DESIGNTIMES south africa’s monthly creative resource
www.designtimes.co.za
/03 DESIGN
GEORGE LOIS
George Lois is well known worldwide for his outrageous, controversial, and incredibly brilliant magazine covers for Esquire magazine.
/04 PHOTO
JULY 2008 Issue No.25 ZAR 5 EUR €2, UK £2, US $3
PHOTOGRAPHER
Alexander Hafemeann was born in Germany in 1969. He started his career in photography at the age of 17 when he bought his first camera a Canon T90 SLR.
our partners in alphabetical order
/10 ARCHITECT
GUGGENHEIM
Zaha Hadid a British Iraqi architect, was announced the winner of the competition to design a proposed museum in Vilnius. The Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum.
NEWS
Designtimes Page 2
Adobe Acrobat 9 High definition projector Samsung Electronics introduces two home theater projector models, announcing the active participation in projector market. Samsungs’ new Projector SP-A800B delivers the very best in image integrity. It is an ultra high end model targeted to the content creation industry and home theater enthusiasts who demand the most superior and ultimate picture quality with Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. To create the ultimate theater experience, SP-A800B with Texas Instrument’s latest 1080p DLP chip combines Samsung’s technological prowess with expert consultation from Joe Kane Productions. In addition, 24 frame true film mode delivers the accurate representation of the
filmmakers’ artworks, making customers’ experience more enjoyable. It also allows users to select the colour coordination for the three broadcasting formats: SMPTEC, HDTV, and EBU. Selected colour coordination values which are consistent to the broadcasting format offer accurate colour projection. The new remote control includes a backlight and allows for easy installation, operation, and screen adjustments. The projector uses Brilliant Colour technology of Texas Instrument enabling a 50% increase in brightness of colours. Boasting a stylish dolphin design, it is the all round perfect projector for both business and home theater users. www.samsung.com
Acrobat 9 is a significant upgrade that will transform the process of creating and sharing electronic documents. “The expectations organizations and individuals have for communicating and collaborating in the workplace continues to grow significantly,” said Rob Tarkoff, senior vice president, Business Productivity Business Unit. “The ability to break through and communicate a message in a compelling way has never been at a greater premium. Acrobat 9 is a response to this environment and is poised to fundamentally change how professionals communicate and collaborate using electronic documents.” For the first time, Acrobat 9 provides deep support for Adobe Flash technology, which enables users to include Adobe Flash Player compatible video and application files in PDF documents. The new concept of PDF Portfolios enables the assembly of multiple media types, such as documents, video, audio, and even 3D objects, into one, compressed PDF file. Acrobat 9 provides access to capabilities for collaborating live within a PDF document through Acrobat.com, a new suite of hosted services introduced by Adobe. As an example, a salesperson could use Acrobat 9 to send a lengthy contract to clients. The sales professional can then drive the group’s navigation through the PDF document in real-time, working with Acrobat.com. This helps to ensure everyone in the group is literally, and figuratively, on the same page.
AMP Robot
The super thin LG70 Product designers Seymourpowell have created an LCD high definition television for LG Electronics which is to be released this month. “LCD televisions have taken longer than plasma screens to function well at larger sizes, but are now fast becoming the more dominant of the two technologies” commented Seymourpowell’s design director David Fisher. The television has a super thin teardrop structure, finishing at a point at the base of the television where it blends from opaque to translucent, seemingly disappearing into nothing, so that it has a floating appearance when poised on a stand. The backlit LCD television, aimed predominantly at the European market, was based on the idea of invisible sound, with no speakers to be seen. The product, which responded to a brief to create a truly eye-catching product, celebrates instead, the screen itself and uses a form of cutting-
edge, flat-speaker technology to distribute sound evenly. The LG70 also has an ultra high-dynamic contrast ratio, an AV mode that automatically adjusts itself for movies, sports or games and a proprietary intelligent sensor that automatically adjusts itself, ensuring excellence under all viewing conditions. It comes in four different sizes, from 32 to 52 inch. Seymourpowell was awarded the product contract in early 2007 and the final result was the work of a six person team, led by design director David Fisher. “We had worked with LG on the concept development work from 2006 onwards for a number of mobile phones not yet on the market”, commented David Fisher. “Our relationship with LG is becoming ever-stronger and increasingly strategic, we were happy to be considered for a different type of consumer”. www.seymourpowell.com
Tiger Electronics has teamed up with Sega Toys to create an Automated Music Personality. This 2.5 foot mobile robot will have a docking station on its back that allows many types of MP3 players to be attached. The A.M.P. Robot will blast your music through its sound system as it entertains you with dance moves and follows you around. The sound system will include a 5 inch mid-range and two high output tweeters. The Robot will have 5 different modes, over 62 sound effects, 49 expressive LED light animations and numerous dance moves execute to the rhythm of the music all to entertain you while you listen to your favourite music. The nifty robot will be remote control operated and will include two touch sensitive pads that can be used to layer different sound effects and scratches over your tunes. The A.M.P. Robot will always keep you in the mix by following the user remote. It will make use of IR technology to navigate, seek out and locate the user remote. With built in obstacle detection sensors the A.M.P. Robot is able to manoeuvre around most stairs, walls and other obstacles.
