The lucky winner is Jack Osborne.

Congratulation to Jack for winning our HelloMuller signed poster competition. Commiseration’s to everyone else who entered. There’s always next time. So keep checking back for more competitions and features and best of luck for next time.

We’d also like to thank Tom Muller and …]]>

The lucky winner is Jack Osborne.

Congratulation to Jack for winning our HelloMuller signed poster competition. Commiseration’s to everyone else who entered. There’s always next time. So keep checking back for more competitions and features and best of luck for next time.

We’d also like to thank Tom Muller and LongLunch for donating the poster.

Made & Sold charts the efforts of designers outside the usual 9 to 5 bill paying work. Published by Laurence King and edited by FL@33 towards the end of last year; FL@33 have built themselves a reputation for editing quirky titles often …]]>

Made & Sold charts the efforts of designers outside the usual 9 to 5 bill paying work. Published by Laurence King and edited by FL@33 towards the end of last year; FL@33 have built themselves a reputation for editing quirky titles often focusing on work produced for pleasure as much as for the pay. Made & Sold continues this trend showcasing a wide range of work from some well known trend setting creative maestros.

Most, if not all designers and illustrators at some point in their careers have had to produce dull client work stripped of creativity and visual flair. Outside this mundane work creative types have produced zines, tees, books, toys, prints and much more on their own time to stay creatively limber and fulfil the void that can only be achieved by boundless client-free projects. The essence of Made & Sold captures this playful and slightly jovial attitude in a lot of the work which makes for an enjoyable and inspiring read.

The majority of projects presented illustrate their creators own lust to produce a desirable product with the odd exception such as James West’s Create/Reject which donated proceeds to UNICEF. Though the work is often self-indulgent, this is usually out of necessity and acts as a force for good within the design community, bringing both pleasure to the creator and consumer whilst creating a perpetual motion that inspires more creatives to go on and produce their own wares. Made & Sold does a good job of distilling this ethos into a book that will not only please the eye and bruise the pocket but gives you a jolly good kick up the bum to start producing your own merchandise.

However fulfilling, self-gratification isn’t the only driving force for putting in the extra hours after work. It gives creatives the chance to experiment techniques and explore ideas often too risky for client paid work. Inevitably the free reign often feeds back into their day to day work as well as an extension of each creatives brand, which sees Made & Sold acting (in the most forgiving way) like a shopping catalogue as much as a snapshot of creative endeavours.

Each page contains quotes and a short description of the artist. This works well and brings context to them and their work. However these quotes run centred along the footer, seeming a little awkward with the rest of the grid. Apart from this, Made & Sold is well produced with plenty of detailed images that present the work well. Though some of the work really needs to be seen in the flesh the uncoated stock helps to carry the handmade feel of the work but at a relatively low price—just don’t expect any high end production finishes.

?When we first read about this book being released we were very excited, as a lot of the work on show can be far more insightful than the work people do as part of an agency. There’s a sense of authorship in every piece of work in Made & Sold which is a refreshing change and a major factor that is so alluring and spurs on creatives to keep producing this sort of work. FL@33 have become dab hands at producing these sorts of titles, producing visually exciting books that will definitely titillate the creative mind. With a resurgence in craft, this area of design is poignant and it seems a shame Made & Sold only touches the surface. Probing further, discussing the comeback of craft, out of hours work over the history of the industry and looking into creatives who make a living out of the products they create could of added depth. Those of you who like to fritter your pennies away in Magma, Analogue, Etsy etc or have dabbled in product lines will definitely enjoy Made & Sold and at the low price point it’s a great springboard to see what’s possible outside 9 to 5 whilst still developing your creativity. So go grab a copy and set up shop but don’t expect the millions to be rolling in any time soon.

Made & Sold is available from Amazon and all good local book stores now.

FL@33 have also created dedicated site for Made & Sold.

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Words: Gil Cocker
Photography: Malcolm Menzies

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Fully Booked is a tome representing some of the best examples of cover art and design for books. Hitting our doormat with a real thud, Fully Booked is a hefty title announcing itself as an authoritative reference point on book design.

Everything about it has been considered and well planned. Before …]]>

Fully Booked is a tome representing some of the best examples of cover art and design for books. Hitting our doormat with a real thud, Fully Booked is a hefty title announcing itself as an authoritative reference point on book design.

Everything about it has been considered and well planned. Before even thumbing the pages, an interesting juxtaposition unfolds through the book’s mirrored covers which split the codex into two separate sections, one focusing on book cover design and the other on books as an object and their content. The simple play of the diagonal cut cloth binding exposing the board underneath expresses the craftsmanship and concept in this experimental cover design.

