Don’t sit so close to the TV. It’ll ruin your eyes!

Don't sit so close to the TV. It'll ruin your eyes!

When we were growing up there was an imaginary line in front of the TV (a virtual creation of my dad) which we weren’t allowed to sit in front of when watching the goggle box for fear that we would ruin our eyesight if we sat any closer. Now whilst this rule is no longer enforced and I no longer have the desire to sit approximately 3 inches from the screen sometimes I’ll do so just to prove a point. Anyway I thought that would be a reasonable segue into today’s offering…

We were asked if we could paint up a wall mounted box (that is used to mount the TV to the wall and hide all the cables) so as we are a pair of design cowboys we jumped at the chance to give another boring black TV a beautiful place to call home. Our only worry was that by painting directly behind a TV there was the possibility that it might distract the viewer from their viewing pleasure. With this is mind we decided on a more abstract piece than usual but I think that the final piece works well and the client thought so too, so all in all another happy pair of artists and another happy customer. What’s next i hear you ask? Stay tuned but definitely don’t get to close!

Cheers

id-iom

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An American flight attendant in London

An American Flight Attendant in London

As you may possibly be able to guess from the title of this post and the fact that the picture has ‘An American Flight Attendant in London’ written on it – this picture was commissioned by an American flight attendant living in London who wanted to commemorate his couple of years living in the Big Smoke with a little something he could take back to wow the folks back home and try to prove that he didn’t spend absolutely all his hard earned pennies in the local pub…

We had him fill out the infamous id-iom questionnaire but truth be told we already had the design in mind and thankfully his answers only confirmed that our design was actually quite appropriate (his nickname of ‘the octopus’ was, after all, hard earned!)  All that was left at that point was to apply the design to canvas. This is usually the swiftest part of the whole process but somehow this one managed to drag itself out a bit but at least we still managed to get it finished well in time for his final departure call. We even managed to get all the pub locals to sign the side of the canvas to give it that little extra sentimental boost.

So, as our newly minted envoy to the states hopefully he and this piece will be promoting the id-iom name stateside from here on in.

Cheers

id-iom

 

The Lady of the Lake

The Lady of the Lake arises...

Excalibur!

 

It is said that when storm clouds gather over England and dark days lay ahead then the Lady of the Lake will rise from her watery resting place bearing Excalibur – to be taken by a pure-hearted champion for the people (or perhaps it’ll just be taken by the council).

Well, with Greece on the blink, Portugal up the swanny and Italy on the ropes it would appear that the time is upon us…Good people of England take cheer for now Excalibur is here it will all be sorted post haste!

Cheers

id-iom

Printing for Crack (For Your Eyes)

id-iom does CFYE

First up, if you aren’t already regularly reading CFYE (Crack For Your Eyes) for your daily dose of inspirational art then you should visit, look around, bookmark it and then head back here. With the preliminaries out of the way we can now get on with the main event… This little beauty was done as a small token of our gratitude for Arden (one of CFYE’s founder’s) who helped us out by updating our website with a little front page makeover while we look to giving it a complete overhaul and upgrade. It’s on textured A3 paper and features a pimped out (and black) CFYE logo complete with the id-iom certified stamp to give it that authentic touch. I can only hope he likes it…

Cheers

id-iom

Daddy! There’s something moving under the stairs!

Daddy! There's something moving under the stairs!

Bathmophobia is the fear of stairs and a common cause is an early negative experience with stairs. This much we all surely know. However, this ‘early negative experience’ can be hard to pin down yet can persist for years. After much research and hanging around in the wrong kind of places id-iom can reveal the real cause of this debilitating illness and can embiggen medical knowledge all in one fell swoop. His name is Bob and if i’m honest it was quite tricky to get any more than that from him. He didn’t seem particularly keen to see me and i’m not convinced of his assertions that his intentions are strictly honourable… Either way I got the photo so at least that one is now sorted.

Cheers

id-iom

Fortune favours the brave!

Fortune - Ooh la la a lady's lovely legs!

Fortune wall

Fortune wall

Fortune entrance

Fortune - peep hole!

Fortune favours the brave!

A little bird told me Fortune is this way...

