Get it in writing

Davis, who was speaking at the second session of the 10th annual Design Indaba in Cape Town yesterday, 21 February 2007, has published numerous books, done commissions for Marc Jacobs perfume in Japan, the Type Director’s Club of Zurich and Time Out and collaborated with David Carson and Alexander Gelman. As an example of value, IBM bought his handwriting for 20 Grand [Sterling], but it didn’t stop him writing for Sony, albeit [as advised by his copyright lawyer] with his other hand!

Letter cruncher

This year sees Neville Brody, the designer who has inspired two generations of designers and typographers, returning to DI for the fifth time. The mayor of Paris, Issey Miyake, The Institute for Contemporary Art, Kenzo and The Times newspaper all think that he adds value to their bottom line.

Still a master of surprising scale, fresh fonts and a far-reaching philosophical approach, Brody cites his work as simply a quest for suitable images and suitable type – in a excess of blandness, there is now more than ever a need for designers to find new forms to represent reality and explore some dangerous edges in the pursuit of a communication that engages with society.

Up front and personal

This collaboration of these four bright young things from Sweden’s FRONT so completely challenges the perceptions of materiality, that you might never engage with things that same way again.

Adding value to the most common white plastic moulded chair on earth - with an inspired leather seat - they have created an exclusive and desirable armchair; they have also engaged the services of beetles, rats, snakes, wolves and rabbits to re-imagine wood, paper, clay and ceramic forms. Videogames interact with virtual iconic objects, while real forms such as tables and lamps, walk, collapse and morph at will.

A morph computer programme allows a combination of a Ron Arad chair and a Panton chair to provide 5300 variations, any of which may be produced. Currently FRONT are incredibly big in Japan for their experimental work with motion capture cameras and rapid prototyping tech which has allowed it to reproduce furniture sketched into thin air.

From this perspective the edge does not look dangerous at all, but actually rather comfortable.

Drawing conclusions

Best known for the 'I [heart] NY' logo and the poster of Bob Dylan which graced everybody’s wall in the 1970s, Milton Glaser himself was beamed by simulcast into the Convention centre to close Wednesday’s session on the first day.

Also referring to the primacy of drawing in his life’s work and his yet-to-be released book Drawing is Thinking, Glaser says: drawing pays attention, is the way we construct and are connected to reality. Our brains are an instrument for problem solving, we enjoy ambiguity because it stimulates the brain.

Designers are left people because by our nature we embrace principles of generosity, community, ambiguity and righteousness.

A recent project called ‘Designism’, started by the New York Art Directors’ Club, calls design to arms for social change in many deserving areas some in our own backyard – like Darfur - and what could be more valuable than that?

TIP OF THE DAY: Google ‘designism’ or Milton Glaser to see the latest trends in socially responsible design thinking.