2010 in review

My Favourite Records Released in 2010:

Pantha Du Prince — "black noise"

Toro Y Moi — "causers of this"

Joanna Newsom — "have one on me"

Arcade Fire — "the suburbs"

Vampire Weekend — "contra"

Caribou — "swim"

Foxes In Fiction — "swung from the branches"

No Age — "everything in between"

The Strange Boys — "be brave"

Seapony — "dreaming b/w late summer" 7"

Best Coast — "crazy for you"

Beach House — "teen dream"

LCD Soundsystem — "this is happening"

Memoryhouse — "The Years EP"

Washed Out "Life of Leisure EP"

Thee Oh Sees "warm slime"

Deerhunter — "halcyon digest"

Flying Lotus — "cosmogramma"

Favourite records this year that didnt come out this year:

Shonen Knife — "burning farm" (1983)

Boredoms — "super ae" (1998)

Fela Kuti — "expensive shit" (1975)

Bob Dylan — "bringing it all back home" (1965)

Tom Waits — "swordfishtrombones" (1983)

Dara Puspita 1966-1968 compilation

The Germs — GI (1979)

The Wedding Present — george best (1987)

Half Japanese — sing no evil (1985)

Favourite record shops of 2010:

Mono, Glasgow

Jackpot, Portland

Amoeba, San Francisco

Rough Trade, London

Things that happened:

Was invited to become a member of The International Society of Typographic Designers.

Left Art School forever and moved back to my beloved London (see you later, suckers).

Road tripped from Vancouver to Seattle to Portland to San Francisco.

Lived for a bit in Stockholm, had the time of my life, spent tons of money, hung out with the Snask boys and then made two incredible new friends by the way of Emmelie Quartin and Klara Modighl. Also got to spend time with my dear Sofie Lundqvist (now working at Amore)

Went to Berlin with my friends. Stayed in a beautiful flat, partied a lot, and had my mind absolutely blown by the Judische Museum and Bauhaus Archiv.

Worked for a few weeks in Sunny Brighton at Red Design.

Hooked up with my loving new family at Campbell Hay.

Graduated from University.

Went to the grove and saw the Arsenal slaughter Chelsea 3 - 1.

Snow.

Drank beer.

Things that shouldn't have happened:

Financial crisis and graduate oversaturation meant that even getting a reply to an email from a potential employer was/is next to impossible.

Nick Clegg.

My cat died.

Could not afford to have my own flat.

In conclusion, i award 2010 a 20/10.

See you in 2011!

Friday night

Chill

Yes! Here it is! The predictable "sorry ive not posted anything in ages wah wah wah" post that inevitably rears its ugly head on blogs across the interweb every couple of weeks. The most common excuse ("I'VE BEEN BUSY") - is the one that I will pluck for this time around not least because it is largely true. I am currently with a studio in shoreditch and am absolutely head over heels with it. It is a fun place, I work with incredible, hilarious people and I get to do great jobs. What more can i ask for? Oh yeah thats right nothing.

Hopefully I will have some new work to show soon from gig posters to wedding dresses to alpine retreats, as well as a new portfolio (printed and online) and an impending move to tumblr which should allow my blogging to become more fluid and frequent. In the mean time, sample the chilled delights of Small Black's new tune "photojournalist". They're EP from a little while back was enjoyable but this is much slicker.

Stay classy, Internet.

Glorious

The Sand Band

Was invited by glittering acoustic Liverpudlians The Sand Band (good name for a band) to do the poster for their record release party. I had previously done a poster for Holy Are You with them on the bill aaaaages ago, and I guess they remembered it. The cherry on the cake is that they're actually really quite good — and great to listen to late at night when you're designing posters by lamp light. As is the bright eyed Jack Joseph, gently strumming on his acoustic guitar, who is one of the support acts for the night (and coincidentally, will be playing much closer to home in Finsbury Park the week after next). Anyway if you're in Liverpool on the 16th of October get to The Static Gallery to treat your ears and get your mitts on a copy of their respective records.

SO, SO GOOD

The Wilderness Downtown

Well worth taking a couple of minutes to do this actually slightly moving little bit of video / interactive / web design. You do need to shut down all apps and other web tabs in order for it to work as it does bleed your processor dry (I hate myself for typing that sentence).

Also if you've not got it yet, get "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire, its absolutely phenomenal. It's so good it almost makes me want to listen to "Neon Bible" again.

