New at Pentagram
Font Selection ‘08
Michael Bierut remarks on John McCain’s use of Optima in a group critique for the Times’ Campaign Stops. Of the parsing of campaign logos, Michael says, “In a campaign season that seems to have an endless appetite for minutiae, I’d rather talk about the candidates’ graphic design tastes than, say, their sex lives!”
Michael also recently commented on the branding of Barack Obama in a piece on NPR.
Previously: Probama, Obama Wins
Abbott Miller Guests on This Week’s ‘Design Matters’
Abbott Miller will be the guest on Debbie Millman’s internet talk radio show Design Matters this Friday, 28 March at 3 pm EST. Tune in here for the live show and (later) the archived podcast.
Head Start
False Start, the new issue of 2wice designed by Abbott Miller, is noted in this week’s Village Voice. False Start presents a single performance by the choreographer Jonah Bokaer, arranged flipbook-like across 45 spreads. Check out an animated preview of the issue here.
On the Boards: ‘The Atlantic’
Michael Bierut’s upcoming redesign of the Atlantic Monthly is announced in the New York Post.
Probama
Andrew Romano of Newsweek’s Stumper blog interviews Michael Bierut about Barack Obama’s winning campaign graphics. “He’s the first candidate, actually, who’s had a coherent, top-to-bottom, 360-degree system at work,” says Bierut.
Obama Wins
Michael Bierut comments on the campaign logos of the 2008 presidential candidates in “May the Best Logo Win,” a piece by Karrie Jacobs in Salon. “Obama is marketing like Apple, Nike or Starbucks. He’s selling an experience. It’s all done with such skill and finesse that as a professional, I am in absolute awe,” says Bierut.
Montauk Screening Room Is Cool Hunted
The screening room designed by James Biber for the Montauk Residence is scouted by The Cool Hunter. The room was inspired by Radio City Music Hall and 2001: A Space Odyssey, writes Brendan McKnight, “and as in the Music Hall, the lights are positioned to glow away from the viewers—because we all hate to have lights in our eyes when watching the big screen.” The project was previously featured in The New York Times.
New Work: Glass House Projects
Michael Bierut and Yve Ludwig have designed Projects, a brochure for the Philip Johnson Glass House annual fundraising campaign. Featuring lush color photography, the brochure was conceived to be a catalog of the various Glass House projects in need of funds that allows donors to select the project their money goes towards. For example, a donor can choose to support the restoration of the Brick House, the conservation of the site-specific Donald Judd sculpture or the revitalization of David Whitney's Succulent Garden.
The brochure, mailed to several thousand potential donors, was intentionally designed to resemble a mail order catalog in its modest size and light weight and was delivered complete with an order form and a business reply envelope for donations. "The idea was to avoid the usual pompous fundraising publication and instead do something lively, accessible and fun," says Bierut. "The prestige and historic importance of the Glass House is well established; our intention was to let people know that anyone can get involved with its ongoing restoration." Last week the piece was featured on The Moment, the New York Times style blog.
Pentagram previously designed the Glass House identity and Visitors Center.
A look inside Projects after the jump.
Light Show
The screening room in the Montauk Residence designed by James Biber is visited by the Home & Garden section of the New York Times, in a special feature about lighting for dark rooms. “Because the theater is in the basement, it shouldn’t imitate an ordinary, windowed room in the house, and so I looked for inspiration elsewhere,” Biber tells Elaine Louie. “That elsewhere turned out to be Radio City Music Hall, where the lighting is hidden in the arches facing the stage.”
Design Sponge Visits the Miller-Lupton Residence
Abbott Miller and Ellen Lupton open their Baltimore home to Design Sponge.
Michael Bierut Talks Typography with ‘The Atlantic’
In a video interview with The Atlantic, Michael Bierut talks about typography, including Stanley Kubrick’s favorite font, the cover design of The Catcher in the Rye, and the link between phototypesetting and Free Love.
The interview accompanies an article about typography by Virginia Postrel in this month’s issue.
Update: Message on the Bottle
Justus Oehler’s wine label design for Message on the Bottle, organised by OnDesign Studio for this year’s Hamburg Design Festival, has been featured in Marie Claire (Italy), Creativ Verpacken and will feature in the February edition of Novum.
The Message on the Bottle exhibition will go on a tour of European design festivals in 2008.
