BuroNorth

Triptych Photoshoot

Soren and I spent a day out at Triptych, a new residential tower beside the Arts Centre, art directing a campaign shoot last week. Fraser Marsden from (Earl Carter Studio) and a tight but talented crew for styling, hair and makeup, helped us bring together some stunning shots in and around the construction site.

A bit of post, a bespoke type treatment and some layout work later, the shots will be appearing in press across Melbourne in the coming weeks and months. We will also be getting onto some print and web design to round out the 2010 marketing package for our good friend Beatrice at Stable Properties.

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This way please

Nice new signage and wayfinding book out by Sandu Publishing featuring a couple of our recent work, the  Balencea and Fairfax and projects.

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Melbournes Future Wheel

Driving past the decommissioned Southern Star Observation Wheel a few months ago I got to wondering what else could become of this forlorn looking broken icon….

Having been to a few future visioning workshops in the past that produced policy based strategies, I thought bugger it we should put some clever minds together and visualize our own proposition for Melbourne’s conceptually flawed Southern Star Big Wheel.

So together with the brilliant photographer Peter Bennetts and the super talented Fooch from Squint Opera we came up with the following reuse strategy; a greek windmill inspired sci-fi future with a ‘wind driven, solar sail energy collecting wheel, as a hub for a new fleet of flying steam powered trams’ to alleviate congestion in a newly greened Melbourne. Click on the images to view the full scale versions.

Although maybe not obvious, there are some serious ideas and questions amongst the madness.. How to efficiently adapt, reuse and re-function outdated infrastructure as we move to a more sustainable future.  Anyway, the devil is in the detail, so click on the images and zoom around, fun food for thought….

Unhappy Hipsters

Check the blog site out, very nice humour - http://unhappyhipsters.com/

“There are some things that can’t be learned from a book”…

Collaborating with Rilla

We have been working quite intensely over the last 12 months with one of our favorite illustrators Rilla Alexander on a cracking wayfinding and signage project.

Rilla is one of several creatives that make up the Rinzen group, and has garnered a lot of attention lately since releasing her own website, which you should have a look through here - www.byrilla.com

We thought we’d post photos of some recent Rilla work, below is the Pictopia exhibition at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, and following that the Hotel Fox which again features some fantastic character illustrations…

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SA Identity

The talented Andreas Schimkus came to Buro North for assistance in positioning his new business venture. ‘Shoe Architecture’ represents not only his skills in shoe design and conceptualization, but also his rounded services in realizing the vision of other footwear designers and delivering organic supply chain solutions and quality assurance.

The identity is bold and confident, but with a friendly edge and a conceptual twist that communicates his skills to his broad client base, from high end fashion designers to mass consumer brands. His stationary comprises a black and white laminated and stamped card with his bespoke word mark and roundel. The roundel made up of the interlocking souls of 2 dress shoes reads as an S or A’s and is best seen in animation on his holding page … www.shoearchitecture.com

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What type are you?

Industry heavy weights, and all time favorites of mine - Pentagram just put out this nice little type exploration; What type are you?… (Thanks Jason for the tip) A witty look at the relationship between personality and typeface selection. I am apparently Courier, a democratic, rational, modern and understated typeface… Not as exciting as Id hoped for, but maybe it picked up on the control freak thing… Anyway have a crack here - http://www.pentagram.com/what-type-are-you/

Wrap

The first post for 2010 must close out 2009… Our end of year XMas wrap-up took us to Jess’ farm (thanks Jess) on the coast for some hard earned relaxation. Dress up was alter-ego’s and we had everything from girl guides, grandmas and hippies to lecturers, racing drivers and tarts.

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Buro Beer

Our client Christmas present this year was the beer we brewed last month down at Barley Corn brewery. We developed two beers, one that tasted like the typeface Gravur, and one like the typeface Fakir.

Beer A

is reminiscent of a Japanese dry beer. Pure, crisp, and dry tasting beer A is brewed from malted barley and fine hops for a more sophisticated, clear taste. A font based on one of the key features of everyday life in Switzerland (standardization) Gravur is a digitized version of the engraved type on all Swis letterboxes and door bells. Like beer A the typeface is light, modern and international, is made precisely and accurately with a restricted set of ingredients, and goes well with fish and light summer flavours.

Beer B

is the definitive Belgian Strong Golden Ale. Brewed with Pilsner malt and white sugar, and hopped with Saaz hops. Beer B is traditional, European, and at 8.5% packs a real punch. Fakir, is a contemporary interpretation of gone letter-forms with origins in blackletter. Blackletter, a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to 1500 continued to be used for the German language until the 20th century. Like beer B, Fakir has its origins in longstanding European tradition, is heavy and robust and tastes great with heavy Christmas fare.

