Here's a few of the music videos we've been enjoying recently, including some fantasy puppetry from Bat For Lashes, beautiful black and white work from Insititute for Eyes and Yoann Lemoine, and Foals bringing dot-to-dots to life.
First up is the new one from Bat For Lashes, directed by Peter Sluszka, which sees Natasha Khan enter a world of stop-motion and lifesize puppets.
Directorial duo Institute for Eyes have been hard at work, creating a beautiful black and white piece for Steve Mason, starring a mysterious bandaged man (Steve Mason).
And there's more beautiful black and white in this Yoann Lemoine directed video for his musical alter ego Woodkid, which follows a preacher on a spiritual, as well as a physical journey through some beautiful icelandic scenery. Lemoine also directed the epic Run Boy Run Woodkid video.
CR in print The March issue of CR magazine celebrates 150 years of the London Underground. In it we introduce a new book by Mark Ovenden, which is the first study of all aspects of the tube's design evolution; we ask Harry Beck authority, Ken Garland, what he makes of a new tube map concept by Mark Noad; we investigate the enduring appeal of Edward Johnston's eponymous typeface; Michael Evamy reports on the design story of world-famous roundel; we look at the London Transport Museum's new exhibition of 150 key posters from its archive; we explore the rich history of platform art, and also the Underground's communications and advertising, past and present. Plus, we talk to London Transport Museum's head of trading about TfL's approach to brand licensing and merchandising. In Crit, Rick Poynor reviews Branding Terror, a book about terrorist logos, while Paul Belford looks at how a 1980 ad managed to do away with everything bar a product demo. Finally, Daniel Benneworth-Grey reflects on the merits on working home alone. Buy your copy here.
Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878, or buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.
CR for the iPad Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.
Turn your Facebook profile into a personalised monster, with The Creators Project's new series of online 3D-printing apps. Plus our round-up of more data-to-3D-printing ideas
The Creators Project, in association with Vice, have launched a series of web apps that allow you to turn your Facebook user data into a 3D printed sculpture. The three different apps offer different final sculptures, and you can use your data to created a personalised monster, a rock crystal, or an astrological horoscope. After you've gone through the various online stages, your sculpture is printed by Shapeways, and sent to you.
There are three different experiences to choose from: Monster Me, Crystallized and Astroverb. Monster Me features characters created by the South Korean Sticky Monster Lab, and uses your various Facebook likes to build up a monster caricature. There's the added option of 'growing' your monster by posting to your Facebook timeline, and you can also add buildings that correspond to your various interests.
The Crystallized web app generates a crystal using your Facebook friend data, with each point of the crystal representing a friend, and your relationship with them.
Once your crystal has been generated, there's the option to add friends to it, as well as change the colours before it's printed.
Astroverb creates a personalised horoscope, which 'analyses your profile to reveal your destiny'.
This isn't the first time 3D printing has been used to transform data into a physical product. Design agency Sapient Nitro send out personalised 3D-printed Christmas stars last year, using the receiver's Facebook data to determine the sizes and lengths of each of the points of the star.
3D production company, Inition, also used data to create a 3D printed sculpture, in a project for Manor House Development Trust. The final result used data taken from an online questionnaire, and featured a forest made up of more than 400 3D-printed trees, with each tree corresponding to an individual answer.
Product design studio Shapes in Play have also been using 3D-printing to turn infographics into sculptures that demonstrate the energy content and CO2 equivalent of different dishes of food.
And last year, Realitat used 3D-printing to create microsonic landscapes - sculptural forms created using data from albums by various artists. Shown below are representations of Portishhead and Nick Drake albums.
You may also remember the 3D photobooth, set up in Omote in Tokyo by Japanese agency Party, which turned full-body scans of people into miniature printed versions.
And last year we also wrote about designer Matthew Plummer-Fernandez's 3D-printed glitch tea set, which took scans of non-matching tea cups and saucers, and recreated a glitchy printed version of the originals.
Illustration agents Dutch Uncle Tweeted what appeared to be a saucy new Time Out cover yesterday, created for the magazine's new sex issue by illustrator Noma Bar. So it was much to our surprise that Time Out arrived in London this morning with a blank cover instead.
Shown above is what was purported to be Noma Bar's intended sex issue cover, in all its naughty glory. However Time Out appear to have had a last-minute change of heart, instead running the below blank cover, underneath a cover wrap.
Noma Bar's original cover illustration has been moved into a feature, with text overlayed.
