FACEtti FACTS

Persecution 1961 by Peter Benenson..cover by Germano Facetti.
This little beaut arrived last week and is in superb condition for a first edition - its is one of my all time favourite book covers.


Germano Facetti (May 5, 1928-April 8, 2006) was an Italian graphic designer and head of design at Penguin Books from 1962 to 1971. He moved to London in the early 1950s where he studied typography at the Central School of Art & Design. By the late 1950s he was art director at Aldus Books and a working interior designer, his interior for the Poetry Bookshop in Soho inspired the director of Penguin, Allen Lane, to invite him to his firm as art director in 1961. Facetti was instrumental in redesigning the Penguin line, introducing phototypesetting, the Marber grid, offset-litho printing and photography to their papberback covers.


The Observer in 1961 read "In October a Penguin Special called "Persecution 1961" will be published as part of our Amnesty campaign. In it are stories of nine men and women from different parts of the world, of varying political and religious outlook, who have been suffering imprisonment for expressing their opinions. None of them is a professional politician; all of them are professional people. The opinions which have brought them to prison are the common coinage of argument in free society."

Ice-cream anyone?

I love Falmouths only authentic ice-cream parlour...and mostly because of this sign.

Ex-students..

Graduation Day!

KING

Foreign sweeties are a funny thing, rarely tasty yet often amusing. Peppermunt anyone?

8°

"Octavo (usually abbreviated 8vo, 8°, 8o, or Oct.) is a book size resulting from the use of standard size sheets of paper folded three times to make eight leaves. Each leaf is usually printed on each side, so this creates a signature of 16 pages in total. It was introduced by Aldus Manutius of Venice, when he produced Virgil's Opera in the octavo format, in 1501, in order to facilitate portable reading for men of leisure."

If you don't know: just 8 issues of Octavo were produced by London-based design studio 8vo between 1986 and 92. All but the final issue were printed magazines of the finest quality (the last was a CD ROM produced at a time when such things were "cutting-edge") The contents often had a distinct leaning towards matters of modernist typography: Zwart, Schuitema, Burchatz et al, alongside more contemporary exponents and theorists.

To find out more about their awesome work buy the book! I did. well.. it was given to me..


Now disbanded the partners - Mark Holt, Hamish Muir and Simon Johnston - are working independantly and are still doing interesting things..

Tales

Tales from the Arabian Nights is a beautiful book belonging to Ellie, my soon-to-be-former housemate. I dont know much about it and im struggling to find out much about this edition.. but it looks nice so what the heck.

Roger Roger

Momentum continue with the vulcanised trend with the launch of their Roger shoe... Canvas upper which has a cool, metallic skull at the laces and a large branded section on the rear. The shoe is finished off with a very colourful interior. I got 2 pair of these bad-boys and im thinking about going for my third..

derriere

What i'm most going to miss about Falmouth is NOT the view of this wonderful locals derriere (the buttocks; rump.) every single day i walk to the studio... is he perpetually painting?

Show me..

Falmouth summer shows ON NOW!

Insiders

Anyone remember those awesome Micro Machines that were called 'Insiders'? You got one tiny car inside another car... and sometimes even a tinier car inside that... Everytime i see real cars with toy cars on the dashboard, thats what i think of.

Californian

Saw this beauty earlier.

"In South Africa, the Cortina range included a 3.0 L V6 'Essex' motor. A locally designed pickup version (known in South African English as a 'bakkie') was also offered, and this remained in production after the Cortina was replaced by the Sierra. The Cortina pickup was exported to the UK as the P100 until 1988, when Ford divested from South Africa, and a pickup version of the Sierra was introduced."

Dnevnoy Dozor

Promo poster for "Dnevnoy Dozor" (or Day Watch or Night Watch 2 or whatever they're going to call it when it comes out in the cinema) Go here to watch 4 awesome clips from the movie and the official trailer... I am so excited for this film - Day Watch was probably my film of 2004 and im expecting good things..

Dig This!

Right about now i should probably be promoting all my graduating friends full of talent and lust for work.. but instead im going to point you towards the ever elusive 'Diggy' a graphic designer but not as we know it. More illustrator than designer perhaps, she clearly has the skillz.

A decent Range

Spent a fun afternoon down at the local driving range with 2 of my favourite people today, and couldnt help but notice the wonderful little logos on the majority of the balls... i particularly like the Arnold Palmer brolly :)

And mine is... Casshern!

Ever since i sitting down to watch Casshern (then watching it through again, immediatly afterwards), ive been amazed by it. This live-action sci-fi movie based on a 1973 Japanese animé of the same name (Shinzo Ningen Casshân) is visually stunning, with my favourite soundtrack of any film (Theme song by Utada Hikaru)

In the future, in a polluted post-apocalyptic society called Eurasia after a war against Europe, the planet is devastated by the effect of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The geneticist Dr. Azuma (Akira Terao) develops a technique called "neo-cell", capable of regenerating the body of human beings, the government leaders, guarding their own deeply entrenched powers, turn down the professor. Driven to complete his work, Dr. Azuma accepts a secret offer from a sinister faction of the powerful military. After an incident occurs in Dr. Azuma's lab, a race of mutant humans known as the Shinzo Ningen are unleashed upon the world. His son Tetsuya Azuma (Yusuke Iseya) dies in the war, but after an accident in the laboratory of Dr. Azuma, Tetsuya revives as the powerful warrior Casshern (using his neo-cell treatment that he claims can rejuvenate the body and regenerate humankind) Now only the warrior known as Casshern, reincarnated with an invincible body, stands between the Shinzo Ningen and a world on the brink of annihilation.

One of several films around the world that was produced almost entirely on a "digital backlot" (i.e. shot with the actors in front of blue/green-screens with all backgrounds added in post-production) This is considered a "live-action anime" and borrows heavily from standard anime techniques including camera angles, action backgrounds (i.e. lines indicating movement), acting styles, and plot elements. The film blends Japanimation and manga-inspired live action, resulting in a new kind of hybrid filmmaking that is both visually stunning and thought provoking. A wide range of animation techniques are also used, from state of the art to stop-motion. In places the movie also pays homage to the original anime, a 70s classic.

"Reincarnated with an invincible body to fight an iron devil. If Casshern does not do it, who will?"

Matryoshka

Props to anyone who got the title straight away... saw this awesome collection on my way to the barbers this morning and had to stop and snap it. You think he's glued them on? i love it!

Ewing

I AIN'T GOT NO SOUL is one of my favourite belongings.. its an 18" x 24" screen print by poster artist Brian Ewing, cost me about $65 and is one of a limited run of 200 signed and numbered pieces. Printed on black paper, it looks pretty rad! Unfortunatly its back home at the moment safely tucked away so i cant photograph it.. but when i ordered it i also got a few more Ewing bits, including this cool badge with detail from IAGNS..



and for all you smokers, 14 days to go!

Next up to buy from this guy is his awesome playing cards...

Free press

This guy in Falmouth clearly wants to warn the public about his woes...and in what style!
I love the gall of this guy, the dedication to his cause - and his awesome typography skills :D