After exercising our guns to pick the damn thing up, each side is introduced with a couple of essays from Katherine Gillieson and Maria Fusco as well as a couple more scattered throughout the book. Critically and culturally poignant, these essays discuss the concept of the artist book, the books longevity in an increasingly digital world, the act of reading and the oxymoron of the book itself; reproducing books through the very medium it’s trying to describe (without causing the universe to implode). These essays are well referenced and researched, thought provoking about what constitutes a book and how we can consume it—even if the essays are a bit conceptual and theory led in places. As the book is split in two, we found reading the side on ‘book content’ first made a lot more sense as there were a number of references in the essay on the opposite side which would have led to a lot of awkward book flipping to see the book that is being referenced.

The featured work shows off the diversity of books, displaying not only the wit and intelligence of the design and writing but the ingenuity and willingness to experiment from printers and production houses. Examples such as Joshua Reichert’s The Smallest Book in the World and Well Done by Bruketa & Zinic—a book you have to bake to reveal the text within—demonstrate how to push the possibilities of skills and materials to unexplored heights. Fully Booked isn’t all about process and technique showcasing just downright great examples of paper back book cover designs such as Editions Zulma by David Pearson.

Fully Booked’s design has an air of finesse and creativity that helps to elevate the work. Edited by Robert Klanten and Matthias Huebner, the book’s size and thick coated stock allows the images room to be appreciated and there’s certainly a lot of them. Alongside the work is plenty of commentary on the book’s content and/or cover design as well as detailed specifications such as the book’s designers, size and substrates, cost and in places the print run, which is very revealing.

Fully Booked does a good job of rediscovering that love of the artist book and the exciting journey that comes from reading them. If you’ve ever longed for your very own design library, dabbled in artist books or wanted to design book covers as a profession this book is likely to feed your thirst for some of the best examples. The biggest pitfall is its ingrained format and what it’s trying to represent; a book on book design. Thankfully Fully Booked commits to distancing itself as much as possible and in doing so creates a lot of the enjoyment that comes from reading the fine examples showcased.

Fully Booked: Cover Art and Design for Books is available from Amazon and all good local book stores now.

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Words: Gil Cocker

Photography: Liam & Dominique Shaw

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1998, Sixpack opens it’s first store in Paris, with no business strategy & no daddy’s boys socializing, the first Sixpack tee-shirt is made.

2009 and Sixpack is still collaborating with incredible artists around the world, from Steven Harrington to Parra.

Famous for their clothing, Sixpack …]]>

1998, Sixpack opens it’s first store in Paris, with no business strategy & no daddy’s boys socializing, the first Sixpack tee-shirt is made.

2009 and Sixpack is still collaborating with incredible artists around the world, from Steven Harrington to Parra.

Famous for their clothing, Sixpack has started building a solid line-up of posters, books and zines, the later being the reason for this post. Sixpack kindly asked us to select our favourite zines from their range for a feature on FFF, all of which are of course available for purchase from the Sixpack Shop. So without further ado here are our top 3.

PMKFA

The book PMKFA is a diverse collection of the works of the Tokyo-based graphic designer of the same name. Ranging from rather classic character design to abstract photography via crisp pattern designs for the garment industry and giant three-dimensional installations, PMKFA aka Michael Thorsby has gained reputation not by building a significant trademark style but via a diversity that never seem to stop surprising nor disappoint.

The 80 pages of the book offers little space for the eyes to rest, instead the book reflects the intensity of PMKFA’s work pace the past few years, since his move from Europe to Tokyo. Jumping from one medium to another even within a spread this is the way PMKFA work and this can be described in part B of the book, texts based on two discussions with three close friends and creators from Canada and Sweden.

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Horror Vacui

To celebrate the Erosie “Horror Vacui” Exhibition, Sixpack France has edited a 24 pages fanzine illustrated by Erosie. Very abstract, without any letters illustration and any text, the fanzine is about “the fear of emptiness, noise and chaos”.

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Perfect Day Fanzine

Zbiok is a young Polish artist. Through the fanzine Perfect Day, the artist tells with his recognizable and convincing style a short-graphic novel about people, and what a perfect day represents for them.

Papercraft is the fourth book from Gestalten documenting the growing trend of hand crafted creations. Following on from Hidden Track , Tactile and Tangible, Papercraft focuses on paper as a means of creation and expression of ideas through this common medium.