Time Out say that the replacement blank cover is part of a #SexUpMyCover competition whereby readers are encouraged to doodle their very own naughty cover, which they can then Tweet. The best illustration, as judged by Time Out, will win an iPad mini, apparently. The Time Out team have kindly provided some examples of their work, to get people started.
According to Time Out's editor Tim Arthur, on Twitter, the original design was moved to a feature to "give it the most impact", and to allow Time Out to run their draw-your-own-cover competition. Hmm, or else someone got cold feet. The magazine is distributed at tube stations so perhaps it was felt that, despite the cover wrap, Bar's image was just too much for the travelling public?
We have approached Time Out for comment, and will update the story as we know more.
CR in Print The February issue of CR magazine features a major interview with graphic designer Ken Garland. Plus, we delve into the Heineken advertising archive, profile digital art and generative design studio Field, talk to APFEL and Linder about their collaboration on a major exhibition in Paris for the punk artist, and debate the merits of stock images versus commissioned photography. Plus, a major new book on women in graphic design, the University of California logo row and what it means for design, Paul Belford on a classic Chivas Regal ad and Jeremy Leslie on the latest trends in app design for magazines and more. Buy your copy here.
Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878, or buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.
CR for the iPad Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.
Matthew Frost has directed a satirical new short for fashion brand Viva Vena, that borrows from the clichéd subject matter of every single generic fashion film ever made.
Matthew Frost's new film for label Viva Vena makes heavy mockery of the stock themes that consistently crop up in fashion films. Starring Lizzy Caplan (previously of Mean Girls and New Girl), the film follows the actress as she delivers a breathy monologue on the benefits of living life as if in a movie. As she says, "When I am alone, I like to pretend I'm in a movie. A kind of movie I don't quite understand". Caplan delivers a great performance as the overly self-aware fashion heroine, and the short covers all the other requisite fashion film themes, including:
Retro technology:
Predictable cultural references:
Communion with nature:
And spontaneous performances with obscure musical instruments:
With the internet awash in a sea of wannabe fashion bloggers, we've found the only fashion blog you need to be reading: Menswear Dog.
Menswear Dog stars the rather handsome 3-year old Shiba Inu Bodhi (apparently named after Patrick Swayze's character in Point Break), who's sniffing out internet fame by modelling everything from Levi's denim and J.Crew sweaters through to Ben Sherman and Polo Ralph Lauren, with plenty of suggestions for further outfit combinations (Acne jeans? Clark's desert boots?).
Dave Fung and Yena Kim, the fashion and graphic designer duo behind the blog, stumbled onto the Menswear Dog phenomenon after posting a photo of Bodhi on Facebook. The blog shortly followed. So far there are only a few photos of MWD in action, but the pair have lots of photoshoots planned for the future, as well as a move into shoes and other accessories, once they've figured out the logistics. He may be new to the game, but this Shiba Inu's already mastered all the essential poses.
There's also the official MWD logo, designed by David Fung.
Dogs are making inroads into fashion elsewhere, with a handsome looking bassett hound taking a turn down the catwalk at this year's Agi and Sam LC:M show, and whilst they might not be putting male models out of business quite yet, it makes a change to see a more tongue-in-cheek take on the fashion blog world.
CR in Print The February issue of CR magazine features a major interview with graphic designer Ken Garland. Plus, we delve into the Heineken advertising archive, profile digital art and generative design studio Field, talk to APFEL and Linder about their collaboration on a major exhibition in Paris for the punk artist, and debate the merits of stock images versus commissioned photography. Plus, a major new book on women in graphic design, the University of California logo row and what it means for design, Paul Belford on a classic Chivas Regal ad and Jeremy Leslie on the latest trends in app design for magazines and more. Buy your copy here.
Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878, or buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.
CR for the iPad Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.
David Bowie has launched a new website, designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, to coincide with the announcement of a new single and album, The Next Day.
Exciting things are afoot at davidbowie.com, with the announcement of a new album to be released in March, and a new track and video, Where Are We Now, streaming on the website.
The new davidbowie.com adopts a relatively minimal, streamlined approach, with the site divided into straightforward, easily accessible sections, organised by a header bar. There's a lengthy David Bowie biography to be read through, as well as selected videos from the Bowie archive to peruse. Bowie's previous website was ten years old - ancient in internet years - so Barnbrook's work has been a complete overhaul of what was previously there.
Barnbrook explains, "We wanted to give it a completely different tone from before. This comes from Bowie being somewhat quieter. People have had the chance to be a bit more thoughtful and reflective understanding his positioning in the history of music, and it would be disingenuous to pretend he is the new rocker in town, so the site reflects that. When you are someone like David Bowie, you don't need to shout. We wanted it to be a more definitive place to get Bowie's creative output."