German language readers can find comment on Justus Oehler’s recent talk for MCAD, Design with humour, humanity and passion on the organisation’s website. To navigate to the page, simply click on the ‘Open House Lectures’ icon and follow the links to Justus’ talk.
Unbeige Visits Arizona Cardinals Stadium
Steve Delahoyde of Unbeige checks out our environmental graphics for Cardinals Stadium during a trip home to Glendale, AZ.
In the Bag
In a front page article about the trend of using shopping bags as portable fashion, the New York Times slips a bag over the head of the “renowned graphic artist” who redesigned the Saks Fifth Avenue packaging. In a comparison with other luxury retailers, Saks comes out on top for giving its formerly “battleship gray bags a sleeker, black-and-white look and more durable feel.” The artist in question, renowned or not, is never identified.
Sonance Exhibit Featured in ‘Frame’
Frame has featured the award-winning trade fair exhibit Lorenzo Apicella designed for Sonance in its December issue. Inspired by the company’s mark, also designed by Pentagram, the article calls the design “as ingenious as it is eye-catching.”
Paula Scher in ‘The Huffington Post’
Paula Scher talks to Susan Sawyers about her map paintings in The Huffington Post. "I didn't stop being a graphic designer to become a painter," Scher tells Sawyers. "One informs the other and I am richer for both."‘Burma’ Takes to the Streets
Harry Pearce’s Burma poster has been adopted as a placard by activists in the recent international street protests against the current situation in the country.
The poster, designed in 2006 for an event organised by the New York-based charity Witness to raise awareness about human rights violations in Burma, has been appearing in news footage of the protests held in cities from Bangkok to New York.
Mike Likes SAM
NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg shows off the new Seattle Art Museum identity during a visit to the museum giftshop. (Via Gothamist).
Montauk Residence in ‘Architectural Record’
The Montauk residence designed by James Biber and his team is featured in the October issue of Architectural Record. (Online with slideshow and audio interview with Biber.) Jane Kolleeny writes: “The elusive boundaries between the buildings and outdoor spaces pay tribute to the Case Study House program. Here, the architect considered not only his design’s visual impact, but how it would engage other senses, as well. In particular, he wanted the residential compound to embrace nature by capturing the omnipresent sound of the ocean. As Biber describes it, ‘The house is like a vessel for listening to the sea.’”
DJ Stout Looks Ahead for ‘New York’
Back to the future: DJ Stout contributes the High Priority illustration in this week’s issue of New York magazine.
The American Smile
Michael Bierut contributes an image to The American Idea, a special section in the 150th anniversary issue of The Atlantic, out now.
You're Looking a Little Wired
Luke Hayman and digital production artist Darrow have collaborated on an illustration that runs with an essay by Clive Thompson in the October issue of Wired, about the decline of human memory and the growing reliance on cellphones, PDA’s and other devices to hold basic information. To create the image, a Blackberry was photographed and its keys composited with a figure inspired by the sculpture of Jake and Dinos Chapman.
Listen to Justus Oehler on TypeRadio
Justus Oehler’s radio spot for TypeRadio’s Sweet Sixteen 16-hour long radio event, recorded in May 2007, is now available to download.
In a 50-minute, live interview with Donald Beekman & Liza Enebeis, Justus discusses a range of topics; from his design education and his experiences as a Pentagram partner, to talking typefaces with the President of Sardinia.
Justus Oehler Speaks to DesignKlicks
Justus Oehler has given an interview to German design website DesignKlicks, an online platform for Creatives organised by Trendbüro and Spiegel Online.
German speakers can read Justus’ thoughts on his work for clients such as Star Alliance, Villeroy & Boch, Citibank, Trussardi, Sardegna and the Museum für Film und Fernsehen. Justus also talks about his career and the differences between working in Berlin and London.
Luke Hayman Looks Back
Just in time for his Golden Boa Award, Luke Hayman is interviewed by Mediabistro about his past ten years as a designer.
Tribute to Unsung Heroine
Lisa Strausfeld and others paid tribute to Muriel Cooper, an “unsung heroine of on-screen style” in a piece by Alice Rawsthorn in the International Herald Tribune on Sunday. Cooper, who in 1973 co-founded the Visual Language Workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is remembered by Strausfeld, a former student, as “a real mentor” who “elevated the quality of digital and interactive design work, and inspired a whole generation.”
