Graphics-blog

Graduate 2013 Update - Mark Frances

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:13:00 -0400

Mark Frances, whose work is currently being exhibited in our final year degree show, is getting some publicity this week. Design Week and The Designers Journal are both featuring his Ballon d’Or football inspired posters, designed in collaboration with independent football magazine SPIEL.

Ballon D’raw is a collaborative project between SPIEL and Liverpool School of Art & Design which took the winners of the Ballon d’Or as a start point of an examination of the links between football and design.

Both footballers and designers have the ability to capture the imagination of popular culture and Mark Frances’ poster series looks at a Ballon d’Or winning five-a-side dream team of Lev Yashin, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Eusebio through contemporary design styles. In his Johan Cruyff piece, Mark drew inspiration from the work of graphic designer and typographer Wim Crouwel. Both men played an important role in Dutch culture of the 60s and 70s and shared a common belief that beauty must be central to their work. As Crouwel put it “the grid is like the lines on a football field. You can play a great game in the grid or a lousy game. But the goal is to play a really fine game.”

The collaboration was initiated by Senior Lecturer, Mike O’Shaughnessy, who comments:

“Footballers like Messi, Xavi and Gerrard are true artists, but like all creative people, their skill is born from knowledge and constant practice. Design practice and football are similar. But without the WAGS and designer clothes.”

You can still pick-up some of the posters at our degree show until the end of the week, and read the SPIEL’s accompanying essays as they come online.

You can view the rest of Mark’s work from his website.

Degree Show 2013

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 18:13:00 -0400

This year’s degree show has been open now for over a week. Without wanting to blow our own trumpets the Graphics exhibition looks fantastic as ever, with some outstanding work on show. Check out the photos below - hopefully we’ll have some better quality ones shortly. The shows open for the rest of the week, from 10am – 6pm. All welcome.

The smaller studio exhibits a range of print and digital work from graphic design students this year. Including experimental motion type, floor projections, video archives of books and publications, vinyl type and traditional printed posters

A series of framed portraits by illustration student, Tom Fowler are exhibited in the corridor. The series of ink drawings is titled ‘THERE ARE PSYCHOPATHIC TRAITS IN ALL OF US’ and described as “Glib and Superficial Charm. Grandiose Self-Worth. Pathological Lying. Cunning and Manipulativeness. Lack of Remorse or Guilt. Parasitic Lifestyle. Promiscuous Sexual Behaviour. Irresponsibility. Callousness and Lack of Empathy. Poor Behavioural Controls”

3 publications exhibited in one of our much coveted display cases. Each publication was designed, printed and bound in house by graphic design students using the courses printing facilities.

Illustration projects exhibited in the larger studio. These are by Reuben Barr (left) and Rachel Davey (right)

Photo

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 17:55:58 -0400

WE AINT JUST A PRETTY FACE YA KNOW?

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 06:21:00 -0400

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!”

Typography 1, Thatcher and "the man" 0

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:40:07 -0400

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.

Ping Pong Party 2

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 07:02:08 -0400

Get involved…

http://www.facebook.com/events/612850115395769/permalink/616445491702898/

All proceeds go to the students degree show publication and launch event in London.

Ken Garland

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:09:53 -0400

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.

Ping Pong Party

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:09:06 -0500

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”

salfordtypefoundry: re - Type An Exhibition of Typographic...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:30:00 -0500

salfordtypefoundry:

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.

Celebrate the life and great times of John Young

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 16:52:49 -0500

On Saturday 9 March 2013, 7pm

Upstairs at the Fly & Loaf
13 Hardman Street
Liverpool L1 9AS

For more details check Facebook.

R.I.P. John Young

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:44:00 -0500

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.

Professional Practice Lecture Series

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:44:00 -0500

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 1pm

We 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!

TBC
Friday 8 March

Joe Stottard
Friday 1 March at 1pm

Following 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.

Kate McCrickard
Friday 25 January at 1.30pm

Kate 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.

The Periscope - Call for Contributions

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:31:49 -0500

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.

Business Advice surgery at the ADA - Wednesday 23rd January

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 08:00:49 -0500

Are you considering starting up you own creative business or becoming self-employed/freelance in the creative industries?

If so, the LJMU Centre for Entrepreneurship team is holding a free business advice surgery for Liverpool School of Art & Design students next week on Wednesday 23rd January between 10.00am and 3.30pm. It will take place in Archibald Bathgate Seminar Room, Ground Floor, Art & Design Academy.

This advice surgery is open to any student with a query that they wish to discuss in a relaxed and confidential environment. Our Business Adviser can help you with all aspects of starting a business – from putting together a business plan to searching for funding for your business.

