me news

used ideas

the ‘façade’ art event & ‘re:frame’ design competition (for which i designed the identity see above & below) are both currently taking place, for ‘facade’ which is a large open-air art event (using recycled advertising billboards as a starting point, we decided to employ students to stand next to the large scale billboards all around town to explain the installations to curious passers-by and hopefully get into a dialogue about advertising billboards and the ideas about re-using them instead of creating tonnes of waste every year… this proved to be a very successful idea and we will be using some of the reactions in the facade book (currently in the make)

shown below are some of the installations which were used to get the project going: a fictitious huge ‘lake’ with sailing boats near the ‘RAI’ exhibition centre by ‘maze de boer’

some propaganda style messages from graphic designer & artist ‘martijn engelbregt’…

the fabulous ‘vertical camping’ by ‘leo van munster’ & also shown below several of the other entries some already used, others still in the make…


i used the artwork from the entries to create the ‘recycled’ material for the invites, business cards & the jackets worn by the students during the event…

here (above & below) are also some of the entries which we’ve received for the re:frame design competition, where designers were asked to create new products or uses for recycled billboard material, many were the kind of things you’d expect (chairs, bags etc) but there were some surprising ideas too, the competition judging is taking place this month and again the results will be published in the forthcoming ‘facade’ book later in the summer… for more images of my designs see ‘me work’

for more info on the project plus a map of the locations (several new ones will be added in the coming month) see here

m / 19-06-2010 12:41 - no comments yet - tags: ,  

hup holland

illustrator and funny man martyn f overweel getting into the spirit of the moment, i love it!

m / 18-06-2010 13:29 - tags:  

book worm

yesterday i popped round to visit the retrospective show of book designer extraordinaire ‘irma boom’ in a department of amsterdam university and it was well worth it, now i am a big fan of her work anyway and i believe that she’s one of the very best worldwide in her field, so i was definitely already prejudiced about her work… the exhibition features her complete book oeuvre hanging (or rather floating) on the walls around the rooms, one slight disappointment is that the books cannot actually be openend, however the glass display cases spread around the place feature a broad collection of her sketch work, printers dummys, rejected projects and charming little post-it notes scribbled in her own handwriting (complete with poor spelling and bad grammar) explaining the various display pieces

many of the books are displayed as small thumbnail sketches next to the book which i found rather pointless and a bit odd, although it’s great to see her miniature full colour scale-dummies, boom apparently makes mini sketches of all of her books, sometimes trying a whole range of cover variations or combining different materials experimenting with different ways to alter the tactile experience of her designs

boom is one of a rare breed of designer, in my opinion, who has a rather singular and perhaps narrow vocabulary with which she works, the complete collection, shown together in this retrospective, reconfirms her integrity & talent as a graphic designer and gives a valuable insight into the mind of an individual obsessed with details and the overall ‘tactile’ experience of the books she creates, she leaves nothing to chance and the very last detail of a books form and physical appearance have clearly been tested and evaluated in many permutations before a finished product is decided upon… well worth a visit, the miniature (700+) page catalogue (on sale at the till) which at first seemed rather ‘gimmicky’ to me, makes much more sense once you’ve experienced the methods and ideas behind her work… the mini book has amusingly also been greatly enlarged as a one-off copy near the entrance, which works as a subtle introduction to the following work and the fashion in which irma boom plays around with the physical presence of her designs by constantly altering their volume / mass

m / 18-06-2010 13:25 - tags: ,  

façade goes live

the ‘façade’ art event/exhibition had it’s big kick-off all around amsterdam during my holiday, i will post a whole series of images of the event & my identity work for them later this week (see above for the flyers)

m / 17-06-2010 17:05 - tags: ,  

people like me

if you’re looking for a creative network site, here’s a new contender: pelime, i believe that it’s solely possible to join ‘by invite only’ at the moment, i’ll keep you posted if it’s interesting…

m / 17-06-2010 17:01 - tags: