Fragrant Harbor by Lapsus

A great discovery I made today. This time lapse video of Hong Kong is fantastic, subtle and entertaining. It is the result of a photographic project by Lapsus, someone I happen to know from living in Hong Kong a while back…

A wonderful print

I loved this video. It is both well taken and edited, as well as telling a wonderful story. You can feel what those artists are feeling, the way they are proud of what they do, and the difficulty of their job. This is applied graphic design 100%. It shouldn’t disappear, because it can not be replaced. Let’s hope there will be more jobs to do for them…

More to see for us too.

Angle of vision

Quite an interesting and unusual talk by Starck. At least most entertaining…

America Special

An american special, it is Independence Day after all. Many over there would celebrate a tradition and probably light up a good old BBQ’s. Ummm I could do with one.

Anyway, I found those wonderful photos of old advertising ads of the 50′s on Sallycoton’s Flickr account. There are loads of old ads, some are wonderful to look at…

Cycling Revolution

The free bicycle scheme is coming to London this summer. Just like in Paris, it will change completly the way people communte and approach the city. It will also mean more cyclists on the roads, and its consequences if drivers are not changing their habits on the road. When I say drivers, I mainly think about buses and taxis.

They are setting up a station right below my flat, and a large one too. It will accomodate something like 30 bikes I think… I will be able to tsee which one is free to use, or if there is space available from my lounge.

I should sell my bike soon I think.

More information on the TFL page.

Simplicity

As cliché as it can sound, we are all different, but yet we will surely all agree there is a great deal of enjoyment when facing something simple and easy to understand. Something that communicate what we want in a split of a second is usually more appropriate than another wasting our time.

I felt like this when I saw this shop. There is no misunderstanding, no logo, no brand name, no references, no visuals, no nothing but the very functional name of what the shop is about. Okay, I would also wonder about the strangeness of the letter E, just like my friend Simon when he says: “what is it with those E’s man?”. It feels like they are trying to escape this typographic massacre without any luck, but that is off the topic, as I was more contemplating the simplicity of the whole shop graphic design. What else do we really need for a laundrette, but its street number, and a big sign saying that here it is?

Then I “Flickered” the topic and realised it is relatively normal for those shops to be called what they are only. more visual treats over here. Anyway at least I realised something new today!

Brussels

Brussels is like everywhere, if you start digging you will find lots of wonderful places. It is a nice city and people there seemed very relaxed.

Another Future

You don’t have to like this design to see the vision behind it. It is another future, a direction suggested which did not quite end up being the one ruling… Should we regret square design, straight lines, matte colours, functional lines or should we forget them once and for all, and leave the space for bright and new?

It seems to me, trends in design are slowly coming back to this, from car design to retro looking bags, and even personal grooming. Now, how long before modern and new takes over again?

Dis-play

I have recently been taking photos of my printed work and while doing so I came up with this not so simple question. How should I display my posters?

With this in mind, I had a look online and researched other portfolios in search for inspiration. What came across as a significant trend, is to hold the posters and take a snap revealing the hands and legs of the carriers. Well it is not that bad. For example it gives a clear reference to its dimensions without being too obvious. It is quite a relaxed way to display your work and can be quite engaging for the person who look at it. However it has some negative aspects too. In my opinion, it is a little bit distracting: look at the watch, the shoes, the hairy hands, etc… and last but not least, it is way overdone.

(Examples on the web, left: Seven25; right: Iknoki found on swisslegacy.com)

Instead of continuing the trend I thought it is time I try to be more creative, and come up with a different and less obvious way to do it. I have seen different examples of better ways to show posters, from nailed to the wall, to using different angles flat on a table…

(left to bottom: tillwiedeck.com; heytudio.es; this-studio.co.uk; found on visuelle.co.uk).

So I tried to innovate, or at least go away from the old “Same Same”, while using the flat copy room at university. Ok the first limitation is the fact the camera is by essence only shooting vertically in that place. So already, a lot less possibility to choose from.

So here are my few tries to display posters in a different manner. It would be interesting to discuss the possibilities and see what you guys (I hope someone reads me) come up with on your side…