Slovenia: It’s S’lovely!
Condé Nast Traveler asked six designers to each rebrand a country of his or her choice for its September issue, and Paula Scher selected Slovenia for her effort. “I’ve been to Slovenia twice and loved it. But most Americans don’t know what or where it is, which is something I wanted to address” says Scher. By highlighting Slovenia’s proximity to Italy, she made the country appear both physically accessible and “like it has great skiing and great food, which it in fact does.” Although, as she commented in the article, “I don’t think countries should have logos. Logos are for corporations.”
A few taglines after the jump.
Robb Report Visits the Montauk Residence
The Robb Report features the Montauk Residence designed by James Biber and associate Michael Zweck-Bronner in the cover story of the September issue of Vacation Homes, out now. The residence was designed as “a case study house in New York” inspired by a trip Biber took to California to experience the original mid-century icons. The result is “a beautifully detailed, very elegant case study house” overlooking the Atlantic and with all the modern accoutrements.
‘2wice’ Featured in ‘The New York Times’
The latest issue of 2wice designed by Abbott Miller was featured in The New York Times on Saturday. Titled Green World: Merce Cunningham, the issue is devoted to the work of the famed choreographer as it captures, through the stunning photography of Katherine Wolkoff, Cunningham’s troupe as they perform in the gardens of the Italian Renaissance-inspired Vizcaya mansion in Miami.
‘Helvetica’ Opens in New York
Helvetica, the acclaimed documentary by Gary Hustwit about the ubiquitous typeface that features interviews with Michael Bierut and Paula Scher, amongst others, opens today at the IFC Center in New York. The film is also running at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London through 27 September.
Selected reviews after the jump.
‘Seventy-Nine Short Essays’ Very Short-Listed
Michael Bierut’s Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design has been recommended by Very Short List. “If your main exposure to the world of graphic design consists of swapping between Arial and Helvetica in Microsoft Word, then you need to read Michael Bierut,” says VSL.
Department of Cultural Affairs
Pentagram’s work for New York cultural institutions is the focus of an article in today’s New York Sun. “When an arts institution in New York wants to reinvent or reinforce its image, very often the artistic or marketing director’s first move is to pick up the phone and call a partner at Pentagram,” writes Kate Taylor.
Paula Scher on ‘Brand America’
In a video interview with Monocle, Paula Scher talks to editor-in-chief Tyler Brûlé about the brand identity of the United States. “We were in a face off with the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and we didn’t change our rhetoric once we didn’t have a big global power confronting us, so we talk to everybody like we’re talking to big global superpowers all the time and we really have to tone down the volume,” says Scher. In the wide-ranging discussion, she touches on the graphic beauty of the Stars and Stripes, the enduring image of the Statue of Liberty (“The nice lady holding up the torch—what could be more welcoming and comforting?”), the future of the media, and why she’d love to redesign the experience of air travel.
The interview complements an essay by Scher that appears in the magazine’s current issue.
Radio Hyland Podcast Now Available
Adrian Shaughnessy’s forty-minute interview with Angus Hyland for Graphic Design on the Radio is now available to download.
Adrian and Angus play eight of Angus’ favourite songs and discuss his career and influences; from poring over Letraset and Mecanorma font catalogues as a schoolboy, to his education, career and outlook as a graphic designer; and finally his experiences as a Pentagram partner.
Michael Bierut’s Book Is ‘New York’ Approved
Michael Bierut’s Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design charts on the Approval Matrix in this week’s issue of New York magazine, sharing space—somewhere between “Highbrow” and “Brilliant”—with David Lynch’s Inland Empire, a Malcolm Lowry compendium and videos of artists’ Moleskine sketchbooks.
On the Map
Pentagram shows up on the itinerary for “Design Mavens” in “A Guide to Ten Different New Yorks” in this week’s issue of New York.
Lisa Strausfeld Profiled in ‘BusinessWeek’
Lisa Strausfeld is interviewed in BusinessWeek about her recent work, including her involvement in the Sugar UI and her upcoming projects for Gallup, and the “media-agnostic” approach to design. “I’ve always been interested in investigating structure, in architecture, software, information design—and the ways they connect,” says Strausfeld in the article. “Mastery in design used to be medium-specific. Now mastery can cut across different media.”
Lisa has also been selected as one of the magazine’s Cutting-Edge Designers 2007.
