Me & You & Graphic Design

No Wave

2011-01-11T23:41:00.002Z

Might turn this blog into just a broadcasting station

http://bp2.blogger.com/_-LvJQKf6B5U/RobHqPzaJaI/AAAAAAAAAds/s3verZzZ7Uw/s1600-h/tjesus.jpeg

Thursday night chill

2011-01-07T00:07:00.003Z

everybody be cool

2010 in review

2010-12-30T21:26:00.002Z

My Favourite Records Released in 2010:

Pantha Du Prince — "black noise"

Toro Y Moi — "causers of this"

Joanna Newsom — "have one on me"

Arcade Fire — "the suburbs"

Vampire Weekend — "contra"

Caribou — "swim"

Foxes In Fiction — "swung from the branches"

No Age — "everything in between"

The Strange Boys — "be brave"

Seapony — "dreaming b/w late summer" 7"

Best Coast — "crazy for you"

Beach House — "teen dream"

LCD Soundsystem — "this is happening"

Memoryhouse — "The Years EP"

Washed Out "Life of Leisure EP"

Thee Oh Sees "warm slime"

Deerhunter — "halcyon digest"

Flying Lotus — "cosmogramma"

Favourite records this year that didnt come out this year:

Shonen Knife — "burning farm" (1983)

Boredoms — "super ae" (1998)

Fela Kuti — "expensive shit" (1975)

Bob Dylan — "bringing it all back home" (1965)

Tom Waits — "swordfishtrombones" (1983)

Dara Puspita 1966-1968 compilation

The Germs — GI (1979)

The Wedding Present — george best (1987)

Half Japanese — sing no evil (1985)

Favourite record shops of 2010:

Mono, Glasgow

Jackpot, Portland

Amoeba, San Francisco

Rough Trade, London

Things that happened:

Was invited to become a member of The International Society of Typographic Designers.

Left Art School forever and moved back to my beloved London (see you later, suckers).

Road tripped from Vancouver to Seattle to Portland to San Francisco.

Lived for a bit in Stockholm, had the time of my life, spent tons of money, hung out with the Snask boys and then made two incredible new friends by the way of Emmelie Quartin and Klara Modighl. Also got to spend time with my dear Sofie Lundqvist (now working at Amore)

Went to Berlin with my friends. Stayed in a beautiful flat, partied a lot, and had my mind absolutely blown by the Judische Museum and Bauhaus Archiv.

Worked for a few weeks in Sunny Brighton at Red Design.

Hooked up with my loving new family at Campbell Hay.

Graduated from University.

Went to the grove and saw the Arsenal slaughter Chelsea 3 - 1.

Snow.

Drank beer.

Things that shouldn't have happened:

Financial crisis and graduate oversaturation meant that even getting a reply to an email from a potential employer was/is next to impossible.

Nick Clegg.

My cat died.

Could not afford to have my own flat.

In conclusion, i award 2010 a 20/10.

See you in 2011!

Friday night

2010-12-10T22:34:00.002Z

Chill

2010-10-15T00:11:00.002+01:00

Yes! Here it is! The predictable "sorry ive not posted anything in ages wah wah wah" post that inevitably rears its ugly head on blogs across the interweb every couple of weeks. The most common excuse ("I'VE BEEN BUSY") - is the one that I will pluck for this time around not least because it is largely true. I am currently with a studio in shoreditch and am absolutely head over heels with it. It is a fun place, I work with incredible, hilarious people and I get to do great jobs. What more can i ask for? Oh yeah thats right nothing.

Hopefully I will have some new work to show soon from gig posters to wedding dresses to alpine retreats, as well as a new portfolio (printed and online) and an impending move to tumblr which should allow my blogging to become more fluid and frequent. In the mean time, sample the chilled delights of Small Black's new tune "photojournalist". They're EP from a little while back was enjoyable but this is much slicker.

Stay classy, Internet.

Glorious

2010-09-28T21:09:00.000+01:00

The Sand Band

2010-09-13T22:14:00.003+01:00

Was invited by glittering acoustic Liverpudlians The Sand Band (good name for a band) to do the poster for their record release party. I had previously done a poster for Holy Are You with them on the bill aaaaages ago, and I guess they remembered it. The cherry on the cake is that they're actually really quite good — and great to listen to late at night when you're designing posters by lamp light. As is the bright eyed Jack Joseph, gently strumming on his acoustic guitar, who is one of the support acts for the night (and coincidentally, will be playing much closer to home in Finsbury Park the week after next). Anyway if you're in Liverpool on the 16th of October get to The Static Gallery to treat your ears and get your mitts on a copy of their respective records.

SO, SO GOOD

2010-09-02T23:54:00.001+01:00

The Wilderness Downtown

2010-09-01T21:54:00.003+01:00

Well worth taking a couple of minutes to do this actually slightly moving little bit of video / interactive / web design. You do need to shut down all apps and other web tabs in order for it to work as it does bleed your processor dry (I hate myself for typing that sentence).

Also if you've not got it yet, get "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire, its absolutely phenomenal. It's so good it almost makes me want to listen to "Neon Bible" again.

North America

2010-08-31T23:31:00.003+01:00

For the past two weeks I have been road trippin' down the west coast of North America, starting in Vancouver, Canada (where my brother lives) and taking in the sights of Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon, Crescent City, California, San Jose, Big Sur, San Luis Obispo and finally rounding things up in San Francisco. I don't think i've ever had so much fun solidly for two weeks in my entire life before. Neither have I seen so many great things, met so many cool people, eaten so many insane meals, drank so many delicious beers and had so many great conversations. I also got to get a bit over excited when returning to Amoeba Music in San Francisco, my favourite record shop in the whole world (conicendentally, it's also the best. Weird huh?). Jackpot Records in Portland also impressed. I also saw trees so large they struck awe into my heart and made me feel like just a puny bug on the face of the planet, ate burritos the size of babies, chilled on epic californian coast lines, stayed in the greatest hotel I have ever stayed in (the Madonna Inn, search it in google images. There is not a trace of irony about this place, and that is why it is so perfect), saw the San Franciso Giants win at the baseball, learnt how beer is made, ate pancakes for breakfast, saw Terry Richardson in the worlds biggest book shop, kept Portland weird, and loved every single damn minute of it.

