Graphics

 

Arno Piroud makes the city smile
Gestalten.tv has a filmed interview with artist Arno Piroud on its website, in support of the recent Urban Interventions title. Piroud's art is most at home on city streets, unashamedly amusing passersby...

 

Some new record sleeves
CR subscribers might just recognise the style of the above sleeve for Duppy Writer by Roots Manuva meets Wrong Tom – a new album of reworked Roots Manuva tracks (released this week on Big Dada). Yes, it's by illustrator and art director Tony McDermott, the star of our most recent Monograph...

 

Ogilvy & Mather's First Editions
Ogilvy & Mather in London has created this series of ads to help promote a restaurant local to its offices, called First Edition...

 

CR tomatoes?
You might remember that subscribers received their February issue in a biodegradable bag that came with a packet of tomato seeds. The idea was that you could stick the bag in the ground or pot and use it to grow tomatoes in. Seven months on, check out these babies

 

INQ's call of the wild
Sid Lee in Paris has created this campaign for the international launch of UK mobile device INQ, which aims to place the brand slap bang in the middle of the yoof market...

 

Peter Saville and the story behind that England shirt
The football shirt as a vehicle for 'socio-cultural provocation'? When Umbro invited Peter Saville to contribute to the design of its new England home kit, it was always likely that there would be more on the agenda than a few stripes.

 

Customer service, SNCF style
DDB Paris has created a set of amusing ads for French rail company SNCF, which show five passengers receiving epic, personalised greetings when arriving at Gare l'Est in Paris...

 

Stanley Donwood in LA
Stanley Donwood, who is famed for the artworks he has created for Radiohead, is staging his first US exhibition from next week, at the Fifty24sf gallery in San Francisco...

 

NEoN digital arts festival
The North East of North (NEoN) digital arts festival that takes place in Dundee, Scotland has the theme of 'character' this year. It's set to feature appearances from Akinori Oishi, TADO, and Pictoplasma with contributions also coming from EIDOS and tDR...

 

D&AD Sharp'ner: Art of the Fanzine
Issue four (left) and two of Fever Zine, who will be at the next D&AD Sharp'ner D&AD's next Sharp'ner event will look at the culture of fanzines in a panel discussion headed up by Professor Teal Triggs, whose new book on the subject is out in October...

 

Hastings Council's anti-dog-poo campaign
Hastings Borough Council is taking a hard line on the owners of dogs that foul the streets and pavements of the historic seaside town – and their graphic poster campaign is causing a bit of a stir...

 

RIP Corinne Day
We were greatly saddened to hear (via magCulture) of the death of Corinne Day whose 1990 cover shot of Kate Moss for The Face ushered in a new era of photography

 

Sensitive, apparently
New from Redstone Press comes this lovingly produced Inkblot Test complete with 12 cards. As a sceptical sort, I was eager to see if the blots could get the measure of me...

 

Peter Saville designs new England shirt
England's footballers will be wearing a new home shirt for their match against Bulgaria on September 3, with graphics designed by Peter Saville

 

Aaron Ruell at Colette
Aaron Ruell, who is perhaps best known for his commercial work for brands including Burger King and Volkswagen, is currently showing an exhibition of his personal photography work at Colette in Paris...

 

Meet Caleb, James Jarvis' new Amos character
Illustrator and toy designer James Jarvis just got in touch with us to point us in the direction of a new cartoon strip he's publishing daily online: The Wisdom of Caleb...

 

An invitation to dance on the grave of Joseph Grimaldi
A memorial to Joseph Grimaldi – the man who invented the modern 'clown' – has been unveiled by artist Henry Krokatsis. In keeping with Grimaldi's spirit of performance, Krokatsis' installation in north London invites the public to dance on a series bronze tiles that sit on top of Grimaldi's grave. It even plays a tune...

 

More digital adventures with Arcade Fire
Hot on the heels of their recent 'synchronised artwork' experiments, Arcade Fire has released another interactive video online, to accompany the track We Used To Wait. The video is created in association with director Chris Milk and Google Chrome - CR spoke to B-Reel, the digital production company behind it, to find out how it all works...

