For our final foray into Nag’s Head Market in Holloway we’ve got our wallpaper stencil that was used as the background for ‘The Lady of the Lift’. Since I’d gone to the trouble of designing and cutting the bespoke Nag’s Head wallpaper tile featuring a horse’s head (see what I’ve done there) and a little Love N7 logo in the centre I thought we may as well get some decent mileage out of it.
I realise that in the current climate gender stereotyping the toilet doors could potentially be seen as a mistake. If you’d seen the states of the respective toilets however I think you’d probably change your mind.
Hmmmmm. Indecision, indecision, indecision. Perhaps you can help… We were asked if we’d like to head up to Nag’s Head Market in Holloway with a view to potentially chucking a bit of paint around. After having a look around and taking some measurements it was then time to try and decide what to do. Our first stop was to design a wallpaper stencil which can be liberally applied wherever we find a spot to tie the whole space together a bit. What we’re left with is this wallpaper design featuring a horse’s head (see what I’ve done there) and a little Love N7 logo in the centre.
My problems arise from the fact that I can’t decide what colour works best. Just about all of the walls are painted a dark green colour and I’ve turned myself around that many times trying to decide which colour works best that I’m now hopelessly confused. Perhaps someone else’s opinion may be of use before I go ordering a paint colour that just doesn’t pop nicely…
Doesn’t everyone enjoy design book covers for their fictional book featuring none other than hard drinking human/goat hybrid biker Glen Fandango? Here’s the only excerpt I’ve actually written from ‘The Wild One’:
In the silence that blossomed you could have heard a pin drop. No one knew quite what to say. It wasn’t so much that they couldn’t comprehend the words more that they were agog at the person who was presenting them. Glen Fandango stood a shade over 7ft tall (including his horns) and was dressed in the leathers of a now defunct biker gang. He glanced round the puzzled faces and repeated his question ‘Can I get a beer please?’ The lady behind the bar was the first to gather her wits and she pivoted towards the beer tap with a glass in her hand without either taking her eyes off him or saying a word.
As he waited for the beer he casually surveyed the other people in the bar before adding ‘I’m also looking for a bit of information. Does anybody here know an Alice Gerhardt?’ With that pronouncement the temperature in the room dropped a further few degrees as it would seem he had struck a nerve. Perfect, that was just what he wanted. Glen smiled. Not that you’d know it though as his goat face was largely inscrutable to the average person. It would seem that he was in the right place after all.
Glen had not had an easy life but it’s not all been his fault. Ever since his ‘father’ rescued him from a government lab in North Korea and escaped across the border to the south with the infant in his arms people have been pointing and whispering. A small measure of fame followed his arrival in Seoul and within a few years they had been invited to the USA to start a new life.
As a young kid, whilst his father continued his work in genetics for the US Department of Defense, he was relentlessly teased until his tormentors learned the hard way that the horns on his head weren’t just for decoration. This, in turn, led to an early involvement with the police. It’s one of the few relationships he’s managed to successfully maintain over the years. By the time his father died he was an angry young man with a chip on his shoulder and the face of a goat. The next decade was an epic spiral of booze, bikes and bad decisions. It was only after hitting rock bottom that he managed to come to terms with himself and emerge, not entirely unscathed, on the other side. Nowadays he’s (more or less) working on the side of the angels and if you can find him and convince him your case is worthy he is, without doubt, the best manhunter on the planet…
And that’s what I’ve got. Along with my carefully designed biker patch for his now defunct biker gang and his likeness sprayed on the side of an abandoned van. You can make the rest up yourself…
We got a few of our ‘God save the Queen’ designs printed up on kid’s t-shirts with Shoreditch Shorties (I think there are a few left if you’re interested in a little gift for the little terror in your life) and since we don’t have a child of the correct dimensions we gifted it to the lovely Ida. And doesn’t she just look pleased at her new gift.
As an aside the design itself is meant to reflect that a dwindling global bee population can only be bad news for puny humans as the bees pollinate an awful lot of the crops and flowers that we depend on for food. Without them we are somewhat doomed so it’s probably best if we take a bit better care of our little insect cousins and make sure they can continue doing their job. And, as a big bonus, they also know how to make honey. Without that we’d be left with wasp gravy and you wouldn’t want that on your morning toast.
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.
In the middle of the Irish Sea is the beautiful Isle of Man. Now, legend has it that the island is protected by an ancient sea god called Mannanan Mac Lir (‘son of the sea’). He’s pretty baddass as he’s got a boat named Scuabtuinne (‘wave sweeper’) which works without sails, a sea-borne chariot drawn by his horse Enbarr (‘water foam’), a sword called Fragarach (‘the answerer’) and it is said that with the sword at their throat no one could move or tell a lie, thus the name Answerer. The sword was also said to place the wind at the user’s command and could cut through any armour or wall and that it inflicted piercing wounds from which no man could recover. He also had a cloak of invisibility (‘feth fiada’) which he could throw over the entire island as an all encompassing mist to hide the island from enemies. Like I said he pretty much had it all going on. Oh, and he had a flaming helmet to top it all off.
If all that isn’t enough in itself to create a design based on Mannanan then the fact that I’m from the Isle of Man myself should probably clinch it. It was originally going to be a wall design but I think it may need adapting somewhat for that to be the case. Perhaps a sticker? The latin text is the manx motto which roughly translated reads ‘however you throw me I shall stand’. So there you go.
Here at id-iom HQ we are civic-minded souls and so when one of our plucky firemen gets in touch and asks for a bit of design for a charity event they’re doing then we’re only too happy to help. We were a little constrained with the design but they wanted something bold that could be printed up as a large banner and got their point across pretty clearly. And this is what we’ve ended up with. They’ll be doing the event this Saturday 28th September from 12-5 at the Business Design Centre in Islington so if you’re in the area drop by and show them some support.
As it goes we’ve got form for doing some fireman designs as we designed some t-shirts for the brave boys and girls who keep us safe from the fiery menace previously. As a reward we went down to the fire station and they showed us round. Winnner!
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…
Do you know what today is? It’s World Bee Day! On this day in 1734 Anton Jansa, the pioneer of beekeeping was born. The purpose of the international day is to acknowledge the role of bees and other pollinators in the ecosystem.
That’s important because a dwindling global bee population can only be bad news for puny humans as the bees pollinate an awful lot of the crops and flowers that we depend on for food. Without them we are somewhat doomed so it’s probably best if we take a bit better care of our little insect cousins and make sure they can continue doing their job.
As a big bonus, they also know how to make honey. Without that we’d be left with wasp gravy and you wouldn’t want that on your morning toast. This design is due to be one of our upcoming hot foil prints so watch this space…
With the memory of the Extinction Rebellion protests in Central London still fresh I thought I’d design a propaganda poster of sorts. The speed at which we humans are destroying our own biosphere is nothing short of astonishing. If only we could apply ourselves to less destructive activities we may even have a chance still. So, we fight because we must.
She will make a fine hot foil print. Watch this space…
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