New at Pentagram
‘The Picture Book’ Published in Mini Edition
The Picture Book: Contemporary Illustration, compiled by Angus Hyland, has been published in a mini edition by Laurence King as a result of the popularity of the full scale first edition.
The Picture Book is a survey of work by 80 illustrators from across the globe presenting a broad spectrum of styles, techniques and subject matter representative of current trends and innovations.
“Angus Hyland’s carefully curated books on illustration are one of the main forces behind its recent rise in popularity.” Adrian Shaughnessy, Founding editor, Varoom
New Work: M&T Bank
Lorenzo Apicella was asked to design a new flagship branch building for M&T Bank that would capture the essence of M&T’s core values with a design that would endure well into the future, differentiating M&T from its competitors with a distinct and compelling image.
It was agreed that this flagship branch, located in West Seneca, New York, would be the model for all future branch construction and renovation. As an architectural prototype the branch design needed to be adaptable to variable future site conditions and business needs. It also had to meet M&T’s environmental goal of having a low carbon footprint, consuming as little energy as possible and producing minimal amounts of waste. The completed building is anticipated to achieve an LEED Gold rating.
House of Cards Has Winning Hand
The House of Cards campaign for Shelter created by Leo Burnett and our own Domenic Lippa has reaped several awards this year.
Lippa was approached by Leo Burnett’s Richard Brim and Daniel Fisher and asked to create the identity for the campaign and auction event last September as well as an exhibition catalogue and a limited-edition box of A5 playing cards.
Awards for our portion of the project include: two Golds in the 2010 Andy’s, In book for Integrated in the Creative Review Annual, four Merits in this year’s One Show, a Gold from the New York Festivals, and a Gold Design Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival.
New Work: ‘The Surreal House’
Angus Hyland was commissioned by Jane Alison, Senior Curator at the Barbican Art Gallery, to design the graphic identity for The Surreal House, the blockbuster exhibition on view at the Barbican through 12 September. The show examines the relationship between Surrealism and architecture and features work from artists like Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, René Magritte, Man Ray and Joseph Cornell alongside contemporary figures like Rebecca Horn, Rachel Whiteread, Rem Koolhaas and Louise Bourgeois, mounted in an atmospheric, house-like series of rooms. Hyland was delighted to accept this commission as it allowed him to explore a longstanding interest in Surrealism.
New Work: Robert Welch
To mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Robert Welch’s Chipping Campden Studio Shop, Lorenzo Apicella was asked to undertake a major redesign of the space.
Pentagram has a long history of involvement with Robert Welch Designs having developed the graphic identity in the early 1970’s and designing the first mail-order catalogues as well as the book Hand and Machine.
Happy Birthday Pentagram!
Pentagram is 38 years old this month, having been formed in June 1972.
This year London’s birthday celebration consisted of a magical mystery tour from Needham Road to Thorpe Park, where staff and partners sampled the joys of Stealth, Colossus, and Nemesis, followed by lunch at Cliveden House. As with any birthday, of course there has to be a cake—ours was made by Kate Poulter decorated to match the print for the day, designed by Jeremy Kunze.
Meanwhile, in New York the office gathered for a fête in its favorite park, catered by Ilili. Pentagram’s own DJ Warm Red, aka designer Joe Marianek, curated 38 songs for the party, one each for the years 1972 to 2010, with bonus tracks thrown in for the pre-Pentagram years of Fletcher Forbes Gill (1962 to 1966) and Crosby Fletcher Forbes (1967-1971). Listen to the Pentagram 38 mix here or after the jump.
‘Hallucinating Light’ - A Fantasy Portrait
Yves de Contades, photographer and creative lead at International Life magazine, has photographed fantasy portraits of 40 leading figures from the UK’s advertising and design industry. Harry Pearce is featured along with other subjects including Linda Burrows (Creative Director, Sunday Times), Theo Williams (CD, Habitat), Liz Sivell (CD, RGA Advertising), Suzanne Dean (CD, Random House Publishing), Jamie Bell (CD, CMW), Justin Cooke (owner, Fortune Cookie and Chair, British Interactive Media Association), Steve Vranakis (CD, VCCP), and former Pentagram Partner David Hillman. The results, a mix of the quirky, the clever and the downright bizarre are available to view online here.
A short video of the private view of the fantasy portraits can be seen here. The portraits will be on display at LBi for one month from Thursday, 24 June.
For his portrait, Harry was photographed holding a very special guitar. An explanation after the jump.
Continue reading "'Hallucinating Light' - A Fantasy Portrait"
New Work: Nabokov Covers for Penguin Classics
Angus Hyland and his team have designed the covers for the entire backlist of titles by Vladimir Nabokov, one of the most acclaimed authors of the 20th Century. Penguin is publishing the 24 new books in three batches over a year.
The brief by Penguin’s Art Director, Jim Stoddart, was to move the covers away from the sombre approach used in previous editions and to focus more on the playful and satirical aspects of Nabokov’s writing in the hopes that this might encourage a new generation of readers.
Pentagram suggested three possible solutions, and Penguin chose one that initially appears traditional, incorporating symmetrical typography in a box with a decorative border. However, Hyland subtly subverts this classical approach. Each cover features a different game, sport or visual illusion used as a background pattern echoing the contents of the book. Beyond that the covers were commissioned out to illustrators who were then permitted to deface the strong typographic grid. The illustrators composed their work around the fixed elements of the title and the author name, and in some instances their work overlaps elements of the branding.
Illustrations were provided by Alan Baker, Christine Berrie, Luke Best, Masumi Briozzo, Astrid Chesney, Agnès Decourchelle, Marion Deuchars, David Foldvari, Michael Gillette and Slawa Harasymowicz.
Last fall Pentagram participated in the repackaging of Nabokov’s US backlist, published by Vintage.
More pictures of the Penguin covers after the jump.
Continue reading "New Work: Nabokov Covers for Penguin Classics"
The Real Nike Air
Since its founding in 1978, Nike has led the way in developing trainers as state-of-the-art athletic footwear, as well as expressions of personal style and creativity. NIKE78 is a new project created by London College of Communications student Paul Jenkins that celebrates Nike’s legacy of design innovation. Using shoes donated to the school from a Nike concept store, Jenkins sent pairs to 78 designers, artists and other creatives and asked them to challenge the function of the shoes, using sport as inspiration. The ‘78’ celebrates the year of Nike’s founding, and the project officially launched on May 30, Nike’s birthday. The resulting designs are being posted to an online gallery.
As one of the participating creatives, Pentagram Berlin’s Justus Oehler invented an unusual evolution for Nike Air shoes. Justus says of his design:
As we human beings can’t fly, we settle for less; we make do with running and jumping. But the dream of flying is still being dreamt, and maybe one day we will literally take off given the right pair of shoes. Well, this is the pair of shoes mankind has been waiting for. The real “Nike Air”.
Oehler knows about flying: he designed the identity for Star Alliance.
An exhibition showcase for NIKE78 is planned for this Autumn’s London Design Festival. Read more about the genesis of NIKE78 on the CR Blog.
Preview: Israel Museum
The renewed Bronfman Archaeological Wing of the Israel Museum designed by Daniel Weil and John Rushworth opens on 25 July following over five years of work. The Archaeological Wing originally opened in 1965 and has been redesigned and restored by Pentagram as part of the whole scale renewal of the entire museum campus.
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