Hanji by Studio fnt
Posted: Filed under: Art and Design, Graphic Design Reviews | Tags: Art Direction, Brand Identity, Brand Identity Reviews, Branding, Branding Agency, Branding Blog, Branding News, Branding Reviews, Design Blog, Design For Print, Design Inspiration, Design News, Design Opinion, Design Reviews, Designed by Studio fnt, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Blog, Korean Design, Logo Design & Branding Blog, Logotypes, New Logo, Sans-serif Typography, The Best Brand Identities of 2020, The Best Design for Print 2020, The Very Best of 2020, The Very Best of BP&O, Typography, Visual Identity Design Blog, Wordmark Design Comments Off on Hanji by Studio fntText by Richard Baird.
Hanji is a new brand of traditional Korean papers from KCDF created to, not just inspire interest in both professionals and the general public nationally and internationally, but to also serve as a symbol of the craft inherent to the paper making workshops. And further, to promote the paper’s potential and excellence internationally. Hanji began as a basic paper, a material to contain writings and paintings, often finished with a final seal. This is where Studio fnt found their inspiration, recognising a commonality between these seals and the logos used today, both as gestures of “existence and intent”, as the studio neatly put it. That more than one seal belonged to a single individual, cast with unique meanings, provided them with the foundation for a visual identity system. Hanji thus became a person, with a series of imagined seals to unify the brand and tell its story.
Tyler Mitchell ICMYFG by Studio Lin
Posted: Filed under: Graphic Design Reviews | Tags: Art Book, Artist Books Comments Off on Tyler Mitchell ICMYFG by Studio LinText by Richard Baird.
“I often think about what white fun looks like and this notion that Black people can’t have the same. Growing up with Tumblr I would often come across images of sensual, young, attractive white models running around being free and having so much fun – the kind of stuff Larry Clark and Ryan McGinley would make. I seldom saw the same for Black people in images – or at least in the photography I knew. My work comes from a place of wanting to push back against this lack. I feel an urgency to create a body of images where Black people are visualized as free, expressive, effortless, and sensitive.
I aim to visualize what a Black utopia looks like or could look like. People say utopia is never achievable but I love photography’s possibility of allowing me to dream and make that dream become very real.
In my work I use the tools of documentary reportage, portraiture, fashion photography, art photography, and filmmaking. I view fashion as a space and opportunity to have clothes enhance my message about the Black body. I make very little distinction between my commissioned and my personal works, using them both as an opportunity to create this utopian universe – whether that’s photographing Beyoncé, Spike Lee, skaters in Cuba, or my very close friends.
Documented and real, or fictitious and staged, my images are characterized by an interest in purity and intimacy. In them, models recline, embrace each other closely and peer into the lens, leaving evidence of a public display of affirmation in Blackness and a unifying visual text of hope. I also occasionally weave symbols into my portraits such as water guns and plastic resin chains – symbols of repression as a subtle reminder of the ways in which the Black body is still politicized, and sometimes unable to move through the real world as freely as I would like.
I Can Make You Feel Good is simply a declaration. And one that I feel is gut punching in its optimism. It feels important at a time like this to declare such a thing.” — Tyler Mitchell
Design in a shady place: Trademark
Posted: Filed under: Graphic Design History, Texts Comments Off on Design in a shady place: TrademarkText by Yusaku Kamekura, 1962
Design 11 No. 40 is an out-of-print and rare issue of a slim 54pp Japanese magazine from the 60s dedicated to all things design. This issue includes a feature on boat interior design and modernist furniture. However, this issue stands out for its distinctive and eye-catching cover by the renowned designer Ikko Tanaka, and for an original text written by Yusaku Kamekura on his process and experience with corporate logo design. This is illustrated with 31 examples of his own work. What also marks this feature out is that it includes some examples of those logos that never made it to use, those that never saw the light of day, which is the central premise of the article. The magazine is entirely in Japanese, however, BP&O had the Kamekura article translated, and this makes up the body of this post. Materially speaking, the magazine mixes glossy and uncoated papers, single and full colour printing and although quite light in content is an excellent example of design publishing of its time. If you liked to buy a copy of this, it is available on the LogoArchive.Shop.
