Greengaged 2009

London Design Festival's sustainable design hub - Greengaged is making a big return for 2009. Co-designed with thomas.matthews and web designer Daniel Howells, I'm pleased to announce the launch of the brand new Greengaged website!

Arts University College Bournemouth

I have just discovered the news that my undergraduate college The Arts Institute at Bournemouth has gained University status and is now The Arts University College Bournemouth, interesting how its name includes both a 'university' and 'college'. This is great news for Bournemouth, congratulations and what a beautifully executed new brand and website!

A View on Harvard GSD

Tank Books- "A View on Harvard GSD is a new publication documenting the work of students and faculty at the Graduate School of Design. More than 350 people submitted pages to the project, which showcases the creativity and diversity of the research conducted there."

This looks and sounds like an incredibly beautiful book. A must have!

Pop-Up Typography

A recent addition to my book collection was a pop-up typography book, ABC3D by French designer Marion Bataille, video shown above; a brilliant exploration of the process of construction and interaction, through the letters of the alphabet.

Each letter is carefully constructed using only paper and minimal colour (red, white and black). Its ability to combine a primitive feel through it's use of materials, with a bold and clever outcome in this book, is what makes this example of work a great resource for reference and inspiration.

Another typographic piece featured on design blog It's Nice That, Alphabeta Concertina, pictured below, follows a similar journey through the alphabet, cutting the letters out from the paper – one of a few variations from Circle Press.

In Three Words

Last weekend saw the graphic design graduates from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, newly named as the Arts University College, move their end of year exhibition in Bournemouth to the D&AD New Blood exhibition in London this week.

Entitled 'In Three Words', each student has identified themselves and their work by describing their individual aptitudes, methods and virtues in three words. The projects are divided into six categories; generative, human observation, identity, language, social issues and user centred.

A fantastic exhibition and collection of work; visit their website, inthreewords, to see more.

Andrey Kawasaki

Illustrator Andrey Kawasaki creates innocent yet erotic images which are all contradictions within themselves. Influenced by both Manga comic and Art Nouveau, Andrey combines her sharp graphic imagery with the natural grain of the wood panels she paints on. Creating this beautiful effect above.

Sara Watson

Student Sara Watson is currently studying for a degree in drawing and image making at the University of Central Lancashire. This amazing photograph illustrates three hours work, spray paint and a recycled car from Recycling Lives. A brilliant, imaginative illusion.

Adam Simpson

Amazing illustration work through out the incredible collection of posters featured on Illustrator/designer Adam Simpsons website.

Johan Prag

Swedish Art Director Johan Prag now living and working in Tokyo, Japan has an incredible collection of stunning typography, photography, Print and Film. Really great Work.

Candice Leick

The beautiful, inspirational work of Minneapolis-based designer Candice Leick was recently brought to my attention. If your in need of some packaging, branding or illustration inspiration then checking out her work is a must.

Kept - Things Don't Have to Be Rubbish

Kept is a new movement celebrating the “stuff” that can be kept in the world, stuff that isn’t rubbish. “Together we will help the people who still design and sell rubbish to embrace the change”.

To get involved, tell your stories and share what “things” you have kept, big or small, by visiting www.kept.it or if you use twitter just add #kept to your tweet! You can also follow project news on Twitter and please join the project on Facebook where we will be raising questions and sharing news, insights and debate.

Recycled Cardboard Macbook Case

Architecture student Alastair Hunter has recycled some cardboard to create this beautifully crafted macbook case! More images here!

I Am Free, Are You?

Working with the team behind London's Affluenza Exhibition last month, graphic designer Chris Clarke produced a magnificent 16 page tabloid for the show.

Printed on 48gsm Ayelsford 100% recycled newsprint, post consumer waste, the tabloid featured information on the team, speakers and events for the week, as well as biographies from the 42 multi-disciplinary exhibitors. Well done Chris.

The Fedrigoni Mountains

British Graphic Designer and Art Director Alex Ostrowski, and Illustrator and Set Maker Hattie Newman have just finished building The Fedrigoni Mountains, an impressive model mountain range, fashioned using Fedrigoni papers.

The pair also commissioned twelve intrepid illustrators to 'explore' the paper slopes and visualise their discoveries on B1 sheets of paper. Each paper peak was peppered with tiny model clues, including a plane, a native village and an abandoned camp. The illustrators elaborated on these landmarks to conjure an imaginary adventure up the mountains.


The exhibition of the mountains and their explorers' artwork opened this week, at Fedrigoni's London showroom (5th Floor, 36-38 Hatton Garden, London), and will be open until April 30th (open weekdays 9:30-17:00).

The Affluenza Exhibition

The Affluenza Exhibition is a multi-disciplinary visual arts exhibition and series of talks and events taking place in Clerkenwell, London from the 19th – 28th March 2009.

