The Intrepid Owl

Gnomes vs. Snowmen: The Battle for Mochimochiland

2011-11-03T22:23:00.000-04:00

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Today I was lucky enough to attend the opening reception of Gnomes vs. Snowmen: The Battle for Mochimochiland, a brilliantly inventive and imaginary land created by fiber artist Anna Hrachovec.

The story was charming and told over 45 foot-long panels that are bursting with woollen delights. The details in the panels suck you into the chaotic and extremely cute battle scene. Want to know who won? Well you'll have to go and see it for yourselves! The exhibition runs from November 3 through to November 18th, 2011 at Gallery Hanahou.

Tara Donavan

2011-04-17T21:11:00.000-04:00

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Last weekend we managed to catch the last showing of Tara Donavan's exhibition at the Pace Gallery. The gallery space was completely dedicated to her large-scale installation called 'Untitled', 2011.

The Brooklyn artist is known for transforming everyday objects such as Styrofoam cups, scotch tape, pins and drinking straws into huge bio-organic sculptures, and this one was no exception.

'Untitled' consisted of varying sizes of stacked metallic balls, created by folded sheets of mylar and hot glue, to form organic almost molecular structures. Some areas of the sculpture reach 11 feet high. Donovan says of her work, "It is not like I'm trying to simulate nature. It's more of a mimicking of the way of nature, the way things actually grow."

The enormous glimmering balls, that encompassed the whole room, reminded me of Christmas baubles or even one of my cat's toys but on a grander scale of course! The reflective quality of the mylar is important to the visual balance it maintains within the white space, made more apparent when you walk around the piece. Stepping back from it, it was just stunning and so graphic. I have to say I had to resist all temptation to scrunch the balls.

Handmade zipper bag

2011-04-03T21:39:00.004-04:00

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Fueled by my enjoyment of making the tote bag's from my Purl Soho class, I decided to get more adventurous and try a project from Amy Butler's Style Stitches book. The bag I decided on was the zipper Origami bag in small. This was my first project using zips, so I was a little nervous. However I really enjoyed this project, so much so that I made a few bags (they make great gifts!).

The materials I used here were: Ikea's SNÖA FLINGA fabric for the outer fabric - 100% cotton by designer S. Edholm/L. Ullenius; the lining was a striped fabric from Mood Fabrics and the zip was from Purl - a nylon coil 12" zip in Medium Grey #340. I really liked the way this one and my others turned out, however I would like to try them with a thin waterproof liner as I think they will make great make-up bags.

If you know of any good waterproof linings please let me know.

Sweet typographic umbrella

2011-03-19T12:54:00.000-04:00

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A 'Spoonful of Sugar' is a gorgeous typographic umbrella, hand-lettered by the talented Leen Sadder for Stefan Sagmeister's class, Can Design Touch Someone's Heart at SVA.

Leen is a designer from Beirut, Lebanon and moved to New York City to attend SVA. Inspired by Mary Poppins (which happens to be one of my favourite films) she decided to reach out her hand - well umbrella - and touch the hearts of umbrella-less New Yorkers on a rainy day and gave out bags of chocolate dipped spoons, to those who accepted her shelter. I certainly think she has touched many people's lives with his beautiful umbrella, I would certainly buy it.

Images from the SVA site

Baseman & Kehoe

2011-03-15T21:00:00.002-04:00

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In a strong attempt to crawl back some creativity into my life, after another terrible week at work, I decided to make the most of living in New York's dense gallery area and get some culture. Of course because of work I missed Gary Baseman's opening at The Jonathan LeVine Gallery, so Saturday would be my day.

Luckily for me there were two exhibits at the gallery, Baseman's Walking Through Walls and Andy Kehoe Strange Wanderings. There was a great contrast in the artists' work with Gary's almost monochromatic twilight colour scheme, children in ghost and Halloween costumes vs Andy's autumnal fairytale, Where-the-Wild-Things-Are-esque beautiful and painstakingly detailed paintings. Both equally lovely in different ways.

So if you're in the hood, please go and check it out. The exhibitions are on from March 5th to April 2nd, 2011.

A stitch in time: Reversible tote bag

2010-12-27T16:00:00.002-05:00

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Back in September, I decided that my job was giving me no satisfaction whatsoever and that I needed to do a little learning to enrich my life more. And what better time to go 'back to school' than September?! A friend of mine, AM, had just finished a sewing class in one of my all time favourite shops in New York, Purl Soho. I didn't realise that they did sewing classes, I thought it was more of a 'stitch n' bitch' knitters helping hub, but it turns out they do much more than that. Anyways, she created this gorgeous reversible tote bag in just 3 Saturday classes, and I just had to take the class!

The class was called 'Beginning Machine Sewing I' and my class took place every Thursday night for 4 weeks, at the back of the shop. The hardest part of the course was deciding on the material I was going to use for the bag, Purl have so many fabrics to choose from, I was like a child in a sweet (candy) shop! Eventually the fabrics I choose were a brown heavyweight fabric (for the outer) and a lightweight material for the lining which was called Wild Thyme, Ecru Dots 249E by Carolyn Gavin for P&B Textiles. Unfortunately our laptop died so I lost all the photos of my bag's progress, but that just gave me the excuse to buy a small sewing machine (a Brother 60-Stitch Computerized Sewing Machine, CS-6000i) and make more bags! I've since made a mixture of one strap and two strap totes.

The fabrics for the other bags are a mixture from Purl Soho and Mood Fabrics. Mood is where the Project Runway contestants always go. I have to say that I was completely overwhelmed in there, there is just so much crammed in the 2 floors that I just had to get out as quick as I could. But you can find some great fabrics, especially for linings, at the City Quilter and for good heavyweight fabrics, Ikea, has a great selection and very reasonably priced.

I got this wonderful sewing bible from my husband for Christmas called The Sewing Book by Alison Smith (a fellow Brit as it turns out) I just couldn't wait to get stuck into a new project that I dragged my husband out of our cozy apartment, into the snow to go to Ikea to get some fabric! Well if we're going to be stuck in a blizzard, might as well be doing something productive, no? So watch this space to see some of the projects I'm trying to tackle.

Seasons Greetings!

2010-12-25T13:08:00.000-05:00

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Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays or whatever you celebrate this season, and what better way to do it than with some talented designers.

In order of appearance (left - right):-
1st row: Adrian Johnson’s ‘Six Geese A-laying’; Darling Clementine's 'Candy Cane';
Tom Gauld's '4 calling birds' & Rob Ryan's G2 Christmas card.

2nd row: Jotto Seibold's 'Olive the other Reindeer'; Craig Ward's 'Season's Greetings'; Alison Carmichael's 'Baubles' & Christoph Neimann 'Let it Dough'.

3rd row: Yulia Brodskaya's bookcover for the 2009 Neiman Marcus 'The Christmas Book'; Kate Sutton's 'Robin'; Jessica Hische's '6 Geese are Laying' from her personal project & Frode Skaren's 'Opposites' Christmas card.

Have a great one everyone!

My So Called Scarf

2010-12-12T21:28:00.002-05:00

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Wow has it really been nearly 4 months since I've blogged? That is shameful...I hope now that work has calmed a bit and with the break coming up, that I will be able to rectify this. I have a ton of things I want to blog about so please bear with!

So I will begin with telling you about my new scarf. Recently I've just got back into knitting, and there has been one pattern that attempted several times but to no success. So after 5 years, I decided that now was the time to try it again, especially as last winter someone stole my gorgeously long and cosy scarf one bitter December evening.

I found the My So Called Scarf pattern on this blog while searching for a fun scarf to knit, and it turns out that the pattern originally came from a San Fransisco knitting shop called Imagiknit. They were giving the pattern away free with any purchase of the Manos del Uruguay wool. I was drawn by the interesting pattern and the gorgeous colours but I just couldn't knit it! It actually turned out to be a very simple pattern, and one that I very much enjoyed knitting.

The best thing about this scarf is that with each purchased skein of Manos del Uruguay yarn you will be helping a woman support her family. The hand-crafted and hand-dyed Fair Trade yarns are each signed by the woman who made your yarn and the village she comes from, so not only is it beautiful, but you are helping someone as well.

The original pattern was knitted in Wildflowers (113), however I decided to go for Bramble (114) as it was more autumnal and I bought mine from Purl Soho. Get the pattern here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Anthropologie birthday card

2010-08-24T22:06:00.001-04:00

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So in my birth month, August, I received a curious envelope from Anthropologie - inside contained a card with a perforated cupcake, plastic candle and a birthday discount. Turned out that the candle is part of a necklace! The front read:

"Happy Birthday! Make a wish. And treat yourself to something special..." and the back read "Your candle necklace is for you to keep. This little gift is for you and only you. And cannot be turned into chocolate, flowers or cash. It's a one-time treat...."

I love the detail this store goes in to - it gets me every time! The discount came in handy as I also received a gift card in the cutest gift card holder I've ever seen - a little monster! I don't know who created this little monster, but Lizania Cruz (who I blogged about on 3rd April 2010) created the 2009 birthday gift for Anthro - also very lovely.

Images from 2Sisters and Effortless Anthropologie.

Sweet Treats

2010-08-02T10:37:00.001-04:00

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Today is my birthday, and those that know me, know that I love cake - I mean really love cake!! So I thought I'd give you all a sweet treat from the British artist Sarah Jane Szikora. Sarah's humorous and quirky paintings focus on larger than life ladies, skinny males, gingerbread men, edible treats and cats - each painted with a palette taken straight from the sweetest sweet (candy) shop. For me she shares a few similarities to the British institution, that is Beryl Cook, as both of their styles strongly feature subtle British humour and rotund ladies. I thought it was the perfect post for today - British and charming!

Background Noise

2010-08-01T17:48:00.002-04:00

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I'm not a fan of wallpaper, in general, especially when a room has been wallpapered floor to ceiling. I've seen too many wallpaper disasters in my time. But if you must wallpaper, then an accent wall with a stylish pattern is always welcome. For me wallpaper should make you want to look twice which is why I love Dan Funderburgh's designs - which are available to buy here. He also designed some Moleskine covers which you can buy from Engrave Your Book.

Another wallpaper design that definitely makes you look twice is Paper Voyeur's flora and fornication range - as Lascivious so perfectly put it; this wallpaper imbues "European eroticism with a sprinkling of English reserve, these wallpapers nod to the florid romance of Mucha or Beardsley - an outline of the idea without the pink bits."

This unique collection of wallpaper was designed by the British design studio, DED and is popular with stores such as Agent Provocateur and Coco De Mer. Enjoy!

