Sometimes it’s important to do a little something for yourself. Or in this case for ourselves. id-iom’s junior member mentioned the other day that he’d managed to break his mini spirit level keyring or ‘wonkometer’ that he’d had for many years. To remedy this I thought I’d create some new team id-iom keyrings. Exclusive, classy, glass-like, laser cut and featuring a symbol of our individual call-signs. They’re 2 of a kind. And no, you can’t have one. As you can see they’re currently protected by Sebastian, the crack squirrel so good luck there…
‘Stay out of the black and into the red there’s nothing in this game for two in a bed’. So said the great Jim Bowen on classic 80’s game show ‘Bullseye’. And he wasn’t wrong. We’ve adapted last week’s astronaut themed wall into a Bullseye themed dartboard surround complete with Bully, flying darts, stars and a large ‘ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY!’.
If you don’t know anything about darts or 80’s game shows then you may not be impressed with our updated wall. Anyone who does definitely wants to pop round to throw some arrers. We may even go the whole hog and throw in a general knowledge round and some prizes for that authentic Bullseye feel. Unfortunately we don’t have the budget for a speedboat but we could certainly stretch to a picture of one. Super, smashing, great.
There I was, minding my own business, whilst perusing the aisles of my local supermarket. I happened to glance at a bottle of Dead Pony Club by Brewdog and realised the supermarket description (‘Pale Ale 3.8% is brewed with a solid malt base’ – blah, blah, blah) did no favours to a drink with such a name. I decided to use my overactive imagination as a guide to remedy this with a description a bit more fitting…
If this was an 80’s film this would now be the montage section where I scan, find fonts, use my computer and finally print out the finished product. We’d then segue back to me walking up the street about to complete my mission with the supermarket insertion of my replacement label. Cue credits.
Windmills have been around for thousands of years in one form or another but they’re not a particularly common sight nowadays. Brixton however has London’s only working windmill. It’s tucked away near the prison overlooking an estate. Originally it would have milled local flour, been surrounded by fields and been the best place to catch the prevailing wind. I know because I’ve had the guided tour.
To celebrate this hidden little gem and Brixton in general I’ve produced this image. I think that’s the best explanation I can come up with for its existence. It would be good to have a proper use for it. I should probably get on with some real work…
Last time we saw this design it was on paper and featured only the smaller wallpaper logo. Since then I’ve decided a more permanent and slightly larger commemorative artwork was appropriate so decided to do another version of the design on slate. For those new to class our local pub has closed recently. It lives now only in our memories. In better news however it’s hopefully due to reopen with new management after a bit of refurbishment. It’s unknown what they’ll be doing decor-wise so I thought it best to capture a little of it’s old character in case it disappears altogether.
Some of the old wallpaper was of indiscernible age but had a favourable design so I thought I’d generate a little commemorative artwork from that for no other reason than it seemed like a good idea at the time. What we’re left with is ‘time to drink’ featuring a modified wallpaper design featuring a little cocktail set and a skull and crossbones. And there you have it.
Sadly our local pub has closed recently. It lives now only in our memories. In better news however it’s hopefully due to reopen with new management after a bit of refurbishment. It’s unknown what they’ll be doing decor-wise so I thought it best to capture a little of it’s old character in case it disappears altogether.
Some of the old wallpaper was of indiscernible age but had a favourable design so I thought I’d generate a little commemorative artwork from that for no other reason than it seemed like a good idea at the time. What we’re left with is ‘time to drink’ featuring a modified wallpaper design featuring a little cocktail set and a skull and crossbones. And there you have it. I like it and think I’ll go ahead and turn it into a larger stencil so it’ll make more sense on a bigger wall…
“Featuring some of Brixton’s more notable addresses – such as Billa’s 24hour booze, Happy Shopper and The Sultan – this is an exciting game that will bring long, tedious hours of ‘fun’ for all the family. Brought to you by id-iom and Parker Brothers”
For throwback Thursday we’re going for our 1m x 1m Brixton Monopoly commission from a few years back. I was pretty pleased with the final result – especially considering how long it managed to take. After a load of emails back and forth we came up with a finished design which incorporated elements from various international editions of Monopoly, some invented elements and a load of place names from around Brixton which had significance to the client. As they live near to us all the locations (including Billa’s 24hr booze and Pizza Man) are somewhat familiar to me too…
Despite the fact they are known to me many spaces on the board are undoubtedly unfamiliar to just about everyone else. If, however, you do happen to be know all the place names and are particularly eagle-eyed you may even notice that we even arranged the squares so that they are grouped together logically (i.e by location and/or function) and the board follows a circuit from locations at the bottom of Brixton up to the top of Brixton Hill.
Since living in Brixton I’ve become enamoured with the phrase ‘Whagwan’. For the uninitiated, the phrase means ‘what’s going on’ in Jamaican Patois. The spelling can vary but the meaning doesn’t change.
Anyway, once I’d combined that with a nice little romantic statement and a bit of traditional Claddagh ring design, hey presto, I had this little declaration of love for Brixton. Then it was just a matter of adding it to the messy ‘graffiti wall’ style background and, by jingo, you’ve got it!
After our enforced spring clean we were left with a few canvases that were in no fit state to be sold but not quite damaged enough to be binned. Hmmmm… What to do?
Well we finally decided to give them a quick update then find them a new home on the sweet streets of Brixton complete with one way security screws to ensure they had a chance of staying put…
First up we have Fernando who is an inveterate teller of fibs. He once stopped an old lady in the street and proceeded to tell her the story of the time he saved a herd of unicorns from an angry stray cat who just so happened to be the size of a small horse by making a rudimentary laser pointer out of a toilet tube, some elastic from his underpants and a single match.
The old dear listened for just a few seconds and from nowhere suddenly pulled out a magic wand and mumbled some magic words. Fernando hadn’t yet noticed but, obviously, his nose began to grow as he kept talking but the old lady didn’t care, she just ambled away to the shops. What’s the moral of this story? You’ll just have to work it out for yourself…
Karen has always had a squiffy eye and doctors have told her that she can have surgery to have it corrected if she wants but she’s never wanted to have it done and never will. She likes the fact that people find it off-putting and when talking to her just don’t know which way to look. Karen also has a knack to roll her bad eye into the back of her head to really hit it home.
Through the years people have called her many names due to her affliction but one that has stuck because Karen liked it herself was ‘Ambly’. Karen also has a skill which is a direct cause of her wonky eye: she can tell if anything is squiffy even by the slightest degree with just a quick glance. Due to this many business sectors hold Karen in great demand for her unusual abilities. From the scientists at CERN to the builders of the worlds largest skyscrapers, to Tony from down Karen’s local pub who always asks her to see if he’s squiffy but Karen is always to polite to give him an answer. In all fairness everyone at the pub already knows the answer to that one…
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