album, The Search Engine.

Design Week Awards - Early bird deadline approaching

Thu, 12 Jan 2012

There’s just one week to go before the early bird deadline for entries to this year’s Design Week Awards.

Donald Judd Drawings

Wed, 11 Jan 2012

An exhibition opening this Friday at Sprüth Magers London will display three-dimensional drawings by the American artist Donald Judd, who is perhaps best known for his associations with Minimalism.

Ex-BMW designer Chris Bangle launches car design competition

Tue, 10 Jan 2012

Car designer Chris Bangle is inviting design students to compete for a chance to have their work featured in his fictional account of the car industry, set 25 years into the future. 

One Room, Three Global Names

Tue, 10 Jan 2012

Video-magazine website Crane.tv is taking the online offline in a new series of exhibitions entitled One Room, Three Global Names at London’s St Martin’s Lane Hotel, which will showcase objects by the site’s favourite designers.

Design at Home

Mon, 9 Jan 2012

Making its debut on the events scene this month is new interior design show Home, which launches at London’s Earls Court this week.

Harry Pearce to talk about his dreams

Fri, 6 Jan 2012

Pentagram partner Harry Pearce is to give a non-scripted talk on turning dreams into creative reality.

Things We Like

Fri, 6 Jan 2012

Our first weekly round-up of things we like on the Design Week newsdesk of 2012.

Visions for the future of Greece

Thu, 5 Jan 2012

With Greece at a turning point in its history, facing potential economic default and ejection from the Eurozone, biennial Athens design festival Design Walk has invited Greek design studios to present their visions for the country’s future.

Best Art Vinyl 2011

Wed, 4 Jan 2012

Zack Nipper’s design for The People’s Key LP by Bright Eyes has been awarded as the best cover design of 2011 in the Art Vinyl Awards.

Making Time

Wed, 4 Jan 2012

If the Mayans are right and the world really will be ending on 21 December this year - yes, only 351 days away - we may as well be counting our remaining 8424 hours or so down in style.

Great British illustration at the Kemistry Gallery

Tue, 3 Jan 2012

Start the year as you mean to go on with some great British illustration, courtesy of London’s Kemistry gallery.

A final Christmas round-up

Fri, 23 Dec 2011

Another drift of Christmas related design projects has swept in, so here we bring you a final installment.

Brains: the mind as a matter

Thu, 22 Dec 2011

The Wellcome Collection looks set to continue to charter its niche, peculiar and brilliant exhibition territory next year, following the announcement of Brains: the mind as a matter.

Social Fabric

Thu, 22 Dec 2011

From the Bayeux tapestry’s insights into the Norman Conquest to Tracey Emin’s appliquéd memoirs, textiles often belie their soft appearance to explore some pretty hefty subjects.

Graduate interview advice for January job hunts - guest blog from Paul Mellor

Wed, 21 Dec 2011

A guest blog from Paul Mellor, creative director of consultancy Mellor & Scott.

In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists Since 1955

Tue, 20 Dec 2011

Often the pursuit of young professional artists, serialised magazine and postcard publications have long been a place to explore off-kilter and experimental work.

Portraits of the artist

Tue, 20 Dec 2011

The National Portrait Gallery in London is holding a show paying tribute to Pop Art pioneer Richard Hamilton, who died in September at the age of 89.

Up to Us by Rob Self-Pierson

Mon, 19 Dec 2011

 A guest blog from copywriter and 26 collective board member Rob Self-Pierson on banishing jargon.

And another Christmas round-up

Fri, 16 Dec 2011

The design-related Christmas goodies keep pouring in to DW, so here’s another round-up of some of our recent faves. You can also see our earlier round-ups here and here

Things We Like

Fri, 16 Dec 2011

Our weekly round up of things we like on the Design Week news desk.

At Home with the World

Thu, 15 Dec 2011

A new exhibition will show how design influences from distant lands have shaped homes in England over a period spanning four centuries.

Samsung Innovative Art Prize

Wed, 14 Dec 2011

Samsung has launched its Innovative Art Prize for new media art and named a shortlist of 10 artists including Torsten Lauschmann and Doug Fishbone.

Heatherwick’s solo show

Wed, 14 Dec 2011

As part of next year’s Cultural Olympiad, the Victoria & Albert Museum is holding a major solo show of Heatherwick Studio’s work.

Crafts Council Pattern Cutting Party

Tue, 13 Dec 2011

The Crafts Council is set to launch a new touring exhibition looking at how the technique of pattern-cutting can be used beyond the fashion garment.

Design consultancy 20.20 immortalises three Arsenal legends

Mon, 12 Dec 2011

It was part of the London football club’s 125th anniversary celebrations. Scores of Arsenal fans braved the freezing weather last Friday afternoon to witness the unveiling of statues of three club legends - manager Herbert Chapman and players Tony Adams and Thierry Henry.

We are the Robots

Fri, 9 Dec 2011

Thanks to European Robot week , the clever critters have been everywhere lately. Now, thanks to published Self Made Hero, they’re being celebrated in graphic novel form.

Another Christmas round-up

Fri, 9 Dec 2011

With Christmas getting ever closer on the horizon, we present another round-up of design-related festive goodies.

Boombox

Thu, 8 Dec 2011

Featured in cult films like Say Anything and Do the Right Thing, as well as in more recent music videos like Madonna’s Hung Up, the boombox was a symbol of rebellion, freedom and innovation.

Modern Toss 2011 Seasonal Blow Out

Wed, 7 Dec 2011

Satirical agit-scamp illustrators, animators, cartoonists and purveyors of inventive swearing Modern Toss are bringing together their 2011 body of work for a seasonal hoedown.

Cambridgeshire Design Icons

Wed, 7 Dec 2011

A mop, a guitar capo and a digital cat-flap are among a series of products designed in Cambridgeshire that are being celebrated in next year’s Design Icons show.

No Brow

Tue, 6 Dec 2011

Over the last couple of weeks, a lot of strange things have arrived on the Design Week news desk: a sprout in a box; popping candy chocolate; some orthopaedic shoes.

Amnesty International - Making The Invisible Visible

Mon, 5 Dec 2011

Lisa Jelliffe and Kirsten Rutherford from Wieden + Kennedy have come together with street artist collective Mentalgassi  for an Europe-wide Amnesty International project, Making The Invisible Visible.Video:

Poundshop

Mon, 5 Dec 2011

While we’re rather tired of the idea of ‘pop-ups’, we’ll make an exception for Poundshop, opening for just three days this weekend.

Things we like

Fri, 2 Dec 2011

Jan Švankmajer’s Surviving LifeJan Švankmajer’s Surviving Life

Review of Shoreditch's Boxpark mall

Thu, 1 Dec 2011

‘I believe I’ve connected the dots of my life’, announces Roger Wade, founder of Boxpark, at the launch of what he claims to be ‘the world’s first pop up mall’ in east London this morning.

Reinventing Screenprinting

Thu, 1 Dec 2011

This week sees the launch of Reinventing Screen-printing: a stunning book by London-based illustrator and screen-printer, Caspar Williamson, and designed by Stuart Tolley at Transmission.

Figtree founder Simon Myers on generous organisations

Wed, 30 Nov 2011

Figtree founder Simon Myers and author Laurence Shorter have launched the Generous Organisation, which aims to highlight and showcase businesses that display ‘generous behaviours’ and are likely to be set for future success. Myers outlines the thinking behind the initiative.

Turning the Tables

Tue, 29 Nov 2011

The Turning The Tables exhibition will see the aforementioned tables turned on 13 architecture practices, who have taken on the role of designers and makers by creating their own furniture pieces.

East London Design Show

Tue, 29 Nov 2011

It seems like only yesterday we brought you news of the East London Design Show 2010 - and now it’s back, bringing a host of designers and designer-makers together to battle their way through the cast of The Only Way is Dalston to Shoreditch town hall.

David Shrigley’s big Southbank show

Mon, 28 Nov 2011

Artist David Shrigley, whose recent activities have included tattooing his works on to the limbs of fans and animating an 18m-tall naked man, is to be the subject of a major retrospective at London’s Southbank next year.

Fitch executive creative director Stuart Wood on the health of the High Street

Fri, 25 Nov 2011

With retail boss Sir Philip Green announcing he could close more than 200 of his Arcadia Group’s shops, Fitch executive creative director Stuart Wood gives us his take on the health of the High Street.

Things We Like

Fri, 25 Nov 2011

Our weekly round-up of things we like on the Design Week newsdesk.

Onedotzero Adventures in Motion Festival

Thu, 24 Nov 2011

Last night saw the start of the weird and wonderful Onedotzero Adventures in Motion Festival at London’s BFI - a five-day festival celebrating innovation in digital culture and moving image arts.

Lizzie Mary Cullen’s 48 hour drawing challenge

Wed, 23 Nov 2011

And she’s off. At precisely 1.00 today illustrator Lizzie Mary Cullen embarked on a 48-hour drawing marathon.Cullen in buoyant mood before sleep deprivation takes hold

Get Your Rocks On at contemporary jewellery exhibition

Wed, 23 Nov 2011

Though we’re immediately wary of anything prefixed with ‘rock’ as a verb, the work at the Art Rocks contemporary jewellery show opening in London next week far surpasses the exhibition’s dubious title.

Look to the Future

Tue, 22 Nov 2011

Debating forum Intelligence Squared (IQ2) is set to launch what it calls its ‘inaugural flight into the future’, the two-day If conference in London.

Cement Mixer winter graphics show

Mon, 21 Nov 2011

Internet based graphics art gallery Cement is curating a winter show, Cement Mixer, which it will bring from the online to the physical world this week.

Shop magazine covers at Kemistry Gallery

Mon, 21 Nov 2011

This week sees the opening of an exhibition of Shop magazine covers, with artwork from illustrators including Pietari Posti, The Heads Of State, Nathalie Lees and Adrian Johnson.

Things We Like

Fri, 18 Nov 2011

Our weekly round-up of things we like on the Design Week newsdesk.

Exhibition Road Show

Thu, 17 Nov 2011

Taking advantage of its boulevard of cultural beacons, the borough of Kensington and Chelsea has announced it will host a Road Show event over the course of the Olympics for a ‘street party’ on Exhibition Road.katie Paterson

Ikonic artworks in Birmingham

Thu, 17 Nov 2011

Birmingham has been quietly simmering with creativity recently - from the  EC Arts commission that saw the city become a massive art gallery to the stunning Pointe Blank show at the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Field of Light

Wed, 16 Nov 2011

Bruce Munro is resurrecting his Field of Light installation and bringing it to the Holburne Museum in Bath from this month.Bulbs in the Field of Light

Cross Over

Tue, 15 Nov 2011

Central St Martins has worked with ad group Lowe and Partners to develop the first exhibition to be held at the college’s new King’s Cross home.

Why enter awards? By Vince Frost

Tue, 15 Nov 2011

In this guest blog, Vince Frost of Frost Design makes the case for entering design awards schemes.

Identified Flying Object

Mon, 14 Nov 2011

French artist Jacques Rival has created the IFO (Identified Flying Object) installation - a giant cage whose bars are illuminated in rainbow colours, which will be hoisted into the night sky above London’s King’s Cross over the next two years.

I’m dreaming of a self-generating Christmas

Fri, 11 Nov 2011

When Nativity scenes start popping up on streets around the country it’s a sure sign that the run-up to Christmas has truly begun.

Pig Island

Fri, 11 Nov 2011

Angelina Jolie, George W Bush, Colonel Sanders, pirates and cowboys are among the peculiar cast of Paul McCarthy’s dystopian Pig Island installation.Source: © Paul McCarthy Courtesy the artist and Hauser&Wirth Photo: Mario De Scalzi Pig ...

Encounters with Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi

Thu, 10 Nov 2011

Next week sees the opening of the 17th Bristol Encounters International Film Festival, celebrating everything that’s great about short and animated film.

Hidden Heroes

Wed, 9 Nov 2011

Napoleon put out a tender which led to the design of the tin can (1809), as a challenge to preserve basic food provisions for troops over long periods.can

Newtown

Wed, 9 Nov 2011

It all sounds rather Orwellian. The fictional metropolis of Nobson Newtown is an imaginary utopia created by British artist Paul Noble, in which its inhabitants are anything but happy. Or noble.Source: © 2011 Paul Noble. ...

Found font

Tue, 8 Nov 2011

As part of exhibition The Department for Overlooked Histories, which looks at the way history is created and understood, consultancy An Endless Supply has created an updated version of the Curwen Sans font, originally drawn for the Curwen Press publishing house.

Made in Clerkenwell

Mon, 7 Nov 2011

Craft Central’s Made in Clerkenwell open studios and selling event returns this month, with more than 100 UK designer-makers showing off their wares.

Hellraisers

Mon, 7 Nov 2011

‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom’, quipped Romantic poet William Blake, in his book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

The Mechanical Bride

Fri, 4 Nov 2011

‘Ours is the first age in which many thousands of the best-trained individual minds have made it a full-time business to get inside the collective public mind…in order to manipulate, exploit, control…’

François Dallegret Beyond The Bubble

Thu, 3 Nov 2011

Sitting squarely between designer, architect, artist and engineer is Francois Dallegret who will be celebrated in a new Architectural Association exhibition.

First Thursday

Thu, 3 Nov 2011

First Thursdays, organised by Time Out, are East London’s monthly fiesta of late night gallery and studio openings, talks and events, seeing arty types get their mitts on as much culture/ free beer as they can handle in an ‘E’ postcode.The Mill Co. - Mint Jarukittikun, A - Z plants

Paper view

Wed, 2 Nov 2011

Manchester-based consultancy Eskimo Creative is set to play host to paper company GF Smith’s touring show 126 Years in Print.

Good Press

Tue, 1 Nov 2011

Glasgow based Good Press is an independent gallery and bookshop, newly set up, just last month, in the back of a cafe.

Home is Where the Art is

Tue, 1 Nov 2011

The domestic space is, for most, a place of sanctity, homeliness and comfort. Subverting this idea is the artist Carol McNicoll, who uses domestic objects as a medium through which to ‘rant…about the issues that both annoy and amuse me.’Source: © Carol McNicoll courtesy of Marsden ...

Internet Week

Mon, 31 Oct 2011

The internet, omniscient and omnipresent God of the modern age, normally existing in the ether and the minds of believers, will be coming to London next week.

Fielding notes

Fri, 28 Oct 2011

The Scribblings of a Madcap Shambleton, a book of artworks by Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding, is probably quite an accurate title.

Bonfire of the Vanities

Fri, 28 Oct 2011

‘Vanity Fair is a very vain, wicked, foolish place, full of all sorts of humbugs and falsenesses and pretensions’, says the narrator of William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1848 novel Vanity Fair.

Illuminating York

Thu, 27 Oct 2011

Digital arts and lighting festival Illuminating York got under way last night with an architectural mapping projection over the Castle Museum.

Form an orderly Q

Wed, 26 Oct 2011

Q - the name of James Bond’s armourer, the seventeenth letter of the alphabet and the inspiration for illustrator Katja Spitzer’s new book Quodlibet.Minka

Alda round the world

Wed, 26 Oct 2011

London-born, Brighton illustration-educated Sophie Alda may only be a couple of years out of art college, but her distinctively heavy-browed illustrated figues have seen her receive commissions from as far afield as China, Iran, Portland and, yes, Birmingham.

Urban illustrations

Tue, 25 Oct 2011

Greater Manchester’s finest illustrators have created works inspired by Manchester and Salford as part of an exhibition to raise money for local charity the Wood Street Mission.

Zebra Face

Mon, 24 Oct 2011

Illustrator, hip-hop musician and all-round nice guy Kid Acne has been speaking to Design Week about the ten year anniversary and re-release of his Zebra Face comic book, which is about to be turned into an animated pilot for terrestrial  TV.ZebraFace poster

Lost and foundry

Mon, 24 Oct 2011

After eight months in the making, Cure Studio has finally launched its type foundry, showcasing the work of some brilliant illustrators and typographers.

Typo London - Michael Bierut

Fri, 21 Oct 2011

Philip Larkin’s This Be The Verse (yes, the one about your parents ‘fucking you up’) may seem an odd opener for a talk on typography by one of the world’s most respected graphic designers, but it works for Pentagram partner Michael Bierut.

Chances, Choices, Chases

Thu, 20 Oct 2011

Based around the idea that we can’t find time to read any more, these alternative book covers by artist Jennie Ottinger paint a snap-shot of a scene within.Auction Scene from Vanity Fair

Castles made of sand

Thu, 20 Oct 2011

Tucked away in a secluded beach idyll lurks a terrifying world of corpses, rapid aging, sexual deviance and death.

And now for the science bit…

Wed, 19 Oct 2011

The inaugural London Science Festival, which starts today, is aiming to take science out of the laboratory and on to the streets of the capital.

Making Great Illustration

Tue, 18 Oct 2011

Some of the world’s best known illustrators, studios and voices from the industry have been brought together in a new book, Making Great Illustration.Grandpeople

All the world's a stage

Tue, 18 Oct 2011

While Shakespeare may be more associated with words than images, this Friday will see the opening of a display of visual responses to the man dubbed ‘really very good - in spite of all the people who say he is very good’ by poet Robert Graves.Source: © ...

