Accidents will happen, that's what they say isn't it? Well speaking with my designer hat on, I'm pretty glad that they do!
So often I've been toiling on a project, making a tweak here and a slight adjustment there, trying to make the change that takes what you're working on from the being 'okay, but not great' to the 'yes, spot on' point.
Sometimes, not always, as if by some kind of divine intervention chance offers a little helping hand! Whether it's an accidental 'apple, v' that plonks an object somewhere you would never have thought to plonk it. Or maybe a chance crop that hacks off far more of the image than you'd have thought was a good idea...
Yes, I'm talking about design accidents. They're a designers friend, some kind of fairy godmother that should be fully embraced whenever they deem it time to make an appearance.
You can't take full credit, because it wasn't strictly your idea, or an idea at all, but by jove it looks good so you're just going to roll with it.
So that's how the image above came about. It was a design accident. I can't really remember how it happened, but I always thought it looked kind of cool and thought that it'd be a good way to illustrate my point.
I've been thinking about getting in on this music reviewing lark for a while now. So with Spotify on everyone's computer meaning you can listen to what I'm talking about straight away, it felt like a good time to start!
I first came across Kings Of Convenience when they released 'Toxic Girl' in (about) 2001. I bought the single, but never got round to listening to any more of their stuff, but with Spotify being so nice and generous, I've recently had the chance.
Jolly glad that I did. 'Quiet Is The New Loud' is a perfect 'getting on with work' album. Just plug in your headphones and let the gentle, folk-tinged tunes fill your ears and carry you along while you get what you need to get done, done.
Comparisons to Belle & Sebastian could be made; the music is a gentle sort of folk style, but like the review on the Spot says, Kings Of Convenience's lyrics seem more concerned with 'calm moods and relationships' rather than the tongue in cheek words of Stuart Murdoch.
My favourite tracks: Toxic Girl and Little Kids. You can listen to the album on Spotify.
The release date is fast approaching and the design blogs have been posting like crazy over the past couple of weeks. Yep, 'Where The Wild Things Are' is nearly here after months of on-line whispers and exclusive screen shots, and the design community seems to be very excited.
I'm not moaning, I'm really looking forward to seeing it too. It was after re-tweeting 'It's Nice That's' tweet on the new featurette that my girlfriend asked why designers are getting sooo excited about it.
It hadn't really occurred to me that designers were any more or any less pumped for the film than anybody else, but if it is the case then I guess it's a combination of the following:
Spike Jonze is directing. He's the alternative persons director that has worked on some of the coolest promotionals of the music video genre, including 'Sabotage', 'Buddy Holly' and 'Praise You' and directed 'Being John Malkovich'. So you know from the start that he would bring something pretty cool to this film and not just be some big corporation hack making a 'safe' cash-in flick.
The use of puppets instead of CGI. I think this traditional approach really speaks out to many people from the design community. There has been a massive upsurge in graphic design over the last year or so or people getting their hands dirty and not just relying on the computer to generate their work. Illustration, collage, hand lettering etc has boomed. Helen Musselwhite's work is a recent example of this aesthetic that I've come across.
Not so designer focused admittedly, but the whole nostalgia thing cannot be overlooked. This is a book that we will all have read as a kids and most of us will have loved it. So while on the surface this could be seen as a children's movie it will appeal to that retro, nostalgic part of many of us.
Sorry to go on! Why not watch the interview with Maurice Sendak and Spike Jonze or treat yourself to a look at the trailer.
Oh, and the poster (above) is pretty cool too isn't it?
So I thought it would be a god idea to print off the poster at the size that I eventually want to screen print it at (A2). I've got it hanging in my kitchen just to get a feel for the scale of it and how it works at that size.
This version was worked up in Illustrator. I traced over the scan of my sketch with the pen tool, which has resulted in clean finish and has left me wondering whether there needs to be a bit more going on.
To add a little more interest and draw people in I'm thinking that more hair might be a good idea. In my first post about this poster I said that I would like to create something that people might have to look twice at to 'get' what the picture was of. I don't think that is happening yet, but by making it busier with more curls and ruffles going on in the beard I think I could get there.
The next thing that I will have to figure out is how to best tackle drawing the nose and mouth, ie, what technique to use; simple, cartoonish style or a more realistic finish. Hopefully though, once I've got the beard right the answer to this problem should become apparent.
I've been finding myself heading Shoreditch way more and more since moving back to south-east London.
I think that the area is probably pretty much my favourite area of London. There's so much on offer; salt beef bagels on Brick Lane, cool bars around Old Street and amazing Thai food on Hoxton Square - and that's just scratching the surface.
Anyhow, I'm harping on. The pictures above were taken on a recent stroll down Brick Lane and over to Old Street station. There is so much cool wall art about in that area (Banksy has been a regular visitor over the years) which I think adds an aesthetic that fits in to the artistic, DIY feel the area has.
I got round to scanning in the sketch that I posted last week and have now been mucking around with it on the computer.
I've been thinking about two different approaches; the clean, smooth finish of Illustrator and the textured look that I can produce with Photoshop.
The picture above is the Photoshop version. I've been using old scans of roller print marks to create a scuzzy textured finish to the beard area. Not sure about it yet. Definitely need to explore more options before I'm happy with it.
Now that I'm living back in South-East London I've been trying to do a few of the things that the local area has to offer. Goldsmiths College is just down the road so yesterday me and the girlfriend went to have a look round the masters fine art show.
