Friday Photo

Bear mention

Just had the sleeve of BLK w/BEAR latest release featured in Design Week's News in Pictures.

Uncle Sam

I was up in Derry the other day having my first look at the new Peace Bridge, well worth a visit! The weather was a little over cast and wet but seeing this ice cream van made me smile! I have lots of happy memories of seeing this van on Benone Beach and sampling it's wares.

Blog Break

Apologies for the lack of regular posts around here lately but this has been down to some unseasonal sunshine in the north of Ireland which means I have been out on the beaches and in the forests making the most of it while it lasts!

Friday Photo

Mr. Potato Head, from the series Toys, Northern Ireland, 2007

Bear Mix

Apologies for the lack of posts around here recently, just been relocating from France to Ireland for the summer.

It's been a while since I posted any of my own work but here is the latest record sleeve I've been working on. It is the next release from Manchester's Front & Follow label by Washington based artists BLK wBEAR who have reinterpreted a selection of tracks from Yonokierio's album Blue Apples.

The sleeve illustration is a photo of a selection of ceramic sculptures created by Robin VanValkenburgh under the pseudonym of Runny Bunny. With such a striking image I wanted to make the most of the groups name so I started playing about with the symmetry of the words BLK and BEAR and bent some  Helvetica Light into shape to create the typeface. It felt a shame to just stick it in the corner so I decided to place it full size over the image.

It will be release as a limited CD with a free digital and specially commissioned video download on 5 September and as always you can get it from the F&F shop where you can hear a soundcloud sample there now.

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The last Harry Potter book launch, Kings Cross, London, 2007

Friday Photo

A local fire, Versailles 2009

Bjork Crystaline

Some more fantastic work from M/M Paris for the latest release from Bjork. Just pop over to her website to see a new way of browsing, again the design is by M/M Paris aided by the technically astounding Jam3. The new logo is beautiful, refined and works perfectly with the imagery, part note, part eye, part planet! It's a bit hard to pin down like Bjork herself.

If that wasn't enough the Icelandic songstress has also invented a new instrument called the Gameleste which features in her show Biophilia which is currently at the Manchester International Festival, (as is Damon Albarn's Opera Dr Dee), anyway here is a video of the Gameleste being made.

The Gameleste - a custom instrument for Björk from Andy McCreeth on Vimeo.

Gummy Lips

I love new and innovative music packaging; stick a badge or poster in a release and I have to buy it, even though I know I have exactly the same record already! Well I was just over at the Flaming Lips site and discovered that their latest release is a USB stick that contains 4 new songs. The USB stick is encased in a jelly edible skull and is a very limited release! I've heard it rumored that this is the first in a series of monthly release from The Flaming Lips so it will be interesting to see if all the tracks will be gummy body parts! This release is $150 a little bit more than my pocket money can stretch to!
Anyone know who the design is by?

Nice use of Futura Black Plain for the text

Fun and Games

T'is the season of le vide grenier and this year our star finds have been a cool selection of vintage kids games, most of which were produced by a French company called Fernand Nathan who also published beautifully illustrated kids books too. Most of these were picked up for a few Euros which is great for such a nice collection of Illustrations.While I was doing some research on the company I came across this nice flickr stream of other Fernand Nathan bits and bobs!

My favourite has to be the English learning game which comes with it's own 7" single and looks like it has never been opened!

Friday Photo

Hurley practice, Northern Ireland, 2009