Last night I presented, along with Suzy Tuxen, Stuart Geddes, Warren Taylor, and Dom Bartolo at Title Sequence as part of the 2011 State of Design Festival. Great titles transport the viewer from their world new world and story, the vision, the transitions, layout, type design, visual effects all serve to make this transition a smooth and compelling ride.

Thanks again to Ghita and Keith for all their attention, cheer and care.

During my day to day I often go to the cinema to escape the world of deadlines, doing graphic design and thinking about stuff, for a dark room, a big screen and overwhelming sound. The title sequence is one way to shake me up and transform one into new zones and stories for a few hours. The following are a collection of titles which transported me from my design world and into another much more compelling and new worlds.

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I like compelling
I like evocative
I like awkward noisy

Dr Who (1963) Designer Bernard Lodge.

On the night, I incorrectly credited the design to William Hartnell, thanks to the audience member who, like a some sort of father figure – tisk, tisked me. Tisk tisk yourself sir, we are not all perfect and we are all allowed to make mistakes from time to time.

Bernard Lodge (born 1933) is a British designer best known for his work on the BBC television series Doctor Who. He designed the first four series logos, and designed and engineered the first five title sequences. These include the ‘howlaround’ versions and the ‘slit-scan’ time tunnel ones. His designs were used until 1981 when Sid Sutton was appointed as the new designer by producer John Nathan-Turner.

Apologies to Mr Lodge again, and to that nasty bloke that corrected me, I have to say I strive to be constructive when providing feedback, being a grumpy finger waving pedant is not one of my methods.

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I like simple
I like insane detail
I like sympathetic type

See the clip here embedding disabled by request

The Conversation (1974) Francis Ford Coppola and Walter Murch

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Fight club opening sequence from yamz66 on Vimeo.

I like a ride
I like restrained tech
I like seamlessness
I like surprises

Fight Club (1999) P Scott Makela

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Napoleon Dynamite from dazedcracker on Vimeo.

I like funny
I like odd and good yuck
I like a sense of place
I like crazy type

Napoleon Dynamite (2004) Arron Ruell, Jared Hess

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I love elegant type
I love old being new again
I love cast-like type
I love scale
I love great music/image/drama/type aligning

io Sono l’Amore (2009) Calligraphy by Luca Barcellona, titles by Marco Cendron

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Visit Speakeasy Cinema here

Thank you

Photographic glimpses of the winter sea scape at Port Fairy, four hours drive from Melbourne by Andrew Ashton.

Accuspec II Transparent Type Gauge & Specifier Set

The studio is working on a publication for The Humble Vintage and our trusty type gauge came in handy. The type gauge was once common place on the drawing table, along with many other things, like clutch pens with blue lead, along with a tin of thinners and paper towel (for cleaning), a beautiful Greenfield set square, trusty W.G. Printers ruler, .35pt and 1pt Rapidographs, et al.

To design and develop layout requires a sound familiarity of how type works on the page. In the past and today when new books or reference appeared in the studio (a great thing to do on Google Free Thursday), we would often pull out our type gauges and deconstruct the type of the page, column widths, leading, paragraph spaces, indents, type sizes, et al.

Octavo 88.5

Octavo 86.1 and 87.3

Stepping backing in time to 1990 during one’s time as Junior Designer, Andrew Gadsby, my second creative director and boss, at Gallaher + Associates (now Hello Branding) collected the publications Octavo. Octavo was an influencial set of design publications produced by London based studio 8vo, the type setting by 8vo was a favourite, and one of the leading design outputs that contributed to the popularity of bold and light, highly structured precise typography which in turn became intrenched as popular style us in corporate communications and a global communication styles.

I remember deconstructing Octavo with my type gauge and note pad, and wondered at marking up this type for typesetting and then laying it out as mechanical artwork and preparing the overlays – as one was still on the drawing table in 1990.

Over twenty years later, the type gauge is often used to deconstruct type and make sense of its design, we commend it reappearance in the contemporary design space.

Type gauges are available here for $8US plus shipping

Australian search

City of Melbourne search

City of Beijing search

City of London search

People search

Normal people search

Man search

Woman search

The latest AGDA 2010 awards book came in the post today, with thanks to the crew that put it together. The 2010 awards publication has lots of work, and give or take one’s taste, in terms of design and aesthetic, the work is of a high standard. However, the question to ask above all is – is there work, within its 300+ pages, that has a newness about about it?

