20three » Design

20three pin badges

Owen — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:40:14 +0000

One thing we are planning for the 20three site is to eventually set up a shop. We plan to sell screenprints, letterpress prints, one off pieces of art etc. I have always been a fan of the button badge and plan to sell some badge sets designed by your truly as well as inviting designers and artists to supply artwork for limited edition badge sets. I see the badge as a lo-fi way producing design that can be acquired on the cheap, accessible to all.

Below are sample 20three pin badges, produced by those very nice people at www.weebadges.com.

20three prototype t-shirts

Owen — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:17:11 +0000

When 20three had it’s first incarnation around 2000 we produced a short run of t-shirts that we mainly gave away to friends and clients. Now that this site lives on in blog format I thought it would be a good idea to resurrect some of our old design work and produce a couple of prototype t-shirts. I didn’t want to create ‘new’ designs – rather I wanted to give some of our old design & illustration work another lease of life. A bit like this website. Rinse the past.

These shirts were printed at a Brighton copy shop using heat transfers – not the greatest quality but good enough to get an idea of how the shirts could look.

This design I originally produced for the cover of a 12″ record sleeve for Hermetech Records around 2002. As the 12″ cover was intended to be screen printed by hand the design was a simple two colour job – perfect for a t-shirt. The two images I ripped off appropriated for the design came from this book: Animals 1,419 Copyright Free Illustrations of Mammals, Birds, Fish, Insects, etc (Great title).

T shirt design based on Hermetech 12" sleeves.

The Original design:

Hermetech 12" covers, 2002

This second design was created from collages made from the ‘positives’ we used for our first hand-screenprinted t-shirt run – so I am effectively mashing up the original t shirt designs to produce this one.

T shirt design based on collages

Original design/collage:

Sketchbook collage, 2002

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen-printing

20three generative work 2002

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:54:20 +0000

During 2002 we started experimenting with generative graphical concepts. The notion was to create small algorithms with simple rules that would generate different images time and time again.

The general process for these generative experiments was that of using a single image, and then manipulating that image by rotating, stretching, skewing and duplication.

The real goal was to use as simple an algorithm as possible, and then from this set of simple rules allow complexity to emerge.

At the time we were using Flash and ActionScript 2 for the development of the images, this was chosen as it’s a nice simple language, and allows for rapid development.

Screenshots:

All the above examples can be seen live by clicking here

After experimenting with generative images that move and rotate, we decided to experiment with images that just create instances of static images. The reasoning behind this was so images could be generated that then could be translated into a palette for design.

As well as being featured in the 6th Generative art Conference in Milan (organized by the Generative Design Lab) we also managed to use these generative experiments for several commercial projects. The most successful application was a collaboration with React snowboards. We created a set of visuals based on our generative programming and one design went into production – the results of which can be seen below. We also used the same generative programming to create downloadable screensavers and graphic assets for Adam Freeland’s 2002 version of the Marine Parade record label (no longer live).

React Snowboards, 2002

gh & op

Wordagon: A Kerb iphone app

Owen — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:01:51 +0000

I have not posted work from the agency I work for before on this blog, (Kerb – website due for a face-lift soon) but thought I would make an exception in the case of our iphone game Wordagon, mainly because it is a project we produced internally – it is not attached to a client, therefore not trying to ‘sell‘ anything – and it’s free.

The design was produced by Kerb designer Will Weaver and the game concept came out of the head of Kerb strategist Carl Hodler. There are still a few tweaks to be made: some re-working of some of the interface elements, extra work laying out the instructions (and re-writing them too) and a little bit of colour correction. We are also going to implement a global high score table with the next Wordagon release – and we will possibly then start to charge for the app.

With absolutely no promotion apart from Kerb employees spreading the word, Wordagon has managed over 900 downloads with a user rating of 4+ (as of Febuary 2010).

Some screenshots:

From the itunes store description: (please excuse the excessive use of exclamation marks!)

Wordagon is a game of high pressure and mental agility. Battle against time and space… and by space, we mean words!

With each letter tile having a value, the bigger the word, the more points you score! The longer it takes it to find a word and submit it, the closer you get to falling foul of the onslaught of new letters taking their place.

Before you get trapped beneath an alphabet avalanche, you need to find words and remove them, but as you progress through the levels, the words you must come up with keep getting longer!

Key features:
Bonus tiles for letters
Bonus tiles for words
5 levels of difficulty
Highscore table to allow you to challenge yourself or your friends

Get it for free from the itunes store here

No related posts.

FlashBrighton lecture: Typography and the modern

Owen — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:12:53 +0000

I was asked if I would like to talk to the Flash Brighton developer group, Flash Brighton about typography. The talk will be on the 19th January, the first Flash Brighton talk of 2010.

To keep my talk manageable I have decided to talk about the development of typographic design in relation to the birth and growth of Modernism, starting from the early 1900’s and up to the present day.

Details about were and when my talk is happening can be found here.

Find out about Flash Brighton here

Photographer’s stamp

Owen — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:08:17 +0000

Just before Christmas I designed a graphic for photographer Nhung Dang. She had a clear idea what she wanted, a homage to the Carte De Visit, popular in the 1800’s. In particular Nhung wanted me to produce a graphic that mimicked the photographers stamp usually placed on the back of the Carte De Visit. These stamps are a wonderful example of typographic execution in the decades before Modernism finally took hold of popular culture and revolutionized typographic design.