Whilst working on the site Barnbrook had to maintain absolute secrecy, even taking phone conversations on the street so the people he worked with didn't suspect anything.
Barnbrook also worked on the cover design for Bowie's new album, The Next Day, which reinvents the classic Heroes album artwork.
Barnbrook explains that the reappropriation of the Heroes artwork was an attempt to create something entirely new, he says, "Normally using an image from the past means, 'recycle' or 'greatest hits' but here we are referring to the title The Next Day. The "Heroes" cover obscured by the white square is about the spirit of great pop or rock music which is 'of the moment', forgetting or obliterating the past."
"If you are going to subvert an album by David Bowie there are many to choose from but this is one of his most revered, it had to be an image that would really jar if it were subverted in some way and we thought "Heroes" worked best on all counts." he says. The album is also the first use of new font Doctrine, which will be released in the next few weeks at VirusFonts. Barnbrook has written more about the work on and decisions behind the The Next Day artwork over in this blogpost.
If a new website and album aren't enough, the Bowie extravaganza will continue in March with a new Bowie exhibition at the V&A, entitled David Bowie is. The exhibition dives into the Bowie archive to select more than 300 objects for public viewing, including photography, set designs, costumes and hand-written lyrics. The V&A also promise access to never-before-seen storyboards, set lists and lyrics, alongside sketches and diary entries from the man himself. The exhibition will be at the V&A from March 23 - July 28. Check back into the CR blog nearer the time for more details.
CR in Print The January issue of Creative Review is all about the Money - well, almost. What do you earn? Is everyone else getting more? Do you charge enough for your work? How much would it cost to set up on your own? Is there a better way of getting paid? These and many more questions are addressed in January's CR.
But if money's not your thing, there's plenty more in the issue: interviews with photographer Alexander James, designer Mirko Borsche and Professor Neville Brody. Plus, Rick Poynor on Anarchy magazine, the influence of the atomic age on comic books, Paul Belford's art direction column, Daniel Benneworth-Gray's This Designer's Life column and Gordon Comstock on the collected memos, letters and assorted writings of legendary adman David Ogilvy.
Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.
CR for the iPad Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here
Wallace and Gromit have teamed up with Google+ Hangouts for the time-honoured tradition of opening presents together, but with a digital twist.
Google+ have launched a newly designed platform for Hangouts, to encourage family to spend time together over Christmas, wherever they are in the world. As part of the campaign, created by rehabstudio in partnership with Adam & Eve DDB and Aardman studios, there's a 60 second advert that see Wallace and Gromit catching up with some familiar friends (and a whole load of over-enthusiastic sheep) to open presents together.
Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.
A new app, created by London studio FIELD, offers infinite storytelling possibilities and beautiful visuals that play on the exchange of organic and digital energy.
London studio FIELD have worked with The Creators Project to produce Energy Flow, an app created as an infinite storytelling experience. The app carries the tag line 'Ten stories, a thousand perspectives', and relies on custom-built software - The Infinite Film Composer - to generate a new experience each time it's used.
It can be downloaded for the iPad, iPhone and iPod for free here. You can also download the app for Android devices here.
The initial stage of the app requires the user throw a spinning top to determine a random number, which will then drive the following film sequence.
The app takes individual clips from ten different films or narratives, which are then remixed into a unique sequence each time the app is used. Soundscapes for the app rely on a similar process, with the sound design created by David Kamp.
The films range from visualisations of organic landscapes, riot scenes, imploding data centres, tumbling dice, and a stand-off between a leopard and an impala, making for some potentially unusual combinations of film clips.
The studio found inspiration for the ten different films in a variety of recent events, including the Occupy Movement, the riots in London, and the Eurozone protests. Studio founder Vera-Maria Glahn explains, "It's all about transformations of energy, so every story takes a look at a different place in the world, a different event or process, and looks at a transformation of energy on a biological, physical, social or spiritual level. Sometimes it's a burst of energy or an explosion, like in the riots, and sometimes it's more the underlying processes."
The underlying creation of the films is hugely complex, and draws on FIELD's previous experience working in generative design. One of the films features a leopard and an impala, and is driven by the natural movements of the creatures themselves, with the more active parts of the animal's body driving the pulse of colour on the surface. The riot film uses a similar method, with the waves of impact represented in the colours and distortion of the crowds. Glahn explains, "Using the inner mechanics of the motion and the stories, we're trying to turn them into paintings, rather than just an animation."
