Rick Poynor joins Typography

Rick_Poynor

We are very pleased to announce that Rick Poynor has been appointed Professor of Design and Visual Culture by the University of Reading, and will join the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication on 10 October.

As author, editor, curator and commentator, Rick’s longstanding and wide-ranging critical engagement with design, design history and many dimensions of visual culture is well known. We look forward with great anticipation to his contributions to Reading’s own longstanding excellence in teaching and research.

Welcome, Rick!

‘Time(less) signs’ at Austrian Cultural Forum London

Showcase_1

The exhibition ‘Time(less) signs: Otto Neurath and reflections in Austrian Contemporary Art’ runs from 30 September 2014 to 9 January 2015, at the Austrian Cultural Forum London. It features a selection by curator Maria C. Holter from the ‘Zeit(lose) Zeichen’ exhibition first staged at Vienna’s Künstlerhaus in 2012, supplemented by original material from the Department’s Otto and Marie Neurath Isotype Collection (see image above). As part of the public programme accompanying the exhibition, co-curator Christopher Burke will give a talk on Isotype at the Austrian Cultural Forum on Tuesday 14 October 2014.

See also:

Interview with Maria Holter, exhibition curator

Zeit(lose) Zeichen

Isotype: design and contexts, 1925–1971

Recent student awards

We are very pleased to note recent awards to students in Typography & Graphic Communication.

Chancellor’s Awards

Undergraduates Kate Goudsmit and Rob Lowe, currently in their final year of study, together with Ryan Lee and Peter Loveland, in their second year, all received the Chancellor’s Award for their overall performance in the academic year 2012–13. Sir David Bell hosted the award ceremony on Monday (25 November) and commended their high achievement. Award winners received a commemorative book featuring short interviews with each recipient.

Warm congratulations to our four winners!

Rob Lowe and Kate Goudsmit with Sir David Bell.

Rob Lowe and Kate Goudsmit with Sir David Bell.

Sign Design Society

Undergraduate Emily Whiteside, currently in her final year of study, was awarded a commendation for her submission to the Student Work category of the annual Sign Design Society awards. The submission was her ‘Designing a journey: the Chatsworth Shuttle’ project, completed under the direction of project tutor Sara Chapman. In their comments, the judges praised ‘the expertise and evident quality of the solution’, which involved the design of a map and timetable for the Chatsworth shuttle bus service, deployed as a poster, flyer, and downloadable app.

Emily Whiteside's entry to the Sign Design Society awards.

Emily Whiteside’s entry to the Sign Design Society awards.

Also receiving a commendation was MA Information Design student Joan Zalacain for his map of Amsterdam’s tram system, created during his studies at Reading in 2012–13. In their remarks on his design, which emphasized the location of barriers at system access points, the judges noted that ‘the graphic solution had been carefully thought through and the result was functional and stylish.’

Warm congratulations to Emily and Joan, too!

More about the SDS awards.

Colloquium upcoming: ‘Printed image and decorative print, 1500–1750’

On Friday March 22, Eric Kindel and James Mosley will contribute papers to the one-day colloquium ‘Printed image and decorative print, 1500–1750’ being convened by Reading’s Early Modern Research Centre. They will both present projects and artefacts associated with the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris. Eric will discuss the invention of stencil duplicating by Christiaan Huygens, and James will explore a text and an unknown iconography of the making of books that were constituents of the Description des Arts et Métiers.

More information
Booking