Vienna, Austria

Once in a while you come across an image that just smacks you on the cheek… like these flavour-saturated compositions by Staudinger+Franke, a team of photographers and artists, created for the TMW London advertising campaign for Lipton Tea.

(found on designtaxi.com)

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I hold deep appreciation and great respect for ancient cultures and original peoples (and the incredible lessons that they have to teach us) if we are open and willing to listen, look back, and learn. I included this beautifully elegant example of traditional Japanese egg packaging in my recent talk ‘Welcome Change‘ in Vilnius, Lithuania. No energy consumed in production, no chemical waste produced… the ultimate recyclable/compostable package.

The above image is from the 1969 book How to Wrap Five Eggs: Traditional Japanese Packaging by Hideyuki Oka, with photographs by Michikazu Sakai.

Stuttgart, Germany

My Iranian friend Mehdi Saeedi (extraordinary calligrapher/designer) will be presenting at the Akademie Schloss Solitude next week… had it been last week, I might have been able to attend.

London, UK

My friend Paul Derrick has submitted this poster to the 2011 Busan International Design Festival in Korea, in response to an invitation to contribute to the exhibition themed ‘Expression of Peace through Design’ that will show from 1 – 12 June at the Busan Design Center and the Busan Metropolitan City Hall. In Paul’s words, the poster is “a graphic representation of new and different perspectives needed to build steps towards peace and disarmament.”

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of re-connecting with Paul and his wife Cathy in Vilnius, Lithuania… we had become friends a few years back in Havana during the Icograda congress in Cuba.

Dornach, Switzerland

This past week I had the pleasure of re-visiting a childhood haunt a few km from where I used to live… the Götheanum designed by Rudolf Steiner. While there, I picked up a reprint of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s colour-wheel graphic from his Farbenkreis (Theory of Colurs), written 200 years ago.

Should your glance on mornings lovely
Lift to drink the heaven’s blue
Or when sun, veiled by sirocco,
Royal red sinks out of view—
Give to Nature praise and honor.
Blithe of heart and sound of eye,
Knowing for the world of colour
Where its broad foundations lie.

—Goethe

Vilnius, Lithuania

I’ve spent the better part of the past week in Vilnius, capital city of the Baltic state of Lithuania (accompanied by Ev), as an invited speaker and active participant in the Spring: Icograda Design Week. Official activities included attendance of the Icograda Regional Meeting, delivery of a lecture entitle Welcome Change at the International Conference held at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, and acting as a presenter at the European Design Awards 2011.

Highlights of the week included numerous design exhibitions that ran in the old city (concurrent to the Design Week), meeting with old and new designer colleagues from some 20 different countries, and spending time in some excellent art galleries and historic cultural venues. A big thanks goes out to the organizers and to Gediminas Lasas and his colleagues at the Lithuanian Graphic Design Association in particular…

Photos (top three by Ines Subtil): participants of the Icograda Regional Meeting outside the Vilnius Academy of Arts; an on-stage group shot of all of the winners and presenters of the European Design Awards 2011; MTV hostess Ugne Skonsmanaite and I presenting a silver award to Beetroot Design Group from Greece for their packaging work “Konva;” Ev with some of the posters on exhibit at the conference venue.

Milan, Italy

Recycled furniture meets greenery in Peter Bottazzi and Denish Bonpace’s recycled planters—presented at the recent Milan Furniture Fair. The pair breathes new life into abandoned wooden furniture… each unique planter is repurposed from everyday objects—chairs, shelving, carts, tables, and stands fused together and given new life as a home for lush greenery. (source)

—Abdallah Awaye, a Tunisian who has taken in Libyan refugees.

Taipei, Taiwan

The 2011 Taiwan International Student Design Competition has announced a worldwide call for entries. The competition theme this year is “NEXT.” In the words of the organizers, “This past year, we’ve all experienced the power of our mother earth and we are learning lessons from humans’ harm to the world. We are hoping that through this competition, designers, especially young designers, (will become) more aware our roles and responsibility to the world and start to think of the “NEXT” through design…”.

I was a juror at last year’s competition (about which I posted here) and I can vouch for the professionalism of the hosting organization… download a PDF outlining the call for entries (with some very generous prizes!) here (844 KB). Submission deadline is 15 June 2011.

Montreal, Canada

The 27th of April is celebrated around the world every year as World Graphics Day (gatherings by designers, exhibitions, etc.). April 27th marks the birth date of the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda) in 1963—it provides an opportunity to recognize communication design and the role our profession plays in today’s world. World Graphics Day was officially inaugurated in 1995 to help further Icograda’s goal of “contributing to greater understanding between people, and helping to build bridges where divides and inequities exist.”

Poster image by Icograda Friend Rodolfo Fernandez Alvarez of Malaga, Spain (an homage to our late colleague Shigeo Fukuda).