Design is Play

Play Press: “Tolerance” Catalog by Zayed University, Abu Dhabi

Angie’s poster—a collaboration with calligrapher John Stevens—interprets a quote of Martin Luther King Jr.’s included in his 1963 book of sermons, “Strength to Love.”

Mark’s poster superimposes one of his illustrations over a halftone image of Donald Trump and the White House.

Zayed University published a 226 page catalog of the “The Tolerance Poster Show” that opened last month in Dubai. While a number of posters were censored from the exhibition (see May 13th post), all 111 posters were reproduced in the book.

Thank you to organizers David Howarth and Kevin Badni for their efforts, and to Mirko Ilić for inviting us to participate in this amazing project in 2018!

Play Press: International “Tolerance” Poster Exhibition in Hungary

Mark’s Tolerance poster displayed inside Anker’t, Budapest.

On June 4th “The Tolerance Poster Show” opened in Anker’t in Budapest, Hungary. 100 posters are displayed on the outside and inside of the building as part of Pride Festival.

Mirko Ilić, the curator of “Tolerance,” explains the origin of the project: “The initial idea of this exhibition was to invite well-known graphic designers to create posters based on their understanding of tolerance in their mother tongue. One of the conditions was that the exhibition is placed in a public space, among the citizens, not in art galleries. The purpose of the exhibition is not only displaying posters, but in gathering and approaching people. Artists are the ones who promote tolerance and peace, and facilitate the reconciliation process.”

See both “Tolerance” posters and others under Design is Play Studio Posters.

Play Press: International “Tolerance” Poster Exhibition in United Arab Emirates

Angie’s poster can be seen on the far left on the top row. Mark’s poster is censored and is among the bundle of canvases in the center of the gallery floor.

On May 13th “The Tolerance Poster Show” opened at Zayed University’s Urban Satellite Space in Dubai. The posters were printed on stretched canvases and will be exhibited across all seven Emirates in the following months.

A number of posters were censored by the upper administration of the University due to their “sensitive nature.” Mirko Ilić, the curator of “Tolerance,” writes: “The organizer decided, rather than leave them [censored work] out of the show altogether, they were included as a ‘sculpture’ in the middle of the room so that there was an opportunity for discussion with the visitors.”

Mark’s poster is among the censored works.

See both “Tolerance” posters and others under Design is Play Studio Posters.

Play Press: El Pípila Wins a 2019 James Beard Award

Congratulations to Schwartz and Architecture for their win of a 2019 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant Design for El Pípila! We are thrilled for everyone involved in this worthwhile project.

Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Justin Phillips notes that “El Pípila’s win is a change of pace considering the last two San Francisco restaurants to top the category were Michelin-starred fine-dining establishments—In Situ in 2018 and Healdsburg’s Single Thread in 2017.”

We are proud of our design contributions to the success of El Pípila!

Architects: Schwartz and Architecture
Lighting: PritchardPeck Lighting
Branding: Design is Play
Contractor: Cookline
Mural installation: Martin Sign Company
Photography: Bruce Damonte

Play Press: El Pípila Nominated for James Beard Award

El Pípila has just been nominated for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant Design! Congratulations to Neal Schwartz et al!

Our updated tagline for El Pípila—“Guardians of Guanajuatan Cuisine”—is expressed in our design of the restaurant’s environmental graphics. We envisioned the restaurant as a metaphoric garden filled with flowers and butterflies: a gathering place for sustenance and community. This garden of Guanajuatan culture and cuisine is protected by guardians of the night: dogs beneath stars, and scorpions. Larger dogs serve as guardians of the day.

See the full spectrum of our work for El Pípila under Design is Play Studio Systems.

Photography: Bruce Damonte

Play Press: International “Tolerance” Poster Exhibition in Slovenia

Our “Tolerance” posters are exhibited outside the Mestni Muzej (City Museum) in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The posters are being exhibited as part of the 5th “Festival House of Tolerance”—an international festival of films, lectures, exhibits, and other cultural events.

Mark’s poster superimposes one of his illustrations over a halftone image of Donald Trump and the White House.

Angie worked with noted calligrapher John Stevens to typographically interpret a quote of Martin Luther King Jr.’s included in his 1963 book of sermons, “Strength to Love.”

See both “Tolerance” posters and others under Design is Play Studio Posters.

