Baaaaad Design: Not bad design in terms of taste, but design for evil. Have you ever designed the packaging for a death ray gun? Or designed the branding for the new build lair of an evil genius. Or maybe you've designed a mailing list signup checkbox that defaults to checked on a form. Our ministers of gloom discuss what makes bad design.
News takes the form of a wingéd serpent and spews forth its foul breath of portent – in which you'll find an all-female line up for 2000AD, why a low value of art equals theft, and an Anthony Burrill book from new imprint Volume.
LOTR: Chapter 3 – Three is company
!! NEU FORMAT !!
In the Palantír this week: Ben the Illustrator’s illustrator survey, the last pencil factory, Nintendo’s Switch to cardboard, and backward-facing books.
The Guardian has had a redesign. North V South takes a look at what’s changed.
Pies this week are from Pieminister and Marks and Spencer. Then it’s onto the first chapter of The Lord of the Rings: An unexpected party.
A podcast about, but not about, The Lord of the Rings.
Three rings for the Clients who call on Skype,
Seven for the Type-Lords who love to moan,
Nine for Bearded Hipsters doomed to try (hard),
One for the Creative Director on their Aeron throne
In the Studio with their headphones on.
One podcast to rule them all, One podcast to find them,
One podcast to bring them all and in the darkness bore them
In the Studio with their headphones on.
Happy New Year podcast fans. Here's a new episode in which our hosts reflect on another step forwards towards certain death.
News this week include faulty chips, and design news that doesn’t really tell you anything other than there’s not a lot of news about design.
Was 2017 a bad year? Will 2018 be a good year? You decide! The chaps talk goals and resolutions. Join them as they tick of the failures.
Also the hosts announce their most ambitious feature yet; Read a book one chapter at a time and then talk about it. Shut the door!
Pies are Christmas and Moroccan-related.
Recorded over a month ago, here's an episode of the podcast that is and isn't about design for your aural extremities.
We answer your questions while drinking strong beer. It's what we do best.
Oh, and review pies, of course.
And so it's Christmas. In this episode Jon continues to moan about Rob's faulty microphone and then forgets to plug in his microphone. So that's why he sounds like he's talking from a dustbin. More than usual.
News includes a really stupid camera, a new book on Games Workshop, a new logo for F1, and some really useless tips from "Design Leaders" on how to get a pay rise.
The chaps talk about their favourite books, films and designs of the year. Then they eat pie. Hold onto your hats: Jon scores more than a 5.
This week North V South goes on a field trip to the Design Museum. Find out just what our roving reporters made of the museum’s new home in West London.
News sees us step closer to the world of Blade Runner with an image enhancer algorithm, and a step further away with an self driving bus crash. And as a general reminder that humans have been idiots since they left the trees, we look at Medieval Deathbot and Snapchat’s $30 million dollar silly glasses writedown.
Pies are stewed beef for Jon, and a bog standard pork pie for Rob.
This week the podcast is live from Instagram Live. That is, once Jon turns on his phone.
Once that load of old nonsense is out of the way our intrepid reporters bring you a fresh heap of more design-related nonsense: Facets, printers, telegram love, Hero Forge and space history are all up for discussion.
Then settle down and pull the tartan rug over your knees as Grandpa Rob explains social media to Granddad Jon.
Grandpa Rob forgot his teeth so no pie for him. Grandad Jon gums his way through a bizarrely-named Zanzibar bean and coconut pie.
This episode talks about Blade Runner 2049. If you haven’t seen it yet then this is the mandatory PLOT SPOILER ALERT!
Stupid cameras, memorable high street logos, a swimming pool filled with gold. All the news, none of it very useful. So all the better for it.
The chaps went on a rare NVS Field Trip to see the new Blade Runner sequel. They talk about the film’s legacy and sources of inspiration, the central themes of the film, and how hot Ryan Gosling is.
Pies this week feature a chicken and ham made by the Royals, and a beef and chilli made by committee. The manufacturer recommends serving the latter with a salsa. We say up no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no.
With both hosts engaged in Inktober it’s only apt that they do some self promotion / neurotic hand-wringing on this week’s episode.
In news, Dropbox gets all nu-rave, Sonos journeys into the Amazon, Timothy Toothbrush says hi, and UKIP’s rebrand gets them into hot water. Hopefully.
Rob teaches Jon about using Instagram as a promotional tool rather than a social media anxiety generator.
A cold pie this week for Jon gets a uncharacteristically high score. Rob’s is chicken and ham heaven. Quite literally, if you’re a pig or a chicken*.
And you believe in a deity*.
*Pies are not diety.
