Can't stop listening to these two tracks today... getting me through the Monday Blues!
Rudimental - Feel The Love
Alex Clare - Too Close
Monday 30 April 2012
Sunday 29 April 2012
Weekend in Bristol - movies, mooching, munchies and mopeds
It was my 5th Anniversary with my boyfriend this week and rather than spending monies going somewhere, taking ages to get there, not sleeping well in an unknown bed and it being a complete wash out anyways we though we would spend time exploring Bristol. Even though we have been here since September it seems like we have only really explored little bits of it, and there is always something to do anyways.
Friday night we saw The Avengers Assemble at our little independant cinema about two minutes walk from our flat. It's under a fiver a ticket so everyone's a winner!
If you haven't seen it yet, then I definitely recommend it. After seeing the trailer I thought they made it look a bit too "epic" and thought it was just gonna be a whole load of explosions and a bit rubbish, but I loved every minute of it. Can't decide who is my favourite. Maybe if they combined Thor's rugged good looks and Iron Man (well, Downey Junior's) humour and wit then I would be a happy gal! Also, stick around after the credits, there is a little treat!
Check out the old school 3D glasses we got given at the little cinema, you don't throw these bad boys away! They were so heavy they hurt my face half way through!
After, we went to a new Spanish Tapas bar, again, two minutes walk from our flat. Very cosy bar to get away from the rain and pretend we were on holiday :)
Saturday I woke up to a package of anniversary presents, I am so spoilt! Best card in the world and can't wait to see Phantom!!!!!
We then ventured in Bristol, had breakfast at the famous Rocotillos, walked right into the middle of an Italian car and motorbike fiesta and then past some very cool street art.
Thank you to my lovely boyfriend for a lovely weekend!
Friday night we saw The Avengers Assemble at our little independant cinema about two minutes walk from our flat. It's under a fiver a ticket so everyone's a winner!
If you haven't seen it yet, then I definitely recommend it. After seeing the trailer I thought they made it look a bit too "epic" and thought it was just gonna be a whole load of explosions and a bit rubbish, but I loved every minute of it. Can't decide who is my favourite. Maybe if they combined Thor's rugged good looks and Iron Man (well, Downey Junior's) humour and wit then I would be a happy gal! Also, stick around after the credits, there is a little treat!
Check out the old school 3D glasses we got given at the little cinema, you don't throw these bad boys away! They were so heavy they hurt my face half way through!
After, we went to a new Spanish Tapas bar, again, two minutes walk from our flat. Very cosy bar to get away from the rain and pretend we were on holiday :)
Saturday I woke up to a package of anniversary presents, I am so spoilt! Best card in the world and can't wait to see Phantom!!!!!
We then ventured in Bristol, had breakfast at the famous Rocotillos, walked right into the middle of an Italian car and motorbike fiesta and then past some very cool street art.
We then walked towards the Mud Dock and as part of Eat Drink Fashion Bristol Festival they have got these teepees set up with a bar inside, great to get out of the rain and have a drink or two!
Thank you to my lovely boyfriend for a lovely weekend!
Friday 27 April 2012
Thursday 26 April 2012
I AM (inlovewith) BEYONCE
Have been meaning to post about this for a while, but Beyonce's tumblr is a-maz-ing.
Not only is the content beautiful but the whole layout, design and usability of her tumblr and site is just so stylish.
They are either private pictures that she has taken herself, whether it be when she has been on tour, down time on holiday, or backstage at video filming, and also a great selection from photo shoots and editorial pieces.
I confess, I am a little bit obsessed, and a lot-tle bit in love... here are some tasty tit bits for a Thursday afternoon..
Not only is the content beautiful but the whole layout, design and usability of her tumblr and site is just so stylish.
They are either private pictures that she has taken herself, whether it be when she has been on tour, down time on holiday, or backstage at video filming, and also a great selection from photo shoots and editorial pieces.
I confess, I am a little bit obsessed, and a lot-tle bit in love... here are some tasty tit bits for a Thursday afternoon..
