Blog

This blog has now moved to http://formblog.posterous.com but please see some archived info below.

Homework: Modern Polish Poster Design
by Matt, April

Well it wasn’t just the sun coming out for the first time this year that brightened my day. The current show at the Kemistry Gallery is absolutely great. Warsaw-based studio Homework are showing a selection of over fifty of their posters. This striking display of modern polish poster art makes great use of very simple illustrations often as clever as they are elegant, the posters have a very distinctive style which hints at the approach of Polish poster design legend Mieczyslaw Wasliewski to create some fantastically playful images. Any fan of the bold and the beautiful should head on down.

Lyrics and Type
by Matt, April

I popped into East gallery on Brick lane to check out the new Lyrics and Type exhibition currently showing. It features a large series of screenprints inspired by great song lyrics, from artist all across music from the Beastie boys to the Shins.

‘Through an Exploration into the connection between two of lifes most important communication mediums ‘music’ and ‘type’ The lyrics and type verses aim to collaborate with some of the worlds leading type designers, graphic designers, illustrators, and artists via exhibition and print to visually interpret how type and music can influence and inspire the way we feel, think or create.’

Limited to 3 colours and a set format the show is coherent yet wildly varied simultaneously. Technically brilliant and thought provoking, the works really made me consider how our tastes in music can influence something as abstract as an illustrators style or vise versa. It also made me consider how much I love looking at danm sexy screen prints! Check it out.

Goldskins!
by Matt, February

Whilst indulging in one of my guilty pleasures, namely channel 4’s UK teen drama ‘Skins’ I was very excited to see the Form designed Goldsmiths undergraduate prospectus featured in a few scenes and forming an integral part of the story line for the episode. Ace!

Genevieve Gauckler - Digitally isolated
by Matt, November

This week I mosied on down to the Kemistry gallery for the opening of ‘Digitally Isolated’, the new show by Parisian Designer/Illustrator Genevieve Gauckler. Gauckler who is best known for her signature style friendly character based compositions has created a delightfully simple and beautiful world within the gallery walls. In an attempt to create a world which detaches itself from our busy, high tech society of iPhones and digital computer marvels, she has elected to constrain herself to producing works using more traditional mediums such as good old paint and pencils and hand produced screenprints. The result is a series of works with quirky characters supporting hand drawn Helvetica slogans which hold a certain simple modernist charm, whilst bursting with the imagination and excitement of a happy child with a new toy. A reat show and a must see!

Chelski
by Joe, October

Last weekend Form very kindly treated me to my first trip to Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea v Blackburn! Under the floodlights Chelsea had a frustrating first half, only managing to convert one of a handful of good chances. They came out in the second half a new side and proceeded to slot 4 past an outclassed Blackburn defense (the pick of the bunch being Essiens 35 yard drive). Its been a long time since I have been to premier league game and I was reminded of the massive scale of the event - walking onto the stands to the sound of 40,000 plus fans chanting is a truly awesome experience.

Word Up
by Paula, October

“Poetry” for me, conjours up dull English Lit lessons at school with seemingly endless visitations to The Prelude, or naff renditions stumbled across on hazy Sunday mornings in the poetry tent at Glastonbury festival, but the finals of the Poetry Slam at Cheltenham Literature Festival raised the bar to a new level and made me very excited indeed. Deservéd winner of the Slam, Hollie McNish, delivered 3 rounds of clever, fresh and contemporary spoken word making some great social observations along the way check her out. Poetry, or rather Spoken Word, has taken on a whole new meaning to me.

Object of beauty
by Paul, October

‘Soft In The Inside’ by Federico Uribe. Gallery FUMI, 87-89 Tabernacle Street EC2.
Always good to see something that forces a double take on the way to work. An inventiveness in creating something beautiful from the throwaway calls to mind the late great Alan Fletcher’s graphic aesthetic. A (poor) photo doesn’t do this justice!

Cycle Show - Earls Court
by Paul, October

Kraftwerk’s fascination with the bike as the perfect union of man and machine echoed in my mind as I walked around the ‘Cycle’ show at Earls Court, soaking up the jaw dropping graphic and technological beauty of the best bike brands today.

The Pixies - Village Underground
by Paul, June

The Pixies played an electrifying ‘secret gig’ in EC2 this month. Blasting through 45 minutes of tracks requested by the 200+ fans present, hearing Kim Deal singing ‘Gigantic’ followed by ‘Into The White’ was a moment that won’t be forgotten and shot this night into my top ten gigs.

Pixie Lott - Sketch
09.06.09

Pixie blew the roof off Sketch yesterday evening, belting out a selection of tunes from her album ‘Turn It Up’ (out in a few months) - ‘Boys And Girls’ and ‘Mama Do’ are firmly engraved in our brains and it was good to see the ‘X-Kiss’ logo being used as we had originally intended - a pure graphic mark that could represent Pixie without the need to constantly see her name.

Matt Rowe - Website to go
16.04.09

Yesterday we had our final meeting with Matt Rowe (songwriter/music producer) and Carla from rehab (programming and build) to go through the CMS tuition before the site went live. On the table you can see the 3D model we made of Matt’s studio to get a better understanding of virtual camera rotations to simulate a realistic environment within a wireframe ‘arcadia’ world. After the meeting we all went out to celebrate the end of many months hard work and learning curves! see stills here

Natalie’s campaign meeting
13.03.09

Natalie Imbruglia, photographer Jeon, management and marketing all met up at our studio to finalise the creative route for her album and singles. We had one of the best creative meetings since we started Form. While Natalie was here, she treated us a few of her newly recorded tracks which sounded like her best material to date, but we can’t say more at this stage…

UK Trade and Investment film Form
12.03.09

We were filmed by the UKTI today as an example of successful exporters to Mexico. Paul and Paula were interviewed on their experiences of dealing with overseas clients, and the film crew shot around the studio to highlight our hive of creativity.

