Blog Archive
Monsters and Marmite - an interview with Pete Fowler
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.
Love and Peter Saville work on new charity album
Manchester based consultancy Love has collaborated with Peter Saville on the artwork for a new charity album, Thirty One, which features music created in Manchester.
ICA presents talks inspired by The Themersons
The Institute of Contemporary Art will present a day of talks to support its new exhibition The Themersons & Gaberbocchus Press
Max Hattler’s apocalyptic shift
For his first London solo show, moving image artist Max Hattler is transforming the basement of the Tenderpixel gallery into what the gallery says is his ‘cinematic interpretation of an apocalyptic shift’.
Works on Paper at EB&Flow
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.
Design Week visits World Design Capital Helsinki 2012
As Design Week approaches Finland for The World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 Open Doors Weekend, the first thing we notice is a frozen sea, flanking the peninsula.
Muji’s product fitness
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.
Stop thinking, start doing: guest blog from MRM Meteorite's Will Aslett
MRM Meteorite digital creative Will Aslett on the importance of creatives getting their hands dirty.
Designing our future - a guest blog by Mat Hunter
A guest blog by Design Council chief design officer Mat Hunter on how the design community might respond to the UK’s aging population
Designs of the Year 2012 at the Design Museum preview
‘The Design Museum used to be a bit up its arse, shying away from popular culture. This is very much popular culture’, says designer Andy Altman, of his Comedy Carpet, created with artist Gordon Young.
How the Web changed the world
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.
Unplanned Magic to celebrate Material Gallery's new home
This week east London’s Material Gallery will celebrate its interiors overhaul and its move next door, with an exhibition of prints by Marcus Walters.
British Library Spring Fair
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.
Art Nouveau designs at the Sainsbury Centre
The weekend saw the opening of The First Moderns: Art Nouveau, Nature to Abstraction exhibition at The Sainsbury centre in Norwich.
Editorial - new faces in academia
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?’
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?’
Gormley and Gaga star in new V&A stage design show
Stage and performance design is being spotlighted (no pun intended) by the Victoria and Albert Museum which will introduce a cast (no pun intended…again) of theatre designers, architects and artists.
See the entries so far to this year’s Design Week Awards
You can see the entries so far to the 2012 Design Week Awards on our Entry Showcase.
Clerkenwell Design Week
Although the spring may feel a million years from the bleak, failed-resolution-strewn tundra of early February; preparations are already well under way for May’s Clerkenwell Design Week in central London.
NUCA presents The Magic Theatre exhibition
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.
Designers in their own words
Want to find out how Stefan Sagmeister chooses his projects? How Maarten Baas defines his occupation? How Milton Glaser has hung on to his sense of joy in design throughout decades of practice?
Painting skills from Band of Skulls
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.
Emil Asgrimsson solo exhibition
There’s a very nuanced aesthetic to Icelandic design, art, and music, especially when work reflects the country’s often ethereal, beautiful and earthy qualities.
Cross-disciplinary design in a church
Drift, an upcoming art, architecture and design show, is taking place in a rather unusual venue - a central London church.
Jason Taylor’s product-a-day challenge
Now that it’s the end of January, New Year’s resolutions are likely to be a thing of the past, shelved in favour of pies, gin and Camel Lights.
Community Kite Project
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.
Leather chairs and wordy clocks
Gallery Libby Sellers is hosting the first London solo show from Swiss product and furniture designer Nicolas Le Moigne, featuring leather chairs and a verbose clock.
Robert Montgomery - It Turned Out This Way Cos You Dreamed It This Way
Design Week catches up with artist Robert Montgomery at what must be a very frustrating moment.
Editorial - A new chapter opens for the Design Museum
When you’re admiring the visuals of what the Design Museum’s new West London home will look like, it’s worth remembering that as recently as 2005 the Commonwealth Institute - which will host the museum - was under threat of demolition.
Jealous prints coming to Heal's
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
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.
