stimulation

Less than a month after Dieter Rams‘ eightieth birthday, Pentagram will hit the big 4-0. (Coincidence? You be the judge.) To celebrate four decades of eye-popping work, Naresh Ramchandani and Tom Edmonds in the London office whipped up “The Forty Story” (below). The film tells the story of a boy born on the day Pentagram opened—June 12, 1972—and how his life has been tracked (and kerned) by four decades of Pentagram design. Here’s to forty more years.

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Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Three cheers for 22 vintage megaphones, which go on the block tomorrow at Wright in Chicago.

You don’t hear much about megaphone collecting. A cruel irony at a time when the world needs a bit of the old-fashioned boosterism that comes from holding a large cone to one’s mouth and yelling “Go Team!” Those that grimace at the sight of foam fingers (vulgar, shoddily made, soundless) won’t want to miss the rare opportunity to acquire an instant collection of megaphones that goes on the block tomorrow at Chicago’s Wright auction house as part of its Living Contemporary sale. Estimated to sell for between $3,000 and $5,000, the lot of 22 vintage bullhorns includes several handsome models designed to cheer on various mid-century squads of Spiders, Indians, and Macon Whoopies (“Georgia’s Finest”). The names of their original owners—Diane, Susan, Joan, Nancy, Lucy—are preserved in an interesting range of typefaces, while a wee brown one reads “Die Schnitzel Bunk Jug Band.” Set for speaking-trumpets? Cheer yourself with a few of the other offerings from tomorrow’s sale: Paco Rabanne space curtains, a delightful dozen of Dorothy Draper chairs, or a set of “Inflammatory Essays” by Jenny Holzer, who we suspect enjoys a good megaphone.

(Photos: Nico Neefs)

Bound for the Milan Furniture Fair yet short on time? Focus on the work of designers named Maarten! That will keep you plenty busy. Start at Ventura Lambrate, where Maarten Baas will have a bunch of new projects on display beginning tomorrow. Among them are spidery clay stools that Louise Bourgeois would have loved, a massive tablecloth woven—in a typeface called “Font of the Loom”—with the names of the inhabitants of Amsterdam (all 780,559 of them), and a still-under-wraps “kinetic object” for Laikingland. Also on view will be his Martin Puryear-esque “Empty Chair,” a 16-foot tall ladder-back seat created for Amnesty International in honor of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.

The other Eindhoven-educated must-see Maarten is Maarten De Ceulaer, who’ll be exhibiting at three locations during the Salone del Mobile. Head to Rossana Orlandi and the Triennale di Milano to be charmed by his “Mutations” series (pictured). “The pieces in this series look like they weren’t made by hands, but have grown to their present form organically,” says the Brussels-based designer. “They might be the result of a mutation in cells, or the result of a chemical or nuclear reaction. Perhaps it’s a virus or bacteria that has grown dramatically out of scale.” In fact, De Ceulaer created the molecularly marvelous seating, a kind of deep-buttoned upholstery run amok, by carefully composing patterns with sections of foam spheres that are then applied to a structure. The final step is coating the entire piece in a rubbery or velvet-like finish. “It is largely impossible to ever recreate such a specific pattern,” he says, “so every piece is completely unique.”

(Photo: Wright)

“They communicate fast. And with style and wit,” noted the circa-1965 promotional copy for Howard Miller’s Pronto Posters, designed by the George Nelson & Associates team of Bill Cannan, Lance Wyman, and Irving Harper. Screenprinted onto sturdy masonite(“treated so as to stay new-looking and be used and re-used for years”), the set of 24 placards tackled a range of freshly minted workplace safety regulations and best practices, from the strategically bandaged figures of “Wear Your Helmet” and “Use Your Safety Guards” to pseudocharred “Flammable” and “Think,” in which our magenta man has forgotten his pants. An original trio of Pronto Posters (pictured) is among a stellar line-up of Nelsonian lots—don’t even get us started on the 1954-55 Carousel Weather Vane (so Crying of Lot 49!)—that will go on the block at Wright’s Modern Design sale on March 29. “They add flair and humor to the surroundings, improve morale, reduce accidents, and aid efficiency,” promised Miller. At an estimated price of $1,500 to $2,000 for the set of three, how you can afford not to buy them?

