The West End Show

For his first self-intitiated solo show, graphic designer and illustrator Radim Malinic has taken the multifarious, vibrant and frequently taxing area of London’s West End as his inspiration.

'I wanted to do something that was different, conceptual and intriguing - it’s a place that’s been very inspiring for me. It’s the heritage - the narrow streets, the buildings, the glitz and glamour. It’s got a heartbeat’, explains Malinic. He adds, ‘Once you look behind the history it’s got an enormous amount of legacy. People now take the area for its face value, it's a place to go shopping and getting annoyed by huge crowds at Leicester Square.’

The show, cleverly titled West End show, will present ten posters, each dedicated to one West End area, such as Soho, Covent Garden and Fitzrovia. The ornate, bold designs capture the vibrancy of the area, with a healthy smattering of the gaudy neon and glittering lights that festoon its streets.
Each poster also features an 8 line poetry, also written by Malinic, that provide a context for the area and the design. The Holborn poster was influenced by Malinic’s discovery that the current Sainsbury’s site in the area was once a beautiful restaurant, with the visuals referencing to its logo. ‘It used to see so much fun and it so sociable’, he says. ‘Now it’s a concrete building with huge glass windows - there doesn’t seem to be much laughter there any more. Just a line of self-checkout and mist of orange bags’

The project proved quite a leap from the usual commercial illustration projects that Malinic usually works on. ‘I wanted to do something with a lot of substance that really stood out’, he says. ‘Graphic design should have a purpose. It was more challenging than I thought -  a self-initiated brief creates interesting benchmarks for self-critique. ’

The west end videos

http://www.brandnu.co.uk/work/video/the-west-end-show-animated-titles/

THE WEST END SHOW

Animated titles for gallery show by Brand Nu. Directed by Radim Malinic. Animation: Alex Donne-Johnson. Music: Part Time Heroes

http://www.brandnu.co.uk/work/video/the-west-end-show-teaser-trailer/ 

THE WEST END SHOW

teaser trailer for gallery show by Brand nu. Directed by Radim Malinic, DOP: Nathalie Gordon, music: Part Time heroes / wah wah 45s

What interested me in these videos was how bold and vibrant the lights was in the videos. The neon lights and glitz of glamour of the overpowering lights around the west end making it come alive. I like in the teaser video that the lights in the video is out of focus given an interesting effect of light then go in focus on the light.