LogoArchive ExtraIssue – Letters As Symbols (Preview)
Posted: Filed under: Art and Design, Graphic Design Reviews Comments Off on LogoArchive ExtraIssue – Letters As Symbols (Preview) 
LogoArchive was conceived, designed and sent to print in a day. It was inspired by a panel discussion at Somerset House as part of the exhibition Print! Now on to its seventh release, LogoArchive continues to reconfigure itself with each new issue with the intention of surprising and delighting within the context of archival.
The distinctive smaller format offers ample license to experiment and collaborate with other like-minded resources. Christophe De Pelsemaker’s Logo Books, an online archive of pages from out-of-print publications dedicated to trademarks, is one such resource. Christophe’s own book, Letters As Symbols, a collaborative endeavour with renowned Belgian designer Paul Ibou, sought to bring to life and uniquely document symbols based on the letters of the alphabet. It has an compelling story and an interesting journey to publication which began in 1991. This LogoArchive ExtraIssue intends to offer readers a sample of Letters As Symbols and tell its story through symbols and archival documents.
The Best of BP&O — October 2019
Posted: Filed under: BP&O Collections Comments Off on The Best of BP&O — October 2019Selected by Richard Baird.
Five projects that stood out in October and have made it into BP&O’s Best Of Series. Between them, these typically balance a strong singular concept or an appropriate confluence of ideas with a compelling visual character and clear communicative intention that appropriately play with form, colour, type and layout, as well as material, texture, image and print finish.
BP&O, in this end of month review, tries to recognise both the smart use of small budgets—those that channel spending into the most appropriate assets—and those projects with a broad and holistic quality, establishing a continuity (conceptual and/or visual) across multiple touch points. Many of the projects share a concise aesthetic expression, yet there is nuance to these, so do click through and read more about each of these.
Origen México by Blok
Posted: Filed under: Art and Design, Graphic Design Reviews | Tags: Book & Magazine Design, Book Design Review, Coloured Paper, Design Blog, Design For Print, Design Opinion, Design Reviews, Design Reviews: Editorial Design, Editorial Design, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Blog, Material Thinking, The Best Design for Print 2019, The Very Best of 2019, Typography Comments Off on Origen México by BlokOpinion by Richard Baird
Origen México is a encyclopaedic collection of cultural reference points from Mexico, and an expression of love for its land and identity, edited by Ámbar Editores and Paola Gonzalez Vargas. Written in Spanish it covers things such as, Barro negro pottery; the black clay pottery of Oaxaca, Barrancas del Cobre; the six canyons in the Sierra Madre Occidental and individuals such as pioneering filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón. In its breadth the book has a temporality; a relationship with time. One idea, place, person, piece of pottery or art directly or indirectly informs the another. Layers are built. The present is founded on, but would ultimately find it hard to recognise, all of the past, except that which immediately proceeded it. This is expressed through the materiality of the book, designed by Canadian studio Blok, using a light copy paper and show-through, the relationships and continuity formed with a consistent image treatment and the codifying visual language of consistent type, layout and an encyclopaedic format.