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Paperfinger

2010-07-29T09:46:00.005-04:00

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Since my wedding I have developed an interest in calligraphy, and Bryn Chernoff - the very talented lady behind Paperfinger - is one of the best modern calligraphers that I've stumbled upon. What I also like about this Brooklynite's penmanship is that she also incorporates hand drawn designs which are great for extra personalisations to any wedding or event invites. Click the image to see the details and her beautiful lettering. Please check out her site and her blog too.

Images taken from Paperfinger.

Blog template update

2010-07-26T21:16:00.001-04:00

I've been really lame at updating my blog recently, so I've been working on updating it and stripping it back bit to make blogging simpler and quicker. Let's hope I stick at it. Check back soon to see the new site!

Bill Brown & Target

2010-06-30T22:13:00.001-04:00

This week I noticed these lovely ads in NYC's subway station for Manhattan's first Target store. Created by Mother and illustrated by Bill Brown, these ads are simple and a breath of fresh air from the usual terribly photoshopped, drop shadowed, 10 different font text vomit you normally see in the subway. Just lovely!
All images taken from Creativity Online.

Check more out here and here are some images from Brown's agents, Art Deptartment.

Scott Campbell - at the OhWow NYC

2010-05-23T14:06:00.001-04:00

If You Don't Belong, Don't Be Long at the Oh Wow Gallery is Scott Campbell's first solo exhibition in New York.

I last posted about Mr Campbell on 24th February 2010, and I was delighted to hear he finally had an exhibit in town.

While at the exhibition I got chatting to the curator about the way he works, in particular I wanted to know if he uses real dollar bills as I had seen a photograph of him with a sheet if dollar bills in the New York Times. It turns out they they are real dollars, Campbell contacted the treasury and requests full uncut and unwatermarked sheets of dollars, they cost a little more than face value. These uncut dollars allow him to work in a larger scale and more refined due to the crispness of the sheets, making a nice contrast to his beaten up used dollar stacks.

The exhibition had only been open 2 weeks by the time I went to check it out and all but 5 pieces had sold!

Since the exhibition I've had the pleasure to meet 2 lovely people who have had tattoos done by the talented Mr Campbell and they are faultless and beautiful.

The exhibition runs from 29th April - 30th May 2010.

Don't judge a bag by it's cover

2010-04-03T18:28:00.002-04:00

I recently read an article by a friend of mine who writes for the Salon.com, about a bag design dispute concerning Kate Spade. On googling this topic, I found that it was being discussed everywhere...

In August of this year, Kate Spade is launching a set of clutches based on "classic book covers" such as The Great Gatsby, Emma, The Importance of Being Earnest, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities. "The brand will release the 'volumes' one at a time as a sort of Book-of-the-Month Club"*. However these handbags aren't launching without controversy...

Not that long ago, French designer Olympia Le-Tan, launched a collection of clutches called You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover in Autumn of 2009. Obviously Olympia is not happy with Spade's choice of bags and feels that the design house has copied her style.

Le Tan is passionate about books, something which was ingrained during her childhood by her book collector father. She was inspired by her favourite first edition classic covers such as The Catcher in The Rye, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Moby Dick, 1984 as well as 17 other covers.

Le Tan's bags are close copies of the original first editions and it's undeniable that more craft have gone into their creations compared to Spades - for a start Le Tan only made 16 bags for each 21 covers; each made of embroidered silk with colorful felt appliqué. Spade's are new illustrated versions of their books and printed to look worn and will obviously be massed produced. But I have to say, that I don't think the idea was 'stolen' from Le Tan - the outcome is very different: differently crafted, different book covers and I'm guessing a very different price tag - although the retail price of Spade's bags haven't been disclosed yet I'm imagining that they will be the more 'affordable' of the two as Le Tan's bags cost $1,500.

I googled 'book bags' and got copious results for etsy shops and crafters. As the saying goes (and I don't entirely agree with it): there is no such thing as a new idea and Olympia and Mrs Spade are certainly not the first nor the last to have the same idea and it seem that for years people have been transforming books into bags. Michelle Pulis, a young designer who has been creating bag tomes out of actual books since 2008:

Here’s a lovely book tote bag designed by Lizania Cruz, that will unzip to become a handy shopping bag. Lizania creates many beautiful items for Anthropologie.

However I can see why Le Tan feels this way; her collection came out very recently and these gorgeous literary purses are her livelihood whereas Kate Spade is a much bigger cog and doesn't need the cash. If I were Le Tan I would take it as a compliment and reel from the amount of press this issue has received. If I could afford it, I would certainly choose a bag that had been handcrafted by a smaller fashion house over a mass produced one as it's more individual, and I'm sure she hasn't had a shortage of interest. Despite this all, I'm still a big fan of Kate Spade (and even her husband's shop - Jack Spade - is gorgeous too) and I constantly enjoy the visual feast I encounter every time I walk into the stores!

(*) Quoted from the Vanity Fair online article.
Images of the Kate Spade collection also sourced from this article.

He's creepy and he's kooky...Charles Addams

2010-03-22T23:16:00.000-04:00

Wow, I've been very lame at updated my blog...Work has been really hectic and I'm 5 weeks away from getting married! I've spent my weekends busying myself making bits and pieces for the wedding, which I can't wait to share on here.

However this weekend, between decorating a cake stand and practicing calligraphy for the place settings, I managed to go to the Charles Addams' exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York. I was surprised how bustley the exhibition was considering it was sunny Sunday afternoon with highs of 72F. The mood of the room was jovial, I've never been at a show where so many people burst out laughing! It was infectious but the art was worthy which was evident from the surrounding chuckles.

Charles Addams' was a great American cartoonist/illustrator who drew over 1,500 illustrations (many of which were covers) for the New Yorker and of course he was the brain child of the Addams Family. He was born and raised in New Jersey, and said to have taken inspiration from the neighbourhood houses to create the Addams Family mansion. He drew familiar everyday life and injected humorous twists within each drawing, some of which you don't always notice on first glance. One of my favourites was this one:

It tickled me becuase the udder is not noticeable at first and it also makes me wonder where the milkman is...!! It's no wonder that he was a regular of the New Yorker, his charming and often creepy cartoons appeal to many audiences. He had a deep love of the city, it's buildings, the people and he used it as a background for his quirky unexpected stories.

Incidentally Tim Burton is directing a 3-D stop frame animation, not based on the TV series or films, but based on Charles' cartoons. It has Burton written all over in, in fact I can't believe he hasn't done it sooner, I just hope he branches out and doesn't hire Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter again!

The Charles Addams's: New York exhibition runs from March 4 – May 16, 2010.

Owls Have More Fun

2010-02-28T21:35:00.005-05:00

I was recommended by a friend to go to the opening night of Owls Have more Fun, and as soon as I saw the show's title I couldn't agree more, I just had to go! Owls Have...is Lisa Grue's solo show in NYC, at gallery hanahou. The show runs from 25th February - Friday 26th March 2010.

For the show the Danish artist mixes bold neon colours with images of nature (and of course owls a plenty) to create beautiful designs for the home such as a very large rug; 80 one off hand-printed porcelain plates and an enormous custom made wallpaper mural allowing you to submerge into her fantasy world.

I adored the wallpaper and rug but I'd have to say that my favourite was the hand illustrated and printed plates. The contrast of owls, words, nature, neon pom poms with the black and white imagery is just fab. There is also something about seeing objects en masse that I just love.

"Lisa, known for her playful and sometimes shocking illustrations that mix girlishness with feminism, puts her spin on owl and nature motifs, surrounding viewers with a magical world via domestic objects...Lisa's powerful and fun illustrations remind viewers to never forget the magic in everyday life. In addition, they make a statement to girls and women that wisdom and beauty go hand in hand." - gallery hanahou

Lisa's works isn't all owl focused, she has designed many pieces for graphic design, illustration and fashion magazines and labels. However she chose owls as her subject for this show as she wants to encourage women and young girls to "take pride in being clever in general, instead of acting like stupid bunnies to get attention."

Lisa was recently honored as one of the new design talents of Denmark, with a grant from the National Art Foundation of Denmark. To see more of her work check out her website and her blog.

Scott Campbell - tattooist

2010-02-24T21:54:00.005-05:00

When I was searching for images for Scott C. when I re-stumbled across this Scott Campbell, the tattoo artist who creates astonishing laser-cut etchings in stacked $1 dollar bills. He's been on my list to blog for a few months now but keep getting side tracked! It seems fitting to blog about him now, being that he is another talented guy with the same name as the previous post!

Scott is a Louisianan born, New York-based tattoo artist (sculptor, painter, illustrator and photographer...phew!). He creates these immense pieces of art by drawing onto each dollar bill layer, he then cuts them up and glues them together in stacks of 100 one dollar bills - an expensive hobby! He exhibited these dollar sculptures in 2008 at London Lazaride's gallery, called Always Almost There.

"Campbell has the taken the blue collar grit and lore of tattoo culture and extracted a visual language and wit that are supremely refined and deliberate. He has an uncanny ability to tell a story with any medium, flesh or otherwise." - OHWOW Gallery

Close up images via Ian Cox

Scott Campbell - illustration exhibition in London, 4th March

2010-02-23T22:19:00.007-05:00

There are a few things I miss about London, one of them being the cool illustration exhibitions. I'm sure that there are plenty in this creative hub of an apple, I mean I live right in the gallery district, but I'm talking the small intimate cool exhibitions. Anyways enough about me, let's talk about Scott Campbell.

Scott is a night owl (well I'm presuming he is) as he finds time to create these adorable illustrations as well as holding down a day job making video games! I'm certainly not the only one who likes his stuff as the London Miles Gallery are exhibiting his first European show in March and he'll be doing 2 comic workshops there on the 6th March (from 12.30pm - 4.00pm).

Scott C. (how he also likes to be known) is from San Francisco and now lives in NYC. A man of many talents: international comic book artist, painter, illustrator, and computer game designer...to name a few, will be showcasing over 100 of his watercolour paintings.

His style is light-hearted, often-humorous and his imperfect lines create supernatural creatures.

So go see the Scott Campbell solo exhibition: Everybody, all the Time, Thursday 4th March 2010 from 6pm @ The London Miles Gallery, 47 Mowlem Street (Off Vyner street) East London E2 9DR.

---//

P.S. Also happening in London is the Oliver Jeffers: In Conversation with Martin Salisbury exhibition with the AOI @ London College of Communication - 19th March 2010 at 2.30pm, Main Lecture Theatre, Elephant and Castle, SE1 6SB.

'This is a rare opportunity to hear the award winning children’s book author, illustrator, artist and New York resident Oliver Jeffers talk about his work and new book The Heart and the Bottle in conversation with children’s book expert Martin Salisbury. The event will comprise of a presentation by Oliver followed by a discussion of his work with Martin Salisbury then the floor will be opened for questions. Tickets will be limited so BOOK NOW.'

