Neville Brody recently unveiled Vortext a unique piece of work for Converse and their Off Canvas Project which formed part of the first Beijing design week.

Off Canvas was the brand’s inspiring street-level exhibition of typography in areas of Beijing that have a strong connection with China’s thriving creative subcultures such as 751, Dashilar, Wudaoying Hutong, Da Wei Lang Ying Hutong and Gulou East Street. The project pulled together five other typographic talents from both Europe and China; Benny Luk, Ying Yonghui, Nod Young, Neils Shoe Meulman and Ben Eine to each create site specific installations in their chosen media.

Brody’s Vortext piece was installed at 751 D-Park part of the iconic 798 Art Centre in North East Beijing. Vortext has grown out of Brody’s Antimatter font produced for Fuse 20, his magazine publication dedicated to experimental typography, being published later this year by Taschen – you can find out more about the book here.

During Beijing design week Brody also gave a talk at CAFA (China Central Academy of Fine Arts) in partnership with the British Council’s Smart Talk series and joined a Financial Times and Baccarat discussion panel at Capital M.

Images in this story are copyright of Jonathan Leijonhuvud you can find out more about his work here

To find out more about the Off Canvas Project and respective artists follow the links below:

For Converse’s Off Canvas Project click here

For Benny Luk click here

For Nod Young click here

For Neils Shoe Meulman click here

For Ben Eine click here
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Neville Brody has designed the front cover of the forthcoming V&A Magazine dedicated to its new Postmodernism exhibition. Editor in Chief Thomas Phongsathorn commented “Neville Brody is a designer whose extraordinary body of work has significantly informed my idea of what a magazine should be – and the power of a great cover. The cover that Neville has created for us encapsulates the spirit, dynamism and energy of the V&A’s Postmodernism exhibition, but succeeds in being what Postmodern design, famously,
rarely is – beautiful, balanced and appropriate.”

On his front cover and the postmodernist movement in general Brody notes “For me, Post Modernism felt like a kind of facade built to cover over the cracks of a divided world, a surface of plucked effects and stylistic devices emptied of meaning, an extrusion of hollow traces and flat outlines forcing 2D into apparent depth. I was never a Post Modernist, rather a Modernist exploring humanist lines of enquiry in the collapsing world behind a wall of decoration.” The issue also includes an insightful article on the movement by acclaimed academic and cultural commentator Michael Bracewell

The Magazine is due to land on the doormats of V&A magazine subscribers this coming Friday 7th of October and on the shelves of magazine stores from Monday 10th October 2011.
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Research Studios are delighted to announce their collaboration with The London Library on the development of their identity and marketing collateral. Having won a four way credentials pitch earlier in the year, the team has been hard at work evolving this iconic institutions’ visual language and campaign specific materials. We will be showcasing more from the project as it rolls out over the next couple of months so please check back from more details.

The London Library, founded in 1841, is the UK’s leading literary institution. A hidden gem in the heart of St James (London), it has more than one million books and periodicals in over 50 languages, the collection includes works from the 16th century to the latest publications. Membership is open to everyone and recently featured in Esquires top 50 things ‘no man should be without’. If you are curious to find out more about The London Library please check their current website here.
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Research Studios has just completed the branding and initial roll-out collateral for The China Art Foundation, a cultural organisation connecting western and Chinese arts and cultural institutions, artists and general public through events, publications, films and summits.

The foundations aims to “Help to make sure that the interest in contemporary Chinese art has a sustainable future: Help the west to understand the rich history and contemporary cultural life of China; Help China to understand western art and culture, historical and contemporary” and whose advisory board includes representation from Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, National Art Gallery (Singapore), Yale University Art Gallery, Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing), Musee National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou (Paris), British Museum.

The China Art Foundation has hosted two summits in both Britain and China with attendance from major western and Chinese museum directors, produced two publications (Contemporary Art in Asia edited by Melissa Chiu and Benjamin Genocchio and Total Modernity and the Avant-Garde in Twentieth Century Chinese Art by Gao Minglu) commissioned a full length documentary and recently hosted two China Art Foundation Talks in America (Yale and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The Foundation’s trustees include, Pearl Lam, Susan Hayden, Gao Minglu, Sydney Picasso and Philip Dodd.

