My New Home

Upon arriving back to London I set out various goals and wrote various wish-lists or, I guess, to-do lists. I decided that a festival filled summer followed by a job would nicely cushion my idea of moving into a creative flat-share.

A few weeks after summer closed its gates and onesies and flower garlands were lying desolate and strewn through the darks of various cupboards, winter once again, two years later, has reared its little head. Umbrellas are carried and shoes get soggy but the warmth of coffee and the warmth of London heating keeps me warm.

My 'Winter Task' is now, to fill the seven bed mansion we have signed for and crikee, what a task this is proving to be.

We've met photographers, fim makers, art directors, motorbike designers, shoe designers, students and moustached men. With the move in on the horizon, nails are being bitten and character judgement has never, I repeat, never been so very very difficult.

The Housegasm, all 4000 sq/ft of it, is happening. Atlast.

Owl Adoration Right Here

My friend Nicolo Bianchino works for Mathematics in Sydney Australia and has worked on music videos for bands such as Empire of the Sun and Hilltop Hoods.

His latest project is to shoot a low budget music video for a new band called Little Red.

Unable to attend the making of this video I offered to lend a hand in any way I could so when I return home I will be putting my hand to the making of some owl masks, upon his request. Unlike my attempt at making alien costumes I'm hoping the experience won't involve drying cement on my face and that feathers and all things twit twoo-ish will once again bring my adoration for owls to the surface.

The fact that I used to collect ornaments of barn owls as a child has only now, upon this Saturday, resurfaced in my memory.

Ocki loves the owls. Fact.

Adverts for News Limited Australia

Whilst working for News limited in Sydney I was lucky enough to design a range of adverts for the mX Reader survey. I came up with the concept and my designs so I gavc myself a little high five and was thrilled that the readership is mahoosive : "mX now offers a national reach of 743,000 people" daily.

MTV ART DIRECTION

Whilst in Sydney Australia I was working as an Art Director for the print adverts for the launch of the new MTV channel "MTV Classic". The whole process was something that was fairly new to me but what a frickin ball it was. Design heaven opened its arms to me and we had such a sweet time with concepts, poses and the general look of the ads. We wanted to recreate the typical 80's ads by making them look gimmicky and fairly cringe. I was given total artistic license and loved every second. Boom!

Zinespiration

So. The time has come. The ultimate test. The ultimate victory is at my door...maybe.....maybe tucked away and maybe hidden in the depths of somewhere non existant. Today it begins.

ZINE TIME MOTHER FUCKAS!

I am not a zine collector in fact I'd even go as far as to say I'm not a magazine collector but oh how a beautiful one pleases me. It'll slip into my hands, largen a smile and will of course (with pride) become part of something larger, something bigger....my heap of stuff and things. Which, to most, may seem a clumsy heap, a hugel cumpsy heap, a huge clumsy heap of surperflous pandamonium. But to me that heap, those stuffs are the things that have made it, made it to the top. My goal from here, is to create something for someone elses heap. I wanna be King (Queen) of the heap.

Together with Jess Gough we hope to conquer margins, battle the slugline and pillage layout and photo content.

Together for PLATFORM, we will march triumphantly. Ps Jess and I are both still walking in books broken and ashamedly stuck with super superglue. ( She ponders, after slowly but poignently underlining her new handrawn title in her new sketchbook: "Research" )

Make Plans.

'Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans' - John Lennon

John, you are a wonder but I'm not down with this one. Looking back on summers past I recognize a trend in the period between June and September. It goes something like: "woops forgot to book that" followed by "yeah maybe" and then after a lovely family stint to Greece where you inevitably don't achieve the tan you were aiming for you look over your shoulder, sigh and think "I wish I'd made more plans".

I, like most, value spontaneity highly and would reward anyone who would describe their life as being wholly spontaneous but I'd also think they were a stinky liar and properly harbor various atoms of jealousy. I find that a variety and experience comes from planning ahead.

Lesson 78. Definately make plans, stick to them, experience them and document them. Sweet.

Rookie Logo

Sacha Harrison has taken on the task of setting up a new blog which will provide readers with both written and visual content and I offered a hand with providing a friendly but tangeable logo. Oh and I also delved into pepper and sand script...so to speak.

Check out the blog in its early stages of development http://rookiecreative.blogspot.com/

Gottboat Logo

A wee logo rework for the Gottwood boys and a complete change of scene. Hundreds of people flocked onto the Battersea barge to experience quite a different Gott experience. Gone were the cliffs and rolling Anglesey hills and in were the lapping tides of the Thames and well, a double decker boat basically. From Owly to Boaty.....a difficult task......finally complete.

