Cloud Formation

This time around it seemed prudent to print our own business cards; irrespective of economy, equipment should be put to task. Not used to printing on such a diminutive scale, the high reproduction rate was a surprise... especially in view of how few we use!

Sweaterweather

The festive season here in London feels long since passed, though the cold snap continues unabated. The slipshod snowmen appearing (then disappearing into the slush) on our street, put me in mind of Sweaterweather.


A friend introduced me to the work of Sara Varon, imagining one of our characters somehow similar... I should be so lucky! You probably can't tell from my pic but the snowflakes are gloss-coated when the cover itself is matte. It's just this kind of beautiful detail that prevails throughout.


With stamps, cute cut-out figures (with x-rayed stomach/pocket contents), and a synopsis on the life of bees, these comic-panel parables are undoubtedly suited to children while simultaneously shot-through with laconic wit.



• Sara Varon, Sweaterweather, Alternative Comics, 2003

String Song

Believe me, the purpose of this this Arthur Wood bird was perplexing until I saw a similar one on Etsy. I even asked the stall holder at the boot sale, who, staggered by the impertinence, launched into a bunch of elaborate fibs rather than admit she didn't know either. Anyhow, aside form all the usual self-improvement stuff, my New Year's resolution will be to use miles more string... biodegradable, of course!

MMX

Roman numerals for our era are just too snappy. Back in MCMLXXXVIII when the BBC ran copyright info at the end of each show, it read more like the curse-words from comic strips.



The media have been spoiling us of late with their take on the cultural highs-and-lows of the decade and, though I should resist the temptation to make my own list, it's certainly sad saying so-long to Polaroid Instant Film. I went Polaroid potty a while back, especially with the beautiful SX-70.

Season's Greetings!

Independent Choice

I Choose You! made the Independent's Best Children's Books for Christmas list. It's always nice to get favourable copy... hitherto, most reviews have been of the '...and it fits in your handbag' variety.

Joanna at Silver Jungle was insistent on a point-of-sale container and, while I'll admit to initial resistance, I'm pleased with the result. However it's displayed, I'm also pretty pleased with the roll-call of stockists, which include...

Barbican • Bird • Bolingbroke Bookshop • Broadway Books • Cornerhouse • Daunts • Eden Project • Elphicks • Few & Far • Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge • Frank • Forty Four • Foyles • Green Apple • Koenig Books for Serpentine Gallery • Magma • My Little Eco • National Museum, Liverpool • Olive Loves Alfie • Owl Bookshop • Paul Smith • Queen's Park Books • Saachi Gallery • Salts Mill, Saltaire • Stanfords, Covent Garden • Tales on Moon Lane • Tate Britain • Tate Liverpool • Tate Modern • Waterstones Piccadilly

...and us online.

Plan UK

Just like Beyoncé I prefer not to talk about my charity work, though rummaging through some old stock boxes for last weekend's sale bonanza, I was disappointed not to find any of the cards we'd once designed for Plan UK. Luckily they still retail from their online store and at £4.75 for 10, they're a pretty affordable fund-raiser.

Weekend Wonderland

London will become a veritable Venn diagram of bargains next weekend with seasonal sales on both sides of town...

East
As if they weren't busy enough with a third London outlet, one of our first and foremost stockists, Tatty Devine, will be adding their name to the star-studded list of stall-holders at Mangle's Xmas Sale. On offer will be t-shirts; prints; cards; books; bags; children's wear; accessories; tea/coffee; cakes and music. All from the likes of Marcus Walters; Ryantown; Luckybird and General Pattern (work pictured below). Oh, and us too.



Mangle Xmas Sale
Tab Centre, Tabernacle Baptist Church
3 Godfrey Place, Shoreditch, London E2 7NT
Saturday 12th December, 11am until 6pm, Admission free

West
Great Western will be showcasing their purpose-built (and now thoroughly heated) site with this inaugural open studio event. I'll be joining painters, sculptors, designers, illustrators, jewelers and makers as a guest exhibitor with my usual bazaar of goods from 50p.