Tongue-twisting Typography

Mon, 17 Oct 2011

Word games and type design are brought together for Text Gallery’s Imaginary Menagerie show, which launches in London this week.Nod Young

Wish you were here

Fri, 14 Oct 2011

Tonight illustrator Gresty unveils the results of his Wish You Were Here exhibition.

Things We Like

Fri, 14 Oct 2011

Yes Wei

Thu, 13 Oct 2011

An artist whose oeuvre includes a cityscape made of dog chews; a photo composite landscape formed from images of buttocks and a two-metre model poo is bound to cause some controversy.

Perfect Ten

Wed, 12 Oct 2011

Interior designer and design gallerist Rabih Hage, who recently created Alice in Wonderland-inspired hotel interiors for the Radisson Guildford, has spent the past decade amassing a profusion of design delights.

The Big Frieze

Tue, 11 Oct 2011

Tomorrow sees the opening of the ninth Frieze Art Fair, designed by architect Carmody Groarke, showcasing and selling artworks from over 170 galleries from around the world.

The Incal

Tue, 11 Oct 2011

To describe Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius’ The Incal as a classic is something of an understatement, and its is now being released in a six-volume omnibus edition.

Essence of Adolescence

Mon, 10 Oct 2011

Word To Mother – tattoo and graffiti artist turned artist - has produced a new show Essence of Adolescence, a series of wooden panel paintings.

Warhol again

Mon, 10 Oct 2011

Last month, design director of Air Design Seán O’Mara explained to us the impact Warhol has had on him, delineating the iconic status of the artist ahead of the opening of the Warhol Is here exhibition currently on show at the De La Warr pavilion in Bexhill.

Things We Like

Fri, 7 Oct 2011

We’re feeling especially positive on the Design Week news desk this week, so it’s a bumper edition of our round-up of things we like.

Liverpool Design Festival

Thu, 6 Oct 2011

Liverpool Design Festival opens today, a four day conflation of all things design and fashion.

Frink

Thu, 6 Oct 2011

Chances are, you’re probably more aware of the work of Elisabeth Frink than you might realise.Elisabeth Frink

Raise the Alam

Wed, 5 Oct 2011

Documentary photographer Shahidul Alam is largely unknown in the UK but in his native Bangladesh he’s credited with helping to introduce email to the country and providing the artistic inspiration to ensure there are now more documentary photographers in Bangladesh than any other country.Ballakot ...

Party like it's 1911

Tue, 4 Oct 2011

Art and design collective Dorothy is hoping to capture the spirit of radicalism with its interactive artwork The Nineteen Hundred and Eleven Party.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Park

Tue, 4 Oct 2011

French illustrator and artist Laetitia Devernay has seen her illustrated tale, The Conductor, translated into English, and published in the UK.

Hair apparent

Mon, 3 Oct 2011

Whitton Wisdom

Fri, 30 Sep 2011

Stuart Whitton picks the phone up, having just done ‘two all-nighters’ finishing off work, and now 40 pieces have gone off to the framers, giving him a few days grace before his exhibition Origin starts. Origin

Night Sun

Fri, 30 Sep 2011

When you receive news of an art installation accompanied with the aside - ‘ the civil aviation authority has been notified’ - you know it’s going to be something pretty special.Source: Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, UKThe Opposite ...

North East of North

Thu, 29 Sep 2011

This year’s Neon Digital Arts Festival will be themed around collaboration and legacy promising ‘a distinct Nordic flavour.’Neon

Rem’s progress

Wed, 28 Sep 2011

Dutch architecture practice OMA, led by Rem Koolhaas, has made its mark around the globe with headline projects such as the impossible-seeming CCTV building in Beijing - which looks like four skyscrapers merged into one.

Overlapping

Wed, 28 Sep 2011

The people behind Liverpool-based design consultancy and creative collective Mercy are a bunch relentlessly in pursuit of connecting the gamut of  digital art, installations, experimental poetry, avant-garde music and performance art.

Picture this

Tue, 27 Sep 2011

Contemporary photography as photographer Bill Jackson sees it, is moving closer to other artforms, particularly sculpture.accordian

Glitz and pieces

Mon, 26 Sep 2011

While the Victoria & Albert Museum is busy reappraising Postmodernism, over at the Royal Institute of British Architects they’ve looked a bit further back into history for another much-maligned movement - Art Deco.

Auto Art

Mon, 26 Sep 2011

Tom Karen, the industrial designer behind the Bush Radio, Marble Run, Raleigh Chopper and the Bond Bug car discusses how vehicle design should be viewed as an art form.

Secret Sensory Suppers

Fri, 23 Sep 2011

The prospect of Secret Sensory Suppers was beguiling and terrifying, inviting diners to reassess the way they eat, helped by ‘masked assistants’ who would ‘lead guests through a ritualistic supper.’

Things We Like

Thu, 22 Sep 2011

Our weekly round up of things we like on the Design Week news desk.

London Design Festival: Shoreditch

Thu, 22 Sep 2011

Reflecting the general Shoreditch aspirations to be forever one step ahead of the game, Design Week ventures to the district a whole day before many of its biggest boasts - Tent, Tramshed, and Origin - actually open.

Can creativity change the world?

Wed, 21 Sep 2011

Some of you may be aware that today is Peace Day, and marking the occasion last night was D&AD’s Shapr’ner event on  ‘how creativity makes people give a shit’.

Alpha-ville

Tue, 20 Sep 2011

Running concurrently with London Design Festival and Digital Design Weekend at the V&A, this weekend Alpha-ville International Festival of Post Digital Culture will be hosted across multiple London venues.

London Design Festival: Perspectives by John Pawson

Tue, 20 Sep 2011

It’s something of a peculiarity that of the four ‘landmark projects’ hyped in this year’s London Design Festival, three are by architects.

Fetch A Sketch

Mon, 19 Sep 2011

For Ink Illustration, the process of illustration is a candid and personal one which shared through sketch books can be more revealing than finished works.Boxer

London Design Festival preview - highlights outside the LDF districts

Fri, 16 Sep 2011

The all-pervasive nature of the London Design Festival means that there are plenty of highlights to be found outside the six design districts.

Best of the Web

Fri, 16 Sep 2011

Our weekly round-up of interesting things we’ve seen on the internet.

Things We Like

Thu, 15 Sep 2011

Our weekly round up of things we like on the Design Week news desk.

London Design Festival Preview - The Southbank

Wed, 14 Sep 2011

The seemingly pervasive London Design Festival will be setting up another of its hotspots on the Southbank next week. 

Hackney Film Festival

Wed, 14 Sep 2011

This weekend see the opening of the second Hackney Film Festival, a not-for profit project that will showcase the work of local audio-visual artists and filmmakers and celebrate the talent of the borough.

Westfield Stratford City Opening

Tue, 13 Sep 2011

News of projects relating the Westfield Stratford City has been trickling in to Design Week for what feels like a retail filled eternity.

Fish + Chocolate

Mon, 12 Sep 2011

Fish + Chocolate, comic-book author Kate Brown’s latest graphic novel is an often-disturbing three-part exploration of motherhood.Cover

London Design Festival Preview - The V&A and The Brompton Design District

Mon, 12 Sep 2011

For the third year running, the Victoria & Albert Museum is acting as the focal point for the London Design Festival.

Best of the Web

Fri, 9 Sep 2011

Our weekly round up of our highlights from the world wide web.

Map reading

Thu, 8 Sep 2011

You Are the Map Maker, the new book by Australia-based designer and branding expert Bernadette Jiwa, is heavy on the motivational speak - ‘This is the start of a journey. One where you will be challenged to take your self-doubt, bundle it up and chuck it overboard.’go for it

Postmodernism: Style and Subversion

Thu, 8 Sep 2011

Postmodernism is an ambiguous notion that’s notoriously difficult to define. Its slipperiness baffled even the V&A, which has reportedly struggled to pin down the Postmodernist essence for about six years for their much anticipated exhibition, Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990, which opens in a fortnight.

Pull up a chair

Wed, 7 Sep 2011

Mother-and-daughter artistic duo Caroline and Maisie Broadhead have combined their craft and image-making skills for an upcoming furniture-based photography show.Head to Head

Choices

Tue, 6 Sep 2011

According to a 2010 Design Council report, just 7 per cent of UK designers are from an ethnic minority background. In order to raise the profile of black and ethnic minority designers, the African & African-Caribbean Design Diaspora was founded last year.Bevan Agyeman, The ...

on the outside looking in

Tue, 6 Sep 2011

With LDF excitement gathering apace, it’s easy to forget that another similarly acronymed event - London Fashion Week - will be running concurrently.

Vending the Rules

Mon, 5 Sep 2011

Normally a prison of carbonated saccharine dreams, the vending machine is liberating its contents to instead dispense design classics through a tie-up between The Design Museum and The St Martins Lane hotel.1

Life of Riley

Fri, 2 Sep 2011

Kettle’s Yard’s retrospective of abstract artist Bridget Riley is sure to be one of this autumn’s exhibition highlights.Bridget Riley in front of Justinian

Best of the Web

Fri, 2 Sep 2011

Our weekly round-up of things that caught our eye on the world wide web.

Distant Neighbours

Wed, 31 Aug 2011

‘Borders are strange places, they’re no-man’s lands’, says artist Lucy Wood, explaining the exploration of immigration and migrant communities in her’forthcoming show, Vicini Lontani/Distant Neighbours.3: Lampedusa.Source: Lucy Wood: Vicini Lontanti/Distant Neighbours 3: Lampedusa, ...

Traces of space

Wed, 31 Aug 2011

Hell for Leather

Wed, 31 Aug 2011

Spanish leather company Loewe is celebrating its craft in style with a new book, The Masters of Leather, illustrated by art director and illustrator Robert Clarke.this is a Loewe

The Hand of the Graphic Designer

Tue, 30 Aug 2011

There’s something about a Moleskine book that screams - somehow unpretentiously - ‘I’m creative! I’m interesting!’, more than pretty much any other functional accessory.cover

California Dreaming

Fri, 26 Aug 2011

‘One thing about living in Canary Wharf I never could stomach, all the damn vampires.’

Spaced out

Fri, 26 Aug 2011

For the second time this week, Design Week heads to the final frontier to find evidence of space design.

Things We Like

Thu, 25 Aug 2011

Boneshaker magazinebear in a trailer!

Dark communities

Wed, 24 Aug 2011

Community, so often a by-word for all things shared, collaborative and benevolent, will have its dark side explored at the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale.

Animate

Wed, 24 Aug 2011

Now in its eighth year, this weekend see the return of the London International Animation Festival, aiming to prove - though we never doubted it  -that animation is certainly not just for kids.divers still, part of ...

Skullduggery

Tue, 23 Aug 2011

Few icons can unite Byron, skate boarding, Damien Hirst and quilting. The skull, however, is not just any symbol, as shown in Faye Dowling’s ominous sounding new book, The Book of Skulls.Andres Guerrero Illustration

Turn On Tune In

Mon, 22 Aug 2011

‘We worked hard and played hard. We were young’, says Nigel Waymouth, one half of Hapshash & the Coloured Coat, the British design duo that fundamentally shaped today’s view of the 1960s psychedelic, free-spirited aesthetic.CIA v UFO (c) Hapshash&the Coloured Coat

Remains of Tomorrow

Mon, 22 Aug 2011

It’s hard to imagine how a ten-year-old would view such dramatic events as the disintegration of the USSR and the 1989 Romanian Revolution, but these memories form much of the subject matter explored by Romanian artist Marius Bercea in his forthcoming show Remains of Tomorrow.Marius Bercea at his studio ...

Poster Roast

Fri, 19 Aug 2011

This Sunday screen printers  Poster Roast will be taking their gig poster collective to music festival Radfest, which is being held in Peckham, South London.

Penguin Inked

Thu, 18 Aug 2011

This month Penguin launches a redesigned series of six classic titles, called Penguin Ink. But the ‘ink’ is not printers ink, but that of a more visceral kind.Notes on a Scandal

Jarman Award Shortlist

Thu, 18 Aug 2011

Last week the shortlist for the 2011 Film Jarman award was announced, comprising an extended list of ten artists working in film and video, aiming to offer a more comprehensive view of the practice.Claire Hooper

Prints Charming

Wed, 17 Aug 2011

Next week sees the opening of Bite, an exhibition of prints that will see emerging artists sharing wall space with the likes of Damien Hirst, Gary Hume and Sir Peter Blake.Bruce McLean - Pampas Grass

Black

Tue, 16 Aug 2011

The Royal College of Art will collaborate with the African and African Caribbean Design Diaspora at the end of the month for a new show, Black, which will bring together 60 years work by alumni and students of African and African Caribbean descent.Chris Ofili – Untitled, 1992, oil on ...

Rip it up

Tue, 16 Aug 2011

Cliché, Death and Superdead are due to descend on east London this week: yes, it’s London’s turn to host Vans’ Downtown Showdown skateboarding event.what a load of waffle

Break it up

Mon, 15 Aug 2011

Probably not a great first-date venue, the touring Museum of Broken Relationships is coming to London - bringing with it its cornucopia of oft-bizarre relationship detritus.One wedding dress - unworn

Rinse

Fri, 12 Aug 2011

Just as with Jamie Reid’s DIY aesthetic for the Punk scene or Peter Saville’s understated minimalism for Joy Division, the work of one designer can define the visual identity of a band or genre, firmly stamping themselves in the music’s visual imprint.

Best of the Web

Fri, 12 Aug 2011

Our weekly round up of interesting things we’ve seen on the web. This week’s themes: rioting and looting.

Things We Like

Thu, 11 Aug 2011

Our weekly round up of things we like on the Design Week news desk.

Charmed I'm sure

Wed, 10 Aug 2011

Touted as an exploration of the space between ‘faith morality and healing,’ the Wellcome Collection’s latest exhibition programme Miracles and Charms looks at what it calls ‘the human responses to chance and suffering.’

Images

Wed, 10 Aug 2011

Opening at the end of the month is the Association of Illustrators’ Images 35 exhibition, a collection of some of the best illustration in Britain from the past year.A Bed of Sea and Dead Men’s suits by Jonny Hannah

Physical Graffiti

Tue, 9 Aug 2011

A coordinated and constructive international arts project will see the facades of ten buildings situated on Bristol’s Nelson Street turned into permanent canvases.Ben Slow

Behind the curtain

Mon, 8 Aug 2011

In the course of just over half an hour, Design Week has been circled by an 18-metre tall naked man; surrounded by enormous disembodied hands playing a huge piano and trapped in an apocalyptic rainforest storm.

Projectile Motion

Mon, 8 Aug 2011

Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist will project a retrospective career of installations onto a range of canvases including a chandelier made of underpants when she comes to the Hayward Gallery next month.Source: Courtesy the ...

Design Pirates of Penzance

Fri, 5 Aug 2011

The idyllic Trereife House & Country Park near Penzance in Cornwall will be hosting this year’s Cornwall Design Fair, bringing design very much of the 21st Century into a beautiful 18th Century setting.High and Dry Print by Amy Aardvark

Things We Like

Thu, 4 Aug 2011

Our weekly round-up of things we like on the Design Week newsdesk.

Record Makers

Thu, 4 Aug 2011

Many a Vinyl Factory release has graced the DW news in pics in recent times, with its remarkable limited edition record releases, acting as confirmation that even in the age of vanishing record shops and MP3 downloads, there’s often nothing better than a real life slab of vinyl.

Happiness

Wed, 3 Aug 2011

Maybe there’s some truth in the bleatings that people up North are more cheerful than their soft Southern counterparts.  At least that’s what Design Event North East would have as believe, taking Happiness as their theme for this year’s Design Event Festival.Y U M K M H PPY

A Good Vintage Festival

Tue, 2 Aug 2011

Over the weekend The Royal Festival Hall took on the cultural mantle of all things 1920s-1980s for Vintage festival, and design was very much at the fore.Source: John SnellingWayne Hemingway

Go with the Flow

Tue, 2 Aug 2011

Northamptonshire has stepped up to the starting blocks to take London on in its monopoly of Olympic glory, with the Flow series of site- specific art installations taking to the area’s waterways this month.

Big Chill Courts Big Design Names

Mon, 1 Aug 2011

Art and Design heavyweights Ron Arad and Gavin Turk are among those being commissioned by The Big Chill festival this year to create visual elements for the event. Daniel Sims

Best of the Web

Fri, 29 Jul 2011

Our weekly round-up of interesting things we’ve seen on the web.

What’s in the box?

Fri, 29 Jul 2011

Beer brand Beck’s has an illustrious history of working in the arts but its latest initiative is so ambitious it took Design Week a little while to get our heads around it.

Expresso Yourself

Thu, 28 Jul 2011

In a world swimming with cookie-cutter coffee stores and complicated things like soya-skinny-frappuccinos, it’s easy to forget coffee’s association with culture. However, from Blur’s Coffee and TV, to Van Gogh’s Woman Grinding Coffee, to Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes; the links between our caffeinated friend and the arts are intangible.

Nolympic Games

Wed, 27 Jul 2011

It’s one year to the day until the Olympics, and the London Olympic Organizing Committee of The Olympic and Paralympics Games is  busying itself with what some might see as polemic.rings of disappointment

I'm so xxited

Wed, 27 Jul 2011

Italian visual artist and film-maker Quayola is currently putting the finishing touches on a collaborative audio-visual spectacular due to hit London in the middle of next month.the ...

