Hi everyone
As was previously posted here, we did have some problems with people registering to post comments. That problem has now, happily, been resolved although I should point out that all comments are monitored and, therefore, there may be a slight delay in them appearing here.
best wishes
Patrick
Red Snow Bootprints
Long term Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood is set to exhibit a series of paintings he completed with Dr. Tchock (better known as Thom Yorke). Held art Barcelona’s Iguapop Gallery, the show – bouyantly titled Dead Children Playing – is the first time the pair have exhibited artwork together.
We hate to say it, but this is pretty bad from the start. But it’s not Johnny Cash’s fault. Featuring 36 famous faces from music and film, the new video accompanying the singer’s track, God’s Gonna Cut You Down, sadly backfires from celebrity overload. Intended as a montage of personal tributes to the Man in Black – which, on its own is a touching idea – the film actually comes across as more of an excercise in cool-by-association.
And rather than a heartfelt eulogy from those indebted to Cash’s music (and many artists featured in the film, of course, had an acknowledged debt to, or intimate friendship with the man) the film feels like a furthering of what’s slowly become, particularly since his death, Brand Cash.
Alan Fletcher as pictured in his final book, Picturing and Poeting, £24.95 / € 39.95, Phaidon 2006
The Design Museum was packed out with the great and good (plus CR) last night for the official opening of Alan Fletcher: Fifty years of graphic work (and play). Given the tragic circumstances, Fletcher having died little more than a month before, the evening was as much celebratory tribute as private view: a chance for the industry to show how much they loved and admired the man. Among those paying homage were Wim Crouwel, Bob Gill and, bizarrely, former quiz show host Bamber Gascoigne (anyone who knows his connection with Fletcher, please enlighten us).
Derek Birdsall gave a touching, if meandering speech and we all left clutching Quentin Newark’s beautiful show guide (the latter features biographical text from the exhibition alongside Peter Wood’s photographs of Fletcher’s gorgeous studio and is almost worth the admission money alone).
Of course the show is great – GTF’s design is respectful and understated while still providing some delightful touches (including a giant 3D Reuters logo) and Emily King cleverly paces the journey through Fletcher’s remarkable career. It’s all there: from the iconoclastic early years, through major corporate work at Pentagram to the exuberance of an independence secured late in life. But as with all great shows, Fletcher’s should be as much about influencing the future as documenting the past. It is the effect that the show will have on those who come to see it that will be as important as the joy of reviewing his triumphs. So here are some thoughts prompted by last night…
The irrrepressible Ze Frank on the all pervasive brand – and why Grandma’s Cookies sound so much more enticing than Old People’s Cookies (link: DO)
Look around your studio. How many of your fellow designers/creatives are sitting hunched over their Macs, headphones on, plugged into their own private world?
Whatever happened to conversation?
Anthony Lister, a Brisbane-based artist, makes his UK debut at London’s Spectrum Gallery next week. His show, Saturday Morning Prime Time, aligns the seemingly innocent world of children’s cartoons with that of power-hungry corporations vying for the attention of younger audiences.
Icelandic director Einar Baldvin’s animated video for Bonnie Prince Billy’s new single, Cold and Wet, is a bittersweet tale of mummy and daddy bears and what can happen when bear love dies. Just goes to show you should never trust a crocodile.
The results of this year’s Gunn Report are in, and suggest that creativity in the UK ad industry is alive and well, as UK agencies top both the Commercials and Print tables, and beat the USA to top the Countries table for the first time in eight years.
The report, which combines the winners’ lists from the most important global award shows to reveal the ads that have won the most each year, saw Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO’s noitulovE spot for Guinness, directed by Daniel Kleinman, take the top spot in the Commercials table. The ad beat Fallon London’s Sony Balls spot and George Patterson Y&R Melbourne’s Big Ad for Carlton Draught Beer, which came second and third respectively.
As part of the Gap’s partnership with (Product) Red, a new AIDS–related charity, the company has produced Individuals, a collection of advertising campaigns past and present, the profits of which will go to the charity writes Tim Nelson. At $20 a copy, the book stands to make a sizeable contribution to this Bono/Bobby Shriver initiative to persuade US companies to help in the struggle to control AIDS and HIV in Africa. The Gap is also committed to donating half its profits from a new range of clothing to (Product) Red, but the aims of the book go beyond charity towards a continued promotion of the Gap, celebrity in America, and the national dream of success.
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Special projects commissioned by Creative Review and our partners
Rushes Soho Shorts Festival 2009 is free to enter and open for submissions across six categories: Short Film, Animation, Documentary, Music Video, Newcomer and Broadcast Design
Designing through the recession: Michael Bierut has some advice for 2009
There’s probably no God… The atheist bus campaign is to appear on 800 buses across the UK
Objectified, the new documentary film from Gary Hustwit, looks interesting. Marc Newson, Jonathan Ive and Karim Rashid all feature
The Vignelli Canon, a “little book” – available as a 50 page PDF – “for a better understanding of typography in Graphic Design”
The Wellcome Collection’s excellent exhibition War and Medicine has a website, Remembering War, which encourages people to post up their own memories of war
So what is the art of the Bush era? Well, Kevin Drum reckons its Damien Hirst and Jack Bauer in 24… (link: Andrew Sullivan)
Bizarre marketing image of the week: MillerCoors’ entire 1,200 person sales and marketing team come together to form the brewer’s new Pentagram-designed logo.
Playboy Mexico says its latest cover is nothing to do with the Virgin Mary, honest
Mojo is the name of a new software that allows you to share the content of your iTunes with friends…
Burger King launches meaty perfume
Santa’s Beard competition. Download the beard. Cut it out. Take a pic of yourself wearing it and send it to the guys at Un.titled. You could win a prize!
Something’s very wrong with the cover of January’s Tatler (and not just the subject matter). Clue: count the legs…
Eric Baker’s “images of the day” is always an intriguing post over at Design Observer
Framestore CFC’s new Christmas game is based on their forthcoming feature animation, Desperaux. Addictive (be warned!) platform fare starring a little mouse with big ears…