My brother, who is a bit of a hippie, has got the right idea: live your life right now and enjoy every single moment. Don't fret the future, don't sweat all the small stuff and always have an adventure. That sounds like good advice to me.

In other news I will be with the good people of CampbellHay for the next three months. Rarely do you meet such a fine group of young ladies and gents, including two frenchmen.

More soon.

Strange

2010-08-31T23:28:00.001+01:00

double bill

2010-07-22T22:13:00.001+01:00

Listen to these two songs one after another, in this order, to make everything feel aligned in your life.

The Damned

2010-07-18T00:09:00.008+01:00

I had another opportunity to work with the guys and girls of The Brickyard this week. I was commissioned for the poster for none other than The Damned. I have loved their (first) album "Damned Damned Damned" for a long time. Did you know that The Damned are the first uk punk band to ever release an album ("Damned Damned Damned", in 1977), a single ("Neat Neat Neat" b/w "New Rose", I believe, please correct me if I am wrong), and to tour America ("USA, USA, USA"). True story. Good work, The Damned! I once had to decide whether or not to buy an original copy of the "Damned Damned Damned" LP or "Inflammable Material" by Stiff Little Fingers. I chose Stiff Little Fingers. Needless to say, it was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever been forced to make.

After spending quite some time photoshopping in the shadows on the woman's dress and the bow on her chest I am rather craving doing something clean and typographic soon. I feel like i've been cheating on my love affair with Helvetica for a while now.

Anyway if you are in Carlisle around the 11th of August it's a definite must that you should shell out the £18 to catch some classic punk tunes and spooky vibes with The Damned. Watch this if you don't believe me:

(or go here for a three song, cooler version)

Roman Cieślewicz

2010-07-17T22:35:00.003+01:00

(above image taken from Life website, thanks Life website!)

Nothing is new is a tireless adage.

Polish graphic designer and art director Roman Cieslewicz (b.1930-d.1996) managed to achieve almost everything visually I have ever tried to do, some 20 years before I was even born.

The work of many design icons/iconoclasts (and almost every single gig poster ever made) - from Brody to Victore to Reid to Kruger to Chantry - probably would not even exist without Cieslewicz having paved the way for proto-postmodern design during the mid 50s and 60s. By surrounding himself with artists (often surrealists) yet remaining grounded in graphics and dedicated to the beauty of print, Cieslewicz was able to take diverse influences and put them through his own visual blender, creating design for cultural industries and institutions that was keen to shake cages and ruffle feathers. However, what separates Cieslewicz from any of the (phenomenal) designers and art directors mentioned above is his timing. Brody, Victore, Reid, Kruger and Chantry are products of postmodernism: spinning punk 7"s or kicking against consumerism to carve out their art, Cieslewicz generated design that did these things before they were even thought of.

You can see the Roman Cieslewicz exhibition at the Royal College of Art until the 7th of August. It's free, so you would have to be literally insane not to go!

(Also, I apologise for the occasionally shaky iphone photos!)

Summer

2010-07-07T23:06:00.005+01:00

jaime & sam

Honda

2010-06-29T20:15:00.002+01:00

Honda make great cars. Seriously, my mum drives a Jazz, and I can tell you as a passenger I have never before had such a comfortable experience. Honda also make great adverts. Above is the new one for the CR-Z Hybrid and it might just be my favourite yet. Although obviously its not as good as the one where all the stuff happens (aka the best ad of all time).

Targeted Advertising.

2010-06-29T19:45:00.003+01:00

HOW DO THEY KNOW?! HOW?!

Musical Interlude: Beach Fossils "the horse"

2010-06-23T13:51:00.003+01:00

Great band, great label (captured tracks), great song, great to listen to wearing shorts. Great subtle little hand clap/snare fill. Great!

Vivian Girls on Tunnelvision (via Pitchfork.tv)

2010-06-19T14:36:00.000+01:00

Portfolio

2010-06-19T14:22:00.002+01:00

Oh right yeah, I nearly forgot. I have a portfolio site up. Check it out here

Ewen Spencer

2010-06-19T14:12:00.001+01:00

Great photos by a great guy. Great website by a great studio!

A Heroine

2010-06-19T13:56:00.003+01:00

This is Maria. She is a feminist. She knows what she likes, and she knows what she hates. She is funny. She just got a job in Stockholm. I love you, Maria.

Work: Holy Are You

2010-06-09T17:28:00.002+01:00

detail

Detail view of typography

Continuing my collaboration with the psychedelic wild boys of Holy Are You I have created the new poster for the Elephant Stone and The Lucid Dream show they're putting on at The Source Arts Cafe on the 3rd of July, which will no doubt be a foot stomping night of all things psychedelic and soul. Chris usually supplies me with an image that he wants to use on the poster, and this time it was of Mr George Harrison and Mr Ravi Shankar.

work!: UK SUBS

2010-06-05T17:50:00.000+01:00

punks not dead!

yes kubrick

2010-06-05T17:41:00.002+01:00

NEW WORK! deerhunter

2010-06-02T00:07:00.002+01:00

I'm sorry I've not posted anything, either writing or images, properly for quite a long time now. This also includes a total neglect to make any posts whilst during my time at the fantastic Red in Brighton. University is nearly finished and what with all the different things I have to take care of and the mounting pressures of reality, I've been finding it hard to find time, and in some cases, the motivation to write any posts of significance, and for that, i apologise. To make it up to you, here is a poster I whipped up for a deerhunter show. As of NOW, I promise more posts and more work, all the time! Including my new portfolio site, photos from our upcoming exhibition, a few live briefs, and no doubt tons of music.

London

2010-05-24T00:31:00.001+01:00

home!

(well, not Battersea specifically but whatever.)

(also taken on my iphone, would you believe it)

Musical interlude: Bowerbirds "northern lights"

2010-05-20T23:46:00.002+01:00

Sorry for no blog posts in a while. No time.

