GDI09 - Brighton Illustration degree show

wow, there's some really strong graphics/illustration work from this year's crop of Brighton University illustration/graphics graduates. Here's a little peek at some of my favourites.


Chris Pell


Jade Powell


Sophie Alda


Yuko Michishita

Check out all the students' work here, and if you're in town, the show is on in East London from Thursday until Monday.

Meow meow - cat blog

Two of my favourite things - illustration and cats - combine in this amazing new blog, the baby of Anke Weckmann aka Linotte (who happens to be one of my favourite illustrators anyway) and Mary Kilvert, whose sweet illustrations are also worth a look. The blog features artists who love their kitties so much, they use them as inspiration for their work. There's already some really sweet stuff up there, so take a look! I'm actually slightly sad I didn't have the idea for it first - cats really are enjoying a wave of internet-popularity right now, aren't they?

Oh, and since I'm on the subject, here's a couple of recent photos of my own lil darling, aged six months now. These were taken on my new Olympus E-P1 camera, more on which soon..!

Vogue Designer dolls

My fascination with Russian dolls/matryoshka is fairly common knowledge, so of course I love this series of dolls given special treatment by top fashion designers, to celebrate Russian Vogue's 10th anniversary (what else?). Here's some of my favourites.


Christopher Bailey's doll sports a chic classic Burberry mac...


Dolce and Gabbaba's is clad in black glitter...


Matthew Williamson's is covered in his signature brightly coloured geometric print.

Check out the whole series of dolls here.

Marina and the Diamonds

I'm really loving the sound of new UK artist Marina and the Diamonds. There's whiffs of influence from Kate Bush and Regina Spektor, but plenty of uniqueness to set her apart. This video above for her new single I Am Not a Robot is pretty rad too, co-directed by photographer Rankin. Listen to more on her myspace page, and her rant-filled blog is quite interesting reading, too.

Typography necklaces

Sorry to post something so similar to my last entry, but I just found these necklaces and I'm a bit in love.





Typography necklaces for the graphic design geek (hello!), from Plastique on Etsy. Couldn't resist snapping up the Avant Garde one as Lubalin's typeface is one of my favourite pieces of design ever.



via welovetypography

When crafts collide: Crocheted jewellery

Firstly, a quick hello to new viewers/subscribers - I had an unexpected spike in traffic due to being featured on a few web design blogs lately, so hello and I hope you continue to visit!


I love when different crafts collide - you usually end up with a really interesting and unique result. I stumbled across some handmade jewellery on design-inspiration site ffffound earlier which just shows that if something is creatively made, it can inspire people outside of its direct audience. The item in question was this lovely necklace with crocheted motif from from etsy seller Tree & Kimball.


In the same vein, here's some more crochet-and-beaded necklaces from Muntedkowhai (beautiful product photography, too!).



Finally, I love the drama of these oversized fringe necklaces from Norwegian Wood. I might hit up the haberdashery department and make my own version.

Write Here Right Now - Gemma O'Brien

I'm late to the party with this one, but I love Gemma O'Brien's typographic body art here. One part homage to Stefan Sagmeister, one part university assignment for anti-graffitiing on private property, it's incredibly beautiful and effective. Nice to see someone so young (and female) getting into typography and coming up with great ideas like this.

Read an interesting interview with Gemma here and check out her blog featuring more lovely work (under the clever alias Mrs Eaves) here.

Olympus E-P1

I've been hankering after a new digital camera for a while, and since coming into a bit of money lately I decided to splash out on a DSLR. I was all set to buy the Canon 450d as recommended by everyone, until @mrlomo pointed me towards this little beauty, the new Olympus E-P1.





Siiiiigh, isn't she gorgeous? You can tell the body design is based on the classic 35mm Pen which makes it look stylishly retro, yet the gleaming white colourway makes it slick and modern too. It's a micro four-thirds design which means it has all the image processing power of a DSLR but in a much smaller package.

The downside? It's not even out yet, it will be £700 in the UK (£200 more than the 450d) and as it's a new model it will probably need refining before it's perfect.

So.... help, advice?!

If you want more information on the E-P 1, check out these links:
Japanese site, with 360 view
DpReview site with in-depth features
Engadget article with photo gallery
Photographyreview.com video tour

Present & Correct

I found the very cute Present and Correct online store because they are guest blogging over at Design Sponge this week. They carry a tasty range of retro notebooks, cards and other goodies, and everything is either handmade or sourced from vintage suppliers all over the world.

Plus the fact that they are graphic designers getting in touch with their crafty side rings a bell with me..! To pick up some goodies, check out the website, or shop on Etsy.

D&AD Award Picks

The annual D&AD awards for creative excellence are taking place tonight, so I thought I'd share some of my favourite nominated work.


In the (mostly-underwhelming) Websites category, my pick has to be Doritos Hotel 626. I blogged about it when it first came out and I still think it holds its own as a genuinely creepy and engaging online experience - though I'm still not still sure how it ties into Doritos..? See for yourself here.


The Illustration category is looking really strong. My favourites are this striking image from JWT Shanghai to raise awareness of pollution...


...and these cute characters for Alka-Seltzer.


I might be a bit biased here but my favourite Direct/Online advertising piece is Poke's Balloonacy. Such an amazingly original concept (which they invented the technology for), it's playful, on-brand and was amazingly successful in reaching and involving its target audience.


Finally, a special mention for Honda in Broadcast Innovation for their live TV ad, in which skydivers spelled out the word 'HONDA' in the air live on a TV ad break on Channel 4. Watch it here.

Golden Half photos

I just got the first roll of film back from my Golden Half camera. To recap, it's a lomo-style camera which is half-frame, meaning it takes two shots within each regular 35mm frame. It took quite a while to take 72 photos, I was just shooting any old random thing I passed on the street toward the end of the film!

The photos came out lovely, though - great lightness and grainy texture. Check out my favourites:









There are a few more on my Flickr; click 'all sizes' to see them larger and catch the nice grain detail.

Hand-carved stamps

I love this tutorial video from Geninne on how to carve a rubber stamp from your own drawing. My local art shop stocks all the kit and it looks really straightforward so I think I might give it a go soon. Thanks for sharing, Geninne!



Check out the rest of Geninne's blog and her Etsy shop to see her lovely painting & illustration work.

Found via Drawn

Pretty infographics

There's nothing like a rainbow of shiny pastel colours to make infographics look pretty.



From Good magazine's Flickr set and Random Walk. No idea what they're trying to tell me but, ooh lookit the pretty colours.

Papercutdiecut on Etsy

Holy wow... will you just check out these papercuts? I can't think of anything to say except WOW - they are hand-cut by the artist, who has been papercutting since she was a little girl.








From etsy seller papercutdiecut. They are amazingly affordable, with prices starting at only $5.50. The only difficult part is deciding which to buy first.