Yesterday I had the pleasure of introducing the delightful Dr Henry Jekyll. Today however I’ve got a very different character altogether. Here we have a mugshot of convicted butterfly strangler Mr Edward Hyde. Legend has it he was raised in a sewer by a family of snakes but then somehow made his fortune after a few shady deals with an oligarch friend of his. This allowed him to switch to a slightly classier sewer. After his time in LA with Epstein and Ghislainehe fell off the radar and his current whereabouts are not known.
Well, that’s stage 2 of our overcomplicated 3-in-1 mural done. Now we’ve just got the reveal to go…
Well, will you look at that. It’s only reveal day for my latest creation – a 3-in-1 mural of my cousin, Sandor. If you watch the video you can see that I’ve even dressed up for the occasion so you know it’s going to be pretty exciting. If you’re into that kind of thing.
Given that I was concerned that the different tapes at different angles could possibly be a bit visually jarring I’m pretty pleased with the end result. Let’s hope Sandor is too…
It’s dawn on id-iom’s private Caribbean island. There’s a soft knock at the door and I’m gently reminded that I’ve got a call in 30 minutes. After a couple of lengths in the pool and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice I take the video call from the BBC documentary team chronicling the eventual but meteoric rise of id-iom to being the pre-eminent design/art team in the world. Today we’re being asked about the big idea that took us there – 3 in 1 designs…
It’s not that far fetched. Is it? Anyway, despite how great I think they are it’s up to you, the viewer, to decide that for yourself. It’s 3 in 1 performance art on a canvas. And if that isn’t a good trick then I don’t know what is. This rather opinionated gentleman is on a 60 x 40cm canvas and would desperately love to go to a new home. Drop us a line if that can be you…
As I mentioned yesterday no canvas within my grasp is currently safe from potentially being experimented on and turned into a 3 in 1 version of its former self. For Dream Big I thought we’d give our archer lady some horizontal stripes of tape then recolour the whole thing with some more washed out colours in a vague hope the contrast would be more interesting. I’m just not convinced about the horizontal nature of the stripes…
It’s obviously a fairly time consuming system as you have to do the picture twice in order to get the reveal and the mixed up final piece but since when has something as trifling as that put us off? I’m already thinking that this is the idea that catapults us to the art stratosphere.
She’s on a 60 x 40 canvas and I’d imagine you want to get involved right now before they skyrocket in price…
As I’m sure we’re all aware a stripe is ‘a relatively long, narrow band of a different color, appearance, weave, material, or nature from the rest of a surface or thing’. And I’m currently a little obsessed with them. It turns out no canvas is safe now I”ve got my new patented 3 pictures in 1 idea dominating my design thoughts.
It’s obviously quite a time consuming system as you have to do the picture twice in order to get the reveal and the mixed up final piece but since when has something as trifling as that put us off? I’m already thinking that this is the idea that catapults us to art superstardom…
She’s on a 60 x 40 canvas and I’d imagine you want to get involved right now before they skyrocket in price.
Step 1 – Find an old pencil sketch of Muhammad Ali that your dad did back in the 70’s in your auntie’s kitchen and decide that you want to do your own version of it. Attempt to find the reference photograph that he must have used but fail. #ali #muhammadali #mohammadali #mohammedali #stencil #art #contemporary #mural #paint #painting #wall #london #overcomplicated #sketch #70s #modern #street #urban #graffiti #lockdown #stepbystep #instructions It turns out Ali has been photographed thousands of times over the years and the internet is not particularly helpful when you can’t be very specific. No problem. You’ll just have to make the detail up yourself.
Step 2 – Using the arcane skills you’ve learned over the years turn the original sketch into a wall sized stencil and then apply to your wall in black. So far so good. This is easy.
