Now & how now happened.Posted 15/07/2010 by pw.

License to Inspire
The Central Illustration Agency
Edited by Benjamin Cox

We've been represented by Central Illustration Agency for nearly 8 years now, we never thought we were illustrators until they told us we could be (maybe still debatable).

During that time we've worked with some great agencies, rebranded CIA, produced some quarterlies and formed Fine & Dandy, a second illustration offering in collaboration with Mick Marston.

Support from and activity with CIA has definitely gone hand in hand with how we've learnt to approach our practice.

So here's their debut hardback publication, "License To Inspire" - we've only seen pictures so far but the Staziker Jones designed book, indicates just how much the illustration industry has changed over the last decade, documenting a vibrant response from the lovely folk at CIA.

"A collection of work from some of the world's most inspiring illustrators and the story of the agency that represents them.

License To Inspire is an eclectic mix of stunning artwork and fascinating interviews from the world's most talented illustrators and industry innovators. An invaluable resource for art buyers and other professionals within the creative industries, this will soon become a recommended text for art students and particularly those who wish to work in the industry. With inclusions from a diverse range of artists from Jonas Bergstrand to Sir Peter Blake, the book is packed with beautiful images and thought-provoking words. Created by the acclaimed Central Illustration Agency, who have been associated with the brightest talent in illustrative art since 1983, this book will be an essential addition to any coffee table or agency library."

Big list of contributors to follow:

12 foot 6, Ahoy There, Nik Ainley, Tatiana Arocha, Tom Bagshaw, Andrew Bannecker, Jonas Bergstrand, Ian Bilbey, Sir Peter Blake, Bernard Blatch, Greg Bridges, Christopher Brown, Mick Brownfield, Lesley Buckingham, Susan Burghart, Stanley Chow, Nishant Choksi, Sarah J Coleman, Haydn Cornner, Jimi Crayon, Dust, Tristan Eaton, Max Ellis, Fine & Dandy, Jeff Fisher, Jessie Ford, Andrew Foster, Nathan Fox, Jonathan Gibbs, Chris Gilvan Cartwright, Good Wives and Warriors, Brian Grimwood, Martin Haake, Pete Harrison, Lee Hasler, Sara Hayward, David Holmes, Darren Hopes, Peter Horridge, David Hughes, M. H. Jeeves, Kai & Sunny, Chris Kasch, Carol Lawson, Tina Mansuwan, Tim Marrs, Mick Marston, Chris McEwan, Clare Melinsky, Kate Miller, Dave Needham, Gary Neill, Jeff Nishinaka, Paul Oakley, Nigel Owen, Jackie Parsons, Jitesh Patel, Pirates, Wendy Plovmand, Ulla Puggaard, Maria Raymondsdotter, John Royle, Harriet Russell, Jeremy Sancha, Yuko Shimizu, Paul Slater, Ray Smith, John Spencer, Simon Spilsbury, Spiral Studio, Louisa St. Pierre, The 3D Agency, Alex Turvey, Mark Thomas, Benjamin Wachenje, Paul Wearing, Richard Wilkinson, Mike Wilks.

Published by Pirum Press
ISBN - 13: 978-0-9565729-0-5
Publication date: 14 July 2010
Launch date: Early Autumn 2010 (tbc)
Price: RRP £25.00
Format: 246 x 189mm, case-bound
Hardcover: 256 pages

More here: http://www.pirumpress.co.uk/licensetoinspire.html

Staziker Jones: http://www.stazikerjones.co.uk

Available from CIA here:
http://du.st/ciabook

The Quarterlies: http://du.st/focus/37

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AtypI 2010 Dublin 8 - 12 SeptemberPosted 08/07/2010 by pw.

Pamela (dust) & Sheffield Hallam University colleague, Claire Lockwood will be discussing "Typography and craft in Graphic Design education" at this years AtypI conference in Dublin.

"Over the last few years there has been a clear shift in terms of student expectations and decision making around their HE choices. This has been effected by a number of influences mainly financial and employability.

As a course we have responded to this with the introduction of specialist routes within the Graphic Design degree course. This allows the student experience to be individually focused. Specifically we have introduced a Typography route and a Graphic Design Handmade route. As discrete areas of study, and as potential professions, these are quite specialist and very small. In order to maintain a consistently high rate of applications the Graphic Design degree course has had to evidence employability and make specialist routes implicit in the course outline. However, as key aspects of Graphic Design study, Typography and Graphic Design (Handmade) touch on such a huge number of students and influence/effect other specialism's.