Harry Williamson from Sydney was celebrated in the same publication as one of two 2010 AGDA Hall of Fame recipients. As I took in Harry’s pictures and words, the Summit Restaurant logo too longingly, I wondered if Harry’s work had a newness about it when it first hit the streets, that made one think – wow this is an approach, a process I hadn’t seen before? I projected myself back to the late 70s and 80s, and imagined how this process and work may have prompted me – will I rip it off, or will it make me think more deeply about my output, or is a bit of both? One thing for sure, I know I would have been muttering to myself – bloody Harry, he’s an annoyingly-good-bloody-go-back-home-ya-pom-designer!

Summit restaurant brand, Sydney circa 1976

Then I thought about the work propositioned in 2010 to be the best of now, and I was struck with idea that the new work didn’t really stand out at all, and sadly that this collected body of work was suffering from not being new, and therefore just feeling the same. The same because the work was published on the internet months ago, the same because the work was made popular on sites like FFFound, the same because many of the ideas and outcomes seem to share image making, colour, type treatment, language, yet different only by a twist, a client, or subject. The same because what we end up with is a diversity of work, being crossed influenced by each other.

Consider an example, of say an influential image concept developed for a railway client displayed in an annual report in 1999 by a studio in Melbourne. This image concept becomes a hybrid image concept for a car manufacturer by another designer the work is published online. Then at the same time a financial services business is being sold another design hybrid of same concept by another unrelated design team. Then consider this process happening across thousands of creative projects, across all of the creative sectors, everyday, around the world.

A few months ago on an Australia talent programme a young pianist called – Chooka stole the news for a while. In his modest way Chooka highlighted the idea and merits of discovery, making, and creating in a personal and isolated space to a public space. Chooka dazzled judges, audiences, and the media and unlike many contestants was not formally trained. Chooka was raised on a farm without television, a computer, CD player. He was home schooled, and came to music it seems by the uncomplicated curiosity, play and the will to keep at it. He waited to be inspired by Mozart for two years, which in turn shifted his curiosity to teaching himself to play, read music. This process compelled him to only play original works and performance. His vision of music then ended up in front of 1000s of people and all that is left is to wonder. Wonder at the potential in an individual creative process, wonder how this process will evolve with the outside world, wonder if his work can be captured before it is influenced by the rest of the world.

If you can suffer the ugliness of show business in full hoo-haa-dumbed-down swing, this clip captures a little of his story…

Meanwhile, in the preparation for talks one has made in recent years for China, Hong Kong and the US. There was an opportunity to be in a space where the process is about not making something new or making money, it is about review, summation, contemplation, it is about discovery of process, of reason. In the process of reviewing the cities I was visiting –  I regularly jumped on the computer, logged into google image search and entered in a city, then another city, then I entered woman, man, a country… and a sameness presented itself again. The cities all seemed to have blue skies, bright clear water and city corridors with shiny glass towers. Enter a search for a country the symbols, colours, animals, flags and icons are bright, clear and in focus. After a while the searches blend in, the images are fused with a sameness, highly curated, fashioned, with an odd flash of perfect. This style of image selection makes the dull sit back and the brighter, the cleaner, the sharper and the more colourful, more desirable stand out. One also wonders if these image choices are statistics, or sinister commercial drivers at play…

As our world fills with more and more commercial creative, of highly finished, highly resolved, highly tested outcomes – some with the adbusters filter, others with flashes of slick corporate, raw / grungy, some with old fashioned girly, chicky babe, lady boy, blokey, or with all of the above. One finds some inspiration from people like Chooka and their way of discovering and actioning something original. Opportunity to de-igadget; rejoin the local library; use the convenience of internet search engines less; consider the internet as one of many sources – employing a generous dose of technology disrupters may give our work the chance to be more about the customers, clients, the designer, the play, the reading, the accidents, the discovery, and the place where the work was made dreamed up, manufactured and inspired.

Getting back to the 2010 AGDA Awards book, at 2010 Awards the Alt Group, from Auckland, New Zealand was by far the most awarded design firm with over 30 awards – including two Pinnacles and Judges Choice, in 2009 the ALT Group won over 57 majors awards. With all this success, Alt Group still has an uncomplicated contact page as a website, like Chooka, Alt is an unknown thing, and apart from doing work, entering numerous awards, winning awards, the only other information about this highly regarded studio is left to our imaginations and rumour. There is a range of evolving models (of making working and talking about it) out there, just ask Fabio, Pidgeon and 3 Deep, also big winners and somewhat mysterious studios who also entered the 2010 AGDA awards.

A wonderful integration of public action, landscape design and vision has created an evolving green space in a city that needs public space. Communities across the world, take note, potentially usable public spaces can take any form… Thank you Barbara G at Heavy Meta for making some time and sharing this intelligent design and beautiful public gesture.

