HIDEOUS BEAST
After completing an artist-in-residence program together in Berlin this summer, MFA grads Josh Ippel and Charles Roderick are returning to their alma mater, the University of Illinois at Champaign- Urbana, to curate an exhibition of one-minute movies made on digital still cameras and camera phones. The duo, known collectively as Hideous Beast, continues to look for new venues to host such funky festivals and encourages its loyal fans (they have followings in Denver; Chicago; Portland; Grand Rapids, Mich.; and now Berlin) to organize local Mini Movie Fests of their own by providing an entertaining little black-and-white illustrated users guide. It’s a refreshing, homespun method of amusing the masses outside the bounds of mainstream entertainment. The next Mini Movie Fest will take place at the U of I’s Chicago art gallery, I space, from Nov. 17 to Dec. 23, 2006.
www.hideousbeast.com, www.ispace.uiuc.edu

THE SPIRIT ILLUMINATED
Editio Electrum is the design studio of the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation in Cairo, a nonprofit educational trust established to promote, protect, study, and disseminate Islamic intellectual, cultural, and artistic heritage. The studio has recently created “Tradigital Prints”—12 double-page illuminated prints based on the finest medieval Koran manuscripts held in Dar al-Kutub, Egypt’s National Library, and is showing them at the AIGA National Gallery in New York until Nov. 30. The Koran has played a major role in the development of the Arabic language, and by extension, calligraphy.

And although this collection is in essence mere reproduction, the ornamental frontispieces and illuminated text page openings represented here of the Dar al-Kutub Koran nonetheless provide Americans the opportunity to learn and appreciate why calligraphy and illumination was and is still considered a central sacred art by Muslims.
www.aiga.org

FUNNY FEIFFER
Fitting for this “Design Wit” issue of STEP inside design, social satirist and political cartoonist Jules Feiffer is having his professional life chronicled at the School of Visual Arts Gallery this season. Until Dec. 2, a wide-ranging body of his work including his cartoon strips for The Village Voice, book illustrations, watercolors, as well as posters and clips from his films (Carnal Knowledge, Popeye, Little Murders, to name a few) and stage productions will be on view. “The Masters Series: Jules Feiffer” closes Dec. 2, 2006, but you can enjoy his humor forever by picking up a new, handsomely designed hardcover edition of Passionella and Other Stories, now available at Fantagraphics.
www.sva.edu, www.fantagraphics.com

NAMBÉ NIGHTS
Nambé (pronounced nom-BAY), the exclusive manufacturer of distinctive decorative objects and accessories, is featuring two new designs from emerging New York designer Gabrielle Lewin. The smooth curves and transparent full-lead crystal frame of her modern Menorah is elegantly designed to create the illusion of floating candlelight. And her cocktail set “Spear Picks,” designed in Nambé’s signature aluminum, is temptingly tactile. According to Nambé’s new product development manager Todd Myers, Lewin’s designs “perfectly complement the Nambé brand— functional, pleasant to handle, eye-catching, and classic.” A sweeping but accurate description.
www.nambe.com, www.gabriellelewin.com

ONE POINT OF THE PENTAGRAM
One of the five founding fathers of Pentagram, Alan Fletcher is giving back to the graphic design community. He has recently donated his archive of commercial work for clients like Lloyds of London, the Victoria & Albert Museum, Phaidon, and personal projects in lettering, collage, and illustration to The Design Museum in London. A series of celebrations surrounding Fletcher’s work will continue until March 2007, when the archive is scheduled to travel around the world. The Museum’s newly appointed director, Deyan Sudjic, should savor this undoubtedly crowd-pleasing collection before he fights the controversial battle regarding the museum’s long-term strategy to expand and move closer to the Tate Modern.
www.designmuseum.org

THE NEXT GENERATION
Sixty-three of the 288 portfolios submitted to the fifth biennial ADC Young Guns showcase made the cut. While the largest contingent of Young Guns is based in New York, the list also includes talented young professionals (30 and under) working in the UK, Canada, Australia, China, Spain, and Croatia. It’s refreshing to see many working in teams: Driscoll Reid and Chris Hutchinson of Wieden + Kennedy, Abby Clawson Low and Paulina Reyes of Kate Spade, and Andre Andreev and G. Dan Covert of MTV. Other honorable but singular mentions include Jonathan Notaro, a design and animation director at the New York office of motion graphics company Brand New School; Aaron Stoller, an up-and-coming commercials director at Backyard Productions in Chicago; Emmanuel Ho, a design director at the San Francisco-based cable channel Current TV; and editorial and book jacket designers at The New York Times Magazine (Jeff Glendenning) and HarperCollins (Robin Bilardello). A multimedia exhibition of their work in animation, design, advertising, photography, and illustration is on view at the ADC Gallery, Nov. 10–22, 2006.
www.adcglobal.org