Design & Paper

TRENDS

5 x Trend Inspiration

29/09/2016

1 × Hello Yellow!

Yellow is making a comeback. One of the happiest, brightest shades on the spectrum is perfect for making a strong statement, creating contrast and making a statement, while still being neutral and classic. The color of ripe lemons, sunflowers and gold will be soon seen on everything from stationery to interior design, either as a pop of color or in larger areas for the brave ones. Studies show that yellow is the color people most often associate with amusement, gentleness, and spontaneity, while playing an important role in Asian culture, where it is seen as the color of happiness, glory, wisdom, harmony and culture.

2 × Go Green!

Green has been climbing back into our lives slowly but steadily since Pantone chose it as the color of the year a few years back, for a while now and I for one are m0re than happy about it. The color of nature and life in all it’s thousands of shades and tones is one that never fails to impress. Obviously most easily associated with springtime, growth and nature, as well as camouflage, the color has long roots in history by signalling the wearers status in society. With it’s clear connection to nature, green is the color of environmental movements and ecological values, highly important in these modern times.

3 × Oil Pastels!

Pastels been around for a while now, mainly because of the popular 90’s flashback we’ve been living in the last two years. And before it slides back into hiding to wait for it’s next moment in the lime light, it’ll have it’s final hooray in the form marbled patterns, oily surfaces and rough finishes. The colors with low saturation and dreamy feel and a traditionally washed out, soft and milky look, are now used with high gloss finishes and now notoriously popular marble pattern.

4 × Oozing Orange!

Crowned with the noble title of “the happiest color”, orange reflects warmth, fire, energy, taste and aroma, and has always been paired with the autumn season – I guess because of the highly lovable pumpkin season. But still, as a color, it divides opinions and evokes feelings, which makes it a great statement color. Right now we’re seeing a lot of tangerine orange, the rich pigment associated with the North African region, with especially exotic and luxurious feel. Combined with quality materials it oozes of emotion and richness, perfect for special occasions and statement pieces.

5 × Lines and Strokes!

Geometric patterns simply never go out of style, it’s just a question of more or less. And right now, the emphasis is on less. It’s all about lines and dots, brush strokes and basic shapes. Either minimally clean or freely organic, mostly monochromatic with a small splash of color in muted tones or earthy pastels. Whether inspired by artist techniques and imperfection, or prefect balance and order, there is so much beautiful textures and patterns to be created with these simple means, it’s very hard to get bored of it. The classic stripe is being re-invented over and over again and it never gets old!

Visit the Design & Paper Pinterest page to see the source of the images and find more color and trend inspiration!

BRANDING

Voice Branding by ICARUS Creative

27/09/2016

Design is the silent ambassador of a brand – a known fact about the importance and responsibility of branding. It delivers where words can’t reach. Innsbruck based Icarus Creative build a bridge between these two and created an identity for Voice, a speech and voice training company, inspired by language and words.

With intensive violet and orange tones and a playful visual approach full of contrast and boisterous attitude, Icarus designed a uniquely bold branding concept that draws attention to the importance of the topic of voice and speech from the perspective of Verena Covi in a unique way and conveys it from its dusty old image into a sensual and desirable new direction. By visualising audio waves, which are the symbol for versatility of language, pronunciation and intonation, the recognizable wavy pattern becomes the basis of the concept. The audio waves in their simplified form can be transmitted into every different medium. The 50 different versions of business cards showcase the versatility of language also for the print media, while the website displays a playful approach to speech technique. By clicking onto specially marked words in the running text an audio sample will be played. At the same time animated audio waves rhythmically move to the spoken word. The concept also uses phonetics – the study of the sounds of human speech.

Images © ICARUS Creative

DESIGN

Selected Works by Rachel Katstaller

23/09/2016

Tropicalona 2016 Girls and constellations, ink and gouache paintings. Insecurity girls I’m Not Lost Cover redesign of Toni Cade Bambara’s collection of short stories “Gorilla, My Love” done for Uncovered Classics. Small risographed book about a girl and her relationship to her wild cat, Ocelot.

Swapping the jungle for some mountains, Rachel Katstaller travelled across the globe from El Salvador to Innsbruck with her cat Hemingway in tow, now residing in the heart of the Austrian Alps. The young creatives adorable and enchanting illustrations are full of color, life and emotion, incorporating text and rich colors. With a quirky girl character finding her way through the tropics, or contemplating on life mysteries neck deep in water, Katstaller work tells the stories and sometimes struggles we all go through. With a self-portrait feel to her work, and a keen eye for interesting observations it’s worth the while to check more of her work and follow her on Instagram.

