Archive for June, 2010

30/06/2010

Rob Ryan is so Stylist

Yesterday, I was heading back home after a busy day in the office when I spotted a familiar illustration on the cover Stylist magazine. Instantly seeing the green and white illustration, I made a b-line towards the man handing the mags out.

As anticipated it was the wonderful paper cutting god, Rob Ryan. His work has inspired me since university and I was once lucky enough to bob a long to a talk he held about his work at Kingston university.

After his talk, I couldn’t resist going up and asking him a quick question.

The question I posed went something like this:

Rob, how do you paper cut all day and not seem to have an indented index finger like mine? (I specialized in a lot of paper cut and collage work myself on my degree course).

His answer was simple:

Masking tape, wrap it several times around the blade of the craft knife leaving the tip of the blade revealed. Then rest your index finger on the tape!

haha I thought, why didn’t I think of that!

27/06/2010

Boats a bobbing

Last weekend I went back home to Yorkshire for a bit of R ‘n’ R and also because it was Fathers Day!

Any way while I was there we went to a little sea side town of my childhood called Filey. Filey is on the east cost of Yorkshire between Scarborough and Bridlington and has a lovely long beach and brig as well as a quaint little sea side town.

After a short, rather wet and windy walk on the beach we headed to town for some fish and chips and a mosey around. It was whist in town that I spotted a little haberdashery shop and in the window was this very fabric you see before you!

As soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it so I went and bought a meter for a hefty sum.

Whilst the lady cut it for me she told me a nice little tale that apparently all the boat names in the design refer to the company who produced the fabric design in some shape or form. For example you have boats named Makowers, the name of the company, Henley on Thames, which is where the company is based, the postcode of the area and also names of people who work in the office such as Alison. Lovely!

If you love the fabric too you can see this one and more on their website.

I hope to make some cusion covers out of the fabric very soon and I will keep you posted on my progress.

27/06/2010

Ok Go and their new single “End Love”

Last week I was introduced to the band Ok Go and their delightful music videos!

Robert, my boyfriend has been telling me about them for a while now and this week we huddled around my laptop and watched their videos on YouTube.

We started with their newest single “End Love” and I was blown away by the time, effort and sheer skill it took to produce. It’s a simple idea executed perfectly to music. The video uses stop motion animation (I think!) and films the band over time gliding and dancing around a park in America. I fell in love with the video and the song instantly and I can’t stop singing and thinking about it. It’s one of the those video’s you want to tell your mates about hence the reason why I am writing this blog!

The video for “This too shall pass” show the amount of planning that goes into their videos. It shows a chain reaction effect, similar to a Rube Goldberg machine. The chain reaction is constructed from everyday objects such as teleivisions, sledge hammers, a car, paint cans etc. It reminds me of Honda’s “The Cog” advert back in 2003 but this is much quirkier. It is one of the those videos you can’t take your eyes off!

And finally, before I leave you to have a gander at the video’s, here’s another great one for their single “Here it goes again”. In this one the band perform dance routines on treadmills, amazing!

15/06/2010

June’s mail art for Miss Shaddock

13/06/2010

Russian Doll’s

13/06/2010

Mail art part IV

Here’s June’s mail art to have a gander at.

This month I have been inspired by  seagulls after a recent long weekend down in Cornwall. Whilst working on the piece I was also listening to the new
Divine Comedy track “Island Life” from their new album “Bang goes the Knighthood“.

Helen’s piece to me reminds me of islands in the sea so adding seagulls seemed quite fitting.

Below is Helen’s piece to me before I worked on it.

12/06/2010

Catching up with Kult Mag

Kult Mag is the brain child of the fantastically talented Ralph Peskett who I recently had the pleasure of meeting at Top Left Design.

Kult Mag is a bi-monthly online magazine that documents dynamic artistic sub-cultures. The mag features art, illustration, design, music and much more. Find out more about the mag here.

As well as the magazine the team also have a blog which is being continuously updated with exciting articles. My recent favorite is the one about the
HP Invent – Student response to D&AD brief post.

The team at Kult Mag also got the chance to interview Ben the Illustrator in their 3rd issues of the magazine. I love Ben and Fi’s illustration work and
Wish You Were Here brand. The interview covers lots of things about Ben’s work, how he became and illustrator and his working process. Ben also shares his top tips for beginning a career in illustration.

Keep an eye out on Twitter for updates about Kult Mag and subscribe to their mailing list for their latest news.

(All images taken from Kult Mag website)

11/06/2010

Mail art part III

I have been a little late with getting May’s mail art back to Helen but here is a sneeaky peak at the piece we worked on together.

Below is the initial artwork Helen sent to me and subsequently how I added to it.

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