For details visit here

Karel Martens by Aashton

APRIL 6 – 21, 2011

FACULTY GALLERY
MONASH UNIVERSITY
ART & DESIGN BUILDING

900 DANDENONG ROAD
CAULFIELD EAST VIC 3145
AUSTRALIA

TEL +61 3 9903 2882
Open Monday – Friday 10am – 5pm
Saturday 12 – 5pm
Entry is FREE

Curated by Warren Taylor

Karel Martens graduated from the Arnhem School of Art in 1961. Since then he has worked as a freelance graphic designer, specialising in typography. Alongside this, he has always made free (non-commissioned) graphic and three dimensional work.

Visit the Narrows for posters, publications, design love here

Dumbo Feather, formerly Dumbo Feather Pass It On
Issue 27, Second Quarter, 2011, RRP $15AUD
Published by Berry Friedmann, Edited by Patrick Pittman, Art Director Stuart Geddes
ISBN 1838 7012 27

A commentary

One was invited to see in the latest, and relaunched edition of the magazine, book come publication – Dumbo Feather.

The brainchild of passionate do-it-yourself publisher, editor, sweeper to publication creator – Kate Bezar, Dumbo Feather over seven years is now an amazing twenty seven issues deep. Berry Libermann, the publication’s publisher shared a brief story with the group of how the transition came to be. In short, over bouncing babies and coffee, Kate told Berry that she needed to retreat from the publication, potentially conclude the venture and embrace a new location and parenthood. Kate propositioned how and who could continue this project, Berry and Danny had an idea.

Several months passed and issue 27 came together. What strike’s one is the new Dumbo Feather cover. There is still the familiar uncoated papers and book-like feel, however the characteristic cover formula of people photographs without people is gone, the title is shorted to just ‘Dumbo Feather’, the overall size has changed and there is printed graphic treatment of spine tape eluding to the publication’s bookish qualities. The text pages reveal more change, as an advertising style of typography and layout, gives way to the rich tradition of publication design by new Art Director Stuart Geddes.

Geddes is renowned in the publishing world for his flexing of a detailed and varied type sense, across a robust and highly considered grid. Title pages are curious type reversal on obscure textures and full page pictures, typographically highlighted questions and pull-outs jump out in obscure colour ways. Thumbing through the publication one is greeted by a mix of image and type rich pages, contrasted by stark white text pages, where short bold questions are chased by answers in lighter, mostly multiple paragraphs of text. A dozen or so, Segues and short articles interrupt the five profiles, allowing the reader to skim and discover desirable text grabs. The layered editorial presentation are spaced by generous dashes of full bleed pictures detailing landscapes, portraits, glimpses and folly.

Patrick Pittman as editor promises a publication where everything has changed and yet remains the same – In Pittman’s words, or there about – it’s a publication which through big stories and small ones, tell the story of our changing world, in the words of the people changing it. Dumbo Feather’s people don’t need to be famous, they just have to be people worth knowing, scoured from all corners of the globe. Four of the five profiles live up to that promise of depth, however the text piece on Micheal Isaachsen by Jessica Friedmann doesn’t come close to the depth of the opening piece on founder Kate Bezar.

As many publication team will attest, it takes several issues, rather than issue one to tell the story of a new, or evolving publication. Overall the first publication from the new editorial team heralds and sets an exciting presentation and detailed editorial directions. The coming issues and ongoing feedback from Dumbo Feather’s loyal subscription base will allow the new crew a unique opportunity to refine and tune the publication in finding the balance of content, subject and presentation. As one of Australia’s or Oceania’s few quality people publications, one would hope that a healthy proportion of the people profiled have origins, connections and journeys linked to Australia and Oceania; it is such content that will truly give the publication a sense of place. There are also too few publications profiling people from this part of the world, made in this part of the world.

The changing of editorial direction and location brings with it an exciting opportunity for a Melbourne team to couple with the insights of product born in Sydney to create a publication which takes the best of both spaces; an Australian publication with glamor, serendipity and abandon crossed with rigor, detail and thoughtfulness.

All that is left is to spend a little, subscribe, read on, participate and pass it onto a friend – Australian people publications can be much more than a free magazine that comes with the weekend paper, it is here at just AU$15 inclusive of GST.

A circus poster is something one did as a college assignment. One found these Australian circus posters and thought what makes them so good is the person who created probably wasn’t qualified in design at university. They just made them for a day, or so, and got on with the next job – a hardware flyer or a betting form.

These images were found at an exhibition called Wild things : Life Beyond the Stage, at the Victorian Arts Centre Click here for more