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).

The 1957 Penrose Annual - a graphic design time capsule

Murray GM July 11, 2020

I know it’s been a long time since I posted, but hey, quite a lot has been going on over the last few months ;)

I picked up a few editions of U&lc from Matt Lamont and he also had this 1957 Penrose Annual - Volume 51. It may be a little dog eared but I could not resist it. The cover was enough but then Matt shared some of the inside and I had to get it.

Being a Graphic Arts trade annual it’s an incredible blend of writing from the time, trade ads and technique examples. Best of all that means, stock variations, inserts, overlays, print variation and some wonderful ads.

Some here are some of the things that caught my eye. Also at the bottom I’ve added the contents pages for reference, incase there's something someone is looking for.

First up here are a few spreads:

Here’s a sampling of the wonderful illustrations and print techniques.

Then there are these great ads, like this for Linotype and then the two for type. Love seeing the Nebiolo ad.

This one is particularly close to my heart, for Penguin.

And finally a few more pages and details from the articles.

As promised here are the contents pages. If there’s something you see here and want, add a comment and I’ll see what I can do.

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)

Something concrete

Murray GM January 3, 2019

On a visit to Portland I popped into a great little fashion/design boutique called Johan (as I can never resist anything Scandi sounding). I got chatting with the owner and found out she’d spent time in Malmö and Lund - small world. Then it got even smaller, all (at least a lot of) her books were supplied by The Idea of the Book who I know through the Letterform Archive. Anyway, as traveling I had to limit myself to just one purchase so grabbed; anthology of concretism edited by Eugene Wildman. Mostly because my shelves are severely lacking in the concrete poetry department. Here’s a taste:

So I decided to go some way to rectifying the shortage. The fabulous Red Fox Press (also discovered via Letteform Archive) recently issued a great set of small editions that included this little beauty from Derek Beaulieu. Love his Letraset work and his tendancy to give things away of twitter and IG. Also I particular love the packaging it came in, lovely touch.

A few more pics from Red Fox Press here: http://www.paperposts.me/posts/2017/11/24/letterform-archive-tables-of-pure-delight.

Shortly after I spotted that Derek Beaulieu had a Georges Perec related piece; L’Echec de Perec. Published by the wonderful French small press MA Bibliothèque, so I had to grab that and a few more items.

Thus 2018 bought with it a cascade of coincidences and connections so I thought I’d share them and start the year off on a solid, concrete foundation.

Letterform Archive - tables of pure delight

Murray GM November 26, 2017

I'm often visiting the Letterform Archive just after they've put on a visit for this or that design team or artist or historian. So I get to see the 'table' that's been put together for them. Sometimes these reflect specific themes or ideas the visitor has requested other times it's more of a 'greatest hits' or simply reflects what the person running the session loves the most.

Last time I was there, the table was a particularly eclectic and fascinating collection of items.

First things to catch my eye were the editions of Design and Paper, and especially this from Ladislav Sutnar about catalogue design.

Then I spotted the visual sumptuousness of the city books from Red Fox Press. These beautiful objects are a real feast for the senses. Fantastic use of materials, combined with glorious screen printed colour make them true objects of desire. The three shown are Tokyo, Berlin and Paris and each uses a different visual vernacular from the cities as the creative approach. The Berlin book is from 2014/15 and is printed on Korean cattle feed bags by the design pair Franticham (FRANCIS VAN MAELE & ANTIC-HAM).

As I continued to make my way around the table I started to see more and more combinatorial design artefacts, including Queneau's Cent mille milliards de poèmes and 'the book that's could be made'— Jonathan Safran Foer's Tree of Codes as well as many other experimental formats. There were a few personal favourites, like the semaphore cover of Typografische Monatsblätter and this beautiful typographic deconstruction on trace.

But these incredible re-imaginings of classic fairy tales by Warja Lavater from Adrien Maeght were a wonderful surprise. Each one reworks a fairy tale through illustration, half visualisation, half illustrative storytelling. These first 2 pics below are from Little Red Riding Hood and even include a legend - wonderful idea and there's a box set to boot!

Wonderful way to spend the end of the day. And of course there were plenty of historical letterforms out too.