21/09/2012

Design Time Capsule

Design Time Capsule

To ring in this year’s London Design Festival this week, a group of luminaries from around the design world gathered to commemorate the groundbreaking on the Design Museum’s new space. Slated to open in 2015 in the former Commonwealth Institute in Kensington, the new spot is to be a massive upgrade from its present riverside space and will transform the institution into the planet’s premier museum of design.


The big names invited along for the occasion each chose an item or two or three to place into a time capsule that will be buried inside the building’s foundations. And since the Robert Matthew-designed brutalist landmark is being spared the wrecking ball unlike many of its equally significant 1960s contemporaries, chances are pretty good that it’ll be around for at least as long as the rest of London stands.

Terence Conran (who has been a seminal figure behind the Design Museum since its inception) buried an iPhone 4S, a tin of anchovies, and a bottle of 2012 Burgundy (a lovely way as any to sum up humankind’s design accomplishments up to now…), while the museum’s director Deyan Sudjic added the London 2012 Olympic Torch. Kenneth Grange (who was the subject of a recent retrospective exhibition at the museum), Ingo Maurer and Thomas Heatherwick, on the other hand, opted for grand gestures of simplicity, with the former tossing in Arne Jacobsen’s iconic, minimalist Cylinder Line cafetière and the latter two together including a good old fashioned filament light bulb.


Margaret Howell, Paul Smith and Zaha Hadid – not a one of them known for modesty – fittingly dropped in examples of their own work: Howell included an image of the soon-to-be-revamped Battersea Power Station, Smith contributed his stamp design for this year’s Olympic games, and Hadid a scale model of her signature white elephant, Rome’s MAXXI. (Perhaps she’s anticipating its razing in the not-too-distant future…) But if inclusion in the time capsule signals an anticipation of erasure from general existence (will our great-grandchildren know what an Edison lightbulb looks like?), Cecil Balmond’s choice of an EU flag and a 1€ coin is more than a little thought provoking…

What would you bury?

Tag Christof – images courtesy Design Museum

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18/09/2012

Apple Software Philosophy – Skeuomorphic Design

Apple Software Philosophy – Skeuomorphic Design

Apple is once again back on everyone’s lips. After a few months of silence, while we were all using our iPads, iPhones and iMacs as usual, our beloved company was designing the new iPhone 5 and winning a major 1 billion dollar worth case against Samsung. With the launch of the latest edition of the ‘phone that changed the world’ (the first presentation ever without the genius Steve Jobs), some questions have come up about the direction the company is taking, especially design-wise.


Apple has always been the symbol of extremely eloquent, smart and unobtrusive design as far as hardware is concerned, lead by Sir Jonathan Ive‘s clear vision and Modernist heritage. Its immaterial counterpart – the software, on the other hand, has taken quite a strange shift. Since the very conception of desktop interfaces, where visual metaphors such as folders or trash bins were used to facilitate user interaction with personal computers, the leap has been progressive in enhancing the richness of that experience. Hence, with the development of software both for the Macs as well as iPhone or iPad apps, the initial useful metaphors have become a visual overload. The current wooden bookshelves, leather stitching and yellow legal pads have become basic graphic expression of functions that actually don’t have even the hint of that materiality.

The term to describe this use of graphic elements is skeuomorphism and it stands for ‘objects that retain ornamental elements of past, derivative iterations, that are no longer necessary to the current object’s functions’. Skeuomorphism stands to digital applications in the same way as baroque decoration stands to furniture design. If you think this approach is actually amusing and enjoyable, you must admit that it doesn’t have anything in common with the product design that Apple has accustomed us to, and it is not the only reason why it’s bad. Even if idealist Modernist discussion of appropriateness of form and function is certainly an outdated discourse, it doesn’t mean it isn’t still a valid approach to design. Visual overload that skeuomorphism is creating is bad because it doesn’t really relate to the basic functions these new objects have. It pushes forward the idea that the world isn’t changing and that we are still using the same objects as we used to, when we can’t even recall what a material address book looks like anymore, and loosing our smartphone equals being on a death row.

