IdN v16n2: Illustration Special

Contents:

The joys of being hands-on
Animate this!
A different kind of ‘Ideal Homes’ exhibition
I want my MTV!
More a curatorial collective than an old-fashioned agency
Paper, Scissors, Garment
A hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Specifications:

117 pages
6 varying paper stocks
4C process, vanish, pantone
94 minutes DVD Video included

IdN v16n2: Illustration Special Sampler

The joys of being hands-on

Most of us started out, as kids, with a love of drawing – remember that feeling of excitement when the teacher or your mum placed a piece of pristine paper in front of you and a box of coloured crayons? Despite the incredible advances in digital technology, enabling even those who are incapable of drawing a straight line or a recognisable human figure to be “artists”, this is a sensation that has stayed with some who have gone on to become professional designers, but still love to draw by hand, even if they continue to use the computer for some aspects of their work. We talk to 10 of them about the attraction of being hands-on.

Featuring:

Scott Barry / Jeffrey Bowman / Mike Harrison / Bernardo Henning “Maybe” / Good Wives and Warriors / Lily Lin / Mike Perry / Danny Sangra / Anna Taratiel aka OVNI

IdN v16n2: p18-19

IdN v16n2: p28-29

IdN v16n2: p38-39

IdN v16n2: p46-47

Animate this!

Whatever happened to the old-fashioned kids’ cartoon story told in a simple but engaging style? Have we all become overwhelmed and exhausted by the wizardry of animation in the 21st century? And is the use of animation to appeal to adult audiences a contradiction in terms, or a simple case of attempting to expand the target market? Two London-based studios – Nexus Productions and Studio aka – tell us where they think today’s animation is headed.

Featuring:

Nexus Productions / Studio aka

IdN v16n2: p18

A different kind of “Ideal Homes” exhibition

Aaron Betsky is the director of both the Netherlands Architecture Institute and the Cincinnati Art Museum and he believes that “most buildings are ugly, useless and wasteful – yet architecture is beautiful”. Given the gap between what architects aspire to and how things actually are in the real world, he decided to turn the 11th Architecture Exhibition at last year’s Venice Biennale into an examination of the central issues militating against perfection, called Out There: Architecture Beyond Building. It presented installations, manifestos and Utopian visions from some of today’s leading practitioners, experimenting with forms that could renew the space we live in.

Featuring:

The Corderie in the Arsenale / Roma Interrotta and Uneternal City / Padiglione Italia

IdN v16n2: p64-65

I want my MTV!

The music-video business is facing an uncertain future, with the competition from YouTube and the trimming of budgets all round as downloading from the Internet takes over from purchasing CDs or records as a way of owning musical performances. But it is still a much-loved genre and a lot of talented film-makers continue to cut their creative teeth on it. Four MV specialists – Black Dog Films, FilmTecknarna, Krozm and Jonas and François – share their vision of how what they do works as a perfect bridge between motion design and music.

Featuring:

Black Dog Films / FilmTecknarna / Krozm / Jonas and François

IdN v16n2: p72-73

IdN v16n2: p80-81

More a curatorial collective than an old-fashioned agency

All artists need good representation, but perhaps one of the best ways of ensuring this is to do it yourself – and on behalf of other like-minded creatives. This is certainly the view of New York-based Mario Hugo and Jennifer Sims, who set up a website to promote their own work, then found others were interested in joining in. They make a point of recruiting only designers who share their vision. So far, these include Fontaine Anderson, Mike Tucker, Nikolay Saveliev, STUDIO NEWWORK and Micah Lidberg. The agency, dubbed Hugo Marie, is proving to be a big success.

Featuring:

IdN v16n2: p90-91

Paper, Scissors, Garment

Vassilis Zidianakis is curator and artistic director of Atopos, an “experimental forum for visual culture”. After staging a highly successful exhibition on drapery from Ancient Greece called “Pleats”, this Greek fashionista became fascinated by the magic of paper, so the Atopos team recruited some 40 top designers to come up with their takes on paper dresses – inspired by the 1960s craze in the US – and put together another blockbuster show, dubbed “RRRIPP! Paper Fashion”. Hubert Boss, Helmut Lang, John Galliano and Issey Miyake are among the big names taking part.

Featuring:

Vassilis Zidianakis (Atopos)

IdN v16n2: p98-99

A hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Quantic Dream’s David Cage wants to make games for adults, games about choices and consequences rather than winning or losing. To achieve this, his watchwords are realism and interactivity. He recently spent nine months directing actors and motion-capturing them in the studio, working from a 2,000-page script, to make Heavy Rain. We caught up with him in Paris.

Featuring:

David Cage (Quantic Dream)

IdN v16n2: p103