London, UK
A host of British artists have designed posters to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The posters were unveiled at Tate Britain earlier this month, along with the programme for the London 2012 Festival. The full list of contributing artists are Fiona Banner, Michael Craig-Martin, Martin Creed, Tracey Emin, Anthea Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, Gary Hume, Sarah Morris, Chris Ofili, Bridget Riley, Bob and Roberta Smith, and Rachel Whiteread.
This post is drawn from a piece published in Creative Review, which also ran a follow-up article about the posters done for the Munich Olympics in 1972. Above: a sampling of the posters that have been unveiled…
www.powertotheposter.org
Billed as “a graphic design democracy project,” Power to the Poster is “a restless, hopeful movement with eyes set on new possibilities for change leading to the prosperity of the collective…,” and exists “to bring people together around a ready supply of well-designed, wild postings that comment on the issues of our time.”
A selection of 11×17 posters in PDF format are for anyone, anywhere, to download, print, and post. “The hope is that this site gets people talking about where we’ve been and where we’re going in these historic times.”
Posters shown above are a small assortment of a collection that you can view and download here (by various artists, designers, and contributors). Thanks to friend Andre Meca for the link.
Taipei, Taiwan
Two weeks ago today I was honoured to have the opportunity of presenting a keynote lecture in the ‘Economic Development’ stream of the 2011 IDA World Design Congress in Taipei. Here’s my presentation abstract:
Design’s contribution to corporate profitability is well proven and oft touted. Less understood is the pervasive impact that design has had on the shaping of today’s world—an over-consuming, non-sustainable tumult of social and economic instability, cultural erosion, and ecological destruction.
As globalized societies morph rapidly from an information era into an age of ideas, designers increasingly find themselves thrust into a leading role as change-drivers. This presentation will examine a necessary shift in design’s role, share diverse perspectives from around the globe, and challenge us to “think about our thinking.”
Congress participants who wish to receive a downloadable link to a PDF of my presentation can contact me here.
Taipei, Taiwan
It’s been a week since I returned from the 2011 IDA World Design Congress in Taipei (IDA = the International Design Alliance, comprised of Icograda, Icsid, and IFI) and the 24th General Assembly of Icograda, the International Council of Communication Design… and my head’s still reeling.
The sold-out benchmark congress event drew together over 3000 delegates from around the globe, and was accompanied by a successful Design Expo (which enjoyed over 1 million visitors); scores of parallel exhibitions, conferences, and seminars further illuminated the city of Taipei’s position during this time as the centre of attention in the world of design.
The 2011 IDA Congress lived up to its billing as a unique gathering of thought leadership exploring the intersection between design and five key sectors of global relevance: economic development, the Internet, biotechnology, urbanism, and international migration. As such, it brought together designers with non-design stakeholders to promote the value of design and explore design-led approaches as an enabler of innovation. “The Congress theme—Design at the Edges—highlights the edges between design practice and other fields having a stake in design; the blurring of the boundaries between the design disciplines, as well as their unique attributes; and ‘cutting edge’ work and ideas—thinking that pushes the boundaries of all disciplines.”
Over the past two years I’ve had the pleasure of acting as an adviser to the Taiwanese hosts/organizers, and I was also pleased to have the opportunity of presenting a keynote lecture in the ‘Economic Development’ stream. I’ve learned a lot about Taiwan (this was my 7th trip there), in no small part through the process of researching and writing a feature article that appears in the current issue of Communication Arts magazine (November/December 2011 issue).
A huge ‘thank-you’ goes out to the local hosts in Taipei; the Taiwan Design Centre, as well as to the visionary Taiwanese ministries whose mission for sustainable economic development has placed Design at the center of their strategic thinking for the future. Thanks also to the many Taiwanese designers who contributed their works and viewpoints to my CA article… 謝謝!
.
Taipei, Taiwan
While in Taipei last week, I joined the teeming throngs (over 1 million visitors!) in a visit to the Design Expo held in conjunction with the 2011 IDA World Design Congress. I had earlier contributed four posters to Intertidal Age | 2011 International Graphic Design Exhibition in response to an invitation to submit works to “a grand celebration of outstanding designers around the globe… a showcase of multidisciplinary cultural, artistic, and societal designs.”
The call for entries had outlined four thematic axes— “Love, Link, Simple” and “Haven”—with the stated objective “to express and represent the stories of our era.” As somewhat of a departure from how I usually approach poster design projects (the terms of reference were vague, almost obtuse—I decided to respond in kind) I had compiled and submitted four colorful compositions, playing with juxtapositions of images, symbols, and saturated hues.
Shown above: my posters for “Love” and “Simple” along with some in-situ snapshots from the exhibition venue (my posters were shown in both wall-mounted exhibits [each “theme” had a separate gallery] and as large, moving, projected images that rotated around the entire exhibition space).
(further to my post yesterday, with some type mixed in…)
Rørøs, Norway
I was honored last week to be invited to give a talk at EDIT 2011 : DIG “Norway’s biggest design conference” in the historic copper-mining town of Røros (where the 3,640 or so modern-day inhabitants still work and live in the characteristic 17th and 18th century buildings, which have led to the town’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site).
EDIT 2011 : DIG is organized by Grafill, the Norwegian Organisation for Visual Communication. Although I could only stay for the first day of the event, I was very impressed with the quality of organization and the friendliness of the good people I met…
Photos of the event can be viewed here.
(spreading, around the globe)
Keetra Dean Dixon is a vivacious, talented, young artist/designer working from an often-frazzled NYC-based workshop. The Anonymous Hugging Wall began as a 2008 installation in her native Alaska—it’s since been replicated far and wide… attesting to the popularity of her premise that the world really could use more hugs.
(I was privileged to have dinner with Keetra last night).