There we were painting the corridor downstairs at Seven @ Brixton when the owners of the imminently opening little boutique upstairs called ‘Fortune‘ asked us if we could paint a little something for them as well to brighten up their small-but-perfectly-formed shop. We didn’t have much time (less than 24 hours!) but as we have come to learn we work pretty well under pressure so of course we said ‘yes!’ and jumped right at it.

Fortune is a contemporary and vintage ladies boutique so the design needed to have that feminine touch. As the shop isn’t open full time they decided to put a peep-hole in the door so you could have a peek in whilst they were closed. We loved the idea of that so donned our thinking caps and decided that a pair of oversized lady’s legs reaching from floor to ceiling would look great through the peep-hole. We also put some stencils on the outside of the door to encourage people to look in and brightened up the wall they have most of their product on with some colour and a few freshly cut stencils. Finally we thought we’d best get some lucky black cats in there too. Just to make sure. After some feverish work and a little swearing it was ‘job done’ just in time for them to get their stuff back up on the walls and have their opening!

Cheers

id-iom

id-iom @ Seven – Round 2! Fight!

id-iom @ Seven - Round 2! Fight!

Seven @ Brixton asked us back again to paint up the corridor area in their fine establishment. This meant that we first needed to buff our work from last year –  which was actually surprisingly enjoyable and somewhat cathartic I have to admit. After that was complete we set to the task in hand of getting the new design up in double time for a special opening and wine tasting which was just one day away (which is now last Friday 17th). So to the dark studio it was – for a quick case of stencil finger and a refresher course in being a handyman.

First up we got our little character on wall, got him coloured in and then had to move onto phase 2. After the last time at Seven where we used some thread from the fingertips we definitely needed to next level this one too so decided to stick some pipes to the wall (this is where the handyman course was needed as I get a little giddy with power tools in my hand) which are dripping a veritable rainbow of paint onto the floor which then coalesces to spell the word ‘Seven’. Easy i hear you say! For most people i would probably agree but for this pair of design cowboys Phase 2 became something of a practical challenge. After a few failures to get the pipes fixed we somehow though we managed to stay true to our word and got the design finished for everyone to enjoy on Friday night… Phew!

Cheers

id-iom

A guide to gentleman’s etiquette (Part 3)

A guide to gentleman's etiquette (Part 3)

How to shake hands properly – it’s a thing every proper gentleman should know. None of this bone-crushing stuff to try and prove you’re a tough guy nor limp soggy handshakes that satisfy nobody. You’ve got to get it just right, it’s really not that tricky and this little number will put you on the right track if you’re having trouble. I automatically hate people who try to crush your hand because unless you’re a giant with poor motor skills there really is no excuse to be so rude – especially when you have just met someone. Certainly not the way to start off any relationship as far as i’m concerned…

This guide will soon be adoring the walls of the Electric Social in Brixton. We’ve done a load of work for them before but they were looking for a few more artefacts to put on their already spanky fresh walls so we were more than happy to oblige.

Cheers

id-iom

Roses are red, cardboard is brown, I’m rubbish at poems, so please don’t frown

At least id-iom loves you!

 

 

 

 

Down in the basement of the id-iom lab one of our R&D monkeys pointed out that it was Valentine’s Day today and that we should maybe do a little something to show how much we love everyone. Considering our last offering for Valentine was a little downbeat we thought we’d have something a little more sentimental this year. After some feverish tinkering we came up with the highly original idea of using a cardboard rose with a little note from us to try and brighten up a few peoples day. I can’t imagine they’ll last very long as surely they make the perfect gift (‘ooh urban art’ how very on trend!) for someone too lazy/forgetful to get something nice for their significant other half. Get ’em while you can…

Cheers

id-iom

Fame and fortune here we come…

id-iom in NME

Well we had a picture feature for a full split second on the Culture Show last week  and now we’ve got our work at Seven featured in this week’s NME as a background for a photo shoot featuring upcoming singer Jessie Ware. I’m sure eagle eyed readers will have spotted both of these already of course.

Whatever next? Perhaps we’ll get a close up of a tiny part of one of our pieces in a music video. You’ve got to have aspirations in this world. World domination will follow in due course.

Cheers

id-iom