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astronomy

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"Thermostats of the Universe" --Supermassive Black Holes Found to Regulate Growth of Galaxies

“We think that supermassive black holes act like thermostats,” said Brian McNamara, University Research Chair in Astrophysics at the University of Waterloo. “They regulate the growth of galaxies.”

Data from a now-defunct X-ray satellite is providing new insights into the complex tug-of-war between galaxies, the hot plasma that surrounds them, and the giant black holes that lurk in their centers.

Launched from Japan on February 17, 2016, the Japanese space agency (JAXA) Hitomi X-ray Observatory functioned for just over a month before contact was lost and the craft disintegrated. But the data obtained during those few weeks was enough to paint a startling new picture of the dynamic forces at work within galaxies.

New research, published in the journal Nature today, reveals data that shows just how important the giant black holes in galactic centres are to the evolution of the galaxies as a whole.

During its brief life, the Hitomi satellite collected X-ray data from the core of the Perseus cluster, an enormous gravitationally-bound grouping of hundreds of galaxies. Located some 240 million light years from earth, the Perseus cluster is one of the largest known structures in the universe. The cluster includes not only the ordinary matter that makes up the galaxies, but an “atmosphere” of hot plasma with a temperature of tens of millions of degrees, as well as a halo of invisible dark matter.

Earlier studies, going back to the 1960s, have shown that each of the galaxies in the cluster and indeed most galaxies likely contains a supermassive black hole in its centre, an object 100 million to more than ten billion times as massive as our sun.

“These giant black holes are among the universe's most efficient energy generators, a hundred times more efficient than a nuclear reactor,” said McNamara from Waterloo's Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Faculty of Science. “Matter falling into the black hole is ripped apart, releasing vast amounts of energy in the form of high speed particles and thermal energy.”

This heat is released from just outside the black hole's event horizon, the boundary of no return. The remaining matter gets absorbed into the black hole, adding to its mass. The released energy heats up the surrounding gas, creating bubbles of hot plasma that ripple through the cluster, just as bubbles of air rise up in a glass of champagne.

The research is shedding light on the crucial role that this hot plasma plays in galactic evolution. Researchers are now tackling the foremost issue in the formation of structure in the universe and asking: why doesn't most of the gas cool down, and form stars and galaxies? The answer seems to be that bubbles created by blasts of energy from the black holes keep temperatures too high for such structures to form.

“Any time a little bit of gas falls into the black hole, it releases an enormous amount of energy,” said McNamara. “It creates these bubbles, and the bubbles keep the plasma hot. That's what prevents galaxies from becoming even bigger than they are now.”

Because plasma is invisible to the eye, and to optical telescopes, it wasn't until the advent of X-ray astronomy that the full picture began to emerge. In visible light, the Perseus cluster appears to contain many individual galaxies, separated by seemingly-empty space. In an X-ray image, however, the individual galaxies are invisible, and the plasma atmosphere, centred on the cluster's largest galaxy, known as NGC 1275, dominates the scene.

Visible light and x-ray images of the Perseus cluster of galaxies (shown at top of page). Two images show the Perseus cluster of galaxies. The image on the left shows a close up image of active galaxy NGC 1275, the central, dominant member of the Perseus cluster (credit: Data - Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing - Al Kelly). The image on the right shows the cluster using an X-ray telescope revealing the atmosphere of plasma enveloping the whole galaxy cluster.

Although the black hole at the heart of NGC 1275 has only one-thousandth of the mass of its host galaxy, and has a much smaller volume, it seems to have a huge influence on how the galaxy and how the surrounding hot plasma atmosphere evolve.

“It's as though the galaxy somehow knows about this black hole sitting at the centre,” said McNamara. “It's like nature's thermostat, that keeps these galaxies from growing. If the galaxy tries to grow too fast, matter falls into the black hole, releasing an enormous amount of energy, which drives out the matter and prevents it from forming new stars.”

McNamara notes that the actual event horizon of the black hole is about the same size as our solar system, making it as small compared to its host galaxy as a grape is to the Earth. “What's going on in this tiny region is affecting a vast volume of space,” he said.

