Meanwhile #173

A clutch of design-related hyperlinks, distractions and invasive bashed kits.

— After a twelve year hiatus, the St Bride Foundation Conference is back this November; a conversazione celebrating innovation, inspiration, imagination and invention. Absolutely cracking lineup: Naïma Ben Ayed, Neville Brody, Jean Jullien, Naomi Kent, Alicia Martin, Bob Richardson, Venessa and Vanice Scott, Dominic Wilcox.

— David Pearson’s rather natty poster for the conference, using type sourced from the St Bride Library.

— MUBI movie poster columnist Adrian Curry looks at the art of the title treatment.

— And Other Stories have unveiled a new series look for almost all its future titles, by Brazilian designer Elisa von Randow. In two minds about this new Fitzcarraldo-ing trend; it’s wonderfully elegant and holds definite shelf appeal … but I’m a book designer with a mortgage to pay and one-size-fits-all uniformity is my sworn enemy and must be destroyed at all costs.

— New Star Wars means new opportunities to spot random old junk kitbashed into cool sci-fi gadgets. In last week’s Ahsoka: 1978 Galaxy Invader game becomes a droid head probe … thingy.

— Still can’t decide if Irma Boom’s dinky The Architecture of the Book is absurd or inspired or both or neither.

— Keeping a keen eye on Chris Ashworth’s instagram, currently teasing work being collated for a forthcoming monograph, due later this year. Love reading about the Swiss Grit alchemy behind iconic Ray Gun covers and spreads.

— On the Book Cover Review, Jodi Hunt celebrates the design of Bobby Seale’s history of the Black Panthers, Seize the Time.

— Last week’s Five Rectangles post for paid subscribers, a roundup of nice things that have strayed into my field of vision, including Sue Asbury’s Tunnocked art and Anthony Angel’s New York.