Books update

2010-05-16T14:01:00.004+01:00

Contrary to popular belief, i am selling books and not hot cakes! The following have been sold:

Profile: Pentagram

The Picture Book

Creativity for Graphic Designers

MIA

Design It Yourself

Graphics Alive

influences

But that means there is still tons of really good stuff left, make sure you get it before its gone!

BOOKS FOR SALE!

2010-05-08T23:24:00.003+01:00

As every member of BA (Hons) Graphic Design Yr3 classes up and down the country the end is very much in sight. Within 2 weeks the ladies and gentlemen in my class will be handing in all of their final projects and then cracking open some drinks in celebration. We can't spend all our time now patting each other on the back and telling everyone we love them and we're going to miss them. Soon the real world will be knocking on the door and in order to stop my real world experience not being one of "living on the streets" I have decided to sell some of my collection of design, illustration, art and photography books. There is tons of really great stuff here and I 100% gaurantee i am not trying to get rid of any books just because they suck, but purely because I feel that there are others who will appreciate them a lot more than I do.

To view the above poster at a legible size please click here, or better yet download the .pdf by going here (mediafire link).

If you're interested in any of the titles please please dont hesitate to get in touch via email, phone, facebook, face to face conversation or however you see fit. Cash or cheque preferred!

Paul Blow

2010-04-29T21:47:00.002+01:00

I was reminded of the work of illustrator Paul Blow today. I love it. Take a closer look on his website here

MISTD

2010-04-23T17:13:00.007+01:00

Today I received an email confirming that I had passed the entrance competition to become a member of the mysterious elite group The International Society of Typographic Designers (more commonly referred to simply as ISTD). This means I am officially now able to put MISTD after my name on my business card. I've never felt so important! It's fair to say that i'm pleased! I would also like to congratulate the other fantastic designers and good friends who got in also. We are invited to the formal awards ceremony in June, which is going to be held at the secret ISTD super hq, inside the main volcanic lava pit of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland. Exciting!

You can view photos, and read about the project I entered by clicking here

Snask sweet Snask

2010-04-21T12:01:00.004+01:00

Today is the last day of Snask. This is a dark day. It might not yet be my last day in Stockholm however as even though UK airspace is open again, and the Swedes seem pretty relaxed about it, it would appear that many flights to London from Stockholm are still totally fucked. FINE BY ME! I love Stockholm and I think I might just make it my home instead of going back to London.

Yesterday was the final day of the Malmofestivalen photoshoot. There was a real live parrot on the set (or "pappagoya" in Swedish). My job was basically to float a purple balloon on a stick at it which really pissed it off. I think parrots (along with ostriches, probably my least favourite animal) are quite scary even when they are in a good mood. The photos look incredible though so its totally worth the jungle fear. To get home i rode in the back of the van with Axel and Hanna. We felt like illegal immigrants, sitting on bags of trash in the dark, wondering when were going to get home. Of course, i was genuinely wondering when/how I was going to get home. Let's hope never! I love you, Snask!

Day ?: Snask Vs. Super Volcano

2010-04-19T22:18:00.006+01:00

Oskar och Axel

Sorry for not updating for a while!

Here is a list of things i have learnt recently:

- All doors in Stockholm are really, really heavy and open the opposite way you expect

- A lot of people spit on the street here, including fancy looking girls

- Saying "tjena" is cooler than saying "hej"

- Argentinians in hostels are obnoxious, germans are smug, and poles are peculiar.

- The shop Weekday is incredible

- Sodermalm is where i want to live

- Volcanoes are fucking cool

- If you're a tiny bit brave (but nowhere near as brave as you need to be in London) you can ride the metro for free.

- Everyone in Sweden is good looking, even the ugly people

- People LOVE whining about volcanoes, when in reality they should be rejoicing that they are FORCED to take a longer holiday

- Swedes drink an unreal amount of coffee

- Helvetica Neue is so last year. Helvetica Neue LT Std is the real deal. (especially 85 heavy)

- Spray paint is fun but gets all over your shit

- Freddie, Magnus, Erik, Michael, Jens, Axel, Oskar, Daniel, Hanna, Klara & Emilie are unbelievable and i love everyone. (i make myself sick)

- Pet Sounds in Sodermalm is probably going to feature in my top 5 record shops of all time. Apparently its Quentin Tarantino's number one.

In other news, there is some chance my flight on thursday will be cancelled. Fingers crossed! I love being here!

Snask off!

Day 7: Snask down, Snask to go

2010-04-13T21:12:00.005+01:00

Another day, another dollar/red furry horse being made. (Horse-manufacturer: Hanna, my lovely co-intern.)

Can you believe I have been in Stockholm for one week tonight? You can? Weird, because I can't. Time flies, as they say, when you're having fun. Today I think i learnt more in ten minutes than I have in the past year. I wish I was kidding. It fried my brain so i had to go home from the studio, but tomorrow i will be going at it full-tilt. Tack så mycket Freddie!

After I left the studio i bought some stuff in the incredible Weekday (its so good its good we don't have it, because British people would ruin it) and then i asked the incredible Clara where to go for an adventure this evening. She seemed keen I go drinking on my own (?), although after some discussion she decided it would be better if i went and checked out some attractive Swedish architecture. She was right. Tack så mycket Clara!

The only thing i can believe less than the fact that i have been here a full week already is the fact that i am yet to make a swedish themed "musical interlude" post. OH WAIT! Love Is All "Sea sick" - such an underrated band. Sweden (and most of scandinavia) produces some of the best pop and indie pop in the world.

Day 4, 5 & 6: Tired & frustrated. Am I a designer yet?

2010-04-11T21:55:00.003+01:00

Wig, model's own.

Friday marked my first weekend in Stockholm! So logically I decided to catch the train out of Stockholm C to the very small little village of Knivsta to visit my good friend Sofie. Knivsta translates, literally, as Knifetown. There are ghettos in Hackney which don't even get nicknamed Knifetown. Needless to say it was very quiet and everyone was very friendly and stabbing each other was probably the last thing on their minds. Saturday night we went to Uppsala to party and hand a grand old time. Uppsala will always have an awesome, drunk little place in my heart ever since I visited last summer.

