The Shell Guides: a very British surrealism

Front cover of the Shell County Guide to Rutland by WG Hoskins, 1963
The Shell County Guides to England and Wales were, in their own unique way, part of the British avant garde. Dedicated to a subject matter that was quite the reverse, the Guides in fact became a platform for new forms of photographic expression and surrealism. A new exhibition that opens at the University of Middlesex’s Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture on March 4 aims to show just how supportive of the graphic arts these rather stuffy sounding guides to the jewels of the British countryside actually were.

Onitsuka: Product Makes Model, Makes Ads, Makes Art, Makes Product

More evidence of the “new” advertising: the centrepiece of Onitsuka Tiger’s marketing over the coming year will be a meter-long model of a trainer-shaped mini-city created using Rapid Prototyping technology. The model appears in a commercial and in print ads, but copies will also tour in an exhibition and be made into promotional merchandise. Plus – and here’s where it gets really Ad2.0 – Onitsuka is going to bring out a range of trainers based on the model later this year…

Release your inner sleeve designer

This “sleeve”, created as part of Flickr’s CD Cover meme, uses randomly generated data from Wikipedia,
quotationspage.com and Flickr to generate your own fantasy album cover. Type, setting: designer’s own
What’s this? A hot new cover for a band so cutting edge that you haven’t even read about them on Pitchfork yet? Or were The Languages… an unsung band from the Factory years, only to be eclipsed by the success of Joy Division? Well, OK, I admit it; it’s not a new band at all (though the name is fantastic), rather it’s my first attempt at creating a sleeve for Flickr’s CD Cover meme.

Barry McGee at Baltic

Images courtesy Colin Davidson and © Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art 2008
US graffiti-turned-fine artist Barry McGee is currently showing an exhibition of new work at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead. As the images from the show here reveal, McGee has created a number of site-specific installations at the gallery, all of which feature his trademark combination of urban detritus with intricate hand-painted murals.
McGee’s exhibition will be on show at Baltic until April 27. More info here.

What, No Jewel Case?

Detail from one of the three inner sleeves from BUGGEDOut! Classics CD pack showing an ascii type illustration
Already this year several musical packages have landed on our desks and made us very happy – not least because they conspire to give a clear indication that budgets for music packaging are on the up…

Coversourcing: for your votes

Although submissions are now closed, you can still vote on the ideas submitted for our Coversourcing competition to design the UK jacket for Jeff Howe’s Crowdsourcing book

Nice work

Stork, Monster.com, Agency: BBDO, New York. Production company: Rattling Stick. Director: Daniel Kleinman
Following on from Patrick’s early morning blog post on some of the great work we’ve received at CR lately, here’s a second helping of good stuff for your perusal, to help you through the last hours of the working week. First up is this slightly strange ad for the job-search website, Monster.com, from BBDO New York.

KesselsKramer in London

KK Outlet, 42 Hoxton Square, London
Earlier this month, Dutch communications agency KesselsKramer opened its latest hub, right here in London. KK Outlet, based at 42 Hoxton Square is essentially a new “multifunctional” office for the agency that will also act as a shop and gallery. True to form, this is no ordinary space either. For starters, the building (designed by the architectural firm FAT) has been sliced diagonally down the middle…

Friday Round-Up

Weak Buttocks, a mouse, what’s really in hot dogs and a clever calendar: A little shot of inspiration for your Friday morning drawn from recent projects sent in to the CR offices.

On The Conference Circuit

D&AD members can now watch excerpts from past President’s Lectures on the D&AD website, including this from illustrator Paul Davis. Details of this year’s lectures are here
Last year, Creative Review staff were lucky enough to attend conferences in Cannes, Havanah, Monterrey and Goa. Next week, I’m off to the Indaba in Cape Town. Just before xmas I met someone who organises a conference in Mar Del Plata, Argentina that is attended by 2000 designers. Every year, more and more talks and conferences are added to the creative calendar, but what are they for?

BIG book

Alessandro Esteri of Italy-based company Hand Made Group has made a collection of what most of us would undoubtedly deem to be rubbish into a small book. Just for fun…

Designs of the Year Opens

The Design Museum’s Designs of the Year show (or, rather the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year as we are obliged to call it) opened last night. CR was there with somewhat rubbish digital camera in hand…

1 … 1,350 1,351 1,352 1,353 1,354 1,355 1,356 1,357 1,358 … 1,408

More from CR

Image: Shutterstock

How to scale your design business

Growth is a dream for many businesses, but it comes with challenges. Daisy Crowder, brand and marketing director at design recruitment agency Craft, offers advice on how to navigate the change and keep staff on side

Runway finale of the Ganni SS24 fashion week show

Cultivating community with Ganni

The Danish luxury fashion label has spearheaded the characterful evolution of Scandi style. Here, chief brand officer Priya Matadeen discusses its approach to collabs, the pressures of being a responsible brand, and how Ganni Girls grew from a hashtag to a badge of belonging

Guinness brand profile

How Guinness embraced social

By loosening its approach to advertising, and engaging with its audience directly, the drinks brand has transformed with the times and won a whole new set of fans

Lego Fortnite

How Lego creates meaningful brand experiences

We speak to Lego’s VP of global brand development Alero Akuya about the brand’s rare ability to straddle the physical and virtual worlds with ease – whether through its immersive new art exhibition in Paris or collaborations with Epic Games and Nike