Erik Kessels : Advertising for people who don’t like advertising

Kings Place, London N1 9AG
Monday, 28 May 2012, 7:00 pm

Despite many years spent in the heart of the advertising industry, KesselsKramer (KK) have always had a love/hate relationship with the business, and have repeatedly questioned the meaning of advertising and challenged its conventions. Now, KK have decided to write a book about these attitudes, with a little help from the people they admire.
The company have enlisted the help of advertising mavericks and outsiders in order to help answer its many questions. Opening the evening, Erik Kessels will present KK’s favourite examples of ‘Advertising For People Who Don’t Like Advertising’, creative work and insights that go beyond the traditional in a quest to find the limits of communications.

A round table discussion will give guests the opportunity to chat with KK’s creative directors Erik Kessels and Dave Bell plus special guests including Steve Henry. Finally, KK share visions for the future of advertising.

To book a ticket, please visit the Kings Place website.

Working Drawings

London Gallery West, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3TP
23rd March – 6th May 2012

The Working Drawings show showcases the doodlings and scribblings of designers and illustrators.  Featured artists include David Hughes, Henrik Drescher, Ken Garland and Milton Glaser.

The show features everything from rough designs and layouts to concepts scribbled on the back of a bus ticket.

Richard Hollis exhibition

Libby Sellers Gallery, 41-42 Berners Street, London W1T 3NB
23rd March – 28th April 2012

Libby Sellers is hosting a retrospective exhibition of the work of graphic designer Richard Hollis. It will reflect Hollis’s entire professional life, including his travels in the 1950s and 60s to Cuba, his role in the design of radical politics in the 1960s and 70s and his career-long investigation of the graphic design of culture. The exhibition will include 200 items from the designer’s archive, from personal collages made in the mid 50s to the graphic framework of Steve McQueen’s artwork ‘Queen and Country’ project.

Graphic Thought Facility in conversation

Kings Place, London N1 9AG
Monday 12 March 2012, 7:00 pm

London based design consultancy Graphic Thought Facility have created print and digital graphics, products and environments for business, art institutions and other organisations, including Frieze Art Fair, Design Musem, Gagosian Gallery, Marks & Spencer, The Science Museum and Habitat.

Partners Paul Neale, Andy Stevens and Huw Morgan will be speaking about their work, their inspirations and the future of design. 

There are still a few places available to book on the Kings Place website.

Ruth Anderson : Reflections

Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells TN1 1JP
6th – 17th March 2012

Ruth Anderson is both artist and curator of her photographic images. Through this exhibition she becomes the communicator of the relationship between reflection, consumerism and reality. She creates a conversation carefully coaxed into being through layers of captured reflection and exposes the viewer to a host of reflections within the spectacle of the high street.

Ruth Anderson is a sessional tutor on the BA Graphic Design course at University for the Creative Arts, Maidstone.  Please visit the Trinity Theatre website for further details.

Competition : 100 book covers to fight illiteracy

Antwerp artist Tom Haentjens (whose design company, beshart, specialises in three-dimensional paper cut-outs) has recently launched an international competition for illustrators and designers to re-design the covers of the “100 greatest novels of all time“.

The works will be turned into posters, and profits of sales will go to an organisation fighting illiteracy.  Find out more information about the competition here.

Daniel Eatock : One + One

Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University, KT1 2QJ
8 February – 31 March 2012

Graphic designer Daniel Eatock works across a wide range of formats, and his latest show at Kingston University looks at unexpected connections between seemingly random objects.  The exhibition includes both photographs, and sculptural objects.

Gallery visitors will be invited to participate in aspects of the production process; the exhibition content evolving continually as the original objects are employed, and re-employed, in the development of the final works.

For more information, please visit the Stanley Picker Gallery website.

Ingmar Bergman’s soap adverts

Open Culture recently posted a series of one minute adverts that Ingmar Bergman made for a new anti-bacterial soap called Bris (“Breeze,” in English) in 1951.  The film director was forced to turn his hand to advertising, as the Swedish film industry went on strike to protest high government taxes on entertainment.

The video below features episode 2 of the series (Tennis Girl), in which a game of tennis sets the stage for an epic battle between good (Bris soap) and evil (bacteria).

Martha Cooper video

Legendary photographer Martha Cooper has been documenting graffiti and graffiti writers since the late 1970s. Her and Henry Chalfant’s book “Subway Art”, originally published in 1984, was largely responsible for the globalization of graffiti.  In the video below, Martha discusses the Wynwood Walls project, featuring work by street artists such as Os Gemeos, Shepard Fairey and Barry McGee.

 

Coverjunkie magazine covers

Coverjunkie is a blog dedicated to showcasing the best in magazine cover design.  They have recently published their own magazine which is a collection of the best magazine covers of 2011 – coming soon to the library at UCA!