187 Fashion Eley Kishimoto /

Special Report

Maison Martin Margiela / New Fashion

Illustration / Featured David Pearson /
The Magazine for Graphic Design Puffin By Design / Breda Design Festival
Contents Things to See
07 71
View
and Do opinions,
Essential design advice,
events and perspective
exhibitions for July
72
13 Logoform
Talent PiL by
Photographer WAyNE DALy
Tim Johannis
74
19 Letterform
Talent Lowercase rs
Paper Engineer by MARIAN
Matthew Shlian BANTJES

24 76
Showcase Mag Watch
This months Resident mag man
best new graphic BoJKoWSKI
design work on Little Joe

36 78
Book Show Bookshelf
An exclusive preview Essentials
of work by artists hUGo on
who love books Coming of Age

42 80
Profile Viewpoint
David Pearson Who is your
by RoBERT fashion alter ego?
URqUhART
83
52 Review
Special Report Critiques of new
Fashion books, exhibitions
and events
Fashion Forward
The new darlings 84
of illustration Exhibition
Magnificent Maps
60 reviewed by
Progressive House MAx LEoNARD
Investigating
the mysteries of 88
Margiela Six Books
The latest design
66 books under fire
Werk It
Extraordinary new 90
WERK mag featuring Exhibition
Eley Kishimoto Exposure reviewed
by KERRy WILLIAM
PURCELL

92
Book
Puffin by Design
reviewed
by RIChARD
hoGG

96
Festival
Graphic Design
Festival Breda
2010 reviewed
by RoBERT
URqUhART
 Designed by www.the-entente.org

Subscribe to Grak and save a

third off your rst 12 issues.
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te.org
Contributors Who is your
fashion alter ego?
MARIAN BANTJES
is a graphic artist,
RoBERT AMELIA GREGoRy
URqUhART is a publisher, art
designerandwriter. is a very director, writer and
Garment youd naughty man. activist who runs
rescue from a Alexander Amelias Magazine.
burning building? McQueen, Pam St Clement.
unfortunately. What-A-Mess.
Fashion crime or I really wish he My Monkey Magic I tend to throw on
fashion victim? hadnt done that. costume from my whatever clashing
fifth birthday party. patterned clothing
hussein Chalayans I can find.
2008 laser dress Guilty as
(or crystal dress). charged. Probably something
that I made. I used
You mean me? BECKy SMITh to sew and knit
Im a fashion is a creative director a lot of my own
crime waiting for Twin magazine clothes when I was
to happen. and the blog a teenager and I did
twinfactory.co.uk a fashion degree at
DAvID DoWNToN Brighton University
is a fashion I have a girl crush where I ended up
illustrator. on the French specialising in print.
Vogue editor Mind you, I cant fit
In my dreams? Carine Roitfelds into any of those
Ren Bouch the daughter, Julia clothes now.
fashion illustrator, Restoin Roitfeld.
portraitist and She just has it all. Me? Probably
bon viveur. fashion crime.
Im into my I dont pay any
Nothing would accessories. attention to
get me into a To quote Patsy what is on the
burning building. from Ab Fab, catwalk, and
you can never I think Ive
Interested have enough hats, probably got a
onlooker. bags, or shoes. fairly me style
So Id probably that you either
grab my ySL easy love or hate.
handbag.
RILLA ALExANDER
Ive done both is an
my fashion crime illustrator/artist.
back in the
day, when I was Madeline.
working at Vogue,
was that I wore Mr Toms red scarf.
way too much
leather. I looked Is it a crime to
very Joey Boswell want to wear red
(the male only, every day?
character from
Bread), rather
than the desired
look inspired
by Gucci.
 Things to See and Do
July
Shop Swap
28 JUNE31 JULy (PARIS), 02 JULy28 AUGUST (LoNDoN)
A very stylish Entente Cordiale is happening around Hoxton
Square and the rue Saint-Honor this month, as supercool
gallery/shop KK Outlet and supercool shop/gallery Colette trade
places for a few weeks. Its the first time Colette has
ventured into the UK, and along with its hand-picked
collection of music, books and other covetable
products, the work of graffiti writer Monsieur
Andr and illustrator Darcel will be on show at
KK Outlet. Meanwhile, the KK crew will be hopping
on the Eurostar and taking over Colettes very
smart Paris store, installing its own unique blend
of products, books and artwork. The Shop Swap
concept sounds like a great idea. Bon voyage, KK,
and Bienvenue Londres, Colette...
www.kkoutlet.com
Things to See and Do July
Poster Boy
16 JULy7 AUGUST
Theres a real treat coming up this month at the Royal College of
Art in London the first ever solo exhibition by Roman
Cieslewicz (19301996), featuring over 150 key works from his
eventful career as a designer, working in Warsaw and then Paris.
Cieslewicz loved to work in collage and was a
member of the last surrealist group in France. Much
of his work is politically motivated, but he was
also a brilliant art director, working with
photographers such as Guy Bourdin and Helmut
Newton for Elle and Vogue. The exhibition features
many of Cieslewiczs posters, including film
posters produced in Poland during the 1950s and
1960s (such as his striking design for Hitchcocks
Vertigo), as well as a selection of his many book
and magazine covers. We cant wait.
www.polishculture.org.uk
07
 New Model Army
25 JUNE31 JULy
Some rather arresting little fellas are about to take over the
Kemistry Gallery in London this month. Brosmind Army (named
after its creators, Barcelona-based Brosmind Studio) is made
up of little ceramic soldiers, each with a different face, tattoo
and ID tag. The army consists of different platoons,
each has fifty individual soldiers and a
distinctive type of hat the first platoon is named
after the black-ribboned boater (or canotier) it
wears. Each soldier also has three different faces
so that you change their mood with a quick swivel of
their head a skill that would come in very useful
for most people, we reckon. The whole platoon is for
sale, along with some accompanying military
vehicles and some limited-edition prints, although
it seems rather a shame to split them up. One for
big kids everywhere.
www.kemistrygallery.co.uk
Things to See and Do July
Hot Shots
24JUNE15 SEPTEMBER
Amsterdams Foam gallery plays host to this years must-see
photographic exhibition this summer. Pretty Much Everything is
a survey of the work of photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and
Vinoodh Matadin, and it features over 300 of the duos favourite
images shot over their twenty-five-year careers. Having first
come to the attention of an international audience
via a ten-page feature in The Face in 1994, the pair
currently reside in New York. Their unique and often
strange blend of fashion and art has brought them
commissions from top fashion houses such as YSL,
Chanel, Balmain, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chlo
as well as regular editorial work from the likes
of W Magazine, Vogue and the New York Times.
www.foam.nl
08

Action Stations
18 JULy01 NovEMBER
The fourth California Design Biennial: Action/Reaction takes
place at the Pasadena Museum of California Art this month and
promises to be well worth a visit. This is the fourth
California Design Biennial, and it features some of
the most innovative design produced in the state of
California over the past two years. Its divided
into five main categories: industrial design,
fashion, graphics, transportation and architecture,
and instead of being chosen by the usual panel of
judges, a different curator has been chosen for each
category to ensure that the pieces chosen can be
put into context and give the viewer greater
understanding and a richer viewing experience.
California is currently facing many economic,
political and environmental challenges and this
exhibition aims to focus on how both its established
and emerging designers are responding to them.
www.pcaonline.org
Things to See and Do July
Rock Chic
15 JULy31 AUGUST
Looking at the Rolling Stones today, its easy to forget how
goddam cool they used to be. This has never been more
apparent than in the photographs taken by photographer
Dominique Tarl during their time at the Villa Nellcte on the
French Riviera in the spring and summer of 1971, which go on
show at the Atlas Gallery in London this month. The Stones
were in dispute with their manager at the time,
and the 97 per cent tax rate that they were
subjected to led to the period of exile at the villa,
where they were installed to record their next
album, Exile on Main Street. Tarls atmospheric
photographs capture the lazy (and often drink- and
drug-fuelled) days of the Stones and their friends,
family and various hangers-on as they lie around
louchely, all cheekbones and moodiness in the
magnificent interiors.
www.atlasgallery.com
Rock Steady
26 JUNE04 NovEMBER
Bling is one of those words that went from hip-hop
slang to your gran in what seemed like a nanosecond.
While the word might be relatively new, the concept
certainly isnt ostentatious jewellery that looks
cheap but probably isnt, and loads of it. A new
exhibition at the Museum of Childhood in Londons Bethnal
Green looks at the diversity of jewellery that can be found in the
East End of London. Like anything we wear, whether
were slipping on a cygnet ring or a gold medallion,
its making a statement about who we are (thatll be
a person with zero taste) and often has a personal
significance too (a person with zero taste who loves
their mum). Bling features work by local
schoolchildren, students from the London College of
Fashion and contemporary makers with East End
connections, such as Brick Lane-based Grafik
favourites Tatty Devine.
www.vam.ac.uk
09

Old Gold
1315 AUGUST
Goodwood, the race track that usually plays host to fast cars
and horses, is hosting a weekend with a difference this August.
As well as celebrating music with an eclectic mix
of bands and DJs, Vintage at Goodwood celebrates
fashion, film, art and design, with Morag
Myerscough taking charge of design duties,
as official curator of design. Theres a vintage
race night, a classic car boot sale, burlesque
dancers, a pop-up vintage high street and the
WI are hosting a funny-shaped vegetable contest.
You can camp (or glamp) for the weekend and the
legendary Alvin Stardust is making an appearance.
What more could any vintage fan want?
www.vintageatgoodwood.com
Things to See and Do July
Summer Camp
3031 JULy
The V&A Fete is now the V&A Summer Camp, and promises
a weekend of fun-filled outdoor activities based on making,
repairing, playing, learning new hobbies and swapping skills
at the various tents pitched around the campsite (aka the
museums John Madjeski Garden). You can check out the
communal campfire tent, plus the usual mix of live
music, late bars and food and a special nighttime
collaboration with the Serpentine Gallery. Were
particularly excited by the Typography Summer
Schools marathon back-to-back critique, where
any item featuring type can be brought along to
be discussed by Fraser Muggeridge and the crew.
You can take along your own work and get instant
feedback, or take an example of typography (good,
bad or ugly) that youd like to discuss. Hours of
typographic fun.
www.vam.ac.uk
New Designers
14 JULy (PART oNE), 811 JULy (PART TWo)
If you didnt quite get around to visiting all the degree shows
that you intended to go to this year (we know the feeling), then
may we recommend a trip to the Business Design Centre, where
you can see the cream of the UKs design talent neatly gathered
under one roof? The show is split into two parts
the first (from 1 to 4 July) covers Textiles,
Fashion and Accessories, Contemporary Applied
Art, Ceramics and Glass, Jewellery and Precious
Metalwork; the second (from 8 to 11 July) features
Furniture Design, Product Design, Spatial Design
and Visual Communication, with an ever bigger
area devoted to graphics and illustration. Both
shows also feature a group of exhibitors from New
Designers 2009, so you can see what theyve all been
up to in the past year.
www.newdesigners.com
10
Next Month in Grafik
Special Report New York
Next month in Grafik we dedicate
an entire issue to design in the
Big Apple, revealing the movers
and shakers of the NYC graphic
design world. We poke around
their studios, profile their
latest work, get to know their
neighbourhoods and hear what its
like to work in Gotham. Rad.
188
featuring Mike Perry / Exposure /
Ryan Waller / Part & Parcel /
Miranda July / Stefan Sagmeister /
Project Projects / Fogelson & Lubliner /
Karlsson Wilker / Partners & Spade /
Jeff Ramsey / Hoefler & Frere Jones /
Helicopter / Topos and more
www.grafikmag.com
Talent Tim Johannis

01
Taking unremarkable objects and transforming them into
abstract, graphically aware compositions, Tim Johannis
is a master at manipulating the mundane. he relies
on patience, perseverance and flexibility to produce
photography that raises questions and creates illusion.

01 Composition 0735, 2007

Talent Tim Johannis 13

 01

02 03

01 Grey Light, 2007

02 Triangulum, 2009
03 2-Simplex, 2009
04 Twosome, 2009
05 Screenstudy No. 2, 2010
06 Food, 2009
07 Flowers, 2009

Talent Tim Johannis

 04

05 06 07

Talent Tim Johannis 15

 Magical abstract perceptions.
Describe your style
in three words.
Not too much. Theres a Canon 5d2 with a 24-70mm lens and
a flash. When I know what I will be doing I take what I think Ill
Whats in your need, like some extra lenses, tripod or laptop.
camera bag?
I like to go to flea markets or shops with lots of kitsch items on offer.
I can get really excited by all the crap I see there. They inspire me
Wheres the most
because you never know what you will find there. Sometimes I buy
unlikely place you
something with the idea to take a picture of it, but I never do.
find inspiration?

At the moment Im busy with a study of insect screens. This

material just has great possibilities. I started experimenting
Tell us about a
with it because of the moir it creates. Im often inspired by the
favourite project youve
way we look and what we see or dont see. Moir is interesting
completed recently.
to me because we see something that our brain cant handle.
What we see is an optical illusion.

The best reaction was someone saying that my pictures raise

Whats been the best
questions without any answers. The worst reaction was someone
and the worst reaction
saying that his nine-year-old son could take the pictures I take. This
to your work?
was a while ago, though, and I was doing a different kind of work
than I do now.

How do you put I start with an idea in my head, but often that image doesnt
together your still work and it becomes something else. I try a lot of different
compositions? compositions and play with the light. Building the set can
sometimes require a lot of patienceoften things hang on
wires and it gets really crowded with tripod and stuff. you have
to be cautious. When Ive lost my patience I stop working and
What is the best continue another time. I guess its persistence that makes my
advice youve ever pictures what they are.
been given?
Keep your head cool and your feet warm.