Research Studios has worked alongside the Foundation Trustees to develop an identity that captured the strands of core activity and the sense of connectivity between east and west. The secondary language to the identity has also been developed and applied to the foundation’s first pieces of collateral show here in poster and leaflet format as well as rolled out on a micro blog site.

You can out more about the China Art Foundation here
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Neville Brody was awarded the President’s Award last night from the D&AD at their pinnacle awards ceremony hosted in the heart of London. The award is selected by the then incumbent D&AD President and given to a recipient each year in recognition of an outstanding contribution to creativity.

Brody’s presentation was preceded by a unique film made for the occasion featuring D&AD President Sanky; fashion legend Sir Paul Smith; Terry Jones founder and creative director of iD magazine; internationally renowned fashion photographer Juergen Teller; designer and design writer Adrian Shaughnessy; Paul Thompson Rector of the RCA; illustrator Harry Malt and a host of London cabbies alongside a show real of iconic projects and recent work.

Brody joins an eclectic mix of past recipients including Sir Alan Parker, Jonathan Ive, Sir John Hegarty, Ridley Scott, Sir Terrance Conran, Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes.

Brody joined a host of both professional and student nominees who also had their moment in the spot light picking up D&AD pencils in both the D&AD professional awards and the D&AD student awards respectively. It was the first time the two events had been combined. Highly coveted black pencils went to Radical Media, JWT New York, Wieden and Kennedy, Apple and Samuel Wilkinson.

To see more and the award film click here

To see who else picked up the pencils in the professional and student awards click here

To find out more about the D&AD click here
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Research Studios are delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of ‘Fuse 1-20′ a celebration of 20 years of our internationally renowned platform for experimental design and typography.

Neville Brody, Creative Director of the Research Studios Network commented;

“FUSE was a project ahead of its time and is now even more vital in informing our understanding of our new digital communications space. It shows how important the need is for a constant state of experimental language. Its amazing to have this chance to re-view this vital collection of creative work for which we are delighted to partner with Tachen books.”

The publication, scheduled for release Autumn/Winter 2011, will include introduction texts by series Editor and long time FUSE collaborator Jon Wozencroft and design writer Adrian Shaughnessy. The book will contain stunning content from FUSE 1-18 and two exciting new issues of FUSE 19 (produced but not published) and FUSE 20 (a brand new commission by the FUSE team from some of the most exciting designers and typographers working today). An online resource will allow readers to access more content and have a richer experience around the book.

More about the project will be coming here soon alongside details or where and when you can pre-order your copies.

Research Studios are delighted to announce that our project Double Dip has been selected for the 2011 Creative Review Type Annual.

To find our more about the Creative Review Type Annual issue click here

You can find out more about the Double Dip project here

Neville Brody has joined Susan Hiller, Alex Danchev and EC Osondu on Radio Four’s ‘Start the Week’ programme hosted by Andrew Marr.

The broadcast focused on a panel discussion around several current topics including Brody’s appointment as Head of Communications at the Royal College of Art; Hiller’s work and new exhibition at Tate Britain; Danchev’s new book ‘New Boom 100 Artists’ Manifestos: From the Futurists to the Stuckists’; and Osondu’s new publication ‘Voice of America’.

To listen to the broadcast on the BBC’s iplayer please click here

Neville Brody’s Blur font has been chosen to be admitted to the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) architecture and design collection. Blur was selected alongside 22 other digital typefaces which included Carter’s Verdana, Speikermann’s FF Meta, Pool’s FF Din, Frere-Jones and Hoefler’s Retina, Crouwel’s New Alphabet and Barnbrook’s Manson fonts too.

In its official gallery label MoMA writes “The letterforms of FF Blur—fuzzy around the edges like an out-of-focus photograph—seem to celebrate their own imperfection, speaking to his unique background. FF Blur resembles type that has been reproduced cheaply on a Xerox machine—degenerated through copying and recopying.” You can find out more about MoMa (New York) or search their collection here

To read an official design journalist Alice Rawsthorn’s piece on MoMA’s selection of new digital fonts in The New York Times click here