Design Week Awards judges named
The judging panel for the 2012 Design Week Awards has been named, featuring leading figures from all design sectors.
Marcus Lyall and Adam Smith on bringing Chemical Brothers Don't Think film to life
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 ...
Meet the creator of Disney's the Little Mermaid
‘I’m an actor with a paintbrush; I can play anyone I can imagine.’ says animator Glen Keane, who has created Disney characters Ariel (from the Little Mermaid), Aladdin, Pocahontas, the Beast and Tarzan.
Daniel Eatock adds one and one together
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?
Radim Malinic's West End Show
For his first self-intitiated solo show, graphic designer and illustrator Radim Malinic has taken the multifarious, vibrant and frequently taxing area of London’s West End as his inspiration.
Award-winning British design
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.
RCA architecture, product design and design interaction work-in-progress show
Hot on the heels of the RCA’s interim textile and jewellery design show, next month sees the opening of the college’s architecture, product design and design interaction students’ work in progress exhibition.
Weighted Words at the Zabludowicz Collection
‘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?’
Technologists compete for £8000 bursaries
Regional galleries the Site Gallery (Sheffield), Lighthouse (Brighton) and Spike Island (Bristol) are offering £8000 bursaries for technologists to work in residency on new products.
Trafalgar Square to host giant child on rocking horse
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.
Power Games: 1980s-inspired photography
It’s a well-worn cliché that in many ways, little has changed since the 1980s - from unemployment to recession to Lady GaGa aping Like a Prayer-era Madonna, these comparisons are becoming tired.
Renault looks to students for car design competition
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.
From the Road landscape photography exhibition
Gain a new perspective on landscapes at Eleven’s latest photography exhibition.
The Sunday Times Magazine celebrates 50 years with photographic exhibition
Portraits of a scantily clad Marilyn Monroe and Lady Gaga, the moment Ronald Regan is shot, forlorn miners and pit ponies, and a fortified Royal Ulster Constabulary post on a residential Northern Ireland street, are some of the arresting images which The Sunday Times Magazine has splashed on its front cover over the last 50 years.
How (and why) to rescue HMV
Should ailing high-street brand HMV be rescued? Guest blogger Steve Price says it should. Here’s why and how.
Formed Thought exhibition of material-led works
A trail of burnt paint, degrading clay and a 12m-long graphite drawn surface; some of the explorations into the maker’s relationship with their materials, on display at the Formed Thoughts exhibition in London.
Is a Hockney painting still a Hockney painting when it’s created on an iPad?
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.
London Art Fair
Robots that can draw your portrait, an enormous pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers and a boy with a Tetris face are just a few of the pieces that are going on show at this year’s London Art fair, which opens today.
Random Postcard Project
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.
The Chapman Brothers add their touch to Dover Street Market
Faux-Nazi red drapes, rave scene smiles and metal dinosaurs; the Chapman Brothers have taken over the windows at daring Mayfair fashion store, Dover Street Market.
Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and Designersblock at Interiors UK
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.
Printmaking at Central Saint Martins
Last autumn, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design opened its swanky new base in London’s King’s Cross.
Smile, please
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.
Made North design conference
Culture North is inviting designers and design students to Liverpool to discuss the future of their industry at the first Northern international design conference; Made North.
Augmented reality porcelain plate
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?
‘A step in a new direction that begins by using what was familiar’ - Simon Manchipp on the new Waterstones branding
A guest blog from Someone co-founder Simon Manchipp on Waterstones’s decision to revert to its original branding.
Sherlock Holmes and the case of Sarah Greenwood
The production studio of Guy Ritchie directed Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows will be recreated by its production designer Sarah Greenwood for a new Arts Gallery, University of The Arts London exhibition.
Comics, illustrations and music
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.
Thinking outside the box about boxes
The aptly named,The Box, at Arbeit gallery in east London, is the culmination of the architect’s study of the six-sided shape.