Thanks to the black hole's regulatory effect, the gas that would have formed new stars instead remains a hot plasma whose properties Hitomi was designed to measure.

Hitomi employed an X-ray spectrometer which measures the Doppler shifts in emissions from the plasma; those shifts can then be used to calculate the speed at which different parts of the plasma are moving. At the heart of the spectrometer is a microcalorimeter; cooled to just one-twentieth of a degree above absolute zero, the device records the precise energy of each incoming X-ray photon.

Getting an X-ray satellite equipped with a microcalorimeter into space has proved daunting: McNamara was deeply involved with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched in 1999, that was initially set to include a microcalorimeter, but the project was scaled back due to budget constraints, and the calorimeter was dropped. Another mission with the Japanese space agency known as ASTRO-E was equipped with a microcalorimeter; it was set for launch in 2000, but the rocket exploded shortly after liftoff. A third effort, Japan's Suzaku satellite, launched in 2005, but a leak in the cooling system destroyed the calorimeter. Hitomi launched and deployed perfectly, but a series of problems with the attitude control system caused the satellite to spin out of control and break up.

Infographic of doomed satellite missionsClick on the image to reveal an infographic detailing the trials and tribulations of getting a microcalorimeter into space.

The data from Hitomi, limited as it is, is enough to make astronomers re-think the role of plasma in galactic evolution, according to McNamara. “The plasma can be thought of forming an enormous atmosphere that envelopes whole clusters of galaxies. These hot atmospheres represent the failure of the past -- the failure of the universe to create bigger galaxies,” he said. “But it's also the hope for the future. This is the raw material for the future growth of galaxies which is everything: stars, planets, people. It's the raw material that in the next several billion years is going to make the next generation of suns and solar systems. And how rapidly that happens is governed by the black hole.”

The observations give researchers, for the first time, a direct measurement of the turbulent speed of the hot plasma. “This measurement tells us how the enormous energy released by supermassive black holes regulates the growth of the galaxy and the black hole itself,” said McNamara.

The Daily Galaxy via University of Waterloo

Image of the Day: Dusty Cloud at Milky Way Core Survives Supermassive Black Hole Encounter

Five 'Buried' Supermassive Black Holes Detected --"Huge Number Exist Throughout Universe"

ALMA Observatory Spies Monster Black Hole at Center of a Spectacular Spiral Galaxy

Solved! Puzzling Signals Thought Originating from Habitable-Zone Planets

Signal from Unknown Source in Perseus Galaxy Baffles NASA --Suspect Dark Matter Origin

Supernova Mysteries --Why Some Collaspe Into Black Holes to Form a Space-Time Singularity

astronomy

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design

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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/4-10-july-2016/designers-tell-us-favourite-political-posters-time/
Designers tell us about their favourite political posters of all time

"Olly — Olly Guise, independent creative director and designer

“I'm probably not alone in my irrational hatred of the Keep Calm poster thanks to all the naff parodies, so I'll probably hang on to my £20,000 a bit longer. I'd have to choose from two great war-inspired pieces from two different eras.

Abram Games' Grow Your Own Food (1942) masterfully fuses a spade and a ship in support of Britain's Dig for Victory campaign, but arguably it's more advisory than political.

So I'm going for Noma Bar's debut Saddam Hussein image (1991), because it makes a statement so powerfully without using a single word (and it's topical).”

"pali — Pali Palavathanan, founder, Templo

“When I visit the London headquarters of our client Amnesty International, I'm always struck by the iconic posters hanging in the meeting rooms.

Posters like Football Yes, Torture No, which encouraged a revolt against the Argentina Junta in 1976; Pablo Picasso's iconicLa Colombe et le Prisonnier image; or Israeli designer Yossi Lemel's Reach image encapsulate a time in history and inspired people to engage with a problem.

You can ignore words but it's so much harder to stop the power of an iconic image. I'm intrigued by how these examples convey powerful ideology and create empathy.”

