Found these from my time in the printers at the Victorian museum in Blists Hill. The second is Victorian Lamination i.e. dipped in a big vat o' wax. It gives a beautifully see through quality and sets the ink instantly. I long for the olden days sometimes.
Own It
I went to a lecture on the 23rd at the LCC on the could-be-boring topic of copyright and infringement. I turned up because some sweet dudes were talking: A lawyer (whose name i forget, apologies), Michael Johnson of Johnson Banks, Paul (i think Brazier) from AMV BBDO, and Kjell Ekhorn of Non-Format fame. Incidentally Kjell is one of my favourite guys ever- I've loved his work like most for, years but he talked with intelligence, conviction and wit too- good guy. Actually all were, especially Paul who was great to listen to and, whilst described (in a negative way) by the MC Michael Johnson as an Ad-Man, he spoke more like an academic, despite obviously being a highly competent practitioner- i think that's how i want to be. Anyway the subject predictably wasn't bland and shit and moved rapidly from copyrighting to cliche, pop-culture, originality and working practice. Really interesting stuff- thought I'd note down as much for myself, some of the notes i made. Start with what you don't want and work with the opposite. (i.e. for a boat company don't draw a boat) - Originality. Originate. - Looking. Appreciation. Regurgitation. - Graphic design is Craft. - Make your own voice / language. - Culture as language = style as language. - the problem occurs if you copy the current style (or does it become a movement?), no-one would stop you copying modernism. - rip off pop-culture and make it your own. - "when we feel we're in a crowded space, we just move on." (Kjell Ekhorn on Non-Format's style. - We're all one big studio.
Hair Trimmer
Had to photo this amazingly preserved product, enjoy.
Tate Liverpool
I went to see the Gustav Klimmt exhibition at Tate Liverpool and whilst i have to confess to not being that into Klimmt, the other exhibition : a mini retrospective of 'contemporary' art, was sweet. There were examples from loads of chill dudes, from Andy Warhol to Sarah Lucas (i know that isn't all art or whatever but it was a good selection i thought.) Anywho, the best thing was that the Tate encourages kids to draw the arts and stuff. It has guys handing out paper and crayons and then collecting drawings from the kids and it was great watching the guy recieve their submissions "oh what a brilliant Mondrian." to the kids with squares and red, and to everyone elses incomprehensible squiggles "Is that a Pollock?". Priceless.
Jo's Chair
Another make over for a manky library chair. This time for my beautiful girlfriend. It's a hectic typographic, lady mag mess.
Screws not Glues
I guess this is a shout out to micky p's blog times. He showed me a manifesto and this title stuck and it kicks my ass and sounds like the start of an awesome project or something- i thought as it had hung around in my head for like 4 months or something it might be worth saying again. I like the things it conjures up especially maintainability, modularity, sustainability and the idea of user dictated design and/or making.
Fontstruct!
I found this website/tool recently, its only been around for a couple of months so i feel I'm riding a new typographic wave. It is seriously kicking my ass. You can make modular fonts rapidly in a web browser and share and download them. It's a great piece of equipment for a designer who's had loads of font ideas hanging around waiting to be made. I'm not sure as to it's true potential- at worst it's the best procrastination device ever- at best it enables designers to effectively, creatively and cheaply create fonts that can be used. I can see it being a fantastic thing for schools: it is so simple and quick that it could help inspire a passion for type in 'the next generation' of designers. Overall you should check it out- it's something a bit special. http://fontstruct.fontshop.com/
Berlin
I came back from the Berlin 'DMY' Design Festival with a few of realisations: helvetica is beautiful, German words- i.e. lösswasserspeisung are fantastic- so long and so much fun to say- i might start joining words up more often, and the notion of celebrity design, and designers is whack: Tom Dixon exhibited and Karim Rashid spoke at the Bombay Sapphire Gallery and both made me shiver in a bad way. Berlin is different to any other city I've been to. It doesn't seem to have a distinctive heart, there were some roads that had more stuff on than others but still it was easy to walk miles without much happening. It did however, make for a very relaxed atmosphere and the space itself was really open, wide roads and spaced out buildings etc.
The design festival was a bit underwhelming to be honest but the each bars, sweet book/print shop, tiny galleries and cheap tasty falafel made up for it. It was nice to be out and about but it made me glad that i was in London- design wise it doesn't get much better.
