Blog
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Le Corbusier’s Radiant City
On my rather wonderful honeymoon in the south of France, my wife(!) and I spent a day living the Le Corbusier vision at his seminal Unité d’Habitation development, Marseille. Dubbed “the city in the sky”, this was a revolutionary experiment in urban living when it was built between 1947 and 1952.
Set amongst the many residents of this imposing block (337 apartments), 2 floors function as a hotel and restaurant (part of Le Corbusier’s original plans) with each guest studio preserved exactly as it was in the 1950s, bar a flat screen tv and a new shower!
The experience is unlike any other hotel I’ve stayed in, sharing the corridors (referred to by residents as “streets” due to their immense width) and lifts with its residents enforces the experience of living in a building such as this.
It was fantastic to be a part of a vision that has remained truly intact over half a century later. Every light fixing, every wooden panel, every inch of space had been considered and designed and it’s not often one can witness such a complete piece of work from a designer.
Much information can be found on the web but here are two starters for you, one on Le Corbusier and the other “Cité Radieuse”
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The Times iPad World Cup planner
We’re lucky enough to have been working with The Times to create their interactive World Cup planner that launched this week. A wall-chart style fixture and results schedule meets Panini sticker album (with photos and live stats of all 736 players), the graphic will live on The Times’ iPad app and thetimes.co.uk for the duration of the tournament.
Having tortuously watched England in World Cups since Spain ’82, I’m hoping that, just maybe, we might make the semis again this year. I think if my 16-year old self could’ve worked on this back at Italia ’90 he’d have thought it was pretty cool. Come on England!
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Walk the High Line
Back in May I was lucky enough to take a trip to New York, something I’d been meaning to do for years but the opportunity never arose. The Big Apple is now officially at the top of my favourite city list, and it’s easy to see why. One of the things I enjoyed while I was there, was strolling through the High Line, a new 1.5 mile public park built on a disused train line that stretches above the Meatpacking District and houses 210 species of perennials, grasses, shrubs and trees. So I was really pleased to hear that Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the architectural firm behind the parks creation, have won a D&AD award in the Environmental Design category. Bravo!
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Applied Works in print
We’re very pleased to have received two books featuring our work recently. The first, ‘The Graphic Design Exercise Book’ by Carolyn Knight and Jessica Glaser (below), published by Rotovision, includes work for Save the Children, Spiritualized, Friends Reunited, Miguel Mera, Giles Revell and Dealerward.
The second is ‘Motion Graphic Design – Applied History and Aesthetics’ by Jon Krasner and published by Focal Press, which features our title sequence for Amulet Films’ short film ‘Moth’ and one from the archives – my first project after leaving college in 1997, a title sequence for ice hockey series ‘Inferno’ (below).
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Dealerward van hits the streets
Julia at Dealerward has sent over pictures of the freshly branded Dealerward van. Great to see it finished, we think it looks great.
