I was perusing the latest issue of Creative Review on the train to work this morning, as I'm sure many of you are prone to do, when I came across a spread of posters that had been commissioned for the London Design Festival. I had been singing the praises of the festivals presence in East London on this here blog just a couple of weeks ago, so I took particular notice of the article.
Twenty of the country's big name designers were asked to take part. The brief was very open, with the idea to make a personal statement about London, the only real stipulation being the colour palette; the designs could on include red and black.
I really like these kind of limitations. On one hand it could be seen as a hugely wide open brief; London in black and red, but that gives the brief an important focus with huge scope, something I'm sure many designers would love all of their projects to have. The result is a really diverse set of posters, that work together on an individual basis, but when viewed together work as a set because of the use of colour, which really emphasises its level of importance when it comes to graphic design. Another good example of colour bonding a series together this is Penguin's great ideas.
The posters I'm showing above were my favourite from the twenty commissioned. Starting with the 'Taxi!' poster the designers responsible are Alan Kitching, Mike Dempsey, Morag Myerscough, Bibliotheque, Tony Brook, Tom Hingston Studio, Studio Frith, Damon Murray & Stephen Sorrell of Fuel, Angus Hyland, Henrik Kubel and Quentin Newark.
This splendid poster was designed and printed by Revenge Is Sweet, a Franco-Australian duo who live and work in London.
I stumbled across it while perusing the site of London screen printing facility Print Club, a print shop that I would very much like to get my hands dirty at.
The 'Kill Me Softly' series numbers three in total, and I've chosen number three as my favourite, but have a look at one and two and make up your own mind.
All three posters are available to buy from the Print Club shop. There is also some other magnificent work on the Revenge Is Sweet site, none more so than the 'Love & Hate' poster.
Much is written about the quality of artwork that London Underground has historically produced, and rightly so. An excellent range of advertising and design has been created over its 145 year history.
I believe though, that present LU work doesn't receive the praise that it deserves.
For example, the posters currently used to promote the ongoing improvements being carried out on the Underground; the juxtaposition of the famous simplification of the Underground line (used on the tube map) with a life like illustration of an engineer, results in an imaginative, witty and informative advert.
I think that this campaign is well considered and (illustratively at least) skillfully executed. The featured poster (above) and this piece in particular really deserve to be added to TfL's vault of good design, so that they can be celebrated in the future along with the past greats.
I am a fan of this poster. While I'm not too sure about the sentiment of the message, I'm really partial to the naively illustrated pattern Mr Pate has created here. It's vaguely reminiscent of the illustrations Paul Rand produced for his children's books.
Visit Good Shape Design to see more of Wayne Pate's work.
The London Underground Roundel celebrates its 100th birthday this autumn. It's one of the most recognisable logos in use today. It was perfected nine years after its conception by Edward Johnston in 1917 and has unofficially grown to become an icon for London itself.
To celebrate this centenary Transport for London have commissioned 100 contemporary artists to create artwork inspired by the famous logo. I've picked a few of my favourites above, but you can see all 100 at the Rochelle School in Shoreditch, and they'll be on display until the 30th of October.
Artwork (top to bottom, left to right) James Ireland, Pen & Tape Roundel; Torsten Lauschmann, Balaclava & Sweatband; Henry Coleman, Poster design (Venn Roundel); Lothar Hempel, UNDERGROUND (all 2008)