Typography is a particularly interesting area of development. It maintains the appeal of an 'academic' area of study due to its relationship to the written word and its long history at the forefront of communication and technology. With the additional aspect of an area of contemporary craft, handmade graphic design, there are a number of great opportunities for the student experience.

We are finding that students are relishing the opportunity to be involved in a more tactile, back to basics form of graphic design and are exploiting facilities available to them once perceived as 'traditional' such as screen printing and letterpress. The return of such skills has brought about a different perception of what graphic design can be in relation to the role of the analogue and digital. We would therefore like to look at the role of Craft and Typography within Graphic Design and how students have embraced the application of the analogue and digital. This is in response to the ever increasing development of new technologies and the emphasis placed on them within the industry. Both designers and consumers are demanding a return to the importance of the individual."

ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) is the premier worldwide organisation dedicated to type and typography. Founded in 1957, ATypI provides the structure for communication, information and action amongst the international type community.

This year the key speakers include Robert Bringhurst, Erik Speakerman, Ellen Lupton, alongside our old friends Phil Baines and Catherine Dixon.

AtypI Article: http://du.st/atypi (Apologies for lack of paragraph breaks!)

Atypi Home: http://www.atypi.org/

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Hello, a blog, I think, we hope, you like.Posted 05/07/2010 by pw.

With best intentions, we hoped to keep our main site [http://du.st] up to date by the month - that hasn't happened so we decided on a bi-annual update. We're working on one at the moment, there's quite a bit of new work to put up.

So for a more snapshot approach to studio activity we've settled with tumblr. We like the idea of having somewhere that lets us be a bit more whimsical and reflective in our posts. We also like how dialogue is handled on Tumblr, so if you'd like to say something, please do.

http://du.st/blog

If you've been following us on twitter [http://du.st/twitter] or facebook [http://du.st/facebook] please continue as we'll be using these to notify of new content.

Your support, feedback and interest are appreciated as always.

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Them And UsPosted 07/04/2010 by pw.

At the beginning of the year we were asked to contribute to the "Them And Us" project, a cross cultural visual exercise curated by Noel Pretorius, design studio Disturbance and Adrian Shaughnessy.

"Them-And-Us is an initiative aimed at bringing together 20 European and 20 African visual artists, designers, illustrators and photographers. The project aimed to explore the similarities and differences between first and third world views and aesthetics by pairing up artists from Europe with their African counterparts.

Through a series of 20 double sided posters, artists were invited to explore the notion of 'Them-And-Us' and the broader theme of tolerance (or intolerance)."

The project culminated in a publication (pictured) and has so far been exhibited in Sweden and South Africa. All proceeds from sales go to Amnesty International to help in the global fight against intolerance

We chose the theme of Life & Death, working with the aptly named Love & Hate [http://du.st/wds] from Cape Town, South Africa. We'll be putting the artwork up in the next update. Meanwhile see here for more information and output: http://du.st/6wt

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11th March / Leeds Metropolitan University / Survive Illustration ConferencePosted 01/03/2010 by pw.

A one day illustration conference.
An exhibition featuring work by Leeds Met Graphic Arts & Design alumni.
In conjunction with the Association Of Illustrators.

Survive is a series of talks by practitioners, commissioners, agents, clients, portfolio consultants and the AOI on the aspects of survival in the world of contemporary illustration.

Participants include:
Rob Barber, Dwayne Bell, Jon Boam, Anthony Burrill, dust, Chris Garbutt, Dominique Golden, Jo Hassall, Matt Herring, Tez Humphreys, Matt Johnson, Andrew Kulman, Joel Lardner, Lord Whitney, Mick Marston, Russ Mills, Dave Needham, Martin O'Neil, Jon Owen, Matt Pattinson, Jackie Parsons, Anna Peaker, Mandy Sutcliffe, Tado, Andrew Wheatley, Alex Williamson, Joe Wilson, Oscar Wilson.

Alumni Exhibition
12th - 31st March 2010
11th March 5.30pm [Private View]
Broadcasting Place, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds. LS2 9EN

Survive Conference
11th March 10.30 - 5.30pm
Carriageworks, Millennium Square, Leeds. LS2 3AD

We will be exhibiting new work and Patrick Walker from dust will be talking at the conference.

