FUEL Design

The FUEL design group handles commercial commissions specializing in the fields of art, fashion, and music. The group was founded in 1991 by Stephen Sorrell, Damon Murray and Peter Miles (who left the group in 2004).

History

The founder members of FUEL all studied graphic design at the Royal College of Art. They first worked together on their magazine also entitled "FUEL" which was initially produced at the college. Containing ambiguous and thought provoking messages, these bold graphic statements served as a developing manifesto. After leaving the RCA they set up a studio in Spitalfields, East London. "Pure Fuel" and "Fuel 3000" followed. Far from being monographs these books examined the accepted notions of graphic design, illustrating ideas and preoccupations, as well as exploring themes of authorship.

Works

In addition to commercial art, music, and fashion, the FUEL group has also worked with moving image, receiving awards for both their commercial and experimental digital work in this field. They also created the title sequences for Nick Cave's The Proposition and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. They are known for producing books and catalogues, working closely with artists – in particular Tracey Emin and Jake and Dinos Chapman.

In 2006, they were asked to produce a 60th anniversary Penguin Designer Classic ("Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky) alongside Paul Smith, Sam Taylor-Wood, Ron Arad and Manolo Blahnik.

Publishing

In 2005, FUEL Publishing was formed within the group. Concentrating on books concerned with visual culture, their approach to publishing involves close collaboration with authors over content. Their broad range of distinctive books have been critically acclaimed. "The Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia" won a D&AD award for book design in 2005. This book, along with its second volume, were used as inspiration and reference by director David Cronenberg in his 2007 film Eastern Promises.

Books published by FUEL publishing include:

*"Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia", Danzig Baldaev and Sergei Vasiliev (London: Steidl/FUEL, 2004)
*"Fleur. Plant Portraits by Fleur Olby" (London: FUEL, 2005)
*"The Music Library", Jonny Trunk (London: FUEL, 2005)
*"Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Volume II", Danzig Baldaev and Sergei Vasiliev (London: FUEL, 2006)
*"Home-Made. Contemporary Russian Folk Artifacts", Vladimir Arkhipov (London: FUEL, 2006)
*"Ideas Have Legs", Ian McMillan and Andy Martin (London: FUEL, 2006)
*"Match Day", Bob Stanley and Paul Kelly (London: FUEL, 2006)
*"BibliOdyssey", P.K. (London: FUEL, 2007)
*"Notes from Russia", Alexei Plutser-Sarno (London: FUEL, 2007)
*"Crime", Alix Lambert (London: FUEL, 2008)
*"Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Volume III", Danzig Baldaev and Sergei Vasiliev (London: FUEL, 2008)
*"The Marriage of Reason & Squalor", Jake Chapman (London: FUEL, 2008)

Books of FUEL's work

*"Pure FUEL" (London: Booth Clibborn Editions, 1996)
*"Fuel 3000" (London: Laurence King, 2000)

External links

* [http://www.fuel-design.com Official site]
* [http://www.designmuseum.org/design/fuel FUEL profile and interview at the Design Museum website]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1933181,00.html FUEL Penguin Classic in The Guardian]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1933598,00.html FUEL talk about their version of Crime and Punishment in the Guardian]
* [http://www.designobserver.com/archives/030690.html FUEL publishing on Design Observer]
* [http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2008/05/alix-fuel-an-in.html FUEL and Alix Lambert talk about Crime]