me news

thumbnail art

great protest statement from dutch photographer ‘koos breukel’

when asked to shoot portraits of all 75 ministers of the dutch parliament for an exhibition in the hague he applied for several arts ‘grants’ to pay for the prints and exhibition (a touchy subject right now, with the current government run by those same 75 ministers doing their best to demolish arts funding), these grants were of course, all turned down… so koos decided to provide just one tiny little print with all of the portraits reduced down as mini thumbnails to fit on a small sheet of 3 x 4cm, as shown above, quite a touching metaphor for 75 ministers to chew on… see the original dutch article here

m / 02-06-2011 21:08 - tags: , , ,  

temporary books

i’ve been invited to the official opening of the 2011 best dutch book design exhibition next week, the awards show will take place late on friday the 10th at the temporary stedelijk followed by the public opening on saturday (by the way, usually very much worth a visit), we’re very proud to be represented amongst this years winners with no less than two of our books (not forgetting the one from last year too)

we are also looking forward to receiving a copy of the prestigious ‘best verzorgde boeken’ annual that has, this year, been entrusted to upcoming designer (& ‘irma boom’ protégé) niels schrader…

to be honest this is an award i’ve always dreamed of winning; so three in a row was not only flattering but a genuine surprise… now can somebody explain to me how to get yourself placed on the ‘candidate list’ to design the book itself? i have a feeling that i simply don’t know the ‘right crowd’ to get myself a backstage pass for that gig, still you never know… patience is a virtue

see also these two related posts

m / 31-05-2011 23:20 - tags: , ,  

show and tell

last weekend i finally got round to uploading a whole slew of recently completed projects from (roughly) the past six months to me work, some are missing a proper textual explanation or are awaiting extra updates but at least they are finally online…

feedback is always welcome as are new projects, more new stuff to follow very soon…

m / 31-05-2011 22:51 - tags: , , , ,  

design days

the office is a bit empty this week as we have a whole number of extra-curricular activities going on: yesterday our dda jury (communication) trawled through hundreds & hundreds of entries to get to the first rough selection ready for a second session in late june in eindhoven, when we will be nominating the finalists and furthermore today and tomorrow the wdcd seminar just round the corner will be tempting us away from the office from time to time during the day, so mails may take a while to be answered…

m / 26-05-2011 08:18 - tags:  

when design can do what

i’ve been (very kindly) invited to attend the much talked about two-day design seminar ‘what design can do’ this coming thursday & friday in amsterdam’s stadsschouwburg, the event promises a broad range of speakers on a variety of topics and has ambitions to be about achieving results: not just discussing and showing what the effect of design can be in society but to actually provide useable examples from brainstorm sessions and workshops during the event, we shall see whether this actually transpires but the intention is certainly laudable, as is the fact that busy working designers like richard & pepijn from the ‘designpolitie’ have even initiated the whole event, whilst running their own practice… if only more of us put this much energy back into the dialogue about the future of our own profession…

my personal favourites for the two day event are both british and from very differing backgrounds and generations, although i hope equally as interesting to hear: the experienced wisdom of michael wolff and the eclectic curiosity of daniel eatock, however if previous events are anything to go by, the unknown names could well be the real source of surprise and inspiration… the event also mysteriously promises to release a book (made on the fly) which will be released in a fashion that ‘will stir the world’… promises, promises… see you all on thursday morning maybe?

m / 25-05-2011 08:44 - tags: , ,  
« newer posts older posts »