This week for the Industry, we talk with ZERO PER ZERO, a design duo of two graphic designers (Jin Sol and Kim Ji-Hwan) in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Specializing mainly in the field of graphic, information design as well as in illustration. Currently they are focused on their City Railway System series. Enjoy the interview!
What is your interest with line map design?
Current railway map system has been developed on the basis of system made by Herrybeck of England. Our design also does not stray a lot from his influence. It’s just that we are finding it really interesting to take the official railway map that is a little bit stern and make it more interesting and charming. We consider the railway map not just as a guide to using the railway but as a cultural merchandise of the city.
You have interpreted the railway systems of New York City, Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Barcelona and Hokkaido- what has been the most challenging city to design?
Tokyo was the most challenging one. Japanese railway system is more unique and complicated that that of any other place in the world. It was very difficult to effectively organize more than 1500 stations and over 100 lines. It went through several editions before we settled on the current design.
What makes your interpretations of subway maps unique?
City Railway System is a new approach of projecting the identity of a city onto its subway map. Whereas standard subway maps are aimed at conveying information as clearly and concisely as possible, City Railway System by Zeroperzero is distinguished by grafting symbolic elements of each city on to the map while preserving clarity. Targeting specifically tourists, we also marked major landmarks and attractions on the subway map, making it convenient for the tourists to figure out the fastest way to get to the destination just by taking a glance. The railway map itself is also good for souvenir.
You have chosen to graft symbolic elements of different cities onto the map- how do you choose what is iconic?
The symbolic element cannot be something notably commercial and it has to be something everybody agrees on. Also, it needs to have a simple and clear image so that it transforms into an icon easily. For these reasons, we are often inspired by the national flags when designing for the nationa capitals. The idea comes to us more easily if we have lived in the city or have travelled through the city and got to know the characteristics of the railway system.
How do you package the maps? What type of experience do you want to give to the reader?
Our maps is good for practical use and for interior decor. For Mini Maps, we minimize the packaging so that it can be carried in a wallet or scheduler easily. City Maps come with separate cover so that it is a bit fancier and it is also great to hang on a wall. Additionally, we apply our design to everyday commodities such as mouse pads, folders, notebooks, etc. to answer diverse needs of diverse buyers.
What awards and recognitions have you recieved for your work? What has been the most important?
We won various international awards with our City Railway System: iF Communication Gold, ADC-Silver, IDEA-Silver, etc. Among these, we are most attached to the iF Award because it was the first big award that we were recognized with. We definitely worked with more confidence after winning it.
Are you open to collaboration?
We have done collaborations with companies such as 10 Corso Como or SK Telecom of Korea. We always welcome collaborations.
What challenges do you face on a day to day basis working in graphic design?
We would like to make more profits off of our own contents rather than client jobs, however, in reality, client jobs are more profitable currently. If it continues like this we won’t have much to our name at the end, so we are always thinking about ways to make profits using our own contents.
How do you see zeroperzero’s place in design world in the next 5 years?
In 5 years, City Railway System series should be near completion. We expect there to be more variety of work forms, collaborations and commissions going off of the cities we would have worked on. Also, we will be coming up with and working on new contents other than the map series.
Welcome back to another edition of the Ninjas on the Net, after being in Adelaide and Tokyo, on to Cardiff, Wales.
