me studio

simple but strong cover from milan bozic

i’ve been following this ‘case’ for years now: the cans have been lying on a shelf in my studio waiting for the next phase to unfold… first change the colour scheme, getting rid of the white and red and move the logo into a corner (see above) turning it into a quarter circle and add a ‘busy’ geometric background pattern (this happened somewhere in the late 90’s…)

then (see above) put the circle back in the middle, but make it look a bit ‘3D’ with lots of fuzzy stuff behind it, turn the logo 90 degrees clockwise thereby making it much smaller and add lots of unnecessary drop shadow effects and make it look ‘speedy’, oh yeah don’t forget to add the tagline ‘great taste’ after all… people really need to know these details don’t they?

then make all of the elements much smaller and shuffle them around, keep the ‘3D’ effects and drop shadows though and to top it off add a load of monochrome imagery in the background… almost there… oh yeah let’s drop the ‘great taste’ reference… it doesn’t…

just in case anybody can still decipher any details (see above) simply add some white typography & icons around the globe and make the background even busier, voila! job complete, anything that made the original marginally appealing or balanced has been designed to death by a whole army of marketing managers… great stuff, these cans are going back on the shelf until the next amazing design comes out… i can’t wait

a thick full-colour photography newspaper (definitely a trend at the moment) arrived in the post today, it is a production for the recently revamped zuiderzee museum (dutch art, design and cultural legacy at the interface of land and water.) the magazine is one the productions made under the controversial (& now departed) director ‘erik schilp’ and features some striking work from a whole host of ‘usual suspects’ blommers & schumm, maurice scheltens, viktor & rolf, etc etc.. and was designed by ‘irma boom’

it is beautifully made don’t get me wrong… and i know i sound a bit cynical but…. this kind of publication seems to be occuring too often, hire a bunch of well known people and them give you instant ‘street cred’, it may also even work but it seems to be a poor substitute for a genuine ‘idea’ and finding the appropriate person to fit, rather than ‘name dropping’ for the happy few…

a good idea if you are prone to epilepsy… a live lightshow performed at an art space in germany (link via ‘uwe’)

the ‘dda’ sent some images from the selection day in eindhoven, last month (photos by ‘bram saeys’)