|
|
|
Black Dog Publishing
|
Ninja Tune have been dedicated to publishing inspiring electronic music for the past two decades. Celebrating their twentieth anniversary in 2010, the label was established by two friends who wanted a new label for their venture Coldcut. Matt Black and Jonathan More conceived a label that was unfettered by restraints upon its artists' work, offering a vibrant and diverse array of inspired minds a broad canvas upon which to paint their masterpieces. The label's discography encompasses a wide range of contemporary music; The Cinematic Orchestra; Roots Manuva; Mr Scruff; Steinski; Amon; Kid Koala; The Herbaliser- and these are just some of the classics. The label also hosts the likes of Daedelus, Thunderheist and Cougar amongst many other outfits who are currently touring the independent music scene. The book tells the story of the record label, the artists themselves, their art and the ways in which their influence was and is felt in the larger culture. It's a tale that begins with Black & More touring Japan with Coldcut 20 years ago, and tiring of how the staid, uncomprehending music industry was manipulating the group. The book traces the development of Ninja Tune's offshoot labels, N-tone (who gave us releases by Hexstatic, Cabbageboy and Neotropic); Hip-Hop imprint Big Dada (home to Roots Manuva, Spank Rock, Ty, Diplo and Infinite Livez); and Counter Records (Pop Levi, The Deathset, The Heavy). The book tells the story of the growth of the label, including setting up a satellite office in Canada, where Ninja Tune's music developed such a loyal following that every Ninja artist's show there is attended by one uber-fan who turns up in a foam costume, passing himself off as a Ninja Robot Sentinel. An important element to the label is the design of the covers and branding of the company. Ninja Tune's logo is a woodcut originally designed by cult New York artist Michael Bartalos and label art honcho Mark Porter, later reimagined by recording and graphic artist Strictly Kev, it shows a stylized ninja brandishing vinyl records. The book displays this discography in a visual way, and is lavishly illustrated with historic photography, the book includes exclusive interviews with the label's artists and the minds who shaped the roster. It's the story of a tiny label surviving and thriving while the majors run aground, the story of a unique vision and an all-embracing approach, championing the creativity of their artists at all costs. Ninja Tune appeal stretches far beyond Ninja Tune's already-established legion of followers: making this a must-read for any music fan with even a passing interest in adventurous music, and the triumph of ideas, passion and guerrilla creativity in the face of a factory-tooled mainstream. |
|
Making Britain Modern celebrates the career of one of the truly great figures of modern British design; featuring previously unpublished interviews and specially commissioned photography of his work. The book features essays by renowned commentators on Modern British design including Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum, London, and cultural historian and widely published writer on design, Fiona MacCarthy. Spanning more than half a century, Grange's career began in 1947 and establishing a private practice in 1956, initially as an interior and architectural designer, Grange eventually became known for his work in product design. Working with a range of high-profile clients including British Rail, Wilkinson Sword, and Manganese Bronze, Grange has since designed products as varied as the Anglepoise lamp, the black cab and high-speed inner city trains. In 1976 Grange became one of the founding partners of the famous design consultancy Pentagram, along with Theo Crosby, Colin Forbes and Mervyn Kultansky, where he worked with a number of high-profile clients including Kodak and Kenwood. More recently, Grange has collaborated with British fashion designer Margaret Howell to produce a collarless shirt, which combines Grange's practical design experience with Howell's quality and make. |
|
Modern British Posters explores the interaction between modern art and graphic design in Britain throughout the twentieth century. A distinctive characteristic of modern society is the progressively more complete integration of art, design and architecture. The poster has been an integral expression of this phenomenon since its invention, in modern form, during the 1860s. The poster was made possible by the development of industrial colour lithography and by the appearance of large hoardings as a consequence of metropolitan redevelopment. Furthermore, this co-incidence developed at precisely the same time as the birth of the cultural avant-garde. Following the First World War, during a period of social and political realignment, major artists embraced the developing technologies of graphic reproduction to make commercial poster images and reach out to an audience beyond the complacent limits of the gallery. This required artists to embrace the possibilities of new technologies in print media, and was thus instrumental in transforming commercial art into graphic design. From this point forward, the poster and the artistic avant-garde have been inextricably linked. The poster reached a level of maturity in design just as the cultural reform of the 1920s was beginning. This synchronicity has established the poster as a particularly significant cultural object. Every great artist in Britain contributed to this effort and Modern British Posters features the work of artists such as John Minton, Paul Nash, Hubert Williams, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Leonard Cusden, Edward Wadsworth and Tom Eckersley, amongst many others. These images speak broadly of people, landscape, technology and identity and cover themes such as transport, architecture, the seaside, accident prevention and popular culture. In Britain, the graphic archive is dispersed amongst various institutions. This fragmentation means that, for practical purposes, the general story of British poster design remains to be told. Modern British Posters provides an important addition to the history of visual culture in Britain during the twentieth century. |