Design Week Awards - Early bird deadline approaching
There’s just one week to go before the early bird deadline for entries to this year’s Design Week Awards.
Animation competition to bring to life Hitchhiker's Guide author's ideas
Douglas Adams, creator and author of cult sci-fi radio-series and novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, made a prophetic audio recording on the future of the book in 1993 which is now the subject of an animation design competition.
Donald Judd Drawings
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.
Stylorouge founder Rob O'Connor talks dreaming in colour
Graphic design studio Stylorouge has designed some of the most iconic film and music imagery from recent years, including artwork for bands such as The Cure, Morrissey, Blur, Sisters of Mercy and the unmistakeable designs for 1996 film Trainspotting.
Ex-BMW designer Chris Bangle launches car design competition
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.
The Urban Theatre
A mother hurrying to help a crying child and a man rushing into a river to rescue a floating body; not screenshots of Holby City, but photographs of reactions to the street art of Mark Jenkins, captured in his first book.
One Room, Three Global Names
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.
Designers of the future at RCA work in progress show
Start the new year by looking to the future - check out the work-in-progress of upcoming design talent from the Royal College of Art at the students’ interim show.Jessica Meek
Thomas Heatherwick lecture
With the Heatherwick London bus making its debut on the streets next month, there couldn’t be a better time to hear more about the work of Heatherwick Studio courtesy of Thomas Heatherwick himself, who will be giving a lecture in London next week.
Design at Home
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
Pentagram partner Harry Pearce is to give a non-scripted talk on turning dreams into creative reality.
'80s skating revival
Eight artists have been commissioned to customise eight skateboard decks for an upcoming show that the organisers say will ‘celebrate the glory days of ’80s skateboarding - when times were rocking and true legends were born’.
Boxed: Fabulous Coffins from UK and Ghana
As we move steadily into January, perhaps unfairly tainted as a depressing month, some cheer, from an unlikely source, coffins.
Visions for the future of Greece
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.
Richard and Famous
With its foundations in Andy Warhol’s mantra that everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes, the forthcoming show at Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery casts a critical eye over the notion of celebrity.
Best Art Vinyl 2011
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.
Intergenerational illustration
An imaginative exhibition launching at the Book Club in London later this month sees a host of leading illustrators work in collaboration with schoolchildren.
Making Time
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.
Watermans International Festival of Digital Art
The Watermans gallery has announced a series of six interactive commissions for its International Festival of Digital Art 2012.
Great British illustration at the Kemistry Gallery
Start the year as you mean to go on with some great British illustration, courtesy of London’s Kemistry gallery.
Design Industry Voices report - analysis
The three authors of the 2011 Design Industry Voices report analyse the survey results, which show free-pitching is on the increase as client budgets drop.
A final Christmas round-up
Another drift of Christmas related design projects has swept in, so here we bring you a final installment.
Brains: the mind as a matter
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.
Good Evans
Debt and divorce aren’t exactly the happiest of topics.An ability to produce beautiful illustrations based on these, therefore, is just one more reason to love the work of young Hackney - based illustrator and artist Emily Evans.
Social Fabric
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.
Open Studio Club
‘I want to create the world’s biggest creative network by this time next year’, says Nick Couch, creative director of Figtree and founder of new website, Open Studio Club.
Graduate interview advice for January job hunts - guest blog from Paul Mellor
A guest blog from Paul Mellor, creative director of consultancy Mellor & Scott.
Mother’s psychic T-shirts
If you’re looking for the perfect item of clothing to start 2012 with, the ad agency Mother’s latest project could provide the solution.
In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists Since 1955
Often the pursuit of young professional artists, serialised magazine and postcard publications have long been a place to explore off-kilter and experimental work.
From blog to book
Bucking the publishing trend somewhat, blog Design Assembly has made the move from online to print - closing its website (formerly at www.designassembly.org) and publishing a collection of its blog posts in a new book.
Portraits of the artist
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.