Definitely a friend. I dont see a reason for it to be a foe.

Photoshop friend or foe?
Photoshop gives you a lot of creative opportunities and control.
If you dont like it, you dont have to use it.

I would be in my last year as a professional footballer, and say

If you werent a
goodbye to my career at the World Cup playing for the Dutch team.
photographer, what
would you be?

www.timjohannis.com

Talent Tim Johannis 16

Talent Matthew Shlian
01
Paper engineer Matt Shlian originally studied ceramics,
but his broad interests and singular way of seeing the
world soon led him to explore the three-dimensional
properties of paper. he now lectures at the University
of Michigan, sharing his expertise while expanding
the boundaries of his practice into science, illustration,
robotics and beyond.

02

01 Sasq Color,
paper, 2010

02 Warped Stellation,
paper, 2008

Talent Matthew Shlian 19

 01 02

03 04

01 Murq, ballpoint pen

and paint pen, 2007

02 Everything, Everything,
ballpoint pen, 2007

03 12 Morning Glory Lane,

ballpoint pen, 2007

06 456, pen, 2008

Talent Matthew Shlian

 05 Untitled
(Thesis), paper,
motor, string, 2006

06 Scales Cut,
paper, 2009

05 06

Talent Matthew Shlian 21

 Seeing is forgetting.
Describe your style
in three words.
Sharpie markers and x-Acto knives.
What is in your
I originally went to school for ceramics, but realised early on that I was
pencil case?
interested in everything. I studied glass, painting, performance, sound and
by the end of my degree I had a dual major in ceramics and print media. I
What first drew you to wasnt making traditional print or ceramic work at that point. Instead I
paper engineering? would create large digital prints and, using a series of cut scores and
creases, create large-scale I wanted the work to be interactive and for
the image to relate to the folds. I loved the immediacy of paper as a
medium. I also loved the geometry. Figuring out the pieces was like
solving a puzzle. Im a highly visual person; I have to see something to
make sense of it. one of my faculty advisers, Anne Currier, started buying
me pop-up books and I started dissecting them and figuring out how they
worked. It took off from there.

Tell us about a
Last summer I had the chance to work with a robotics expert.
favourite project youve
We made a 5-metre kinetic piece out of Tyvek. Its two forms
completed recently.
would expand and contract in syncopation using pulleys,
microcontrollers and motors. It scared children.
Where do you find
inspiration?
I find inspiration in just about everythingprotein misfolding, Arabic
tile patterning, systematic drawing, architecture, biomimetics, nature,
music etc. I have a unique way of misunderstanding the world that helps
me see things that are easily overlooked. I have begun collaborating
with scientists and researchers both at the University of Michigan and
at the University of Freiburg in Germany. We work on the nanoscale,
translating paper structures to micro-folds.Researchers see paper
engineering as a metaphor for scientific principles; I see their inquiries
as a basis for artistic inspiration.
What role do
computers play in your
I am intrigued by the misuse of technology. I find that when I try to
creative process?
use technology for its intended purpose, I am often confronted with
a series of mistakes or unexpected errors. I want to push these
moments, when our digital technology goes awry, to a place where
Whats been
the error becomes interesting.
the best and the
worst reaction
Whenever I give a lecture I always bring examples of my work. I love
to your work?
watching adults run to play with and investigate the pieces at the end
of a talk. Its easy to lose that sense of wonder; its nice to watch people
find it. occasionally Ill run into an origami fundamentalist who will be
infuriated with my work. Traditional origami uses a square sheet of paper,
no cuts, no gluingall folds. Paper engineers use glue, knives, plotters,
laser cutters etc. These purists think of this as cheating. Ive been in
a fight or two with them in the past. I have respect for origami, I just have
no patience for it, and Im terrible at following directions.
Who are your heroes?
Musicians, performers, writers, artists, producers people like
Brian Eno, Matthew Goulish, Werner herzog, Buckminster Fuller,
Edward Tufte etc. on the paper scene, Im in love with Lothar
Whats the most Meggendorfer, vojtech Kubasta, Noriko Ambe and Jen Stark.
interesting thing
you have learned My students surprise me every year. This past year was all about
from your students? iterative designworking, reworking and overworking things. I subscribe
to the idea of pushing work far past its point of collapse, because we
need to know where to draw the line the next time we make it. It is an
unreasonable practice, but its how the best work is generated. Im making
a sign next year for my classroom that says: Its great, now do it again.
How has your experience as
an educator impacted upon
I have become more patient with myself, and with my process.
your own practice?

you either work for free or for a lot of money.

What is the best
advice youve ever
been given? www.mattshlian.com

Talent Matthew Shlian 22

 Showcase 02

01

03 04

05

06
 07

08

09 10

01 Michal Snitker First Light: Photography and Astronomy

02 Hjrta Smrta Kolla! 03 Praline Richard Rogers +
Architects 04 Nick Bell Studio Show and Tell: A Chronicle
of Group Material 05 Project Projects Museo Tamayo
06 Nous Vous Tokyo Police Club 07 People Collective Next
Wave Festival 08 Pentagram Surreal house 09 Robin
Howie Revival 10 Landfill Editions/Manymono Pick Me Up Series

25
Michal Snitker
First Light: Photography and Astronomy
Without light, there would be no such thing as
photography; nor would there be any knowledge
of the universe. So says Saskia Asser, curator
of First Light, an exhibition at Amsterdams Huis
Marseille Museum exploring the relationship between
photography and astronomy. The exhibition is the
culmination of five years worth of hard work by
Asser herself, and it displays historical photos
of planets and stars alongside the spectacular
images captured by modern telescopes such as
Hubble. Asser called upon Michal Snitker (designer
of Huis Marseilles recently updated identity) to
design First Light: Photography and Astronomy, a
concept-driven pocket guide to the universe that
accompanies the exhibition.
The astronomical relationship between distance
and time was a central theme within First Light
since light from distant stars takes millions of
years to reach Earth, to look at them is to look
into the past. Snitker ordered the books content to
reflect this, progressing from historic photographs
of young stars through to modern images of the
Showcase July
ancient depths of our universe. He took conceptual
cues from Cosmic View, a book by Dutch educator
Kees Boeke that directly inspired Charles and Ray
Eamess iconic Powers of Ten film from 1977. Boeke
and Eames used powers of ten to convey the concept
of distances travelled, Snitker explains, whereas,
in First Light, its the typography that conveys
distances via the progression from large 360 pt
letters to small 5 pt letters; from near to far.
Snitkers dedication to astronomical science
extended to the cover itself, with a lone image
of deep space printed in negative to emulate the
way in which such photographs are usually studied
scientifically. Within, the English and Dutch texts
are differentiated through the use of the aptly
titled typefaces Times Ten, Univers and Futura.
Snitkers meticulous, concept-driven design comes
together in a handbook-sized format a graphic
designers guide to the galaxy. Gorgeous.
www.snitker.nl
www.huismarseille.nl
26
Hjrta Smrta Kolla!
Kolla! For those who dont speak Swedish, that
means check it out and its also the name of a
competition held annually to celebrate the best
graphic design, illustration and animation Sweden
has to offer. This year, Stockholm-based design
studio Hjrta Smrta was in charge of Kolla!s
graphic identity, taking an approach that focused
on the part of awards schemes were all keen to know
more about: the judging process.
This kind of assignment is addressed towards
people within our own profession, Hjrta Smrtas
Angela Tillman Sperandio explains, so we saw this
as an opportunity to do something more internalised,
focusing on the judging and, specifically, the
jury. To make the judging process more transparent,
Hjrta Smrta recorded and transcribed parts of the
jury discussion, before processing the transcript
using a computer program to create a set of word-
based statistics that formed the basis for the
identity. Some words were typical of the 2010 design
Showcase July
vocabulary and will probably seem dated in a couple
of years. Other words dont even exist the jury
invented them themselves, Sperandio muses. Whats
interesting is that the words meaning disappears
when they are stripped of content, so they serve
more as a reminder that the discussion has taken
place.
Once the words had been processed and selected,
Hjrta Smrta began editing to create further lists
for the Kolla! posters, invitations and diplomas.
Type was set in Times throughout, and blind-embossed
onto vivid cyan card for the catalogue cover, with
the full list of words reproduced within. Since we
couldnt predict the end result, and our method was
quite boring, the end result is far more humorous
than we expected, Sperandio adds. Since its all
in Swedish, well have to take her word for it,
but while the process behind the identity might
have been boring, the end result is anything but.
ww.hjartasmarta.se
27
Praline Richard Rogers + Architects
Richard Rogers is one of the worlds most respected
living architects from Pariss Centre Pompidou to
Madrids Barajas Airport, examples of his mastery
of intricate modernism have become iconic. Since
2008, an exhibition celebrating his career has been
touring the globe, with a vibrant identity designed
by Praline, but although a book was published to
coincide with the show, Praline wasnt involved in
the design nor was it impressed with the outcome.
The studio decided to design its own book, and
with Rogerss support it approached newly launched
publishers Fiell to put the idea in motion.
With all the existing designs and images from
the exhibition, we assumed that this project would
be easy, explains Pralines David Tanguy, but we
were wrong. The graphic language of the exhibition
modernist but friendly and expressive was kept
intact, but used to tell a different story about
Rogers and his work. Praline also wanted to avoid
the stereotypical conventions of other architecture
books, where glossy full-bleed photography is the
Showcase July
norm. Instead, the images are given room to breathe
with ample white space, and original initial
sketches are included alongside the schematics and
photographs. The matt paper stock, Tanguy notes, was
a point of contention that Praline had to fight for.
Overall, the tactility of the final product was a
major concern, as Praline wanted the book to feel
right in the hand.
Praline was in constant contact with Rogers
throughout the project, and the architect had high
hopes for the new book to be the best ever about his
work. By the time the project was complete his hopes
had been realised, with Richard Rogers + Architects
serving not only as a fitting tribute, but also as
a useful resource for the great man himself in the
lectures he gives. The softcover version will be sold
alongside the exhibition as it continues to tour, but
the hardback is available in bookshops worldwide.
www.designbypraline.com
www.fiell.com
28
People Collective Next Wave Festival
Melbournes biennial Next Wave Festival has been an adopt as their mantra, says Trechter. We also started
important fixture of the Australian arts calendar reading about how risk was responsible for human
for the past twenty-five years; encompassing beings ability to adapt because we take chances,
exhibitions, performances, workshops and talks, it we progress. They set about creating a collection
promotes the titular next wave of emerging artists of tattoo-esque titles, scanning sketches straight
from Australia and beyond. Design of the festivals from their notebooks to create, in Trechters words,
identity is a notoriously huge undertaking, so nothing particularly fancy or special, but something
when Aaron Moodie decided to make a pitch for Next that felt very tactile and human.
Wave 2010, he was quick to enlist friend and fellow Combined with glyphs from the pairs extensive
designer Colin Trechter to collaborate with and library, the hand-rendered type creates a stark,
People Collective was born. However, with Moodie in almost tribal aesthetic, tying together ideas of
Melbourne and Trechter in Minneapolis, things became human progression to give the identity a dawn
a little more complex. Aaron called to let me know of civilisation feel. The finished designs were
that wed got the job, Trechter explains, and we presented on everything from fliers to tote bags,
basically started researching and brainstorming appearing across Melbourne for the duration of the
right away via Skype, email and Tumblr. festival and attracting more than their fair share
Next Waves theme for 2010 was No Risk Too Great, of compliments. As for People Collective? Moodie and
a maxim which struck an emotional chord with both Trechter are now both based in Melbourne and are busy
designers. The theme struck us as a sort of rule to with several exciting new projects. Watch this space.
live by. It is such a bold sentiment, but has the thrill
and romanticism of something someone invincible might www.peoplecollective.com.au