Step 3 – After much deliberation about colour and the general direction you want the picture to take you decide on a nice bright red and go with the wallpaper with the hidden morse code message and sit back to admire your handiwork. You leave it overnight and decide to come back tomorrow to see if you’ve actually finished…
Step 4 – Have a harebrained idea about taking this piece next level by having it as three murals in one and then proceed to attempt to make this idea a reality. Constantly question whether it will work or just be an immense waste of your time. Add some detail to the hair area then try to take some classy shots. This could be as good as it gets. Really go for it and include the cat if you can and any other arty shots you can manage.
Step 5 – Apply tape to half the wall and then recolour the background in a vague approximation of the colours of the Islamic flag to denote his membership of the Nation of Islam in 1964 and his name change from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali. Your idea already sounds pretty highfalutin but you’ll go with it all the same.
Step 6 – Add some white to the background then, using your meagre skills at skin tone and having no reference pic to go from (other than the photo of your dad’s pencil sketch), colour the face in and try to make it look at least a little convincing. Hmmm. You’ll have to try a little harder than that.
Step 7 – Fuss around for ages trying to get the skin tone looking at least a bit more believable. That’s a bit better. Best to stop now before you go too far. Admire your handiwork and take another pic. That’s two murals down. There’s no turning back now.
Step 8 – It’s reveal time! Find the ends of the tape that you applied to the wall in Step 5 and yank that stuff straight off the wall. You’re now officially a performance artist.
The big reveal!
Step 9 – Now you get to see if your plan actually worked. Admire your handiwork and take a few more pics. Job done. Congratulations. Then it’s time to wonder if anyone has done this kind of thing before or if you’ve finally found your thing. Think about this for approximately five minutes before your attention is diverted by the next shiny idea to pass through your brain.
It’s not every day that we get a chance to be on ITV London news but if you live in London and kept your eyes peeled you may have caught us yesterday evening. ITV had sent their on the scene news reporter, Nick Thacher, to Brixton to do a report on how community groups who take care of their area can create lower crime rates and naturally we featured. Our mural of Lady Sulina that we did at the annual street party a couple of months ago was included as brightening up the area and reducing problem graffiti. ha! id-iom 1 world 0. Our mum will be so proud.
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when id-iom have a little time on their hands then look no further. We’re very pleased to announce our latest video collaboration. We’ve partnered with infamous intergalactic chef and sometime bounty hunter Bhuna Fett to produce this ‘Cooking with Bhuna Fett’ infomercial on behalf of Tesco’s and their new range of Bantha Milk.
We had to do an incredible amount of wrangling to get Bhuna Fett to agree to feature in our video. The amount of brown envelopes stuffed with galactic standard credits was incredible but then again what do you expect from a part time bounty hunter. After we’d paid Bhuna off we only had a 30 mins window in order to get all the footage we needed as he had some other urgent business to take care of.
So here it is. What you didn’t know you’d been waiting for…
Ah the power of the internet! Last week I was having a bit of a Youtube session when I came across a competitive eater by the name of the LA Beast who will eat just about anything. We first watched his cactus challenge video where, you guessed it, he eats a cactus. Whole. We then moved onto the ghost chilli challenge which brought tears to my eyes – as well as his. After perusing a few more videos we decided to check him out online. The banner on his Facebook page was looking a little pixelated so the muse demanded I create a new one for him as thanks for the amusement he provided.
Once I had an idea for the design it was all pretty straightforward except for the fact that I couldn’t find any decent resolution shots of his face in profile (which was required for my design). So there you have it. All that was left after that was to send it off to him and see if he’d get back. He did and it turns out he thought it was ‘awesome’. Everybody’s happy…
As a memento to our now demolished studio a good friend of id-iom came down to document our work at the ‘House of Pain(t)’ before it was razed to the ground. Here’s a new video he put together in the final days of the house. After watching this I’ve come to realise quite what a place we had. We just need another now…
You can also see the video that Spraying Bricks put together below:
For individual shots of the pieces you can see them on our flickr page here.
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