The Way We Live Now - Terence Conran Part2

Photographer Neil Wilder
[John Parkinson Agency]

Yesterday evening I was pleased to have been invited to a talk/presentation /celebration for Sir Terence Conran. See previous post:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/09/way-we-live-now-terence-conran.html

Deyan Sudjic, Fiona MacCarthy, Christopher Frayling and Stephen Bayley gave talks about Conran's life, inspiration and achievements. It was interesting, historical and inspirational - when you review someone's achievements in this way, it can leave one feeling a little lacking!

He has influenced virtually every area of design – furniture, textiles, retailing home furnishings, interiors, commercial environments, airport interiors, designing and running restaurants cafés, bars and hotels.
 
Conran says he has a fundamental aim – to produce useful things at a price that most people can afford. This maybe so, but what I found most interesting was Stephen Bayley's comment that whether it concerned food or design (and he explained the interconnection) that Conran cared for these three principles:

• Materials
• Execution
• Details 

...maybe this is genuinely the route to intelligent design (and no, I don't think that sounds too pompous). It was fascinating too, that his interest in natural products mainly manifested itself in the use of wood - so I'm sure he has an appreciation of quality paper!

I also found interesting parallels with the piece I wrote recently about Robert Welch:

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/09/robert-welch.html

...and it was interesting that the piece I wrote about the late Rowley Atterbury, listed three past recipients of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA)  Bicentenary Medal: Terence Conran, Deyan Sudjic and Christopher Frayling, all people involved in this very evening...

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/03/rowley-atterbury-printer.html
sadly not a medal that I'll be receiving, but an interesting link between the past and the present.

I think talks/lectures/presentations like this are essential to go to. To hear dynamic people, to be inspired by recent history can surely only serve to enhance our daily working lives. I hope that the Design Museum and the Tate will do more of these events.

Thanks to Rose Dahlsen at The Tate for inviting me to come along.

http://www.designmuseum.org/

http://www.tate.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.09.2011

Thick cards for a bright printer!

Opal Print have just produced their new business cards and chosen Colorset (over the more obvious competitor product!). The production included triplexing 3 lots of 270gsm Colorset Lime Green, Dark Grey and White, making 810gsm (plus glue!). The cards are printed two colour offset litho, and hot foiled on the reverse in a clear foil and a metallic silver. It's great to see a printer using methods at their disposal for their own uses and this is certainly a business card which is a brilliant first impression.

Chris Pollard has recently joined Bath based Opal Print and has started an excellent blog, have a look:
http://creativeprinting.wordpress.com/

...and a little reminder that Colorset is made from 100% Recycled post industrial waste fibres.

http://www.opalprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.09.2011

What are you doing this Friday? ...go for a walk!

During the London Design Festival, GraphicBirdWatching is hosting an exclusive graphic design walk through East London’s graphic design studios, celebrating the work and practices of London’s female designers and I'm pleased, in our small way, to be one of the sponors.

This Friday, 23rd September, 15 studios of acclaimed designers working in the fields of typography, print-making, illustration, photography and film-making are opening their doors, allowing a unique insight into their working environments and practices. The ‘base camp’ will host special installations, exhibitions and workshops and will also be the starting and finishing point for the walk.

Visitors can buy tickets in form of a map for £5 at the ‘base camp’ on the day of the event. This detailed map allows visitors access to all the open studios as well as visiting the stalls at the ‘base camp’. In the evening all contributors and visitors are invited to celebrate with music and drinks at the base camp venue, giving everyone a chance to meet and share their experience of the day.

Base camp's location and address:
[SPACE] Gallery
19 Warburton Road
London E8 3RT

More details are available on:
http://www.graphicdesignwalk.com/#1765696/Graphic-Design-Walk
http://www.londondesignfestival.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.09.2011

Critical Tensions

You may remember my post back in August (12.08.2011) about the forthcoming St Bride's Conference but now there's a shiny new poster and  more speakers have been added including:
Tom Farrand, Tom Rowley and Dan Burgess from Good For Nothing, Amelia Gregory, Matt Jones & Matthew Webb and Jack Schulze from BERG.