Time for tea

Tue, 26 Jul 2011

It’s hard to think of a book that could possibly appeal to Design Week more than Tea & Cake London.

Take a good look at yourself

Mon, 25 Jul 2011

Graphic artist Luke Embden’s upcoming London show boasts the rather self-concious title ‘An Introspective’.

The Man Who Would Be King

Mon, 25 Jul 2011

Known as, variously, a modernist exponent of interior design, sceneography, graphic design and illustration, this exhibition will see Edward McKnight Kauffer lauded The Poster King, and rightly so. Taking in Japanese art, Fauvism, constructivism and surrealism, Kauffer (1890-1954) developed an adaptable style and applied it to commercial poster art.

Best of the Web

Fri, 22 Jul 2011

Our weekly round-up of interesting things we’ve seen on the web.

Everything We Miss

Thu, 21 Jul 2011

Sometimes dark, sometimes comic, but always well-observed, illustrator Luke Pearson’s new comic Everything We Miss tells the bleak tale of a disintegrating relationship.Pearson’s poster

Easy as ABC

Thu, 21 Jul 2011

Twords are, according to designer and illustrator Mr Gresty, words ‘that contain two others’, each with a different meaning to the original word.

Can You Hack It

Wed, 20 Jul 2011

A new solo exhibition by artist,  programmer and self professed hacker Cory Arcangel - who is also a stand-up, musician and co-founder of record label/hacking collective Beige - comes to the Lisson Gallery in October to present works previously unseen before in the UK.Source: ...

In Deptford

Tue, 19 Jul 2011

In the hope of reminding people about Deptford’s almost forgotten tidal creek, a solar powered light installation is being installed as a typographic beacon.

Transmitter/Receiver

Tue, 19 Jul 2011

Though it’s perhaps a little unfair to have favourites, collage has to be among DW’s top artistic mediums.

A changing cast

Mon, 18 Jul 2011

The Aram Gallery in London is set to present the latest installment of its on-going Prototypes and Experiments exhibition series - Casts and Moulds.Barber Osgerby Stella Tile 2002

Create's Plates

Fri, 15 Jul 2011

New works by a raft of designers have been brought together by the East London Design Show as part of Create 11 - the annual arts and cultural programme.

Best of the Web

Fri, 15 Jul 2011

Our weekly round-up of interesting things we’ve seen on the web.

Going Swimmingly

Thu, 14 Jul 2011

You might not be the next Mark Foster or Rebecca Adlington, but thanks to a new art installation you could still swim at the Olympics - well, sort of.The colours!

Play Pharaoh

Wed, 13 Jul 2011

This weekend, Newcastle will be treated to the first stop of British Museum’s touring exhibition Pharaoh: King of Egypt, a hugely ambitious show that will see the Great North Museum, Hancock, host the largest UK loan of Egyptian artefacts ever undertaken by the British Museum.

Extraordinary Heroes

Wed, 13 Jul 2011

E3 has designed a gallant little app to support the Extraordinary Heroes exhibition  at the Imperial War Museum.

No Business Like Show-Business

Tue, 12 Jul 2011

‘Never look back’ is perhaps a somewhat incongruous statement from an artist about to launch a retrospective documenting his last half-century in the art world: 50 Years of Show Business.Angel 1960

Yay for neighs

Mon, 11 Jul 2011

Photographer Mark Brumell has just completed a very unusual job for a very unusual client.

Water Lovely Photograph

Mon, 11 Jul 2011

From Coleridge’s ‘Water, water, everywhere’ to The Who’s Water, to Monet, water is a well-plundered fount of inspiration for artists, poets and musicians alike.

Blood sucking vampires and other new media stories

Fri, 8 Jul 2011

Guest blogger Kyle Van Blerk, creative partner at integrated consultancy Meteorite, reflects on new media.

Making Your Mind Up

Thu, 7 Jul 2011

The inaugural Jerwood Makers Open exhibition, which launches next week, shows just how far the boundaries of applied arts can be pushed.Heike Brachlow - Avis I

Auditorium

Thu, 7 Jul 2011

For the artist responsible for the Pissing Women series, in which she urinated in Vauxhall wearing posh clothes, photographer Sophy Rickett’s latest show is a far more cultured affair.Untitled (Nature Study 2)

Embroidering the Truth

Wed, 6 Jul 2011

‘My embroideries,’ says artist Malcolm Poynter, ‘Are going where no embroideries have gone before… They are rough, tough and full of spunk!’ Art Is

Moments of Confusion

Tue, 5 Jul 2011

A series of paintings by artist Michael Chanarin, going on show at Eleven Spitalfields in London this week, have fused images from instruction manuals and text from daily horoscope readings to highlight ‘humour and displacement’.

Hot Gossip

Tue, 5 Jul 2011

The Moniker Art Fair is launching Gossip Well Told – a London-based exhibition featuring the work of street artists from around the world.

Look to China

Mon, 4 Jul 2011

Earlier this week I was having lunch at No 10 Downing Street with David Cameron and the Chinese premier Wen. An intimate lunch with a small group of business people had been organised to develop and strengthen the trade relationships between our two countries.

Beach sounds for the Wellcome Collection

Fri, 1 Jul 2011

You can’t touch me, you can’t smell me, you can’t taste me, you can’t see me, but you can hear me, and I fill Euston Road with the sound of waves breaking onto pebbles, what am I?

Crowdsourcing for kids

Thu, 30 Jun 2011

Crowdsourcing may have been a buzzword as of late, but you’d be hard pressed to find a community-generated project as endearing as new film The Itch of the Golden Nit.

Spin cycle

Thu, 30 Jun 2011

A graduate product designer has combined a washing machine and a bicycle into a single product, which he believes will create a unique way of washing clothes in developing countries.

Found faces

Wed, 29 Jun 2011

Paul Gray, founder of Glasgow consultancy Suisse, has an obsession.

Kill your darlings

Tue, 28 Jun 2011

Known for his motley crew of bearded shoplifters, bondage dragons, northernisms, and a whole host of ‘stabby’ women, Sheffield-based street artist Kid Acne has captured the attention and smiles of Design Week for a while now.

Gesture killed the touchscreen star

Mon, 27 Jun 2011

Guest blogger Kyle Van Blerk, creative partner at branding consultancy Meteorite, reflects on the future of touchscreen in the light of developments in voice recognition and gesture-based communication.

Heavy heaven

Mon, 27 Jun 2011

The Prodigy’s Maxim – along with the rest of his band - are better known as being big beat pioneers and purveyors of a shock aesthetic previously unknown in dance music.

Best of the web

Fri, 24 Jun 2011

Our weekly round-up of interesting things we’ve found on the Web.

Glastonbury decontamination

Thu, 23 Jun 2011

Almost inevitably, it looks like its going to be another very muddy Glastonbury again this year.

Fags and football

Thu, 23 Jun 2011

Artist Leo Fitzmaurice has spent the last 10 years collecting more than 800 cigarette packets from all over the world and flattening them out to produce these rather sweet ‘football shirts’.

Editor's blog

Wed, 22 Jun 2011

Lynda Relph-Knight’s perspective on the week.

Constructive abandonment

Tue, 21 Jun 2011

If, like some of the DW team, you were thrown into a grump after the realisation that following tonight’s midsummer eve the days are only going to get shorter, then new book, Constructive Abandonment, by Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber may well appeal.Constructive Abandonment

Fighting fire with ice cream

Tue, 21 Jun 2011

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the new exhibition from Alex Chinneck, opening on Thursday, has (as far as our poor untrained, screen-wearied eyes can see) very little to do with the gelato-wasting, probably ineffectual idea of Fighting Fire with Ice Cream.

The Joy of Living vs New Designers

Mon, 20 Jun 2011

Once again cementing the links between design and philanthropy is the tie-up between Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres Charity and the New Designers show taking place in London next week.

Remember Remember

Fri, 17 Jun 2011

In the spirit of remembrance The RIBA initiative Forgotten Spaces 2011 has shortlisted sites in London and Sheffield which may be exhumed, reimagined and hopefully remembered.Learn to Fix by Camilla Jarvis and Chris Blaydes

Best of the Web

Fri, 17 Jun 2011

Our weekly round-up where we share with you the best bits and bobs we’ve found on that ‘internet’ during the last seven days.79361

The pain of desire

Thu, 16 Jun 2011

On first looking at Bevan’s photography, there’s a sense of gravitas and maturity that belies the artist’s youthfulness and fashion-orientated background.

So Jung

Wed, 15 Jun 2011

This exhibition, exploring the two sides to the human psyche, will both fascinate and terrify you; taking Jung’s theory of The Shadow as the ‘suppressed or disowned qualities of human consciousness’ as its inspiration.Chris Anthony - Wednesday

Open City

Wed, 15 Jun 2011

Guantanamo detainees, drug abuse, Morris dancers, and a women with five (metaphorical) elephants are just some of the subjects featured in the Open City London Documentary Film Festival opening tomorrow, alongside a number of brilliant design and architecture related screenings.

Love and Loss

Tue, 14 Jun 2011

Back in the autumn, we reported on the ludicrously, brilliantly, bizarrely designed LN-CC shop in Dalston - a space created by set designer and illustrator Gary Card.I Loved You

Doodle for Google

Mon, 13 Jun 2011

There was a time you might remember, when Google found its way into our psyche to the extent that it became a verb.

Radical architecture

Mon, 13 Jun 2011

Alliteration aside, Poland and Plymouth are worlds apart, making the collaboration between students on the Master of Architecture course at the University of Plymouth and those from Gdansk Technical University rather intriguing.Sian Bradley

Turning ten

Fri, 10 Jun 2011

Electronic music bible Resident Advisor is celebrating its tenth birthday in true aural and visual style, taking on ten countries with ten parties and ten specially commissioned posters to accompany the events.

Films afloat

Thu, 9 Jun 2011

Back in December, we reported on the Floating Cinema due to take to the debris-strewn waterways of East London. Now, finally, the good ship is gearing up for her maiden voyage; having announced a brilliant programme of events coupled with some stunning design work.

Light show

Thu, 9 Jun 2011

Last night Battersea Power Station was transformed into a swivelling Rubiks cube, before it’s mammoth towers were filled with shards of blue glass then transformed into huge, groaning pistons.The Bombay Sapphire installation by Drive

Shooting the street

Wed, 8 Jun 2011

A man on horseback riding through New York City, voyeuristic CCTV views of unsuspecting bus riders, and a bull on a zebra crossing are just some of the bizarre and fascinating subjects on show as part of the inaugural London Street Festival, which kicks off next month.

Label look

Tue, 7 Jun 2011

Unusually for an industry dominated by flux, every release put out by electronic music label Sci+Tec features creative by just one consultancy, Sheffield-based studio Human.

Sign of the times

Tue, 7 Jun 2011

Ahead of his exhibition at Brighton’s Ink-d Gallery later this month, street artist Ryan Callanan, aka RYCA, talks to Design Week about the influence of symbols on culture and how his background in sign-writing has shaped his work.

Print the North

Mon, 6 Jun 2011

Independent magazine distributor Stack and Mag Culture’s Jeremy Leslie have teamed up to put on events for magazine lovers, the next of which will take place in Manchester on Thursday.

Urban giants

Fri, 3 Jun 2011

With a beguiling mix of geeky infographics and striking photography and research, new book Living in the Endless City provides both a snapshot of global urban living and a guide to designing for the megacity.

Street life

Fri, 3 Jun 2011

Can you put a price on a graffitied wall? Well, you can if you’re Banksy. The world famous street artist is the king of stencilling the back streets of Britain and beyond. 

Twin seats

Thu, 2 Jun 2011

Earlier today we blogged about an opportunity to try your hand at creating surreal, weird film effects with a workshop at the Design Museum, held by Jotta and Intel. But what happens when the flow changes, and film directors try their hand at design?

Information is currency

Wed, 1 Jun 2011

Freedom of information, privacy and the internet are three things that we’ve been hearing a lot about in the last few weeks.

Modern saints

Wed, 1 Jun 2011

Illustrator Neal Fox, founder of Le Gun magazine and chronicler of the seamier side of life, has created a series of stained-glass tributes to a dissolute collection of latter-day saints.

Editor's blog

Tue, 31 May 2011

If you thought 2010 was Neville Brody’s year, prepare to see a repeat performance by the exhuberant graphics star as plans for 2011 continue to unfold.

The lost collection

Fri, 27 May 2011

As you might imagine, Design Week receives a heap of press releases, promotional packs and mail-outs every week keeping us informed of all of the goings-on in the design world. So it’s always refreshing when we receive something out of the ordinary.The Lost Collection mailout

Art director's choice

Fri, 27 May 2011

Hearing news this week of a forthcoming exhibition by the multidisciplinary, D&AD-awarded, illustration and design studio Kai & Sunny has sparked some excitement around the Design Week office. Entitled ‘The Flower Show’, this is their third solo show at the Stolen Space gallery and looks set to impress.

Paranoia

Thu, 26 May 2011

Where do you want to spend your bank holiday weekend? In the park? In the pub? Or standing in a disused cash-and-carry in London’s New Cross while a sound artist fires lasers and infrasonic sound waves at you in a wilful attempt to make you paranoid?

Eating in the eighties

Wed, 25 May 2011

Celebrating the culinary and the incongruous, dining concept Restaurants in Residence will occupy a disused office block in Canary Wharf, which is being reimagined as a 1980s office.

Winning goal

Wed, 25 May 2011

The Blizzard magazine, brainchild of football journalist Jonathan Wilson and Peter Daykin, who runs Azure Graphic and Web Design, was born from a conversation between the two old school-friends in the Fitzgeralds pub in Sunderland.

Because

Tue, 24 May 2011

Sensibly forgoing awkward team-building days only made enjoyable in the most cringeworthy episodes of The Office, Wolff Olins brings its team together with a series of talks from inspiring experts in and around the design industry.

Control over nature

Mon, 23 May 2011

Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin is not a name that trips off the tongue but you’ll have undoubtedly heard some of his music. Gamers will have tuned into his sample-laden pieces in Tom Clancy’ Splinter Cell, but Tobin’s music has also been used in films The Italian Job and 21, and frequently on BBC TV show Top Gear.

A little 'pendurance' goes a long way

Mon, 23 May 2011

Forget Challenge Anneka, illustrator Lizzie Mary Cullen has got her cycling shoes and pen poised in preparation for a rather unusual marathon.Lizzie Mary Cullen

Black, white and read all over

Fri, 20 May 2011

Bang on the trend for Victorian-inspired macabre quirk that the likes of Dan Hillier and Stuart Kolakovic have been championing for the past few years are two charming graphic novels, both published this month.

Menagerie

Thu, 19 May 2011

Swooping hawks, geometrically-feathered chickens and glassy-eyed owls will all inhabit the London gallery Art Work Space at the end of May for an exhibition featuring Fran Giffard, Izzie Klingels, Ella Johnston and Susie Wright.

The beautiful and the damned

Thu, 19 May 2011

‘Show me a hero, and I’ll write you a tragedy’, once quipped writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Always Coca-Cola

Wed, 18 May 2011

Did you know that pharmacist John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola as a medicine to cure headaches? Perhaps. Did you also know he only used to sell ten bottles a day? Maybe not. It’s certainly a different story 125 years later.A Coca-Cola Christmas

Waiting room

Tue, 17 May 2011

An abandoned room, entirely coated in white paint, sits waiting to be destroyed. The location is the St Philip’s Building in London, which was signed off for demolition yesterday.

The power of making

Tue, 17 May 2011

Boasting a life-sized crochet bear and a lion-shaped Ghanian coffin, the Power of Making exhibition, coming to the Victoria & Albert museum in September, may sound like eclectic throwaway fun, but curator Daniel Charny says he hopes the show will make a serious point.

Architecture as air

Mon, 16 May 2011

It’s perhaps not surprising that the work of an architect who describes the Barbican’s The Curve gallery as ‘melting endlessly into space’ is delicate and ethereally minimalist.

Curtain call

Fri, 13 May 2011

Ever wanted to wander through an interactive curtain of crystal cells laced with the artwork of David Shrigley? Well, this slightly surreal proposition will become reality at London’s Roundhouse thanks to an installation due at the venue in the summer created by Ron Arad.

Editor's blog

Fri, 13 May 2011

Lynda Relph-Knight’s perspective on the week.

Making a splash

Thu, 12 May 2011

Imagine a world in which marine life has almost disappeared. Imagine going scuba diving and not seeing live coral and tropical fish. Imagine having a childhood without eating tuna salad sandwiches!

The home of metal

Wed, 11 May 2011

Mephistophelian pacts, spandex onesies, pyrotechnics, poodle-perms, thrash- industrial- and death-, the gamut of metal runs wide and deep, but it’s rooted in the West Midlands.  The Home of Metal

On the Larkin trail

Wed, 11 May 2011

The Larkin Trail - a series of 25 typography-heavy signs scattered around the city of Hull - provides a fittingly literary tribute to one of the the city’s most famous adopted sons, poet Philip Larkin.

Window shopping

Tue, 10 May 2011

Opening this evening in London’s Bond street is Streetlights, a collaboration between sartorial bible Vogue, Bond Street’s fine jewellers and students that sees the traditional shop window given a glittering face lift.

