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Daniel Zender Virginie Gosselin &Larry Greenhaus GFX Exhibit
November/December 2018 Twenty-Four Dollars commarts.com
BY ELLEN SHAPIRO
W
hy &Larry? That is the question. How many design firm principals would put an ampersand before their name, instead of after?
Larry is different. He’s Larry Peh, principal of a six-person firm in Singapore that’s making international waves—whether he likes it or not.
As a designer, Larry is different because of the way he sees himself. “I’m an introvert,” he says. “I’ve been under the radar for many years. I love what we do. I love to design. But I don’t much fancy making speeches or going to parties. I attract similar people. We’re a bunch of introverts here.” As a firm, &Larry is different because its location isn’t in one of Singapore’s trendy, leafy districts with bars, boutiques and cupcake shops. It’s not in the CBD, the central business district with its name-architect-designed skyscrapers overlooking the glasshouse domes and high-tech supertrees of Gardens by the Bay. It’s tucked away in an office building in an industrial park off the expressway that takes you to Changi Airport. Peh founded the company in 2005 after dissolving a business partnership in Neighbor Studio, the creative agency he’d founded with a former Temasek Polytechnic classmate. “I finally realized what I was meant for,” he says, referring to the painful six-month postbreakup period during which he did more self-reflection than designing. “I realized that I didn’t like corporate work. That I didn’t want to change or challenge the world. That I didn’t care much about awards. So I started anew. At &Larry, we take a more humble approach. We don’t troll for clients. We don’t post on Behance. All our work comes through word of mouth. Besides, some
of our work is for clients like private residences that don’t want their stuff splashed all over the world so competitors can copy it,” he adds. All that humility and desire for privacy, however, hasn’t stopped Peh or his firm from winning prestigious accolades, including Singapore’s President’s Design Award—twice, in 2014 and 2016. The award, established in 2006 “to increase appreciation for design that makes a difference in people’s lives,” has been presented to the country’s leading architects, industrial designers and fashion designers. Peh is one of the few graphic designers to date. “Meeting the man who was president of our country—Dr. Tony Tan—was the greatest award of all,” he says. But the thing is, Larry is not just a graphic designer. He’s also a strategist and a photographer and an art and photography collector—and a fashionista. In fact, he cofounded and runs a menswear fashion brand, Faculty, that offers his own designs in denim, dress shirts, T-shirts and accessories. As befits a graphic designer, all the garments are black, white and gray (with a few touches of blue). A current Singapore guidebook quotes Larry like this: “My clothing is based on pieces I bought that I thought could be improved upon.” As just one example, the copy on faculty.com.sg points out that the White Club Oxford Shirt has “deeper patch pockets that can accommodate a pen and notebook, and black bands at the cuff openings to prevent the appearance of dirt and sweat stains.” The equally perfectionistic introverts Larry has chosen to work with, and who’ve chosen to work with him, are Kelvin Pang—a colleague and friend for 20 years—now project manager and lead writer; senior art director Adora Tan; senior
Captions supplied by &Larry. Larry Peh was the creative director on all projects shown. Right: “We collaborated with HASSELL Singapore to develop the spatial and brand experience of Google Singapore’s office. In the same vein as other Google offices worldwide, we incorporated tongue-in-cheek language and graphics wherever suitable to create a stimulating environment for creativity. While fun and exciting, the designs are sufficiently restrained for longevity and are also nonintrusive to employees, who will be seeing them on a daily basis.” Adora Tan, art director; HASSELL, lead designer; Google Singapore, client. 44
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Š Andy Liew, N.D Photography
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POSTERS 1 (series) Saji Johnny Kundukulam, art director/writer/creative director The Narrow Street (Delhi, India), ad agency KOOK Toothpicks, client
