We couldn’t help using the opportunity to take live pictures of the objects by Memphis Group, which came to St.Petersburg in large numbers by the grace of Bulthaup Design Gallery. Being grateful to the Gallery, Projector gives a large publication on Ettore Sottsass and his revolutionary associates. It’s especially nice that it’s the first time when among our contributors Alexander Borovsky, the main expert in modern art in Saint-Petersburg and the head of the Department of Contemporary Art at the State Russian Museum, has been spotted. It was he who wrote the text about Memphis.
Our another permanent and respected contributor, Mikhail Karasik, has published not only his traditional article on book history of the 1920—1930s, but has also been featured in section «Name». The text by Alexey Boyko about Mikhail and his works reveals the heroic image of «Karasik Icebreaker», who got this affectionate nickname from the respectful colleagues.
«Russian Design», the permanent section of Olga and Alexander Florensky, this time features Cult buildings — The Tower of Babylon, the Synagogue, the Pagan sanctuary, the Temple of Zoroastrians the fire-worshipers, the Anthroposophic temple, the Reformed Church, the mosque with a minaret, the Orthodox Church, the Buddhist stupa, the Shinto Pagoda, the Ancient temple and the ziggurat.
«Lettering» has been entirely given to Yury Gordon, who talks about the process of creating the «21 cents» type. Frankly, Yury puzzled the editorial pretty much. When Projector asked him to talk about how the type 21 cents is made, we could not assume that one of our favourite contributors would provide the text, which claims to be an independent illustrated book. However, even ruthless reduction of the text couldn’t fit it into one publication. The lively and dense narrative did not allow a deep cut. As a result, we decided to break the story into several parts and establish a temporary mini-column devoted to the process of creating the 21 cents. This issue has the beginning, and next one — the sequel. The further, the more!
The «Object» section has unusually extended — it has five articles on various features of object design at a time, from artistic Cat and Crocodile by St.Petersburg designer Boremir Bakharev (aka Bob), to the retrospection of a fold yardstick.
Vitra Company presents an object from its extensive collection. This time it’s ornate Wiggle Side Chair Frank Gehry.
And the good fellowship with the exhibitions of the Loft Project ETAGI has resulted in the publication, entitled Marble, on the ironic and subtle works by the Italian sculptor Fabio Viale. This Fabio Viale who launches marble balloons into the sky and sails along the rivers in a marble boat — all to be honest!
This section also continues the anti-crisis column «Tips and Tricks». This issue’s tips for our lady-readers are on how to adorn their dresses in a DIY way. We remind you that the tips are given unchanged and come from the apologetic edition of 1957.
This issue pays particular attention to section «Environment». The text by Oleg Veklenko and photos by Maria Bykova can hardly leave anyone indifferent. They are dedicated to the terrible disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power station.
Our old friend Dmitry Goryachev, whose photos often appear in the magazine, has been featured in «Photography». His rare panoramic cameras allow to achieve amazingly moving results.
Section «School», dedicated to education in design, opens with the article by Sergey Serov, our editorial board member. His publication is about Absolute VASHGD project — a bright creative experiment in which students paid tribute to the most iconic characters of the Russian and the world graphic design.
«School» section continues with Sergey Helmyanov and Svetlana Mirzoyan’s publication about the person who Stieglitz Academy owes its reconstruction in the difficult post-war years. His name is Joseph Vaks.
Our book project can not do without the mandatory publication by Mikhail Karasik. In this issue, he talks about the phenomenon of Lenin’s light bulbs in the Soviet book design of the 1920—1930s.
And Andrey Kharshak describes in detail another fundamental work of Vladimir Krichevsky about the Leningrad designer Dmitry Bulanov. Krichevsky made another discovery and returned from oblivion an obviously bright and noticeable name of this book designer.