Diamonds (and snow leopards) are a girl's best friend.. the new Cartier advert.
Have just seen the new (well new to me) advert for Cartier. It is more like a mini film being over 3 minutes long, but it is definitely sticking it through and watching the whole thing.
It's like a diamond encrusted Narnia with elephants with palaces on their backs, serpents and birds, palaces and chambers, shots of Paris all finished off with a beautifully dressed model at the end, with the Wright brothers thrown in for good measure.
After reading up on Cartier a little, I found out that Wallis Simpson designed a lot of the Cartier jewellery before she made history with the events that happened later in her life, but her favourite animal and design was the snow leopard. A Cartier legacy that has been brought to life in this decadent piece of film.
Diamonds (and snow leopards) are a girl's best friend... watch the advert below.
It's like a diamond encrusted Narnia with elephants with palaces on their backs, serpents and birds, palaces and chambers, shots of Paris all finished off with a beautifully dressed model at the end, with the Wright brothers thrown in for good measure.
After reading up on Cartier a little, I found out that Wallis Simpson designed a lot of the Cartier jewellery before she made history with the events that happened later in her life, but her favourite animal and design was the snow leopard. A Cartier legacy that has been brought to life in this decadent piece of film.
Diamonds (and snow leopards) are a girl's best friend... watch the advert below.
Wednesday 25 April 2012
Designer of Steve Jobs tribute Apple logo designs for Coca Cola...
We all remember the iconic symbol of the Apple logo being appropriated by student Jonathan Mak in tribute to the late Steve Jobs, as a quick but clever idea which vastly spread over the media, both online and on print.
Soon after, Coca Cola approached him with this incredible oppurtunity to create a poster for them. He has designed this brilliantly simple and beautiful poster that has been premiered in Shanghai as part of Coke's 'Global Happiness' campaign. I love it. It is just looks so effortless but is so clever and iconic.
Jonathan's humble website can be found here.
Soon after, Coca Cola approached him with this incredible oppurtunity to create a poster for them. He has designed this brilliantly simple and beautiful poster that has been premiered in Shanghai as part of Coke's 'Global Happiness' campaign. I love it. It is just looks so effortless but is so clever and iconic.
Jonathan's humble website can be found here.
Tuesday 24 April 2012
Russell Brand quotes Tupac in The House of Commons...yes!
I am a BIG fan of Russell Brand. Like, really, really big. From seeing him in the little pokey civic hall doing stand up comedy in Wolverhampton many moons ago, and in more recent years on the big screen. Not only do I love him for the obvious comedic value, but the way he thinks, what he believes in and the way he articulates himself - it all fascinates me. I have read both his books and found them both brilliant in the content and composition. I have listened to his podcasts from the infamous Russell Brand Show on Radio 2 before it got cancelled because of 'that' phone call. I have heard about his struggles with fame, drugs, alcohol and other addictions and seen how he has battled and recovered from these and have a great deal of respect for him.
So to hear that he is now standing up for his beliefs in relation to drug and susbtance abuse and how addiction is a disease, and should be treated like one, and to debate and discuss this in the House of Commons, well, I knew it was going to be good.
I find it funny how shocked people are to realise how articulate and intelligent he is. Yes you can be the previous things as a person, which Russell Brand chooses to be, but yes he can also be a bit silly. These two things aren't exclusive, you can in fact, be both. And he is, most amazingly! It annoys me slightly how certain newspaper websites have titled the video with such headlines as "The Russell Brand Show arrives at Parliament" it makes people think it is going to be non-sensical and less viable before they have even watched it. And from reading a few comments from the way the video clip has been edited, I think it has been cut in this way to make this seem even more so. I don't know what it is with the media, but hopefully everything that he has said will be taken on board, and drug and susbtance abuse as a disease, and the treatment of addicts and actions will be taken to address the matters so that the outcomes are beneficial for everyone.
And the fact that he quoted Tupac? Amazing.
