Paper Cut, The Exhibition

Following the publication of his stunning Paper Cut book, illustrator Owen Gildersleeve is rather fittingly taking the 2D images from the book and presenting them in all their 3D glory at a forthcoming exhibition.

Owen Gildersleeve

Just as the paper craft the book illustrates is the result of a meticulous transformation of paper illustrations into paper sculpture; so the show will bring to life the work of the illustrates celebrated in Gildersleeve’s lovely tome.

Zim Zou

The show, which opens at east London’s Proud Archivist gallery at the end of next month, will present more than 50 works by 25 paper craft illustrators.

Jeff Nishinaka

Paper sculptures will be shown alongside original artworks and prints, helping show  the process as well as the final works of what the gallery terms ‘this burgeoning and otherworldly field of illustration.’

Helen Friel

Running alongside the exhibition will be a series of talks and workshops, letting visitors put scalpel to paper themselves.

Fideli Sundqvist

Featured artists range from well-known paper crafters such as Rob Ryan to lesser-known practitioners including Bianca Chang, who is showing her Comparative Form in White series.

Ciara Phelan

Paper Cut, The Exhibition runs from 28 August – 25 September at The Proud Archivist, 2-10 Hertford Road, London N1 5ET

Eiko Ojala

 

(Tue, 29 Jul 2014 | By Emily Gosling, Design Week) 

Stranger Than Fiction at the Science Museum

The Science Museum has opened the doors on Stranger Than Fiction, a photographic exhibition by Joan Fontcuberta, which looks at the murky intersection between fact, fiction, science and art.

Cercophitecus Icarocornu from the Fauna series by Joan Fontcuberta and Pere Formiguera, 1985 © Joan Fontcuberta and Pere Formiguera

It manages to be mind-bogglingly surreal, yet has one foot placed firmly  in what we might perceive to be true, and although Fontcuberta’s work is self-consciously elaborate, it does raise wider questions about believing everything we see on film.

Centaurus Neandertalensis from the Fauna series by Joan Fontcuberta and Pere Formiguera, 1987 © Joan Fontcuberta and Pere Formiguera

Fontcuberta says, ‘Photography is a tool to negotiate our idea of reality. Thus it is the responsibility of photographers to not contribute with anaesthetic images but rather to provide images that shake consciousness.’

Source: Kate Elliot

The exhibition has been designed by Drinkall Dean and will be presented in the Media Space designed by Ben Kelly.
Drinkall Dean has been tasked with designing the first three exhibitions in the space. It has already designed Only in England but Stranger Than Fiction is a separate tender meaning that there are still two more to follow from the consultancy.

Mullerpolis Plunfis from the Herbarium series by Joan Fontcuberta, 1983 © Joan Fontcuberta

Stranger Than Fiction is devised by six themes split across three rooms – zoology, botany, paleontology, geography, astrology and religion, which are presented as separate narratives.
Drinkall Dean partner Angela Dean says, ‘The premise of Joan Fontcuberta’s work is to question the truth of photography. He creates these studies as if he’s a journalist; they’re very detailed and have a lot of text so we wanted to keep the exhibition simple and not overwhelm the content in anyway.’

Source: Kate Elliot

Dean says the flora and fauna sections explored in the first two rooms ‘have the feel of a old museum’, says Drinkall who adds, ‘Lit objects and old-fashioned graphics that we worked on with the museum help create this effect.’
3D objects, taxidermy and ephemera have been used by Fontcuberta to create the illusion that we are looking at real specimens.

Source: Kate Elliot

The middle room has the feel of ‘a more traditional art gallery’ and the final room that of ‘a provincial museum,’ says Dean.

Orogenesis: Watkins, 2004 from the Orogenesis series by Joan Fontcuberta © Joan Fontcuberta

At the end of the exhibition there is an explanatory film, which sheds some light on Fontcuberta’s reasoning.

Source: Kate Elliot

Dean says, ‘After the film you walk back through the gallery knowing what he has said, which forces you to look at everything differently.’

The Miracle of Dolphin-Surfing, Joan Fontcuberta © Joan Fontcuberta from Karelia, Miracles & Co, 2002

The overall design gives the visitor ‘a sense of exploration’ says Dean who wants visitors ‘to get a little bit lost, and to get lots in his world.’