"jondaniel" — Jon Daniel, independent creative director

“This is such a tough question as political posters, and in fact poster design in general, was my first love in terms of graphic design.

There is a long list of designers that I have been inspired by, such as Emory Douglas, Shigeo Fukuda, Milton Glaser and Herb Lubalin, whose works could easily top this list several times over.

But the one I am going to choose for the fact that it was one of the first posters that had a real impact on me, and of course for its utter brilliance, simplicity, potency and playfulness is Black Power, White Power, designed by the one and only, Tomi Ungerer in 1967.”

"marksteen" — Marksteen Adamson, partner, ArthurSteenHorneAdamson

“I know this is an obvious choice, but the Obama Hope Poster designed and printed by Shepard Fairey speaks volumes. I like the fact that it transcends politics and stands alone as a statement of achieving the seemingly impossible.

I also like the fact that it wasn't designed by a traditional advertising agency. It felt very back street when it was originally produced, and the poster I have framed on our wall in the studio is an original silk screen you can still smell the ink.

For me, everything about this poster represents the biggest challenge for designers to do better. It will forever be a modern classic.”

"heidi_sq" — Heidi Lightfoot, founder, Together Design

“There's no way I could pick a favourite! Political propaganda and an agenda of social welfare has been a rich source of inspiration for so many amazing designers.

Tom Eckersley and Abram Games are two of my favourite masters of poster design, working in Britain during and after the Second World War.

An inspiring designer continuing that tradition is Alejandro Magallanes, based in Mexico City. Alejandro is a founding member of several activist poster groups.

His arresting, provocative and often humorous work is as comfortable promoting human rights and peace as it is illustrating a children's book.”

The post Designers tell us about their favourite political posters of all time appeared first on Design Week.

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design

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5 important things that happened in design this week

Coca-Cola Zero Sugar rolled out its new packaging

Coke Zero revealed a £10 million ad campaign this week, alongside a new name which aims to encourage consumers to consume less sugar.

Now Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, the brand has also revamped its packaging, taking on the company's recognisable “red disc” emblem in a move to unify the flavour with other products in the portfolio.

This same can and bottle design has been applied to Coca-Cola Original, Light and Life, ascribing different colours to each flavour.

Although it has been rolled out this week, the new design was first revealed in April. We spoke to Coca-Cola's vice president of global design James Sommerville about how the new packaging aims to “be bold” but “preserve simplicity”.

MPs debated the EBacc GCSE qualification

Following a petition, MPs took to Westminster this week to debate the fate of GCSE students across the country.

The EBacc English Baccalaureate includes English, maths, science, a humanity and a language, and is soon to be compulsory for 90% of GCSE students from “mainstream schools”.

The qualification has been subject to scrutiny by some MPs and many people within the creative industries for excluding art and design subjects from this compulsory list, the key argument being that it creates a learning environment where artistic subjects are not valued.

Other arguments included that the EBacc has already caused creative students, teachers and resources to decline which has a knock-on effect on industries, and that it puts children from less affluent backgrounds at a disadvantage.

The minister for education Nick Gibb retorted that including more subjects within the compulsory qualification would restrict rather than empower students, and that the Government had already secured £460 million for arts and music education programmes to help children from all backgrounds.

There has been no immediate action following the debate on 4 July, and the compulsory EBacc is still planned to come into force in September. You can read an extensive run-down of the key arguments voiced here.

It was announced that small businesses could lose significant future funding

This last week, it was announced that small businesses could lose significant financial support from the European Union's bank.

UK-based lender Funding Circle had secured £100 million funding from the European Investment Bank for small businesses the week before the EU referendum vote.

While this funding will still be distributed in the form of £50,000 loans this was meant to be the start of a much wider programme, which is now “unlikely to happen”, says the lender.

“The deal with the EIB was a start to create a multi-billion pound programme for getting more funds into UK business,” co-founder at Funding Circle James Meekings said. “The programme is at risk.”

Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) include businesses with less than 250 members of staff and a turnover of less than €50 million (£42 million), which includes the majority of UK design consultancies.