Highlighting the …]]>

Papercraft is the fourth book from Gestalten documenting the growing trend of hand crafted creations. Following on from Hidden Track , Tactile and Tangible, Papercraft focuses on paper as a means of creation and expression of ideas through this common medium.

Highlighting the importance of paper historically, Papercraft begins by discussing how paper once symbolised a means of democratisation in distribution information. With the advent of digital technology over the last 30 years offering the copy & paste culture of infinite permutations, a framework was born to rebel against this in the form of the DIY hand-crafted creations that Papercraft showcases. Split into five sections the book covers work from publications and posters to 3D objects such as paper toys and installations, through to fashion and costume as well as typography and environments showing the diversity of these paper creations.

At first glance, I couldn’t help feeling I’d seen a good chunk of the work before—not surprising considering the coverage many of these practitioners have received for their work in the press and numerous publications over the past 12 months. After a more thorough read and despite the familiarity I was sucked in by the labour of love that is evident in this work.

Using such a fragile material intrinsic with ‘hands-on’ work it’s clear the process and to some extent suffering that has gone into the pieces shown is as equally important as the end result – suggesting why this niche craft is so intriguing (Hina Aoyama’s work being a stunning example).

The book is well put together with the usual high quality design and production value expected from Gestalten. The book’s designer Birg Meyer has detailed the content sympathetically, using a flexible grid that offers a variety of images big enough to really illustrate the work displayed. Complemented by a simple layout this allows the intensely detailed work to speak for itself. The inclusion of DVD content is also a nice surprise. A collection of animation work featured in the book alongside printable nets of some paper toys help bring life to boring studio desks and are a cheerful addition.

Papercraft fails through a sporadic lack of organisation. Peppered throughout are small profiles about the work of the designers which run alongside the captioning. These give some insight into the material but are a little under used and could have more potential. In a publication where the ‘art of making’ equals the ‘end product’ these curated sections could offer a behind the scenes look at the process that goes into the piece on show. Videos of some installations would also give a real appreciation of the factors influencing the work.

Overall Papercraft does what it says—showcases a diverse collection of work created using paper, more concentrated than its predecessors allowing it to hold its own. The content of the book is extremely niche which might not suit everyone. If you enjoyed Tactile et al, you’re likely to enjoy this fourth edition. The DVD makes the title a little more out of the ordinary for a book of this price. A good reference point and one you are bound to find inspiring. So much can be created from the same pulpy based material leaving you with a feeling of awe for the higher state of focus leading these designers to produce such stunning work. It will be interesting to see if this is the last book we see on pseudo 3D rephotographed type work or is there still plenty of mileage in this niche genre?

Papercraft is available from Amazon and all good local book stores now.

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Words: Gil Cocker

Photography: A huge thanks to Liam & Dominique Shaw for helping us out with the photography this time round. For all you Malcolm Menzies groupies, he’ll be back soon helping us out with the photography.

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Visual Aid 2 is the sequel to a …]]>

To mark the recent release of Visual Aid: v. 2: You Can Never Know Enough Stuff, the people kind people at Draught Associates are giving away one of their brand new poster from the book.

Visual Aid 2 is the sequel to a book that hit our desk last November which we feel in love with the aesthetic of. Full of titbits and random information that you once new and have long forgotten, Visual Aid 2 is well designed using lots of flat vectors and bright hues presenting the content in a playful and inviting way.

This time round spreads from the book have been printed as poster in various sizes—very reminiscent of The Guardian Wall Chart series. One lucky person can win their choosing of any one of the posters and choose the size from the selection available on the Visual Aid Shop.

To win, send your answer to the following question to win[at]formfiftyfive.com by 29th November 2009 and we’ll announce the winner on the following Monday.

Taking a leaf from the first Visual Aid; Who is taller Mr Stay Puft or King Kong?

Best of luck.

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… and the lucky winner is James Allwright. Congrats James and we’ll be sending out your choice of poster very soon.

Thanks to everyone who entered and commiseration if you didn’t win this time round. There’s always next time.

Boxed and Labelled takes a fresh look at packaging design, illustrating how it has developed it’s own graphic language in today’s over crowded shelves. A solid body of work, showing off some of the best examples of contemporary packaging design. Documenting various aspects from physical packaging solutions through …]]>

Boxed and Labelled takes a fresh look at packaging design, illustrating how it has developed it’s own graphic language in today’s over crowded shelves. A solid body of work, showing off some of the best examples of contemporary packaging design. Documenting various aspects from physical packaging solutions through to label design.

