A Year in Design

I usually try really hard not to post what Jez has already posted on its nice that (its cheating) but today I am feeling tired (thankyou flathunting!) and a bit lazy. SO today I offer you supercool collective Neon Gray. There's some really nice bookwork on their site but its mainly the above image that caught my eye. Called 'A Year in Design' this image really does some up this years rather persistant design trends.

Speaking of the young Mr Burrows you should check out his second place entry (and all the other shortlisted entries) in the Penguin Design Award. I am totally awestruck that Nick Hornby ("my favourite book is stil Cash by Johnny Cash") has nice things to say about his work. I'm so proud.

I'm working on a rough for a children's book (I'm not a children's book illustrator by any means, I'm trying to stretch myself a bit) so maybe i'll post some of my roughs up very soon. I might be in need of some helpful criticism, this really isn't my forte!

Shameless Plugging

I'm organising a gig next friday and in the vague hope that someone who's not one of my parents and is based near edinburgh is reading this I thought I'd give it a bit of a plug. Anyway....
Friday June 20th at the Ark (Waterloo Place) from 7.30pm its School of Language & Meursault. Hurrah!
Meursault are a local treat who mix folky ukuleles and banjos with postal service style beats and glitches. It's lovely, understated stuff.
School of Language is the new project of David Brewis (of the once splendid Field Music). More experimental but equally as endearing as his first musical outlet School Of Language sees Brewis looping vowel sounds and playing every instrument under the sun to create frustrated melodies that are utterly charming.
Please come. Its only £6 on the door and we (I say we...i'm trying to bulk it out...I mean I) will be playing some lovely tunes in between bands. It'd be lovely to see any blog readers. If they exist.

t shirts

So yesterday I began the seemingly endless process of clearing and packing my stuff to move out of my current flat (not that we have yet found a new one but its good to get a head start.) Anyway in emptying boxes and drawers I found that I still have a few of the t shirts I made for the Village Fete in March. If anyone fancies a shirt you can have one for £5 and the cost of postage. Each shirt is hand printed on lovely, soft American Apparel and there are three sizes available (Women's Medium is green, Men's Medium is Brown and Men's Large is Blue). If anyone fancies buying one (or maybe swapping one for something?) just get in touch.

I realised that I haven't posted a sketch or a piece of my own work for a wee while so below is a drawing I did ages and ages ago for one of the many Woodpigeon we've worked on. It was just a rough and ended up being quite far from the one we used but I found it yesterday and I quite like it. There we go.

Anders Soderberg

Oh my! I am totally in love with all of the work on Anders Soderberg's blog. Of course the Russian influenced pieces above are my absolutely favourites (that bookcover! sigh) but I also really like the imagined cover for Sufjan Steven's 'Greetings from Michigan the Great Lake State' which is pictured below. I have a feeling Mr Soderberg (who graduates from HDK Gothenburg University..uh..now) is going to do very well and deservedly so.

More from ECA

What with fleeing to Brighton and then Berlin I have neglected my plan to post my favourites from the ECA illustration degree show. SO I'm going to get back on track now with some amazing work by Alice Duke. Though not usually the kind of work I'm drawn to Alice's digital paintings are astoundingly accomplished and completely absorbing. Definitely a refreshing break from the kind of work that usually comes out of ECA. Alice also has a blog where she scares sketches and explains her working process. Good stuff.

Also:

Loving the hazy photos on Sally Jane Vintage

Dreaming of the beautiful clothes from Mine

and enjoying dreamy colours at Forms & Shapes (below)

Sprechen sie deutsch?

We (Team illustration) have just returned from rather glorious trip to Berlin mainly comprising of ice cream and aimless wandering. A good time was had by all. Above are some very poor scans of photos I took on my lovely Lomo Smena Symbol camera, the abundance of blue sky and brutalist architecture make Berlin a perfect place for a bit of lomography. Rather embarrassingly we didnt achieve a lot in terms of cultural nonsense rather just had nose around and enjoyed the inexplicable heat. We did, however, become rather enamoured with an old photoautomat machine. Below are some rather special (!?) photos of Sarah and I. We were meant to get progressively messier in each one but as it is I just look a bit mental. Oh well.



more photos are (rather unwisely) posted on my flickr

Unterwegs!

I'm off to Berlin with the illustration gang for a few days so no posts for a little while.
photo from p-d on flickr.

Brighton Degree Show

I've just got back from a brief (far too brief) trip to Brighton to see the University Degree show so I thought I'd share some of my favourite bits and pieces.

(above)
Sophie Kern's illustrations are wonderful in every way. Based on inuit folklore and mythology they mix really nice, bright colour with black and white photography and beautiful markmaking to make something really haunting and other-worldly. I am phenomenally jealous.



I've been using one of Verity Keniger's lovely bear bags for a few months now so it was nice to see a bit more of her work on show. I love the above piece about the anniversary of Haley's Comet. Verity's screen printed posters are pretty ace too.


Seiko Kato's dolls were simutaneously endearing and terrifying but indisputably amazingly well made. I cannot even begin to image how much time it took her to make so many.


Finally of course my favourite graphic designer and video game nemesis (why can't i win?) Jez Burrows of the unstoppable Evening Tweed (and the almost as unstoppable Sing Statistics). Above is the book cover he designed for the Penguin Design awards (he came second in the competetion. because he is ace) and the postcards he's giving out at the show (lovingly gocco-ed by ourselves long into the wee hours). I would have posted this because I love it but the entire world has already blogged the hell out of it.

Head to the gdi08 to see work from all the Graphics & Illustration graduates.

Gocco Love

Last night I embarked on a bit of a gocco marathon. I love gocco far too much. These are the results. Available to buy from etsy. Of course.



