Ok, so here we are on Christmas Eve, we’re playing a bit of old Led Zeppelin very loud (as you do) and it’s time for our review of the year.
The designs we wish we’d done Quite a few nominations from all parties here, but the consensus seems to be that Thomas Heatherwick’s Seed Cathedral at the Shanghai Expo was, er, awesome. The pavilion itself was the most popular choice at the Expo (after the host nation’s) and legend has it that the actual stems themselves are the must-have presents for all the ambassadors this year. If anyone has a spare, just let us know.
Other projects we’ve loved? Yes we know it’s a follow-up to the US 826 project, but we think that We Made This’s ‘Ministry of Stories & Hoxton Street Monster Supplies’ project is a cracking bit of work.
For a man who gets his fair share of bad press, hats off to Jonathan Barnbrook for a really lovely bit of work for the 17th Biennale of Sydney, getting up the noses of all the local designers yes, but supplying a great bit of work.
None of the applications of it looked that great, but we did like this idea by Wallpaper to let you design your own cover. From our readers, Romualdo Faura wrote to nominate the Visit Nordkyn identity scheme. And Andy Kidd nominated Troika’s V&A palindrome sign – good point Andy, that’s a great bit of work too.
The blogs we’ve loved We’ve not dumped our usual favourites this year, but have really enjoyed the odder and weirder ones for a change. Like The Mr Blog, for starters. We’re picking up some useful fashion tips from Nerdy Boyfriend, and find Things Arranged Neatly, well, kind of fascinating. On a slightly more useful note, Graphic Birdwatching is really good and supplies a steady stream of really great, non-male design.
It’s an odd thing to say but the website Disciples of Design which is co-run by Preston tutors and alumni is actually really good, and often quite inspiring (which for a ‘college blog’ is quite an accolade, let’s face it).
Just from a sheer nosiness perspective we’re tracking Nicky and Cookie’s walk across New Zealand and admiring the way that they are assiduously (geekily?) logging every step of the way. Kind of makes you believe in the idea of a web/log all over again.
Biggest blog disappointments Danny Elliott is annoyed by the CR Blog: ‘why do they let people make stupid and thoughtless remarks, then they hide through anonymity. It's a useful thing to have feedback but often you'll get a remark from some people who link their website for the sake a few more 'hits'. Sean Rees nominated Design Assembly: ‘Brilliant start in 2009 with a regular stream of thoughtful and insightful articles. 2010 has been disappointingly slow. I heart DA, but it's not consistent’.
The design stories of the year? Well, we were slightly involved in a big hoohah about the incoming head of the Communications course at the Royal College of Art (RCA). In March we wrote a vaguely controversial piece that suggested that ‘everyone's hope is that a ‘name' graphic designer will put themselves forward, with both a vision for the course and a coherent plan of how to stay a ‘name' if three days a week (if not more) is to be spent firefighting in Albertopolis’. We’re not sure if our piece had an affect, but weeks later Neville Brody was appointed (and starts in January). Crikey. Watch this space everyone.
In the USA, design story of the year had to be the Gap rebrand/not-rebrand. Completely bizarre. But some people (such as Tom Ward) nominated it as their logo of the year as well (well, in terms of ‘most talked about’, yes…). Sean Rees suggested that they ‘achieved maximum exposure, publicity and hype, by changing nothing’ which of course is a fair point.
The kind of thing that gives graphic designers a bad name Has to go to this Chilean Wine project. Completely bizarre.
The kind of thing you may live to regret… Goes to Simon Manchipp of agency Someone (who design a lot of identities, like the revised ROH logo, above) for merrily announcing that ‘logos were dead’, now making him an easy target every time his agency designs any, er, logos. Smart move Simon.
The oddest and most discussed headstone of the year... ...has to be this one, for Tony Wilson, just the three years late.
The trend that just won’t go away Designers doing spoof posters and book jackets for things in the past. Now, don’t get us wrong, we love them too, but doesn’t this strike you as a bit weird? Also, the sticking of images into or within logos – that’s going to look SO 2009. Oh, and there’s been a lot of knitted/embroidered stuff this year.
The best municipal idea ruined by corporate sponsorship So, parkable bikes across London available for a very low annual fee. What’s not to like? Well, the dreadful and intrusive Barclay’s branding, that’s what. Why every single ‘project’ that’s ever done has to be submerged in sponsors is beyond us sometimes.
Our best books of the year? Designers will all nominate Marian Bantjes’s ‘I wonder’, which looks great, but has anyone read it? Gatherer of many awards this year was the Dutch Atlas of the New Dutch Water Defence Line masterpiece. From an actual, you know, reading point of view we’re going for The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell and the new Alex Ross (Listen to this) is a great read for any music heads in your life.
