We Made This

Quick reminder

The Ephemera Fair is this Sunday. We'll be about, why not stop by and say hello...

The Girls

Our friends Andrea Blood and Zoe Sinclair, collectively known as The Girls, have a fabulous new show opening at the Burlington Club in Mayfair next Wednesday, 5 December.

They create fantastic photographic self-portraits, part Cindy Sherman, part Gilbert & George, all tinged the sensibility of the League of Gentlemen. They've bagged a stack of awards, and are thoroughly wonderful. Go see.

Ghetto and Grotto

Seems like every Christmas there are more and more opportunities to spend your money on yummy graphics.

Coming up in just a week's time, Pictures on Walls' Santa's Ghetto opens its doors once again, selling a selection of limited edition prints by Banksy and friends. Though with Banksy's recent transition from underground spraypainter to overground art-commodity, it'll be interesting to see if he's still playing with the other kids...

No word yet on the location of the store - last year it squatted on Oxford Street, which meant big queues, and didn't feel quite right. Or perhaps felt perfect. We couldn't make up our minds. Anyway, stay tuned for more news as and when. UPDATE: See here.

If that's all a bit street for you, then you can head over to the more genteel surroundings of Somerset House for the Design Grotto, where designers and illustrators will be offering all manner of festive goodness, including a limited edition set of Christmas postcards in aid of the Rainbow Children's Trust. We're guessing it will be a bit like the V&A Summer Fete. But inside. At Christmas. It runs on Saturday 15 December (6pm - 11pm) and Sunday 16 December (11am - 6pm), in the Portico Rooms.

London Artists Book Fair

The London Artists Book Fair kicks off today at the ICA, and runs through until Sunday.

It's a great chance to get your hands on some really affordable art, shaped like a book. Here's a full list of exhibitors.

The image above is from Tom Phillips ongoing piece The Humument, a treated Victorian novel. Phillips will be in conversation with publisher Hansjorg Mayer on Saturday at 2.30pm - grab your tickets here.

Poster tube

We've always quite liked TFL's Platform for Art programme that's been run on the London Underground, even if it does generally just mean they're putting on a show at Gloucester Road tube station. (Might be nice to see it spread around a bit, perhaps to the not-quite-so-smart tube stations...)

They're just about to re-brand the programme as Art on the Underground, and are having a series of events to celebrate their new identity (above).

We rather liked the old identity, which looked like this:

Anyway, first up, from Monday 26 November they'll be having a poster giveaway at five overground / underground junction stations: Kings Cross, Victoria, Waterloo, Paddington and Liverpool St.

The posters are by: Turner Prize nominee Mark Titchner, who makes bold text based works; James Ireland; Katy Dove; Kelga, and Layla Curtis who has created an intricately drawn A-Z map which is actually completely fictitious. We hope it's something like her London Index drawing from 2003 (shown below).

And here's a detail from that:

Which in turn reminded us of NB Studio's gorgeous London's Kerning poster (detail shown below), which has just had a second print run, and is on sale at Blanka for £100.

But we digress.

No word yet on which poster is at which station, but if we find out, we'll let you know.

UPDATE - This just in from Londonist

"Each day a different poster will be available from 8am at the 5 Underground stations: Kings Cross, Victoria, Waterloo, Paddington and Liverpool Street. The schedule is as follows: Monday - Mark Titchner, Tuesday- James Ireland, Wednesday - Klega, Thursday - Layla Curtis, Friday - Katie Dove"

On Tuesday 27 there's a full day's conference called Art in public contexts, at the newly re-opened London Transport Museum, which is worth a visit in its own right (and we'll be giving it a full review mighty soon).

And on Tuesday evening TFL are launching a book all about Platform for Art, again at the London Transport Museum.

Now, if they could just get rid of more of the advertising on the tube...

Downloadable cash

Art is money: discuss.

It's a debate that's been going on since the first caveman said to his mate: "I say old man, that's a damn fine handprint you've just done there. Could you do one for me? It'd look just splendid in the cave. I'd gladly pay you. Some meat perhaps? Or my wife?"

Those crazy japesters Jake & Dinos Chapman have created some downloadable defaced cash as part of the BBC's Imagine programme How to get ahead in the Artworld.

You've got from now until Thursday 22 November at 10.35pm (GMT) to go get yours. Who knows, maybe one day it will be worth something. Money might not grow on trees, but you can download it.

We Made This Great Big Christmas Wish List (part 3)

Right, here's the third and final part of our list of the Best Presents a Designer Could Hope For at Christmas. And just in case you want to send this on to someone, perhaps with a gentle nudge, we've created a page with the whole list on it - you'll find it just here.

#13 A tasty print from Nelly Duff

Nelly Duff is a gallery on Columbia Road, selling a fantastic range of prints from the likes of Eine, Shepard Fairey, Faile and Insect. We particularly like this one, Bunny Fingers, by Pure Evil. It's spray painted by hand, and you'll have to move fast if you want one, it's a strictly limited edition of 20. £250 unframed.

