Paul Davis

From ‘A Beautiful Pile Up’ / Paul Davis, 2012

Great stuff from the always-hilarious Paul Davis, who has a show currently on at the Coningsby Gallery in Central London.

Oscar & Ewan

Power of Making / Football Table / Oscar & Ewan

Interesting, varied portfolio from the London duo Oscar & Ewan.

Knuffingen Airport

Knuffingen Airport / Miniatur Wunderland, Hamburg, 2011

Well this has just blown my mind. This functioning model airport is the latest instalment at Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg – the largest model railway exhibit in the world.

Watch here and be amazed.

And as if that wasn’t cool enough, they’ve only gone and got a space shuttle to land on the runway too.

Watch here.

Must. Visit. Soon.

20 Houses: A New Residential Landscape

Holiday home / Fourfoursixsix, 2011

To coincide with the 2011 Architects Directory in the latest issue of Wallpaper*, a new exhibition titled “20 Houses: A New Residential Landscape” is currently on show at The Architecture Foundation in London. For the directory and show, 20 practices from around the world were given an open brief to design their ideal holiday home. The resulting designs are being exhibited until 14 July. It’s well worth a visit to see some beautifully made models and exciting designs.

And for graphic design geeks, another exciting feature of the show (and latest issue of the mag) is the use of ‘Prismaset’, a new typeface by James Goggin and Lineto.com. Inspired by the original Prisma, a display face designed in 1931 by Rudolf Koch, this modern version adds not only a lower case and full set of glyphs, but also a solid version, and three- and five-line  variants. It’s a really, really beautiful font, full of quirks and charm. It was a joy to use whilst designing the July issue of the mag, and I urge you to buy a copy and check it out.

V&A with Troika

Palindrome / Troika, 2010

It’s worth visiting the V&A for this new sign alone. It’s been well blogged on the net this year, but seeing it in person just enforces what an astoundingly good piece of design it is. Installed in the subway and designed by Troika. See a video of it in action here.

Underground Journeys

Underground Journeys / V&A, until February 2011

This is a great little exhibition at the V&A, chronicling the work of architect Charles Holden for the London Underground in the early 20th Century. Working closely with Frank Pick, Holden’s practice designed some of the most beautiful stations on the network, such as Southgate & Arnos Grove, and also the TfL headquarters at 55 Broadway. The show has an abundance of sketches, plans and models, and also features some beautiful graphics and ephemera from the era.

Until February 13 2011, free admission. More here.

John Pawson

Plain Space / John Pawson at the Design Museum, 2010

I finally got around to checking out the John Pawson exhibition currently showing at the Design Museum, and it really blew me away. Such an incredible body of work, of such clarity and  simple elegance. Well worth a visit.

Design Research Unit 1942–72

Ilford identity / DRU, 1965

Another excellent exhibition on in London right now, this retrospective of the Design Research Unit covers their work for British Rail, the Festival of Britain, Watneys brewery, Ilford, ICI, Transport for London and more. Find it at the Cubitt gallery in Angel, with a book designed by APFEL to follow later this year.

Oliver Jeffers talk

The Heart and the Bottle / Oliver Jeffers, 2010

On Friday I attended an excellent talk hosted by the AOI featuring one of my absolute favourite illustrators, Oliver Jeffers.

It was a really great insight into the creative process of the ridiculously talented Jeffers. Living and working in New York, his illustration, pictures books, paintings and collage are all so brilliant. His typography is also consistently strong which is one of the main reasons I was drawn to his work in the first place. It was great to hear him talk about the way he works across a wide range of projects – his picture books, fine art paintings, commercial illustration and sketchbook work.

An added bonus was that I was able to pick up a copy of his sixth picture book, The Heart and the Bottle, which I didn’t realise was available yet (it came out a couple of weeks ago). As always, it’s a truly lovely object. Also he revealed exciting news that he is making another animation with Studio AKA, who turned his book Lost & Found into a stunning 30 minute film a couple of years ago. I can’t wait.

There’s a nice video of Oliver talking about his creative process here.

And just look at that moustache. What a genius.

The AV Studio, Bath

The AV Studio / Bath, 2010

This show is the work of 7 chaps from Bath and 7 from Bristol, all 3rd year graphics students. Being a graduate from Bath I would be biased… but the print looks really great and the show sounds interesting. Congrats to the guys for getting it a full feature on the CR Blog too.

Has it really been a year since I was doing this? Christ.