Dyson revealed its first ever UK “store”

Consumer goods brand Dyson open its first ever retail space this week…but whatever you do, don't call it a “store”.

Named the Dyson Demo, the company is very keen to market the two-floor space as a teaching and trial space for consumers rather than a traditional shop, where they can chat to “Dyson experts” about products and try to suck up 64 types of debris from four different floor surfaces using a Dyson V8 vacuum cleaner.

The first floor even includes a hair styling salon, where consumers can experience the effects of the Supersonic hair dryer first hand.

Once visitors are done chatting, vacuuming and hair-drying, they can, of course, buy the products though, in a similar style to Apple stores, there are no tills.

The Dyson Demo concept was first launched in 1999 in Paris, France, followed by spaces in Tokyo, Japan, Jakarta, Indonesia and now London, U.K. The Dyson team says the expansion will continue, hopefully moving on to the U.S. next.

Earphones designed to control background noise are revealed

Working in busy cafés and personalising music at festivals just got a lot easier, with these new earphones from Doppler Labs revealed this week.

New sound-customising earphones Hear Active Listening enable wearers to turn down background noises, such as people chatting, sirens wailing and babies crying.

As well as blocking out noise, they can also layer and blend sounds coming from the headphones with sounds from the outside world, helping to create immersive experiences.

Background noises can also be turned up if the user wishes, allowing them to customise sound settings, for example at gigs and festivals where they might want to hear less guitar and more bass.

But at $299 (£228), the cost of sound control isn't cheap. The headphones will go on sale from November.

The post 5 important things that happened in design this week appeared first on Design Week.

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V&A wins Art Fund Museum of the Year prize

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has won this year's Art Fund Museum of the Year award, pledging to support smaller museums and galleries all over the UK with the prize money.

The ceremony, which took place at the Natural History Museum, saw the art and design museum awarded the £100,000 prize by The Duchess of Cambridge last night.

Judges included Gus Casely-Hayford, curator and art historian; Will Gompertz, BBC Arts editor; Ludmilla Jordanova, professor of history and visual culture, Durham University; Cornelia Parker, artist; and Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund.

Imagination, innovation and achievement

They were tasked with selecting the museum or gallery that has shown exceptional imagination, innovation and achievement over the past 12 months.

The V&A beat five other UK based finalists to become the overall winner, including Arolfini in Bristol; Bethlem Musem of the Mind, London; Jupiter Artland, West Lothian and York Art Gallery, Yorkshire.

Stephen Deuchar, Art Fund director and chair of the judges, says: “The V&A experience is an unforgettable one. Its recent exhibitions, from Alexander McQueen to The Fabric of India, and the opening of its new Europe 16001815 galleries, were all exceptional accomplishments at once entertaining and challenging, rooted in contemporary scholarship, and designed to reach and affect the lives of a large and diverse national audience.”

“One of the best museums in the world”

“It was already one of the best-loved museums in the country. This year it has indisputably become one of the best museums in the world,” he says.

During his acceptance speech, Martin Roth, director at the V&A, pledged to use the prize money to re-establish a department that was first set up in the 1970s, but later axed due to budget cuts, in order to support and collaborate with museums and galleries across the country.

Roth says: “This award not only allows us to celebrate our achievements over the past year, but it will progress our ambitions…to transform our building and make our…collections of art and design accessible to the widest possible audiences in the UK and overseas.

3.9 million visitors in 2015

“We will ‘re-circulate' our collections, taking them beyond our usual metropolitan partners and engaging in a more intimate way with the communities we reach so that we can…be both a national museum for a local audience and a local museum for a national audience.”

The award comes after an exceptionally good year for the V&A in 2015, during which it attracted nearly 3.9 million visitors to its sites, 14.5 million visitors online and 90,000 V&A Members, the highest in its 164-year history.

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty also became the museum's most-visited exhibition, attracting a record breaking 493,043 visitors from 87 countries.