Ads of the year Everyone says we should be voting for W&K’s Old Spice man. Fair enough, and you can’t argue with those stats (26 million hits, or something incredible). We’ve had some votes for Skoda’s monster too. We just have this nagging feeling that it was another slightly dismal year for advertising again. But we loved this Amnesty ‘railings’ idea though.
Worst ad of the year We received this from New Zealand reader Chris Mitchell, plus an explanation. ‘This advert was placed in the Newspaper I work for. I tried my hardest to tell them talking about funerals and having a picture of a baby with a large dog was problematic, I was told by the client it was 'branding' and we were not to change it. The Funeral Pre Planning Kit on offer at the bottom makes this officially the worst advert I have ever seen’.
Favorite twitter feed Well, we really enjoyed Angry Paul Rand (which is now confusingly http://twitter.com/NicePaulRand), set up by US masters student Mitch Goldstein as a way to comment on contemporary design through the imagined views of design maestro Paul Rand (the back story is here).
The tweeting tipping point of the year, for us? It had to be taking part in the inaugural Brand New conference, aware that hundreds in the audience were live tweeting all day (1,900 tweets in 8 hours). We’re only a hop and a skip away from being able to tell if your talk was any good as you go along, as your listeners tweet their feedback on your jokes…
Weird internetty viral thing of the year Had to be Flushtracker.
Saddest events of the year Apart from Clapham’s jacket potato shop closing? Well, the loss of Leslie Neilsen. The death of Kodachrome film. Oh, and don’t mention the world-cup, unless of course you’re Spanish then it has to be said that the best team won, for once.
Film of the year Well, we seem to be split here between The Social Network, Inception, A Prophet and A Single Man. Hat’s off to Garrick Hamm for having his first short film aired at the BFI London Film Festival too. Remarkably, it was also a year where there really were two good film posters (shock) – The Social Network and the Joaquin Pheonix mockumentary, I’m still here.
The very hotly contested album of the year After much debate is has to be These New Puritans – Hidden. Co-founder Jack Barnett said they were looking for a ‘dancehall meets Steve Reich’ sound and we’d go along with that. Also played to death this year: Kele; Vampire weekend (Contra); Jonsi’s debut album; Four Tet (There Is Love In You); Autechre (Oversteps) and Gold Panda (Lucky Shiner).
Still played a lot but not quite top-drawer: Sufjan Stevens (The Age Of Adz); The National (High Violet); this year’s LCD Soundsystem, Foals, Hot Chip and Midlake (although it still weirdly sounds like early King Crimson to some of us. Must be those flute solos). A man whose musical taste is always good, Mr Ollie Winser, goes for the Broken Bells album.
Our sleeper artist of the year: Joan as Police Woman. Our ‘can’t believe we hadn’t discovered him before’ award to Canadian Breakcore maestro Venetian Snares (esp Rossz csillag alatt született) with a hat tip to Joe Johnson.
Clock of the Year Has to be this.
Phrases of the year As pointed out by Nick Asbury, the Oxford University Press named ‘Big Society’ as the defining phrase of the year, narrowly beating ‘vuvuzela’. ‘One is a droning, vacuous, repetitive background noise, the other is…’ Yes, very good.
Nick was also first out of the blocks to point out that there was a spooky similarity between our coalition mascots and the Olympic leaders. Or something.
Gig of the year Well, there was some discussion about The Unthanks at Union Chapel (clog dancing?) but that was swiftly quashed by These New Puritans at The Barbican.
If we all had iPads we would definitely download… Flipboard – the app that assimilates information from your various social networks and feeds to create your own private universe. As the breaking news about the impending demise of Delicious ripples through cyberspace, we’re going to see a lot more of this.
What we want: a site that combines the archiving of Delicious with the ‘scrapbooking’ fun of FFFFound. Have we found it with Zootool?
The ‘best weird stuff done with food’ award Goes to Bompas and Parr. Just visit the site and admire.
Exhibitions of the year Well we enjoyed Pick Me Up, but we have to go with Diaghilev at the V&A. Sensational (and still on). Mentioned in dispatches, and also at the V&A, Small Spaces was ace too(). And Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy.
An unexpected curatorial pleasure this year was JJAM Curators Collective’s beautiful little display of yellow dusters, reinvented at Tent London in September. Mark Wheatcroft wrote to nominate Fiona Banner’s amazing work on show at Tate Britain and Romualdo Faura suggested the Bauhaus show at MoMA (another good suggestion).
We don’t really need one, but we’d like… A telescopic ladder. Yes. So useful. Oh, and a Baritone Lowden, a Muji Alphabet Animals book and a 3D camera. Thanks!
Happy Xmas to all our readers. We return in the new year with resolutions and future gazing. Have a good one.