In a recent missive from long-lost founding member of A to M, Andy Smith — we’ve discovered the exciting news that he’s moving from his current agency Great Fridays, to join Love. Andy has the curliest hair of anyone I’ve ever met, and probably the most reckless attitude to riding bikes down steep hills. He also taught me how to say magic wand in sign language and aided and abetted in the naming (and consumption) of surely the worst cocktail ever.
The Manchester Jazz Festival kicks off tomorrow – and we thoroughly recommend it. I do however, feel somewhat compelled to point out that we’re not involved in any way in the design this year.
Unrealised Potential
From Sat 17 July to Sun 12 September
CORNERHOUSE
70 Oxford Street
Manchester
M1 5NH
Unrealised Potential is an art project as exhibition which will allow gallery-goers the opportunity to become producers themselves by purchasing the right to realise a leading artist’s dream project.
The show also includes a number of invited contributions from over seventy other artists, including Richard Wilson, Tom Morton, Cecilia Wee, David Shrigley, Simon Patterson, and many more.
Also of interest is the rather appealing open call for logos.
EDIT: On trundling down to the opening, we were pleasantly surprised to find their site (which we designed for them) on full display on the first floor of the exhibition. The exhibition is well worth a visit (not just for that reason!)
Just so you know, the guy responsible for all our exquisite bits of hand drawn illustration here at A to M is none other than partner and co-founder, Ben Lamb. Having recently just completed work on Closer to Everything: An Exhibition of High Priestesses (my favourite priestess pictured above) he’s also had the thoughtfulness to collect his best output into one convenient website. Check!
There’s been a few comings and goings here at A to M towers, or at least the Four & Five studio. We were sad to lose the one man ragga revival that is Eoin MacManus as he heads off to take over the internet one sartorial blog post at a time. We were graced too briefly with the Brompton slinging code genius that is Jono Brain before he found himself his own home from home around the corner (it has skylights).
However, taking up the newest deskspace is ginger funnyman and The National’s All Time #1 Fan Adam Rix of Various Artists. Along with a much needed female touch, the talented illustrator Deanna Halsall. It’s coincided with a nice little rearrangement of the studio and a cleaner floor. Top-a-mop!
Congratulations Ben & Alexandra.
Photo: Adam Russ
Best wedding ever?
After reading an article from A List Apart on web standards for E-books I decided to have a pop at a couple of styles for the newly formed ePub Zen Garden created by Threepress. The ePub format is a standard for publishing books for screens and the Zen Garden is designed to showcase the flexibility of the format. The most successful submission of mine seems to be Seneca, based loosely on the design by Phil Baines for the Penguin series of Great Ideas (I recently finished Seneca’s Shortness of Life). The other styles I submitted are Carter and Jost (references to the typographers Matthew Carter and Jost Hochuli respectively).
So! We’ve been a bit slack updating the blog, but we have been busy (and that’s a reasonable enough excuse, eh?)
We’ve recently completed the identity for a new clothes customising company in Heywood called Premier Printwear.
Tom, who sits directly behind me and is chatting away noisily in Dutch as I type, has a new site showcasing some of his exceptional work. Designed & built by yours truly. Really worth checking out. Tom Van Schelven.
But most importantly, along with a little update to the monthly listings we do for Night & Day, we also found time to put together a little retrospective of cover artwork in time for their 18th birthday. 13 covers have been selected and reproduced in all their glory at a whopping A0 (33.1 × 46.8 inches!) and are currently hanging in the greatest Rock’n'Roll bar I’ve ever been to. Each poster is available at a thoroughly reasonable £10 each, order at the bar ladies & gentlemen.
We should also point out that the perennially popular set of cards we do through our side project, A Rude Movement, are available in the shops once again. We recommend you seek them out at Piccadilly Records in the centre of Manchester, or if you’re in Chorlton the beautifully stocked boutique Wowie Zowie. Rumour has it that they’ll be available in a selection of His Master’s Voice outlets for those of you outside of Mancunia.
Speaking of cards, for those of you struggling Ben&James have everything you need for that perfect Agency Christmas Card.
Film fans should look out for the London Short Film Festival!
Our good friend Fanny asked us to help out with some bits and pieces for the Manchester Jazz Festival this year. We designed the stage dressing, banners, flags and a few other things like badges and response cards. We’ll show the rest of the work when we update the main site (coming soon). In the meantime, here’s a few pics of the stage and flags taken on one of our famous Mancunian summer mornings.
Sam & Lynn of Unrealised Projects (new site was recently completed with the assistance of A to M) are currently in São Paulo, Brazil researching Lei Cidade Limpa, or The Clean City Law, that saw the complete removal of advertising from the city of São Paulo in January 2007.
On a daily basis, they will be uploading snippets of research, found objects, images, meanderings, discussions, and video clips so please have a look at www.unrealisedprojects.org from July 6th – July 10th for ongoing real-time updates!