Cupid's needle

2010-02-07T21:28:00.009-05:00

Those of you who know me, know that I'm not really a big fan of Valentine's Day, however saying that I still think it's important to share your feelings and what better way to do it than immortalise them in cross stitch?

Alexia Brown from Chicago did just that with her Notebook Cross Stitch Hoop Wall Art. Using 6'' vintage hoops she cross stitches a notebook pattern into Aida fabric, and then stitches witty words on top of that. They are made so that you can hang them nicely on your wall. Alexia plans to create personalised notes, in the near future, for her customers such as "will you marry me?" or "i'm dumping you". To purchase her hoop wall art click to see her etsy shop here, all funds go towards her education.

Missed Connections

2010-01-24T21:19:00.002-05:00

Craiglist's Missed Connections are a good read on their own, but with Sophie Blackall's help they are a delight! For those not familiar with Missed Connections, they are online postings where strangers try and reconnect with someone they had a chance encounter with. They are usually romantic call outs of missed opportunities however Sophie has turned them up a notch by interpreting and bringing life to these random interactions. She has created a very funny series of paintings which are beautifully imaginative and very endearing, click on her blog here to see them. Here are the ones that tickled me the most (click on each of them to appreciate their loveliness):

Sophie Blackall is an Australian who as she put it "moved to New York [Brooklyn of course!] on a whim with her amenable husband and indifferent small children in 2000." She has also illustrated many children's books amongst many other things. She also keeps a blog which she updates showing the latest things she is working on, check it here.

Peter Funch

2010-01-17T19:10:00.002-05:00

This week I stumbled upon Peter Funch the Danish photojournalist who lives in NYC. I want to share with you his Babel Tales series which are just beautifully composed photo stories of urban life in the city.

In order to create these 29 images, he spent two weeks standing on street corners of NYC - Broadway and Prince Street in Soho and downtown on Chambers Street - taking pictures of passers by. Later he sorted them into themes and photoshopped them into sets so that they tell a story eg black outfits and white (almost angelic outfits); yawners; smokers; children; guys in uniform; everyone on their mobile phones etc. Even though a lot of effort has gone into the final images, I really love the concept and they work really well together. Here are my favourites:

If You Could - Exhibition

2010-01-13T22:09:00.004-05:00

If you are in London this weekend then go and check out the If You Could...Collaborate exhibition at the A Foundation Gallery, Rochelle School, London E2 from 15th — 23rd January 2010.

If you could is the brain child of art directors Will Hudson and Alex Bec and this is their 4th annual exhibition. There are some amazing and hugely talented designer/illustrator partnerships and I'm absolutely gutted to be missing it, especially as Craig's work is being exhibited. Here are some of the great collaborations (there are about 33 in total):
Craig Ward, Sean Freeman & Alison Carmichael / Oliver Jeffers & Aaron Ruff / Fontaine Anderson & Deanne Cheuk / Mario Hugo & Micah Lidberg / Anthony Burrill & John Griffiths / Marion Deuchars & Margaret Calvert / George Hardie & Leonardo Sonnoli & Sara Fanelli / Rob Ryan & Michael Marriott / Jim Stoten & Andy Rementer...to mention a few!

The exhibition is a chance for creatives from all four corners of the world to partner (with a person of their choosing, regardless of their discipline) and get out of their comfort zones. It has no doubt challenged the way the artists usually work. There was no brief for this project, except to design something a little unexpected. I can't wait to see photos but here are a few tasters of the Ward, Freeman & Carmichael collabration - a type triptych of laser cut wood...

Check out the If You Could website for more photos.

Hoot-enanny!

2010-01-11T21:21:00.004-05:00

Top row (l-r): Accessorize necklace; Owl Party paper art by Helen Musselwhite; Fingerless gloves by Manic Knitter; Thank You card by Kate Sutton.

2nd row (l-r): Cupcakes; clock by Decoylab; Paperchase stationery range; Where the Wilds things are cushion from Urban Outfitters.

3rd row (l-r): Mr Owl by Matte Stephens; Charley Harper's Twowls; Sweater by
Kate Davies (also includes free pattern); Wall vinyl by One Up Design's.

Bottom row (l-r): The Little Owl restaurant NYC; Cast-iron trivet from Three Potato Four; Door stop by Rose & Grey.

Happy New Year! and farewell 2009: the year of owls or so it seems...they kept appearing everywhere. Above is a small collection of owl things that I have spotted throughout 2009 and I wanted to share it with you, being that I am the intrepid owl.

I've always liked owls but it wasn't until I cleared out my mum's loft (attic) of my childhood memorabilia that I realised how far back it went...I actually owned a fair amount of owl ephemera. The list of owl 'things' included: 3 stuffed owl toys - ascending in height- from the 1970s (a hand me down from my mum), a photo of me with a tawny owl from when the owl man came to my primary school, a small stained glass window disc, pencil tops, a bag, a t-shirt, a small ceramic owl and the list just went on. I also found one of my favourite childhood books up there: The Owl Who Was a Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson - I still love the cover of this book!

I really liked owls and I guess I still do, hope 2010 is good for you.

Alma - Short Film

2010-01-06T21:59:00.005-05:00

Alma is a beautifully animated short directed by Rodrigo Blaas. It's the Spanish director's first short film, and it's an award winner. It's set in Barcelona, Spain (notice the Sagrada Familia in the first few seconds of the film and of course the Gaudi inspired shop) and it is faultlessly animated.

The plot plays on childhood nightmares made real - but I won't ruin the surreal plot, just watch it! The website mentions that the video won't be up for long, so be quick and watch it while you can! If not I've taken some stills of it.

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

Incidentally, Alma means 'soul' in Spanish...

Jessica Hische

2010-01-05T20:51:00.003-05:00

Daily drop capper and adopted Brooklynite, Jessica Hische, is an extremely talented typographer, designer, illustrator and winner of an ADC Young Gun 7 award - meaning that she is under 30!

She has a great eye for style and colour and her work exudes maturity whilst also showing hints of playfulness. Here are a few snippets of her work, but to see more please visit her sites - not sure which one is her main one, so check them both out here and here.

She also runs an ongoing project called The Daily Drop Cap for which she creates hand-crafted, vintagesque ornamental initials. She also kindly gives you the coding for these decorative caps to encourage you to use them to adorn your blog posts or sites. So lovely!

Yee-Haw!! Happy New Year

2010-01-03T18:03:00.002-05:00

A few days ago I went to Chelsea Market to buy some yummy bread and as luck should have it they had an immense letterpress exhibition by Yee-Haw Industries. Unfortunately for me I wasn't carrying my camera, so all the images here are from their website.

The exhibition consisted of 78 prints dotted around the market. I really liked the variety in the prints - some were just letterpressed; others letterpressed and then sewn (50 quilt squares were created specifically for the show); some were overlaid woodcut letters and some were huge (42x90"). They were all lovely, reasonably priced and drool worthy.

Yee-Haw Industries are based in Knoxville, Tennessee. They are a custom letterpress print and design outfit founded in 1997 by Kevin Bradley and Julie Belcher. The exhibition ran from 4th October 2009 - 2nd January 2010. New Year's resolutions: 1. always carry a camera, 2. learn about exhibitions earlier, 3. post said exhibitions. Sorry folks!

Beautiful 2010 calendar

2009-12-20T21:56:00.001-05:00

As we are barreling towards the end of the year I thought it would be fitting to blog about a beautiful calendar that I noticed in Kate's Paperie (a fabulous paper and stationary chain in the State of New York). The gorgeous letterpressed calendar is by Linda & Harriett.

There are 12 fully letterpressed months, tied together with a double-faced satin purple ribbon. The reverse side is designed so it can be cut and used as a post card.
Unfortunately they have sold out of the calendar from the website, but it's possible that Kate's Paperie might have a few remaining.

All the creations are designed by Liz Coulson Libré, who like many of the people I feature, happens to live in Brooklyn, NY. What a creative city this is! She started in 2005 creating pure custom hand-stamped invitations, and then in 2007 launched Linda & Harriett as a custom letterpress company. In her words she designs lines of "luxurious paper goods that are simple, unpretentious and fresh – but never cutesy, frilly or boring. Injecting a good sense of color and fun into her designs, Liz provides personalized attention and love for every product she produces." Here is a small sample of her work, to see more, please see her website.

I really, really love her stuff and I look forward to see what she produces in 2010. I have friends arriving tomorrow night to spend Christmas with us, so I'm unsure if I will get a chance to blog before Christmas, so if I don't - Happy Christmas & Holidays to everyone!

Words are Pictures

2009-12-10T16:07:00.001-05:00

Tonight I'm going to my other half's AIGA NY talk, SMALL TALK NO. 4: CRAIG WARD. He has always been passionate about design but more specifically typography and as his pseudonym suggests, Words are Pictures, he likes to mix the two to create something unique and different. He is constantly exploring the notion of word as image.

I've always been proud of the work he has created and tonight, at his first US presentation, he gets to showcase his work. He will discuss his thought and idea processes as well as his journey from designer to typographer. He has another talk scheduled in France next July for OFFF Paris 2010 conference.

Here are some of my personal favourites...

Monsters of a household variety

2009-12-09T13:03:00.000-05:00

It's seems this month is all about monsters, maybe it's a reaction of Where the Wild Things Are.... But these monsters are different as they are hand sewn and in a gigantic book called Monsters of a Household Variety .

The book is a creation of British textile artist, illustrator and 2009 winner of the New Designers One Year On prize, Ruth Ashton. The book was commissioned by Anthropologie, to coincide with it's London flagship opening.

The pages are so intricately sewn and she uses interesting materials for each monster. Each spread is dedicated to the different monsters you might find in your own house like the smelly bin monster, the light bulb popper, the remote control remover, the hot water runner monster...each have their own mischievous stories. The book is enormous (25.5"H, 24.5"W, 3"D), I've included pictures from the Anthropologie site to show the size!

The 24 page book doesn't come cheap - a mear $1,200.00, but to be honest it is a limited-edition, soft cotton page, hand-embroidered book so if you can afford it then it's worth it's money. I will just have to keep popping into the NYC shop to get my dose!

Buttons galore

2009-12-05T20:00:00.001-05:00

I've spent the last couple of days searching New York for classic 4-holed red buttons. I'd been to many button and trimming shops in the Garment District, but the buttons weren't quite right. After searching online nymag.com (one of my favourite websites) came up with a goodie - a boutique button shop in the Upper East Side called Tender Buttons.