Rujana Rebernjak

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13/09/2012

Aspen Magazine: 1965-1971

Aspen Magazine: 1965-1971

For all the lovers of contemporary ‘independent’ magazines, a look in the past and the magazine production of the 60s and 70s should be obligatory. The richness of cultural production of the period, as seen through the lens of print ephemera, has a lot to offer. One of the most significant, yet slightly overlooked, magazines produced during that decade is Aspen, a multimedia magazine published by Phyllis Johnson from 1965 until 1971.


Aspen first started as a magazine about “the civilized pleasures of modern living, based on the Greek idea of ‘whole man’”. It evolved during the years in one of the most innovative avant-garde publications. Johnson, a fashion journalist and editor for “Woman’s Wear Daily” and “Advertising Age”, wanted to create a publication boundless of the traditional physical support of a magazine. With this idea in mind, all the issues published, 10 in all, Aspen was published in a different form every time, according to the content it was supposed to carry.

More or less, this form always corresponded to some kind of box containing different material, from reels of Super 8 film, flexi discs, posters, small leaflets, ticket books etc. While the first two issues revolved around life in Aspen, the following ones were guest edited by some of the most influential artist, critics, writers, entirely dedicated to topics such as Pop-Art, Performance Art, psychedelia or Asian art among others. As Emily King said, Johnson “had little time for style” and her interests “centred on the ideas-heavy end of the contemporary art spectrum”. Hence the issues were guest curated by Andy Warhol and David Dalton, Quentin Fiore, Brian O’Doherty, Jon Hendricks, Dan Graham, Mario Amaya, Angus and Hetty MacLise, while the list of writers and contributors includes John Cage, Yoko Ono, Marcel Duchamp, William S. Borroughs and David Hackney among others.


While the openness and flexibility of Aspen Magazine might be directly linked to its downfall, nonetheless it should serve as a reference point for contemporary magazine lovers. A show running at Whitechapel Gallery in London until the 3rd of March, is paying a tribute to Aspen Magazine that paved the way for future art publishing.

Rujana Rebernjak – Images courtesy of Whitechapel Gallery

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11/09/2012

Arefin & Arefin: The Graphic Design of Tony Arefin

Arefin & Arefin: The Graphic Design of Tony Arefin

That graphic design and art often speak the same language has been an obvious point in different stages in history. Since the initial developments of what has now become a socially and culturally affirmed discipline, graphic design has been both used by artists as a tool for conveying their ideas, as well as a mean by which their work was communicated to the public through a concrete form of a poster, a book or other printed matter. As a direct consequence there have been, and still are, some graphic designers that have found their natural habitat working within the realm of the art world.


One of those practitioners was surely Tony Arefin (1962-2000), who’s work is at the centre of an exhibition at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Inaugurating tomorrow, the 12th of September, the show titled “Arefin & Arefin: The Graphic Design of Tony Arefin”, curated by James Langdon, finally pays homage to one of the most talented and slightly overlooked graphic designers involved with the art world. Tony Arefin, born in Pakistan as Abed Mohhamed Arefi, drew his path into the art domain first by working as photo editor for several magazines, which led him to organize a show of Neville Brody’s work for The Face magazine, and consequently brought him to design different art catalogues. Under the name “Arefin & Arefin”, deliberately playing with the names of huge corporate branding firms, Tony has worked for institutions and artists like Serpentine Gallery, ICA, Damien Hirst, Douglas Gordon, Cornelia Parker, Jasper Morrison and Adrian Piper, among many others, before moving to New York to work as creative director of I.D. Magazine.


Even though Arefin worked in the United States for large corporate organizations such as IBM or Nike, the widespread idea of his work still remains tightly bound to art publishing, where his ‘bold visual language, irreverent use of photography and striking typography’ act most strongly.
 The exhibition, accompanied by a catalog with essays by some of the most influential design critics and historians, will run until the 4th of November at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham.

