Getting engaged

Core tests the power of love

For all those romantics out there we thought now would be a good time to put your ‘power of love’ to the test. Core Creative’s latest promotion comprises of an A5 folding to A2 poster with over 40 love song brain teasers designed to see just how loved up you are.  The literature is printed 3 colour (red, silver and flourescent pink) on a white linen stock. Printing by FWB Printing of Wincanton.

Time to Pick Me Up

A favourite at Core!

The UK’s original contemporary graphic arts festival returns in April for an 11-day celebration of graphic art, design and illustration at Somerset House.  In addition to showcasing and selling original artworks and limited-edition prints from the industry’s elite and emerging talent, each day the festival will be running an exciting and eclectic mix of quirky family workshops, lively evening events and creative forums.  Tickets available from the Somerset House website.

Looking forward

Core's eye on the future

Over the next 12 months Core will be implementing some amazing new changes. We’ve been working flat out developing a plan for the next 5-10 years that will see Core grow into something extraordinary. Over the coming 12 months we will be initiating this change and it all begins with a new corporate image.

Designed to cover the breadth of our new initiatives the new corporate image will gradually roll out over the coming months. Creative Director, Matt Hellier discussed the brief: ‘We wanted something that would portray not only how we feel about Core, but where we are going with it. After much debate we agreed that our personality as a team is positive, quirky and cheeky. We also wanted to reflect our ethos of constantly looking forward, developing new initiatives, trying new ideas and striving for the best not just for our clients but for ourselves.

We feel that new look is fun and upbeat and look forward to introducing it and playing with it in many different ways in the future.’

Lichtenstein

A retrospective at Tate Modern

Lichtenstein is renowned for his works based on comic strips and advertising imagery, coloured with his signature hand-painted Benday dots.
Lichtenstein: A Retrospective is the first full-scale retrospective of this important artist in over twenty years. This momentous show brings together 125 of his most definitive paintings and sculptures and will reassess his enduring legacy.

Showing at Tate Modern from 21st February – 27 May 2013.

Over the rainbow

The making of Core's video

Amidst PVA glue, cotton wool clouds and an endless supply of rainbows at various stages of their life we have been busy creating our latest stop frame animation ‘over the rainbow’. Designed to demonstrate our new video service, the storyboard see’s our much loved ‘studio tin’ come to life to showcase our services. We’ll be adding more examples over the coming months but in the meantime click here to watch the full video.

Savour the Pre-Raphaelites

at Tate Britain

Combining rebellion, beauty, scientific precision and imaginative grandeur, the Pre-Raphaelites constitute Britain’s first modern art movement. This exhibition at Tate Brtain brings together over 150 works in different media, including painting, sculpture, photography and the applied arts, revealing the Pre-Raphaelites to be advanced in their approach to every genre.

The exhibition shows that the Pre-Raphaelite environment was widely encompassing in its reach across the fine and decorative arts, in response to a fast-changing religious and political backdrop, and in its relationship to women practitioners. The exhibition runs from 12th September 2012 – 13th January 2013.

Hirst at Tate Modern

Not to be missed

Love it or loathe it Damien Hirst’s major new exhibition at the Tate Modern is not to be missed.  In the nearly quarter of a century Hirst has become one of the most influential artists of his generation.

This will be the first substantial survey of his work in a British institution and will bring together key works from over twenty years. The exhibition will include iconic sculptures from his Natural History series, including The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living 1991, in which he suspended a shark in formaldehyde. Also included will be vitrines such as A Thousand Years from 1990, medicine cabinets, pill cabinets and instrument cabinets in addition to seminal paintings made throughout his career using butterflies and flies as well as spots and spins.

Core Creative will be attending the exhibition in mid April and no doubt feeding back our opinions (albeit positive ones only!) as we love Hirst! Damien Hirst is at Tate Modern from 4th April – 9th September.

Pioneers of Imagery

John Heartfield

John Heartfield was a pioneer of modern photomontage. Working in Germany and Czechoslovakia between the two world wars, he developed a unique method of appropriating and reusing photographs to powerful political effect.

 At a time of great uncertainty, Heartfield’s agitated images forecasted and reflected the chaos Germany experienced in the 1920s and ’30s as it slipped toward social and political catastrophe. In this climate, communists, Nazis, and other partisans clashed in the press, at the ballot box, and on the streets. The impact of Heartfield’s images was so great that they helped transform photomontage into a powerful form of mass communication.

Heartfield devised photo-based symbols for the Communist Party of Germany, allowing the organization to compete with the Nazis’ swastika. His images of clenched fists, open palms, and raised arms all implied bold action and determination.

