April 2008
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
« Mar   Jul »
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930  

Day April 8, 2008

Entries 6 Total

Beck Wheeler: a celebration of the handmade

Apr 8, ’08 2:44 PM

Return to DG magazine 129 contents

Beck Wheeler

Mother of all evils 2008
3150mm x 2470mm
Synthetic polymer paint on vinyl

View Gallery | Visit Website | Print & File [Members]

Kate McCurdy

Beginnings
Beck Wheeler was born in Germany, and raised in the small suburb of Beach Haven in Auckland, New Zealand. A ‘quietly creative’ family, Beck grew up in a house of handmade clothes and toys, with a basement gallery showing off the best of Beck and her sisters’ work. After showing a keen interest in photography, art history, sculpture and painting in high school, Beck went on to study further aspects of jewellery, sculpture and painting at UNITEC in New Zealand, before moving to Australia in 2000. At the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE in Victoria she focused on graphic design and illustration, and the now Melbourne-based artist has combined her talents for painting, sculpture and toy-making in storytelling. She has recently written and illustrated her own children’s book, How Absurd!

Hey, Hey, Which Way?
Her new exhibition Hey, Hey, Which Way? centres on darker themes of death and the afterlife, however, Beck’s playful take on morality has had a very positive reception.

‘People were laughing,’ Beck observed on the opening night at the Über Gallery. ‘I guess my work in the show has taken a humorous look at the idea of death. I don’t think people will think it is too dark. I have tried to make the artwork as light as possible, [it is] executed in fluoros and metallics so it’s pretty cheery colourwise which helps counteract the darkness of the subject matter.’

Beck’s upbringing by parents who followed teachings that merged Sufi, Buddhist and Hindu traditions, combined with a Catholic school education, seems to have had a profound effect on her outlook on life, and in the case of her current exhibition, what happens afterwards. Each piece in themselves is a meditation on death, the afterlife, and the meanings and beliefs that are held by everyday people. One of the pieces in Hey, Hey, Which Way? entitled ‘if nothing else you’ve made good fertiliser’ taps into the cynical and nihilistic views, as one figure refuses to consider that there may be more to it than dying, getting buried and ‘that’s it.’

In another piece, ‘i dreamt i knew the secret to life and death’, one figure describes to another how her father imagined death to be like a return to the womb, where everything seems as if it is underwater. The pieces form a discourse on life and death, where the figures ask the questions that their viewers have often asked themselves. However, the morbidity of the subject matter is easier to digest due to Beck’s playful approach, but also to the handmade and personal quality of her work.

Beck Wheeler

Licked by Millions 2008
780mm x 980mm
ink, goauche and mixed media on watercolour paper

Mother of all evils
The exhibition is dominated by her new piece ‘mother of all evils’. Taking over a month to complete, it stands 1.6 metres tall, 3m x 2.3 and is the biggest ‘toy’ that Beck has designed so far. She has constructed a giant squid-like creature in black and white hand-painted vinyl, with smaller creatures at the end of each ‘tentacle’. Each tentacle appears to be crawling out from the centre of ‘all evils’, giving the effect of a slow-motion invasion of the world. This toy, like her many others, is instantly recognisable as Beck’s work; indeed, they all appear to have walked out of one of her illustrations.This is a fitting observation as Beck herself sees her toy making as ‘an extension to my illustrative work. Working in 3D was a natural progression from drawing characters.’

Beck Wheeler

Mother of all evils 2008
3150mm x 2470mm
Synthetic polymer paint on vinyl

The appeal of handmade toys
One of Beck’s first toys was an attempt to bring to life the characters of a comic strip. ‘I wrote a little story about two superheroes, and made one out of a pair of socks and the other was knitted our of bright yellow wool. I didn’t have any sewing skills at the time so the eyes were glued on, and the rest was held together with a combination of glue and hand stitching.’ It took a few years before Beck learnt how to sew on her own sewing machine. However, she is still able to maintain her handmade look of her work, even when working with the same materials as mass produced toys.

Beck Wheeler

Hey, Hey, Which Way? exhibition at the Über Gallery.

