Noisy Decent Graphics

Designer shopping in BCN

Barcelona is great for shopping whatever you’re into, but if you like design or are a designer, two particular stores make it one of the best shopping cities in the world. I am happy because I got to visit both today.

The first is Servei Estacio. Particularly useful this morning because obscurely enough I needed some new legs for a bed, but as well as a huge selection of random furniture parts, it also sells pretty much everything else you might ever possibly need.

Here are some miniature “I Beams” that they sell by the metre:

And some of the hundreds of signage solutions:

Then I was told to stop taking pictures, but if that hadn’t happened I’d be posting (admittedly kind of blurred) images of the 50 different types of bubble wrap available, the rolls of Astroturf, the giant pipecleaners, the acrylic-in-any-shape-size-or-colour-you-can-imagine, the hammocks, confetti, cable, string, ribbons, lightbulbs, transfers, paint, and fake fur. Over five huge floors there is simply no equivalent to this store in the UK and you can’t leave without plans to start making things and buying all sorts of crazy shapes in polystyrene you’ll never know what to do with when you get them home.

The second king-of-shops is Vinçon.

If design boutiques can get a bit predictable in the UK (and they are always the same - the Flos lamps, Kartell chairs, Norman Copenhagen washingup bowls and Pantone mugs... enough!) then this is how it should be done. Vinçon – which has been going since 1973 – is where to come to find the stuff you can’t make even after a visit to Servei Estacio. It is beautifully laid out over two gigantic floors in a stunning historic building on Passeig de Gracia, and the low lighting and inspiring displays lure you in and keep you wandering around for hours.

Upstairs there’s also an exhibition of its famous limited edition carrier bags – which are always designed by a different designer, and often topical. The display is permanent by the way, so whenever you go you always have the excuse you are getting some culture in too. They've really thought of everything...

Let them eat cake

On Monday I had a lunch do with Ian Schrager. The hotelier, who is responsible for The Sanderson and St Martins Lane Hotel in London, as well as a host of incredible luxury retreats around the rest of the world, is currently drumming up a little publicity for the hotly anticipated 40 Bond concept in New York.

And yes please can we all go and live there? At around the $9m mark per condo (basic rate) it looks quite comfortable. The idea is that it combines all the benefits of home ownership with the services, privileges and amenities of a world class, five-star hotel. And there’s no more of the Starck-raving Alice and Wonderland themed proportion distortion that Schager hotels are known for either – Schrager ditched Philippe a couple of years ago. The building, designed by the eminently more sophisticated Herzog & de Meuron, is widely billed as “an architectural masterpiece”.

Shrager was charming and millionairish, as you’d expect. But one point he did bring up was surprising. He explained that some people are questioning the ethics of creating such architecture that will only be experienced by a very small, very wealthy minority. “But I believe that this building is so extraordinary that everyone who walks by it will be able to enjoy it,” he said. “And in that way this architecture will benefit everyone – even if it’s only the very wealthy who can actually stay in it.”

I don’t agree all good architecture should be public necessarily, but I do think Schrager would do better to stay quiet on that one – it’s a little too “Let them eat cake!” not to grate.

Mind you, I'm happy to investigate further – I could maybe stay in one of the residences and watch the public’s reactions to the architecture as they go passed… Hmmm – might have to pitch that.

InterSections Conference

Since noone's invented teleportation properly yet I’m annoyingly having to miss the InterSections conference which is currently happening in Newcastle Gateshead.

Luckily though, conference director Kevin McCullagh sent through a link to the blog he’s been penning for the conference this morning, so if you're not there either but would like to be you can still follow all the most interesting bits.

InterSections is full of “path-finding designers and thinkers” such as Dejan Sudjic, Clive Grinyer and Peter Saville. Between them they will discuss how best designers should be future-proofing their careers, because design is apparently transforming as it adapts to a world in transition.

According to Kevin, as the boundaries between design disciplines are breaking down, the skill-sets designers need are also evolving. While the nineties were driven by the integration of computer skills into the designer's toolbox, now the emphasis is on acquiring more multi-disciplinary and contextual skills.

The death of Barcelona street art

I arrived (home) in Barcelona today. It's been two months since I was last here and while this is a city that is as famous for its urban change as it is for the Sagrada Familia, the difference this time is phenomenal.

The grafitti has gone.