Images © Rachel Katstaller

DESIGN

Furniture Made From Shredded Magazines by Jens Praet

21/09/2016

Jens Praet, Belgian furniture designer, has found a use for the huge masses of wastepaper produced in offices. And his solution is as beautiful as it is smart, recycling the paper material back into use. In his series of furniture titled Shredded, he literally has taken non-useful documents and leftover magazines and shredded them, transforming into valuable and useful objects including tables, benches, shelfs. Mixed with clear resin, the shredded material forms a heavy, resistant compound that boasts similar firmness to wood but has a beautiful, intriguingly unique appearance. From far the surface seems similar to stone, concrete or even marble, but on a closer inspection an exquisite surface pattern can be seen with unexpected fragility and detail.

The Shredded series consists of nine different styles, each done of either shredded documents or magazines such as Art in America, Capitol File, Details, Fast Company, and Robb Report, either giving the object a white and black, more minimal look or a darker, colorful style. Each table, shelf etc. is produced in a series of 12 and exclusively from a single magazine edition.

BRANDING

Malik Bros Branding Oozes Excellence

20/09/2016

Malik Bros is a men’s tailored goods company in London that provides the finest hand-made, custom attire from business wear to tuxedos. The brand oozes of excellence, quality and class, offering a luxurious garment service. Sebastian Bednarek from SB Brands created a visual identity echoing the values and care Malik Bros puts in their product and brand. Design revolving around a carefully curated color scheme of rich earthy tones from forrest green to light beige and shiny copper on the logo, used with high quality mix of materials from high gloss to matt and suede builds a feeling of worldly, traditional knowledge with a contemporary edge. With a cohesive look across the product, branding as well as the store interior, a great narrative is born to tell the tale of Malik Bros.

Bednarek and his creative agency is responsible for an array of gorgeous branding concepts for clients across the globe, putting value in great concepts and quality finishes, Malik Bros is a prime example of what he’s capable of. Truly understanding the values of good branding and the importance of it in the modern world. With careful attention to detail while tapping into the desire for Merino wool, Italian silk, cashmere and superfine wool worsteds, Bednarek creates a world of luxury hard to pass off.

Images © Sebastian Bednarek

ART, EDITORIAL

Lost: the story of refugees

14/09/2016

Lost: the story of refugees is a book that reflects on the future, past and present, by documenting the journey of refugees from Greece to Germany. At present there are around 60 million people worldwide expelled due to war, political persecution or oppression. They are looking for shelter. The European refugee crisis began last year when a rising number of refugees and migrants sparked upon a journey to the European Union to seek asylum and better living standards, travelling across the Mediterranean Sea or through Southeast Europe. Coming from areas such as Western and South Asia, Africa, and the Western Balkans, they have met with refusal, hatred and discrimination. Giving a voice to the refugees a five-member group of young photographers, reporters and graphic artists joined the refugees flight for freedom through the Balkan states from the Greek island of Lesbos to the refugee camps in Austria. Documenting the experiences, life stories, emotions and moments, a book was born. Lost: the story of refugees shows the faces and tells the stories of the ones looking fro a brighter future from a view of a silent observer. The stunning black and white images and touching words show a different view from what the mainstream media and the politicians give.

The photos are travelling around Austria in a form of an exhibition, right now being showcased in Innsbruck, at the Fotoforum till the 17th of September. The profits from the book goes towards the integration programs for refugees in Austria. Buy your copy here.

Images © Lost: the story of refugees

ILLUSTRATION

Selected works by Aleksandar Savić

13/09/2016

Cover illustration for Austrian bike magazine Drahtesel. The cover story title was “Made in Austria”

Illustration for an article about different wine flavours, in Rondo Digital magazine. Art Director: Magdalena Rawicka

Feature opener illustration and portraits of people working on big infrastructure project around the world for Modus magazine.

Umami (G)astronaut poster created as a part of visual direction change in Umami, chain of restaurants based in Zagreb (Croatia). The illustration is a part of a promo poster series which explores different tastes and flavours in visual manner. Cover illustration for Dossier, Hemispheres’ (United Airlines inflight magazine) Economic-Development series.

Illustration for Canadian Business magazine’s feature “Canada’s Hottest Jobs”. Cover and set of spot Illustrations (with map and timeline design) for the second issue of magazine Elementi, bimonthly publication by the Center for the Promotion of Science in Belgrade. Issue’s cover story was about how neolithic hunter-gatherers invented agriculture.

