Albert Oehlen Book by Zak Group
Posted: Filed under: Art and Design, Graphic Design Reviews, Publishing | Tags: Art Book, Artist Books, Book & Magazine Design, Book Design Review, Branding Agency, British Design, Coloured Paper, Design Blog, Design For Print, Design Inspiration, Design News, Design Opinion, Design Reviews, Design Reviews: Editorial Design, Designed by Zak Group, Designed in London, Editorial Design, From Europe, From the United Kingdom, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Blog, Material Thinking, Screen-print, The Best Design for Print 2019, The Very Best of 2019, Typography Comments Off on Albert Oehlen Book by Zak GroupOpinion by Richard Baird.
Albert Oehlen is a German contemporary artist. Working with canvas, he brings together a bricolage of figurative, collaged, abstract and computer-generated elements, with a particular focus on process and self-imposed parameters such as limited colour palettes. His work, as described by the Serpentine Galleries, currently running a Oehlen solo exhibition till February 2020, engages with the history of painting through Expressionist brushwork, Surrealist gestures and deliberate amateurism, and pushes the essential components of colour, gesture, motion and time in fresh new directions. This spirit of bold gestures, layers and new approaches is captured within a slender, unbound artist book designed by London-based Zak Group. This functions as an extension of the exhibition.
LogoArchive ExtraIssue – Letters As Symbols
Posted: Filed under: Art and Design, BP&O Publications, Graphic Design Reviews, Publishing | Tags: Branding Agency, Design Blog, Design For Print, Design Inspiration, Design News, Design Opinion, Design Reviews, From Europe, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Blog, Logo Design Inspiration, Logo Design Resource, Logo Design Trends: Clever Logos, Logos, Minimal Logos, Typography Comments Off on LogoArchive ExtraIssue – Letters As Symbols 
LogoArchive in print 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, graphically and materially, 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 solely 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 offers readers a sample of Letters As Symbols and tells its story through selected logos and archival documents. Remaining copies can be bought here or here.
Inn Situ by Studio Mut
Posted: Filed under: Art and Design, Graphic Design Reviews | Tags: Branding Agency, Design Blog, Design For Print, Design Inspiration, Design News, Design Opinion, Design Reviews, From Europe, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Blog, Studio Mut, Typography Comments Off on Inn Situ by Studio MutOpinion by Richard Baird.
Inn Situ is part of the cultural programme of BTV Bank and series of three events; a exhibition, a concert and panel discussion. This takes place two to three times a year in the Austrian city of Innsbruck. The events are distinctive in their approach, a Russian doll of nested narratives, with each layer responding to the next. Practically speaking, and exemplifying the idea, one event saw an internationally renowned photographer create a project for the Inn Situ gallery. A local musician then composed a concert that responded to the photographs which played twice in the concert hall next to the exhibition. This was then followed by a panel discussion that responded to both the exhibition and the concert.
The format remains consistent, there are always three events, with the panel discussion and concert both seeking to contextualise the themes of the artist and their the exhibition. So far, there have been three Inn Situ events, with a fourth due to take place soon. Each is accompanied by a printed programme and catalogue, plus a city-wide poster campaign designed Studio Mut in Italy. These share a similar material and visual language. For the sake of brevity, this article looks at the materials for Inn Situ 2. The framework of the visual identity and the format of the material outcome are the same, but each also folds in its own response to the themes present in the artwork to provokes the responses.
