Some U&lc.

Murray GM July 18, 2020

As promised here are a few pics from the copies of U&lc. that I picked up a few weeks back.

I always had mixed feelings as student when I leafed through U&lc. The covers and size promised so much but often it didn’t deliver (at least for the style/idea hungry design student I was back then). Probably because it was ultimately a trade rag (back then - early 90s, all I wanted was to get hold of Emigre or Form und Zweck). For me it often felt like the graphic design ‘establishment’.

However there were always moments and exceptions which meant I kept going back to the Art College library and picking up. Looking back over this sampling of 12 issues between 1982 and 1994 I’m struck by the type ads, the editorial content and the illustrative focus (which I’ve mostly left out of the pics - sorry). In the same way the Penrose is a time capsule so are these - and as with the Penrose, it’s about the trade as it was, and not so much about the possibility of what it might become.

Due to the scale there’s a lot of ‘lets make the type really big’ - which can be great but also leads to the feeling of emptiness I get.

There’s a lot about ‘digital’ and plenty of very 80s looking things.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad I picked these up, so many interesting and wonderful touches and such a pivotal part of graphic design history. In the pics above there’s a piece on Tiffany lamps set in the oh so 80s (at least to me) ITC Tiffany Heavy. The piece on t-shirts above with the lovely ‘city symbols’ touch reminded me of something Neville Brody said (on TV) at the time - “no ones says anything anymore, we just print it our our t-shirts” (badly remembered/paraphrased by me).

Baseline

Murray GM December 1, 2019

I was digging through my library and found four issues of Baseline. I’d forgotten how good it was! The issues are from 1999, 2004 and 2 from 2005 (# 27, 44, 46, 48) and all have ‘poster’ cover wraps which make them feel oh-so-special.

Looking back on them there’s so much to love (which I think I missed back then). The larger format gives the designers lots of space to play with, and they aren’t afraid of white space either! It’s also way quirkier than I remembered.

Below are a selection of spreads from them. One of the most noticeable things is the proportion of text on the page. It’s tiny. Admittedly the small font and large page real estate is a factor but still. It’s way more a visual canvas than a journal. The grid is always evident even in the experimental pages or when they switch an article to landscape - which I really hate (sorry, I know, it changes pace, interrupts reader, forces new perspective, but I hate the switch mid mag).

These article lead pages are so gorgeous and at this scale pretty luxurious.

The face below is the poster cover wrap of issue 48 (designed by HDR Visual Communication). That issue also has the layout gem below where the illustration breaks not only the grid but also the page. Lovely touch but registration must have been fun.

Here’s a link to the online Issue Index - looks like it covers all issues to No 63 (1979-2018)

Spin - Adventures in Typography

Murray GM October 9, 2017

Last month I was back in London, for the first in years. Amongst other things I simply couldn't resist the opportunity to swing by MagCulture - always a treat and chocked full of incredible publications and gems. Unfortunately I had to limit my purchases as hand luggage only.

I did manage to pick up a copy of Adventures in Typography Issue 001 from the design studio Spin (also behind Unit Editions). Lovely item, great cover stock and the transparent screened mailer is a nice touch. Here are a few spreads from it.

Letterform Archive - an eclectic sample

Murray GM January 25, 2017

One of the things I love most about visiting the Letterform Archive is the impromptu discovery of awesome bits of design. You can book a research session with them and get a focussed deep dive into a particular subject area, but as a volunteer you just turn up and get stuck in. At one of my sessions Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko from Emigré had just sent over a batch of posters and printed paraphernalia. Letterform Archive already has Emigré's archive including the digital development of the type faces, but this was a stack of items that they had been sent (by the looks of it back in the '90s). It was an amazing flashback to my time at art school. Here's a selection from the stack that includes the work of (amongst others) The Designers Republic, Phil Baines and Graphic Thought Facility. I particularly love the poster for The Residents gig in Zurich, not sure of the designer, Homer Flynn maybe?

Although the eclectic nature of the archive is being filtered heavily through the things I love, it's still amazingly diverse. Here's a bunch of shots that include Raymond Queneau's Exercices de Style (see my copy here) and Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes, dada letter art, type specimens and a few pics from the many, many design journals they have.

And this wonderful type specimen with the annotation in pencil explaining that the ragged top is the result of mice.

If you want to stay up to date with what the have join their 'Just in' mailing list: https://letterformarchive.org/this-just-in

MacGuffin Magazine and The Life of Things

Murray GM January 19, 2017

Finally picked up a copy of the much raved about MacGuffin magazine. I'm a bit late to this party as it's already on No. 3, The Rope issue. I must say it's pretty damn nice, lovely stock and use of illustration. I really like the large type too and almost fanzine like layouts. It's another magazine attempting to reveal the extraordinary nature of 'ordinary' things, and in this issue it's rope. It's not done in quite the same way as Science of the Secondary but definitely has the same vibe, but not quite so Perecian in it's approach. The writing is great and the subjects, takes and angles are diverse and intriguing - what more do you need?

Here are a small selection of spreads, as this is a hefty mag (220 pages and we are talking content not glossy ads):

If you want more, there's a nice piece about the team over on Stack: http://www.stackmagazines.com/art-design/behind-scenes-macguffin-magazine/

and of course there's http://macguffin.nl/

UPDATE:

Thanks to OpenCulture I now get why MacGuffin is called MacGuffin. It's from Hitchcock and here's his explanation:

The main thing I’ve learned over the years is that the MacGuffin is nothing. I’m convinced of this, but I find it very difficult to prove it to others. My best MacGuffin, and by that I mean the emptiest, the most nonexistent, and the most absurd, is the one we used in North by Northwest. The picture is about espionage, and the only question that’s raised in the story is to find out what the spies are after. Well, during the scene at the Chicago airport, the Central Intelligence man explains the whole situation to Cary Grant, and Grant, referring to the James Mason character, asks, “What does he do?” The counterintelligence man replies, “Let’s just say that he’s an importer and exporter.” “But what does he sell?” “Oh, just government secrets!” is the answer. Here, you see, the MacGuffin has been boiled down to its purest expression: nothing at all!