Rujana Rebernjak

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05/09/2012

The Editorial: Spontaneous Interventions

The Editorial: Spontaneous Interventions

The pavilions at the Biennale d’Architettura have traditionally been exercises in identity construction: Belgium is ______. India is ______. Japan is ______. Just fill in the blank with some specific material rendered in some perhaps novel way and wrapped up in packages designed to please cultural ministers and magazine editors and voilà. Archicrap. Mostly irrelevant branding exercises whose potential for innovation is all but lost in a wild goose chase to make the most memorable statement.

This year is mostly no different. Some pavilions are gorgeous: Serbia’s monumental white table, Taiwan’s nifty use of cardboard and Poland’s stark emptiness come to mind. Some reinforce stereotypes: Russia’s QR code-laden mess is pretty in theory, but is the architectural equivalent of a bejewelled frying pan. (Do you really want to cook your greasy bacon in that?) Israel’s rather depressing critique is effective enough, but its message has too much to do with dirty geopolitics and to little to do with innovation in the built environment.

We say leave the subversive bitching to the Biennale D’Arte. Design, and especially architecture, should be about well-considered solutions.

So it’s pleasing to report that one pavilion in particular has managed to transcend the overtones … . And for once, the most refreshing and innovative entry isn’t from Holland, a Scandinavian country or any other soft-power stronghold: it is the brilliant, well-timed Spontaneous Interventions from the Institute for Urban Design in the the stereotypically fat, rude and outclassed old US of A.

While few western countries are in need of a PR shot-in-the-arm like The States, the works and ideas showcased in the project should go a long way towards proving that there is at least a serious will towards positive change. And despite the country’s farcical, cartoonish politics, widening income gap, and bewildering, biased media, it looks like grassroots good can still prevail. Neither villainy, gluttony nor sheer stupidity can kill determined communities, clever citizenry or good design.


Among the too-many-to-mention projects included in the initiative are Fritz Haeg’s Edible Estates, which turns unused lawns into fountains of sustainability, New Public Sites, which gives names to ignored spaces in a city thereby giving them greater value, and The Better Block, which inexpensively transforms neighbourhoods by lending a sense of ownership through customisation. (Better Block will also be staging an intervention to coincide with the Detroit Design Festival later this month.)

With Spontaneous Interventions it is becoming abundantly clear that much is profoundly, genuinely changing inside the belly and brains of the beast. And one can already sense it on the street, from the impressive rejuvenations of the creaky, stark old downtowns of Great Plains cities like Lincoln, Nebraska to the patchwork of urban farms around Detroit’s Corktown (not to mention the world-class delicacies, bespoke craftwork and resurgent manufacturing from cities like Brooklyn, San Francisco and Chicago). And if the still rather dismal American gridiron can originate this kind of widespread enthusiasm, the effects of well-executed urban initiatives of this sort could potentially be even greater when applied elsewhere. The world just might be on the verge of a great–albeit atomised–urban renaissance.

Imagine pragmatically managed, hyperlocal yet hawkishly global, lean, prosperous towns imbued strongly with unequivocal sense of place. I want to live there.

Text and Images Tag Christof

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30/08/2012

Architecture Biennale 2012 – Giardini

Architecture Biennale 2012 – Giardini

This year’s Architecture Biennale has officially opened its gates to the visitors yesterday, while the real news of the day in the architecture world was who the Golden Lion would be awarded to. Trying not to be influenced by the jury’s choice, we have visited all the pavilions in the Giardini choosing our personal favourites.

Before visiting the various countries, we headed for the second part of Chipperfield‘s curatorial show which surprised us even in this section. One of our favourite entries was Olafur Eliasson‘s Little Sun lamp, which was displayed both in an installation as well as a video, showing the artist’s wit through an ingenious but simple object. Seen that we can’t stress enough about their work, we have to mention the beautiful installation showing Airports by Peter Fischli and David Weiss. Photography was one of the most frequently used medium in this show, with artists like Armin Linke or Candida Höfer showing their artworks in relation to other architect’s work. One of the most beautiful entries in this year’s Biennale was Gabriele Basilico‘s interpretation of the national pavilions around Giardini, both for its incredible photography as well as the way the photographs were displayed around the room.


