FSFO crest

FSFO Crest

We couldn’t really attempt to cover our studio building in graffiti without getting a cheeky little reference to the glorious Isle of Man in there. So we’ve decided to revive a bit of graffiti that was found all over the island when we were growing up and give it a little design twist. FSFO apparently meant ‘Financial Sector F**k Off’ and was daubed on walls in the 80’s purportedly in response to the increasing growth and power of the Island’s burgeoning finance sector. Personally I always preferred the other definition of the acronym- which was that it stood for ‘Free Sex for Onchan‘ (which is a small town on the Island) and the idea that sexual liberation was one thing they were willing to fight for. FSFO!

Cheers

id-iom

Related articles

• The House of Graffiti (round 1) (thisisidiom.wordpress.com)

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The Lady on the Door

The Lady on the Door

The Lady on the Door. I think it sounds like a Victorian ghost story which is probably quite fitting considering the pedigree of the house it’s in and the more sketchy style we’ve gone for with this piece. I could spin a sad tale of a misguided young lady who suffers the indignity of unrequited love and then in a spurned fury turns to the dark side of the Force in order to ensure the object of her affections ends up loving her. Then, in some contrived plot twist the whole thing would backfire on her and she would be forced to wander the site of her misdeeds as a disembodied wraith for the rest of eternity. Sadly though, that isn’t the truth (as far as i’m aware) but just gave me a fun excuse for a post and as Nick Ross used to say on Crimewatch ‘don’t have nightmares, do sleep well’.

Cheers

id-iom

The Walking Skeleton

The Walking Skeleton

So we’ve been pretty busy over the last week trying to fulfil our desire to fill our studio building with as much paint as we possibly can do before the old girl is reduced to a huge pile of rubble in the name of progress and we’re left without a studio! We’ve been doing reasonably well and should have a few bits completed over the next few days. Today’s offering is something that I’m looking at getting immortalised in ink as part of my ongoing project to get a half sleeve on my right arm. I thought it’d be nice to have him put on a wall first to check how he’d look before his final incarnation on my arm. And I reckon he looks pretty spiffy and will fit right in on my sleeve. Now i’ve just got to find a reputable tattooist…

Cheers

id-iom

There’s no place like home

There’s no place like home

There’s no place like home

 

I do so like getting a good commission. For this one we had to come up with something that would bring a bit of colour to a tired white board that had been fitted over an old fireplace. As the fireplace is something of a focal point in the room we wanted to come up with something fitting.

After initially going down the slightly obvious route of recreating some kind of actual fireplace (complete with painted flames) we decided that whilst that could be quite nice in wintertime it would be a little odd in summer so we decided to change tack and go with something that would bring a little colour to the room all year round. The Latin text reads ‘There’s no place like home’ and we also have a lovely young lady (in a swimsuit, naturally) who has launched herself from somewhere on high and is about to land safely in the comfort of a large hand that is waiting to catch her. There really is no place like home…

Cheers

id-iom

The House of Graffiti (round 1)

The building our studio is currently in is slated for demolition at some point in the imminent future. Apart from making us want to cry like little girls it also gave us the bright idea that perhaps we could have a little paint jam inside her to give her a proper send off. After having a word with the developer (who’s a bit of an art fan) he gave us the go ahead. Unfortunately for us we managed to be left with the weekend when most of the people we’d have hoped would be helping out with a little bit of interior decoration were all at Paint & Beer in Amsterdam.

Not to be deterred we forged ahead regardless and managed to get a couple of people along to help out. So on Saturday we cranked up the music, got out the beers and had our own little paint and beer session. We’ll hopefully be adding more this week as I’d really love to fill the entire place with freshly painted walls but that all depends on the demolition schedule. With any luck though we’ll maybe be able to continue this weekend so if you’re interested watch this space…

125 Crest wall (WIP)

125 Crest wall (WIP)

Win when you’re singing (WIP)

The Early Bird

No Vandalism

Cheers

id-iom

Leporine inhalant abuse

Leporine inhalant abuse

Anyone who knows our work might think that we have something against rabbits and that’s just not the case as I actually really quite like most of the little blighters. That said that doesn’t mean I think they have rainbows following them around. They can definitely have a dark side. And you’d best believe that they are certainly not cute.