Bumper Crop
Michael Bierut critiques the campaign bumper stickers of the 2008 presidential candidates in the July 23 issue of Newsweek.
Olympic Trial
Michael Bierut and several other designers compared the controversial London 2012 logo with the proposed logos of other candidate cities including Paris, New York and Moscow in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday.
Michael Bierut to Speak on WNYC Radio
Michael Bierut will be a featured guest on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate Show this Thursday, 5 July. The show airs from noon to 2 pm, with Michael’s segment scheduled to begin at 1:20 pm. In the New York area, WNYC is broadcast at 93.9 FM and AM 820. Online listeners can tune in to the show here.
Update: Michael’s segment posted below.
'A Talent for Approval'
An article in today’s New York Sun goes behind the scenes of the Art Commission of the City of New York, the city’s design review board, of which Paula Scher is a commissioner. The piece credits the city’s current economic boom, and the support of Mayor Bloomberg, for the resurgence of the commission that “may be at its most influential since the early 20th century.”
Renaming Baltimore
Abbott Miller, in collaboration with the writer Lalita Noronha, proposes ideas for a new identity for Baltimore in the local magazine Urbanite.
Stolen Passport
Michael Bierut comments on the redesigned, newly icon-heavy U.S. passport in The New York Times. “There is something a little coercive about a functional object serving as a civics lesson, even a fairly low-grade civics lesson,” says Bierut.
Joe Designer
Joe Marianek, a member of Michael Bierut’s team in our New York office, is one of the 20 young (under 30 y.o.) designers selected by Print magazine for its 2007 New Visual Artists review.
Saks in the TIME Design 100
Our identity for Saks Fifth Avenue has been chosen by TIME magazine for its Style & Design 100.
Scenes From a Blog
Op-Art from The New York Times, 5 April 2007.
Paula Scher diagrams the verbal jousting in the life cycle of a blog thread in the Op-Ed page of today’s New York Times.
Saks and the City
Saks in the streets. Photo by Elizabeth Bierut.
Alice Rawsthorn interviews Michael Bierut about the Saks Fifth Avenue identity in T: The New York Times Style Magazine. There are eight million stories in the Naked City; there are 98.14 googol variations in this identity.
“We wanted something that would be immediately identifiable across the street or through the windows of a moving subway car, and that no one would throw away, ” Bierut says. “Blowing up the logo and rearranging the fragments in a million different ways on a grid made the identity much more dramatic.”
Regardless of whether it’s on Fifth Avenue or in the Houston Galleria Mall, Saks is a definitive New York store; the grid refers to the city’s street plan, and the fragments represent the frenzy of its street life. “It’s a metaphor for the larger-than-life experiences you can find on block after block in New York City,” Bierut says. “Though I really don’t expect anyone to notice that. If a Saks customer spontaneously spots the subtext, I’ll send them a gift voucher.”
Sugar on Top
The Sugar interface for One Laptop Per Child appears on the Approval Matrix in this week’s issue of New York magazine.
At Home With Kit and Linda
The flag-filled North Beach home of Kit and Linda Hinrichs is visited by the San Francisco Chronicle. With slide show.
About TIME
The Time magazine redesign, launching Friday, is announced in the New York Post and the New York Times.
Sugar Town
Sugar, the user interface for the One Laptop per Child project, is featured in BusinessWeek. “It’s the first complete rethinking of the computer user interface in more than 30 years,” writes Steve Hamm.
Sugar offers a brand new approach to computing. Ever since the first Apple MacIntosh was launched in 1984, the user interfaces of personal computers have been designed based on the same visual metaphor: the desktop. Sugar tosses out all of that like so much tattered baggage. Instead, an icon representing the individual occupies the center of the screen; “zoom” out like a telephoto lens and you see the user in relation to friends, and finally to all of the people in the village who are also on the network.
“We’re trying to use as many references as we can to the physical world so it will be easy for kids who haven’t used a computer before to use this foreign thing,” says Lisa Strausfeld, the Pentagram partner whose team is working on Sugar.The article includes a slide show.
Scherbia
Paula Scher and her team visited Belgrade late last month for the launch of the Publikum calendar, with events at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade City Hall and the Belgrade Cultural Center. This montage demonstrates: Serbia knows how to welcome a designer!