The shop is beautiful, and they had their Christmas decorations up too which made it feel extra special. On the right hand side of the shop there are floor to ceiling boxes of buttons, every kind that you could imagine. All the boxes are in lovely hand written brown paper carton boxes detailing the buttons, their prices and sometimes their age. On the opposite wall are thin display cabinets of rare and unusual buttons. Suffice to say, I found exactly what I was looking for! If you are ever in the neighbourhood or in need of a particular button, then I would highly recommend popping in.

My camera was playing up, so the last two images are taken from the nymag.com listing and from their actual website.

Knitted monsters

2009-12-04T18:31:00.003-05:00

Whilst having a photo clear out, I found images of knitted monsters I created a couple of years ago. Having grown up on Sesame Street, I have a fondness for cute monsters and I was inspired to knit some once I saw The Thifty Knitter's adorable own creation, Thrifty Critter with Long Striped Scarf, who is made out of scraps and leftover bits of yarn. How cute is he?!

I knew I couldn't knit something as lovely as the Critter, but I decided to make up my own pattern and see what would come out of it (I'd only been knitting for a year at this point, so I really jumped in feet first)...they turned out ok in the end, slightly mis-shapen, but that adds to the homemade charm!

Alexander Girard - Grandfather of textile design

2009-12-02T21:50:00.001-05:00

Even though NY born Alexander Girard died in 1993, there seems to have been a huge revival of his work everywhere from Urban Outfitters to V&A; from House Industries to Magma bookshop and even bike shops...
He was born in 1907 and was raised in Rome, Italy. He later returned to the USA to work for Herman Miller in the 50s to the 70s. He is best known for his timeless textiles with their heavy folk art influences. He bought to life the furniture designs of George Nelson and Charles & Ray Eames through colour and funky modern textile patterns. Girard and his wife, Susan, were avid accumulators of folk art, toys, textiles and many worldy folk artifacts. Eventually their collection got out of control so they donated it all to the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, who since then are proud owners of the worlds largest folk art collection.

Girard never liked to self-promote it was only people in the know, like interior designers, who recognised his work. When he died máXimo became the official agents of his estate and are the ones answerable for awakening the world to Girard's designs and making them accessible again.

Through the Looking Glass - Bergdorf Goodman window displays

2009-11-29T20:52:00.002-05:00

Every Christmas it's traditional for the 5th Ave stores to compete against each other via their window displays, and the Bergdorf Goodman A Compendium of Curiosities holiday window displays are a spectacle to be seen.

The theme is based on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass. Of course it's no coincidence that Bergdorf have chosen this theme as the hugely anticipated Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland is due out early next year.

This years window display was created by Bergdorf’s Senior Director of Visual Presentation, David Hoey, and his team of artists. The windows are spectacular; complete decadence, nods to Carroll's characters and not and inch of empty space. The team at BG have perfectly captured fantasy through their looking glass displays and they submerge you into imaginary worlds of dreams, luxury fashion and products. Curiouser and Curiouser...

My personal favourite is the paper/stationery window.

Bill Turnbull

2009-11-25T19:01:00.002-05:00

British fine artist, Ben Turnbull (not to be mistaken for the BBC journalist and presenter of the same name), recently had an exhibition at Eleven gallery in London, I Don't Like Mondays. He also had a feature in Wallpaper magazine and on It's Nice That.

It is his wood carvings that attracted me to see more of his work. I've always had a fondness towards school desks, I even own the 1950s twin lidded school desk with ink wells that I sat at during primary school. In the late 80s, our school decided to get rid of the "old fashioned" furniture and replace it with horrible plastic stuff, and so my parents bought it for me. I love the feeling of being sat at it and freely graffiting!

Anyway, back to Ben...his most recent work is a reflection of America's fascination with gun culture: it's a beautiful juxtaposition of school children innocence (and their boredom doodles) against the sad reality that guns and harmful weapons have infiltrated our societies. They are all aptly named Lesson 1, Lesson 2 etc.

I also like the fact that he has used salvaged school desks, as their pen-marked scribbles and markings make for great backgrounds and canvases. There are seven desk tops in total including weapons such as western styled guns, grenades and futuristic/space-age guns. The weapons are intricately part-carved out of the desk lid and they gently surface out of the woodwork. I don't know what technique he has used to create these works of art, but it's impressive. I even like his signature that is carved on the bottom left of the canvas.

He is definitely out to shock, turning the innocence of boys toys and school life to the dangers and corruption of firearms. He explains why toys are central to his work: ‘Force fed on violence, abused by a controlling superpower and blackmailed through patriotism, the public are ultimately as disposable as the toys they once played with’.

Cliff Roberts

2009-11-24T20:40:00.001-05:00

Cliff Roberts illustrations have cropped up on many design blogs of late and feeling left out I thought it was time to feature him here.

Roberts was a cartoonist and animator in the 1950s+, working for companies and clients such as Sesame Street, Playboy, Ford Times Magazine and The New Yorker. Later on in life he also worked as a photographer and had work featured in the 1964's World's Fair and also wrote, animated and directed popular Saturday morning cartoons such as Scooy-Doo, The Smurfs and The Pink Panther.

I really love this style, where everything is broken down to simple, basic forms and colour palettes. Even though the images are flat they are still so charming and American in aesthetic. Cliff was born in 1929, retired in 1993 and sadly died in 1999.

I haven't managed to find much information about Roberts, but I did find this gem from Todays Inspiration blogspot. It shows one of the newspaper comic strips that Roberts created in the 1970s for the Children's Television Workshop, Sesame Street, which was still fairly new then. For the strip, he created two characters called Jasper and Julius, a comedy duo.

Among my research I also discovered that he illustrated these beautiful and rare editioned books in 1955 and 1956: The First Book of Jazz by Langston Hughes and Thomas by Mary Harris.

Thanks to davidgeorgepearson at flickr.com for the The First Book of Jazz images and lemon.wonder at flickr.com for the Thomas images.

House Industries

2009-11-20T19:07:00.001-05:00

Last night (Thurs 19th November) the House Industries gang were at the Type Directors Club in NYC to give a talk, Letter As Image. For the past month (since 21st October) they have held an exhibition at TDC called Type as Object, and this lecture marked the ending of the exhibit.

The lecture was led by Ken Barber, their chief letterer and typeface designer. He took us through a humorous journey into the workings and processes of the 16 year old type house as well as showcasing the studio's recent works. House Industries have achieved goals that many type foundries or designers alone could only imagine - they are paid to do what they want and love, rather than being led by the client. They of course have their bread and butter work, however they also have the ability to create their own original letterings, illustrations and designs for themselves. Their maximalist mantra is very much more is more... In their own words "House have shunned humdrum typography and unoriginal, overworked font filters in favor of crankin’ out good ol’ hand-lettering".

Their pop-up shop-cum-exhibition had an interesting mix of objects, prints, patterns, products and sculptures all to demonstrate their love of all things typographical and alphabetical. It was also a perfect excuse for the House designers to create tangible objects to get away from the vector and hand drawn daily work. A lot of their products contained the works of Alexander Girard (who I'll be posting about soon). When he passed away they partnered with máXimo to gain rights to use his work.

It's apparent that the House guys are all fan boys who love retro type, heavy metal posters, custom cars and have somehow managed to find a way to make a living out of it! Quite frankly they are living the dream.

Stephane Halleux

2009-11-18T19:28:00.001-05:00

I recently got sent a link to Stephane Halleux's website, and I'm very pleased to have had the pleasure! The Belgium sculptor has developed a fascination with robotics, be it characters; animals; cars; flying objects or chairs. His style has a strong Steampunk feel to it - kind of Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events mixed with Tim Burton's quirky creativity.

These cyborganic sculptures are created with with mixed medias such as leather, metal, wood pulp and salvaged materials. They look so fragile, especially the thin legged models and would work beautifully in a stop motion animation film. Although I'm not sure if the sculptures are malleable or can be easily turned into animatronics. See his website for more images and close ups of his spectacular mechanical curiosities.

Félix Girard

2009-11-12T15:23:00.000-05:00

Canadian self-taught illustrator and painter, Félix Girand, was born into the artist world. Both mother and father are painters and he spent most of his childhood in a family workshop where he discovered different medias and techniques.

His main subject of choice are fantastical characters that he situates in surrealist backgrounds and landscapes. The strangely distorted character paintings all share similar warm hues and palette, which I thought was perfectly fitting to blog about on this wild and wet day.

There is something very fable about his style and when researching him I've read somewhere that he takes inspiration from comic books and illustrators such as Brian Froud but has lately become influenced by Renaissance painters such as Brueghel, Bosch, Dürer and Vermeer.

Maurice Sendak

2009-10-15T16:22:00.001-04:00

Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are film is coming out tomorrow. The world's favourite book has had a 'wild' affect on everyone. I've seen no end of billboards, TV ads and even Urban Outfitters are getting in on the act. They have their own line of WTWTA toys, cushions, t-shirts, and other merchandise. As I also found out there is a Maurice Sendak exhibition on at the Animazing Gallery in Soho NYC, called 'Sendak in Soho: the artwork of Maurice Sendak'.

'Sendak in Soho' is the World's largest Sendak exhibition and sale of his original illustrations and etchings (they have over 200 of them). The exhibited work is a mix of conceptual illustrations and published work. It was a privilege to see the works in progress, tracings, early drafts, limited editions and etchings of one of the books I grew up with.

Those lucky enough to afford the artworks will be in for a treat, but it was out of my range especially as my favorite turned out to be $185,000...ouch. Some of the proceeds will benefit the Rosenbach Museum & Library and Jane Goodall Institute, an organization dedicated to the well-being of real-world wild things. This show coincides with the film release as well as the critically-acclaimed Sendak retrospectives at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City and the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. It's fitting that he has two exhibitions in his native NY (he was born in Brooklyn in 1928). You couldn't take photos inside, so here is what I could take:

"I never thought I'd sell this artwork. It holds a place in my heart almost too dear for me to part with it. But, as I age, I find myself letting go of things I never thought I would. Now, with the Wild Things movie about to be released, feels like the perfect time. Having worked with Nick and Heidi at Animazing Gallery in the past adds to my comfort in selling these pieces." - Maurice Sendak

This free exhibition runs from Oct 2 - Nov 8, 2009. In a few weeks time I will experience my first US Halloween, and I'm already betting that I will see many Max's or other characters from the book. We shall have to see!

Jan Constantine, cushion Queen!

2009-10-12T17:46:00.002-04:00

I've been an admirer (I guess more distant window shopper) of Jan Constantine's beautiful cushions for a long time now. I've always wanted one, but could never justify spending that much on a cushion. Luckily for me, one of my best friends bought me one as a leaving present when we left the UK, more of a memento to remind us not to forget Blighty! And I was hugely touched. It now sits proudly in the middle of our HUGE American sofa. I don't have the photo of this at the moment, but here is the cushion (as always, click on the images for more details)...

