Bill Brown & Target

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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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.'