Fistly, the spaces that Goldsmiths were using for the show are amazing. The Ben Pimlott building was purpose built for these kinds of shows and the view from the sixth floor was one of the most impressive of London I have seen. From the Dome through the City, St Pauls, the London Eye and the West-End as far west as Battersea Power Station, it was all visible! Also being used were the converted Laurie Grove Baths, formerly a swimming pool now being being used as studios by Goldsmiths that retained lots of its original features.
I should probably mention that fine art isn't normally my thing, not enough structure for the graphic designer in me, but some of the work on display here really impressed me. Above I've featured work from (top) Yun Kyung Jeong, Untilted, and amazingly beatiful and intricate illustration which looks good here, but was spectacular in the flesh.
Olivia Reynolds, Oh Albert, My Love (middle), Had created a piece inspired on the Albert Memorial (of which I am a fan) by carving into plywood and using varnish, stained glass, old silk, persian carpets, gold buttons... (the list goes on) to create four huge, magnificent collages (I guess) to represent each of the four continents featured on the original memorial.
The final piece, Penetralia, by Jang-Oh Hong is a series of national flags hanging from the ceiling created on clear plastic with metallic thread used to create the markings and stripes etc. of the national flags.
I'm not going to get in to what I thought the motivations of the artisits were or what I thought each piece represented, because I'll probably be very far wide of the mark It's better to make your own minds up.
Just got back from the Blur gig at Hyde Park. It was amazing! I sang along from start to finish.
Stand out track had to be 'Tender', the whole 50,000 crowd took over singing duties from Damon at one point. They played 'Death Of A Party' which is one of my personal favourite Blur tracks and finished on 'The Universal', one of my all time top songs.
Check out the Spotify playlist I've put together for tonights set.
The picture above is the first sketch of an idea for a poster I'd like to print. I thought it could be kind of interesting to chart the process of the project, from the initial rough through to the final screen printed poster (plus doing this will also act as motivation for me not give up half way through!)
My drawing is based on my blog header image, but was influenced by an illustration by Federico Rodriguez Morice for Threadless.
I love the impact the mass of hair has in Federico's image, which is what I hope to replicate; a sort of hirsute assault, an all beard/no face kind of look, so that maybe you'll have to look twice to fully identify what the image is.
I hope to have the completed design screen printed by the autumn, so wish me luck.
My first ever album was 'Bad'. I got it for my eighth birthday. I loved it (still do), I mean 'Another Part Of Me', 'Man In The Mirror' and 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You' could well be the best three consecutive songs on an album ever, right?
So anyway, I still have a soft spot for Jacko, despite all the bazaar behaviour and disturbing allegations over the years, and I'm glad to see that many people have been positive in their reaction to his death. I'm sure that Friday's mass moonwalk at Liverpool Street and the DJ at the Secret Blisters playing his hits on Friday night will be the first of many tributes for him.
The picture above, taken on Friday evening, is the Screen on the Green cinema in Islington.
Last night I made it down to Print Club's Secret Blisters event. The concept; 35 artists designs had been selected and printed in limited edition runs of 35 and were on sale for £35. The secret part of the shows name comes from the artists name not being put with their print, so that people are buying on the merit of the design, rather than an artists reputation.
It was held in the MC Motors space just down the alley from Print Club's studio, which was aesthetically the perfect space for the show and big enough to hold the hundreds of people that had turned up.
Of the 35 posters on show there were some really great designs, which made it pretty hard to pick one to buy (I would like to have got more, but hey, there's a recession don't you know). In the end we decided on number 30, a really cool print of a piano with Nina Simone lyrics hand drawn on to it (see picture above). Though, due to the secret nature of this years Blister event, I'm not sure who printed it yet.*
It was a great night, make it down to Print Club's next show and maybe even give it a shot at getting your design in to 2010's blisters exhibition.
*Just found out that the artist responsible for the fine print I purchased was in fact Anthony Peters. (The signature on the poster was a tad hard to make out in case you're wondering why it took me so long)!
Here are some pictures that I took when I was in New York earlier this year.
My girlfriend and I were staying on Broome Street, just on the edge of the Lower East Side. The walls of the buildings in that part of Manhattan were covered in fly posters, stickers and graffiti - which I think looks great and creates a kind of street art collage as it builds up.
These pictures were taken on the Bowery and along Rivington Street and the streets that come off it.
Ps. If you happen to find yourself in this area, make sure you check out Freemans, maybe the coolest restaurant I've ever eaten at. It's tucked away down Freemans Alley off Rivington St, but it's well worth hunting for - the slow cooked pork is to die for and the taxidermy decor is amazing).
Saturday saw me finally take the plunge and get down to the Print Club in Dalston. Since seeing one of their posters up in Rough Trade early last year I've wanted to go there and get my hands inky and I'm really glad I finally made it.
Print Club offer a crash course in screen printing for anyone who is interested in giving it a go. In one day they will take you through the whole process - from your hand scribbled illustration to preparing your screen through to printing your design.
It was a really fun day. I had collaborated with my beloved on an illustration and to see it go from an idea in our heads to printing multiple copies of it was an extremely rewarding experience, helped by the friendly instructors and the other students being pretty cool too.
You can see the finished print, which is titled 'The Pursuit Of Hirsute', above.
After a six month hiatus I've decided to get Full Beard back on the road. Check back soon for new posts.