Saks Change
Alice Rawsthorn spotlights the new Saks identity in an article about mutable corporate identities, in the International Herald Tribune. “‘Fragmenting the logo gave it energy and bravura,‘ said Michael Bierut, the Pentagram partner who led the Saks project. ‘And now we can create numerous permutations of the logo.’” (With slide show.)
City ‘Papers’
The Pentagram Papers is featured in Metropolis.
At Home With Abbott and Ellen
Abbott Miller and Ellen Lupton’s Bolton HIll rowhouse is featured in the Baltimore Sun.
Saks on the Grid
From New York, February 5 issue. Click for full chart
Our packaging for Saks Fifth Avenue lands on the Approval Matrix in this week’s issue of New York magazine—in the vicinity of “Highbrow” and “Brilliant.”
‘Papers’ Chased
The Pentagram Papers has been recommended by Very Short List.
Personal Calls
Lisa Strausfeld and other designers critique the new iPhone in BusinessWeek. “Its perfectly ambiguous form can take on just about any personal-sized functionality,” Lisa says.
Timed-Release
Luke Hayman comments on the much anticipated redesign of Time magazine, in this week’s issue of the New York Observer. Originally announced as launching in January, the redesign should now appear before spring. “There will be a significant change at one time, but it is also going to evolve over time,” says Luke.
Bad Taste
Paula Scher comments on packaging design for organic foods, in the Dining section of today’s Times. “It’s the bottom of the barrel,” says Paula.
Pentagram Redesigns Christmas
WNYC’s Public International Radio show Studio 360 asked Pentagram to redesign Christmas, and Pentagram’s partners and designers, with their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks, took on the challenge of reinventing one of the world’s most pervasive brands.
Paula Scher created a new inclusive brand architecture for the holiday: a variable naming structure that permits any number of words and symbols to precede the universal suffix “mas” (from the early Anglo-Saxon word for “festival”). Lisa Strausfeld proposed that “mas” be turned into a top level domain designation (“.mas”). Michael Gericke recommended that an international body be created to administer the new expanded holiday. Jim Biber designed a new universal icon; Abbott Miller created variations on the Christmas tree; Luke Hayman made lovely and downloadable wrapping paper. And Michael Bierut pitched the whole thing to Studio 360 host Kurt Andersen.
Visit the Studio 360 to hear the show, download wrapping paper, and mail an x.mas e-card. Or read all about it in the New York Times.
Special thanks to Don Bilodeau, Julia Hoffmann, Armin Vit and Michael Yi.
New Saks Identity Announced
The new Saks Fifth Avenue identity designed by Michael Bierut is announced in WWD (subscription required) and The Daily. The complete program launches in January.
New Work: The New York Times Magazine
(Click image for larger view)
Lisa Strausfeld, with James Nick Sears, has designed the illustrations for the cover story of the December 3 issue of The New York Times Magazine. The piece, titled “Open-Source Spying,” is about whether blogs and wikis could be used by agencies like the C.I.A. and F.B.I. to combat terrorism. The visualizations create a three-dimensional space in which the physical relationship of actors, weapons and targets suggest their level of connection in an attack.
Update: Interactive versions of the visualizations here.
After the jump: More images and the story behind the project.
Graphic Fallout
Michael Bierut is among several designers who lament the passing of the old Civil Defense symbol—and the look of its replacement—in today’s Times.
Feedback Gets Around, Part 2
Feedback is “the ultimate guidebook,” says the Materialist.
Pentagram in Harmony With Williams/Tsien
A team consisting of Michael Bierut and the acclaimed architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien has been selected for the redesign of the Harmony Atrium, the underused, privately owned public space at Broadway and 62nd Street that was recently leased by Lincoln Center. The selection was announced in today’s Times; official LC release here.
Bottle Service
(Click for larger view)
Box of wine: Abbott Miller transformed an industrial shipping container into a cellar for a feature in the current issue of Food & Wine that asked three designers to propose new ideas for wine storage. Abbott jokes that his scheme, which places the shipping container into the side of a hill, would be perfect for an “eco-friendly Teletubby/hobbit hipster.”
Paula Scher, Design Master
Paula Scher is profiled as a “Master of Design” in the current issue of Fast Company.
Mush Note
“It’s a race to the bottom”: Michael Bierut comments on cereal box design in a review of the category by The Washington Post.