More information here: http://du.st/jmb

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New domain and site update Jan 2010Posted 29/01/2010 by pw.

If you've not noticed we have recently changed our domain name to du.st

Please update your bookmarks and details. This has also affected the general contact email which is now studio@du.st

To coincide we have just put live a new site update featuring recent projects [http://du.st/recent], new sections and functions.

New work includes artist projects for Amy Feneck and Laura Mansfield [http://du.st/focus/75], Jo Mardell [http://du.st/focus/74] and Third Angel [http://du.st/focus/91].

Also a book project entitled Schci [http://du.st/focus/89] carried out with students from Leeds Metropolitan University.

We have an updated news page, featuring permalinks and a much needed info section (more to come on this).

Please note we have also reflected these changes in our rss feed so please make sure to remove the previous service and resubscribe. feed://du.st/feed.php

Thanks to all for feedback so far. Also thanks to Jon at Low Fat Code [contact@lowfatcode.com] for helping us out with the clean urls [no more needless characters] and url shortening service.

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Signatures will be forgedPosted 04/01/2010 by pw.

We are currently planning a programme of activity for our 10th[!] anniversary throughout 2010. Signatures will be forged is one of the first.

As fellow practitioners who have existed with, influenced and inspired us,
we hope you would like to take part.

We invite you to forge the dust signature [ see top left ]. Throughout 2010 we will be posting the returned forgeries online accompanied by the credit 'Forged by [your name here]', with a link back to your respective online presence. Other outcomes will be defined as the year progresses. Contributions can be found at http://du.st/forged

This is an open invitation, all are welcome, please feel free to distribute.

Download the Signatures will be forged brief here.
http://du.st/forge

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Silver &amp; BlackPosted 01/12/2009 by .

Build / Cat Johnston / The Designers Republic / Dust / Emily Forgot / Ian Stevenson / Kid Acne / Kiosk / Martin Bedford / Phlegm / Robin Beck / She One / Susie Wright / Sylvia Ugga / TADO / Tokyo Jo / Tom J. Newell / T-Rex

Following on from the Halloween shenanigans of blood oaths, skulls and smashing pumpkins (literally of course, we played strictly black metal not Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness) Archipelago are proud to present Silver & Black - the third in a series of exhibitions curated by Sheffield artist and all round good egg, Kid Acne.

This unique group show unites some of the UK's most prestigious designers, illustrators and graphic artists alongside the rising talents from South Yorkshire to Shoreditch.
Each individual has been given complete free reign, the only guideline was to produce a piece of work using just Silver & Black. Some have used the silver to represent Sheffield's "knife and fork town" heritage, some have interpreted it as a shiny vision of the future. Others more abstract and some just plain dumb!

Whatever their choice, the result is an incredibly striking show of metallic editions incorporating a diverse range of typography, illustrations and graphic design - All of which have been printed in house by resident Archipelago screen printer and BMX wizard, Josh Bedford.

All prints limited editions of 20, signed & numbered. £60 each
Available to buy on-line http://www.archipelago-art.co.uk/id90.html

*Private View Fri 4th Dec 6-9pm*

**RSVP to info@archipelago-art.co.uk for invitations to the Private View**

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Graphic Design: A User's ManualPosted 01/11/2009 by .

Written by Adrian Shaughnessy, with a foreword by Michael Bierut, Graphic Design: A User's Manual features imagery from the Evo project [http://du.st/focus/36] under the section for Green Design. The book is an A-Z featuring a long list of practitioners with illustrations from Paul Davis.

"This is a survival guide for designers who want to make expressive and distinctive work. It's for designers who want to make the world a better place."

Graphic Design: A User's Manual is published by Laurence King.

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11th & 12th November / Leeds Metropolitan University Theatre / Third Angel / Words & PicturePosted 01/11/2009 by pw.

We recently completed the publicity for Third Angel's new production, Words & Pictures.

Alex took the photographs of empty benches looking at views decided by other people. We took the benches, changed the views and divided them by three.

"There comes a time in your life by which point you should have written a book. If you were ever really going to. Well, Third Angel are at that time, but they just haven't got round to it; they've been busy. Really busy. There's a book's worth of stuff there, but, well, there's been too much else to do. But they do like the idea of a book tour. Touring, they've done a lot of that. So they're cutting straight to that bit: The Book Tour. Welcome.