Photography: foto.mihas.fras

El Pípila Branding and Environmental Graphics

Last May, our CCA colleague Neal Schwartz invited us to collaborate with his office to develop an identity for El Pípila—a women-owned, family-run restaurant specializing in the cuisine of Guanajuato, Mexico.

Working with Schwartz and Architecture, we provided full pro bono design services to brand El Pípila. Our work includes brand positioning and design of the trademark, wordmark, environmental graphics, and interior and exterior signage.

El Pípila opened its doors today! Special thanks to Schwartz and Architecture and La Cocina.

See the full spectrum of our work for El Pípila under Design is Play Studio Systems.

Photography: Bruce Damonte

Play Press: Fox and Wang Off Duty

One of six assemblage paintings from the series “Unhelpful Instructions”

“Off-Duty” is a modest show of our work that includes assemblage paintings and limited-edition prints—work that we make in our off-hours, when we don’t have to be clear—or helpful.

On exhibit at The Bench Gallery from January 6 to February 16.

See all six assemblage paintings from the series “Unhelpful Instructions” under Design is Play Studio Systems.

Play Press: Communication Arts 2019 Typography Annual

Our GW monogram for Great Western Power Co. is included in Communication Arts’ 9th Typography Annual!

Great Western Power Co. is a rock climbing gym built inside a former power sub-station and steam heat plant in Oakland, California. We described it to our friends at Touchstone Climbing as “a little DC Comics: powerful and super-charged.” We hand-inked the symbol before building it in Illustrator.

Our GW monogram is one of 128 projects out of 1,653 entries that will appear in the January/February issue of Communication Arts.

Play Press: The “Design of Dissent” Poster Exhibition in Romania

Unirii Square in Timișoara, Romania

We are honored that our 2016 poster Trump 24K Gold-Plated is featured in Mirko Ilić’s Design of Dissent poster exhibition, which opened in Timișoara, Romania on October 19th.

From the exhibition statement: “The Design of Dissent is a survey of prominent graphic works of social and political protest and critique spanning the last fifty years, initiated by Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilić. The exhibition in Timișoara includes a selection of graphic works created by Atelier Nous Travaillons Ensemble (France), Péter Pócs (Hungary), Yossi Lemel (Israel), Cedomir Kostović (USA), Barbara Kruger (USA), Parisa Tashakori (Iran), Jose Luis Lopez (Ecuador), Coco Cerrella (Argentina), Vitaliy Shostya, Elena Batenko, Svetlana Koshkina, Marina Chikaliuk (Ukraine), Anur Hadžiomerspahić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Chun-liang Leo Lin (Taiwan), Andrew Lewis (Canada), Natalia Delgado Avila (Mexico), Mohammad Sharaf (Kuwait), Chris Serrano (USA),  Ramzi Moutran, Sabia Fatayri, Christopher Hunt (USA), Yue Chen (USA), Mark Fox, Angie Wang (USA), Juan F. Miranda (Argentina), Bruno Rivera (Bolivia), Dalida Karić-Hadžiahmetović (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Wesam Mazhar Haddad (Jordan), Dugudus (France), Bukheyproject/Bulkin S., Mikheeva E. (Russia).”

See our Trump 24K Gold-Plated poster and others under Design is Play Studio Posters.

Photos: © 2018 Paula Duta.

Play Press: International “Tolerance” Poster Exhibition in Ukraine

Our work is included in Mirko Ilić’s “Tolerance” traveling poster show that opened at The MostFest 2.0 in Konstantinovka, Ukraine, on August 25th. (Mark’s poster can be seen in the lower left.) We love that the posters on this wall were placed to cover earlier neo-Nazi graffiti.

Other designers whose work is also on this wall include Garth Walker, Edel Rodriguez, Paula Scher, Milton Glaser, and Max Kisman.

See our “Tolerance” posters and others under Design is Play Studio Posters.

Photo courtesy of Rajko Božić.

 

Play Press: Fox Interviewed in The Drum

“It is extremely difficult for large, multinational corporations to credibly exemplify craft because their very structure and reason for being are generally in opposition to it. Just because a product or process is deemed ‘bespoke’ or ‘artisanal’ in a strategy document doesn’t mean that it is. Caveat emptor.”

From “Craft in action: the case for graphic designers to start with analog methods,” an interview with Allyson Marrs via The Drum in which I discuss the role of craft in design.