Showcase July 29
Nick Bell Studio Show and Tell: A Chronicle of Group Material
Its a rare project these days that tempts Nick Bell
back into book design. In his own words: Its an
activity we have had to severely limit. Books take
an age to design, and the fee has become an issue
so many designers are willing to design books for
nothing because theyre so creatively rewarding. In
the past five years, Nick Bell Design had worked on
only one such project Come Alive!: The Spirited Art
of Sister Corita, for Four Corners in 2006. However,
when the same publishers approached Bell in 2008
with a project chronicling the work of New York
artists collective Group Material, the challenge
proved too interesting to turn down.
Group Material was active between 1979 and 1996,
producing exhibition-based work which addressed
social issues of the time. Working with editor Julie
Ault (a former Group Material member), the studio
devised a visual system for the books structure
that would accommodate the wide variety of content
exhibition photographs, documents and written
Showcase July
communication without elevating it to the status of
artwork. The ideas were also rooted in practicality,
as dictated by the brief. The publishers wanted
a book that feels approachable, friendly, Bell
explains. They were adamant it should not be
hardback. Ault didnt want the book to become
unwieldy, and it had to be affordable.
As a result, Show and Tell presents photographs
full-bleed and documents full size, with text in the
foreground overlapping parts of the images and, as Bell
explains, preventing them from becoming too precious.
This creates an immersive experience for the reader,
so Show and Tell seems more like a documentary of
Group Materials activity, and a continuation of
their ethos, rather than a conventional art book.
Who knows when Bell and his studio might make their
next foray into book design, but if Show and Tell is
anything to go by, the results will be worth the wait.
www.nickbelldesign.co.uk
30
Project Projects Museo Tamayo
Rufino Tamayo may not be as widely known as his
contemporaries Diego Riviera or Frida Kahlo, but
the Mexican artist managed to make plenty of waves
of his own during his fifty-year career. So much so,
in fact, hes had a museum named after him Mexico
Citys Museo Tamayo, which houses a collection of
his work as well as exhibits from a variety of other
artists. The museum has recently refocused its
programme to present a wider range of activities,
events and commissioned projects, marking the change
with a new identity designed by New York City-based
studio Project Projects.
Designer Rob Giampietro explains: Project
Projects determined that the identity should be both
iconic and visually distinctive, whilst maintaining
a level of variability and play which reflected the
museums open-ended mission. The designers offered
a diverse range of ideas at their first presentation.
The museum had a strong preference for the direction
which featured the greatest amount of graphic play,
Giampietro notes. A variable T was chosen as a
primary typographic mark for the museum, which
Showcase July
could be subtly altered to fit the range of different
materials within the identity.
Project Projects also developed a proposal for
Museo Tamayos in-house publication, Rufino, utilising
a pocket-sized format which would feel recognisable
to its readers. Rufinos a good example of the
Museo Tamayos overall emphasis on informality and
locality, explains Giampietro. We were interested
in the Readers Digest formats that are found at
checkouts in Mexican supermarkets, but wanted to
reinvent that format so it felt both familiar and
fresh. This approach has become an emblematic
thread running through Project Projects portfolio,
as Giampietro is keen to point out. We have a
continuing interest in the local, he states. Even
though we were working internationally in Mexico, we
were always engaged by the needs of the immediate
community surrounding the museum. Often the local is
a great starting point. Rufino Tamayo would be proud.
www.projectprojects.com
www.museotamayo.org
31
Landfill Editions/Manymono Pick Me Up Series
Anyone who visited the Pick Me Up graphic art fair at
Somerset House this year is likely to have stumbled
upon plenty of live printing workshops in the maze
of rooms that make up the venues Embankment Gallery.
Among them was Landfill Editions, a small London-
based publisher established in winter 2009, whose
printing service Manymono brought their Risograph
machine along to join the festivities.
For the fair, Landfill created a series of ten
limited-edition prints and four six-colour books
designed by, among others, Jim Stoten, Adrian Fleet,
Mike Perry and Brecht Vandenbrouke. Landfills Hugh
Frost takes up the story: I actually approached
Claire Catterall (Pick Me Ups curator) about selling
Landfills first series of prints at the excellent
Somerset House Christmas fair. Claire had decided
to focus on 3D products for that event, but liked
the prints so she brought us on board for Pick Me
Up instead. With a series of prints and zines in
mind for the fair, Frost approached a handful of
Showcase July
designers and illustrators an even mix of friends
and strangers whose work Id seen online with
an open brief that was nothing more than technical
print specifications. I loved the work of everyone
involved, Frost adds. I knew, whatever creative
direction they took, Id be happy to publish it.
Risograph machines similar to screenprinting,
but housed in the body of a photocopier are capable
of producing both gloriously bright spot colours
and attractive overprints, a feature which the
contributing designers and illustrators took full
advantage of. In spite of a few technical glitches in
the weeks before the fair, Landfill was able to roll
out a gorgeous set of illustrative prints and zines
in time for Pick Me Up. During the fair, the team
were also busy designing their next project a book
of fictional objects to form a new collection for
Somerset House itself. Well worth picking up.
www.landfilleditions.com
32
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50

Robin Howie Revival

Do you swing? No, not the keys-in-a-bowl, seedy
suburbia kind of swinging calm down. Were talking
about swing dancing, which has seen something of
a renaissance in London recently with dance troupes
popping up across the city. Revival, a new London-
based company, is poised to tap into this new trend
with faithful reproductions of Thirties and Forties
fashions designed to appeal to the new swing set.
Revival called upon designer and current RCA
student Robin Howie to produce a fitting identity
for the brand.
Revival is a brand steeped in nostalgia, which,
as Howie puts it, is a precarious position for new
design. The identity he created would have to tread
a fine line between the old and the new, avoiding the
obvious retro clichs along the way. It became
evident that the fantastic original typography from
the swing era is sadly nowadays not all that far from
the murky world of Microsoft clip art, Howie explains.
To avoid pastiche, he designed a bespoke typeface for
Revival based upon the German font Nobel, taking cues
from the stylistic vernacular of Thirties and Forties
design while adding more contemporary elements.
Essentially, Revival is about putting elements
of one era into dialogue with the present day, says
Howie. This interplay of old and new was also carried
through into the illustrations he created in lieu of
a company logo. Vintage images are juxtaposed with
contemporary, often mundane settings, offering a
graphic nod to the idea of injecting glamour into our
everyday lives. What I like about the illustrations
is that they can get away with being a bit ugly, he
muses. I like being able to juxtapose the decadence
of bygone years with the dullness of a present-day
high street or kebab shop. Revival certainly sounds
like the perfect antidote to modern-day drudgery, and
the finished identity is itself an antidote to
overplayed vintage style design.
www.robinhowie.co.uk

Showcase July 33
Nous Vous Tokyo Police Club
Nous Vous certainly seems to have a knack for
coming up with interesting photographic album cover
designs; the latest release is the second to be
created by the London- and Leeds-based trio in as
many years. This time, the band in question Toyko
Police Club, a Canadian indie-rock outfit spotted
Nous Vouss previous sleeve designs on a blog and
approached the studio to overhaul the bands
graphic identity. The band were looking to relaunch
themselves, explains William Edmonds, one-third of
the Nous Vous line-up, and the imagery and
marketing was something they considered an
important factor.
The band were keen for Nous Vous to get stuck in
with every aspect of the new identity, but the
designers decided to tackle the logo and cover
designs for upcoming release Champ before expanding
the project later on. We started by attempting to
nail down the logo, creating letters physically then
trying to reference them two-dimensionally, Edmonds
continues. Eventually, we simplified our approach
Showcase July
using Torque, a typeface from Village which would
work both alone and over imagery. The logos
simplicity contrasts with a photograph of a busy,
dynamic installation on the album cover, which Nous
Vous put together on a tight budget.
We wanted the installation to be dense and imbue
a sense of energy, adds Edmonds, using both found
and made objects, and letting our instincts do the
assembling. Nous Vous also drew upon the instincts
of Tom Jackson, a photographer whose work its members
admired and who worked collaboratively with the trio
throughout the project. I think he enjoyed it as much
as we did, muses Edmonds, and it certainly looks like
fun a colourful, ramshackle pile of objects (which
had a habit of toppling over, were told) and plenty of
celebratory confetti chucked around for an energetic
effect. Its an unashamedly cheerful cover not a bum
note in sight.
www.nousvous.eu
www.tokyopoliceclub.com
34
Pentagram Surreal house
Ever wished you could step inside a surrealist
painting? Usually, such an act would require a
decent dose of REM sleep or some seriously
heavyweight hallucinogens, but thanks to the
Barbican Art Gallerys Surreal House installation,
the only thing youll need to drop is the entry fee.
A maze of rooms has been constructed within the
gallery by architects Carmody Groarke, housing a
mixture of surrealist art, architecture and a
plethora of workshops, talks and film screenings.
Pentagram was entrusted with the design of the
exhibition graphics after Angus Hylands interest
was piqued by the possibility of exploring
surrealism within graphic design.
The Barbican is known for its heavyweight,
Futura-led identity, so the challenge for Pentagram
was to produce exhibition graphics and other
materials that would work in the strongly branded
setting for Surreal House. Marketing materials had
to adhere to strict brand guidelines, but Pentagram
Showcase July
found more freedom in the design of the exhibition
graphics and the catalogue. The latters design is a
subtle graphic interpretation of surrealism, as
Hyland explains: We were keen to make many aspects
of the catalogue as counterintuitive as possible in
order to break conventions. So, for example, the
title page is located in the centre, the ribbon is
attached to the bottom of the book, and typefaces
and caption scales change throughout.
Its strewn with unexpected quirks, organised
according to a structure that mimics the
demarcation of the exhibition itself, with each
section assigned its own typographic vignette. We
raided a German book called Retrofonts for display
faces, Hyland adds. He seems pleased with the
outcome of the project, which even involved his
first foray into of all things tea towel design.
Surreal indeed.
www.pentagram.com
35
 Self portrait by
Ulises Carrin,
founder of Other Books
and So, Amsterdam,
photo by J. Liggins, 1979

Book Show

A new exhibition opening this month at Eastside Projects in Birmingham

looks at books through the eyes of artists books as physical objects,
symbols and carriers of meaning. As we consume written and visual content
in increasingly different ways, the book becomes an interesting form with
changing values. here, curators JAMES LANGDoN and GAvIN WADE
present the work of five of the artists included in Book Show.
Eastside Projects is an exhibition space that rejects definitive Carrins perspective on the form of the book de-emphasises
forms and neutral positions. The gallery has no default state. any inherent union between the material form of the book
Each successive exhibition responds to the legacy of the and its printed content. The book is not a neutral platform,
previous exhibitions and to the evolving conditions of the it offers a specific set of display conditions that bookmakers
space, drawing on multiple modes and histories of display. must respond to.
Book Show applies this approach to the form of the book. Book Show is at Eastside Projects from 3 July to
It is not an exhibition of books, it is an exhibition of artworks, 4 September 2010. It includes work by Nina Beier
objects and structures that address the physical form of the and Marie Lund, Ulises Carrin, Daniel Eatock,
book and reveal its characteristics as a space for display. Martino Gamper, Nina Katchadourian, Kelly Large,
Fraser Muggeridge Studio, Radim Peko, Rollo
The starting point for the exhibition is Ulises Carrins
Press, Yann Srandour, Simon Starling, Werkplaats
provocative text The New Art of Making Books (1975).
Typografie and Keith Wilson.
Carrin was the founder of other Books and So in Amsterdam,
a gallery and bookstore that during its short life (197579) www.eastsideprojects.org
became the first major centre for the flourishing international
artist-led publishing scene.

Article Book Show 36

 01 Keith Wilson
Library 1998
Library is a monument to storytelling, a piece
of found civic minimalism inscribed with a
familiar yet otherwise untold history of use
dust and gum and indoor grime and fingerprints.
This quiet story is now as concretely present
as the hardback stories these casements once
contained are absent. No books or shelves, the
casements are hollowed out, all surface now,
and an alternative narrative is revealed there,
written in so much dust.
Article Book Show
file under non-fiction
object and idea co-exist in space
they are not the same,
but may occupy the same space
the object is not the object of study
there is nothing to study without the
object
the relationship between object
and idea is non-hierarchical
objects are different (ontologically
and epistemologically)
they are fabrications which require
that you believe in them
file under fiction
(Keith Wilson, 2010)
37
02 Nina Katchadourian
Primitive Art from The Akron Stacks 2001
The Sorted Books project began in 1993
and is ongoing. The project has taken place
in many different places over the years,
ranging from private homes to specialised
public book collections. The process is the
same in every case: sorting through a
collection of books, pulling out particular
titles and eventually grouping the books
into clusters so that the titles can be
read in sequence, from top to bottom. The
final results are shown either as photographs
of the book clusters or as the actual stacks
themselves, shown on the shelves of the
library they were drawn from. Taken as
a whole, the clusters from each sorting aim
to examine that particular librarys focus,
idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies a cross
section of that librarys holdings. At
present, the Sorted Books project comprises
more than 130 book clusters.
Article Book Show
The image shown is from a book sorting I did
by invitation at the Akron Art Museum in 2001
based on the holdings of the museums own
research library. Its book collection had
extensive materials and catalogues from
various contemporary art exhibitions, as well
as many large-format, hardback monographs.
There was a special section on the business
and fundraising side of museum
administration. The books from the library
did not circulate to the general public, and
the library itself was so separate from the
main exhibition areas that most visitors had
no idea there was a library there at all.
When the sorting project was complete,
thirteen book clusters were brought to the
gift shop located behind the front desk and
integrated into the displays.
Courtesy of the artist, Sara Meltzer gallery
and Catharine Clark gallery.
38
03
Ms K Large British Library Researching the Worlds Knowledge 610370 Expires 10-July-12 2010
Kelly Large

Article Book Show 39

04
Library Amnesty 2010
Werkplaats Typographie

Article Book Show 40

05
Inside the White Cube (expanded edition), 2008 and Incomplete Open Cubes, 2010
yann Srandour

Eighteen copies of
Inside the White Cube
by Brian ODoherty inserted
in a cubic slipcase.