The post V&A wins Art Fund Museum of the Year prize appeared first on Design Week.

design

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design

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MPs “urge Government to think again” over GCSE EBacc excluding art and design

MPs debated over the English Baccalaureate a GCSE qualification that excludes art and design this week, with some claiming that it devalues creative subjects and makes them inaccessible for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The EBacc was first introduced in 2010, but will be made compulsory in September this year for 90% of GCSE students, requiring them to take English, maths, science, a language and a humanity.

Parliamentary debate sparked by petition

A petition called “Include expressive arts subjects in the EBacc” was started in retaliation to the ruling and was signed by more than 100,000 people, stating that “the exclusion of art, music, drama and other expressive subjects is limiting, short sighted and cruel”.

The petition defines “expressive arts” as art, music, drama and “other expressive subjects”.

In response to the petition, a three-hour parliamentary debate took place in Westminster this week, where MPs who are opposed to the EBacc guidelines were able to put their points of view across to those in favour of them.

“Only EBacc subjects will count”

One of the arguments cited by MPs opposed to the EBacc, who were predominately Labour, was that the qualification devalues and reduces funding to art subjects because schools use the EBacc to measure performance.

Fiona Mactaggart, Labour MP for Slough, said: “We all know that what counts in public policy is what is measured and if what is measured is only EBacc subjects, only they will count.” She added there should be “an emphasis on both science and creative subjects”.

Research from the National Society for Education in Art and Design showed 44% of teachers of Key Stage 3 students (ages 11-14) found that time allocated to art and design had decreased over the last five years.

“Other GCSE subject slots can be filled by art qualifications”

Nick Gibb, Conservative MP and minister of state for the Department of Education, said in response that the EBacc is just “one of several measures against which school performance is judged”, stating that the newly-introduced Progress 8 measure looks at performance across eight subjects English, maths, three EBacc subjects and three other qualifications of the student's choice.

“It has been suggested today that arts are not valued in the school accountability system that is not the case,” he said. “Those other slots can be filled by arts qualifications, if a pupil wishes.”

Discriminatory towards disadvantaged students

Another argument against the EBacc was that it discriminates against students from disadvantaged backgrounds because their accessibility to arts and culture is comparatively limited compared to those from affluent backgrounds. According to research from the Cultural Learning Alliance, research shows that schools with a high proportion of free school meals were more than twice as likely to withdraw art subjects from the curriculum compared to more affluent schools.

“An EBacc that fails to make room for the arts can only entrench this inequality,” said David Warburton, Conservative MP for Somerton and Frome.

Sharon Hodgson, Labour MP for Washington and Sunderland West, added that trips to theatres, cultural sites and museums had become increasingly difficult for reasons such as safeguarding and costs. “Such trips will be lacking from some of the children's daily lives, weekends and holidays, so it is important that the shortfall is made up for in school,” she said.

Fewer students taking art and design subjects

MPs added that the introduction of the EBacc has resulted in the decline of students taking up art and design subjects. Official exam figures released this year showed that five times less students picked art and design subjects at GCSE this year compared to 2015, with design and technology taking the biggest hit at 19,000 fewer students.

A survey conducted for this year's New Designers exhibition also showed that 85% of this year's crop of design graduates studied an art or design subject at GCSE level.

Catherine McKinnell, Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne North, said: “Although it is possible to take up jobs in our sector without exam results in creative subjects, it is much harder and potentially more expensive to do so, which obviously further diminishes the chance for young people from more disadvantaged backgrounds.”

“£460 million towards arts education programmes”

Education minister Gibb argued that since 2012, the Government has provided creative opportunities and improved access for students from all backgrounds and all over the country through £460 million of investment into a “diverse portfolio of music and arts education programmes”.

He also said the GCSE entry figures for art and design have increased from 162,000 to 176,000 between 2011 and 2015, though Labour MPs stated these figures were “flawed” because they “omit BTEC qualifications, include early entry AS-levels and neglect design and technology”.

English, maths and science “fundamental” subjects

While those opposed to the EBacc said that the qualification was reducing choices for students, those in favour said it was actually providing more flexibility. Gibb said that including more subjects such as art within the EBacc would restrict rather than expand student choice, by making more subjects compulsory. Fellow Conservative MP for Chippenham, Michelle Donelan added this would “dilute” the EBacc qualification “until it was dissolved”.

