—Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)

Seoul, Korea

After years of anticipation, the curvacious Dongdaemun Design Park (DDP) by renowned architect Zaha Hadid opened yesterday. Situated at the East Gate (Dongdaemun) neighbourhood in central Seoul’s Jongno-gu district, DDP is destined to become one of the bustling city’s key cultural hubs, while also literally putting South Korea’s design, art, media, and new technologies on the world map. Read more about DDP’s inauguration here.

I was honoured to be one of a dozen designers from around the world asked to contribute a commemorative poster for the occasion of DDP’s opening. I don’t often quote myself, but this time it seemed appropriate…

The DDP photos are by Virgile Simon Bertrand.

Winnipeg, Canada

Circle has announced that it will be wrapping up day-to-day operations at its Princess Street studio in Winnipeg at the end of March, 2014. Circle will partner with Tétro Design Incorporated (Tétro) to ensure clients continuity of service and maintenance of the high quality design standards that they have come to expect.

Circle’s principal, Robert L. Peters, is stepping back from the full-time role he has held with Circle since its formation as Circle Graphics in 1976, 38 years ago. He will continue to act in a consulting and collaborative capacity through Tétro, while focusing more time on international design advocacy, writing and publishing, and personal creative projects. Senior designer Adrian Shum, who has worked at Circle since 2004, will join Tétro’s team. Carol MacKay, our beloved long-time coordinator and “house-mother,” is looking forward to retirement.

Tétro is an award-winning graphic design firm formed in Winnipeg in 1998 by husband and wife team Paul and Andrea Tétrault. Their stunning downtown office is located two blocks west of Circle in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District. Tétro credits its success and reputation to “small-town good manners, hard work, good design, and great client relationships.”

Prior to forming Tétro, Andrea worked as a designer with Circle for five years in the mid 1990s. “In addition to our shared history, I believe we share a common ideology, which made this a natural fit for us,” Andrea explains. “We are honoured to be entrusted to carry on the work of a firm with such high credentials,” Paul adds. “This expansion will mean an increase in both capacity and expertise that will benefit our combined client base.”

Besides the standard-setting professionalism and best practices shared by Circle and Tétro, another common trait is their commitment to and ongoing investment in the design profession. Adrian Shum, a senior designer at Circle, is the current president of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), Manitoba Chapter; Andrea Tetrault served as president from 1994-1996; and Robert L. Peters was the GDC Manitoba Chapter’s founding president from 1990-1992.

For more information about Tétro visit www.tetrodesign.com 

To view Tétro’s offices, watch a Globe & Mail video online here.  

Nunavik, Quebec

Established in 1978 with a lone, single-engine De Havilland Beaver aircraft and collectively owned by the Inuit, who have occupied the territory for thousands of years, Air Inuit is the sole airline providing passenger, charter, cargo, and emergency air transport services to Quebec’s northernmost coastal communities known as Nunavik. Its small fleet of 26 airplanes is well known in the airline industry for having “one of the most enviable safety records in Canada” despite the “challenging and often hostile conditions” under which it operates. The new identity and liverywere designed by Montreal-based FEED in collaboration with brand consultant Marc-André Chaput.

The orange-and-white goose design was created to reflect the Inuit’s love and respect of nature and the abundant wildlife that have allowed its people to survive for thousands of years in one of the planet’s harshest environments. It was also intended to underscore the company’s distinctive corporate culture and bold new vision for the future which includes improving efficiency to cope with rising operating costs, the addition of new routes and specialized services, and a careful expansion into new markets…

Read more and see more of this outstanding re-brand at Brand New, here, where you can also see a “before and after” identity comparison.

Leicester, UK

Cutting-edge adverts and shapely graphic art feed the seemingly insatiable post-war appetite for fine-denier nylon stockings…

the child

punctuality

party

opinion

traveling

the boss

Berlin, Germany

Beijing-born designer and professor Yang Liu hits the nail on the head with her graphic comparisons between East (in red) and West (in blue). Lots more examples of her good-natured visual contrasts here.

(across the United Kingdom)

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January every year in the UK. It marks the anniversary of the liberation in 1945, by the Soviet Union, of the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, towards the end of World War II. The Holocaust (or Shoah in Hebrew) claimed the lives of six million Jewish men, women, and children between 1933, when Hitler came to power in Germany, and 1945, when the Nazis were finally defeated.

The commemorative poster shown above is by my friend Dan Reisinger: “This is a photo of an authentic yellow Star of David we were forced to wear prior to deportation—preserved in my family since 1944.”

(Thanks to Iva Babaja for the link).

A FontShop publication on ISSUU, here.

Thanks to Erik Spiekermann for the link.

Thanks Bucky.

Tokyo, Japan

Four years ago today, our friend and colleague Shigeo Fukuda, the great graphic sensei, passed on into the next dimension. Japan’s consummate visual communicator, Fukuda-san is known around the world as a playful prankster, a modern-day Escher, and an imaginative creator who “dramatically shattered cultural and linguistic barriers with his universally recognizable style.”

Perhaps Alan Fletcher described him the best (in Masters of the 20th Century): “Shigeo Fukuda is a star in the design firmament—on second thought, maybe he’s more of a comet.” Fukuda-san—there’s no doubt that you’ll continue to light up our heaven…

Shown above a few samples of Fukuda-san’s engaging posters.