September 2008

The Last Straw

"Inspired by a classic straw dispenser and the straws’ vibrant colours, the graphics are whimsical and friendly. By placing the fictional characters' heads at the top of the box, the straws become 'growing hairs' when the lid is lifted. The packages’ positive attitude resonates with the playful, lighthearted product inside.— Jessica Li, a Student Awards winner in the Package Design category, part of a special section in the September/October 2008 issue of APPLIED ARTS, on the newsstand early this month.

Celebrating Our Olympic Performance Toronto's q30 design created a stamp to celebrate Canada's participation in the Beijing Olympic Games, illustrated by Laurie Lafrance. Released in July, the stamp features an abstract image of an athlete with hands overhead carrying a flag. The strong colours of red, black and gold figure prominently on a clean white background. "The stamp image is extremely dramatic," says Liz Wong, manager of stamp design and production at Canada Post. "It captures the spirit of competitive sport and the pride of the Olympic tradition."

Prouk's Picks Five sites deemed worth a surf by legendary adman Gary Prouk of Sebastian Consultancy. 120 Carteles de Finales del XIX a Principios del Siglo XXI: Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the International Biennial of Mexico’s Poster offers this exhibit of international posters, ranging from the late 19th century to today. At left, designed by Fang Chen (1998). Car0wa: Golden Shit Award: Watch where your dog defecates, or you might earn one of these golden stars of shame. The Empire Poster Quiz: Here’s a test of your type and movie poster knowledge. Looking at only one letter from a poster, can you guess the movie it flogged? Secret Dictionaries: The Collages of William Davies King: See the grab-bag collages of this U.S. artist and academic, including his Incunabular Pictionary of the New Practical Standard Dictionary Lexikon of the New World Dictionary. See if you can say that in one breath. Whew! Written on the City: Images of graffiti, signs and other writing give you the street vibe of cities around the world.

New at APPLIED ARTS On the newsstand early this month, the September/October 2008 issue of APPLIED ARTS MAGAZINE has an education theme, including a special section of advertising, design, editorial, photography, illustration and interactive winners from our Student Awards, sponsored by Epson Canada. The issue's main feature, "New Schools of Thought," examines how specific departments from five different art and communications colleges, in Canada and the U.S., are preparing their students for their quickly changing professions. Other issue highlights include: a Q&A with Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk of Ogilvy Toronto, the fine wine designs of Brandever in Vancouver and our Stock Report column, covering the issues and trends in the stock image industry. The Call for Entry for the APPLIED ARTS Interactive Awards has been released. If you've signed up for contest updates, look for it in your e-mail inbox. Or go directly to the contest Website for full details and an online entry form. With a deadline of October 10, the Interactive Awards features more categories than ever, judged by a highly respected panel of new media professionals. Winners will be published in a special section of the March/April 2009 issue of APPLIED ARTS. For more information, contact Carrie Martin by e-mail, awards[at]appliedartsmag.com, or by phone, 416-510-0909, ext. 32 (outside Toronto: 1-800-646-0347).

Canadian Private Eye Gets Design Overhaul Benny Cooperman, the fictional private eye who earned international acclaim for Canadian writer Howard Engel, has been given a new lease on life – and an all-new look created by Hands Design. Penguin Canada has re-released the entire back catalogue of 11 Cooperman novels, plus a previously unpublished offering, East of Suez, with the entire series designed and packaged by the new Toronto-based agency. Kerrin Hands, creative director at Hands Design, says, “Benny is more soft-boiled than hard-boiled, doesn’t carry a gun and is more likely to be running way from the bad guys than after them. We wanted to capture Benny’s iconic status using Saul Bass-inspired illustrations and typography – implemented in bold colours to reflect the dark humour that is rife throughout these books.” All illustrations and typography were rendered in-house at Hands Design.

One Love Montreal photographer Valerie Simmons has created a stunning collection of portraits that are featured in a new AIDS awareness campaign, entitled Luvu2. The viral campaign, aimed at the hard-to-reach young adult audience, features an Internet video at www.luvu2.com. The video combines the U2 song "One," recorded by Mary J. Blige, with Simmons' shots of billowy landscapes of rumpled white bed sheets and evocative portraits, which convey the importance of AIDS testing for all types of people. Viewers can download the video and send it to friends with personalized messages (for each message, Bristol Myers Squibb will donate $1 to AIDs-related causes, up to $100,000).

Winning Motion Two Canadian students from the Vancouver Film School won at the recent Adobe Design Achievement Awards. The team of Ryan Uhrich and Marcos Ceravalo came on top in the Motion Graphics category. More than 2,700 students from 33 countries competed in this year's awards. The winning entries can be viewed at www.adaaentry.com/adaalive.html. Winners were selected by a panel of industry judges, based on their originality and effectiveness in communicating project objectives.

