An ISTD trio

Here's a trio from the ISTD: A new issue of Condensed, the ISTD awards and the new ISTD Australasia page....

1. ISTD Condensed 05

This is the society's news publication, which is a simply (but beautifully) produced piece which is sent to all members. 



Printed in 1 colour, offset litho on StarFine White, 100gsm. Design is by Peter Dawson at Grade (www.gradedesign.com) and David Quay. Typeface used is Foundry Sans. Printed by Gavin Martin.

2. ISTD International Typographic Awards 2011

The awards ceremony is being held at the Museum of Brands and Packaging on Friday 14 October, where the winners will be announced and the awards presented.

The Museum of Brands and Packaging is in Notting Hill (W11) and the collection is being kept open for the duration of the awards - which is an added bonus!

If you would like to go, you can - you don't have to be a member.
Ticket price £35 non-members, £25 ISTD members.

Drinks and canapés will be served.
http://payments.istd.org.uk/awards-ceremony-2011

3. ISTD Australasia launches facebook page
In keeping with the society's international outlook and the increasing member activity in the region,  they have launched a facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ISTD-Australasia/206895479331171
...and that's it! I don't think I've ever written about three things on one post before.
http://www.istd.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.10.2011

2011 ISTD Student Assesment Scheme - Part 2!

Following on from my post yesterday about the ISTD Student Assesment scheme, I thought it might be of interest to readers if they could see one of the set briefs and an example of the way a finished piece looked...

You can read all the briefs on the ISTD website http://www.istd.org.uk/education

Brief No 5: FLATLAND
With this brief we take a different approach. Rather than offer a theme that requires you to generate the content, we are directing you towards existing content – the Victorian (1884) novella Flatland by the English schoolmaster, Edwin A. Abbott. You will find a mass of references and the full text freely available online.

The Brief
Your task is to produce a proposal for a new edition of Flatland that doesn’t necessarily engage with the conventions of ‘the book’ as we understand them, although it may have text matter, pages and a cover – or not. It could be a pamphlet, a chapbook, a poster, a landscape, a happening, a dream, an installation, a text, a sound piece, an animation, a moment.

Interpret the text typographically – you can be as ambitious as you wish to be, but you must deal with the full contents of at least one chapter and show how the rest of the text would develop.
There are no restrictions, no conventions, no rules, no given formats. Static work, moving image, physical, virtual, ephemeral are all up to you, as is the navigation of the piece, its viewer/reader/user engagement, its scale, simplicity, complexity, composition. What can it become? There is a quote in the film Amadeus that says if you have four people talking at once, then that’s an argument . . .
if you have four people singing at once, then that’s Opera. Make an opera, not an argument !

Target Market
Define your market, and how you will target it, in your Strategy.

Requirements
• Research and Development
• Strategy
• Specifications/Grid(s)
• Dummy/Prototype(s)
• Presentation
==========================================

Tom Nurse is a 3rd Year student on the BA Graphic Design course at the University of Portsmouth and his tutor is Mike Harkins. Below are pictured Tom's interpretation of the above brief for which he was awarded a Pass at the awards.

Flatland - folded to finished size.

Flatland - partially unfolded

Flatland - fully unfolded

Flatland - detail

I know it's difficult to look at four pictures of any piece of work and make a judgement from it, especially as I can't reproduce the supporting presentation. I just want to comment that as well as being fully scrutinised from a typographical point of view, what really impresses me is that entrants must support the piece of work with a full type layout specification and when there is print involved, a written print specification as well. This is the sort of discipline which many courses do not seem to insist on and which is where many students are let down by not being taught some of the skills essential for the workplace. Well done to the ISTD and I hope they continue this scheme ad infinitum.

So congratulations to Tom on his Pass and if anyone is interested in seeing more of his work (or get him in to have a look at his portfolio...!) you can see more on: www.tomnurse.co.uk

[PS just in case you were wondering, this isn't a shameless plug for a member of my family, we're not related! He did however blag some Redeem 100% Recycled 80gsm from us for his presentation, so that also shows some initiative!]
www.istd.org.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.06.2011

ISTD Student Awards

On Friday evening I was invited to the ISTD Student awards ceremony, held at the Design Museum in London. Erik Spiekermann (past president of the ISTD) presented the certificates to the successful students and tutors.

A wet June evening on the embankment

Although it was an extremely wet summer evening, as with all ISTD events it was a very warm and friendly event with drinks and food provided. The surroundings of the museum are impressive and entry to the Wim Crouwel exhibition was also included!

