Posted: May 19th, 2012 | Author:Rebecca Fulleylove | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Things is unintentionally feeling a bit British this week, acting like a tall glass of Pimm’s on a sunny afternoon. We’ve got the new issue of Granta giving it that infamous reddish tea stain colour, an illustrator providing the sprig of mint, and two creative newspapers giving that spicy gin-based zing. And not forgetting an exotic appearance from a Brazillian studio that becomes the juicy, tropical fruits that dress our heavenly cocktail of innovative imagination. So come on, it’s time to put down that milky cup of tea and take a big (responsible) swig of delicious Things!
Alex Turvey's immersive eight-minute film showing at KK Outlet in east London takes you beyond the city and into a headspinning landscape of colour and sound...
Created to accompany the live shows of Blanck Mass (aka Benjamin John Power, one half of fuzzy noiseniks Fuck Buttons), Turvey's new films centre around a series of spinning reflective forms. What looks like a leaping deer at one point, a weirdly drippy arm the next hold centre and project out of landscapes of various blobby masses.
Here's his trailer for the show:
Despite a penchant for the psychedelic, Turvey's style is hard to pin down as he has, among other things, directed surrealist music videos for Zulu Winter (see below) and We Have Band; designed the set, masks and a mirrored dress for a forthcoming Shakira SEAT spot; put together installations for Levi's and Nike stores; while bashing out a rather fine badge logo for Cooper Bikes. And he's made a proper kite.
But Hollow Earth focuses on the live visuals he created for Blanck Mass's recent live foray and a right psychedelic trip they are too. Prints of some of the imagery created in the making of the films are also on display (and for sale) at the gallery.
When I went along the BM soundtrack just wasn't loud enough to get anywhere near the live experience – but then there was just one small door separating this netherworld from the calm of the KK gallery and shop. So get along before May 27. (And ask them to turn it up, just for you.)
Hollow Earth is at KK Outlet, 42 Hoxton Square, London N1 6PB, details at kkoutlet.com. More of Turvey's work is at alexturvey.com.
Posted: May 18th, 2012 | Author:Rob Alderson | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Do you think Adele gets bored of winning things? She gets so many awards I can’t work out what she does with them all. Maybe if you trick and treat Adele you get given a Grammy or something. Or she wraps them up and doles them out at Christmas to her unimpressed cousins. I’ve had a think and maybe Adele should make her next album a bit worse so she doens’t have to go through all this rigmarole again? Just a thought. Thank me later Adele (not with a Brit)…. And so here we are again…
I’m a big fan of sports jerseys of all types, and this Bernard cycling kit has to be the best looking one I’ve seen. Great use of color and type. It definitely stands out from the rest of kits I’ve seen. Most are just terribly designed. I couldn’t find much info, but it seems to be a personal cycling kit designed by Brandon Sincock that was made available for sale for a bit. Must have been a blast to design this. One of my dream jobs would be to work for a bicycle company designing frame graphics.
Designer Roy McCarthy's alternative Olympics brand is for people who want to celebrate the Games in their homes, shops or pubs, without fear of infringing the usage laws of the official 2012 branding...
On the BBC's Andrew Marr show last weekend, Lord Coe was interviewed about the legislation relating to the use of the London 2012 branding. His remarks were later quoted by Owen Gibson in The Guardian in an article McCarthy read and was inspired to act upon.
Coe claimed that the legislation was essential "in protecting the sponsors who come to the table with a lot of money to help us stage these Games". For McCarthy, while this remained an understandable attitude to take in regard to regulating the involvement of the event's major sponsors, such a heavy-handed approach has already prevented much smaller businesses, not to mention ordinary individuals, from using any element of the Olympics identity in their celebrations.
McCarthy's solution was to create Pymlico, a free-to-use brand kit featuring a logo, posters, and various supporting identities people could download and use to show their support for the Games.
Centred on a target design very similar to the one designer Daniel Eatock proposed as an alternative 2012 logo a few years ago, McCarthy's device also works across a "LOOK HERE" TV and "HEAR HERE" radio-themed poster.
"The aim is to combat something that could become a problem for people who want to show support," says McCarthy. "I wanted to turn that into an opportunity to help people, rather than moan about it, to fight a negative with a positive. Someone on Twitter called it 'a great piece of pragmaticism' – that's a nice thing to say."
Pymlico posters could alert passersby to the fact that this pub is screening the Olympics
And unlike the official visual identity for London 2012 and the numerous brands which have a presence on posters, press ads and TV broadcasts, there are no restrictions on the use of the Pymlico brand.
