Otl Aicher at dn&co’s Ground Floor Space
As part of the London Design Festival our Creative Director Kevin visited the Otl Aicher exhibition (of whom he is a big fan) which was held in a small gallery off Bermondsey Street owned by dn&co.
Although mainly famous for creating his distinctive branding for Lufthansa and iconography for the 1972 Munich Olympics, this exhibition is mainly focussed on the work he created for Isny im Aligau, a small town in the foothills of the German Alps.
His idea was to promote the town but not through the then traditional means of photography led posters, calendars, postcards, etc. This innovative, ground breaking work did what all great creative work does when first viewed (whether art, music or fashion ), it was unconventional, took you by surprise, got people talking and divided opinions.
The whole exhibition is monotone (black and white) and original 70’s prints are for sale but if you’re on a tight budget, or you’ve only got a tenner to hand like Kev had, you can still leave with a hand pulled screen printed bag!
Aicher also founded the influential Uln school of design in Germany and much of its design aesthetic of ‘form follows function’ and simplicity are evident in this work. How do you represent a forest, rock formation, village in its most basic form?
To see this work is a must for anyone who appreciates good design, simplicity and crafting, all of which come across in abundance. In fact much of our own tothepoint ethos ‘clear, concise communication’ is influenced by great practitioners such as Aicher.
Rush for RELX
It’s been a while since we’ve worked with RELX but when they came to us with a rush job, after a last minute let down by a design team in the States, we were straight on the case. We had to get our heads round some complex information, various format files and deal with clients across three countries on different time zones. The fact sheet required eye catching infographics and a lot of information distilled into a single page.
This was for a presentation at the United Nations General Assembly within two days and as a team we delivered.
Sarah Huggett, Analytical Services Product Manager at Elsevier was so pleased with our efforts she sent us this glowing testimonial:
“I’ve been impressed with what Simon and the design team achieved in the limited time we had. They were flexible, effective, responsive, and dedicated. Despite the time pressure, they made the whole process as smooth and easy for us as possible, and were an absolute pleasure to work with throughout.”
GDPR – things you need to know!
With all the discussion, and scaremongering, around the incoming GDPR regulation and its impact on how companies, both large and small, communicate with their customers and prospects, we were curious as to how the regulation will impact us, or any small business operating within the B2B space. It may not be as bad as some companies are leading you to believe… Here are the key things that companies working in the B2B space need to know about GDPR.
London Design Festival/Better Bankside
Since Bankside was established as the first London Design Festival ‘Design District’ south of the river in 2015, our friends over at Better Bankside have done an amazing job bringing the festival (and the crowds that come with it) to our community of design studios, architectural practices, creative agencies and galleries.
This year was no different, with a strong theme of typography in the programme. This included some beautiful calligraphy with quotes from Bankside’s literary legends across windows and shop fronts that stretched all the way down to our home in Borough High Street.
Font fans and type geeks loved the lettering workshops with sign painting legend Mike Meyer and Martina Flor, and the glow in the dark alphabet peep show from Better Letters. Around the corner from us, San Francisco’s Letterform Archive were at Flat Iron Square with an exhibition that highlighted the work graphic designers produce on the way to final products.
A brand new commission in the series of ‘Colourful Crossings’ installations were launched for the festival. The piece by Thierry Noir, the first artist to paint the Berlin Wall, have transformed a pedestrian crossing on Southwark Street, bringing his signature colour and animation to Bankside.
LDF 2017 is over for another year, but you can see some of the projects that were around Bankside on twitter or have a look at what else went on during the Festival on the website.