 

Tipp-Ex's interactive Hunter Shoots A Bear film
To coincide with the back-to-school period, Tipp-Ex, has just lauched a YouTube campaign which allows users to interact with a film that features a rather rubbish hunter and a hilariously unrealistic bear...

 

Russ Chimes' Midnight Club EP film: Part 2
Last week we posted the first of a three part film directed by Saman Keshavarz (through US production company Mighty8) to accompany and promote Russ Chimes' debut release: Midnight Club EP. Now it's time for part two...

 

Scare tactics
To publicise knitwear label Sibling's Comic Horror collection, This is Real Art decided to put the wind up some very scared models

 

London Independent Photography Show
Featuring the pick of work from its 550 amateur and professional members, the London Independent Photography Show opens today

 

Life Through A Window
Mexican taxi driver-turned-photographer Oscar Fernando Gomez uses the window of his cab to frame life on the streets of Monterey. His work is currently showing as part of this year's Brighton Photo Biennial, curated by Martin Parr.

 

The stamp that moves
The world's "smallest and shortest film" appears on a new lenticular stamp created for the Dutch postal service TNT. KesselsKramer asked director Anton Corbijn to shoot the one-second film, which features actress Carice van Houten...

 

Visual Editions: Tristram Shandy
For their first book, Visual Editions tackled one of literature's most ambitious novels: Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. It's also one that, fittingly, is ripe for a visual reimagining...

 

Design Event North East 2010
The annual Design Event North East festival opens this week, with events and exhibitions taking place in venues across Newcastle and Gateshead, all based around the theme of 'conversation'.

 

Design Research Unit 1942-72
The Design Research Unit created some of the UK’s most iconic pieces of graphic design, from London’s street signs to the British Rail logo. A UK touring show, which has started at London’s Cubitt Gallery, celebrates four decades of the group’s work.

 

The philosophical fish and friends
A campaign for Swiss ecological group Biovision features various creatures expounding on important issues – like this blobfish

 

An app for Warhol
With Dare's Remote Palette app you can paint using both your iPhone and iPad, as demonstrated in this cheeky film referencing a rather famous Warhol performance

 

Lab Craft on tour
Including objects made from soundwaves and self-generating forms, Lab Craft brings together traditional craft skills and digital technology "to create objects that move beyond the limitations of the handmade".

 

Dalton Ghetti's graphite micro-sculptures
It's Nice That recently tweeted a series of sculptures by Brazilian artist Dalton Ghetti, made solely from the wood and lead of pencils...

 

Soon to be ripped off by an ad agency near you...
This charming short film produced by Everynone to promote NY public radio explores the world of wordplay. Expect it to 'inspire' a creative team shortly...

 

Os Gemeos and Futura paint NY school
Brazilian artists Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo (also known as 'Os Gemeos') and graffiti legend Futura have just completed an 80-feet-high mural on the wall of a New York school.

 

Music Philosophy: a poster project
CR's art director, Paul, found this weekly typographic song lyric project yesterday and sent round the link. Now it's our turn to share it with you, our blog readers...

 

Scott Albrecht: new works from old
A new show from Brooklyn-based artist/designer Scott Albrecht re-presents popular sayings using second-hand and found materials

 

Smash the old world
China's ten-year Cultural Revolution is now generally regarded as a great tragedy in which countless thousands died. A new book brings together extraordinary images of an extraordinary time.

 

Brody vs. McCandless: The Infographic
Hot on the heels of the graphic design showdown between Neville Brody and David McCandless on Monday's Newsnight, we've noted a first infographic tribute. Posted on mrlerone.com, it details the specifics of the stand-off, comparing hair, beards and glasses, among other key issues...

 

Christmas fun for everyone!
With just five days until Christmas, it is high time to share with you some of the delightful Xmas-related paraphernalia we have been sent at CR Towers over the last few weeks... First up, is a link to Mother ad agency's Twitter feed, which has recently been converted to LappiLeaks, a dripfeed of shocking revelations about Santa and his elves in Lapland.