Intergalactic

Once again China Gorilla opens its doors to you and this time we're talking space ape. After a rather exhilarating cinema trip to see Toy Story 3 I thought lets illustrate a pimped gorilla in an astronaut suit and give him a bit of extra d.

Define Festival.

Festivals mean detaching our minds from reality, "losing yourself in the music" and essentially pushing your own boundaries whether with or without a little chemical push, right?

Festivals and Britain skip proudly hand in hand. Through fields of green these gatherings give us and our landscape purpose and a right to party. They are the forefront of eccentricity and creativity and therefore we keepa cummin back, but is 'festival-fever' really creating what it sets out to or is it in fact detaching people from reality. Is 'the surreal' another drug which people get overly consumed by?

As long as you have the unity, da music and a onesie then basically a festival is born. An open mind and honest heart and kapow heaven is yours to be taken. ( I also think comedowns should be abolished and fun-ups should be instated cos I swear theyre a made up thing for reality-haters).

Tea Towels for Georgia Doherty

Sydney Reminiscing

So here I am at Singapore airport with a vodka and tonic to my right and far too much hand luggage to possibly equate to the 7kg allowance each person is allocated. In a vacuum of sadness and excitement for the future I find myself relating all to much and more than ever to articles and music and films I have fueled my brain with for the last eight hours. Hot Chip - No Fit State, a Frankie article about capturing happiness and then a rather extraordinary documentary on family with a sweet soundtrack by Ziggy Marley, his mum and his sister.

All I can do when leaving is look back and smile upon the amazing times I've had and hope that like every year I can keep learning and keep experiencing change in myself and in the things that I do and achieve. I feel pride, which is a feeling in between excitement and confidence....pride with lashings of satisfaction and a cemented belief that I will continue to have a jolly old time. This is a notion, mind, that has not always swarmed my heart. That all too familiar feeling of dread and fear is now only a fragrance to the former feeling.

I think I might have left my heart in Sydney but hope that I will build a new one for London and home. Home has always been a huge paradox to me as it's essentially the place I long for but also a place that defines me without me really being there at all. To return to it will in itself bring a joy of its own as I now have stories and tales and songs and pictures to illustrate the almost perfect year that I have had.

Top 10 moments (in no particular order)

1. Climbing the walls at Laneway Festival, getting stuck on the roof and arrested.

2. 80's skate night in Melbourne Town - and my sweet skating tattoo transfer prize.

3. Dancing to the whistle song and singing Miley Cyrus with Mills.

4. Absynth and karaoke.

5. Tiny Stadiums Festival and that crazy walking tour where you clap skip and jump.

6. Frasier Island the five minutes with manta rays, sharks and whales

7. Semi Permanant and not going to the gym with Jonald and Cat

8. Wrong prom - all the boys in all my dresses

9. Orbital and Polyphonic spree at Playground Weekender

10. Daniel Johnston at the metro after watching his DVD.

Kathy McGee | Goats and Coats

In early 2009 I completed an internship at Christopher Raeburns studios in Hackney ... "studios" being an old peanut factory. Rad. Raeburns work is constructed predominantly from old army parachutes layered and tailored into beautiful translucent style coats and macs. My pattern cutting buddy was my dear friend Kathy. We became friends and spent hours leaning over scissors and chalk discussing our dreams of one day having a goat farm where we would live off the land. We also planned a little collaboration for a print ....the idea was based around designing little motifs for things that we find wholly satisfying such as popping bubble wrap and using scissors that slide accross wrapping paper in a fell swoop. The now infamous Slippery Cut. Kath was in her second year at LCF and up until now I'd never seen any of her work. Today is the day and bloody hell Kath.....you surpassed yourself. Elaborate tailoring with soft feminine shapes bubbled and layered like soft playdough sculptures. Whimsical wonders. High five Kath!

Friday. Hello.

Friday was gradient day. And with this came a tribute to that huge frickin volcanoe as well as my ongoing and markedly growing obsession with stuffed animals. And that does not refer to animals after greedily eating...the real deal.....Its got to the stage where Im watching instructional videos on youtube. "How to stuff and mount a duck" -taking away the sexual connatations, a most inviting "How" for me at the moment.