Work/Life Published by UPPERCASE Gallery in Calgary, Work/Life is a book showcasing the work and inspiration of more than 60 Canadian illustrators and photographers. Not merely a picture book, it interviews the artists about, well, their work and their lives. The result is a compelling snapshot of how artists create and what they aspire to. To encourage their aspirations, the book was sent to the participants' dream clients. Work/Life is the brainchild of Calgary writer and designer Janice Vanpool, who is proud to point out that many participants have been commissioned based on their inclusion in the book. Accompanying the profiles are interviews with Karen Simpson, art director of MoneySense, Isabel Abdai, senior associate art director at Martha Stewart Living and illustrators Jillian Tamaki and Sam Weber.

Distressed Faces Veer has just released two new typeface packages from British typographer, graphic artist and comic illustrator Rian Hughes, (who has called typography "the particle physics of design"). The Distressed Display pack and the Weathered Woodtype pack come from Hughes' renowned Device collection.

Flogos Fido Sessions have come to Toronto – a quarterly series of events promoting art, travel and design – announced by two 30-foot tall “Fidolls” appearing at opposite ends of the city. Since the beginning of August, smaller versions of the Fidolls – unbranded, plain white male and female figures who prompt passersby to “Text 411 to 10987” – began appearing at locations in the downtown core. The figures have shown up in the form of chalk art, sidewalk washes, tree hangers and through the first Canadian use of “Flogos” (flying logos), culminating in the appearance of the 30-foot versions. After sending a text, viewers were linked to a mobile Internet site. “Visually, our concept had to capture everything Fido Sessions was all about, generate curiosity and tie in to the core brand value of keeping people connected,” says Gary Watson, co-creative director at Bos Toronto, the agency responsible for the campaign. “It had to be something iconic, simple and eye-catching. The Fidolls are reflective of a young, urban couple, which is Fido’s key demographic.”

Transitions Amber Bezahler has joined Tribal DDB Canada as managing director of the Vancouver operation. Previously, Bezahler served as vice-president, experience design at Blast Radius in Vancouver. Monadnock Paper Mills has announced that Mark A. Lombardi has been appointed vice-president of manufacturing. Montreal-based Twist Image president Mitch Joel has announced that the interactive agency is officially opening an office in Toronto. Joining the team as creative director is Virginia Magaletta. Magaletta was previously a senior interactive designer at Taxi and also held senior creative roles at Fjord Marketing, Euro RSCG 4D and Ogilvy Interactive. With an roster of clients with sustainability-focused businesses, Publicis Vancouver is taking action to become carbon neutral. To achieve this status, the agency is working with Offsetters, a Vancouver-based organization that helps companies to understand, reduce and offset their climate impact.

A Martin Retrospective Veteran illustrator Doug Martin will have a retrospective of his work at Toronto's Papermill Gallery, from October 1 to 12. Ranging from 1975 to today, Martin's meticulously detailed and sometimes surreal acrylic-on-board and -canvas works show both his fine art background and his ability as one of the country's finest illustrators, having won awards from all over Canada and the United States. His art has been used for advertising campaigns, book covers, packaging and corporate communications.

New, Colourful Pantone Releases Pantone has released two new products that extend its Goe System, as well as its new ColorMunki Create software. Pantone GoeBridge offers, in portable, fan-guide format, a system that lets creatives accurately visualize how more than 2,000 solid colours in the Pantone Goe system will reproduce in CMYK on coated paper. It provides conversion formulas for CMYK, sRGB and HTML. The Color Cue 2.1 is the latest version of Pantone's colour-identification device. Featuring a new LCD screen with configurable displays, the device identifies up to 11,000 colours, making it a useful tool for the graphic design, interior design, architectural, printing and publishing industries. Extending the ColorMunki portfolio, ColorMunki Create is an intuitive sofrware and hardware solution for creating, managing, searching, verifying and sharing colour palettes. Among the tools designed for colour selection are system-level ones that select from the Pantone Color Libraries. Designers can also identify and extract colours directly from images and import their colour palettes straight into applications such as Adobe Creative Suite and QuarkXPress. The system also includes a monitor calibrator to ensure colours are viewed accurately onscreen and a PrintSafe feature, a one-click, out-of-gamut preview that will alert users as to which colours in their palettes can or cannot be achieved on a specific paper stock.

To-Do List September 3-6 Networks of Design Conference, Falmouth, U.K. September 13-14 Pixelshow, Sao Paulo, Brazil. September 15 2008 Chicago International Poster Biennial Exhibition. September 16 Nabs 23rd Annual Golf Classic, Toronto. September 16 Tendances Design, Montreal. Includes presentation by designer David Carson. September 17-21 Ottawa International Animation Festival. September 17-21 Association Typographique Internationale 52nd Annual Conference, St. Petersburg, Russia. September 18 RGD Design for the Digital World, Toronto. September 26 Design Exchange Awards submission deadline. Until September 28 World Press Photo Exhibition, presented by Capic Montreal. October 2 Montreal Digital Printing Forum, presented by Interquest and Quebec Institute of Graphic Communications . October 13-19 Multiverso: Icograda Design Week, Torino, Italy. October 30 DX Black & White Fundraising Gala, Toronto. October 27-30 Design Thinkers Conference, Toronto.

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