Nobody's built like you. You designed yourself.

Sans Serif..?

Serif..?

Sans serif..?

Serif it is.

*waves, Hello!

Do tell me, how are you? Peaches and cream I hope. 

Things have been going just wonderful for me. I have undertaken a few journeys recently, and managed to escape, just for a couple of days, to the most lovely little corner of the world. Yes, I went to brighton. 

Imagine lunch in the sun, outside a little veggie cafe, the chairs and tables spilling into the streets. Two people each playing a cello next to the table, over a subtle hum of chatter. Then think of watching the shoreline, on a warm pebble beach, with sugary sweets. Later in the day a window seat journey and gazing into the sky. 

Perfect?

Yes. It really was.

I seem to have collected a few treasures on my travels. These including some ideal skimming stones, some sugar cubes, a vintage satchel and a black and white glamour photo. As well as an eclectic bunch of memories. Ah, not forgetting the classic stripey stick of rock. 

I would like to live in Brighton after my graduation, and work as a designer by the sea! There's just something about Brighton that puts it above other cities, something arty, and creative...alive.

My new project is probably my favorite so far. It is an A-Z poster project, to be made into a publication. It features 26 artists, each given a letter to be designed as a poster.

The response I got was incredible, managing to work with talented designers and artists from across the globe. Such as Thailand, Lithuainia, Japan, Iceland, Sweden, Paris, Australia plus more. 

The book is in its first steps at the moment, but I don't intend on rushing it, the least I can do is create something worth while, for all the people that have submitted. It's only fair. 

There's something about typographic posters that I wanted to explore. I am still trying to get my head around the world of type. It amazes me, the pure freedom and scope that there is to design a letter, an alphabet, a symbol of communication. 

Here are a couple of the submissions.

Ponder & Appreciate.

I have also been across country to Blackpool. This was a lot of fun, as I was with a couple of best friends. We visited the aquarium and went on some rides....We had some chips and 10p cup of tea on the blustery sea front. Blackpool is fun, but Blackpool is not Brighton.

I think I should go and do some more design work now, there really is no time for waffle! a Deadline is looming!

I will be back soon.

With updates and so forth.

But until then,

If you do one thing today,

take a moment to

look at the sky. 

The view from the telescope.

Welcome to my world.

Won't you come in?

It was built with you in mind?

This Shared Heaven by- Zebravissimo

Vision

Picture this.

A desolate landscape, with a towering hill, that leans against the sky. You are at the bottom. looking up. The air is a still silence, warm and hazy. Colours are luminescent and they seep into the sound. Dotted down the hill are electricity towers, that look like skeletons. Thin lines of cable join them together as though they were holding hands.. There are neon blue waves of light pulsating down each line. The only sound is the constance from the movement of energy. You can hear your own heart beat, pulsating in rhythm. Birds flutter, and take off from the cables, where they were once sat, leaving traces of neon light, and crackling sparks.

The grass is a long dry green, but soft and swaying. There are dandelions that fizz and sparkle. A static shock to the touch, sending segments drifting into the stillness of the air, almost in slow motion.

This world is beautiful. This world is sensational and complex.

I am space. I am the distance of two moons that conflux in the depth of an endless sky. I am the world you wish you knew
I am shape. I am the arc of bended light. I am the tail of a comet, streaming through a cascading fall of stars. I am impact that shakes your world.
I am time. I am the rings inside a sleeping oak amidst a warm November fog. I am the roots that tunnel the earth. I am the den in your dreams.
I am texture. I am the delicate touch of a thousand kind words. I am speech. I am the harmonic tones in love song that you have never heard.
I am line. I am the boundary between two worlds. I am the courage you don't have to cross it.
I am idea. I am the constant changing thought between pencil and paper. I am the expression in your fingertips.

I am an artist. I am your tendency to dream.

Cacoethes scribendi - An insatiable urge to write.

Hello, How are you?

Good, I am glad.

Yes, It has been a very long time since my last post and I have missed you too.

What Have I been doing all this time? Well, where shall I begin.....