Erik Spiekermann presenting the awards

This awards ceremony is the culmination of the Student Assesment Scheme which is now in it's 36th year. This is both a tribute to the organisation and more importantly the people that run the scheme. The awards were introduced by Professor John McMillan who is the education officer and handed over to Erik, who talked and joked about being a German without a sense of humour in a very humourous way! He emphasised to the students his mantra of learn, learn, learn which is surely what makes this 60 something man such a dynamic individual.

ISTD Education Team

The speakers also emphasised that this is not a competition, it is an assesment scheme and that only a third of entrants are successful in gaining an award. It is a high bar but one that the education team are keen to maintain.

There are three levels of awards: Pass, Merit and Commendation. Universities and colleges from all over the country were well represented with the most number of awards going to Bristol.

I met Philippa Wood from Uni of Lincoln and Mike Harkins and Maaike Van Neck from Uni of Portsmouth who were all there with their students. Thanks in particular to Tom Nurse (Uni of Portsmouth) who took the above pics.

Crouwelclock app

Before the awards I went round the Wim Crouwel exhibition...

Wim Crouwel is a living legend of Dutch Modernism and this exhibition could not have been more appropriate at the time of these awards. There was a fantastic body of work on display from 1960's onwards and all displayed in a digestible and well layed out format. When you see all the work together it's easy to see what an undeniable influence on designers and design this one person has been and continues to be. (Pictures are courtesy of Michael Johnson's 'Thought for the Week' blog as I saw and took notice of the NO PHOTOGRAPHY signs, so I didn't take any myself!)

Intersesting to note that although the posters on display use colour, not one of them was a "four (process) colour" printed poster - that makes you think, doesn't it? Exhibition ends on 3rd July.

Thanks to the ISTD board for inviting me and congratulations to all the students who were awarded certificates.

www.istd.org.uk
www.designmuseum.org
http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/thoughtfortheweek/index.php?thoughtid=650
www.tomnurse.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.06.2011

ISTD 2011 awards - hurry!

The ISTD awards deadline has been extended until Tuesday 31 May. You need to register by the end of this date and your work MUST arrive with Poke by 2 June.

The ISTD Awards celebrate the best in typography from around the world. Entries can come from any design discipline and should have used typography as an integral part of the design solution. The winning work will be featured on the ISTD website and in the ISTD 2011 Awards publication.

For further information visit: www.istd.org.uk/awards

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.05.2011

ISTD Typographic Awards - Call for entries

Over the last couple of weeks you may have received the very nice mailing, pictured below:

It is the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) call for entries for the 2011 awards. The mailer is 145x195mm which folds out to a poster sized 390x580mm. It is printed in CMYK on one side only on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm.

Design and Art Direction is by Liam Bonar and Gilmar Wendt. It is printed by Gavin Martin.

Now the deadline is looming, so if you haven't got your entries ready, you'd better get on with it right now! they need to be in by 12th May 2011. There are 19 categories and the judges are Robert Boon, Simon Dixon, Tom Hingston, Lynda Relph-Knight and Astrid Stavro.

If you didn't get a mailer and would like to find out more about the awards, more details are available from www.istd.org.uk/awards

...and thanks to David Coates and the board for the kind note:

http://www.istd.org.uk/
http://www.gavinmartin.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.04.2011

ISTD Stammtisch - 13th October 2010

Talking Books was an event held last Wednesday hosted by the ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers) at The Russian Club Studios in London E8 . It involved a series of short presentations by a variety of speakers talking about a book of their choice. The speakers included Ken Hollings, Fraser Muggeridge, Caroline Roberts, Gary Bird, Lucienne Roberts, Hana Tanimura, Gilmar Wendt and me! 

It was a great evening which was amazingly interesting and diverse both in terms of the people giving the presentations and the books that they spoke about. It was very oversubscibed  and I should guess there were at least 120 in the audience.

This is me doing my talk...

Afterwards everyone got a chance to handle the books that had been spoken about (with cotton gloves on, of course!)

I can't give a complete transcript of the evening as it  would take far too long. The speakers were all excellent (probably with the exception of me!) and in particular Lucienne Roberts who spoke so passionately and coherently about her book on Sister Corita and CSM MA student Hana Tanimura about our book buying and owning culture - she's writing her dissertation on this subject  All in all a really interesting evening.