Gibb also spoke about the importance of language and essay-writing skills for young people, stating that 77% of employers have said they needed more employees with foreign languages.

“Every child deserves to leave school fully literate and numerate, with an understanding of the history, geography and science of the world they inhabit, and a grasp of a language other than their own,” he said.

Graham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness, added that maths, the sciences and English are “fundamental” subjects which “help people to get on in life”.

Art subjects “improve health and wellbeing”

But MPs opposed to the EBacc stated the importance of abilities beyond academia, such as emotional development and communication skills. Labour MP McKinnell said the EBacc “sends a clear message about the value the Government places on subjects that help to create expressive, communicative, self-confident and well-rounded human beings”.

Jonathan Reynolds, Labour MP For Stalybridge and Hyde, added that the “health benefits” of creative subjects need to be considered. “Investment in the arts is known to improve wellbeing,” he said. “Studying creative subjects boosts self-esteem, improves emotional intelligence, and reduces depression and anxiety.”

Labour MP McKinnell concluded the discussion by saying: “The drastic reduction in the take-up of arts subjects seems to be a movement in completely the wrong direction. On behalf of everyone who cares about the issue, I urge the Government to think again.”

No changes as of yet following debate

Richard Green, chief executive at the D&T Association, said following the debate that design, technology and other creative subjects “contribute to profitable sectors” and have been “marginalised” by the enforcement of the qualification, resulting in staff and student shortages.

“If we are to move forward confidently into a post-Brexit future where access to talent may be more challenging, it is imperative that our educational system recognises and meets the needs of individual pupils and industry,” he said.

No decision or change has yet to be made following the parliamentary debate on 4 July. The compulsory EBacc is currently still set to come into force for 90% of GCSE school children in September, with the Government stating that it will be mandatory in “mainstream secondary schools”, with a “small minority for whom taking the EBacc is not appropriate” to be excluded from the rule.

The post MPs “urge Government to think again” over GCSE EBacc excluding art and design appeared first on Design Week.

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design

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Lorna Allan: “It's important to make sure young, female designers are encouraged”

Design Week: What is Hidden Women of Design?

Lorna Allan: Hidden Women of Design was a response to a research question I was set: “Who are those that sit in the blind spots of design and have transformed design paradigms over the years?” The more research I did, the more I realised that perhaps the majority of those people may be women.

DW: How many people are involved in the project and how did you start it?

LA: The project started as a hashtag campaign (#HWODesign) to raise awareness of work by female designers of the past and looking forward, to ensure female designers would receive the same exposure as their male peers in design history books. After holding a focus group to discuss the project's future, it was suggested that a series of talks by practising female designers might be the next step. Some very helpful friends in social media (Alice G.Turner) and design (Jesse Prior) have joined me along the way to refine and develop the idea.

DW: Why did you start the project?

LA: It started as a college project, which I have handed in now but have continued, purely because of the interest and encouragement I have received on the subject. I really have been blown away by the response and support by the female design community. Even big designers like Ellen Lupton and Alice Rawsthorn took the time to reply to me and the support from Kathleen and Tori from the Women of Graphic Design website has given me the confidence to keep pushing it forward.

DW: What do you hope will come from the project? How long do you hope it will run for?

LA: At this stage, I don't know I do know that the interest has been high and through asking around after each event, the general vibe is that the talks are of real interest and a great opportunity to get to meet and have discussions with other designers.

DW: Which designers have you managed to involve so far?

LA: The first week we had: freelance designer Chauntelle Lewis, social policy designer Cat Drew and Jocelyn Bailey at Uscreates, which creates designs for health and wellbeing. The second week we had: Spike Spondike at Dalton Maag, Lubna Keawpanna, director of consultancy Smack, Sian Cook, co-founder at WD+RU and senior lecturer at London College of Communication. Next week we have: freelance designer Rejane Dal Bello, Emily Wood at REG_Design and graphic artist and design educator Dr Cathy Gale. Nine amazing ladies!