In the UK when you have a hangover you eat fried food, puke and watch shitty TV all day long. In sweden you eat waffles and visit tiny little villages (Sigtuna) which people used to write fairy stories about then hang out next to a frozen lake. This is reason No. 14356 why Sweden is way better than the UK.

Today i have been continuing my work on the Teaterhogskolen project. I got frustrated and decided to abandon some of my ideas and take a fresh perspective and i think that that was definitely a wise move. Hopefully i can get it covered tomorrow and move on to something else. This frustration is something that me (and everyone else no doubt) has experienced countless times at the university studio, however experiencing in "real life" certainly puts it into perspective. Especially when you've seen the invoice for what you've been doing.

Day 2 & 3: Roses are red, violets are Snask.

2010-04-08T18:37:00.009+01:00

Pluto (shh don't tell anyone)

Snask translates as "candy". It also translates as sexy, trashy filth.

I picked up the (huge fucking) coffee delivery when everyone was out to lunch.

Yesterday was quite a quiet day helping Mike come up with ideas for the Malmofestivalen films. This was fun, but i have never done anything remotely animated before and Mike is basically a pro, so i think my role was mostly moral support. Hanna's job was to read "tellmewhy" by KarlssonWilker (a classic, and judging by the amazon marketplace value, also a design antique). When all of this hard work was done, it was time to drink beer and play ps3 on the huge fucking projector wall. I was introduced to Oskar, who is great, and makes music videos and adverts. For nearly two whole days he thought I was a client and not an intern. Thanks Oskar! It is safe to say that life at Snask is pretty sweet. We then rode the subway, ate some burgers and went to Pluto, which is a top secret members only kind of bar/venue to see Erik's friend's band, who were actually pretty good, especially if you like Can, Liquid Liquid, Silver Apples or LCD Soundsystem etc. Erik agreed with me that "Washing Machine" by Sonic Youth is their best record (we're right).

Today Freddie passed me my own brief, designing a poster for Teaterhögskolan in Stockholm. The poster is for a sort of drama class for the homosexual society, or something along those lines. More on that soon!

Snask off!

Day 1: Snask Down

2010-04-06T19:01:00.004+01:00

Today was day 1 at wonderful Snask in Stockholm. Above is a sly photo i took and as you can see everyone is hard at work. I met some really, really awesome people today, not all of whos names I can remember, but some of which are called: Freddie, Michael, Hanna, Erik, Magnus and Daniel. Right now Snask is working on this years identity system for Malmo Festival, and me and Michael (the super-intern) have been assigned the top secret mission of coming up with ideas for some short films for the festival. I will say no more (otherwise Magnus will kill me in my sleep) but i will say that Michael clearly knows what he is doing, not least because he did this:

SNASK from Mike Crozier on Vimeo.

Needless to say, i am pretty damn excited to be onboard.

Snask's Away!

2010-04-04T22:52:00.002+01:00

Tomorrow i am going to be flying to Stockholm. Tuesday is day one interning with the nobel prize winning international playboys at Snask in sunny/snowy Stockholm. It is going to be a great two weeks of not sleeping, being terrified, excited, confused, overjoyed and worried, often all at the same time. But, as the ancient Scandinavian proverb goes "if you're not tired, terrified, excited, confused, overyjoyed and worried all at the same time, what are you? some kind of god damn sissy?". I carry that proverb with me wherever I go. Snask's away!

Musical Interlude: Memoryhouse "Lately (Deuxième)"

2010-04-01T11:15:00.002+01:00

Memoryhouse - Lately from Jamie Harley on Vimeo.

I am currently obsessed with this song and this band. You may recognise the sample from "phonecall" by Jon Brion aka that really pretty song from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack. If not, i highly recommend you get familiar with it!

Also, why is vimeo not more ubiquitous?

New Work!: One night, two gigs, two posters.

2010-03-30T00:02:00.005+01:00

The Lucid Dream & Black Market Karma at The Source

Vivian Girls & German Measles at the Brooklyn Bowl

Pow! Right in the kisser! In one night i managed to do two posters and i'm pretty pleased with that. The top image is for The Lucid Dream & Black Market Karma gig at The Source in may (put on by the good people of Holy Are You) and the second is for the Vivian Girls gig at the Brooklyn Bowl which was actually last night. The idea behind that poster is a sort of punk-meets-cops-meets-stalker clippings collected about the mysterious behaviour of a mysterious band. I also wanted this one to be deliberately a little on the experimental side. If you click here to view the large size image on my Flickr you can read the copy and hilarious jokes i added in. I enjoyed getting a chance to go back and do some of my lo-fi punk and psych influenced work that i've not really done much of for a while now (a post about two great designers in that area will be coming soon, hold tight!)

The details for the Holy Are You gig are:

Holy Are You presents:

The Lucid Dream

Black Market Karma

Plus Holy Are You DJs playing a velvet evening of mind expanding, foot stomping psychedelia.

Saturday 8th May

8pm - 1am

The Source Arts Cafe, Nelson St, Carlisle

£5 on the door

www.myspace.com/holyareyoucarlisle

get yourselves down there, it'll be a lot of fun. Besides The Source is a massively underrated and overlooked place to hang out!

some Mac icons circa 1985

2010-03-26T10:16:00.002Z

!!!

2010-03-25T17:59:00.002Z

Untitled, 1988 by Bernard Voïta

2010-03-24T22:50:00.001Z

Nice one, Bernard.

Musical Interlude: The Besnard Lakes "albatross"

2010-03-24T02:06:00.003Z

Absolutely phenomenal and criminally underrated band, The Besnard Lakes, have a song from their new album "the besnard lakes are the roaring night" available for free on itunes. It's called "albatross". It's a slightly slow burner, but once it connects, damn is it good.

Work: Saison De La Nouvelle Vague Au Le PCC

2010-03-22T15:42:00.003Z

detail of print

Poster series for a french new wave film festival at the PCC cinema. Bon bon!

Gordon

2010-03-19T22:47:00.002Z

My house mate gordon is the man. Seriously. I can hear him doing the washing up right now and he is half signing half rambling to himself and it sounds a bit like he is possibly pretending to be the vampire from the muppets. If you don't believe me, check out the photo i took of him above. Proof.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T14:40:00.004Z

T: "Mine's a pint of the black stuff"

M: "...you can't drink a pint of bovril."