Montreal cycles as petrol prices hike Omen tower
Voodoo is launching the ultimate gaming machine, Omen tower. It will include a 7 inch display for secondary information. To keep this monster cool as it runs upto 2 CPUs and 4 GPUs. Voodoo have designed a hydro cooling system that would loop inside the tower. This system will run at a maximum of 2x 3.2GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9770 processors, 8GB of DDR3 SDRAM and will be able to support the future arsenal of Nvidia and ATI graphics.
With the ever increasing petrol prices no doubt creating much pressure on governments and public transport systems in many countries, Montreal has implemented a clever system of dealing with the rise in petrol prices and tackling the public transport issue. They have designed a Public Bike System which allows users to book bikes which are housed in solar-powered docking stations all over the city. Once you have reached your destination you’re able to return the bike to any available docking station in that area. Each station will hold 6 aluminium bikes each fitted with a RFIDtag for tracking. Payments are easily made through credit, debit or members cards. This promises to be very valuable system, which could reap positive results.
Honda FCX clarity Honda just announced that the hydrogen powered vehicle is rolling off the factory floor in limited numbers to a lucky few. Two hundred FCX Clarities are in production, and will be delivered to celebrity clients such as Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest, as early as July. They will be leased for $600 a month, and naturally, to people who live near a hydrogen refuelling station. The launch of the car marks a major milestone in retail initiatives for fuel cell vehicles and the first distribution of the Honda developed fuel cell platforms. The FCX Clarity, which can achieve about 68 miles per gallon, is part of Honda’s attempts to retake market and mind share from Toyota and regain their spot as the leader in environmentally friendly vehicles. Honda expects to mass produce the vehicle in about 10 years time, or sooner, if they can bring the costs for the vehicle down. For now, expect Honda to turn a number of their standard fleet into hybrids, beginning next year. Honda has actually
applied the FCX badge to several vehicles. The outgoing model is a chunky-looking Japanese hatchback. The new edition is decidedly more stylish. Honda has learned a valuable lesson from its Japanese rival, Toyota, whose Prius is a distinctive visual standout. The FCX is a futuristic jellybean, first impressions suggesting a cross between the new Honda Accord and the Prius. Toss in a dash of the Honda CR-Z concept vehicle that debuted in Tokyo, last month. Inside, the compact FCX would likely qualify as a full-size four-door, there was plenty of legroom in the back. The sedan’s instrument panel vaguely resembles that of the new Accord, with its stairstep layout. There’s a huge, high-res LCD for the builtin navigation system, or to display the complex power system at work underneath. the first cars actually reach customers. The FCX is extremely well-equipped, overall, with niceties such as dual-zone digital climate control, adaptive radar cruise control, and voice-activated navigation.
DESIGN
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George Lois
George Lois was born in 1931, the son of Greek immigrants who spent long hours working in the dodgy section of the Bronx. Working with his florist father from the time he was five years old, Lois was exposed to long hours and backbreaking labour. The image of his father’s fingers marked with cuts and scratches has left a ineradicable mark. As a Greek boy in an all Irish neighborhood, George was no stranger to the occasional brawl to and from school, but George had more than just his Greek upbringing to fight about, there was art. “ I was so involved with drawing all the time,” Lois says. “I remember sitting in my fire escape and drawing converging lines when I was six or seven years old. I would draw 3D lettering on everything.” It was at this point that his teacher began putting together a portfolio that gained him
entrance into the prestigious High School of Music and Art. “I always knew I was the most talented kid in the school, “ says Lois, of his time at Music and Art. “I also knew I was a lucky son of a bitch to be there.” Lois graduated and earned a basketball scholarship to Syracuse. After leaving college, George was drafted by the Army in the Korean War. After the war, George went to work for the advertising and promotions department at CBS where he designed various types of print and media projects. After CBS follwed a string of smaller agencies. In 1959 he landed at what was then the Mecca of creativity in advertising, the agency of Doyle Dane Bernbach. The contrariety was, while working on Volkswagen’s Think small campaign, that George Lois began to develop his great talent for big ideas.
George Lois and Iwant my Esquire Magazine
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N O I S VI E L TE C I MUS
MTV campaign There is no better example of a big idea than the MTV campaign. The 24-hour rock ‘n’ roll channel was a flop until Lois used Mick Jagger to convince thousands of kids to call their cable operators and yell, “I want my MTV!” Within months, MTV was in 80% of households nationwide. The idea for the comercial was to take the MTV logo and put tongues in them and all
kinds of visuals inside the logo. Then at the end of the commercial, Mick Jagger would say, “If you don’t get MTV where you live, pick up the phone, dial your local cable operator and say, I want my MTV”. Everybody hated the initial idea but George did it and rock stars such as Madonna and David Bowie begged to proclaim “I want my MTV!” on follow up commercials.
