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Polaroid SX-70 Sonar with Impossible SX-70 Colour Frames film
A pack of colour in the colourful ochre village of Roussillon
Slanted Magazine #23 – Swiss Issue
The Editors of Slanted magazine embarked on a two week “Tour de Suisse” and talked to some of the most innovative and interesting Swiss designers about tradition, transgression and progression. The resulting photos, text and video interviews with the 23 designers and studios give insight to contemporary design work in Switzerland and a glance behind the scenes.
The 23rd issue of Slanted magazine contains numerous essays reflecting Swiss graphic design, an illustrated section “Helvetica Illustrated”, a photo series of the former Bond-girl, Ursula Andress, interviews and a Carte Blanche in cooperation with form magazine. Also, included is a special “work and life” of typographer and graphic designer Hans Rudolf Lutz, edited and designed by students of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design under the Direction of Prof. Urs Lehni.
Furthermore, this 336-page issue utilizes materials to interpreted the opposing sides of Switzerland: A very shiny and structured surface against the raw and rough. This juxtaposition is represented in this issue with the use of the Chromolux-material. On the high glossy side, readers can follow the Tour de Suisse and the uncoated side features content of the Suisse Issue.
Thanks to Augmented Reality and the Junaio app, readers can easily watch embedded videos of the Tour de Suisse on mobile devices.
Tour de Suisse
Eric Andersen, Ludovic Balland, Angela Thomas (über Max Bill), Jacques Borel, Bringolf Irion Vögeli, Büro Destruct, Claudiabasel, Heyday, Hi, Hochparterre, Jost Hochuli, Matthias Hofmann, IDPURE, Komet, Matrix, Norm, Feixen, François Rappo, Rawcut, Aurèle Sack, Niklaus Troxler, Von B und C, Wolfgang Weingart
Suisse Issue
Essays, Helvetica Illustrated, Ursi National, Interviews, Carte Blanche / form, Lutz Special / HfG KA
The booklet “Contemporary Typefaces” presents fourteen recently published typefaces we think are important and interesting: Allegra (Jost Hochuli / abc litera), Apeloig Type Library (Philippe Apeloig / Nouvelle Noire), Austin Text (Paul Barnes / Commercial Type), Balto (Tal Leming / Type Supply), Camingo Mono (Jan Fromm), Coperto (Alexander Colby / Milieu Grotesque), DF Riga (Ko Sliggers / Dutchfonts), Duplicate Collection (Christian Schwartz, Miguel Reyes / Commercial Type), FS Maja (Jason Smith / Fontsmith), Karloff (Peter Bi’lak, Pieter van Rosmalen / Typotheque), Lalola (Laura Meseguer / Type-Ø-Tones), Odesta (Ondrej Jób / Urtd), Shameless (Neil Summerour / Positype), Voyage (Emil Bertell / Fenotype)
Slanted Magazine #23 – Swiss Issue
Publisher, Design and Editor: MAGMA Brand Design
Release: May 2014
Format: 16 × 24 cm
Volume: 336 pages
Language: English, German
Goal: to provide a visual graphic to enhance the message for Christmas Eve Services at The Grove Community Church in Riverside, CA.
Audience: church attenders, weekend audience of about 4,000.
Direction: text information only.
Other important info: Typefaces used: Mensch and Thirsty Rough. The arrow graphics are from the Tightrope family at Lost Type Co-op.
Finished work.
--
Former Value City Department store. This was previously a King's department store. This store was one of the last Value City locations to close in 2008.
The logo on the building is one I have never saw Value City use before. First of all the sign on the building is orange instead of the orange, yellow, and white sign they usually used on a brown background (see street sign). Second, the "V" in Value City on other signs is the only large-sized letter and on the sign here both the "V" and "C" are expanded. Last of all, the "Value City" sign is usually centered above the entrance with the "Department Store" text directly underneath it.
Photo from 1980 with the store as a King's location
vintageaerial.com/photos/ohio/stark/1980/RST/184/18
Built in 1968
60,600 square feet
1425 East State Street in Alliance, Ohio
Photo: me
Processed: photoshop 7.0
{comments and critics are always appreciate.}
Un'idea ormai comune ...
This photo is made by me.
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.
© All rights reserved. Use without permission is illegal
a project to provide photos for some memories of my childhood
I used a Graflex Super Graphic, with Adox chs50 film developed in homemade Beutler a+b. I contact printed onto some old Kentmere Art Classic and developed in homemade Agfa 135. This has given a soft, warm look
These prints have been scanned with some correction in photoshop to get the tone near to the originals
Autor:
Circo Price-
Imprenta de Manuel Minuesa de los Ríos (Madrid)-
Druck und Verlag von J. Weiner (Viena)-
Publicación: [Madrid : Circo Price, 1883] : Imp. de M. Minuesa de los Rios, Barranco de Embajadores, 13
Descripción física: 1 cartel (4 h.) : tipografía (texto) y cromolitografía (imagen) ; 240'5 x 96 cm
Nota general: Imagen de 119 x 96 cm en el centro con tít. "Niagara" y pie de imp. "Druck u. Verlag v. J. Weiner Wien Nº 3 11", que representa una actuación de Miss Niágara
Texto del cartel: "Circo y Teatro de Price / Plaza del Rey / Compañía ecuestre, gimnástica acrobática, cómica y coreográfica / Hoy lunes 18 de junio de 1883, á las 9 de la noche / Debut / de la distinguida artista, la anfibia / Niagara / The water queen / Miss Niágara / reina de las cristalinas corrientes..."
Signatura: Cart.p/10
Consulta el registro bibliográfico en la Biblioteca Digital Hispánica (BDH)
Co-produced by Chris Silva & Lauren Feece for In:Site's Art On & Off Capital project in Milwaukee, WI.
Thanks to Thor Goodlife for use of his “Baby Boy” font. Many thanks to Anton Morokov, Alex Bradley Cohen, Erik Harris, Colin Matthes, Makeal Flammini & Jon Reiter for lending hands at various points along the way to make it all happen. And thanks to old friend David Moutoussamy, a member of my first graffiti crew, for making us feel a more personal connection to his uncle, the man behind this wise quote himself, Arthur Ashe.
From Third Coast Digest's write up about the projects:
"The spirit of this year’s project is celebrated in a collaborative mural placed at 34th and Capitol. It applies well-known tennis champion-turned-philanthropist Arthur Ashe’s words: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
For their Plant Seeds mural, Chris Silva and Lauren Feece drew on Ashe’s words as a cornerstone for the expression of their belief that positive change can grow through the collaboration of individual efforts. Through bright colors and bold text, their piece proclaims the environmental direction of this project to passersby, whether they are walking, biking, or burning oil down Capitol. It is an uplifting alternative to the typical billboards that accost our senses."
For the Team Battle at bombingscience.com -
Quote at the bottom reads -
To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
-William Shakespeare
Texte original du site de Belgian Owl Whisky
Dans les années 90, une petite graine d’orge nourrissait déjà les rêves d’Etienne Bouillon. Les rencontres succèdent aux rencontres, Christian Polis et Pierre Roberti sont enthousiastes et rejoignent Etienne dans sa création.
Ce distillateur passionné, initiateur du projet, a rempli le premier fût du futur Belgian Single Malt Whisky, The Belgian Owl, le 29 octobre 2004. Les premières ventes ont eu lieu dès décembre 2004 par le biais d’une vente online soutenue par la presse quotidienne écrite belge via une pleine page publicitaire.
La création de ce premier Belgian Single Malt Whisky créé à partir d’orge cultivée en Belgique a généré un certain émoi au sein de la population belge. Très rapidement, les 804 premières bouteilles du The Belgian Owl furent achetées par des passionnés désireux de participer à l’aventure.
Déjà, dès 2004, Jim Murray au travers de sa Whisky Bible 2004 souligne la qualité de la production.
En novembre 2007, The Owl Distillery a initié l’événement ‘Spirits in the Sky’ au cours duquel les premières bouteilles ont été remises à leurs heureux propriétaires.