I really have been quite the busy bee. Dotting to and fro at quite a pace. I have been home recently which was a nice little inspiration boost, I like to be reminded of my roots, as sometimes things can easily be forgotten or lost in rush of things. Like a child's teddy bear at the train station, ending up in the lost and found. 

Uni has been going quite well recently. I have been involved in 'The big draw' which had some positive effects. I may have found my self some commissioned work for january which I am looking forward too, and my last project went surprisingly well. And, In a surprising direction.

'It was in that instant I first fell in love with the agile, malleable, and thoroughly magically acrobatics of typography, language and communication.'

-Debbie Millman.

Yes it is true, I have entered the strange world of type. And that was it, I had decided to meet the stranger that was digital design and shake it by the hand. Throwing myself into the world of grids and layers. I now found myself puzzling over which type face to use and in which programme. For the first time I felt I was actually doing 'Graphic Design' . Something I obsess over, something I spend so much time on, something I critique and pass judgement on every day. I was finally doing it, properly?

I couldn't believe that I had sat there, worrying about alignment and perfection for hours. It was so different from my usual hand made approach, the creased paper, and smeared glue, wonky hand drawn lines, and lapsy-daisey construction. The thing is, I loved every minute of it. It was only near the end, the final outcome, that I took a step back to look at my work, and felt that something was missing from my work, like a little piece of me. Before I knew it, colours and pattern where creeping their way in slyly. Even a little deer pranced his way onto my page. I had now merged the two dimensions to create my very own plain of creative freedom. It was no longer hand-made vs. digital, but they were now on the same team. Working together.  YES!

Flutes vinyl cover design.







Piece for the 'Big draw', that is on the Leeds Met library Window



Other versions of the Flutes front cover, with RGBY and pastel shades.






This is some of my illustration and line work I have been doing recently

Aurora borealis - The Northern Lights.

I was watching a documentary the other day about arctic canada, and a part of it was about the northern lights. If there is anywhere in the world that I would like to be right now...It would be there. I think it is one of my life goals, to see, the latin named, Aurora borealis. The most magical light in the sky. I would sit in complete captivation and stare into what seems to be an astrological song. Or maybe even a dance.

Arcana Imperil - The secrets of the empire.

Also this week, I have been reading about the Terracotta army. It's so interesting how something so old can still be remembered. Possibly one of the most amazing things about being creative, is being able to capture that moment in time, that thought and feeling and idea. I want to fill books with words, take thousands of photo's, draw, design, make. I want to record all of my dreams and thoughts and be able to look back and remember that exact point in my time..

I want to leave little parts of me everywhere, almost like a trail of breadcrumbs. Or footprints in fresh snow. Attempt to make mark in this huge place that we call a world.

Amicus verus est rara avis - A true friend is a rare bird.

Yes, this is you crisp. (You know who you are) ha.

It's funny how when you are looking for something so hard you can never seem to find it. Then one day, when you have almost given up looking, you find it right in front of your eyes. It's not everyday you find someone so different from yourself but so the same. Language has never been so fun.

And so, hence forth with the week, I shall keep on playing scrabble in the clock cafe, and making up silly words. I will forever be a tea lover and creative addict. For now, that suits me just fine, I was starting to feel the pressure to be a professional grown up... but what the heck, I'll worry about that tomorrow. Carpe Diem - Seize the day!

Don't be too serious, we're not kids for long. 

Appreciate the small things in life. Things that are free. Journeys and adventures, stories and games. Splish sploshing rain and smidge smudgey paint.

Until tomorrow x

The most amazing music video ever.

Check out this video: Lisa Mitchell - Neopolitan Dreams

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens...

Good day.

The time has come, where I now feel I have warmed to the stranger that was once a blog, and I can finally welcome you into my world of collage, sketches photographs, pen-and-ink drawings each of which amounts to a potted visual autobiography.

Whilst in previous blogs have been filled with frivolous thoughts and chats about the weather, I think I should start to introduce the core and the original intention of my blog - Design.