Download and read full interview. [MF]

International “Tolerance” Poster Exhibition

Earlier this year we were asked by Mirko Ilić to contribute to his “Tolerance” traveling poster exhibition, an international response by designers to the idea of social tolerance. Angie worked with noted calligrapher John Stevens to typographically interpret a quote of Martin Luther King Jr.’s included in his 1963 book of sermons, Strength to Love.

Mark’s poster superimposes one of his illustrations over a halftone image of Donald Trump and the White House.

We like Mirko’s thoughts on the political role of the designer, which he expressed in an interview with Print in 2017: “Designers are firstly humans/citizens and then designers. Hopefully, one day when they stop being designers, they’re still going to be humans…. Designers and artists understand the power of an image; because of that they have an additional duty to use it, but use it wisely.”

See other posters under Design is Play Studio Posters.

Play Press: “Protest! Resistance Posters” exhibition, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

We are thrilled to have four of our posters—Trump (Moloch), OBOMBA, Trump 24K Gold-Plated, and Kinder, Gentler, Carpet Bombing—included in the exhibit “Protest! Resistance Posters” which opens tonight at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.

From the museum’s publicity: “Globalization, women’s rights, Trump: the poster has established itself as an effective medium for political struggle. 50 years after 1968, the onset of a worldwide rebellion, this exhibition presents around 300 international protest posters.

“The designs dismantle rulers, denounce injustice, or lend utopia a face. They are instances of visual memory, appeal to the necessity of resistance today, and prove the topicality and universality of the depicted themes. The exhibition showcases the work of socially engaged designers and illuminates various strategies of protest.”

Play Press: “Hope to Nope” exhibition, Design Museum, London

Photograph courtesy of Benjamin Westoby and the Design Museum.

Our Trump 24K Gold-Plated poster was acquired by the Design Museum, London on September 7, 2017 and is to appear in their new exhibition—“Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008–18”—which opens this week.

From the Design Museum publicity: “Graphic design in the form of internet memes, posters and protest placards is being used by the marginalised and powerful alike to shape political messages like never before.

“From the global financial crash and the Arab Spring, to ISIS, Brexit and Trump, this exhibition explores the numerous ways graphic messages have challenged, altered and influenced key political moments.”

See our Trump 24K Gold-Plated poster and others under Design is Play Studio Posters.

Play Press: Works on Paper Acquired by the Letterform Archive, Part 2

San Francisco’s Letterform Archive recently acquired a range of printed ephemera from the Design is Play and BlackDog archives. Stationery systems include those designed for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) Architecture + Design Forum (1998); California College of the Arts (CCA) (2003); Design is Play (2008); and BlackDog (2008).

The most recently designed acquisition is the 6th Amendment poster we designed for the “We the People” exhibit held at The Cooper Union (2017); the oldest is Mark’s “End Pollution: Bomb the Pentagon” poster (1991). The body of work encompasses a range of printing processes on a wide variety of substrates, including offset lithography, engraving, letterpress, blind embossing, foil stamping, and screen printing.

One of the acquisitions is a full deck of playing cards we foil stamped to announce the launch of our original website in 2011. (The cards were used for a mailing based on the idea of “play.”) Card backs are overprinted with an LCD grid to suggest infinite possibilities: depending on which portions of the grid are “lit,” any letter or number can be constructed. The LCD grid as a programmable system is an apt analogy for our studio as well as the web.

Card fronts are overprinted with a “window” which reframes the original design, forcing the viewer to reconsider the familiar schema. Like the LCD grid, the window suggests a larger idea: a screen with an infinite number of views. Foil stamping by Oscar Printing, San Francisco; photography © Mark Serr.

Play Press: TDC Typography 38, Judges Choice

We are proud to have our Trump 24K Gold-Plated poster designated a “Judge’s Choice” by juror Spencer Charles. Below are his comments from Typography 38, the Annual of the Type Directors Club:

“The judging for this competition took place the weekend after the U.S. presidential inauguration, the same weekend the nation was dealing with the fallout from the immigration ban that had just been enacted. Because of this context, and because of the thoughtful execution of this poster, it provoked a conversation unlike any other entry in the competition. Additionally, it demonstrated that typography can (and should) extend beyond formal and aesthetic considerations and can very powerfully communicate the spirit of its content, even if that purpose is to agitate and make a political statement.”

See our Trump 24K Gold-Plated poster and others under Design is Play Studio Posters.