This box can contain up to twelve copies of
Sol LeWitts book Incomplete Open Cubes. The
owner of the box is invited to complete this
work by adding any copies of the book that he
has been able to collect.
JAMES LANGDoN: The two works you are
presenting in Book Show treat books both
as physical objects and representations of
certain iconic ideas of display. You often
make direct use of significant books rather
than just refer to them.
yANN SRANDoUR: Given my primary interest
in the act of reading and gathering books
together into collections, I cant only refer
to them, I have to make use of them. This
is also a way to give them a new value by
including them in a new display context.
Reframing a book is a way to change its
meaning.
JL: There also seems to be an element of
humour in the works. Both works are on one
level very simple puns jokes at the expense
of what might now be considered dogmatic or
rigid ideas of how art should be displayed,
both in books and in exhibitions.
yS: Indeed, lets say they are quite stupid
puns. I used the titles of these books
to reflect their physical properties onto
themselves. Inside the White Cube is a major
text about the display of art. I liked the
idea that the cardboard cube contains the
story of its own deconstruction. Making a
paradoxical object is a way to make us think
about it.
JL: You dont mean to undermine the ideologies
in the books you appropriate, but to
re-engage with them.
yS: Incomplete Open Cubes was my answer to
the question of the legacy of Sol LeWitts
work in the context of a retrospective of his
artists books. The experience of the void,
of the nothingness and of the missing is
fascinating. The act of collecting is just a
way to deal with those ideas.
Conceptual Artists are mystics rather than rationalists.
Sol LeWitt

Article Book Show 41

Profile David Pearson 42
David Profile

Pearson
Superlative book design and the name David Pearson
come in the same breath for anyone who has watched
Penguins recent design triumphs. Though Pearson
made his name at Penguin, he is very much his own
man, as RoBERT URqUhART discovered when he
met him at his studio and found a frank but charming
man with rather unexpected ambitions

Portrait of David Pearson by Ivan Jones

ivan-jones.co.uk

Alternative Penguin logo

by David Pearson,
Penguin Books, 2007

Profile David Pearson 43

 Left Spines from the
Great Ideas series
by David Pearson

Right Decline of
the English Murder,
cover by David Pearson,
181mm(h) x 111mm(w),
Penguin Books, 2009

Profile David Pearson 44

Left to Right covers
for Great Ideas series V
by David Pearson,
181mm(h) x 111mm(w), 2010
When I arrive at David Pearsons studio in the romantic-
sounding Back hill in Clerkenwell, London, hes busy in the
ladies toilets, washing up plates from last nights fish
and chip supper. hes immediately likeable: self-effacing,
irreverent, energetic and funny. Best known for his book
design work with Penguin Books, but with a portfolio that
spans several other publishing houses and a glorious slew
of awards and countless nominations, at the age of thirty-two,
Pearson is by far the youngest designer Ive ever interviewed
for a profile article.
Born in Cleethorpes and raised in Grimsby, the son
of a shoe shop owner, Pearsons first run-in with graphic
design was a man who came to make a sign for his fathers
shop. He wore brogues and that fact impressed me,
recalls Pearson. The brogue-wearing signmaker turned out
to be the local art and design foundation teacher, a man
called Mike Wilkes, and Pearson found that his love of history
and art could become a career if he directed his passion
towards graphic design. Later on, his tutors at St Martins,
Phil Baines and Catherine Dixon, would lead to further
enlightenment and collaboration.
We start the interview by talking about Penguin Books,
the publishing house that launched Pearson into the design
establishment. Pearsons fascination with the history of the
company started early in life as he reminisces:
Profile David Pearson
I remember my parents had a box set of Penguin books
with multicoloured spines. I used them like toy building blocks,
taking them out and rearranging them, at the age of three or four.
It all started then. Later on, the rich design history of Penguin
provided Pearson with plenty of scope to research and arrive
at his own conclusions about his own working practices. I was
drawn to the modernist element, he explains, the early 1960s
period of book design by people like Alan Fletcher and Derek
Birdsall. There was an interesting twist in the very abstracted,
sometimes sinister, imagery that they used. I like the fact that at
times you have to decode the image to understand the context
and subject of the book.
Pearsons personal interest in the company was soon
picked up by the in-house team at Penguin, who were only too
happy to let him loose on some of the more onerous design
tasks. I rebranded all their reference books, explains Pearson.
I was a junior designer and working on reference books was seen
as a bit of a bum deal for most people, but Ive got that kind of
brain. I really wanted to do it, it fascinated me.
Pearson was in the right place at the right time. The
company was gearing up for its seventieth anniversary and
having a willing and able designer interested in the companys
archives meant that Penguin was able to get far more out of
the arrangement than if it had hired someone less passionate
about the history of the place.
45
 It would be an exaggeration to say that Pearson uncovered
the archives single-handedly but he has certainly been an
excellent design ambassador, a key player in the reawakening
of the brand, to the point where its impossible at the moment
to think about Penguin without its associated design history.
We move on to talk about Pearsons design work within
the organisation. When I ask him whether working for Penguin
was an easy ride, he astutely points to his work on the Great
Ideas series: It was an experiment from their point of view. I
had a free hand. It made me look like a better designer. I got given There was a lot of irreverent email banter, quite a lot of beer, late
more responsibility and in turn more freedom. It was a joy to
work with a team that allowed you to do, within reason, whatever
you wanted to do.
one example of this was a logo redesign. Back in 2002
Pentagram were given the job of tweaking the iconic Penguin
logo. Someone new arrived at head office and they wanted to
make a statement, explains Pearson. I decided to create my
own logo as originally there were two logos for the company.
Pearson was even allowed to use his unofficial logo on the
books he designed, which reveals not only the trust and faith
Penguin must have had in its junior but also, perhaps, a
glimmer of what made Penguin such an iconic publishing
house in the first placegiving a designer the freedom to
explore and exploit the brand.
By 2004 Pearson had started work on what would
become the backbone of his book design portfolio, the Great
Ideas series. Each series contains twenty titles; each title is a
classic philosophical work. Pearson was keen to collaborate
on the task and invited Alistair hall and his ex-tutors Phil Baines
and Catherine Dixon to join him. When David first mentioned
the series, it sounded exciting, explains Baines. His first
roughs, although slightly inaccurate historically, clearly showed
what he wanted to do: balance historical sensitivity with the
particular communicative requirements of book covers. He
asked Catherine Dixon and I to give historical pointers and
asked if we'd like to contribute designs as well. We ended up
doing designs for books whose writing predated print. At that
point David felt that we would be more comfortable with that
area than he. The series was a success and Penguin
commissioned four morea commission that is still being
worked on by the same team today.
Further collaboration with Phil Baines was possible in
2005 when Pearson initiated Penguin by Design, a book
charting seventy years of paperback design. he asked Baines
to write the book and, although Baines admits he wasnt sure
he knew enough about the subject, he said yes. The design
had already been suggested and we talked about how much text,
and of what kind, and went from there, states Baines. I made
a couple of visits to the archive, I fed him shopping lists, and hed
make a shortlist from which we edited back to make the book.
nights and pushing the deadline.
Talking to Pearson about archive research, its clear that
its the linchpin in his success as a designer. As you can see Ive
got an archive tan, he laughs. I spend a lot of time indoors
probably too much for my own good conducting research. It
makes me feel like Ive made the right design decisions. That
confidence in history is important to me.
I ask him whether this can lead to innovation or
retrospection. I look for the things that went wrong with
the print process that dont happen any more, states Pearson.
Misregistering, for instance, or images cropped in an unusual,
slightly scary way. I like the back story. I try to move modern
print back to that point, giving the reader something that
challenges the eye a bit. But it is contrived. I dont know where
my work is going to sit in a few years time. Is it going to fail to
keep its place?
My question, although basic, obviously touched a nerve.
Later, via email, Pearson responds: I feel slightly
uncomfortable with the retro label as it feels a little too simplistic
perhaps. In the briefing processes we were keen to avoid
producing pure pastiche; rather we tried to provide the work
[with] a modern or even post-modern twist. This is perhaps
most apparent with Great Ideas where quite often you are seeing
two visual worlds collide.

As you can see, Ive got an archive tan.

I spend a lot of time indoorsprobably
too much for my own goodconducting
research. It makes me feel like Ive made
the right design decisions. That confidence
in history is important to me.

Profile David Pearson 46

 ditions Zulma covers

Top shelf, left to right

Lune captive dans un oeil
mort, 190mm(h) x 125mm(w), 2008
/ LUnivers, 190mm(h) x 125mm(w),
2009 / Le Got pre des
kakis (proposal), 190mm(h)
x 125mm(w), 2009

Middle shelf, left to right

Brve histoire des fesses
(Brief history of the buttocks),
190mm(h) x 125mm(w), 2009 /
Dictionnaire du parfait cynique
150mm(h) x 105mm(w), 2006 / LAlfa
Romeo, 150mm(h) x 105mm(w), 2009

Bottom shelf, left to right

La Cne,180mm(h) x 120mm(w),
2007 / Comment va la douleur?,
190mm(h) x 125mm(w), 2006

Profile David Pearson 47

Profile David Pearson 48
 Top shelf, left to right
covers by David Pearson
for Emma, 240mm(h) x 156mm(w),
Whites Books, 2009, illustration
by Amy Gibson; Sherlock Holmes,
240mm(h) x 156mm(w), Whites
Books, 2009, illustration by
Michael Kirkham; Treasure
Island, 240mm(h) x 156mm(w),
Whites Books, 2008, illustration
by Stanley Donwood; The Kreutzer
Sonata, 181mm(h) x 111mm(w),
Penguin Books, 2007; Eros
Unbound, 181mm(h) x 111mm(w),
Penguin Books, 2007; A Russian
Affair, 181mm(h) x 111mm(w),
Penguin Books, 2007, illustration
by Victoria Sawdon

Bottom shelf, left to right

covers designed by David Pearson
for Whites Books pocket
hardback series for Dr Jekyll
and Mr Hyde, Great Expectations,
Pride and Prejudice, Sherlock
Holmes. All cover illustrations
by Joe Mclaren, 187mm(h) x
124mm(w), White's Books 2010,
available for 6.99

Profile David Pearson 49

 Pearson, Baines, Dixon and hall have certainly managed Putting Penguin to one side, we then look at the work
to keep the pace and variation, and Pearson is satisfied with that Pearson has created for ditions Zulma, a French
the work. Generally speaking, I have liked the covers more as publishing house that hes been working with since 2006.
we have progressed: partly because I tend to feel embarrassed Clearly more relaxed and at ease with the workflow, Pearson
about my older work and partly because I feel I have taken more explains the process: It's more of a meditative process for these.
risks as Ive become more senior, he muses. That said, I will The covers are a result of me experimenting with form, without
always look most fondly at certain covers in the first series which the weight of the text on my shoulders, as I can't read French,
helped me to realise the potential of the project. In particular, so it's probably more closely aligned with knitting as a pastime.
Phil Bainess cover for Meditations showed me that I could push Apart from knitting, Pearson has been busy setting up
things much further than I had originally imagined, since it his own publishing house, called Whites Books, with Jon
broke so many established rules. Jackson, who is the brains behind it, according to Pearson.
At the time of my visit, Pearson was due to be finishing the Using classic literature which is copyright-free theyve
fifth and final series of Great Ideas. I got the feeling that this might been able to repackage the great works under the art
prove a turning point in his career and asked him whether he felt direction of Pearson, who has commissioned illustrators
that the Penguin had become an albatross around his neck. to produce cover designs. These are illustrators that I greatly
he waxes both sanguine and nostalgic as he ponders the admire and, for selfish reasons, have always wanted to work
series and the possibility of the end of his working relationship with, explains Pearson. It genuinely feels like we offer an
with the brand that he has loved since childhood. I have loved attractive brief, under the auspice of a non-repeating, narrative
working on a project that seems to complement my own skill pattern. Pearson is keen to point out that he likes to work
base, he reflects. That said, 100 covers is a lot, some might say with illustrators who produce things, be it linocut or rubber
too many, so it feels right to bring things to a close. I also worry stamps. The project is an excellent vehicle for his interest
about becoming typecast. in collaboration and book design, and so far hes worked
A book designer worrying about being typecasttheres with a wide group of illustrators including Petra Brner and
a joke in there somewhere. We move on to talk about the Stanley Donwood. Aside from design, Pearson has been
wider role of the book designer. Is it, for instance, the job learning about the book business as a whole: I want to get
of a designer to sell the book? Does the designer have a experience in the industry, I want to learn about how books
responsibility to the author? And what is it like to work for are made and sold. Its a murky business dealing with Amazon
a contemporary author rather than one, like all bar one in the but Ive got to learn.
Great Ideas series, who died many years ago? I ask what will fill the void left by Penguin and Pearson
Lets face it, explains Pearson, had many of the authors says that hes going to paint some shelves and watch
that Ive worked on been around today they wouldnt have liked the World Cup. he shows me his guilty pleasure, some
what Id done. They would have thought my designs wholly 1970s Corgi book covers with scantily clad ladies draped
inappropriate. Providing an example, Pearson states: With over the titles, and we talk about our future and the future
Chinua Achebe, the only living author in the Great Ideas series, of publishing.
I had to get an approval and he rejected it straight off. The design Pearson is arming himself, like many of our generation,
was meant to be kitsch, tongue-in-cheek, and he thought that with tools beyond his profession in order to survive. The
people wouldnt get that quickly enough. Im thinking: Can we irreverent humour and the self-effacing nature are not
push it further how cheeky can I be? I want to make it B movie. superficial tactics, they are as necessary to him as his research
The book is based on Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, it has or, as Pearson puts it: I really don't know where my future lies.
a safari lounge asthaetic, its an interesting situation. Maybe This industry changes so quickly. I just hope I'm fleet-footed
I should have spoken to Achebe before I started work on it. enough to go with it. If not, I am quite a handy window cleaner.

Far left The Road, cover

designed by David Pearson,
198mm(h) x 129mm(w),
Picador, 2009

Left Rubber stamp

used to create
The Road artwork

Profile David Pearson 50

 The Sunset Limited,
cover designed
by David Pearson,
198mm(h) x 129mm(w),
Picador, 2010

Profile David Pearson 51

 Pe
te
rT
ur
ne
r

David Downton nominates

Peter Turner
I chose Peters work because although
it is completely contemporary,
it refers back to what might be
called classical style of fashion
illustration. There is an ease and
a sophistication to his imagery
(and his mark making) that is
refreshing in a world gone digital
peter_r_turner@hotmail.com
52
 Special Report

sh
Fa
To some, it is a multi-million dollar industry, to others its a system

n
of seasons and ever-changing trends, but in this months fashion

io
Special Report we wanted to seek out the corners of fashion
where left-field thinking, bucking trends and collaborative
sh
sprits prevail. We present a selection of work by a new breed
of fashion illustrators, an exciting collaboration between WERK
and Eley Kishimoto and an insight into the ultimate maverick
Fa
fashion house Maison Martin Margiela. So kick off your wedges,
light up a Sobraine cocktail ciggie and enjoy...
n
io
sh

Fashion Forward
What do contemporary fashion illustrators get up to when theyre
not feverishly sketching at catwalk shows? We wanted to discover
the new playgrounds where fashion and illustration meet, so we
quizzed five experts who nominated the illustrators that excite them
most today (and we couldnt resist adding a nomination of our own).
We share the results over the following pages
Rilla Alexander nominates
Darcel Disappoints

ts
in
He makes scathing (and loving) illustrated

po
comments about fashion, art and life in New York...

ap
He had a show at Colette in Paris earlier this year,

is
and recently did a project for Nowness (a new site

lD
by the Louis Vuitton group, edited by Jefferson

ce
Hack). They commissioned Darcel to cover the

ar
Louis Vuitton store opening in London.

