12.22.2006

Jarrolds Printing Museum



This year the intrepid studio travelled to the wilds of Norwich for the love of typography and printing. Festive cheer, quads and the sage wisdom of lads who spent their youth setting type day after day was then celebrated with wine, mince pies and a multitude of food products. If you have a free Wednesday then we can all thoroughly recommend it.

11.28.2006

Type Tray


I first saw this type tray at Jules’s parents house in Kent.
This tray would have been used by a type setter to house all the various characters of a type family.
The type tray is a grid. Not a 2 dimensional grid that we’re used to seeing on screen or in a magazine but an actual 3 dimensional, tactile grid.
Once seen this way it makes a layout seem far more exciting with far more possibilities.

11.23.2006

Matt Pops Over



Here is Matt, sitting at Kuchar's desk reading a newspaper. He popped over for lunch yesterday. All that mess is Kuchar's, honest.

11.17.2006

Pimp your Type


St Brides library has some beautiful things, but this book of typefaces is my all time favourite. This features in the next issue of eye in a very small place but I think seeing them large just makes their detail more impressive. I know we've seen them all before. But I think they're ace and I could look at them all day.

11.10.2006

Eros Issue 4





Publication: Eros Magazine
Designer: Herb Lubalin
Editor: Ralph Ginzburg
First published: 1962
Issue: 4
The final issue of a great magazine.

Alpine Fantasy by Untitled





A collection of short stories, beautifully presented by Untitled.
The cover with its huge white 'B' set on a black background is very dramatic. The inside is equally as nice, black pages with white out cap titles for the chapter openings, big drop-caps at the beginning of each story. Its an example of how much you can actually do with a simple paperback.

11.02.2006

Eros Issue 3



Publication: Eros Magazine
Designer: Herb Lubalin
Editor: Ralph Ginzburg
First published: 1962
Issue: 3
This is my favourite issue. The large format images of Marilyn Monroe really need to seen full size to appreciate the lavish quality of the magazine.

11.01.2006

Magazine Design Awards



Last Thursday the studio won two awards for:
Best Use of Typography
Consumer Front Cover of the Year

Here are some covers. Oil is my personal favourite as it's such a small word so it can be blown up really big.

10.31.2006

Eros Issue 2





Publication: Eros Magazine
Designer: Herb Lubalin
Editor: Ralph Ginzburg
First published: 1962
Issue: 2
The endpapers of this issue are really striking in their stark blue and red colours. There are so many good spreads in this issue. And even more enlightening of the times are people's responses to the magazine in the back. I think the big red 'Filth' is my favourite. They were a pleasure to read. Who would have thought such a beautifully designed magazine could illicit such outrage. Maybe the sixties weren't as swinging as we were led to believe.

10.30.2006

Eros in Eye 25


Publication: Eye
Issues: 25
Just in case you don't have it, here is what Eros looked like in the Eye article. It's a shame it's in black and white as the full colour Monroe shots are very arresting as are the bright blue and red endpapers of issue two. More to come.

10.27.2006

NZZ Magazine


This is the second magazine we have designed for the Zurich newspaper NZZ. There are four in total. The fourth has just been completed so watch this space.

10.21.2006

Eros Issue 1


Publication: Eros Magazine
Designer: Herb Lubalin
Editor: Ralph Ginzburg
First published: 1962
Issue: 1
Only four issues of this hardback magazine were ever published before Ginzberg was indicted on charges of violating a federal statute that regulated obscene advertising and sentaced to four years in prison . Kuchar has just bought all four. We thought we'd show some of the highlights. Here is the first issue. Personally my favourite parts are the endpapers. See Eye 25 for more information.

9.20.2006

Eye


Eye 61 is out. Here are the other Eye covers the studio has generated recently.

Studio Output

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Latest studio output. The Rodin catalogue for the new exhibition at The Royal Academy. Kuchar and I went to the private view and I did do a bit of mobile blogging, capturing Kuchar standing by the book offering to sign copies to all the landed gentry, but he outlawed it. Spoilsport.

8.15.2006

New Purchase

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Publication: Avant Garde
Issues: 1,3,4 & 5
Art Director: Herb Lubalin
Year: 1967/68
Cost: Not as much as you might think

7.27.2006

Numéro


French fashion magazine with enormous flair. The front section is sign-posted with big bold Helvetica numbers. It is a round-up of all that is interesting (film, fashion, exhibitions, people, etc.)

The second half of the magazine turns to its fashion stories. These are all well considered and beautifully executed, I would say that they are as good if not better than any of the images found in Vogue or The New York Times.

The last story is shot by Guido Mocafico (7/18/2006), this part seems more about art than fashion. I sometimes wonder how Guido would have been briefed. It wouldn't surprise me to think that he is given complete freedom to do whatever he wants.

The back of the book has an English translation of some of the articles from the front of the book, this section is printed in black and white on a light matt stock.

Book. Twen. Revision einer Legende.

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Book. Twen. Revision einer Legende.
Author. Michael Koetzle
Principle Designer. Willy Fleckhaus
Publisher: Prestel
ISBN: 3791380826

New addition. The book list at the right hand side of the screen. Kuchar and I thought it a good idea to share the wealth. From time to time we get a really good book and feel it right to share with the world. Not just an 'alright' book, or a 'good', but something we consider a 'must have'. Obviously this is merely our own illeducated point of view.

The mighty Twen, by the mighty Willy. To find out more about Mr Fleckhaus read eye 3 vol 1.

The reason I was thinking about our Willy was that I saw in Magma they are selling a series of 'famous designer' grid notebooks. It's a bit too expensive, but you do get Willy's authentic twelve-unit grid on the same 265 x 335mm page size. They also do one for Jan, Josef, Paul and Charles-Edouard. Have a look on Magma and see if you're geeky enough to get one. Who knows you could suddenly reel out covers like the above.

7.18.2006

Guido Mocafico







A very interesting photographer. Contributor to many international magazines and fashion houses.
I think his work brings new and original ideas to fashion and still life photography.
He has recently released a wonderful book called Venenum which is published by Steidl

5.19.2006

Richard Hollis Exhibition

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Exhibition: Swiss Graphic Design by Richard Hollis
Venue: St Brides Printing Institute

Well worth seeing. A host of original publications which have featured heavily in Swiss graphic Design books over the years. It was amazing to see the real things. When the attendant left the room Kuchar and I played the game of 'you have three things to steal, what do you steal'. Of course the attendant had come back before either of us could even commit to one thing as there was just so much lovely stuff to choose from. Obviously neither of us had a glass cutter to hand so the game resided safely in our imagination.

A Day of News at St Brides

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Talk: 11.30 Simon Esterson: The Rise and Fall of the Colour Magazine
Periodical:The Sunday Times
Art Direction: Micheal Rand

'Art direction isn't just about laying out a page with a dictated number of images and words. True art direction asks what the idea is and asks you to invent the best way of displaying it.'

'He who controls the flatplan, controls the magazine'.

A small snippet shown above. There were some great images, brilliant photography and some interesting comments by Simon.