Waterloo Sunset, Colchester Sunrise

I took these photos of the morning sun breaking through the clouds over Colchester town.

Jumbo is visible on the town's skyline and is directly in the middle of the cascading sun rays. I need to clean my lens!

Mum's old typewriter

When I spoke to my mum about a project I was doing about punctuation, I mentioned the issue of focusing on the en dash since it has only really been available to print since the computer. This prompted her to bring down her old typewriter, which was really fun to use. Once you get used to hitting the keys quite hard, you can type as fast as you would on a computer keyboard. However, I found I sometimes missed the keys and as I have small fingers, they got stuck between the keys!! I have an illustration I made of it somewhere. I will upload it when I have photographed my recent work.

London Design Festival - Graphic Design Walk 23/9/2011

Book covers for Penguin Books by Coralie Bickford-Smith. Each cloth bound book in the Jane Austen classic collection uses 2 colours in its design. I noticed we had the book 'Emma' at work the other day with the cloth bound Bickford-Smith design.

For more, see cb-smith.com and also http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/pubsetpages/clothboundclassics/

I am also rather taken by the t-shirts designed by Bickford-Smith for the Penguin helpers at the Art Car Boot Sale... http://www.cb-smith.com/index.php?/etc/penguin-t-shirt/

At the 10 Collective stand at the bast camp I stood and watched the video above being projected onto the wall. After a few seconds, I recognised James and Elliot of Birch studios chatting to 2 members of 10 Collective. In the video, they talk about setting up your own design studio. 

Watch the video here (sorry guys) http://10collective.com/teawith10.html

YCN... fully prepared and loaded with brochures.

I bought the book 'Hand Job' from a book shop on Rivington Street and this is the bag they gave me. It's a keeper.

The Three Horseshoes & River Colne

Our local pub is currently undergoing a makeover. It has had a new lick of paint to convert it from pink to white and driving past on Monday I noticed the name of the pub has been painted onto the walls. The previous signage consisted of bulky gold lettering stuck to the walls. This hand painted serif typeface is much more welcoming and traditional.

I spoke to one of the refurbishers and he told me that the name had been stencilled with carbon paper and hand painted. I imagine this took a while, but I am glad to have something down my road that has a properly considered identity to it.

My only issue with this design is that I hope the upside down horseshoes do not spell bad luck for the pub's new owners. The upside down horseshoes create a smoother line than the jagged peaks of upright ones would, although I hope this does not bring them misfortune. Perhaps they are challenging superstition. Perhaps they were challenged by design.

This is the scene of the River Colne just 5 minutes by foot from my front door. Whatever time of the year it is, the sun picks up on the season's colours.

The water is shallow, still and crystal clear at this part of the bank. However, you can watch the current gently carry fallen leaves and twigs along on their journey from the comfort of a nearby bench. It is the most relaxing thing I can think of to do and that's why it has to be one of my favourite places.

Boom boom boom boom

The latest addition to my room comes in the form of a cushion. They also had ones with London buses on. I think they are meant to be retrospective, although this one is more of a classic that is lesser seen these days. The illustration is simple and it uses the colour blocking trend of the season.

During London Design Festival, I went along to the Birdwatching graphic design walk. I picked up this poster from the base camp. It doesn't seem to want to stay on my wardrobe, but it will.

Madeira

In July, I went on holiday to Madeira. We had a hotel with a gorgeous sea view in the heart of Funchal. Although there are not many graphic-related places I know of in Madeira, I managed to spot a few sights I found interesting.

This building caught my eye because it reminds me of some of the 3D paper engineering in Sophia Vyzoviti's Superstructures. The staircases and balconies look like paper that has been wrapped around a pencil or made into napkin holders or rings for paper chains.

This shop sign reminded me of the raw graphic styles we looked at in the first year such a pixao. It is bold and constructed of minimal lines with only 3 colours. It is interesting to see the shadows of the type being cast upwards as this is something that isn't that common.

The reflection of the parasol (below) in my sunglasses looks like quirky little eyes, almost like those of owls. It reminds me of a Tim Burton film and the sweets with strawberry and cream flavours swirled into each other. The red and white stripes make a pleasant patchwork with the green gingham print of my sunglasses.

On closer inspection, the parasol has yellow in between the stripes. This looks like such a typical umbrella one might find on the beach, possibly in Britain. My postcard photo of the holiday perhaps?!

I love the angle of the chair in this shot. Although they're not the most comfortable chairs and the metal scrapes on the ground a lot, the decorative white metal looks more creamy next to the rich burgundy cushions and tablecloths. The tiled pavement is welcome as it looks just like the pavements abroad.

Walking through the old town I found the artistic quarter; I think there was an art college/university nearby. We walked down a road that had painted doors. Each door was different and some of them were beautifully and imaginatively adorned.

This was the most elaborate front door. They had actually come outside of their door and adorned the doorway with giant lace curtains!

One of the more 'graphic' door designs, even if this style is quite a typical one. I really enjoyed finding somewhere with personal home comforts in a foreign place.

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!!!!!