Special Offer: Creative Review for £4
This month’s issue of Creative Review costs just £4 (instead of the usual £5.70). It’s a special issue too, following a month in the life of a client – Will Gompertz at the Tate galleries.
Subway Sect: Hayley Newman & Cecilia Wee in conversation
Cecilia Wee and Hayley Newman
Subway Sect is a new radio series, produced by Maria Bartolo and CR’s Eliza Williams, which is airing on Resonance FM, London’s art/experimental radio station, over the next six weeks. The shows aim to explore the complex relationship between art and music and take the form of a series of conversations between artists, musicians, writers, designers, djs and music video directors.
The shows go out each Wednesday at 1pm on Resonance (104.4 FM or online at www.resonancefm.com) and we’ll also be bringing you transcripts of highlights from the shows each week on the CR blog.
On this week’s Subway Sect, artist Hayley Newman is in conversation with broadcaster and curator Cecilia Wee, who co-curates the monthly inter-arts social occasion Rational Rec. Hayley is most famous for her performance art, and has exhibited and performed at galleries including the Camden Arts Centre, the Barbican, and Matt’s Gallery in London. The two discuss the influence that music has had on Newman’s work, as well as some of her most significant performance works. The interview was recorded in London earlier this year.
Videos of the month
Our showcase in the December issue of Creative Review is all about music, and of course features some choice cuts of music video brilliance. Here is a selection of the vids featured in the issue, plus some other ones that have grabbed our attention this month. First up is Wade Shotter’s latest for Vincent Vincent & The Villains, which shows that you can’t beat a bit of good old-fashioned hula-hooping.
Will Burtin: Forgotten Master of Design
Will Burtin (portrait above by Arnold Newman. Photo ©Arnold Newman, GettyImages) created intricate scientific models that stunned audiences in the 1950s. As the subject of a new book, his work still manages to amaze, writes Rick Poynor
There can be few harder books to sell to a publisher than historical monographs about graphic designers, especially books about designers who died years ago and are no longer well known today, no matter how renowned they were in their lifetimes. It’s a catch 22 because one reason they are not well known is that there isn’t a book. A case in point is Will Burtin…
In Plane View
The unmistakable rudder stabiliser and engine exhaust of a Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird. Sexy!
The many types of aircraft held at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC no doubt attract their fair share of aerophiles. But now even those with just a passing interest in aviation can marvel at the beauty of flight as depicted in the pages of In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight, a new collection of imagery from Carolyn Russo, the Smithsonian’s photographer. Russo’s work focuses on the details of a range of different aircraft and it’s from her re-examining of their various forms and structures that this collection of striking shapes, patterns and abstractions has been brought together.
In The Lair Of The Goat King
Patrick Burgoyne is blogging all week from Design Week Monterrey
The regional speciality in Monterrey is cabrito, or baby goat. And there’s only one place to eat it: El Rey Del Cabrito where, if you’re lucky, you’ll meet owner Jesus Gonzalez. He’s not exactly the shy, retiring type and his restaurant is a design gem…
Monterrey Design Week: Days 2&3
Patrick Burgoyne blogs from Monterrey Design Week in Mexico. Above: DWM director general Michael Garcia gets proceedings under way
Creative Futures: tickets available for Monday night’s talks
Untitled by Popel Coumou
There are a few places still available for the next Creative Futures event at London’s 3ROOMS next Monday evening. This is the second of three events hosted by Creative Review and PlayStation and will feature photographer Popel Coumou and creative team Sam Akesson and Tomas Mankovsky from Fallon. To register to attend, simply go here. Places are very limited so please get to the venue early to be assured of entry. Each event runs from 7 to 10pm at 3Rooms, a unique space on Hanbury Street, London E1. Each of the Futures will speak about their work, while the work of the other nominees will also be on show.
Nokia lights up Regent Street
Christmas is coming, in case you hadn’t noticed. To alert us to this, over the last few weeks Christmas lights have been switched on all over London, filling the streets with gaudy displays. Except on Regent Street that is, which this year, thanks to a collaboration between Nokia and Wieden + Kennedy ad agency, has taken a surprisingly elegant approach.
Design Week Monterrey
Patrick Burgoyne will be blogging all week from Design Week Monterrey in Mexico. Shown above, the view from his hotel window. Note disappointingly cloudy weather. Serves him right.
Shape, the fifth Design Week Monterrey conference, kicked off today, 20 November. The three-day event, organised by Monterrey design school, CEDIM, brings together over 1000 students from Monterrey and other parts of northern Mexico to hear talks from a diverse array of international speakers, although not Bruce Mau…
Real Time Movie
Cinemagoers may be slightly confused by one of the films that will appear amongst the regular trailers in selected cinemas across London from today. Depicting a street scene in Borough Market, the beautifully shot film (shown above on YouTube) sees Jude Law walk through the market, pausing to buy some fish while poetically pondering life’s mysteries. Yet at the end, instead of revealing that the film is a snippet of a forthcoming blockbuster starring Law, it has a more teasing tag, simply saying “Come, See, Experience, Real Time Movie, Borough Market, 30 Nov 07, 11.30am”.
A Month In The Life Of… A Client
CR December featuring Will Gompertz, director of Tate Media, pictured in his office, in front of a reproduction of How to Work Better (1991) by Fischli & Weiss (adapted for Tate in 2006). © the artists. Photographer: Jonathon Foster Williams
The December issue of CR sees our next Month In The Life Of special (following August’s A Month In The Life Of A Graphic Designer). This time we are going client-side. Will Gompertz, director of Tate Media and in charge of all the promotional activity for Tate Modern and Tate Britain, has kept a daily journal over the course of four weeks in October. In addition, we will discuss Tate and its activities with a selection of its creative partners, including Cornel Windlin, Fallon’s Richard Flintham, James Goggin and artist and Tate trustee Jeremy Deller. As a taster, here is a seven-day extract from Gompertz’s journal. The December issue of CR is out on the 22 November.
Creative Review’s Annual Awards 2025 are officially open for entries
One of the most respected and trusted awards for the advertising and design industries are back for 2025. Run, don’t walk to get your entries in before the Early Bird Deadline on 25 October
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
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
Why are brands apologising so much right now?
Brands are saying sorry at a more rapid rate than ever. CR’s advertising columnist Ben Kay delves into why sorry is no longer the hardest word and whether this is an effective strategy for winning audiences
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
Tracing Banksy’s art history remixes
Kelly Grovier’s new book charts the artist’s persistent dialogue with classic and contemporary art
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
Matt Willey brings a human touch to Kaos titles
The Pentagram partner has created the titles for the acclaimed new Netflix show, which reimagines the Greek myths in a contemporary setting
A visual history of movie posters
A new book from Reel Art Press collates the first comprehensive history of film posters. We explore why they remain an underappreciated area of cultural design
The Monthly Interview: Rob Lowe, aka Supermundane
Mark Sinclair talks to the artist and designer about his new book, Lost Ordinary Magic, and the importance of recognising the power of simplicity and the everyday wonders that surround us
Unravelling adland’s obsession with 90s nostalgia
We explore how the 90s, an era the UK looks favourably upon for its thriving culture, are continually inspiring a stagnated creative industry
Building the visual world of Fontaines DC
The band’s surreal new album visuals explore a darker, more grotesque side of romance. We speak to the creative team behind the campaign about challenging the visual tropes of rock music