You know you’re a type geek when…

In my bedroom I only have two posters. Some young boys decorate their rooms with big glossy pictures of football teams, plaster their walls with photos of rock bands or topless women. Me, I’ve got two small pieces of paper each printed in a single colour with virtually no imagery, just type.

One is a print of the world famous Keep Calm And Carry On poster, a present from Andrew who I went to Nepal with.

The second arrived via the postman today, a limited edition screenprint from Because Studio, which I saw on FormFiftyFive and got a bit over excited and bought one (damn you Paypal for your ease of purchase). It’s actually part of a set of two, but they’re all sold out now!

Nerd with an orange-wallpapered bedroom, I may be, but I love it.

This just in: shock tactics still effective

In the last couple of weeks the powers-that-be (in this case the UK Department for Transport) have released two very different videos about the dangers of young people driving. Or something to that effect. The two videos take totally opposite approaches in their attempts to scare us troublesome adolescents into “not doing really bloody stupid things whilst driving a car.”

The first was a PSA which implied that police-persons (who presumably have all been trained for long-range drug-detection) can spot a mile off if you’ve been getting all high and stuff, AND THEN PUNISHMENT WILL ENSUE. It’s a much more softly, softly tactic then the traditional spraying of children across pavements with family saloons.

The reaction has been pretty luke-warm from what I can gather. The responses over on the CR-Blog ranged from snorting disbelief to outright derision.

The other video was interestingly enough created with the help of students from the International Film School in Wales, which also provided the young actors. It takes what might be seen as the more traditional approach to road safety ads (and I’m not talking about David Prose, the Green Cross Code man either). The result is a 4 minute epic.

And the reactions were as opposite as the styles of the videos themselves. Here’s a comment wall from Facebook, which, whilst hardly being a broad cross section of the target audience, does seem to suggest that the way to get through to people like myself is to scare the shit out of them.

Free Tea for all at the Boomtown Fair

Last weekend I was over in the Forest of Dean for the first Boomtown Fair, a fairly small, but really fun festival populated mainly by the best kind of cider swilling West Country folk. I had an absolute blast and, judging from the bleary eyed expressions of fellow campers, so did everyone else. Aside from the traditional bands-playing-music-on-some-stages, there was a circus troupe, small fun-fair rides and more cider than you could shake a stick at. However one stall was so unique it deserves a the rest of this post dedicated to it.

A group of lovely girls set up a trolley in between the camping and stage areas. They were dressed up in their finest aprons and summer dresses and were serving tea and cake to festival goers from china cups and saucers. They had home-baked iced biscuits, chocolate and sponge cake and buns and spread a table cloth on the grass to encourage people to sit and enjoy their tea in the sunshine. But the most fantastic thing about their set-up, was that they were offering tea and cake for free. Totally non-gratis. I think this was a brilliant idea that perfectly captured the spirit of the festival, although it seemed to take people a while to grasp that yes, it’s free, no, there isn’t a catch and you can have more than one biscuit.

Here’s some photos of Roxanne, Megan, Nikki and Jasmine in action with their Mobile Tea Party. Thanks girls; you made my festival!

Lovely, lovely alan

Remember Chris Elkin, the chap behind Otherside designs?

Well he’s got a new blog up and running; for some interesting and unusual inspiration check it ouuuuuuuuut.

Daniel Sturman – well worth a look

Once in awhile a site comes along that is just brilliant in every way, design, themes, writing. See now the witty works of composer Daniel Sturman, built using iWeb whatever that is, with copious use of Comic Sans and “optional soft edges”.

Check it out here.

The Bonsai Shepard

Adam recently bought a plant for the Soak office, and he was rather shocked one morning to discover a shepard had set his flock to graze on the rich and fertile soil on top of his pc. We’ve decided to let him stay for a while as Ronan finds the soft bleating of the sheep rather calming. As to the matter of how they got there I suspect this fellow may, or may not have been involved.

At least it’s not swine flu…

It began with with a just a general shit feeling at work, groggy and headachey. By the time I got home the feeling had sharpened into intense stomach cramps. Remembering someone telling me that it was good for upset tummies, I drank half a can of Coke. Almost immediately I vomited up what felt like everything in my body. Pickled Onion flavour Monster Munch may be a delicious snack, but tasting it in reverse was very unpleasant.

