Clockwise from above: Cole & Son Charlie Wilson Collection, Lee Broom’s Rough Diamond Bistro Chair, Susanne Philippson’s Guardian lamp, Andrew Oliver’s ‘Made with a Twist‘ table.

After paying the £10 to get in, and unchecking the box that would allow the event organisers to sell my information to a third party, I spent just over an hour inside the Truman Brewery, checking out Tent London. It’s little more than a trade show, and I have a bit of a problem with the entrance fee, partly because it’s part of the Design Festival, but particularly because the exhibitors are undoubtedly paying top dollar for their booths to gain class A exposure, while visitors are also paying to have a look. But I digress.

In the Circa area, much of the stalls are dominated by mid-century modern furniture, which is well and good if you’re looking to shop, or worse, looking to kick yourself over all the valuable furniture your parents tossed over the years. A smoking set of Per Lütken Holmegaard Canada glasses, and Russell Callow’s beat-up collection of factory clocks were my coveted items from this section.

The Talent area was good, with Woodloops beautifully finished, sustainable furniture, and Themselves‘ bold, patterned cushions and rugs. My favorite exhibitor by far, was Eva Menz, whose bespoke chandeliers are sexy, sophisticated, and even surprising.

The largest area of the Exhibition, Content, was an eclectic mix of well-established and young brands. Highlights included Corinna Warm’s sleek credenzas, Telegramme’s charming collection of illustrated objects, Caroline Script’s wonderfully delicate tableware, twisted furniture by Andrew Oliver, and the ‘Fishing for my Memories’ collection by Seletti. Though it’s nothing new, I still love Cole & Son’s selection of wallpapers, and Lee Broom’s re-conceived neon furniture is an impractical delight.

After leaving the Brewery, we took a slight detour to the Cardboard Café. Hidden down some dubious alleys, once we found it this temporary construction was impressive, to say the least. Conceived and executed by interior architect consultants B3 Designers, the café was completely constructed using handmade cardboard ‘bricks’. The girls serving coffee tell us that it took seven people working full-time ten days to build it, and that it will be broken down and recycled once the Festival is over. Sadly, we missed the beautiful arches that flanked the entrances, which had been vandalized and destroyed the night before. These images are c/o Core77, who sadly didn’t have the same welcoming experience as we did…

Heading back to Brick Lane, the final stop was my absolute top highlight, Create Berlin’s exhibition at the Dray Walk Gallery. The show was comprised of 20 different projects in a variety of media, presenting a good cross-section of young designers. Schalalala, the fan-scarf knitting project, lets online users cut and paste snippets of fan scarfs together, then download the knitting pattern. Mauermatratzen, or ‘wall matresses’, are inspired by the fall of the Wall, using its quotes and graffiti as a backdrop for dialogue. Susanne Philippson Design teams up with Peter Ibruegger, using illustrations from his ‘neurotic narcissism’ series applied to the simple but beautiful Guardian light. Viewers delicately peel back part of the lampshade to turn on the light, revealing a finely illuminated drawing. llot llov presented my favourite piece, a knitted, entangled mess of lamps. It may look and sound a bit DIY for the contemporary design lover, but it is masterly executed, and very chic. Sadly, the exhibition is now closed, but Create Berlin is considerably active. You can check them out online here.

This was my first London Design Festival. I’ve enjoyed it, even though it runs at the same time as the Architecture open-houses, and Fashion Week (I see the parallels, but it’s a bit gutting to have to choose between 700 things, all happening at the same time). It’s given me just enough energy to want to re-visit some older ideas, and with any luck, to develop new ones. And to be fair, if it’s only cost me a tenner, it’s probably worth it.

Post from: Saint FX. Copyright Miette L Johnson 2008.