Home from home

Mon, 9 May 2011

In February we reported on the New Architects: Portugal-UK exchange programme which saw three young UK consultancies go over to Lisbon and three Portuguese practices come to England to discover the differences in housing within the two countries.Home from Home

Not: An Exhibition

Mon, 9 May 2011

‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe.’ Not: An Exhibition. Yup, arty types just love denial.

Gold

Fri, 6 May 2011

If for you (as, we’re not ashamed to say, for us) the musical connotations of ‘Gold’ are limited to the empowering advice to ‘always believe in your soul’, it’s time for a rethink.Todd DiCiurcio

A new world

Thu, 5 May 2011

It’s not surprising that in a continent that has such a long-standing and strong heritage of cartooning as South America there is also a thriving street art scene.

Architectural musings

Thu, 5 May 2011

This Friday sees the launch of the third issue of the beautiful annual PEAR (Paper for Emerging Architectural Research) ‘zine, which draws together the best in current architectural musings.

Behind the 'zines

Wed, 4 May 2011

When new book Behind the Zines: Self Publishing Culture arrived in the Design Week mail box in all its curling, canvas glory; we got rather excited. ‘This is it!’, screamed the inner 17-year-old, ‘this is your time to shine!’

The English vernacular

Tue, 3 May 2011

If the royal wedding has whet your appetite for all things English, then illustrator and print maker Chris Brown’s latest exhibition will keep your flag-waving, street partying spirit alive for a little bit longer.

Rebuilding British Airways' brand

Tue, 3 May 2011

Guest blogger Sam Jordan, managing director at branding consultancy Dave, reflects on British Airway’s plans to relaunch its brand.

All's fair in art and craft

Thu, 28 Apr 2011

While the situation in Japan may have been overshadowed in the news recently by the nuptials of a certain thinning-on-top toff, unfortunately, the destruction in the wake of the recent Tsunami is still very much a reality.flyer

A right Royal round-up

Wed, 27 Apr 2011

In celebration of the forthcoming nuptials of the heir to the throne and Miss Kate Middleton, here’s a selection of some of the projects and products fashioned in the name of Royal Wedding.

Urban fog

Tue, 26 Apr 2011

It is a well-known fact that the Design Week team devours more than a few cups of tea throughout the working day. Someone says ‘tea’, and several ears prick up. Followed by a chorus of desperate and gasping ‘yes pleases’.

Now that's what I call designers' music

Thu, 21 Apr 2011

Inspired by The Team’s new website for compilation album brand Now That’s What I Call Music, we tasked the design community with a particularly melodious Voxpop for this week’s issue.The new Now site designed by The Team

Eye of the storm

Wed, 20 Apr 2011

London-based artist Hannah Westwood will open a solo show at the city’s Tenderpixel gallery next month, inspired by the fast pace of 21st century life, called Eye of the Storm.

Liven up

Wed, 20 Apr 2011

Joining the likes of Lady Gaga and the pointy-eared blue folk of Avatar in the Design Week Hot 50, it’s clear there’s something rather special about ever-smiley illustrator, Lizzie Mary Cullen.

A flood of chocolate

Tue, 19 Apr 2011

Ever dreamed of toggling up in a protective suit and running with gay abandon through a rushing waterfall of molten chocolate? Now you can thanks to jellymongers Bompass & Parr - well, apart from the running bit, health and safety probably won’t like that.

Thinking and drinking

Mon, 18 Apr 2011

Hendrick’s Gin have found their perfect partner in a brand hook-up with Hackney-based shop of curiosities and purveyors of quirk The Last Tuesday.

A step up

Mon, 18 Apr 2011

Pulse London product fair has announced that this year’s event will play host to an improved Launchpad section for burgeoning young designers, having promoted the area to take up a third of this year’s show.Dandelion Stool by Design K

Take the stage

Fri, 15 Apr 2011

United Visual Artists designer Ben Kreukniet has just hit the pillow when we call. He’s been up all night putting the finishing touches to the main stage of Coachella, one of the biggest music festivals on the international circuit.Coachella

Interactive underground

Thu, 14 Apr 2011

So us Londoners may have noticed the odd refurbishment occurring on the London Underground. Hands up who gets stuck outside Oxford Circus on their commute home each evening?

Fine type

Thu, 14 Apr 2011

Cool Britannia is alive and well, according to Wayne Hemingway. The designer is launching a new vintage-inspired typographic print collection in collaboration with East End Prints, due to launch on 19 April at Green and Fay furniture and design store.

Channel vision

Wed, 13 Apr 2011

Identity is the name of the game at this year’s Guernsey Photography Festival, held in June, with 20 exhibitions from some of the world’s most renowned photographers as well as top emerging talent.

Street fighting man

Tue, 12 Apr 2011

In an extremely timely exhibition considering the spring of anti-cuts protests here in the UK and civil unrest elsewhere in the world, the Flash Projects gallery in London will launch an exhibition dedicated to fifty years of youth protest later this month.

Designs on art heritage

Tue, 12 Apr 2011

How do budding creatives find out about design? Lucky kids have family in the business, but until now for most the introduction has come through school. Art and design and technology classes will have drawn out any aptitude in visual communication or 3D thinking and making.

Virtual choir

Mon, 11 Apr 2011

As I’m sure Coca-Cola will testify, teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony is a pretty tricky feat, as is creating the accompanying music video.

Pub art

Fri, 8 Apr 2011

It appears April has got an identity crisis and mistaken itself for July. So what better way to bask in the glorious weather than to buff up the sunglasses, spark up the barbeque and crack open an ice cold beer – ahem – a Beck’s beer.

Character count

Fri, 8 Apr 2011

Laura Snoad reports on the cute critters taking centrestage at the Pictoplasma character fest in Berlin.

Intoxicating vapour

Thu, 7 Apr 2011

Here at Design Week, we love design. Most of us here, also love gin. So, tying in neatly with the forthcoming nuptials of Kate Moss, it really is a marriage made in heaven to see the worlds of gin and design collide in a truly spectacular way.

Causing a stir

Wed, 6 Apr 2011

Has packaging ever got you hot under the collar? So furious and angry that you’d want to get it banned?

A tonic to the nation

Wed, 6 Apr 2011

Festival fever is gathering pace ahead of the Festival of Britain celebrations at London’s Southbank Centre, which start later this month.

Bunch of fives

Tue, 5 Apr 2011

It seems five, not three, is the magic number, for independent illustration magazines in any case. We’ve had reams of publications hit the Design Week mail sack over the last few weeks, and of our favourites, three stand out - Nobrow, Popshot and Ammo - each on their fifth issue.Nobrow 5, work by Micah Lidberg

Shoe celebration

Mon, 4 Apr 2011

While most of us were kicking back over the weekend, Agency Rush illustrator Billie Jean was working hard on a commission for the Glasgow branch of shoe retailer Schuh.

Play

Fri, 1 Apr 2011

Sony Ericsson launched its new phone-cum-game console gizmo Xperia Play last night, with an immersive warehouse experience intended to feel like walking into a series of high action games.

Fooled

Fri, 1 Apr 2011

So we’ve plugged the right keyboard back into the right monitor, switched back the salt and sugar and peeled the cling film off, well, everything. It’s after midday and the April fool japes are now over - we’re not monsters after all.

Press and bleed

Thu, 31 Mar 2011

While Press & Bleed may sound like that Slipknot tribute band your awkward cousin almost formed, it is, in fact a far less sinister prospect.

Design for monkeys

Wed, 30 Mar 2011

A black and white hippo layered on top of a Milky Way background, with a lime green laser grid on top. Does this space-age kook sound familiar?

The friends of Tony Romanoff

Wed, 30 Mar 2011

When a ‘teaser image’ of an exhibition arrives in the form of a man’s pallid legs segued onto a large Spongebob Squarepants, you realise all is not as it seems.

Print box

Tue, 29 Mar 2011

This Thursday, the Hotshoe Gallery in London is playing host to the Royal College of Art MA Photography’s Print Box Sale, a fundraising event to help students to stage five exhibitions during the 2011 Folkestone Triennial this summer.

On your marques

Mon, 28 Mar 2011

Those training for the Bath Half Marathon will feel an extra rush of inspiration when they see the event’s new identity created by Bath-based consultancy Northbank.Northbank’s logo for the 2012 Bath Half Marathon

Editor's blog

Mon, 28 Mar 2011

Lynda Relph-Knight’s perspective on the week

Thinking data

Fri, 25 Mar 2011

If you’ve been anywhere near the media and technology blogs over the last few days, you’ll have noticed the kafuffle over Google’s new publication Think Quarterly.

The shaman

Thu, 24 Mar 2011

Psychedelia, tribal culture and ancient mythologies are heady subjects to inspire an exhibition. But it’s on these themes that illustrators Jake Blanchard and Scott Balmer have based their latest exhibition Hylozoism, which opens tonight.by Scott Balmer

Pure type

Thu, 24 Mar 2011

In what seems like a rather unlikely collaboration, Design Studio, D&AD, Nokia and Finlandia vodka are coming together tonight to help present the Nokia Pure Exhibition, celebrating the launch of the new Nokia Pure typeface created by typographer Dalton Maag.

The everyday

Wed, 23 Mar 2011

Today sees the opening of Practice For Everyday Life - Young Artists from Russia at London’s Calvert 22 Gallery. The exhibition offers an insight into the work of a group of young Russian artists in media including film, sculpture, photography, painting and performance.

Whose hair?

Tue, 22 Mar 2011

Here’s a pop quiz for barnet lovers everywhere, or perhaps ‘chop’ quiz would be more appropriate.

A modern 'rime'

Mon, 21 Mar 2011

One of the most pleasing publications to come through the Design Week post bag as of late is The Rime of the Modern Mariner by Nick Hayes.

Bound

Mon, 21 Mar 2011

Opening next week at the new All Visual Arts gallery in London’s Kings Cross is Bound, a show that looks to be as terrifying as it is beautiful.

Working girls

Fri, 18 Mar 2011

Reading Room founder Margaret Manning has turned mentor for the BBC’s Working Girls programme, in an episode which airs next week.

Reading room

Thu, 17 Mar 2011

Multidisciplinary consultancy Designers Front has designed an immersive reading environment which has appeared in Spitalfields Market in time for the paper-back launch of David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumn’s of Jacob de Zoet, published today.

Fun at the fair

Thu, 17 Mar 2011

London graphic art fair Pick Me Up opened last night at London’s Somerset House. Here’s a peek at what you can expect from the show if you pop down over the next fortnight.

Take a seat

Wed, 16 Mar 2011

Leon is a restaurant chain renowned for its eye-catching design. From menus to interiors, the place is painstakingly pretty, referencing traditional yet quirky styles with nostalgia-tugging graphics.

Creative Portsmouth

Tue, 15 Mar 2011

University of Portsmouth lecturer Claire Sambrook has masterminded a book to raise the creative profile of Portsmouth and showcase talent in the city.

One for all

Tue, 15 Mar 2011

If you’re keen to get stuck in and join the burgeoning ranks of designers working for the common good, there is still time for you to sign up for this year’s Inclusive Design Challenge.

Victorian disguise

Mon, 14 Mar 2011

Walking into Wilton’s Music Hall, the first thing we see is a man with two taxidermy foxes attached to his shoulders at an impossible angle.

The inventor of the album cover

Fri, 11 Mar 2011

The story of how album cover art came into existence is a classic design case study in how considered graphics meet the hard-nosed world of commerce.

Totem tour

Fri, 11 Mar 2011

The next step on the Inkygoodness Character Totem tour stops at Manchester where the group will be teaming up with The Publishers Club to make a collaborative ‘zine, featuring specially commissioned works from some of their favourite illustrators. Design Week caught up with Ammo magazine creative director Dave Hughes to talk about the publication and get a sneak preview of the illustrations it will include.

She said...

Thu, 10 Mar 2011

Our blog highlighting the gender inequalities still apparent in the design industry has seemingly caused a bit of a stir in the DW bloggosphere.

Punch paper

Wed, 9 Mar 2011

To accompany the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Cult of Beauty exhibition, illustrator Matt Blease has created a wallpaper made from cartoons of design greats and celebrities, which will form a backdrop at Liberty’s V&A Cult of Beauty windows at its store in London.

Fashion and fame

Tue, 8 Mar 2011

It’s the perfect 1970s shot: two style icons - David Bowie and Twiggy - pose wide-eyed and semi-clad for the cover of Bowie’s album Pin Ups.

Quietly strange

Tue, 8 Mar 2011

Wim Wenders’s films are justly hailed for their evocation of place - be it the dusty desert landscapes of Paris, Texas or the angel’s-eye-view of a divided Berlin in Wings of Desire.Ferris Wheel Reverse Angle, Armenia, ...

The art of food

Mon, 7 Mar 2011

The humble mushroom. It’s perhaps not the first thing - unless you’re of a certain Camden-centric persuasion - that you’d think of as inspiring art, literature and dinner party conversation.

Virtual monsters

Fri, 4 Mar 2011

A mix of infinite mirrors, audio-visual environments, dancers in wind tunnels and giant evolving monsters sounds like some sort of phantasmagoria, but is set to tantalise digital design lovers and the like, this April at La Gaîté Lyrique - a new venue dedicated to digital arts in Paris.

The cut

Fri, 4 Mar 2011

Bill Woodrow’s metal sculptures baffle the mind. The British artist cleverly cuts out nets from discarded objects, such as car doors and oil drums, and then assembles them into the likes of guitars, walkie-talkies and even a beaver. The sculptures contain both parts, often joined together and the origin of the new object still visible.

Pick Me Up

Thu, 3 Mar 2011

With graphic art fair Pick Me Up just around the corner, we can offer you an exclusive peak at some of the artists’ work set to feature.Hammer and Thread 2001, Polly Becker

Hand-drawn maps

Wed, 2 Mar 2011

Would-be cartographers have produced 11 hand-drawn maps for a new Museum of London exhibition charting their own perceptions of London.Source: Anika MottershawMap of London

Top 100 Consultancy Survey: DEADLINE EXTENSION

Wed, 2 Mar 2011

Here at Design Week towers, we’ve had a flurry of phone calls in the last few days from design consultancy’s begging, pleading and bribing us for an extension on their Top 100 form.Top 100

Design Indaba: Inspiration

Tue, 1 Mar 2011

‘Africa is not just a place, it’s a state of mind.’ So said Pentagram partner Michael Beirut last week as he kicked off a session at Cape Town’s Design Indaba, at which he was a mediator.

Font of knowledge

Mon, 28 Feb 2011

The streets of Paris were built on top of 170 miles of abandoned mines, now closed to the public but representing a rich source of hand-drawn typography carved into the walls over centuries by miners, engineers and trespassers.

Window of opportunity

Mon, 28 Feb 2011

If you’ve ever wondered what really goes on inside an artist’s studio, The Hoxton Window project gives you the perfect excuse to unashamedly unleash your inner peeping Tom.

Sixty seconds with La Boca

Fri, 25 Feb 2011

To coincide with La Boca’s exhibition at London’s Concrete Hermit Kingly Court, which opened last night, we caught up with La Boca co-founder Scot Bendall to talk about the company’s beginnings and last year’s sucesses.

At His Majesty's pleasure

Thu, 24 Feb 2011

The past year has seen its fair share of civil unrest, ranging from the student protests and UK Uncut’s occupation of Topshop’s flagship store over boss Sir Philip Green’s tax avoidance, to more recent clashes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

Inside Eden

Thu, 24 Feb 2011

Hardy delegates to next week’s Intersections conference in Cornwall will be spending the night under canvas in aid of charity Shelterbox, which provides emergency shelter and disaster relief.

Chain reaction

Wed, 23 Feb 2011

Last summer, we caught up with the organisers behind Papergirl Manchester, a philanthropic cyclist and designer mash-up that involved distributing rolled bundles of artwork to unsuspecting pedestrians.

An unusual client

Tue, 22 Feb 2011

How would you feel if you received this message? ‘My name is Ernesto Bones and I write to you with an important request. I have a very serious problem that only you can help fix. You see, though I am writing to you now, I do not yet truly exist.’

The future's Orange

Tue, 22 Feb 2011

Most people are well-versed in the recent history of Dutch design, with its lineage running from current stars including Tord Boontje and Droog, through to Koeweiden Postma from the ’80s onwards and Wim Crouwel, Ben Bos et al and their Total Design vision in the 1960s.

Good times ahead

Mon, 21 Feb 2011

This morning, Transport for London unveiled a new artwork by Irish artist Eva Rothschild, which will adorn the Pocket Tube Map from March.

Plans for Free Range

Fri, 18 Feb 2011

Details are emerging on graduate show Free Range, which covers all design disciplines and returns to London’s The Old Truman Brewery this summer with a new moving image category and over forty-five participating UK universities exhibiting final project work.

Editor's blog

Fri, 18 Feb 2011

If a creative industries debate at the House of Commons this week is anything to go by, the Liberal  Democrat element of the coalition Government is in denial about 40 per cent cuts to education in the design sector. 

Nowhere

Thu, 17 Feb 2011

The relationship between graphic art and music is typified by the work and career of Trevor Jackson – at once art director, graphic designer, moving image maker and music producer.