And I guess you're asking "which book did Justin talk about"? Well, in some ways it isn't a book at all - it could almost be described as a "de-constructed" book, as it has no binding! It's a job for the NatWest Media Centre at Lords Cricket ground produced for Future systems by Cartlidge Levene in 1999. Unfortunately I haven't got time to write about it fully now but it will feature as one of my "Jobs from the Past" posts (which is the first post of every month). But for now, here's one picture of it so you get the idea!

Finally thanks to the ISTD for hosting and arranging the evening. I thing these events are excellent and I think that everyone who's practising in this creative industry should make an effort to get to this sort of event once in a while. Otherwise we all exist in our own little work bubble and often don't get exposed to what else is out there and different ideas and thinking. Special thanks to Belinda Magee and Paulus Dreibholz and all at ISTD. For next event, email to stammtisch@istd.org.uk.

http://www.istd.org.uk/
http://www.helveticcentre.ch/

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.10.2010

ISTD-Stammtisch 1: Talking Books

The International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) is pleased to announce the first of its Stammtisch* events: Talking Books. It is to be held next Wednesday (13th October) at 7pm at the Russian Club Gallery, 340-344 Kingsland Road E8 4DA

* ‘Stammtisch’ = German for ‘Regulars’ Table’, ‘regular get-together’.

The event is hosted in conjunction with the Helvetic Centre on the occasion of the Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2009 exhibition organized by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture. (All awarded books will be accessible at the event.)

Talking Books will host a series of short presentations by speakers from a variety of backgrounds, each of them talking about a book of their choice and their personal and/or professional relation to it. We expect stories about form, format, layout, production, history, content, structure, editorial quality, imagery, and much more. Most books presented during the evening will be available for the audience to see and handle.

Speakers include
Gary Bird (Managing Director of Gavin Martin)
Justin Hobson (paper consultant, Fenner Paper)
Ken Hollings (writer, editor, lecturer)
Fraser Muggeridge (designer)
Caroline Roberts (co-owner of Grafik Magazine)
Lucienne Roberts (designer, writer)
Hana Tanimura (designer, student)
Gilmar Wendt (designer, writer)

Talking Books is an open and free event, but will operate on a guest list basis. For further information or reservations please send an email to stammtisch@istd.org.uk.

...and yes you did read correctly, I am speaking! - so no rotten eggs from the audience please!
http://www.istd.org.uk/,
http://www.helveticcentre.ch/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.10.2010

World Cup poster at the World Cup!

Now here's a man that takes his type and his football seriously!

David Coates was so taken with his Em-project designed, World Cup wall chart that he's actually taken it to South Africa AND to the actual stadium as well!

David and his friends went to the brand new Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban to see the Germany vs Australia match. He says "The stadium is very impressive and the atmosphere and support from fans around the world was incredible"

Here are some pics from inside the stadium.

David Coates is a designer at London design consultancy To The Point and is also the ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers) co-deputy chair. The ISTD run an excellent education program which is truly international and one of David's friends from college coordinates the program in South Africa.

...and let's not forget that it is printed on the new Shiro TREE FREE 120gsm which is made from 100% non-tree fibres - it's made from annual plants such as bamboo, cotton or bagasse.

Thanks to David for taking the time and trouble to send it over and I hope it brings the England team that little bit of extra luck!
http://www.istd.org.uk/
http://www.em-project.com/
http://www.wineonehundred.co.uk/
http://www.thesecretcellar.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.06.2010

Mikey Ayling at Portsmouth Uni

This is a project produced on our new weight (60gsm) in Redeem 100% Recycled by Mikey Ayling, a Communication Design student at Portsmouth University for an ISTD project highlighting the plight of the planet regarding global warming.

The brief he gave me was as follows "My project is a typographic project, and uses a large amount of white space in which to hold my text blocks, hence the amount of stock needed, each A3 is French/Chinese folded and contains a print within the fold which gives the opposite meaning or the reality if you will of the planet's CO2 crisis. Basically a dirty looking mess."

It is A4 in size and makes up as a 48pp concertina with waste pieces of 750micron greyboard being used as the front and back cover.

I do try and help students if and when I can and as you can see from the results, this one certainly made it worth the time (and he wrote to say thanks as well). He has submitted it to the ISTD together with his rationale which I have also read - so good luck Mikey.
mikee73@hotmail.co.uk
http://www.istd.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson

ISTD Awards 2009

I was lucky enough to go to the ISTD awards last Friday and it was a great evening. It was held at the Arts Club in London's Mayfair. As with all ISTD events, there is a real air of friendliness and fellowship, whether this is because there is always an international element, I don't know. I was seated at a table with people from Holland (http://www.studiovanson.com/) who were a great laugh.

