Review (Jan 2009 — April 2009)

Since the start of the year we’ve neglected all the fantastic stuff that falls through our letterbox so here’s an attempt to round up the best of what has fallen on the doormat or we’ve picked up at various outlets along the way. The plan is to do this every two weeks so it won’t always be this long an article.

Pocko Times

Published by Pocko Editions
Big images well printed on nice stock can’t ever fail, and agency Pocko definitely understand that formula. A printed showcase of the great talent on their books acts as much as an impressive folio of work as it does a publication to keep on your shelf. Also, Pocko Times made me appreciate the all too readily forgotten joy of looking at illustration on paper rather than on screen.
www.pocko.com

Airside by Airside

Airside, Published by Gestalten
It must be nice to have produced such a huge body of work and to have successfully collated a huge chunk of it in one place. Airside have done that with aplomb and it’s a triumph not only to their output, but their ability to make the mammoth task of binding it all in one place seem effortless. If you like Airside you’ll love this, if you don’t, then predictably, you won’t. It’s very much about Airside by Airside, and why shouldn’t it be?
www.gestalten.com

Creative Space: Urban Homes of Artists and Innovators

Francesca Gavin, Published by Laurence King
Frncesca Gavin must have met a lot of interesting creative types while being arts editor at Dazed & Confused, and I’m pleased she did. Mainly for selfish reasons as her book on the spaces in which the people she has met along the way is a (creative) voyeurs dream. We all like snooping around other people’s houses, and even more so if we’re interested in the individual, so shut down facebook, open ‘Creative space…’ and do a bit of offline stalking.
www.laurenceking.com

Discovering Music Newspaper: Second issue

Designed by HarrimanSteel
(first issue can be found on www.harrimansteel.co.uk) of the newspaper we created to present the Discovering Music events that are broadcasted on BBC Radio 3
www.harrimansteel.co.uk

Hugo & Marie Mailer

Agency Hugo&Marie can do no wrong in my eyes, and a summary of the great work they do, as well as artists they represent was always going to get the thumbs up from me. Not sure if ours was the only one’s envelope that came with loads of nice stamps and stickers on but I thought it worth the mention anyway, my favourite was the one of a fighter jet.
www.hugoandmarie.com

Spacecraft 2: More Fleeting Architecture and Hideouts

R. Klanten and L. Feireiss, Published by Gestalten
It seems a bit hippocritical us reviewing a series of architecture books when we don’t cover the subject that much on the blog. Having said that Gestalten have done what they do best though, produced a hefty book you can completely lose yourself in and totally indulge in architectural bewilderment. If we had a coffee table that is where this book would live.
www.gestalten.com

Architecture Now! 6 and Architecture Now! Houses

Both by Philip Jodidio, Published by Taschen
Books on architecture that resemble bricks is a good thing but does anyone read them? A bad place to start a review for sure but essentially these books are an opportunity to escape to the houses and structures that you can’t ever really live in. It’s the same feeling as when you buy a lottery ticket, you question what you’d do if you lived there or worked there or for some reason owned that property, you don’t though so you might need to buy this reasonably priced book. For anyone that does want to read it though, everything is written in three languages.
www.taschen.com

Hatch: The New Architectural Generation

Kieran Long, Published by Laurence King
Bored with the old architectural generation? Then this is perhaps what you’re looking for, Hatch is documentation it appears that sometimes clients let you push designs and sometimes these ideas get built.
http://www.laurenceking.com/product/Hatch%3A+The+New+Architectural+Generation.htm

O.K. Failure

Published by O.K. Parking
Fluro Gradient + interesting content + confident overprinting + smell of ink = O.K Failure.
www.ok-parking.nl

Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field

Helen Armstrong, Published by Princeton Architectural Press
Ellen Lupton’s writing was a huge influence to me when I was studying design, and I’m sure I’m not alone in there. Here she writes the foreword, introducing not only the idea of design theory, but also a bill of writers with more knowledge and insight than you can shake a stick at. Concise and easy to get along with, but also showing a real cross-section of attitudes and opinions to design from Marinetti right through to Paula Scher and Lupton herself.
www.papress.com

Chicken: Low Art, High Calorie

Siaron Hughes, Published by Mark Batty Publisher (Thames & Hudson outside of North America)
At first glance the tacky red plastic cover seems like a little bit of a mistake, but you only need to flick through a couple of pages to see how appropriate to the content it actually is. In essence this is a fried chicken lovers Bible, including more photos than you’d ever need of the inside of take away outlets (that you’ve probably never seen in focus) and some interviews with their owners. Finger Lickin’ Good.
www.markbattypublisher.com

Hippyshit

Curated and published by Bryan Dalton and Alex Harris
We liked ‘Hippy shit’ so much we gave it it’s very own feature on the blog a few weeks ago. Jam packed with good work and an attention to detail in the packaging and execution that leaves you feeling like Bryan and Alex have thought long and hard about this project.
www.hippyshit.com

Mythologies Catalogue

Published by Haunch of Venison, designed by Spin
Spin have built their reputation on producing beautifully designed objects, and ‘Mythologies’ is no exception to that rule. It feels like a friendly old diary, fans open effortlessly and is very easy on the eye when you start to delve into the content. I don’t think I could pick out another exhibition catalogue as succinct and complete as this if I tried.
www.haunchofvenison.com

Progress/ Catalogue

Around this time of year there’s lots of promotional materials produced for final year degree shows, and ‘Progress’ shows off the work of 45 BA Graphic Communication students from Bath School of Art & Design. Featuring a nice big spread picturing an object chosen by each student to represent their work in the exhibition, successfully casting an air of curiosity over the show itself.
www.weareinprogress.co.uk

We Will All Be Ghosts

Luke Best
The compilation of a zine is a fine art, to be underestimated at the authors peril. To get the right feel of work as well as worthwhile content is something that’s no easy task. Luckily Mr.Best is one of the best in the business and this is a joy from start to finish.
www.lukebest.com

Popshot Magazine

It’s a little known fact that in times of recession the amount of poetry written increases dramatically, and backing up the point nicely is ‘Popshot’. Well collated, interesting writing twinned with some beautiful pieces of artwork make for a very pleasurable read indeed.
www.popshotpopshot.com

Discovering Music

BBC Concert Orchestra, designed by HarrimanSteel
When HarrimanSteel were asked to come up with a new look and feel for the BBC Concert Orchestra in October last year, lots of work was created. One of these pieces was the ‘Discovering Music’ Newspaper and although it is essentially a listings for BBC Radio3 programs, the expressive use of typography makes it looks and feel like something much more special.
HarrimanSteel