after some hiccups in the past months, the design event which the ‘designpolitie’ have been planning in amsterdam is finally going ahead, the two day conference is taking place in the ‘stadsschouwburg’ on the 26th and 27th of may
confirmed speakers on the subject of ‘what design can do’ so far include: ‘oliviero toscani’, ‘daniel eatock’ ‘michael wolff’ and ‘deyan sudjic’, updates and info on tickets should be published in the following months on the event website
whilst preparing for a talk i did recently i came across this old image: my good mate steve and i back at art school in 1986… like i said… old school!
had a good chat with talented still-life photographer bart oomes last week, really looking forward to working on the project we are going to be doing in the coming months… dance without dancers, more news soon
i seem to have a connection with old sugar factories somehow, this is my second client who is based in one: some new work for nightclub ‘the sugar factory’ in amsterdam, the idea is a campaign for a new magazine called ‘sssst!’
except the magazine is non-existent, it is a series of club events (mainly house for twentysomethings) in the coming year, the tough part was making it look like a magazine but work like a poster… the first one in two variations (the green ones) will be hanging around town in the coming weeks, not really my ‘scene’ this but interesting to play around with…
…type-only logos have ruled for well over a decade as the harsh economics of designing for the limited ‘real estate’ available online has forced a concentration on the words. Perhaps the pressure of tiny web icons, phone buttons and favicons will make us all consider ‘pictures’ again. If Shell and Apple have become synonymous with pictures, not words, maybe it’s possible. It’s been a while…
interesting piece from michael johnson on the the way ahead for corporate identity design
…tight times and tight budgets mean that clients tend to err on the side of safety. So innovative design has to prove its worth and prove its contribution to the bottom line – tough to do but a pre-requisite if we’re not going to get sunk in a sea of mediocre, ‘safe’ design for two years. ‘I just preferred it like that’ is not a viable piece of boardroom rationale anymore…