'The Interview', Paraguay press, Paris 2009 (posted on 31/12/11)

Photo by Nikos Georgopoulos

The interview is a very interesting written and thought-provoking story by Guillaume Leblon and Thomas Boutoux.  It's one of those books you are not sure what they are trying to say, or maybe you are, but eventually you realize that it's not rocket science and you can't tolerate that. It has to be kind of conceptual and it has to be kind of weird, employing hidden meanings and extensions, in-depth symbolisms and a sarcastic approach towards its own format.

The book is a translation into English of the transcript of the play The Interview, as performed on January 17, 2007 at the Credac, Contemporary Art Centre, Ivry-sur-Seine. It is a dialogue between an artist and a writer. The first one wants to publish a monograph on his work and to employ the second one to write it; in a non-conventional way though. So, the play is featuring this kind of surreal dialogue between the two men which progressively is taking the form of an interview. The writer is the interviewer, trying to figure out what is it that the artist has in mind.

Either way, that kind of books are always very inspiring, not so much because of their own content; but because of their ability to intrigue our appetite for personal interpretations and attachment of meaning to them.


Nikos Georgopoulos

Merry Christmas & don't smoke too much, silkscreen on paper (posted on 27/12/11)

'No smoking', Nikos Georgopoulos, 2011. Silkscreen on paper, 19x19 cm. Photo by Nikos Georgopoulos

During the 1st screen printing workshop we had at Camberwell, I designed and produced a series of the internationally famous 'No smoking' sign. This one is hanging on the wall of my house in Athens.

'No smoking', Nikos Georgopoulos, 2011. Silkscreen on paper, 19x19 cm. Photo by Nikos Georgopoulo

Merry Christmas to you all!

Nikos

How to feel at home in kitchens, 1982 SieMatic Mobelwerke (posted on 27/12/11)

Photo by Nikos Georgopoulos

Back in Athens for Christmas and I found in our living-room library a 1982(!!) SieMatic promotional publication entitled 'Kitchens to feel at home in'. It showcases domestic interior design solutions for our kitchens! Well, for 'our' kitchens in 1982.

Fascinating and interesting photography, very well designed, old school typography -the typeface is similar to the one Apple used to have as their corporate typeface back in the 80's, watch this ad here- great paper stock and a sweet sentimental feeling. I love you; for what you are and what you stand for :)

Nikos

'Safe or not, we should turn more billboards into swingsets' (re-posted on 26/12/11)

Didier Faustino, Double Happiness, 2009, Billboard and swings mix, steel ladder, steel lattice platform, protective nets on steel structure 6.4 x 3.7 x 6.6 m. Screen shot.

Parisian architect Didier Faustino's sculpture called 'urban furniture' is one of the best and to-the-point examples of art installations towards the re-appropriation of public spaces. He turned the skeleton of an advertising billboard into a swingset for the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennial of Urbanism and Architecture.

Source: Ad Week. Read more here.

Nikos

'Broken Telephone', installation (posted on 19/12/11)

'Broken Telephone', installation, Nikos Georgopoulos.

'Broken Telephone is the name for a game played around the world, in which one person whispers a message to another, which is passed through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group. Errors typically accumulate in the re-telling, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly, and often amusingly, from the one uttered by the first. As well as providing amusement, the game shows how easily information can become corrupted by indirect communication'.

The installation is constructed by 2 pieces -in order to accomplish symbolically the 'broken telephone' effect; 'Fictional Biography', concept book and 'Love Song', video. It seems that both the book and the video stand by their own as 2 separate exhibits, although the latter exist because of the former; which in this case is fiction.

The 1st part of the installation is an artist book responding to an inquiry whether words are unreliable. In order to elaborate on my view -that words are neutral and that the debate whether they are reliable or unreliable it is completely irrelevant considering their nature- I introduced a female fictional character -Jessica- and wrote her sample biography. The story starts with the sentence:

'.. Jessica could be an adorable lady... or let me put it this way; Jessica is an adorable lady....'

So, I made up a story about her life; where she was born; her family and friends; her youth; her studies; journeys and -by arbitrary choice- concluded in an affair she had with a young man, whom she dumped. It is an example elaborating with the neutrality of words.

Instead of using hyperlinks I interrupted the narrative in various points by using brackets and quoting to the number of the image the reader should see, in terms of proofs. I designed the artist book to look like a conventional novel; typeset on Times New Roman, 14 points.

Fictional Biography, work in progress, 'analogue hyperlinks'. Photo by Nikos Georgopoulos

Love song, video on display as part of the installation. Photo by Nikos Georgopoulos

'Love-song' is the 2nd part of 'Broken Telephone'; it's a video performance and functions as an extension of the story of 'Fictional Biography'. By impersonating 'the young man who was in loved with her' I wrote and performed the song; I employed a rough approach as to create a sort of 'you tube', 'Google images' aesthetics. In addition to that, the installation works through the familiar language of advertising; 'Fictional biography' is an upcoming book and 'Love-song' its promo, viral video.

