The vulnerable dark

Photographer Rob Gilhooly has uploaded some photographs taken in the tsunami-affected area of Tohoku earlier on after the disaster. There's a slideshow (if you have the right Flash installed) on his blog, where he says, "These photos reflect the sheer emptiness of these once vibrant landscapes … I cannot remember the last time I felt so vulnerable." They are very effective companion shots to his reportage of the events. Available for editorial use via Rob's Photoshelter pages.

Chip Kidd on his 1Q84 design

I find Haruki Murakami too repetitive in theme and too laboured in execution, and after an interest in some earlier books – when I and he were younger – I find I simply can't buy in to his fantasy world, so personally I won't be getting my copy 1Q84. (I feel so lonely!) But the book gets the Chip Kidd treatment (Chip's great work has given added value to many manga at Vertical, apart from his 25+ years at Knopf. See a small selection here.) Above is a Knopf video of Chip explaining the design.

Flowerscapes

More excellent work showing at the Emon photo gallery. "Opera," a show by Kiiro, features layered images of cosmos flowers, forming a painterly, different approach to photographic landscape. Hints of the classic, and decidedly modern.

Portraits: 22

Man Bites Dog film-makers Rémy Belvaux, Benoît Poelvoorde, André Bonzel, hotel, London, 1993 For this shoot for FHM magazine each of the then-student film-makers holds an aspect of the making of their graphic, serial-killer comedy, Man Bites Dog, with the principle actor Benoît Poelvoorde holding the gun, lead director/producer Rémy Belvaux holding the camera and cinematographer André Bonzel holding the lighter. All three in fact shared writing, producing and directing credits. FHM went with a single medium-format trio shot in the end, though I quite like these grainy, cross-processed (negative to slide film) individual shots. The film was graphically violent and quite controversial at the time. All went on to make other films, but Rémy Belvaux committed suicide in 2006.

For more on these portraits, see here, and the Portraits tag at right.

Reflecting the taboos

I'm a sucker for (the occasional) metallic-inked covers. Cyzo (サイゾー) – a pop- and general-culture/exposé/news magazine – has an excellent gloss and matte, rainbow-coloured cover for the theme of "The new Japanese taboo" for its November issue.

(The cover doesn't fully really reflect the inside, just sells it – Cyzo always features a sexy young woman on its cover for its presumably mostly male audience, so hardly a taboo there! There is a girl-group marketing "taboo" among the features inside, but others include yakuza, nuclear power, Imperial family, reporting taboos etc.)

Too much of everything

The Guardian has a (disposable, of course) piece on whether there are too many infographics. It seems to me that the answer is an obvious yes. But the answer applies to pretty much everything – there is simply too much of everything, and rather than the quality coming through (in this case, of course, merely infographics, of which The Guardian can make some quality images) the best stuff gets drowned out in the mellee.

But I don't need to add another half-formed idea of what's right or wrong. (And "too much of everything" is a general a statement as you can get!) So, meanwhile, The Guardian piece also link to the Newsnight discussion above, which is worth a view. David McCandless, infographic designer, is confronted by Neville Brody, who seems at least to be getting at a greater point about prettifying things, though what a "grassroots" alternative is, he doesn't explain. So, while all is left hanging, at least it's discussed…

Hair B C

Kind of amusing font made of leg hair. It was made by a student at Tama Arts University (Mayuko) back in August and has already been used by Adidas.

via asiajin

Idle fun raises money…

…for UNICEF if you purchase a colour. Since my working name is Forbidden Colour I thought it would be entertaining to "own" the two colours (here and here). Just like having a star named after you – the universe doesn't care about the star's name – the world of multi-million colour choices has no inkling that one is "owned" by you! And the irony, of course – I came up with my work name to represent the forbidden colours of Heian-era Japan, a period when the emperor did in fact "own" these colours and others were forbidden to wear them. I just thought I'd free them for my or others' design use. Now I own them.

Art auction

Beautiful poster/logo by Dutch designer Herman van Bostelen for an art auction for post-earthquake and -tsunami Japan.

This week there's also an auction in Tokyo – with works by 400 artists including Tadanori Yokoo and Yoko Ono. (I can't find much to link to online about it, though it was mentioned on TV. Update: here's a report)

via mestudio

Portraits: 21

Sara Maitland, author, at home in London, 1994

Maitland is usually described a feminist writer (when shorthand is necessary). Looking back at the negatives for these portraits, I was pleased – with the benefit of hindsight – by these two shots next to each other on the contact sheet. Because for the past 10 years Sara has been writing and living, as she says on her website, "…on my own and pursuing a deep and joyful fascination with silence." Why the empty room should follow the portrait I don't remember: the next shot is another portrait in the same place and Sarah wasn't moving swiftly around. So it was simply a chance pressing of the shutter, leaving her gone and a barely noticeable spiral of smoke from a cigarette. The year before she was divorced from her Anglican vicar husband, the year after she was working with Stanley Kubrick on AI. Here she just happened to disappear into silence.

For more on these portraits, see here, and the Portraits tag at right.