Terry's Barber Shop

Terry's Barber Shop in Falmouth, Cornwall is an old-school establishment that just walking past evokes memories of a bygone era - one i only know of through film and literature. In the window there is a wonderful collection of ephemera associated with Barber shops. I snapped a small selection today...

Creative Vandalism!

The city council of Glasgow has escalated a fight against illegal show flyers in a most mischievous way. Paid city workers are placing large stickers reading "Cancelled" across posters hung in prohibited areas.
An article in the Evening Times quotes a council source who commented, "We can be a complete pain in the neck to the people doing this because the money and time they spend is completely wasted. And there's no point getting in a designer to produce a fancy poster when it will soon be a mess that doesn't tell anyone anything."

Seems to me a lot of fly posters are a mess than fail to tell people anything anyway...

Got Ink?

I love ink stamps. I love the fact this ink stamp came on some printed board that looks like its been stamped itself.

Lord Bunn Lives!

A good few years ago now i stumbled across a bearded wonder in a great little shop in the Forum in Sheffield, called Fuse. This man i could tell was a creative behemoth, just from the shape of his brain. We have kept in contact over the years and exchanged some exciting cds, post and handshakes. I like him a lot. He is also an ultra-illustrator, having done some fantastic work for great people such as 65daysofstatic and the like. Royal Stock is the latest venture of his, and one i am more than happy to promote. His own site www.lordbunn.com is forever in a state of pending, so just go visit Royal Stock or his myspaz. Oh and Bunn, im ready for that Hüsker Dü vinyl...x

High Achiever

Those of you who know me might remember ive been to stay with my friend Sam in London a couple of times over the past year, and what a go-getter he is... He recently climbed Mount Everest by way of the Southeast ridge, the same route that led to the successful first summit by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. You can view his diary of the trip and see some amazing pictures he took on his way up. BIG congratulations to Sambo, i can only imagine how relieved Nicky (his fiance) is feeling. I know this is nothing at all to do with design, but i think we could all do with an occasional kick up the proverbial backside and improve productivity in whatever we turn our hand to. Sam is a guy who takes life and makes things happen - an example to us all.

Rhodes

My boy Richard Rhodes has received a Commendation as part of the 2006/07 YCN Design & Communication Awards for his Barefoot Wine project (which was pretty darn good).
Falmouth infact has SEVEN commended entrants! not bad going... check out the list here Big congrats to all the others selected, particularly Thexton who has mad animation skills.

Loudness

In August of 2006, music legend Bob Dylan made some controversial statements decrying the state of modern recorded music, particularly as relates to the overcompression frequently used by studios to make records sound louder on the radio.

A number of music producers have begun rallying to the same cause, noting that:
Record companies are competing in an arms race to make their album the loudest. The quieter parts are becoming louder and the loudest parts are just becoming a buzz. This could be the reason CD sales are in a slump.

Whole layers of sound are missing. It’s because record companies don’t trust listeners to decide themselves if they want to turn the volume up.
Britain’s leading studio engineers have launched the campaign to make records range in levels. To explain, dynamic range is the difference between the softest and loudest sounds on a CD. Using compression, producers can minimize this difference and the result is that albums sound louder, even at lower volumes.

Interestingly, due to technical limitations of vinyl, this kind of "loudness-based" mastering is not possible, and the records tend to sound better than their CD counterparts.

For more information on this, you can check out this article.

2012

Already the subject of a HUGE amount of debate, the 2012 London Olympics logo is truly a piece of controversial design.
A petition to change the design has already received 28227 Signatures at the time of writing. The new design, which cost £400,000 was produced by branding giant Wolff Ollins. I signed, and i think you maybe should too.. SIGN! If you havnt seen it yet, where have you been?!
London Mayor Ken Livingstone commented: "The new Olympic brand draws on what London has become - the world's most forward-looking and international city." Thats funny, to me it looks more like an 80's album cover logo than forward-looking design. I cannot understand for the life of me why Daniel Eatocks design from 2003(!) has been overlooked - it is iconic, simple and importantly, well designed!