Depuis 2008, The Belgian Owl est disponible auprès de revendeurs spécialisés partout en Belgique. Ceux-ci ont promu le produit et ont partagé cette passion commune pour ce premier whisky belge issu de notre agriculture nationale.
2010 et 2011 ont vu la reconnaissance de la qualité du travail fourni par The Owl Distillery tant au travers des concours internationaux tels que ‘World Selection’ ou ‘Le Mondial de Bruxelles’ qu’au travers d’ouvrages tel que la Whisky Bible de Jim Murray. Parmi les prix obtenus :
Médaille d’Or 2010 et 2011 au Mondial de Bruxelles ;
Grand Gold Quality Award 2010 et 2011 au World Selection ;
European Single cask whisky of the year 2011 avec 95.5% dans la Whisky Bible de Jim Murray ;
Etc.
Notre premier objectif est de créer The Belgian Owl et de lui obtenir une reconnaissance qualitative internationale.
Les rêves succèdent aux rêves. À peine un s’est-il réalisé que le suivant se présente déjà… Allez … Osons encore … et en route pour de nouvelles aventures !
altered textbooks. 69 x 69 cm.
sedimented knowledge series.
Zwischen Zeilen.
Veränderte Lehrbücher. 69 x 69 cm. Zur Serie "Wissen, abgelagert".
Thank you, in advance, to those of you who take a moment to leave a comment and/or fave my photo. I appreciate it tremendously.
In Chinese cuisine, particularly tea brewing, one distinguishes five stages of boiling: shrimp eyes, the first tiny bubbles that start to appear on the surface of the kettle water. Crab eyes, the secondary, larger bubbles, then fish eyes, followed by rope of pearls and finally raging torrent (rolling boil).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Shrimp eyes - about 70-80°C (155-175°F) / separate bubbles, rising to the top
Crab eyes - about 80°C (175°F) / streams of bubbles
Fish eyes - about 80-90°C (175-195°F) / larger bubbles
Rope of pearls - about 90-90°C (195-205°F) / steady streams of large bubbles
Raging torrent - rolling boil, swirling and roiling.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
White Teas / 175° / 2 - 3 minutes
Japanese Green Teas / 160° / 1 - 2 minutes
Chinese Green Teas / 175° / 2 - 3 minutes
Oolongs / 205° / 4 - 5 minutes
First Flush Darjeelings / 195° / 4 - 5 minutes
Black Teas / 212° / 4 - 5 minutes
Herbals / 212° / 5 minutes
• Altitude affects the boiling point of water. As you go higher, atmospheric pressure decreases, which makes it easier to boil water.
Spoon-fed is being treated by others, in a way that discourages independent thought or action.
The last 20 months on Flickr have been a blast - cheers Flickrians.
A special thanks to my contacts who continue to inspire, challenge and give constructive feedback - phew!
My previous word / image play shot: www.flickr.com/photos/48037999@N06/6187727627/
p.s., I promise not to delete this one but I had no idea (blissfully ignorant) that my last post had so many interpretations.
The Sunday school of the Third Moravian Church of Philadelphia used share certificates like this to raise funds for the purchase of a church bell. The sale of all 2,500 shares at 10 cents each would have raised $250, and perhaps that would have covered the cost of a bell in the 1870s, which is when these certificates were issued.
For another nineteenth-century fundraising strategy that involved buying bricks rather than shares, see The Owner of This Card Has Purchased One Brick in the People's Church, Boston, Mass., ca. 1880 (below). And for a more recent fundraiser, see Buy a Block, Benefit of the Longfellow Community Building (below).
Third Moravian Church Sunday School, Harrowgate, Philadelphia.
2,500 shares. 10 cents each.
This is to certify that John Diehne is entitled to one shares in the bell of the Third Moravian Church at Harrogate, Philadelphia.
Chas. Thieley, president.
J. Lietz, secretary,
Senseman & Son, Printers, 416 Callowhill Street, Philadelphia.