After spending a day lying around uselessly, the virus, which I guess was what it was, seems to have passed, with only moderate vomiting and diarrhoea. Why am I blogging about this, I hear you wonder vaguely? Well partly I’ve been stuck indoors all day feeling pretty rotten so I’m venting some frustration, but I thought I’d also consider my illness from a current, world-health crisis perspective.

There’s no doubt that the media has gone totally swine flu mad, publishing 24 hour casualty figures, to keep us all up to date and while information is key to keeping us, the public, aware of the seriousness of the threat, that the more we hear, repeated in increasingly hysterical tones, the more people are starting to panic. I do rather think that last week’s spike in people reporting to their doctor’s with ’symptoms’ has quite a lot to do with the first reported death in the UK from an apparantly healthy individual.

Fortunately some rednecks on YouTube have answer! This video helped to put a smile back on my deathly pale face. Laughter is after all the best medicine.

Eight minutes of inspiration

Last week I attended the 8×8 conference organised by I Love Design, at the Imperial College in Kensington. Conference is probably a bit of a strong word, suggestive as it is of stuffy business-suit types nibbling buffets and exchanging cards. Nothing could be further from what turned out to be a very entertaining evening. The idea was simply for 8 speakers to talk for 8 minutes each on the subject of inspiration. The line was very impressive, from grizzled vetrans, such as John Bateson, winner of over 50 D&AD pencils, to relative newcomers like Lewis and Hellicar, who’ve just run the most succesful user-interactive exhibition the V&A has ever known.

All the speakers poured out their hearts to the hundred or so of us gathered in the lecture theatre with the aid of frequently witty slideshows and, aided by free beer, we lapped it up. For myself, as a total newcomer to the industry, it was humbling and thought-provoking. It was wonderful to hear Richard Hooker (of Wieden and Kennedy) admit that he too has days when the ideas just won’t come, and Vaughn Oliver talk about his collaborations with students at the University for the Creative Arts at Epsom. Jamie Wieck boggled us with astrophysics as he decoded the Pioneer 10 plaque, Hudson and Bec explained to us how Cantona helped to shape their own philosophy and Matt Dent taught us a Singapore government slogan; “BE CREATIVE”.

The key message I took away from the evening was that design is nothing without an objective behind it. Design for the sake of it is flawed and generally lacking in direction, it needs a concept, an ideal to live up to and against which it can be measured. I believe that by setting out with a clear purpose, whether it’s to inform, educate or entertain, the end result becomes much, much more successful.

Oh and also not to forget that you never stop learning.

And apparently Eric Gill was a paedophile.

I went to the New Blood show

Earlier this week I travelled down to Kensington Olympia to view this year’s D&AD New Blood. As I’ve already alluded to, I attented last year as an eager young graduate, so I was keen to return 12 months on and see if what this year’s crop were up to.

As soon as I arrived I was again struck by the intimidating, overwhelming, visual assualt. Several thousand student’s work across 171 stands with pretty much every major art college in the UK represented plus a good smattering from abroad. I was forcibly reminded of my impressions from last year; that the hall resembled a cattle market, only this time I was one of the patrons, picking out the choicest cuts. Once again it was a slightly unnerving experience, not least because the standard of work was very high indeed.

I was issued with a yellow wristband – the mark of the Industry Pro, which whilst boosting my ego, did mean that students kept approaching me with uncertain grins and start asking if I was finding the work all right and if there was anything I could do to them. It was as squirmingly uncomfortable for me as it must have been for them.

I’ll shut up now and post some photos.

First off Alfie the Fox by a student whose name I stupidly didn’t record but who definitely went to Edinburgh College of Art.

Next up pixel art from Sam Burgon from the North Wales School of Art & Design.

Lovely looking and witty typography by Bethan Hodges who I’m pretty certain went to the University for the West of England.

And finally (for now), excellent and slightly spooky model making by Charlotte Wosiek from Plymouth College of Art & Design.

I also came back with a sack full of free brochures some of which were part catalogue, part editorial experiment, so keep one eye to the web for more of other people’s stuff being splashed across here!

New Banksy spotted in Norwich?

Black le Rat! Can it be that the infamous Banksy has spread as far east as Norwich? Or is this Wanksy a new disciple of his?

Can’t remember the road I saw this on, put it was quite exciting.