@issue

Pop Culture

Ice Cube Raps on Eames and Architecture

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Famed rapper Ice Cube (aka O’Shea Jackson), who once studied architectural drafting, riffs on Los Angeles’s quirky landmarks such as the Cockatoo Inn and Five Torches, freeways and the Eames House for a video series produced by Pacific Standard Time, a collaborative effort among Southern California cultural Institutions to spotlight L.A.’s art scene between 1945 and 1980. Ice Cube avoids the lofty language of architectural experts and gives his take in terms that the street can understand. Talking about The Eames house, Ice Cube reflects that with Charles and Ray Eames “it’s not about the pieces, it’s about how the pieces work together,” and notes that they did “mashups before mashups even existed.” Way ahead of their time, he adds, “The Eames made structure and nature one. This is going green 1949 style, bitch. Believe that.”

Typography

Typography Comes of Age

By Delphine Hirasuna |

“Enough with the typography already!” My complaint to Kit is that every other story he wants to post in @Issue has to do with type. So, I’m writing this somewhat under duress.

“Humor me,” Kit says.

But the truth is that perhaps more than any time in history, the average person on the street is acutely aware of the differences in typefaces. Thanks to the computer, we can pick the digital font that suits our mood and voice. As a culture, we have become type snobs, sneering at Comic Sans, forming snap opinions about people who make Arial their default font, arguing over whether Helvetica is deserving of its popularity, and ridiculing some faces as “so last century.”

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Information Graphics

Graphically Evoking Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Our musical notation system follows a convention that dates back centuries. By reading it, musicians can get an aural sense of melody, tempo and all the other instructions on how the score should be played. But what if the notations were shown in graphically different colors and dot sizes? This is a study done by graphic designer Laia Clos of Mot Studio in Barcelona. Clos explains that the self-initiated project started with a woman in her studio who has a knowledge of music. From there, they created a new graphic musical notation system called “SisTeMu,” which translates a musical score into simple geometric forms and basic printing colors, exploring the rhythmic and melodic harmonies found in the musical composition. The system somewhat simplifies the complexity and mathematical structure, making it accessible to the viewer through a visual narrative. For their first translation, they used the musical data for the lead violin part of Antonio Vivaldi’s baroque concerto, “The Four Seasons” (or “Lesquartrestacions”). In addition to producing a booklet documenting how to read the SisTeMu system, Mot Studio created limited edition posters of each concerto (or season) and a set of postage stamps, which you can order from Mot’s website http://tomedicions.bigcartel.com/.

Clos presented graphic extracts of her musical notation system on postage stamps, part of a limited print run of 300. The postage value is equivalent to Spain’s regular national charter.

Advertising

Citroën’s C3 Bip Bip Fantasy

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Created by Agence H in Paris, the new Citroën commercial for the C3 is funny, effective and amazing for what it doesn’t say and doesn’t show. For one, it doesn’t show the new C3 until the very end. It doesn’t have a voiceover explaining each of the car’s fancy standard features. It just shows a man driving an old car and pretending that it comes “loaded with specs” by imitating the sounds that each feature would make. You don’t have to speak English or French to get the point.

Interviews

@Issue Publisher Peter Lawrence on Good Design

By Delphine Hirasuna |

A tireless advocate of good design in business, Corporate Design Foundation Chairman Peter Lawrence recently talked to Fast Company magazine about why design matters. CDF has been the publisher of @Issue: Journal of Business and Design since its inception 16 years ago.