Reference Material
Visual Editions: Part Revolution, Part Reinvention
• Writing in a different way
• Screen camps vs print camps – publishing operates in both worlds
• There’s still a tactile need for touching/feeling actual books, as opposed to the screen. There is an audience – the same audience that still loves printed books as opposed to the screen.
Anna and Britt mention how inspirational the above video is for them when they complete projects and work for clients. I absolutely love this video, the detail and amount of craft in this piece of work. This is a narrated paper film of “Going West” by Marice Gee. The artist behind this is Andersenm; an animation and designer exploring various paper outputs. In fact when researching more of this artist I found the design work is quite distorted and uses a lot of techniques. A piece I particularly liked is below:
Andersen M: The Breeders – All Nerve
These records and sleeves are detailed, colourful and a combination of techniques rolled into one final outcome. I love the use of typography and image layered with scribbles/ink and 3D object images such as letters or textures like rock. Even though the artwork is really random, it fits the music. An article from NPR summarises the style of music this album contains: “…another two minutes of spit and spirit, this time dispensed via a slow burn that gives way to blasts of jaggedly blown-out, irrepressibly inviting distortion.” Immediately, I begin to understand why the artwork is arranged in this way, with jagged irregular shapes and lines, and bursts of colour.
Tree of Codes
The layout of this book creates a unique experience for the reader, where words are playful and presented in various layouts on pages. The experience for the reader will be altogether different than when reading a regular paged book, and I like that it’s an unexpected surprise when opening the contents. The book was originally “The Street of Crocodiles” written by Bruno Schulz and then transformed into another story through carved, cut outs of words.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman – Laurence Sterne
The 18th century original 
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman – Visual Editions
This piece of work by Visual Editions is a remake of 18th century novel “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman”. Visual Editions’ version is effective and modernised, application of the colour red has been introduced in subtle ways on the page. The random use of lettering and dingbats layered behind the wording looks misplaced and irregular, but actually enhances the dialogue. The crossing out of vocabulary and coloured lines set the tone for the narrative, whilst taking inspiration from the original book.
Nicer Tuesdays: Craig Oldham on Books
• Miners lost their jobs in 80’s and went on strike, Oldham is involved personally as his dad was one of the strikers
• Politically, newspapers were anti-miners and wrote bad things. The media twisted what actually happened
• Project was created to raise awareness about what happened and validate the protesting
Adrian Shaughnessy – The graphic designer as writer, editor and publisher
• Three very big changes – 1. arrival in 80’s of Apple Mac, rethinking the way we functioned as designers. 2. Internet fundamentally changed being a designer. 3. Automation; optimising the design process.
• Started making record covers, then went on to the radio and spoke to designers, one designer was interested in Publishing
• This led to discussions with a book shop owner who run a successful shop in 90’s – Google images have killed book sales
• Website “Unit Editions” created, books for graphic designers made by graphic designers
• Murals (wall) vs Super Graphics (wall, floor, around the corner)
• Packaging involves graphic design elements to consider the audience
• Keep an archive so something exists instead of computers in future
• FHK Henry; designed first portable sewing machine. Thought about television as design medium. Passionate about production techniques, exhibition designer for information design, and overall known as an identity designer. KLM identity airline
• Lance Wyman; product designer, Mexico city, Olympics, Mexico city metro
• We are surrounded by perfection and finalised, immaculate state but sometimes seeing raw materials and work in progress is refreshing
• Polish magazine; Projekt, combination of design and art, and polish posters. Edgar Bonk designer
• The page is still free. It’s a landscape where you can create dynamic relationships with text and image
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