It was the 1960’s and George Lois was about to make his mark on advertising history. As art director for Esquire magazine, George would come to be known worldwide for his outrageous, controversial, and incredibly brilliant covers for Esquire magazine. At a time when magazine covers featured conservative shots of glitzy movie stars, these Esquire covers come as a shock. From 1962 to 1972, George Lois changed the face of magazine design with his ninety-two covers for Esquire magazine. He stripped the cover down to a graphically concise yet conceptually potent image that ventured beyond the mere illustration of a feature article. Lois exploited the communicative power of the mass-circulated front page to stimulate and provoke the public into debate, pressing Americans to confront controversial issues like racism, feminism, and the Vietnam War. Viewed as a collection, the covers serve as a visual timeline and a window onto the turbulent events of the 1960s. Initially received as jarring and prescient statements of their time, the covers have since become essential to the iconography of American culture. The first cover he did which came out a few days before the Floyd Patterson-Sonny Liston fight that year - showed a Patterson look-alike sprawled, possibly dead, in
an empty boxing ring. This was a huge gamble, because most experts had picked Patterson to win. “But I knew,” Lois said. “I just knew that Liston was going to wade through him.” Lois also got lucky when, after a coin flip, he predicted that Patterson would be wearing white trunks. The cover was a hit, and Lois had a job. Many of Lois’s covers were controversial, not to say irreverent or deliberately
or another - is that the Lois covers were virtually textless. They achieved their effect by communicating a single idea through an image. Some were untouched photographs, but, in an era before Photoshop, some were created by the primitive technique of cutting and pasting, using photographs, clip art and sometimes hand-drawn elements. “I remember when we were doing the Warhol cover,” Lois recalled. “I explained to Andy what I had in mind, and he said, ‘Oh, will you have to build a very big can?’ There is a whole generation of current or recent magazine editors who are Lois admirers, including David Remnick, Graydon Carter and Tina Brown. “George was there during a great age,” said Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair. “You didn’t have to put low-grade movie stars on the cover then to move magazines. You could put ideas there.” He added: “George used people like Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali, so you could say he was using the celebrities of the day. And it was probably a little easier then, because everybody had the same frame of reference. They all read and watched the same things. But George was as good as it got.” Very few editors, though, have the nerve to try to imitate what Lois did back then. By Mark Rosenberg
Lois perfected the art of communicating a single idea through an image provocative. The Liston cover cost the magazine $750,000 in dropped advertising. But they were immensely successful at drawing attention, on the newsstand especially. “The covers weren’t the only thing going on in those days,” Byron Dobell, Esquire’s managing editor during many of the Lois years, recalled recently. “We thought there was some pretty great stuff inside as well. But the covers proved to be a very effective way of advertising our kind of journalism. They were way out there.” What was remarkable then - and seems even more so now, when virtually every magazine cover is a thicket of text lines running behind or on top of one celebrity
PHOTOGRAPHY
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Fanelie Rosier iStockphoto illustrator Fanelie was born in the city of Cannes and also lived in Iran and in Mauritania she studied at the University of Montpellier in southern France. She often travels the world discovering new areas, new ways of living and new people, this has always been an essential part of her life and work. She has been illustratingsince she was a kid but never dreamed that it would be a career. She was and addicted to animated cartoons and would spend hours redrawing her favorite characters. She completed a bachelor in literature and studied arts and designing at the university, but I spent a lot of time exploring illustration. After University she was hired as a web designer but after 5 years chose to start freelancing as a web designer, photographer and illustrator. After just 2 years, thanks to the downloads she is getting on iStockphoto, she will finally be able to focus solely on stock illustration and photography. We asked her to tell us about her work. “My way of working is pretty close to that of the animation’s world. The key elements in my illustrations are the characters and their attitudes, I love to play with their emotions, to make them face specific situations. Most of my artworks are very personal as far as subject matters are concerned, it’s not about being egocentric, but I do feel more efficient when I illustrate emotions or situations I have already experimented myself. When this is not possible, I find inspiration from a movie I watched, a magazine I read, a song I loved or simply from people I listened to. Whatever may be the original inspiration, when I illustrate I try my best to imagine myself in the specific situation I’m drawing . Most of time, even if it may seem ridiculous, I actually mimic the attitudes of my characters while I’m drawing them, just like a cartoon animator does. I need to get myself right into the situation, I guess. I love to spend additional time on my illustrations, to add as much dynamism as possible. When I decide on an attitude for my characters, I also imagine the attitude that they had just before as well as the
attitude that will most likely follow. I feel this approach really helps me provide more natural poses. I love to experiment with different kinds of illustration styles as long as the key elements are the characters and or the emotions. I want to remain as curious and as creative as possible. Tell us a little about the process of starting to finishing an illustration? A few years ago I would have answered that my illustrations were generated without any sketch nor scan from start to finish with my mouse and illustrator’s pen tool, but since I bought my wacom intuos 3 tablet, I did change my process a little bit. Once I have the subject in mind, I start sketching directly in illustrator a few poses with my tablet and Adobe Illustrator’s brush tool. I have not yet truly mastered the art of using my wacom tablet and although I do feel more comfortable using the mouse mixed with the pen tool, I still love to start sketching that way. I realized that anticipating the results of the bezier curves had finally brought me to draw always the same kind of curves. I wanted to have more freedom while initiating the image and that’s where the wacom tablet came in as a very precious tool. Once I like the composition, my next step will be to redraw on a separate layer a cleaner version but this time using the mouse and the pen tool. Then I start playing with colors and contrast, making sure that colors do serve the composition. I used to do a screen capture and rework the colors in Photoshop but now most of the time I simply play with Adobe Kuler or with all kinds of color plug-ins inside Illustrator. I may also add some subtle light and shadows just to make sure the image does not look too flat and then at the very end I do fix any technical issues such as open paths and stray points. Being an artist is a constant learning process, and when you feel comfortable with a particular style then it’s probably time to spice up your artworks with newer or more complex techniques. www.istockphoto.com/absolutely_frenchy
Alexander Hafemann Alexander Hafemann was born in Germany in 1969. At 17 he bought his first camera, a Canon T90 SLR. After finishing highschool he started to study Comunication Design in Stuttgart, Germany. During his studies he learnt to use medium and large format cameras as well as the skill of setting up light. The focus of those studies was on commercial photography. During his studies he shot a lot of concerts for small bands with his T90 in the years 1988 to 1994. Those included bands like The Cure, Ramones, Surgercubes, Björk and a lot of other smaller and today less well known 80s bands. A big change for Alexander was the beginning of the PC era. He played with the typical 80s PC´s like Commodore 64, Amiga 2000 and later on Apple and PC. During his studies the possibilities of digital editing emerged, and so he started with Photoshop 2.0 in 1992. After his studies in 1994 he started working in advertising and internet based companies developing concepts for internet plattforms.
