Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Studio Help Japan Day



On 23rd March we had a HELP JAPAN DAY in the studio. Akiko, our very own Japanese designer, organised various events for the studio to partake in during the day to help raise money for the British Red Cross Tsunami Appeal.

During lunch Akiko gave the studio a quick lesson on Japanese calligraphy followed by an evening of Gyoza (dumplings) and Yakiniku (Japanese BBQ) cooking washed down with a few bottles of Japanese beer. Even a pair of Japanese school girl socks were auctioned off, after a flurry of bids Adrian won the prized socks!

The studio collectively raised £380 from the day. If you too would like to donate to the Japan Tsunami Appeal please go to http://www.redcross.org.uk/japantsunami


Akiko showing Laura the art of Japanese calligraphy

Rachel, Vicky (hiding!) and Mel proudly show off their Japanese calligraphy

Team work with Akiko, Vicky, Jamie and Graham preparing the dumplings

Gyoza dumplings P&W style!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Japan Tsunami appeal day



This Thursday we are holding a very special day here at P&W to help raise money for the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal. During the day, in our London office, our Japanese Business Coordinator Akiko will be demonstrating and sharing some very special techniques of Japanese cooking, calligraphy and origami, and our designers will be contributing their creative skills to express wishes for the people in Japan.

As a part of the money raising activities we’ll also be auctioning off a very special pair of genuine (very iconic - some call it sexy!) Japanese School Girl Socks as illustrated in the photograph below. The pair will go to the highest bidder! To take part simply Tweet your highest bid on our Twitter page. The winner will be announced on Friday!

If you’d like to make your own donation to the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal please follow this link to their website.



Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A-Z | Coney Island


Michael Doret, Graphic Designer, Illustrator and now font designer shared his inspiration at a seminar at the Art Institute of California "It Began in Brooklyn" (photo: Heather, Danielle, Michael & Lyndsay)


Growing up in New York, he spent much of his childhood at Coney Island (an outdoor amusement park by the sea), unbeknown to him this would become a subliminal source of inspiration throughout his life's work. The bright neon signs, the flashing lights, the fonts and styles, the Steeplechase face.



These are a selection of Michael's logos, print work and a very famous record cover for the band KISS.  Can you see the Coney island influence?

 
 For most of his career, he designed one off solutions to the design brief he received, but in recent years has branched out to font design. Inspired by the old metal Gevaert photo sign Michael saw in a Paris flea market, he created his first font "Orion" with an Art Deco, geometric style.


 The quirkiness appealed to him and that was the main challenge to create a font whose letters joined seamlessly with it's strict angular connectors yet the outcome remained unique, like a commissioned logo.

 
"Metroscript" was inspired by scripts and hand lettering between 1920s and 1950s and vintage sport memorabilia. 

 

Although he didn't want it to be only referred to as a baseball font, the launch poster for "metroscript" ironically featured a baseball player. With Michael's love and passion for Brooklyn Baseball, was baseball his inspiration? What do you think? 


We used Michael's "powerstation" font for our blog title, Michael was inspired by a piece of work he did for Hershey's Time's Square Flagship store in NYC.
 
 

If you still haven't seen anything you recognize.... here is a very famous logo, designed by Michael for the NY Knicks basketball team.

Inspiration for design comes from anything and everything, you may have been influenced by things you've seen and you don't even realise it, just like Michael.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A-Z | Vertigo


The London studio took a creative lunch to the Kemistry Gallery to see Bass Notes: The film posters of Saul Bass.

 
The exhibition brought together a collection of his iconic film posters, tiles and festival posters ranging from The Shining, Vertigo to Anatomy of a Murder. 


His work has an everlasting appeal for graphic designers and no other designer has made a greater impact on the world of film posters than Saul Bass.