AisleOne. A visual journal on design, photography, film, music and culture.
I had to come out of hibernation for this one. Danny, Marieke and Erwin from Experimental Jetset just emailed me about their new site. They’ve added a ton of new work, most of which I’ve never seen before, and all of it is just blowing my mind. Check out their new site but I will warn you, get a bib.
I have no clue how I’ve never heard of Jean Widmer. I’m disappointed in myself but I’m also giddy from the discovery! This morning I came across this brief article over at Grain Edit that includes some of Widmer’s work. I was instantly blown away and had to know more about this talented designer. I spent most of the morning researching Widmer and his work. Here’s what I’ve found.
Jean Widmer is a Swiss graphic designer who is responsible from introducing Swiss modernism into French graphic design and who eventually became a leader of the graphic design community in France for more than 40 years. Up until recently Widmer ran an agency in France called Visuel Design.
Unfortunately, much of his work is very difficult to find, online or in print. Pictured above are posters he designed for the Centre de Creation Industrielle which are just breathtaking. A few years back there was an massive exhibition of Widmer’s work at the Centre Pompidou in France. You can see some photos of the event here, here and here.
There was also an exhibit at the Herb Lubalin Study Centre of Design and Typography at Cooper Union in New York that was held from Autumn 2002 to 2003. The exhibition, “Jean Widmer, a devotion to modernism, itinerary of a designer from Zurich to Paris” featured a large collection of Widmer’s work and was accompanied by a 96 page catalogue. Gotta see if I can get my hands on that one. Anyway, here is a small gallery of the Cooper Union exhibit.
And finally, here is an interview with Widmer conducted by Graphis. Apparently Josef Müller-Brockmann was a big influence on him. Nice!
I have a certain obsession with magazine. Most of the time I could careless what the content is, I’m more concerned with the format and the design. For the most part, I buy magazines because they look pretty and the design inspires me.
Take this magazine for example. Null Acht is an Austrian newspaper/magazine about Soccer (Football for you folks over the pond) designed by Alois Gstöttner. I can’t read it and I’m not particularly interested in Soccer, unless of course it’s the World Cup and Italy is playing, but the design definitely gets my attention. I personally love when I see magazines like this where the design has been paid much attention. Monocle is another well designed magazine that comes to mind. Null Acht is absolutely stunning if ask me. I have to get my greedy little hands on a copy. You can see more images of the mag over at Form Fifty Five.
Also, check out magCulture, a blog about magazine and newspaper design.
On a side note, one of my graphic design dreams is to design a full magazine or newspaper and it might happen very soon. Stay tuned.
Eye Magazine just posted some images of the Crouwel 80 20 100 exhibit catalogue designed by David Quay. Very nice indeed. I love how all the pages have a visible grid. One unfortunate thing about catalogue is that a good chunk of it is in black and white. Bummer.
You can download a PDF version of the catalogue to get a good look at it or you can order a copy for yourself and enjoy it in the comfort of your home.
The Vivid Gallery site has a small photo gallery of the event. I wish I were able to attend. Did anyone get to go? How was it?
The talented shop Build (Michael C. Place) has just launched a blog where they’ll preview projects, tell you about what they are up to and general nonsense. Sound be fun!
Here’s an excellent site that walks you through the history of visual communication, giving you a glimpse of the different styles through-out history. My favorite section, obviously, is the Modernism section which covers the Swiss Style and includes some nice galleries of work by Max Bill, Armin Hofmann, Fridolin Mueller and Josef Müller-Brockmann.