Pre-booking is essential. To book a 45 minute one to one meeting at the surgery or for more details please call the Centre team on 0151 231 3300 or email startup@ljmu.ac.uk

Best of 2012

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 07:43:00 -0500

Staff were asked to pick their cultural highlights from 2012 at this year’s Christmas party. The results have now been collated…

Music

There were no clear winners in the music category. Some oldies crept in - The Buzzcocks, Dead Kennedys, Bowie 1972-1982, Stevie Wonder’s ‘Always’ and Glenn Gould’s ‘Goldberg Variations’. Otherwise the list reads in no particular order:

Clark - Iradelphic
How to Dress Well - Total Loss
Loops Of Your Heart (aka The Field) - And Never Ending Nights
Lindstrom - Six Cups of Rebel
Kink - Live in the Boiler Room
Daniel Lopatin and Tim Hecker - Instrumental Tourist
Apparat - MTV Live Session
Jim Guthrie - Theme for Indie Game

Plus Smoke Fairies, Radiohead, The Distillers, Royal Headache and Underworld at The Olympics

Oh and someone put down Radio 4, which I think should be classed as talking and not music.

Film

The general consensus was that this was a poor year, or we were all too busy/lazy to take ourselves to the cinema. However there were a couple of winners…

1. Shame
2. Linotype - The Film

Followed by Batman Dark Night Rises, Indie Game, Frankenweenie, Prometheus, Sky Fall, Liberal Arts and Paranorman.

We Need to Talk About Kevin, Contagion and Kill List from 2011 also charted.

Books and print

Novels
The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Townie by Andre Dubus
Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

Graphic Novels
Hilda and the Giant by Luke Pearson
Modern Cartoonist by Dan Clowes
The Hive by Charles Burns

Magazines/journals
Purple Magazine
Word & Image Journal
ÉTAPES

Print
Lubalin
Brighten the Corners and Anish Kapoor : Zumtobel 2012 Annual Report

Boxsets ruled this year with Breaking Bad, Madmen, Spiral, Twin Peaks, Arrested Development and Broadwalk Empire all charting.

On terrestrial the winners were…

1. The Killing
2. Black MIrror
3. Fresh Meat

Plus Archer, Claridges, Road Wars, Inspector Montaband, Only Connect, Corrie, Adventure Time and Regular Show, The Hour and I’m A Celebrity!

Events

There was a clear winner here unsurprisingly…

1. 2012 Olympics
2. Sea Odyssey
3. Greenman Festival

Other sporting events were popular such as , Tour de France, LFC’s Carling Cup win and MCFC winning the league title.

Exhibitions
John Singer Sergeant in Edinburgh
Gerhard Richter at Tate Modern
Hollywood Costumes PV
David Shrigley at Hayward

Plus Radiohead in Manchester, Rhys Chatham : A Crimson Grail (Liverpool Anglican Cathedral), Ebb and Flow Mapping the Moon’s Gravity, Mars Curiosity and Typo London.

Other

Surfing in Bude, Growing an artichoke, Making Wine, Cable car over Thames, Secret Cinema, Secret Cabinet - Naples, Reaching 42, Yellowist guy getting sent to prison, Boat trip to the Asinara National Park (Donkey Island).

Apologies for not adding links for all the listings.

Happy New Year!

Adrian Shaughnessy - Guest Lecture

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:13:00 -0500

Topping the bill of this semester’s professional development guest lectures is renowned graphic designer, writer, and publisher, Adrian Shaughnessy.

Friday 30th November

1pm

Johnson Auditorium

This lecture is open to the public.

An exhibition of typographic disobedience

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:45:00 -0500

After much procrastination we have finally decided to put on an impromptu exhibition of experimental type design by staff and students. The exhibition of typographic disobedience is called re–Type and will take place between Monday 3rd and Friday 14th December, the Public Exhibition Space, Lower Ground Floor of the Art & Design Academy. There will be a private view next Friday 30th November from 5pm to 7pm. All are welcome.

The exhibition is a snapshot of the typography and design work produced from the research, practice and teaching taking place in and around the Graphic Design and Illustration programme at LJMU. The exhibition includes; typeface designs from current students, staff and recent graduates; a brief retrospective of the work of type design collective Beaufonts; and recent research by LJMU staff. A selection of historic precedents and contemporary examples from beyond the School are also featured.

This exhibition forms part of an ongoing research project that examines what inspires particular moments of typographic disobedience, and what, if anything, is driving current experimentation.

There are now tens of thousand of typefaces in the world - cut, drawn, designed and published over a period of 500 years. And although there may be numerous classifications for these typefaces, by and large they describe subtle variations made incrementally since the invention of printing, suggesting that the alphabet and its typographic manifestation is in fact inherently conformist - a deeply ingrained system that resists revolution or even significant development.

And yet there are precedents for designers and typographers questioning the accepted form of letters and typefaces. This tradition survives today even though history suggests that such endeavours will at best only push and poke at the perimeters of the form.

The exhibition concludes a major 3rd Year studio project that has challenged students to design typefaces, or systems of letterforms within the context of this debate and the broader question of contemporariness and the idea of the now in typography.

A project blog will follow shortly publishing the output of the student work and documenting the exhibition.