Really. It has disappeared. The underground overground art that made every corner of Barcelona so extraordinary has been painted over, wiped off - wiped out. The Civismo laws have been dramatically tightened in the last few months, and the city's authorities have taken action to crack down on grafitti artists, imposing (among other penalties) huge fines on anyone caught in the act.

One of the reasons Barcelona's street art used to be so incredible was that La Guardia Urbana would turn a blind eye. Perpetrators could make their mark in broad daylight - taking their time over their work as they pleased.

The result, I'm told, is that the good stuff has been forced out of town, and anyone with a stray spraycan is resorting to quick - but ugly - tagging instead. Street art has become part of this city's cultural identity and - while it will always be moderated -  should also be protected.

7 Rules of Showcasing Architecture in Print

Architecture and graphic design relations are proving to be something of a theme for me this week. (That’s not really that surprising considering I am an architecture and design editor and writer, I suppose, but still.)

Yesterday I met with an author and a graphic designer to decide how best to layout the author’s latest monograph on a prominent Italian architect. His own experience in this field is vast, but the graphic designer, by contrast – while she has designed a lot of design books – has not done an architecture title before. The meeting was essentially a training session for her – so I took some notes.

This may be quite specialist, but I still thought it was worth sharing.

7 Rules of Showcasing Architecture in Print

1. The iconic shot
The first image of the building in question needs to be chosen carefully. Contrary to what many designers and editors believe the iconic shot does not actually have to show the whole building, or even be the most striking image available. It does, however, need to capture the essence of the building – even if that’s a detail, the designer needs to understand this architecture as if it were a one-liner, a punch line – you need to get the main concept before you can communicate it.

2. The walk through
All subsequent images should be arranged in a way that helps the reader to ‘walk through’ or ‘walk around’ the building – it sounds obvious but you’d be surprised how often it doesn’t happen. The last shot should be as carefully considered as the first – perhaps you end up outside again, perhaps in a courtyard, but think of it as being where the reader will ‘say goodbye’ to the structure.

3. The natural size of drawings
Architects' sketches – if they are to be included – can be both gorgeous and compelling. It is very tempting for a graphic designer to use them very large in a layout, but it’s also important to remember that there is a natural size for architects' sketches, and if you blow them up too large, they will look wrong. Use your instinct here.

4. The grand plan
Likewise, plans and elevations can really help a reader to understand the building, but their use should be carefully considered. For an architect reading the building, roughly 70% of their information will come from the plans – not the photographs. They should be selected and arranged with this in mind. If there is more than one being used they should be presented in a logical order, always at the same scale, and always with the same north point. Again, it sounds logical, but it's amazing how much it is overlooked.

5. The context
Where possible show the context of the building. This can mean showing the surrounding environment in plans and photography, but just as often it means demonstrating how the building is used: if it is an art gallery, it can help to show some of the collection, if it is a public space, show people in it.

6. The all important crop
Architectural photography is a great artform, but one that is often destroyed by a careless art director in print. Crop very carefully – the photograph should draw the viewer into the building and provide a realistic sense of space - loosing the foreground often makes an image loose its impact. Similarly if you have access to photographs that show a tactile element to the building – show it at the appropriate size that makes the reader want to touch it.

7. The rules
The rules are there to be broken, ultimately every layout is different, and every building will need individual treatment, and the most important thing is to find what works in each case.

AA - what's all this then?

There is a show at the Architectural Association at the moment called Forms of Inquiry: The Architecture of Critical Graphic Design. I went to see it last week (thanks Lauren!). I do love the gallery at the AA. Although it's tiny, the exhibitions are usually 'intellectually rigorous', and fresh...

Forms of Inquiry is curated by Zak Kyes - a graphic designer and creative director at the AA. His idea was to present architecture as seen through the practice of graphic design.

In order to do this, he invited 19 contemporary graphic designers to contribute ‘inquiries’ into architectural subjects. The resulting works "exhibit a common desire to reframe the circumstances surrounding graphic design practise at the start of the 21st century".

Architects and graphic designers seem to enjoy a very special relationship that is built on vast and shaky foundations of misunderstanding. (One architect I know believes that graphic design is an entirely redundant profession - "Just use bloody Helvetica!" is his usual response if the subject comes up.)

There is some very good work here - most noteably James Goggin's Ellsworth Kelly Ground Zero Collage, which is the image used in much of the publicity. However, with much of the work it's necessary to cut through a sickeningly thick layer of pretension, which is sad because it doesn't do anything to help bridge the gulf between the two industries. Architecture is a profession in which you can get away with being billious but it doesn't work so well in graphic design, for obvious reasons.