North America

For the past two weeks I have been road trippin' down the west coast of North America, starting in Vancouver, Canada (where my brother lives) and taking in the sights of Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon, Crescent City, California, San Jose, Big Sur, San Luis Obispo and finally rounding things up in San Francisco. I don't think i've ever had so much fun solidly for two weeks in my entire life before. Neither have I seen so many great things, met so many cool people, eaten so many insane meals, drank so many delicious beers and had so many great conversations. I also got to get a bit over excited when returning to Amoeba Music in San Francisco, my favourite record shop in the whole world (conicendentally, it's also the best. Weird huh?). Jackpot Records in Portland also impressed. I also saw trees so large they struck awe into my heart and made me feel like just a puny bug on the face of the planet, ate burritos the size of babies, chilled on epic californian coast lines, stayed in the greatest hotel I have ever stayed in (the Madonna Inn, search it in google images. There is not a trace of irony about this place, and that is why it is so perfect), saw the San Franciso Giants win at the baseball, learnt how beer is made, ate pancakes for breakfast, saw Terry Richardson in the worlds biggest book shop, kept Portland weird, and loved every single damn minute of it.

My brother, who is a bit of a hippie, has got the right idea: live your life right now and enjoy every single moment. Don't fret the future, don't sweat all the small stuff and always have an adventure. That sounds like good advice to me.

In other news I will be with the good people of CampbellHay for the next three months. Rarely do you meet such a fine group of young ladies and gents, including two frenchmen.

More soon.

Strange

double bill

Listen to these two songs one after another, in this order, to make everything feel aligned in your life.

The Damned

I had another opportunity to work with the guys and girls of The Brickyard this week. I was commissioned for the poster for none other than The Damned. I have loved their (first) album "Damned Damned Damned" for a long time. Did you know that The Damned are the first uk punk band to ever release an album ("Damned Damned Damned", in 1977), a single ("Neat Neat Neat" b/w "New Rose", I believe, please correct me if I am wrong), and to tour America ("USA, USA, USA"). True story. Good work, The Damned! I once had to decide whether or not to buy an original copy of the "Damned Damned Damned" LP or "Inflammable Material" by Stiff Little Fingers. I chose Stiff Little Fingers. Needless to say, it was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever been forced to make.

After spending quite some time photoshopping in the shadows on the woman's dress and the bow on her chest I am rather craving doing something clean and typographic soon. I feel like i've been cheating on my love affair with Helvetica for a while now.

Anyway if you are in Carlisle around the 11th of August it's a definite must that you should shell out the £18 to catch some classic punk tunes and spooky vibes with The Damned. Watch this if you don't believe me:

(or go here for a three song, cooler version)

Roman Cieślewicz

(above image taken from Life website, thanks Life website!)

Nothing is new is a tireless adage.

Polish graphic designer and art director Roman Cieslewicz (b.1930-d.1996) managed to achieve almost everything visually I have ever tried to do, some 20 years before I was even born.

The work of many design icons/iconoclasts (and almost every single gig poster ever made) - from Brody to Victore to Reid to Kruger to Chantry - probably would not even exist without Cieslewicz having paved the way for proto-postmodern design during the mid 50s and 60s. By surrounding himself with artists (often surrealists) yet remaining grounded in graphics and dedicated to the beauty of print, Cieslewicz was able to take diverse influences and put them through his own visual blender, creating design for cultural industries and institutions that was keen to shake cages and ruffle feathers. However, what separates Cieslewicz from any of the (phenomenal) designers and art directors mentioned above is his timing. Brody, Victore, Reid, Kruger and Chantry are products of postmodernism: spinning punk 7"s or kicking against consumerism to carve out their art, Cieslewicz generated design that did these things before they were even thought of.

You can see the Roman Cieslewicz exhibition at the Royal College of Art until the 7th of August. It's free, so you would have to be literally insane not to go!

(Also, I apologise for the occasionally shaky iphone photos!)

Summer

jaime & sam

Honda

Honda make great cars. Seriously, my mum drives a Jazz, and I can tell you as a passenger I have never before had such a comfortable experience. Honda also make great adverts. Above is the new one for the CR-Z Hybrid and it might just be my favourite yet. Although obviously its not as good as the one where all the stuff happens (aka the best ad of all time).

Targeted Advertising.

HOW DO THEY KNOW?! HOW?!

Musical Interlude: Beach Fossils "the horse"

Great band, great label (captured tracks), great song, great to listen to wearing shorts. Great subtle little hand clap/snare fill. Great!

Vivian Girls on Tunnelvision (via Pitchfork.tv)

Portfolio

Oh right yeah, I nearly forgot. I have a portfolio site up. Check it out here

Ewen Spencer

Great photos by a great guy. Great website by a great studio!

A Heroine

This is Maria. She is a feminist. She knows what she likes, and she knows what she hates. She is funny. She just got a job in Stockholm. I love you, Maria.