Trends in contemporary toy design
Beck counts cartoonists and illustrators Chris Ware, Edward Gorey, Maurice Sendak and Winsor McCay among her many influences on her own illustrations. However, for her toys she points out that she doesn’t take much of her inspiration from contemporary toy designers, although she can understand the recent surge in popularity of ‘mutant’ and ‘quirky’ vinyl toys.
‘Most of my influences are from illustration and 2D character design. I think the current trend for handmade mutant-like toys comes as a rebellion to the super-cute, mass-made toys that come out of sweatshops. It used to be all you could buy for kids till people started to get excited again about making their own toys. I have been involved in a few books that teach people how to make their own quirky toys out of socks and recycled fabrics.’

This trend reflects the new interest in the design community, particularly those of the younger generation, in relation to self-publishing and producing, as well as a keen awareness of the environment and sustainability.
‘I think that out society is starting to become more aware of reusing our resources and rediscovering handmade is part of that,’ Beck observes. ‘I think it is a natural cycle to come back to the handmade look. Handmade and patterning seems to be everywhere at the moment. I think it is a backlash from the crisp geometric forms that were popular a while back. I also think the fact we are embracing sustainability in the design industry plays a part. People want to see the presence of a maker in the product they purchase.’

How Absurd! written and illustrated by Beck Wheeler is available now from her website.

Beck Wheeler
Hey, Hey, Which Way?
4 – 30 March 2008
Über Gallery
52 Fitzroy Street St Kilda, Victoria Australia

View Gallery | Visit Website | Print & File [Members]

Comments Off

Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today

Apr 8, ’08 2:43 PM

Return to DG magazine 129 contents

Colour Chart 1

JIM LAMBIE (Scottish, born 1964)
ZOBOP
2006
Vinyl tape
Dimensions variable
Fund for the Twenty-First Century

View Gallery | Visit Website | Print & File [Members]

Anne Paterson

Russian-born artist, Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944), used vibrant colour to stimulate emotions. He believed art had spiritual values. Paintings were compositions, alternative music for the senses. Henry Matisse (1869-1954), leader of The Fauves art movement (1904-1908), used non-representational colour and representational form to convey different sensations, for example: to express the sensual colors of surroundings.

Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today at MOMA New York
Throughout art history, colour has often been used as a strong symbolic element by artists, driven by an inner necessity to express emotions. However, in the early twentieth century, art underwent momentous change – a move away from the perceived elitist avant-garde tradition. Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today is a fascinating exploration and manifestation of this change. Ann Temkin, Curator of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MOMA), presents works by 44 contemporary artists (including six installations specifically created for the exhibition) who have helped to re-shape our perceptions about the traditional use of colour and form.

Colour Chart 2

ELLSWORTH KELLY (American, born 1923)
Colors for a Large Wall
1951
Oil on canvas, sixty-four panels
7′ 10 1/2″ x 7′ 10 1/2″ (240 x 240 cm)
Gift of the artist

The Marcel Duchamp influence
This radical break with tradition can be said to have been initiated by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) whose painting, ‘Tu ‘m’ (1918) is the first work on the exhibition’s timeline. Duchamp was associated with the art movements of Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism. His revolutionary and confronting philosophy about creating art, his ‘ready-mades’, shocked the art world at the time. He demonstrated that art could be ‘ready-made’: found objects, custom-made or ‘off-the-shelf’, and that it could be merely arbitrary or random – created by chance, and not necessarily by design . The object ‘became’ art, because the artist ‘chose’ it. For example, Duchamp’s work ‘The Fountain’ (1917), was a manufactured urinal which he believed that when placed in an art exhibition space, would change the observer’s perception of it, and encourage interaction and thought. In MOMA’s Color Chart exhibition, Marcel Duchamp’s challenging painting ‘Tu ‘m’ (1981), demands our attention, and then our interaction – in French it translates as ‘You ……. me’. Duchamp purposefully left the verb out so that it could be supplied by the observer, who then becomes a participator.<