They are expensive, but totally worth it. Each felted wool cushion is uniquely hand embroidered with cross stitch and blanket stitch detail. The central appliqued heart adds the Constantine touch. Jan Constantine has many other colour and textile variations of cushions, pillows, blankets, tea cosies, handbags etc. Not to mention they are all created with natural dyes and yarns. They sell a good selection of them at the V&A.

British born Jan has a design background in fashion, interiors and styling, which comes across in her collections. She has gathered most her inspirations from her grandmother and great aunts, who taught her how to embroider. I really appreciate hand crafted items and the importance of keeping skilled traditional crafts alive, which is why I like her work ethics especially as she has employed a team of talented craftspeople in Cheshire. She hopes that her items will also get handed down the generations and become heirlooms, I will do my hardest to look after mine, and keep it out of the cat's reach!

Her style also reminds me of Paul Smith's 'Love Too' needle point wall hanging (made from hand spun wool, designed by Paul Smith for The Rug Company) which for those of you SATC fans, you will have spotted it in Carrie Bradshaw's newly decorated apartment from the first film. Delicious!!

Terry Allen & Gail Anderson

2009-10-07T21:27:00.000-04:00

Terry Allen and Gail Anderson have jointly created this lovely poster for the School of Visual Arts
in New York.

Allen illustrated the poster (in his signature retro style) and Anderson added her typographic eye to it. Strangely I can't seem to find much of a write up about Allen, but I know that he has an extensive list of clients including Perrier, Nike, Quiznos, Esquire and Forbes:

However I did manage to find out more about award winning, Bronx born Anderson. She worked at Rolling Stone magazine for many years, where her talent in conceptual typography defined the magazine’s feature pages. She now works for Spot NYC as the Creative Director. She has also co-authored with Steven Heller several times, their books include American Typeplay, Graphic Wit and The Savage Mirror.

Justin Richel - sweet things

2009-10-04T21:14:00.001-04:00

If I said to you draw a picture which incorporates cakes, coffee and furniture you'd first probably ask why?! Secondly, you'd probably struggle to think of what to paint, but not for Jersey born Justin Richel. Richel has a thing (I'm told it's almost an obsession) for these 3 strange concoctions, so much so that the main body of his paintings are just that. He also likes to draw birds, portraits, big wigs and history - but never mixes these categories in the same piece. I'm a big fan of cakes myself, so I was immediately drawn to his works. They are all painted in gouche, beautifully intricate and playfully composed. His series entitled 'sweets' is impressive, and I salute him for taking on such a challenge and being strict with his subjects, but annoyingly he makes it look so effortless...See his website and Esty shop for more of his works.

Elbow-Toe

2009-09-20T22:00:00.002-04:00

We went to the Brooklyn flea last weekend in DUMBO and walking back to the subway, we walked past an interesting looking door and this caught my eye - which I thought was sweet.

I didn't think anything more of it until I saw this one in Union Square...

Now I noticed a pattern, so with a bit of research I discovered that they are the creations of Elbow-Toe, a Brooklyn based street artist. He has been creating hand-coloured linocuts pasted on walls for a while now.
"His artwork for the streets is grounded in myth, symbolism and poetry and is primarily executed in woodcut, stencil or large-scale charcoal drawings. His oeuvre is a study of human gesture as communication and he utilizes public spaces as stages for private moments. He is particularly interested in the ability of environmental forces outside his control to create a timeless quality to the work thereby allowing it to feel as if it has been memory and is part of the collective unconscious." He has also been busy on the side of the pond in London, like this one taken from his website:

Artmongers - update

2009-09-12T17:08:00.000-04:00

On 10th August, I posted about the Artmongers and the public art they do around SE London. The day before we flew I saw their customised wheelie bins in New Cross...this project was called 'Moo Cross' Cowbins - a pilot in collaboration with: Lewisham Council, Source Communication and Taylors, to read more click on the link Feed the Cows. I think they are fun, but they missed a trick - they could've painted the underside of the bin in pink for the udders! That would have been funnier.

Graham Carter - East Meets West

2009-09-11T14:13:00.000-04:00

Wow it has been a loooooonnnggg time since I last blogged. We've finally moved to NYC and settled down and it has taken it out of me more than I thought, so apologies for the lack of postings. Before we left the UK there was so many things I wanted to post from the exhibitions and quirky things I stumbled on, so I will try to keep on top of it now! Not to mention there have been so many fun things that I've found in the Big Apple, so I'm excited to talk about these things too...Anyway, that is enough of my ramblings...

Last week I popped into London to meet a friend for a farewell lunch when I decided to swing by the Conningsby Gallery in the hope of seeing something, and how lucky was I?! There is a lovely exhibit of Graham Carter's work (actually the exhibition finishes tomorrow - 12th September - so definitely work a peek...).

Graham's 'East meets West' exhibit is a homage to his adulthood influences of eastern cultures (such as Japanese mythologies, folklore and design) and childhood inspirations of western cultures (such as 1940s & 50s American comics). He has created some beautiful screenprints and giclee prints for this exhibition as well as some very cool 3D laser cut perspex images mixed with screenprinting (you can't really appreciate it from the photo below).

Whilst there I found myself completely immersed in his fantastical and nostalgic worlds of robots, origami creatures, yeti's, monsters and cute Eskimo styled characters. It was also helped by his choice of lovely muted colour pallets - every print contained no more than 3 or 4 colours. Needless to say we walked out with a print, we just couldn't resist!

I'm really going to miss this gallery, but I know that there are plenty more galleries for me to scope out in my new habitat.

KozynDan - update

2009-08-24T09:05:00.000-04:00

I last posted about KozynDan in June (see posting on the 17th June) but I thought I'd do a quick update when I saw that they have done a window display in Carnaby Street's Puma store. They have created a line of t-shirts, jumpers and puma trainers especially for this store. I took a few sneaky pics...

Tea & Make {a great British fete}

2009-08-23T17:02:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we went to the Tea & Make event which is a celebration of regionally-made craft and making-do from South East London.

There were some lovely stalls there with a variety of things from local honey to ceramics to jewellery and toys. There were also free workshops such as how to make your own monster, learning how to felt and making mini kites. They had a small but great variety of some of the best designer-makers and creators working in Britain today.

My personal favourite was Cornelia O'Donovan who made such fabulous toy animals. She teaches print making at Middlesex Uni, and uses many of her designs on fabrics and incorporates them in her soft animals.

I also very much liked the creations of Polly George as she specialises in intricate homeware ceramics. Very lovely!

Central Perk café

2009-08-20T16:09:00.002-04:00

The most famous coffee shop in New York (actually the world), Central Perk, is coming to London! The pop-up café from the equally famous Friends TV series is opening for just two weeks at the end of September and I'm going to miss it...boooo...

It is opening in celebration of the shows debut, 15 years ago! Warner Bros. is releasing a box set to mark the 15th anniversary and it will contain never-seen-before footage. A replica set of Central Perk will be in central Soho and will be filled with actual props such as Rachel's wedding dress; Joey and Chandler's "best bud" bracelets; a bar of Mokolate; Phoebe's 'paintings' etc. It's rumoured that the grumpy barister, Gunther, will also make an appearance.

In my mind the coffee shop was a character in it's own rights and being a huge Friends fan I had to go and visit 'it' earlier this year. Of course the series was actually filmed in California, however the exterior shots of Monica's apartment is in Greenwich Village, NYC at 90 Bedford Street to be exact. To my delight, there is even a lovely restaurant where Central Perk should be called The Little Owl...(no relation!).

Central Perk is at 67 Broadwick Street, London W1, from Thursday 24 September to Wednesday 7 October. Let's just hope they don't play the Rembrandt's non-stop!

El Mas Santo

2009-08-12T16:06:00.000-04:00

So today we received a very strange parcel from Poland...very strange indeed:

Not knowing anyone in Poland or what this crudely handmade Lucha Libre figurine was for, I started to get very suspicious (personally I thought it was a cursed object!). After examining the figurine (which I think it made out of baked fimo) we noticed a little signature on the arm which said 'K. Offert'. We googled it and nothing came up. After a cup of tea we tried again along with 'Lucha Libre' and that's when we found out what it was all about...El Mas Santo!

El Mas Santo is an art project, by Kinga Offert from Poland. She started lucha libre as a uni project. The idea was "to juxtapose the world of Mexican wrestlers with the grey and sad reality of Polish streets", but she got carried away and her Luchadores started to appear in different places and countries and it could possibly be the beginnings of a cult! What we do with it next is up to us, so I will update this when we've decided if we will give the figurine to a friend or leave it on the street...more photos to come...

Brockley Key

2009-08-10T16:01:00.000-04:00

This weekend just gone, we went to visit friends who have just moved to Brockley, SE4. That was when I noticed a trompe l'oeil (French for 'trick the eye' which involves a 2-D image that's been stretched, which when looked at from different angles gives the optical illusion of being a 3-D object). So in actual fact this key lies flat on the house wall.

The key can be found on Brockley Road above the restaurant, Toad's Mouth Too. The anamorphosis is a creation of Artmongers who are a group based in South East London. Artmongers create public art (such as this wind up key) to brighten up people's days. They love the idea that you can find artworks unexpectedly in the most banal objects and in every day life. This piece is called 'Brockley Key' Mural, Brockley 2005.

Geneviève Gauckler

2009-08-05T16:13:00.003-04:00

I first noticed the work of Geneviève Gauckler in Magma (yes that shop again!) and of course there were the adverts for the cosmetic brand, Bourjois, where you couldn't get away from her lovable characters!

For some reason I missed her when I did my French illustrators week (see postings from 6th July), but there are so many talented French artists that I couldn't have showcased everyone! I think her style is extremely likeable with her simple, colourful, somewhat innocent and playful pieces and translates well commercially as she has proven with her vinyls, mirrors, t-shirts and endless other merchandise. She is much in favour of the fantastical world and placing it into reality. Although I really like her work, I have to say that I'm not as keen with some of her photo montage pieces (I've shown the one I like the most), but she definitely does draw the child within from me.

New York, New York, so good they named it twice...

2009-08-03T06:27:00.001-04:00

Firstly I have to apologise for lack of postings recently...my life has just taken a new turn and I can excitedly say that I'm moving to New York at the end of August, so I have a lot on my plate! I will try and post as regularly as I can, but for now I will leave you today with the work of Milton Glaser who designed the iconic and famous campaign for New York City, amongst other classic graphic design works of the 60s to present day.

