Projector #9 has been issued. As the process still hasn’t become a routine, the editorial board see each output as a miracle, as if the magazine were formed out of chaos by itself, without our intervention. Wonders will never cease!
Projector has been lucky in having a strong start! Here’s the interview with Massimo Vignelli, taken by the editor-in-chief of Projector Mitya Kharshak, and the editor-in-chief of the portal design-union.ru Alexander Leenetsky: «Since the very beginning of my career, I’ve deliberately stayed away from fashionable trends in design and sought eternal values. So, looking back, I can hardly see what I could improve in the works now. If they seemed good to me at the time, I’m also happy with them now. And vice versa». (Massimo Vignelli exclusively for Projector).
We quote Serge Serov, who said about Igor Gurovich: «In his speeches, interviews, workshops Guron usually cultivates the image of a turretless „idle reveler“, who doesn’t spend over a quarter of an hour on the poster. Workers and students are being cheated! Guron is a workaholic, I witness that. Only Chaika’s responsibility, seriousness and meticulousness could be compared to Guron’s. Here’s what Igor says: „I think we can be thrown out of a plane over the enemy territory. We have, in fact, been thrown out by life… Moscow in 1988 was an absolutely hostile area, but we survived. And, unfortunately, many god-like guys who taught us did not. The generation that introduced us to the profession was very tragic…“
Olga and Alexander Florensky share the project Maps in their column «Russian Design». This section is not subject to the editor-in-chief, but even if he had full control over the publication, he’d not correct anything at all!
«Letterng» section is entirely dedicated to the project by Yuri Gordon. In the introduction to his article, the editor-in-chief writes: «In the previous issue we started an epic tale of Yury Gordon about his work on the type „21 cents“. The text sent by Yuri seemed endless, but it was impossible to cut something out — each sentence of the solid like a wall text clung to the previous one and cast a bridge to the next piece of text. Reducing a seemingly inessential text fragment made a significant hole in the story, so I gave up this editorial venture and decided to publish the story with minimal cuts».
Of course, there’s no issue without the story of legendary XX century objects from the collection of brilliant Vitra. This time, together with all the mankind, Projector celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Panton chair. A nice half-century anniversary of a heavenly beautiful object!
Section «Environment» is retrospective in «projector’s way», despite one of the publications which is called House of the Future. We are talking about a futurist house project implemented in 1957, when everybody turned to space and new achievements in materials and shaping. The photos of the house even now still look resemble of a fantastic scenery decorations for a Hollywood movie. It’s especially interesting to compare the aesthetics of American ideas about the future of the mid-fifties with the projects of hardscaping of the same time, but coming from the USSR.
The second publication of the «Environment» section is the album of hardscapes, designed in Leningrad in 1954 by Joseph Vaks and Leonid Katonin, the masters of architecture and design.
Section «Photography» is inspired by the photos of Bosch and Duerer by Vlad, a photographer from Berlin. That’s just Vlad, without a surname. The long hours of shooting and provocative photos at some point forced Vlad to stop inviting models (these originally had been his friends) at all. That’s why many images feature the author.
Within the «School» section, Sergey Helmyanov, our permanent contributor, the expert and active mover of the educational process on industrial design, talks about quite a curious project of the students of the industrial design department at Stieglitz academy: «Legs of a mosquito are the spokes from an old umbrella. Where can I get them? At the flea market, from a pack rat. That will bring joy for the sellers and lots of use for design. Joints — that’s what you need, excellent construct! By the way, as for the flea market and the flea… Flea legs can be seen in worn-out windscreen wipers, and a head — in the old manual razor. And the old office pegs — it’s just a godsend! Waste of the civilization? Construction material!»
The bibliophile section «Books» offers Mikhail Karasik’s traditional column on book history of the 1920—1930s. This time, it’s the publication «Kinker of the verse» about the constructivist typography and layout, illustrated by the books of El Lissitzky and Telingater.
In next publication, editor-in-chief Mitya Kharshak declares his love for the wonderful magazine [kAk) and its editor-in-chief Peter Bankov. «Oh, how I envied and admired the authors of the magazine, inventors and entertainers in every way, the masters and wizards! I envied kindly, recognizing in them the Titans, whose furious enthusiasm highlighted my way to the profession. And I was a little sad inside, understanding that never ever would I experience the flight granted to them as they were gods, dashingly riding a bird of happiness and producing the best design magazine for everybody’s joy! But life turned well-else, and now I have Projector — my own playground. As for [kAk), it’s still my role model in life, profession and attitude to the profession».