"I see it as a way of putting posters up in windows and saying 'we're watching the Olympics' without using the rings," says McCarthy. "I suppose I want people to respect the needs of the official sponsors, and at the same time show that they don't need to use the official branding, if it's unavailable to them."
Two creatives at Fallon, Pete Lewis and Omar Karim, have joined forces with Wesley Merritt at Debut Art to launch A Family Affair, a charity project to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. The trio will be cycling from John O'Groats to Land's End in June, and have also commissioned a number of artists and illustrators to create bike-themed limited edition prints to help raise money...
The limited edition A2 prints will be exhibited at Fallon in London next Thursday evening (May 24), where they will also be for sale for £75 each. Here's a selection of some of the lovely works that will be on sale on the night:
Even if you're not that into bikes, there's a lot of lovely design work to admire here. The exhibition will be held at Fallon, 20-22 Great Titchfield Street, from 6.30-9pm on May 24, or alternatively, you can purchase the prints online (there are 29 in total) at afamilyaffair.co.uk/shop. Dig deep people!
The Association of Photographers' Student Awards have been announced with Jordi Ruiz Cirera from London College of Communications named as the 2012 Student Photographer of the Year
Ruiz Cirera's series of portraits of members of the Mennonite communities in Eastern Bolivia won him the top prize. The Mennonites emigrated to Bolivia in the 50s hoping to be able to preserve their traditional lifestyle away from the trappings of the 20th century. "This series of portraits intends to showcase the relations and the family roles within the Mennonite community, as well as their deep isolation from contemporary society," says Ruiz Cirera.
Ruiz Cirera originally hails from Barcelona but graduated from the MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at LCC last year. He spent a year working on the Mennonite project, a second series from which (one shown below) won him a Merit at the AOP Student Awards.
The other Merit this year went to Beomsik Won from the Slade for the Archisculpture photomontage series (two shown below).
The Judges' Choice section, where each judge chooses an image or series they particularly liked, featured another isolated rural community in Norwegian photographer Christiane Ylven Vibe's Transhumance Seterfjell project (chosen by Harry Hardie).
While Slovenian Ciril Jazbec documented life on Kiribati, a chain of South Pacific islands threatened by climate change (chosen by MIchael Regnier)
Perry Curties' choice was this shot by Fiona Osborne of the BA(Hons) Photography course at Bournemouth
Julia Fullerton-Batten chose this landscape series by Melissa Tullett who is on the BA (Hons) Photography course at Falmouth. The series is called Homeland – each image is comprised of several shots "disorientating the viewer to establish a sense of disconnection".
And finally Nick Meek chose this shot by Sally Rose McCormack, an Editorial & Advertising Photography student at The University of Gloucestershire
To see all the selected work, go to the AOP website here, or visit the exhibition at the Hoxton Gallery, The Basement, Corner of Drysdale Street and Hoxton Street, London N1 until May 19.
Posted: May 18th, 2012 | Author:Liv Siddall | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Not by any means the newest project on the scene (this collection was exhibited in 2008) but nevertheless entirely worthy of merit, especially on a Friday afternoon. Perceptive, conceptual photographer Audrey Corregan chose to photograph majestic, stuffed birds from behind; perhaps in an attempt to get to the bottom of the issues of taxidermy and the transition from living animal to anonymous object. The nature of these beautiful photographs transforms the taxidermic birds into merely pleasing patterns and shapes, now unrecognisable as beasts and curiously challenging aesthetically.
Posted: May 18th, 2012 | Author:Rob Alderson | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Nike’s summer football adverts are always a big deal and they’ve done it again with the just-released My Time Is Now promo. Produced by Wieden + Kennedy it’s a quick, slick, high-energy narrative with tongue nicely in cheek. The basic premise sees thousands of wannabe footballers invading the pitches where their heroes are playing in a sporting swarm whose potential is released by a combination of self-belief and Nike boots. There’s plenty of big names (Guardiola, Ronaldo, and Neymar for example) a beast of a soundtrack and a scene where some langoustines get trampled. What more could you want?
Posted: May 18th, 2012 | Author:Rob Alderson | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
It’s hard to try and describe something that’s so painstakingly epic that it’s hard to digest, but I’ll give it a go. This morning, outside the It’s Nice That offices by the Nike 1948 space, a queue of very cold, determined people sat in deck chairs wrapped in sleeping bags. What were they waiting for? Some shoes. Which shoes? Tom Sach’s collaboration with Nike, released to mark the opening of his super-hyped show Space Program: Mars happening at this moment in New York.