As far as the national pavilions are concerned, the ones that shouldn’t be missed are the British pavilion, together with its German neighbours who involved the designer Konstantin Grcic for creating the set-up for the show.

When the national participation award was handed to the Japanese pavilion, we must admit we were quite surprised. Guided by Toyo Ito as curator, the pavilion proposed a series of solutions for the area destroyed last year by the tsunami. While among the “Common Ground” exhibitors, the Golden Lion went to Urban Think Tank and Justin McGuirk, one of our favourite installations mentioned in the previous article.

Even though it was wednesday, on its first day of public opening, the Biannale venues were full of curious visitors. Maybe we are now ready to say that the Architecure Biennale, with its 13th edition can compete intellectually with its older Art sister. Common Ground is on show until the 25th of November.

Rujana Rebernjak

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27/08/2012

Architecture Biennale 2012 – Common Ground Arsenale

Architecture Biennale 2012: Common Ground Arsenale

After the long hot summer and the holidays we have all been longing for, the time for this year’s fall/winter exhibition season has come. While we were all relaxing under the sun, David Chipperfield and his team were working on this year’s edition of the Architecture Biennale. Named Common Ground, this year’s show is a nice treat for all those interested in architecture.

As the curator explains in his introduction to the exhibition, the title, and therefore the theme, guiding this year’s selection – Common Ground – was chosen in reaction to the current “professional and cultural tendencies of our time that place such emphasis on individual and isolated actions, instead of making the case for common and shared ideas that can have a positive impact on the city”. Even though it was impossible to completely avoid the cult of personality, seen how the work of some superstar architects impacts our society. But still, the common thread Chipperfield tried to pursue was the idea that it is often the context, the citizens and a series of other ‘invisible’ influences that actually form a ‘piece’ of architecture. Thus, making those relations visible, moving away from a monographic display kind of shows, was one of the curator’s primary intentions.

In this sense, some of the highlights of the show were Herzog & De Meuron’s project for the concert hall in Hamburg, Elbphilarmonie, which has shown both the enormous models of the architecture in question, as well as all of the newspaper pages treating the controversial political and cultural background that followed its realization. Another successful example is FAT’s collaboration with other architecture firms in the realization of the Museum of Copying, thus showing a huge model of Palladio’s Villa Rotunda, one of the world’s most copied constructions. While Urban-Think Tank and Justin McGuirk’s reproduction of a famous Venezuelan restaurant was a pleasantly amusing installation, Zaha Hadid’s portfolio-like space was the one that least impressed us.

After the sunny morning filled with brilliant architecture, the pouring rain in the afternoon has prevented us in our planned tour-de-force of seeing both Giardini and Arsenale in a single shot. Maybe it was all for the better, since every show of this scale – the hectic Biennale in particular – should always be properly digested.

Rujana Rebernjak

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31/07/2012

London 2012: Olympics Through Design

London 2012: Olympics Through Design

Every four years we are being overwhelmed by the most important and prestigious sports events. This year’s Olympics held in London, have been at the centre of our attention for quite a while now, due to many controversies, security and economic scandals. Despite of all this, when the games were inaugurated with the praised ceremony directed by Danny Boyle, we couldn’t but forget almost all of it. But besides being one of the greatest sport events, every Olympics also inevitably touch design and architecture.



Since the London 2012 trademark, designed by the British super-force in advertising world Wolff Olins, was first presented in 2007, criticism was raised and with it (at least among the design community) skepticism towards the London Olympics. For this logo, the International Olympics committee had commissioned for the first time in history an actual branding strategy for an Olympic trademark, which was then interpreted by Wolff Olins as “bringing the Games back to the normal people”. Aside from the trademark, the Olympics have required a massive amount of work from graphic designers of various firms and studios who designed the signage system, advertising, pictograms, tickets and other printed matter, and a specially designed typeface.

As far as product design is concerned, besides the Olympic Torch, whose incredible design (80 cm long and weighing only 800-850 grams) has already been celebrated with “Design of the Year” award, we have to mention Thomas Heatherwick‘s Olympic Cauldron. The cauldron is made of 204 copper petals representing the competing nations which were brought by each team and lit during the opening ceremony.