D
www.darceldisappoints.com

Special Report Fashion 54

Becky Smith nominates
Kate Merry
First and foremost shes funny real humour. Her
art is relevant and full of cultural references. Its a
satirical commentary of our social times.
www.kate-merry.tumblr.com
Grafik nominates
Harald Donoghue
Haralds work is a stunning example of how far
fantastic draughtsmanship can take you. Whether
hes scouring magazine editorials for inspiration or
spying on models at fashion week, his confident yet
delicate pencil work brings the subjects to life,
imbuing them with both energy and personality.

haralddonoghue.blogspot.com

ry
er
M
te
Ka
H
ar
al
d
D
on
og
hu
e

Special Report Fashion 55

Amelia Gregory nominates
Bex Glover
Jenny Robins
Gemma Milly
Lesley Barnes
Bex Glover uses a combination of line and
colour washes to create strong, fun imagery
that reflects the ethos of individual fashion
designers well. Jenny Robins does really
imaginative and colourful images of people
and has a great sense of humour. Gemma Milly
takes a wonderfully delicate approach to
fashion illustration that is both engaging
and elegant. Lesley Barnes does amazing

r
ve
typography and geometric designs.

lo
G
www.bexglover.com

x
www.jennyrobins.co.uk

Be
www.gemmamilly.com
www.anaceinthepack.blogspot.com

Je
nn
y
Ro
bi
ns

Special Report Fashion 56

 y
ill
M
a
m
em
G
Le
sl
ey
Ba
rn
es

Special Report Fashion 57

Mark Eley nominates
Debbie Jameson
Classic pen and ink illustration with

D
eb
personality imbued in the use of line,
clarity of colour and composition. Her work

bi
e
is graphically strong, lending itself to

Ja
the clarity of how we produced work in the

m
past. There is an androgyny that appeals

es
and a cleanliness that relates.

on
Janki Patel
These are stills from an animation that
tells a particular story of the Eley Kishimoto
pink flash in a feminine way, using materials
and techniques that are nave and have a look
of creative frivolity. I like the matt of
the pink the painterly block-printed effect
and the low-tech approach for perhaps a high-
tech performance.

Viet Tran
These are all life drawings and I have
watched them develop Its a joy to see
someones ability to be free and draw
from life and have a personal style that
is aesthetically rewarding in execution
and with sympathy with the subject.
www.viet-tran.blogspot.com

Johanna Pikver
Johanna has the desire to pencil sketch
small cute furry animals we all like
cute furry animals. This is a winner in
the studio and at home at the moment.

Eley Kishimoto has been working with a number

of young illustrators to uncover new ways that
illustration can interact with its creative
processes. Mark Eleys nominations for this
article come from this project. I am trying
to understand the process of the illustrative
creative practice and how we can be open to
alternative approaches to extend our work and
creatively collaborate, he says. I have
worked closely with several illustrators,
each with a unique and independent identity,
and tailored briefs to embrace their best
qualities and request that they produce work
with Eley Kishimoto in mind.
l
te
i Pa
nk
Ja

Special Report Fashion 58

 an
Tr
et
Vi

Jo
ha
nn
a
Pi
kv
er

Special Report Fashion 59

Progressive House
The elusive Mr Margiela never speaks to the press but JASoN JULES
got the next best thing when he interviewed Kaat Debo, curator of
the exhibition about Maison Martin Margiela now on show in London.
Twenty years after Margielas first collection, we discover the key to
his DIy attitude and how he rocked the fashion system.

Sometimes things become glaringly obvious by virtue of their
absence; they acquire an importance all of their own simply
because theyre not where you think they should be. Absence
has played a key factor in our enduring fascination with Martin
Margiela. For over twenty years the elusive one has held our
interest and curiosity not only by creating groundbreaking
collections but also by being habitually unavailable for
comment. Everyone knows he doesnt do interviews, everyone
knows hes maintained a healthy distance between himself and
photographers and has instructed his team (the Maison) to use
the we word, not the me word in all public statements. In fact,
since his first catwalk collection back in 1988, what he doesnt
do has often threatened to overshadow our knowledge of
what he actually does do. Margielas almost wordless
departure from his eponymous fashion house after his SS09
twentieth anniversary show caused a stir in fashion circles but
it has been (almost) business as usual at the Maison, and
barely a peep from Margiela.
Maybe thats why Somerset houses current exhibition
about Maison Martin Margiela, curated by Kaat Debo, director
of the Fashion Museum Antwerp, and designed by Bob
verhelst (on its third outing in almost as many years and as
many cities), is so significant; itll give us all a chance to see
first hand, with no strings, no price tags and no rumour-fed
misinformation, what really makes Maison Martin Margielas
work so important. And, more interestingly since we cant
ask him directly maybe this exhibition will afford us new
insights into what makes MM himself tick.
The great thing about this show is that it also gives
the fashion agnostics among us the chance to ask the
difficult questions; the weird curveball questions that
only the non-believer would have the courage (or lack of
respect) to ponder.
There is, of course, no doubt that people love Margielas
clothes; there are those who will see this show as a kind
of pop-up shrine. Whereas most successful fashion designers
have their fans the loyal followers who adore and must
have something from each collection MMM aficionados
seem to have a deeper affection and a more profound
appreciation of the masters work. As Debo explains,
That was really the big challenge, because they [Maison
Martin Margiela] have such a loyal following diehard fans.
I wanted it to be something that was exciting for them but
I also wanted to make an exhibition that was understandable
for someone who has never heard of the Maison.
What you get as you walk through the exhibition is
a gradual unfolding of the Maisons ideas and themes
brought to life in a way that is reminiscent of a fantastical
zoological exhibition. Trompe loeil, replicas, tabi shoes,
oversize coats, trench coats, pieces from different seasons
from the past two decades are all collected together as
different species of the same genus. Its not like your
traditional retrospective where you show collection by
collection, says Debo. Its more about the clothes
themselves and the themes of the house, which they have
been reworking over and over for the past twenty years.

This page Wig jacket

by Marina Faust for
Maison Martin Margiela

Opposite page
Trompe loeil door by
Julien Oppenheim for
Maison Martin Margiela

Special Report Fashion 60

Special Report Fashion 61
Special Report Fashion 62
 Margiela commented to Debo about his work:
Its just clothesjust garments and clothes, and you
get the feeling that this simple statement is a real insight
into the approach of the Maison to its craft. The fundamentals
of how we dress ourselves are the over-arching theme.
Just clothes they may be, but theres no denying that
through Margielas work we have been offered a thoughtful
response to garments as simple and ubiquitous as the white
shirt. Partly this is fuelled by the Maisons collection of old,
found items of clothing, which are recycled into couture
pieces. They really uses their archive as a working tool,
Debo says of the Maison. Its very different to how we keep
our archive at the museumour archive we try to keep for
eternityMaison Margiela uses theirs in a totally different
way. They take out garments, take them apart for the patterns
and then rework them: its really a living archive.
Through this process the spirit of a garment is
revitalised by the attention it is given, first by the atelier
and, second, by the wearer. When it comes to fashion,
this idea is, of course, entirely counter to todays received
logic; in fact, it resonates more with ideas in architecture
and typography. It is this approach that also informs the
Maisons choice of space. From workshop to store, each
space has a history prior to the Maisons arrival and, whatever
it might be, the history of the building and its occupants is
intentionally restored and reimagined by the Maisons own
occupation. Each store is very individual, says Debo.
Its not like one store is reproduced in Milan, in Tokyo,
in London: each store is a new concept. Its much more
than just painting the walls white.
And so, not surprisingly, what becomes evident
when walking through this re-visioned space in Somerset
house, with its assemblage of species, is that youre
not only witnessing an arsenal of ideas made physical
through clothes, shoes, invitations, and video, but also
watching the dismantling of a much larger systemthe
fashion system itself.
Debo agrees: I think, yes, part of what MMM [Maison
Martin Margiela] does exposes the fashion system, like its
extreme focus on things like innovation, constantly coming up
with the newest of the new every season. After ten seasons
Margela said: Im a little bit fed up with the rhythm, I dont want
to design a single new garment. So his team went through the
previous ten seasons and selected the strongest items and
reproduced them in different shades of grey and they sold it as
a full collection. They presented it on mannequins that had the
season stamped on the necks beautiful graphicsand it sold
as a full collection. They were the first to do it. Maybe it wasnt
a master plan, maybe it was a bit nave given the commercial
context, but they dared to do thatand it worked.
Deconstruction, deconstruction, deconstruction. The
word is so readily used to describe the work of the Maison that
its meaning is often lost. Some would have us believe that the
roots of the Maison and the word lie solely in the work of
Japanese designer yoji yamamoto, but that would be to ignore
the references to Situationism, to Brechts Theatre of Alienation
and, of course, the Absurd, all of which are so evident in its
work. But that doesnt mean the clothes become unwearable
function is essential here; something in itself subversive in
todays art/fashion interface. The nice thing for me about the
Maison is that the concept never overpowers the design, says
Debo. Theres a great balance between the well-made
garment and the concept. Nowadays you see a lot of
designers coming up with these peculiar conceptual fashion
shows and what I see in the shop is not what I saw on the
catwalkso they cant distill the essential translation from a
commercial collection into consumer reality. What you see on
the catwalk with the Maison is what you see in stores.
Demonstrating the realism of Margielas garments
has become a feature of the exhibition. For each venue we
look for a new customer with a big Margiela wardrobe, says
Debo, and you see how people can wear quite extreme
garments and how they wear it on a daily basis through a
lifesize video projection.

For each venue we find customer with a big

Margiela wardrobe, and you see how people
Installation for
20: The Exhibition
can wear quite extreme garments on a daily
in Antwerp by
Joerg Koopman basis through a lifesize video projection.

Special Report Fashion 63

In each collection youll find the classic,
iconic items of Western fashion like the white
blouse, the jean, tuxedo jacket. Before you
deconstruct the garment you need to know
how its constructed and a lot of students
of design forget that.
Given the Maisons high standards and creative rigour, to
these guys deconstruction is an ongoing process, a means of
dialoguea playful but incisive interruptionthrowing
awkward curveball questions into an otherwise very superficial
conversation. Despite what the fashion media might like to tell
us, these questions are relevant not just to the fashion-
industry insider and they dont refer just to Margielas world
alone. No way: its actually as if theyre voicing doubts and
asking questions that only true outsiders might voice, a kind of
conspiratorial double-take that brings us and our experiences
inside the otherwise exclusive world of fashion design.
The perennial body-image issues that the fashion
industry literally embodies are an area that Debo identifies as
a target of Margielas. There are different aesthetics,
different body images and each designer presents a different
body image. It [fashion] is about bodies and how they fit into a
garment and I think Margiela often questions the standardised
or the ideal body through his oversized collections, and with
his reproduction of dolls, for example. Like the AIDS T-shirt
the Maison makes: it works with this idea that people cant
read the text when you wear itso the idea is that you start
a communication about AIDS and hIv where one person asks
another: hey, what you wearing, whats the text? And you
have to explain: Well, it actually says... Its a funny, nice idea
about a very serious subject and a way of creating
conversation around it in real situations, Debo explains.
In the same way that a garment as simple as a T-shirt
becomes a message to be deciphered as well as a thing to
wear, every aspect of Margielas designs involves some
willingness to participate on the behalf of the wearer. This
Margielanessan inveigling, somewhat demanding attitude to
the exchange between the Maison and its consumers
appears in every part of its output. Debo also sought to
replicate it in the show. Theres a reason why I asked Bob
[verhelst] to design the show, she says. Bob worked for
eight years with Martin and a lot of concepts he created
together with the Maisonso he actually breathes the
atmosphere of the Maison. you can actually see it in his own
worksome of the traces of this way of working. It has a lot to
do with the Do-It-yourself strategy which the Maison began
doing twenty years ago: one of the reasons was because it
just didnt have any budget.
That DIy approach has been integral to the formation
of the MMM brand, or anti-brand as it has been called.
To work in that [DIy] way, says Debo, creates enormous
freedom. For example, one of the Maisons earliest invitations
Special Report Fashion
is just a letter written on an olivetti typewriter signed by all
members of the Maison. And then they had these ads that
were published in a free magazine in Parisit was probably
super-cheap to have these little ads announcing their show.
[After they were published] they just picked up five hundred of
these magazines announcing their show, ripped out the page
and marked the ad with a red marker and sent those as
invitationsa great concept and its totally DIy in nature.
DIy as an act of rebellion, of insurgence, gained real
currency through punkin fact, its one of the movements
most potent legacies. Its difficult to imagine that, aged twenty
in 1977 (a year younger than John Lydon), Margiela was
unaffected by this concept and its liberating approach to
creativity. From the recycling of pieces, the appropriately
named Destroy process, the artificiality of trompe loeil, the
street casting and the use of unconventional locations, DIy
runs through the veins of the Maison in a way which few of its
aficionados may care to mention, but becomes more than
evident through this truly insightful exhibition.
Perhaps what you see happening in the work of Maison
Martin Margiela is a perpetual push and pull, a kind of love/
hate relationship that is at once trying to prize something as
well as dispel it. After all, the Maison is a hub of creativity and
craftsmanship. you have these very concept garments, says
Debo, but in each collection youll also find the perfect
trench coatthe classic, iconic items of Western fashion like
the white blouse, like the jean, tuxedo jacket. Before you
deconstruct the garment you need to know how its
constructed and a lot of students of design forget that. And
Margiela is a great tailor. I think he also proved it in his work
for hermsfor me that was about pure luxury. That was not
about decoration, it was about stripping down to the essence.
In some ways Martin Margiela is like the little boy
standing on his fathers shoulders above the throng
announcing that the emperor has no clothes and then
disappearing back into the crowd. Sure, he plays with notions
of anonymity and has acquired a kind of public profile by
proxy, but one cant help but feel from this exhibition that one
reason he has absented himself from a world he (sometimes)
obviously loves is because theres a part of him that simply
doesnt like it. And that is undoubtedly a good thing.
The exhibition is at Somerset House
until 5 September 2010.
www.somersethouse.org.uk
64
01 Elastic jacket by
Marina Faust for
Maison Martin Margiela

02 Dfil collection
AW10 by Giovanni Giannoni

03 Installation for
20: The Exhibition in
Antwep by Ronald Stoops

04 Tabi shoes by
Tatsuya Kitayama for
Maison Martin Margiela

05 Installation
for 20: The Exhibition
in Antwerp by
Joerg Koopman

All images courtesy

of Maison Martin Margiela

www.maisonmartinmargiela.com

Special Report Fashion 65

Werk It
The latest issue of WERK (No. 17) is a beautifully crafted homage
to British fashion twosome Eley Kishimoto. To mark this amazing
collaboration, MARK ELEy and ThESEUS ChANfounder and editor
of WERKinterviewed each other exclusively for Grafik.