-The Wales Millennium Centre (above) opened in 2004 is considered to be one of the World`s iconic arts and cultural destinations. The vision of the Centre is to be an internationally significant cultural landmark and centre for the performing arts, renowned for inspiration, excellence and leadership
-Facing onto Mill Lane, which is the restaurant quarter of central Cardiff, opposite the Marriott Hotel and a short walk from the main train station, is a new Italian caffè, restaurant, alimentari foodshop and deli- Carluccios’
-Looking for web talent? Cardiff Web Scene is a place for web developers, interactive designers and web enthusiasts who live and work in and around Cardiff
“Metropolis” is a quirky and very abridged narrative history of the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. It uses stop motion video animation to physically manipulate aerial still images of the city (both real and fictional), creating a landscape in constant motion. Starting around 1755 on a Native American trading path, the viewer is presented with the building of the first house in Charlotte. From there we see the town develop through the historic dismissal of the English, to the prosperity made by the discovery of gold and the subsequent roots of the building of the multitude of churches that the city is famous for. Now the landscape turns white with cotton, and the modern city is ‘born’, with a more detailed re-creation of the economic boom and surprising architectural transformation that has occurred in the past 20 years
Charlotte is one of the fastest growing cities in the country, primarily due to the continuing influx of the banking community, resulting in an unusually fast architectural and population expansion that shows no sign of faltering despite the current economic climate. However, this new downtown Metropolis is therefore subject to the whim of the market and the interest of the giant corporations that choose to do business there. Made entirely from images printed on paper, the animation literally represents this sped up urban planners dream, but suggests the frailty of that dream, however concrete it may feel on the ground today. Ultimately the video continues the city development into an imagined hubristic future, of more and more skyscrapers and sports arenas and into a bleak environmental future. It is an extreme representation of the already serious water shortages that face many expanding American cities today; but this is less a warning, as much as a statement of our paper thin significance no matter how many monuments of steel, glass and concrete we build.
“This England?”
The basis for this video is a book called From the Pilot’s Seat. It contains a nostalgic series of aerial photographs of England taken just after the end of World War II, along with poetic quotes chosen by the author (Cyril Murrell). The images give us the odd glimpse of the destruction and bankruptcy of the country at this time, but mainly focus on the romance of its historic and natural riches. This video attempts to literally bring a forgotten book back to life, taking the viewer on a continuous flight over the land and supplying a sense of the author’s feeling towards these places. With the use of stop-motion and digital animation some of the locations have been manipulated to include the artist’s comprehension and memory of his ‘homeland’. These moments range from the trivial to the sinister and suggest a sense of frailty in these picturesque scenes. It is an attempt for the artist to rationalize and depict his understanding of the place he comes from, as well as the enculturation of his parents.
Brownbook aims to explore, reveal and introduce the Middle East as an emerging hub for expression, ideas and good looking products. Taking directives from designers, urban planners, architects, songsmiths and scientists, the magazine offers a vitalised vision of MENA (Middle East/North Africa) and a platform to connect our readers with these people.
While a beard and long hair is seemingly all it takes this season to make it as a model, there’s some brands who want a little more from their models. Apparently, Chronicles of Never wanted a little too much as they ending up cutting out the middleman altogether – as you can see from the above pictures. They describe this collection as a ‘departure from the dark’, something that’s has clouded over (pun intended) Chronicles since its inception.
Pulling the location of thousands of Geotagged images from Flickr, Eric Fischer has assembled some beautiful images representing the most photographed spaces of our planets largest cities. The images peak and rise where you’d expect; all those tourist locations feature heavily. It’s an interesting ‘map’ of tourist movement and interest and should feed anyone interested in tracking the nest location for that next restaurant.
Yvon Chouinard. Heard of him? He’s one of the good guys. A 72 year old surfer and climber. A die hard environmentalist. A former blacksmith turned climbing gear manufacturer who went on to found one of the most successful outdoor clothing companies in the world. Patagonia.
If you haven't watched the DOJO yet, what are you waiting for? Get a glimpse into the 1st episode of Chicago's myninjaplease inspired DVD Mag! Check it out!
--05.01.2010--
Who's Got that Vocab?!?! myninjaplease does! We're bringing this feature back to educate la gente.
Therianthropy refers to the metamorphosis of humans into other animals. from n. therianthrope and adj. therianthropic, part man and part beast, from the Greek theríon, θηρίον, meaning "wild animal" or "beast" (impliedly mammalian), and anthrōpos, άνθρωπος, meaning "human being") Therianthropes have long existed in mythology, appearing in ancient cave drawings such as the Sorcerer at Les Trois Frères.
