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ROADMAP Michael McDermott BEST ON SHOW The annual
snapshot of our evolving design landscape and the people who make it happen has gone live at the 100 Archive. As one of those involved in selecting the 100, it’s an honour to see creative responses to briefs which impact on our existence in ways we may not always acknowledge or consider. From a stamp (Irish Women in Sport, Unthink) to a club night (Lumo, Bureau), a typeface (Field Gothic, Signal Type Foundry) to truffles (Harry’s Nut Butter Chocolate Truffles, Sarah Moloney), a poster (Outrage/Fishamble, Publicis) to a primary school mural and ‘sculpture-of-sorts’ (Holy Family National School, Rathcoole, Fuchsia MacAree), the Archive is there to inform, celebrate and maybe give you a steer on your future design needs and considerations. The launch of the Archive also coincided with the launch of Design Declares Ireland! which will join our UK counterparts in their mission to “reimagine the way we create every product, service, campaign and designed solution we put out into the world” as a means of addressing the current climate and ecological crisis. 100archive.com/archives/2022 designdeclares.com FRUSTRATED WRITERS... Besides simply saying, ‘join the club’, frustrated writers are also finding a new space to showcase their greatness courtesy of Frustrated Writers’ Group Vol. 1. Edited byTom Roseingrave, the publication is an anthology of writing and visual art from exciting, mostly younger artists living and working in Dublin. It arose from a workshop Tom set up in Unit 44 in April 2022 as a clinic for writers of all disciplines to receive and give feedback on their writing. Contributors include performance artist Léann Herlihy, multimedia artist Day Magee, novelist Chris Beausang, and award-winning poet Clíodhna Bhreatnach. New voices such as Jess Kelly, Cian Booth and Emily Featherman also figure in this 60-page anthology, designed by NCAD MFA graduate Isabella Utria Mago. @frustrated_____writers worldarchitecturefestival.com RIBBONFARM N MAGAZINE N Magazine is the latest welcome addition to our much loved print family. The new art magazine first launched in January and has just dropped its sixth edition. “Printed in Dublin on the highest quality paper, each magazine is a 60 page invitation to explore unique artists, craftspeople, creative brands and luxury experiences in a calm, notification free environment.” Edited by Aoife Long, recent conversations have included a chat with Laura Holly of Sugarloaf Botanics and Aideen Macken about her custom woven criosanna as well as opera singer Susie Gibbons, artist PIGSY and woodturner Lucinda Goulden. €30 nmagazine.ie @nmagazineireland ‘Premium mediocre*’ and ‘domestic cozy**’ are concepts which you may not be familiar with but they are some of those coined by Vankatesh Rao, an LA based writer and consultant, on Ribbonfarm, his low-fi blog which we were entranced about in a recent article in the 50th anniversary issue of Courier magazine. His ‘constructions in magical thinking’ aim to deep dive into emerging cultural and business trends. One of his hot takes from the interview include that the “age of the big viral-hit long-form, built around memes and clickbait-y writing techniques, is over” and he intriguingly cites an essay by Danish programmer David Heinemeier Hansson who describes burnout as a result of being under-purposed rather than over-worked. He reckons “memes are done” and it’s “all about vibe-driven culture” as evidenced on TikTok. “The Tower of Babel that was the early social web has colFrom top to bottom, work by: Unthink; Signal Type Foundry; Fuchsia MacAree; Publicis lapsed. Decentralized and divergent culture is upon us.” * “food that Instagrams better than it tastes…mediocre with just an irrelevant touch of premium, not enough to ruin the delicious essential mediocrity…seeks to control the narrative.” - the preserve of Millennials in many ways. ** “an attitude, emerging socioeconomic posture, and aesthetic, that is in many ways the antithesis of premium mediocrity…indifferent both to being misunderstood and being ignored.” - cooking at home and knitting, for example. It’s a Gen Z trait. ribbonfarm.com couriermedia.com 8