Beach Weekend
The Montauk Residence designed by James Biber was featured in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. (Scroll down to “High-Water Mark” in Style.) Pilar Viladas writes: “It may look breezy and insouciant, but it’s quite serious in its solid, sumptuous materials and attention to detail, like a villa that has found itself at the edge of the sea.”
Fuego Fetish
“You’ll be the envy of your subdivision”: Fuego featured in the “Fetish” section of the August issue of Wired. (Last item.)
Fuego on HGTV
The Fuego grill is featured on HGTV.com in a brief segment about cooking outdoors with style. Robert Brunner is interviewed by Angela Chee, host of HGTV’s popular show “I Want That!” (Second segment—wait for it.)
Fuego will also appear on HGTV’s Kitchen & Baths 2006 special, which premieres Sunday,
13 August at 8 PM EST/PST.
The NDA Five
The five Communication Design finalists of the 2005 National Design Awards—Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, and the principals of 2x4—declined an invite from Laura Bush for a White House breakfast held in honor of the awards last week. (Read the regrets letter here.) Michael Bierut posted about the boycott on Design Observer, and the community quickly, and noisily, took sides. Now the fracas has been noted by the Washington Post. Says Michael, “If the future of political discourse lies in the blogsophere, as some people claim, be very afraid.”
Get Happy
For last week’s cover story in New York magazine, “How to Be Happy,” Michael Bierut and Rebecca Gimenez contributed an illustration of the “Periodic Table of Happiness,” which sadly was not included in the version posted to the magazine’s website. But you can see the unexpurgated version here, complete with the captions that didn’t make it to print.
On Press
“At WH Smith’s now, it’s just a haze of tit and bum and bright colours.” David Hillman discusses the state of editorial design in an interview with Press Gazette.
“Wrong” STEP
DJ Stout is among the group of designers who participated in the cover solution exercise that dominates the current “Think Wrong” issue of STEP magazine. Alissa Walker provides play-by-play coverage: “A reigning king of editorial design, DJ Stout was closing in on two major magazine redesigns at the same time he completed his STEP covers. Stout and his astute team, Erin Mayes and Julie Savasky, savored the quick schedule and tight deadlines as a refreshing break from these long-term projects, and they were eager to break free of the editorial guidelines they’d been mired in for months…‘Every magazine wants to make the conceptual process of coming up with great covers into some kind of science,’ says Stout. ‘It’s not a science, it’s an art. Art scares people—especially magazine executives and circulation directors.’”
Love Seat
Design and travel blogs are all over “The Couch”:
“Yet Another Event You’ll Take Your Mother To,” Unbeige
“Abbott Miller on The Couch,” Core 77
“Couching with Freud,” Gridskipper
Grade A
Paula Scher is one of the designers asked to share his or her favorite letter A for this month’s special Design Issue of Paper Magazine. (Christoph Niemann selects Paula’s “Big A” poster.)
Hot Stuff
The Fuego barbecue designed by Bob Brunner and his team was a highlight of last week’s Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Chicago, writes The New York Times.
Best Weeks Ever
Week of 16 November 2005, designed by Fernando Gutiérrez
Every week New York magazine commissions a different designer for the “High Priority” typographic illustration that opens the magazine’s listings section. Now both New York and Design Observer (courtesy Michael Bierut) have posted mini-retrospectives of the series, including contributions by Michael, Fernando Gutiérrez, Abbott Miller, and Paula Scher with Lenny Naar.
The project was also featured in last month’s issue of Creative Review.
Avant Garden
Jim Biber and Carin Goldberg’s modernist backyard is featured in this month's Domino. (Landscape design by Susan Welti.)
Nice Figures
Paula Scher and Jennifer Rittner contribute an illustration to the Op-Ed page in today’s Times.
“81% of (female) graphic designers who marry illustrators own 2.8 dogs that take 4.6 baths every 9.2 days.” Sounds — or smells — about right.
New Work: New York Magazine
(Click image for larger view)
Paula Scher and her team have designed the cover of this year’s “Best of New York” issue of New York magazine, on newsstands today. (Abbott Miller designed last year’s edition.)
Hog Heaven
The Harley-Davidson Museum is “a timeless design, like our motorcycles,” says Willie G. Davidson, grandson of one of Harley’s founders, in coverage of the unveiling in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The design gets a rave from the paper’s architecture critic, who calls it “honest, rigorously disciplined urbanism…(a) cooly rational, industrial strength presence, evoking the grit that built Milwaukee and Harley.” Full review.