Perhaps it’s the proliferation of crystal-clear HD televisions, the ascendance of 2012 Colors of the Year Tangerine Tango (Pantone’s pick) and Terracotta Rose (the ruddier hue favored by AkzoNobel), or simply a sign of the coming apocalypse, but companies of all kinds are suddenly enamored with the same vibrant pitchman: Roy G. Biv. Fresh from the “full spectrum”-themed TED Conference, we can’t help but notice that it’s color, color, everywhere on TV commercials, whether they’re touting pricey accessories, cheap n’ cheerful throw pillows, or the newest services of a big-box retailer. In these three rainbow-rific spots, color gets downright aggressive: running amok as a boldly costumed Parkour troupe for Target (“Color Changes Everything”), as “Sans Cans” paint flowing freely in the streets for Lowe’s, and slapping unassuming headphone-wearers upside the head for Beats by Dr. Dre. The take-home message: resistance is futile, color is coming for you, probably in the form of a limber European gentleman dressed in head-to-toe cyan.
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(Photo: Bill Simone)

Never underestimate the power of license plates (as Cosmo Kramer once reminded us). They did the trick for the Society of Design (SOD). When the Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based nonprofit wanted an effective and memorable way to invite letterer, illustrator, designer, and Daily Drop Captain Jessica Hische to be a part of its 2012-13 speaker series, they looked no further than the Department of Transportation. SOD members researched the state’s custom license plate program (eight characters max, including one space), convinced 34 people to change their vehicle registrations, and mapped out a multi-plate message to Hische, a Pennslyvania native who is now based in San Francisco. After filing and re-filing oodles of paperwork over the course of several weeks, they finally had their invitation, in the form of 27 freshly pressed license plates.

The next step was to take the charming analog project to the digital realm. A website was created (invitinghische.com), and called to the attention of Hische via Twitter. “Pennsylvania misses you tremendously,” tweeted SOD to the designer. “Please come home.” Her response was immediate, heartfelt, and, fortunately for those who are now driving around with the plates on their vehicles, in the affirmative. “I am crying at my desk. I’ve never been so touched by a group of people I don’t even know!” Hische tweeted in response. “And the answer of course is YES! I will marry you! I mean come to Pennsylvania.” And she’s bringing presents. Each of the SODers involved with the project will receive a delightful drawing: Hische’s hand-lettered version of his or her name.

The design whizzes over at C&G Partners have many talents, but among the most mind-blowing is their ability to transform grayish-yellowish mountains of historical documents and artifacts into visually stunning, user-friendly exhibits and displays. Feast your eyes (and your web browser) on their latest archival triumph: a website for The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. A C&G team led by partner Maya Kopytman (working in collaboration with Chicago-based web development firm Palantir) created a site that builds on the graphic identity established for a related traveling exhibition that the firm completed last year. At the core of the site, which launched yesterday, is a new digital archive for The King Center Imaging Project, a JPMorgan Chase & Co.-backed initiative to “bring the works and papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. to a digital generation.” Browse the archive to pore over King’s handwritten notecards and telegrams or zoom in on a Flip Schulke photo of MLK enjoying lunch with his family in 1964, under the watchful gaze of Ghandi, whose image hangs on a wall above them. Next up: more meticulously scanned and eminently searchable letters, speeches, drafts, notes, and photos. The King Center Imaging Project digital archive will eventually contain about a million documents.