Illustration totem

Wed, 16 Feb 2011

In the run up to character design festival Pictoplasma, which will be held in Berlin in April, illustration promoters Inkygoodness will be holding a live draw-off in three UK cities.

On the record

Wed, 16 Feb 2011

Although we’re frankly sick to death of hearing about pop-up stores, popping up decidedly un-spontaneously at every available opportunity, we’ll make an exception for The Vinyl Factory.

New worlds

Tue, 15 Feb 2011

At a casual glance, Andrew Brooks’ arrestingly vivid, vibrant photographs appear to be simply beautifully shot scenes in very bold colours.

Love stories

Mon, 14 Feb 2011

Love it or - most likely - loathe it, you won’t be able to escape the fact that it’s Valentine’s Day today. So in tribute to this vomit-inducing festival, we thought we’d share with you a couple of non-commercial Valentine’s projects that might pique your interest, if not your passions.Open Agency’s Valentype

Spinning a yarn

Mon, 14 Feb 2011

Opening this weekend, Yarnfest is a celebration of all things story related: a festival of film, theatre, music and literature where the imagination can run wild in a kaleidoscope of narrative fun.The Yarnfest poster

Memories

Fri, 11 Feb 2011

Cancer directly affects one in three people in the UK, so its not surprising that those who have been touched by the disease and its survivors are keen to use their skills to raise money for charities that work to fight it.

I heart Milton Glaser

Thu, 10 Feb 2011

Art critic Alastair Sooke crossed the Atlantic to discover the story behind Milton Glaser’s iconic I love New York logo, for a programme that aired on BBC Radio 4 this morning.

Creatives in Cairo

Thu, 10 Feb 2011

On Tuesday 25 January, Jog creative director Robert Smith, accompanied by photographer Timothy Soar and another member of his consultancy, flew to Egypt to complete final snagging on their branding and exhibition design work for the Cairo International Book Fair.Sculpture by Jog for the Cairo International Book Fair. ...

Pro-logo versus no logo

Wed, 9 Feb 2011

Guest blogger Lloyd Northover co-founder John Lloyd joins the logo debate and argues that it still has a central role in brand building.

Flatpack Festival

Tue, 8 Feb 2011

The trend for all things pop-up has spread to cinema this year, with a host of temporary and impromptu film screenings popping up all over the place.An audience from the first Flatpack Festival in 2006

Love blossoms

Tue, 8 Feb 2011

As shop fronts are adorned with red roses and hearts, commercial declarations of love are bought in the form of cards and chocolate – it can only mean the day of love is just around the corner. 

If you're appy and you know it

Mon, 7 Feb 2011

Who says expensive technology is just for adults? Designer Matt Booth has created new app Crayate to allow creative children to get involved in the iPad phenomenon.

A man of letters

Fri, 4 Feb 2011

Launching this month is Liberty’s Paper Room stationery department - a space that, refreshingly for a luddite such as myself, celebrates the art of the handwritten note.

Over the pond

Fri, 4 Feb 2011

If you’re looking for a Trans-Atlantic perspective on branding and design, you could do worse than tune in to the new season of Design Matters podcasts from New York’s School of Visual Arts.

Virtually real

Thu, 3 Feb 2011

In an age of Facebook ‘friends’, airbrushing and CGI, the boundaries between the real and the virtual are becoming increasingly blurred.

Designers, academics and a monk

Wed, 2 Feb 2011

Design heavyweights Jaime Hayon and Neville Brody will share a stage with Zen Buddhist Master Sante Poromaa in a Stockholm based event which looks at the changing role of the designer.Boost show

Editor's blog

Wed, 2 Feb 2011

Lynda Relph-Knight’s perspective on the week

Art Hate Graphics

Tue, 1 Feb 2011

As can be expected from artist and musician Billy Childish, his latest project, the book Art Hate Graphics 1972 - 2010, is provocative, challenging and far from straightforward.

Misfit

Mon, 31 Jan 2011

Dutch designer Hella Jongerius publishes a new monograph this month, designed by fellow Dutch designer Irma Boom.

Poster girl

Mon, 31 Jan 2011

For those that haven’t been to Bristol, Broadmead is the somewhat run-down city centre shopping district which inspired Matt Lucas to write the Vicky Pollard sketch in TV comedy Little Britain.

Graphic design history

Fri, 28 Jan 2011

‘I Don’t Know Where I’m Going But I Want To Be There: The Expanding Field of Graphic Design 1900-2020,’ shouts the monochrome typographic cover of a new book in the discipline.The cover

Snapping the streets

Thu, 27 Jan 2011

Next month, the Museum of London launches the first exhibition of its kind dedicated to photography which captures the streets of London.

Just a minute

Thu, 27 Jan 2011

It’s true that in today’s world, a minute really is often all we have. Multitasking and microblogging are the symptoms of an era where time is certainly a premium.

Minibar for the mind

Wed, 26 Jan 2011

Imagine it: a minibar for the mind, somewhere to quench epistemological thirst, binge on intellect, inspiration and ideas and then settle a bill for it.

Beautiful beats

Tue, 25 Jan 2011

Here at Design Week, we like a good infographic, and we’re quite partial to the odd VJ set too. So it was with great pleasure that we received word of Rehab Studio’s live motion graphics project for Last FM.Rehab Studio’s live data visuals

Brothers in arms

Tue, 25 Jan 2011

Thankfully, the significance of the term ‘love that dare not speak its name’ has been somewhat watered down since its 19th century inception.

The joy of living

Mon, 24 Jan 2011

London Design Guide editor Max Fraser has challenged more than 100 established and new UK-based designers to create a piece of artwork from a single sheet of A4 graph paper to raise money for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres.

The culture of ideas

Fri, 21 Jan 2011

Graphic designer Rian Hughes has stepped away from the more visual subject of two of his previous publications, Custom Lettering of the 60s and 70s and Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s, for a new book addressing the relationship between culture and ideas.

Centres for caring

Fri, 21 Jan 2011

The Victoria & Albert Museum and the Royal Institute of British Architects Architecture Gallery will host an exhibition next month dedicated to the design behind Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres. Design Week caught up with Maggie’s chief executive Laura Lee and exhibition co-curator Matthew Storey to talk about the design behind the centres.

Definition conditions

Thu, 20 Jan 2011

How would you describe the objects pictured below?

Best of British

Wed, 19 Jan 2011

The Southbank Centre has announced details of its 60th birthday celebrations, which will take the shape of a homage to the 1951 Festival of Britain.

Chick flicks

Wed, 19 Jan 2011

As Sheila’s Wheels, Sex and the City and that hideous, snivelling Boots advert all amply demonstrate, even in 2011, women are still all-too often viewed as pink obsessed, shoe obsessed martyrs to their (barf) ‘other half’.

In fashion

Tue, 18 Jan 2011

London’s Dover Street Market is a hub of innovative and unusual fashion, but just as the collections chang,e so do the interior spaces.

Light and shadows

Mon, 17 Jan 2011

Cameraless photography seems to be having a renaissance this year, with the Shadown Catchers exhibtion becoming a hit at the Victoria & Albert Museum and numerous pinhole photography projects popping up across the country.

Future Map 10

Fri, 14 Jan 2011

Future Map, the annual survey show from the University of Arts London, opened yesterday at Zabludowicz Collection in London’s Chalk Farm.

Legends

Fri, 14 Jan 2011

The word ‘legend’ has been irritatingly appropriated of late. Make someone a cup of tea? You’re a legend.  Mrs Doubtfire? Legendary. Make that noise where it sounds like a fart coming out of your armpit? Yup, in today’s (mostly teenage) vernacular, you’re a legend.

The boy in the oak

Thu, 13 Jan 2011

Jessica Albarn, illustrator and author of children’s book The Boy In The Oak, is adapting her novel into a short film narrated by Jude Law with a soundtrack by brother Damon Albarn.A still from The Boy in the Oak

The ride of your life

Wed, 12 Jan 2011

At best a journey on London Underground can be an efficient way of getting from A to B, at worst, it can be a not-so-private hell, full of delays, cramped conditions and body odour.

Criminal genius

Wed, 12 Jan 2011

It’s an advertiser’s wet dream: you mention something casually online, and by the end of the day it’s amassed 10 000 tweets, tens of thousands of Facebook likes and 90 000 unique visitors to your website.

Which craft

Tue, 11 Jan 2011

Guest blogger Steve Price, of Plan B Studio, reflects on the need for basic design skills and craft know-how despite developments in technology

Under the hammer

Mon, 10 Jan 2011

The Photographers’ Gallery is to hold a charity auction at Christie’s South Kensington site in mid February.

Full of energy

Mon, 10 Jan 2011

In what could be the finest line-up of interactive exhibits of 2011, the Architectural Association is bringing a time machine, a giant self-balancing mechanism and an impossible pinball machine to London this month.

The days ahead

Fri, 7 Jan 2011

In a similar vein to our Christmas creative posts last year, we bring you some of our favourite 2011 calendars that design consultancies have created both for clients and themselves.

What happens in Vegas

Thu, 6 Jan 2011

Just like everything else in Las Vegas, the International Consumer Electronics Show is colossally proportioned.

Designers' breakfasts

Thu, 6 Jan 2011

This morning’s papers were full of designers. But instead of talking about their usual topics, the stars of this morning’s appearances were waxing about altogether more foodie fare.

Number one record

Wed, 5 Jan 2011

Album art is still a coveted canvas for many graphic designers despite the decline of record sales, and the annual Art Vinyl competition is one of its biggest champions.

Goodbye until 2011

Wed, 22 Dec 2010

Design Week is retiring for Xmas at the end of the week, but today the last blogs will be posted until Wednesday 5 January.

Season's greetings II

Wed, 22 Dec 2010

Following our last blog about some of our favourite Christmas projects last week, more seasonal work came flooding in faster than Santa can down a brandy. So we thought we’d show you another final batch of festive creative to well and truly get you in mood.

Lost in translation

Tue, 21 Dec 2010

For most of us, Pictionary is the height of our attempts to draw from verbal phrases and then translate those images back into words again. But an exhibition at new London space The Gopher Hole has explored how visual to verbal translation forms interesting outcomes from iconic designs.

Plastic fantastic

Mon, 20 Dec 2010

My Plastic Idea has launched a competition aimed at creative students to design innovative packaging and products from polypropylene.

Bespoke bubbles

Mon, 20 Dec 2010

‘Tis the season to be jolly, and usually pretty drunk too. So it was with great interest when we heard that Dutch communications consultancy They had a new collection of packaging for their own brand champagne Zarb.Zarb bottle by Zena Holloway

Paint job

Fri, 17 Dec 2010

Tube journeys are rarely a pleasurable experience. At best, they’re hot; at worst, someone’s sick on the floor and your nose is thrust underneath an onion-munching man’s armpit.

Yes is more

Thu, 16 Dec 2010

Copenhagen-based architectural practice Bjarke Ingels Group have created an unusual monograph, casting aside the usual convention of large pictures and white art book borders for a graphic novel format.

Record breakers

Thu, 16 Dec 2010

Here at Design Week, like the rest of the nation, we’re intrigued by who’s the tallest, who’s the loudest, who has the biggest kidneys, who’s capable of eating an entire loaf of bread using only their toenails, and who’s managed to grow teeth out of their bellybutton.

M for music

Wed, 15 Dec 2010

Do you know your Spice Girls from your Stone Roses, your Radiohead from your Talking Heads? Aurally perhaps, but what about typographically?

Off the wall

Tue, 14 Dec 2010

Just before London Design Festival earlier this year in September, we wrote about Supermarket Sarah, a stylish hybrid between a pop-up shop and e-commerce site that set up shop at Tom Dixon’s The Dock.

Hark the designers sing

Tue, 14 Dec 2010

Yesterday, the DW Blog brought you a selection of gorgeous and somewhat off-the-wall designers’ Christmas cards. Ranging from the hirsute to the cute to the Tweet-based, the selection proved that creativity comes alive with a little festive prompting.

Not safe for work

Mon, 13 Dec 2010

There are a lot of ways to get attention for a debut exhibition, but packaging your invite up as porn is not one that we see everyday.

Webcam wonder

Fri, 10 Dec 2010

Within moments of reading this blog post, I suspect most of you will be gesticulating at your screens and wildly whirling your arms around, to the distress of anyone else in the room around you.

Mulled wine and murder

Fri, 10 Dec 2010

East London design studio Cherry is mixing festive fun and frights with its Mulled Wine and Murder map project.

Digging deep

Thu, 9 Dec 2010

‘I was having a glass of Chilean wine, just after the miners had been rescued when it struck me; someone’s missing a trick here,’ says Unreal designer Ryan Tym.

Light up

Wed, 8 Dec 2010

The perfect Christmas design project should be engaging, feature an element of sharing and should be just a little bit magic.

Cut the art cuts

Tue, 7 Dec 2010

Chancellor George Osbourne announced his Comprehensive Spending Review back in October, with the public sector being one of the hardest hit. The arts, particularly, is one sector that is buckling under the pressure as massive cuts are made across the UK.

Dreaming of you

Tue, 7 Dec 2010

Ahhh….Dreamboats. What springs to mind for you? A quick straw poll of the  Design Week office elicits responses ranging from Johnny Depp and Damon Albarn to a very unimaginative, ‘er…I’ll get back to you.’

Editor's blog

Mon, 6 Dec 2010

Lynda Relph-Knight’s perspective on the week

Rubbish fashion

Fri, 3 Dec 2010

Fashion - what is it? It can be uber cool, trendy, cutting-edge and oh so stylish, but sometimes a little slick for its own good. The newsstands, for example, are littered with glossy fashion magazines that are trying to out-style each other. So its refreshing to see Rubbish Ink - a fashion magazine - which landed on the Design Week editorial desk that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Go West!

Fri, 3 Dec 2010

For those of you in the frozen East, if you’re looking for a place to chill out in warmer climes then simply head South West. Trains out of London’s Paddington are running on time and there’s just a light dusting of snow to highlight salient features of the Cotswold landscape.

Another nail in the coffin

Thu, 2 Dec 2010

Apologies for being morbid but here at Design Week, we’ve noticed that there seems to be a growing trend for coffin design long outliving its seasonal Halloween sell-by date.

Art director's choice

Wed, 1 Dec 2010

The humble barcode is an essential addition to any commercial design job, and have become emblems of our consumer civilisation - so much so that we barely notice them any more.

Woodland retreat

Wed, 1 Dec 2010

Being outside at the moment is the last thing you want to do. But if you’re missing the flora and fauna but don’t want to get frostbite, a new café at London department store Harrods, with graphics from Severn Studios, might offer the solution.by Bex Glover

Design excavation

Tue, 30 Nov 2010

Since our hairy ape-like ancestors started fashioning tools more than two million years ago, design has been at the heart of problem solving and the progress of human civilisation.

Champagne and paper

Mon, 29 Nov 2010

Travelling business class on the Eurostar to see the Arjowiggins Graphic Greenfield pulp mill in Chateau Thierry, France last week seemed like an opulent affair. Especially with the paper industry having to work harder than ever before to demonstrate its Green credentials.

A novel project

Mon, 29 Nov 2010

Sir Salman Rushdie’s new children’s novel, Luka and the Fire of Life will be brought to life through the animations of four Kingston University students.

Rightly royal

Fri, 26 Nov 2010

One of the most heartening things about last night’s Royal Designers ceremony was that Sir Terence Conran finally joined that elevated throng.

Pearcing thoughts

Thu, 25 Nov 2010

Whatever was happening in Trafalgar Square last night, the student protests didn’t deter creative stalwarts from heading down to London University’s Bloomsbury campus to hear Pentagram partner Harry Pearce’s thoughts on design, creative intervention and dreams.Harry Pearce

It's party time!

Wed, 24 Nov 2010

Last week, we gave you alternative ideas of where to go Christmas shopping to avoid the hustle and bustle of the high street. With Made in Clerkenwell’s Winter Open Studios (opening tomorrow night) being top of the list.

A nice cuppa

Tue, 23 Nov 2010

The team here at Design Week are known for drinking tea by the bucket load. Guaranteed on the hour every hour someone will pop on the kettle for a nice cuppa tea - which frankly makes life on the editorial desk a little less fraught.

Chinese takeout

Tue, 23 Nov 2010

Guest blogger Paul Priestman of Priestman Goode shares his experiences of China - and the Prime Minister’s recent trade delegation in particular.

Life on the wall

Mon, 22 Nov 2010

Samuel Johnson famously quipped, ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.’

Reverting to type

Fri, 19 Nov 2010

Exhibition Reverting to Type will explore the modern execution of letterpress through the work of twenty practitioners.

Against gravity

Fri, 19 Nov 2010

Italian writer Italo Calvino once said that ‘lightness is a value, rather than a defect’.

Season's seating

Thu, 18 Nov 2010

Christmas is a time for peace and goodwill, but aside from the warmth and fuzziness, there’s undoubtedly usually a few rows and a couple of tears shed around Yuletide.

Creative pop-up

Wed, 17 Nov 2010

As the UK retail market has taken a mighty wallop from the recession, a deluge of opportunistic pop-up shops has appeared over the past couple of years.

The 'godfather' of street art

Wed, 17 Nov 2010

Royal engagements, recession, protests and strikes: 2010, it seems, is more than a little ‘eighties’.