A Visit With Abbott and Ellen
The April issue of Dwell visits the Lupton-Miller design duchy in Baltimore, taking in their home, the Pentagram storefront, Jeremy’s desk, and the work they do (one, two). “Arguably, Lupton and Miller are to graphic design what Charles and Ray Eames were to industrial design—except that what Lupton and Miller accomplish as a team is matched, if not surpassed, by what they accomplish as individuals,” writes Shonquis Moreno. Photos by Julian Broad.
Unbeige posts about the Dwell piece.
Coming attraction: The townhouse will appear as Nicole Kidman's home in the “The Visiting,” a remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” due August 2007.
On the Charts
To mark its 500th issue, Graphic Design USA has polled its readers for their greatest influences. Our work is done: Pentagram is ranked No. 1 for Most Influential Design Firm of the Era. Paula Scher places at No. 9 for Most Influential Graphic Designer of the Era (Kit Hinrichs and Woody Pirtle also received votes) and at No. 2 for Most Influential Graphic Designer Today, a list which finds Michael Bierut at No. 7 (Michael Gericke and Armin Vit also received votes). The Technological Innovation You Can't Live Without? The computer. God bless GDUSA for telling us these things.
Bonus! Armin is one of the magazine’s People to Watch. (Scroll down past Frank Baseman.)
Chubby Checker
The New York Times asks Paula Scher what the official New York City condom, coming soon, should look like: “‘Maybe something black or checkered,’ she said. ‘It should have a very distinct form, so that when you recognize it in the street you know it’s a New York City one. Maybe black with yellow overtones, a taxi graphic.’”
Awards Coverage
Pentagram is all over the current issue of SEGD Design — the quarterly journal of the Society for Environmental Graphic Design — which highlights the winners of the 2005 SEGD Design Awards. Included are articles about our work for the Shake Shack, the Temporary WTC PATH Station, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh and Wave Hill, all Honor award recipients. Also noted are Merit award winners the L!BRARY Initiative, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the NYU Wagner School, and the “New York’s Moynihan” exhibition for the Museum of the City of New York.
Feedback Gets Around
Feedback, our irregularly published travel guide, is featured on Gridskipper, Gawker Media’s urban travel blog. “Sometimes you just need to know the best wine shop in Tallinn, Estonia, or how to find a set of appliances engraved with Snoopy’s visage in Tokyo,” writes Sarah Kaufman. Correction: The book is given out free to our friends and clients, and extra copies are sold for $20 to contributors. Globe-trotters everywhere remain desperate to get their hands on a copy.
Feedback also shows up on the trend reporting site psfk.com.
It’s Paula’s World, You’re Just Living in It
Amy Goldwasser visits Paula Scher and her paintings in the House & Home section of The New York Times: “The paintings, large-scale images of cities, states and continents blanketed with place names and other information, are full of mistakes and misspellings and visual allusions to stereotypes of place (‘Africa’ has a parched black-and-gray palette; ‘South America,’ Ms. Scher said, is ‘very sexy, in hot colors, with two ovaries on the sides’). They are not meant to be reliable as maps, but to convey a sense of place that is mediated, and mangled, by Ms. Scher’s imagination and by the overload of media-generated information that feeds it…‘Paula always has more left over,’ (Michael) Bierut said. ‘Excess inventory that builds up during the week. All this extra stuff—extra ideas, extra words, extra colors, all these extra square feet of information that the client just isn’t able to accommodate.’”
Jerry Tallmer interviews Paula in Gay City News: “Design is Paula Scher’s vocation. Maps are her avocation.”
Kudos, John
Mr. John Kudos is included in Step Inside Design’s third annual Field Guide to Emerging Design Talent, curated by Alice Twemlow. Editor Emily Potts writes, “A recent project that’s consumed much of Kudos’ spare time is Splotch Visual Pulse, an online publication he has created with five MICA alumni that represents a collective voice about popular themes in culture.” Several of his projects with Abbott Miller are also featured.
Perfect Swarm
Roberta Fallon reviews the “Swarm” exhibition in The Philadelphia Weekly: “Good exhibits are like great conversation — energizing, enlightening and memorable. ‘Swarm’ at the Fabric Workshop and Museum is such an exhibit.”