So to hear that he is now standing up for his beliefs in relation to drug and susbtance abuse and how addiction is a disease, and should be treated like one, and to debate and discuss this in the House of Commons, well, I knew it was going to be good.
I find it funny how shocked people are to realise how articulate and intelligent he is. Yes you can be the previous things as a person, which Russell Brand chooses to be, but yes he can also be a bit silly. These two things aren't exclusive, you can in fact, be both. And he is, most amazingly! It annoys me slightly how certain newspaper websites have titled the video with such headlines as "The Russell Brand Show arrives at Parliament" it makes people think it is going to be non-sensical and less viable before they have even watched it. And from reading a few comments from the way the video clip has been edited, I think it has been cut in this way to make this seem even more so. I don't know what it is with the media, but hopefully everything that he has said will be taken on board, and drug and susbtance abuse as a disease, and the treatment of addicts and actions will be taken to address the matters so that the outcomes are beneficial for everyone.
And the fact that he quoted Tupac? Amazing.
Sunday 22 April 2012
Sagmeister Saturday at The Cheltenham Design Festival
So yesterday at the Design Festival was all about Sagmeister!
If I'm going to be completely honest with you I didn't really know much about him before apart from the infamous body poster, but was intrigued as everyone else seemed really excited, and I hate the thought of missing out so went along.
It was also really encouraging to hear off someone who bigs up and praises having a small design studio. His own studio only has two designers, and that's it. No project managers, no account execs. Just them. And he purposely has kept it that way. It was refreshing and reassuring to know that to be a successful designer you don't have to be part of a massive company with hundreds of employees. And his work ethic is really interesting too. Every 7 years in his career he takes a 1 year sabbatical. In that, he closes his office FOR A YEAR and goes travelling. And he said that all the work that they do inbetween his sabbaticals somehow ends up being able to be traced back to the experiences that he has had in the countries that he visits on that year off. I suppose it's a bit of a luxury as I imagine you would have to have enough pennies to keep you going for a whole year, but it makes so much sense.
His next talk was called Design and Happiness, where he explained more about where he goes and what he does on his sabbaticals, and how it seems he is searching for the definition of what makes us happy, and how we can make ourselves happier. He had a list, so automatically I was sold, apparently of what he thinks can make you more happy and content as a designer. I am just inspired by him, he said a lot of things that made a lot of sense and has really made me re-evaluate how I view things and what I want to do and be.
He also showed us the kind of things that he gets up to on his year off. He doesn't just go on holiday and sit on a beach for a year, he is still incredibly creative and takes inspiration from where he is staying. One of the things that he created was this epic throne like chair that was flanked either side by two guard dogs, which was inspired by the hundreds of stray dogs that wandered around where he was staying. I think it took something like 8 weeks to make and is carved from large blocks of teak wood. It's incredible.
He ended his talk with his 'Happy Film' which was amazing, but also pretty emotional at the end, as he created it with Hillman Curtis who unfortunately died last week. It was an amazing film and the titles for it are below, unfortunately I can't find the whole film but its definitely worth watching the other videos on youtube that feature Sagmeister talking about the film, and his search for happiness:
The other talk that I went to was Design Legends with Kenneth Grange and John Hegarty from BBH, chaired by Fi Glover.
The talk was a discussion of design in the future, and how they think design will move forward, how are we going to compete with companies like China, and what they thought about the problem of 10,000 design graduates finishing this year with only potentially 250 jobs. Obviously pretty big questions that are not going to have a definitive answer, but from what I could decipher we need to carry on being creative but give it a purpose. Design is to improve life, and to solve problems and that it's not just about things looking good, but improving on what we have and striving to make things better all the time, through being creative. It's so refreshing to hear from designers from the past generation, and reminds me to step away from my computer, pick up a pencil and paper and just remember why I want to be a designer.