I actually tried to get this fella some help for his addiction when i came across him. Sadly i learnt the hard way that they are best left alone, as he came at me with those dead zombie like eyes looking straight through me, teeth bared and ready and willing to go for the throat but luckily i managed to escape as he was a little slow on his feet. I lived to warn all those unfortunate enough to come across other such Leporine inhalant abusers.

This picture captures a bad moment in a young leveret‘s life. One he’d probably hope hadn’t been caught for posterity by an inquisitive artist. But it had to be done and now we all know.

Cheers

id-iom

Lord of the Concrete Jungle

Lord of the Concrete Jungle (in situ)

Lord of the Concrete Jungle

We were commissioned by the Electric Social (who we’ve worked for before) and Tiger Beer to design a picture that would adorn a large wall upstairs at the Brixton bar/club. Once we had a design finalised we measured up and went off to buy some canvas. At this point I didn’t realise quite how bit a 5.5m x 2.6m canvas would actually be…

It’s always fun to go big but we almost bit of more than we can chew with this one as the canvas was far bigger than any room we had to work on it so we had to come up with some fun logistical fixes to get it all done. Just priming the huge canvas took long enough never mind painting the background and cutting stencils. Anyway it took a while longer than expected but we finally managed to get it finished and drop it by the club with a feeling of relief. I believe they had a tricky enough time mounting it and getting it up on the wall but I think that was only to be expected with this billboard sized monster. At least they liked it and first impressions from customers have apparently been good so, thankfully, that’s another job done.

Cheers

id-iom

I a-door you

I a-door you

Our studio is being demolished in a few weeks so we are having to move everything out which is a fairly traumatic – but there is an upside. Now that its getting more and more barren there are empty walls and surfaces emerging which are just begging to be painted on. And  that’s exactly what happened with this little beauty. Before we started tidying this door was largely hidden behind some bits of cardboard and MDF which is why only the top half has paint scribbles on it, but since moving all the clutter the bottom of the door looked strangely empty so I decided to cheer it up a little with picture of a pretty lady. Nothing too clever or original with this one, just a picture of a pretty lady to enliven an otherwise sad and abused looking door. Is it so wrong to try and cheer up inanimate objects?

Cheers

id-iom

Spank the Bishop…

So there I was busily staring out of the window when I’m rudely disturbed by the ominous bleating of my phone. Happily it turned out to be Tommy (who has helped id-iom out before) but that quickly soured as all I heard him cry was ‘Spank the Bishop!’ a couple of times before the line went dead. Fearing the worst I gave Tommy a ring back but it turns out he wasn’t about to give himself friction burns but did, in fact, have a little job in mind for us. Tommy was looking to launch a new club night at Electric Social in Brixton called ‘Spank the Bishop’ and needed a snappy fresh logo to adorn his flyers.

After a bit of tinkering we managed to come up with the logo we have here:

Spank the Bishop logo

And her we have it on it’s debut flyer (it’s kicking off this weekend!):

Spank the Bishop flyer

I hope there are many more to come… Good luck!

Cheers

id-iom

Nothing more to say

Nothing more to say

I was wondering what to write for this post last night and I had decided it was probably going to be a somewhat dark post but that was fine. Then on waking this morning with a sunny disposition and broad sunshine outside I thought perhaps Monday could do with something a little more cheery. Anyway, the lady in this picture has been out all night enjoying the wholesome triumvirate of sex, drugs and rock & roll and is left feeling a little spent after the whole sordid scenario. But at least she enjoyed herself. Now it’s back down to earth with a bump as the weekend is well and truly over…

Cheers

id-iom