Louis Ghost Chair
A lot has changed in the time between the reign of the Louis XV, King of France from 1715 until 1774, and the 2010 series of Ugly Betty.
Up to Us by Rob Self-Pierson
A guest blog from copywriter and 26 collective board member Rob Self-Pierson on banishing jargon.
And another Christmas round-up
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
The Takeaway Shop opens for local history art project
The Takeaway Shop of Deptford, open for one week only, is a local history project and knowledge exchange put together by artist Amy Lord.
Web Heroines Emerge conference
Proving that sisters really are doing it for themselves is Web Heroines’ inaugural Emerge conference, a mainly-online and mainly-female conference taking place in January that throws the spotlight on women working in digital design.
At Home with the World
A new exhibition will show how design influences from distant lands have shaped homes in England over a period spanning four centuries.
Martin Creed's illuminating restaurant interiors
London-based artist Martin Creed has been pretty busy lately. But when he’s not been helping to bathe northern cities in | light; creating Olympic posters ; or painting ...
Samsung Innovative Art Prize
Samsung has launched its Innovative Art Prize for new media art and named a shortlist of 10 artists including Torsten Lauschmann and Doug Fishbone.
Future Map 11
University of the Arts London will celebrate the talent of its graduates at the annual Future Map exhibition.
Heatherwick’s solo show
As part of next year’s Cultural Olympiad, the Victoria & Albert Museum is holding a major solo show of Heatherwick Studio’s work.
Secret Cinema
A divided city in the grip of Cold War. We enter a furtive world of counter intelligence where shadows collapse into shadows. A Russian man we can’t name approaches and says if we have passports he can get us bootleg goods. Then he disappears.
Crafts Council Pattern Cutting Party
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.
Kinetica Art Fair
Art Fair Kinetica is back next year for a fourth edition (check out this year’s show here), keeping its remit to focus on ‘kinetic, robotic, sound, light and time-based art’.
Design consultancy 20.20 immortalises three Arsenal legends
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.
Bus-Tops
In September last year we reported on the Bus-Tops project, which saw students from Goldsmiths, University of London, collaborating with consultancy Art Public to create a series of screen-based installations placed on bus shelter roofs.
We are the Robots
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
With Christmas getting ever closer on the horizon, we present another round-up of design-related festive goodies.
Soonchild - a Magical Arctic world
Soonchild, Russell Hoban’s forthcoming teenage novel, delights the eye with brooding illustrations by Alexis Deacon
Boombox
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.
Eat Art gingerbread creations
Gingerbread houses, though undoubtedly the preserve of fairytales, the very patient or the very small, are now being given some gravitas thanks to the Eat Art competition, which sees architecture and design consultancies making some very advanced gingerbread creations.
Modern Toss 2011 Seasonal Blow Out
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.
Good Fortune Carafes at Gallery Libby Sellers
The environmental dangers facing our planet’s waterways are becoming increasingly alarming, making us realise and appreciate how lucky we are to have water.
Cambridgeshire Design Icons
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.
Fallon opens Velvet Fox restaurant with help from Penny Fathers
Bored by the prospect of Christmas client entertainment done the normal way, ad group Fallon hooked up with event design consultancy Penny Fathers to create restaurant space The Velvet Fox, for client entertainment-come-commercial extravaganza. The Velvet Fox
No Brow
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.
Design Week meets Pernilla & Asif to talk about the Olympic Pavilion
Despite having only officially opened their practice this year, young architect duo Pernilla & Asif (Pernilla Ohrstedt and Asif Khan) are certainly making waves.Pernilla and Asif
Amnesty International - Making The Invisible Visible
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:
Send to Print / Print to Send 3D Printing Exhibition
Coming up with a prototype quickly has never been easier. New technologies are making it faster than ever to print a product, tweak it and re-print it.
Poundshop
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.
