D&AD entry: Typography

Brief: Use typography to create a series cover design for Faber Film's range of books that reflects Faber & Faber's long history of typographic excellence.



Faber Films books will be sought out and bought by those with a true passion for film. This design aims to satisfy their desire for a sleek publication which, while remaining sensitive to the intellectual nature of its subject matter, is also an attractive and desirable object in itself. The wraparound cover turns a standard book into a covetable object to be cherished.



The cover is purely typographic, with the title of the book enveloping the pages completely. The whole title is not fully visible until the wraparound cover is opened entirely, immediately inviting the reader’s interaction with the book as an object. Once the cover unfolds, it draws the reader in further, revealing on its inside panels a key quote from the book set against the bright, bold colour used on the cover – particular colours denote the sub-category to which each book belongs within the series.

The font used throughout has been designed specifically for Faber & Faber, with its clear condensed characters working well to function in both body text and, for the cover title and inside quotation, purely upper-case applications. Used across all the designs, it gives the range of books a particular identity.

Cluster Munitions Coalition poster

Brief: produce poster designs for the CMC, an anti-cluster bomb organisation whose website can be found here.

The CMC’s goal is to protect civilians from the effects of cluster munitions. I wanted to focus on the specific danger of children discovering the bombs and going to touch them or pick them up, unaware of what they actually are. It's a continuing problem. Kids are by nature intrigued by new unfamiliar discoveries and are very tactile, keen to get closer to and interact with objects they find.

Using the visual language of storybook imagery I created a subtle composition which reflects the universal naivety and curiosity of children stumbling across curious objects they cannot identify.

MOMIJI: Spread the Love final outcome

MOMIJI: Spread the Love

14.10.08


"You have arrived in the land of Momiji, a sacred place of love, peace, music, chickens, harmony, and stuff."

Momiji dolls are a seemingly infinite range of collectable 'friendship dolls' from Japan. The wide variety of 'cute', brightly-coloured dolls each have a tiny slip of paper hidden within them on which one can write a secret, or a message to an intended recipient of the doll. The brand is kitsch and naive with a central mantra of "Spread the Love"; the ethos of the dolls and the huge range of spin-off products is to promote joy and happiness in simple things.

Keeping it in The Family with Le Gun Magazine

With a few fellow students, I spent two weeks helping prepare Le Gun's 'The Family' exhibition, at the Rochelle Gallery, Shoreditch.

Le Gun are an illustration/design collective, who periodically produce a satisfyingly chunky magazine/book collating their own warped illustrations and those of countless contributors. I heard about them in my first year when I went to a lecture by two core members, Neal Fox and Chris Bianchi, whose dedication and refreshingly laid-back, gin-soaked approach completely won us over.

Our relationship with Le Gun was maintained through workshops with Bianchi, illustrator/grand-master bookbinder Billy Bragg, designers Matt Appleton and Alex Wright, and the inimitable Robert Greene. When Billy called for assistance in building a 100%-cardboard living room/arts club for their latest show, we couldn't pass it up.

We went to their Hackney studio to build fully-functional armchairs, sofas and tables using heavy-duty card, tape and many dodgy glue guns, before moving into the gallery to construct what was to become one of the exhibition's highlights.





The exhibition/launch party kicked off on Wednesday August 27th, attracting a huge number of people who drank the bar dry, packed out the gallery space and lounged happily around the cardboard living room. A raucous parade, complete with marching band, guided the masses to a heaving after-party at Cargo, Shoreditch.

It's been a bizarre, insane, disturbing, exhausting pleasure to be part of it all. Special thanks to Billy for letting us get involved to such an extent.

Le Gun links:
LE GUN Official Website
LE GUN Blog
Le Gun on Myspace

"The Family" links
Michele Panzeri's photographs of the exhibition
Eye magazine: Le Gun feature
Review of 'The Family' for The Londonist by Oliver Gili

Bookbinding & triple fold

Hardback binding
Aside from one tutorial with Bill Bragg I hadn't ever done bookbinding before. But with an intricate arrangement of clamps and heavy books I bound them reasonably well. I made a fairly messy job of the hardback covers but was happy overall with the way they worked out. I know where I went wrong so when I next do it, I'll improve.




Triple-fold

To chart the journey each book imparts, I wanted to find a way of including the locations linked to the contents of each page without interrupting the individual page layouts and designs. By triple-folding the edges of a French-fold book I could bury the information in the V-shape this forms, so that it is accessible but not intrusive.

Final Outcome: MARKED TERRITORY

The final three books have turned out well. Through a combination of specially-chosen photos, written passages, illustrations and typography, they demonstrate the psychogeographical differences between regions of London, evident in the marks made on the environment by those who inhabit it.