Even though he studied photography, he never worked as a photographer, but taking pictures and editing them remained his biggest passion. He never thought he would make any money with photography but after he discovered iStockphoto he beacame a exclusive photographer for the company. We asked Alexander to tell us about his style and approach to photography. “I love to travel. I`m using nearly all free time to see our small world. I try to capture the beauty and small details I see in our world. My other main focus is people and portraits. Here I focus on the individual. I want to transport their personality and their individual characters. So my main portfolio is not typical people concept stock photography. Regarding style I love saturated colours, cross processing, vignetting, Polaroid and Lomo Look and sometimes classical black and white or sepia toned images.” What camera do you use? Today I´m shooting with a Canon 1Ds MK
III. I switched a lot in the past years from Nikon back to canon back to Nikon back to Canon. So I have neither a Nikonian nor an Canon Fetish. As of today the 1Ds MK III is the best camera I have ever owned. What books do you own? I own books by Petr Hegre, Anton Corbijn, Helmut Newton and Jill Greenberg. What is your biggest challenge? Finding time to take pictures. As I have a very time consuming day job, which I enjoy and love. What is your next goal as a photographer? To fully drop my ‘commercial oriented photography subconsciousness’, that`s a real challenge when you are working in the advertising industry Why iStockphoto? They became my favourite after several istockalypses. It`s not just a distribution or virtual network. Alot of contributers, members and inspectors have become real good friends. www.istockphoto.com/mlenny
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PHOTOGRAPHY
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Umbar Shakir
Sergey Danyushevskiy
Umbar Shakir at 31 years old, has enjoyed her passion for photography all her life. She got her start in photography from her father who taught her about shutter speed and apertureuse while letting her take pictures on his Pentax SLR. She has a love for shooting candid portraits, and learnt to use shadow and lighting. Even though self taught with no formal training in photography or Photoshop, Umbar regularly gets commissions for fashion and beauty images and digital retouching. Umbar studied for a degree in Biochemisty and Management at The Imperial College of London. Her first job was as a marketer for Unilever and then as an international management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM and PA Consulting, all the while taking portraits for friends and family. Eventually she started to get commisions from people for her photographic services. While searching for images for corporate presentations, she discovered iStockphoto in 2005, and became a contributor later that year which is when she became really serious about
Lets just call him Sergey. Sergey was born in Moscow in the year Star Wars appeared on the circuit. His first camera was bought when he graduated from school. Five years later he graduated as a production designer but never worked in the field. The first independent photography schools in Russia only appeared a few years ago and was unable to attended. He is self-taught in photography and graphic design. He started his career 14 years ago as a graphic designer and around 12 years ago started earning money with photography. He treats his works like paintings and one of the most important criteria for selecting the final shot is “would I place it on the wall or not”. He does no journalistic or documentary photography, but rather focuses in a field he calls emotional photography. He has traveled to Iceland, France, Belgium, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Canada, India, Peru, Morocco, Germany, Cuba, Netherlands, Indonesia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belorussia, Ukraine, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Slovakia and the USA. For Sergey, the Motherland and
turning her passion into a viable business. Since the birth of her daughter last year, she has become an image inspector for iStock. Jobs have come flooding in, she has been able to accept more work, and she has been busier than ever. She has not had a chance to seriously market herself yet, but her work does that for her anyway. Tell us a little about your style and approach to photography? I have what I call an ‘organic’ approach to photography. I’m not hugely technical or precise about camera settings etc, and I’m rarely constrained by any rules about lighting, white balance etc. I try to read the light, the mood, the model, and aim to make a pretty image, not merely take a picture. I also look at a scene with what I call my ‘Photoshop filter’, an eye to see the final result with both my camera and Photoshop. So when creating glossy beauty or fashion images, for me it’s not just what you see with your eyes down your viewfinder, it’s what you see with your imagination that counts, which means anything is possible! www.atomicsparkle.com
Europe are the most difficult places to take pictures. He comments. “In the familiar surroundings your perception is not so sharp, photographic beauty seems to fade away. I really love where there are less people, I love mountains and open spaces, dramatic views and weather. Nothing is more inpsiring like the wild nature.” Is it difficult to photograph complete strangers and get them to act naturally? It’s often quite a task. I usually try not to make staged photos. Sometimes I shoot when people don’t know I am photographing them, or I wait for the moment when they get tired of posing, and then I wait a little bit more and the natural poses come out. What do you look for in your own work? I look for true emotions. I mean when a picture is bringing out something deep from the bottom of your soul, when it makes you forget about everything maybe even just for a moment. I call it honest art. Who are some of your clients? Some of my clients are well known Russian companies. One of my clients is a huge shopping mall right in the heart of Moscow,