(Although I cannot promise there won't be more mentioning of weather, books, train journeys, and blustery days at the seaside)

Did I mention that Autumn is just around the corner - My favourite season of them all. I am plunged into colours of burnt rose and firewood, home-made ice cream, and earth.

(Personal reminder: Head to the shops and buy yourself a pair of warm, cosy, winter-proof gloves, add a knitted hat and scarf and we're away. All set for the fields and other adventures, crucial accessories when headed to frosty lands on early sunset, amber stricken mornings. Re-introduce camera to desolate but breathtakingly beautiful landscapes.)

OK, on the design front,

I have been speaking to my friend and fellow colleague Emma. We met at college, where we both we undertaking a BTEC National Diploma in Fashion Design. We had always been admirers of each others work and always held the same passion and determination. Although each choosing to specialise in different area's, Emma - fashion design, and mine in illustration and photography, we always had the same idea to collaborate and pursue a project. So we did just that.

A couple of days of criss-crossing emails, and brainstorming, Koroko Cafe was born. Although we are only working on the foundations at the moment, I have a brilliant feeling and just know that this could work out well. Based souly on our love for individuality and customisation we expect to work on vintage clothes and unique design styles. There are currently idea's of birdhouses, cuckoo-clocks and  teapots on my end, but also on a flip side, Emma is contributing idea's of the 80's and glam rock. Now this could get creative. There will soon be a blog created for KC to monitor the progress and development, and perhaps a myspace to spread the word. All we need to do now is put our heads together and get to work. I'll let you know how this goes.

Heading back to Uni on Wednesday, as far as I know we are expected to get straight into work. So, I better take a deep breath and delve right into the depth's of graphics and design. I have actually started to right myself a brief already, which will be combined with my outside project, Koroko Cafe. Surprisingly confident already, which is unlike me, but I think I am starting to realise, it's time to get serious.

- I may have encountered a problem. I have discovered an artist that I intend to base my future work on. He is one of the most inspirational photographers that I have ever laid my eyes on. I feel as though I have stepped into his world and there is no way out. Not only do I wake up every day wishing with all my heart to live one of is visions, but I have set the bar for my work, and will from now on, strive to create something even mildly as striking and original. It is the one and only highly thought of, and famous fashion photographer Tim Walker. 

Quotation taken from an article from www.telegraph.co.uk on the 17/05/08:

'Walker, 37, loves, he says, turning 'funny daydreams into funny photographs,' adding that he lives much of the time 'in an imaginary world', a world rooted in real-life and memory, specifically the British countryside of his childhood: the manicured landscape of Surrey and the wilder downlands of Sussex and Dorset. He admits to a subscription to Country Life and 'a very happy childhood'. His days at Exeter Art College were happy, too, spent making for the camera 'crowns out of wheat and going round junk shops and making things in the kitchen. I liked to walk through the countryside with a camera and photograph the people I knew. When I had a camera there was always a reason to go somewhere.'

'Page from scrapbook 'Vogue Pantomime', 2004, British Vogue. The fashion editor Kate Phelan recalled that she 'went by the rule that anything went as long as it had a theatrical twist. I was free to go mad. This was not the shoot for the Little Black Dress.' There was little chance of that, Vogue agreed: 'Next to the clothes rails sat a grinning Cheshire cat, a wolf’s head, a giant squishy pumpkin, bags of wigs from the BBC costume department, fake silver armour, hats from the milliner Stephen Jones's archives and 20 tulle ballerina skirts.'

As if that wasn't enough information for you to understand the amount of pure creativity and imagination that Tim Walker creates at his shoots, Here's a couple of my favourite photo's by TW. I'm hoping to see the likes of these at the Tim Walker picture exhibition at the Design Museum based in London, next thursday. Can't wait. Absolute genius.

Photo's taken from http://www.thomastreuhaft.com/Tim_Walker/tw.html

I have also been introduced to Lily Cole since entering the wonderland of Walker. He has used lily for his surreal, dreamlike scenes, because she has a sort of, clumsy beauty, an awkward dexterity and grace. I feel as she has the atmospheric presence needed to bring a Walker set to life.

