So, there I was (pre-pandemic) just casually minding my own business in the queue at the art shop when BOOM! – an impulse purchase incident – and before I know it I’ve got a little Sunogrpahy ‘solar powered photography’ kit clutched firmly in my hand. Fast forward to about a week ago when I find the kit in a pile on my desk. It’s sunny outside. The game is afoot.
A quick search reveals a transparency with a printed design from another project and we’re good to go. After 15 minutes on each side I had a surprisingly clean image using just the power of the sun. How very wholesome. Now I’ve got my proof of concept I just need something suitable for the other four sheets and then to find out where I can I lay my hands on some larger A2 size sheets before the next bright and shiny idea comes along to steal all my attention…
Would you adam and eve it? In between dodging rain showers I have actually managed to make some progress this week. That’s the first part of our patented 3-in-1 portrait done and dusted.
I did ask my cousin, whom the portrait is of, what colours he liked and didn’t like. He said he’d think about it and get back. He didn’t. I went off piste. This is the result. Now to apply some tape and redo the whole thing for stage 2…
Bored of waiting for coronavirus to come to you? Well now you don’t have to. Corona have bowed to the inevitable and teamed up with the world renowned creators of Covid 19 to bring you this zesty and infectious small batch artisanal version of their classic brew. Great for 14 day mini breaks at home or abroad.
I’ve been trying to resist the obvious Corona label update but temptation finally got the better of me. C’mon ‘zesty notes which are enhanced by adding a wedge of lime.’ is just not going to cut it with today’s hyper paranoid world view where the beer Corona has somehow been inextricably linked to a global pandemic. So i’ve fixed that at least.
Sometimes there’s nothing I like more than a good trawl through Wikipedia in search of something inspiring (and in our world inspiration can come from just about anywhere). There I was reading through an entry on the possibly fictional ‘hobo graffiti’ from late 1800’s USA when I came across Leon Ray Livingston.
Leon Ray Livingston who was a hobo who travelled under the name ‘A-No.1’ and was often referred to as ‘The Rambler’. He has been lauded by historians as the King of the Hoboes. He even wrote 12 books on the subject. Once I’d checked out his A-No.1 moniker/tag on the front of his books I knew a picture was in the offing.
What we’re left with is this playing card style ‘King of the Tracks’ design featuring his own tag which looks just like something from 1980’s New York and a ‘Rambler’ ambigram over the middle. It’s just a shame the only photo of him I could find to work with was small and grainy or I would have attempted a bit more detail. Right, back to some proper work…
The news has a lot to answer for. Usually I’ll wake up with a random song playing in my mind. Yesterday however I woke up from a dream where I was tour manager for Covid 19 and was setting up their world tour alongside Corona Virus. Being the imaginary hard metal bands that they are we needed some appropriate imagery so rather than do anything constructive with my day I did a quick internet search to check no such frippery already existed then set to work designing their poster.
Weirdly, it turns out that most world tour posters seem to have a dark background with white text but that was definitely the look Covid 19 would go for. Once I’d put the poster together I thought the Muse would be done with me but, no, it was time to move onto merch design. After slapping the various logos onto a t shirt template I was finally allowed to stop. And this is what we’re left with. Being an artist is weird.
There I was, minding my own business whilst reading through the news when I must have read something about Trump standing for re-election because the next thing I know I have this image flashing unbidden into my mind. Tiny hands included. Rather than try to understand or reason with these thoughts I’ve found it easier to just make it so in an attempt to exorcise such egregious ideas. I should probably get back to some real work…
If you’ve not been to Crystal Palace Park and seen the dinosaurs then I highly recommend doing so. They’re concrete, life-size and in need of some restoration. By modern standards I guess they’re not that impressive but when you consider they were made 150 years ago – before they even really knew what most of these dinosaurs actually looked like – then I think that makes them all the more impressive. There’s even little information boards showing what we now reckon the animals really looked like and I love they fact they took some pretty dramatic artistic liberties.
The park itself is named after the famed Crystal Palace that housed the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park before being dismantled and reconstructed in South London where it sat from 1854 until it was destroyed by fire in 1936. The area is also famous for it’s TV transmitter which, at 219 metres, is the fourth tallest structure in London. The park also features in ‘The Italian Job’ in the scene filmed at the athletics track in Crystal Palace sports centre where Michael Caine says “You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”. So there you have it. An ode to Crystal Palace.
‘Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it’. So spoke the eponymous hero in 1986’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I was in North London on something of a busman’s holiday and decided this was solid advice worth heeding so headed out to do some ‘research’ into Highgate. It somehow yielded this result.
Some interesting facts about Highgate; St Michael’s Church (pictured) is the highest church in London and as you enter the church you are all but level with the cross on the top of St Paul’s Cathedral, there’s literally tons of famous people buried in Highgate Cemetery from Karl Marx and George Michael to Jeremy Beadle and Alexander Litvinchenko, the 18th century farcical oath of ‘Swearing on the Horns’ was traditionally given to visitors at Highgate pubs. If you don’t know about ‘Swearing on the Horns’ you really should check it out…
To celebrate these facts and Highgate 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…
You know Christmas is on the way when we get a call from events company Elsewhere as they need a little id-iom design pep to complete their party preparations. This year consisted mainly of design for print and laser cutting a load of bespoke Elsewhere Christmas decorations. The Party in a Pear Tree wallpaper design was used both as a wallpaper and as some giftwrap for the fake presents under the tree. It would seem id-iom is the complete design package after all…
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…
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