DW: In an ideal world, which female designers would you love to see involved in the project?

LA: I think have been very lucky with the caliber of women I have had for these talks- they have all been informative and inspiring.

DW: What are themes of the talks?

LA: The structure of the evening is similar to a Pecha Kucha where each designer has 20 mins and 20 slides to talk about their professional practice and how they evolved as a designer. We had three ladies each night.

DW: Beyond talks, what else is on the agenda for Hidden Women in Design? How could it expand in the future?

LA: After each talk so far we have been talking to the attendees and there's definitely a want to see more of this type of event. There are a lot of women's design groups happening and I think HWOD would like to focus on university leavers or designers new to the industry as this is a crucial stage which determines whether they stay in the design world or leave it. It's important to make sure they can get encouragement and inspiration when they find themselves out on their own.

DW: How do you feel about women's representation in the design industry at the moment?

LA: On the first evening of talks I was approached by a couple of American female design students who were in London doing studio visits they had been disheartened as every studio they went to was fronted by a man. They Googled “Women in Design” and found our talks and were very happy to meet and speak with other female designers and potentially arrange other studio visits. This is really at the heart of what the project is about. Mostly through research I have found that typographic design still has more men than women that's why I was so thrilled to have Spike Spondike at Dalton Maag talk about her practice.

DW: How do you think this can be improved?

LA: I think we need to keep talking about the subject. It still attracts attention so it is still an issue and to have groups of female designers promoting and supporting each other can make a difference.

The next Hidden Women of Design talk will take place on 13 July at 7pm at the Peckham Pelican, 92 Peckham Road, SE15 5PY.

The post Lorna Allan: “It's important to make sure young, female designers are encouraged” appeared first on Design Week.

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BlackBerry ditches traditional keyboard as it discontinues Classic handset

Mobile phone company BlackBerry has discontinued the traditional QWERTY keyboard it became known for over a decade ago, with the announcement that it will no longer manufacture its Classic model.

The Classic handset was first introduced in 2014 as a follow on from its BlackBerry OS predecessors, in an attempt to appeal to people who still prefer to use plastic keys and track pads rather than completely touchscreen devices.

“Sometimes it can be very tough to let go,” writes chief operating officer and general manager for devices, Ralph Pini, in a company blog post announcing BlackBerry's decision.

Replaced by two mid-range Android devices

“For BlackBerry, and more importantly for our customers, the hardest part in letting go is accepting that change makes way for new and better experiences.”

To replace the handset, BlackBerry is set to release two new mid-range Android devices next February. The news comes as the company announced a quarterly loss of $670 (£520m) million last month.

BlackBerry has also recently announced that it will no longer make phones featuring its own operating system.

“workhorse device”

“[The Classic] has been an incredible workhorse device for customers, exceeding all expectations,” says Pini.

“But, [it] has long surpassed the average lifespan for a smartphone in today's market. We are ready for this change so we can give our customers something better.

Manufacturing of the Classic has been suspended from now, but the handset will still be available online while stocks last.

The post BlackBerry ditches traditional keyboard as it discontinues Classic handset appeared first on Design Week.

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Top 5 picks from this year's D&AD New Blood Festival

James Crossley, BA Graphic Design, Edinburgh College of Art

Open Shut

James Crossley's monochrome poster project explores the idea that mainstream media oversimplifies complex issues such as the recent EU referendum into binary choices.

Crossley makes the point that this can often lead to misunderstanding and division, which he couples with the increasing prevalence of borders in our society.

Each of the three posters is based around a striking grid structure, with facts relating to the topic separated into boxes on either side of the “binary”.

The Edinburgh College of Art graduate plans to develop the research side of his project later this month when he will be cycling across Europe visiting and writing about design studio projects in cities stretching from The Hague to Budapest.

Elisha Chaplin, BA Graphic Design, University Centre Southend

Napolina Porzioni

Graphic design student, Elisha Chaplin's rebrand project gives Italian cooking brand Napolina a bold, modern update.