Colour Chart 3

ANDY WARHOL (American, 1928-1987)
Green Marilyn
1962
Silkscreen on synthetic polymer paint on canvas
20 x 16″ (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Gift of William C. Seitz and Irma S.
Seitz, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

Pop Art
This celebration of the ‘everyday’, of popular culture as art, was later to break new ground again as the Pop Art movement took off in America and around the world in the 1950s, and over the next two decades. After World War 2, the commercial colour (paint) chart was developed and the status of paint changed. Colour became ‘ready-made’. Color Chart explores the impact of standardized, mass-produced color on contemporary art . It showcases work from 44 artists highlighting their unique responses to popular culture, random selection and colour . It includes work from key figures of Pop Art such as Andy Warhol (1928-1987) ,Robert Rauschenberg (1925-), Ellsworth Kelly (1923-) and Gerhard Richter (1932-) alongside the work of younger artists such as Sherrie Levine (1947-), Jim Lambie (1964-) and Damien Hirst (1965-).If you can’t make it to New York, there is an online version of the Color Chart exhibition. In the style of the art works themselves, it is wonderfully colourful, it requests our interaction, and it invites our response.

Colour Chart 4

FRANK STELLA (American, born 1936)
Gran Cairo
1962
Alkyd on canvas
85 1/4 x 85 1/4″ (216.5 x 216.5 cm)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Purchase, with funds from the
friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art

Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today
An exhibition which explores the impact of Standardized, Mass-Produced Colour on Contemporary Art with works by 44 Contemporary Artists
March 2 – May 12, 2008
The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Gallery
Museum of Modern Art, New York
View Gallery | Visit Website | Print & File [Members]

Comments Off

Olivia Desianti

Apr 8, ’08 2:42 PM

Return to DG magazine 129 contents

The Living End

Live music photography. The Living End at Palace. 23/09/2006

View Gallery | Visit Website | Print & File [Members]

Caroline McCurdy

Olivia Desianti has achieved quite a lot for someone in her early twenties. By the age of twenty-one she has graduated with a degree in design (Visual Communication), begun her own online music magazine Arcady, established herself in the music photography scene, and started work as junior designer for the Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne.

After growing up in Perth, Olivia found that Melbourne would prove to be a more inspiring place to work. ‘There’s so much culture in Melbourne, which is why I moved here in the first place’, she exclaims. Originally getting involved in design, she moved on to advertising at her step-brother’s agency but, after three months, lost interest. She says she found it to be a harsh eye opener and had the feeling that she wasn’t going to last long in that particular field.

Olivia explains, ‘At university, I veered off slightly and started writing and taking photos for various music publications in my spare time. I ended up falling in love with the constant flow of work and the uncertainty that is always present in mass media. Within university itself, we started focusing on publication design, and from the minute I started that project, I knew I had finally found what I want to do.’

Ampersand

‘AMPERSAND’ Corporate Identity.
Student project.
Logo design for a fictional organisation to teach young women and couples about having children.

During her time spent at university, Olivia was also finding her feet in the Melbourne music scene photographing live bands. Since 2005 she has been involved with an American online music magazine, Aced Magazine, by doing album reviews, then moving on to gig reviews. Following this, Olivia received a photographer’s pass to Bloc Party’s first Australian gig: ‘I ended up meeting heaps of people from that gig who helped me kickstart my career in band photography.’

From her university introduction to publication design, combined with experience on the music scene, Olivia began the online music magazine Arcady. Olivia started Arcady as a hobby to vent her design ideas and also to get a leg up in the music industry. She explains, ‘it began as a place to combine my two passions: music and design. I wanted a place where I can be within the music industry and still be visually creative. It started off as a bit of fun, a place where I can freely state my views on music.’

Being a young designer in Melbourne, Olivia says her advice to other young designers who are venturing into the design scene is to ‘network as much as you can. It doesn’t have to be with other designers; befriend people in the business, accounting, music, food, whatever industries. Explore how they think and find what you’re really interested in. Those contacts will come handy at some point.’ She is a designer who has a love of mass media, and that is her niche. ‘You have to find a niche that suits you, and the only way you can do that is to meet new people and find out what their world is like.’