The magic number

Tue, 16 Nov 2010

Three, it seems, really is the magic number.

Fight night

Mon, 15 Nov 2010

Last Saturday was the ultimate fight night, and not just because David Haye  retained his WBA Heavyweight belt title against Audley Harrison.

Type time

Mon, 15 Nov 2010

With over a decade of type and graphic design under their belts, Henrik Kubel and Scott Williams from London-based studio A2/SW/HK have created a lot of typefaces for commercial clients. And it’s this wealth of handiwork that designers can buy and use, now that the duo have set up new type foundry A2 Type.

When the smoke clears

Fri, 12 Nov 2010

It’s always interesting when illustrators and artists bring out their own clothing lines, and even more so when the clothes can transform you into their works of art. Such is the case with street artist and illustrator Kid Acne’s new hand-printed range, which allow the ladies, and men with a penchant for cross-dressing, to transform into one of his Stabby Women.

Real interiors

Thu, 11 Nov 2010

Look at this image - is it real or is it an illusion?Interior by Ben Johnson

Web 'dig'

Thu, 11 Nov 2010

This year the Internet turns 20. And since its clunky, visually messy and very slow beginnings, web pages have changed beyond all recognition and are rapidly evolving to offer new online experiences year on year.

Get well soon

Wed, 10 Nov 2010

After the popularity of Kingston University student Napatsawan Chirayukool’s What makes your day? animation, which won the Adobe Design Achievement Awards animation category with its illustrated interviews of people talking about their happy moments, we thought we’d bring you another animated film using similar inspiration from real people.

Young Americans

Tue, 9 Nov 2010

Young design duo Zigelbaum & Coelho make their UK debut at London’s Riflemaker gallery this month with an interactive light installation which is somewhere between a chilled-out laser show and the innards of a living, breathing beast.The installation can be changed by visitors

Crafts Council launches online exhibition space

Tue, 9 Nov 2010

The Crafts Council has launched online exhibition space www.onviewonline.org.uk, which has been developed with consultancy Miura.

What happened to identity?

Mon, 8 Nov 2010

Guest blogger graphic designer Patrick Argent looks at three ‘truly outstanding’ identities and wonders why they were ever replaced.

The night chauffeur

Fri, 5 Nov 2010

While driving around London last night, a heavy-lidded femme fatal ambushed our car and seduced the driver into providing her with a quick getaway - she was on the run from the law it turned out. 

Surreal cells

Fri, 5 Nov 2010

Octopuses smoking cigars, yogic ostriches, men with ’magpie vision’, Fez-sporting elephants and electric eel vindaloo are just a few of the wonders that are to be found in Solipsistic Pop 3.

Model medal

Thu, 4 Nov 2010

The winner of this year’s Royal Institute of British Architects’ Manser Medal will walk home with more than just a sense of glowing pride next week. The trophy for the relaunched prize has been created by ceramicist Petr Weigl and will be awarded to the architect behind the best new UK house or major extension at a ceremony on 11 November.

Spam jam

Wed, 3 Nov 2010

If the spam emails we receive really delivered what they promised, we’d all be muscular but slim-wasted millionaires and excellent lovers to boot. 

Is this thing on?

Wed, 3 Nov 2010

Way back when, students were known for their political activism and forthright views, protesting about pretty much anything and waving placards at the drop of a hat.

Blake's homage

Tue, 2 Nov 2010

Peter Blake has often created work which involved layering an assembly of found and iconic images to create unexpected and contemporary scenes.Birds, 2010, collage with found objects (c) Peter Blake

Pleased to greet you

Mon, 1 Nov 2010

Walking into an office or any corporate building, the first thing you’ll be greeted with is a reception. Not always just a dull desk with a pot plant or two, the design savvy are well aware of the important first impression that this often overlooked piece of furniture can give.

Editor's blog

Mon, 1 Nov 2010

Lynda Relph-Knight’s perspective on the week.

Bit of bovver

Fri, 29 Oct 2010

With the roaring success of Shane Meadows’ This is England 86 series, there’s a growing fascination with the gritty Thatcher years and the artforms spawned by the social unrest, poverty, and youth subcultures of the decade.

Woodland surprise

Thu, 28 Oct 2010

If you go down to Hoxton’s Pure Evil Gallery next week, you’ll be sure of a woodland inspired surprise.

What makes your day?

Thu, 28 Oct 2010

Adobe unveiled the winners of its tenth annual student prize Adobe Design Achievement Awards this week, with a UK student, Napatsawan Chirayukool, topping the animation category.A still from Napatsawan Chirayukool’s film What Makes Your Day?

Art in public

Wed, 27 Oct 2010

As the Christmas lights edge into London’s Oxford street ready to be switched on in a couple of weeks time, there’s a host of other public art works launching up and down the country, thankfully of a less festive nature.

A month of Sundays

Tue, 26 Oct 2010

For illustrator Pete McKee, Sundays, especially during childhood, are always a mixed blessing.

Happiness at work

Tue, 26 Oct 2010

An exhibition of work from Wapping-based studio Happiness at Work will open at Dalston’s Print House Gallery on Friday.

Jail house stitch

Mon, 25 Oct 2010

When I think of inmates doing time, my mind casts back to old TV reruns of Porridge, watching Ronnie Barker’s character Fletcher come into some sort of conflict. So it’s hard to imagine a group of criminals sat round learning cross and chain stitches to create beautiful pieces of embroidery.

Designers' identities

Fri, 22 Oct 2010

At Design Week we don’t often get the opportunity to showcase the identities that consultancies give themselves as it strays a little too far into self-promotion, no matter how nice the work.

Editor's blog

Fri, 22 Oct 2010

A week may, as former Prime Minister Harold Wilson said, be a long time in politics. But for design’s politicians the past few weeks surely constitute an eternity.

Live WebTV chat about Open Planet Ideas

Thu, 21 Oct 2010

During a live webchat today at 3pm, TV presenter Kate Bellingham, WWF’s Dax Lovegrove and Sony’s Ben Moore will talk about how developments in technology could solve environmental problems as part of Open Planet Ideas.

Go ape

Wed, 20 Oct 2010

The Sumatran Orangutan Society has commissioned some top-notch design work in its time, with Hat-Trick Design winning Best in Show at the 2008 Design Week Benchmarks for its identity and scooping up a Design Week Award in the poster category the same year for a campaign for the charity.

Sustainable Sunday

Wed, 20 Oct 2010

For the last few months, Sunday afternoons have (mostly) been ripe for a stroll in the park or a pint in a beer garden. But with the bracing cold setting in, we need to find some new ways of whiling away those precious hours pre-Monday morning.

Table talk

Tue, 19 Oct 2010

It’s been a week for lists, what with the ‘bonfire of quangos’ and the Government spending review on its way. And if there wasn’t enough woe to go around the UK already, London has received a double blow in two other location-specific tables.

Design criminals

Mon, 18 Oct 2010

As part of Vienna Design Week, the Design Criminals exhibition at the MAK Design Space is showing a bizarre and brilliant array of objects, images and gadgets, which its curators claim are ‘beyond the normal canon of design activity’.

Packaging webchat

Mon, 18 Oct 2010

Following on from its graphic design webchat, held last month, The Guardian is set to host a session looking at working as a packaging designer.

Design diaries

Fri, 15 Oct 2010

Are you the sort of person that reads other people’s diaries? Irresistible, isn’t it, if you see one lingering on a table top or under a pillow? Although Design Diaries, a new book by Lucienne Roberts and Rebecca Wright, doesn’t quite offer the thrill of sneaking a look at the private scribblings of some of design’s top names, it’s a helpful tome allowing a view into the workings behind a number of graphics projects.

Hats off

Thu, 14 Oct 2010

Do you know what the urban streetwear cap of choice is? Well, rappers wear them, athletes and artists wear them and pretty much every cool kid on the planet should know how to wear them. Presenting the wide brim baseball cap - otherwise known as the New Era 59Fifty.

Moniker

Thu, 14 Oct 2010

Street art show Moniker International Art Fair launches tonight, promising to be an urban alternative to much of the highbrow art on display at London’s Frieze Art Fair.

Dalston open studios

Wed, 13 Oct 2010

Founded in 1977, Dalston-based Bootstrap Company is a development trust, social enterprise and charity that has worked to develop cultural and creative projects in its corner of London.

An outsider's chance

Tue, 12 Oct 2010

The Folio Society and House of Illustration have launched a competition to find an illustrator to create covers for Albert Camus’ iconic novel The Outsider.

He’s behind you!

Tue, 12 Oct 2010

Interior designers will be treading the boards at London’s Garrick Theatre this week in a production of Snow White and the Seven Designers.Group rehearsal

Seen and not heard

Mon, 11 Oct 2010

‘Music + art = good,’ enlightens graphic designer and occasional artist Jamie Winder. Just one of the contributors to display their work at the next Seen and Not Heard night and exhibition, which commences end of November. 

Through the pinhole

Fri, 8 Oct 2010

Using photographic paper and an Adsa’s worth of empty beer cans, pinhole photographer Justin Quinnell has been capturing images of Bristol in a host of three month-duration exposures.

Tender age

Fri, 8 Oct 2010

Moshi Moshi is a record label always one (or 20) steps ahead of the game. So imagine our delight when the label revealed a new imprint, Tender Age, last month, accompanied by some utterly adorable illustrations.

Happy outcomes

Thu, 7 Oct 2010

Happiness abounded at Coley Porter Bell last night as team members toasted the success of their peers in the consultancy’s internal Blue Sky awards.

You are in control

Wed, 6 Oct 2010

Iceland is a strange, beautiful and complex country with a thriving digital industry and a rapidly expanding creative sector.

Editor's blog

Wed, 6 Oct 2010

The London Design Festival is well behind us now, but other creative celebrations continue. Cardiff is still in the throes of its annual designfest and the likes of  Barcelona and Tokyo are set to kick off their ‘designers’ weeks’ later this month. Meanwhile, Beijing is preparing for its inaugural event next year, to be held in partnership with our own LDF.

Viva Italia

Tue, 5 Oct 2010

What do you picture when you think of Italy? Pasta, Vespa, the Umbrian countryside or perhaps Berlusconi’s frequent gaffes? It’s the question Antonio Benincasa from the Free University of Bozen Bolzano posed to 20 Italian graphic designers for an exhibition, called Spaghetti Vespa Typography, that opens at Budapest Design Week today.

Street life

Mon, 4 Oct 2010

As The Photographers’ Gallery moves out of its London home while it is closed for an £8.7m redevelopment project, the off-site programme is well underway.

Festival fever comes to Cardiff

Mon, 4 Oct 2010

Cardiff has picked up the design festival baton from London, with the launch of the Cardiff Design Festival, which runs until 16 October and will see a host of design talent descend on the Welsh capital.

Threads

Fri, 1 Oct 2010

T-shirts have been getting a lot of attention recently, namely in a book that celebrates this personal, and often overlooked, canvas for graphic design, from online community Threadless.

Prize paper

Thu, 30 Sep 2010

There’s been a tide of impressive ‘zines and small-scale independent magazines arrive in the Design Week post bag over the last few weeks, equally matched by the number of ’zine-related events available outside of the office.Kid Acne’s zine Stabby Women

The lost city of Stoke

Wed, 29 Sep 2010

Stoke-on-Trent isn’t the sexiest city. But perhaps some of my fondest childhood memories involve being paraded around the potteries by my dad - himself a Staffordshire lad, playing hide-and-seek in crumbling factory yards and narrowly avoiding smashing racks of ceramics.The Gladstone-Rosslyn ...

Art on wheels

Wed, 29 Sep 2010

Back in July, Design Week blogged about the fantastic Papergirl Manchester project (DW blog 28 July), which will see creatively minded cyclists distributing bundles of art and design work to passers by around the city. 

On yer own bike

Tue, 28 Sep 2010

We knew it wouldn’t be long before Boris’s bikes - the affectionate term for the hoards of Barclays-backed hire cycles that hit London streets this summer - would spawn new branding ideas.

Neville Brody’s visual origins traced

Mon, 27 Sep 2010

The evolution of Neville Brody

Glass class

Fri, 24 Sep 2010

Graphic designer Gareth Bayliss, who shared Design Week art director Sam Freeman’s love for Roger Excoffon’s Banco font in Art director’s choice this week, has created window graphics for Concrete Hermit’s new store in central London’s Kingly Court.

Designersblock

Fri, 24 Sep 2010

Designersblock has returned to The Bargehouse on London’s Southbank for this year’s London Design Festival, after exhibiting at Earls Court One last year.

Furniture in Fitzrovia

Thu, 23 Sep 2010

Our first stop in yesterday’s central London design jaunt was the ever-beautiful Liberty department store, which is showcasing Swedish brand Acne’s new furniture range. Despite being more famous for their fashion than their furniture, the array of sculptural armchairs and sofas bears the mark of the Acne denim, with many of the pieces fashioned from the fabric. 

Fun and games

Wed, 22 Sep 2010

Cross-disciplinary gaming conference Playful is being held on Friday, featuring talks from  Studio Output’s Tom Muller, writer Pat Kane and Paul Bennun, director of digital production company Somethin’ Else.

Art director's choice

Wed, 22 Sep 2010

The first time I set eyes on the Banco typeface in a Letraset book while at high school, I was transfixed. I spent hours (pre-Mac days) carefully tracing, rubbing, cutting, pasting and rearranging the letters into my own compositions – whether it be fliers, posters or tape covers. There was something about the dynamic letterforms that struck a chord with me, but it was only years later that I discovered the creator of this and his many other wonderful typefaces, Roger Excoffon.

Priestman in print

Tue, 21 Sep 2010

I’m constantly goading designers to get themselves in print - preferably in the national media. You know it makes sense to put yourself in the public eye, particularly where clients might go for inspiration.

City scene

Mon, 20 Sep 2010

It’s not often that you get to draw all over the outside of a train carriage without the transport police getting rather upset. But Cure Studio has done just that, after it was invited to decorate the outside of a 1960s 35 tonne train carriage on Deptford High Street.Drawings ...

Bedtime story

Mon, 20 Sep 2010

An anonymous author once quipped, ‘Money will buy you a bed but not sleep.’  This little adage is something that Madame ‘Veuve’ Cliquot knew only too well, having been known to suffer crippling bouts of insomnia.

Adorn

Fri, 17 Sep 2010

All-female design collective and collaborative group Flock will be presenting their first public exhibition at the London Design Festival.

Cut, stick and dance

Thu, 16 Sep 2010

As London Design Festival approaches, it’s not just the talks, launches and chances to meet some new design talent that are getting us excited - it’s the parties too.

Pedalling posters

Thu, 16 Sep 2010

Look Mum No Hands, grandaddy of London’s bike-themed café scene (yes, there really is one) is set to host the first London event from bicycle-themed art poster company (yes, there really is one of them too) Artcrank.Work by Cowburned for the exhibition

Pixel power

Wed, 15 Sep 2010

Graphic and print designer Cristian Zuzunaga will launch a new collection with Kvadrat during London Design Festival.

Boxed imagination

Tue, 14 Sep 2010

This may sound odd, but as a little girl I was fascinated by cardboard boxes. I found a thousands things to do with them - from building castles to making a little theatre and even creating the odd robot. A simple brown box could transform my imagination.

Volcanic reaction

Tue, 14 Sep 2010

Is the most exciting thing in your sitting room a dusty yucca plant?  Is the only ‘sleeping giant’ in your home your partner/dog/dust-gathering home-exercise equipment?

Mixing media

Mon, 13 Sep 2010

The Design Week diary is brimming with design events showcasing installations, quirky exhibitions and the like, as both London Design Festival and Neville Brody’s Anti Design Festival get under way next week.Giannina Capitani

The play’s the thing

Fri, 10 Sep 2010

Suddenly it’s all about design for play - with the focus on children.

Editor’s blog

Fri, 10 Sep 2010

Lynda Relph-Knight’s perspective on the week.

Big bang from Brody

Thu, 9 Sep 2010

A lasting legacy of the Anti Design Festival set to launch next week is the Gun font, devised by Neville Brody specifically for the ADF.

Poetry in motion

Wed, 8 Sep 2010

Keen to create a book that would celebrate Eastern culture in the West, designer and calligrapher Farah K. Behbehani has created a beautiful illustrated version of 12th century Sufi poem The Conference of the Birds.

Wonder wall

Wed, 8 Sep 2010

It’s always pleasing to see designers selling their wares in a novel and visually exciting way. The stylish lovechild of a pop-up shop and e-commerce site with a bit of interiors magazine spread thrown in, Supermarket Sarah is an interesting online retail concept thought up by namesake Sarah Bagner.

Lawrence of Alexandra Palace

Tue, 7 Sep 2010

Last week, Design Week spoke to Secret Cinema art director Toby Stevens about the complicated process behind the cinematic event, which involves translating a chosen film into a venue big enough to fit several thousand.

Lists and scribbles

Mon, 6 Sep 2010

In the design world, you rarely get to see the rough workings of creatives’ minds. Instead we’re presented with the finished and perfected product of months or sometimes years of work. So it’s exciting to get a chance to nose through the sketchbooks of some top international graphic designers in a new book from Thames & Hudson.

Helsinki Design Week

Mon, 6 Sep 2010

Yolanda Zappaterra reports back from Helsinki Design Week.

