Just a quick note to say The Poundshop #5 is open for 3 days starting today! Amazing stuff this year, shop online for last minute Secret Santa presents or to treat yourself (I know I will, been a good girl). I’m also mega happy they asked me to make more pocket books, the new collection features some of my favourite authors of all times: Virginia Woolf, Saki and F. Scott Fitzgerald. All HERE.
Launch party Downstairs at Mother tonight cannot wait!
→ No CommentsTags:f scott fitzgerald·fitzgerald·pocket books·saki·the poundshop·viriginia woolf
5 months ago the British Museum asked UAL students to submit project proposals for a Friday Late event to celebrate the Grayson Perry exhibition ‘The Tomb of the Unknown craftsman’. He is one of my favourite artists people alive so basically jumped at the chance! Our project got picked by the curators (YAY) and we started work.
First a bit of research in the British Museum, looking at the way people interact with the space:
Then picking a space for our installation, we chose the Enlightenment Gallery – Room 1 -it’s the oldest room in the museum and always been a library. A Library!
Our installation required plinths and so we designed and made our own to be stackable and made out of reclaimed wood from past uni shows. This was easier said than done ofc but the one thing I have learnt from this project is to embrace failure and not be afraid to try things out and experiment as all the mistakes we made along the way helped a stronger final piece. Also as serious as the BM is and as seriously as we take our work we wouldn’t have made it without a good laugh.
The big night on 11/11/11 was so much fun, we made it in one piece but still recovering. We are going through all the pictures of the installation and collecting all the materials we used (acetate, remaining flyers, paper structures etc) that will be made into a book for Grayson Perry and the BM Library this week so the installation is completely sustainable and generates no waste.
I will post pictures of the night as soon as I have them but in the meantime there is plenty more information here:
→ 1 CommentTags:british museum·Events·friday late·grayson perry·grayson perry late·the british museum
Meet my favourite illustrator in the whole world: Sonia Pulido. I think it was my good friend (and possibly 2nd favourite illustrator) IRKUS who gave me her first book saying I might like her work. Pencil lines, mid-century styled tragic heroines, pin-ups and losers in a surreal world mixed with collage and clever vintage colour palettes all executed with a very distinctive and sharp sense of humour… definitely my kind of illustration.
I treasure all her books to date and was lucky enough to be in Spain on holiday when her fifth book was released last week. El Park Guell de Gaudi Barcelona published by treseditores is part of a series about spanish cities and their landmarks.
Beautiful mosaic endpaper:
Unlike her other books, there aren’t any surreal elements to it and it doesn’t have any words only full spreads of the two tone illustrations:
Take a closer look and you realise there is a character that guides you through the park and the story, the little girl on the left that appears on every page sort of a Where’sWally? little narrator:
Launch party in Barcelona tomorrow, really wish I could go! More info here.
I have recently joined the Little Episodes publishing team as a designer and couldn’t be happier. As an independent publishers they have a very strong ethos, more like a manifesto, based on giving the Art industry back to the artist. We are already working on very exciting book projects for the end of the year and couldn’t wait to show you the first job I’ve done for them that’s just been approved.
Submission flyer (front and back) for Literature’s Long book open to teenagers aged 19 and under. The orangey red should print as a fluorescent Pantone 805:
Submission flyer (front and back) for Queer Episodes an anthology of Queer Literature coming out next year using the pink triangle symbol:
Spread the word, hoping to get as many submissions as possible!
Thank you Burst Magazine for featuring my work on Issue 7: Student Showcase 2011 :
Thank you Pussy Magazine for your post on ‘How to WOW a Woman’ from Girls & Zines at Tatty Devine:
And Thank yo Sheeta Li for picking up my zine on your lovely blog!
→ No CommentsTags:burst magazine·Features·how to wow a woman·pussy magazine·thank you
The London Art Book Fair at The Whitechapel Gallery is one of my favourite book fairs and I’m glad I actually managed to book some lectures before they sold out this year. I attended ‘Artists Reimagine the Classics’ with John Morgan and other designers and artists discussing their work for Four Corners and a conversation between James Brett, founder of The Museum of Everything, and Achim Borchardt-Hume, Chief curator of the Whitechapel Gallery about outsider art and the role played by the independent museums. I also managed to catch the Publish and be Damned pop-up stall the following day.