With a plethora of poorly designed predecessors, chock-full of uninteresting packaging examples, I was apprehensive that this would be the case until seeing the sharp inviting cover of Boxed and Labelled. I’m pleased to say this is anything but dull, presenting outstanding examples of packaging nothing like the over designed examples included in some other publications. Instead, the book has a much more sophisticated, personal approach that speaks to customers in an intelligent way.

The book opens with a tone-setting essay discussing the history of packaging, the need to compete on the shelf and talk to the customer, leading on to discuss the ‘green’ issues that packaging designers must consider. Boxed and Labelled then neatly groups packaging examples into seven sections. As you dig deeper into the content every example is presented with such finesse, you get a real feeling for the packaging taking on a life of it’s own and aspiring to the qualities embodied by the product inside. It is easy to see that some of the examples are design classics in their own right, an object you would want to collect.

Captivated by the quality of the content, it is interesting to see the mixture of approaches to packaging design. From illustration to photography to purely typographic treatments, each solution captures its own narrative that draws you into meticulously studying the packaging and inevitably creating that want for the product it contains. Some of the examples take this a step further to create their very own persona, as beautifully demonstrated by Sarah Dery’s carrier bag design. Common throughout the work is the designers use of wit and intelligence, which seems to be a running trend in contemporary packaging design. The content has been compiled from sources worldwide using industry professionals and prototyped designs from students which was great to see.

Credit has to be given to Hans Baltzer and Floyd Schulze for the design and layout. A clean and minimal design reflects the considered approach given to the work on show. The images are of a good size, the curation of the work is sufficient and details of the designers and clients are a welcome addition. Printed on a thick coated stock allows the often vibrant packaging to be reproduced in all its glory. Occasionally full bleed images of an entire product range help to break up the pace of the book and come as a nice surprise. Finally the cover image by Hattomonkey for Molokoshka’s milk product range, hints at the caliber of the content.

Boxed and Labelled demonstrates the panache and aspirational qualities that have made contemporary packaging design desirable and iconic in its own right—take the Dorset Cereals as perfect example. Encompassing a wide range of packaging design aspects the book is a pleasure to read presenting packaging in an inviting and engaging way. Even if this subject isn’t your choice of tipple, Boxed and Labelled is bound to bring a smile to your face and realise a new appreciation for outstanding packaging design.

Boxed and Labelled is available from Amazon and all good local book stores now.

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Words: Gil Cocker

Photography: Malcolm Menzies

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Continuing on with our video interviews feature, we spoke with illustrator and exhibiting artist HelloVon at his London studio. HelloVon has worked with some big name clients and agencies including one of his design idols, Non-Format.

To help make your commute to work less boring, we’ve released this interview …]]>

Continuing on with our video interviews feature, we spoke with illustrator and exhibiting artist HelloVon at his London studio. HelloVon has worked with some big name clients and agencies including one of his design idols, Non-Format.

To help make your commute to work less boring, we’ve released this interview along with all the previous ones as a podcast which you can now find via the iTunes Music Store by searching FormFiftyFive or via direct link to the RSS feed. We’ll also be releasing all future interviews both through the usual FFF site on Vimeo as well as through the podcast. So subscribe now and always be the first to watch the interview on your iPod or iPhone.

Finally as a thank you to all of our loyal readers and to mark the launch of the Von Shop, we’re giving you a chance to win one of stunningly detailed All is full of Love prints by answering this the following question.

HelloVon mentions he took a split degree at university, but what two disciplines did Von’s degree involve?

Email your answer to win[at]formfiftyfive.com by Friday 20th November 2009 and we’ll pick the correct answer at random and announce the winner on Friday. Best of luck and enjoy the interview.

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Here’s a list of the questions we asked HelloVon, submitted by you guys, our readers.

Q1. What is your normal workflow or process like? What tools, techniques, and mindsets do you find absolutely essential?

Q2. I’d love to know (despite the epic outcome) do you ever get bored with the process?

Q3. What does it take from you — to earn as an pro artist/illustrator? a lot of time mainly.

Q4. I learned to draw myself and have a great love for the pencil. From time to time I think about going through some formal training, like a illustration/graphic design course. What’s your advice — will it enrich my style or just waste my time and money?

Q5. You have cut a style and fashion all of your own, but how do you stop that from going stale with the viewer and yourself?

Q6. Is there any client or another creative you would like to work with and why?

Q7. I would ask who von looks to for inspiration and what is his favourite thing to draw?