The creative work done for London 2012, from architecture, urban planning, set design, photography, product design and fashion (think only about the GB team who’s kit was designed by Stella McCartney) was really impressive. So, even if these Games can have some hard time competing with the ones held in Beijing four years ago in terms of impressiveness and scale, we can’t but say – hats off to London.


Rujana Rebernjak

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27/07/2012

Skyscraper: Art and Architecture Against Gravity

Skyscraper: Art and Architecture Against Gravity

Skyscrapers have always been so much more than pieces of architecture. In the modernist culture skyscrapers have stood for belief in prosperity, innovation and a better future as the symbols of power and enormous possibilities the world shaped by man could achieve. These incredible building structures that have for almost two centuries involved the most illuminated minds in architecture, engineering, art and design are being celebrated with an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

The exhibition titled “Skyscraper: Art and Architecture Against Gravity” tries to show the impact this iconic artefact has had in our contemporary society. The myth of the sky and the possibilities of men to reach it through artificial means have inspired not only the imagination and poetics of architects, but also artist from all over the world. These artists have taken as subject the form, technology, message, symbology and image of the skyscrapers as the central idea and subject of their work. Even though years have passed since the first concrete structures have reached meters and meters above ground, the skyscrapers, highly mechanical but also extremely elusive structures, still continue to play with our imagination.

The artist showcased in the exhibition are Fikret Atay, Jennifer Bolande, Roger Brown, Jeff Carter, Roe Ethridge, Jonathan Horowitz, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Claes Oldenburg, Gabriel Orozco, Thomas Struth, Jan Tichy, Andy Warhol, Peter Wegner, Wesley Willis and Shizuka Yokomizo, among others.

While currently many Western and Eastern cities continue to fight over who will build the next ’world’s highest building’ in search for technological domination and cultural glory, Chicago still remains one of the most important sights on the skyscrapers map. Hence, this exhibition, in some way, certainly plays homage both to this incredible piece of architecture, as well as the city of Chicago where it is being hosted.

Skyscraper: Art and Architecture Against Gravity runs until the 23rd of September at Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

Rujana Rebernjak – Images courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

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24/07/2012

Brno Graphic Design Biennial 2012

Brno Graphic Design Biennial 2012

This year the 25th anniversary of one of the most important international graphic design competitions is being held. Brno Graphic Design Biennial founded in 1963, is celebrating its silver jubilee with a different exhibition concept.

Traditionally, the Biennial includes an international exhibition of design excellences, an international design symposium and an exhibition by a guest curator from abroad, accompanied by a series of smaller exhibitions and a rich cultural program.


At this point you may be wondering what has actually changed in the most famous graphic design biennial’s structure. Brno Biennial’s central point has always been the design competition, awarding prizes to professional design practitioners in several categories. This year, the organization committee headed by Radim Peško, Tomáš Celizna and Adam Macháček, has decided to abandon the traditional division of the international show into categories, leaving more space for a curatorial selection of works developed through a vast range of media, thus showing a broad and metamorphical spectrum of contemporary graphic design.

Besides the central international exhibition, the 2012 Brno Biennial also offers a series of curatorial exhibitions. The first one, conceived by the guest curators Experimental Jetset, a graphic design studio based in Amsterdam, is titled “Two or Three Things I Know about Provo”. The exhibition revolves around a small, personal archive of Provo, an anarchist movement which existed in Amsterdam between 1965-1967.


Among the accompanying exhibitions you can find a showcase of Czech graphic designer Květa Pacovská’s work, an exhibition titled “Work From California” displaying the projects that reflect the multiple layers and the complexity of the Golden State and Slavs and Tatars’ show “Khhhhhhh”.

Even though the opening days, including a series of lectures entitled Biennial Talks, have already ended, the above mentioned shows running until the 28th of October should be just enough to satisfy your graphic design hunger.

Rujana Rebernjak – Images courtesy of Archive of the Moravian Gallery in Brno

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