Builds Blog

Campaign—

Michael — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:28:47 +0000

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New campaign for Generation Press launching soon (featuring a Bee-keeper, Fencers, a Galleon and a set of Twins…oh, and a skull)…
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Edgar Martins—

Michael — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:06:30 +0000

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Edgar Martins — This Is Not A House.
This is not a House formed part of an assignment for The New York Times Magazine, one that turned into an international controversy. The US sub-prime mortgage crisis, which has its roots in the closing years of the twentieth century, became apparent in 2007 and exposed pervasive weaknesses as well as deep-rooted inequalities within financial industry regulation and the global financial system. In the winter of 2008, Martins produced a series of photographs that explored the collapse of the US housing market. He photographed abandoned homes, golf courses, ski resorts, hotels and other building projects in sixteen locations, across six separate States.
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When the work was finally published in the summer of 2009, it became the focus of a heated debate as a result of Martins’ decision digitally to re-shape a select few images. What was a riveting polemic about deception and misrepresentation for some, was to others the re-surfacing of a tiresome, age-old, ontological, epistemological and moral chasm between Art and journalism. However, the public reaction to this article, in Martins’ view is better understood and contextualized when, against the backdrop of uncertainty, ruin and bankruptcy, journalistic ethics and woes, one also considers the resonance and imagery of the ruined shelter throughout US history.
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According to the author Peter D Osborne (who contributes and essay to the book of the project), America is a “Settler Nation” and so any disaster that involves the shelter or the settlement, “extends immediately into metaphor for a whole historical process.” Osborne elaborates, “ The history and imagery of the ruined shelter or settlement are required to furnish the continuing epic of travelling and moving on that is the USA, an epic of disasters endured and overcome for sure, but one ever attended by a sense of America’s precariousness, of its own brevity, its own uncertainty about where and if it belongs.”
This is the real context in which This is not a House appears, the ruins of the house–economy.
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UK readers of our blog can see ‘This Is Not A House’ at The Wapping Project (info below).

‘This is not a House’ by Edgar Martins 18 January – 04 March 2012
Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, Wapping Wall,
London, E1W 3SG 00 44 207 680 2080
Opening times: Monday – Sunday from noon to 10.30PM, Except Sundays to 5.30PM.
Admission free.
Nearest tube: Wapping.
Bus: 100

Desks for sale—

Michael — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:48:51 +0000

**THE DESKS HAVE NOW BEEN SOLD**
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We have 3 beautiful Oak desks for sale. The desks are 4 years old but are in really good condition and each has a very neat cable management system. They are very stylish, and would suit a design studio, or individual.
The desk is held together with wooden pegs and is easy to assemble/disassemble (so can be flat-packed for easy transportation).
Must be collected from our studio in Walthamstow, East London E17 4QP.
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Desk shown above is the same construction/wood/style but is the smaller 120x60 version, ours are the longer 160x80 ones.
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Info:
Material: Oak
Model: Linchpin
Manufacturer: Unto This Last
Size: 160x80cm
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**THE DESKS HAVE NOW BEEN SOLD**
Each table new costs £385 (£335 for the table + £50 for cable management) new.
**Our price £200 for each table, or £550 for all three**
~~Please email us at inform you (at) wearebuild dot com if you are interested or have any questions.~~
**THE DESKS HAVE NOW BEEN SOLD**

Need Fresh Coffee—

Michael — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:12:59 +0000

We’ve just completed a lovely little project for Nokia.
A short film commissioned to show the benefits of ‘Near Field Communication’. We commissioned 7 fresh upcoming illustrators to illustrate a script (written by Nicola Place & Nick Asbury) based on the potentials of NFC technology.
Design & Art Direction by Build.
Editing & Production by Build.
Contributing illustrators: Nina Cosford/Tom Edwards/Sam Falconer/Pete Gamlen/Sam Hawkins/Joe Luxton/Hannah Rowlands + Aaron Vohra.
Cat portraits by Jason Tozer.
Original music by J-VEN.
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Illustrators:

Nina Cosford.
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Tom Edwards.
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Sam Falconer.
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Pete Gamlen.
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Sam Hawkins.
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Hannah Rowlands.
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Aaron Vohra.
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As part of the project we produced a short film called ‘ImageMakers’ which is a sort of behind-the-scenes look at the illustrators we work with on the project. With additional commentary by me (Michael) & Amanda Moorby (D&AD) & Patrick Burgoyne (editor, Creative Review).
Watch ‘ImageMakers’ here.
Watch ‘Nokia-NFC’ here.