Knitting graffiti

2009-07-30T08:47:00.001-04:00

Knitting graffiti (also known as Yarnbombing) is a phenomenon that has been in the press a lot recently. It is thought to have started in the US in August 2005, when a group of knitters called Knitta Please were becoming frustrated with their unfinished balls of coloured wools, half-knitted jumpers and scarfs etc and so decided to 'tag' their city with wool with their 'art'. This 'tagging' craze has spread like wild fire and has even reached our side of the pond. There are hundreds of guerrilla knitting groups popping up everywhere, so here is a small snippet into the fad.

These images of urban knitting, are creations of the guerrilla knitting group called Knit in the City, where they covered a classic London telephone box in their stitched art.

These next images come from several sources, from top left - a knitted handrail cover near Tullikamarinaukio Square, Finland by Knit Sea. Top right - a tagged guard chain in Stockholm left by the Prolific Masquerade crew. Bottom left - a mooring ring tagged in Stockholm, again by the masquerade crew. Bottom right - a grateful and warm lamppost in Houston, Texas dressed by members of Knitta Please.

This tree - entitled 'tree cozy', is an incredible crocheted outfit by Carol Hummel and took her 500 hours from start to finish. It was up in Cleveland heights city hall for 3 years until just recently.

These sign posts are territorial knittings, an unauthorised project by Lauren Marsden. Her aim was to cover the signs of every street on which she has lived in Victoria, British Columbia, with knitted replicas. all fonts and dimensions are exact and there are/were 6 of the signs in total.

And lastly, here is an old abandoned gas station in Syracuse, New York, which was knit graffitied to within an inch of its life after a worldwide effort was initiated by artist Jennifer Marsh. Over 3'000 panels were stitched together to cover the building and not even the pumps were left uncovered. more info here.

Also check out: Knitted Landscape; Ladies Fancywork Society and Yarnbommbing.

Ana Galvañ

2009-07-28T15:23:00.004-04:00

Spanish illustrator and cartoonist, Ana Galvañ, has a really lovely textural and painterly style and a good eye for colour. She was one of the illustrators who contributed to the project Terrible Yellow Eyes, a homage to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are (it's worth taking a look at this website as there are some lovely images on there).

Johnson mobile typography

2009-07-26T12:18:00.003-04:00

I really like the 'baby mobile' typographic treatments from the new Johnson baby ads created by Lowe London. They have a Rob Ryan feel to them (see May's posting for more about Rob Ryan), but I can't find who created them. If anyone knows, please post the designer here.

Merijn Hos

2009-07-25T15:46:00.000-04:00

Merijn Hos (aka Bfree) is an artist and illustrator from the Netherlands. He divides his time equally between commercial work and private work for exhibitions. His work is heavily 70s influenced, but being a child of the 1970s could explain why! His use of crazy landscapes, bright colours, abstract looking characters (especially the long legged ones!) and surreal imagery all add to the psychadelic feel. When I look at his illustrations, I can't help but think of the work of German illustrator, Heinz Edelmann, who is famous for his art direction and character designs for The Beatles animated film, Yellow Submarine.

Hos uses different mediums to create his images such as China ink, felt-tip markers, collages made with coloured papers and has even created dolls for the Dilly Show in London and Barcelona in 2005.

His pictures have concurrent elements of ghosts, life and death, friendly and cute expressions and hidden messages. He says a lot of the work reflects on issues in todays society and everyday interaction between people in terms of escapism, organised confusion and friendship and loyalty.

John "Pugwash" Ryan, R.I.P.

2009-07-24T15:02:00.002-04:00

I've just heard on the news that John Ryan, the British animator, died today at the age of 88. He created one of the best-loved children’s television programmes of the 1970s Captain Pugwash. The eponymous hero – Captain Horatio Pugwash – sails the high seas in his ship called the Black Pig, ably assisted by cabin boy Tom, pirates Willy and Barnabas, and Master Mate. His mortal enemy is Cut-Throat Jake, captain of the Flying Dustman.

Captain Pugwash started as a comic strip in The Eagle in 1950. The BBC then commissioned the first TV series in 1957-1967. This TV series was beautifully crafted with a unique real-time animating technique called “captions”. Captions were basically cardboard cutouts of the characters laid on painted backgrounds which were pinned/glued/sellotaped to cardboard levers to make the figures "move". About 50 or so captions were made for each episode, and took over a fortnight to make.

The TV series was revived in 1975 in colour and again reanimated in 1997 (see last picture) and also made into children's books. In 1991 Ryan sued The Guardian and the Sunday Correspondent for wrongly accusing the series of having sexually suggestive names – such as Master Bates, Seaman Staines and Roger the Cabin Boy. These double entendres were all incorrect and actually made up by university students in the 70s for “rag mags”, and somehow became urban myths.

Lizzie Finn - Sew good

2009-07-22T15:48:00.000-04:00

Years ago I purchased a book called Area which showcased 100 designers and illustrators. In that book I noticed the unique illustration style of Lizzie Finn. Lizzie is unlike most illustrators as her tools of the trade are textiles and embroidery thread. She is best known for her embroidered images on the album cover Things To Make and Do for the British band, Moloko. For this she created handmade characters and also stitched the typography.

I believe that she doesn't shy away from using a computer, however I admire the fact that she prefers this more labour intensive route. She also makes us realise that there is more to design than just computer generated images.

They all went to Heaven at the age of 27

2009-07-21T12:50:00.003-04:00

The themed They all went to Heaven at the age of 27 t-shirts are the brain child of Whipping Floyd.

They noticed that Robert Johnson (a delta blues musician), Brian Jones (lead guitarist of the Rolling Stones), Janis Joplin (rock singer), Jimi Hendrix (one of the most influential guitarists of all time), Jim Morrison (singer and lyricist from the Doors) and Kurt Cobain (singer and lyricist from Nirvana) all had something in common - they all died at the early age of 27. With this new found realisation, they wanted to interpret these great musicians lives into t-shirts and thus Heaven 27 was born! "They climbed up that stair and made a hell of a band up there." I really like them. My favourite design is the Robert Johnson one.

John Lawrence and His Dark Materials

2009-07-20T15:34:00.001-04:00

Wood engraving illustrator, John Lawrence, creates beautiful timeless pieces for all ages. His children's book consist of This Little Chick, Seahorse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea, Tiny's Big Adventure and Philip Pullman's Dark Materials collectors edition books.

John Lawrence uses tools and techniques that go back to the 18th century, yet his illustrations don't look out of place in our modern world. His distinctive wood engravings and drawings have kept him employed over the past 40 years. The process of his print/collage technique is also time consuming. Each different colour and textured backgrounds are separate prints that are collaged into the overall design. He uses a mixture of wood and vinyl to create contrasting textures and admitidely he brings the images together with the help of a computer.

Although Pullman created all his own illustrations and pictograms for his Dark Materials series, I can see why he chose Lawrence to do the collector's editions as Lawrence's 'modern ancient approach' is perfectly suited to the style of the book. Pullman's story flits between the modern world (as we know it) and a parallel neo-industrial revolution era.

"Nothing can match the effect of the essentially organic process of wood engraving. It's all about mark-making; the marks get their character from the material and the tools, and, when you are working on wood, you can feel the textures - there are infinitesimal differences between the marks you make." - John Lawrence

Cupcake van

2009-07-18T10:46:00.001-04:00

I saw this van in Charlotte Street and thought what a lovely idea it was! It's a great alternative to an ice cream van, yummmm....

Peggy's Cupcakes is run by a lady called Rosalind (Peggy is her mother's name and influence). She is a graphic design lecturer at Central St Martins and in her spare time she sells cupcakes in her travelling cupcake and tea van called time for tea and cake.

Oskar Pink

2009-07-16T11:50:00.001-04:00

Last night on my way to the iTunes Live London Festival 2009, to see the Friendly Fires (amazingly fun gig) at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm N1, this lovely looking hairdressers caught my eye.

Oskar Pink signed up Inventive & Co. to re-brand his boutique salon. I love the way they have iconised the tools of the trade – scissors, hair brushes, water spritzers etc – and made that the basis of the shop window. I think it’s stunning and definitely draws the eye. What I like even more is the fact that Inventive & Co. created the window graphics using scissors and paper to give it a unique identity. It’s refreshing to see hair salon with a creative look rather than the usual generic clinicy salons you see littered on every high street. I think they have just recruited another consumer...

Scratching the surface

2009-07-13T16:17:00.000-04:00

The current show at the Lazarides gallery on Rathbone Place, W1, is a must see. This month showcases the artist Vhils, aka Alexandre Farto, with his exhibition Scratching the Surface.

This is the Portuguese artist's first solo show in the UK. The show features a series portraits of unknown faces, that are inspired by his native city of Lisbon, at a time of revolution. He turns the outdoor ad spaces into unconventional urban decaying canvases. He uses unusual techniques and materials such as acid and bleach which eat into the surface layers to expose what is underneath.

My favourites are the works of art where he actually scratches amazing portraits directly onto the naked walls. The exhibition runs from 3rd July 2009 to 1st August 2009, so no excuses go and see it. Admission is free.

Last of my French illustrators week - Delphine Garcia

2009-07-12T15:50:00.000-04:00

My last French illustrator this week is Delphine Garcia. Like all the artists featured this week, Delphine illustrates for children's books as well as being a graphic designer. Her favourite tools of choice are black ink, acrylic and textures. As well as her collection of picture books she has made a selection of cute dolls from her distinguishing characters. Her books include T'es Plus ma Maman!, Je ne veux pas Dormir! and Le canard qui ne Faisait pas Coincoin.

She is currently working on her 3rd volume for the book publisher, Astalik, which is due out in November this year. Check out her website here.

Olivier Douzou

2009-07-11T16:21:00.000-04:00

My penultimate illustrator from my 'French illustrators week' is Olivier Douzou. Olivier is an architect by trade but has added many strings to his bow as he is also a writer, illustrator and graphic designer. He is also responsible for starting up the publishing house, aimed for children, called Les Éditions du Rouergue in 1994 as the artistic director. It's targeted at the youth and develops innovative editorial.

His first picture book was back in 1993 called Jojo la Mache, a children's story about a cow (un vache). As it happens he also collaborated on a picture book with Emilie Chollat (see previous post) on the book entitled Le Défilé.

Olivier has a flexible style, that is to say that he doesn't appear to have a characteristic look. Some of his paintings - like the car one below - remind me of Johnny Hannah's style (see June's postings).

Emilie Chollat

2009-07-10T16:23:00.001-04:00

Emilie Chollat - yet another French children's book illustrator! - has a beautiful and fun website that also shows you a snap shot of her life and her gorgeous flat.

Emilie uses traditional paintings techniques but sometimes she mixes them with paper collage as well. Her books include 1,2,3 nous irons aux bois, Hey, Mama Goose and Le Défilé.