MARK ELEY From your personal perspective, what was it
about us that made youdedicate issue 17 of WERK
magazine to Eley Kishimoto?
THESEUS CHAN Collaborations with artists and
designers are often chance meetings. They come in the
form of encounters and introductions. EK is no different.
We met in Singapore through Alison Harley (WERK No. 16)
and thats how I got to know you. This way of working
means that every issue is significant in that it documents
our journey with regard to our publication.
ME Eley Kishimoto holds WERK in very high esteem; both the
integrity of the product and yourself. Can you let me know if
you have a motif/plan/manifesto in creating and building upon
thisreputation?
TC Thank you, Mark. Those are really kind words and
I am uplifted. Letting the work speak for itself is paramount
for me and this also involves working in a manner that is
true in intention, creatively pure and ethical. There is a constant
reminder to myself to be bold in creation and listen to my
inner voice.
ME What areas of work and practice other than the WERK
publication and the organisation of the Comme des Garons
Guerrilla Store in Singapore are you involved in?
TC The Guerrilla Store is already closed. We have very good
clients thatI work with Club 21, on Pedder in hong Kong,
Tangs. I am very muchoccupied with them in their projects.
ME What does Singapore mean to you, and how does this
affect your work?
TC Singapore is where I was born and it provides an
excellent setting for family and education. But you need to
know how to work within this system to get the best of what it
can offer. There are many supportsand grants from the
government for design and the arts. But inspiration is not
included. At this moment, Singaporeans are still not as design/
artistically competent compared to other established areas of
infrastructure like governance, commerce, science, technology
and business. often I see myself reacting to this system and
my work often is a result of that.
ME What do you have in the pipeline, and what are your
dreams for the future?
TC The next issue of WERK (No. 18) is dedicated to Keiichi
Tanaami, the Japanese psychedelic visual master. We have with
us his box of treasures the original drawings, sketches and
study of his work through the years. The artists holy grail. We
are trying to do something with it. My dream is to finish my life
well in all areas family, design and music. It is generally not
known that I love blues music. I hope to dedicate more time in
the future to playing and learning that sort of music, especially
country/delta blues.
ME If we could arrange a dinner date together, what
situation would be your ideal, and what would be on the menu?
TC Maybe in some juke joint in hazlehurst, Mississippi Delta.
We will serve up fried chicken, catfish and shrimp with a side
helping of you on da harp and me on da guitar.
THESEUS CHAN Are we alone in this universe?
MARK ELEY Yes, I think so. We bump into each other
every so often; to try and understand what its all about,
but not to much effect. But its not as bad as it sounds.
TC What is/are your nest egg/s in life?
ME My childrens well being.
TC In the process of working with Wakako [Kishimoto], how
do you resolve differences?
ME Wakako normally wins, but in general she is always right,
and Im happy to deal with that.
TC What is your motivation with all these school and
university engagements and projects you are involved in?
What do you hope to achieve?
ME I live within a world thats getting smaller. I find it
interesting to be aware of the global creative education system
and the creative output of these schools. I am always on the
search for inspiration and motivation, and I think I might
possibly find it there. I believe that fresh creative minds
interpretation of society, through creative media, may help me
better understand myself and the world in which we live.
TC With all the accolades and recognition that you and Eley
Kishimoto have achieved so far, comparatively how much do
you think you have actually progressed?
ME I am not really sure. We have built an archive and made
many friends over eighteen years. It does feel like we have
come a long way, but I think we are just a component of a
particular moment in history. I do not know how progressive
that really is.
TC If you had one question for Mr Levi Strauss
(yes, the man himself), what would it be?
ME I bet you were glad to have met Jacob Davis?
Four covers of
WERK No. 17: Eley Kishimoto,
showing unique
fabric bindingseach
of the 1000 editions
has original fabric
samples for its cover

Special Report Fashion 66

Special Report Fashion 67
View
72 Logoform Public Image Limited by Wayne Daly 74 Letterform
Lowercase rs by MARIAN BANTJES 76 Mag Watch Little Joe
by Michael BojkowskI 78 Bookshelf Essentials Coming of Age
by HUGO 80 Viewpoint Who is your fashion alter ego?
View Logoform

View Logoform 72
 Formed by John Lydon in 1978, mere months after Innovatively packaged in a 12-inch film reel

by Wayne Daly
Public Image Limited

& John Lydon

Designed by Dennis Morris
his acrimonious split from the Sex Pistols, Public
Image Limited was a very different prospect from
the Pistols immediate surge of punk noise. With
Lydon denouncing his former band as old-fashioned,
rehashed rock-and-roll, PiL established itself almost
immediately as one of the foremost acts to emerge
in the post-punk landscape, incorporating influences
as diverse as Krautrock, disco, African tribal music,
dub reggae and ambient synth, to name just some.
Self-consciously pitching itself as a pseudo-
corporation and multi-faceted communications
company, PiL set out to demystify and subvert rock
music industry tropes, and in doing so attempted
(ultimately unsuccessfully) to operate as a manager-
free, democratic unit, emphasising the role of not
just the four band members, but also producers,
engineers, video directors and numerous other
associates. One of these PiL Corp members was
Dennis Morris, a well-known music photographer
and close friend of Lydons from
his Pistols days. Morriss activities in PiL rapidly
extended beyond band photographer, and he
became responsible for the bands visual identity.
Nowhere was this role more successfully realised
than with Metal Box, the bands much-lauded
second album, released in 1979.
canister, the album saw the introduction of the
company logo, designed by Morris in collaboration
with Lydon. Ceremoniously stamped on the front
of the off-the-shelf matt-grey canisters (at great
cost to PiLs label, Virgin, and to the band itself),
the logo debuted as a stark, uncompromising
statement of intent. The band name as acronym
also affirmed PiLs then-defiance about doing the
rock star thing, which Lydon derisively considered
a condescending attitude of playing for the kids.
Contrarily opaque and detached, this was
unabashed branding (albeit tongue half in cheek),
troubling to authenticity-obsessed punks and
anti-capitalist hippies alike.
And while the aspirin motif might, at face value,
seem like a poor pun it perfectly articulated what
was on offer, proposing the restorative properites of
the bands work, a cure to the perceived redundancy
and burn-out routine of punk: PiL as remedy.

Above Unofficial
variants of PiL logo

Previous page
Gig poster, Maryland,
USA, 1982

View Logoform 73
View Letterform

View Letterform 74
 I detest lowercase r. Its not the only letterform

by MARIAN BANTJES
Lowercase rs
Ive struggled with, but it is the one which gives me
the most grief. It is unbalanced and awkward, and
most of the time it looks incomplete. In a sans, it
often looks as though an n has been cut in half. The
ear of the r looks more like a tongue a flaccid,
useless tongue, hanging off one side of the letter.
Type designers obviously also struggle with this
awkward form. They sometimes tuck the tongue in
as close to the body as they can; they add shapes
to the tongueto no availa lacrimal terminal in
fact makes it worse. Perhaps extending the serifs to
the extreme can help keep it from falling over.
In the italics, they have more luck: slicing it
from the top opens it up like a y and creates a
little more balance. There are rare occasions when
the designer succeeds in not only redeeming the r
but making it a thing of beauty: Jonathan Hoeflers
Acropolis Italic is one, where he has abstracted
the r to such an extent that it becomes a wholly
new form; Doyald Youngs Home Run Script is
another, where he has taken the style of a script r
(as in Kunstler) and boldly severed it from the stem.
Astounding! And what a result!
It was Young, actually, who taught me how to
make a script r. You take the weight off the stem
on the left, and put it instead on the stroke coming
down from the tongue. In this way the tongue
disappears into a loadbearing stroke, the r grows a
proper ear at top left, and balance and propriety are
restored. I am still trying to work this concept back
into a roman letterform, but until then, I detested the
lowercase r.

rs from top left to bottom right

Univers, Gill Sans, Sansa, Auto 2
ITC New Baskerville, ITC Bodoni, Archer, Absara
ITC New Baskerville Italic, ITC Bodoni Italic, Archer
Italic, Absara Italic
Acropolis Black Italic, Kunstler Script,
Home Run Script, hand-drawn

View Letterform 75
View Mag Watch

View Mag Watch 76

 by MIChAEL BoJKoWSKI
Little Joe and the Newsprint Avalanche
Since reviewing a handful of Newspaper Club and
newsprint projects way back in Grafik 177 there
has been an avalanche of similar projects flapping
about the UK. The general quality of both the design
and the content has been very impressive. From
the premier issue of Unit Editions U:D/R series, to
proper indie titles such as Eight:48, to blog spin-
offs such as Jeremy Leslies Magculture Paper
newsprint continues in rude health.
Returning to London after a year away, I was
swamped by newsprint publicationsI was carting
back armfuls of the things every time I left the
house. A rather tatty stack of em started building
up in the living room and then proceeded to age
rather disgracefully before my very eyes. hence
the key problem with this current oversaturation
of newsprintit simply doesnt last. Newspapers
were never meant to be collectable. They are a
cheap and easy way to get information out and
once that info is consumed their lifespan comes to
an end. Sam Ashbys radical lo-fi queer film culture
magazine Little Joe, however, may offer an attractive
alternative for independent publishers.
In seeking a low-budget method of print
production with a unique personality he settled
on Risography for the premier issue of Little Joe.
Renewed interest in Risograph printing has been
steadily growing over the past few years, from
Stuart Geddess A Small Press to hugh Frosts
Landfill project. This is the first time Ive noticed
an entire publication produced using these
screenprint / photocopier hybrids.
View Mag Watch
The effect is pretty special. The majority of
Little Joe is in two colours with splashes of full-
colour imagery sprinkled throughout (with the
added vibrancy of a fluorescent pink thrown into
the mix). Text appears a little rough around the
edges, which suits the pulpy tone of the typography
used. headings are nabbed directly from, or allude
to, crudely printed original cinema schedules from
a time pre-internet.
The coarse screen work evident in Little Joes
imagery plays up to the Risographs lo-fi look and
feel as well has cleverly disguising any pics of a
highly dubious resolution (such as screen shots of
impossibly obscure films and JPEGs purloined from
naked celebrities sites) that were necessary to add
the unique brand of lurid spice the mag holds dear.
overall, this is a promising debut for an indie
title that has a well-defined stance (helped in large
part by Mr Ashbys recent career in film poster
design) and plies the editorial designers tools of
the trade (such as paper stock and print production
techniques) to seamlessly integrate design with
content. But I guess thats what you get when
designers work as editors.
www.littlejoemagazine.com
www.iamsamashby.com
77
View Bookshelf Essentials