...this is on top of the original line-up of speakers including Phil Baines, Jonathan Barnbrook, Zoë Bather, Alan Kitching, Gerry Leonidas, Vaughan Oliver, Paul Rennie, Lucienne Roberts, Jack Schulze, Steve Watson, Rebecca Wright and Derek Yates.

Becky Chilcott and John Walters are co-curating the conference, which is being held on the 10th and 11th November 2011 at the St Brides Institute in London.

The conference is reasonably priced, and if you are an Eye subcriber, you get a discount too. Sign up now!  http://stbride.org/events?show=criticaltensions

PS - You may also notice from the logo on the above poster that it's being sponsored by the other well known, Hull based, paper merchant ...who am I to deny them the oxygen of my publicity!
www.stbride.org

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.09.2011

Addendum - 15.11.2011: The above poster was designed by Roger Swindale and Katy Mawhood, students at the University of Reading using Infidel by Jonathan Barnbrook / www.virusfonts.com

Apologies for missing this off the original post

The Way We Live Now - Terence Conran



Terence Conran/1950's

Photo: Ray Williams

Terence Conran’s vision, energy and achievements have shaped the look of our world and influenced how we lead our lives. His drive to make good design part of our everyday life has arguably had more impact on popular culture than that of any other designer of his generation. As his 80th birthday approaches, the Design Museum in association with Tate Modern is hosting a talk to celebrate his achievements.

Chaired by Design Museum Director Deyan Sudjic, this evening of presentations and discussion draws together leading figures from the various worlds that Terence Conran’s parallel careers have influenced and informed. Fiona MacCarthy, Christopher Frayling and Stephen Bayley will each discuss an aspect of Conran’s way of seeing the world.

It's also worth mentioning that there is a Terence Conran exhibition at the Design Museum opening in November.

This event is on Tuesday 20 September, 6.30 - 8pm at TATE MODERN, Starr Auditorium, so hurry up!
See you there...
For more details, follow the links:
The Way We Live Now: An evening celebrating Terence Conran is on Tuesday 20 September 2011, 18.30–20.00
The Way We Live Now at the Design Museum is open 16 Nov 2011 – 4 March 2012

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.09.2011

Soundwave Festival Programme 2011

I'm sure that many of those reading this will be familiar with the Soundwave Festival held in Croatia (I wasn't, I guess I'm just not groovy enough!) Now in it's third year, the festival is bigger and better than ever. The line up included Bonobo, Roots Manuva, Little Dragon, Zero 7 with DJ's Mr Thing and Jenna G. Another feature of this festival is the hosted boat parties - a truly unique facet of this event.

...and this post is about the programme ( -on our paper of course!). It's a very comprehensive piece of literature which has been designed to convey the look and feel of the festival.

Above is cover showing Gloss UV varnish which is a subtle but effective use of the Soundwave mark and which works really well on Omnia.

The programme is an A5 portrait format, saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover on Omnia 200gsm and a 64pp text on Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm.
The programme is produced by Beatnik. Editors are Sven Carlsson and Ali Raymond. Creative Directors are Rachel Crowther and Ali Raymond. Design and production is by Ali Raymond.

Print was Handled by Rob Squires at Pureprint. As you can see from the final spread, they have worked hard (and succeeded) on the readover which is printed on two very different materials.

...and with the wonder of modern technology, you can see the programme page by page:
http://vimeo.com/30493809
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StkKN9T25JY

www.beatnikonline.net
www.soundwavecroatia.com
www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.09.2011

London Design Festival 2011

Just a reminder that next week is the London Design Festival: 17th -25th September 2011.

We are supporting one of the events organised by Graphic Birdwatching: http://www.graphicdesignwalk.com/#1765696/Graphic-Design-Walk

Have a look at all the forthcoming events:
http://www.londondesignfestival.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.09.2011