These pictures of Lily Cole are all also TW photo's. Mmm, Embrace.

One of the best places to look for inspirations ( apart from outside my window and the people around me)  I feel, is most likely magazines like VOGUE. They have some of the best articles featured, about exhibitions and events, and often I am introduced to online galleries etc. 

For example,  in the Sept 2008 issue of VOGUE, (with red haired model Karen Elson on the cover, who also wanders into Tim Walker wonderland, and is described as having glacial imperiousness) I stumbled across a piece titled 'Show and Tell'. Forty well known names, such Margaret Howell, David Shrigley, Jack Penate, Paul Smith, Quentin Blake and Philip Pullman, were asked to illustrate some of their favourite things, in the style of the victorian parlour game. I can say in my opinion that I thought this was extremely interesting and I thought that the outcome was very effective. There are images of lace up shoes, raspberries, spectacles, bicycles, polaroids, imaginary letters, autumn sunshine and chests of drawers. 

'While you may or may not be able to tell who has done which illustration, there's no mistaking the very british flavour of much of this show. A gentle eccentricity runs through it: pleasure in the simple joys of naps and books, trips by steam train and blustery days at the seaside. There's a certain flourish and an unforced charm which accord with the best british design.'

VOGUE Sept 08, pg 109

"What are you like?" runs from September 09 to December 14, at Dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Check it out, you might just like it :)

On the media and press end of things, today I discovered a new interesting international fashion magazine, DISTILL. It was the launch copy of a fashion photography and style editorial. In my hurried back to front flick through I was totally tempted to sit on the floor right there and plunge myself between it's pages, but alas i was ushered along with the flow of busy faces. However, next time, when equipped with copper and paper, I intend to buy and plunge. As an alternative I did source this beauty...

www.distilldigital.com

For any one who may actually still be reading this (woo) then I think I shall finally end my finger tapping here. For today anyway. I will be back soon with tales of new artists and musicians another day. 

Until tomorrow x 

Ps. http://www.myspace.com/happiestlion - Perfect.

 

Humming bird, You've lost your bedroom eyes.

Hello.
It's a nice warm evening here. I've just settled down and began to watch Miss Potter, over a bowl of Country Crisp.

'There's something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You can never quite tell where they will take you'

It makes me wonder exactly why I even sit here and scatter these thoughts and words across a page. I wondered if I was just keeping an online diary, a diary which holds no privacy at all. I often think I am an open book. Or perhaps I am writing some unintentional, kind of manifesto, or maybe, it's a bit of allsorts. As i don't really write this for anyone specifically. I am not vein enough to think anyone would be the slighest bit interested in my chatter. All the same, I love to type and reflect so there we are.

Now this line is amazing...

'You see, we cannot stay at home all our lives, we must present ourselves to the world, and we must look upon it as an adventure'
Something I need to remind myself, only too often.

Today I have been dreaming and dreaming and dreaming some more. I really must start collecting them up in jars, for rainy days. As I'd hate to forget some of them. I really am quite eager to draw at this very moment, but I only ever reach the same problem. My drawing ability is nowhere near as strong as my ability to conjure up some thoughts. I'm almost certain that the perfect occupation for me, would to be a dream seller. I could just sell people my idea's and dreams and words, in jars. People like me, and you, could wake up on a morning and pour themselves a cup of coffee, (or tea, if you are a tea person. Coffee has an acquired taste.) reach into the cupboard for a jar of dreams and spread it thickly, just like jam, on their two slices of toast.

Oh yes, sincere apologies for the half images in my previous addition. I didn't realise that they had to be a certain size. An error I shan't make again. Fret not.

We found a field at sunset. The grass was tall and covered with flowers. We lay a while, and with each exhale, I felt myself sink in to the earth, imagining the strands of grass and leaves wrapping themselves around me and pulling me into the ground, covering my like a blanket. Making me a part of them, as much as the clouds are apart of the sky.