 

Nikos Georgopoulos

Camberwell College of Arts 'Work-in-progress show', Signage (posted on 19/12/11)

In December 2011 I was offered to work on the signage system for the Work-In-Progress Show at Camberwell College of Arts' MA Graphic Design students.

Considering the fact that the exhibition was specifically organized for them to display their work in progress I thought that it would be much more fair and relevant to create a flexible and random-like -but not cheesy- visual framework for the work to be exhibited as opposed to a graphical and sophisticated look for labeling work.

I came up with the idea to label each student's work by sticking a Post-It note next to it; an idea which I developed further to create an informal exhibition identity as well as the signage for the show.

The idea was inspired by watching the last-minute preparation of the BA Illustration students Work-In-Progress Show. During their exhibition set up, and, before they set their work on the walls, they had marked each one's space by posting Post-It notes. When the exhibition began, they had placed their work on the walls; removed the Post-Its and had replaced them with the white gallery-like labels showing student's name and project title in Helvetica Bold.

Concept, Art direction & Design: Nikos Georgopoulos
Printing arrangement: Chrisostomos Iosifides

Nikos Georgopoulos

Work in progress (posted on 13/12/11)

'Who works the longest hours in Europe?' Screen shot.

Find out how many hours people work in different jobs and across the EU. As Europe's leaders gather to discuss how to rescue the mediterranean economies and safeguard the single currency, it's tempting to resort to crude national stereotypes of prudent, hard-working Germans and lazy Greeks.

Re-posted from the Guardian.
Read more here.


Nikos Georgopoulos

'Sequential images & narrative structures', flyer (posted on 11/12/11)

Sequential images & narrative structures, exhibition flyer. Designed by Nikos Georgopoulos.

Camberwell College of Arts' MA Graphic Design students organized a public screening event to showcase the work they produced during the video workshop 'Sequential Images and Narrative Structures'.

I designed a poster / flyer for the public screening in a way that as one unfolds it, a pattern sequentially appear symbolizing the concept of narrative. As a poster, its function is to visualize the narrative structure which can be by doing A; B or C. But, it can be random as well; it depends really.

The video workshop was set and supervised by the German London-based artist Sigune Hamann. Printed in London, in a limited edition of 120 copies.

Nikos Georgopoulos

Archizines (posted on 11/12/11)

I always thought that books about Architecture -Architectural practice as well as Architectural journals- are examples of excellent design -Graphic Design.

Archizines is an exhibition curated by Curator and Writer Elias Redstone which showcases new architecture fanzines, journals and magazines from around the world that provide an alternative to the established architectural press.

Title / Issue number: Another Pamphlet 02 - "Repetition"
Publication date: August 2011
Location: New York City, USA
Language: English
Format: A4 photocopied, folded and stapled
Size: A5

Title / Issue number: mono.kultur #18 / MVRDV: On Statics and Statistics
Publication date: Autumn 2008
Location: Berlin, Germany
Language: English
Format: softcover, staplebound
Size: 15x20cm

PIDGIN #10
April 2011
Princeton, New Jersey, USA
170 x 240 mm

The exhibition is hosted by the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London (AA) from 5/11/11 - 14/12/11. Not to be missed! 

Nikos Georgopoulos

Inspiring disasters (posted on 10/12/11)

The Cloud is  a pair of residential highrises reaching 260 and 300 meters in Seoul, Korea by Rotterdam-based architecture practice MVRDV. They should be finished by 2015.

In my view, the aforementioned towers look like they are inspired by the 9/11 disaster. Having said that though, they are impressive. After all a disaster can be inspiring.

http://www.mvrdv.nl/#/news
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/18051/mvrdv-the-cloud.html

 

It's like a pixel explosion. Conceptual and semiological extensions!

Nikos Georgopoulos 

'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

Site-Specific (posted on 30/10/11)

Camberwell College of Arts, Peckam site, UAL, London. Photo: Nikos Georgopoulos

The term Site-Specific Art refers to an artwork that is conceived and created to exist in a certain place; which means that the artist takes the location into account -in terms of its physical manifestation as well as its contemporary and historical context- while planning and creating the artwork. The location is linked to the idea as well as to the artwork itself.