 

Torchbox's iPad-tastic Christmas message
The employees of Oxfordshire-based web design and development company Torchbox used their iPads to deliver a festive Christmas message in the form of this film, entitled A Starry Night...

 

Auntie Carols sing your requests
I still haven't worked out whether this is good or bad, enjoyable or cringeworthy. I actually think it might be all of those things. I'm talking about agency Inferno's self promotional Christmas campaign which sees two ladies, apparently both called Carol, hosting a live webcam Carol singing service at auntiecarols.co.uk

 

Vogue on Vogue
In a series of ghostly Vogue covers posted to LiveJournal and noted on magCulture, every 2010 cover in each edition (UK and Italia shown, above) is layered into a single image. The process reveals the gulf between the formulaic approach of the majority of editions and the more experimental nature of a select few...

 

Never Judge...?
Never Judge...? at London's StolenSpace Gallery turns the old book cover cliché on its head in an exhibition of jackets reinterpreted by contemporary artists and illustrators...

 

Vaughan Oliver designs record sleeve for David Lynch
Last week, legendary filmmaker, David Lynch (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks) released his debut solo, electronic single via iTunes, courtesy of UK label Sunday Best. Two physical format releases are planned for January and art direction duties are in the more than capable hands of UK designer Vaughan Oliver. We caught up with him to find out a bit more about the project...

 

Kinect air guitar prototype
We've blogged already about interaction designers starting to get to grips with the Xbox Kinect. Here's the ever-inventive Chris O'Shea with his prototype for a Kinect air guitar

 

Gulliver tied up in Clapham
A 135-feet-long cut-out billboard of Jack Black has appeared in London to promote the forthcoming Gulliver's Travels film

 

Paper tattoos
Here's a nice idea from Danish artist Jacob Dahlstrup: creating images using a tattooing machine on heavy watercolour paper

 

CR January 11 issue: Ones to Watch
Belgian illustrator Gwénola Carrère designed the cover of our January 2011 issue: she also features inside as one of our Ones to Watch for the coming year

 

Wills and Kate memorial plates
Crockery rarely makes an appearance on the CR blog. But with a royal wedding set for next year, we'll make an exception for KK Outlet's recently unveilved 'unofficial' Wills and Kate souvenir plates...

 

Surrealist Babies
A new book by James Birch draws on his collection of bizarre baby postcards made between 1900 and 1920. It's not hard to see how these decidely odd constructions were also to become an influence on the Surrealists...

 

Invisible Light video for the Scissor Sisters
This striking video for new Scissor Sisters track Invisible Light contains enough supernatural tomfoolery and unnecessarily exposed breasts to keep any 70s B-movie director happy...

 

Sour Mirror interactive video
The latest interactive video for Japanese band Sour reflects two big trends from this year: sites that break the website 'window' and music videos that pull in the user's personal data

 

The Annual: deadline extension
It seems that the snow, Christmas festivities and general busy-ness has resulted in a large number of requests for us to extend the entry deadline for May's Annual, and in the words of a pantomime genie ‘your wish is our command’...

 

New musical packages
In the last week or so we've seen some really nice, lavish even, music packages so we thought we'd share some with you. First up is the packaging for a new series of 7" records released on Fred (Airside / Lemon Jelly) Deakin's Impotent Fury label...

 

CR Annual Client of the Year
We're making a couple of changes to The Annual this year, including the introduction of a prize for the Client of the Year

 

Shadow Catchers at the V&A
Detail from Delphinium (1998) by Gary Fabian Miller Shadow Catchers at London's V&A Museum aims to dispel the myth that you need a camera to create photographic images, showcasing the work of five contemporary practitioners of camera-less photography...

 

Women + Laughing + Alone + With Salad
Few things are as evocative of fresh and fun good times as a woman clearly enjoying a decent salad. The excellent Hairpin recently posted a range of similarly-themed stock photos, partly as an ironic reminder of the resolutions we make in early January, but also as a nod to some of the more amusing fictions inherent within image libraries...