--04.27.2010--
Bonnier has introduced a working concept of the Mag+, a product that is seeking to understand the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices. MNP recently caught up with Pontus Schultz of Bonnier R&D and asked him about the concept and its recent success with Popular Science+
This week for the A Dozen feature, we touch base with Kathleen Letts, a very talented artist from Chicago. How did you get your start in the visual arts? It all started with mud pies…my earliest memories are of making little pots from the mud in a wooded clearing near our house in rural Kansas. I must have been 4 or 5. Later I branched out to figures that I made out of cloth and wood scraps from my mother’s sewing basket and my father’s wood shop, which I sold to family and friends. I remember that my most expensive art work at the time was priced at $ .50. Mom thought it was a little overpriced! I think that artists are born, not made, and the most critical component of the artistic temperament is the patience –or the compulsion–to work a piece through to completion.
Chi crederia che sotto forme umane e sotto queste pastorali spoglie fosse nascosto un Dio? Non mica un–["Who would believe that under human form and under this pastoral garb there would be found a God? Not only a...."] As of mid-May 2009, this phonautogram of the opening lines of Torquato Tasso’s pastoral drama Aminta is the earliest audible record of recognizable human speech.
Once a separate nation, Texas has recently been behaving more like an independent economic republic than a regular state. While it hasn't been immune to the problems plaguing the nation, the Texas housing market, employment rate, and overall economic growth are relatively strong. Chalk some of this up to accidents of geology and geography. But Texan prosperity also reflects the conscious efforts of a once-parochial place to embrace globalization.
A one-eyed filmmaker is going to implant a camera in his eye to make a film from his point of view. Rob Spence, a documentary filmmaker from Canada, has been unable to use his right eye since it was damaged in a firearms accident as a child. After wearing an eyepatch for many years, he recently got a prosthetic eye implanted – and decided he wanted to become what he calls an “Eyeborg” – a part-human, part-camera cyborg. “I was looking at the small camera on my cellphone, and I got to thinking about the Bionic Man,” he said in a recent video on his website. “I want to turn my prosthetic eye into a wireless camera."
Apple'sglorious iPad which is supposed to be the salvation of eduction is being banned from US campus's because its wireless networking is so grim. The overpriced netbook without a keypad, is having difficulty being accepted at George Washington University and Princeton University because of network stability issues. Cornell University also says it is seeing connectivity problems with the device and is concerned about bandwidth overload.
The Centre for Documentary Practice is pleased to announce Khaled Hasan as the winner of the first CDP Emerging Documentist Award, sponsored by Canon Australia. Hasan's story, Living Stone, documents the lives of a community of stone labourers in Jaflong, in North Eastern Bangladesh.
The pic above is from a funny little article of images detailing the A to Z of comic book awesomeness. Favorite? "W is for Wolverine Wishing Wonder Woman Wasn't Wasted." Er... yes... Carry on.
Although many people believe that Samuel Johnson said "The road to hell is paved with good intentions," he shouldn't get credit for this one.
Johnson said something close, but he was following in others' footsteps. In Boswell's Life of Johnson, in an entry marked April 14, 1775, Boswell quotes Johnson as saying (on some other occasion), "Hell is paved with good intentions." Note, no prefatory "the road to..." Boswell's editor, Malone, added a footnote indicating this is a 'proverbial sentence,' and quoting an earlier 1651 source (yet still not in the common wording). Samuel Johnson SoundByte Page
--03.28.2010--
Just in case you missed St. Paddy's Day: don't worry, you can still own your very own shillelagh for if you need to knock a few ninjas out, the good old Irish way. This baby retails for 98 bucks but can be yours for the... bargain price of 89 smackeroonies.
--03.20.2010--
Meet midori-san, the first blogging houseplant! Through sensors connected to the leaves of this Sweetheart Hoya, bioelectric currents are read through the plant, which gives information about the lighting condition, temperature and humidity; this then becomes Japanese sentences as created by the Keio University Hiroya Tanaka Laboratory.
Although Paris in the 1800s is often associated with the art of Impressionism, with its light-filled landscapes and bustling boulevards, artists also probed the social and psychological depths of the period in more private media like prints, drawings, illustrated books, and small sculptures. This exhibition, organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, evokes the discreet world of individual collecting to tell a less familiar story of nineteenth-century art.
In lieu of any real Superbowl coverage (until later in the week when it's already tired out) I will link you to one of our classic article threads: Peyton Manning Cries. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.