From picking up discarded texts and a reading in the dark to words that accompany pictures and the theatrical re-imagining of popular song this is a 'book reading' for a book that hasn't been written yet, let alone published.

Not available in any book shops, anywhere.

Words & Pictures is commissioned by the Off The Shelf Festival of Writing and Reading and Leeds Met Gallery and Studio Theatre.

This is a book tour for a book that hasn't been written. Alex and Rachel present the stories of their lives, discarded texts, readings in the dark and theatrical re-imaginings of popular song. Amongst other things."

Some background: http://du.st/wee

Empty Bench Originals: http://du.st/bw7

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21st - 31st October / Cambridge / Nightjar Posted 20/10/2009 by pw.

Starts this week.

This October a new arts programme launches in Cambridge presenting a series of temporary artworks and encounters between the hours of dusk and dawn. As the evenings draw in, Nightjar celebrates the city's long hours of darkness with performances, installation and artist led walks.

Nightjar looks beyond the conventional gallery or theatre space, inhabiting the more unexpected sites of the city. Forgotten and overlooked spaces will come alive with after-dark activities and familiar venues will open their doors out of hours. The programme includes new commissions, which will premiere in Cambridge as well as existing works adapted specifically for their location.

Artists include Luke Jerram, Urban (Col)laboratory, Jonathan Watts, Chris Parsons, Townley & Bradby and Amy Sharrocks.

Nightjar has been initiated by independent curator Jo Mardell.

Thick black board invite [http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustcollective/3836610320/], thin white paper programme and a lunar sensitive wordpress page from dust.

See http://www.nightjar.info for more.

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15th September / Hatton Gallery / The Streets Do FlowPosted 01/09/2009 by pw.

Artists Amy Feneck and Laura Mansfield worked with a group of runners from Wallsend Harriers to make this new work. The personal recollections of individual runners form the basis of The Streets Do Flow and recreate the simple narrative of a journey through the city from a runner's perspective.

The artists have collated interviews and anecdotes from the runners, using this material to create a series of unique text and image based designs that appear as unexpected interventions in The Journal and on a billboard above St James Metro station. The work is also featured in the Hit The Ground exhibition at the Hatton Gallery, offering a personal yet abstracted perspective on the shared experience of running.

dust collaborated with Amy Feneck and Laura Mansfield on 'The Streets Do Flow' project, which included a billboard design (located above St James Metro) and 8 Journal inserts. The catalogue for the show is a back printed section of the billboard itself.

Launch
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Continuing
Billboard above St James Metro:
17 August - 27 September
Installation at Hit The Ground at Hatton Gallery:
16 September - 15 November

Facebook event page: http://du.st/nww

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10th September / Spirit Level Southbank Centre / Unloud, Dust & RGAPPosted 20/08/2009 by pw.

Southbank Centre Unloud Book Launch

Thursday 10th September 2009
6.45 - 8.30pm

The book launch coincides with Duncan Higgins exhibition at Spirit Level that runs from Wednesday 9th to Saturday September 12th. 10am to 11pm. The exhibition sets out other elements of unloud including paintings and video works throughout the spaces in Spirit Level.

Throughout the night and the rest of the week a visual response from dust will be projected onto the Southbank Centre.

Spirit Level Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
Switchboard +44 (0)871 663 2501
Ticket Office +44 (0)871 663 2500

Related work can be found here:
Unloud Book [http://du.st/focus/73]
Unloud Event [http://du.st/focus/72]

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Eye 72 Posted 05/08/2009 by pw.

We were very happy to be featured in the graphic design quarterly Eye earlier this month.

Adrian Shaughnessy's article The graphic designer as illustrator features a full page reproduction of some of our brand illustration for EVO [http://du.st/focus/36].

Extract "There was a time when graphic design and illustration used to sleep in the same bed. Look through any design annual from the 1970s and early 80s - Graphis, D&AD, the New York Art Directors - and much of the work on show has drawn imagery as its main ingredient. During the fizzy, go-go 1980s, however, something happened to the relationship between design and illustration. Design was promoted to the front line of commercial life: professionalised and strategised, it took ownership of identity and branding within the corporate world. Not long afterwards designers discovered that cheap technology and reduced repro costs allowed them to use photography where once they might have relied on illustration; they also discovered that new digital tools enabled them to make their own images, collages and visual effects. Illustration, on the other hand, clung onto the notion of autonomy of expression and refused to learn the language of strategy and branding. It was banished to the sofa..." More here: http://du.st/dcc

We've been reading Eye since we were knee high to a Mac Classic so this made us smile somewhat.