View Bookshelf Essentials 78

 Originally 28
Photographs by Will McBride
Published by Aperture
by hUGo
Coming of Age
Trying times, these. In terms of really living or just
surviving, survival mode seems to be taking the
lead for many of us. Fast-forward and most of us
will have to work much harder, and probably under
increasingly difficult and trying circumstances, more
and more often in the future. And for much longer,
too. So, what to do? I would say, of course, work
harder. But just working in extremis for too long
might destroy you or your life, so you need some
other kit for success in the life battle ahead. you
should definitely buck up your mental and physical
strengths in whatever ways work for you some
form of Spartan Buddha, at least for me. Most
importantly, perhaps, you need to live well. I cant
offer much guidance today on the work harder
ethic or your general well-being regime, but in the
other saving grace we have an inspiring guide in the
form of a magical photography bookComing of
Age by Will McBride.
Will McBride built a photographic career
chronicling youth and young adulthood. he explored
the wonders and joys, traumas and uncertainties
of that age. The magic of youth is the reason we
are looking at this book this month. For it is in
retaining or recapturing some of that raw and vital
energy, some of that wide-eyed openness and
optimism, that we find the magic in our own age and
life. Just as in design we often speak of looking for
something fresh, an even greater challenge is to
find and keep fresh in ourselves. Transitions and
changes in our work or life do not necessarily date
us or our work, but the fact that often they do can
be a result of us failing to physically and spiritually
re-tool as we go alongthe sense of freedom or
the feelings of pure joy we once felt in living and
working get lost along the way. or maybe not lost,
but thrown away. We throw away much of what we
had as clear bright new stars in life by situations of
choice getting the better of us, taking on too much,
perhaps too early, staying with the wrong people in
the wrong place for too long, and so on and so forth,
down the long list of all the possible downers in life.
Compromises, sometimes the cure but oftenthe
poison, lead us from life to half-lives.
View Bookshelf Essentials
My life has ups and downs, and sometimes
extreme ups and downs. When the downs are in
the lead and I feel in a half-life, and my usual bag
of tricks for living well and staying happy is not to
hand, I take a look at this book. I always open up to
these two pictures (opposite page). They work best
as a pair, and like all good couples, they explain one
another. They also explain something to me. The
one on the left reminds me of how I want to feel. The
one on the right reminds me of how I want to live. I
consider the one on the left to be one of the finest
nude photographs ever taken. The one on the right
one of the better pictures of how to live. They have
worked magic on me from the moment I first saw
them, and they continue to do so today. Whenever
I look at these pictures Im reminded of the vast
possibilities in life to be open, at ease, free, sexy
and together. And Im also reminded that most of
the best things in life are inexpensive and simple.
Being with the right person on a beautiful summers
day doesnt cost a sou and is difficult to better by
any standardbut only if youre tooled to see things
that way.
obviously, these days I dont have the
whole summer off. And it is a struggle to forget
what commitments I have, even on days when I
should. But I consider my work and commitments
appropriate to my life now, and my joys and paths of
happiness are relative to my age.
My re-tooling has changed over the years.
Some of the perennial ways remain, and some
things that were nascent or under-observed in
the past are now primary. New ways of living and
thinking are balanced by an exodus of ways that no
longer work. Crucially, nowadays I rely on friends
and family, good food and wine, music, work and
projects of personal value, a bit of physical this and
that, and time away that really inspires. And good
books. have a look at Coming of Age and youll see
what I mean. Aside from my inspiring couple, the
book is filled with work of transcendent beauty and
heartfelt pathos, and there is one set of pictures
from a 1960s performance piece (below) that has
more relevance today than could ever have been
imagined when it was created. But whatever you do,
find a book that works some kind of magic on you.
youll need it on those days when the other tools are
not to hand and survival mode has kicked in and the
downer people are at the door. Find and develop
the tools youll need to fight for the life you should
live. you only have one life. Look at your life as a gift,
something of the greatest value perpetually acting
on this as well as believing it is the re-tooling.
Find ways of staying happy and healthy,
and enjoying your life and your work. Chances are,
youll live a long time. And chances are, youll be
working a long time too. So tool up, get on the road
and take off
79
View viewpoint
Who is your fashion alter ego?

EvA KELLENBERGER

My alter ego would be Mowgli from The Jungle

Bookraised by wolves in downtown Zrich,
spending my time in the forests surrounded by
nature (and some tasteful urban architecture). I do
look a bit like Mowgli, although I dont dress in just
orangey-red underpants. So maybe my fashion alter
ego is more a girl scout in the 80s who has been let
loose in a charity shop that happens to have some
APC and Isabel Marant clothes in itstill with an
urge to look natural and wear camouflage in nature
to keep away the terrible Shere Khan and Kaa the
snake, an ever-present threat in Portobello Road.
www.kellenberger-white.com
SUSANNA EDWARDS
RyAN JoNES
My fashion alter ego has only appeared in
public once, back in 97. he was whisked over to
Parisalong with other designers from Me Company,
Tomato and visionaire to model Comme des
Garons S/S 98 menswear collection. Wearing
beautifully cut suits, knitwear and not so beautiful
yellow and red slippers, he walked out in front of
buyers, fashionistas, celebrities and press. A few
hours later, back in the real world, I was thinking
when my alter ego would be unleashed again. hes
not been back since. These days its more Clarkson
than Kawakubo.

ryan_jones@me.com

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (JD/DC)also known

as the king of the cartoon, produces pop-inspired
design influenced by art, music, comic strips,
cartoons and contemporary figures. he is maybe not
quite an alter ego but I like his work very much. I first
saw his giant American Express credit card dress
on Conduit Street around a year ago; bold, fresh
and with humour, his work really made me smile. he
is currently working on a stained-glass creation for
Ms Gaga and has a series of windows at Selfridges
titled Encounter of the 5th Kind. JD/DC has said that
he feels like an alien on the fashion scene. I think it
is healthy to feel outside or on the periphery. I have
always felt like that with the design world.
www.susannaedwards.com
hAMISh MAKGILL
I like to think I dress well, but I dont collect,
follow or wear any particular label or designers
collectionsI dont really have a defining look.My
PIERS RoBERTS
The joy of creating fashion is under threat
from the pressures of profit-making. Marketing
meetings, dissection of brand identity, streamlining
production, reducing costs at all cost in this
seasonal churn, is there still time for a passion to
design great clothes? With customers enticed into
believing brand is the primary determiner of quality,
awareness of brand becomes the overriding target
of hungry fashion houses. In abandoning traditional
measures of qualitymaterial, cut and craftwe
lose respect for these peoples skills. They and
these will be forgotten. Whats left when industry
replaces poetry? Do we all become servants of
the machine?
www.designersblock.org.uk

father was a well-turned-out English gentleman, with

an admirable collection of Savile Row suits. I would
happily follow in his footsteps, but I have always felt
that as a creative part of the trust that I gain from
our clients would be eroded if I were to be one of
the suits in a meetingunless I added spats and
an ivory cane. So I would like to think that my alter
ego would be someone understated but refined
(Im being generous)perhaps Agns B or John
Smedley.

www.studiomakgill.com

View viewpoint 80
 84 Exhibition Magnificent Maps reviewed by Max Leonard 88 Six Books
The latest design books under fire 90 Exhibition Exposure reviewed by Kerry
William Purcel 92 Book Puffin by Design reviewed by Richard Hogg

Review
96 Festival Graphic Design Festival Breda 2010 reviewed by Robert Urquhart
Review Exhibition

Review Exhibition 84

Opposite page Map of Nowhere,
by Grayson Perry,
152 x 113cm, etching, 2008
This page Comic Map of
the Political Situation
in 1880, by Fred W. Rose,
64 x 51cm, lithograph, 1880
Review Exhibition
Magnificent Maps: I am told there are people who do
Power, Propaganda and not care for maps, and I find it hard
Art, British Library to believe, wrote Robert Louis
Until 19 September 2010 Stephenson, recalling the moment
Reviewed by MAx LEoNARD he began to conjure his most
famous story. As I pored upon my
map of Treasure Island, he continues, the future characters of the
book began to appear there visibly among imaginary woods; and
their brown faces and bright weapons peeked out upon me from
unexpected quarters, as they passed to and fro, fighting and
hunting treasure, on these few square inches of flat projection.
Konrad Fabers birds-eye view of the siege of Frankfurt
from 1552, at the British Librarys exhibition of treasures
from its cartographic collection, gives just this impression.
It is teeming with life: horses gallop, soldiers charge and
cannons blaze, their shot suspended in mid-air; townsfolk
frozen in place, unaware, as they go about their business
within the citys fortified walls. At the other extreme, a map
of London produced after the Great Fire of 1666
deliberately effaces all signs of humanity, sanitising the city
and suppressing the numerous workhouses, jails and open
sewers from the idealised plan of ordered reconstruction.
Just two examples on display of how different mapmakers
have chosen to represent and schematise the world.
Seeing so many maps side by side, the earliest made in 2000 BC, brings
these embedded assumptions and prejudices into sharp relief. Projection
is the right word: even the least fanciful, most scientific map involves a leap
of imagination and a falsification of perspective, an effort to rise above the
individual perspective to a more god-like or at least birds-eye view.
Maps are rarely simply about geography. one of the earliest on display,
a facsimile of herefords medieval mappa mundi, is a sort of graphic
encyclopaedia of all creation, including all kinds of information we wouldnt
now think proper to put on a map. oriented with the east uppermost, it
features the Garden of Eden and is, even when tilting your head 90 degrees,
scarcely recognisable. yet if it does get its coastlines wrong, its not the
makers craft thats at fault: it is mapping gaps in the contemporary
knowledge of the earth. To look at the hereford map is to stare at the
murky limits of the world, limits illuminated by a dark, visionary imagination.
Fantastic creatures sea monsters, centaurs and weird humanoids using
their single giant foot as a sunshade inhabit the peripheries; hieronymus
Bosch suddenly seems less of a fantasist. It maps the medieval psyche,
a process echoed and honoured by Grayson Perry in his Map of Nowhere
(2008), also on display.
After the Renaissance, and as European colonialism spread
across the globe, the maps become more recognisable, and
more concerned with controlling and partitioning the world
than illustrating its chaos. For the seafaring Dutch, who
emerged as the periods finest cartographers, maps of overseas
holdings were a way of visualising value. Most merchants and
aristocrats never made the treacherous journey to see their
lands, so maps were proof that the goose laying the golden
eggs really existed, empirical evidence of the provenance of
their empires goods and wealth. A sense of ownership and
entitlement is palpable. This is my playground is the implicit
message of a beautifully drawn plan of King George IIIs hunting
grounds in Germany, and its easy to draw the same conclusion
about the huge world maps that hung in European palaces:
they are the site of a giant game of Risk played out in real time
and space for the nobilitys entertainment.
85
Unsurprisingly, there was a certain amount of willy-waving inherent in
producing a map or atlas. My colony is bigger than yours, my ships are
faster, and my craftsmen more skilled. The atlases in particular are
sumptuously bound and embellished with gold leaf, evidence of the
wealth and the might of those that commissioned them. As such, the
exhibition holds some salutary lessons about favour and patronagein
modern parlance, how to win business and keep clients onside. Are you
dealing with a monstrous ego and an impossible brief? Then why not
portray your client as the god Neptune, and place him astride a sea
serpent coursing through the southern ocean? It kept King Philip II of
Spain happy and theres no reason to think it wouldnt work today.

While the Dutch maps show capitalisms conquest of the

earth, the fascinating political propagandist maps from
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries dramatise its
ideological wars with Communism and, later, Nazism. In
one, the tsarist Russian octopus is crushing Bulgaria,
Finland and Turkey in its grasp, while hungary, depicted
as a volatile Magyar warrior, is restrained from attacking
and Italya young maidenlooks on in horror. In another,
a French collaborationist poster from World War II, a
psychotic, cigar-chomping Churchill (again an octopus)
seizes hold of Africa. These later maps employ the
advantages of mass mechanical reproduction explicitly to
sway mass opinion and, throughout the exhibition, the
command of materials and processesvellum, silk,
tapestry; illustration, woodcut, lithographyis incredible, This page
Be on Your Guard,
the painstaking care well balanced against both the
by Dmitri Moor, 103 x 71cm,
commercial and creative imperatives of the work. The lithograph, 1921
imagination poured into each and every one is striking.
Tea Revives the World,
by MacDonald Gill,
Above all, however, these maps pay testament to the human 75 x 153cm, lithograph, 1940
inability to leave a blank space, an inability that can be seen
Opposite
both in the colonial impulse and the cartographers craft. If
Confiance ses amputations
a continent is unknown, then go forth and tame it: fill in the se poursuivant, anonymous,
blanks. And if, once that map is drawn, gaps remain, in the 123 x 84cm, lithograph
on paper, 1944
deepest oceans or in darkest Peru, then a sea monster, or
a cannibal perhaps, might fit just right.

Review Exhibition 86
Review Exhibition 87
Review Six Books

Review Six Books 88

Modern British Posters:
Paul Rennie clearly
Art, Design knows what hes on
& Communication about when it comes
By Paul Rennie to posters. He has
Published by a rather impressive
Black Dog, 29.95 collection himself,
which formed the
basis of an exhibition titled Modern
British Posters in 2008 at Central
Saint Martins. This book, then, is an
opportunity for Rennie to expand on the
exhibitions narrative, and delve deeper
into his own encyclopaedic knowledge of
the medium. Its rigorously written and
pleasingly straightforward, offering an
interesting perspective on the role of the
poster in the interaction between art,
design and society between 1915 and 1970.
Theres no shortage of actual posters on
display either, but the authors approach
means this is much more interesting than
your average pretty poster-design tome.
Custom Lettering of Fiell, a relatively
the 60s and 70s new publishing house
Edited by Rian Hughes on the block, has
Published by Fiell, made a successful
24.95 dent in the design
book scene with this
chunky doorstopper collection of fonts. The
credentials are good, with Rian Hughes of
Device fonts at the helm, steering both
the edit and the books design. The result
is a pure shot of picture-book pleasure,
with each page crammed full of hand-drawn
lettering (were talking pre-computer-aided
design here, of course). Were treated to
themed selections of titles, headlines
and slogans that conjure up a pulp-fiction,
comic-book Pop world of 60s and 70s print
culture. Gay Girls Need Gay Sandals, Oh,
Sir Timothy or Sinister Cargo, anyone?
Oh yes.
Art for All: British Posters
You can exorcise
for Transport the horrors
Edited by Teri J. Edelstein
of late and
Published by Yale cancelled trains,
University Press, 30.00 leaves on the line
and extortionate
fares with this fantastic book about a
bygone era of rail travel. Even memories
of BRs curling egg and bacon sandwiches
will be driven out. Nostalgia is the
predominant flavour in this book, with
images promoting travel and tourism from
a time when real craftsmanship, fantastic
colour and composition, and visual
wit went into posters. With beautiful
reproductions and several thoughtful
essays, there is something to please every
travel buff, poster aficionado and student
of graphic design here. The perfect
companion for whiling away a few hours on
the rails.
Review Six Books
The Story of Graphic Design
It can be
By Patrick Cramsie interesting to
Published by the British encounter a new
Library, 25.00 perspective on the
history of graphic
design providing the author in question
has got something original to say. This new
release from the British Library, however,
has a distinct whiff of Philip B. Meggs
about it (he of the now-canonical History
of Graphic Design). Even the chapter
structure is suspiciously familiar, but
Cramsies story of graphic design ends ten
years ago have designers done nothing of
note since the beginning of this century?
Its a pity, as the book does seem well
written, but befuddling dense layouts and
predictable image choices hold back what
might otherwise have been an accessible
read. All in all, this seems like a story
weve all heard before.
Art of McSweeneys Its hard not to get
By the Editors a bit carried away
of McSweeneys waxing lyrical over
Published by Tate, this, to be honest
25.00 if youre in any
way acquainted with
McSweeneys (Dave Eggerss self-initiated
publishing venture and magazine), then
youve probably already been seduced
by its amalgamation of literature and
typographic wit. Either that, or you find
it and Eggers totally nauseating. For
those who sit in the former camp, though,
it doesnt get much better than this. The
book is less straightforward than the title
suggests; its more of a behind-the-scenes
look at the principles and processes of
McSweeneys. Of course, its beautifully
designed and includes many of the little
flourishes that Eggerss venture is famous
for alongside unseen illustrations, objects
of inspiration, notes, documents, memos,
scribbles and a running conversational
narrative between the contributors,
including Eggers himself. A treat.
London Burners The latest in a swathe
By Jete Swami of graffiti books to hit
Published by the doormat of Grafik
Prestel, 14.99, Towers is Jete Swamis
new book London Burners.
The book makes a gritty case for real
writers, who arent in it for the cash,
and on paper the book is an appealing
prospect an inside look at a small niche
of writers specifically painting tube trains.
However, despite being billed by the press
release as breathless and enthralling
in reality the book is pedestrian at best,
with little to offer other than some
rambling accounts of painting missions,
rants about the justice system and endless,
badly taken photographs of burners.
89
Review Exhibition
Exposed: Voyeurism, Theres a moral blind spot at the
Surveillance and the Camera heart of photography. It is a blind
Tate Modern spot that was manifest in the
by KERRy WILLIAM PURCELL outpouring of protestations and
demonstrations over the possible
criminalisation of street photography in London recently. It is the very
real issue of whether it is ever legitimate to take a picture of another
personwhether the individual in control of the camera is the state or a
lone photographerwithout the consent of that person? Why is it oK
for an amateur photographer to snap a picture of a bystander, but not
oK for the government to do the same? As Susan Sontag famously
said, there is an aggression implicit in every use of the camera, one
which may presume, intrude, trespass, distort, exploit, and at the
farthest reach of metaphor, assassinate all activities that... can be
conducted from a distance, and with some detachment. It is an
unspoken question that permeates the history of photography, but has
received very little critical discussion.