無印良品

Chloe gave me this ink stamp set for Christmas and its come in good use since then, appearing in at least 2 of my projects in some form or another, and contributing to many home-made birthday cards. It came from the wonderful MUJI

According to Wikipedia "MUJI is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household goods. MUJI is distinguished by its design minimalism, emphasis on recycling, avoidance of waste in production and packaging, and no-logo policy. The name MUJI is derived from the first part of Mujirushi Ryōhin, translated as 'No Brand Quality Goods'.

Holy Calamity!

Spotted these beautifully illustrated 1960's batman cards in one of the local antiques/junk shows - 'Mr Magpie' - fantastically camp batman style lingo continues on the reverse. I feel like i was born a generation or two too late sometimes.. (then i remember the internet and the ipod etc..)

Badge-ism

My oldest friend Alyson knows of my badge-collecting ways and recently sent me this little beauty through the post! Fabric badges are definatly the way forward...but quite uncommon it seems. All 1" pins received with thanks :)

Fridge

Picked these up recently at the local Post Office of all places... Full sets of upper and lower cases, and numbers. Quite a mish mash of shapes, hard to tell what font its derived from...Quite charming none-the-less! I love the colours used.

Not just another brick in the wall..

I lost my keys today - but i did find this.




Nathan Sawaya is a LEGO artist. He abandoned a career as an attorney in 2004 to take on LEGO sculpting fulltime. I think thats a pretty rad career change!
Read the CNN Interview

Swing Life Away...

''I've been here so long I think that it's time to move
The winter's so cold summer's over too soon
Let's pack our bags and settle down where palm trees grow
I've got some friends some that I hardly know
But we've had some times I wouldn't trade for the world
We chase these days down with talks of the places that we will go''
- Rise Against



Tomorrow Ellie and I are going to read books on the patio, swing in the park, eat ice cream and generally enjoy having finished our degrees. If you've forgotten what it feels like to swing barefoot, with the breeze on your toes, odds are you wear a tie everyday and you like the taste of marmite. Go get some fresh air!

RosieReeves

Rosie is one of the many inspiring, engaging and interesting people ive had the pleasure of getting to know recently - her size and age belie her ability - she is going to be massive in the design world one day. Aside from cooking a mean roast dinner she also is a avid collector, enthusiastic film buff and now blogger, and as such i think you should check out her blog and see what she's discovered this week... Rosie Reeves...

London Calling?

I have to leave my beloved Falmouth in a few shorts weeks and begin a new phase of my life. This is equal parts both daunting and exciting - the big question is 'where' do i go, rather than who do i work for... Can i be happy living in London? Everytime i visit i seem to be very happy to be leaving.. Any suggestions (and job offers) most welcome!

Mr What?

Mr Clarinet is an awesome read - dark and enthralling it really did have me up all hours glued to its pages.. The fact i re-jacketed this thriller for a Penguin competiton recently is all the more reason to pick up a copy and lose yourself..

Telegramme Towers

On the subject of commrades, YOU NEED THESE BOYS in your life. Telegramme are an old-school outfit run by Sirs Bobby and Chris, both as talented as they come, and handsome to boot. If you like your work beautiful, your patterns intricate and your high-fives hard - these could be the chaps for you. They've also recently done some stunning work for The Maple State - when these boys hit the bigtime dont say i didnt warn you.

Go get inspired! - Telegramme

Friendlies

Ellie Cryer is an amazing illustrator, and allround super-friendly girl. I've had the pleasure of living with her for the past year and i highly recommend her to you for general fun-time, tree-climbing, tea-drinking and work-avoiding. She's also mega at drawing badgers.
Visit her today HERE!

Bryan Clark

Former Lewis Moberly Creative Director - Bryan Clark - in all his 'Gruffalo' glory! I owe this man quite a bit in terms of education and im sure in years to come i'll look back and site his influence as being vital in my progression.

My degree show...

17 long years of education lead to this point...

Blanket Magazine

A submission included in Blanket magazine,
in response to the theme 'Collections'

Pink

Yellow

Its a Wrap!

This is what happens if you leave your car outside my house on a slow Sunday afternoon...

Fire Hydrant

22

A limited edition, hand printed and finished set of Mix CDs.
22 Tracks. 22 Recipients. My 22nd Birthday.

TEAiM WORK

I have an online portfolio of sorts - simple and crude - which contains all 'big' projects i do / have done, and some of the smaller bits to boot. I expect in time i might start putting small bits on here instead... we'll see.

But for now please visit here for more work.