Learn

Illustration for ‘Learn’ liftout of Herald Sun depicting subjects which students learn being applied to everyday life.

Apart from networking and gaining the right experience, Olivia says another important aspect of finding work is to be able to work in different disciplines, as more and more employers are now asking for web design skills. Olivia believes that this is bad news for most designers. She’s a firm believer that one has to perfect the craft of your choice, but to gain a basic knowledge of other disciplines is also essential.

Arcady magazine

View Gallery | Visit Website | Print & File [Members]

Comments Off

Nando’s and Coca-Cola 2007 Classic Design Project Competition Winner: Mary Pham

Apr 8, ’08 2:41 PM

Return to DG magazine 129 contents

Winning Design

Anne Paterson

Print & File [Members]

The brief: To create a design for a limited edition 385ml glass Coke bottle which conveys the theme of ‘Happiness’ or ‘Optimism’.A judging panel which included representatives from Nando’s, Coca-Cola and the DG Design Network chose Mary Pham’s design for its lively and eye-catching response to the brief. Wrapping around the iconic Coke bottle waved circles of bright pinks, yellows, and red increase in size stretching from the top to the base of the bottle. This vibrant pattern is overlayed with fine line art in black and grey depicting Nando’s famous chicken and peri-peri chillies as cute and happy characters living in a country, perhaps called ‘Psychedelia’. It is the combination of colours and the little characters in the illustration which work to create feelings of happiness or optimism. Mary’s design not only strongly addresses the theme of the brief, but its bright visual impact also enhances Coca-Cola’s marketing of the Coke brand in store.

Mary is a young designer and a recent graduate with an Advanced Diploma of Business in Creative Design from the International College of Creative Arts in South Melbourne. She is delighted with her win, and is now looking for work in graphic design and art direction. Her prizes included not only having her design featured on the limited edition Coke bottle, but also a twelve month individual membership to the DG Design Network, one year’s supply of Nando’s, $1000 worth of Apple merchandise, and a framed sample of her winning bottle.

Mary Pham’s winning design Coke bottles will be sold from March in Nando’s restaurants nationally through 2008.

Comments Off

Game On

Apr 8, ’08 2:39 PM

Return to DG magazine 129 contents

Lara Croft - Tomb Raider

‘Tomb Raider and Lara Croft’ © & TM Core Design Limited 2002-2003.
Courtesy of Eidos Interactive Limited.
All Rights Reserved.

View Gallery | Visit Website | Print & File [Members]

Anne Paterson

An interactive history

Game On at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is an exciting exploration and celebration of the development of video/computer game technology from the earliest electronic game, Spacewar, in 1962, played on a giant computer, to present day games and into the future. Game On looks closely at the relationship between design and culture. It examines the many areas of design in this industry, such as graphics, illustration, animation, sound, game design and technology, game consoles and much more.

Game On also examines the importance of computer game culture and its place in society; how it borrows from other forms of creativity such as television, music and movies: for example, GoldenEye (Rare), Star Wars (Atari) and Discs of Tron (Bally Midway), and, conversely, the way in which other creative fields are influenced by games such as Tomb Raider (Core Design) and Resident Evil (Capcom) which have become successful movies. Game On also looks at the impact of particular film genres such as anime and comic genres such as manga.

Game On

Game on exhibition at ACMI

International exhibition at ACMI
This is a worldwide exhibition, originating in London at the Barbican Gallery in 2002. It has already toured the United States, Europe and Asia and more than a million people have seen it. Just like computer games’ design and technology, this exhibition has evolved to keep pace with ongoing developments in the industry.