“I don’t care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics. Enough is enough.” - Barack Obama
Goal:
Annual Report Cover
Direction:
Our Spring Issue of our quarterly magazine is the church's annual report. We design 18 pages of info graphics and statistics to show the church our status with church growth, giving, outreach, campus life, expansion and media. The remaining 30 pages follow the same format of our normal magazine which covers life change, outreach partners and initiatives, staff spotlight and other events of the past quarter. We used a silver metallic ink for the background grey, with a matte light grey and white on the map and the white text respectively. It gave the cover a nice 'pop' without feeling too gaudy.
Other Important Information:
We worked with our web team to develop an interactive version of the Annual Report, along with a downloadable PDF. You can find it here.
This is a finely illuminated and iconographically rich Book of Hours, made in England at the end of the thirteenth century. The manuscript is incomplete and misbound. Its main artist can also be found at work in a Bible, Oxford, Bodleian Library Ms. Auct. D.3.2, and a Psalter, Cambridge, Trinity College Cambridge Ms. O.4.16. The manuscript contains a number of unusual texts including the Hours of Jesus Crucified, and the Office of St. Catherine. The patron of the manuscript is not clear: a woman is depicted as praying in many of the initials, but rubrics in the Office of the Dead mention "freres". The imagery is marvellously inventive, and the Hours of Christ Crucified are graced with images depicting the Funeral of Reynard the Fox in its margins. In the absence of a Calendar, it is not possible to locate the origin of the manuscript precisely.
To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.
Pink tights and tutus--it's an evening at the ballet! Direct scan of "The How and Why Wonder Book of Ballet," published by Wonder Books, New York, 1961.
This book was meant as a serious reference book: It was written by Lee Wyndham, illustrated by Rafaello Busoni, with editorial production by Donald D. Wolf.
Edited under the supervision of Dr. Paul E. Blackwood, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Text and illustrations approved by Oakes A. White, Brooklyn Children's Museum.
atelier ying, nyc.
some initial thoughts...
1. For years in Chinatown there was an arcade with a chicken inside that told fortunes.
2. One of my favorite monster movies, Rodan, really started out with the Japanese name Radon.
3. My reliquarian instincts are constantly circling around the stories about trained pigeons with tiny cameras strapped on their bodies. They were used for reconnaissance during World War I.
4. The now lamentably iconic red "Angry Bird" Is the reason I also offer a "hello" sticker for this outfit.
The Canomatic M70 camera used In this design has a set of perches that the owner can alternately use for his passionate bird hobby. It's not strong enough for a larger bird like an Eclectus or a Cockatoo, But it will amply house a cardinal, which is a protected species over here in the states, which led me to christen this a bird hotel.
The fun of collecting perches provides the following:
1. a Rodan radio tower that rotates
2. a Texas Longhorn adjustable perch, recalling the fact that one of the types of Northern Cardinals hails from that state.
3. a silverplated cigar holder which is attached on when the hotel is vacant or for birdwatching reveries. Birds don't like smoke.
4. a misting device which is simple, effective. The water is adjustable by breath pressure
5. a bubble-making ring that is meant to train birds to avoid flying into dangerous glass.
6. a combination Bird-whistle & monoscope
All of these accessories attach to the hotshoe on the camera.
The bottom base is a simple birdhouse, or when not in use it can house the accessories mentioned above. With all this space this vintage camera is digitized along the lines of my other work. The housing makes all this possible and the profile view looks bird-like. The base would have to be weighted.
This design is dedicated to the great actor Mickey Rourke. I read a story that he has a pet cockatoo.
This would add to his bird family.
Design, text and drawing are copyright 2013 by David Lo.
P.S: I don't know why every time I work with a Canomatic camera, I end up designing an oblong, rectilinear type of structure, for example please see my design dedicated to PSY (camera design no. 48).
Essaouira is characterized by its narrow streets which there are different traditional houses. Each house has a door that stands out from others.
On one of the houses, the owners have decided to include on their door "save me from loss" since they did not have enough money to renovate it.