I actually went twice and came home with a pile of books and catalogues:
Had a brief chat with the nice people at the Hatje-Cantz stall who told me about the 100 Notes – 100 Thoughts notebooks for the dOCUMENTA (13) exhibition. A series of 100 bilingual booklets in 3 different formats mainly facsimiles of existing notebooks, commissioned essays, collaborations, and conversations with very different topics and lengths.
I bought these two:
Kluge’s book is only 2 pages long:
Finally got hold of the Book of war, mortification and love by Ruud Linssen published by design collective Underware.nl Essays on voluntary suffering printed in the author’s own blood (really):
They showed me a special edition bound in goatskin and not for sale:
‘99p: 99 things you could buy instead of this book’ really is what it says on the cover: a collection of 99 things priced at 99p that I could have bought instead of the book. Genius. I still chose to buy the book, of course:
The best thing about book fairs is discovering publishers you didn’t know before and for me this year it was all about Eindhoven based Onomatopee:
They told me they curate exhibitions that inspire their books and publications, never meant as actual catalogues of the show but a discussion around the ideas triggered by it:
I flipped through every single one of their books and had a very hard time picking up these two:
Design Mass is a conversation about technology, beauty and design:
The layout works as a grid system in which every speaker is assigned a column:
It’s a very effective way of following a 4-way conversation. The resulting blocks of text are absolutely fascinating to look at, a visual representation of the flow of the dialogue:
Btw, sorry about the quality, really need a new camera!
→ 1 CommentTags:2011·book fairs·fairs·four corners·london·london art book fair·the london art book fair·whitechapel gallery
My book Signed AC will be at The New York Art Book Fair exhibited in ‘A Piracy Reading Room’ curated by AND Publishing at the MoMA from the 30th (today!) until Monday.
Very exciting news, wish I could go visit in person!
→ No CommentsTags:2011·a piracy reading room·art book fair·Exhibitions·MoMA·new york·the ny art book fair·the piracy project
The Poundshop is here! The pop-up shop in Brick Lane closed last monday but you still have mmm 11 more days to shop online here. Shipping worldwide and all.
I haven’t missed one in the last few years and I’m very happy to be part of it this time round. I strongly believe that good design should have a purpose and be beautiful and affordable. When it comes to books, I read an article by great swiss typographer Emil Ruder on my first year at uni and, however controversial, it stuck: ‘the limited edition of a merely beautiful book is absurd; a book must be beautiful and cheap’.
The space was much bigger this year and very nicely presented:
Loved the Food poster by Claire McManus and Alice Bosc’s umbrella mugs (both now gracing my kitchen):
Marc Cowan’s pencil therapy:
Gail Catchpole’s Float teas were also a favourite:
The Geometric stickers are so much fun, I’m still trying to master the fox. By Flat-6 studio:
Such a surprise to find Cleo Ferin-Mercury’s icon handkerchiefs! I illustrated her Wanda Jackson one for an article on Amelia’s Magazine a while ago and been coveting one since:
I also loved Hannah Waldron’s Furoshiki, Hotcakes‘ Picnic Napkins, Hato Press (the nice chaps who printed How to Wow a Woman) Sketchbooks and many many others.
And finally my books. It was quite a challenge, had some stressful days and long sleepless nights, learnt a thing or two about printers and I’m just very glad it all worked out well in the end!
So well in fact that much to my surprise, Michelle Alger, Buying Manager at Liberty selected the books as one of her favourite Poundshop Products and included them in the Liberty Picks!
A couple pictures from the private view, it was so packed!
Thanks to George, Sara and everyone at the Poundshop for organising this, having me and generally being so nice and lovely.
→ 1 CommentTags:london design festival 2011·london design week 2011·the poundshop
Just a quick note to say I’m off to the grand opening of The Poundshop will report back with photos. So many amazing designers and products I’m so happy to be part of it. Don’t miss it if you’re in London and if you’re not, you’re in for a treat as the pop-up webshop will open right after!
I have a massive shopping list already.
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Another month, another book for The Book Cover Club.
We chose The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and I will admit it’s been quite the challenge.
The story is so rich with symbols and double entendres that I felt I had to incorporate them in the design. I looked at Man Ray’s many surrealist experiments with photography from around the same time Fitzgerald was writing the novel and played around with my design for a couple of weeks, adding layers as I went along.
