Table of contents for January 2020 in Computer Arts

sometimes-always.com Sometimes Always, a graphic design studio based between São Paulo and Berlin, recently unveiled a striking series of posters for São Paulo fashion boutique Cotton Project’s AW 2019 collection, named Contra. Studio founder Gabriel Finotti says the collection “explores the counterculture spirit behind the rise of surfing and rock climbing” – sports that he states have “questioned a conservative and consumerist society” through participating in more “libertarian and hedonistic lifestyle” pursuits since the 1950s. The images use only black and white, with a typographic focus alongside imagery shot by Brazilian photographer and director Hick Duarte. Gabriel adds that the aesthetic draws on a “magical moment” in the history of the sports: “a golden age” defined by neither money nor social status but “driven by a group of young people…

superunion.com A recent project from branding agency behemoth Superunion saw it delve into the world of Chinese healthcare heritage. Briefed to create a new identity for Motiv from Tong Ren Tang (China’s oldest healthcare brand, founded in 1669), it aimed for a “perfect balance of heritage and modernity” in the new vitamin supplement designs. Looking to target younger Chinese people, the idea was to move beyond visuals associated with traditional medicines and toward Western approaches to wellness. The identity concept is inspired by “the Chinese ethos of achieving a ‘healthy mind in a healthy body’,” according to Superunion, with the packaging design giving a contemporary twist to shapes found in the traditional Chinese pottery. After three years spent prototyping, Superunion combined these forms with those of an organic cell structure…

Klaus Bischoff Executive director, Volkswagen Design volkswagenag.com “In this new brand design, we’ve created an authentic communications platform for the emotional presentation of e-mobility. We’re showing the Volkswagen of the future under the motto of “digital first” and “no filter”. The new design is flat and two-dimensional, allowing for more flexible use and will be outstandingly recognisable in digital media. The targeted use of light is a key style element of the new brand design: in the illumination of the logo at twilight, in showrooms and in pop-up stores in metropolitan areas and cities. Light is the new chromium. This way, we want to focus on warmth and humanity. The first model featuring the new brand design is the ID.3, a fully electric vehicle. The design language of this vehicle…

1. Nature Sagmeister & Walsh’s research found that there’s order in the apparently chaotic natural world. A study that looked at images ranging from landscapes to Mondrian paintings showed that people usually prefer images that fall within the 1.3 to 1.5 fractal dimension, regardless of the type of image they were shown. 2. Simplicity To Moore, one of the most beautiful pieces of design is Alan Fletcher’s V&A logo: “I can look at that and say it’s inevitable, elegant and strong. That’s an extraordinary skill.” 3. Variation The aim of Dazed Beauty is to make readers question themselves and their perceptions, to ask themselves why an image is deemed disgusting or offensive. “With today’s proliferation of images, there are so many different iterations of beauty, where it used to be…

“These two design pieces mean more together than apart. The Chase Bank symbol by Tom Geismar has been seen by millions of people daily for almost 60 years. Because it’s so familiar, it’s easy to overlook the design’s magical quality and the significant achievement it represents. The blue octagon of Chase Bank is solid and dynamic at once. It’s focused and functional as a corporate logo, but also has an artistic quality. The utter simplicity of the form doesn’t come at the expense of dynamism and visual interest. I love the relationship between the positive, bold trapezoids forming the hexagon and the negative square space at the core of the mark. Everyone wonders about what it means; as a student in art school, I always thought the shapes were “chasing”…

plaey.co.uk As dream clients go, for Yorkshire-based furniture design studio Plaey Workshop the band Hot Chip was right up there. The studio created a limited edition record dolly, titled A Dolly Full of Records, marking this year’s release of the album A Bath Full of Ecstasy. Plaey founder Matt Kelly contacted the band having heard lead vocalist Alexis Taylor discussing collecting “playful furniture pieces along with records”, and worked closely on the piece with him and designer/typographer Fraser Muggeridge, who created the album artwork alongside artist Jeremy Deller. Using a form inspired by the 1930s Penguin Book Donkey, the studio printed the artwork on the dolly’s valchromat panels, leaving the plywood areas blank. “The idea is that the artwork is partially hidden when it’s full of records, so you get…

