Country

Our storage crisis continues to grow apace with the arrival of another seven boxes of tea-towels; reprints of those that have sold-through and Country, a new companion design for last year's Town.



It's a hotchpotch idyll, wholly imagined from the heart of the city, but I hadn't realised an errant Mediterranean motif had crept in too! Wonderfully frond-like, I'm unsure how standard these doors are on the continent or if they'd work as well in a less leafy colour.

Works on Paper

As a one-room overview, I may have enjoyed the Philip Guston's Works on Paper even more than the Royal Academy's bombastic retrospective of 2004. Meandering through the becalmed back streets adjoining Grosvenor Square to Berkeley (away from phone-unlocking, cheap booze and bushmeat), you could even develop a tender, touristic eye for this city.

Philip Guston, Works on Paper
31 Dec - 20 Feb 2010, Timothy Taylor Gallery
15 Carlos Place, London W1K 2EX

• studio shots: Denise Hare

Valentine's

Clearly, different lovers express themselves in very different ways. Lisa's folks yearly exchange the same (cellophane wrapped and unwritten) wedding anniversary cards. February 14 is not ringed red on their calendar. Conversely, my mum's had the same Valentine hanging framed since I can remember... a sentiment that's outlived the marriage by 30 years already.

This romantic plate was a great little find. Revisiting the shop a year later, and hopeful of another rewarding rummage, we found only empty walls of white peg-board (save for the inverse-shadows of long-gone goodies).

• 'Spring' by Bjørn Wiinblad for Nymolle, diameter 27cm, undated, Denmark

Maureen & Bernard

There’s an abundance of wry innovation in modern illustration, but I'm sympathetic to the mania for classic kid's lit and the wistful retreat into yesteryear. For reassurance on layout work recently, I looked to one vintage book in particular; Maureen Roffey's Who Killed Cock Robin? is a paean to bold, cut-out simplicity, integral text and colourful spreads.



Though still wonderfully prolific, it's Roffey’s earlier output that feels so fine-tuned to the here-and-now. Sadly, this period gets short-shrift online: a flat-pack dolls' house from 1967; a pretty poster for London Underground in 1968 and some silk-screened toys in 1977s Things to Make and Do... in short, enough to keep me searching every-now-and-then.



As if one talent in the family wasn't enough, this astonishing study is from Bernard Lodge, Roffey's husband; a pivotal figure in TV graphics, latterly turned wood-block/lino-cut printer. Lodge’s interests are broadly mythical, but it's when focus pulls to the contemporary or quotidian that the work, paradoxically, grows wings.

• Who Killed Cock Robin?, Maureen Roffey, 1971, Bodley Head
• Girls' Night Out, Bernard Lodge, three-block linocut, undated

Lovebirds

This is Lovebirds our new limited-edition print, cunningly timed for Valentine's. At 30 x 40 cm, it's on an altogether prettier scale.

Chromophobic

When I began making cards I loved almost every crazy colour combination (tasteful or otherwise), more recently I'm resisting the urge to turn everything grey. It's no reflection on my sombre outlook, it just seems somehow less shouty.
Two Up, Two Down was intended to be a full-tilt colour extravaganza, but luckily (bewitched by Delft pottery and swarthy sea tattoos) I limited the palette to blues. If I get the chance I'll try a black and white one too... I may as well work this thing through.

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.