Draw the Line is a monthly meet-up of friends/co-workers/drunks/illustrators/artists who sit around in a bar in Liverpool for the sole purpose of having a drink and drawing on some tables. Covered in paper that is.
I’m not the best artist or illustrator but then half the people going are not either so grab a friend and head over.
Draw the Line happens every first Thursday of the month, I hope to see you there.
Blab is a Manchester based even that hosts guest speakers to talk about their work and anything else they would like to.
I had the pleasure of attending Blab #14, with Gavin Strange, aka. Jamfactory and Matthew Wagerfield, interactive designer at Fantasy Interactive. I won’t spoil what they said, but you can checkout a video of the talks past and present here.
I would definitely recommend you check out the next one to be announced in the future because they are getting more and more popular.
Blab.
Tags: blab #14, gavin strange, manchester, talks
I have been looking for another digital camera for a while now. Something not to replace my SLR, but something I can put in my pocket or bag that is lightweight where I don’t want to take my SLR. The Sony NEX 5n is a micro four-thirds camera, essentially bridging the SLR and digital camera gap. Simply put, a digital camera with exchangeable lenses, and since I have a few lenses already, with the purchase of a lens mount, I can use those all over again.
This past week or so I have have been playing with the camera, with the lenses I bought with it. I think I have found exactly what I wanted. It’s a great little camera. Such a shame Sony replaced it with another model in my opinion worse than this.
Photos above kindly taken by Abigail.
Last week I had the pleasure of finally getting my hands on screen printing again. For the first time since I messed around with it at University.
This time this was in the presence of Liverpool based illustrator, designer and screenprinter and good friend – Mike Snowdon. Showing us the tips and tricks of the trade we spend an entire Sunday getting inky. This was a trial workshop run for Mike so a few select friends were invited to join and print something. I chose a quote from the well known film Blade Runner and hand drew it out typographically.
It was great to get back into the swing of things again and now once I have completed an induction I shall be able to use the studio space on my own for my own work. I can’t wait.
Tags: Art, ink, Photography, print, screenprinting
After the success of HERE, the talks curated by It’s Nice That, I took the opportunity to buy the limited edition annual, great wealth of creative gold found this year. Get your whilst you can. Bonus, cover designed by Parra.
Tags: 2012, annual, blog, book, its nice that
This year I had the pleasure of being a creative part of Designival – A part of Design Symposium North. The largest design festival in the North. A creative partnership between three design agencies in Liverpool, Uniform, Smiling Wolf and Black & Ginger whom I am a part of. I especially am proud of the poster I was able to design, which was screenprinted by my colleague Mike Snowdon and then signed by each of the speakers themselves.
A two day even with the first being around Liverpool city centre hosting open studios, talks at Leaf on Bold Street and tours.
The second day taking part in the fantastic Camp and Furnace in Liverpool was a great creative venue with Draw the Line taking place on all the tables – simply paper and pens out for your enjoyment. As well as Percy Gullivers, Unit Editions shop and Cow&Co. The speakers were the enigmatic Lance Wyman, known for his Olympic 1968 designs. Graphic Designers Sara De Bondt , Simon Manchipp and illustrator James Jarvis.
Tags: camp and furnace, Design, designival, Drawing, event, festival, liverpool, speakers
Comics. Comics are awesome. Little books filled with wonderful images on a variety of subjects, all drawn with flair and personality. From the likes of famous DC comics to the obscure webcomic artists you could find them at Thought Bubble. As a big fan of webcomics and comic artists this was something together with my girlfriend we attended as we both much adore these events. A gathering of comic artists, creators, geeks and fans. Taking part around Leeds at the Royal Armouries, tables full of comics is a sight to behold.
The highlight was meeting and greeting a few famous artists in the field such as Olly Moss, illustrator extraordinaire! Olly of course responsible for many film posters gone viral over the years including his ever famous Star Wars series. To top it off, he was also signing his new book “Silhouettes from popular culture”.
As well as Olly Moss, Kate Beaton was there with her love of history and related humorous historically (in)accurate comics as well as Scott C. games designer and illustrator of the Great Showdowns, a comical showdown of popular cultural characters. Scott was also part of the talks with a live drawing session producing himself a Spiderman and Hulk inspired watercolor painting.
As always with these people, they are average people, nothing special, only that people are in awe of their work. Meeting them makes you realise just how ordinary they are. Other highlights of the weekend included the mid-party, meeting the exhibitionists with pints of beer and the awkward wedding style dancing. With a Sunday of hangover browsing and last minute purchasing spree.
In all I now have empty pockets but a great haul of comics from local and ever popular comic artists.
Tags: Art, artists, comics, leeds, thought bubble
This year myself and the guys at Black & Ginger decided we would take part in Movember. We only had a slight drawback, we all were useless in growing a half-decent moustache, so in true fashion to what any designer would do. We created Designertash, a place where anyone can join, and post photographs of themself through instagram using the hashtag #designertash, which would then be in turn posted to the website.
Post your photographs on instagram and watch them appear on the website. If you like why not donate to our fund at the official Movember site — http://uk.movember.com/team/888665
Tags: Design, donate, moustache, movember, november, website
Kin to Kin is a free event for creative people based in the North West. Every month a meetup is organised at Leaf on Bold Street in Liverpool so creatives can meet and greet. Kind of a speed dating for designers. Plus there is free beer.
Have a chance to talk about your work and hand out some business cards, I hope to see you there…
Tags: event, kin, kin to kin, liverpool, meetup
For Here 2012, I travelled down to London a couple days in advance to make the most of the trip. For this blog post I have edited all the images with VSCOCAM, to see how they look, I’m quite happy with the results, especially with the black and white images, although, I think I need to play around more with the colour images.
You can see more about HERE in It’s Nice That’s blog post here.