Inspire the inspired x

Kisses on the elbow

Awoken by a kiss on the elbow.
Until tomorow x

Morning Rain

I wish I was a morning person. I always feel that by the time I have woken up, that I have already missed out on lots of wonderful things. However, today I had to be up early, It was warm and dismal and cloudy, I had almost given up on my day being eventful. Not long after there was the most amazing thunderstorm. Warm summer rain. I inhaled scents of the wet tarmac, pollen and wheat from the fields, and fresh bread from the bakery. I had no coat and I decided against taking refuge under a tree, I decided to embrace it and let it fall.

Yellow by Coldplay is on the radio. I like this song.

Today I have to send my CV's and tidy. After that my day is my own. I think I will escape to Sense valley. (A nature reserve near my house) - Sense Valley. What a name. I am still going through the detox and physical transformation. Less alcohol and healthier food. I have finally won the war with my parents about getting a vegetable patch. Although they are still not up for adopting a couple of Hen's. I read an article somewhere, about a new culture, called 'Frugalists'. Apparantly they are people that ride a bike to work, grow their own vegetables, shop in vintage/charity shops. Sounds marvellous to me! Infact, I may already be part frugal, as I have a mint plan growing on my window box (handy for all those detoxing cups of mint tea) and just the other day, I bought a lovely jumper, purse and brooch from a charity shop. Not only had I got some vintage treasures but I had the satisfaction of knowing that someone, somewhere may benefit from it. Win Win.

Although I am embracing city life currently, and have dreams of a city appartment with a balcony and a design studio over looking a park or maybe some water. Visiting the top end eateries and cuisines, jotting down dates for dinner dates and drinks in cocktail bars with friends. I, however would be just as happy in a little cottage somewhere, tucked away amongst the trees. Cycling to the village post office or to the market to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables to cook for Gemma's famous homemade country vegetable soup.
Weather it be Sex in the city - or - Miss potter. I think both would suit me perfectly.
I can only dream......

Any new discoveries i hear you ask?

Well, I have recently been listening to London, Folk/Indie band - Noah and the Whale.
Their song '5years time' has been played on Radio One very frequently recently, but for not for good reason might I add. The song is perfectly delightful, summery and refreshing. Catchy too.
Their other songs are brilliant for a mellow mood, with a combination of vocals, twinkly xylophone sounds, strings and piano. Open your ears to Noah and the Whale.

www.myspace.com/noahandthewhale

As for Illustration, my heart was stolen by this artist.
Ladies and gentleman, lay your eyes on the work of Justin Lee Williams.

'Justin Lee Williams lives and draws in the mountains outside Melbourne. He enjoys Chupa Chups, lead pencils and paper. He has worked for Ksubi, Insight, Vice Magazine, Mooks, and Design is Kinky. He is inspired by animals, indians and trees, and finds the colour maroon dreary.'
















The house will not tidy itself. I must dash but I will leave you with my favourite photo I have taken this week. It's reminds me of falling comets, as I have been researching the date for the next meteorite shower. I plan on finding a desolate hill, taking a deck chair, blanket and a flask, and angle my face towards the midnight sky. Soaking up the aubade of starlights.

Untill tomorrow x

Summer skies and Dragon flies

What better way to start this blog, then to describe what a lovely day it has been. There's something about the summer that just makes everything seem fine. I've not nearly taken enough photo's. Perhaps, something to do tomorrow. Either that or hire a rowing boat.

It's Wednesday and I'm feeling extremely introverted and artsy. There's an overwhelming urge to splash paint around. Shame my paint is in Leeds. I have been researching arists, illustrators and photographers for days now, it has no other effect than fuelling my constant passion to create. I'm eager to get back to uni and show people what I'm all about. It won't be long now. In the meantime, I'm still hunting for work. All though I think I may have struck gold.

Things to do this week:
Write some more on my novel.
Make a dress from fabric I will buy from the market.
Plan out the meteor shower night.
Book my bus ticket for leeds.

There's something about travelling and listening to music. Peering out of the window and looking into the sky. As someone also said, It's very, Life affirming.

Although I havent taken many photo's recently I do have this one, It is taken in the fields behind my house. It reflects my current mood, and just how beautiful summer can be.

Look and feel the glow.