AMP Visual On U2´s Logos

AMP Visual   talks about their work for U2.

"We’ve worked with U2 for a long time as their graphic designers and through the years we’ve made quite a number of design pieces for the band. So we thought we’d do an occasional blog called U2 x 5. The idea is simply for us to take 5 related graphic pieces we’ve designed for the band and comment on them. This blog is about U2 logos.


Logos, they’re absolutely all around us. They are the shorthand and visual idiom of our age. We have always enjoyed making these little marks and symbols for U2. We’ve picked just five logos out of the many we’ve made for the band and say a few words about each."

The Joshua Tree

The isolated silhouette drawing of the Joshua tree was the first U2 logo to appear that people recognised globally. It works both literally and figuratively and it is highly memorable. People connect it intrinsically with the U2 masterpiece album and as such the icon has inherited the characteristics of integrity and a certain kind of honesty and beauty. The tree itself has a lovely very individual shape with its unusual branches and leaves. The logo represents all that that album means to people, so much so that some people have it as a tattoo.

Zooropa – Astrobaby and ring of stars

The ZooTV tour had a fantastic hi-tech connection with satellite technology and the notion of being a TV station on the road. By the time of Zooropa’s outdoor shows, it was incredibly in your face. The icon drawing of the astrobaby surrounded by 12 stars in imitation of the European flag came to represent the tour and subsequently appeared on the cover of the Zooropa album. The logo has a whimsy and intrigue that is appealing. It can be understood without words and somehow its human smallness nicely represents the largesse and technicality of the Zooropa tour.

Pop – Lemon-planet logo

The PopMart tour had a multitude of references – a kind of celebration of 60s kitch and Americana, pop-art, and shopping were all in there. The stage featured an enormous yellow arch almost in homage to the golden arches of the McDonald’s restaurant sign and the band emerged out of a huge chrome lemon during the set. So somehow this logo – made for the tour merchandising – of a shopping trolley traveling around a lemon like a satellite made good sense.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb – Chevrons, target and blast

While the How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb warning chevrons, the target and the ‘blast’ shape isn’t just one visual icon, it is still a visual language that worked in the same way as a logo for the album and tour campaign. The icons worked especially well on the cover of the special edition ‘handbook’ version of the album. These black and red-coloured components featured heavily as the album’s identity in promotion and advertising and through the singles from the album and consequently in the tour stage and merchandise.

U2360 – Logo

This icon represented the U2360 tour and in much the same way as The Joshua Tree logo, it’s a literal interpretation, with the logo’s simple curvilinear lines conveying the stage’s iconic shape rather than the other featured logos, which are more about representing an idea. It works well perhaps as its shape is not dissimilar to the elegant streamlined logos as seen for the likes of 60s automobiles with their reminiscence to the golden age of rockets and spacecraft.

AMP Visual work in a number of design disciplines in areas of cultural, entertainment, identity and corporate design and in assorted mediums and platforms from online to print, packaging to promotion. 

http://www.ampvisual.com

Winners of the AB Contest

U2.com has announced the winners of the competition launched to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Achtung Baby 
The winner is called 'without' and the artist is Jana Beier and she's won her very own Trabant in the competition to celebrate the 20th anniversary edition of Achtung Baby.

'The original painting is from 1991. I was 12 years old, just left behind my safe but also restricted childhood in East Germany, facing future with the new 'west'. I felt like drowning from all the new impulses in that time. The painting had stayed in the cellar until today, colours faded but the theme is more present than ever... ' 
While Jana from Germany was the 'Host's Choice' in the competition, the People's Choice award - winning the popular vote went to Ukrainian photographer Zoya Shu with 'On The Fly', an eye-catchingly surrealist perspective on the fall of the Wall. 'So pay attention, the babies that were born in 1991 are now the adults and still going strong. It's no secret...' 

Also named winners were Ana Coello; Roman Soloviev; Olga Bannikova; Gene Jimenez: Lucie Bascoul; IIona Muis; Ryan O'Neill; Eugenio Gonzalez; Julian De Angelis; Susan Hamilton Peterson; Lilit Simonyan; Irmak Akcadogan; Keri Huber and Jacob Baldwin:  

www.u2.com

Edun Hosts First Runway Show in L.A.

Colin Farrell, Claudine Farrell, Bono and Ali Hewson.

Photo By Brandon Clark/ABImages

Garden of  EDUN: Ali Hewson and Bono touched down in Beverly Hills on Saturday night for Edun’s first Los Angeles runway show, held to celebrate the line’s launch at Neiman Marcus. “It’s been a huge learning curve,” Hewson said of getting into the fashion business seven years ago. “Had I known how hard it was going to be, I would have stayed home and had four more kids.”

After the rooftop runway show, which was also attended by Colin Farrell, Gela Nash-Taylor and John Taylor, Hewson shared Champagne and dessert with shoppers in the store. ‘We’d eventually like to expand into accessories, but we’ll continue to focus on clothes a while longer. It’s just getting to the point where it’s running like a Swiss watch.”

By MARCY MEDINA

http://www.wwd.com

Adam Clayton supports Walk in my Shoes

Get Involved!!


Join Imelda May and U2’s Adam Clayton and support mental health services for young adults in Ireland on April 26th!


What can I do? click here.   Donate.

Edge on Homelessness and What He Is Listening Now

The Edge, producer of Friday night's MTV special on youth homelessness, "The Break," says he, too, sometimes finds himself at a loss about how to help people on the street.

"There's that awful thing where you realize there's nothing you can do, right at that moment, so you kind of pretend they're not there," he told TheWrap. "And I think for somebody who's homeless, particularly someone who's panhandling, that's the most emotionally difficult thing, is to become like a non-person. Like you literally do not exist to someone walking by.