Birds & Bee

2010-03-16T20:40:00.003Z

Here is a little letterpressed type a made a couple of weeks ago but only just remembered about. If you've not already i hiiigghhllyyy recommend that you go down to Caldewgate and hang out with Smiling Alan and use the print making facilities down there. It also a much better fine art silk screen printing facility than what is available at Brampton, which is much better suited to textile printing. Speaking of printmaking, get this book, you wont be disappointed, it teaches a hell of a lot and is an awesome reference:

Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes

Logorama!

2010-03-16T19:43:00.004Z

Watch the Oscar winning 15 minute short film "Logorama" at the link below. It'll make you think, and/or bring a wry smile to your face, i promise. Definitely worth your time!

Logorama

New Work: The Secret History of Free Market Capitalism

2010-03-15T20:31:00.006Z

A 28 page booklet printed on newsprint for the ISTD Student Awards 2010. I chose to work on the brief simply titled "Imbalance". Fingers crossed I pass and win membership! Part of the entrance criteria is a "strategy" (aka, explanation) of what you have done and why. Read mine below:

(Warning, its about 700 words long)

"As designers we are gifted with skills and opportunities that allow us to communicate with a great number of people. This gift should not just be confined to projecting brand values or persuading consumers to purchase products, but instead to give everyone the possibility to engage with politics, thought, debate and ideology. Design with a conscience is key to a progressive society and culture – a society that is always aware and always questioning the institutions and regimes that are trying to influence, control or oppress us.

“The Secret History of Free Market Capitalism” is based around “The Shock Doctrine”, a book and short film by Naomi Klein & Alfonso Cuaron. Klein is a highly regarded left wing political writer who often engages with topics such as consumerism and globalisation. “The Shock Doctrine” deals with what she describes as “disaster capitalism” – an economic policy of exploiting human suffering (through wars, natural disasters, massacres, coups etc) to implement free market economies on to societies whilst they are in a state of shock – allowing right wing and emphatically capitalist governments to reap the financial benefits. Inevitably, great divides and imbalances between the wealthy and the poor are created, highlighted by fissures of death, violence and suffering. I wanted to promote Klein’s perspectives and criticisms of these policies, as well as the serious issues and largely overlooked facts that she draws attention to.

“The Secret History of Free Market Capitalism” is fundamentally based on the short film version of “The Shock Doctrine” which is highly succinct and straight forward with its presentation of the facts and ideas that Klein discusses. I feel it is important to offer people who may not have any knowledge or prior interest in economics or politics, relatively short, interesting and easy to digest pieces of information which do not patronise the reader, but also do not require a great deal of knowledge on the subject to gain their attention. Politics, education and information are important and should be accessible for everyone – and that is the fundamental intention of “The Shock Doctrine” and therefore “The Secret History of Free Market Capitalism”: to inform, to educate, to create discussion and to create thought.

For the design of the booklet I took influence from newspapers and inexpensive, easily distributed political posters and pamphlets, their “lo-fi” production and cheap printing methods – referencing them through matt paper, headline style display type and images with heavy halftone dots applied. It was also important to reflect the stark, bold and serious nature of the topics discussed in the copy, shown through my choice of the bold, austere condensed typeface, Trade Gothic Condensed No. 20. For copy I chose to use Aksidenz Grotesque regular, complimenting Trade Gothic with its clean neutrality, but also acting as an attractive replacement for the often over-used Helvetica. Trixie, a typeface designed to look like the letters printed by an old typewriter, was also used in small sections of copy which are quotes from CIA interrogation handbooks published during the early 1960s. Horizontal lines are used throughout the spreads of the book as a graphic device to help create structure within the pages, but also to add an element of discomfort and dissonance, in particular on pages 2, 3, 7 and 10 where they collide with the text and do not comply with the grid formatting used on the columns of type. Their vertical placement down the columns of type is also used to allude to missing sections of the CIA manuals the quotes are from, as if there is even more to the story than what is being presented here – hinting back to the secrecy suggested in the title. This device is also used on pages 5 and 4 where the display type scrolls off the top and bottom of the pages, suggesting that the list of torture methods is far longer than what has been shown on the page. The book is essentially split into three sections: the first, between pages 2 and 13 act as the “Set up” of what the book is about, explaining the details, ideas, economic perspectives and theories about free market capitalism. The second section, spreads between pages 14 and 23, act in contrast to the controlled and collected style of the first section, communicating the facts and realities of the disaster that capitalism has exploited with much more vigour and energy. These spreads are designed to be loud and immediately engaging. The final, and shortest section (pages 24-27) is a deliberate and sharp jump from the noise of the spreads that come before, creating a sudden return to silence, emphasising the shocking and harsh content dealt with in the previous section."

and here is the short film that the entire project was based on (highly recommended viewing):

Musical Interlude: King Khan & The Shrines "Welfare Bread" (live at SXSW)

2010-03-13T18:18:00.001Z

If this video doesn't make you want to party, then you're dead inside/dead to me (same thing)

Ian Mackaye

2010-03-06T15:40:00.003Z

Everyone knows that Ian Mackaye is the man. Seriously. But did you know that he is also really good at creating hilarious facial expressions in response to really dumb questions relating to Minor Threat and hardcore punk? 24 seconds is particularly good.

Thanks to Alex aka Jesus Beard

New Work: Summer Exhibition 2010

2010-03-05T16:34:00.004Z

Poster, private and general view invitations and signage system for the University of Cumbria Summer Exhibition 2010. This is a live competition brief, and a few people have entered: prize is £100 (i am totally gonna blow it all on stuff i dont need) and obviously they then use your work to promote the exhibition which would be pretty neat. I am pleased with what I've produced, not least because i did it all in one day. So tired now though.

To view the invitations and signage please check out my flickr! (the images are too wide to fit on here unfortunately)

Musical Interlude: The Strange Boys "be brave"

2010-03-03T21:36:00.001Z

one of my favourite bands right now, garage rocking, country-fied goodness. This is a hell of a song to drink a beer to.

