Openmind / Strictly Kev
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009Kevin Foakes was a big influence of mine towards the end of the 90’s although it wasn’t until a few years later that I joined the dots together and realised how many of my favorite things he’d been involved in.
Under the Strictly Kev pseudonym, Foakes was part of the original DJ Food line up alongside Patrick Carpenter (PC) and Coldcut’s Matt Black and Jonathan More. A friend of mine picked up Refried Food sometime in 97 and it was following up on the remixers there that led me to the likes of Autechre, Fila Brazillia, Luke Vibert and Mathew Herbert. Shortly after, I discovered the Blech II mix that he and PC had put together, which for me still stands as one of the best examples of what you can make of a mixtape (look at that tracklist!).
Alongside the music and DJing, Foakes has delivered some seriously tasteful artwork as graphic designer at Ninja Tune. Over the years, he’s created a visual profile that only long term realtionships like this or The Designers Republic & Warp seem to yield.
I recommend you spend some time exploring the history of projects on his site. If you’re into digging for good stuff you may have missed, the connections to be found there are certainly worthy of investigation.
Newwork Magazine
Monday, June 22nd, 2009Gorgeous biannual magazine designed and published by Studio Newwork.
From their site…
“NEWWORK magazine is a large-format arts publication for Connoisseur of fresh ideas. Designed and published biannually by studio NEWWORK, each issue features new work from a wide range of artists and creators in the worlds of fine art, design, high fashion, culture, and politics. From art directors to business leaders, design students to curators, NEWWORK’s contributors are united in their passion to push the boundaries of their disciplines. Among the magazine’s special features are bold, custom-designed typefaces and a twist on the traditional newspaper format, offering a stimulating juxtaposition of striking design and everyday simplicity. Since pages can be separated, each layout can be hung on the wall as an individual art piece.”
visit www.newworkmag.com
Data Flow: Visualising Information in Graphic Design
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008These things have a habit of cropping up when I have no money to buy them…
From the Gestalten website…
“The application of diagrams extends beyond its classical field of use today. Data Flow charts this development, introduces the expansive scope of innovatively designed diagrams and presents an abundant range of possibilities in visualising data and information. These range from chart-like diagrams such as bar, plot, line diagrams and spider charts, graph-based diagrams including line, matrix, process flow, and molecular diagrams to extremely complex three-dimensional diagrams. Data Flow is an up-to-date survey providing cutting-edge aesthetics and inspirational solutions for designers, and at the same time unlocks a new field of visual codes…”
More details an images here.
Tasteful short film interviewing the books creators here.
Non-Format
Friday, May 16th, 2008
“Non-Format is a creative team comprising Kjell Ekhorn and Jon Forss. They work together (often remotely) on a range of projects including art direction, design and illustration for music industry, arts & culture, fashion and advertising clients. They also art direct Varoom: the journal of illustration and made images.”
Machine Molle
Saturday, March 8th, 2008
Machine Molle is the Paris based motion and graphic design agency responsible for the crazy good ‘DVNO’ video doing the rounds at the moment. Make sure you check it in the Music Videos section of their site and see how many of the visuals you recognise from the last 30 years.
Along with the various other motion graphics work (check the air one too), there’s some real tasteful Design and Illustration.
website: http://machinemolle.com/