One of the locals confirmed to me that someone bought it, and its renovation will be done in the future.
Barb Wright as Liberace
This painting gave me difficulties....part and parcel of the woes as well as pleasures of digital painting. I began by loading the full cover from Confidential magazine (a sensational gossip rag from the 1950's onward) into ArtRage. Then I began painting the portrait on top of it. I was pleased with how it was coming along with the juxtaposition of painted portrait slapped against the magazine photo background. Then the difficulties began. First, part of the underlying red text area below became submerged under the painted image. As ArtRage does not have layers capability, I needed to hand paint the missing words in the "Mad About the Boy" area. In so doing, I zoomed in to work on the details of the lettering and moved the painting to one side of my computer screen to accomplish this easier. That was a fatal mistake. When I was finished with the letters, I then moved the picture back into place. All of a sudden, the entire right half of the picture was cut off and gone for good. I was faced with either abandoning the picture at this point or going on with it to hand paint the missing right half of the portrait as well as the missing photographic areas at the right of the picture. This explains the hand painted right section of the magazine. Actually, as it turned out, I now rather like the shift from left to right on the background section. In the "Frigid Wives" section, the move toward a bright green color was purely a color consideration called up by the bright yellow adjacent.... and the cool tone suggesting "frigid" in my painter's eye.
Toward completion, I thought perhaps to cut off the entire "Frigid Wives" section when I realized the "painted word" can load a painting with unavoidable narrative associations not attached to the image. However, the words tickled me as being so related to notions of American sexism of the '50's. So I let them stand as they were tied into the entire picture process from the beginning.
The portrait has been carried out with benign intent. I hope all viewers....and especial Barb Wright....can appreciate my image on its own process-involved terms.
Link to Photo Sources: www.flickr.com/photos/54791441@N03/7488795090/
www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.annehelenpetersen...
Link to Barb Wright's Flickr Photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/54791441@N03/
© 2013 Lechatbon/LGS All Rights Reserved
This photo taken in the (downtown) Seattle Public Library Evelyn W. Foster Learning Center, which houses the library's literacy, ESL and world languages collection.
The maple-wood floor was created by artist Ann Hamilton. It contains 556 lines of text (in reverse) from the first sentences of books in 11 languages and alphabets found in the collection.
Hey, it's another Doctor Who infographic!
This time instead of showcasing the various Doctors or his enemies I decided to focus on one particular episode: Earthshock, aka "The One Where Adric Dies." I'll probably do more episode specific infographics as time permits. There've been over 200 stories so far (consisting of more than 770 episodes), so that ought to keep me busy for a while.
Obviously you'll have to click "View All Sizes: Original" to read the text. Hopefully everyone will figure out how to read it; start at the upper left and follow the arrows.
Earthshock is one of my favorite episodes. It was the sixth episode of the 19th season and Peter Davisons's first year of playing the Doctor. Davison had the unenviable task of taking over after fan favorite Tom Baker left the series. He had some very large shoes to fill, and did an admirable job in my opinion. I always liked Davison's portrayal of the Doctor.
The TARDIS was becoming a bit crowded during the beginning of Davison's run, as the Doctor had three companions-– Nyssa, Tegan and Adric– traveling with him, something that hadn't happened since the early days of the show.
I had a huge crush on Nyssa back in the day, in her demure little crushed velvet jumpsuit. Tegan I didn't like so much, although I've come to appreciate her more as time passes. Maybe it was her character's abrasive personality that initially put me off?
And then there was Adric. Many fans hated the character and were definitely not sorry to see him go. He was the Wesley Crusher of Doctor Who: the whiny, know-it-all teenager. Personally I never had a problem him; I just figured he was there for kids to identify with.
Matthew Waterhouse, who played Adric, was reportedly a very inexperienced young actor when he joined the cast, and quite often it showed. He finally got a chance to shine in this episode and did a great job, in my opinion. Too bad it was his last show!