My advice is if you go, give it time and be sure sit and read the designer's inquiries in the lever-arch files. There's also a fantastic reading room upstairs with further material which is worth a visit in itself. And then let me know what you think.

Here are some pics:

Hello

Thank you for all your welcoming comments, I’m very excited that Ben’s given me this platform – he’s clearly a brave man.

Looking at the diary it looks like it might be an interesting week. I’ll be posting from Barcelona for the second half of it, and I’m really looking forward to having a good excuse to deconstruct the place in graphic detail (excuse the pun).

I'm sure most people know about this already but I just discovered Spell With Flickr and this morning I'm having as much fun with it (although it's slightly pointless otherwise) as last years Geogreeting and it seemed like an appropriate way to say hello.

More later!

Guest Writer: Henrietta Thompson

In very rare moments of self doubt I sometimes worry that you lot will get bored of me.

I also worry that all this blogging is badly written, unspell-checked, grammatically deficient and not like proper writing. Because of this and because previous guests have been so popular I've asked Henrietta to guest write a whole week on this blog. So you'll hear nothing from me for a whole week.

Let me introduce you to Henrietta. She's a proper design writer, that's how she earns a living.

Just two weeks ago she helped write the Guardian's Pompidou supplement. She's written for Arena, Blueprint, Business Life, Dazed & Confused, Design Week, the Independent on Sunday, Monocle, Wallpaper* and the Architects Journal. She's curated several exhibitions including the annual '100% Norway' and 'Hearwear' at the V&A.

As if that wasn't enough she's also written two books; Phone Book and Simply Contemporary.

She'll be posting all week from Monday to Friday, I've no idea what she's gonna write about and I've given her a completely free reign. I'll just be sitting back and watching. I may even comment from time to time. So log on, enjoy, play nicely, comment and make her feel at home.

I'm really looking forward to it.

Unacceptable

I've just read this in some brand guidelines, "A drop shadow effect is acceptable as long as it's not so strong that it impairs legibility."

Let me make this clear; a drop shadow effect is never acceptable. Especially when added to a logo.

OK?

We're looking for a Business Development Manager.

Some company fruit, yesterday.

We're called The Design Conspiracy (in case you don't know anything about us have a look at our website here) and we're looking for a Business Development Manager.

Let's get one thing out of the way up front. Your job is about selling. There, I've said it. Horrible word. Selling.

That's your number one priority and we'll give you clear direction and sales targets. But we don't just want numbers. We don't want rubbish projects to make our figures look good. We want you to identify clients and projects that would fit well with our ethos and then facilitate those relationships.

We want you to understand, know and love design. We're going to ask you about this, so you'll need to know the difference between Peter Saville and Peter Sellers.

We want you to use your initiative and seek out opportunities rather than just following the crowd.

We want you to be energetic, tough, fun, lively and able to muck in. We want you to be organised, to love people and presenting. You will often be the first experience people have of The Design Conspiracy and so you'll need to embody all that the company stands for.

If we're being honest it's not all fun and glamour. We're a small company, we care about what we do immensely and we'll argue all night long about why something should be just so. We're very business focused and we have a very clear idea of what we want you to achieve and how we want to measure that.

In return we'll offer you a key role within a fast growing and exciting company. We're relaxed and flexible and you'll get to work with exciting brands such as 3 and adidas. We'll pay you a good salary (every month), we finish at 4pm on a Friday, you'll get a bonus on your birthday and you'll enjoy our Free Company Fruit Policy.

Interested?

Send your CV to me ([email protected]) or give me a call on 020 7405 0875 for a chat or a coffee, confidentiality guaranteed.

Exhibition Review: Friendly Fire - Jonathan Barnbrook

When I went to this I should have mentioned that I also went to Friendly Fire - Jonathan Barnbrook.

I don't like Jonathan Barnbrook's work. I find it too style driven and Ray Gun for my liking. I don't like Adbusters either.

Still, he's a very good graphic designer and he does lots of interesting work. Squeezed behind the Hadid exhibition is an exhibition of his work and I really enjoyed it. It helped that lots of the work was explained better in the 'exhibition' context. Do yourself a favour and make a visit to both exhibitions soon.

There are some more pictures here.