This is my first effort:
I was happy with it but at that point I was too obsessed with the book to let go. I wanted to try another approach with the all-seeing eye using Fitzgerald’s style and the over use of subordinating and complex sentences in his writing applied to the visuals. Not sure I’m making much sense here but I wanted all the elements to relate to each other combining and elongating the composition in the way words would in a long sentence.
Way out of my comfort zone but I really enjoyed working on this!
→ No CommentsTags:1920s·Collage·f scott fitzgerald·man ray·The Book Cover Club·the great gatsby
Good news! Due to popular demand Girls + Zines exhibition at Tatty Devine has been extended for a whole month so if you missed it, you have all of September to go before all the zines are archived at the Women’s Library.
It was a jam-packed (and fun!) private view and didn’t have much of a chance to browse so I went the other day and managed some pictures.
Inside:
Such a playful way to display zines, loved it:
ABCDESCAPE: a mini zine showing the letter “A” escaping from the rest of the alphabet, genius!:
My favourite, an anonymous zine called ‘Bumzine‘:
Featuring scans of a girls bum!
Go! Go! Go!
→ 1 CommentTags:girls + zines·girls and zines·how to wow a woman·tatty devine·zines
I don’t think I can really put into words the excitement I felt when I first had this book on my hands! It’s Surf Mama, the memoir of fine artist Wilma Johnson and how she took up surfing at 50: funny, witty and touching. Also happens to be my first published hardback.
I remember reading the manuscript and trying out layout ideas when I first got the brief from Simon at Beautiful Books to design ‘the most beautiful book in the world’ a cross between a paperback and an art book in hardback form. Working on it Saturday and Sundays, researching and understanding surf graphics, exchanging dozens of hilarious emails with Wilma, the author, discussing the smallest detail. I remember going through foil blocking with James, the printer in Somerset, and how we both got over excited about the colours in the end bands. I have learnt that making a book is a very long process and that many many people had to work on it and love it as much as I did for it to finally make the shelves at Foyles.
The dust jacket has blue surfboards that divide the sections and make up the spine. The cover was Wilma’s painting and her own lettering so I felt the design had to match the mood:
One of my favourite bits is the end paper: Wilma uses flowers in her work all the time so a flower pattern made out of surfboards seemed fitting:
Cover and interior design by Mina Bach! That’s me! Also Wilma was a sweetheart and included me in the Thank you page, I couldn’t believe it when she sent the copy, my mum is very proud:
To make the artwork and text link to each other and float nicely every chapter (all 54 of them!) has a B&W icon hand drawn by Wilma that relates to the story. I also thought to make every page a bit more playful and because the story has it’s ups and downs the page numbers have a wave that goes up and down when you flip them like a flip-book:
I had mentioned the part separators a while back, well, here they are with some minor changes:
Spread with one of my favourite paintings:
I love a hula girl:
More endpaper and back flap featuring Wilma’s portrait in glorious colour:
Detail of the back cover with some of the chapter icons and layout inspired by 60s surf magazines:
This book will always mean so much to me and it helps that it is a very good story too, can’t recommend it enough. I read the 352 pages in two days and I’m not the fastest reader.
→ 2 CommentsTags:beautiful books·hardbacks·internship·layouts·published·surf mama·wilma johnson
We have Internet at home! Finally! Considering it took 3 months last time I moved house, these 3 weeks have gone pretty fast.
It helps that I’ve been busy, I was lucky enough to get an internship with L+B for a couple of weeks. The placement has been an eye opening experience, I’ve learnt so much about branding, typography, what makes a successful image and priceless advice on how to run a busy and successful studio from the partners themselves who are both designers and the nicest people ever.
I’ve worked on many different projects and was always encouraged to experiment and try different things. On my first day I was asked to have a play with the traditional pie chart for an hour, see how much I could get away with.
This is my favourite:
Mmm Square Pie?
This is the one that was chosen in the end, it’s for a London council Annual Report and it links to the cover I designed for it. Will show you once all the visuals have been approved and the pdf is online.
Information design is so broad and exciting, definitely something I’d like to look into maybe applied to books and texts. Check out Information is Beautiful by David McCandless who incidentally loves pies but hates pie-charts.
→ No CommentsTags:annual report·information design·information is beautiful·internship·L+B·pie charts
