Monday, 9:00am
16 December 2024
94: 8000 one-offs
Watch the award-winning short film about Eye 94
Adrian Harrison’s award-winning* short film about the variable-data covers for Eye no. 94 was something of a labour of love. Adie and his small team put the film together with the help of everyone at the Eye team, designers MuirMcNeil and the management and staff of Eye’s regular printers, Pureprint in Uckfield.
Happily, you can now watch the show via this Vimeo link, no password required.
Right. Hamish Muir talks about designing for the Mosaic software.
Top. A glimpse of just a few of the 8000 individually numbered Eye 94 covers at Pureprint.
The 2018 premiere was at ATypI in Antwerp. But up to now, it has only been possible to see the film at design festivals, events like Type Tuesday and on monitors at exhibitions such as Turin Graphic Days (2019) and at ‘Here & Now’, a recent show in Xi’an, China. [The ‘Xi'an International Design Invitation Exhibition’ featured work by curator Han Jiaying, Benny Au, Jiang Hua, Masayoshi Kodaira, Mann Lao, Noo Leong, MuirMcNeil, and an extensive overview of Eye magazine itself.]
‘Here & Now’, the Xi’an International Design Invitation Exhibition at Xi’an Art Museum, Sept-Dec 2024.
Eye 94, a type special issue, included many articles about typography and type design, including a Reputations interview with Nadine Chahine and Ferdinand P. Ulrich’s ‘From punch cutters to number crunchers’ about type’s long transition from craft to code. A section titled ‘Mightier than the pen: systems of type’ covered Mark van Wageningen, Rudolph Koch’s Kabel and John Walters’ ‘Pleasure in the process’ feature about MuirMcNeil … which led to Muir and McNeil designing the groundbreaking cover.
‘Hamish initially felt that we could have absolute control over each cover.’ Paul McNeil talks about the Mosaic algorithm.
Of all the issues in Eye’s back catalogue, 94 is probably the one that has attracted the most attention – press, blogs and social media. Eye 94 received multiple awards that include: Stack Awards 2017 Cover of the Year; a Wood Pencil for magazine covers at the 2018 D&AD Awards; and a Gold Medal for independent magazine covers from the SPD (Society of Publication Designers) in the US.
The issue has had an afterlife, featuring in books and exhibitions, and MuirMcNeil produced a series of limited edition posters based on their artwork.
Eye art editor Holly Catford in Eye’s former office at Studio 100 in De Beauvoir Road, London.
The much-missed Sarah Snaith (1984-2020), Eye’s assistant editor, at Studio 100.
Pureprint director Richard Owers with Eye 94.
Director Adrian Harrison was born in Lincolnshire, UK, and has worked for more than 30 years as a film-maker and graphic designer for BBCTV and Sky Television. His portfolio of award-winning short films includes: 21st Century Victorian and Everyone back to Joby’s and his letterpress film A23D premiered at the V&A Museum, London. Filmed at New North Press, A23D was screened for three months in the Pompidou Centre, Paris as part of ‘Imprimer le Monde’, and for two months at ‘Hello World: Code and Design’ in Sydney, Australia.
94 director Adrian Harrison preparing to shoot the covers on the binding line at Pureprint.
Harrison’s films are frequently screened at design festivals and events such as Eye’s Type Tuesday. One of the most dramatic elements of the Eye 94 story was the binding line, when the digitally printed covers were bound to the litho-printed interior pages. At this point, the difference between variable data and conventional covers became obvious. Harrison recorded the process with several cameras.
‘I couldn’t waste any copies at all.’ Warren Brown (Pureprint) talks about the challenge of binding 8000 different covers.
Covers on the binding line at Pureprint.
Bound and trimmed stacks of Eye 94 at Pureprint, prior to worldwide distribution.
There are a small number of individually numbered copies of Eye 94 available to buy from ESco’s Eye shop at the standard back issue price. If you don’t have a copy, we recommend you buy one soon while stocks last. (And if you already have a copy, why not buy another one with a different cover?!)
* Adrian Harrison’s film also won Awards of Excellence from The Best Shorts Film Competition and the Impact Docs Awards, and was a semi-finalist in the Blow-Up International Arthouse Filmfest Chicago.
Eye editors, London
Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions and single issues.