Illustration for the article about Arabic homebuyers in Zell am See and portrait for the interview with psychologist Uwe Linke. Commissioned illustration for the sustainability report for Telekom Austria titled “Moving forward. Step by Step”.

Aleksandar Savić is an illustrator and infographic designer based in Belgrade, Serbia. Working for a multitude of international clients, ranging from multi-national corporations to local publications, Savić’s recognisable style is always refined and clean, with a very good eye on color and composition. Savić’s style transcends industries – always providing a playful approach to whichever project he undertakes. His finished work is full of detail and have a collage-like feel with numerous textures and patterns, combining characters, sceneries and topics into one large medley of life and action. Represented by Agent Azur for German speaking area and MP Arts for the rest of the world, a demand for Savić’s work comes as no surprise. A skill for illustrating expansive concepts and ambiguous themes with a confident style and a tongue-in-cheek attitude is one to gather attention – and clients.

To check out more of his work, head to his webpage or follow him on Instagram.

Images © Aleksandar Savić

ILLUSTRATION

Master of Illusion – Eiko Ojala

08/09/2016

Series of illustrations for Wellington City Council, New Zealand Felix Riebl “Paper Doors” album artwork B&W illustrations for New York Times Myths Album design and artwork for Ewert And The Two Dragons
Hither & Yon wine label Reacher, a personal illustration Series of food illustrations for Le Monde “M-Styles”

The imaginative and crafty illustrator and graphic designer Eiko Ojala from Tallinn, Estonia is known for his paper cut style. Creating an illusion of a masterfully crafted paper cut piece with fully digital means he plays with light and shadow like it’s his favourite tool. Titled the Master of Illusion of the illustration world, Ojala creates immaculate pieces of work full of color and life, often incorporating a witty undertone. His attention to detail and ability to summarise complex topics or themes into well balanced and thought out designs with minimal visual language, has brought him numerous international awards and a clients list like no others.

DIY

2-Step Notebook

07/09/2016

In two simple steps you can make your own notebooks – it doesn’t get any easier than this! As always, it’s all about beautiful paper and how to utilise it to the maximum. For a while now I’ve had some beautifully textured Remake and Crush paper by Favini saved up for a special project and now that school is starting again, an idea of a do-it-yourself notebook came to mind. I personally carry one with me at all times and go through at least a dozen in a year. Even in the times of smartphones and other handy applications, I still opt for a hand written note over a digital one.

You will need a sowing machine for this DIY, but not advanced skills as all you need to do is to sow in a straight line. And paper, you’ll need paper of course. I used Crush (corn), an eco-friendly paper that has been given a distinctive flecked texture and appearance by adding residues from fruits and nuts in 100gsm as the pages inside, matching it with Crush (kiwi) and Remake (oyster, sand, sky), a revolutionary up-cycling paper produced with by-product from the leather goods industry, in 250 gsm for the covers. Both papers have a lovely textured, soft look and feel, enabling them to handle well under the sowing machine.

Instructions:

Step 1. Choose your A4 paper for the pages and cover. Fold them perfectly in the middle, forming an A5 size notebook. Use 4-6 80-100gsm weight papers as pages, and one max 250 gsm paper for cover.

Step 2. Sow the pages and cover together along the folded ridge with the sowing machine. Make a few practise rounds with extra paper to perfect the speed and length of the stitch needed to pierce through the papers. Use thin thread and medium sized needle.

Done!

EVENTS

Wallpaper for Refugees at Stilwerk Window Gallery

06/09/2016

Wallpaper for Refugees by Katharina Moser, Leichtfried Marlene, Sebastian Hierner, Reinhard Herok and Milo Tesselaar.

Vienna Design Week presents Wallpaper for Refugees at the Stilwerk Window Gallery. The original idea for the project was born at a Design Hackathon on how entrepreneurs in the creative industry can make a positive contribution to the refugee situation. The answer: Bussi, Schmäh and Würstelstand. Including these three, 100 words were collected from the Austrian population, that were thought to give the refugees an authentic vocabulary for their restart in Austria. Ranging from meaningful to typically Austrian, the words or phrases were then illustrated by 100 graphic designer, along with humorous explanations and translations in german, english, farsi and arabic and printed on pastel colored IQ paper posters. The resulting five posters showcasing all the illustrations were distributed to refugee shelters throughout Austria and can also be ordered here: wallpaperforrefugees.at. And are now exhibited at the Stilwerk window gallery till the 25th of September, with the opening being celebrated tonight at 6pm.

Wallpaper for refugees (fb event)
Stilwerk window gallery
Praterstraße 1 c/o
3. OG, Shop 31,
1020 Wien

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