MTV is a dream. It's all ideas, laughter and sweet computer skills....I have remained a timid version of myself but also remain inspired to the max. Its ideas central up in the office, young minds and crazy ideas bounce off the walls on an hourly basis and I'm literally the sterotypical "This is a bloody dream" kid ........So....I'm back there next week and long may it last. Big up to Sven and Marina....oh and Jess for her sweet tablet skills.

Thought of the day: Roller Derby beckons, last night rain plus roller skates and a shopping trolley = roller derby practice and water fountain dancing.

Pandora

Another little project for China Gorilla who are launching a new night called Pandora. I started with boxes of hope, boxes and boxes all in crazy perspective but then I sort of changed tack and decided to pair a traditional but sort of odd drawing of pandora with an acrylic box behind some groovy type that I drew with pen and then pentooled.

So here we have the hairy boxed naked Pandora twins........I think its kinda groovy but maybe its a tad rustic for a bassy club night.....hmmm....I ponder.....ooh and maybe the little typography horns are too supositary like...ouch?

Monday : A gig at MTV and the drawing of drug drealers

So after returning from Melbourne last night I pootled off to my interview this morning at MTV to try and fuse my on going obsessive nature surrounding sound and images and it went swimmingly, like tadpoles it was a joy. Awesome open plan work spaces with kooky hanging objects and a mahoosive spongebob square pants...Next week I start! super! There was a mention of group brainstorming which had me grasping at the bit.....

On return A story landed on my doorstep from SomethinkBlue and my task was to depict a blue and a yellow drugdealer......so here's mr blue........which coincides with any "Monday Blues" people may be having.... oh and with the super blue dress I'm wearing courtesy of Caterpillar Quinn.

PS. Melbourne/Underwater photos coming soon.....

PPS. Bought a lomo/Gotta learn how to use it cos I'm a lamo with my lomo....

PPS..........Dennis Hopper is todays hotness.

Wed_ nes_fun

Done and Done

So it started at one and it ended at six five hours and five different layers of colour later and Im now a fireball orange.......wow....I feel like some superhero, maybe my name will be "Rangattack". Superpower: pending...

The experience was almost joyous, me and Rob of Surry Cutters drank half a bottle of wine and had quite the fun time as we turned me from black to white to gold to orange. Off to Melbourne tomorrow which'll be a hoot, gonna paint the town red with the brush strokes of my head......

Dream Analysis Anyone?

Last night I was in a gallery space which ran through potting sheds and igloos and then into tool shops. Me and a spectacled fellow raced on bikes through this winding space before we came to a camera shop. It was in a wooden ikea style put me up shed and we spent hours gazing at the goblin looking cameras, all stacked on shelves of ply wood. The girls ones in cmyk and the boys in rgb..... and at only 5 dollars a pop we filled our pockets and bags with the ever shriking cameras but found that we were too weighty and we did not win the tour de France......thats what the race was....apparantly. But we were together and that was all that mattered.

Suddenly Drop shadows aren't so Bad.

I went to Semi Permanent this weeekend and heard a young New Yorker talk about her passion for typography and Illustraion. Jessica Hische uses shadows to create depth and warmth in her friendly looking illustrations. This is the first time I've ever emulated somone else in creating an image...on purpose I mean.....and ooh I think its just delightful. Cut outs are my cryptonite so creating them without slicing my fingertips off with razord blades is a high five absolutely. Drop shadows are normally a no no in most aspects of what I try to do but today..I feel reborn....

So Im off to Glastonbury when I get home with a troop of funsters to go and jolly up a region of the magic...and we will be called The Villagers.....this is my first go at creating a logo that says youth joy and play.....It defo needs refining....ie all the lines are so jaggedy jack.

Over and Out.

Check out Jessica Hisch : www.jessicahische.com

post script. Jessica has a tattoo of cmyk and her web designer boyfriend has rgb...both in the coloured cirles......arrrggghhh....I nearly orgasmed......

Beautiful People Doing Beautiful Things

I'm writing an article for SomeThinkBlue Magazine and as well as writing about my thoughts on the beauty of our youth I've chosen a few people to interview who have done something on their own and in mine eyes are heros...so as well as the words I thought I'd do a little illustrataion of each person...Heres four of them.

Top: Callum Crawford- Fine Artist, St Martins

Second : Tatty Vaughan - shit hot stylist

Middle: Stevie Thomas - China Gorilla
Bottom: Elky and Digby - Gottwood Festival

....2 more to come....

LipSync

Just mad. Super. Plus a super tshirt.