I just came across this video for a Lexus concept car. I’m not really a car nut, and don’t even like this car. Although I do like a lot of classic and top end models, particularly the ones I’ve no chance of ever owning. But it’s the design process that really fascinates me, it’s the same for anything, cars, buildings, gadgets etc. Seeing how it begins with the early ideas/sketches/modeling, it always gets me excited. Especially when they are brought to life with some great motion graphics.

Cracking mixed media portraits using old floppys from Nick Gentry. His official blurb is that his focus has been to explore how technological advancement is affecting society. Each floppy disk used in the paintings has a history and story of its own. It represents the increasing pace of the modern life cycle, where objects are created, used and disposed of quicker than ever. To challenge this notion, as these personal artefacts of life are cast aside, the obsolete are now given new life and a renewed purpose by using them as a medium for art.

If you weren’t lucky enough to see the Design Museum exhibition of the late great Alan Fletcher a couple of years ago, you are in luck. The Cube gallery in Manchester is holding a ‘major retrospective’ of 50 years of his work. The show was opened last week by a fashionably late Peter Saville, who worked with him briefly at Pentagram, and there’s a curatorial talk by Emily King at the University of Salford on March 5th.

If you’re a student get yourself (and your class) there, especially to the talk. If you aren’t, the exhibition is open on a Saturday, so get a weekend trip to Manchester planned in.

Alan Fletcher: Fifty Years of Graphic Work and Play
22 January—03 April 2010
Cube Gallery, Portland Street, Manchester, M1 6DW