To create the ten films, FIELD collaborated with over thirty people from around the word, including a specialist in animal animation to create the leopard and impala sequence.
The studio see the Energy Flow app as the initial stage of the project, and as Glahn explains, "We really planned this whole project as something that lives across different media, and that it's more a body of work and a universe that people can get drawn into, and that's a starting point for conversation." Next year will see the concept developed into a video installation with an interactive element, and something that can be experienced in a group of people.
The app can be downloaded here, and is available for free for the iPad, iPod and iPhone. You can also download the app for Android devices here.
There seems to be more of a movement towards using iPads and other tablets as platforms to showcase artwork and beautiful imagery - we recently wrote about the Moving Six app, created by Meri Media as a way of showcasing selected imagery from Comme des Garçons' short-lived print magazine, Six.
CR In print
In our December issue we look at why carpets are the latest medium of choice for designers and illustrators. Plus, Does it matter if design projects are presented using fake images created using LiveSurface and the like? Mark Sinclair looks in to the issue of mocking-up. We have an extract from Craig Ward's upcoming book Popular Lies About Graphic Design and ask why advertising has been so poor at preserving its past. Illustrators' agents share their tips for getting seen and we interview maverick director Tony Kaye by means of his unique way with email. In Crit, Guardian economics leader writer Aditya Chakrabortty review's Kalle Lasn's Meme Wars and Gordon Comstock pities brands' long-suffering social media managers. In a new column on art direction, Paul Belford deconstructs a Levi's ad that was so wrong it was very right, plus, in his brand identity column, Michael Evamy looks at the work of Barcelona-based Mario Eskenazi. And Daniel Benneworth-Gray tackles every freelancer's dilemma - getting work.
Our Monograph this month, for subscribers only, features the EnsaïmadART project in which Astrid Stavro and Pablo Martin invited designers from around the world to create stickers to go on the packaging of special edition packaging for Majorca's distinctive pastry, the ensaïmada, with all profits going to a charity on the island (full story here)
Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.
CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here
Unsuspecting shoppers in an east London corner store were serenaded with a version of A Message To You Rudy, played out by a series of unlikely instruments including the Bottle Trumpet, Food Can Xylophone, Tetra Pak Maracas, and the Nut Packet Shakers.
Red Stripe turned an east London corner shop into an orchestra of unusual musical instruments for one day only, serenading shoppers with a new version of Dandy Livingstone's A Message To You Rudy each time they reached for a can or bottle of Red Stripe. Various products around the shop were borrowed and modified so they could play a tune, and even humble items like the dustpan and brush weren't missed out.
The video was directed by Greg Brunkalla, from Stinkdigital London, who worked with creative technologists Hirsch & Mann on the project.
As the making of video below demonstrates, there was no fakery involved. Each 'instrument' was individually wired up and placed on the shelves in order to blend in with the rest of the items in the shop, and all the sounds heard are created by instruments made from typical corner shop products.
You can also see some behind-the-scenes images, as well as take a closer look at some of the instruments below.
CR In print
In our December issue we look at why carpets are the latest medium of choice for designers and illustrators. Plus, Does it matter if design projects are presented using fake images created using LiveSurface and the like? Mark Sinclair looks in to the issue of mocking-up. We have an extract from Craig Ward's upcoming book Popular Lies About Graphic Design and ask why advertising has been so poor at preserving its past. Illustrators' agents share their tips for getting seen and we interview maverick director Tony Kaye by means of his unique way with email. In Crit, Guardian economics leader writer Aditya Chakrabortty review's Kalle Lasn's Meme Wars and Gordon Comstock pities brands' long-suffering social media managers. In a new column on art direction, Paul Belford deconstructs a Levi's ad that was so wrong it was very right, plus, in his brand identity column, Michael Evamy looks at the work of Barcelona-based Mario Eskenazi. And Daniel Benneworth-Gray tackles every freelancer's dilemma - getting work.
Our Monograph this month, for subscribers only, features the EnsaïmadART project in which Astrid Stavro and Pablo Martin invited designers from around the world to create stickers to go on the packaging of special edition packaging for Majorca's distinctive pastry, the ensaïmada, with all profits going to a charity on the island (full story here)
Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.
CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here
Love them or loathe them, there's no question that Vice magazine is instantly recognisable. This week, Vice reaches its tenth anniversary in the UK, and to mark the occasion, we took a look back at ten of their most significant, and divisive, UK covers.
Vice Magazine, well known for inciting differences of opinion (to put it mildly) amongst its readers, reaches its tenth anniversary in the UK this week. We met up with European editor Bruno Bayley to talk about the last ten years of Vice covers, and how the magazine maintains its trademark identity.