Alopex Stultus from the Fauna series by Joan Fontcuberta and Pere Formiguera, 1987© Joan Fontcuberta and Pere Formiguera

She says, ‘You’ll have to find things and they’re not where you’ll expect them to be.’

Hydropithecus of Cerro de San Vicente, 2006 from the Sirens series by Joan Fontcuberta © Joan Fontcuberta

Joan Fontcuberta’s Stranger Than Fiction runs until 9 November at the Science Museum, Exhibition Rd, London SW7 2DD

(Thu, 24 Jul 2014 | By Tom Banks, Design Week) 

Yorkshire Sculpture Park named 'Museum of the Year'

Yorkshire Sculpture Park has been named Museum of the Year, scooping the £100,000 Art Fund Prize.

Source: Courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photo Jonty Wilde.

Ai Weiwei, Iron Tree, 2013

The prize recognises excellence in museum and gallery exhibition design and refurbishment completed in the previous year.
The shortlisted museums included The Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft  in East Sussex – which is dedicated to the work of Eric Gill and other craftspeople.
The other finalists were the Hayward Gallery, London; The Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth; Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich and Tate Britain, London.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park was chosen as the winner for the restoration of its 18^th century chapel, and 2013 exhibitions including the Yinka Shonibare show and the installation of Roger Hiorns’ Seizure 2008/2013, a piece which saw Hiorns transform an empty council flat in Southwark, London, into ‘a sparkling blue environment of copper sulphate crystals’, says Yorkshire Sculpture Park, using 75,000 litres of liquid copper sulphate. It was moved to the park in May last year.

Source: Courtesy the artist. Photo Jonty Wilde

Yinka Shonibare MBE, Wind Sculpture, 2013.

Art Fund director and chair of the judging panel Stephen Deuchar says, ‘A perfect fusion of art and landscape, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park has gone from modest beginning to one of the finest outdoor museums one might ever imagine.
‘In 2013 it really came of age – with art projects such as Yinka Shonibare’s extraordinary exhibition; the fruits of the expansion and consolidation of the landscape on both sides of the lake; and with the conversion of the chapel to house (as its inaugural exhibition) a major new work by Ai Weiwei’.

(Thu, 10 Jul 2014 | By Emily Gosling, Design Week) 

Ico Design creates 'discerning' and 'fun' identity for Biju bubble tea

Ico Design has developed the branding for new start-up Biju bubble tea, creating a series of Op art-inspired patterns.

Biju logo

The consultancy was appointed to the work around five months ago having been approached by the brand’s founder, Nick Phan, on the strength of its work for frozen yogurt brand Snog.
Russell Holmes, creative strategy partner at Ico Design, says, ‘[The founder] wanted the brand to have a similar level of execution and ambition [to Snog]. Bubble tea is a bit of a novelty in the UK, so it’s an opportunity to build a bigger brand that would outlast the novelty’.

Source: Brand photography by Nick Thompson

Biju tea

Gundry & Ducker is working on the interiors for the first branch, which will open in Soho’s Old Compton Street later this month.
Holmes says, ‘We wanted to engage an interior design team who’d be sympathetic to it. It was about creating something a bit more discerning and grown up, but retain fun and adventurousness. A lot of bubble tea brands mostly appeal to a South East Asian market’.

Source: Brand photography by Nick Thompson

Happiness is a Warm Milk Tea

The Biju branding uses a redrawn serif font all styled in lower case, with bright colours to reference some of the ingredients used in the tea – all of which are natural, with tea brewed fresh for each customer on the premises, according to Holmes.

Source: Brand photography by Nick Thompson

Biju packaging

‘We wanted to do keep it bright and colourful as the drinks are quite bright and colourful’, he says. ‘The colours from the ingredients are more sophisticated colours but we needed something more pop’.
The patterns are ‘inspired by the idea of doing something different’, and use Op art-inspired designs that run throughout the branding.
The branding is used across all touchpoints including interior graphics, the website, packaging, interior signage and a digital menu board.

Biju website

A hoarding in place outside the Old Compton Street site allows visitors to take a picture and follow the brand on Instagram, which they can exchange for a free tea on Biju’s opening.

