Thanks to Icograda Friend Frederick Burbach for this design quotable today…

Warsaw, Poland

If you happen to find yourself in Warsaw two weeks from now (don’t laugh—it happens) be sure to attend the latest exhibition of works by my irrepressible friend Stasys Eidrigevičius (who I have posted about earlier here and here). And, if you are wandering about at the vernissage, please pass on my personal greetings, OK?

Gratulacje!

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Brazilian designer Yomar Augusto designed the distinctive Unity font featured in the current FIFA World Cup as part of a commission by Adidas.

Montreal, Canada

Language is not only a product of human life—it is a pre-requisite that humans require to form relationships. As a fundamental form of expression, language binds us together.

But not all languages are spoken. A language can be visual—made up of complex ideas of truth deeply rooted in symbols, custom and imagery. Mother Tongue is about the power of language—verbal and visual, formal and informal. First language. Native language. It honours languages at risk of being lost in our globalising society and those that have survived the forces of colonisation.

Mother Tongue is a healing process—stimulating creative dialogue between indigenous and non-indigenous designers, students of design, poets and writers. Mother Tongue celebrates that underlying our languages, we are the same after all.

Mother Tongue also offers a forum for non-indigenous designers to respond to the position that indigenous language iconography, process and design knowledge can and should play an integral role in contemporary design.

Mother Tongue is a cross-cultural platform to open discussion around the role of contemporary indigenous design. It encourages collaborative projects that deepen our understanding of people’s culture in our visual world of this 21 century. Claude Levi-Strauss said that no one culture is more advanced than another, each is unique and there is much to learn from everyone.

“We need a culture shift. Can design reconcile differences? Does it hold this power? If design has the power to market products and services that make consumers consume, then I am sure it can. Let’s begin a journey of understanding—fostering a new respect for life, nature and the natural world. Let’s value the principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity and kinship.” 

—David Lancashire, Melbourne, Australia (from the Mother Tongue brief)

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INDIGO, the International Indigenous Design Network, has launched Mother Tongue, an innovative online exhibition that seeks to capture the power of language—verbal and visual, formal and informal. Intended to stimulate creative dialogue, Mother Tongue offers designers a forum to respond to the position that indigenous language iconography, process and design knowledge can and should play an integral role in contemporary design. This cross-cultural platform will honour languages at risk and encourage collaborative projects that deepen our understanding of people’s culture in our visual world of this 21st century.

Mother Tongue is an open, multi-disciplinary, online exhibition. You may submit multiple entries, but each submission must be a single piece. The form of response is yours to determine—a poster, a photograph, a poem, a product, a piece of architecture— that interprets the spirit of Mother Tongue.

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Imagery: 1907 photograph of an Inuit/Inupiat woman; James Evans’ Cree syllabary developed in Norway House, Manitoba in 1841 (as a blend of Devangari script from India and the phonetic Pitman Shorthand from Britain)—this syllabary was later adapted by Edmund Peck to form the basis for the modern Inuktitut writing system.

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On this holiday day of nationalist celebrations in the United States of America, billions of the world’s citizens (particularly those in the 150+ countries in which the American military is currently deployed) wish nothing more than that the “Yankees go home”—for everyone’s good. Many of my friends in the U.S. wholeheartedly agree…

Lisbon, Portugal

Today’s issue of Público, Portugal’s daily national newspaper, includes an article by journalist Maria João Lopes, who interviewed me last month in Caldas da Rainha. Maria has collated our pleasant hour-long conversation (sitting in the cool shade of the trees at the ESAD/CR* campus) into a portrait of “the Portuguese persona,” as well as conveying my call to those in the design professions to make a stronger case (with business, with government) re: the powerful role that design can play in shaping culture, improving the quality of everyday life, and creating a better and more sustainable future.

Thanks for your interest, Maria!

You can view or download a screen-resolution PDF (62 KB) of the newspaper article here… if you do, I hope your Portuguese is better than mine.

* My visit to ESAD/CR (which prompted the Público interview) was triggered by the feature article about Portuguese graphic design that I wrote recently for Communication Arts magazine (1.1 MB PDF) here.

London, United Kingdom

London-based designer Matthias Hillner (who has been on my radar since we met at the Oullim congress in Seoul, 10 years ago) uses a typography-led approach for developing multimedia and graphic design solutions. After earning a diploma in visual design (schwerpunkt Photography) from the College of Design Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany in 1994, he graduated with a Master of Arts from the Royal College of Art, London, and subsequently launched the Studio for Virtual Typography. Since 2004, he has lectured at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication in Kent, at London Metropolitan University, at Camberwell College of Arts in London, and at the University of Herfordshire; in 2006, Amersham & Wycombe College in Buckinghamshire appointed Matthias as Course Leader of BA Applied Graphic Studies, and in 2007 the Royal College of Art awarded him an MPhil (Master of Philosophy or Arts). Published in 2009 by AVA Publishing SA in Switzerland, virtual typography is Matthias Hillner’s first book—a “must-read” for any graphic designer or design student with interest in typographic communication and its effect on (and efficacy in) the frenetic world of information overload that surrounds us today.

Leaving few stones unturned, virtual typography examines “visual data that appears in a near-typographical form, operating on the borderline between image and text.” It defines virtual typography and analyzes it in the context of digital media (e.g. moving image and new digital contexts) and explores the visual interpretation of verbal language. It “reveals how virtual typography can help in the presentation of words, and avoid misinterpretation,” by including type in an image. Presented in a highly structured yet visually engaging style, the book is richly illustrated and supported by case studies and examples of work from artists and designers including (among many, many others) Joshua Reichert, Alexander Rodchenko, the Bauhaus, David Small, Why Not Associates, Tomato, Neville Brody, Reza Abedini, Channel 4, and Pentagram.

A key argument made by Matthias is that in an image-saturated world, type design can have a hard time standing out: “Over the course of the twentieth century, people’s lives have become so interlinked and information so accessible, that we struggle to put up with the infinite amount of information with which we are confronted every day. The exchange of information that once enabled us to enhance social interaction is now often seen as a burden. The growing information overload has led to a change in the use of language. Where there is no time left for reading, we return to the use of images as substitutes for words.” Quoting the great Marshall McLuhan, he drives the point home: “Information pours upon us, instantaneously and constantly,” and, “Ours is a brand-new world of allatonceness. ‘Time’ has ceased, ‘space’ has vanished. We now live in a global village… a simultaneous happening.”

My advice: 1) buy this book today; 2) savor and learn from it; 3) apply the insightful principles articulated in virtual typography to create more effective and more meaningful design solutions.

Congratulations, Matthias, and (on behalf of our profession) thanks!

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virtual typography

Author: Matthias Hillner

ISBN: 2-940373-99-X, 978-2-940373-99-4

AVA Publishing SA, Lausanne CH (link)

Softcover, 184 pages, full color

Size: 160 x 230 mm (6-3/8 x 9 inches)

$29.95 US

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Buy the book from your local bookseller (preferably) or on Amazon here. Visit virtualtypography.com. Contact Matthias Hillner directly: hillner [at] virtualtypography [dot] com.

Ghent, Belgium

“Roa” lives in Ghent… and leaves powerful illustrative statements on desolate and sundry walls across Europe.

Unexpected juxtapositions and hard-to-anticipate contextual settings provide for delightful moments… (original image sources unknown).