Branding Metallica

Metallica’s new logo, designed by Turner Duckworth, is based on the band’s original version
from 1981. TD also designed the identity and packaging for the new album, Death Magnetic
“I was worried that as music fans are so into credibility,” says designer David Turner, “if people knew that an agency that worked for Waitrose were doing Metallica, it might make the band look uncool. But Lars [Ulrich, from the band] said that was bollocks and that they just wanted the best people to do this.” Turner Duckworth talked to CR about their latest project: branding the rock beast that is Metallica…

Of All the People in All the World

A performer from Stan’s Cafe theatre company stands behind the rice mountain that represents the
population of the USA: one grain = one person
Visual artists love statistics. Remember the vast population models at Pentagram’s Global Cities show at the Tate Modern last year, which were themselves preceded by artist Abigail Reynolds’ card representations of violent crime statistics? Well now the world is being broken down and totted up again, in a new show in Birmingham that uses grains of rice to represent the 6.7 billion of us on the planet. Stan’s Cafe theatre company are behind Of All the People in All the World, a touring exhibition where a whopping 112 tonnes of rice has been used to replicate a whole range of statistics. Click through for a few examples and for details on the show, then check out the whole Flickr set for the project, here.

What is Graphic Design?

A simple enough question? Well… not that simple it seems. This revealing (not to say amusing) vox-pop film made last year by Studio Pip & Co. in Australia, shows that our beloved artform still has some work to do in the sphere of public awareness. “Wanky, trendy crap”? A “load of slosh”? Some of it, certainly, but full marks have to go to the guy in the shoe shop who comes up with a pretty accurate (and diplomatic) answer…

Nokia India Ad

This ad’s playing a lot on Indian TV right now – from Wieden + Kennedy’s Delhi office. For me it captures well the fact that in India there’s usually a human being doing jobs done in the West by machines or objects eg signs at Mumbai airport are virtually non-existent, but there’s always a bloke on hand to tell you where to go.

Kyoorius Design Yatra Days 2&3

Warning: Do not believe everything this man says. Erik Kessels by Inge Schout
This year’s Kyoorius Design Yatra came to a conclusion here in Goa yesterday with some inspiring words about sustainability, and a hint of controversy, Plus, why Erik Kessels is a big fat fibber…

Nice work

Hovis commercial, agency: MCBD, creatives: Danny Hunt, Gavin Torrance, production company: Rattling Stick, director: Ringan Ledwidge
Here’s the latest round-up of interesting advertising work that has passed through CR Towers recently. First up is the most recent piece of ‘event advertising’ to hit our screens – the new ad for Hovis, directed by Ringan Ledwidge, which has garnered an inexplicable amount of coverage on TV and in the press. For what, we’re not sure – it’s well directed, but the plot of the ad, which is both a homage to Hovis’ longevity and to its advertising heritage, feels rather hackneyed. But nostalgia is a powerful tool in advertising these days, and the advert is also a history of Britain over the last 122 years. It is therefore suitably long – running at one second per year. See it for yourself above.

Karen Caldicott’s Nation Cover

Karen Caldicott’s cover for today’s issue of The Nation. Art director: Steve Brower
In a nod to Barry Blitt’s now infamous New Yorker cover from July, Karen Caldicott has created a Republican version for today’s issue of The Nation, featuring John McCain and Sarah Palin high-fiving astride a polar bear rug (you can see how she achieves her clay illustrations in an earlier CR blog post, here). The scene is, once again, the Oval Office, but Obama’s framed portrait of Bin Laden (it was a joke, remember) has been replaced by a copy of the Ten Commandments. While Blitt’s take was clearly ironic, depicting the right-wing smears that have circulated about Obama, Caldicott’s cover, scarily, doesn’t require nearly as much decoding.

Kyoorius Design Yatra Day1

CR is here in rainy Goa for India’s biggest gathering of designers, the Kyoorius Design Yatra. Today we found out what Tyler Brûlé’s Monocle was originally called, why elephants are like design and that monsoon is the most romantic time of the year…

Skyped Ya!

The next time an annoying client calls you on Skype or your boss wants to give you a remote telling off, SkypedYa can help

Diesel’s S&M Shop

London’s Soho may have a history of sauciness but this is the first time we can remember an actual building going for the S&M look…

Nagi Noda 1973-2008

Coca-Cola spot from 2006, dir. Nagi Noda
Some sad news to report but we’ve just been made aware that Japanese director and artist Nagi Noda has died. She was only 35. Noda was responsible for some amazing music videos and commercials and brought an eccentric and colourful approach to most of her projects. The circumstances surrounding her death remain unconfirmed but videostatic has posted a note from Partizan’s Daniell Hinde expressing his shock at the news. Click through for some examples of work from a very talented creative who will be much missed…

Posters of the Cold War

Supermen poster by Roman Cieslewicz, Paris, 1968 (used on the cover of
Posters of the Cold War by David Crowley)
To coincide with the forthcoming Cold War Modern show at the V&A museum in London, V&A Publishing are set to release a book of posters from the period later this month. Edited by David Crowley (co-curator of the exhibition) Posters of the Cold War includes a selection of posters produced between 1945 and 1970. In our next issue, Crowley examines the role of the World’s Fairs and Expos that enabled nations to pit their cultural capital against each other during the post-war years. As a taster, we’ve picked a few of the most interesting posters from his new book, alongside his detailed description of each…

1 … 1,322 1,323 1,324 1,325 1,326 1,327 1,328 1,329 1,330 … 1,407

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