Can do culture

Fri, 3 Sep 2010

On the continuing theme of crowsourcing - in some instances the newspeak for ‘free pitch’ - we report yet another competition that is appealing to the hearts and minds of creatives talents to help promote a brand.Big ...

The body electric

Thu, 2 Sep 2010

With its connotations of rabid - or overly excited - dogs, the word ‘unleashed’ is an apt title for an eccentric exhibition currently running at Brentford’s Watermans gallery, given the quirky contents of the show.Andy Deck’s Hold Contro

Playing to the crowd

Thu, 2 Sep 2010

The jury is out on crowdsourcing as a means of canvassing design ideas. But, as former Grafik editor and publisher Caroline Roberts says in Design Week this week, it’s unlikely that any big projects - an airline identity, say - will be commissioned in this way so the phenomenon might not be the threat it may appear to established designers.

It came from Japan

Wed, 1 Sep 2010

Giant face-obscuring scarves, chess piece dresses and fluffy jumpsuits - it’s not the sort of get-up you generally see walking down the street. But a number of such whacky and sculptural creations will be on show in October at London’s Barbican Gallery, as part of a survey of the last 30 years of Japanese fashion.

Open City

Tue, 31 Aug 2010

London is certainly not short of beautiful architecture, attracting swarms of tourists every day to visit. And while the exteriors of these impressive buildings range from breathtaking to down-right unusual, the question on most people’s lips is - what do they look like on the inside?

House away from home

Tue, 31 Aug 2010

Creative collective House is to take over 1 Berwick Street in London’s Soho to host its first-ever event Pop Up House during the London Design Festival.

Designing in secret

Fri, 27 Aug 2010

Very rarely would you buy a ticket for an event without knowing what you were going to see or even where it would be. But cinema experience-cum-cult Secret Cinema asks film fans to do just that and, considering the popularity of the events, the team must be doing something right.

Play dates

Thu, 26 Aug 2010

As September looms, the bad weather continues and that back to school feeling is starting to haunt everyone - why not head down to the Inkygoodness’ debut London exhibition ‘Play’  in London’s East Gallery next week.

Screen scene

Thu, 26 Aug 2010

The London International Animation Festival gets underway tomorrow at several cinemas and venues across the capital. It’s the seventh time the festival has been held and it’s the largest one of its kind in the UK, screening more than 250 films by animators from across the globe.

Decorate

Wed, 25 Aug 2010

Wallpaper designer Lizzie Allen will demonstrate the art of wallpaper design at one-day master classes held at this year’s London Design Festival.

Poster perfect

Tue, 24 Aug 2010

How many times have you taken a photo and thought it could make a great poster? Or maybe you’ve designed an illustration that would look better blown up into a bigger design?

Helpful reading

Tue, 24 Aug 2010

For the swarm of graduates fresh out of university and keen to start work, there are two books released this month - one new, one a re-edition - that will be useful to have on the shelves.

Art director's choice

Mon, 23 Aug 2010

For many designers of my generation, my introduction to graphic design was presented through vinyl record sleeve artwork – and namely hip hop releases. From early Cey Adams and Haze creations for Def Jam records, through to Ben Drury’s inspiring artwork and packaging for Mo Wax, I was always inspired by the 12” x 12” medium for art that the cover provided.

Editor's blog

Fri, 20 Aug 2010

Lynda Relph-Knight’s perspective on the week.

Design in the dark

Fri, 20 Aug 2010

Imagine the scene. You slouch out of bed, sleepy-eyed and a bit disorientated, to get a glass of water from the kitchen. Through the gloom comes a glowing vision - a poster visible despite the midnight darkness.

A grand opening

Thu, 19 Aug 2010

Last night saw the opening of a new branch of Thai restaurant chain Busaba Eathai at London’s Old Street.

Old media

Wed, 18 Aug 2010

Contemporary arts centre Arnolfini will present three exhibitions as part of its Old Media season, exploring the history of software art and the impact of technology set against progress, consumerism and globalisation.Coal Fired Computers by YoHa in collaboration ...

Clocking out

Wed, 18 Aug 2010

At the beginning of the month we gave you a sneak preview of the Shift-Work project which aimed to redevelop the space under Westway on London’s Portobello Road.Finn and Macay

Room with a view

Tue, 17 Aug 2010

I want to wake up in room four at Penzance’s new art hotel. Jo Peel’s illustrated street-scene would soothe me after a night of grappling with my disturbed subconscious, I just know it.

Decades of fun

Mon, 16 Aug 2010

Being a Sussex lass myself, I was pretty excited when we first heard about Wayne Hemingway’s plans to start a retro-inspired festival about ten minutes from my hometown of Chichester.

I love Truth

Mon, 16 Aug 2010

At Design Week, we don’t normally cover consultancy’s birthdays (we’d be blowing candles out every week) but this one is special as American design legend Milton Glaser has created a limited-edition poster  in celebration of design group Truth’s fourth anniversary.

Beats and pieces

Fri, 13 Aug 2010

London-based independent record label Ninja Tune celebrates its twentieth birthday this year. Aside from a series of no doubt loud and sweaty birthday parties, the label will be toasting to 20 years at an exhibition of album artwork, posters and ephemera in London from 20 August.Flyer by Openmind

Vintage weekend

Thu, 12 Aug 2010

Starting tomorrow is Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway’s Vintage at Goodwood festival, a celebration of art, music, fashion and design from the 1940s to the 1980s.Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway

It's a dogs life

Thu, 12 Aug 2010

Dogs in jumpers, dogs doing acrobatics and (rather bizarrely) dogs in giant teacups. As you may be able to gather from the book’s title, A Pack of Dogs - An Anthology, is not one for canine phobes.By Christopher Brown

Ping-pong ding dong!

Wed, 11 Aug 2010

Whether you’re an advocate of the penhold grip or favour the shakehand option, or like to favour the loop drive or the kill spin defence, you’re now able to deploy your table tennis skills on the streets of London as part of the Ping initiative, which has seen 100 ping-pong tables set up across the capital for the public to play on.

Chico and Rita

Tue, 10 Aug 2010

If you caught the Javier Mariscal retrospective at London’s Design Museum last year, the fact that this designer - best known for his iconic graphics and Cobi, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics mascot - also directs films will come as no surprise.Rita dances in a Havana courtyard

Ringside seats

Tue, 10 Aug 2010

If you fancy a ringside seat at some design fisticuffs, you should watch yesterday’s Newsnight. In the blue corner, David McCandless, journalist, graphic designer and author of blog and book Information is Beautiful, defended his assertion that presenting information in a beautiful way can bring clarity and focus - quality graphics can increase the likelihood ...

Art directors choice

Mon, 9 Aug 2010

During my annual flat clearout a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across a box stacked to the brim with dusty TDK D90s, That’s VX90s, Sony FZ1s and Maxell XLII 90s. I am, of course, talking about the humble audio cassette.

Just my type

Fri, 6 Aug 2010

Do you want to walk past any billboard, shop sign or church fete poster and be able to identify and divulge the history of the fonts displayed thereon? And would you like to do that without haemorrhaging friends? If double yes, then Just My Type is for you.

Editor's blog

Fri, 6 Aug 2010

Lynda Relph-Knight’s perspective on the week.

Something for the weekend

Thu, 5 Aug 2010

The Big Chill extravaganza has finally arrived and to be honest, what better way is there to spend an August weekend brimming with music and creativity.

A new comic craze

Wed, 4 Aug 2010

For all comic book geeks/lovers out there who are still living in your parents’ basement - it’s time to see the light.

Inspired by tradition

Wed, 4 Aug 2010

It’s not often that designers feature pictures of rugged, bearded men in promotional material for their latest project, but that’s exactly what Hungarian duo A Plus Z Design have done for their latest furniture collection.A Plus Z Design’s new collection

Movie Star

Tue, 3 Aug 2010

If like me you’re an ardent fan of Radio 4’s Today programme, you may have caught the clip this morning about one-time Czech Republic president and acclaimed playwright Vaclav Havel’s, who, aged 73, is fulfilling a lifetime’s ambition and directing his own movie. Titled Leaving and due for release next spring, the much-vaunted movie is about a former political leader coping with the diminishing of his power. Cathartic? Maybe.

Sleepover at the Serpentine

Mon, 2 Aug 2010

When you’re little, the magic of a sleepover is that all the normally forbidden activities - staying up until dawn, gorging on sweets and telling scary stories - are suddenly allowed. Once you’re an adult however, the thrill of saccharin-induced insomnia is not quite as appealing.

Decked

Mon, 2 Aug 2010

With a far-from-auspicious skateboarding career that involved no small amount of scraped knees and embarrassing misuses of the word ‘gnarly’ I find myself both intrigued and slightly intimidated by the Decked exhibition, showing at London’s Conigsby Gallery from 16-28 August.

A proper gander

Fri, 30 Jul 2010

Not many of the new fonts that get launched every month get a propaganda department-style press launch. But Tooting Sans, which has been designed by Stuart Brown for Hamburger Fonts, has had the full WWII treatment.

Barking up the right tree

Thu, 29 Jul 2010

Whether it’s skinning up a website or designing a background for some new food packaging, creating patterns can be important part of all aspects of design.

Junkyard soup

Thu, 29 Jul 2010

The Junkman likes to make soup. Not just any old soup, however, given that the ‘ingredients’ are inedible being made from, er junk. After ‘cooking the soup and adding a few extra spices’, as he puts it, the finished creation doesn’t look particularly appetising, but certainly is intriguing in more ways than one.

Seriously playful

Wed, 28 Jul 2010

This Nokia Kinetic concept phone uses kinetic movement to stand itself up as a call comes in.

Waste not, want it

Tue, 27 Jul 2010

If your idea of recycling or ‘upcycling’ is throwing a carton of milk into a green bin or making a pen holder out of a toilet roll and sticky-backed plastic, then Bloomberg can give you something to think about.

Interaction Design survey

Tue, 27 Jul 2010

If you’re a consultancy that specialises in interaction design (websites, apps, online branding and the like) - why not let your peers, the media, prospective clients and others learn more about you by being part of Design Week’s Interaction Design supplement, to be published on the 30 September.

Art directors choice

Mon, 26 Jul 2010

The first of a weekly selection by DW art director Sam Freeman from designs that have crossed his desk in the previous seven days.

Paper cuts

Fri, 23 Jul 2010

An intricately woven, origami-style sheet of music is the latest addition to hang in New York’s Sebastian & Barquet gallery. The artist, Francisca Prieto, continues her work (albeit with a few paper cuts, we imagine), to meticulously cut, fold, and interlock paper into impressive forms of artwork.

Editor's blog

Fri, 23 Jul 2010

Lynda Relph’s Knight perspective on the week.

Painting to music

Thu, 22 Jul 2010

For the next three nights, the Lock Tavern in Camden, north London, is hosting the penultimate dates of the Beck’s Vier Music Inspires Art tour.The Lock Tavern in Camden

Tent time

Wed, 21 Jul 2010

The Victoria & Albert Museum Summer Camp is back next weekend for two days of free art and design fun. This year’s event features a number of workshops, installations and performances from top design talent, as well as the opportunity to spend the night in the Serpentine Gallery’s Jean Nouvel-designed pavilion.

A political beast

Wed, 21 Jul 2010

As the latest issue of Plan-B Studio’s Project 10 magazine dropped through our letter box this week, the Design Week team were greeted with a somewhat frightening sight.Illustration by Sam Gilbey

Happy shopper

Tue, 20 Jul 2010

Talking trolleys may be coming to a supermarket near you in a bid to help the elderly and visually impaired with their shopping.

Hair models

Mon, 19 Jul 2010

Maurizio Anzeri’s work is intriguing - he creates life-size sculptures that look precariously like ghostly visions of the past. The interesting thing, is not just the fact his handcrafted work is so intricately detailed, but that these stand-alone sculptures are made solely out of synthetic hair.Source:

Translocation

Mon, 19 Jul 2010

When he was growing up near Glasgow, photographer George Logan used to tell fibs to his classmates, claiming he’d been raised on an African farm surrounded by exotic beasts. In his new book Translocation Logan was able to bring those fantasies to life by populating the rural Scottish landscapes near where he grew up with lions, flamingos and gorillas.

Brave new world

Fri, 16 Jul 2010

Product designer and Camberwell College of Arts senior lecturer in 3D Design Tim Parsons is saying goodbye to familiar climes and setting off across the seas.

Let's get digital

Thu, 15 Jul 2010

At Design Week we’re always up for trying new things and, of course, rolling with the times. So to show you just how digitally savvy we really are - we’ve developed the inaugural Design Week Interaction Design survey.

Full steam ahead

Thu, 15 Jul 2010

A steamroller is probably not the first tool that comes to mind when you think of printmaking. But for the East London Printmakers fête on Saturday, members will be using this heavyweight machine, as well as inks and a giant sheet of paper, to create a mammoth 7.5m-long linocut.

Dooom 3.0

Wed, 14 Jul 2010

Illustrator buddies Jon Boam and Matthew the Horse (the latter of Guardian Sports section fame) are collaborating on an exhibition at Shoreditch’s Nobrow gallery.Doom 3.0 Trading Card Wrapper by Matthew The Horse

Going Green

Tue, 13 Jul 2010

St Ives School can rightfully claim to be the Greenest school in Cornwall, after winning the Eco Design Challenge 2010, organised by Designs of the Time Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.The winning team from St Ives

Would you trust this man?

Tue, 13 Jul 2010

Have tough times forced even our greatest creative stars to rethink how they do things? Evidence suggests they have, going by this shot of the eminent Michael Wolff touting his services around Mexico earlier this year.

A step towards world domination?

Mon, 12 Jul 2010

It’s always gratifying to hear of a British design consultancy being acclaimed in the wider world, especially when it is one of the calibre of Elmwood.

Seeing red

Fri, 9 Jul 2010

Bucking this year’s domestic interiors trend for soothing, recession-friendly hues of green and blue, French architect Jean Nouvel has created a vibrant blood-red beast in London’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion.

If the shoe fits

Fri, 9 Jul 2010

In the last few weeks the design industry has celebrated a plethora of graduate work and Design Week has been impressed by the ingenious projects the students have come up with.

The new political landscape

Thu, 8 Jul 2010

Finance and tax gurus Mandy Merron and Tim Stovold of Kingston Smith W1 presented their take on the budget and the coalition Government’s initial policies at the Design Business Association’s seminar on the New Political Landscape this morning.Budget 2010

The young guns

Wed, 7 Jul 2010

Benjamin Disraeli said, ‘Almost everything that is great has been done by youth’ - a maxim that the team behind the Young Guns awards wholeheartedly back.

The final whistle

Wed, 7 Jul 2010

As Germany lines up to face Spain in Durban tonight, the North East chapter in design will be rooting for a team that put England out of the Fifa World Cup what seems like eons ago.

Under the hammer

Tue, 6 Jul 2010

As most of this year’s graduates have been working hard over the past few months, putting together their final projects and then exhibiting their work around the country, it’s finally time for them to gather some pecuniary rewards.

Bob’s your Unkle

Mon, 5 Jul 2010

Dance duo Unkle’s seven-album career has spanned twelve years and delivered memorable graphic art.

Birdwatching

Mon, 5 Jul 2010

It’s quite astonishing that despite the fact that that 70 per cent of design students are women, 60 per cent of the industry is male. Trying to tip the scales is Birdwatching, a London-based organisation that promotes and celebrates the work of female graphic designers and creators around the globe.

All together now

Fri, 2 Jul 2010

The Truman Brewery on London’s Brick Lane seems to be acting as a one stop shop for new exhibitions at the moment. Not only are there three weeks left of degree shows from the country’s creative graduates at Free Range, but Stolen Space - a gallery run by street artist D*face - opened its summer group show last night.

Radio ga ga

Thu, 1 Jul 2010

Calling all female shoppers. Wouldn’t a wicker basket-style radio be perfect for a picnic? Or if you’re a person with a clumsy nature (like me), then a bouncy rubber band-protected radio would be ideal. And for those with a weakness for bling, how could you resist a ‘grown your own’ crystal-encrusted radio - the ultimate present for your inner-diva?

England v Germany: round two

Thu, 1 Jul 2010

It may have been four days ago but the pain from England’s crushing defeat by Germany is still raw. The tissues may have been put away but there’s still a tangible gloom hanging over the population that even the loudest vuvuzela can’t shake.

Footprint rethink competition

Wed, 30 Jun 2010

Design Week and sister magazine Creative Review have teamed up with City University London to offer one reader a full scholarship for its Masters in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership, which starts in September.City University logo

Work in progress

Tue, 29 Jun 2010

Delicate and intricate, the drawings of Japanese artist Momoko Suzuki do not instantly lend themselves to the large white spaces of London’s Koukan gallery. But perhaps that is the point. Visitors will have to get close the walls, floors and surfaces to pick up the details of Suzuki’s sprawling illustrations.Suzuki illustrations

Bring back the chintz

Tue, 29 Jun 2010

Last night’s episode of Mary Queen of Shops on BBC Two wasn’t so much a study in retail design as a wake-up call for anyone interested in domestic styling.

Education, Education, Education

Mon, 28 Jun 2010

With the myriad of degree shows running up and down the country, it’s good to see that younger students are also getting some exposure as their courses come to an end.

