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In our second interview with judges at the 2009 D&AD awards, Eliza Williams talked to TV & Cinema jury member, Dave Trott of CST, who offered up some forthright opinions on the nature of international juries and the predominance of big budget work…

The winners of the April 2009 PhotographyBLOG Competition have been chosen.

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4 Hits print by Roman Klonek, on show at the Kemistry Gallery, London

If you spy a crazy red and white cartoon figure adorning a wall on Charlotte Road in Shoreditch, east London, writes Charley Helfet then you’ve found the Kemistry Gallery, currently home to an exhibition of the art of Roman Klonek – a young Polish-born graphic artist whose work ostensibly references early European comics and cartoons and Russian propaganda posters…

We Have The Same Interests

The way in which the one-room Kemistry exhibition space is used, entering the current display of Klonek’s work, entitled Flux Gate Kasachok, feels like walking into a technicolour playroom.

That

Prints of all different sizes are scattered across the walls of the space (in accordance with Klonek’s wishes, apparently) and a gaggle of strange half-animal, half-human characters dance around the canvasses, enacting bizarre situations in amongst the Russian Cyrillic script.

Hej Chumps I’m Home

Wait

Klonek makes prints from individually-made woodcuts and, looking at them closely, it’s pleasing to note the gaps where the ink hasn’t met with the rough textured surface. This naïve, painterly look – far from betraying the vivid nature of the prints – gives them a character that distinguishes them from the slicker kinds of contemporary graphic art and digital techniques that are used to create cartoon characters today.

Nic Nie

While influenced by artists such as Jim Avignon, Yoshitomo Nara and Jim Woodring, perhaps the most interesting references in Klonek’s work are the 8mm silent cartoons that his father collects, and that Klonek Jr would watch as a child.

Apparently, a recent Latvian visitor to the gallery recognised one of the characters Klonek portrayed in his Consider This print, from a cartoon about an ugly swamp dweller.

Consider This

Rely On Me

Though the influence of these early European cartoons remains purely visual rather than conceptual, as Kemistry Gallery’s Alastair Coe explains: “The key point is that he hasn’t grown up in that era… it’s not as if it’s his life experience, so it’s not first hand – it’s diluted. He might just have a very vivid imagination.”

It All Happens Here

In Klonek’s hands, what may look like political indictment is more likely just a cat in a hat making his escape from communist Russia – but before he runs he’s just got time to give us one Last Song For Today at the piano; as depicted in one of Klonek’s most charming prints.

Last Song For Today

Roman Klonek: Flux Gate Kasachok is at the Kemistry Gallery in east London until 30 May.

Kemistry Gallery
43 Charlotte Road
London EC2A 3PD

We’re giving away a HP StorageWorks RDX Removable Disk Backup System worth £235!

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The 5 lucky winners of our fantastic April 2009 Newsletter contest have been chosen.

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Clandestine meeting points are a thing of the past. As we get progressive our mindsets have changed and the secret romantic rendezvous points are being replaced with public installations like this Meeting Point! Quite a spectacular sight actually! You can arrange to meet your beloved on a particular hour of the dial and then maybe walk around to the 12 o’clock spot where a solar powered touchscreen kiosk awaits you.

The system dispenses relevant city details like maps, addresses and other touristy stuff. Wanna catch a movie? No probs, pull the info straight from here.

The solar panel of the Meeting Point powers the central clock as well as the glorious night lights.
Extra juice is stashed in a power pack below the panel.

Mesmerizing!

Designer: Serdar Sişman

Matt Dent’s UK coins are among the graphic design nominations at D&AD

The nominations for the 2009 D&AD Awards have just been announced. After last year’s furore, will graphic design figure this time?

The good news for graphic design is that there are 13 nominations this year as opposed to two last year (112 entries are in-book). Traditionally graphic design has a high conversion rate from nominations into pencils so it looks as though there should be a healthy number of graphic design awards this year.

If there are, it will be the result of a lot of hard work behind the scenes. After last year, D&AD worked hard to engage with graphic designers and encourage entries, reducing the price and specifically targeting certain studios. It looks to have worked - Build, for example, has a project in the book this year and I can’t remember them even having entered before (Michael, correct me if I’m wrong).

