Designs on Doctor Dee

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Some work news. I finished this CD design last year but, as is often the case with these things, it’s taken a while to make its way into the world. This was the final piece of the Mindscape of Alan Moore project and it’s probably the last thing I’ll do which makes use of the famous Sigillum Dei Aemeth of Doctor John Dee (1527–1608), wax versions of which can be seen in the British Museum. Alan Moore is a great Dee aficionado and since the sigil appears in the DeZ Vylenz documentary it made sense to use it for the DVD package and interface. This led in turn to a new poster design for the film (below) and—eventually—the soundtrack CD. The latter should be shipping shortly from Shadowsnake Films.

Lastly, and also design-related, the New York Times this week had a short piece about designer Barney Bubbles based around Paul Gorman’s Reasons to be Cheerful book. My quote about Barney’s Hawkwind work being “cosmic Art Nouveau” was borrowed from the book’s text and the piece features one of those slideshow selections the NYT does so well. Once again it’s great to see how Paul’s book is stimulating new interest and appraisal of work which was neglected for far too long.

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DVD menu.

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Passage des Panoramas

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I thought I might have exhausted this line of pursuit until I decided to search for the Passage des Panoramas, one of the first of the Parisian arcades which so entranced Walter Benjamin. This particular arcade dates from 1799 and was named after the painted panoramas which used to be one of the attractions on an upper floor. The appropriately panoramic view comes from a page of 360º panoramas of some of the more attractive passages couverts of Paris and, as with previous examples here, these are best viewed using the full screen option. On my last trip to Paris I intended to visit some of the arcades but apart from one small place on the Champs-Élysées the ones I tracked down were all closed. Consequently, these photos are the next best thing to being there.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
The panoramas archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
Passages 2
Passages