davidthedesigner

neither one thing nor the other

I've not really engaged with Wimbledon yet this year, but last night I watched the second half of the Murray/Wawrinka match. It should, for me, have been full of novelty: I'd never watched Andy Murray play before (nor Wawrinka); I'd never seen a Wimbledon match played under a roof, nor after dark. But somehow it didn't grab me. Andy Murray has been held up as a potential Wimbledon champion this year. Now, no disrespect, but he's not, is he? You can see it in the body language: he just doesn't have the killer instinct and mastery of the court that defines all great champions.

But it wasn't really Murray that was troubling me. So, was it the roof? It certainly changes the acoustic, so the match didn't really sound like Wimbledon. But I don't think so. Maybe it's because it takes away the drama of whether a match is going to be interrupted by rain or bad light. But there was certainly enough tension in this match, and the crowd were animated enough when points were won or lost.

But something was troubling me.

And then I realised it's the scoreboard. It's set in Optima. The font that's neither one thing nor the other. It's horrible.

pretty in pink

My Pantone Past, which is being featured in the July issue of UPPERCASE, is looking good on the proofs.

england, scotland and wales: things to see

Actually, I'm going to do this in reverse order. So we'll kick off with Wales.

If you're in or around Cardiff this week, then you should pop along and see the degree shows at Cardiff School of Art & Design (on until this Friday). Cardiff has given us some pretty good student bloggers in the past year, most notably (in my probably not completely impartial opinion) Sian and Tom Harle. In fact, if you ask Tom nicely, he'll arrange to give you a guided tour. I'm looking forward to following Tom's blog as he leaves academia and moves out into the big wide world of working for money.

Next up to Glasgow School of Art, where you have an extra day in hand, since their show is open until Saturday.

There you'll find a set of wonderful illustrations of Glasgow's ice cream parlours by Louise Lockhart made up into a guide book, working together with Rosie Ferrier (and thanks to Anne at I Like for the heads up).

And finally back down south of the border to Chelmsford, where botanical illustrator Niki Simpson will be exhibiting at the RHS Hyde Hall Garden between 23rd June and 31st October. Niki's work really is ground breaking and has deservedly won her many awards. Catch it if you can.

is this logo worth £80,000?

It's for The Art Fund and you may well already know that it was designed by Johnson Banks. And I bet you're now thinking that Johnson Banks' fee was £80,000, aren't you? Well, perhaps it was, or perhaps it wasn't. That's not what this post is about.

No, this post is about this painting:

 

The dead Christ supported by the Virgin and Mary Magdalen by Marcantonio Bassetti.

You see, The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge wanted to purchase this fine work for £175,000. And it successfully applied to various bodies for grants to aid the purchase, including the V&A, MLA and The Art Fund. The Art Fund's contribution was to be £80,000, but it came with a condition: that their logo had to appear alongside the painting when it went on display. The Art Fund's position is that it is an independent charity, which does not receive any Lottery or Government funding, and it had insisted on the display of the logo after the Fitzwilliam failed to show it next to other recent purchases acquired with its help. According to the Cambridge News, a spokesperson for The Art Fund said: "To raise money we have to raise our profile. If people see our logo next to a painting they see what their money buys." Fair enough, you might think.

But Dr Timothy Potts, the museum's director, does not agree: he says "Logos are the currency of marketing and commerce and this introduces a promotional element into the galleries that we regard as an unnecessary and unacceptable distraction - no matter how worthy the object of promotion."

Apparently, the Fitzwilliam offered to credit The Art Fund's contribution in a list alongside other supporters, as well as alternative acknowledgments: which were, one assumes, perfectly adequate for other grant-giving organisations and benefactors.

It's an argument that calls to mind my post about sponsor logos.

So, who's right on this? Discuss.

student power?

If you're a regular here, then you'll know that in the past I've regretted the fact that so few design students blogged. And I hope I've done my bit to encourage them.

Well, I think that 2009 will be the turning point. And soon they'll all be wanting to follow Alan Clarke's lovely Olympics posters onto the Creative Review blog. But, of course, you've already seen them, haven't you? But here's another student with another lovely project that you might not have seen already:

Devin MacDonald has just graduated from the University of Michigan School of Art & Design, and for his final major project he contacted the city of Ann Arbor with an idea: to have a guide that showed students living in Ann Arbor how to live more sustainably. Devin explains "there is a lot of information out there about this topic but it is scattered all over. I set out to have a handbook that would encompass it all. The city of Ann Arbor liked the idea so much that they decided to fund the printing and distributing of 10,000 copies for the fall of 2009". You can download the Ann Arbor Green Guide just here.

It's worth it for the back cover alone:

(via For Print Only)

another 4-card trick

It's been a quiet week on here this week - sorry about that. I've been reading about the 7 habits of highly effective people he knows over on Ben's blog and I've concluded that I must be totally ineffective. So, that's it: I'm starting with habit number seven and taking next week off.

Before I go though, there's just time for me to let you know that Anne's latest series of cards (greetings cards this time) are just hot off the press. Designed by yours truly, don't you know. You should buy some now before they sell out.

See ya.

this made me smile #74

The LEGO Bluetooth Printer (warning: eats bandwidth).

Via 15 Wonders of the LEGO World.

three by six

Remember the six golden rules - the things that every aspiring designer ought to know before they start setting type? Well, our good friend Loïc has. He's been invited to contribute to the 20th International Poster and Graphic Arts Festival at Chaumont next month. And, as one of his exhibits, he's chosen to turn my six golden rules into a poster, or posters, à la El Lissitzky:

Looks interesting, don't you think? And Loïc tells me that he's also going to tackle Ben's I'm a designer, use me better talk.

See, that's the nice thing about blogging: you put something out there and you have no idea whether it's going to be completely ignored, or whether somebody else will pick it and run with it.

double take

CR May issue cover, issue side. Photography: Luke Kerwan

3 Slip. Photography: davidthedesigner

crazy colophons

Here's something to cheer you up: a great collection of colophons, from A thru G and H thru Z.

(Big thanks to Eric Baker for the tip-off)