on the Red Square, and my wife and I were also responsible for new years decorations and the first ice skating rink on the Red Square two years ago. What camera do you use? Seven years ago I bought a Hasselblad 501C and I believe my photography went to a new level at that point. This is not just because of the camera quality, but rahter because this kind of equipment makes you spend more time thinking on what you are doing. Every shot takes alot more time. What photography mags do you enjoy? My favourite is the National Geographic albums, I own dozens of them. What advice do you have for those interested in photography? I guess something I have always learnt is not to waste any time, but to move forward, to develop, to learn more and probably not to depend on success. The most important is to be self-sufficient and self-motivated. What country would you like to visit next? I’m not sure. I am a bit superstisious to say were to next. It will depend on my savings. www.photo.designproject.com
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EXTRANEBULA
Evgeny Kiselev Evgeny Kiselev is a fantastic designer that has brought brightness to our screens and paper for the past few years with his wonderful graphics and illustrations. Loved by his clients and his hoards of fans. Evgeny Kiselev was born in the city of Uralsk, Russia. He now lives in Saint Petersburg. “This city influences me and my artistic taste very much”. He started his career as a designer and later started to develop as an artist. While working as a designer for an advertising agency, Evgeny noticed the shortage of interesting pictures appropriate for magazines. He began experimenting with collages using photos. After five years in advertising he began freelancing. His style of illustration is very unique, inspired and influenced by the natural world microcosms and microbiology. Evgeny refers to his work as something “organic-ethnical and hi-tech”. He still enjoys making collages for magazines using various styles and genres but concentrates on developing his own style. “Never be in a hurry and be a strict judge with what you produce. First of all I have to concentrate on what I have in mind to reproduce at that particular moment. The process of drawing itself usually doesn’t take much time. The most important thing is mood and possibility to draw what I want. Often this can be found intuitively.” Evgeny constantly draws and sketches for himself and loves to travel. www.ekiselev.com
DESIGNTIMES
Designtimes Page 10
ARCHITECTURE
Brad turns architect
Brad Pitt announces he will be collaborating with LA based architecture firm, Graft, in the design of a 5 star luxury hotel in Dubai. The hotel will be socially conscious as well as a leader in environmental sustainability. This will be quite a task as this hotel will consist of 800 luxurious rooms and adjoining leisure complex all in the context of the not-so-green city of mega developments and man made islands, Dubai. Brad Pitt seems confident however and has commented: “I’m really into architecture, structure and design. Give me anything and I’ll design it.”
Incineration Line Six
Zaha Hadid’s Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum
On the 8th of April this year, Zaha Hadid, a British Iraqi architect, was announced the winner of the competition to design a proposed museum in Vilnius. The Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum aims to be an icon of world class contemporary and new media art. What better way to have a world class museum designed than by a world class architect who has won numerous awards, including the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture and the 2004 Pritzker Architecture Award, making her the first female winner of the Prizker Prize in history. Zaha Hadid was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture as well as a Commander of the British Empire. Her list of achievements, honours and awards is great, but simply put; her designs astonish and dazzle their viewers. This architectural competition is part of a study taken on by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and The State Hermitage Museum. This study aims to explore the economic, cultural and architectural impact it will have on the region of Vilnius. Six judges made up the jury, which included the directors of R. Guggenheim Foundation and The State Hermitage Museum, as well as the Prime Minister of the city of Vilnius. In addition to Zaha Hadid and her team at Zaha Hadid Architects, participants included Daniel Libeskind of New York and Massimiliano Fukas of Rome. This project will have its home in a large and beautiful public green space along
the Neris River in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Conceptually, this space is the bridge between the new and the old centres of Vilnius. There will be a manipulation of the ground at the riverfront which will create raised platforms of grassed area that could serve many functions including various social activities and performances. “The creation of the new centre of contemporary and media art in Vilnius would be an important phenomenon in European cultural life,” said Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum. This space will allow the interior activities to spill into the building’s context and create a strong sense community and cultural life in the landscape, truly upholding the aims and values that this museum should represent. “I am delighted to be working in Vilnius on the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum” states Hadid. “The city will be the European Capital of Culture in 2009 and has a long history of art patronage. With such an interest in the arts, Vilnius will continue to develop as a cultural centre where the connection between culture and public life is critical. This museum will be a place where you can experiment with the idea of galleries, spatial complexity and movement.” Zaha Hadid’s design proposal entranced the judges with its characteristic conceptual ideas of fluidity, velocity and lightness. Her design focuses towards the future, encapsulating the aims of the modern culture of Vilnius. The building appears to contain three unique volumes according to different perspectives. This creates a diverse experience as a person approaches and circulates the exterior space. Her ideas have given birth to a building that appears to be a mystical floating object which is wrapped up in illusion, seemingly defying gravity. Hadid has created a powerful structure that draws character from its surrounding landscape and environment by highlighting the juxtaposition between the vertical skyline of Vilnius business district and its own curvilinear and elongated horizontal design. Hadid has created a space which interweaves itself with the city of Vilnius, acting as a beacon of change. The building, together with its landscape, will serve in this purpose and undoubtedly manifest a presence that marvels and excites.
