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We've recently been doing some work with the lovely folk over at New North Press, a letterpress studio over near Old Street, run by Graham Bignell, who set it up in 1986. They have stacks of woodblock and metal type, and specialise in artists' books, portfolios and print editions; as well as producing a rather fine series of posters, as we've mentioned before. Well worth a look.
Alistair's posted a full set of pictures on Flickr.
This looks like a fine little show / shopping event. Pick Me Up is (allegedly) the country's first Graphic Art Fair, and is at Somerset House from Friday 23 April through to Monday 3 May, featuring exclusive limited edition prints commissioned from a fine selection of graphic designers and illustrators, including Alex Trochut and HelloVon (that's his Alfred print above). There's also going to be a screenprinting workshop from Print Club London, and film screenings from It's Nice That.
Ben Olins from Herb Lester Associates has dropped us one of their You Are Here maps (you might have seen it on AceJet170), which feature places for folk unencumbered by offices to meet and work, and a lovely little thing it is too.
The writing is particularly fine:
"The creators of this guide have spent hours at sticky tables having meetings or waiting for appointments, always with the niggling thought that there must be somewhere nicer to pass the time. After all, there are thousands of places to meet in London, why put up with something wretched?"
"Nine out of ten self-employed layabouts agree that spending a day at the British Library delivers a feeling of accomplishment out of all proportion to work actually done."
Ben used to edit The Guide for The Guardian, and was later at Channel 4, where he worked with Jane Smillie; and the pair of them make up Herb Lester Associates. They're still working on their website, but he tells us they're going to focus on producing books, magazines, journals and such like. Should be worth keeping an eye on.
Meantime, if you'd like a copy of the map, they're £3 - just drop them an email.
And oh yep, the rather lovely illustration work - that's by Michael Newhouse.
We made our way across to Spitalfields yesterday, to check out some deeply fine clothes from Old Town Clothing, who specialise in classic British workwear. They're usually based in Norfolk, but every now and then they move their entire shop down to London, so that us city folk can have a browse.
The clothes are made from British cottons, woollens and linens, are made to order (though not made to measure) and all look mighty fine. As they say on their site:
"Simplicity of line, consistency of detail and durability of construction are the main considerations for our designs. We hope that they have a certain longevity of style which is non-specifically of the past, the intention being to appear chronologically neutral."
Lovely stuff.
Well, heck, would you look at that? This weekend marked four years of us wittering on about design and visual culture here on the We Made This blog.
We just wanted to say a huge thank you to you all for reading and commenting and emailing and sending stuff in. People often ask us why we run the blog, and there's a whole mix of reasons really, but the main thing is that it lets us connect with loads of fascinating people - it's one of those "give, and you shall receive" things. And hey, sharing just feels good.
Reckon we might treat ourselves to some cake this afternoon (we're particularly partial to Konditor & Cook's Lemon Chiffon cake... and the Curly Wurly cake is pretty damn special too).
Nom nom nom.
UPDATE - We figured that since we're getting on a bit, it was time to smarten up, with a nip here and a tuck there, ahead of moving across to a full re-design sometime soon. Now, where's that scalpel...
Our studio-mate David Pearson spent a large chunk of last year working on a frankly fantastic series of covers for Cormac McCarthy's books, which have recently been published. They're a distinctly visceral set of typographic designs, reflecting the novels' frequently dark content.
The full series of ten includes All the Pretty Horses
The designs were a real labour of love, and we thought it might be interesting to share with you how Dave put them together (and anyway, he's promised us a beer if we make this a longish post).
The initial text designs were done in a layout programme, and then output as bitmaps for sending off to be made into rubber stamps. Here's the text for the cover quote for The Road - the original designs featured quotes taken from the novels themselves, but these were rejected in favour of marketing quotes from reviews.
Dave then created piles of prints from each stamp, experimenting with different amounts of black ink, different amounts of pressure (often by placing paper on the floor and standing on the stamps), and even by adding in some water to the mix to achieve some of the distressed textures (particularly on The Road cover).
The prints were then scanned in, and combinations of the different versions were layered up in Photoshop, sometimes combined with background textures, and given colour. Here's the No Country for Old Men cover part way through, stamped, scanned, and with a texture added.
They're a gorgeous set of covers, and there's one more currently in the pipeline. If you fancy reading more about Dave's work, check out these pieces about him on Casual Optimist and It's Nice That.
Right, reckon that's worth a beer. Or two.
We recently picked up this rather lovely sign at The Old Cinema in Chiswick, but we're not really sure where it's originally from. We thought maybe it used to be on a train? Any ideas? It's about 600mm long, and the typeface is a little bit Gill, a little bit Granby, a little bit Johnston. If you've got any knowledge, answers on a postcard to the usual address. Or, you know, in the comments section below...
(More of the same over on Alistair's Signs and Lettering Flickr set.)
We're just listening to the new Gorillaz Plastic Beach
Incredibly, it's ten years since Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett launched 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russell on the world, with the Tomorrow Comes Today EP. Back then the world's first virtual band sounded like an amusing side project, a way for Albarn to flex his musical muscles without having to engage with the usual PR circus that accompanied every new Blur* album, and for Hewlett to stretch his legs away from the comic page (where he was best known for his Tank Girl strip).
But blimey, Gorillaz developed into so much more than that, producing two truly fantastic albums, Gorillaz
Frankly it's just great to watch two extraordinary talents at the top of their game.
UPDATE: Check out their fantastic Stylo promo, which just launched.
* Their new concert DVD No Distance Left To Run