The Digital Economy Bill

2010-03-01T19:41:00.002Z

Incase you havnt heard already, The Digital Economy Bill is being forced through and should be law, unamended by may the 6th. It will rob EVERYONE of their copyright over any image they choose to publish online and will also prevent people from taking photographs in many public places. Much like "Section 44" (which allows the police to stop, search, harass and arrest pretty much whoever they like by accusing them of being a terrorist) it will hand powers over to people who do not deserve it and who will not use it fairly or rightly. It is a disgrace and an insult. Maybe we will see some kind of neo-luddite internet exodus in the near future. That would be beautiful.

RIP flickr!

London Shop Fronts

2010-02-27T22:37:00.005Z

Come on in!

This photoblog of London shop fronts makes me sentimental and warm and fuzzy. Although most of the photos are taken in east or south london. I spit on east or south London. Everyone knows north London is the best of the Londons.

Enjoy procrastinating to this one!

London Shop Fronts

Fun fun fun in the number one place for fun

2010-02-26T00:14:00.005Z

Just thought id quickly mention that me and the one and only Tony Moore (no regrets) will be taking over and playing lots of awesome records tomorrow night at The Brickyard, so if you're in Carlisle please please come down and have some fun and maybe drink a load of jagerbombs then puke outside or something. We promise to play atleast one song about trans-genderism, at least one song about taking LSD and looking at a girls boobs and at least one song about being so high you forget its christmas eve.

p.s it's free entry before 11

UPDATE: tony will play at least one song that contains reference to a microwave oven

Copyright, right?

2010-02-17T00:18:00.002Z

please please please read the following:

http://www.copyrightaction.com/forum/uk-gov-nationalises-orphans-and-bans-non-consensual-photography-in-public?page=1

Musical Interlude: Beach Fossils "daydream"

2010-02-17T00:00:00.005Z

Disclaimer: the following is an obscure, geeky ramble.

Let me just take a minute to tell you about one thing: Captured Tracks. This label has been dropping hot little vinyl gems all over the shop for a while now. Beach Fossils might well just be my favourite band putting out records on this tiny little label and the above tune is a beast (although my favourite by them is probably "youth") The label has also put out records recently by The Beets, Grass Widow, Woods, Brilliant Colors, Christmas Island, Blank Dogs, Thee Oh Sees (Dog Poison LP i managed to pick up from Mono) Ganglians (a 7" with a green pyramid on the cover i cant remember the title of, also i got in Mono) Dum Dum Girls and a few others, all of which are incredible. Along side In The Red (Vivian Girls etc) aaannd maybe PPM (No Ages label, although i probably wouldn't care that much if they hadnt put out Mika Miko's records) this is probably the label i get most excited about at the momet. Sub Pop recently signed Dum Dum Girls and obviously nabbed No Age a while ago (bet they're kicking themselves Matador picked up Times New Viking though)- seeing as Sub Pop are the greatest label in the world, this can only mean good things for the delicious lo fi noise that has been gracing/abusing our ears in the late 00s and the current year.

If none of the above made any sense please ignore, if it made kind of sense but you have no clue what im talking about please google the above names aaaaaand if it made perfect sense then please come to the brickyard on the 26th for Show & Tell were me and tony will be playing lo fi garage, gangster rap and maybe a little "chillwave" whatever that is (please come even if it didnt, itll be fun!)

RIP Mr. Alexander McQueen

2010-02-11T18:02:00.002Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/11/alexander-mcqueen-dies-fashion-designer

Another shitty death for 2010. Rest in peace, sir.

New work (preview): Skoud "Dag 80" EP

2010-02-11T11:47:00.007Z

I have one again been lucky enough to work with the good people at Motive Sounds, this time on the sleeve for their latest release, which is the "Dag 80" EP by young whipper snapper and creator of exceptional electronica Skoud. The reason this is a "preview" is because the work is not actually yet finished: a die cut outer white card outer sleeve is going to be made up for the print run, which hopefully will look pretty fantastic, so more of that (and therefore the finished design) to come! The designs shown above are for a booklet which will sit inside said sleeve, along with the CD.

All photography is by me, by the way (click on the images to get a better look!)

Dissertation

2010-02-10T21:40:00.002Z

I have finished my dissertation. 5,962 words, some complicated, some confusing, some questionable, some nonsensical, but all gold. It includes (but is not restricted to) content relating to Andy Warhol, french philosophy, references to cocaine, genitil mutilation, two separate photographs of people being given blowjobs, Emigre the magazine, Emigre the type foundry, a quote from Myra Hyndly, a drawing of a vagina and some elephant dung.

Where did it all go wrong?:

Times they are a changing

2010-02-07T16:13:00.003Z

So today i signed up to twitter! You can follow me here. I never thought i would get on twitter but after some enthusiastic persuasion by a Mr. T (Moore) i took the plunge. The main benefit of this i suppose is that it will allow me to focus the content on here a lot more, making it a lot more in depth and interesting (something i've wished to do for a while now), since i can fire the ramblings and mini posts (microblogs eh?) over to twitter. Neat huh? Anyway, follow me!

I should apologise

2010-02-06T03:52:00.003Z

I am sorry, from the bottom of my heart. I have not posted any Deerhunter related content in ages and i feel that i owe to you, them, me, everyone, that i do so now. Here is a video of them playing "white ink" and a punked up version of "wash off" live in a record store. Niice.

Experimental Jetset

2010-02-06T02:16:00.002Z

Experimental Jetset are geniuses, true design with thought. Here is a very long video of a lecture of theirs, talking about their work and their influences. It is titled "Friendly Ghosts". Enjoy.

(p.s you have to skip forward about 5 minutes to get it started)

Cool

2010-02-05T17:19:00.006Z

Some cool posters by Hort for Nike. I'm not going to pretend like i know anything about basketball!

Augmented Reality

2010-02-02T11:11:00.003Z

Just wanted everyone to go over the the CR Blog today and read about/watch the video titled "An Augmented (Hyper)Reality" by Keiichi Matsuda. I think i will write a much longer post about this really soon (not only because hyperreality is one of main parts of my dissertation!)

