I like John Hinde too

I like has a great piece about the inimitable John Hinde at the moment, well worth a look.

Inspiration

Every so often I'll be feeling a bit low on the inspiration front and I'll come across something that will hit me like a giraffe in the face and remind me, actually, I have plenty of inspiration. I'm surrounded by it. Actually it's prioritising it that's more of a problem.

This really gorgeous sculpture is by Jennie Maneri and inspired by the brilliant Katamari. And if you've never played any Katamari you really really should.

The Paul Smith Screen

I went to a 'thing' at Nottingham Broadway Cinema this week and it happened to be in the Paul Smith screen. It's so lovely! I'm not normally the soft-furnishings type but these seats make you feel happy as soon as you walk in. I want a stripey sofa now.

If Julia Roberts was a South Park Character...

...she would look pretty much exactly like this. WHAT is going ON here? Weird floating head? Check. (I count) at least 10 different type styles/sizes on the cover? Check. Centred type for NO good reason?* Check. (Richard will love that.) Annoying and distracting type along a rose stem (ugh it made me gag just typing that)? Check. I could go on but it's making me feel dizzy. What's going on here? Perhaps it's something against Julia Roberts. She looks pretty odd on this cover too, but then so does everybody, seeing as they're green. But they've definately done miles better covers in the past.

This one is really pretty good, (aside from a few bits of strangely centred type getting through the taste net), it's polished and dynamic and a little bit mysterious, and I love the detail of adding the George Bernard Shaw quote, it fits perfectly;

*(although I have to admit the main coverline looks alright like that).

Green Chair Press

Susan Angebranndt runs Green Chair Press from a studio in California she shares with a 1968 VW crew cab and a 1975 vintage race car. Her website is full of punchy letterpress prints and beautifully bound handmade books. I think I first heard of her through Decor8's Calendar Round-up, which is a bit of a goldmine in terms of small independent letterpress printers, not to mention a great Christmas Present resource! Susan also writes a really interesting blog herself.

One print that really stood out to me was Synesthesia. I think it's a really simple and beautiful representation of this strange logic.

Synesthesia on Wikipedia.

To quote a quote; Books finely printed are small castles of man —Pablo Neruda.

A Great Picture

9 W 57, originally uploaded by litherland.

By someone who doesn't believe it's a great picture.

Print at The Science Museum

Lots of nice printed things, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

Part of my favourite section of the Science Museum - the bit with all the recent history of gadgets, tat and rubbish. The brick-like mobile phones with car-battery type attachments, the mangy looking old Barbies, the old Apple Mac, the 1960's TV Times...

Flatter Face, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century

mustachesofthenineteenthcentury.blogspot.com
Need I say more?

Fence of Pencils

Fence of Crayons, originally uploaded by Saima.

I tracked this back and back and back through various blogs (it's done the rounds a bit) but I still can't find out who took the original picture! It's so fantastic though it has to be worth sharing. If I ever manage to buy a house this is what I want it to look like.

Take a theme - and run with it...

running from camera (2 seconds), originally uploaded by muggezifter.

Strangely fascinating

I love... lamp.

I LOVE LAMP!
By Hiroshi Yoneya and Yumi Masuko, Producted by Cassina ixc. co. Ltd., photo by Nacasa and Partners Inc.

Neiman Marcus

This is a beautiful book from American brand Neiman Marcus to celebrate their centenary. If I had a spare $125 I'd be right on it. But I don't, so I'll have to look at the lovely pictures of it on NOTCOT instead.

Perhaps it's our affinity for the dramatic. Or maybe it's our penchant for the out-of-the-ordinary. Whatever the case, documenting our 100 year history in a book could never be a mundane undertaking.

See the book here.