Mischievous Monsters Smirk and Grin in Fuzzy Alphabet Collection by Jose Arias

All images © Jose Arias

Lima-based graphic designer and illustrator Jose Arias has created a wacky cast of typographic monsters ready to cuddle you in their serifs and ascenders—Monsters Inc. meets the alphabet. Often smirking or baring a couple of teeth, Arias’s letter-based characters sometimes come adorned with coiffed hair, a gold crown, and a pair of headphones. Each has an alphabetic shape that’s formed naturally by their bodies or when they jump into the air, open their mouths, or stick out their legs.

The illustrator created the project that’s “full of hair and cuteness of characters” as part of the 36 Days of Type challenge, which asks creatives to share their conceptions of letters and numbers. Head to Instagram or Behance to check out the rest of Arias’s mischievous collection.

 

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Los Angeles "is now a live-action dystopia playing out in real time" says Liam Young

With Tinseltown under lockdown due to coronavirus, a new genre of "virus fiction" or "ViFi" could emerge, says speculative architect and director Liam Young in the first of a series of video messages from creatives around the world recorded as part of our Virtual Design Festival.

"So welcome to the American apocalypse," Young says in the video message, which was recorded in his studio in Downtown Los Angeles.

"There are lines outside the gun shops"

"There are lines outside the gun shops after they've just reopened having been deemed essential businesses; there are bootleg mask sellers on the street corners and the entire film industry here in LA has been put indefinitely on pause."

So it means a town of predominantly freelance creatives can no longer pay the rent or buy groceries," he adds. "So LA, so often the setting for so many sci-fi films, is now a live-action dystopian film playing out in real-time.

Young, who leads the Master of Science in Fiction and Entertainment course at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles, was a keynote speaker at the Dezeen Day conference in October last year.

In his Dezeen Day lecture, Young explained why architects and filmmakers should "must all actively shape and define" the future to "help us understand our own world in new ways".

"There is no return to normal"

The coronavirus pandemic means that sketching out possible futures is more important than ever, Young says, predicting that the virus will force creatives to lay plans for a better world.

"But for a town of so many worldbuilders and storytellers, I'm sure the scripts for a new genre of virus fictions – or ViFi – or already in the works," Young says. "And perhaps that is the real opportunity of this present moment: to imagine the potential fictions and futures and to prototype the new worlds that we all want to be a part of when the viral cloud lifts."

"So in many ways, we must recognize that there is no return to normal because our default setting is what created these conditions for collapse in the first place," he concludes. "So thank you, and I'll see you all after the end of the world."

Send us a video message

In the run-up to the launch of Virtual Design Festival on Wednesday, Dezeen invited architects, designers, artists and industry figures to record video messages from lockdown. We also put out an open call for submissions from readers – read the brief here.

We plan to publish one clip every day during the festival, plus a montage featuring over 30 of the messages we've already received with be published on Wednesday to launch VDF.

Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival runs from 15 April to 20 June. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us at virtualdesignfestival@dezeen.com.

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The Architect's Newspaper co-founder Bill Menking dies aged 72

The architecture community has paid tribute to William "Bill" Menking, co-founder of The Architect's Newspaper, who has died aged 72 of cancer.

Menking co-founded The Architect's Newspaper (AN) in 2003 with Diana Darling and was the editor-in-chief when he died on 11 April.

His death after a long battle with cancer has triggered an outpouring of tributes from architects, academics and journalists around the world.

"Menking was an invaluable part of the architecture community of New York as well as nationally and internationally," said Matt Shaw in an obituary for AN.

His "zest for life" and "knack for being in the centre of the action" were reflected on by the former AN executive editor.

"Menking was a central figure in the architecture culture"

"This is terribly sad news, and a huge loss," tweeted New York critic Paul Goldberger. "Bill Menking was a central figure in the architecture culture, liked and respected by just about everyone. And AN is a creation that all of us have come to value, and to need. RIP."

Menking was a tenured professor and trustee at Pratt Institute and was also on the board of directors at Manhattan's Storefront for Art and Architecture and The Architecture Lobby.

"The architecture world is mourning another loss: Bill (William) Menking, historian, writer, critic, founder + editor Archpaper + a loved Pratt Institute professor," tweeted Harriet Harriss, dean of Pratt Institute School of Architecture.

He wrote books including Four Conversations on the Architecture of Discourse and Architecture on Display: On The History of the Venice Biennale of Architecture, and was the curator of the 2008 US Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture.

Menking remembered for "ability to connect" community

"Oh this is heartbreaking," tweeted Brenden Cormier, senior design curator of London's Victoria and Albert Museum. "I met Bill in Lisbon in 2013 – was immediately blown away by his energy, passion for architecture culture and ability to connect the huge network of people he had met along the way."

