It was my 43rd birthday on Sunday, I know, I’m looking good for my age, and my darling other-half surprised me with a present of this brilliant cushion made by an anonymous prisoner currently residing at Her Majesties pleasure somewhere in Scotland. It’s entitled Moustaches – for obvious reasons – and features surface embroidered bushy moustaches. You can see the entire range of products from Fine Cell Work here.
Whilst trawling through the internet trying to find the website I came across this site which demonstrates prisoners’ incredible ingenuity when not guided. Unfortunately these are not available to buy on-line.
Nathan Usmar Lauder
Posted on Thursday, 10th of December 2009 Permalink
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
For my 21st birthday, way back in the mid 80s, I asked my parents for a twin-lens meduim-format camera, thinking that at best I would receive a cheap Minolta. To my absolute surprise (and at great expense to both my parents – thank you) I received a second-hand Hasselblad 500C. The 500C was first introduced in 1957 by the Swedish company and the landmark design formed the basis for Hasselblad’s product line for the next forty years. It became the standard image-capture device for NASA, as well as any studio photographer worth their weight. My camera is made up of the following parts: film back – 1966; body – 1968; and a Carl Zeiss 1:2,8 f=80 lens – 1968. It has a very basic design with the lens focus being achieved with the aid of a tiny pop-up magnifying glass and doesn’t even have a built-in light meter. I still have the camera and I’ve used it many many times since, it’s a brilliant object and a brilliant camera.
Wind on (excuse the pun) 23 years, and with the incredible advances in digital capture technology, photographers in their droves are off-loading their Hasselblad collections for very little money indeed. Just check out eBay and you will find cameras that retailed for thousands of pounds selling for a fraction of their retail worth. Your chance to own one of these incredible iconic products. Oh, and if you do make a purchase, remember you’ll need a Weston lightmeter – also available on eBay.
Nathan Usmar Lauder
Posted on Thursday, 10th of September 2009 Permalink
We love X-Bands (top) but wonder why Laufer are the only brand that makes them? – presumably they own the patent. It wouldn’t be so bad if they came in more colours. Step up one of our favourite stationers, MUJI. They have their own version of the X-Band (bottom) in chunky white, with holes that grip the corners. They are ideal for lo-fi collating of multiple books, although at $4 for 2 – they are actually high-price lo-fi. Spotted in MUJI at MOMA.
David Rainbird
Posted on Friday, 8th of February 2008 Permalink
Weare is a fascinating collision of clothing and technology with a simple philosophy - everyone should be able to participate in fashion.
Moving Brands launched Weare with a socially networked and user created scarf. The Moving Brands ecosystem of friends, colleagues and clients were invited to submit images to a window gallery at the Moving Brands studio. This sequence of images was then used to create the Weare scarf. The limited edition, collectible scarf is available to buy online from Moving Brands or in selected design-led shops in London throughout December and January 2008.
Aspiring designers and contributors can create images for the next Weare product – to be produced early in 2008 – by visiting weare.movingbrands.com.
These images will be shown at the Weare exhibition (online and Moving Brands window display) from December 2007 to March 2008. As well as creating images, contributors will also be able to vote for what the next Weare product should be.
In the interest of full disclosure I am the lucky owner of scarf 203 of 1000 and I used to work at Moving Brands. Not that that should stop you checking them out.
Gary Butcher
Posted on Friday, 14th of December 2007 Permalink
Get a festive design fix at The Design Grotto, at Somerset House next weekend (same place where you can make a fool of yourself on an ice rink every Christmas). It looks like a fun event with interactive stalls, creative workshops and unique gifts for under £20. Stallholders include Beyond the Valley, Multistorey, If You Could, Johnson Banks and Tatty Devine. Oh, and Michael Johnson will be Father Christmas this year (not really, but wouldn’t he be good?).
David Rainbird
Posted on Saturday, 8th of December 2007 Permalink
The elves over at Peepshow collective have just solved all your Christmas problems. Launching just in time, Peepshop has an exclusive range of peepshow giclee prints, t-shirts, and decorations. With the best assorted Christmas cards ever, awesome prints such as Miles Donovan’s World Fair 1964 and Jenny Bowers’ Leaf Bag, every good boy and girl should be happy. Or, if you’re a bit of a Grinch, just get some Andrew Rae Skull Decorations for the tree. That’ll scare Grandma!
David Rainbird
Posted on Friday, 7th of December 2007 Permalink
The perfect Christmas gift for any budding typographer this year has to be this lovely Font Clock by Sebastian Wrong (for Established & Sons) incorporating 12 different fonts. The only problem is you’ll have to put a few more hours in to afford one.
Nathan Usmar Lauder
Posted on Monday, 26th of November 2007 Permalink
Alistair Hall (of We Made This) took this great photo of Tom Dixon’s installation in Trafalgar Square. Last year Dixon gave away chairs, this year he’s giving away 1,000 “Blow” low energy lights. Be there at 5pm today to grab one or stay in the dark.
David Rainbird
Posted on Wednesday, 19th of September 2007 Permalink
This is going to be the most fun since the Casio VL-Tone:
“Media artist Toshio Iwai and Yamaha have collaborated to design a new digital musical instrument for the 21st century, TENORI-ON. A 16x16 matrix of LED switches allows everyone to play music intuitively, creating a “visible music” interface.”
Yamaha are test-marketing it in the UK now, currently out of stock but hopefully not for long. Soon everyone will be able to electro-synth like Jean Michel Jarre! (via MIT Advertising Lab)
David Rainbird
Posted on Monday, 17th of September 2007 Permalink