Foundation Rwanda’s latest fundraising initiative, “Color Rwanda with Hope,” comes with a typographic twist. The nonprofit organization, founded in 2008 by photojournalist Jonathan Torgovnik and former creative director Jules Shell, tapped members of creative agency LBi Syrup to design an original typeface for the multi-media campaign. Rather than whip up something in the studio, where they work on projects for artistically inclined brands such as Bottega Veneta and Puma, the LBi Syrup group traveled to Rwanda and used the artwork and writing of the children they met there as inspirational font fodder. The resulting typeface, “Color Rwanda,” appears on various campaign materials, including the limited-edition coloring books that are at the heart of the fundraiser. LBi Syrup also created a short film (below) for the campaign. All proceeds from the Color Rwanda with Hope effort will help to fund Foundation Rwanda’s work to provide secondary education for the 20,000 ostracized children born of rape during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
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In a move that we hope will land him the network-TV variety show he so richly deserves, Chip Kidd will give a talk at this year’s TED Conference, which gets underway on February 27 in Long Beach, California. The charismatic author, editor, art director, book jacket designer, Batman expert, and rock star will lead off a March 1 session entitled “The Design Studio,” according to the program line-up released today. Kidd will be followed onto the TED stage by Andrew Bolton, curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, who may shed some light into the global phenomenon that was “Savage Beauty” (he organized the McQueen blockbuster) or just help to get the audience thinking outside their boxy polos and khakis. Rounding out the session is IDEO founder and Stanford professor David Kelley, who is expected to address his passion for “unlocking the creative potential of people and organizations to innovate routinely.”

Meanwhile, New Yorkers have a couple of imminent opportunities to get their Kidd fix (and wouldn’t Kidd Fixx be a great name for that TV show?). Tomorrow evening, the Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art hosts an evening of Bat-Manga. Kidd will discuss the Japanese Bat-mania phenomenon, the basis for his 2008 book, amidst the museum’s current exhibit of original artwork and lavish cover art from the Batman-manga comics. And on Thursday, January 26, he’ll be on hand for “The Next Chapter,” an AIGA/NY-sponsored look at e-publishing dynamics. What does Kidd know about digital publishing and the future of the book? Absolutely nothing, so he’ll be moderating a panel of people who actually do, including Carin Goldberg, Craig Mod (500 Startups, Flipboard), and Jeremy Clark (Adobe).

In a year studded with beautiful new volumes by and about artists and designers ranging from Alexander McQueen to Andrea Zittel, these are the five that we found most inspiring.

Autobiography of a Fashion Designer: Ralph Rucci (Bauer and Dean) by Ralph Rucci, with photographs by Baldomero Fernandez
Fashion designer and artist Ralph Rucci has been betrayed by key members of the fashion press, who should have made him a household name years ago, but critics, curators, and connoisseurs have picked up the slack. This just-published volume is a fascinating follow-up to Ralph Rucci: The Art of Weightlessness (Yale University Press), published in 2007 to accompany the Museum at FIT’s exhibition of the designer’s work. Like Rucci’s exquisite creations, Autobiography of a Fashion Designer rewards patience and close-looking, with pages of lush color photos and descriptions of the couture techniques used (and in some cases pioneered) in the Chado Ralph Rucci atelier. Inspired by Sol LeWitt’s Autobiography (1980), a kind of exhaustive visual index of the artist’s life, this book also tells the stories behind 20 objects Rucci has collected in his lifetime. It’s a fitting tribute to an uncompromising designer with the soul of artist.

Alexander Girard by Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee (Ammo Books)
Treat yourself to the amazing Alexander Girard mega-monograph by designer Todd Oldham and writer Kiera Coffee. The product of nearly four years of research and, at 672 pages, an innovative scheme of printing and binding, this book is a must for any design lover. Oldham was granted exclusive permission to sift through the fastidiously kept archives of Girard (1907-1993), who is best known for his folk art-infused textiles for Herman Miller but also designed everything from buildings to typography. “I’d estimate that 90 percent of the work in the book hasn’t been seen,” Oldham told us earlier this year. “Wait ‘til you see the stuff from his early design career, in the ‘20s.” And take a closer look at the image credits: many of the archival photos were taken by frequent Girard collaborator Charles Eames.
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