Design

Inkymole does Playboy

My good friend Sarah Coleman, aka Inkymole, who recently put on an exhibition of mine and Henry Flint‘s work, has done the cover for the new US edition of Playboy!

No, she hasn’t given up the pen to strip off and become a bunnygirl but that’s her hand drawn type all over the cover. The mag has recently gained a new art director who is keen to get back to the days of old when it had some genuinely original designs fronting it.

For more info, and a look at past designs sourced from the ever-handy Secret Oranges blog, go to Sarah’s Inkymole site.

Posted in Design, Magazines. | No Comments |

Judge Dredd original concept art by Ezquerra

These images recently came up in an old 1994 2000ad monthly my friend David Vallade got from his local library. Carlos Ezquerra‘s original designs for Dredd, his lawmaster bike and law giver gun.

The style of the 70’s is present in the chopper-esque bike proportions and flared gloves. Note the diagonal zip on Dredd’s uniform and lack of eagle shoulder pad.

“Dredd’s breast chain and badge actual predated punk fashion and with the black clad uniform, screened by a black helmet and his knee-length boots, he was the most exciting British comic book character that radiated menace” – Steve MacManus‘ ‘The Judge Dredd Story’ 1994.

Posted in Art, Comics, Design. | 1 Comment |

Munich Olympics ’72 brochure excerpts

To the news that George Obsbourne just got booed by a stadium of 80,000 at the Paralympics medal giving ceremony, I bring you more beautiful design from the games’ past.
The gorgeous look for the Olympic Games held in Munich in 1972 was designed by Otl Aicher and his team. This is widely credited as a superb reaction to such a wide-ranging brief with everything working together in harmony to create a perfect look and feel.

munich-oly-12munich-oly-13munich-oly-2munich-oly-4munich-oly-5munich-oly-6munich-oly-8munich-oly-1munich-oly-11

Posted in Design, Event. | No Comments | Tags: , ,

Record bag designs from around the world

Wah Wah 1&2 – Barcelona’s best* new and used store for weird, psychedelic, electronic and everything else besides (*well it was the last time I was there).

I’m always on the lookout for interesting designs of all kinds and on my travels over the years I’ve kept a small collection of the more interesting record store bags I’ve found.

Rotate This – One from the many, many fine stores in Toronto, I love this, simple one colour on a brown paper bag.
Hi Fi – A Chicago staple, clean and simple (and they remembered the address)
Hot Wax – An oldie from Tokyo, the shop is down in a basement, the store that’s there now might not be called Hot Wax any more though.

Borderline Records – From Brighton, UK – the edge to edge illustration is pretty nice.

Fantastica – Great 60’s inspired design on silver plastic (you can’t really see that in the scan) This was a little shop in a back street on the first floor in Shibuya, Tokyo. It had the greatest collection of weird and wonderful records I found in that city in the 90’s. They even had an original copy of Afrika Bambaataa’s Death Mix 12″ but after picking out a ton of stuff with less than half an hour left before we had to go to the airport I discovered they didn’t take credit cards!

Aquarius – Nice Blue Note-esque design for San Francisco’s premier store for the weird and wonderful

Vinyl Planet – Another of the 50+ record shops rumoured to be open in Shibuya alone. This design is screen printed white onto a transparent bag (note Edan record inside).

Echo – Return of the Bag – They know what i’m talking about, unfortunately this design is let down by the fact that they didn’t put the shop address on it so I don’t know where to go back to get more records.

Posted in Design, Records. | No Comments |

Record bag designs from around the world

Wah Wah 1&2 – Barcelona’s best* new and used store for weird, psychedelic, electronic and everything else besides (*well it was the last time I was there).

I’m always on the lookout for interesting designs of all kinds and on my travels over the years I’ve kept a small collection of the more interesting record store bags I’ve found.

Rotate This – One from the many, many fine stores in Toronto, I love this, simple one colour on a brown paper bag.
Hi Fi – A Chicago staple, clean and simple (and they remembered the address)
Hot Wax – An oldie from Tokyo, the shop is down in a basement, the store that’s there now might not be called Hot Wax any more though.

Borderline Records – From Brighton, UK – the edge to edge illustration is pretty nice.

Fantastica – Great 60’s inspired design on silver plastic (you can’t really see that in the scan) This was a little shop in a back street on the first floor in Shibuya, Tokyo. It had the greatest collection of weird and wonderful records I found in that city in the 90’s. They even had an original copy of Afrika Bambaataa’s Death Mix 12″ but after picking out a ton of stuff with less than half an hour left before we had to go to the airport I discovered they didn’t take credit cards!

Aquarius – Nice Blue Note-esque design for San Francisco’s premier store for the weird and wonderful

Vinyl Planet – Another of the 50+ record shops rumoured to be open in Shibuya alone. This design is screen printed white onto a transparent bag (note Edan record inside).

Echo – Return of the Bag – They know what i’m talking about, unfortunately this design is let down by the fact that they didn’t put the shop address on it so I don’t know where to go back to get more records.

Posted in Design, Records. | 10 Comments |

Mexico ’68 Olympic brochure excerpts

Seeing as we are still in the grip of ‘Olympic fever’ I thought I’d post some excerpts from the brochures that accompanied the ’68 games in Mexico. There were at least 2 volumes and they included everything from historical background, art and architecture of the region, design styles and transport layouts.

