January to March 2010

January to March 2010, originally uploaded by wil_freeborn.

Great work from Wil Freeborn - take a look at the detail and colour full size. Well worth a look through the rest of his Flickr stream.

Natsko Seki

Public Bath, 250 x 250mm, 2008

I went to see the Pick Me Up show at Somerset House yesterday and was really overwhelmed by the amount of great work on show. One artist that really did stand out to me that I'd never seen before was Natsko Seki. Her work is amazingly detailed (which is difficult to get across here) and really fascinating. It's joyful and happy but also quite subtle, and the range of techniques she uses in the pieces she showed seemed to blend together seamlessly, and gave an energetic feeling of depth. Really beautiful stuff. I wish I could of afforded one of her larger pieces, but I did manage to pick up an (unlimited edition I think) print of the gorgeous 'Kite' from the shop for a meagre £20.

It was amazing to see Rob Ryan in action, carefully and determinedly drawing away with an automatic pencil, while one of his glamorous assistants sat cutting away with a scalpel. The room was packed and actually kind of claustrophobic. I would of loved to talk to him, but he was so engrossed I didn't want to disturb him. Also, what am I going to say?! "Hi I'm a huge fan. it's really great for me to be able to meet you. And I'm definitely more important than the other 100 megafans also in here. I can't afford to buy any of your work though." YAWN.

ATMOSPHERE

ATMOSPHERE, originally uploaded by wearebrainstorm.

Atmosphere
18" x 24"
5 color silkscreen print
$30

www.wearebrainstorm.com

Rob Ryan - light and space

Rob Ryan posted these quite beautiful snaps on his new(ish) blog this week. Papercuts aren't just for hanging on walls you know.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings

oooo pretty. Spotted on ebay.

Drypoints, from Minu

My Jumper, originally uploaded by sissT.

This new series of drypoint prints from Minu are just lovely. Great characters, and beautiful printing. See more on her Flickr.

enormouschampion

Not a hugely stocked Etsy shop but some interesting bits and bobs, enormouschampion are a duo with some lovely printy stuff.

Charting the Beatles: Working Schedule, 1963-1966

Charting the Beatles: Working Schedule, 1963-1966, originally uploaded by ChartingTheBeatles.

Charting The Beatles

Tom Gauld - Robot 22

Another lovely robot, this time created with Odosketch.

Pattern People

I've just discovered the great Pattern People blog. Written by Pattern People Jessie Whipple Vickery, Valerie Mathus and Claudia Brown, the posts pull together inspiration and trends from the world of fashion and textiles, alongside everything from interiors to art exhibitions they curate themselves.

Image above from Hervé Léger for Max Azria post. I love the organic shapes the contrast of these harsh linear patterns create.

Below, Janine Rewell's "Tan Lines", originally seen here. A fantastic idea, although it would definitely make me feel less squiffy if it was a spray tan. Not sure anyone really needs encouraging to use sun-beds...

Rob Ryan. Yes, again.

Bristol's Soma Gallery brought some lovely lovely new prints to my attention. (How is this guy not writing songs?)

Yulia Brodskaya

The quite prolific Yulia Brodskaya has updated her website with even more yummy papery goodness. Check out her news for lots of recent commercial projects ranging from Starbucks, to t-shirts, more for The Guardian and lots more editorial.

Thanks for the tip, FormFiftyFive.

The Nature of Things

A lovely bit of surface pattern by the very talented Helen Dardik. I noticed this whilst catching up on my blog reading after my holiday. Helen often posts brand new ideas and patterns on her blog but this one really stood out to me. I love how it doesn't over-sentimentalise our connection to the natural world, but celebrates it in a positive way.

Helen's blog.

Mibo Downloadable Calendar

A beautifully illustrated calendar is available to download for all subscribers to Mibo's mailing list right now. Check out the rest of their website for some lovely prints and gift ideas all featuring the distinctive Mibo illustrations.

Good Shape Design

Some nice posters available at Good Shape Design, the work of Wayne Pate. At $30 a pop for silkscreen prints I think they're pretty good value, even though they don't appear to be limited edition.

Via Design*Sponge.

Lotta Bruhn

Lovely Christmas patterns from Lotta Bruhn. Those birds definitely have an edge of Charley Harper about them - no bad thing...

Schtock

Found an interesting site today via Veer put together by someone who works at a stock photography agency. Apparently they just want to share all this visual candyfloss with the world out of the goodness of their heart. Hmmm. Think I have to agree with The Denver Egotist's views on it's innocence, but it's interesting non-the-less. The main gallery part of the site is comprised of photo-montages using a variety of available stock, but the blog of what's 'just crossed the desk' is an interesting look too.

Wanderlust Map

There's a really nice interactive map featuring famous routes on the Good Magazine website. It's a little light on information once you get into it but it could be really interesting if/as it grows. (And why haven't Google maps done this already?)

Faber Finds

The new service from publisher Faber & Faber looks really interesting - as digital printing becomes ever cheaper it's now viable for them to re-produce out of print books to order. Faber Finds is also unique (I think) in it's use of a "design machine" (as they call it) to generate a unique cover for each and every book ordered. What a great way to make a book really special, as well as a great solution to making print on demand accessible and well designed. The talents of Marian Bantjes for the border design (elements shown below), who has some more lovely examples if you follow that link, Karsten Schmidt for the technical bits and Michael C. Place for the custom typeface have been brought together fantastically well.

Marian Bantjes - Love Stories

Marian Bantjes has just published a set of fantastic personal work in the latest Monograph (available to Creative Review subscribers only). Luckily the Creative Review blog also has a bit of information about it, and you can see lovely big images of all the work on Marian's website. Each of the beautiful pieces is the story of someone she loves, and you really get a sense of the people behind these.