DA3—

Michael — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:12:30 +0000

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Our contribution (above), an ode to print, old & new and the way technology has changed our design process.
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Paul Davis print.
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In October 2011 — 148 posts, 904 comments and over 2.5m visits later — Design Assembly turned 3.
‘3’ archives over 100 published articles, comments included, as well as showcasing new and exclusive words and images from some incredible people. 100% of the profits from the sale of this publication will be shared proportionately between 3 charities with a combined global reach:
Cancer Research UK — United Kingdom
LIVESTRONG — North America
WCRF International — Rest of world
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The total amount raised will be distributed proportionately
between these 3 charities according to the percentage of profits
generated by each catchment. For example, if 50% of profits are raised by pledges from US billing addresses, 50% of profits will be donated to LIVESTRONG, and so on.
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According to Cancer Research UK, 1-in-3 of us will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in our lifetime. Can design make a difference?
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Buy the book here.
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GP Van livery—

Michael — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:52:51 +0000

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Extremely happy with our first piece of livery for the new Generation Press van!
If you spot the GP van out and about, tweet its location to @GenerationPress using the #GPTweets hashtag for a chance to win a limited edition poster designed by ourselves for Generation Press!
Please excuse the crappy iPhone pictures, better ones to come.
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Swag in the newly designed GP Tube-Mailer.
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Windows On Willesden Green—

Nicky — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:56:41 +0000

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New Windows on Willesden Green is an Outer London Fund project, which is being delivered for Brent Council and Design for London by The Architecture Foundation.The project is an exciting opportunity to revive and improve Willesden High Road bringing positive change to the area. 25 different designs create an advent calendar of store-front window displays, encouraging people to see the local area and its shops in a new light.
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When we were asked by architects Studio Octopi to lend a hand on their window for the project, we were really happy to oblige! The studio had already designed the striking theme of the festive red ribbons to mirror the ceiling detail, and we added the finishing touches in the form of the type in three languages– English, Tagalog and Spanish– flowing across the shop front.
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You can read more here

Maria de la Iglesia—

Michael — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:16:24 +0000

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Lovely work by Spanish photographer Maria de la Iglesia. Maria is working with us on a project at the moment, she came highly recommended by our photographer friend Davy Jones. Really looking forward to seeing the results, which we’ll post here on our blog.

All that I can remember—

Michael — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:06:58 +0000

Harewood — The Avenue.
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Harewood — The Square.
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Coldstone Farm.
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Bedale — 2 Oak Tree Close.
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All the houses I lived in (that I was old enough to remember) before I left home.
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I was just talking to someone online about a Hacienda poster (their 7th anniversary) I had that was designed by 8vo. It cost me something like £10 at the time (1989), I was attending Newcastle College, and had left the poster at my mum & dads house (the last pic in the post). After college I moved down South to work with Trevor Jackson and my mum & dad packed my things into boxes and put them in the loft. One of those items was the Hacienda poster…the last time I saw the poster it was in a dark loft, slightly creased…and this then set me on a small mission to find the houses I lived in as a kid.

*Click on the images for a bigger view

Close—

Michael — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:30:43 +0000

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We’ve been working on an interesting new project for ‘Close’ an anonymous music collective. The website we designed for them has just been launched, see that here.
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Design/Typography/Photographic art direction by Build.
Photography by Benjamin Grillon.
Website development by Tom van de Velde.
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Custom typography—
As part of the project we designed a mono-linear-humanist typeface which will form the basis for the collectives identity.
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