Being John Malkovich

This maybe not an art-house film, but it is probably the most surreal Hollywood production I have seen in a while.

I knew nothing of the character or the synopsis of the film before I watched it recently. The film raises a number of questions, but only answers a few, making it confusing but still interesting.

The surreality begins with a puppeteer who finds a portal in his very low-ceiling office, which then transports him into the mind of an actor for fifteen minutes. Following this he is then shot out into a New Jersey road-side! Surreal indeed.

To critique the film without ruining it. In my opinion the film raises issues about morality and questions societies current attitudes towards sex, sexuality and living in a world submerged by celebrity culture. These are all issues that we deal with frequently in graphic design. The film uses a very creative approach to dealing with these issues, although not always direct and not always what you would expect. However these approaches could be applied in a design context.

Futurism - Tate Gallery

Futurism has been an art movement that I have always taken great interest in and that’s why I took the opportunity to visit the recent Tate Modern exhibition. Futurism shaped twentieth century art and contemporary art in general. Futurism was all about progression into the future and rejection of the past, however towards the end of the movement it unfortunately became coupled with fascism and war.

Before the unfortunate demise of the movement the surface appearance seemed to relate to cubism, but this was probably more coincidence than similar intentions, because the manifestos for each movement were different.

As can be seen in the work of Umberto Boccioni, futurism celebrated the movement of machinery and people, it seemed to capture and rejoice each frame. For a time when photography was not prevalent, a great job was done of imagining frames and the fluidity of movement.

I have taken inspiration from the initial futurist movement in its way of making observations of objects and presenting it in a conceptualised way. Although this is an old movement it is important to note its successes and indeed its downfall.

Yulia Brodskaya - Experimental Typography

Moscow born Yulia Brodskaya has recently become a well known name in the world of typography and illustration. She often incorporates and combines craft and intricate hand paper modelling into her designs.

A substantial part of Yulia’s work is made and finessed physically using paper and material which is later combined with digital (although not all).

This is a design which was conducted for the Guardian magazine 'G2':

I find Yulia's work insprirational and interesting in the way it challenges advances in technology and reverts to older, yet still very beautiful methods of presenting typography.

You can find more of Yulia's illustations and experiments with typography on her website here.

The Design Police

In a world with some good design and an abundance of bad design, the 'Design Police' have come up with an ingenious campaign to rid the world of bad design.

Paying close attention to typography and basic graphic design principles the Design Police is a good example of a guerilla campaign. This may make crit sessions faster and you can print out your own copies from design-police.org.

Orange, Digital Craft

Something you may have come across recently:

'Bright Top Ups' an advert put together by the agency Fallon and Peepshow for Orange

The advert consisted of characters designed by Peepshow and devised by Fallon. What is interesting about this particular project is its combination of media. Card models were created and used as props and then edited using 3D software to give it the appearance of puppets.

The combining of craft with digital does appear to be a trend in the industry at the moment. Although much can be achieved with changing technologies, it seems that the texture and aesthetics of the real deal sometimes cannot be beat.

Illinois Institute of Technology

I took these photographs at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. This particular building was designed by the architect Remmert Koolhaas. I was particularly interested in the use of texture and colour within the building. The intensity of light and colour was a key aspect in the design. The use of type, texture and pictograms were all incorporated providing a unique and consistent atmosphere to the building.

Chicago - A unique place for architecture and design

I recently visited the Mid-West American city which is rich with architecture, art and design. My trip consisted of visiting a number of buildings that were integral with regards to modern American architecture, and visiting noted sites in the city.

Chicago is a city that has flourished in recent history and was the first city of the skyscraper (not New York, as many would think). Below is an evaluation of a few observations I made during my trip there:

The Bean:

This sculpture is situated in Millennium Park in Chicago. It has been nicknamed 'the bean' by residents, but it is actually titled 'Cloud Gate', and is by Anglo-Indian artist Anish Kapoor. Its design is subtle in comparison to the rest of the Chicago skyline. It delicately mirrors the skyline above and the people below, providing an interactive piece to the people that surround it. It acts like a distorted mirror to those below and arround it.

As a design piece, the artist has put great consideration into how this sculpture fits into its environment, which I feel is something that applies to all design. It creates numerous responses and reaction to those that view it.