Sunday at Tent London: Last of the Design Fest

Inside Out by Tim Walker

Last night’s Design Overtime event at the Design Museum happened, and it was good. On the fourth floor is Tim Walker’s incredible body of work for Vogue, collected over the last ten years or so. The exhibition is beautifully curated, the images so fantastic it could be Narnia. Pictures are up until September 28th, so get there if you can. The third floor was the Forgotten Peacock interactive fashion exhibition, engineered by Takis. A line of men, undressing and dressing into elaborate, modern coats, then slowly walking to a controlled pulse. It was hypnotic. Final stop is the second floor Design Cities exhibition, which runs until the end of the year, so there’s plenty of time yet. I love the concept of this exhibition, partly because I heart category and summary, but mostly because the pieces on display are true classics, and are still exciting to experience. The exhibition covers iconic developments in design in major cities beginning and ending, fittingly, with London. My highlights are as follows, and are a true transcription of my actual notes:

London 1851
Joseph Paxton & the Crystal Palace: My BFF
William Morris: Obviously

Vienna 1908
Michael Thonet Bistro Chair: Fuck yeah

Paris 1928
Le Corbusier Prototype Car: Want to put this in my apartment. Wood! Canvas!

Los Angeles 1949
Eames Lounge Chair: Obviously
Saariaen Tulip Chair and Noguchi Table: We know
Saul Bass Film Posters: Shape and Composition  vs. Type and Photography

Milan 1957
Mirelli Sewing Machine: Sexy, Clockwork Orange. Understated. Black & White!
Sottsase Valentine Typewriter: Not my style, but effing hot.

London 2008
Peter Saville’s Kate Moss Ident: Very her, very Brodovitch
Fernando Gutierrez Local News Poster: !

The museum also has a partner initiative with Flickr and Don’t Panic. Add your photo on the theme of Design Cities to the Flickr group before December 1st, and it may be featured in an exhibition in January.

Post from: Saint FX. Copyright Miette L Johnson 2008.

Design Overtime: Festival, at London Design Museum

Post from: Saint FX. Copyright Miette L Johnson 2008.

The most Intelligent Data Retrival System Yet— The Book

Stiletto NYC’s contribution to Re:think

As part of the London Design Festival, Wardour Publishing & Design has put together a nice little book/project called Re:think, launched last Thursday in Clerkenwell. Self-proclaimed as ‘a collection of visual trifles designed to amuse and inspire’, Re:think asks contributors to redesign anything they want. The results are beautifully odd (Stiletto NYC’s designs for new creatures), sometimes predictable (Damien Weighill’s Queen wearing a moustache) and altogether entertaining (Laura Fountain’s hybrid words, including ‘glossip‘, meaning scandalous information or rumour that attracts such high levels of interest that it would be fitting of publication in a glossy magazine). The limited edition book is £3.50, and there’s talk that the project will continue in the form of an online magazine. Interested parties should check them out via the Facebook group here.

Post from: Saint FX. Copyright Miette L Johnson 2008.

Re:think, London Design Festival

I’m in two minds about the e-ink technology. I think Chris Snyder’s blog post over at Wired nailed it when he said “The whole cover feels thick, like one of those musical greeting cards your friends really don’t want you to give them anymore. The batteries have a life of about 8 to 9 months, but as a static message there is no ability to re-use, let alone a reason to re-read.”

On the one hand, I think it’s important to embrace new technologies, and certainly to explore options for reducing paper, increasing content etc. But how much of this technology will extend to true editorial content, and how much will go toward elaborated advertising? Considering that the limited run of 100K copies cost news-stand buyers an extra 2 bucks, will we eventually end up paying more for the same content with flashier ads?

Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see how this technology develops. Like Chris Snyder, I fail to see its benefits in its present state, or even its future updated-remotely-ever-changing-content state, particularly now that we can access web content on our iPhones. If the e-paper technology were to be employed page-for-page, wouldn’t the magazine essentially be a web-site in your hands? And what happens when the batteries run out? Blank Pages? Perhaps I’m being close-minded. I’m still a believer in print. I still believe that magazines are records of our times, who we are, who we were, and who we think we’re going to be. I’d hate for them to become a gadget. I do, however, commend Esquire. I think, for this issue at least, it’s a bold move that illustrates their curiosity. It does represent where we’re at in our digital age, and it’s a nice place to be. But as Editor David Granger points out, “This time it’s cool. This time it’s a novelty”. Until a truly new medium emerges from the e-ink technology, I’m staying CMYK.

