As an editorial resident here at AIGA, I spend my time nosing around for interesting design-related goings on each week (so you don’t have to). Follow along all day, every day on Instagram @AIGAeyeondesign, Facebook, and Twitter @AIGAeyeondesign.
Negotiating the London Underground is a nightmare at the best of times, but for those with anxiety or claustrophobia it’s a living hell. In cheery news for those who prefer to stay above ground, Transport for London has just launched a new map designed specifically to help reduce the anxiety some feel when subterranean. The new design highlights routes people take to avoid long stretches of tunnels, highlighting the parts that are above ground. Surprisingly, it turns out that more than half of the Tube’s 270 stations are in fact above ground, who knew!
Back in April we ended our chat with delightful Swiss designer Anna Haas with a teaser of her new app project that helps bibliophiles track down their nearest bookstore. Well, dear readers, it’s almost here. Book Cities helps you find and discover book shops around the world, allowing users to save a list of their favorites, which they can also share with others. “At the moment I’m collecting addresses and inviting bookstore owners to register their shops,” says Haas. “It’s free to register for shop-owners. The app will be available mid/end July! Until then, it’s really hungry for addresses!” If you happen to own a bookstore, you know what to do.
It’s no secret I’m a big fan of artist duo The Chapman Brothers—heck, I even named my pet hedgehog after him. Through the labyrinth of Behance I recently stumbled upon some superb graphics for the artists’ first solo show in Turkey, In the Realm of the Senseless, designed by Istanbul studio Fol. The design approach packs a punch, and brings color into the Chapmans’ deliciously sinister worlds. It hints at the work, but leaves a lot to the imagination, which is just what you need with art that makes you chuckle as much as it gives you nightmares. The studio also created this superb animation to promote the exhibition:
Speaking of hedgehogs, great news for those who love the spiky critters and also have a penchant for communicating in pictures: Google has announced the launch of 69 new characters for its Android platform, as well as a redesign of its existing 2,000+ emoji. According to the tech behemoth, it’s made them “more expressive and consistent across platforms.” Other new additions include a breastfeeding mother, a “ghoulish zombie,” and a smiley LITERALLY HAVING ITS MIND BLOWN.
Our resident climate change connoisseur and senior editor, James Cartwright, will be heartened to hear that recycling is a surprisingly ancient invention, dating back to Roman times. You can see evidence in Junk, a new exhibition at The Museum of London, which includes many of the innovative and imaginative ways Londoners have recycled and re-used their household objects for centuries: Roman pots were repaired with lead, iron wires and adhesive made from tree bark and resin; porcelain plates were fixed together with iron staples; holes in medieval pots were filled with molten lead plugs; and early 18th-century women’s shoes were made entirely from re-used materials dating back 100 prior, worked and tailored to reflect the style of the day.
We were pretty pumped when sex ’n’ bodies mag Divine launched back in December last year, and we’re pretty pumped again with the launch of issue two. This time round the theme is Worship, exploring “how we give of ourselves and give to each other on deep, sacrificial, and sometimes ritualistic levels,” according to editor, designer, and founder Jillian Adel. “What happens when we celebrate sexuality rather than being afraid of it? What happens when we realize withholding our desire to connect, deeply and honestly, with ourselves and others is only to the detriment of society as a whole?” I don’t know, but I’m willing to find out.
Lovers of animals, photography, and the moving image who happen to be in London this summer could do far worse than to pop over to the Beetles + Huxley gallery, which is showing works by pioneering early photographer, Eadweard Muybridge. The exhibition will showcase 65 collotypes prints made by the artist in 1887, from his influential series Animal Locomotion, which features images of animals and people captured in mid-movement. The precursor to modern filmmaking and animation, each plate in the series shows the same subject in sequential phases of one action. Muybridge recorded varied forms of movement in a wide range of animals, mostly at Philadelphia zoo, from pigeons to sloths, camels, and everyones fav massive guinea pig, the capybara.
London-based studio Praline has certainly been keeping busy: not only is it behind the branding for Art Night, but it’s also behind the graphics for the Barbican’s current blockbuster sci-fi show, Into the Unknown. The exhibition explores anything and everything science fiction-related, “from the 19th-century cabinet of curiosities to the vastness of space. Through future cities, into the inner landscapes of human perception.” Praline worked with photographer Dan Tobin Smith to create a collection of visuals for each of the show’s four “zones:” Extraordinary Voyages, Space Odyssey, Brave New World, and Final Frontier.
The graphics draw on the pre-CGI techniques of pioneering 1960s director and special effects supervisor, Douglas Trumbull, who worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner, and Silent Running. “Working closely with exhibition curators Patrick Gyger and Laura Clarke, we created a rich exhibition catalogue, which is a collection of rare materials,” says Praline. “Like the exhibition itself, the catalogue is conceived as an immersive journey through the many worlds of science fiction.” The show runs until 1 September 2017.
Finally, more news from the lovely folk at Hello Mr., the “magazine about men who date men.” On the heels of the launch of its innovative new membership model comes the debut of a magazine residency called The Issues, which provides mentorship and resources for new ideas in queer publishing. “Using our global distribution experience and mentorship from industry leaders, we are providing the tools and resources to get new ideas from queer voices off the ground,” Hello Mr. explains. “We think of it as an academy for editors, art directors, and media-makers of the future. With your support, we will help launch our first magazine-in-residence, and distribute it inside the next issue of Hello Mr.”
The first magazine-in-residence in the series is Brunchclub, from 24-year old Texas State University graduates Colby Anderson and Ernest Macias, a mag about “the quest for truth, culture, and diversity within the LGBTQ community.”
