Be my valentine Roger, because you gave the world a typeface called Mistral. Better than any writing, any name under Mistral’s spell is the “designer” factor for any willing hairdresser or night club no less

Be my valentine Paul, with your mind and silk screen press running over time, we wish we could design book jackets like you with their familiar visual served with playful wit

Be my valentine Koons, why make art when there are creatures like Popples need to live

Be my valentine Kos, is the picture art or the process? That ice cracking and splitting, microphones standing there as witnesses to something stark, unremarkable and still

Be my valentine Jim, your music is heaven and the covers you commission are at times just strange and a little warped

Be my valentines Irma and Anette, we are insanely jealous of your design in print – with inspired books and posters that make us sing, please, please send us the secrets of your design thing

Be my valentine Vince, how come you like using fluro and why do your t-shirts rock? Offices everywhere, a name that is a thing, you hang with Carlo and Ray, can you send us some of your t-shirts – girls medium and guys xxl, is that cool?

Be my valentine Brian, yes we are devotees of the art rock parade too

Be my valentine Orpheus, the father of song, an ancient story yes, yet times don’t seem that different at all

Be my valentine Drew, you made Donnie Darko happen in 2001. A film shot in 28 days, with a rabbit named Frank and a plot that foresaw that in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds, the world will come to an unknown end, fueled by the tunes that made people reference the 1980s again.

Be my valentine Maurizio, keep messing up the art world and crunching out your amazing magazine – Permanent Food

Be my valentine Beck, may you come to Australia soon, we want your dance moves now as well as your tunes

Be my valentine QE II, as on the Beatles’ Abbey Road, that odd song by Paul McCartney that sounds the Fabs’ last gong

The Sticky Institute, Melbourne’s mecca for Melbourne’s wayward, diverse, inventive and compelling zine culture is over February hosting the Festival of the Photo Copier – a space for zine lectures, launches, chat offs and exhibitions.

The Undiscovered Press (unleashed on the masses) is a hands on exhibition that makes every effort to overwhelm visitors the zine making pursuit. Entry is free and well worth an hour or so of your attention.

The Undiscovered Press (unleashed on the masses)
Opens 12 February
Platform
Degraves Street Subway / The Campbell Arcade,
Enter via Flinders Degraves Street,
Melbourne Victoria Australia

Curated by zinemaker Melissa Reidy, twelve zinemakers from all around Australia have shared their unique vision for telling stories, creating narratives and dreaming up objects made of paper, photocopies and binding material. Ziners include Androniki Douramakos, Arlene TextaQueen, Marc Martin, Brendan Halyday, Fergus, Mary-Helen Daly, Sarah Foster, On Wednesday, Cameron Baker, Pat Grant and Michelle Vandermeer.

Drop into the Institute while you are there

Visit the Sticky Institute here, visit Platform here

A Palindrome Day – Never in my grandfather’s lifetime

Today the day, the month, year format for dates read the same forward as it does backward. In date terms, a Palindrome date are rare and centuries can pass from one to the next. The last Palindrome date was 02 October 2001, the previous was 31 August 1380 and the next be 11 February 2011.

One of the many things we love graphic designers for is their affection for visual gags and wit. Out there in fluffy wuffy designer land, while the rest of the world is dividing, Grammy gagging and conquering, their will be countless designers marking the numeric significance of the day with a minimal break up text, laying the founding stone for their new creative venture, getting married, writing their first real post for the new year, or eating one too many sushi rolls over lunch.

What did you do today? Did it have the high drama of a Scott Walker ballad, the folly of monkey tennis, or the precision of Roger Federer’s tennis career? Make a special note, self publish a themed graphic zine or hire a sky writer and let the world know of your special Palindrome day.

We suffered a stinking male toilet to illustrate this post – it is a shame that the internet is only a visual experience, maybe next Palindrome we will have the joy of the sminternet.

See this set of numbers in 100 years.

by Bob Embleton

There is nothing better than stumbling across a real milestone – in Britain somewhere, on the side of the road, triangular stone, each face with a letter and number, poking of the the grass. Here as some other more wayward milestones by Simeon King in response to our is Graphic Design is dead post.

Comments from Simeon – Before Telecom was the PMG – Post Master General, no logo. Always thought it was the PMC. Needed a better G. Cast Iron Logo vs Concrete logo either way they are solid designs.

Publication design for the larger titles has enjoyed a long stretch of conservative design. Designs are often hemmed in by a careful set of typeface choices, robust grids and photographic art direction. Some titles play with the type, image and space, yet much of this play feels like it has rigorous constraints.

Many directors and designers find inspiration from titles and designs far-a-way, such as Italian Vogue, or Elle magazines from the 1980s, titles from Belgium, or obscure titles that have Anthony and the Johnsons on the front cover, or the suggestion of ‘homosexuality’, birds, or ‘is not’ built into the title.

Catherine Martin, world famous cinematic art director, was invited by the Vogue team to guest art direct the current issue. Romantic colours and rustic type choices litter the carefully designed spreads, distressed image making do its best to wrangle with an all encompassing grid.

The most interesting outcome was pushing the notion of what a mainstream magazines is, and four collector cover variations of a design was developed and released into news stands. Maybe this be the beginning of magazines exploring the value of the design in print process? You will also note that Ms Martin love a little drop shadowed type as well.