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Message from Franci

There’s an empty desk at Büro North. I have just left it, as it’s time for me (sigh) to go back to Milan and graduate. For the past three months and one day, I have been lucky enough to sit here overlooking Little Bourke St as the first ever Büro North intern.

So what is it like to intern here? I can only tell you of my positive experience… I am leaving heavier, bringing away with me so much, everyone here has taught me a lot. The projects i got to work on, which were most diverse, included a bit of industrial design, 3D modeling and rendering, some graphic design, I even had a taste of how wayfinding projects work. The most unusual brief i got, which was also my first, was a concept  design for a coffin, what a good start!

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Vegas Boneyard

Came across these stunning shots on this cracking site by Pam Sattler of decommissioned Vegas signage. Lots more beautiful images below…

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Buro Trees decorated

We are constantly surprised at how inventively our Buro Trees are decorated, the Sofitel (with Mance design) flocked the trees in an azure green and added crystals, and Daves mum loved the tree so much she covered it in shiny stuff..!… If you’ve got one in your living room, we would love to see how its been used, feel free to email in photos to soren(at)buronorth.com

The problem with Gill

Last week my Mum discovered a tiny chapel behind the church at Capel y Fin in South Wales UK. What was noteworthy about this particular chapel was that the churchyard had been ‘rescued’ by the famous typographer and stone mason Eric Gill.

Knowing Id be interested, Mum stuck her head into the local pub to find out more about Gill’s role in the preservation of the little chapel. The men at the bar described Gill as “that pedophile” and refused to discuss it further. It turns out that the patrons of the Llanthony pub were right. Whilst Gill did create beautiful carvings and typefaces, he was also guilty of incest with his daughters and bestiality with the family dog!

This made me think. Should we now reconsider Gill’s work in the light of his lifestyle choices, and should we think twice before using his typefaces? I believe this leads to a broader question, should the private lives of artists and designers effect the way we view and use their work?

Personally I feel that the two cannot be separated, not to say that we shouldn’t appreciate the work of artists, such as Richard Wagner, but their work should always be considered in the context of the process that created it, in the case of Wagner an extreme antisemitism, that was greatly appreciated by his biggest fan.

“Whoever wants to understand National Socialist Germany must first know Wagner”. [Adolf Hitler]

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Benefit Exhibition

Buro North was approached recently to contribute towards a benefit exhibition held at The Commission Gallery, 28 – 30 November, run by friend of the studio, Rhys Gorgol. The exhibition was to raise money for youth with cancer through the Alfred Hospital, and carried the theme Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

The sculpture we created (with a big thanks and nod to Dave and Ben who threw many hours tirelessly creating the artwork, then even more hours laboring over a laser cutter and assembly table), entitled Dot, is a physical representation of the visual and audio information of the first minute of Dorothy’s journey along the yellow brick road, in the 1939 film Wizard of Oz….

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Artichoke Magazine

Thanks to Kate Rhodes and Cameron Bruhn for the review of Balencea signage that apeared in the last issue of Artichoke magazine. The article reviews both Architecture and signage through the expression of form and its abstract references back to the Doric column…

JOB POSTING - Architecture Student

Job Description:
Student required for casual work assisting with preparation of tender documentation. The position would suit a student of Architecture, 3rd year or higher. The successful applicant will work within our multidisciplinary team and will be someone confident, technically adept and have a microscopic eye for detail.

Selection Criteria:
- Experience with Abode Creative Suite, particularly Indesign.
- A strong ability to understand general arrangement plans and services drawings
- Experience in preparing schedules using Excel
- Good graphics skills
- Attention to Detail
- 3D Rendering Ability
- Ability to work well under direction
- Good time management skills

Please send an email with resume no longer than 2 pages to; soren(at)buronorth.com
Containing; Relevant Experience, Examples of work, Referees.

Gold Coast Competition

Our good friend and super gun Architect Matt Drysdale was runner up in the recently announced Gold Coast Cultural and Civic Precinct Masterplan competion; Congratulations Matt…

The comp attracted some inspiring entries, from young guns to the big guns of Australian Architecture firms. It was taken out by the very worthy and clever Marcus Trimble of Super Colossal. Check out the comp here, or Matt sent his nice images through for posting below.

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SDS UK Awards exhibition

The Sign Design Society UK have held the 2009 awards exhibition in London in which the signage for Balencea was featured, shame we couldnt make it for the opening…