The Badger Mural (id-iom @ The Perky Nel)

It’s not like team id-iom needs much in the way of reasons to head to the pub so when we got the call from a new pub, The Perky Nel, in Clapham South (on the site of the now deceased Gigalum and Oblivion bars) to say they needed some inspired interior design to brighten up an area by the kitchens we were happy to oblige. 

After a bit of toing and froing we finally had an agreed design bringing a bold nature inspired heart design to the area around the serving hatch. Featuring flowers, badgers and an SW4 banner it’s a little ode to the Common. Although how many badgers are still knocking about in there is anyone’s guess…

Cheers

id-iom

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Two of the seven

Two of the seven

So we painted this for two of the seven many years ago now but it’s nice to see the guys are still in business in Brixton. Both Sleepy and Doc moved here long ago with the very modest proceeds from the Disney movie (being new to the film industry they didn’t understand their legal rights and signed away all their potential royalties!) and they now live side by side running their own ‘small’ businesses. As you can see Sleepy runs a successful B&B whilst Doc has his own thriving medical practice. I could find little information regarding the whereabouts and well-being of the other five as there seems to have been some kind of acrimonious split following the release of the movie. Maybe time will tell…

 

Cheers

 

id-iom

The Band in Hand

With some new soundproofing being constructed to go over the windows in the back room of our local boozer they needed us to add a touch of id-iom design magic so it would also function as a sign to let people know a band night was on and which way the entrance is (it’s an old pub so has 3 possible entrances – only one of which actually opens). A couple of design variations later and we were left with the bearded hipster style guy staring imperiously at you along with a couple of Band in Hand logo’s and the yellow and white arrows. It’s pretty clean and straight forward all things considered. I think I need to go and make a proper mess somewhere now…

Cheers

id-iom

London’s burning…

Here at id-iom we love nothing more than a good challenge so when we were contacted by our local fire brigade and asked to do a logo for their unofficial uniform we jumped at the chance. They take pride in being firefighters in Lambeth and wanted something that reflected that so after scratching our heads for a while we managed to come up with an initial selection of designs. After these had been shown around the interested parties a clear favourite emerged:

Design using the LFB logo. Naughty id-iom.

As our design is an unofficial item we weren’t really supposed to be using the LFB logo so instead swapped that out for the call sign for the three different stations that cover the borough of Lambeth and, hey presto, we had ourselves some approved designs.

Just yesterday we were invited down to Clapham Fire Station to pick up a couple of t-shirts they’d had printed up and to have a look around. id-iom’s collective inner child (which is never difficult to reach) was, of course, pretty excited by the idea of a personal tour of a fire station and we certainly weren’t let down. We were given a brief rundown of how the station operates, were shown the fire engine, had all our inane questions were answered and I even got to try on some breathing apparatus. Win all round.

Even the cat is down with this one. And you know how choosy cats are.

What kind of self respecting man-child would turn down the chance to wear the breathing rig?

Check out this bad lad. It had some kind of articulated crane arm on it that can reach 30 m (I checked). Now how would that be for getting up hard to reach high places for a bit of painting?

Cheers

id-iom

The Curse of Class 22e

The Curse of Class 22e

Tony here is a substitute teacher who has the unfortunate job of teaching class 22e for the foreseeable future. As you can tell he already looks a little frazzled. This was all down to Mrs Wilson getting indefinite gardening leave due to the prolonged mental harassment she suffered whilst attempting to teach class 22e the finer points of European history. The children were usually quite creative in their disobedience but her many thick knit woollen cardigans in particular were a constant source of amusement for them. Tony has only been teaching the rapscallions of 22e for two days now. He’s not sure how much more he can take…

Cheers

id-iom

Give us your daily bread. The next episode.

Give us your daily bread. The next episode.

Seagulls. They’re a noisy bothersome lot. But here at id-iom they hold a special place in our hearts. We originally hail from the Isle of Man and, like a lot of places near a coastline, we share our space with an inordinate number of the unruly beasts. Whilst this is nothing special in and of itself it has given us an excellent understanding of seagulls and their rather loutish behaviour.