Biju hoarding

(Wed, 9 Jul 2014 | By Emily Gosling, Design Week) 

Museum of London to exhibit Heatherwick's Cauldron permanently

Thomas Heatherwick’s London 2012 Olympic Cauldron will go on public display for the first time at the Museum of London.

Source: Edmund Sumner

A new gallery designed and built by Stage One, the creative engineers behind the 2012 Cauldron, will house the structure in a permanent pavilion in the Museum’s courtyard. Drinkall Dean has worked on the overall storytelling and interpretation design.
Designing a Moment: The London 2012 Cauldron will aim to tell the design story of the Cauldron from its preparatory stages through to the main event.
The Cauldron on display will be composed of the original steel stems alongside test versions of the copper petals.

Source: Heatherwick Studio

It will be presented as two sections; one showing the 8.5m tall Cauldron in its upright position and the other in its open formative position.
After the Games, the original 164 petals were sent to each of the competing countries, where delegates were asked to pose for a picture of their petal in its new home.
The images were sent to Heatherwick Studio, which will share them as part of the exhibition.

Source: Jasper White

Behind the scenes films, footage of the ceremony, and technical drawings have been included in the exhibition as well as design secrets from the production stage such as wooden forming blocks on which each copper petal was created.
The exhibition, which opens on 25 July, honours not just the work of Heatherwick Studio but also other partners including Drinkall Dean, which has worked on interpretation design, creative engineers Stage One, and metalworking experts Contour Autocraft.
Heatherwick says, ‘The Cauldron design was kept secret until it was revealed at the opening ceremony, which created an engaging and engrossing experience for many.

Source: Geoff Caddick

It’s exciting to reveal the engineering feats that were necessary to make such an extraordinary project happen. The exhibition will give the public the chance to revisit a moment at the heart of London’s most successful sporting event.’

(Mon, 7 Jul 2014 | By Tom Banks, Design Week) 

Zaha Hadid to create Women Fashion Power exhibition

Architect Zaha Hadid, winner of this year’s Designs of the Year Award, is working on exhibition design of the Women Fashion Power show coming to the Design Musuem in London.

Source: Courtesy of Christie’s

A suit owned by Margaret Thatcher

Hadid was this week named as the winner of the Design Museum’s Designs of the Year awards for her design for the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan.
She is now working on the exhibition, which will open in October and look at 150 years of women’s fashion.
The exhibition will showcase more than 20 women who will each personally contribute and share their ‘style philosophy’. Kirsty Wark, Dame Vivienne Westwood and Shami Chakrabarti are among those featured.
The exhibition will also bring together clothing, photography, archive footage and interviews to look at ‘how influential women have used fashion to define and enhance their position in the world’.
Fashion expert Colin McDowell, who is co-curating the exhibition with the Design Museum’s Donna Loveday, says, ‘This exhibition shows how women have used different approaches to dress in order to make statements which are unique to them and their personalities.
‘Few of the women in this exhibition would see themselves as fashion plates or even strong fashion followers. They create their own wardrobes, not to be fashion plates but to demonstrate who and what they are.’

(Wed, 2 Jul 2014 | By Angus Montgomery)

Wildlife charity takes illustrated approach for rebrand

Colourful has created a new identity for conservation charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species, which is based around the use of illustrations.

Phillip Southgate, associate designer at Colourful, says, ‘All wildlife charities use lots of photography. We wanted the brand to stand out by using illustration.

‘Our approach shows colour draining from or re-entering the environment, and the core look is very British to differentiate it from international conservation charities.’

Southgate adds, ‘We’ve created hand-drawn frames for photographic content to make them distinctive. It’s a style that will help the charity to be much more recognisable.’

Colourful says the strength of PTES is in joining up scientific research with real action on the ground, but that the charity needed to present a friendlier and more recognisable brand to supporters.

The consultancy developed branding around the strapline ‘Bringing the wild back to life’, which carries through into illustration.
Within the logo, a green banner holds the word ‘endangered’ and this is re-purposed as a device in campaigns.

Colourful has also created a toolkit of illustrative elements and graphic devices to work across a range of publications and event materials.
Illustrations were created by Colourful associate Hayley Cove. Tone of voice guidelines and top-level messaging were developed by Reed Words. The website was created by Mike Leach and James Burden.
Colourful won the project following a credentials pitch in December 2013

(Tue, 1 Jul 2014 | By Angus Montgomery)