We Made This

Summer Shows: CSM BA Graphic Design

We trundled along to the Central Saint Martins BA Graphic Design show last week, and from what now seems like thousands of students, picked out a few of bits for your viewing pleasure.

First up, above, is the Animal Collective project from Sroop Sunar, a tasty collection of screen printed images based on the collective nouns used for groups of animals, styled in the form of Indian matchbox labels.

Sticking with dogs, we rather liked Anya Belikova's Little Monsters book, which supplanted babies' heads with dogs' heads. 

We were also impressed with the entrepreneurial spirit shown by Charlie Kwai, who created a vending machine "...that aims to positively influence the future of those who participate. Over the course of the exhibition 70 people bought a box. The most popular category was Love closely followed by Career and Power. Orientation sold well, but Finances and Possession were the least popular." 

The prophecies were a £1 a pop, and sticking with the crowd, we picked Love - our fortune was "Love knows not time but patience. Be patient and love will find its way to you." So we will be patient.

Next up was Ben Lee's very polished Exponere zine: "A publication exploring and exposing the deception of law, the treachery of our government and the fraudulent corporation which we live for." Strong stuff...

We were also very taken with Louise Naunton Morgan's Human Graph Paper, which consisted of a series of graph paper pads drawn by hand rather than machine, and was oddly beautiful.

And finally, a special mention to Francesco Boni, for having the best business cards in the show.

Good stuff all round. And great to see that the students had (a) got their acts together so that most of them have their own websites and (b) had set up a shop at the show to sell their work. Interestingly, they'd decided not to have a show catalogue, instead relying on the show website and their own sites. There's a sign of the times...

Richard Long at Tate Britain

We nipped along to Tate Britain (we're so having to hold ourselves back from inserting a definite article before that...) yesterday to check out the new Richard Long show, Heaven and Earth.

If you don't know his stuff, Long is part of the loose set of artists whose work gets grouped under the heading Land Art (check out Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty and James Turrell's Roden Crater as good examples from that gang; or pick up the Land and Environmental Art book from Thames & Hudson).

Long's art revolves around taking walks. Short walks, long walks, and some giant walks - in Walking to a Lunar Eclipse he treks 366 miles in 8 days - heck he must go through a lot of socks. He then creates a variety of pieces out of his perambulations. Sometimes he creates site-specific installations during the walks, as with Dusty Boots Line (below): these are ephemeral pieces, which may last days, weeks, months or even years, but which can only really be experienced in their locations. Long does photograph the pieces though, often presenting those photographs framed, with carefully hand lettered titles - and thus creating new works.

He also creates beautiful text pieces (such as Heaven and Earth, top), combining poetry, typography, art and historical record. These vary in scale, and many of them are presented in the exhibition as full size text pieces made out of cut vinyl, often occupying a full wall.

Long also creates stunning sculptural pieces for exhibition, such as South Bank Circle (below), relocating materials found during his walks, and arranging them in stark geometrical forms. They're quite magnificent.

The show is brilliantly curated (largely thanks to Long's close involvement, writing the captions for the exhibition, and designing the guide too). The moment when you step from a room of photographs into a room of installed works is really brilliant.

It's also interesting to see an artist whose work is so closely allied to graphic design - a large part of his output is in the form of artists books, all beautifully designed and typeset. In fact, walking through the show is a bit like taking a walk through a sumptuous book...

The exhibition runs until 6 September, but don't dilly dally, get yourself along there as soon as you can.

Summer Shows: RCA: Mark Hayward

It's the season of graduation shows, and we're going to get to as many as we can, and any good stuff we come across we'll post up here.

So to kick things off, a tasty little animation from Royal College of Art graduate Mark Hayward. 

The second part of the RCA 2009 Show kicks off on 26 June and runs through to 5 July, with work from Animation, Architecture, Communication Art & Design, Design Products, Design Interactions, Fashion Footwear and Accessories, History of Design, Industrial Design Engineering, Textiles and Vehicle Design. 

Banksy Summer Show

Looks like that Banksy fellow's got a Summer Show lined up, opening this Saturday, 13 June. The kids over at Vandalog suggest that it might be in Bristol. Stay tuned for more news.

Art Car Boot Fair 2009

Grab a Turk! Nab a Blake! Spot an Emin!

The ever-wonderful Art Car Boot Fair is upon us again, on 14 June at the Truman Brewery - it's a ramshackle event, with a fine selection of artists and designers hawking their wares out of their car boots. There's also a smattering of burlesque, some customised rides, and lots of food and drink. 

See you there.

Mini's 50th Birthday - competition

Back in 1957, Alex Issigonis put together the first sketches for the Austin Se7en, the car that was to become that British motoring classic, The Mini. (Read all about the history of the car in the Mini Wikipedia page.)

The little car launched in 1959, so this year it's 50 years old, and Mini (well, BMW, who make the New Mini) are having a whole stack of celebrations. 

Their PR kids got in touch, and have given us a set of three tickets to the Mini United Festival at Silverstone Race Circuit, which runs from Friday 22 to Sunday 24 May. They've got load of Mini related stuff going on: stunt driving shows, Mini Se7en racing on the Silverstone circuit, track drives, test drives and so on. On top of that, Calvin Harris is doing a set on the Friday night, and Paul Weller's doing a two hour set on the Saturday, with support from Twisted Wheel and Raygun.

Download Mini

If you'd like to get your hands on all three tickets, all you've got to do is create a picture on the theme of Mini 50. (You can download a pdf of the outlined Mini using the link above). Then email us your picture by the end of Sunday 17 May. Make sure to include your name, contact number, and a mailing address for the tickets. We'll put a Flickr set together with the entries (if we get more than a few) and choose a winner on Monday 18 May, and mail the tickets out to you.*

*It's probably sensible to have some Terms and Conditions: UK residents only (sorry everyone else), you can't exchange or refund the tickets, the judges decision is final.

Ephemera Society Bazaar

Heck, where does the time go? The next Ephemera Society Bazaar is nearly upon us.

Just trundle along to the Park Inn on Southampton Row on Sunday 19 April, between 11 and 4, to find all manner of paper based goodness.

Check out Alistair's Ephemera Flickr set to see the type of thing you can lay your mits on.

Ravensbourne College of Blank and Blank

Times are tough, and it seems like design students are getting increasingly resourceful in response.

After the Design Auction held recently by the graphics kids at Lincoln School of Art & Design, the gang over at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication are getting busy with their own lot of lots, at their Blank Canvas silent auction.

They've sent out a selection of brik-a-brak to a who's who of the design world (Glaser, Barnbrook, Carson, GTF, Garland and a host of others), asking them to customise them as they see fit. They're auctioning off the resulting pieces at the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane on 30 April.

A portion of the proceeds will be going to the Whitechapel Gallery's Artist in Residence scheme too, which is kinda groovy.

Eighth Annual Friends of St Bride Library Conference

  

The ever wonderful Friends of St Bride Library Conference is nearly upon us again, and this year's theme is Revival. Speakers include the sultry David Pearson, the lovely Eleanor Crow from Faber & Faber, the luscious Kath and Julia from Johnson Banks, as well as the double-double-consonanted Ben Terrett and Russell Davies, and a host of others.

The conference is on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 April, and at the time of writing there are a hundred or so tickets left. You can check out the full programme here.

⌘X & ⌘V

The latest Cut & Paste Digital Design Tournament hits London at the beginning of April, with a selection of pixel wizards doing their thing down at the Coronet in Elephant & Castle. No news yet on who's competing or judging, but it should be a grand night. Tickets from Amiando.