I just called to say...

2010-01-30T00:21:00.003Z

i love you

Musical Interlude: Beach House "walk in the park"

2010-01-29T23:27:00.004Z

I love Beach House. I was a latecomer to their album "devotion" which i would absolutely recommend to anyone, especially those who like things on the dreamier end of the scale (the scale of dreaminess?). This is a new one from their freshly released album "teen dream" which i havn't got, but have absolute faith in it being amazing. (update: i got it, its amazing)

2010 is shaping up to be a pretty good year musically so far, especially in pop - Vampire Weekend, Toro Y Moi, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beach House, and its only the end of january.

Photo: Laney & Loren

2010-01-29T20:51:00.001Z

click to enlarge

Adrian Tomine

2010-01-26T21:11:00.003Z

Do you like Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware or Charles Burns? If the answer is no, please allow me to punch you in the face. If you answered "i don't know who those people are" please vacate the premises before I call security. If you answered "YES! YES! YES!" Please direct your browser to the link below.

Illustrator Adrian Tomine

Photo: Snow Day

2010-01-25T17:56:00.005Z

So you may remember that it snowed heavily recently? I have photos to prove it.

It is ON

2010-01-25T17:12:00.003Z

Teach yourself Swedish, and why the hell not.

to be continued (in swedish)!

Quote: What inspires you?

2010-01-23T19:51:00.001Z

"I'm inspired by my monthly mortgage repayment"

- Chip Kidd

Musical Interlude: Washed Out "feel it all around" (Toro Y Moi remix)

2010-01-21T23:31:00.004Z

you may remember a while back i posted the original "feel it all around" (possibly best track of 2009? mind blowing, people like to give this new thing a name like 'glo-fi'. I dont know what its supposed to be called but i know i love it) and this is the remix version by the equally fantastic Toro Y Moi. I think we will be hearing a lot more of him (as well as Washed Out) in 2010 and thats just fine by me. If the original "feel it all around" made you want to go swimming with a beautiful girl (it did, right?) then this version is the tequila sunrise at the beach bar afterwards (drinking then swimming is unsafe, kids). Imagine "something about us" by Daft Punk meets 'caught up" by Metro Area. Big words, i know.

Photo: Lucy

2010-01-21T20:30:00.003Z

New (old) Work: Indian Tiger

2010-01-20T20:21:00.002Z

An illustration of an angry Indian tiger done a few months back for a project about a man's travels through India.

100 Free Geometric Patterns

2010-01-20T15:54:00.002Z

I stumbled across through a google image search looking up some geometric patterns. It is a download of a .ai file with 100 hundred geometric pattern swatches. Very useful, and some of them are pretty attractive to boot.

100 geometric patterns download on Planetary Folklore

Another thing that i discovered whilst searching geometric patterns is that the University of Cumbria's internet filter block a LOT of content hosted on websites and blogs about Islamic culture, with titles such as Peace In Islam. I wonder why...

R.I.P. Jay Reatard

2010-01-14T12:35:00.002Z

may 1 1980 - january 13 2010

hammer, we'll miss you

Records of 2009

2010-01-09T18:13:00.004Z

How has it taken me this long to post this? Anyway...

Top 5 records of 2009 in no particular order:

Atlas Sound "logos"

Grizzly Bear "veckatimest"

The XX "xx"

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart "the pains of being pure at heart"

Ganglians "monster head room"

Honourable mentions:

Vivian Girls "everything goes wrong"

Pissed Jeans "king of jeans"

Lotus Plaza "the floodlight collective"

The Strange Boys "the strange boys and girls club"

Thee Oh Sees "help"

Mika Miko "we be xuxa"

Sky Larkin "the golden spike"

Most disappointing record of 2009:

Yo La Tengo "popular songs"

Most overrated record of 2009:

Girls "album"

2 record that i really loved but then after about 2 weeks forgot about (but don't get me wrong, theyre still good):

The Horrors "primary colours"

Animal Collective "merriweather post pavilion"

Least favourite thing in music in 2009:

Autotune

Favourite record cover of 2009:

New Work: Valentines ball (amended)

2010-01-09T01:07:00.003Z

Poster for Valentines ball at Concrete. Thanks Ilka for turning me into a total sissy soppy girl!

Valentines Masquerade & Sunglasses Ball

Concrete

Saturday 13th Febuary 2010

Come to dance, romance & maybe even fall in love

10pm-4am

Musical Interlude: David Bowie "rebel rebel"

2010-01-09T00:57:00.002Z

Fried gold.

Styling & Salvage

2010-01-08T14:31:00.003Z

great blog "Recording the projects and interests of Rupert Blanchard. London, UK.
"An art director specialising in conceptual salvage and interiors"
- Adam Carr (Today Is Boring)", go and check it out.

Styling & Salvage

p.s happy new year

Genius

2009-12-24T17:23:00.002Z

Bladeless fan by Dyson. It's a good thing that Sir James Dyson has chosen to use his super powers for good and not to enslave the entire human race, as i imagine that would be entirely possible for him.

(via Heynumber2)

The Return of the Glitch

2009-12-15T20:18:00.003Z

My very own piece of glitch art. It occured when previewing a print in photoshop before sending it to the printer. Cheers adobe. Does this make it a piece of art, graphic design, or found imagery? Is it the same thing as the original image, is it a representation of the original image, Is it an image of an image or an image in its own right? Does anyone really know or care? Original screen shot can be seen here

Musical Interlude: Black Lips "punk slime"

2009-12-15T20:09:00.002Z

If this song doesn't get you at least a little bit pysched, want to dance, drink spirits and/or smash stuff up for funsies, i dont know what will. Possibly my favourite Black Lips tune, if not least for the opening line.

Albums to (spend all night ) photoshop(ping) to No. 4

2009-12-10T19:50:00.007Z

Coincedentally, an example of the use of Rosewood that does not look totally lame.

Screen printing pt2: Cotton bags!

2009-12-09T18:12:00.005Z

After i spent this morning letterpressing like a madman i went to the textile printing studio to screen print like a mad man also. Good thing i like printing, otherwise id probably be a bit catatonic by now. Anyway, here is what i produced: some lovely black cotton tote bags perfect for shopping and what have you, with a mighty fine floral print in white.