Photomontage allowed Heartfield to create loaded and politically contentious images. To compose his works, he chose recognizable press photographs of politicians or events from the mainstream illustrated press. He then disassembled and rearranged these images to radically alter their meaning.

Heartfield’s strongest work used variations of scale and stark juxtapositions to activate his already gruesome photo-fragments. The result could have a frightening visual impact.

A selection of  John Heartfields work including some of these incredible covers are currently showing at the Tate Modern. Core Creative recommend a visit for anyone who’s passionate about creating strong messages with imagery.

A Year of Celebrations

A big birthday for Core

With the Olympics and the Jubilee in 2012 we’re not short of reasons to celebrate this year. Core Creative has one more reason, come November it will be our 10th Birthday. From humble beginnings (yes 1 mac in a bedroom!) to where we are now has gone unbelievably quickly and its been a roller coaster ride along the way. Come November we will be celebrating in our own unique way and no doubt will be sharing the celebrations with all who have been involved in making Core Creative what it is today.

Pick Me Up 2012

Returns for a third year

Pick Me Up, the UK’s first contemporary graphic art fair, returns for the third time. Building on the success of its first two years, Pick Me Up will feature a dynamic line-up of graphic art collectives, galleries and a host of established artists, as well as providing a platform for emerging artists. A range of limited edition, affordable graphic art and illustration will be for sale. The fair will showcase the newest, coolest and most exciting talent in the graphic art world and will offer visitors the chance to meet the artists and get involved. New features to 2012 include Daily Specials, a dedicated residency space hosted by specially selected ‘Heroes & Legends’ of graphics and illustration who will each host a day of workshops, a Children’s Illustration Weekend, Cartoons & Comics Weekend and Portfolio Surgery with The Enquiry Desk run by illustrator Zara Wood (aka Woody).

The show runs from 22 March – 1 April 2012. 
Daily 11.00-20.00
. Embankment Galleries, South Wing
, Somerset House.

Favourite Things

The work of John Stezaker

During a trip to the Whitechapel Gallery late last year I stumbled across the work of John Stezaker. As an ardent lover of Surrealism these images immediately appealed to me in particular Part IV shown here which has become one of my ‘favourite things’.

The Saatchi Gallery describes his work; ‘In his collages, Stezaker appropriates images found in books, magazines, and postcards and uses them as ‘readymades’. Through his elegant juxtapositions, Stezaker adopts the content and contexts of the original images to convey his own witty and poignant meanings. Stezaker’s portraits celebrate the grotesque, rendering the romance with modernism equally compelling and perverse.

A new angle on design

Chris Osment joins Core Creative

Core Creative is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Osment, founder of Kill Studio as Senior Designer. Chris, who worked for Core prior to forming his own studio, has spent his time carving a reputation for breathtaking contemporary design and illustration. Chris says of his new appointment:

“When I was offered the Senior position at Core, I was very excited about coming on board. I knew it would open up new avenues for my creativity and allow me to push my skills and further my development as a designer. Since setting up my own design business Killstudio, my style has certainly developed a lot as I’ve continually tried to push my illustrative methods through various projects and concepts.

I’ve always had a strong background link with illustration, using both image and concept to portray messages. I certainly feel my illustrative approach to projects will be a new addition to Core and benefit hugely, giving a new angle on approaching work.

With a busy and creative studio, there’s nothing more refreshing than bouncing ideas off of your creative peers and that’s something I’m certainly looking forward to at Core. The passion for creating original and eye catching work is something that’s written in to the work ethic of the employees at Core Creative and is what get’s them their fantastic reputation. As a designer who wouldn’t want to be part of that?

In my past design experience I’ve been lucky enough to work with great international clients such as Penguin Books and Volkwagen to name a few. I’ve also worked in many sectors ranging from the music industry, sport and leisure to corporate and educational. I hope that I can bring this experience to the studio and instill some of my knowledge and skills to the team at Core. I’m really pleased with the current direction of my creativity.

Joining Core Creative as their Senior Designer will only add to my progress and experience and I relish the new opportunity. I look forward to getting stuck in to some great new projects and sharing my skills with the studio. Although now employed by Core Creative, Killstudio will still continue to operate and I’ll always be looking to push the boundaries and explore new areas within design.”

D&AD New Blood

Let's see some personality...

This summer Core Creative once again attended the D&AD New Blood show in London to soak up the new talent emerging on the scene. As usual the standard was exceptionally high and personally I always find the illustration work outstanding, with a really diverse range of styles all at an exceptionally high standard. That said, I can’t help thinking the brief for this show needs to change in some way to make the pitch far more engaging, after all these are creative people and we don’t employ them just on what they can produce but who they are, let’s see some of that.

