Happy Halloween & happy cats

I feel a bit guilty cause I forgot it was Halloween, but I did do a couple of cat drawings when I was on the phone to a friend - including a black cat, which is kind of Halloween specific. Anyway - hope everyone gets lots of lovely treats! xxxx

Type Tuesday, 30th October

Going through the Emigre website is good for inspiration. It's where you get back issues of the magazine, but they also have a really great selection of fonts, artwork, essays. Clicking through the magazines is a good way to look at historical trends in design, and the essays are a great resource for anyone studying. All the above images are from the website. Check it out! xxxx

Fantastic Myspace profile

Just had to show my favourite Myspace profile: Gustav Larsson from Sweden. He has a website too, displaying his art and music. I've gotta race out the door, but I'll post more of his images when I get home. xxxx

Op Shopping and a hand knitted Teletubby

How hilarious is this? The Russian ladies from the Op shop up the road gave us the real teletubby on the left, then the other day at a kindergarten garage sale I got this crazy hand knitted telly tubby (above right). When you look at them side by side the likeness is quite dreadful - but I love the fact someone made the effort! xxxx

Type Tuesday - Mint Condition

This weeks examples come from Travis Stearns's website I Am Mint Condition. He's from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and his work entails graphic design, typography and art direction. The site has a good mix of current work and experimental projects. I love his 'Let's Regress' work (above) made from old records. Be sure to check out the site, and click on the above images to see more detail. xxxx

Two good art openings

I went to two really good openings last week. One was an exhibition by Claudia Damichi (above) at Ryan Renshaw gallery in Brisbane. The other was by Cybele Cox here in Sydney at Blank Space gallery (images below). Images and information about the artists can be found on the gallery websites. Click on the images to see details. xxxx

Great colours and a birthday

Bad week of internet problems - so excuse the lack of web presence. I sent Johnny out to get some Fimo the other day, and I was so impressed with the colours he came back with I scanned the packets. Also it was his birthday the other day. Made him a card but the printer didn't work. xxxx

Another squiggle drawing

Here's another drawing for the scrapbook that goes in the growing series of these squiggles! xxxx

Technical problems and Type Tuesday

First things first - we had to get rid of our internet provider and get a new one - if there were any emails or comments since last Thursday I would have missed them, so my apologies if I haven't responded.

Anyway - Type Tuesday, and I'm posting from a dial up connection (^&$I^%#$TR$%*(*U)(*&)!!).............but my frustration with the computer doesn't mean I don't feel passionate about the content. This weeks examples come from the fantastic book Yokoland. They're a design team from Norway who have a huge commitment to low budget, uncompromising creativity and do lots of DIY typography - including installations with huge, handmade letters. I've paraphrased this list of materials they use for type from their book: LEGO, cardboard, paper, beads, fabric, caviar, mayo, ketchup, strawberry sauce, candy, leaves, leek, keyboard letters, clay, wood, building foam, squeeking toys, bathroom tiles. All above images are scanned from the book. Information about Yokolands projects, and the book can be found at yokoland.com. Click to enlarge - Cool stuff! xxxx

And some contemporary influences

Some contemporary influences today to balance things out. I love the detail of these two artists. The above images are by Brazillian artist, Sandra Cinto, who shows at Tanya Bonakdar gallery. And the work below is by Daniel Zeller, who can be found through Adam Baumgold gallery. Top left image is from Audrey.Tipos.com. Top right image is scanned from the book Vitamin D, New Perspectives in Drawing. Below images are from pierogi2000.com. Click images to see the details. xxxx

Old world influences

With so much fantastic hand drawn graphics and illustration around at the moment, I thought it would be good to post a couple of old world influences. The above image is called 'Proofs', and was done by Outsider artist Jakob Mohr in 1910. The below two images are both done by Paul Klee. The pink image is called 'The Creator, 1935, and the image below that is titled 'Untamed Waters', 1934. The Jakob Mohr work was scanned from 'The Drawing Book', Tania Kovats, 2006, Black Dog Publishing - and the Klee works were scanned from 'Klee', Robert Fisher, 1967, Tudor Publishing Company. xxxx

Type Tuesday, 9th October

This week’s examples come from Alex Trochut, a designer from Barcelona, who I found out about through an interview with Deanne Cheuk, on the cool web log Lost at E Minor. She said that the cover illustration of Beautiful Decay, which is done by Alex, was one of the best things she’s seen lately. I looked at his website – and he has other examples of his experimental type style there. It’s difficult to read what a lot of his work is saying. The Beautiful Decay cover says ‘The Hyperspectrum’. I think the blue example says MDMA (?), and I have no idea what the liquid example says. Ledgibility was never a big deal for David Carson, so why should it be for Alex Trochut. The Beautiful Decay cover comes from the magazines website. The other images come from Alex Trochut’s website. Click to enlarge. xxxx

Another squiggle sky drawing

Here's another drawing I was doing last night. Completely different to the one below - but similar to the squiggle drawing I did about two weeks ago. Not sure if I like this one as much - but as I said, I'm in experimentation mode at the moment. xxxx

Another black tree

Here's a couple of experiments I did today. I took the below drawing and put it over a 3D object, so it stretched, and added 3D droplets and flowers. The lighting effects changed the colours too. I'm in experimentation mode cause there's talk of an upcoming exhibition. xxxx

Hussein Chalayan

A couple of fantasy dresses from Hussein Chalayan. Images from Salon.com. xxxx

Elephant and bub

Here's a photo of Lukas in front of a huge elephant in my friend's shop. Her site's not up yet, but it's worth checking out later. xxxx

Anna Laura's badges

I made my first Etsy purchase the other day - one of Anna Laura's adorable badges. Mine has bright blue hair and her name is Cecelia. They're all hand made, and come with a personal story. For example 'Whenever Cecelia has dumped a lover they always play her the Simon and Garfunkle song. It always makes her glad she ended it'. The above girls names are (clockwise) Elizabeth, Pia, Edwina, Renee, Bronwyn and Emily. You can find them on Anna Laura's website or at her Etsy shop. xxxx

100th post!

This is the 100th post I've made since I started blogging in March this year. Keeping a blog is much more fun than I ever anticipated, and I've really enjoyed keeping in touch with other people's blogs too. Such a fun game of show and tell. xxxx

Type Tuesday, 2nd October

This weeks examples come from Gas Book 10 which is about the design company 'Work in Progress'. They're based in both Paris and New York and have fashion industry clients such as Pucci, Comme des Garcons and Chloe. I’ve chosen to show some black and white images of theirs, which I find quite inspiring because I work at a newspaper. Work in Progress also publishes Self Service, one of the fashion industries most respected magazines. The website is still under construction, but you can read about the magazine here. If you click to enlarge - the top right image has little faces in the font. xxxx