Regular contributor Simeon King found this Live question in the UTS (University of Technology, Sydney, Building 6, Design Architecture Building building, level 3, Ultimo) lift lobby with attached pen, seeking responses. So far respondents have fallen back on being irreverent :
propaganda, Jesus, choosing fonts, patronizing …

An update from Simeon some six hours later :

• Advertising
• Designing
• Changing the world
• Using least ink for most info
• Pretty posters
• The environment
• Me
• Everything
• Better signs than this
• Picture Perfect Printing (advert) 04!!0580409
• Making cool shit!
• Influence
• Dressing really well
• The GFC
• Informing the public
• Making something worth keeping
• Subliminal messages
• Cutting down trees
• Cool things
• Wasting ink
• Useless stuff
• Poo
• Making finger paintings
• Designing todays brandscape
• Having fun

Do any of our readers out there, have any off the cuff thoughts regarding “what is a graphic designer responsible for”

We’ll start by saying — that often a designer will make seemingly small decisions about a project that can have significant impact down the line of those that have to implement and use our work. One example was when we were asked to develop some imagery for a large Australian bank. The bank’s image guides had a complex set of rules in and around generating imagery, which at the time made the process of making images quite expensive, as professional photography was mostly required to meet these standards. One can image that these rules applied across the whole organisation made for a very costly process to produce unique images.

In summary a designer is responsible for exploring and understanding the impacts of their decisions before they make recommendations to their client.

The complete posted package

Email, landlines, twitter, text, web logs, mass communication have contributed to the demise of letter writing. Name the last time you received a letter from someone under forty years, all with a real stamp, hand addressed and self addressed envelope, along with a hand written note, or card, longer than fifty words no less.

One doesn’t know where Elizabeth finds the time to communicate so thoroughly and amid the letter writing, Elizabeth also spends time drawing letter forms.

This interest is witnessed in Elizabeth’s latest publication, the second edition of imaginery alphabets which documents her latest muse, a display font called Marguerite. The inspiration of Marguerite comes a rustic sheet music publication by C.A. White found in a junk shop outside of Melbourne. Marguerite was developed from just a handful of lowercase letters and an uppercase ‘M’ and a vivid imagination for letterforms.

There are few designers so driven to produce commercial work in waking hours to then in their free time develop design exercises that explore subjects so thoroughly obscure, Elizabeth is one of them.

Thank you Elisabeth Carey Smith, one can’t wait for whatever the next installment shall be.

Imaginery Alphabet vol 02. opening spread

Development spread

The complete typeface set

Visit Elisabeth Carey Smith’s website here

Design and communications is one of the first sectors to feel the brunt of change in the community — for the good, for bad, for conservative, for playful, for anarchy, for peace, etcetera. One would argue that change in the way the community consumes has been in air long since the financial market collapse in October 08, and many of our client‘s and subsequent work flow has been carefully monitored for some time — which we don‘t mind in that our client‘s sense of care rubs off on us as a studio and the work we produce.

Alex Tyers, information designer and studio friend sent this article for review. There is much to be gained from being akin with history — the urgency of today‘s happenings are not new happenings in context with times past. Alex dedicated this post with — Here’s a positive start to the year. Thanks again Alex.

Read ‘Design loves a depression…‘. NY Times article here

There is commercial naming projects and there are the naming projects that have soul —  the names of our community precincts — St John‘s Wood, Seven Dials, Mrs Macquarie‘s Chair, Five Ways, Crouch End, Land‘s End.

The Unnamed Precinct project is an initiative of residents, businesses and institutions in the area of Sydney bound by the part of Oxford Street from Taylor Square to Greens Road, including the neighbouring cross streets and surrounds. The five-way intersection of Oxford Street, South Dowling Street, Victoria Street and Barcom Avenue marks the centre of the precinct. The project team work and live in a place that they feel needs to have a name, they are seeking ideas and feedback from the community to clarify this idea.

Having lived and work there, we put aside some time and submitted the following naming options:

In light of the rich local history of artists and artisans one may suggest some of the area‘s most prolific artists under the theme — celebrating local creative people

Brett Whiteley AO (7 April 1939 — 15 June 1992) was an Australian artist. One of the best-known Australian painters of the 20th century, he is collected in most Australian galleries. He had many shows in his career, and travelled extensively around the world.

Whiteley suggestions:

• Whiteley
• Whiteley‘s Corner
• Brett‘s Way
• Endlessism

John Coburn (1925 – 7 November 2006) was an Australian painter. He is also known for his tapestries.
He won the Blake Prize for Religious Art twice.
All the major galleries in Australia have displayed his works. Two of his tapestries hang in the Sydney Opera House and seven hang in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C. His works are also displayed in the Vatican Museum, Rome.

John Coburn also was a lecturer at the nearby, National Art School, Sydney which was at Coburn‘s time in the Old Darlinghurst Gaol which was converted to the East Sydney Technical College.

Coburn suggestions:

• Coburn
• John‘s Corner
• John‘s Way

Thanks to Simeon King from Anagram for sending this project our way

Have a go all you naming people.

Visit The Unnamed Precinct here