The Sims - Restaurant X

The Sims © Electronic Arts Inc. 2002

120 playable games on show
Game On is definitely hands on – a totally interactive experience. We are invited to play! There are over 120 of the most famous video games ever made, in one place and playable. ACMI is the only cultural institution in Australia with a dedicated exhibition space for video games, known as the Games Lab. This comprehensive exhibition is divided into sections which showcase specific areas within the realm of game design and technology, such as Early Arcade Games, Games Consoles, Games Families, Sound, Cinema, Games Culture – USA, Europe and Asia, Multiplayer Games, Online Games and Machinima, Kids’ Games, Character Design, The Making and Marketing of Games, and Future Technology. Running simultaneously with the exhibition, is a rich programme of associated events including gamerthons, watching game artists at work (Tantalus, Interactive), game memorabilia (www.acmi.net.au/collectors), debate on violence in games, choosing good games, and a unique feature of this exhibition – Australian-made games such as the 2007 Game of the Year Puzzle Quest (Infinite Interactive), The Hobbit and The Way of the Exploding Fist (Beam Software)(Melbourne House), and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (Krome Studios).Game On has something for everyone.

Mario - Nintendo

Mario © Nintendo Co. Ltd

A showcase of games design
From a designer’s perspective, the Game On landscape is vast and provides an inspiring experience. The exhibition is a superb example of how broadly the term ‘designer’ can be applied. From concept development of characters in the games, for example, Sonic (the Hedgehog) created by Sega’s Yuji Naka, and Mario, created by Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamototo, to the marketing of the packaged product, we are able to examine a comprehensive design process, combining the talents of designers from diverse fields.

Game On
The History and Future of Computer Games and Gaming
ACMI Screen Gallery
Thursday 6 March – Sunday 13 July 2008
10.00 am – 6 pm daily; Thursday nights until 9 pm
Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Federation Square, Flinders Street, Melbourne

View Gallery | Visit Website | Print & File [Members]

Comments Off

EULDA 07 – European Logo Design Annual

Apr 8, ’08 2:38 PM

Return to DG magazine 129 contents


Eulda 2007

‘Eulda ’06 and ’07: European Logo Design Annual’. Eulda Books.

View Gallery | Visit Website | Print & File [Members]

Caroline McCurdy

The 2007 European Logo Design Annual (EULDA) promotes excellence in design by showcasing 201 logos from 33 European countries. The annual presents the different quality, trends and evolution that currently take place in brand identity development.EULDA is judged in a unique way. The judging procedure reflects how logos are perceived every day: the designers decide what to present to the clients, the clients decide what to present to the public, but ultimately it is always the public who decide if the brand is successful. The process begins with a selection of designers judging the entries, followed by ‘client’ and ‘public’ jurors.
The judges determine the entries based on criteria which includes the clear communication of message, originality and creativity, good graphic design and positive overall impression.

Best of Europe 1

Country: Serbia
Design firm: Jovan Rocanov (Serbia) for Kaffeine Communications (Kiev, Ukraine)
Designer/s: Jovan Rocanov, Anna Timkov. Client: Consumer Society and Citizen Networks
Logo for the Consumer Society and Citizen Networks (Ukraine)

The winner of The EULDA ’07 ‘Best of Europe’ was Jovan Rocanov and Anna Timkov from Serbia for the design for their client Consumer Society and Citizen Networks, a project which is designed to protect the rights of consumers. The design was selected for EULDA’s top award for its originality and design excellence.
Jovan Rocanov explains the concept of the design as ‘the most simple and distinct way to show protection in a context of consumption. As the result, I connected two very clear symbols: a bar code – as a symbol of consumption – and an umbrella – as a symbol of protection’.

Best of Europe 2

Country: Germany
Design firm: KITATM Berlin | Visual Playground
Designer/s; Jens Lausenmeyer
Client: monopol records GmbH

Best of Europe 3

Country: Poland
Design firm: Juice
Designer/s: Wojtek Piotrowski, Adam Tunikowski
Client: Moustache Film
Logo created for film production company based in Poland.

Best of Europe 4

Country: Sweden
Design firm: Bedow Creative
Designer/s: Perniclas Bedow
Client: Snookerhallen i Stockholm AB

The 2007 EULDA Annual will be the last in its present form, as from 2008 it will be extended to a wider design community as WOLDA: The Worldwide Logo Design Annual. After 2 years in publication EULDA has become a significant publication in recognising European design talent, and this expansion to include entrants from non-european countries should see it continue as a showcase determining the world’s best brand design.

View Gallery | Visit Website | Print & File [Members]

Comments Off