2 (series) Frédéric Nogier, art director Felix Freese, writer Bruce Roberts/Chris Rowson/Manuel Wenzel, creative directors Chris Beresford-Hill/Chris Garbutt, chief creative officers Alex Trochut, illustrator TBWA (New York, NY/Zürich, Switzerland), ad agencies McDonald’s Switzerland, client
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PUBLIC SERVICE 1 Meredith Karr/Kristina Krkljus, MAL\FOR GOOD, associate creative directors Xanthe Wells, MAL\FOR GOOD, executive creative director Duncan Milner, MAL\FOR GOOD, chief creative officer Dustin Callif/Nancy Hacohen, Tool, managing directors, creative Rachel McDonald, Tool, director Amado Stachenfeld, Tool, director of photography Brad English, Tool/Wade Harpootlian/Alicia Portner/Hope Sword, MAL\FOR GOOD, producers Jennifer Golub, MAL\FOR GOOD/Brad Johns, Tool, executive producers Tool (Santa Monica, CA), production company NO6, editorial company Framestore, visual effects company MAL\FOR GOOD, ad agency One Love Foundation, client “Zoe & Will” 13:00 “This PSA raises awareness of abusive relationships by revealing very different realities behind the often ‘perfect’ relationships portrayed in social media posts. The film launched online with ten individual vignettes across nonprofit organization One Love Foundation’s social channels, and One Love even took the campaign to high schools and colleges to include in their curriculums, along with a ‘Behind The Post’ discussion guide.”
2 Hridii Kamal/Angelo Maia/Louis Prenaud, art directors Ricardo Franco, writer Gustavo Dorietto, creative director Chris Beresford-Hill/Chris Garbutt, chief creative officers Eric Kopicki/Gina Pido, design Theo Allen/Bonnie Wang, photographers Charles Nordeen, director John Doris, executive director of production Jonathan Deves, planner Alex Campbell/Steven Kreuch, senior producers Matt Flaherty, executive agency producer Justine LaViolette, production company producer Rob Schwartz, chief executive officer Freshh.tv, production company TBWA\Chiat\Day (New York, NY), ad agency One Love Foundation, client “We transformed common unhealthy relationship behaviors into traditional Valentine’s Day gifts. Then we opened a pop-up store in New York City for the fourteen days preceding Valentine’s Day, where people interacted with the items, such as a heart-shaped pendant with a tracking chip synced to an app on a partner’s phone, and a stuffed bear that alternates between ‘I hate you’ and ‘I’m sorry.’ By shining a spotlight on toxic behaviors, the products started meaningful conversations about unhealthy and healthy relationships.”
3 Alex Boland/Laura Stein, art directors Alexis Bronstorph, writer Alexis Bronstorph/Kelsey Horne, creative directors Jeffrey Da Silva/Tom Koukodimos, executive creative directors Alex Boland, designer Sid Lee (Toronto, Canada), ad agency Black Lives Matter, client “In 2017, 20 separate Black Lives Matter chapters united to form Black Lives Matter Canada. To symbolize this unification and honor the black men and women affected by unnecessary police gun violence, we created a flag made entirely of Kevlar, the same material used in bulletproof vests worn by law enforcement. The flags will be exhibited as part of a cross-country tour, provoking conversation about the power of art and activism in our communities.” 138
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FRESH FRANZISKA BARCZYK
A row of unblinking eyes. A crumpled mouth. A ray of buttery yellow. Such bold forms merge in Franziska Barczyk’s Dadaesque collages, exhibiting her knack for creating art greater than the sum of its parts. Barczyk’s own career melds impactful experiences— a start at magazines enRoute and Nylon, an internship with Edel Rodriguez, a gig as Christoph Niemann’s studio assistant—into a complete whole. “Being in a studio with full-time illustrators, such as Christoph and Edel as well as my sister Hanna, made me realize that being an illustrator is possible,” says Barczyk, who formerly worked as a designer and art director. Today, the Toronto-based artist whips up layered collages and colorful illustrations for the New York Times and other clients, sometimes adding a spark of motion. “The combination of illustration, collage and moving images enables me to develop an idea in a matter of seconds to create a story,” she says of her growing body of animated GIFs and video collages. fitza.me
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