'You got to love it; if you don't why should anybody else?' (posted on 25/11/11)

Sir John Hegarty's talk at the London College of Communication on 6/10/11. Screen shot.

John Hegarty is one of the world’s most awarded and respected creative directors. And one of the more influential people as well. He gave this brilliant talk at the London College of Communication. He closed his speech by saying: 'What you do, you do it for you. You got to love it; if you don't why should anybody else?

Watch the video here.

Nikos Georgopoulos

Spring & summer 1985 (posted on 22/11/11)

Vintage British Argos 1985 Catalogue. Screen shot.

The 1st time I heard about Argos was in 2009, when my brother was doing his Masters in England. British people though are very much familiar with Argos for decades now. 'Before the days of internet shopping, Argos' catalogues were probably found in every household in Britain'.

Vintage British Argos 1985 Catalogue. Screen shot.

 See more here.

Nikos Georgopoulos

What it feels like to live now (posted on 19/11/11)

Robert Montgomery, 'Words in the city at night' project, Billboard piece No2. Screen shot.

Read more here.

'Robert Montgomery works in a poetic and melancholic Post-situationist tradition'. He hijacks advertising space in the city, often illegally. His work is intended to be encountered by commuters who don't know it's art, and an attempt to describe in public space what it feels like to live now.

Now this is what I call street 'art' as opposed to hilarious; naive and egoistic pointless graffiti pieces.

Nikos Georgopoulos

Hi mom (posted on 15/11/11)

Laurie Anderson, performance, New York, Soho, 1982. Screen shot.

Watch this performance here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8LquNy3fd8 

Personally, my favorite part of this performance is when Laurie Anderson's clarity and accuracy of communication -through her facial expressions and transformations- are being captured and isolated through the close up shot. Probably, one of the highlights of the V&A's Post Modernism.


Nikos Georgopoulos

Utopian thoughts (posted on 14/11/11)

Olaf Nicolai’s installation for the exhibition Museotopia, Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen.  Screen shot.

Berlin-based artist Olaf Nicolai commissioned Stephan Müller in 2002 to design a typeface for the exhibition Museutopia in the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen (Germany), which focused on the theme of Utopia. The result was 'Nikolai'; an alphabet based on a simple square, employing the principle of layering. Through combining the three available layers, the actual type is constructed.

The alphabet was used in the exhibition for the reissue of a utopian architectural essay («Glasarchitektur» by Paul Scheerbart) and to decorate a wall with a quotation from Karl Marx. 'Nicolai', comes in two different shapes: as a set of three fonts (one for each layer), and as a Shockwave application, programmed by Jürg Lehni, which allows changing the colours of each layer easily.

Screen shot.

 














Read more about this here. Launch Shockwave application here.

In my view, even though I find this project very interesting in terms of its idea; curating; design etc; I am not sure how this alphabet is linked intellectually or conceptually with the theme of utopia.


Nikos Georgopoulos

'Boys will be boys' (posted on 8/11/11)

Malcolm McLaren interview on creating the Sex Pistols. Screen shot.

You can check this interview here.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nds8KOUTy4&feature=related

Nikos

TypoLondon 2011 'Places' (posted on 03/11/11)

Spin's creative director Tony Brook speaking. Photo: Nikos Georgopoulos

Two weeks ago I attended TypoLondon 2011, a three-days design conference, which was elaborated at the London Institute of Education, University of London.

TypoLondon is a sister conference of TypoBerlin and is organized by FontShop International. This year it's theme was 'Places'. 'Places explores our changing world, our surroundings, how we interact with people and our understanding of the environments we pass through.' 35 speakers -graphic designers, artists, film makers, type designers etc- presented their work and their thoughts towards design, advertising, typography, new media; towards the word really.

There were a lot of enthousiastic attendees and a host of fantastic speakers amongst them; Tony Brook (Spin), Lawrence Weiner, Neville Brody, It's nice that, Marina Willer (Wolf Ollins), Jonathan Barnbrook (Virus Fonts), Jason Smith (Fontsmith) and many others.

Nikos