In collaboration with the Samaritans, talented photographer Hege Sæbjørnsen is organising ‘Affluenza’… THE exhibition. With an aim to promote “creative self-expression as a powerful tool to develop an understanding of ourselves and the world around us”, an exhibition of works from over thirty international multidisciplinary visual and performing artists, “…aims to inspire an open debate about the destructive impact of consumer values on our emotional well-being and our integrity as human beings.”

For full details about the project visit TheAffluenzaExhibition.org, or the newly launched blog.

Do Good Design

"Do Good Design: How Designers Can Save the World" is a new book authored by David Berman with a foreword by Erik Spiekermann. What a fabulous way to start 2009!

"Design matters, like never before. Designers create so much of what we see, what we use, and what we experience. In this time of unprecedented environmental, social, and economic crises, designers will choose what their young profession will be about: inventing deceptions that encourage overconsumption -- or helping repair the world. Today, everyone is a designer. And the future of civilization is our common design project."

Support the Do Good Design project on FACEBOOK, take the professional social responsibility pledge, view or post Doing Good examples and stories for the microsite on the "Tell Us Your Story" FLICKR group.

Tie Me To Your Favourite Thing

As part of her Douceurs post graduate service designer Lauren Currie (a.k.a RedJotter) took a dozen balloons to a park in Edinburgh and asked people she met to tie them to their favourite thing. Lovely!

Marian Bantjes Designs Practivism Poster

Famed Graphic Designer Marian Bantjes designed this poster for last week's Practivism event, a speaker series talk on Sustainability run by The Society of Graphic Designers/BC Chapter. Guest Speakers included Marc Alt, Brian Dougherty and Eric Karjaluoto who presented their strategies and suggestions for practical activism within a design practice. This poster is a refreshing example that Green graphics don't have to be green.

ColaLife Project Gets Animated

This 30 second animation has been created to support the ColaLife campaign. Support ColaLife by joining the Facebook Group.

Moving Showroom

Swedish furniture giant IKEA converted the Kobe Portliner Monorail into a moving showroom before the opening of a new retail outlet at Port Island in April 09.

Michael Bosanko

Beautiful Light Sculptures created by Photographer Michael Bosanko.

Shapeflow Typeface

A well thought through typeface created my French designer Thibaud Cartigny.

UK Print Design Competition

"Participate in Optimalprints first annual print design contest for professional graphic artists and amateur designers. Create a design for an event card not presently offered by Optimalprint. Entries in this category should employ unique design elements and should be relevant to one or more of the following age groups: Babies, Children, Youth, Adults or Seniors. Design competition categories are Business card, Invitation card, Christmas card.

The grand prize winner will be awarded up to 1000 GBP in prizes.
The top 100 entries will win a T shirt and have their design displayed on our UK website.

All designs must be submitted by 12:00 Noon GMT on November 14, 2008 via online entry form." Visit the website for more information.

Design for Social Change Workshops!

On Friday 21st November, final year and graduate designers will run simultaneous workshops up and down the country, in an exciting stage two of thinkpublic's Real Work Experience! What do designers and graduates need, to be able to use their skills to tackle social issues? What does a movement toward socially responsible design look like to you? If you'd like to attend, sign up on Facebook or email kcandr@gmail.com

Animating the Built Environment through Conversation

Earlier this month, Minimaforms presented their Memory Cloud installation in London's Trafalgar Square. Icon Magazine explained, Memory Cloud set out to "create an interaction between a 5,000-year-old kind of communication – smoke signals – and a new one, SMS."

Kyle Cooper Showreel

Last night the celebrated movie titles designer Kyle Cooper presented his work at D&AD President’s lecture. Via Eye Magazine Blog

StudioMatador

StudioMatador have collaborated with international artists and designers to create a collection of beautiful limited edition notebooks called Unfinished and Unpublished. The collection of notebooks are inspired by the philosophy of Wabi Sabi, 'a celebration of the unconventional and imperfect.' The incomplete nature of the notebooks allow the user to add to the creation, making the unfinished finished.

People's Design Awards - Design Observer

Design Observer has been nominated for The People's Design Awards, part of the National Design Awards from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Please vote here.

Pixelnotes Wallpaper

Created by Sirkka Hammer & Duncan Wilson, Pixelnotes is: "A wallpaper consisting of four layers of varying grey tones on a bright primary backing. Each layer is perforated in a grid format and backed with a tacky adhesive similar to ‘post-it’ notes. Pixelnotes is inspired by the way we work within a space. The walls become functional, an integrated noticeboard that documents our activity within the room. Pixelated formations and shapes develop according to our patterns of use."

The Joy of Not Being Sold Anything!

Sophie Thomas (thomas.matthews) showed this image at Greengaged this week, makes you think twice!

Image: 2008 © Greengaged

What Do You See in 2058?

On Monday evening, London United took a group of Greengaged participants on an inspiring journey to 2058.