Work: Holy Are You

detail

Detail view of typography

Continuing my collaboration with the psychedelic wild boys of Holy Are You I have created the new poster for the Elephant Stone and The Lucid Dream show they're putting on at The Source Arts Cafe on the 3rd of July, which will no doubt be a foot stomping night of all things psychedelic and soul. Chris usually supplies me with an image that he wants to use on the poster, and this time it was of Mr George Harrison and Mr Ravi Shankar.

work!: UK SUBS

punks not dead!

yes kubrick

NEW WORK! deerhunter

I'm sorry I've not posted anything, either writing or images, properly for quite a long time now. This also includes a total neglect to make any posts whilst during my time at the fantastic Red in Brighton. University is nearly finished and what with all the different things I have to take care of and the mounting pressures of reality, I've been finding it hard to find time, and in some cases, the motivation to write any posts of significance, and for that, i apologise. To make it up to you, here is a poster I whipped up for a deerhunter show. As of NOW, I promise more posts and more work, all the time! Including my new portfolio site, photos from our upcoming exhibition, a few live briefs, and no doubt tons of music.

London

home!

(well, not Battersea specifically but whatever.)

(also taken on my iphone, would you believe it)

Musical interlude: Bowerbirds "northern lights"

Sorry for no blog posts in a while. No time.

Books update

Contrary to popular belief, i am selling books and not hot cakes! The following have been sold:

Profile: Pentagram

The Picture Book

Creativity for Graphic Designers

MIA

Design It Yourself

Graphics Alive

influences

But that means there is still tons of really good stuff left, make sure you get it before its gone!

BOOKS FOR SALE!

As every member of BA (Hons) Graphic Design Yr3 classes up and down the country the end is very much in sight. Within 2 weeks the ladies and gentlemen in my class will be handing in all of their final projects and then cracking open some drinks in celebration. We can't spend all our time now patting each other on the back and telling everyone we love them and we're going to miss them. Soon the real world will be knocking on the door and in order to stop my real world experience not being one of "living on the streets" I have decided to sell some of my collection of design, illustration, art and photography books. There is tons of really great stuff here and I 100% gaurantee i am not trying to get rid of any books just because they suck, but purely because I feel that there are others who will appreciate them a lot more than I do.

To view the above poster at a legible size please click here, or better yet download the .pdf by going here (mediafire link).

If you're interested in any of the titles please please dont hesitate to get in touch via email, phone, facebook, face to face conversation or however you see fit. Cash or cheque preferred!

Paul Blow

I was reminded of the work of illustrator Paul Blow today. I love it. Take a closer look on his website here

MISTD

Today I received an email confirming that I had passed the entrance competition to become a member of the mysterious elite group The International Society of Typographic Designers (more commonly referred to simply as ISTD). This means I am officially now able to put MISTD after my name on my business card. I've never felt so important! It's fair to say that i'm pleased! I would also like to congratulate the other fantastic designers and good friends who got in also. We are invited to the formal awards ceremony in June, which is going to be held at the secret ISTD super hq, inside the main volcanic lava pit of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland. Exciting!

You can view photos, and read about the project I entered by clicking here

Snask sweet Snask

Today is the last day of Snask. This is a dark day. It might not yet be my last day in Stockholm however as even though UK airspace is open again, and the Swedes seem pretty relaxed about it, it would appear that many flights to London from Stockholm are still totally fucked. FINE BY ME! I love Stockholm and I think I might just make it my home instead of going back to London.

Yesterday was the final day of the Malmofestivalen photoshoot. There was a real live parrot on the set (or "pappagoya" in Swedish). My job was basically to float a purple balloon on a stick at it which really pissed it off. I think parrots (along with ostriches, probably my least favourite animal) are quite scary even when they are in a good mood. The photos look incredible though so its totally worth the jungle fear. To get home i rode in the back of the van with Axel and Hanna. We felt like illegal immigrants, sitting on bags of trash in the dark, wondering when were going to get home. Of course, i was genuinely wondering when/how I was going to get home. Let's hope never! I love you, Snask!

Day ?: Snask Vs. Super Volcano

Oskar och Axel

Sorry for not updating for a while!

Here is a list of things i have learnt recently:

- All doors in Stockholm are really, really heavy and open the opposite way you expect

- A lot of people spit on the street here, including fancy looking girls

- Saying "tjena" is cooler than saying "hej"

- Argentinians in hostels are obnoxious, germans are smug, and poles are peculiar.

- The shop Weekday is incredible

- Sodermalm is where i want to live

- Volcanoes are fucking cool

- If you're a tiny bit brave (but nowhere near as brave as you need to be in London) you can ride the metro for free.

- Everyone in Sweden is good looking, even the ugly people

- People LOVE whining about volcanoes, when in reality they should be rejoicing that they are FORCED to take a longer holiday

- Swedes drink an unreal amount of coffee

- Helvetica Neue is so last year. Helvetica Neue LT Std is the real deal. (especially 85 heavy)

- Spray paint is fun but gets all over your shit

- Freddie, Magnus, Erik, Michael, Jens, Axel, Oskar, Daniel, Hanna, Klara & Emilie are unbelievable and i love everyone. (i make myself sick)

- Pet Sounds in Sodermalm is probably going to feature in my top 5 record shops of all time. Apparently its Quentin Tarantino's number one.

In other news, there is some chance my flight on thursday will be cancelled. Fingers crossed! I love being here!

Snask off!