|
Cardboard Design Now reconfigures the conception of a generic industrial material into one of myriad artistic, creative, and practical purposes and potential, revealing just how far it is possible to push the medium by the way of contemporary design. Like paper, cardboard is often overlooked as a medium with predominantly practical uses. The versatility of the material makes it almost unavoidably ubiquitous, but not necessarily inspiring. At closer viewing, this is changing and progressing to an altered, contemporary attitude to the possibilities of cardboard's uses in contemporary design. From minimalist packaging, children's toys and decoration to furniture and even small and large-scale interior architecture, cardboard is now being embraced by designers around the globe as a medium with huge potential. Examples of these designs with cardboard include; a cardboard wendy-house, designed by Peter Henke at Dutch firm Kidsonroof; pop-out toys and decorations created by A4A; interior design companies who re-articulated card-based storage as elegant, minimal additions to household product design and the internationally renowned, minimalist Japanese retailer Muji which has created products such as cardboard speakers and picture frames. In addition to its potential as a durable material for construction, there is also the sustainable credentials of the material. Cardboard is positioned at the forefront of the ecologically-minded, whether by utilising reconstituted recycled material or by the use of off cuts and residue in industrial product manufacture and contemporary design. The environmental benefits are an encouraging factor for eco-conscious designers and Outside the Box profiles some of these leading designs. Drawing on historical and traditional approaches, Outside the Box: Cardboard Design Now charts the medium's evolution through to modern practices, profiling some of today's most inspirational and provocative artists and designers working across the fields of art, design and sculpture. Among the artists featured is Frank Gehry, whose Vitra-produced corrugated cardboard furniture--utilizing both modern and archaic designs--has received much international acclaim. The work of Shigeru Ban is included, whose cardboard disaster relief housing, churches and cardboard schools that deconstruct after use, have seen him exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art New York and cited as a leading auteur in the forward-thinking realm of eco-architecture. Cardboard Design Now, is attractively packaged with a cardboard cover and pull out features, showing the reader the possibilities of cardboard design. As a companion to Black Dog Publishing's Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, Outside the Box unpacks the creative possibilities of a material wrongly dismissed as staid and uninspiring. |
|
Juxtaposing a person with an environment that is boundless, collating him with a countless number of people passing by close to him and far away, relating a person to the whole world, that is the meaning of cinema — Andrei Tarkovsky. Andrei Tarkovsky is the most influential Soviet filmmaker of the post-war era, and one of the world's most renowned cinematic geniuses. He created spiritual, existential films of incredible beauty, repeatedly returning to themes of memory, dreams, childhood and Christianity. His films, such as Solaris, Mirror, Nostalghia and The Sacrifice make use of long, unedited shots and wide angles in uncompromisingly formalistic statements that are as striking today as they were when they were first made. |
|
Pop Art Book is a collaboration with the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, which holds one of the most valued collections of Pop Art in the UK. Including pieces by major artists such as Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, Roy Lichtenstein and Eduardo Paolozzi, this book combines visual excitement with accessible academic reflection on the work. The book's four chapters explore the movement via themes of popular culture (fashion, music, comics, film, cars); consumerism (packaging and the media); art and literature (pop art in the context of art history and the backdrop against which it emerged); and politics (the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement and JFK). This is combined with a fresh and startling approach to the presentation of the images. In the spirit of Pop Art, the book includes stickers and pop-ups which encourage the reader to take a playful and creative attitude towards the art. This interactive element of the book offers a fun way of learning to the uninitiated, as well as providing connoisseurs with a new take on this art movement. |
|