I'll be especially curious to see Kate Gibb's pristine space. Her old garret, while not exactly Grey Gardens, nestled in years of layered source material and deeply embedded ephemera... fortunately captured on film for posterity.

The Great Western Studios
65 Alfred Road, London W2 5EU
Sat 12th & Sun 13th Dec, 12-6pm, Admission free

Cheese-Bag

While I'm not so hot on shopping tips, I am disproportionately smitten with my cheese shop tote. It reminds me a little of the New York Herald Tribune / Á Bout de Souf bags and t-shirts we printed at the start of the decade, only nicer. With grey web straps and a gusset, they're a mere £2.50 from Paxton & Whitfield's well-stinky shop on Jermyn Street.

Beep Beep

I can ferry a whole week's groceries on my bike if I cycle super-slow. Occasionally though, I just have to load up the little car with Lisa Jones goodies. One such upcoming event is the seasonal sale at Hampstead Womens' Club, which I do in the excellent company of Alice Tait. I'm sure she'll have an exceptional collection of prints for sale, including the bus below.

It'd be dumb to deny the car's leading role in our eco-dystopia, but it's always interesting to see the graphics of a more optimistic/naïve era; like Marimekko's infamous Bo Boo fabric or Galt, who (while under the auspices of Ken Garland Associates) could do little wrong.
 

HWC 4th Annual Holiday Market Place
Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Hampstead NW3
Saturday 28 November, 10am - 3pm

Sweet Stuff

There's some contention over the spelling (sometimes they're Pastis other times it's Pasteis de Nata), but why should I care? Either way those little Portuguese Egg Custards are plain delicious. Hence, no contest when asked to join an illustrious list of contributors and illustrate something sweet for the amazing Dessert Girl.

Spent fireworks always had a residual spark of melancholy in their rain-run colour and obliterated graphics. I still have trouble reconciling these earth-bound, day-lit husks with their sulphurous spectacle at night.

Ruth Duckworth, 1919-2009

There's a flurry of fluorescent post-it notes in my 1977 edition of Art of the Modern Potter, mostly marking Ruth Duckworth's pages. This short feature on her touring retrospective is a few years old, but makes for an exceptionally inspiring 7 minutes.

Fox

Forget restless spirits and trick-or-treaters this Halloween, it's these guys that rule on my street after dark.

Endpapers

 
Have I mentioned I Choose You! recently? Here's a couple of ideas for end-papers ousted from the project. We were eager for the book not to start and finish too abruptly, fortunately a third proposal made the grade.

978-0955265235

A random stream of numbers maybe, but they're poetry to me... I've never had an ISBN. We've been designing and illustrating I Choose You! for far longer than its simplicity suggests.

Ever since the contractual copies arrived, I've been losing five minutes here-and-there, idly picking it up, intently flicking through or, occasionally, even smelling the thing. And, yup, it smells just as good as a good picture-book should.

Sixteen characterful creatures with Joanna Skipwith's rampageous rhymes on 40 FSC colour pages, 978-0955265235 is available for wholesale from the publisher, Silver Jungle, or retails via their online store.

Brrr!

The perils of doubling-up the clothes on your hangers. Difficult to wear at the best of times, this dress had been hidden from view 'til it was far too cold already.

Handmade

Before I forget and a new issue comes out, I'm interviewed in UK Handmade's online quarterly. Of course, I'm not suggesting you cherish my every word, but the rest of the magazine's well worth investigation. Eco-living, arts and crafts, a smattering of horticulture and, most importantly... food!

I do wish I'd hoovered before the picture was taken.

Squirrel

We've been working on a handful of new designs, though some may prove too seasonal to become regular greetings. This little fella has the exact same colour-palatte as last night's ultra-autumnal pumpkin risotto.

Showtime

A couple of old pals have exhibitions this month; Neil Tait has an overview of a year’s painting at the White Cube while, a few streets further east, Steven Claydon’s pieces completely disorientate a themed show at The Drawing Room.


More selfishly, I get to scoff waffles and take delivery of my new Acne trousers (so much cheaper in Scandinavia) as warm-hearted wunderkind, Daniel Rybakken, brings his deceptively icy brand of modernism to Norwegian Prototypes as part of London Design Festival.