Categories / Art and Photography

Alan Fletcher Graphic Design exhibition

Alanfletcher
Alan Fletcher
was one of the most influential figures in British graphic design, creating some of the most iconic brand identities from the 1960s to the recent past. And his work can now be viewed in a new retrospective of his work at the Design Museum in London.

Fletcher’s work included brand identities for companies as extreme as Pirelli and the V&A, plus the likes of Penguin, Reuters and Shell. He also transformed book design as consultant art editor to Phaidon Press.

Alan Fletcher died earlier this year, but left his entire archive to the Design Museum, the best of which you can view from 11th November 2006 to 18th February 2007.

Find out more at the Design Museum website

Categories / Gadgets and Tech

Buy your own working Yellow Submarine

Yellow_submarine
It must be great to be rich – you can spend money on ridiculously frivolous things – like this Yellow Submarine, also known as the Exomos Goby.

Ideal for those weekend jaunts to Pepperland, the Goby submarine accomodates three people (so you can take Paul and Ringo along if they’re free), can reach depths of 40m, has bubble windows for 360-degree views, scanning sonar up to 183m, advanced safety features and a state-of-the-art air conditioning/decompression system. There’s even sat nav if you need directions on the way.

Certainly not one for meanies (blue or not), one of these will set you back $40,000. And if yellow isn’t your colour, others are available.

Find out more at the Exomos website

Via Popgadget

Categories / Design and Interiors

Orla Kiely / Tate Christmas cards

Orla_xmas

If you weren’t taken by the V&A’s retro pop art Christmas cards by Clifford Richards, you might like these Christmas cards by Orla Kiely for the Tate Gallery.

We’ve covered Orla Kiely’s retro-styled designs before, including her mugs and the 60s-style shopper bag. These new designs are exclusively for the Tate and hint at Christmas rather than being "in your face" festive. But more importantly, they look great and should put the other cards on any mantelpiece to shame.

The two designs are Xmas Blossom (left) and Fir Tree (right). Both are priced at £6.50 for six cards, complete with craft envelopes.

Find out more at the Tate website

Categories / Design and Interiors

V&A’s retro pop art Christmas cards

Popart_christmas
Christmas cards – almost impossible to find something cool and classy. Or is it? Not if you pick up these fantastic retro pop art Christmas cards from the V&A Museum Shop.

The cards were designed by Clifford Richards exclusively for the V&A for this Christmas. Richards is a graphic designer going back to the 60s, specialising in producing graphics inspired by Pop Art. In fact, his work from the 60s and 70s is in the collection of the V&A Museum, so you’re sending some serious art to your friends and family.

A box of 10 cards with envelopes (each measuring 12 x 17cm) costs an incredibly reasonable £6.

Find out more at the V&A Online Shop

Categories / Design and Interiors

Habitat’s Barbara Hulanicki wallpaper

Hulanicki
Habitat’s Very Important Products range
is a bit hit and miss, but they’ve certainly scored a hit with this Barbara Hulanicki wallaper.

As you’ll probably know, Barbara Hulanicki worked as a fashion illustrator in the early 60s, before setting up Biba in 1964 as a mail order business, before growing it into one of the most famous department stores of the 1970s.

And this big and bold wallpaper is very much of that era, with a purple background and overlapping silver swirl, which would look great on any feature wall.

Available now (and also available in black and white), it retails for £29 per roll.

Find out more at the Habitat website

Categories / Sportswear

Vintage leather football

Vintage_football
Ah, the good old days – 27-a-side, jumpers for goalposts and a ‘proper’ football to kick around. We can’t help with finding another 53 people for your kickabout, but we do know where you can find an old-fashioned leather football.

That place is the Conran Shop. The ball itself is manufactured by Seletti in a nice brown leather, complete with traditional lacing – just like the one Geoff Hurst struck in the ’66 World Cup Final.

Obviously, it needs a bit more attention than the plastic one from the local shop – but a brush down a rub with dubbin should make it last for many years. Available now for around £40.

Find out more from the Conran Shop website