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WE AINT JUST A PRETTY FACE YA KNOW?
Big news for Graphic Design and Illustration.
Our 3rd Years are launching their degree show publication in London this year. It will take place, Monday 10th June, 6.30pm - midnight, at Heavenly Recordings’ The Social, off Oxford St, London.
More details will follow. In the meantime you can keep up to date via Facebook and Twitter whilst marvelling at the animated GIF announcement below. As the students say “LET’S HANG. COME DOWN AND PICK UP A COPY!”
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Typography 1, Thatcher and “the man” 0
The recent death of Margaret Thatcher reminded me of the subversive potential of a typeface I once designed whilst a student.
Preoccupied at the time with theories of semiotics I was keen to explore the idea that the alphabet was merely a system of arbitrary signs that had meaning because of mutual agreement. The illogical conclusion to this theory was the design of a typeface that could only be read by people who couldn’t see it - a braille typeface that I called Disbraille.
Despite its apparent willful uselessness it became a favourite of artist Joe Magee, who consistently used it to insert subversive messages in his illustrations for the Daily Telegraph such as “Thatcher Fucked Us” and “Empty the Whitehall Cesspit”. The tactic was spotted by an eagle-eyed reader and unfortunatley Joe lost his job without payment!
Below is the offending image…
You can see more of Joe’s work at periphery.co.uk. Much of it still features typefaces designed by myself or one of the other artists from the type design collective Beaufonts.
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Ping Pong Party 2
Get involved…
http://www.facebook.com/events/612850115395769/permalink/616445491702898/
All proceeds go to the students degree show publication and launch event in London.
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Ken Garland
To wet the appetite for this Friday’s lecture by Ken Garland…
Ken Garland: Structure and Substance from Unit Editions on Vimeo.
Or view the talk he gave at TypoLondon.
Ken Garland’s talk is this Friday 15th March, at 1pm, The Johnson Auditorium, Liverpool School of Art and Design. Public welcome.
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Ping Pong Party
3rd Years have organised a Ping Pong Party to 1. raise funds for their degree show publication and 2. celebrate the new table tennis table they have in their studio.
It’s on Thursday 28th February, 6-9pm, Studio 9, ADA. ALL WELCOME
£3 gets you a ticket and a bat.
Buy your ticket in advance and you can collect a bat from Studio 9 from Monday 25th Feb, then spend the rest of the week “making it look shit hot”.
As the poster says - “remember, it’s not the taking part that counts, IT’S THE WINNING”
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re - Type
An Exhibition of Typographic Disobedience
As the exhibition publicity suggests, this collection of typographic investigation embodies work by current and recently graduated students, alongside research projects of the staff teaching on the Graphic Design and Illustration courses at Liverpool John Moores University.
The exhibition is held in the very spacious and well lit basement gallery of the universities Public Exhibition Space, with the work dominating one wall running along the back of the gallery, with stand alone display cases showing historical contexts in the form of Fuse publications and Emigre journals. Screens are free standing to showcase motion work. The overall feel is of a well considered series of components, with the work demonstrating a very conceptual and thoughtful approach to typographic interpretation and investigation.
I asked Ian Mitchell, the programme leader, typographic practitioner and curator of the exhibition, if, and why, experimental type is still relevant. He discussed its relevance to the teaching of vital aspects within graphic design, about pushing boundaries in terms of what a letterform might be, about continuing the inspirational and pioneering studies of practitioners involved in projects such as Fuse, and featured in the pages of Emigre, but bringing them into contemporary platforms, using Open Type formats that might enable a more tangible use of such commodities.
Ian also talked about the role and responsibility of designers in the larger world, that we should be able to solve greater problems, devise more significant solutions to quandaries that are currently emerging, rather than merely changing the shapes of ingrained forms. It was indeed gratifying to hear him talk of his inability to let go, that his love of the subject is what drives him to make his research work relevant, but also playful.
One such project is entitled Letterformer (2003), which Ian describes as a ‘bespoke font making software created specifically for gallery installation allowing visitors to create and print their own typographic signs’. In effect, what he created was a precursor to Fontstruct, a database of provided shapes within a grided format that allowed the user to create letterforms. Ian was able to provide rules, or limitations on the shapes, and asked users to respond to the letter shape that had been produced before them, creating a reactive, collaborative font.
Another earlier project Beaufonts, was a joint project devised in the last year of study and realised after graduation, with a series of like-minded companions, in which they created a foundry. Utilising the available technology of the time, BeauFonts decided to distribute their typefaces on floppy disks, for free, sending them to practitioners that they admired, advertising agencies, design studios and other foundries, considering the idea of typeface as tangible product, and generally putting themselves into the public realm, raising their profile by producing forward thinking typefaces, applied to specimen sheets that demonstrated their design acumen. To see more follow this link: http://www.beaufonts.com/.