Editor's blog

Fri, 25 Jun 2010

Lynda Relph-Knight’s perspective on the week.

Time to build trust in China?

Fri, 25 Jun 2010

From guest blogger Keshen Teo, creative director at Pajama consulting

iPhone frenzy

Thu, 24 Jun 2010

Never mind the 600 people queuing outside Regent Street’s Apple flagship store at 7am to get their hands on the fourth incarnation of the iPhone - the madness hit our very own Design Week headquarters this morning.People start ...

It's show time

Wed, 23 Jun 2010

It’s not hard to find something to enjoy this week - the sunshine, the World Cup (perhaps), Wimbledon or a festival. But if you fancy a more cerebral and imaginative way to enhance your week then look no further than a graduate show or two.

What's brewing?

Tue, 22 Jun 2010

Truman Brewery beer goes on sale with Weidmann designs

Knighthood anyone?

Tue, 22 Jun 2010

Simonds-Gooding celebrates CBE in style

Brand news

Mon, 21 Jun 2010

It’s great to know it’s not just designers who think clients just don’t get it with brands. Marketers tend to think so too.

Down the rabbit hole

Fri, 18 Jun 2010

Walk past fashion store Banana Republic’s window on London’s Regent Street and you might find it not much to look at. But adjust your angle slightly, and your gaze will tumble down a visual rabbit hole to a reflection of the busy street behind you.

Site-specific

Fri, 18 Jun 2010

The compound nouns ‘carpet moose’, ‘leaf gun’ and ‘postcard vault’ pretty accurately describe some of the surreal works of art now on show in the former Bethnal Green Town Hall - now a posh hotel - in east London.

One of a kind

Thu, 17 Jun 2010

Dealing with cancer is often a confusing and frightening time for everyone involved. It demands great sensitivity and understanding, no matter if it is an adult or child suffering from the disease.

A shining light

Wed, 16 Jun 2010

From an ergonomic can opener to a well-planned city, we all know that design has the ability to affect our standard of living. But for children’s charity Pratham UK designers look set to play an integral part in the charity’s new fundraising programme hoping to raise literacy levels among children in India.

Moving the goalposts

Wed, 16 Jun 2010

For those wanting to escape the primary-colour visual explosion accompanying the current Fifa World Cup, the pilot issue of The Green ‘soccer journal’ offers welcome respite.

Celebrating the city

Tue, 15 Jun 2010

The London Festival of Architecture starts this weekend and although there are far too many events and installations to mention individually, here are a few that have caught the Design Week team’s eye.

On message

Mon, 14 Jun 2010

HIV and Aids awareness organisation Designers Against Aids launched a new safe sex campaign today, which will be seen on trams across the city of Antwerp in Belgium.

A safe bet

Mon, 14 Jun 2010

Sometimes the most innocent of ideas become known for the most unsavoury reasons. Chat Roulette is one such unfortunate venture. Started as a means for anyone with a Web camera and a computer to share meaningful exchanges with people around the globe, the Internet phenomenon connected users at random and allowed them to talk until they got bored, pressed the ‘next’ button and were connected with another friendly face.

Keepie-uppie challenge

Fri, 11 Jun 2010

Well, the big day is finally here! With red-and-white colours streaming up and down the country and landlords painting their pubs in a St George’s flag fashion, it seems (almost) everyone is championing the Fifa World Cup spirit - including creative consultancy Erasmus in partnership with D&AD’s New Blood.

Onedotzero needs you

Thu, 10 Jun 2010

Onedotzero, the moving image and digital arts organisation that co-curated the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Decode: Digital Design Sensations exhibition earlier this year, is looking for talented creatives for another exciting prospect it has tucked up its sleeves.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Thu, 10 Jun 2010

After taking part in a Radio 5 debate entitled ‘Is public art a waste of money?’ last night, Greyworld founder Andrew Shoben shares his conclusions with Design Week

On the scent

Wed, 9 Jun 2010

Here at Design Week, we see a lot of top-notch packaging. But rarely do we rest our eyes on anything quite so luxuriously arty.The bottle of Agonist’s The Infidels by Åsa Jungnelius

Photo opportunity

Tue, 8 Jun 2010

If you associate accountancy with deeply analytical left-brain thinking the latest move by a design-friendly London firm might make you think again.

Open fresh

Mon, 7 Jun 2010

Tonight’s the night for all of those of you looking forward to seeing Small Back Room’s Callum Lumsden and friends make their TV debut in the Mary Portas-fronted show Mary Queen of Shops.Small Back Room’s Callum Lumsden and Mary Portas

Up with the Jonze

Fri, 4 Jun 2010

There may have been four Black Pencil winners at last night’s D&AD Awards (including the hugely overjoyed chaps from Sapient Nitro’s Brisbane office, who bounded on stage to collect two), but there were two stars of the show - cult US director Spike Jonze, and outgoing D&AD chairman Anthony Simonds-Gooding.

Live feed

Fri, 4 Jun 2010

Since we last reported on Designs of the Time Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly ahead of the Dott programme think-tank in March (DW 25 March), the Dott team has been busy.

Expo-sing national identity

Thu, 3 Jun 2010

By guest blogger Julia Jarvis from the Shanghai Expo

Starck reality

Tue, 1 Jun 2010

Superstar French designer Philippe Starck, hardly short of media profile already, has taken another step towards notoriety by being immortalised in wax at Paris’s Musée Grévin waxworks museum.

A whole lot of hootenanny

Tue, 1 Jun 2010

As a magazine, we should know a few things about publishing. So when Hootenanny, a paper from Lincoln School of Art & Design, landed on our desks the team agreed in collective breath - it was a lovely surprise.

Clean living

Tue, 25 May 2010

For many, air-conditioning has been a godsend over the last few days, making tasks like battling through Tesco and putting an issue of Design Week together just about manageable, despite the heat.

On yer bike

Mon, 24 May 2010

If you want to make the most of the sunshine but also see the highlights of Clerkenwell Design Week, which runs from 25-27 May, then follow The London Festival of Architecture director Peter Murray.

The art of ‘swapsies’

Mon, 24 May 2010

As grown men regress into excited little school boys screaming ‘got’ and ‘need’ up and down the office it can only mean one thing - the start of World Cup fever. Filling their sticker books with the finest football players can be a painstaking task if you have too many duplicates. So this is where the old swapsie mantra ‘Got, got, got need’ comes into play.

China Town

Fri, 21 May 2010

By guest blogger Pete Collard from Shanghai

Post-it large

Thu, 20 May 2010

If you’ve got a bundle of Post-it notes crowding round your computer, phone or fridge, you are not alone.

The Clerkenwell Other

Wed, 19 May 2010

London’s Clerkenwell has long been known for its print media, whether it’s one of the earliest magazines ever published - The Gentleman in 1731 - or the Guardian newspaper, which occupied offices on Farringdon Road from 1976 until moving to King’s Cross in 2008.The Clerkenwell Other

Shedding inhibitions

Mon, 17 May 2010

If, like me, you aspire to living in a shed, but don’t think you could fit in all your stuff, then ‘shedworking’ could be the answer. Rather than convert the loft or basement into a den, build yourself a garden shed and get on with it.

Editor's blog

Fri, 14 May 2010

Lynda Relph-Knight’s perspective on the week

Brody's beanfeast

Thu, 13 May 2010

One of the great things about last year’s London Design Festival was that any apprehension on the part of the organisers when it was announced in the depths of recession was dispelled when the designers involved came up with such great ideas, despite the downturn.

Bubbles aid

Tue, 11 May 2010

You know the situation. You’ve just bought a pint, settled into a pub corner and there’s a hi-fi on full blast or a crowd of screeching ladettes seriously hindering your conversation.

Politics in the round

Mon, 10 May 2010

The shape of the future British Government may still not be decided, but it’s the circle that’s been chosen by designer Mike Roberts to show London’s political leanings.

The beautiful game

Thu, 6 May 2010

With the World Cup just over a month away, it won’t be long until the whole country goes football loopy. If 64 matches isn’t quite enough to keep you entertained, then keep an eagle eye out for feature-length documentary Soka Afrika, which explores the beautiful game in the Cup’s host continent Africa.

Cities make a mark

Wed, 5 May 2010

As most of the country was resting over the bank holiday weekend, Scandinavian design consultancy Norwegian Ink was putting the finishing touches on its plans for world domination.

Blooming marvellous

Fri, 30 Apr 2010

As preparations for the 2010 RHS Chelsea Flower Show get underway this week, font design studio Kapitza is giving designers the opportunity to grow their own gold medal-winning garden.

Fields of fun

Fri, 30 Apr 2010

The nights are younger, the weather is warmer and the festival season is almost upon us. For those of you lucky enough to be part of the festival throng this summer, why not start early by visiting the exhibition Glastonbury Comes To London by Kurt Jackson, which showcases his paintings of rock and pop’s elite, including Radiohead, Massive Attack and Lily Allen.

Political rally

Thu, 29 Apr 2010

A familiar cry for innovation echoed around the Institute of Directors convention at the Royal Albert Hall yesterday, in what was an event heavily laced with politics and speakers vying for the top spot in inspirational eloquence.

From the margins to the mainstream

Wed, 28 Apr 2010

The Trading Places exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum marks ten years of the Design Business Association’s Inclusive Design Challenge at the Royal College of Art.

London goes nuts for Brazil

Mon, 26 Apr 2010

If the bank holiday weekend fails to provide the tropical climate we’re all hoping for, at least there’ll be a touch of Brazil available in the capital. London-based audio-visual group Lava Collective will present the first major UK show of Brazilian graphic designer and artist Bruno 9li at East London’s The Rag Factory.

Five-minute art fix

Fri, 23 Apr 2010

Imagine you’re sitting in a darkened cinema, popcorn at the ready and awaiting the latest blockbuster. Instead you’re presented with a five-minute short film from a leading contemporary video artist.A ...

Men: so difficult to define

Thu, 22 Apr 2010

When it comes to artists’ muses, women tend to be the subject of affection. Artist Rudy de Belgeonne, however, tells a different story by creating individual hand-painted panels with words to describe men.

The show must go on

Wed, 21 Apr 2010

With planned speaker Darrel Rhea stuck in the States due to the flight ban, hopes for last night’s Design Business Innovation lecture - From Insight to Innovation - initially looked bleak.

Magic Apple

Thu, 15 Apr 2010

The Design Week office is still slightly overawed following its first in-the-flesh encounter with an iPad.

Age Concern

Wed, 14 Apr 2010

Ugly mobility-scooters nipping at your ankles may be a thing of the past if these European designers have their way. Challenged to create a vehicle for senior citizens, 42 designers from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania and Hungary submitted their visions of old age pensioner transport as part of the Auto® 2010 Design Challenge.

Art of the future

Tue, 13 Apr 2010

Taking a similar futuristic view to George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, published in 1949, Life in 2050 is an art exhibition which sees 22 artists transport their imaginations to 40 years from now.

Design book marque

Mon, 12 Apr 2010

To mark the end of Faber and Faber’s year-long 80th anniversary shindig, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is holding an exhibition this month, featuring the publisher’s most iconic book covers and illustrations.Journey of ...

An inspiring playground

Fri, 9 Apr 2010

D&AD and You Tube has collaborated to create an Inspiration Channel - allowing creatives from around the world to upload videos of their work.

Attention all design-book lovers

Wed, 7 Apr 2010

Lovers of well-designed books about design (hardly an underserved market already) are set to be truly spoiled with the launch of new publishing company Fiell this month.Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s

Move over Q

Thu, 1 Apr 2010

Next weekend techies and James Bonds-in-training will be gathering in Birmingham for the Gadget Show Live.

The Eggsperts

Thu, 1 Apr 2010

As the holidays beckon, we’ve seen some cracking good ideas of how to design a perfect egg for Easter.

Project for a rainy day

Thu, 1 Apr 2010

Everyone loves receiving post. Unfortunately, the dull thud of letters landing on the door mat is often followed by a disheartening sigh as yet more bills arrive through the letterbox.I-love-post post stamp

Design’s own stylista

Wed, 31 Mar 2010

The Tube journey home is never that enthralling after a long day at the office, so I always like a good read to pass the time. When I picked up the latest copy of Stylist (the freebie sister of Shortlist magazine) it was a lovely surprise to see Cheryl Giovannoni, European President of Landor featured in its Work life section.

Bags of talent

Wed, 31 Mar 2010

Although street artist Ben Eine is more used to daubing unwanted paint on London’s shop fronts, this week he has been commissioned to create an installation in the window of  trendy designer Anya Hindmarch’s Sloane Street store.Ben Eine

Crown prince of shops?

Fri, 26 Mar 2010

Nice to know that the hitherto best kept secret in design is finally out of the bag. After months of gagging the media, retail designer Callum Lumsden finally broke his own embargo this morning, telling anyone who cared to tune into a Design Council webcast that he has been working with ’Queen of Shops’ Mary Portas on a forthcoming series of her popular retail makeover programme.

Art-felt sympathy for Haiti

Tue, 23 Mar 2010

It’s good to see that Haiti’s plight is not forgotten a couple of months on from the earthquake that devasted the Latin American country. Enterprising artist Suzanne Smith is keeping the memory alive in the Manchester area - and raising funds through art to help survivors in the process.

Bitter wit

Mon, 22 Mar 2010

Noma Bar’s work is simple yet striking. His witty illustrations use the negative space of one image to form another, creating interlocking jigsaws of graphic forms.

My name’s … and I’m a chocoholic

Wed, 17 Mar 2010

With a few avid chocoholics on the Design Week team, (ahem - my reason for living) it is no surprise that we can hardly contain our excitement and salivating thoughts after hearing about The Chocolate Library- a home for chocolate with something to say.Message Bars

D. I. Why?

Mon, 15 Mar 2010

Remember Changing Rooms? The team of squawking interior designers transformed neat, if a tad boring, middle-class homes into B-movie set monstrosities, while Carol Smillie narrated through gritted, grinning teeth.Day-time TV shleb Gordon Whistance (left) with ...

I pity the fool

Fri, 12 Mar 2010

Simon Threadkell aka BA Baracus (left) Stephen Anderson aka Face (right)

Through the looking-glass

Fri, 12 Mar 2010

A derelict space in London’s Brompton Quarter has captured our attention this week. A part gallery, part open studio has emerged from Anonymous Artists, themed on the 1865 Lewis Carroll novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - interest has been renewed after last week’s release of Tim Burton’s film Alice in Wonderland.Illus

'Democratic' pants are now in Vogue

Thu, 11 Mar 2010

Organic cotton underpants went down well at The Economist’s Redesigning Business Summit today. Speaking from the - large -assembled crowd of blue chip companies and design consultancies, sustainable designer Sophie Thomas called San Francisco underwear company Pact, with designs by Yves Behar, ‘compelling and wonderful’.

Going down a Storm

Wed, 10 Mar 2010

The future of the music industry appears to be more reliant on MP3 downloads and iTunes right now, leaving album art as a rare but all-important legacy. In the middle of this gloomy outlook, however, the Idea Generation Gallery presents Right But Wrong - an exhibition in celebration of the influential and prolific album artist Storm Thorgerson. 

Blood, Sweat and Fears magazine goes interactive

Tue, 9 Mar 2010

Although we’re not sporting ‘the end is nigh’ placards just quite yet, the future of print media has been debated to distraction over the last year. Although most are championing the Web as the trade’s future platform of choice, students from Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion have come up with an altogether wackier proposition.

A lesson in being prepared

Mon, 8 Mar 2010

An all-day power cut in Shoreditch is testing design groups’ resourcefulness. Moving Brands has two office spaces on opposite sides of Charlotte Road and has squashed everyone into its smaller mews space, which is unaffected by the power outage.

I Wish I Worked There....

Thu, 4 Mar 2010

If the thought of sitting at your desk in a grey cubicle, with piles of work mounting in your inbox, leaves you uninspired, here’s an idea: strategically place I Wish I Worked There - a book by designer Kursty Groves and illustrator Will Knight - on your boss’ desk.

The new, improved Design Week

Thu, 4 Mar 2010

It’s finally here. The redesigned Design Week has hit the news stands. But if you can’t wait for your copy here is a peek of the new design, led by art director Sam Freeman.

Enter the 2010 James Dyson Award

Wed, 3 Mar 2010

Got a bright idea for a revolutionary bagless vacuum cleaner, hand-dryer or bladeless fan? Well tough, because James Dyson’s already beaten you to it. But if you think you’ve found the solution to a problem no-one else realises exists, you could chance your arm at impressing the bag- and blade-phobic billionaire and enter the 2010 James Dyson Award.

Canteen: A recipe for fine design

Tue, 2 Mar 2010

At Design Week, we really like pie. So we were pleased - and wildly salivating - to hear about London restaurant Canteen’s first cookbook, which promises to train us in the art of whipping up traditional British grub.

Long Lunch: digital design lecture series

Mon, 1 Mar 2010

Upcoming talks from Long Lunch in London

Thirty-year digital moving image installation

Fri, 26 Feb 2010

Source: John Gerrard

Draw and Dial...

Thu, 25 Feb 2010

The fax machine may be redundant these days as a piece of office equipment, but is the next big thing for importing and exporting Brazilian and UK Art, it appears.