Projector magazine. Issue #11
The magazine opens with its traditional historical publication about Verner Panton — the designer who headed the plastic revolution of the 1960s, and then throughout his life remained one of the most radical innovators in the field of object and interior design. Looking at his crazy colors, pop-art ornaments and futuristic shapes, we can suppose Panton was not averse to mind-expanding drugs. But let’s leave rumors for the tabloids. In fact, Panton was one of the few designers of the XX century, who until the very end of his life remained youthfully enthusiastic, preserving the freshness of perception and the incredible lightness of being.
Next comes our protagonist. «He is here». We don’t address him, but everybody knows who he is.
To your attention, the traditional author project by Olga and Alexander Florensky this time presents Different Skeletons.
Section «Lettering» begins with a new historical series. Alexey Dombrovsky explores the legacy of Sergei Chekhonine. The first article thoroughly considers the three covers of his graphic albums in different languages: Tschechonin, S. Chekhonin, Чехонин — three languages, three graphic solutions. Apart from that, there are many more magical type works of the artist, reproduced after his lifetime editions.
Next, a gallerist and collector from St.Petersburg Vitaly Tretyakov presents lettering cards of the early XX century from his extensive collection. Quoting the founders of lettrism Eugene Ionesco and Isidore Izu, Tretyakov gives compelling and touching proof of the thesis that a letter is «a unit of poetry and beauty».
«Object» section opens with the publication by editor-in-chief Mitya Kharshak about the collection of «traffic light men» and Ampelmann, a design project in Berlin.
To continue, we have our traditional story of the outstanding XX-century design objects from the collection of Vitra factory. This time it’s the chair La Chaise by Ray and Charles Eames, tells Nina Filyuta.
Nina Filuta has also written about the mysterious object of environmental design by Boremir Bakharev. His works have already been published in one of the previous issues of the magazine. This time Bob presents a black transformer that can take many forms, depending on which function you want it to have: a Black box which is full of essence.
The section «Photography» presents the works and magic tools of the photographer Alexey Alekseev. He is one of the adherers who revive rare photographic techniques, and the re-discoverer of the wet-collodion printing method. He’s a scrupulous collector and restorer of unique optical and photographic equipment of the XIX century, who transforms the entire photo process, from shooting to making the image, into a magic mystery. By the way, both the author of the photos, Alexey Alekseev, and the author of the text, Anna Kozhara, are depicted in the portraits published in the magazine.
In the section «Books», our permanent contributor, polymath and expert on book history Mikhail Karasik shows a rare selection of books of the 1910s, printed on wallpaper! This is something completely unimaginable.
Also, Projector is plunging deeper and deeper into the recent history of Russian design periodicals. The member of our editorial board Serge Serov recalls how in the early 1990s there appeared, and then was closed the design magazine Greatis: five issues, and five heavenly beautiful covers by Vladimir Chaika.
Next, our partner IndexMarket, an information-bookselling company, presents the four books from its enormous collection, and Projector recommends a large work on children’s books of 1890—1992, presented by Mikhail Karasik.