I must say the whole of the design festival has really made me think about being a designer, kick started me again into wanting to be more ambitious, more pro active and more creative, and really made me think about where I want to be and what I want to do. My only niggle is that there wasn't really that many female designers there. There were two main debates, the one that I went to being postcard from design which had a male only panel, and the other question time had only one female there, Marina Willer Pentagram London's first female partner, who I missed as it wasn't really advertised that she was who was to replace John Sorrell. It would be good to see more of a 50/50 split. I am always interested to hear off successful female designers, how they do it, how they get the life-work balance right and listen to any advice that they have to offer. Cheltenham Design Festival people, if you read this, thanks for the festival, but next year a few more females would be much appreciated, as I think there may have only been 2-3 over the whole 3 day event. Good work though guys, can't wait for next year!
If I'm going to be completely honest with you I didn't really know much about him before apart from the infamous body poster, but was intrigued as everyone else seemed really excited, and I hate the thought of missing out so went along.
Honestly, again I think I have found my new favourite person. And he sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger!
There were two talks by Stefan yesterday, the first one was an audience with where he was interviewed by Patrick Burgoyne from Creative Review. I am fascinated hearing how designers started off their careers and hearing their journey. Stefan went to art school, and got his first job, not because he wanted it, but because he wanted to go and look around the design houses in Hong Kong, but they wouldn't let him just go in for a chat but if he wanted an interview they were more than happy to see him. Thinking that nothing would come of it he went and actually got offered the job. He didn't really want to work there so told them he would only work for a ridiculous amount of money, which they accepted so he could do nothing really but accept!It was also really encouraging to hear off someone who bigs up and praises having a small design studio. His own studio only has two designers, and that's it. No project managers, no account execs. Just them. And he purposely has kept it that way. It was refreshing and reassuring to know that to be a successful designer you don't have to be part of a massive company with hundreds of employees. And his work ethic is really interesting too. Every 7 years in his career he takes a 1 year sabbatical. In that, he closes his office FOR A YEAR and goes travelling. And he said that all the work that they do inbetween his sabbaticals somehow ends up being able to be traced back to the experiences that he has had in the countries that he visits on that year off. I suppose it's a bit of a luxury as I imagine you would have to have enough pennies to keep you going for a whole year, but it makes so much sense.
His next talk was called Design and Happiness, where he explained more about where he goes and what he does on his sabbaticals, and how it seems he is searching for the definition of what makes us happy, and how we can make ourselves happier. He had a list, so automatically I was sold, apparently of what he thinks can make you more happy and content as a designer. I am just inspired by him, he said a lot of things that made a lot of sense and has really made me re-evaluate how I view things and what I want to do and be.
He also showed us the kind of things that he gets up to on his year off. He doesn't just go on holiday and sit on a beach for a year, he is still incredibly creative and takes inspiration from where he is staying. One of the things that he created was this epic throne like chair that was flanked either side by two guard dogs, which was inspired by the hundreds of stray dogs that wandered around where he was staying. I think it took something like 8 weeks to make and is carved from large blocks of teak wood. It's incredible.
He ended his talk with his 'Happy Film' which was amazing, but also pretty emotional at the end, as he created it with Hillman Curtis who unfortunately died last week. It was an amazing film and the titles for it are below, unfortunately I can't find the whole film but its definitely worth watching the other videos on youtube that feature Sagmeister talking about the film, and his search for happiness:
The other talk that I went to was Design Legends with Kenneth Grange and John Hegarty from BBH, chaired by Fi Glover.
The talk was a discussion of design in the future, and how they think design will move forward, how are we going to compete with companies like China, and what they thought about the problem of 10,000 design graduates finishing this year with only potentially 250 jobs. Obviously pretty big questions that are not going to have a definitive answer, but from what I could decipher we need to carry on being creative but give it a purpose. Design is to improve life, and to solve problems and that it's not just about things looking good, but improving on what we have and striving to make things better all the time, through being creative. It's so refreshing to hear from designers from the past generation, and reminds me to step away from my computer, pick up a pencil and paper and just remember why I want to be a designer.