The wonderful new Tate Modern show

Exposed: voyeurism, Surveillance and the
Camera is the first comprehensive examination
of this subject. Spread across twelve rooms,
the curator Simon Baker (it was originally
conceived by Sandra S. Phillips at the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art) traces the
differing ways in which the camera has been
used to make images surreptitiously and
satisfy the desire to see what is hidden. What
first strikes you about Exposed is that the story
told mirrors very closely the familiar historical
narratives of the medium itself. All the icons
are represented: Paul Martin, Robert Frank,
henri Cartier-Bresson, harry Callahan, Walker
Evans, Weegee etc. It is an elision that reveals
how the questions raised by the exhibition are
often indivisible from the form itself.

Georges Dudognon, Greta

Garbo in the Club St. Germain,
Paris ca. 1950s, gelatin
silver print, San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art,
Members of Foto Forum,
Estate of Georges Dudognon

Review Exhibition 90
 The exhibition is divided into five sections:
The Unseen Photographer, Celebrity and the
Public Gaze, voyeurism & Desire, Witnessing
violence, and Surveillance. As capturing
people unawares was very difficult with the
unwieldy nature of early photographic
equipment, the opening section focuses on
the rare images where photographers were
able to photograph while remaining unnoticed.
To illustrate this, numerous curios are shown in
a cabinet, included a walking cane, shoe and
watch all with hidden cameras built into them.
however, Exposed really comes into its own
with those images we may already be familiar
with, but where we have never questioned the
circumstances in which they were produced.
So, when looking at street shots by Cartier-
Bresson or Callahan, we are compelled to
consider our position as the spectator of
these works. Among these images, the curator
has also chosen images where the subject
has returned the gaze of the photographer.
Looking at these is like being a child and getting
caught with your hand in the biscuit barrel a
sense of surprise, shock and guilt coalesce into
a single moment. yet, such encounters only
acknowledge the moral uncertainties that
permeate the documentary tradition as a whole.

The ongoing dialogue that operates throughout the show is

one that oscillates between the ethics of looking and the
transgressive or taboo acts that photographers have
documented. Among the latter, one of the most surprising
collections of images is that of Japanese photographer Kohei
yoshiyuki. In the series The Park (1971), yoshiyuki
photographed lovers making out in Chuo Park, Shinjuku.
however, the park also attracted groups of men wanting to
stalk the young couples. operating unseen (using a 35mm
camera and an infrared flash bulb), yoshiyuki captured an
assortment of men standing behind bushes, crawling along
the floor or spying from behind a tree. The works are
displayed in a darkened corridor (in the original show
yoshiyuki turned all the gallery lights off and gave the visitors
torches), with the images highlighted by soft pools of light.
The overall effect is unsettling, but also strangely absorbing.

Exposed reveals the unspoken relationships that

permeate many of our photographic encounters. It
reframes the familiar and compels you to question your
culpability as a spectator. It is one of the best exhibitions
I have seen for many years.

Top to Bottom Richard Ross, Isolation Room CBP,

San Ysidro, CA, 2004, chromogenic print, San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, Anonymous Fund Richard Ross

Shizuka Yokomizo, Stranger No. 2, 1999,

chromogenic print, San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee
Fund purchase Shizuka Yokomizo

Jonathan Olley, Golf Five Zero watchtower

(known to the British Army as Borucki Sanger),
Crossmaglen Security Force Base, South Armagh,
1999, gelatin silver bromide print, coutesy
Diemar/Noble Photography, London J.Olley

Review Exhibition 91
Review Publication

Review Publication 92
 Puffin by Design: 70 Years A few weeks ago I
of Imagination 19402010 was in a charity shop
By Phil Baines and came across a
Published by Penguin book called The Little
Reviewed by RIChARD hoGG Grey Men by BB.
This was exciting
because the cover illustration, flaky hand-lettering, weird
colouring and layout were identical to Edward Ardizzones
cover for Stig of the Dump. The Stig cover is a well-known
classic and, like many people, I have loved it for nearly my
whole life, but I always assumed that it was a one-off. Its
idiosyncratic, unique, almost amateurish design captured
my imagination as a small child. Now, over thirty years
later I find that there is another one. Are there any more?
Well, thanks to Phil Baines, I now know that Ardizzone
produced five such covers. They are all fantastic and are
all reproduced in this book.

Puffin by Design is a kind of sister

volume to Phil Bainess previous book
Penguin by Design. It charts the design
and artwork of Penguins childrens
imprint from its beginning during the
Second World War to the present day.

There is so much good stuff here. The strange, slightly

awkward covers that Arthur Ransom designed for his own
books were a revelation to me, as was the madcap
exuberance of Puffins in-house designer Jill McDonald.
Everything is beautifully and sensitively reproduced. It
feels nearly as good-looking at the original books. In
cases where printing was important, you get itlike the
autolithography of the war years. They have a coarseness
that would never be acceptable now, a scruffy, almost
dirty look. Fantastic.

Primarily this is a picture book, but I strongly

recommend reading the introductory notes to
each section. It perhaps doesnt have the
design melodrama of its Penguin counterpart
in that it doesnt have the big stars like
Tschichold and Facetti. But you do get a
sense of the strong personalities driving
Puffin. A continuing theme is the willingness
to shake things up and take calculated risks,
and the importance of good design.

Baines is not uncriticalthroughout most of the book there is

constant nitpicking. But I found this enjoyable. he has a great eye
and the details that he tends to pick up on (a bad crop here, an
awkward composition or inappropriate typeface there) are the
niggles of a real graphic designer. As you go through the book
another strand of criticism is directed towards insensitive attempts
to impose a brand or series identity on groups of books (gift
wrapping as he weirdly calls it). As we move into the 70s and 80s
this practice became increasingly dominant and Baines has little
positive to say about it.

Arthur Ransome
series for Puffin,
various titles 19681971,
cover illustrations
by Arthur Ransome

Review Publication 93

however, in the last chapter, which deals with Puffins more
recent output, I got a sense that Baines was biting his tongue
somewhat. The tone becomes bland and noncommittal, almost
as if he is regurgitating a series of press releases. he recounts
the growing importance of branding and marketing with little
criticism, and gone is his distaste for gift wrapping. Its like he
has given up caring, and when you look at the books from the
most recent period you can see why.
With a few exceptions (notably the work of Tom Sanderson),
the covers of recent Puffin books are very disappointing. By
this I mean they range from dull to shockingly bad. Many of
the recent Puffin covers presented here have a soulless,
high-gloss, overproduced feel akin to bad blockbuster movie
posters. A couple of them even use hollywoods favourite
clich typeface, Trajan. Like movie posters, they leave
nothing to chance. They are aimed squarely at the lowest
common denominator. It is as if a decision has been made
that children have no taste and little imagination.
Even where Puffin is still using classic illustrations
by the likes of quentin Blake and Tove Jansson,
it has managed to make some terrible covers.
For example, the recent Puffin Moomin covers.
how is it possible to take something so naturally,
effortlessly cool and make it so bland? Compare
them to the beautiful Moomin reprints from Drawn
and quarterly or, in fact, to the original Puffin
Moomin books that appear earlier in this book.
Flicking back to the early chapters of this book made me
feel sad and nostalgic. Its not just me either. Walk into the
childrens section of any bookshop and you will be surrounded
by the past. The aforementioned Moomin reprints, the M.
Sasek books, Charlie harper and Maurice Sendak. Even a lot
of the new stuff looks like it could have been designed in the
1950s. It feels like Puffin is swimming against this tide.
Review Book
This page
Make Your Own Zoo, 1945,
illustrated by Trix
Printing, 1948,
illustrated
by Jack Brough
Opposite page
Puppets, 1958,
illustrated by Tony Hart
Noahs Ark, 1960,
illustrated
by John Miles
This is a strange position for Puffin to take
when you think about what Penguin has
been up to lately. If you look at a lot of
Penguin covers from the last few years
(interestingly, since the publication of
Penguin by Design) there is a definite
return to the values of the past. This is not
without its dangers but Penguin has shown
us that you can stand to be a little bit retro
without being sentimental or cosy. It is
ultra-aware of its design heritage, yet not
beholden to it, playing with its history in
innovative and unprecious ways. I dunno,
perhaps Penguin by Design was the
catalyst for all this? Perhaps Puffin by
Design will achieve something similar,
reminding Puffin what it has and what a
massive part good design used to play in
its success.
94
Review Book 95
Review Festival
DecodingGDFB 2010: This was the second
Graphic Design Festival, Breda time that this biannual
830 May 2010 design festival had
Reviewed by RoBERT URqUhART taken place, powered
by the enterprising
and independent creative director Dennis Elbers. And, for a
second outing, the festival had already formed a
sophisticated, critical angle of attack that many other festivals
and institutions could well do to adopt. Under the theme of
Decoding, Elbers wove together a small, but perfectly formed,
route of six main venues and several satellite installations that
brought together international designers to discuss and exhibit
their interpretations of what decoding meant, not just as a data
process but also in a physical and symbolic sense. The result
was a fascinating snapshot of the analogue/digital
environment that we currently inhabit.
Id visited the city last year to write a review of
the Graphic Design Museum. I had been
disappointed with an institution that seemed to
be a rudderless ship laden with all the
expectation of winning the European City of
Culture award for the region in 2018, but with
none of the clear thinking and planning that
would take it to that point. The Graphic Design
Museum still appears to be in a state of flux and
was, surprisingly, not as much of a major player
in the festival as one might have expected. But,
as it turned out, this was not a problem.
The entire festival could be walked in a day and so
I set out, first to the festival hub at the house of
visual Culture in the centre of town. I was greeted by
drawings by crickets and woodlice conceived by
EDhv, an installation that turns bits to atoms by Jeroen
holthuis and a perpetual storytelling apparatus by Julius
von Bismarck and Benjamin Maus that uses patent
drawings from over 22 million references to weave new
visual links between designs. All exciting stuff.
Review Festival
Next, my stroll through the city was
interspersed with poster installations on
electricity substation advertising hoardings,
showcasing the talents of Christopher West,
harmen Liemberg and Lesley Moore, among
others. At the northern tip of the trail,
Electron and KoP arts spaces provided
further group shows that highlighted the role
of analogue output in a digital world with
further poster designs and a paper-folding
exhibition, curated by the book publisher
Gestalten that jarred only slightly with a craft
show that was aesthetically pleasing but the
loosest of all interpretations of its theme.
A late night spent discussing ethics and design
with Dr oliver vodeb led to a late start the next
day at the seminar. It was good to see a fairly full
house for a performance by Roel Wouters and
Laurer Maurer and a heated debate at the hands
of Dr vodeb, who caused consternation in the
audience with a provocative jab at design
aesthetics. he also called for social ethics to be
brought forward in the design process as an
equal critical measure.
Ending on a high with an impassioned
plea from Karsten Schmidt not to
ignore computer coding as a means of
creation, the seminar was an equal
partner to a diverse and thought-
provoking festival. Roll on 2012.
01 Ongoing, by GDV, GDFB 2010
02 Papercut, part of Paperjam, GDFB 2010
03, 06 House For Visual Culture, GDFB 2010
04, 07 Designer Toys XL, by Lulu & Tummie,
illustration by Staynice, GDFB 2010
05 Poster project on display in Breda, GDFB 2010
08 Poster project by Job Wouters, GDFB 2010
01 02
96
 03 05

04

06

07

08

Review Festival 97
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