in the limelight

The lay of the case: Never mind the Wenlocks

More printer's pie today. Munich Olympics matchboxes lead to musings on what has and hasn't changed in nigh-on 40 years.

The two boxes were collected when we visited the Munich Olympic design studio run by Otl Aicher, with assistance from Ian McLaren. (Of whom more another day). The 1972 Olympic graphics were hugely influential and stand as a benchmark against which more recent offerings will be judged.

1972 was also the year of Waldi, the first official Olympic Mascot.

And it was the year that a young sprinter, Charlie Francis, had the conversations with other Munich competitors which persuaded him that racing "clean" was not an option. Fast forward to Seoul in 1987 and the Francis-coached Ben Johnson's disqualification for use of a steroid, stanozolol. Francis's obituary appeared the same day that the 2012 mascots were unveiled.

The Games were overshadowed when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually murdered by Black September, a militant group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization.

We don't imagine we're the only ones who see an unfortunate echo in the design of our new strange couple. Let's be optimistic.

 

Different Stuff Same Day. In another strange conjunction, the cycling world is today digesting Floyd Landis's claims about doping in the sport (SSDD). Makes Mandeville's choice of headgear looks a bit unfortunate.

 

The lay of the case: Simon Amstell's hair

OK, now here is how a hung parliament works…

No, we've had enough of that for today. Unlikely as it seems, our nascent blogging is rooted in Simon Amstell's hair. This story from former colleague David Hyde's wonderful design blog makes the connection clear.

Here is Simon's hair a year or two back…

And here is ID's circa 1968…

But there is a political point to be made here. There am I at school in Barnsley in the 60s doing arty top-lit self portraits to try to get into art college or university, and two years later I'm at Reading University on a full grant. That kind of social mobility was only made possible by the Labour government of that time, and these days hardly anybody gets the exit velocity to leave the black hole. A big thank you to Michael Twyman is due, and also to Terry Frost who at the interview thought he might be getting someone with spinner's fingers for the art department cricket team.

 

Since the story is also about the lay of the case, the next link is that the blonde and I fed ourselves and our daughter by printing letterpress wood-type film society posters on an Albion Press.

 

 

We came out of University in 1973 with no money but no debts and a record collection. Now the average student debt is tens of thousands of pounds and Universities are going on strike.