"And I understand both sides," he added. "The person passing by just doesn't know what to do. So they end up blanking the homeless person. And it's a terrible thing to see happen. I've been guilty of it myself from time to time."

The musician and activist, who says he usually does give money to the homeless people he encounters, has spent three decades working on social causes like African famine relief as a member of his band. U2, the biggest touring act of 2011, has campaigned for causes and organizations from Make Poverty History to Amnesty International.

With "The Break," the Edge and host Anne Mahlum, an advocate for the homeless, profile three young people on the street and try to help them rebuild their lives. They include a woman who was involved in abusive relationships, a gifted drummer who suffered a downward spiral, and a woman who left home because her parents objected to her lesbianism. The Edge also wrote a song for the show, "There's No Home Like Place."

The Edge said U2 is "slowly starting to think about work," but the band is in no rush to get back to the studio, despite a wealth of material. Instead, it's listening to a lot of music. After we talked about the special, he told us what he's playing lately.

What interested you about this project?

It was something that just inspired me early on. I was questioning myself about some of my own ways of relating or not relating to homeless people, and it just started me on kind of a journey to answer some questions for myself. And in the process I started thinking about the way that the homeless are really completely marginalized, and in many cases disenfranchised.

They suffer through a lot of stereotypical views about how they got there. What I've learned is there is a myriad of reasons why someone might become homeless. No two stories are the same. I thought that it was time that there was a little bit more of an intelligent sense of inquiry into this problem. It's particularly serious at the moment with the economic downturn.

I thought if we could really make a difference in somebody's life with an intervention, it could be a reality TV kind of thing that would be very uplifting and inspiring, instead of making people view the show and feel better because they see a lot of bad behavior.

But also if somebody's in a position of being homeless, in could be hopefully an inspiring thing to see.
The question of how to help is a particularly interesting dilemma for you. As part of U2 and singularly, you're one of the most approached people in the world to help contribute to causes. And you're also in a unique position to help a lot of people. How do you choose what you're going to do?
I think it's down to feeling like you can move the needle, that you can make a difference. And of course we can't do everything, because then you'd be so diluted that there wouldn't be any kind of impact to your support or involvement. That's an important thing.


And the things that inspire you and the things that you feel moved to become involved with. As with Bono and his Africa work. He happened to be in Africa at a very pivotal time in his life and witnessed a lot of the problems with famine. And it's stayed with him. For me, there was something about the homelessness issue that was like this voice just saying, you've got to try to find some way of getting involved here.


There were a couple of stories as well that sort of inspired me. One Irish homeless man, in Dublin, quite famously rescued the driver of a bus that had plunged into the River Liffey. And he and a passer-by actually climbed down though this wrecked bus because the front of it was in the water but the back of it was accessible from the bridge. And they climbed down through the broken rear window and dragged the bus driver out and saved his life. But he ended up wandering into the night with his wet clothes to sleep rough.


And it just struck me as a kind of really tragic scenario – I wasn't the only one. It was a big story in Ireland.

Not that you've ever suffered through the kinds of struggles that homeless people do, but as a child or when you were trying to get U2 started, was there a time when you felt like you lived close to the margins?

I mean, friends of ours, during the early days, we would hang out in derelict buildings … and all that stuff, which was kind of almost a rite of passage, particularly if you were coming out in a punk band, the punk movement. But no, personally, I can't lay claim ever having had to deal with not having a home. Although there are people I know who've had phases of being homeless, I'm not putting myself forward as an expert in homelessness.

Peru: Bono writes letter to President Humala

Bono wrapped up his visit to Peru yesterday after visiting Lima, Machu Picchu, and the Tambopata Natural Reserve. But before leaving the country, Bono took the opportunity to write President Ollanta Humala a letter.

“Thank you for sending my family and I your best wishes. We are very aware of your committed fight to end extreme poverty in Peru […] we applaud this and are delighted to be travelling in this enchanting country at a time of positive change,” Bono said, in his hand written letter.


“We know you have bigger obstacles to climb than Machu Picchu! But we will be there to cheer you when you ‘take the summit’.”


The Irish singer added that he hoped to visit Lima again, “next time you see me I hope I will have a guitar in my hand […]”
"Maybe then we could have a coffee or tea or something stronger!"

Bono closed the letter saying he had heard Humala was “an open man” with fine people working alongside him, like Finance Minister Luis Castilla.

Full letter here. 

http://www.peruthisweek.com

'There are over 1.5 million homeless youth living on the streets, in shelters and couch surfing, in America. Despite the stereotypes, many of them are not addicts, hardened criminals or mentally ill. They come from families who didn’t understand them, some are runaways who could no longer tolerate the abuse in their own homes and some have aged out of the foster care system with no place to go....'


In an MTV documentary, 'The Break', the personal vision of Edge, viewers meet Ava, Nancy and Rob, all without a home to call their own and in desperate need of a change. Like many homeless young people they face a struggle for food and shelter, the dangers of crime and illegal drug use. 


Every day, strangers turn a blind eye, telling themselves the problems are too big to fix. But homeless advocate Anne Mahlum knows different and the documentary reveals what's possible when people find the tools to build a new life.


'I wanted to find the right answer to the question, 'How do we respond to homelessness?' Edge told U2.com, in Dublin to talk about his vision for The Break. 'I wanted to get an intelligent audience to think differently about homeless people, to realise that so many of the cliches are untrue...'


More from Edge, and a clip of the show, in the video below. The Break airs in the US this Friday. Details.


http://www.u2.com/news/title/the-break


www.u2.com/MTV