New Work: ‘Structure of Light’ for Yale Architecture

Thanks to Diddy, our posters for the Yale School of Architecture have been in the spotlight. Michael Bierut and his team have been designing the series of posters—over 70 to date—for the past dozen years. The latest, issued earlier this month, was created for Yale Architecture’s symposium “Structure of Light: Richard Kelly and the Illumination of Modern Architecture.” Kelly was a lighting designer known for his collaborations with modernist architects including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Louis I. Kahn and Philip Johnson. The poster uses the series’ simple design parameters—black, white and type—to make the symposium title, set in Hoefler & Frere-Jones’s Tungsten, look like architecture emerging from the dark.

Michael Bierut’s original sketch for the poster after the jump.

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35 Years of Holiday Greetings from Pentagram

Every Christmas since 1971, Pentagram has designed and published a small annual greetings booklet and sent it to our friends, colleagues and clients. Usually designed around a game or activity, these small books are intended to provide a diversion during the hectic holiday period. The partners take turns researching and designing the books, which traditionally avoid any direct reference to the season, adopting a strong graphic vocabulary in order to set them apart from the myriad of cards received at this time of year.

Wallpaper has put together a gallery of the books from Christmases past, 1974-2008, published together for the first time. The 2009 card, currently in the mail, tweaks the format. (More on this soon.) Happy holidays!

2010 Typography Calendar Is Cool Hunted

Quick Link: 2010 Typography Calendar Is Cool Hunted

Pentagram 2010 Typographic Calendar Now Available

We’ve still got a few months left of 2009 but we’re already looking forward to 2010 with the publication of our new Typographic Calendar, available now. Designed by Kit Hinrichs, the calendar features a different typeface each month in the classic wall or desk calendar format. Each month includes a brief description about what makes the featured font distinctive and a biography of the type designer. All major holidays for the US and UK are noted, along with the birthdays of the type designers. The 2010 edition uses typefaces available from Veer.

The calendar is available in two sizes, a supersize 33-by-23 inch version suitable for wall hanging and a smaller 18-by-12 inch version appropriate for desk or wall use. The price of the supersize calendar is $44 and the smaller desk/wall calendar is $26. (Prices do not include shipping.) Both versions are available at museum shops across the US and online from kenknight.com.

Kit will continue to produce the calendar from his new venture, Studio Hinrichs.

Update: Kit talks to @Issue about designing the calendar.

New Work: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Kit Hinrichs and Belle How in San Francisco have redesigned Discoveries, a semi-annual publication of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the largest non-profit academic hospital in the United States. Pentagram’s challenge was to invigorate and redefine the magazine’s graphic and editorial viewpoint to better articulate the major research initiatives of the institution and simultaneously make it more compelling, flexible and distinctive to its audience.

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New Work: Sappi

Kit Hinrichs and Belle How have just completed the ultimate guide to designing with varnish and coatings: The Standard, Volume 3, issued by Sappi Fine Paper and printed on its premium McCoy.

Advances in paper chemistry and printing technology over the past five years have made it possible to expand the role of varnish and coatings beyond merely protecting the printed surface to using these processes to evoke tactile, three-dimensional qualities. Designed to serve as a comprehensive reference tool, Standard 3 demonstrates a full range of techniques, with instructive notes, price/complexity ratings, a glossary of important terms, and a paper finish comparison. The book features images (food, fashion, etc.) where such techniques would make a powerful impression and covers the gamut from simple to complex.

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Awards: Communication Arts 2009 Design Annual

From cycles to sweeteners, stars to stripes: Nine outstanding projects from our portfolio have been selected to appear in the Communication Arts 2009 Design Annual.

The work covers five categories within the competition. The Harley-Davidson Museum is represented twice in the environmental graphics category, for Abbott Miller’s permanent exhibitions and for Michael Bierut’s signage for the museum. Also honored in the category are Miller’s design for the exhibition Brno Echo: Ornament and Crime from Adolf Loos to Now at the Moravian Gallery and Kit Hinrichs’ exhibition Long May She Wave at the Nevada Museum.

Bierut’s identities for Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) and The Oak Room have been selected in the integrated branding category. Paula Scher’s work for Truvia sweetens the packaging category, where Bierut’s ream wrap for Strathmore Paper (with Marian Bantjes) is also highlighted. Michael Gericke’s design of “A Number of Numbers”, our 2008 holiday card, is a winner in the self-promotion category.

The Design Annual is due out at the end of the year in the November/December issue of Communication Arts. It is an honor to be recognized by CA and we are extremely proud of the brilliant work put forth by our teams.

Construction Under Way on New M&T Bank Signature Branch

Lorenzo Apicella and his team in San Francisco and London have designed a new flagship branch for M&T Bank in Buffalo, New York. The 9,100 sq foot building is due for completion by year’s end and will serve as the model for all of the bank’s future branch construction and renovation.

“This new design language is deliberately more contemporary and expressive than M&T’s present branch architecture,” says Apicella. “Its inspiration, however, was the architecture of numerous enduring financial institutions—not least of all that of M&T’s own iconic Buffalo headquarters.”

Apicella’s team is working with local architects of record Kideney and HHL on the project.

Awards: 365: AIGA Annual Design Competition 30

Each year the long, cold winter of competition submissions pays off (hopefully) with a little winning in the warmer months. This year our US offices have had a lucky 13 projects selected in the 365: AIGA Annual Design Competition 30, announced today.

Pentagram has winners in all four categories, or “channels,” of 365. In Branding, our selections include the identities for the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), Bobby’s Burger Palace and The Oak Room, all designed by Michael Bierut; the identity for OLIN, designed by Abbott Miller; and the refresh of The Public Theater identity, designed by Paula Scher. Scher’s 2008 Shakespeare in the Park campaign was honored in the Promoting channel, as were Michael Bierut’s viewbook for Yale College and our very own Pentagram Papers 39: Signs, designed by DJ Stout, and holiday book, A Number of Numbers, designed by Michael Gericke. Abbott Miller’s False Start issue of 2wice was selected in the Entertaining category, and Kit Hinrich’s Long May She Wave: A Graphic History of the American Flag exhibition at the Nevada Museum of Art was honored in Informing.

Our winners in the AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers section of the competition are Writings on Architecture, the collection of essays by Paul Rudolph, designed by Michael Bierut; and Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, the exhibition catalogue for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, designed by Abbott Miller.

The winning projects will be published in the annual AIGA: 365 Year in Design, out later this year.

‘@Issue’ Becomes a Blog

The brainchild of Kit Hinrichs, writer Delphine Hirasuna and Peter Lawrence of the Corporate Design Foundation, @Issue: Journal of Business and Design has now been turned into a blog, at the URL atissuejournal.com.

Fifteen years ago, the three founded the print version to present visually rich case studies of how good design has contributed to business success. The journal, officially published by Corporate Design Foundation, became a huge success, peaking at a circulation of 100,000. The print edition of @Issue has had to take a hiatus due to the downturn in the economy. Both to keep the brand alive and to seize the opportunity to expand the reach of the publication, the journal has gone online as a blog. The site has already attracted thousands of visitors from 66 countries. “Atissuejournal.com is not meant to replace the print journal,” Kit says. “Our intention is to publish shorter, more topical stories on the blog, and more indepth, analytical pieces in print.”