As the eleventh London Design Festival gets under way, read on for Grafik’s annual round up of what's on offer for the graphic design enthusiast around town…
This years’s bumper LDF kicks off tomorrow with the Graphics Weekend at the V&A. Archive aside, apart from the odd poster exhibition, it’s one of the rare times you’ll see any graphic design at the ‘World’s Greatest Museum of Art and Design’, so best make the most of it.
Unusually, it’s the ladies taking centre stage with a talks by bookmeister-extraordinare Irma Boom, and Adrian Shaughnessy playing Paxman to Paula Scher. Trooper Alan Kitching will be making the first of two appearances (he’s back on later in the week at the LCC), and two of our favourite book cover designers David Pearson and Jim Stoddart will be spilling the beans about archive tans and working for Penguin (Books, not Batman’s arch nemesis). Hat Trick’s Jim Sutherland will be spreading joy (in design) and Sarah Hyndman will be Type Tasting.
For aspiring designers there are various no-doubt-very-useful panel discussions about the business of design, plus workshops on how to promote your many talents to people who don’t yet know about them. For those with offspring in tow, there are plenty of hands-on activities (with pens and paper supplied by Cass Art), but if they’re sulky teenagers (or boys), then best plonk them down in front of the Wachowskis’ hugely entertaining, retina-burning nonsense that is Speed Racer (leaving you with plenty of time to for a large drink and a sit down in the Madejski Garden).
Elsewhere there are various graphics-related events dotted around the capital. For some serious poster action, check out Abram Games at the Jewish Museum, and Alan Kitching at the LCC (which celebrates 160 combined years of design with its Stereohype and 50 Years of Illustration exhibitions). Elsewhere Dark City presents some alternative film posters in the very traditional Phoenix cinema in downtown East Finchley, and The Partners will be bringing its Museum of the Mundane over to London, with an examination of bagels, manhole covers and other (presumably non-round) objects. On a more international note, there’s Designing in Polska at Tent and Graphic Design in China at Asia House.
Courtesy of MagCulture, the excellent Modern Magazine conference returns, plus there’s a chance to relax with a cuppa and a carefully curated mag whilst sitting on a chair you can’t afford, at the 620 Reading Room at Vitsoe HQ. And if for some reason you needed an excuse to visit, then head down to Present and Correct for a spot of rubber-based recreation at the Stamp Station, with plenty of stationery porn available in between sessions.
Full details at: londondesignfestival.com