I must say the whole of the design festival has really made me think about being a designer, kick started me again into wanting to be more ambitious, more pro active and more creative, and really made me think about where I want to be and what I want to do. My only niggle is that there wasn't really that many female designers there. There were two main debates, the one that I went to being postcard from design which had a male only panel, and the other question time had only one female there, Marina Willer Pentagram London's first female partner, who I missed as it wasn't really advertised that she was who was to replace John Sorrell. It would be good to see more of a 50/50 split. I am always interested to hear off successful female designers, how they do it, how they get the life-work balance right and listen to any advice that they have to offer. Cheltenham Design Festival people, if you read this, thanks for the festival, but next year a few more females would be much appreciated, as I think there may have only been 2-3 over the whole 3 day event. Good work though guys, can't wait for next year!
Friday 20 April 2012
Cheltenham Design Festival
So after the months, maybe even years of the idea of a Cheltenham design festival being banded around the office, meeting after meeting and all the other bits inbetween the Cheltenham Design Festival is finally here!
Today I have been in and out of the office, popping over to The Parabola Arts Centre to listen to some of the talks that have been on. Up first was 'Post Card from Design' with David Hillman formerly of Pentagram, Bruce Duckworth, partner of packaging company Turner Duckworth, as well as my boss, Marksteen Adamson, Creative Director of Cheltenham's very own ArthurSteenHorneAdamson. It was a great start to the festival with topics breached such as roles of people working in design, education within design, what the future holds and the age old debates of crowdsourching and whether students, or any designer for that matter should work for free.
The next talk that I went to was The Rise of Technology and Social Media. This was presented by the guys from ICO, their site can be founder here, a great company that if I am honest I have never heard of before, but have done some great work that I have loved like the 'Snog' yoghurt company. They showed some great ways of how social media can be embraced by brands to really solve some problems and make them stand out. Plus some very funny internet memes of LOL cat. I was sold.
The final talk that I went to today was by Simon Waterfall titled 'How, Who and Woh!'. Blunt from the start he introduced himself by saying that he was incredibly hungover from the D&AD awards last night (rock'n'roll) and discussed some really thought provoking topics such as how brands should be responsible for the design they create and how Coca Cola is going to change the world for good! I would tell you all about it, but hey I'm pretty pooped and my brain is overloaded with all this inspiration!
He did show us two great things though, one being The Creators Project, which was so inspirational it gave me goosebumps and can be found here you really need to look in it, really exciting stuff.
And to finish it off played this amazingly shot video:
Monday 16 April 2012
The Civil Wars - aka is that Johnny Depp?!
Everyone knows I have an unashamed obsession with Johnny Depp. So I had to do a double check and a google search to really make sure that the guy singing in The Civil Wars, who are amazing by the way, was not the man himself.
Unfortunately it isn't, but in a way it's kind of a good thing. Now there are two people that look that amazing!
Check out their cover of Billie Jean, and a song that I loved before I even knew who was on it, is Safe and Sound from the Hunger Games, sang by Taylor Swift, but also featuring The Civil Wars.
Happy Monday!
Unfortunately it isn't, but in a way it's kind of a good thing. Now there are two people that look that amazing!
Check out their cover of Billie Jean, and a song that I loved before I even knew who was on it, is Safe and Sound from the Hunger Games, sang by Taylor Swift, but also featuring The Civil Wars.
Happy Monday!
The Civil Wars - Bille Jean (cover)
Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars - Safe and Sound
Friday 13 April 2012
Monday 9 April 2012
Bastille - good music and a free mixtape, happy Monday!
A good friend of mine played me some cover songs on the weekend, listening to them again (a little more soberly may I add) I have got them on repeat. And I love them more because they have put them together in a free mixtape called Other People's Heartache. Bonus. Enjoy.
Above is one of the covers, and here is the link to get their free mixtape.
Thursday 5 April 2012
Florence at The Teenage Cancer Trust
If you have got an hour to spare, watch Florence's show from The Royal Albert Hall here.
It will give you actual goosebumps.
Happy Bank Holiday and Happy Easter, have a good one my lovelies.
It will give you actual goosebumps.
Happy Bank Holiday and Happy Easter, have a good one my lovelies.
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