D&AD Awards: The Gold Rush

Earlier this evening a record six Black Pencils were handed out in an unprecedented act of judicial generosity at D&AD’s 2008 Awards. Apple scooped two (making it the biggest single winner of the coveted Gold Award to date, with six since 1999) and it was a very good year for advertising categories, with The Partners’ Grand Tour initiative for The National Gallery picking up a Gold; and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Projector Inc. also winning for online campaigns (no Graphics awards though, of which more here and here). Oh and that Gorilla made a brief appearance as well…

Chemistry can be fun

We were never that bothered by chemistry at school – the lab coat being such a tricky look to pull off and all – but maybe if they’d explained it like this we’d have paid more attention…

Hot & Cold in London

Hot and Cold issue three (boxed)
Hot & Cold is a collaborative art zine project created by Californian artists Chris Duncan and Griffin McPartland. Each issue invites up to 20 artists – with more joining as word spreads – to participate in creating this hand crafted, limited edition zine. A new exhibition of their collected work has just opened in London…

The Disappearing World of Soho’s Independent Record Shops

A look inside Harold Moores Records: One of a series of eight portraits shot by Spencer Murphy
Whether from rapacious property developers or the internet, the independent record shops of London’s Soho are under threat. Barely a month goes by without another one disappearing. Designer Ali Augur and photographer Spencer Murphy decided to document these musical treasure troves and their owners before they become a distant memory.

Nice Work

Specsavers ad, agency: in-house, production company: Rattling Stick, director: Danny Kleinman
Here’s a round-up of recent advertising work that has caught our eye here at CR Towers. First up is director Danny Kleinman’s latest for Specsavers, which, considering it’s for an optician, is really rather chilling.

Mapping the Blogosphere

Is the above from a new series of artworks by a contemporary designer, an explosion of scientific data, or a photograph of a strange creature discovered by deep-sea biologists? Well, while most of the following images are just crying out to be placed on a T-shirt, they actually have little to do with design, fashion, photography or art, and much more to do with cyberspace…

A Century of Olympic Posters

Mexico 68 poster by Lance Wyman, with artistic direction from Eduardo Terrazas and Pedro Ramirez Vázquez, © courtesy of the artist/IOC/V&A
Despite the protests, Olympic fever is slowly starting to build, and the exhibitions are beginning. This weekend, at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London, a show looking at 100 years of Olympic posters will open which will run (no pun intended…) over the summer to coincide with the Beijing Games. Here are a few extracts from the selection that will be shown – included are posters by artists such as R B Kitaj, as well as much-loved design classics such as Lance Wyman’s poster for the Mexico 68 Olympics, shown above.

CR Annual: the winners

The May issue of Creative Review (above) features 100 pages of work selected for this year’s Annual. The very best of those make up our Best In Book section: details of the winners here…

China Design Now

Lam Hung’s Peace of Mind poster for a Zen Buddhist centre, Hong Kong, 2001
The V&A’s current flagship exhibition has a very clear, chronological layout, which is a little surprising considering its slightly clumsy title. The show itself begins in Shenzhen – the site of the first McDonald’s in China – and, perhaps more significantly, the birthplace of contemporary Chinese graphic design. Throughout the exhibition, China’s lust for iconic style and mischievous trends is depicted via a dazzling array of poster designs, illustrations, animations and quirky films: many of which frequently reference, on the one hand, the Buddhist way of life and, distinctly on the other, the visual potency of Maoist China.

Burrill’s Work For Wallpaper*

Anthony Burrill’s Work Hard And Be Nice To People poster was a feature on the walls of CR Towers for a long time, providing valuable words to live by for all who labour here. An unfortunate Blu-Tac-related accident put paid to our copy so we were pleased to hear that its no-nonsense message will be reappearing on the cover of next month’s Wallpaper*

Snuff Movies

Are publishers the new record labels? Barely a week goes by without news reaching us of some new lavishly packaged re-releases, while there seems to be a spirit of innovation in book marketing that has been sadly lacking in the music business. Chuck “Fight Club” Palahniuk’s new book Snuff (out 20 May) is a case in point. Honest have been asked to direct three spoof porn movie trailers to help flog it, the first being The Wizard of Ass (above).

Tax-Factor

Tax disc holder by Sir Peter Blake. Yep – that’s right – a tax-disc holder
They’re a little bit tacky and verging on the ridiculous, but these tax disc holders add a sprinkling of creative spice to the dreary necessity – and otherwise creative blackhole – that is car tax. And among a new range from Pretty Taxing are some new designs by artists Sir Peter Blake, Mat Collishaw and Ian Munroe.

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