Here is the graphic I produced:

Here are some of the original designs I ripped off used as reference.

Typographic Brighton

Owen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:39:21 +0000

I often take pictures of interesting type, signage & numerals. As most other designers I know, I have an unhealthy obsession with all things typographical. I started saving my images of type on flickr so they could be used as a public resource but wanted do do something more interesting with them. While playing around with google maps I thought creating a google map with my images of Brighton type would be an interesting proposition. Although there is no real use to my typographical map – I doubt anyone would really need to know the exact location of were I took a particular image – the typographical map does do one important job – it illustrates the varied and vast use of type that exists in our urban spaces.

Logo on disused petrol pump, Seven Dials. Brighton.

If any Brighton residents want to provide images or suggest type & numerals I should document please get in touch: owen [ at ] hermetech.net

View Typographic Brighton here

Fish & Chip shop menu

Owen — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:39:08 +0000

Well. I just have to share these. I used to visit this Fish & Chip Shop close to Brighton train station quite often, I can’t say the fish & chips were amazing but they did the job. What is far more interesting is the proprietors insistence in making all his own menus & signs. He has the no -smoking sign down to an art, there being several hand drawn versions dotted round his chip shop, but it is his menus that make me smile the most, especially the photos of lonely pots of mushy peas pinned to the sides of his menu board.

Please excuse the quality of image, these were taken with a 3G iphone whose camera is a bit weak.

No related posts.

Degree Show: University of Brighton

Owen — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:47:15 +0000

BA(Hons) Graphic Design & BA(Hons) Illustration: University of Brighton.

Well, I am a little late posting this, last chance to see it is the 11th June. The standard of work is pleasingly high and I expect the degree show website will be live for a little longer. Good luck to the graduates.

Here are a couple of images that I thought were particularly interesting.

Chris Smith: BA(Hons) Illustration

Saly Troughton: BA(Hons) Graphic Design

Joe Wood: BA(Hons) Illustration

Lizzie Wylson: BA(Hons) Graphic Design

Photographer: Nhung Dang

The transformer: principles of making Isotype charts by Marie Neurath and Robin Kinross

Owen — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:13:55 +0000

The transformer: principles of making Isotype charts by Marie Neurath and Robin Kinross

Transforming (Tranformator) – “The process of analysing, selecting, ordering, and then making visual some information, data, ideas, implications…”

I have been waiting for the publication of The transformer... for a while now. I first became aware of the Isotype (System Of TYpographic Picture Education) work of Otto Neurath while working on data visualisation as the Head of Design at Lateral. At first I was excited about the visual style – I seemed to have come across the root style of information graphics. I soon realised that Isotype was far more than ’style’ – it was and is a fundamental tool in presenting data with maximum efficiency – a method of visualisation that communicates multiple relationships and connections.

Isotype attempts to present as much information as possible in the most effective and simple way. The viewer should be able to ‘read’ Isotype charts in several ways and this is what makes Isotype so successful. Otto Neurath’s way of using repeated symbols donating a unit, rather than scaling symbols to donate magnitude is what sets his work apart, and what made his work the beginnings of graphic communication based on a solid, well thought out and logical system.

The transformer’s first half, and the main core of the book, is an essay written by Marie Neurath in the last year before her death in 1986. Marie Neurath was the ‘Principle Isotype Transformer’ of the Isotype institution and her essay gives an insightful first hand account of the development of Isotype and the working methods used by the Isotype institution, and how she carried on the work of Isotype after the death of Otto in 1945. The essay was intended as the start of a ‘Primer’ on Isotype that was never published, but it is credit to Robin Kinross that this essay and this book now exist.

The other sections of the book include an attempt to place Isotype within a greater context of graphic communication, and draws parallels with other practitioners of data visualisation – Harry Beck’s influential London Underground diagram gets a worthy mention, as does that champion of standardisation and modernist typographer, Jan Tschichold.

Like the other Hyphen books in the series The transformer… is a beautifully designed and put together book, with many colour illustrations, many of which I would have liked to have seen reproduced at a much larger scale. While reading Marie Neurath’s essay I had wished I had more information into her non professional life – Otto and Marie obviously had obstacles to manoeuvre, the war enforcing at least one move upon them as they fled the Nazis. The obituary reproduced at the end of the book made up for any lack of insight into the personality of Marie Neurath.

I would have also liked to have had a little more information about Gerd Arntz, a collaborator of the Isotype institution, member of the progressive artists group’ (Gruppe progressiver Künstler Köln), socially inspired and politically committed artist and activist. In The transformer... he gets a credit for introducing die cut to the working process of the Isotype institution, and is mentioned as a key collaborator. You can read more about Gerd Arntz and view the extensive gallery of his Isotype symbols here – http://www.gerdarntz.org/home.

Please also note the very considered use of the typeface Futura on the illustrations above.

*the images used in this post were the results of a google search, and not all of them appear in The transformer.

** This review also appears on the blog http://www.designersreviewofbooks.com/

Buy The transformer… here

No related posts.