Kora/Nouveren, a Danish waist management company situated in Rosklide has endeavoured to turn their ‘next generation’ incinerator into an icon that would reflect history and culture of Rosklide, Denmark. This large structure will combine its purely functional existence with something of a deeper meaning, adding richness to the area. Erick van Egeraat, a Dutch Architect, was the winner of the international competition held to find the best architect to lead this project. He has envisioned the completion of this facility in 2013. This structure will not only be a place for waist disposal but will also provide electricity and heating for the Roskilde area. “I want to engage Incineration Line 6 in a dialogue with its historic and industrial surroundings. Close to the ground we shaped the building to reflect the angular factory roofs of the immediate surroundings,” says Erick van Egeraat. “We then let the building culminate in a 100m tall spire. This spire pays the due respect to the existing historic landmark, Roskilde Cathedral, with its trademark twin spires and its warm brick and stone material palette.” The structure would consist of a two layered façade. The interior layer would need to serve the vital functions of allowing adequate ventilation, including daylight and air circulation while providing protection from the wind and being completely water tight. This taken care of, the outter layer would be free for purely decorative purposes allowing it the flexibility to be patterned accordingly. The outter layer would be constructed from raw umber-coloured aluminium that would have circular laser-cut openings to allow plenty of light through the first layer. At night the effect of this perforated layer on the escaping light would transform this incinerator into a glowing beacon. The architect reveals that the purpose for such a design is to symbolise the production of energy happening inside the facility. This stimulates the image of the building gradually blazing into a bright flame that would consume the whole body. When this metaphoric fire ceases, the building would slowly return to a calm and gradual state of burning embers. “Our design rests on standard, readilyavailable products and simple construction details. We use cutting-edge manufacturing technology to minimise the production costs of the façade and the eye-catching lighting scheme uses standard, energy-efficient fittings”, explains Erick van Egeraat. Ultimately the jury in the competition were inspired by the ideas of Erick van Egeraat, commenting: “... with unique and powerful expression through surprising simplicity and a great experience value for the spectator from close and far. This is the right statement for the new building of Kara/Noveren.”
NEWS
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illustrator tutorial Let’s take a look at our 10 step process for creating unique background designs for your cellphone: 1. Hand rendered artwork is always the way to go. Make sure your lines are clean and you close all the gaps in your artwork. Avoid using correction fluid rather leave the skew lines in, as these are easily fixed or deleted once you convert your drawing. Now scan your work in as Grayscale at 200 dpi. 2. Open Illustrator, and create a New Blank Document. Click the icon to the right of the dialog box to open Device Central. Select your phone model from the list of phones to the left of the Device Central window. If your model is not in the list, choose the phone that looks the closest to yours. 3. Select the ‘Create’ icon at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Clicking this then opens up a new blank document. 4. The checked board you see represents the white background. The green line that forms a block is the size of your screen. So any artwork outside this area won’t show up on the screen of your phone. 5. Go to File > Place, locate your file and open. The option for Live Trace is available in the control panel along the top. Hit the button and instantly get a trace result. You can adjust your Threshold and Tracing Presets now. 6. You are now given two options on the top of the control panel. You must either expand it, turning the trace into paths. Or you need to turn it into a Live Paint group. Let’s first expand it so we can edit and delete any lines that need fixing. Click the Expand button. The Live Trace now expands to paths. These are grouped, so go to Object > Ungroup. You will possibly need to ungroup your image a few times. Then, using the Direct Selection Tool (A), select all paths and start editing them along with your pen tool. 7. When you are done fixing your images. Group them individually by selecting Object > Group. Apply a Live Paint to them individually. Live Paint is now found in Object > Live Paint > Make. Before we start to paint, we should use gap detection. Object > Live Paint > Gap Options. You can go and select small gaps up to large gaps. This closes any areas your pen may have missed. Using the Live Paint bucket and Live Paint selection tool you can start colouring in your image. When you are done resize it accordingly. Use the various tools available in Illustrator and begin to create more elements for your wallpaper. 8. When you’re ready to export your image. Choose File > Save For Web and Devices. You can view your wallpaper as an image on your phone just by clicking on the Device Central button at the bottom right. Options for adjusting the view and size can be found on the right of that dialog box. 9. When you are happy, minimise the Device Central screen and go back to the Dialog box for saving your image. You can toggle between the original and optimized views at the top left hand corner of your dialog box. The Adobe default presets are usually fine. When you’re done click Save. 10. The final step is to pair the PC or Mac with your phone and send the file. Select Save as wallpaper on your cellphone to complete.
