Victoria, British Columbia
Andrew Lewis received the prestigious Gold Medal in a ceremony held today at the BC Parliament Building from His Excellency Francisco Suarez-Davila, Ambassador of Mexico in Canada, and Ms. Claudia Franco, Consul General of Mexico. The Gold Medal was won by Lewis at the International Poster Exhibition of Mexico in Mexico City out of a field of 8,400 entries.
The poster, featuring a co-branding image between Converse (USA) and Marimekko (Finland), was used for local retail business Baggins Shoes of Victoria BC. This is the first time a Canadian designer has won the Gold Medal in the 24 year history of this international poster Biennial.
Congratulations, Andrew! (source)
New York, New York
“The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine was facing a plague of pooches whose owners wouldn’t pick up after them, but instead of banning the beasts, the church elders turned to New York design firm Pentagram* for a scriptural solution… that would preach the values of respect, fellowship, and proper poop removal etiquette. Fine tuning the balance between sass and sacrilege was the key challenge… the designs were blessed by the church’s leadership and have become so popular that they’re considering enshrining them in a place of great honor — the gift shop.”
*Pentagram partner Michael Bierut had refreshed the church’s identity in 2009, creating a minimal system that leveraged a modernized blackletter font, bright colors, and cheeky copy to help spread the good word to jaded New Yorkers.
(source) Thanks to my colleague Adrian Shum for the link.
Boston, Massachusetts
Fonts in Use is a public online archive of typography, indexed by “industries, formats, and typefaces.” Its stated intent is to document and examine graphic design with the goal of improving typographic literacy and appreciation.
Show above is a tiny sampling of the thousands of examples (spanning many decades) one can view here.
(Thanks to J Ray for the link).
Zürich, Switzerland
Like most graphic designers, I love posters. Like many others, I’m also somewhat of a collector (stamps, books, publications, ephemera, 100s of posters)…
This week I had the chance to unroll and look at some 30 or so posters I have from the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Zürich, acquired during a visit there in 1986. Beautifully designed and printed (many are silk-screened), these large A0-sized pieces (841 mm x 1189 mm) are truly a joy to view.
Shown above is a small selection — enjoy.
(the latest from my friend Chaz Maviyane Davies)
Bucharest, Romania
Back in January, news spread that Britain was considering running an anti-immigration campaign in Romania and Bulgaria tagged, “You Won’t Like It Here.”
People all over Europe were nonplussed by the lack of tact shown by The Brits. But Gândul, a daily Romanian newspaper, saw an opportunity where others saw only red. They launched a cheeky response campaign tagged, “We May Not Like Britain, But You’ll Love Romania.” They placed the ads on Facebook, and even bought some outdoor media in Britain.
The campaign has gone viral, resulting in massive free coverage for Romanian tourism, and it just won a Gold Award at AdStars, one of Asia’s biggest advertising awards festivals. Well-deserved… watch a case study on YouTube here.
Thanks to Phred Martin for the link (source).
Ad agency: GMP Advertising, Romania.
All images via: Gandul.info.
These are fun. Lots more here…
(Thanks to Keith Leinweber for the link).
Some nice racing posters from the 1950s… (source).
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The picture of a fly in the urinals at Schiphol Airport has been touted as a simple, inexpensive way to reduce cleaning costs. Where does it come from, and how effective is it really?
There’s something of a surprise waiting at the bottom of the urinals in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport: an etched image of a fly. At first glance, one might be forgiven for thinking it real. Then one notices that all the urinals have one, and the fly is always in the same position, just above the urinal drain and off to the left. It turns out that men, in their urinal behaviour, cannot resist peeing on things, especially if they look as though they might wash away…
(read the whole article here)