"I haven't spent the last lot yet"

When asked why he wasn't going to pay himself a (Bhs) dividend this year, Sir Philip Green said, "I don't need any money. I haven't spent the last lot yet."

Brilliant.

Even More Applied Green

After my bit and Michael's thoughts, you can now pop over here and read Russell's talk from the Applied Green thing.

After you've read that, pop over to the lovely We Made This and read this simple, easy and constructive advice.

Then maybe after you've done that I can claim this post was part of this. Well, maybe.

Online stuff that is good that I forgot about

Over here I forgot to mention that the BBC have been blogging, Flickring and much more interestingly Twittering the Rugby World Cup.

The big revelation for me is that they've actually managed to make Twitter updates look decent.

The BBC RWC blog is here (with Twitters in the right hand column), the Flickr page is here, their explanation of Twitter is here, BBC Tom's twitter is here and BBC Ben's Twitter is here.

Apple Homepage Right Now

Hmmm. Mental, eh? Won't be like that forever so click now.

Interview with Fabrica

The finished interview with the designers of this year's D&AD Annual can be found over here on the D&AD blog. It's not as technical and geeky as I'd hoped, but it's well worth a read.

Online things that are good and therefore get passed around online (OK, use the word 'viral' if you really fucking have to).

There are some things around online that I think are good and I'd like to share them with you and store them here for future reference.

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1. Belle Du Jour's Facebook Profile (not sure if these Facebook links will work)
Belle Du Jour is the pseudonym for the author of Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, the TV series, of the book, that started as a blog, so Facebook makes a natural addition. Belle has a profile on Facebook (obviously I can't be sure it's actually one person and not ITV's marketing department) but it's updated regularly and it's feels authentic and unsanitised.

The little status updates are fun and there's some attention to detail in the Info bits. It's not just a profile, there's a funny little application called FantasyMatch too.

They also previewed the TV series a week early online (although they don't support Mac).

All very simple, all on brand, all effortless and all OK. All good things.

(I've asked Belle to comment but no word yet.)

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2. National Theatre Facebook Profiles
The National Theatre have a whole series of profiles on Facebook; NT London, NT Watch This Space and New Connections. I love these. Social Networking feels like the perfect place for Arts organisations to be and this is simple, cost effective (you know, almost free) useful and unobtrusive.

Add NT London as a friend and every now and then you see a little status update like, "NT is unbelievably excited about War Horse opening on Tuesday. And even more unbelievably, we're offering £5 tickets for the show next week!"

That's a nice, friendly thing, isn't it?

And it's updated frequently, which is key, and they also post videos and reviews and do special Facebook offers. Very simple, very unintrusive and very good.

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3. Lucky Voice Facebook Apps
Lucky Voice is the brilliant karaoke place in Soho. They've created a really clever little application that allows you to add song lyrics to your status updates.

The clever thing about this is that people do it already (step forward Will Humphrey) and now they can do it more comprehensively, more easily and whilst being gently reminded about Lucky Voice.

Nice, simple, clever, building on existing behaviour. Good.

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4. Simpsons Character Generator
There isn't a blogger in the land who hasn't heard about this, but I wanted to add it because it's a really good example of when the blindingly obvious is often the right thing to do.

It also helps that it's very well executed. Painstaking attention to detail.

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5. Energyville
It would be very easy to slag this off.

It's a game created by Chevron and The Economist. It's a bit like Sims, you decide which fuel sources to use to power your little city and the game projects what might happen over the next few years. You then modify your decisions as the game goes on.

Again it's very simple, the illustrations are very nice, I learned something and I didn't have to register with my birth weight to play. Simple, well executed, good. City Of Sound talks about Energyville here.

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6. Elle Macpherson’s Intimates MySpace pages
Again, I love this.

Using spoof sexy girl profiles on MySpace to advertise lingerie is just a good idea. I'm not sure it's right for the audience, but it's a knowledgeable use of the genre.

Elle Macpherson Lingerie have various different girls on MySpace complete with videos and suitably blurred sexy pictures. It just seems like a really good use of the medium. CR Blog have written about this in more detail here.

That's it.

New in the office this week.

Which college?

Russell's nephew would like advice on where to study graphic design in the UK. Seems like a reasonable question. Please pop along here and help out, especially if you teach / mentor colleges. Thanks.

"a Mac almost killed me, and I came out of the whole experience feeling more strongly about Apple as a company"

Things about branding you can't explain in a PPT here.