As well as doing a straight run of two colour gocco prints I also did seven of these one colour prints that I've watercoloured so that each one is different. If you fancy an (almost!) one off piece of art then they are also available from my etsy shop.




The image comes from this. Which i'll do a thorough post about soon.

Dress Up In You

Summer is yet to arrive but already I'm waiting for autumn in the hope of getting my hands on this amazing coat from h&m. So beautiful.
via only shallow

Continuing on from yesterdays post on Emily Sutton today my ECA graduate of choice is Sandra De Matos. I really love the above print (in the show there are a couple of colour variations on show) and she has some nice sketchbook work too.

Best Knowledge

I am celebrating the arrival of my copy of Hall of Best Knowledge by the incredible Ray Fenwick. I haven't had the chance to plunder its depths yet but the bits that I have skimmed have, thus far, been completely charming and incredibly well written (both word wise and, of course, in terms of lettering.)

I am also celebrating the presence of a nice new belt with a lovely plastic buckle. Hurrah.

Last week we (the third year students) helped the fourth years set up their degree show. Once all the running about fetching hooks and wire and velcro it was a bit of treat to get a first look at the show all done. There's some really great work and I am hugely impressed with the drawing skill on show. I think that it can be rare on contemporary illustration courses to have such a big focus on straightforward drawing but it's great to see. I think over the next couple of weeks I'll post a few of my favourites so first up is Emily Sutton. Alongside some wonderful drawings Emily has also been making some great 3D pieces with my favourites being in the Highstreet Sculpture project. Each doll has its own distinct (and recognisable) personality and charm. Below is my absolute favourite, I love his jumper.

Again, a bike. Please?

Everyone has posted about these recently but there's a very good reason why. Kronan make beautiful bikes. Really really nice bikes. If I was the kind of person to spend $600 on a bike this would be it. Sadly I am not that kind of person. Oh well.



Designer and illustrator Zsuzsanna Ilijin has made a series of six world maps with a difference. Each map lays the world out according to a different them. Above is the global skyline. I'd love to see these for real, they seem like something you could look out for hours.

There are a fair few very exciting things on the horizon for me at the moment; some are a secret (ssh) and some are a bit less secret but i'm going to save them for now. But soon there will be some new work. Finally.

Lovely stuff from Rachel Gannon.

Us 3rd year illustration kids have an exhibition opening tonight at Owl & Lion on the grassmarket. It marks the launch of a poetry anthology we did the illustrations for but there's also a tonne of other work on show. You can pick up some framed versions of my prints as well as a couple of original drawings. The opening is tonight at 6pm and all are welcome along.

I give you...the Pallas Cat!

You're welcome.
(we went to the zoo)

I love these lights by Hopf & Wortmann.
from SwissMiss.

Chris Ware

I have long been totally in awe of Chris Ware and this animation for season two of This American Life further confirms why he is easily one of the best artists around.

Russian wonders

There are some wonderful images on Антуфьев. All cold and weird and far away and for the most part I have no idea what any of them are all about as it's all in russian. Via the wonderful Camilla Engman.

Buy me a bike please.

If I had a bike (I don't) I would definitely want one of these lovely baskets from FinnishDesignShop. Its tempting to buy a bike just so that I can have one.

I got some new glasses today. They're a bit art school but I guess I AM an art student so I should probably just face up to that and embrace it. Oh dear.

I am quite taken with this pin from Chocosho .

FINALLY Rosie Posie Pudding & Pie is a lovely blog from an edinburgh based student with a good eye for nice things. I'll be keeping an eye on it from now on I think.

Portfolios

This year as well as handing in a regular portfolio we also had to make a sort of proffessional one. This is mine, all hand bound and with a gocco printed cover. I just hope it doesn't fall to pieces before assessment tomorrow (I'm not an incredibly skilled bookbinder).

Books & Barbecues

It's been the most beautiful week here in Edinburgh, all sunshine and summer dresses and so on. Sadly I've mainly been shut away in the studio/my bedroom getting my portfolio ready for assessment next week. We did manage to get out for a barbecue on the meadows last night which was when the above photos were taken.




Whilst clearing out my folders I came across one of my assessment projects from last year. 'A Coney Island Love Story' was a book I made based on ' The Electric Michelangelo' by Sarah Hall. Looking at it now is kind of nice. Now that I have a years distance from the project I actually kind of like it. Which is a rare treat.

All the dead animals

Here's a drawing I did today. It was meant to be for my 'top secret but incredibly exciting' project but I dont think it'll cut it so it'll just remain one of those pictures without a purpose. Whic h is fine. I don't do enough pointless drawing at the moment , everything seems to be for something college related or something book related. Once this term is done I want to get back to keeping proper sketch books, not just books of notes.



Two illustrator loves combine to create a flawless object. Tea + graph paper = joy! Available from Fishs Eddy. I want one.

S&P

Incredibly endearing ceramics from Lola Goldstein. I've never really felt drawn to salt and pepper shakers before but this pair have changed everything.

I lovelovelove pretty much everything on Paperheart by Jessica Williams. Some wonderful college work and drawings but also some really nice, quiet photos.


I would also like to celebrate the crotcheted clementine. This one now lives in Brighton but I very much enjoyed his company when he was in Edinburgh. Who couldn't enjoy that?

That Was Good But You Can Do Better

Canadian lovelies Woodpigeon released their debut UK single yesterday on End of the Road Records. The 7" sleeve was designed by Jez and I (as part of design/illustration superduo Sing Statistics) and I think its pretty nice if I do say so myself. The songs themselves are wonderful slices of multi instrumented, jangly indie pop in a similar vein to Sufjan Stevens. It's available to buy here. Go go go!