By Lauren Sharp of Friends of Design, Adobe Authorised Training Centre
Creative leaders to speak at Loeires seminar
Hugo Create competition Hugo Create is a new design contest, a celebration of visual creativity open to creative people of all skill levels. Professionals, students or design enthusiasts have the opportunity to show the world their ideas and skills. So fire up your creative minds and start to brainstorm, draw, scan, create a digital collage, vectorize etc. Hugo invites you to use your imagination and intuition to amaze them with your designs. It’s up to you and your skills to see your work published in the iconic urban magazine, i-D magazine or even potentially used as a worldwide Hugo Fragrance advertising campaign!
The judges want to see designs featuring the Hugo Man bottle and an individual interpretation of the Hugo brand universe, according to the given theme. Participants are invited to make a design for Hugo Fragrances, inspired by and featuring the Hugo Man Bottle. The competition is conducted in 4 rounds. The top 10 designs of each round will be awarded with a cash prize of $500 each. The winning design of each round will also be published in i-D magazine. All designs will be posted in the Gallery within a week of their submission. Site users can vote for their favorite creations. The Hugo Create
challenge is open to entrants over 18 years old. Each entrant is allowed to submit a maximum 5 proposals per round and can only receive one jury prize per round. Entering the Hugo Create challenge is free of charge. If needed, the Hugo Generator can help you to create your design. After each round, the jury will award the most expressive, clever and daring designs. The judges will be looking at the quality, wit, uniqueness and product relevance of the designs. All proposals must be submitted electronically as a jpeg before the closing date of each round. www.hugocreate.com
SAE Institute opens in Cape Town and launches scholarship search Opening its doors in Cape Town this July, SAE Institute ‘reportedly the world’s largest creative media academy’ has launched a comprehensive scholarship programme which invites disadvantaged or financially challenged South African students to submit their creative credentials for a place at the world class academy. Ten places will be available for prospective audio, animation and multimedia students in one of the upcoming diploma courses.
Established in 1976, SAE Institute is one of the world’s largest and most prominent creative media training providers, represented in 50 cities and 23 countries. SAE Institute Cape Town, the most recent addition to the global SAE network, offers courses in audio engineering, animation, multimedia and film, training creative professionals through innovative teaching techniques and state-of-the-art equipment. The scholarships, which cover 50% of
published tuition fees, are open to South Africans looking to enroll for the July programmes in Digital Animation and Multimedia & Web Development, and will provide students with cutting-edge training in all fields of computer technology. Registered students will benefit from a globally recognised training programme and the unique opportunity to transfer internationally to other SAE Institute campuses with their full credits.
The three international Loeries Jury Chairmen will open the judging week with a seminar on 30 June. Attendance is free, due to the generous sponsorship of the SABC, and the seminar is open to everyone in the communications industry including agencies and marketers. The seminar will take place at the Hacklebrook Estate in Craighall Park, Johannesburg. The three international Jury Chairmen, Vince Frost, one of the world’s leading designers, Peter Bidenko and Erik Vervroegen, two of the most awarded creatives in the world will talk on their work, influences and state of the industry. Erik Vervroegen, Executive Creative Director, TBWA Paris was crowned best Belgian creative for several consecutive years, thereafter he was the highest ranked creative in South Africa. In January 2002, he became Executive Creative Director at TBWA\Paris. Erik has been voted 4 years running Best Creative Director in France. TBWA\Paris has been voted Agency of the Year four years in a row at Cannes during his tenure there. Vince Frost, Creative Director and CEO of Frost Design plays an active role in the world design community, lecturing at colleges and conferences. He was Pentagram London’s youngest Associate Director in the 90’s. He has received many awards, including D&AD silvers, golds from the New York Society of Publication Designers and gongs from the New York and Tokyo Art Directors’ Clubs. Peter Bidenko, Creative Director of Tequila\ Australia is one of the most experienced and awarded direct marketing creative directors in Australia today. He has won the WON Report’s most awarded worldwide campaign, two out of the last three years, ADMA Grand Prix twice in the last 5 years, 10 Cannes Lions, the Diamond Echo, Best in Show at AsiaDM among many others. He is the Head of Judges for Asia for the Caples awards in New York and has been Chairman of Judges at ADMA as well as judging the Cannes Lions. The Loeries finalists will be announced on 7 July, and the winners will be announced in Margate at the Festival Weekend from Friday 25 to Monday 28 July 2008. www.theloerieawards.co.za
Loeries help out with flood relief The Loerie Awards have donated R100 000 to the Ugu District Council Mayor’s Fund to help out in the wake of serious floods in the area. Earlier this week, the South Coast experienced record rainfall, homes and businesses were flooded, rivers burst their banks, cars have been swept away, structures like railway lines have been damaged and people have been left homeless. The donation has been welcomed by Margate’s Mayor Cele. “We graciously accept this very kind donation that has been made by our friend Mr. Andrew Human,” he said. “This is a time of need for many of our people and we welcome The Loerie Awards’ generosity.” “We felt it was important to give back to the town where we celebrate every year,” said Andrew Human, Loeries MD. “The Loerie Awards are not just a fair-weather friend.”