Consider it yourself, what does the city of 2058 look like? What sounds are about? Where are the people, and what are they doing? What clothes are people wearing? What emotions do you get? What emotions do you see on others? Are people happy, are they talking to one another? Where can you buy some food? Is there any transport? When you look at the sky, what colour is it? What is the weather like? Post you stories to Greengaged.com

greengaged, the BIG BANG breakfast!

After much anticipation, London Design Festival's sustainable design hub 'Greengaged' kicked off this morning! With over 40 events happening here at the Design Council over the next week, the debate over designs ecological responsibility is sure to take a huge leap forward. Follow the happenings at Greengaged.com, see the photos on Flickr or follow us on Twitter.

Scenes of Graphic London

Teal Triggs (Professor of Graphic Design, University of the Arts London) has written a timely editorial for the London Design Festival 2008. Highlighting the importance of Graphic Design to the UK capital. Read the full article.

Credit Crunch

Something a little timely from Airside designer Guy Moorhouse. More at the Airside Shop

The Informational City

On Tuesday 23 September, at London College of Communication, Information Environments will present 'The Informational City', an evening of talks about the relationship between design and information. Guest speakers include Kasper de Graaf and Jason Bruges. For more information visit London Design Festival 2008.

Wallpaper* illustrates what Digital Design Still Can't Do!

"Print can still do lots of things you can’t do online, and one of the more striking and tactile techniques in the print designer’s armoury is die-cutting", writes John L. Walters. The October issue of Wallpaper*, out on Saturday 13 September, features a sixteen-page feature from Zaha Hadid, full with sculptural custom cuts. Fabulous! Via Eye's Blog.

24HR DESIGN & MAKE

On Friday 19th Sept at 7am, a number of creative teams will be given basic materials, tools and have 24hours to answer their given brief... 24hr Design & Make.

New Cinematic Orchestra Film, To Build a Home

With thanks to the team at Creative Review for screening the new Cinematic Orchestra video for both "To Build a Home" and "Breathe" - yes, two tracks, one video. Directed by Up The Resolution, this is a beautiful music video, simple and yet more captivating than any I have seen for a long time. Watch the video, CRBlog

Project H’s Design For Education project on Ideablob

Project H Design, the product design nonprofit founded by Emily Pilloton, is currently in the running to win $10,000 for their newly launched project to design educational math toys for the developing world. Please help Project H by voting for them on Ideablob.

The Happiest Book in the World

Award winning and oh-so-succcessful design graduate Alex Ostrowski is in conversation with leading design publishers to produce his Happiness experience... Amazing. (Very exciting, when you encourage a good idea to happen!). We will keep you up dated!

Revenge is Sweet

London designers Angelique Piliere & Lee Owens (aka. Revenge is Sweet) will be taking over The Flea Pit bar/cafe in East London from September 19 - October 4 in a debut exhibition of typography, illustration and print design. (Thanks Matty).

Lightmark

Impressive photography from Lightmark

Telescopic Text

Telescopic Text - A great idea for splash page from Joe Davis

Designing Water's Future

Calling design students to use their creative thinking skills to address the global fresh water crisis, the AIGA, INDEX, Circle of Blue and New York design firm Collins have collaborated to launch the first annual Aspen Design Challenge, 'Designing Water's Future'.

The Prix Pictet

Last month 18 of the world’s leading photographers were shortlisted for The Prix Pictet, the first photography award dedicated to sustainability. Can a photograph really help to sustain the planet? According to The Prix Pictet, “It depends on the photograph.” Read my original feature on Inhabitat.com

How Design Can Save Democracy

In conjunction with NYTimes.com, the AIGA's Ric Grefé and Jessica Friedman Hewitt have developed an interactive demonstration of how good ballot design can improve the voting experience.

Retooling Ourselves: Collaborative Design Actions

Hosted by designers for sustainability network The o2 Global Network, Retooling Ourselves: Collaborative Design Actions is a series of participative events intended to spark eco-creativity, during the 2008 London Design Festival. Find out more here

Brad Downey

Inspirational and humorous work from Kentucky based designer Brad Downey. "Downey uses humor to underscore institutional regulation of public behavior and to provoke awareness of how this control affects the evaluation of art, self and social status."

Towards Tomorrow's Designer

What does it take to be a good designer today? And what will it take tomorrow? In a fast-moving world full of fast-changing client demands, these are vital questions for UK design. As part of London Design Festival 2008, The Design Council is hosting Towards Tomorrow's Designer, an evening debate on 22nd September.

This is real work that'll make a real difference...

The image above is of an “illegal” poster installation installed by this years Project M’ers at MICA in Baltimore to promote the Project M Design Lab in Alabama. The small copy explains: "This is not Design School. This is not New York. This is not Pentagram. This is real work that’ll make a real difference for real people who you will really meet and whose lives you will really change."