I kind of liked having a larger cast, but unfortunately the writers had trouble coming up with something for all of the characters to do in each story. For example, in Earthshock poor Nyssa has absolutely nothing to do and pretty much sits out the episode inside the TARDIS. They occasionally cut to her as she watches a viewscreen and practices looking worried, in order to remind us she still exists.
Since the cast was becoming too large for the writers to handle, it was decided the TARDIS crew needed whittled down a bit. Poor ol' Adric drew the short straw.
British comedienne Beryl Reid plays Captain Briggs in a very odd bit of casting. Kudos to the producers for casting against type I guess, but seeing a elderly lady with a bright orange beehive hairdo in the role of a hard-nosed space freighter captain was more than a little jarring. In fact some fans have taken to referring to her as "Captain Grandma." Reid pulls it off as well as can be expected though, barking out orders in her futuristic leather space jacket.
This episode marked the first appearance of the Cybermen after a seven year absence. The Cybermen seen here are rocking an all new, more advanced design. From what I've read, their big reveal at the end of Part 1 was a huge surprise to viewers. This was years before the internet and spoiler sites, so no one in the audience had any inkling that the Cybermen were returning until the final minutes of Part 1.
The same goes for the death of Adric. Everyone just naturally assumed the Doctor would pop up at the last second and save him. When that didn't happen and Adric bought the space farm, it was a massive shock to the audience. Companions just didn't die on Doctor Who, especially teenage ones. It was a turning point and the beginning of a somewhat darker tone for the series. The death of Adric showed us that the Doctor doesn't always win. That was quite a jolt to viewers.
For the first time in the history of the series, the end credits rolled silently over the image of Adric's shattered star pin.
No episode is perfect though, even classic ones, and this one is no exception. The Cyberleader's Plan B involves rigging the anti-matter powered space freighter so that it will crash into Earth and wipe out all life. Fair enough. So why then was the entire Cybermen army stored in suspended animation on the ship? That never made a lick of sense to me. Surely it wouldn't have taken more than a handful of troops to overpower the five or six crew members manning the freighter. There was no need for an entire army to be stashed there. Once the ship was rigged the whole army had to high-tail it off the ship before it blew up, to a nearby Cybermen fleet. Why were they on the ship in the first place? Why store your army inside a bomb?
Also, the Cyberleader is constantly stating that Cybermen have no emotions. He says this proudly, almost boastfully, while constantly screaming, wildly gesticulating and even taunting the Doctor. If he had a mustache he'd be twirling it. For a member of a race with no emotions, he gets pretty darned theatrical.
As for the actual drawing of the infographic, I changed the color scheme many, many times. When you have so many characters in an image it's tough finding colors that don't cause them to blend in with the background or contrast too much. At one point I thought that since it was Adric's story it would be a good idea to use the colors of his clothing– gold, avocado and red– as the color scheme. That might have been a good idea on paper, but it was eye-searing in reality. I finally settled on the steel blue-gray of the Cybermen as the main color.
I'd already drawn the Fifth Doctor before, so I was able to reuse him here. He was originally holding a sonic, but my pal Ian Ledger pointed out that #5 had lost the sonic by this point in the series, so I redrew his right arm. I'd drawn this version of the Cybermen before as well, so I was able to reuse them too.
Adric's likeness didn't give me too much trouble, nor did Captain Grandma, er, I mean Briggs. Nyssa took a while to get right, but I'm happy with the way she turned out. Tegan was the hardest one of all. I'm still not completely satisfied with her, but it'll have to do.
Lastly I would like to add that I'm glad this infographic is finished because my fingers seem to be incapable of typing Earthshock correctly. I'm tired of typing "Earthsock" or "Earthschok."
Very special thanks to my pal across the pond, Ian Ledger, who helped out with editing, text correction and support.
Drawn and laid out entirely in InDesign.
Want to see more? Check out my new blog! All the cool kids are doing it!
Print, phone cases, shirts and variations available at Society6.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Home accessories products available at DENY Designs.