This piece was created as a warning to all those out there who are not ready for the attack. But it will come, oh yes, it will come. There you’ll be enjoying a sandwich on a sunny esplanade in any number of coastal towns when suddenly a shadow crosses your path but before the prehistoric part of your brain can react the seagull will swoop down stealing away with your tasty lunch and taking it to the nearest roof top to devour whilst screaming bird obscenities at you between gulped mouthfuls.

You, bereft of your lunch will probably fall to your knees, cast your eyes up to the heavens and scream ‘Why me?’. Alas, it is already too late, this round goes to the avian yobs. All you can do is retreat in shame whilst keeping one eye on skies above in case he returns…

Seagull eyed viewers will note that we have done this imperious looking chap before but this time he’s been flipped to better fit the wall for this little back yard commission all completed in the blazing sun on a Bank Holiday Monday.

Cheers

id-iom

Give us your daily bread!

Give us your daily bread!

Seagulls. They’re a noisy bothersome lot. But here at id-iom they hold a special place in our hearts. We originally hail from the Isle of Man and, like a lot of places near a coastline, we share our space with an inordinate number of the unruly beasts. Whilst this is nothing special in and of itself it has given us an excellent understanding of seagulls and their rather loutish behaviour.

This piece was created as a warning to all those out there who are not ready for the attack. But it will come, oh yes, it will come. There you’ll be enjoying a sandwich on a sunny esplanade in any number of coastal towns when suddenly a shadow crosses your path but before the prehistoric part of your brain can react the seagull will swoop down stealing away with your tasty lunch and taking it to the nearest roof top to devour whilst screaming bird obscenities at you between gulped mouthfuls.

You, bereft of your lunch will probably fall to your knees, cast your eyes up to the heavens and scream ‘Why me?’. Alas, it is already too late, this round goes to the avian yobs. All you can do is retreat in shame whilst keeping one eye on skies above in case he returns… You have been warned!

Cheers

id-iom

The March of Time

Like most of the walls we paint we like to come at them with as little as a plan as possible (other than a one layer stencil) and see what develops. I think we like this approach because it lets our creative juices flow and allows for some real time collaboration and adjustments on the fly. Sometimes this works in our favour and sometimes not so much but then again that’s how the cookie crumbles when you practice the arcane art of spontaneity. I’d like to think this wall was a success however.

She’s even got some moss for hair which i’ll attempt to reapply over time to see if we can get some nice verdant growth. The problem I have with my moss ‘paint’ however is the lack of corn syrup to thicken the mixture. It appears the american ingredient is not so easy to come across in the UK. Cornflour didn’t seem to do the trick so I’ll have to keep experimenting…

I think my favourite touch is the addition of the little birds on the clock and the electrical wire above her head.  Now we just need a bit of summertime so this little outdoor lounge can be enjoyed properly…

Cheers

id-iom

Start ’em young

In my experience it’s good to start them young. Hopefully this young whippersnapper will grow up to have some amazing can control if he’s starting out this young. The image is based on a photo I found on my phone of a friend’s kid looking longingly at the can of paint that I’d put on the table just within his grasp. The next shot I’ve got shows him playing with it (and don’t worry it didn’t actually have a cap on. I have added that for dramatic effect which I’m allowed to do as it’s my picture) but this is the one I like when he’s got that look of concentration like he’s working out what to do next…

Cheers

id-iom

What does the fox say?

What does the fox say?

What does the fox say?

Well? What does the fox say? According to the viral hit song by Ylvis they make all kinds of nonsensical sounds and I don’t think that’s entirely fair. Take this fox for instance. He’s living in central London with his girlfriend, has a decent job, is erudite and urbane in all he does and actually has a pretty broad lexicon. He has no trouble expressing his thoughts clearly and with good diction. He can even do a pretty convincing Jamaican accent when he has to. Admittedly though here you’ve caught him just about to indulge in one of his favourite pastimes which is, perhaps, not quite so respectable. When darkness falls there’s nothing he likes to do more than ‘skipping’ or, as the Americans like to call it, ‘dumpster diving’. He’ll tear your bin bags to pieces just for the fun of it. And then perhaps compose a short poem about it afterwards. As is the life of the fox…

Anyway, the fox is a first attempt at doing my own cutouts using a jigsaw and I’m pleased to say I still have all my fingers. He’s been cut out of some MDF and comes complete with glowing LED eyes that just make him look badass come dusk. Until tragedy strikes cutouts are my new favourite thing…

Cheers

id-iom