Reading & Oxford

Visiting my friend in Reading in July. It was fun making my way there on the train by myself as I hadn't travelled by myself on the train before. This photograph shows my home from home; my suitcase, handbag, clothes, make-up and hair products were naturally placed in my friend's house mate's bedroom. It was a moment where I saw an accidental but beautiful set-up ready to be snapped.

Ducks in Oxford. I like to think of them as being posh ducks.

Christ Church, where Harry Potter was filmed. Unfortunately it was closed to the public when we went to go inside but I will be sure to return one day and visit.

A cute little cafe in Oxford with writing on the walls. This is the menu of food they serve with funny little sayings underneath, such as 'Tapas - what they eat on the moon'. We were thirsty and came across this little cafe in a side passage and I'm glad we found it because it was so unique.

Photographs from inside Puccino's, Oxford.

Bill's is a really lovely cafe/restaurant in Reading overlooking a grassy area in front of a church. They also house a shop selling their own food and drink. Where we sat there were lots of sheets of colourful tissue paper hanging from the ceiling. The building itself is so gorgeous. It has a huge staircase and it has an old but well-preserved feel to it.

And I fell in love with their tiny little salt and pepper pots!

London contd

Some photos I forgot to include in my last post. This was a road sign near where New Blood was held. Doesn't it just feel like east London?

I love this; it's quite chilling but it also makes me feel assured at the same time. It reminds me of artists that come up in PDP lectures about street art and gallery spaces

A map inside Rough Trade, a music shop, of the area and how to find it and how to find a tube station.

D&AD New Blood

On Sunday 3rd July I went to a festival in London and realised that New Blood was on on that day so I went along to have a little peek.

The exhibition was just over the road from Spitalfields so it was a quick walk from Liverpool Street. I thought a photo of myself standing outside might do justice for this year's PDP! The photos aren't great as they're not straight and taken on a fairly standard camera.

This is one of my favourite pieces from the exhibition. It's hard to see in this photo but it is a huge colour by numbers piece playing on the fact that the human eye can see millions of colours. Each colour section has a number in, with many numbers into the 6+ digit mark

I like the design of the bags above. The handles look like handles on dog leads when it is being carried, like a doggy bag!! Good design, good colours, good doggies.

Toilet roll with Chanel and Ralph Lauren polo logos. I got the feeling there was a deeper meaning to this, but still a rather literal one.

A flip book with 3600 pages... the biggest I've seen! The pages are pictures of hearts ('love' hearts) beating bigger and smaller as you flick through to show the beating motions of the human heart.

A Monopoly board with a Tesco vibe. It wouldn't surprise me if they did release a Tesco version of Monopoly. The prices of the places on the board are shown using the instantly recognisable red circular price stickers. The design is printed on cloth and pinned to the wall which I thought was a really nice touch. It is different and unexpected in this context but opens my mind to using different materials

A wonderful example of paper engineering! The pages have been cut into thin strips and folded to make little people sitting high on sticks.

Mantelpiece, chandelier and skirting made of foam for the purpose of attracting visitors to look at the work from the University. I spoke to a student who was sitting at the stand and he seemed reluctant that the foam piece distracted from the actual work on the walls!

This made me laugh in a familiar way. The top one says "I make up for a complete lack of talent with heavy san serif fonts", the dark one says "Stealing fonts gave me this 2:1" and the bottom one says "I hope this mac distracts from how sh*t my work is". The things we all think but never say.

Colchester Institute had a stand! Oh yes. But opposite Kingston. Oh no. Good to see us in it, though. Hopefully it's something that both current and third year students at the Institute can become involved in.

These are reminiscent of the letters Chester made for first year PDP, but a bit bigger. The letter A beside this was covered in newspaper pages that had adverts for the exhibition on.

Cake!!!

#1 Select an appropriate apron, if possible a gorgeous one

#2 Weigh out ingredients and follow recipe

#3 Make sure you have some good music on to keep you going. Telly will only distract you

#4 Time the preheated oven and wait for your cake to bake

#5 While you're waiting, do some washing up (after licking the bowls of course)

#6 Use the oven light to check how it's going

#7 Allow it to cool and enjoy. Mmm!!!!!

I am a passenger

If I'm a passenger in the car with my camera, I will take photos of everything...

... from purple garages...

...to orange pubs...

... to yellow estate agents...

... and this amazing multi coloured building in Halstead!!!

Earrings

Because growing up is for old people