The rebrand focuses on promoting convenience by introducing a new range called Porzioni, which means portions in Italian. Packets are divided up into a set number of portions, allowing the right amount of pasta to be cooked more easily.

While keeping the original logo, Chaplin has opted to use a mixture of serif and sans serif fonts on the bright orange, black and white packets, which also feature roughly drawn illustrations of various pasta shapes including spaghetti.

Bronwyn Stubbs, BA Animation, Huddersfield University

Anime Iddio

This ingenious interactive installation uses conductive paint to bring Bronwyn Stubbs' cartoonlike illustrations to life.

While often included in wireless circuits, Stubbs decided to make up her own conductive paint from graphite powder and black acrylic. Painted on top of a conductor, it acts as a touch sensor which then lights up a cardboard illustrated lamp and animated window display.

The BA Animation student has also used conductive paint technology in other university projects, including a window display concept for John Lewis that makes bubbles seemingly appear from the top of a cardboard washing machine, and makes a cardboard vacuum cleaner move backwards and forwards.

Faye Rowbottom and Rebecca Parrish, BA Advertising, University of Central Lancashire

Alzheimer's Society Ad Campaign

These two advertising students' ad campaign for the Alzheimer's Society has been designed to raise awareness about the symptoms of the disease.

For the D&AD Festival, Rowbottom and Parrish have printed the image of an older person with Alzheimer's onto two 2000-piece jigsaw puzzles one that is already complete on the stand, and another that will come together over the course of the three-day festival.

All visitors have to do is donate 50p to the Alzheimer's Society festival and help piece together the puzzle, while a GoPro camera will capture its transformation by the end of the festival.

As the second jigsaw comes together, pieces from the original will be taken away, representing the gradual deterioration that the disease can result in.

Jordan Robertson, BA Graphic Design, Northumbria University

Everybody

Jordan Robertson describes his bold cosmetics brand concept, Everybody, as “an honest idea of beauty for everybody”.

Featuring simple orange packaging with black sans serif text, the branding recognises the importance of gender fluidity as a choice when it comes to cosmetics.

The rotating lid of the deodorant can be twisted to read either “his”, “her” or “every” body sweats, shaves (shaving cream) and wrinkles (moisturiser).

D&AD New Blood Festival branding

Consultancy Afterhours has also been commissioned to design the identity for this year's D&AD New Blood Festival, which spans everything from social media to exhibition graphics and is built around the strapline: “It all starts with a pencil”.

Afterhours' concept is centred around the phrase: “Just as every great creative piece begins with putting pencil to paper, so a creative career is launched by winning a D&AD pencil”.

Each window at the Truman Brewery site features giant pencil drawn posters that reflect various stages of the creative process, culminating in a giant pencil rendered hand holding a yellow pencil that points the visitor to the entrance of the festival.

The post Top 5 picks from this year's D&AD New Blood Festival appeared first on Design Week.

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http://99u.com/videos/53989/tobias-frere-jones-break-things-deliberately/
Tobias Frere-Jones: Break Things Deliberately

About this presentation

As one of the world's leading typeface designers, and this year's 99U Alva Award winner, Tobias Frere-Jones believes that the best way to learn a new skill is to “break things down deliberately” to understand how it's really done.

In this talk, we learn to see the beauty in taking risks. Frere-Jones explains that in order to do our best creative work, we must not just permit moments of confusion, but actually go chase them. “When trying to figure out a problem, pause for minute, and see if you can make it worse,” he says. “A structure can really describe itself as it falls apart.”

About Tobias Frere-Jones

Over the past 25 years, Tobias Frere-Jones has created some of the most widely-used typefaces, including Interstate, Poynter Oldstyle, Whitney, Gotham, Surveyor, Tungsten, and Retina.

Tobias received a BFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992. He joined the faculty of the Yale University School of Art in 1996 and has lectured throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. His work is in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2006, The Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague awarded him the Gerrit Noordzij Prijs for his contributions to typographic design, writing, and education. In 2013 he received the AIGA Medal in recognition of exceptional achievements in the field of design.

Links

Frere-Jones Type

@frerejones

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