Anthony’s art - before…
11.3.09 (6.30pm)
Team Form were jumping with joy on receiving an amazing package containing Anthony Burrill’s art. Then we had to put it on the wall…

Anthony’s art - …and after!
11.3.09 (8.30pm)
Two hours of blood (no), sweat (yes) and tears (almost), 4 of us managed to get it on the wall, plus Emma to photograph the momentous occasion. Mr Burrill we salute you.

Olympic Posters
by Nathan, 01.07.08

With the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony only five weeks away it gave us, here at Form, the perfect excuse to visit the Museum of Childhood’s Olympic Poster Exhibition and appreciate this genre full on.All the usual suspects were on show ˇ Mexico 68 and Munich 72 both regularly feature in the graphic design history books and still sell well asprints. This exhibition provides a really good cross section, including the less celebrated years. I am a big fan of Seoul 88, Tokyo 64, and particularly Moscow 80, known as the forgotten Olympics. This was an amazing piece of design, combining iconic Russian architecture with the Olympic running track. The design of London’s 2012 bid appeared to have had a 64 years old evolution when one compares it against the London 48 campaign. A poster showing an athlete throwing a discus over Big Ben is re-presented as an athlete jumping over the London Eye. It takes an exhibition like this to highlight these similarities.

Blog love
by Arran, 14.01.08

In recent weeks we have been fortunate enough to have had various lovely people from various lovely blogs showcase our work. So, without further ado we would like to thank the following (and suggest that you check them all out cos theyre also proper wicked like): www.septemberindustry.co.uk/blog www.qbn.com www.formfiftyfive.com www.theserif.net www.30gms.com www.dirtymouse.co.uk www.ffffound.com www.visuelle.co.uk www.grafikcache.com

A Guide for rock’n’roll bands from the master - Iggy Pop.
a transcription by Paula, from Iggy and the Stooges gig, Glastonbury 2007.

Global Cities
by Becky, 03.8.07

The Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall is currently playing host to the ‘Global Cities’ exhibition. The exhibition, designed by Pentagram’s Angus Hyland and William Russell, evolved from a previous display which was included in last year’s Architecture Biennale in Venice. It looks at 10 major cities including Toyko, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Mexico City and London, and addresses global principal issues such as size, speed, form, diversity and density. The exhibition houses a series of stunning photographs, maps and graphical diagrams, visually demonstrating the major differences between the cities. The most captivating is the set of ‘density models’ which are plywood structures outlining the shape of 4 of the cities, with each layer of plywood representing an extra 200 people per square kilometre.

Shy Child - Diesel-U-Music Launch
by Pozzzo90, 24.5.07

As the poor compare battles her voice above the clamour of the distracted crowd, she shouts “Here are Shy Child” and through the barrier of hairstyles we catch a glimpse of the band I’ve heard so much about, wiring up to perform. After a minutes technical glitch we’re off - slap bang into the world of this dynamic NYC duo; a powerhouse assault of lo-fi nursery rythms (think Kid Carpet vs Suicide), chaotic but beat perfect drum patterns courtesy of Nate Smith with a mathematical fluidity that Killing Jokes’ Geordie and Stephen Morris would be proud of, all delivered with a compelling sense of fun. Pete Cafarella sings with a constant grin that makes you wonder what the joke is - or perhaps he just knows how good this band are. The set is short - perhaps five tracks and they’re off - but what a set. Can’t wait to see them at another venue where the crowd are slightly more appreciative of their talents.

The Celebrity Fashion Trend
by Becky Johnson, 21.5.07

With Kate Moss mania all over the high street, the trend of celebrities designing clothing lines for high street labels has taken off. Madonna, Lily Allen and Kylie ranges can all be now purchased, but is it actually any good? What do these celebs know about fashion design??? Its all just another ploy by the stores to get people to consume. I guess this trend started a few years back with people such as Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney for H&M, continued with ranges by Giles Deacon at New Look, and Celia Birtwell at Topshop…but at least these were actual fashion designers, giving the average high street shopper a taste of the designer lifestyle. Even Kate Moss is understandable since her whole career has been in the fashion industry, but what does Madonna really know about fashion? Not much if her range was anything to go by!

Mad about the Toy
by Paul West, 21.5.07

I have avidly collected vinyl toys for years. The experience of collecting and appreciating is an extension of the love of the art of that comics that filled my imagination as a kid - The Silver Surfer, Strontium Dog, Judge Dredd and Fat Freddys Cat created alternate worlds in 1970’s Dorset with little to offer apart from my brothers record collection. Visits to Japan further solidified my love of this medium. In equal measures outstanding product design, Pop art, Rock n Roll and just plain daft, these toys are intrinsically linked to other worlds. Quite often their disarming ‘cutsy’ demeanor masks a more underlying and subversive heart, which is what makes them so appealing, creating potent subcultural reference points.

Ambient Eno
by Paula Benson, 16.5.07

I was intrigued to see how this luminary in the field of music (co-founder of Roxy Music, producer of Bowie’s Low) would present his philosophy in visuals terms as apposed to sound at the Baltic in Newcastle. “The Constellations (77 Million Paintings)” creates “visual music” using screens showing constantly evolving sections of paintings all generated from handmade slides - the effect is reminiscent of stained glass windows. They randomly combine to form further images by a computer using specially developed software. A soundtrack of interwoven sound accompanies the work. The Baltic was a good place to host this - one huge room, all blacked out so the images sang out into the darkness. It was a really meditive experience - worth the trip. The Baltic’s had a alot of stick since it opened but I think this kind of curation will do it no end of good!