Back in 2017, F1 turned to global creative company Wieden+Kennedy to overhaul its brand identity, resulting in the clean, modern, forward-facing mark shown above. Now, to celebrate its 70th anniversary, the motorsport giant is readying itself for the second phase of its reinvention, and wants your help. Having successfully established the new logo and weaved it into the fabric of the sport, F1 wishes to bring it to life using motion design in dynamic and exciting ways. So it’s seeking a diverse collection of 15-second logo animations that capture different aspects of F1: from fans to racing, factory to pit lane, historic moments to pioneering modern tech. Think F1 crossed with MTV. This special competition will be judged by Wieden & Kennedy’s global creative director Richard Turley, Computer Arts editor…

Monotype Studio is a digital font foundry that employs over 700 people, based across 15 cities globally. It aims to give creatives a distinctive voice in their project, and has over 10,000 fonts at its disposal. monotype.com “With every move we discuss putting the giant ‘M’ on wheels, but it’s yet to happen” Our new creative space is located in Shoreditch, one of the many creative hubs in east London. The Tea Building has been part of the scene since the 1930s, initially housing the Lipton Tea factory. Even as an office, the building has retained many of its original features, including wide open windows overlooking Shoreditch’s old buildings and the modern skyscrapers of the City of London, and we wanted to maintain this look. Monotype is a company with…

Beauty is a six-letter word, and a loaded one, especially when it comes to working in the creative industries… But, while there’s the old adage that it’s “in the eye of the beholder”, some argue that what is (and isn’t beautiful) is far from subjective. The Oxford Dictionary defines beauty as “A combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.” But we all know it’s more than that: we often say a person is beautiful, or that they have a beautiful “soul”. Beauty, then, is nebulous – it isn’t dependent on certain aesthetic qualities, but has a deeper resonance that’s more about feeling than composition or colour. If it were that simple, we’d all make things that were universally agreed to…

SIMON MANCHIPP Co-founder and executive strategic creative director, SomeOne Simon has been behind the launches of brands worldwide for over 20 years, from the recent King’s Cross rebrand to The World Para Athletics. Championships. w LIBBY TSOI Designer, SomeOne A graduate of Central Saint Martins, Libby joined SomeOne after completing her degree. She has worked on global campaigns for Merlin Entertainment, XE.com and the identity for the Omega. Dubai Desert Classic golf tournament. RICH RHODES Creative director, SomeOne London A Falmouth University graduate, Rich has been behind many of SomeOne’s top identity design projects, including the award-winning D.Thomas branding and the agency’s work for the Inner Temple, one of the Inns of the Court. THE BRIEF Simon Manchipp Simmons & Simmons is a global legal practice founded in 1896, with…

JAN VON HOLLEBEN Freelance photographer Training as a teacher, Jan taught disabled children in Freiburg before studying photography at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design. He’s also set up two photographic collectives. janvonholleben.com GRITT BREDEROW Design director, Philipp und Keuntje Joining the Hamburg agency Philipp und Keuntje 14 years ago, Gritt’s main focus is on new business and on-going clients such as Audi. She studied visual communication at the Bauhaus University in Weimar. philippundkeuntje.de THE BRIEF Gritt Brederow Audi is a long-standing client of Philipp und Keuntje, and we have worked for the car manufacturer for over 20 years, so realising creative work for the company is part of our daily business. The child seats project came about alongside the creation and production of Audi’s latest catalogue of Audi…

