Graphic Journey Blog

Wise words

Independent bliss

Regulars to this little blog of mine will know of my love of bookshops. I am lucky enough to have a delightful independent one, just a short walk away in Exmouth Market. Appropriately called Clerkenwell Tales it stocks a good a range of books and stages many events, from signings to Literary Prize Nights. The staff are friendly, knowledgeable and their choices discerning.

But as much I love this petit literary oasis, I have to own up to the fact that I have been known to browse, hit on a book, note down the title and a little later can be found tapping away at my laptop ordering it on Amazon, for half the price. Yes I know, shame on me!

The preservation of independent bookshops was brought home to me in a little YouTube video featuring my very favourite ex advertising copywriter, David Abbott. Now a fully-fledged author, with his first novel The Upright Piano Player published, he makes the case for keeping these important establishments alive. You can see it here.

And before you throw bricks at me I’d like to add that I bought David’s book at the full cover price at Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street. If you’d like to know more about David Abbott just click here. Meanwhile here is one of David’s most beautifully written advertisements from over 30 years ago. Still lovely after all those years…

Thought for our times.

“It’s good to talk.”

So said Bob Hoskins in the infamous BT commercials of the mid 90’s. But is the art of conversation dying? Read more about my views on the topic over at talented designer, and ace charity biker, Alistair Hall’s blog here. And while there please help Alistair to raise money for Cancer Research UK during his marathon ride – wander over to his Just Giving page . 

 

 

Sign of the times: Epilogue

My recent Sign of the times post turned out to be the most controversial I have experienced since this blog started in 2008. Over a 7-day period some 8,000 people visited to check out the post. Many added well-considered and thought provoking comments. What they highlighted was a deeply held passion and clear views about the current state of British editorial design.
 
Grazing through the comments has hardened my view even more.
 
The heyday of brilliant British editorial design ran from the 1960s to the late 1980s. There was a real spirit of adventure and courage, couple with a healthy rivalry and mutual respects between the art directors working at the various magazines during that period; Tom Wolsey, Dennis Bailey, Michael Rand, Max Maxwell, Barry Trengrove, Roy Carruthers, Geoffrey Axbey, Tony Mullins, Romek Marber, Harri Peccinotti, David Hillman, David Driver Pearce Marchbank and David King. A stellar roll call of exceptional talent, all responsible for some stunningly original work.  Yes, it is true to say, and as pointed out in the comments, that they were less demanding times with far fewer distractions – The digital world had yet to arrive.  But when it did, things changed forever.
 
The web gave us an alternative portal through which to view the world, out of that came DIY programming, the explosion of YouTube and a myriad of alternatives to open up new ways of delivering entertainment, information or just plain stimulation.  Meanwhile the newspapers and magazines came under increasing pressure to hold onto their readers. The cult of ‘celebrity’ reared its head, I’m not talking about real stars here, they were always newsworthy, I mean the B and D listers who have become famous for well, being famous and contributing very little. Like an insidious cancer they permeated the pages of many of our newspapers and magazines at an alarming rate.

The depressing visual template for 21st century magazines
 
The advent of publications like Hello, OK, Garcia, Nuts, Closer and Heat etc started to influence their near neighbours and over a relatively short period all covers at the popular end of the market became identical. The inside pages filled with Twitter sized articles about shallow people.

The young and impressionable latched on to them. And these days it is not unusual for kids to say that their ambition is to become ‘famous’, but with little to offer. No talent. No passion.  This ambition now plays a major part in our media, especially television. We see cheaply produced reality shows, hyped up karaoke styled talent contests, or the combative scenarios, where constants are exposed to cruel ridicule for the voyeuristic public to lap up, a formula dished up every which way. It is this unpleasant menu that has taken up a large part of airtime.
 
What has saddened me most about some of the responses to Sign of the times is the acceptance and defence of mediocrity. ‘It’s the way it is’, I hear them say, ‘It can’t be changed’. The old adage, ‘Don’t give people what they want, give them what they didn’t know they wanted’ seems a surreal concept from another time, another place.

 Spot the difference.