A sample of our work? You’re looking at it!
We’ve printed this paper from the very first issue and it’s not because we’re on a contract, it’s because we know that ‘you’re only as good as your last campaign’. The reasons we’ve kept this account is because we’re passionate about print, we’ve built and maintained a valuable relationship with our client and we’re committed to meeting their deadlines. Like the paper, we’re getting better all the time. Driven by the latest in print technology, we produce top quality brochures, magazines, corporate folders, posters and point of sale material.
Tandym Print
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DIRECTORY ANIMATION Atomic Visual Effect Last year we built 3 cars, 2 trucks, 2 helicopters, 2 factories, 4 skyscrapers and landed a space shuttle in the heart of Cape Town. Contact: Amira Quinlan Tel: +27 (0)21 461 4995 Fax: +27 (0)21 461 5411 Email: amira@atomic-vfx.com www.atomic-vfx.com
ADVERTISING AND MARKETING Mindscape Advertising Graphic Design, Events, Promotions, Web Development and Strategic Planning. Contact: Carien Kruger Tel: +27 (0)51 436 8266 Fax: +27 (0)51 436 8260 Email: info@mindscapeonline.com www.mindscapeonline.com Purpleberry Advertising, graphic design, magazine design, web design. Contact: Vanessa Bolton Tel: +27 (021) 424 2330 Fax: +27 (021) 424 4297 Email: boltonv@purpleberry.co.za www.purpleberry.co.za
CD AND DVD DUPLICATION AND REPLICATION VNG Bulk cd and dvd duplications. Bulk video and audio duplications. Showreel editing. Transfer of all formats. Standards conversions. Contact: Noel Tel: +27 (0)21 424 7501 Fax: +27 (0)21 426 2285 Email: noel@vng.co.za www.vng.co.za
COMPUTER EQUIPMENT Access International Authorized Apple reseller, Authorized Adobe reseller. Contact: Maggie Smith Tel: +27 (0)21 424 0772 Email: mail@accessint.co.za www.accessint.co.za
DESIGN STUDIOS Blank Design Studio Web and graphic design. Contact: Steven Rosenberg Tel: +27 (0)83 662 8345 Fax: +27 (0)21 423 7165 Email: steve@blankds.com www.blankds.com
Kreatif - Code and Design Kreatif Code & Design is a full-service design studio offering creative, professional graphic design, website design and development services. Contact: Kristoph Kunze Tel: +27 (0)21 555 2371 Email: studio@kreatif.co.za www.kreatif.co.za
PRINTING Digital Colour Centre Large format printing, business cards. Contact: Shane Tel: +27 (0)21 425 0990 Fax: +27 (0)21 425 0992 Email: info@digitalcolour.biz
MULTIMEDIA Webfactory Creative website design and development, since 1997. View our extensive portfolio at www.webfactory. co.za then give us a call to chat about your project. The ideal new media partner for design and ad agencies. Contact: Paul Martin / Rushdi Salie Tel: +27 (0)21 447 8575 Fax: +27 (0)21 448 6298 Email: info@webfactory.co.za www.webfactory.co.za
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Balance New Media broadband internet 3d sound and motion studio Contact: James Woolley Tel: +27 (0)21 461 6025 Mob: +27 (0)83 617 3419 Email: info@balancenewmedia.com www.balancenewmedia.com Eiledon Solutions Professional & affordable Web Design & Development solutions. Free Quote online at www.eiledon.co.za! Contact: Simms Tel: +27 (0)21 701 8060 Fax: +27 (0)21 976 7530 Email: info@eiledon.co.za www.eiledon.co.za
TRAINING Vega Vega delivers a new breed of communicators whose expertise is to generate sustainable brand ideas that can build businesses. Cape Town Tel: +27 (0)21 425 7591 Fax: +27 (0)21 425 7592 Johannesburg Tel: +27 (0)11 326 3486 Fax: +27 (0)11 326 2069 Durban Tel: +27 (0)31 266 2595 Fax: +27 (0)31 266 2712
PHOTOGRAPHERS
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Neko-Lime Photography, photo retouching, graphic design & DTP Contact: Anthea Davison Tel: +27 (0)21 434 0704 Email: anthea@neko-lime.co.za www.neko-lime.co.za
Morrisons Locally designed and fashioned fine jewellery. Contact: Peta Morrison Tel: +27 (0)82 4616 100 Email: info@morrisons.co.za www.morrisons.co.za If you would like to advertise in our design directory it costs R1000 for 10 issues, that includes your listing and a subscription. Send your requests to directory@designtimes.co.za
Obbligato Decor cc
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Not moving forward is sliding backwards Vega Orbit, the continued professional development unit of Vega The School of Branding offers a variety of workshops, part-time courses and customised corporate training in different aspects of the business of branding:
BRAND-CENTRIC BUSINESS
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BREINSTORM 210408
Contact our Relationship Navigators to learn more about our career-enhancing training programmes.
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Vega The School of Branding is a division of The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd., Reg. no. 1987/004754/07 which is registered with the Department of Education as a private higher education institution under the Higher Education Act, 1997. Registration CertiďŹ cate no. 2007/HE07/002.