Elsewhere, Environmental Design and TV & Cinema Crafts lead the nominations, with 14 from each jury. On the ad side, mobile has nine nominations as the field finally starts to turn up some interesting work. There are only five nominations in online advertising, but 19 in press and poster (plus the 14 in commercials) denoting something of a traditional fightback. Also, music videos has an encouraging 11 nominations.

It’s hard to spot too many Black Pencil candidates though - maybe Orange Ballonacy (a Best in Book in the CR Annual) or perhaps D&AD will follow Cannes and award Turner Duckworth’s Coke rebrand the major prize?

We’ll put up more images, links and analysis on this later but in the meantime, the full details are below.

And here are all the in-books for graphic design (sorry for the eye-straining size but it’s the best way to get the information up quickly)

Respiratory disorders are on a rise and air pollution just doesn’t seem to be getting contained. Be it a metropolitan city or a comfy suburb, the quality of air is on the downslide. If you’re a worried parent like me and can’t seem to get over that persistent cough that is hounding your child, it’s best to be sure and eliminate poor air quality in the house from the list of allergens. Something like the Breathing Bud is a surefire way of analyzing how good the air quality at home is.

Designed like a pleasant bud, the device features vents at the base that take in the air for analyzing. A beaming blue bud indicates that the air in the room is of good quality, however a pink light indicates that some pronto action is required. Breathing Bud sources power from your comp via USB and transfers all data to it as well. You can utilize the relevant data to compare it with the standards that are easily available off the net.

Another use that I can think of for this device is a nightlight! Now that sounds pretty.

Designers: Xinxin Wang & Zhi Chai

Everyone who knows me knows that I’m on the lookout for a new mobile phone. Now before you try convincing me about the Apple Pie, I’ve decided to humor one of my designer pals (perks of being at YD) to come up with something special for me. He’s kitsch-ed up this awesome looking piece which he calls the MID. It’s a mobile internet device specially designed for internet browsing from anywhere. Ah the blogger in me is impressed!

Besides this special quality, he’s also thrown is a couple of cool features. For instance the 47 buttons QWERTY keyboard looks divine and its configuration is quite customizable. The compact size of 180×80x20mm is neat and allows it to host an ultra wide LCD touchscreen. The phone even boasts of OLED technology. The trackball makes navigation even simpler however the 7 completely configurable action buttons (accessible when phone is closed and opened) adds awesome goodness to the package. Two USB slots, microphone and audio input, SD card reader, stereo speakers, docking connector and sexy sliding good looks are the other proposed features.

I know some of you must be thinking it’s easy to conjure up specks on a concept design, but tell me honestly, if something like this were to come alive wouldn’t you pick it up?
I know I would!

Designer: Jan Rytir

As part of its 80th anniversary celebrations (that we previously blogged about here), Faber & Faber is publishing an extensive series of Samuel Beckett’s works, including 18 novels, plays and short stories, to appear over the next two years. The typographic covers for the series were commissioned by Faber’s senior designer, Miriam Rosenbloom, and designed by London-based studio A2/SW/HK…

According to Rosenbloom, the project has taken the best part of a year from concept to completion, with the designers working closely with the Beckett estate as well as Faber’s in-house Arts team.

“Our starting point was some of the 1960s Beckett covers from the Faber archive,” Rosenbloom explains, “which take a bold typographic approach.

“A2 seemed like the perfect match for the series; they are renowned for their typographic work and have a wonderful ability to work with historical reference while always remaining true to their individual style.”

Each cover features a bespoke font that comes in four weights, while the book’s titles runs vertically to allow for the use of large point sizes.

“A neutral grey background was selected as a counterpoint to the special Pantone colours chosen for each of the 18 titles,” explains A2’s Scott Williams.

“This choice is, in part, a playful reference to Beckett’s directive that his gravestone be ‘any colour, so long as it’s grey’.”

The end result allows for a playful variety in the sizing and layout of the titles, the length of which range from one single word to several phrases, as in the case of the collected editions.

“This allows for some unusual word breaks and so the titles bleed off the edge of the page giving an energy and tension to the design,” adds Rosenbloom. “The colour palette is fresh and complements this striking and type-led series design.”

The first five volumes in the series are set to be published in May by Faber & Faber.