Thank you to everyone who sent in their entries for the free tickets to Brussels competition. After much deliberation we have found a winner in this excellent reproduction of Magritte’s High Society 1966.
A special thank you to Sarah at We Are Social and Eurostar for offering our readers this great opportunity
Alex Geoffrey
Posted on Thursday, 22nd of October 2009 Permalink Comment (2)
Stephen Powers is a New York based artists who during his youth wrote graffiti under the name ESPO (Exterior Surface Painting Outreach). Powers work has always blurred the lines between graffiti and graphic design by producing murals influenced by advertising and sign writing, his public work often appearing to be legitimate billboards.
Today Stephen’s work is as intelligent and engaging as ever. For his latest project ‘A Love letter For You’ Stephen Powers has traveled back to his home town of West Philadelphia, this time with the funding and backing from the local authorities, to paint a series of murals on the rooftops where graffiti once stood visible from the elevated train lines. Sadly the original 1980s graffiti went unnoticed by the public and were all painted brown sometime during the mid nineties. Powers feels that the original more ‘traditional’ graffiti was alienating and that by creating work which is understandable and readable by all it will ultimately result in a greater acceptance from the general public.
The ‘A Love letter For You’ project is still in production. For the latest murals, info and pictures straight from the rooftops of West Philidelphia check out the blog here
Alex Geoffrey
Posted on Tuesday, 20th of October 2009 Permalink Comment (3)
Way back in 2006 Gary Butcher blogged about some lovely cycling posters he’s spotted in San Fran link. A few years later, Jon Lee, Creative Director at London design consultancy 20.20 spotted them on 30gms. He loved them so much he hunted down the illustrator Tavis Coburn and commissioned him to do 8 giant banners for their client Arsenal Football Club’s Emirates Stadium. The banners show Arsenal legends past and present huddled together, as they do on the pitch before each game, circling the stadium perimeter. A great concept, beautifully executed, I can’t imagine it’s easy getting players likenesses and character spot on from behind! probably not easy printing and hanging them either, but hats off to all involved because they really are very impressive in situ and thoroughly worth a visit, even if you’re not an Arsenal supporter, well, maybe not if you follow Tottenham, ironically, like Gary does!
Dave Brown
Posted on Monday, 12th of October 2009 Permalink Comment (1)
Arch minimalist John Pawson would probably never hold a yard sale but if he did, I imagine it would look a little like Absolute Sellout. Forget boxes of dusty VHS tapes, think one VHS tape surrounded by white space.
According to Josh, they “curate rare and often overlooked items from the past century—occasionally repackaging, restructuring, or rebranding these items”.
Unfortunately Terence Conran’s 1974 House Book is sold already but there are plenty of other gems if you’re quick.
David Rainbird
Posted on Friday, 2nd of October 2009 Permalink Comment (0)
Don’t forget to send us your entries for the free tickets to Brussels competition!
In order to show you how simple it can be we thought we would have a go at reproducing our own Magritte here in the Fibre studio (no this wasn’t an entry for the National Giant Fruit Championships). For anyone who already sent in, or was planning to send in a version of this painting you will now have to think about a different solution. Full competition info here.
Alex Geoffrey
Posted on Tuesday, 29th of September 2009 Permalink Comment (1)
Everyone by now must have seen Muto the epic eight minute stop frame animation from Italian artist Blu. Well, to my delight he’s just completed a new film as part of the Fame festival which kicked off in Grottaglie Italy on the 19th of September this year. It’s called Combo and this time it’s a collaboration with David Ellis who has been making similar animations as part of Barnstormers since 1999.
Alex Geoffrey
Posted on Tuesday, 29th of September 2009 Permalink Comment (0)
While leafing through The New Yorker or The Economist over the past few months I’ve stopped to admire advertisements for IBM’s Conversations for a Smarter Planet. It’s a series of ads that tries to position Big Blue at the forefront of technological thinking, albeit through some quite retro design.
With the Swiss typography, white space and Rand-inspired iconographic illustration, these ads have more to do with IBM ads from fifty years ago, perhaps evoking a time when IBM were thought more progressive than they are now. They might be talking about the future but their design evokes the 1960s.
David Rainbird
Posted on Sunday, 27th of September 2009 Permalink Comment (0)
For the last year or so I’ve been using the London based coiffeur Mr. Ducktail – the Rock ‘n’ Roll Motherkutter, to get my signature short, back and sides with a razor-sharp side-parting. If your brave enough, Mr. D, or William to his regulars, will sharpen up his flicknife and give you a proper teddyboy razor cut! Whilst having my hair cut yesterday, by more traditional methods – a pair of scissors, he took receipt of his own Mr. Ducktail branded hair pomade (above) featuring the graphics of Vince Ray, he of the 50s tattoo inspired graphic art. Vince will be performing, along with his band The Boneshakers, this weekend at the 7th International London Tattoo Convention that’s being held this year at the Tobacco Dock, Wapping. You’ll be able to purchase Rockin’ belt buckles, guitar picks, books, and of course, the hair pomade. You could even get yourself a tattoo from, some of, the leading tattoo artist in the world.
Nathan Usmar Lauder
Posted on Thursday, 24th of September 2009 Permalink Comment (5)
I recently came across this online. It’s a website dedicated to simplifying various film posters. Although you may not recognise a lot of them, it doesn’t take away from the pleasure of seeing these things translated so beautifully into basic geometric forms. If only everything in life could get the same treatment.
Alex Geoffrey
Posted on Thursday, 24th of September 2009 Permalink Comment (0)
I’m guessing that a 90-minute documentary about industrial food production is probably not at the top of your movie list at the moment, but this one should be. Despite having no narrative structure and no voiceover, Our Daily Bread, directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter is visually stunning and surprisingly engaging.
The star of the film is industry itself – impossibly fast production lines of animals, gigantic machines that spray acres of crops and endless greenhouses that flood produce with 24hr light. Humans play a minor role, weeding out the rare imperfections in the machine’s work.
Geyrhalter frames his subject matter with a perfectly symmetrical and objective eye whether it’s the beauty of a salt mine or the barbarism of an abattoir. We are left to our own conclusions about food production but it’s impossible not to feel both impressed and revolted at how efficient and unnatural it has become.
David Rainbird
Posted on Thursday, 17th of September 2009 Permalink Comment (5)