The design team responsible for the look of the games was headed up by Lance Wyman alongside Eduardo Terrazas for urban design Beatrice Trueblood for Olympic publications, Manuel Villazon for the student design team and Peter Murdoch for special projects. I also have some from the Munich games which are widely considered the pinnacle of Olympic design.

Well Mexico.

Posted in Design, Event. | No Comments |

Lego love

Lego is a very big deal in our house with my boys making new things all the time and new figures or sets high on the birthday and Xmas list. I found this Enter The Dragon pastiche on the web and photographed the Star Wars poster on the tube back in March.

Posted in Design, Toys. | 2 Comments |

Worldwide mag design article extras

When I did the interview on design for music in the digital age for Gilles Peterson‘s Worldwide + magazine I submitted a lot of extra images that weren’t able to be used for space reasons. I thought I’d put them up here as I love them all and they illustrate some of the people I talk about who didn’t get featured visually.

The mag is now available on iTunes to download for the iPad.

Top to bottom, left to right:

Julian House / Ghost Box label,

The Designers Republic / Emigre magazine cover,

Michael C. Place / Build poster,

Vaughn Oliver & Chris Bigg – V23 / Lonely Is An Eyesore deluxe LP,

Pete Fowler / The Magic Numbers LP,

Mr Krum / The Simonsound mp3.


 

Posted in Design, DJ Food, Magazines, Packaging, Records. | No Comments |

The Herbaliser – There Were Seven album

The Herbaliser return on October 8th with their 7th album proper, (not including Session 1&2, Herbal Blend, Herbal Tonic etc.), ‘There Were Seven’. There’s a loose concept at work within the album, which I don’t want to give away too much of but there are a myriad of clues in the titles, lyrics and graphics to a narrative that runs through much of the album.

I’ve kindly been asked back to design the record, which will be available on vinyl, CD and download plus a very limited special vinyl package from their own Dept. H label. Full details of the ltd. vinyl are yet to be finalised but even the standard vinyl will be a special package and I’m looking forward to getting that one back from the printers.

The album features vocals from MCs Ghettosocks, Muneshine, Timbuktu, George The Poet and vocals from Hannah Clive. A promo single, ‘The Lost Boy‘ will be doing the rounds soon with remixes forthcoming from The Colman Brothers, 2econd Class Citizen and more…

Posted in Design, Openmind designs, Poster / flyer. | 8 Comments |

Win Memory 9 & Falty DL music on Solid Steel tonight


Memory 9‘s new 12″ packaging and disc, plus the new Falty DL release in retro Ninja house bag. Win both of these tonight on Solid Steel between 7-9pm GMT on Strongroom Alive. I’ll be in the studio with Jon More from Coldcut and Memory 9 is supplying the guest mix.
My mix has a lot of killer new Hip Hop including an exclusive first play from the new Herbaliser album plus DJ Format, 2econd Class Citizen, Mister Jason, Cut Chemist, Soundsci and an unreleased mix of ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ by The Amorphous Androgynous.
And here’s the show:

Posted in Design, Ninja Tune, Records, Solid Steel. | 1 Comment |

Soundsci – Formula 99 LP out today

The Soundsci LP is finally out today! Ex-Dynamic Syncopation producer Jonny Cuba and current part-Herbaliser DJ Ollie Teeba – alongside ex-Mass Influence MC Audessey, U-George and Oxygen. The deluxe bundle I posted about a few weeks back sold out in a day but the regular vinyl and digital is out now. Here’s a little snippets mix by Ollie Teeba to wet the taste buds…

[youtube width=”640″ height=”479″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKP0rmBUMp8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

and an even longer version on Soundcloud…

Posted in Design, Music, Records. | 1 Comment |

Vintage kids magazines from Italy

Steve Cook and I went on a scavenge for old magazines on my birthday earlier this year and, whilst in a well known West London basement, Steve found dozens of kids magazines from the 60’s and 70’s.

I’ve only had time to scan a few pieces but they are riddled with beautiful illustrations and typography from back in the day, check the Mini 22 logo on the toy gun ad for instance (there’s a telling amount of adverts for toy guns in each issue). Absolutely LOVE the robot cover and spread, which Steve graciously gave up for me from the pile, see also the ad for a vintage Lego train set.

These scans are primarly from an Italian mag called Corriere dei Piccoli (Italian for “Courier of the Little Ones”) and Steve has some from French ‘Lissette’ over on his Secret Oranges blog today. There’s plenty more from both mags to come from both of us so stay tuned and click images for larger versions.

Posted in Art, Design, Magazines. | No Comments |

Worldwide Festival Magazine Summer 2012 design article

Late last year I wrote an extensive piece in response to an interview by Miguel Angel Rolland for Gilles Peterson‘s Worldwide Festival magazine about design for music in the digital age. It’s finally been published over on Issu and it’s 16 pages long (!) You can order a print copy or just download a digital version and physical copies should be available at the festival this summer. Not sure why they didn’t credit Miguel or photographer Steve Cook for the studio shot either but I’m very pleased to have been given the chance to air my views.

Posted in Books, Design, DJ Food. | 1 Comment |