Design Council Forum lobbies for government design strategy
The first Design Council Forum has narrowly decided by vote that the Government should form a design strategy.Ben Page
Heretic's Prohibited Onions exhibition
‘Prohibited onions’ is perhaps not the most conventional of titles for an art exhibition. But then Hackney-based printmaking collective Heretic aren’t, perhaps, the most conventional of artists.Forbidden Union
Review of Shoreditch's Boxpark mall
‘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.
Christmas design round-up
With Christmas drawing ever-closer (only 24 shopping days left…) we round up some of our favourite festive designs from this season.
Reinventing Screenprinting
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.
New Gresty Word Up Exhibition
Designer Mr Gresty’s latest solo exhibition Word Up is a typographic catharsis into what he sees as his ‘ongoing struggle with language’.Gresty screen printing
Figtree founder Simon Myers on generous organisations
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.
City Cypher
From the vast dyspopia of Paul Noble’s Newtown to the Drawing The City project, the urban environment is cropping up again and again as central theme in art and design.
Turning the Tables
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.
26 Stories of Christmas
Writers’ group 26 has collaborated with illustrators from the London College of Communication and Plymouth College of Art to create an online advent calendar for short story fans.26 Stories of Christmas
East London Design Show
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.
Meet the robots
The Science Museum in London has gathered together 20 robots from research labs around Europe and is giving them a home for four days so that they can ‘meet’ members of the public.Stand close to Charlie and he will eventually start to mimic your face. (We don’t think he’s started yet…)
David Shrigley’s big Southbank show
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.
Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft
While crafting may still - somewhat unfairly - have connotations of antiquity, homeliness and twee domesticity - the Lab Craft touring exhibition opening its Yorkshire leg this week proves there’s more to crafting than doilies and crochet.
Fitch executive creative director Stuart Wood on the health of the High Street
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.
Christmas is Coming
Today is - aside from being Friday - 25 November. So, yes, that means exactly one month before Christmas Day. Let the panic commence.
Movement in Sleep installation in Union Chapel
While art-plus-bed currently equals Tracey Emin, Sarah Strang’s Movement in Sleep installation opening this week in London’s Union Chapel may go some way to severing that connection.
Onedotzero Adventures in Motion Festival
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.
A dog print is for life, not just for Christmas
Consultancy With Relish has created a series of dog portrait prints as part of its Dog Bingo series, and is selling them to raise awareness of animal shelters as well as raising cash for the Mayhew Animal Home in north London.A Retriever, a Chihuahua and a Lurcher
Lizzie Mary Cullen’s 48 hour drawing challenge
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
Create your own Christmas jumpers with a hacked knitting machine
Artist Andew Salomone has hacked into the Brother KH930 knitting machine, creating an electronic fix that allows him to use it like a desktop printer.
Get Your Rocks On at contemporary jewellery exhibition
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.
Architects Draw Up London Grid System
New York and Barcelona were built on grid plans – a city planning system which goes back to Roman and Hellenic times.10x10 Drawing in the City
Look to the Future
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.
Art against SAD
Smothered in Dickensian fog and deprived of daylight, it’s easy to feel pretty gloomy in the winter months.
Cement Mixer winter graphics show
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.
Electroboutique
Artist collective Electroboutique uses interactive technologies in its work to address questions around the mass media, art production, design aspiration and the capitalist system.
Shop magazine covers at Kemistry Gallery
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.
Durham illuminated by Lumiere festival
Durham’s Lumiere biennale got under way last night with the promise that the city would be ‘bathed in light for four unforgettable nights’.Spirit by Compagnie Carabosse c. Matthew Andrews
McBess and The Mill's Carl Addy show the dark side of advertising
Adverts, as we all know, aren’t all about chivalrous Milk Tray men, improbably altruistic small boys and that Smiths B-side appropriation.
Exhibition Road Show
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
How to stop a brief taking over your agency, by Coley Porter Bell’s Vicky Bullen
Vicky Bullen, Coley Porter Bell chief executive, talks about the Morrisons redesign brief, and the lessons learnt in managing large design projects.