Babar the elephant

2009-07-09T06:56:00.001-04:00

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the French classic, Babar the elephant, a popular character created by Jean de Brunhoff in 1931. Unfortunately Jean died at the age of 37 after only publishing 7 Babar books. His son, Laurent de Brunhoff, stepped into his father's shoes and continued with the series.

The story tells of a young elephant called Babar who leaves the jungle after seeing his mother killed by a hunter. He visits a big city (Paris), and befriends an old lady who clothes him and enrolls him in school. He later returns to the jungle and shows his herd the benefits of civilization and becomes King of the kingdom...

Having done a little research it seems this incredibly successful character sparked a lot of controversy in its time as many critics panned it for being politically incorrect and that it justified colonisation. For me, Babar is a childhood staple that I grew up reading and watching on television, and with a child's head on I can't say that I ever picked up on its supposed undercurrents.

Cécile Hudrisier

2009-07-08T11:48:00.004-04:00

Continuing with my French illustrators week, my choice today is another illustrator of children's books: Cécile Hudrisier. Cécile differs from my other choices because of her illustrative collage style.

Her beautiful books include, Le Petit Poule Rousse and La Grosse Faim de P'tit Bonhomme. She is currently working on a new story for the French children's magazine Pomme d'Api. The story is entitled La Cuillere de Mamie which is about a grandma who has lost her silver spoon.

I really like her work because she has such control over her paper and cardboard collages and they work really beautifully in the picture book format, whilst also giving them a lovely 3D look.

Delphine Durand

2009-07-07T08:39:00.001-04:00

Delphine Durand is my second French illustrator this week. She definitely has that distinctive French look about her work (note the long noses again, deep colours, mixed media textures...).

Delphine has illustrated (and in some cases also written) children's picture books such as The Snoops, Beetle Boy, My House, Terrible Trolls, The House That Jill Built and many others.

The Snoops is one of my favourites, simply because it's such a silly storyline and she really has fun with the characters. The story shows the hilarious goings on between the nosey neighbours of Keyhole Place. The back page has a paper-engineered key hole that pops up, so you can just see into the neighbours houses - what fun!

Frédérique Bertrand

2009-07-06T15:49:00.000-04:00

This week I've decided to have a theme - that being French illustrators. The illustrators you'll see are ones I recognise, mainly becuase they have illustrated children's books amongst other things, but I don't think that devalues their worth. After all children are the hardest of audiences to capture the attentions of. Unfortunately I've already published the lovely work of Rebecca Dautremer and Delphine Doreau but as I've discovered, I have quite a thing for the French illustrative style and have many more up my sleeve. There is something about the textures, deep colours, long noses (what is that about?!) and distorted proportions that I just can't get enough of it! Their drawings are not perfect in any way, in fact quite the opposite as they are very child like.

So my first posting this week is Frédérique Bertrand, illustrator of the children's book Les Petits Heritages as well as many others. He also illustrates for newspapers, magazines etc. Just lovely...

Studio AKA

2009-07-05T09:43:00.000-04:00

BAFTA award winning and London based animation production company, Studio AKA, have created some of my favourite TV advertising such as the National Lottery's Big Win and Lloyd's TSB For the Journey series.

I love the innocent feel, vintage style and grainy texture of these beautifully animated ads and the music is a perfect marriage to the 'look'. The characters have a very French style that I have seen many (French) illustrators capture.

Incidentally, last year, Studio AKA also animated Oliver Jeffers book Lost and Found and Helen Ward's Varmints into 24 minute shorts. They both translated very well into animations.

Oliver Jeffers

2009-07-04T12:33:00.004-04:00

I received a newsletter the other day from Belfast born, Oliver Jeffers, and that's when I realised that I haven't blogged about one of my all time favourite illustrators/artists/writers - shocking!

Jeffers is very well known for his children's books after winning many awards in 2006 for his second book Lost and Found. His mixed media techniques and paint textures are the elements of his work that I'm most drawn to. His painting style is extremely endearing, simple and sensitively composed.

My personal favourite is the The Incredible Book Eating Boy as I love the attention to detail he has put into it - the hardback book has a bite sized chunk missing from one of the corners; the backgrounds of the pages are made up of old musty books and book pages so that the text is just visible through his paintings. He has also used letraset on his pages, which I really like. It didn't help that when I went to The Illustration Cupboard in London (the worst place for a children's book enthusiast to go) that they had the original paintings from this book available to purchase...much will power was needed that day :(

Check his website out for his other works such as his amazing canvas and found or made object paintings and collages, such as the one below.

Stanley Donwood

2009-07-02T09:27:00.006-04:00

I have a soft spot for printmaking techniques such as linocuts, which is why I like the linoprints of Stanley Donwood. Although he doesn't just specialise in linocuts (he is actually a writer too and goes by his real name, Dan Rickwood, for his writings) he is best known for his album artwork collaboration with Radiohead.

He has done many album/single covers for Radiohead and the one I like the most was for Thom Yorke's first debut album The Eraser. They are a series of mini linoprints comped together to create a full image.

For one of Radiohead's album covers, he used one his city 'maps' from a series of paintings he created for the Iguapop gallery exhibition in Barcelona. The Pacific Coast street plan painting was the one used for the album cover Hail to the Thief as that's where they recorded the album.

Snowden Flood

2009-07-01T08:55:00.003-04:00

I've mentioned the shop Magma before (It's my fav bookshop). A year or so ago they opened a product shop a couple of doors up from their Covent Garden shop. So naturally if I'm in the area I can't resist but to go into both of them!

They have lovely nik naks, toys, homewares and illustrated books by Kate Sutton and many others. But it's here that I cast my beady eye on these lovely plates by Snowden Flood. Snowden Flood is an interior accessories designer based in London. She celebrates urban and rural landscapes and likes to reflect this in her work of souvenirs and keepsakes.

The first 6 plates are from their River series and the last two are from the Urban Landscape series.

Chris Ware

2009-06-30T08:38:00.002-04:00

The other day I was looking through my books when I rediscovered how much I love the work of the awarding winning, Chris Ware. I remember writing an essay about him at uni just when he published his graphic novel, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth in 2000.

I have to say I'm not a huge comic book fan (although I was brought up on children's comics such as Rupert the Bear and Beano). But I just fell in love with Ware's comic book style as it is so graphic; beautifully laid out and disarmingly lighthearted. Amazingly he draws all these precise images by hand using 'old skool' techniques such as pencil, rulers, compasses, set squares etc so no computers are involved in the process. The amount of detail he adds to his pages is just outstanding and they have a very filmic feel about them, especially when he pans out on an image or magnifies it.

Quimby the Mouse is perhaps his most autobiographical character which bears a similar resemblance to the early animation characters like Felix the Cat and he is also well known for the series called the Acme Novelty Library.

Strangely Ware also illustrated issue 13 of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern book (which is a quarterly literary review of various writings). McSweeney's are an American publishing house which helps young writers, which coincidentally is part of the 826National group. Such a small world...

Pen-Paper-Scissors at the V&A

2009-06-29T15:38:00.001-04:00

My busy weekend started on Friday night when I went to support my man who was partaking in the Secret Wars live drawing battle at the V&A between the illustration agencies: Debut Art and Dutch Uncle.

Three illustrators from each agency went head to head against the clock (they had an hour) and could only use black pens to draw on the white boards. They also weren't allowed to prep beforehand. The illustrators were: Chris Price, Craig Ward and Serge Seidlitz from Debut Art (the board on the left) and Noma Bar, Dermot Flynn and Kustaa Saksi from Dutch Uncle.

I was of course biased, but the best team won, it was 3-0 to Debut (two judges votes plus the audiences). A good night was had by all. The rest of the weekend we spent painting, of a different kind...dreaded decorating!

Roos invade London

2009-06-26T11:27:00.000-04:00

Twenty of these life-sized Roos have popped up over London for a week to promote Kangaroo Island and South Australia as a tourist destination - as if it needs it!

They have been each uniquely designed by South Australian and UK celebrities, students, artists and sponsors such as Elle Macpherson, GMTV presenter Richard Arnold and South Australian artists Peter Coad and Emma Hack. At the end of the promotion they will be auctioned off for charity.

Once you have spotted all 20 kangaroos go here to enter to win a trip for four to Adelaide and Kangaroo Island.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

2009-06-25T16:06:00.005-04:00

Amy Casey's house series reminds me of Dorothy Gale's house (from The Wizard of Oz) which gets swept up in the tornado before landing in Oz. Which led me to think that maybe she grew up in a hurricane state...But after reading an article about her, I now understand that these paintings are a reflection of the current global housing crisis and her anxiety towards the state of the world; “natural and unnatural disasters, personal fiascos and the never-ending stream of bad news coming in from the media”.

Her houses balance on stings, stilts or are strewn as debris but they all play characters in her narrative, inspired by a reoccurring nightmare:

She started painting houses in 2006 to protect their inhabitants from huge, choking alien-like plants. Casey moved the houses up on to stilts. The stilts collapsed. The plants disappeared, replaced by growing piles of demolished houses. She attached her houses to ropes. Ropes broke. Couches and toys spilled out through broken floorboards. Clumps of houses sit in mid-air tangled, yet temporarily rescued, in telephone wire - Megan Lykins Reich, curator

For me the earthy sepia-esque tones; her eye for detail and the playful compositions, depicting fragility of the way houses are built so close to each other, are what I like the most. I hope that I get to see her work exhibited soon.

Toynbee Tiles

2009-06-24T16:06:00.003-04:00

We went to Philadelphia for the day back in May, and I couldn't help but notice strange tiles on the roads. I've since looked into these mysterious modern artifacts and found out that they appear all over the USA - with different varieties and some as large as a car number plate. They are called Toynbee tiles (or Toynbee plaques). It's believed that the first, and larger ones, were placed in the 1980s. Over time they have got smaller and have varied in fonts and styling. It's uncertain whether it's the work of a single person or a group.

The graffiti tiles tend to be located in the middle of busy streets and highways where they wear away quickly or instead they resurface. Apparently tiles are wrapped in tar paper and placed on a busy street early in the morning, then the pressure of heavy vehicles driving over them for weeks on end pushes it into the road surface. Eventually, the tar paper wears away, exposing similar messages:

TOYNBEE IDEA MOVIE 2001 RESURRECT (sometimes "RAISE") DEAD PLANET JUPITER

The tiles might be made of layers of linoleum and asphalt crack-filling compound, but again no-one is sure. I think that something so cryptic that can cause such controversy is just fabulous, but it does annoy me that I might never find out what they are for!

