Punk’s iconoclastic aesthetic was originally rooted in street culture, but its subversive style has had an enduring influence on high fashion. This impact is explored in PUNK: Chaos to Couture, the spring 2013 exhibition at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The show juxtaposes original punk garments from the mid-1970s with more recent fashion to illustrate how haute couture and ready-to-wear have borrowed punk’s visual symbols, and how designers continue to extend the visual language of punk by merging social realism with artistic expression. Pentagram’s Abbott Miller has designed a catalogue for the exhibition that captures the immediacy of the subject in a format inspired by the 12” LP cover.
The exhibition, one of the most highly anticipated of the season, will be celebrated at next Monday’s 2013 Costume Institute Gala Benefit, the Met’s biggest event of the year. (Joining Vogue’s Anna Wintour as co-chairs this year are Beyoncé, Givenchy “New Goth” designer Riccardo Tisci, and “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and recent Pentagram actor Rooney Mara.) The show opens to the public on May 9 and will be on view through August 14, 2013.
Continue reading “New Work: ‘PUNK: Chaos to Couture’”
Quick Link: Natasha Jen to Speak at 2013 SEGD Conference in San Francisco
“The grid is an integral part of book design,” says the incomparable Massimo Vignelli. “It’s not something that you see. It’s just like underwear: you wear it, but it’s not to be exposed. The grid is the underwear of the book.”
Vignelli’s approach to book design is the subject of a new video created by Pentagram’s Michael Bierut and Aron Fay for “What Will You Make Today?” campaign from Mohawk. In the video, Vignelli discusses his use of the grid as the basis for the layout of a book’s pages, using one of his classic book designs for the architect Richard Meier as an example. Working with an audio interview edited by Hilary Frank, Bierut and Fay animated Vignelli’s sketches for the clip, taking them from skeletal grid to finished publication.
Bierut knew Vignelli’s painstaking step-by-step process well. “Because I worked with Massimo for ten years before joining Pentagram, I was very familiar with his unique way of designing books. He sits with all the ingredients—text and images—and draws each page with a pencil, including every photograph, using a grid as a layout guide,” he says.
The video is accompanied by a small limited edition journal that reproduces Vignelli’s grid from the film. The journal is available from Mohawk’s website, while supplies last.
Continue reading “New Work: ‘Massimo Vignelli Makes Books’”
In Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov (born today in 1899) tells the story of his character Humbert Humbert’s all-consuming obsession with the girlish Lolita—a romance that is strange, inappropriate and incredibly sexual, not to mention highly illegal. Pentagram’s Paula Scher is one of 60 designers invited to create conceptual covers for Nabokov’s classic for Lolita: Story of a Cover Girl, an upcoming collection of graphic representations of Lolita since its publication in 1955. Scher’s new cover captures the novel’s peculiar eroticism in custom letterforms that are ripe, fleshy and almost anatomical.
Edited by John Bertram and Yuri Leving, Lolita: Story of a Cover Girl was inspired by Dieter E. Zimmer’s exhaustive online archive of Lolita covers, as well as a 2009 cover contest held by Bertram’s blog, Venus Febriculosa. Pentagram’s Michael Bierut has also contributed a Lolita design for the book, and several of the other designer submissions can be seen in a recent feature on Print’s Imprint blog. Lolita: Story of a Cover Girl will be published this August by Print Books.
Quick Link: Emily Oberman Interviewed on Design Matters
Stern (“Star”) is Germany’s most widely read magazine and one of the world’s best newsweeklies, balancing in-depth journalism about current events with arts, entertainment and lifestyle reporting, all accompanied by extraordinary photography. Pentagram’s Luke Hayman and team have collaborated with Stern on a redesign that updates the look and feel of the magazine for a modern audience. Hayman worked closely with the magazine’s editor-in-chief Dominik Wichmann and art director Johannes Erler to develop the format.
Continue reading “New Work: ‘Stern’”
Quick Link: Michael Bierut Talks Typography with The Scholarly Kitchen
Quick Link: Paula Scher to Speak at Adobe MAX, The Creativity Conference
Pentagram has been honored by the Art Directors Club with several winners in the ADC 92nd Annual Awards, presented last week at the ADC Festival in Miami Beach.
Our new identity for Mohawk, designed by Michael Bierut and team, took home the Silver Cube for Corporate Design. Paula Scher’s work on the revitalization of The Public Theater was was honored in two categories: the environmental graphics of the renovated lobby received a Bronze Cube in the Environmental Design category, while the “Open Public” campaign timed to the theater’s reopening was recognized with a Merit in Poster Design. Last but not least, the Nuts.com identity designed by Michael Bierut and team was honored with a Merit in Package Design. Pentagram’s own Eddie Opara served on the Design Jury of this year’s competition.
Thanks to all our designers, teams and clients for the fantastic work!
Continue reading “Awards: Art Directors Club 92nd Annual”
Spring is finally here, and New Yorkers are happily turning down their thermostats after an especially long, cold winter that saw an increase in energy bills. An alternative to costly, conventional energy sources, geothermal heat pumps (GHP) offer a cheaper, cleaner and more efficient way to heat and cool buildings. GHP systems take advantage of the relatively constant temperature of the earth’s interior, using it as a source or sink for heat. For cooling, heat is extracted from the building and dissipated into the ground; for warmth, heat is extracted from the earth and pumped into the building.
The New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) has identified GHP as an important strategy for developing sustainable energy in the city, especially for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Working with the DDC, Pentagram’s Eddie Opara and team have designed Geothermal Heat Pump Manual: A Design and Installation Guide for New York City. The book is the companion volume to the DDC’s Water Matters: A Design Manual for Water Conservation in Buildings, designed by Opara by 2011. GHP systems are part of PlaNYC 2030, the city’s official plan for sustainability, and the manual’s guidelines will be the subject of a special roundtable presented by the Urban Green Council on April 10.
Continue reading “New Work: ‘Geothermal Heat Pump Manual’”