Adrian Frutiger, his typeface OCR-A and OCR-B, and his book ‘Type, Sign and Symbol’ are, and have been, a constant source of inspiration for Ian in his research and teaching practices, whilst contemporarily he admires the work of Rob Meek (http://robmeek.com/), responsible for creating Fontstruct, as well as other fonts such as Renderer, through FontShop.
In his role as Programme Leader of the BA (Hons) Graphic Design at LJMU, Ian decided to curate this exhibition, called re - Type, a self styled exhibition of typographic disobedience, as detailed above. The next few posts will document some of the work from within the exhibition.
Many thanks to Ian Mitchell for his support and participation in this interview.
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Celebrate the life and great times of John Young
On Saturday 9 March 2013, 7pm
Upstairs at the Fly & Loaf
13 Hardman Street
Liverpool L1 9ASFor more details check Facebook.
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R.I.P. John Young
This is the toughest post I’ve had to write for this blog.
Our dear friend and colleague, John Young, sadly passed away on Sunday morning, having finally lost his battle with cancer.
John was the programme’s Graphic Design pathway leader for many years. He was instrumental in shaping the structure, content and ethos of the course through its many developments. For the last two years it’s been a privilege to lead several of the modules that John wrote - faithfully following his cunningly designed and challenging projects.
John was a master tutor, knowing exactly how to get the best out of every student he taught. For an idea of how many lives John influenced and inspired I’d suggest a visit to the Facebook page set up in his memory.
John will be irreplaceable. A true legend!
Rest In Peace mate.
AN UPDATE
We’ve had lots of enquiries about when John’s funeral will be. John has requested that there be no service. However Graphics staff and ex students would still like to get together informally to celebrate John’s life in some way. We plan to organise a night of Art, Music and Drinking in Liverpool sometime in the next month. Details will be posted through the normal channels once confirmed.
John taking a well earned break from degree show duties to encourage some healthy staff student competition.
Happier times for the Graphics family - Christmas 2010.
Some of John’s very cool (and naturally beautiful) graphics.
One of John’s all time favourite pieces of typography - the typeless title sequence for Fahrenheit 451.
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Professional Practice Lecture Series
We can now announce this semester’s Friday lunchtime professional practice lecture series. All take place in The Johnson Auditorium, in the Art and Design Academy. All lectures are open to public.
Ken Garland
Friday 15 March at 1pmWe are honoured to have the legendary designer Ken Garland as our keynote speaker this semester.
From his famous ‘First Things First’ manifesto in 1964 to his recent support for Occupy Design, Garland has always been an outspoken commentator and critic of the graphic design profession. Now in his eighties, he is still captivating audiences with his highly personal lectures as evidenced by those of us lucky enough to attend October’s TYPO London.
This lecture must not be missed!
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TBC
Friday 8 March-
Joe Stottard
Friday 1 March at 1pmFollowing on from last semesters very popular talk by Kat Easthope, we are pleased to invite another of the class of 2011 back to speak.
After graduating from Graphic Arts 2 years ago, Joe Stottard moved to Berlin and quickly secured a job as Kids Apparel designer for Adidas at their HQ in Herzogenaurach near Nuremberg.
Joe will be talking about life immediately after graduation, his role at Adidas, and his love and use of sketchbooks.
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Kate McCrickard
Friday 25 January at 1.30pmKate McCrickard is an international artist and printmaker, and a leading expert of William Kentridge - whose exhibition, A Universal Archive, is currently on display at the Bluecoat.
Kate will be discussing not only her own work, but also her work with William Kentridge – and the insights that might be gained by considering someone else’s practice in depth and the impact that that might have on one’s own work.
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The Periscope - Call for Contributions
The Periscope is a new free publication highlighting cultural events in Liverpool and beyond. It will feature writings by LJMU students and staff from all departments and levels, including but not limited to: reviews of art exhibitions, films, records, fashion, books, websites as well as interviews and opinion pieces.
The deadline for content for the first issue is Monday 4 February.
Reviews are expected to be in the area of 500-600 words, and should ideally be accompanied by an image. Longer pieces, such as interviews or opinion pieces, with or without images, are also welcome.
The first issue of The Periscope will be launched at the end of February, and will be designed by Level 5 Graphic Design and Illustration students as part of their Professional Development module. Currently there are 2 teams of students developing designs for the first issue. This week they presented initial ideas to Antony Hudek, curator of the School’s new Exhibition Research Centre and editor-in-chief of The Periscope, and Sara De Bondt, creative consultant for both the ERC and The Periscope.
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