Manual For Useful Art

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:05:00 -0500

Somewhat old news but a group of our 3rd Year design students collaborated with MA Fine Art to produce a Manual For Useful Art during the Liverpool Biennial last month. In early October Tom Rogers, Mark Frances, Holly Gleave, Lottie Brzozowski and Jenny Stuttard designed and produced an edition of 100 manuals. Written content, drawings, photographs and diagrams were developed by students from the Dutch Art Institute, the University of Hidesheim and our own MA Fine Art - all participants in the Autonomy Project’s week long Autonomy School. Our students oversaw the art direction, design, page-layout and print production.

It was an intense week. First of all the participating students had to get to know each other and establish the editorial direction of the publication. Whilst our students were waiting for content they experimented with grids, typography and the potential of the print process using our newly acquired digital duplicator (Ricoh’s answer to the very fashionable Risograph). As we were printing the publication ourselves we were hoping to make the production process as simple as possible - one colour print, possibly on coloured paper. However mid way through the week the long lost supply of additional colour drums and inks arrived for the printer. The temptation to play around with teal and red overprints was too great and the production spiralled out of control somewhat.

The graphics students deep in pre-production

The digital duplicator working overtime

Staff and students worked incredibly hard over the final weekend to deliver the edition to the Biennial’s ‘Mobile Art School’ event on the Sunday. Graphics tutor, Jon Spencer, was in charge, instructing the students, overseeing the printing and making sure miraculously that all the colour separations and back to back printing actually worked. On the Sunday a production line was necessary to paginate, fold and finish the publication. All the Fine Art students pitched in - even our Director of School, Juan Cruz, was seen brandishing a bone folder.

A stack of covers/posters

Graphics and fine art students discussing the results

A production line forms

The results weren’t perfect, There were some mistakes with the content and the registration, and there was no time for a final trim. We ran out of some coloured paper too. Despite this, the publication and the project was a great success. There are some beautiful looking spreads. Our students learnt a great deal. We fully tested the digital duplicator. And there are now plans for a 2nd edition to be produced next year that can hopefully be published for a broader public.

The finished publications complete with elastic band binding

Some complicated 3 colour over printing

Typo London

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:25:00 -0400

Just over a week ago I took twenty 2nd and 3rd Year students to this year’s Typo London design conference - 2 days of non stop talks from some of the best and most influential designers, illustrators, typographers and all round creative people in the world.

Things that I took from the conference were:

1. The theme ‘social’ wasn’t much of a theme. The general consensus from speakers was that graphic design equaled communication which equaled social. Therefore all design was social. A few speakers tackled the more tricky ethical issues that concern design. Sara De Bondt presented a selection of projects from her studio that were grounded in social responsibility whilst Caroline Roberts presented a more overtly political response to the theme. There was also a lot of general talk about social networks and co-creation.

2. Having two speakers on at the same time presented a dilemma, similar I imagine, to choosing between two stages at a music festival. I all too often appeared to make the wrong choice. I missed Visual Editions, Bibliothèque, Anthony Burrill, Vaughan Oliver and Erik Kessels. And that was just on day one. From feedback from the students Erik Kessels delivered the best talk of the whole conference too! I’ve now been charged with trying to get him to talk at LJMU next year!

3. I’d forgotten how many times James Jarvis can say the word ‘drawing’ in one sentence - quite remarkable.

4. Kate Moross is a scarily talented and driven young woman.

5. Eike Konig made me want to start up a summer school designed and run by and for students here at LJMU having seen how he’d done a similar thing at HfG University of Arts in Offenbach in Germany.

6. You don’t tell Irma Boom what to do. Whether it’s trying to sack her as the designer of a book or asking her to finish her talk because everyone needed to go home. Her comic timing was exemplary when she said it would only take her 5 minutes to finish her talk and then got out of her suitcase the biggest book you’ve ever seen. A true genius non-the-less.

7. Some of the more interesting talks came from speakers who weren’t designers - in particular Peter Gregson, a cellist and composer, who presented The Listening Machine - an automated system that generates continuous music based on the content of 500 twitter users.

8. I didn’t expect to be moved to tears by KenGarland, the first speaker on day 2. At 10.30 on Saturday morning a silence came over the audience as Ken finished his introductory monologue of funny anecdotes about speaking at past conferences and began to recite five pieces of poetry and prose accompanied by images. The reflective and personal nature of the talk was genuinely moving and an honour to have witnessed.

As I took this photograph I realised that both Adrian Shaughnessy and Ken Garland have been external examiners her at LJMU. Admittedly Ken’s time was in the late 60s when the Graphics course was a part of the old Liverpool Polytechnic.

Craig Oldham guest lecture

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:32:54 -0400

The annual guest lecture by Craig Oldham from Manchester agency Music was as unequivocal as ever. His advice - be yourself, get a placement, work hard and be nice to people, avoid design clichés, don’t be afraid to swear and never ever use the word ‘nice’! Wise words indeed.