The series of three posters below is the ISTD Awards 2009 Overall Winner by Paris based, Studio Apeloig (www.apeloig.com)

All award winners deserve congratulations, but in particular, there are some people who I must mention:

Cartlidge Levene for the wayfinding & environmental graphics for The Guardian building - (I know it's not on paper, but it's still fantastic work!) http://www.cartlidgelevene.co.uk/

Barrie Tullett and Philippa Wood who are lecturers at University of Lincoln and who run The Caseroom Press for The Ghost in the Fog (pictured left).

This is a book that only contains the corrections and alterations of the author.

Congratulations on their Premier award (by the way, it's printed on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm)

http://www.the-case.co.uk/

NB:Studio won a Certificate of Excellence for their series of House magazines for Soho House, the covers of which are below: http://www.nbstudio.co.uk/

...and the list goes on - The Chase for their marvellous woodblock letters made from chocolate, Studio 8 for FUTU magazine and Henrik and Scott from A2/SW/HK for a clutch of awards.
http://www.thechase.co.uk/

http://www.studio8design.co.uk/

http://www.a2swhk.co.uk/

Here's a very cheerful looking Paulus M. Dreibholz, happy with his well deserved Certificate of Excellence for the poster for the Institute of Architecture in Vienna.

http://www.gaffadesign.com/

Malcolm Garrett (http://www.appliedinformationgroup.com/) and David Coates (http://www.tothepoint.co.uk/), lurking behind the scenes!

...and a prize for anyone who can guess which dark horse from the NB:Studio table this is (answers on a nice postcard please!)
It was an excellent evening which showed a fantastic array of international typographic excellence. It is REALLY important for our industry that we retain societies such as the ISTD and we must take every opportunity to try and encourage membership, thus ensuring their continued viability.

So if you aren't a member, have a look http://www.istd.org.uk/ - for less than £10 per month - this is good value!

Condensed 04

Like many of you, this morning, I have received my copy of ISTD Condensed 04 in the post.

This is a good read and always something in it to inspire.



In this issue there are:

1. The Art of Lost Words - a review of an exhibition by Studio Zwei by Andreas Pohancenik.

2. Looking backwards, moving forwards an article by Michael Johnson who knits the subjects of Massimo Vignelli, shoulder pads and Akzidenz, together.

3. Peter Dawson writes about the talk given to ISTD members in June by Wim Crouwel.

4. An interview by Jonathan Doney with David Brown, sundial maker and letter cutter.

The spread above shows a job which really caught my eye. I hadn't seen it before today. It is a silksreened map of Iraq, by NB:Studio displaying the words of the speech by Donald Rumsfeld about knowns and unknowns (under the title"Embrangled") It's a very powerful piece...

And now for the paper plug! It's printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm. It's printed in single colour and shows what a beautiful solid you can get on this paper...

It is printed by Gavin Martin Associates (www.gavinmartin.co.uk)

If you aren't already a member, you should really think about joining - there are many benefits, this is just one! www.istd.org.uk

ISTD awards & special congratulations to Lincoln...

On Friday evening I was invited to the ISTD Student awards evening which was hosted at The Partners in London EC1 (thanks to Creative Director, Jack Renwick). It was an excellent evening and it was good to see so many people that I've worked with over the years (The ISTD is a fantastic organisation and I'm proud to have been working in association with them since the mid nineties). http://www.istd.org.uk/

Alan Kitching presented the certificates and it was a great evening.

It was particularly eventful for the Lincoln School of Art & Design (University of Lincoln) as not only did 8 of their students walk away with certificates but the Vincent Steer award (which is the highest student accolade) was presented to Chris Mahoney for his project "MP3".

...and only the evening before, at the D&AD Student awards, the team which had designed and organised "The Design Auction" were awarded a yellow pencil. http://www.designauction.co.uk/. The team are Toby Burkill, Danny Elliot, Steve Fenn and Lauren Traynor - congratulations to you all.
I have been working with some of the tutors at Lincoln for a few years now and I have done a few talks to their courses. These award achievements really are a reflection of the dedication and quality of the tutors at this particular college, in particular, Barrie Tullett, Philippa Wood and John Dowling (part time). They really are an example of a department that goes that extra mile - and the results (and quality of their students) are there for all to see...
http://www.dowlingdesign.com/
http://www.the-case.co.uk/