Year Magazine is published by Komplot (Brussels).

A small batch of 45’s from the collection of our friend Luis.
The two color printing led the unknown designers to think their hardest and work creatively with the typography – to awesome results.
And incidentally, the songs are beautiful too.

This record reminds me an old Buick.

The progenitor of throw-ups.

Pure Genius.

The Milan Review is a semi-annual litmag which is vaguely thematic and definitely in English. It is distributed pretty much all over the world but conceived and printed in Italy. It includes only short stories and hand-made artworks, such as paintings, drawings, collages and the like. Every issue is radically different from the others in size, form, concept, shape, color and taste. It is almost certainly the best Italian-American literary journal in the world.

The Milan Review Of The Universe is the second issue of The Milan Review. 224 color pages inside a dark blue cover. Divided in twelve chapters, each named after a sign of the zodiac, each containing a short story and a portfolio by a different artist. The artists and the authors were paired arbitrarily.

The writers: Iphgenia Baal, Amie Barrodale, Chiara Barzini, Blake Butler, Matthias “Wolfboy” Connor, Seth Fried, Amelia Gray, Shane Jones, Robert Lopez, Clancy Martin, Francesco Pacifico, Lynne Tillman.

The artists: Massimiliano Bomba, Carola Bonfili, Milano Chow, TJ Cowgill, Joe DeNardo, Francesco de Figueiredo, Roope Eronen, Frédéric Fleury, Christy Karacas, Taylor McKimens, Brenna Murphy, Toony Navok.

Each graphic designer and artist designed a poster that expresses personal social agenda. This project reviews the social function of posters. The actual issue of GRAPHIC consists of 22 folded posters and designers’ short commentaries.

Contributors:
Åbäke, Alex DeArmond, Anthony Burrill, Bart de Baets & Sandra Kassenaar, Bureau Mirko Borsche, Experimental Jetset, Jin Dallae & Park Woohyuk, Jin Jung, Kimm Kijo, Lawrence Weiner, Mark Owens, Metahaven, Moon Seungyoung, Paul Elliman, Paul Sahre, Pierre Bernard, Richard Niessen & Esther de Vries, Rumors, Scott King, Sulki & Min, Sung JaeHyouk, Workroom Press

The strive for perfection can make one reach for the stars, but prevent from getting the space suit on. This dilemma inspired a perfectionist designer to set herself a cosmic goal: trying to work without falling in ‘perfectioning’ things. This is a journey to a perfectionist mind, producing a free idea world in different mediums and in different levels of completeness. Simple ideas on complicated thoughts—and vice versa.

What is this thing with perfection? If you missed the exhibition, you’ll find more thoughts on the 350 book pages of research. Take a look!

MA thesis project on visual communication by Suvi Häring.

Secret Societies (France, Bordeaux)
CAPC BORDEAUX until February 26, 2012

As a fervent supporter of the existence of reptilian humanoids, conspiracy theories of varying sophistication and – to finish it off – as a citizen of a country where the unique subject by the name of “mafia” controls one third of the real economy, I can only but agree with the assumptions around which the exhibition “Secret Societies” was developed: man is fascinated by secret societies, and they have existed forever, or at least since the beginning of society ‘s existence. Curated by Cristina Ricupero and Alexis Vaillant, the exhibition analyzes the general theme of the secret society observed from a novel prospective, that of contemporary art and its artists. Because of their habitual way of working, balanced on a thread of knowledge and the unknown, artists are perhaps the most well-equipped subjects in the exploration of the ideological limits of “transparency”, especially in a era inflated by constant “revelations”.

The exhibition LETTRES TYPE shows the vitality and diversity of the young french-speaking typographical scene by documenting 40 projects made by 40 designers in 3 different ways.
This collaborative and participatory exhibition focuses on typography in use, gathering together characters that have been commissioned or created for typographical or graphic design projects only.
LETTRES TYPE is not an exhibition of typography as specimen but typography in its context of use.

The purpose can be a book, a visual identity or a website : each typography is shown in its context to point up the quality of the solutions that have been given to a specific visual design questioning.
Beyond the creative process and typographical drawing, this exhibition explores the relations between the typographer and its commissioner.

