Spring has sprung and so it’s time to clear out those brain cobwebs. How is it almost MAY!? Sorry, things have been a bit quiet around here recently, with working & vlogging & life. But spoiler alert; I’m working on some great content for National Stationery Week next week (24th to 30th April), so look forward to that. January came and went in a blur (RIP to my phone), and I actually forgot that GF turned 8...
Ok, so I’m a bit slow on this (sorrrry – Happy New Year and all that jazz) but if you’re subscribed to my Youtube channel you might remember that back in December I was lucky enough to attend the reveal of the Pantone Colour of the year for 2017 – watch the vlog here. It’s safe to say that I was PRETTY excited – like, just a little bit. So, what happened? Well, the internet had predicted...
When you sit at a computer all day every day, doing something a little bit messy is a welcome opportunity. Luckily for me, the guys from Print Club London asked if I’d like to join in one of their workshops and I jumped at the chance of course! It had been a while since I’d been in the print room printing something that I’d designed myself. Recently it’s become quite trendy to have screen printing...
Magic show, Pantomime or Freak show – one things for sure, we just love to be entertained. The newest exhibition at The British Library is a celebration of just that, showcasing amazing typographic posters and intriguing objects transporting you back in time. In the words of Robbie Williams; Let me entertain you! And this exhibition will via the stories of 5 entertainers; Evanion, Maskelyne, Lord George Sanger, Miss Annie De Montford and Dan Leno. I...
A couple of months ago I went to a Blogger Brunch at a market in East London; The London Artisan. Myself and 3 other bloggers (Jesse from Hecticophilia, Jaye from Jaye Rockett and Uli from Found Some Paper) were hosted by the lovely Verity, who told us that she used to have a blog but unfortunately life had got in the way lately. The 5 of us had a great discussion about blogging, creativity and...
Recent political events in the UK have been interesting to say the least. Regardless which side of the fence you sit on, what we have seen is people being passionate about their beliefs, and we’ve been reminded what can happen when people stand up for what they believe in. Rebellion, protest and fighting for the freedom of speech; all things associated with the Punk movement of the 70s. Coincidentally on Friday night I saw Punk...
And the headline would read: Italy comes to London, AGAIN. Last night I was kindly invited to the launch of the latest Fedrigoni exhibition – Made in Italy: Bodoni. (Last year’s exhibition Made In Italy was a more general celebration of Italian Graphic Design) Celebrating (you guessed it) Bodoni the typeface, the guys at SEA design & Fedrigoni have collated a number of beautiful and very special pieces of design for display in the heart...
If you’ve ever visited London then you’ll be pretty familiar with the London Transport design, be it through buses, underground, overground or Boris bikes. Without question, it is iconic around the world and I have to say that from a design perspective I think it is pretty nice looking. It’s bold, simple, communicates well and it works for millions of people every day. That’s really amazing design – when it looks good AND works. Imagine if...
I don’t usually like to start the day with maths, but I felt like it is appropriate in this case… 7 tracks + 7 inches + 700 record sleeves = Secret 7 @ Sonos Studio. ALL OF THE 7s! If you’re not familiar with Secret 7, where have you been? it’s a cool concept where anyone in the world can submit their interpretation of 7 selected songs as a 7 inch record sleeve. The team at...
What do you get when you put paper, German sausages, tankards of free beer & designers in one room? A mess, usually… but when GF Smith launched their new Gmund Applied paper range last week it was perfekt, as the Germans might say. I’ve been to these kinds of launches before – there’s usually a design display, free booze and circles of designers talking typefaces (oh, how stereotypical I know!) which is cool because you...
Despite the gender split being quite even on creative courses at University level, the design industry is heavily dominated by males. If I asked you to draw me a sketch of a Graphic Designer, what would you draw? I’m 99.9% sure it would be a middle aged male with glasses. Am I right? I have a lot to say on the gender disparities within the design industry (I wrote my dissertation about Women in Design, y’know?),...
With one of my aims for 2016 being to make creative content for Youtube, I thought I would start with a little creative process video. Jaye asked me to create a logo for Living with less; a new email series she is starting, so I got busy sketching. Watch my Youtube tutorial of the behind the scenes process: It’s quite a quick & simple process; sketch ideas, practice the typography, scan it in, use Photoshop to...
After a trip to Hogwarts in the Snow last Christmas, I’ve wanted to see more and more of the Graphic Design from the Harry Potter Films. So when Jess told me about a new exhibition at the Coningsby Gallery, I was pretty excited: The Graphic Art of Harry Potter (ending 19th December 2015). Watch Vlogmas Day 3 for a video tour of the exhibition 🙂 From packaging and posters, to books and magazines – the gallery...
With everyone focused on Christmas presents, I thought it was about time the stocking got some attention. I loved waking up and finding a stocking at the end of my bed when I was younger – a sign that Santa had been! Stocking fillers might be small, but that doesn’t make them any less important. And what better way to fill a stocking, then with some fun personalised things from Snapfish? So how did I...
The other weekend I visited the London Transport Museum with Jack and Bobbins. I haven’t seen Bobbins for almost a year now (wow!), so it was really nice to catch up and geek out at the posters, typography and signs. (P.S. I am making a vlog, but it’s not quite ready yet so I’ll insert that here when it’s finished!) Considering I’ve lived in London for almost 2 years now, I’m surprised that I haven’t been...