Tracey Emin

at the Hayward Gallery

In June Core Creative took another well earned trip to London with several events on our tick list. One of the most rewarding was the Tracey Emin Show ‘Love Is What You Want’. Personally it was a first to visit a Emin exhibition and we were all amazed by the impact of her work. The exhibition features painting, drawing, photography, textiles, video and sculpture, in works that are by turns tough, romantic, desperate, angry, funny and full of longing. Seldom-seen early works and recent large-scale installations are shown together with a new series of outdoor sculptures created especially for the Hayward Gallery.

Juxtaposing

Engaging art at Tate St Ives

This show responds very directly and playfully to the unique architecture and location of the galleries at Tate St Ives, drawing the building itself and our summer audiences into the experience. Perhaps the most spectacular installation is Martin Creed’s Work No.210 Half the air  in a given space, which see’s the huge, curved, glass fronted gallery filled with thousands of white balloons. Visitors are able to enter the gallery to play with the balloons and to physically experience the space in an entirely new way.

Also included is Measuring the Universe 2007, by Roman Ondák. Ondák’s work emerges over the course of the exhibition from an empty white gallery space. Each visitor to the gallery is asked to stand against the wall, their height is then measured and a mark made, named and dated using a pencil. These marks build up to form a dense black band running around the gallery walls, forming a dynamic, changing constellation of individual lives and an expansive, poetic portrait of a place, period, and the people who fleetingly occupy it.

March Madness Part 1

Core hit the shows

March 2011 saw a flurry of activity on the Core calendar. Over two weekends the team crammed in six outstanding shows and events. At Core Creative we positively encourage trips to as many creative events as possible.

The first half of March saw us at Grafik Warfare Corroded Surfaces, an exhibition of leading street artists in Portobello. Then it was over to the Old Truman Brewery for the much anticipated visit to Queens 40th Anniversary Exhibition which was amazing, if a little sad. Then just time to cram in another trip to the Tate Modern (a must on every visit!) before dragging our weary selves back to Waterloo, a weeks rest then back again for round two!

New Adventures

Tom spreads his wings

Core Creative says goodbye to Tom who has finally spread his wings and flown to a new pasture, Bath to be more precise. Tom was with Core for over a year in which time he developed a strong eye for typography and clean layouts. The team wish him luck in his new adventure and we shall remember him for his ‘Happy Accident’, pictured here (originally a pie-chart which happily ended up like this!).

March Madness Part 2

Protest, what protest?

Week Two of Core Creative’s London folly and we have Oli to thank for making Core, who clearly don’t watch much news, aware that something may be happening in London the same weekend?

Protestors aside, it was time to hit Pick Me Up, the one event that stands head and shoulders above the rest on the Core calendar. As usual it was a tantalising trip through all things creative, and one that’s hard to leave without a purchase, or two, or three. This year was even better than last and we can’t wait to see where Pick Me Up is going in the future.

Then on to the British Art Show, contemporary art at its best with fascinating works, if a little small! Next down to the Design Museum which never fails to deliver, an Alladins cave of imagination and excitement. March is a great time on the Core Creative calendar and we look forward to the summer and more of the same (maybe without the protests though!).

Love Is In the Air

Core Creative at the Louvre

As much as we love contemporary art at Core Creative, February brought with it a visit to Paris and the Louvre and a search for something more romantic.

The Mona Lisa has never really grabbed me, however the Neo-Classic masterpieces of Jacques-Louis David can’t help but leave you mesmerised. Its left me craving for more Neo-Classic and Pre-Raphaelite art and several months later I find my very contemporary book collection being infiltrated by some fascinating discoveries.

There’s no denying this period of art takes you somewhere contemporary art can’t (the past!) and it is refreshing to balance those bleak white installations with some romanticism, even if most of the pieces to involve a battle!

In the Studio

The quest for minimalism!

With our ever-expanding team it seems like our ‘Kubrick Space Odyssey’ inspired studio is rapidly filling up, although admittedly Kubrick didn’t include flocks of birds. With 16 in the team now the minimalist look is getting harder and harder to achieve (if you’re thinking there’s one big room with everything else thrown in it to achieve this tidy look, then you’re not far off!). How does a thriving studio grow and still look cool? I guess we’ll have to turn to HAL for some answers.

Core at The Pompidou

A dazzling display of inspiration

Another day in Paris saw a trip to the Pompidou Centre in eager anticipation of being dazzled by the French imagination. At Core Creative we’re always on the look out for trips that tingle the senses and several escalators later we found ourselves in a very calm place enjoying a diverse mixture of contemporary pieces (a handful of which you see here), which were fascinating and engaging, the only disappointment being that there wasn’t more of it!