Very sad to hear about the passing away of Oliver Postgate yesterday. Oliver created many of my favourite childhood TV shows including, Bagpuss, Pingwings, Ivor The Engine, and of course The Clangers.
Archive for December, 2008
Oliver Postgate – 1925-2008
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008Design – No.82 October 1955
Saturday, December 6th, 2008
I recently picked up this nice copy of Design magazine (No.82 – October 1955). Design was published by the UK Council of Industrial Design, and I guess was almost a kind of forerunner to publications like Design Week or Creative Review. The cover of this issue features a logo for The Design Centre for British Industries, designed by Hans Schleger, and also features a nice mini-booklet on The Design Centre sewn in to the central spread.
My primary interest in the magazine is that from 1955-62 it was art directed by the great Ken Garland. During my university days (many years ago!) I was fortunate enough to attend a number of lectures by Ken, and he has remained an inspiration to me ever since. One of the few designers to stand up and fight for causes he believes in, his continued passion should be a lesson to many of us. Amongst the great achievements of his career, I believe Ken was also responsible for instigating the original First Things First manifesto in 1964.
There is also a brief, but interesting interview with Ken in the current issue of Grafik Magazine (Issue 169, 2008).
Alife – Everybody Mid Parachute (yellow)
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
New addition to the La Boca shoe cupboard.
The Goodies
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008Whilst researching for the Higamos Hogamos album (previous post) I’ve started to enjoy The Goodies again. Hopefully we’ll get the commission from DC Recordings to make the first HH video in this style.
Higamos Hogamos
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
We’ve just completed this promo CD for new DC Recordings signing Higamos Hogamos. The final album is gonna be printed in 3x day-glo inks to give it some punch. We’re all a bit excited about this band – first release should be around Jan/Feb 09 I think.
Our Universe Kit
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
I recently picked up this nice boxset made by National Geographic in around 1980. The box is just a bit bigger than a 10inch vinyl sleeve, and inside are 3 separate elements: Stars in Your Sky, which is a sleeve containing a dial map of the universe; SpaceScope, which is an 8pp booklet containing 6x 35mm slides of space imagery; and lastly, SpaceSounds, which is a sleeve containg a 10inch flexidisc of some tasty space sounds!
I don’t know much about the package (except that I like it), the booklet design is credited to David M. Seager, but I don’t know if he is also responsible for the great optical patterns and the overall package design as well.
This will be a welcome addition to the La Boca book shelf.