tomorrowbureau.io Tomorrow Bureau is the digitally focused spin-off from London-based design agency Studio Crême. Its TB LAB initiative provides the studio with a “space for us to have fun and play with research and development,” says studio co-founder Jack Featherstone. The first manifestation of the lab, TB LAB 001, Xtreme Scenario, is a two-part film made over 18 months between client projects, described as “both a tribute to the great outdoors and a study on the technical equipment needed to navigate it.” Using a series of digital 3D designs and animations, the film investigates various environments and outdoor gear through an “abstract, almost macabre narrative,’’ says Jack. He adds, “We did a lot of research into the aesthetics of outdoor gear and outdoor wear, and developed a visual language from…

universalfavourite.com.au Australian wine subscription service Good Pair Days has unveiled a new identity that spans tone of voice, out-of-home ads, digital, “swag” designs, packaging and more by agency Universal Favourite. Aiming to create “a bold and impactful brand experience,’’ according to agency founder and creative director Dari Israelstam, former brand name The Wine Gallery was too “literal… inconsistent, cutesy and unownable”. It created the new “playful, but mature” moniker with copywriter Cat Wall, while a series of illustrations and photography shot by Benito Martin and Jessica Johnson were created for use across online and offline applications. The redesigned packaging (now 100 per cent recyclable using biodegradable moulded pulp) uses “quirky, bold brand messaging” on tasting note cards, welcome booklets and tote bags. The brand’s first app was launched with simple…

LOVED&LOST: VOLUME 1 Loved&Lost is a project inviting people to explore their experience of loss through the re-staging of family photographs and interviews. Launched six years ago by Manchester artist and creative producer Simon Bray following the death of his father, it’s since reached an audience of over three million people worldwide and exhibited across the UK. Now a successfully crowdfunded book, designed by Craig Oldham, it’s available to buy online. Loved&Lost: Volume 1 features five personal stories of loss as Simon invites participants to return to the location of an original photograph to recreate it and record an interview. lovedandlostproject.co.uk DAVID CARSON Best known for his innovative layouts and use of experimental typography for Ray Gun magazine in the 1990s, the work of American designer David Carson is central…

Malika Favre’s work features simple shapes and bold colours in smart combinations that provide visual double entendres, brought to life beautifully in her new eponymous monograph. The book showcases work from across French illustrator Malika’s career, divided into some of her most oft-used themes, such as women (expressing her “own relationship to femininity,” in that they’re “strong, independent, sensual and free”); society, featuring some stunning New Yorker covers; and erotica, including her brilliant 2013 Kama Sutra-based alphabet. Its large format offers a gorgeous insight into her carefully refined vector shapes and characters, all of which exemplify the beauty of simplicity, whether in her personal work or advertising, editorial or publishing commissions. Malika’s style is recognisable yet mimicked, and this book proves why. It’s smart, direct and imbued with layers of…

“The general feeling seems to be that beauty is much more individualistic. Most scientific research shows that roughly half of what we perceive to be beautiful is universal, the other half is individualistic.” “We all like what we know. From an evolutionary point of view, if we’ve encountered it before and it hasn’t eaten us yet, we like it. And the context in which we see something is important: If we feel safe, we want a larger portion of newness added to what we know. If we’re scared, we can stand only a small bit of novelty.” “A prerequisite [to making more beautiful design] is a desire to become proficient in creating formally beautiful things. Beauty is learnable. A good start is to collect beautiful things and copy them, to…

EMILY GOSLING Emily is a London-based freelance design and arts journalist. She works as a senior editor at Eye on Design and an editor-at-large at Elephant. emilygosling.com TOM MAY Tom is a freelance writer and editor specialising in art, design, technology and travel. His first book, Great TED talks: Creativity, can be pre-ordered on Amazon. twitter.com/tom_may GARRICK WEBSTER With over 25 years’ editorial experience, copywriter and journalist Garrick has recently helped develop retail, manufacturing and alcohol branding. imageandtext.co.uk ALVA SKOG Born in Sweden and now living in London, Alva is an illustrator and graphic designer whose accolades include a Yellow Pencil in the D&AD New Blood awards. alvaskog.com…