Madewell

2009-06-23T08:00:00.002-04:00

Madewell (a J.Crew Group spin-off) is a lovely shop in Soho, NY. Madewell, established in 1937, was inspired by a Massachusetts workwear label of the same name. It's two-storey store has a nice feel to it with its white washed brick, wooden floors and lovely old New York sepia maps on the walls - shame I don't have any interior shots for you, but if you are on Broome Street then take a peek.

Letterpress

2009-06-22T15:45:00.003-04:00

I love to see something en masse, which is why I love Tor Pettersen's reception. This type spans 2 floors of the design agency just off Soho Square and looks so amazing.

The letterpress collection in Tor Pettersen reminds me these unique woodletter collages from The Old Printing Shop. They are also inset in the original type trays, that have been cut to size, which I think is a nice touch. A larger version would make for a very lovely coffee table.

Bermondsey Street

2009-06-21T16:49:00.002-04:00

On the way to the Jam Factory, we walked down one of my favourite streets in London - Bermondsey Street. I love it here becuase it's unlike any other London street, it's a real slice of old London. Although it looks slightly run down due to the age of some of the buildings (not helped by the paint peeling off them) nestled between these eclectic edifices are lovely conversions, old painted signs and quaint and yet funky pubs.

Hartley's Jam Factory

2009-06-20T11:24:00.005-04:00

On Friday we were invited to a friends for dinner at The Jam Factory. Working in the London Bridge area I've heard about the historic factory many times and so I took the invite with much enthusiasm.

Hartley's jam factory was built in 1901 and can be found between London Bridge and the Old Kent Road. In 1999 plans were in place to convert the factory into live/work warehouse/loft spaces, mixing the old with the new. The site is an impressive 285,000 sq ft. The factory's blueprint lofts and penthouses were pre-designed by some of Britain's leading young architects, such as the likes of Ian Simpson, Maya Vuksa, Paul Daly, Azman Owens and Softroom.

The flats (some spanning two floors) are impressive and have been converted beautifully whilst still keeping lovely elements of what it used to be. I've always had a huge soft spot for any kind of conversion - whether it's a Victorian school; church; barn or factory the Jam Factory certainly didn't disappoint.

Ladder bookcase

2009-06-19T12:44:00.002-04:00

So I was trawling the net looking for some kooky side/console table for our living room when I got completely side tracked and found this beautiful ladder bookcase. Luckily our ceilings are tall enough to house it, but unfortunately with prices starting at £1,695 my bank account is not as accommodating!! So it's back to the drawing board for my table...any suggestions welcome!

This 'Ladder Bookcase' is designed by Autoban (Seyhan Özdemir & Sefer Çaglar) for De La Espada. Although it is too expensive for me, you can't deny this gorgeous handcrafted ladder bookcase is worth every penny. Its unusual height (over eight feet tall) and slim profile make it versatile and the lowest rung is the ideal height for a nightstand or side table. Oh well...

Good as Gauld

2009-06-18T12:30:00.002-04:00

Another talented illustration duo are Tom Gauld & Simone Lia - they again met at Uni and started self-publishing their own comics under Cabanon press.

Their first comic book together was aptly named First and they then followed it with Second. Later on they published both editions in one book entitled Both. They do their own stuff too and I've picked up a few of their editioned comic books in my favourite London bookshop - Magma. Tom is one of my favourite all time illustrators. I just love his sharp-witted and simple line drawings. If I could draw like him, I wouldn't stop! My favourite is The Hairy Monster a guide - 7 plates drawn by Tom Gauld in edition of 500 copies (2006).

kozyndan

2009-06-17T12:21:00.002-04:00

kozyndan are a husband-and-wife team, based in LA, who met on a painting course. Kozyndan is their joint pseudonym. I first came across their prints in the V&A museum shop and just had to get them:

Rabbits have become their hallmark - mainly because they had rabbits at home and they became their only life models. This is certainly apparent in the images above; if you look closely you'll see the waves, blossoms and leaves etc are all made up of hundreds of bunnies! There are also nod's to Kozy's native country, Japan, with the use of Japanese parchment textures and the references to Hokusai. Their witty urban landscapes are amazingly detailed.
"We love the human energy of a city and the hustle and bustle. So we're bringing animals into that and fusing two loves - the natural world in opposition to the technological world"- Dan Kitchen, kozyndan.

Random type

2009-06-16T11:17:00.008-04:00

Here are some random type treatments I spotted around Chelsea and the Meat Packing district in NY.

Sleepy Cow - Kate Sutton

2009-06-15T07:48:00.002-04:00

I've been keeping my eye on British illustrator and maker, Kate Sutton, for several years now and have always been envious of her deceptively simple but comical style and the shear volume of work she manages to create. It's been fun to watch her blossoming progress from Sleepy Cow (her first website) to the client list she has managed to achieve, all without the aid of an agent. She has definitely embedded herself into the craft culture as alongside her commissioned illustrations for clients such as Howies and Roxy, she creates playful handmade toys and badges that really bring out the child within whilst reminding you of more innocent times (this stems from her love of children's books - something that we both have in common!). Complete hat's off to you Kate :D

Pomme Pomme

2009-06-14T15:19:00.006-04:00

Yesterday we went to the Blackheath Bike and Kite festival to meet up with the lovely and very talented Pomme Chan who has just completed illustrations for VW's new camper vans from their Escape series. Below are the car vinyls and interior embroidery.

Thailand born illustrator/typographer, Pomme, mixes lovely swirls; hand drawn type and sometimes photographic images to create lovely fluid images. She has the perfect style for fashion illustration and draws inspiration from nature, fashion and the female form as well as her surroundings. I think she will do very well this year.

Tom Otterness

2009-06-13T06:34:00.004-04:00

These humorous installations, entitled Life Underground from 1998, were commissioned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority and Arts for Transit for the 14th Street and 8th Avenue subway station in New York. They are the creations of Tom Otterness. I thought his rotund characters were really cute and it's fun to try and spot them. His bronze sculptures emerge from the floors and ceilings throughout and above the station. There are a total of 100 cast-bronze sculptures placed throughout the platforms and stairways of the A, C, E, and L lines of the station.

His style is very whimsical and cartoon-like whilst containing a political punch. He has also created pieces for Times Square, children's playgrounds and other parks around the world.

"These sculptures depict, among other things, huge pennies, pudgy characters in business suits with moneybag heads, helmeted workers holding giant tools, and crocodiles crawling out from under sewer covers. The main theme of his work seems to be the struggle of the little man against the Capitalist machine in a difficult and strange city."- Vince Carducci, cultural critic and social researcher.

Space Invaders

2009-06-12T07:43:00.005-04:00

Every day on the way to work I walk past 3 Space Invaders tile graffiti, in the London Bridge area. I've also spotted them around Covent Garden and Clerkenwell as well as other areas. I've researched a little into them and it turns out there are a total of 101 in London. Next time I visit a city, I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for more little aliens.

These mosaic 'pixelated' tiles inspired by the 1970s Space Invaders game are created by a street artist who goes under the name of 'Invader'. It turns out he has graffitied all over the world and documented his 'invasions' on his website. A good selection of the ones in London can be found here.

Aardman

2009-06-11T16:17:00.002-04:00

Today I met Wallace and Gromit, the quintessentially English claymation characters from Aardman Animations. They came to my office to show us their new show reel and to introduce us to their most loved (and some of my favourite) characters - Wallace, Gromit, Shaun and Morph. These particular models were from their latest film A Matter of Loaf and Death - apart from Morph of course, who is best known as Tony Hart's sidekick :D

New table!

2009-06-10T07:45:00.008-04:00

So yesterday we finally got our 'new' English Victorian Scullery table and the living room is now complete (well nearly!). I'm very much looking forward to having a sit down dinner with friends and deciding on how to make my table cloth or runner...

D.U.M.B.O.

2009-06-09T16:08:00.006-04:00

D.U.M.B.O. (or Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) in Brooklyn, is where we spent some time back in April. I quite liked it's charm - the street car tracks, bricked factories, boutique shops and cafés and the more laid back atmosphere. It's a far cry from the chaos of mid-town, and yet so close. Here are a few snapshots of the area.

Adrian Johnson

2009-06-09T06:06:00.000-04:00

Having just read an interview with artist/illustrator Adrian Johnson on Grain Edit, it seems that he was not aware of the Charley Harper's and Miroslav Sasek's of the world until fairly recently. He puts this down to his pre-internet student days, when that kind of resource was just not available to him. He does however, take influence from the 50s design styles.

I love his style - retro stylised characters with a humorous modern twist; a subtle colour palette; nice textures and compositionally placed typography. Johnson is a great believer in balancing commercial and personal work, which as I know from experience of living with an illustrator, is the only way to keep a creative mind.

Kate's Cafe

2009-06-08T06:17:00.005-04:00

On the way back from seeing Jonny Hannah's exhibition I stumbled upon another in Rebecca Hossack's gallery called Kate's Café.

Kate's Café is a fantasy café showing the intricate crocheted creations of Kate Jenkins. It's a visual feast of the nations favourite foods such as fish and chips and fried English breakfast. She has even knitted condiments and a wonderful array of cakes. Each are beautiful artworks in their own right. The crocheted fish were beautiful and completely covered in sequins for that fish scale look. I did take some pictures of these but they didn't give the pieces any justice. The exhibition is running until the 27th of June, so if you fancy a nice cup of tea (yes they serve real tea and cakes too!) in a magical setting then pop along to Kate's Café.

Cakes & Ale Press - Jonny Hannah

2009-06-07T05:46:00.005-04:00

Continuing with my cultured weekend, I went to see Jonny Hannah's Notes from McVouty exhibition at the Coningsby Gallery. I adore his surf shack chic look, it's just so bright and playful and makes you long for lazy summer days by the sea.

Most of his exhibited collections are from his Cakes & Ale Press and amongst the prints are odd objets d'art (such as scraps of wood, toy cars, bits of board...) that have been painted and inspired by 'McVouty's', the world famous second hand emporium which sadly shut up shop last month. Viewing his work on his website doesn't give his paintings, lino cuts and screen prints any justice. If you want a chance to see his work, the exhibition has been extended until this Wednesday (10th June) and I strongly recommend going.

Doodle Dandy

2009-06-06T10:59:00.010-04:00

"We believe in the Freedom of Doodle. The Doodle Bar supports creativity in the community and will be hosting exhibitions and events, classes and workshops throughout summer 2009."

Last night we were invited to the opening launch of The Doodle Bar, a bar (and café by day) completely white-washed from top to bottom, which encourages participants to draw and doodle on absolutely everything even the waiters. It was so much fun not to mention very liberating. I have to say I was tempted to draw on the cream coloured dog, but felt that was a step too far! If you are ever in the Battersea area go check it out, they are planning to keep it open for at least 9 months.