3 types of documents are shown :
-research documents (sketches…)
-presentation documents (specimens…)
-application documents (typography in use…)
+ real objects for reference use only

With : A is A name, Laure Afchain, Akatre, Christophe Badani, Pascal Béjean & Nicolas Ledoux, Bruno Bernard, Thomas Bizzarri, Amélie Bonet, Camille Boulouis, Laurent Bourcellier, Bureau 205, Matthieu Cortat, DeValence, Équipe Type, Stéphane Elbaz, Benjamin Gomez, Guillaume Grall, Jérémie Hornus, Thomas Huot-Marchand, Jérôme Knebusch, Sarah Lazarevic, Jean-Baptiste Levée, Sébastien Marchal, Charles Mazé, Titus Nemeth, Patrick Paleta, Ian Party, Jonathan Perez, Julien Priez, Morgane Rébulard, Mathieu Réguer, Émilie Rigaud, Benoit Santiard, Alice Savoie, Christophe Sivadier, SuperScript², Jack Usine, Pierre Vanni, Malou Verlomme, Vier5.

Lectures with : Akatre, Amélie Bonet, Charles Mazé / Modération Jean-Baptiste Levée

Curator : Jean-Baptiste Levée

Coordination : Juliette Bibasse

Visual : SuperScript²

Scénography : Chevalvert

Catalog : SA | M | AEL

The Final Word. – RCA CA&D, edited by David Gibson, Livia Lima, Susanne Stahl, Jigna Chauhan, Vanessa Boni
This publication is a compilation of three books featuring work by Communication Art and Design students at the Royal College of Art.

Guest artists, designers, illustrators, alumni and RCA tutors have all responded to three starter topics:
Book 1 – Fact and Fiction in a Digital Context. A text by Holly Francis that discusses the loss of authorship in the online environment, asking, who is the author? And what defines reality?
Book 2 – The Value of Things. An image of a postcard generated by Lola Halifa-Legrand exploring material artefacts in a digital environment, sent to RCA students by email.
Book 3 – New Models for Publishing. An online platform created by Pedro Cid Proença, where users can comment on the text as a whole, a section of it, or on a comment made by another user.
Contributors include Abäke, Europa, Julia, Stewart Smith, Adrian Shaughnessy and Sara de Bondt

Thanks to Pedro Cid Proença

The danger is that it’s just talk. Then again, the danger is that it’s not. I believe you can speak things into existence. – Jay-Z, Decoded, 2010

“Identity” is an exhibition that charts the emergence and proliferation of graphic identity since the turn of the twentieth century, with particular reference to contemporary art institutions – museums, galleries, and so-called alternative spaces.

The period since the 1960s in particular has seen significant shifts in the perceived role of contemporary art in society, as well as the impact organizations displaying art have on economic and political infrastructures (and vice versa). “Identity” attempts to animate the typically fraught relationship between cultural and corporate spheres, as contemporary art institutions become increasingly preoccupied with their own image. How do changes in the graphic identities of art institutions over the last five decades reflect the shifting landscape of institutional policy and strategy? How does the conception of “identity” – through an organization’s use of graphic design, its marketing and branding – function to mediate between audience, artwork, and institution?

Initiated by Stefan Kalmár and Richard Birkett of Artists Space, “Identity” has been developed over a two-year period by Dexter Sinister – the working name of designers, publishers and writers Stuart Bailey and David Reinfurt – with research assistance from Robert Snowden. The resulting exhibition centers on a three-part projection that functions as part informational film, part minimalist cartoon. This audio-visual essay uses three case studies – London’s Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris – as coordinates from which to plot a broader landscape. Looking at the evolution of their ‘brands’ over the last fifty years, the film projects how art organizations negotiate their positions on a spectrum of ideology and economy.

Initiated by Stefan Kalmár and Richard Birkett of Artists Space; conceived and produced by Dexter Sinister (Stuart Bailey and David Reinfurt) with research assistance from Robert Snowden. Additional help from James Goggin, Isla Leaver-Yap, Nick Relph, David Senior, Catherine de Smet, Benjamin Thorel.

“Identity” is an Artists Space commission, and has been co-produced with Tramway, Glasgow. The project will be exhibited at Tramway in Fall 2012.

Special thanks to Daniel Pérez for the pictures.