Post from: Saint FX. Copyright Miette L Johnson 2008.

The 21st Century Begins Eight Years after it Started

Post from: Saint FX. Copyright Miette L Johnson 2008.

Spore!

I remember the day I bought my very first issue, and I remember exactly who was on the cover. I spent summer holidays floating in the pool at a friends house, reading Rolling Stone, Raygun, & Spin. My walls were covered with the full-page photos from these massive publications, and I still have many of these issues today, albeit in poor condition. I don’t consider the look, feel and texture of Rolling Stone in the same way I do other magazines, because nostalgia has so much to do with it. As a reader, I’m not just handling a magazine and extracting the content, I’m remembering what it was like the first time I discovered music and life outside suburbia. With Spin having already made the switch, and Raygun sadly long gone, Rolling Stone is the last vestige of music mag culture before the digital age. It may be a necessary change, long overdue, but I’ll still shed my tear for the loss of it’s special format.

Post from: Saint FX. Copyright Miette L Johnson 2008.

Mixed emotions about Rolling Stone

In the Canadian editorial industry, many big companies have made the switch in the past three years. Some still linger on with dated versions of Quark, mainly because of CopyDesk, or the cost of updating several or even hundreds of workstations. Others are just stubborn, afraid that learning a new software will affect production.

Recently, I worked with a small publishing house, which was still using Quark Xpress 7. Having been working with InDesign for about a year, going back to Quark was a complete nightmare. I watched them struggle with preferences across workstations, waste time on unnecessary clipping paths, use ill-represented colours… And these are good designers who know what they’re doing. They’ve just been working in Quark for 20 years. A designers relationship to Quark is an abusive one— We know Quark loves us, we really do. And when it works, it works and we’re happy. But so often, (almost always in the middle of production), we experience its tragic flaws that ultimately hurt us.

Our creative energy shouldn’t be wasted on managing a software’s shortcomings. Using Quark means we lose valuable design time. And why would I go back to that when InDesign does everything I need to do, exactly how I want it to? Maybe I shouldn’t judge before downloading Quark’s generous 60-day trial version. But to be honest, even if I had the time and inclination t0, it would have to be bloody spectacular. Am I wrong?

Post from: Saint FX. Copyright Miette L Johnson 2008.

Quark 8 now Available. Do you Care?

I was very pleased to read, via Gaiman’s blog, that McKean has finally pulled together a website, (which would have been practical for me back when I was attempting to commission an editorial illustration from him). It is now up and running with at least an index page, at davemckean.com.

In Gaimen news, he’ll be speaking in New York in November as part of a Sandman 20th anniversary celebration. I’ve committed to no longer flying to New York for the weekend, (something that is, thank god, considerably more difficult now that I’m based in London) but if you’re in the area, give it a go. These creative minds are few and far between, and well worth the modest New York ticket fees.

Post from: Saint FX. Copyright Miette L Johnson 2008.

Dave & Neil

Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, France. Photo by Patrick 3.14

The Design Museum in London has a whole line-up of upcoming shows and event that look great. The first, Design Cities, starts on September 5th, and runs for the rest of the year. If focuses on contemporary design happening in international cities at a key point in time, beginning and ending with London. It will showcase works from WIlliam Morris, Le Corbusier and Issey Miyake among others. I like this idea. I feel like it will be an elaborated version of the MoMA design room, somewhere I could happily spend several hours before leaving feeling utterly insignificant.

The second is a one-night stand entitled Design Overtime, taking place on the evening of September 19th.

The third is a complete retrospective of Alan Aldridge’s iconic illustrations, from Beatles lyrics to children’s books. Starts on October 10th and runs into January.

Check the Design Museum website for details.

Post from: Saint FX. Copyright Miette L Johnson 2008.

Design Museum Fall Line-up