October brings the daily onslaught that is Inktober. Our hosts discuss their chosen subjects. News includes illustrators’ dirty secrets, Bloomsbury’s new classic book cover designs, the sinister rise of both sponsored content and, of course, abused sex robots.
This week sees a return of the book review, with a thumb through Mike Monteiro’s “You’re my favorite client”: A book for clients about the design process. The chaps also stumble through what they did in the day in a futile attempt to make it sound like they have meaningful lives.
Once they’ve failed that, it’s onto pies. Jon reviews something that is quite plainly a quiche. Rob keeps it real with a steak and ale pie.
A little owl, a favourite tree, interesting words and a can of root beer. It can only be North v South; the podcast that is, and isn’t, about design.
This week locks digital and analogue in a fight to the death. Our hosts chat about why we love some superseded technologies and why patina is so important to humans. talk turns to what constitutes being alive, and ends on the irrefutable fact that everything changes. Humans just don’t like it.
After that Rob and Jon decant their brains back into their craniums and try some pies. Everything might change, but our show always ends in pies.
Listen to stout men drink stout and spout. Yes, it’s North V South.
This week our hosts talk kitbashing, expanding clothing, Winnie the Pooh, print errata and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Rob and Jon return to Dunkirk to talk about frames and containers. We look at the origins of the 4:3 format, 35mm film and ask why widescreen is a thing. Many questions remain unanswered but a damn good time is had trying to answer them.
Charlie Bigham returns to generously share his Chicken and Mushroom pie with Jon. Rob tries to contact alien life with his frozen Steak and Ale pie from Sainso’s.
We're back. Again. Like a bad smell that everyone knows is a decomposing rat under the floorboards but is too polite to say so.
This week our intrepid explorers of design discover the meaning of the phrases Kensington Gore and Etaoin Shrdlu, as well as looking at a £650 box of Lego, Erik Spiekermann's storm in a tweet cup, BBC Sport's new typeface and Pantone's oh-so generous donation to the Purple One's Estate*.
Our first great pie disaster means that Jon is literally scraping the floor for his pie this week.
This week only, we're giving away RGB 230,33,53 for FREE. Use it wherever you like.
Freshly returned from the beaches of Northern France, a bottle of beer in one hand and a jam sandwich in the other, Mr Elliman chats with Mr Turpin about what they’ve been up to for the last few weeks, as well as news of sentient toothbrushes, robot journalists and colour systems.
Rob and Jon have been to the cinema to see Christopher Nolan’s latest film, Dunkirk. They’ve got quite a lot to say about their experiences. Some of it is lucid. Listen on to find out what Dunkirk, Jan Hammer and giant thrips have (or don’t have) in common.
Rob just about gets away with a pie review this week*. He scoffed a shepherd’s pie for lunch at the Ivy in Richmond. Jon pops a couple of Tesco Melton Mowbrays in his piehole.
Written warning in the post.
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It’s been holiday season for the southern half of the podcast that is, and isn’t, about design. Despite this, server crashes and recording gear not working, here’s the latest episode for your aural relish.
This week, bereft of anything interesting to talk about, the gents talk about some websites of note. Well, Rob does anyway.
This week’s pies are layered chicken and ham layered slice from Sainsbury’s and a chicken, ham hock, and leek pie from Armstrong’s in St Margarets.
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This week’s news includes a crowd-funded record player and night light that are, quite frankly, codswallop. Southbank’s new rebrand gets a quick look at, as well as a facelift for the British Gas smart thermostat, Hive. The gents politely raise their hats (revealing marmalade sandwiches) to Michael Bond and say farewell.
Milton Glaser’s Ten Things I Have Learned is a collection of observations, philosophies and soundbites that the great designer has been hawking about for at least 18 years. We sprinkle this design gold dust onto our resident cavemen and see what happens.
You’ll be cock-a-hoop to know that this week’s pies are fully encased. The fact that the filling resembles cat food is not so promising.
This week, in the podcast that is and isn’t about design, your hosts swim through a tree, explore the grey area surrounding the white of the Polish flag and investigate the disappearance of a mummified toe from a bar in Canada.
Rob and Jon then talk about the influence and power of books. They ask each other about the reasons why they read, and discuss a few books that really made a difference in their lives.
Both pies this week are very probably not pies. Beers are from the Adnams and Redemption breweries.
In the design podcast that can’t quite get its act together, our hosts look upon the new releases from Apple, gaze upon a new blue pigment, ponder upon the usefulness of a naming and shaming site for non payers, and marvel upon the comic version of the New York Times Magazine.
This week Jon and Rob talk about their favourite film posters; from Star Wars to Kill Bill, You Only Live Twice to the Exorcist.
Pies today are brought to you from Marks and Spencer, chickens and leeks.