Q8. “What i like to know is what your relation is towards nature. Is it more a stylistic choice like you\’re drawings are stylistic or is there a deeper interest? The animals are always placed as stand alone with a lot of white surrounding them like you want to make a point… or maybe not. That’s something i canot really figure out. Nontheless i think you are a very good artist. I really like your work. The new work ’Semblance’ looks amazing as well.”

Q9. How do you feel the recent recession and client budget cuts have affected you, if at all?

Q10. What are your personal design goals and aspirations for the future?

The clever people at the BIMA Awards have shortlisted FFF in the ‘Best blog’ category. I say they’re clever not only because they’ve shortlisted us – which was clearly a stroke of genius – but because they’ve managed to get a load of bloggers posting giant free ads …]]>

The clever people at the BIMA Awards have shortlisted FFF in the ‘Best blog’ category. I say they’re clever not only because they’ve shortlisted us – which was clearly a stroke of genius – but because they’ve managed to get a load of bloggers posting giant free ads for their awards. Manipulative swines.

Anyway, I digress, if you’ve got thirteen seconds (That’s the current record) to kill, pop over to the BIMA Awards page and cast your vote. Ideally for us, obviously.

Thanks folks!

Designers and books are a perfect marriage and because we love them so much at FFF we’ve decided to venture into book reviews and save you all some pennies. To kick things off we’re very happy to publish our first review of fledgling title Studio Culture. We’d love to hear …]]>

Designers and books are a perfect marriage and because we love them so much at FFF we’ve decided to venture into book reviews and save you all some pennies. To kick things off we’re very happy to publish our first review of fledgling title Studio Culture. We’d love to hear what you think so let us know in the comments or via Twitter or perhaps even suggest a future title for us to review. Now for the full story…

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Studio Culture is the first title to be released from fresh faced publisher Unit Editions, a collaboration between Tony Brook of Spin and Adrian Shaughnessy of ShaughnessyWorks , both of whom are luminaries in the visual communications industry. Unit Editions’ manifesto is positive; producing and self publishing graphic design books at affordable prices – which fills us with excitement and anticipation of things to come.

The graphic design studio is something we’re all very familiar with but very little has been written on the subject. Studio Culture addresses this gap very well. Split into four sections – there are a couple of essays introducing the importance and lack of discussion surrounding the concept of the studio, a collection of interviews with 28 leading studios (commenting on everything from set up to interns and employees through to profit sharing and relaxation time), a photographic record of a selection of world renowned studios and finally a reference section on the ins and out of studio life. Each of the essays and interviews are extremely detailed and well referenced offering a probing look into the innermost secrets of some famous studios worldwide. The content has a familiarity by dealing with issues which are of common concern to designers.

Overall the range of featured studios seems a little restricted with the majority based in Europe. Although it’d be great to see a more even breadth of locations, the focus on European studios is more of an observation of Europe as the hub of excellent creative work worldwide. The conflict between the studio as a collective and the individual who represents that studio is constant in the book but makes for interesting reading.

The book has been designed by Brook’s own agency Spin and has clearly been well considered. The reasonable cover price doesn’t come by way of sacrifice to the design and production, both of which are well executed. The choice of 90gsm Cyclus paper stock gives the book a reference like feel—one that you’ll constantly be dipping in and out of—which is also reflected in the relatively small size. The cover is finished simply with a wrap around belly band come dust cover. If we had to be at all critical, the size of images can be a little disappointing, sometimes these are just too small to appreciate. But this is a minor point, overall the mix of images and text works harmoniously.

Unit Edition’s first foray into publishing with Studio Culture is a sterling effort despite it’s minor points, it’s after all a copy heavy book and well produced and written by talented practitioners. The working relationship between Shaughnessy and Brook is clearly one built upon a common interest in the wider subject of visual communications, which overall makes for a book rich in interesting and diverse content that anyone who has or is interested in working in a studio/agency will find extremely inspirational. The book’s design and production mirrors the quality of content demonstrating some of Spin’s signature style such as the folded dust cover that we’ve previously seen on Logo.

This book is a must for every designers’ book shelf and like Shaughnessy’s How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul, it should be a must on the reading lists of graduates. We’re interested to see how Unit Editions develops over the next twelve months. Can they maintain the pace and quality of publications set so high by Studio Culture?

Rating: 9/10

Studio Culture is available from Amazon and all good local book stores now. Signed copies with special edition coloured belly bands are also available exclusively from the Unit Editions website.

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Words: Gil Cocker

Photography: Malcolm Menzies

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And now for some more shots of the book.