Ikonic artworks in Birmingham
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.
Stop! Police
This mysterious project - which purports to be a rebrand of the Russian police force - has been causing some debate on design blogs over the last couple of days.Politsiya car
Field of Light
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
Tiny Dancers
It seems vodka, creativity and choreography go hand in hand - and we’re not just talking interpretive dancing.
Cross Over
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.
Made it to the End
If you happen to be one of the organised few already mulling over what to buy people for Christmas, you could do much worse than heading to Brighton’s contemporary craft fair Made 11 this weekend.Aline Johnson
Why enter awards? By Vince Frost
In this guest blog, Vince Frost of Frost Design makes the case for entering design awards schemes.
Paint a Vulgar Picture
‘Oh Manchester, so much to answer for ’, quipped Morrissey in 1984 Moors murders-inspired song, Suffer Little Children.The Smiths, This Charming Man
Identified Flying Object
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.
New Masters
It goes without saying art world big guns such as Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollock and Rembrandt are always going to influence contemporary art and design, but in recent months their legacy has been celebrated in an increasingly candid way.
I’m dreaming of a self-generating Christmas
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
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 ...
Special Delivery
Ex bassist of The Specials Horace Panter will present his first exhibition next week – Robots, Saints & (Extra) Ordinary People.Black History
Encounters with Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi
Next week sees the opening of the 17th Bristol Encounters International Film Festival, celebrating everything that’s great about short and animated film.
The Poppy Appeal – The Most Valuable Brand in the World
Guest blog from Paul Mellor, design director of Mellor & Scott design on the value of the Poppy Appeal.
Hidden Heroes
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
Moving matchstalk men
LS Lowry’s matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs are set to come to life at the weekend in an interactive installation in Salford.
Newtown
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. ...
Interpretations of Africa: football, art and design
Nine silhouettes are visible behind a translucent screen, which gives way to reveal some of Africa’s greatest football stars including Samuel Eto’o, Asamoya Ghan and Yaya Toure.
Found font
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.
Solipsistic Pop
Flying the flag for print, journeying and the finest in alternative comic talent is periodical Solipsistic Pop, which launches its fourth edition today.
Made in Clerkenwell
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.
Best kept secret
This year’s RCA Secret anonymous postcard sale is back, with contributions from Grayson Perry, Sir James Dyson and Nick Park.pucker up
Hellraisers
‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom’, quipped Romantic poet William Blake, in his book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
Olympic posters
When the London 2012 Olympics organisers announced plans to commission 12 artists to design the official posters for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, questions were raised both here and over at Creative Review about why artists had been selected instead of designers.
The Mechanical Bride
‘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
Sitting squarely between designer, architect, artist and engineer is Francois Dallegret who will be celebrated in a new Architectural Association exhibition.
Annual report
Outgoing D&AD president Sanky carried out his final presidential duty last night by launching the 2011 D&AD annual.
First Thursday
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
London underground
Evan Hecox has built his reputation by abstracting elemental parts of cities of the world, making them seem at first unfamiliar, using colour sparingly.Battersea
Paper view
Manchester-based consultancy Eskimo Creative is set to play host to paper company GF Smith’s touring show 126 Years in Print.
Bohemian Like You
Perhaps more associated with the once-omnipresent Vodafone adverts than a louche sense of freedom and general hipness, the Bohemian Like You concept has now inspired an exhibition of cutesy posters.
Good Press
Glasgow based Good Press is an independent gallery and bookshop, newly set up, just last month, in the back of a cafe.
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Monsters and Marmite - an interview with Pete Fowler
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Things We Like
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Love and Peter Saville work on new charity album
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Works on Paper at EB&Flow
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Max Hattler’s apocalyptic shift
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ICA presents talks inspired by The Themersons
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Stop thinking, start doing: guest blog from MRM Meteorite's Will Aslett
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Muji’s product fitness
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Design Week visits World Design Capital Helsinki 2012
