Another image by German Designer Otl Aicher who was responsible for the branding of the ’72 Munich Games. All of this stuff is amazing. I am not a huge fan of the Dachsund mascot, but this is about as good a treatment you could give to such a concept. Simply do a Flickr Search for "Otl Aicher" and your head will explode. Incredible stuff, some really nice shots of the London Aicher exhibition. I just can’t get over how contemporary these colors and forms are. None of it feels dated, could have been from a pitch for 2012, if the people who oversee those sorts of things still had any taste that is. Seems like all the stuff now days is targeted at the lowest common denominator. All of the recent stuff I have seen for 2012 is throw-away, middle of the road with compromise written all over it. Aicher’s campaign is thought provoking and timeless, obviously a good argument against the design by committee ethics I have to imagine produced this sort of output.
Part of a series of posters from ’72 Munich games by Otl Aicher. I’ll post some more examples in the coming weeks. These must have had a very modern feel when they came out, the colors certainly contrast the prevailing palettes of the time.
More Digital love….This time from the Core Memory book. That blue is on a whole new level, I need those switches all over the place, controlling all functions at all times.
The 1971 Print has been reprinted and is now in stock at the ISO50 Shop.
A lot of people have asked me what the significance of the year 1971 is (no, it’s not the year I was born). Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” first appeared as a two part series in Rolling Stone magazine that year. Wikipedia sums up the main theme of the book which was based on these articles:
“It explores the idea that 1971 was a turning point in hippie and drug culture in America, when the countercultural movement no longer had momentum and its innocence and optimism of the late 1960s turned to cynicism.”
This print sort of juxtaposes the design ideals of the 60’s: the earth-tones and swirling, psychedelic, patterns; with the harsh, solid forms of the gothic lettering.
Oh, and also 1971 just looks badass all stretched out like that.
A 1972 map of the New York Subway system. Going to be using this a lot in a couple weeks so thought I would post it up. This is of course based on English graphic designer Harry Beck’s original topographic map of the London Underground (as Paul Mison pointed out in the comments, this is a later version of the map, not Beck’s original). This style of map was revolutionary at the time (1933) since it eschewed the geographically correct maps of the age for topographic representations of systems.
“A schematic diagram rather than a map, it represents not geography but relations. It considerably distorts the actual relative positions of stations, but accurately represents their sequential and connective relations with each other along the lines and their placement within fare zones.”
– From Wikipedia “Tube Map” Article
This must have been a very big logical departure for a lot of people and a lot of credit is due to Beck for having the intuition to draw the map in this new way. Of course all this is beside the fact that it’s just plain beautiful to look at and a great work of graphic art in it’s own right. To this day, Beck’s map still influences the way networked systems are represented, the above image being a great example. I don’t think many designers can claim such a revolutionary concept as their own.
The October issue of the ISO50 Newsletter is out now and among other things, announces the release of the “Svenska 1B” print (pictured above). This third and final version in the Svenska series is available now at the ISO50 Shop.
The newsletter also covers details on the upcoming New York OFFF festival and the upcoming Tycho single release date. You can read the newsletter here or sign up here to get the latest delivered straight to your inbox monthly.
As stated in the previous post, I’ll be hosting a workshop entitled “ISO50: Blending Analogue and Digital” at this year’s OFFF festival in New York. The festival runs Nov. 2-4. The workshop will be held Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center in “Theater 2”. Things will get started at 11:30am and it goes through to 1:30pm. I’ll be focusing mainly on process and theory, with specific examples and PSD deconstructions.
Space is limited to 230 people and entry will be first come, first served at the door. The workshop is included in with an OFFF pass, available here.
Just finished the cover for the NYC OFFF festival (New York – Nov. 2-4, 2007). This is the book that’s given out to all attendees and features work by many of the speakers and presenters at the festival (might have to squint a little to read the titles better). I’ll be hosting a workshop / lecture, all the details are here. It will be a similar workshop to the one I did in Barcelona this summer and will be focusing on technique with a lot of deconstructions and hands on examples of my process and theory. As with Barcelona, space is limited (230 people per workshop this time), but unlike Barcelona the workshop is included in the cost of the festival pass, there’s no additional registration required, it’s just first come, first serve. You can snag tickets to the Festival here, as of this posting they are nearly sold out so get on it! As stated in an earlier post, there will be an ISO50 booth for all three days of the festival with shirts, prints, and music. See you in New York!