Our other illustration outing Fine & Dandy gets a mention in Steve Hare's article Drawn into conversation [http://du.st/c53] - which discusses the increased usage of illustration by big brands. The article carries examples by F&D colleague Mick Marston [http://www.thefutilevignette.com].

Related work can be found here:
The Economist [http://du.st/focus/7] &
Vodafone [http://du.st/focus/58].

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Corridor8 Magazine Launch / 16th July / UrbisPosted 01/07/2009 by pw.

Currently in production, our latest publication design for Corridor8 launches at Urbis, Manchester on the 16th July.

"Join us in Manchester on 16 July as we launch Corridor8 with an exclusive talk by the British author, essayist and psychogeographer, Iain Sinclair.
To accompany the launch, Sinclair has conducted a walk through Manchester - a meandering, poetic journey designed to shed new light on a city at once ancient and contemporary. Taking a route from Urbis to the edge of the city, Sinclair saw ghosts and alchemists, geographers and "discreet medics", a road that turned into "a river of human traffic" and pockets of green where wildlife flourished in a way it never could in the "toxic run-off from Olympic piracy" in London.
On 16 July, Sinclair relives this walk in a talk given at its starting point: Urbis. This is an opportunity to meet one of Britain's leading psychogeographers, and to find out why he has been tempted to write about the North of England for the first time. This part of the launch is strictly limited to 100 places. The rest of the launch is open to a further 150 guests.

Corridor8 Launch with Iain Sinclair
Thursday 16 July 2009, 6.30pm (talk starts at 7.0pm)
Urbis, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester M4 3BG

To register for the Iain Sinclair talk, or to register a place at the launch, please email si@corridor8.co.uk, saying which part you would like to attend.

If you are unable to make the talk, Sinclair's new documentary work on the SuperCity can be read in Corridor8 available at the launch or in key shops very soon, while his Manchester journey can be downloaded as a podcast from http://www.urbis.org.uk between 2-9 July. A children's map version can also be downloadable from the Urbis website."

More information at http://www.corridor8.co.uk

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Just Add Stock / New Eye Magazine Award Posted 25/06/2009 by pw.

Pamela has recently been invited to judge Eye Magazine's new award, Just Add Stock, "a new international awards scheme for design that uses stock imagery".

More details can be found at -
http://www.eyemagazine.com/awards/index.html

Judges also include Deyan Sudjic (Design Musem, London), Aporva Baxi (DixonBaxi, London), Tom Hind (Getty Images) and Mark Reddy (BBH London).

Lofty company indeed - we're very proud!

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19th June / Site Gallery / Unloud, Dust & RGAPPosted 19/06/2009 by pw.

Friday 19th June
6pm
Site Gallery, Sheffield
[http://www.sitegallery.org]

The launch of Duncan Higgins new publication unloud that has resulted from a two-year collaboration between the artist and the design studio Dust, working together with the artist-publishers RGAP.

Alongside the book launch will be the first UK screening of unloud film a recent work made by Duncan Higgins and Fred Perkins. This collaborative 30minute film produced over the last four years connects and moves through the spaces and narratives of unloud. A copy of the unloud film accompanies the publication.

Set somewhere in north Russia at some point during the last 100 years: part fact, part fiction, part ghost story and part love story. The book and film are constructed through the inter-relationship of words and images, and recount a story within the landscape in which it is inscribed

In addition, dust will be presenting a visual and physical response to the process and content investigated during the publications development.

The first of a series of events coordinated by RGAP (Research Group for Artists Publications) [http://www.rgap.co.uk] at Site Gallery.

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5th May 2009 / Hiem / Nite FlytePosted 05/05/2009 by pw.

We've recently produced 7" & 12" artwork for Hiem's Nite Flyte, the first release from their new album "Escape from Division Street".

The single feature's Kate Jackson and can be found on Society. Both in limited quantities, the seven inch has been produced in blue vinyl.

The artwork comprises of the layering of print and multiple exposures of photography from a shoot with Clive Egginton.

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1st March 2009 / Black Dog, Further Vexations ArtworkPosted 01/03/2009 by pw.

Following on from previous Black Dog artwork we've recently produced cd and vinyl packaging for the new album, Further Vexations.

The vinyl edition is limited with a gold screen printed cover.

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