Detail of the print on the bags, which is taken from a 19th century carpet design. Imagine that on your floor, bloody hell.

Close up detail of the print showing the halftone effect i applied.

I printed 12 of the bags and if you would like one please ask and you are more than welcome to have one for free. Some of the alignment is a little imprecise though as it was all done by eye, and two of them have printing errors (but that just adds character, right?). Some people don't have a choice about if they're going to get one or not because i'm going to force them to take one.

Extra special thanks to my good man Mark Howlette of Motive Sounds fame for providing me with the bag hook up at a very reasonable price. Cheers howlette!

Letterpressing pt2. - Hot off the press!

2009-12-09T18:08:00.003Z

Letterpressed like a mad man this morning using large woodblock type this time. Wood, obviously, is much easier to scuff and to damage than metal is so the blocks are often a bit scrappy, hence the lo-fi, distressed quality of the prints. A joy, but a knackering joy. I have tried to photoshop this effect before, and i've read some tutorials on how to photoshop it too, but nothing beats the real thing, thats for sure.

School of Saatchi

2009-12-08T21:45:00.003Z

I tried to write something funny here about reality tv, narcissism, beautiful but slightly mental art school students, and that BBC series about the disabled girls who wanted to become models but i couldn't think of anything that was a) actually funny, b) made sense. To conclude, i recommend you watch School of Saatchi on bbc iplayer.

Screenprinting

2009-12-08T21:40:00.004Z

Continuing my current analog/hand made/ink addiction, I have been screenprinting today. It made me very happy. Hopefully i will have some spoils of my endeavours to show you soon, and if you're very lucky, i might even give you a little screenprinted gift.

Letterpressing (pt.1)

2009-12-07T19:00:00.005Z

Today has been a day of ink stained fingers. This morning i coated screens in time for printing on wednesday then headed down to the fine art print making facilities with the one and only Tony Moore so we could learn to use the old letterpress machine and have some fun. It is safe to say that we learned, and we had fun.

Tony psyches himseful up for what will no doubt be a highly educational and probably haphazard afternoon. Also please note the woman in red in the background, i dont know her name but she is awesome. She told us all about old fashioned colour photocopiers and we bonded over 35mm film. She later told me that i should start an analog revolution. I just might lady, i just might.

It is actually law that all fine art printing facilities and letterpress studios must have this poster displayed on the wall. Due to the painstaking nature and constant frustrating of hand setting moveable type many old and traditional typesetters would turn to alcohol for help. The ones who resisted the booze often went totally insane.

Typography fact: Upper case and lower case letters are called so because back when letterpress was the primary method of printing type, the metal letters were kept in seperate cases (fancy trays) the capital letters being in the 'upper' case and and the small letters being in the 'lower' case. Typography irony: The cases in this facility contained both upper and lower case letters.

Typography fact: "leading" (or linespacing to non-typographers) is called so because of the strips of lead that were used to separate the lines of type when creating the layout of the design. Typography irony: These ones are infact made of wood. They also double up as handy little tools (also called 'furniture') which allow you to keep the type in place before you print.

Applying the delicious red ink. One of the best parts of the printing process (although to be honest, there were few parts which werent a total joy).

To be continued!

Musical Interlude: The Velvet Underground "sister ray"

2009-12-04T15:01:00.004Z

The first ten minutes of "sister ray" by The Velvet Underground,
roughly the length of time before most people get a bit bored of it. Class.

British Letterpress

2009-12-04T14:20:00.003Z

What kind of monster doesn't love a good bit of old fashioned letterpressed typography? I stumbled upon this neat little resource site about letterpress, including explanations, diagrams, guides to processes, foundries and what have you. Quite an enjoyable way to pass the time (aka procrastinate).

British Letterpress

also, if you happen to have nothing to do in the London (an oxymoron maybe?) then you can take yourself down to the St. Bride Library, "the world's foremost printing and graphic arts library" which is home to thousand of books, magazines, specimens and artifacts relating to printing and typography. It is also very near to Tate modern, so you can really geek out on art and design stuff.

Square America at sea

2009-12-01T15:47:00.002Z

Absolutely incredible set of photographs taken aboard a US Navy Destroyer
during the Vietnam War, showing the "odd langour of life at Sea". Creepy and a bit surreal. Square America is definitely one of my favourite websites.

Musical Interlude: The Flaming Lips "silver trembling hands"

2009-11-25T23:40:00.003Z

Great clip of The Flaming Lips performing 'silver trembling hands' from their new album Embryonic. When i was about 17 i was totally obsessed with The Flaming Lips. Not anymore, but I still love 'em, and this ones a cracker. Please note this video includes gratuitous people-dancing-around-wearing-animal-suits content.

Colours

2009-11-22T22:29:00.003Z

A colour palette i just put together working on a current project. I liked it, so i posted it.

All Tomorrow's Parties: The Film

2009-11-20T20:27:00.005Z

Just ordered the dvd documentary about the magical, amazing, one and only ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES festival. You may remember i made a lengthy post all about my trip to the The Breeders curated event in May this year. ATP is a great thing for great people. Hooray for ATP!

p.s i am still sick of this too narrow template, if anyone knows how to make it wider please let me know, it would be much appreciated (you will be rewarded with a hug and/or a high five, i promise)

New Work: Machinerage.com

2009-11-12T18:26:00.006Z

Here are the final billboard designs for for the recent Machinerage.com project. The website is supposed to be a forum for debate about energy consumption and waste and solutions to these problems. I felt an authoritative stamp was necessary for the whole feel, but it was important not to get into an aggressive territory - the billboards needed to get people talking and thinking, not feeling bad or throwing their TVs in the bin. Conversely, it is obvious that the issues that Machinerage.com wants to raise and debate are serious ones and that should not be overlooked. To see much larger images of the work head on over to my Flickr.

Overall the design process for this has been a bit of a rollercoaster, having totally scrapped a weeks worth of work and redoing everything, then going back and changing a lot of stuff again. I think i got there in the end though - and either way, no one ever said it was going to be easy!