Established in 1898, Camberwell College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts, London, and is widely regarded as one of the world's most prestigious and foremost art and design institutions. It is located in Camberwell, South London, England, with two sites situated at Peckham Road and Wilson Road. Originally, the College offered classes in practices such as, Architecture; Stencil cutting as well as others, and by 1920 a Fine Art Department had been created. Today, the College is quite famous for disciplines related to visual culture; ranging from Fine Art and Sculpture to Graphic Design and Illustration. In addition to this, it is very well known for its arty; sort of 'rough' and slightly underground; socially engaged; intellectual approach towards its disciplines.

As far as concerns the area within which the College is located, South London is a very interesting and vibrant area that reminds me slightly the set as well as the photography and the aesthetics of Massive Attacks' video-clip of their song 'Unfinished Sympathy' (Blue Lines, 1991, Virgin Records); which simply consists of one continuous shot of Nelson walking along a sidewalk. In particular, there are many design studios and artists concentrated in this part of London and as David Cross, artist himself and Course Director of the MA Graphics on Camberwell, points out; 'many artists and designers -particularly those who have been through Camberwell- have helped define the character of this area' and vice versa. What is more, the accommodation in this area is cheaper than other parts of London. Long story short, South London is 'arty', sort of 'rough' and 'underground' in terms of aesthetics as well as socially engaged -partly because of the people who live and operate there.

Massive Attack, Unfinished Sympathy. Music video, Virgin Records, 1991. Directed by Baillie Walsh. Screen shot.

Camberwell College of Arts, Peckam site, UAL, London. Photo: Nikos Georgopoulos

In my view, the way in which Camberwell College of Arts' approach on art and design education is linked with its -architectural, sociological and cultural- environment, consists an overall experience that is site-specific; therefore, unique. And the same applies to every University; College or School -anywhere around the world really, that seems to update their ideas and approach on education with what's happening in the world right now. So, in that sense, the 'location' is linked to the idea as well as to the 'artwork' itself.


Nikos Georgopoulos,
26th of October, 2011
Islington,
London

'' We don’t need new fonts… '' (posted on 25/10/11)

Typotheque's office, The Hague, NL. Photo taken by http://www.typotheque.com

Typotheque is a type foundry and design studio formed by Peter and Johanna Bil'ak who believe that ' design should happen at a more fundamental level than just playing with layout. '

I am re-posting a Peter Bil'ak's article -published on the editorial of 8 FACES magazine, Issue 3, 2011, that challenge designers to think about ' why we design type, not just how we design it. '

We don't need new fonts...

(by Peter Bil'ak)

Is there any reason to make new fonts when there are so many already available for downloading? It's time to reflect on motivation to draw new type. While there is no reason to make uninspired new fonts, still, there are typefaces which haven’t been made yet and which we do need.

It seems to be a golden age of type design—not only are there more type foundries now than ever before, not only is distribution easier and more direct, not only is type a hot topic for numerous specialised blogs and magazines, but even the general interest media are in on the conversation, (if only occasionally). New type design courses are opening regularly, churning out legions of type designers. And there are now over 150,000 fonts available for direct download.

In spite of all the attention to type and the unprecedented conditions for type designers, the vast majority of new fonts desperately lack originality. Just as in the music industry, where cover versions and remixes are often more popular than new music, font designers seemingly prefer to exploit successful models from the past rather than strive for new solutions. Scant decades ago, new typefaces underwent a rigorous review procedure to ensure that they met the publisher’s artistic and technical criteria. Today, self-publishing has eliminated such processes, and there is little critical review, little effort to add something new to the evolution of the profession. Mediocrity abounds as quality control dwindles. Dozens of blogs (as well as the print media) simply republish press releases without distinguishing between marketing and independent reviews, praising uninspired fonts and institutionalising the average. Many design awards do the same, perpetuating a false idea of what constitutes superior quality. We don’t need new fonts like this.

In my decade of experience teaching at Type & Media I have seen many students enter the course with no previous experience in type design. Over the eight months of the course they learn the structure of letterforms and the principles of construction that allow them to create well-designed typefaces, (not always terribly original, but convincing executions without obvious mistakes). Having mastered the formal execution of type, they can then move on to think about how to apply their skills. Obviously, creating type that is too closely related to existing models doesn’t justify the effort involved. Or as my Type & Media colleague Erik van Blokland says: “If an existing typeface does the job, there is no reason to make a new one.”

Many people drawing type today have solid drawing skills, but no desire to advance the field (let alone rebel against it) by creating original solutions. Can we call them type designers? I think not, at least not any more than we can call every fast, accurate typist a writer. Content is at least as important as form, the ideas we express as important as how we express them.

Still, there are typefaces which haven’t been made yet and which we need. Type that reacts to our present reality rather than being constrained by past conventions; type for non-Latin scripts that gives its users more choices; type that brings readers from previous media to new ones. It is time to think about why we design type, not just how we design it.

http://www.typotheque.com
http://www.typotheque.com/articles/we_dont_need_new_fonts