#14 A typographic top from Veer

We've got a bit of a soft spot for image and type library Veer. There's something groovy about the way they do things, and their website just works really well. (Many of the other type foundries could take a tip or two...) They also sell a lot of great merchandise, including this little number. They call it a 'lightweight jogging jacket', we call it 'a top'. And before you get too excited, this one's for US citizens only, so if you don't live stateside, you'll have to find someone over there to get it for you. But come on, it's a piece of clothing about kerning. You know you want it. $69.

#15 A Pantone mug

For people who know that using the PMS isn't something that only women can do once a month. Which one would you go for: Red 186C, Pink 239C, Royal Blue 286C, Lime Green 388C, Pale Blue 549C, Lilac 2583C, Olive Green 5757C, Black 4C, Orange 012C, Process YellowC? Or heck, why get all hung up on making a choice, why not get the whole set? (Perfect for those Monday morning Work in Progress meetings.) And, we were just thinking, if you've got a client whose identity features any of these Pantone colours, they'd make a rather perfect present for them... like Royal Blue 286C for the Institute of Education? £7.99 each, or £79.99 for the whole set.

#16 Some recycled letters from RE

You can't really go wrong with 3D letterforms. These chunky ones are great (as long as you don't want W, X and Z, which aren't available). They're made from recycled card, and stand 28cm high. £14 each.

#17 A stylish bit of tableware from People Will Always Need Plates

We've mentioned them before on here, but couldn't help doing so again. We especially like their series of Brutalist concrete architecture plates, including this Barbican version. £25.

# 18 Friendship with the St Bride Library

Give a little back why don't you? Become a Friend of the St Bride Library for one year, and you get newsletters and discount admission to their lectures and annual conference. You will also receive copies of Ultrabold, the Library‘s journal. All that for £30, and you'll be helping to sustain the world's foremost printing and graphic arts library. Good on you.

And that's your lot - here's hoping you have a fantastic Christmas.

Good Golly Miss Molly

Well, if it isn't just a huge weekend for getting a fix of furniture fun.

Having already posted about the Mid Century Modern show in Dulwich, we've just been sent the utterly delicious catalogue for the Modernism from a California collection auction at Christie's on Sunday, and it's a compendium of wonders.

How's about an Eames RAR Rocking Chair? Or four photos of Eames chairs, estimated at the same price as one chair? Or five original De Stijl posters by William Sandberg for a Gerrit Rietveld exhibition? A collection of eighty luggage labels from the USA circa 1920? A Theo van Doesburg lithograph? A pair of Frank Gehry's corrugated cardboard Wiggle chairs? Or perhaps a collection of twenty four microphones (pictured above)?

You know in the Simpsons when Homer tips his head back and drools if anyone mentions doughnuts? That's us right now.

We Made This Great Big Christmas Wish List (part 2)

Continuing our list of the bestest presents you could possibly buy a designer. See here for part 1 of the list. Part 3 is on its way...

#7. A jar full of sun from Suck UK

Suck UK are just full of clever products. This sun jar uses solar power to charge its battery during the day, and then switches itself on once it gets dark. Dead simple, dead clever. Alistair gave one to his niece recently, to use as a night light, and she just loves it. They also work well as outdoor lighting. Mmmmm.

#8. A tasty print from Simone Lia

Simone shares some webspace with Tom Gauld over at Cabanon Press, but also has her own site, where you can buy limited edition prints of her wonderful illustrations. This one is just £27.50 framed. Bargain!

#9. The Font Clock from Thorsten van Elten

Typographic brilliance in the form of the Font Clock by Sebastian Wrong for Established & Sons. You'll need to bust open the piggy bank for these - the small one's £195, the medium one is £550, and the large one's £810.

#10. A stunning print from Cosh

Cosh is a great little gallery in Soho, and they've got a whole bunch of great prints and posters. This one is our favourite: Battle Royale by Airside, it's a limited edition of 50. £185.

#11. The best rolodex in the world

It's outmoded technology, but it's just so damn beautiful. The Zeuss Index Card Holder from Manufactum. £59.

#12. Anything from Magma

Where would designers in London be without Magma? Quite simply the best design book store we've ever been to, and now they've opened a product store too. And that's not to mention their toy store. We've picked this Breathe poster by Matt Willey, but you could hardly fail to find something brilliant in any of the stores.

Concrete rings

Yum yum yum.

Concrete has always had a special place in our hearts (even if it is an environmental nightmare).

So these rings from Studio 22 Design in Taiwan got our hearts beating just a little bit faster. They're not on sale yet, but tip top design site Designboom (where we saw these) is promising to remedy that sometime soon.

There are more pictures on Studio 22's blog, though it's all in Taiwanese (or possibly Mandarin - damn our lack of Oriental language knowledge...), but if you click the yellow highlighted text under the photograph of the rings, it takes you to a full gallery.