I felt that I hadn’t got out and about enough last year, so I’m pleased to report that I’m already making up for it in 2016. I have attended two talks at the Typo Circle hearing from co-founder of The Chase, Ben Casey and Studio EMMI. Emma Salonen was a delight, celebrating 10 years of studio practice.
Tonight at Unit Live featured Tony Brook of Spin and Unit Editions, Harry Pearce of Pentagram and Mr Mexico ’68 himself, the brilliant Lance Wyman.
Tony is always good value. He starting his talk asking himself the big questions, who am I? How do others regard me? Modernist / Minimalist / A Punk / Designer. He finally settled for ‘Bald’. But the previous keywords do begin an imaginary list to describe Spin, his design studio which are celebrated in their monograph, ‘360˚’.
Tony’s love for graphic design is also evident in Unit Editions, his publishing company, co-foundered with writer and designer Adrian Shaughnessy. Their books are an absolute gift to like-minds, some of whom are assembled here tonight at the Logan Hall in London. Tony revealed a few forthcoming titles, but I will not provide any spoilers. But they will maintain Unit’s high standards.
Next up was Harry Pearce of Pentagram. Unit has recently published his book, ‘Eating With the Eyes’ a collection of Harry’s photographs which document his observations and discoveries. And it is so much more than a typical Instagram feed. Harry’s talk was quite moving and checking back to my notebook, I had captured the statement, ‘design = feeling’. Please google, ‘questioning the bomb poster’ and you’ll see what I mean.
Now it was time for Adrian to introduce tonight’s main speaker.
Lance Wyman’s work for the Mexico Olympics in 1968 is superb. These days, people talk of ‘brand extension’ but reviewing Lance’s work you are impressed by its invention, ambition and scale. And the spark as we know was the radiating abstract patterns of op art. Its touch points beyond identity are, to name a few, way finding, fabrics, installations and stamps. It’s all in the Unit Editions book, ‘Lance Wyman: The Monograph’. Treat yourself.
Just one more on the Olympics project, I loved this example of the identity which had been appropriated to promote civil unrest and student protest.
By the end of his talk, you could tell that Lance was quite emotional talking about his work and flattered to be celebrated in his own book. It was a superb evening.
Please see my previous post on Lance Wyman’s show at Norwich University of the Arts.