Here is a better version of the AP Mini Mag that is coming out on 12/14. Go pre order your copy HERE
link to full size image, 2800x2800 pixels.
villa bille, house and studio for artists ejler bille and agnete therkildsen, vejby strand, denmark 1954-55.
architects: jørn utzon (1918-2008) and ib møgelvang (1919-1993).
on a related note, here is a minuscule and overlooked utzon project which allows us to trace the theme of roofs and skylights spanning parallel walls from bank melli half a decade back in time, to before he won the sydney opera house competition. why this is not featured prominently in the books is a mystery to me. utzon's single family houses from the 1950's tend towards the slightly dull - his Danish clients would have it no other way, I am sure - but there are famous exceptions like his own elegant, open-plan home and the middelboe house on pilotis by a lake. and then there is this one, the villa bille as it was named by its architect.
I built a simple, digital model to show you the underlying principles. the two parallel walls are in brickwork, held up by five buttresses of varying sizes and angles. these are exceptional for such a small house, for any modern house. more like ancient remnants, they have the raw presence of monumental ruins, fragments of some greater whole.
a former colleague of mine told of her meeting with utzon; he was studying a section through the concrete structure of a building when he pointed to a spot where the steel rods were particularly densely spaced, saying, 'here, an opportunity for architectural expression has been wasted.'
anyone else would have put a few steel profiles inside those walls to keep them up. utzon's discovery was that all our neat and orderly solutions are detracting from architecture itself. after asplund, anyone could do a fine staircase, his friend sverre fehn later recounted, but they had forgotten the space it was in. utzon brought it back.
how are we doing now, I wonder.
utzon even placed a lean-to greenhouse between two of the buttresses, treating the structure almost as something found, adapted and reused. the greenhouse reflects a certain 1950's frugality, as does the house itself with a floor area of less than one hundred square meters. but there is more when you think about it; a spirit of independence and self-reliance, the artist couple leaving town for a life on the rugged coast, devoted to their work.
in fact, the house has their double height studio at its core. with no real windows to the world other than a clerestory, this was utzon's most introverted space to date, and the first version of a spatial category central to the architect's work, the cave-like retreat - a category which was to include the melli banking hall, bagsværd church and - in its most literal form - the unbuilt project for an underground asger jorn museum in silkeborg.
client and personal friend of the architect, ejler bille, also merits attention. he was a successful painter and sculptor, and a founding member of the COBRA group in the late 1940's. now, if the name COBRA does not ring a bell, many of you will know co-founders jorn and constant, who went on to found the internationale situationniste in 1957 with guy debord.
COBRA members celebrated ludic spontaneity, abundant colour, and painting styles related to abstract expressionism, yet they typically included distorted, mask-like humanoids inspired by children's drawings and folk art in their works. I like to think this brings us closer to understanding utzon's artistic affinities. he dreamt of a fuller integration of modern art and architecture, and of working with the freedom of the artists he admired, but he failed to secure or complete the commissions that would have allowed for such ambitions, one of the tragedies of his career.
in hindsight, perhaps ejler bille's paintings lack the edge found in the work of fellow COBRA members karel appel and asger jorn. bille borders on the whimsical, something you can hardly accuse utzon's hard-headed, little house of. rather, the willful primitivism of those abrupt brick walls make for a striking example of early, poetic brutalism. this is the stuff team X was made of, but utzon was careful to avoid association with groups, and we should be careful not to force them on him posthumously.
he was also careful in selecting what to publish, in the case of villa bille too much so.
more utzon here
more words, yada, yada, yada.
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Class of '84.
Blanche Wilhelm, Mamie Moss, Minnie I. Wright, Maggie M. Waltman, Mame E. Jones, Omie Tilton, Joseph A. Cameron, Joseph N. Wright, Albert E. May.
Mundus ante nos est [the world is before us].
Typeface: Arboret ("Class of '84"), Fantaisie Italique ("Mundus ante nos est "). (Thanks to Stephen Coles for identifying the typeface.)
Detail of a retired harbour crane on the bank of the river Main in Frankfurt. A remarkable beast. I tweaked lighting and contrast, but the colour is as-shot.