There's an aura of controversy that tends to surround Vice and their covers and, despite working with well-respected photographers and illustrators like Ryan McGinley and Johnny Ryan, the magazine still manages to divide public opinion. A recent cover, by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, employed the use of an image featuring a toilet plunger, a stapler, and a dildo. Whilst such a cover pefectly summarises Vice's visual approach, it was censored in various countries, with some territories forced to use an entirely different image. Perhaps surprisingly, the UK was the only territory that printed the cover completely uncensored.
Vice created similar controversy for themselves with their UK launch issue, shown below, which employed the use of a mirrored section, and also some sponsorship help from Rockstar Games, who produce the Grand Theft Auto series of games. Bayley sees the cover as Vice's typical combination of something intended to cause a reaction, whilst not intended to be taken too seriously, "This, in a way, sums up all the things that people don't like about it. But it was also a joke as well, and it's good to make fun of the things people hate about you."
This sense of irreverent humour, purposefully used to provoke a reaction, recurs across many of Vice's covers. Often the cover images bear no relevance to the issue features. The cover shown below was shot by Jamie Taet - now head of Vice's LA office - and is an outtake from a series of photos taken when he was a teenager entitled 'she was never bored, because she was never boring'.
Other issues, such as the Poverty issue shown below, draw their cover photography from a main feature. For this issue, each Vice team chose a different area to cover, and a trip to Nottingham provided the photograph taken below, by Alex Sturrock
There's also an ever-present undercurrent of gloom. Despite the cover imagery varying wildly, Bayley sees them all fitting into a similar, unifying theme, which is the Vice world view. Bayley describes this as "swinging wildly between everything is fucked and we're all ruined, and don't worry about it, there's lots of fun things to do." Laura Park's illustration for the Universal Sadness issue, shown below, seems to sum this up.
Vice also worked with illustrator Johnny Ryan for the cover for their Afghan issue, which again stretched the bounds of good taste, to put it mildly. Another demonstration of the 'Vice world view', the issue had two separate versions of the cover, one showing a hopeful outcome, and another where the happy scenario of the first image descends into violent chaos.
The Nature issue employed the talents of photography Ryan McGinley, who Vice work with on an ongoing basis.
The Noxious Fumes issue featured the work of photographer Gavin Watson, known for documenting skinhead culture in his book Skins.
The History issue marked the first time Vice used a famous person on a cover of the magazine. Bayley sees their hesitance to feature celebrities as one of Vice's defining features, "Unlike a lot of magazines, we don't rely on having beautiful people on the cover, or having famous people on the cover. This is the first time we showed a famous person on the cover, and you couldn't find a more suiting-our-cover celebrity than Shane MacGowan if you tried."
Last, but not least, is the US cover for Vice's tenth anniversary, shown below, which drew endless letters and emails of complaint from Vice's legion of readers. Needless to say, they probably didn't take it in the spirit it was intended.
There's no question that Vice draws extremities of opinion, and in many cases goes out of its way to be provocative. That said, they've maintained an instantly recognisable visual identity in the UK for the past ten years, and one that's refused to bow down to controversy or public opinion. In amongst their tendency to poke fun at themselves, and everything else, they continue to work with great photographers and illustrators to produce covers that evoke an immediate and unavoidable reaction.
CR In print
In our December issue we look at why carpets are the latest medium of choice for designers and illustrators. Plus, Does it matter if design projects are presented using fake images created using LiveSurface and the like? Mark Sinclair looks in to the issue of mocking-up. We have an extract from Craig Ward's upcoming book Popular Lies About Graphic Design and ask why advertising has been so poor at preserving its past. Illustrators' agents share their tips for getting seen and we interview maverick director Tony Kaye by means of his unique way with email. In Crit, Guardian economics leader writer Aditya Chakrabortty review's Kalle Lasn's Meme Wars and Gordon Comstock pities brands' long-suffering social media managers. In a new column on art direction, Paul Belford deconstructs a Levi's ad that was so wrong it was very right, plus, in his brand identity column, Michael Evamy looks at the work of Barcelona-based Mario Eskenazi. And Daniel Benneworth-Gray tackles every freelancer's dilemma - getting work.
Our Monograph this month, for subscribers only, features the EnsaïmadART project in which Astrid Stavro and Pablo Martin invited designers from around the world to create stickers to go on the packaging of special edition packaging for Majorca's distinctive pastry, the ensaïmada, with all profits going to a charity on the island (full story here)
CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here