"He was incredibly generous to me, and for that I'm forever grateful. RIP," he added.

Architect James Timberlake also posted condolences for Menking's family on behalf of his architecture firm Kieran Timberlake.

"Kieran Timberlake sends our condolences to the staff at #AN and his daughter Halle; he was a terrific collaborator, critic, and tireless advocate for great design, the environment, and how architecture could improve the social good #WilliamMenking will be sorely and sadly missed," he tweeted.

Menking was born in 1947 in Puerto Rico and raised in California. He studied architecture and urban studies the University of California Berkeley and in Florence, Italy where he met members of the radical design movement.

After his studies, Menking worked as a labour organiser in New York City, at Studio 54, and as an art director for the 1980s television show Miami Vice. He moved to London to study at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London and wrote for British architectural publications including The Architects' Journal and Building Design, before founding AN.

Photograph is courtesy of The Architect's Newspaper.

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"I hope this offers a glimmer of hope that things are getting better" says Aric Chen

Life in Shanghai is slowly getting back to normal, reports curator Aric Chen in this video message recorded for Virtual Design Festival on his first day in the fresh air after 14 days of home quarantine.

Chen, the curatorial director of the Design Miami fair, recorded the message from the street on Sunday 12 April – the day his mandatory 14-day quarantine ended.

"I'm shooting this outside partly just because I can," says Chen. "I just got out of a home quarantine, a mandatory 14-day home quarantine yesterday that was very strictly enforced."

"Everyone was very kind"

"I had daily visits by a nurse, a sensor on my door," he adds. "Though I have to say everyone was very kind and nice and polite. I even got a care package sent to me by the authorities."

Chen, a US citizen based in Shanghai, flew from Hong Kong to Shanghai on 27 March, just hours before the Chinese authorities barred foreign passport-holders from entering the country due to coronavirus.

"It caps off more than two months during which I somehow stayed a half-step ahead of the pandemic as it spread from China to the Middle East, Europe and the USA, before I finally made it back to Asia," Chen wrote in an email that accompanied his video submission.

This was Chen's second period of 14-day home quarantine: he went through his first period of mandatory self-isolation in Shanghai in February, after returning home from the middle east. He has been tested twice for coronavirus, with negative results each time.

"There are signs of life on the streets of Shanghai"

"I'm obviously much happier to be outside today," Chen says in the video. "And as you can see, there are signs of life out on the streets of Shanghai now. People are out and about. The shops seem busy. I had dinner plans last night. I have some meetings this week; like real meetings with people, in person."

"And, you know, we're certainly not out, we're certainly not in the clear yet," he adds. "There are still a lot of restrictions and checks in place, but I hope this offers a little bit of a glimmer of hope that things can, will and are getting better."

"And for the moment, at least, today is a very good day and I hope that all of you start having a lot more good days very soon as well. Hang in there."

China was the first country to introduce movement restrictions to counter the Covid-19 pandemic, which started in Wuhan late last year. Last month, architects and designers in China told Dezeen that things were starting to return to normal.

Send us a video message

In the run-up to the launch of Virtual Design Festival on Wednesday, Dezeen invited architects, designers, artists and industry figures to record video messages from lockdown. We also put out an open call for submissions from readers - read the brief here.

We plan to publish one clip every day during the festival, plus a montage featuring over 30 of the messages we've already received with be published on Wednesday to launch VDF.

Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival runs from 15 April to 20 June. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us at virtualdesignfestival@dezeen.com.

The post "I hope this offers a glimmer of hope that things are getting better" says Aric Chen appeared first on Dezeen.

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Thick Greenery Swathes a Bamboo-and-Steel Complex in Indonesia

Images © Eric Dinardi and Ernest Theofilus

Realrich Architecture Workshop, aka RAW Architecture, completed Guha Bambu just this year, but the cascading vines, luxuriant shrubs, and grass-covered facades on the new project make it appear as an old building overtaken by nature. Each room of the nearly 6,500 square-foot complex has at least two entrances that often face north and south to exhibit the overflowing greenery.

Spanning three upper floors and two basement levels, the multi-use structure incorporates modern and traditional techniques like the fish mouth joint, which cuts the end of wood-like substance in a U-shape and positions another piece on top. It’s constructed using a combination of steel, wood, glass, metal, gypsum, bamboo, plastic, stone, and concrete.

Located in Tangerang, Indonesia, the new project is actually a renovation of the firm’s existing building named The Guild. It continues to house Omah Library, a dentist’s office, a private apartment, and RAW Architecture’s studio, which are separated at the entrance to prohibit the public from entering the private spaces. Each space is designed to be converted and reused for new tenants.

Follow RAW Architecture on Facebook for updates on its projects that merge lush botanicals and nature-based materials.  (via designboom)

 

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