Aloha

I am off to the land of the luau, grass skirts, flower garlands and the hard-to-miss Hawaiian shirt for six weeks. My flight leaves at 11.15 am tomorrow. I am probably going to be in a bit of a two & eight after the parties tonight... Eeeeek. A holiday it is though and hopefully there will be a few moments here and there to relax and catch a bit of sun. I shall update the blog with tales of my adventures and perhaps a photo or two if I can steel a few minutes here and there on someone's laptop xx

Better late than never...

For those of you who aren't on our mailing list, this is what you would have received in your inbox if you were. Let us know if you would like us to add you to the list and we will send you lots of colourful junk in the future. Hope you're all had a festive one xx



Photographs (kindly and patiently) taken by Jess Bonham

(Please click on the image to enlarge. The quality of the enlarged image isn't great but i'm sure you'll catch my drift.. (haha) The full quality images will be up the website soon)

XMASSSSSSS!

Yep loving the christmas cheer. We've been having events left right and center, parties by the bucket load and everyday santa comes in the form of the postie at my door! The best pressie being Volume mag!!! Thanks Ruby for the hand delivery. We have a fashion shoot in the issue shot by Jess Bonham, show-casing recent RCA graduates of women's and men's wear. It's a special Birthday issue and looks great.

After the joy of our fruit machine down at the V&A Metal Rocks Late that we did a couple of weekends ago, we decided to embark on another live event called Design Grotto. It takes place at Somerset House on The Strand this weekend. It starts on Friday at 6pm and goes on until 10pm and runs Sat and Sun 10 am till 6pm. We are making a big ol' 'Goducken Dip' so come and win a prize while stuffing your hand up our oversized turkey!! Hence all the postman action, we have searched far and wide for some cracking prizes. It's also my birthday so Saturday will be a day of celebration and champers sipping over there!

I brought my self a little birthday treat off ebay, soon to make it's debut in a shoot for Neo2 magazine. Well I say debut but if you count all the travelling it did in the front of the van today then maybe not...
We are working with a great photographer called Rafael Perez Evans and have spent the evening making an exciting set. Keep your eyes peeled....

Willy's Stocking Filler. Ho Ho Ho

You can and SHOULD buy this HERE!!!

It has been a long time coming due to the somewhat elusive nature of Grime MCs but trust me all ye online gift buyers, this is not one to be missed. Will Robson-Scott's powerful portraits of some of London's most notorious Grimesters are like gold dust. A snip at £9.99, my Grandma will be ignoring her champers, turkey and brussels when she reveals this exclusive feast for the eyes on Christmas day... Not to mention the jealousy of her friends as she flips to reveal a new man each month. Another lovely project tucked under that Muksy little belt of his. You can also check his website here and his daily-life shenanigans here.

The Deptford Project

In between pound shop visits in Deptford and Dalston for a fun little project we are working on with YCN for the forthcoming edition of 'Ideas Illustrated', Anna and I grabbed a jacket sweet potato and a cuppa aboard The Deptford Project Train... Phew that was a long sentence. Designed by Studio Myerscough, the colourful edition to Deptford High Street, certainly brightened up my day. Check out the site for the proper blurb. Deptford - It's coming up, it's coming up.

Verner Panton

I was lucky enough to experience one of Panton's environments when I was in Vienna a couple of years ago with James. We went over to Austria because the Summer of Love exhibition was on at the Kunsthalle and I had missed it at the Tate Liverpool. It completely blew my mind... Particularly Panton's stuff. Check out this sight dedicated to his stuff (although some of it isn't uploaded yet and the frustratingly small 'coming soon' thumbnails are too much of a tease for me): www.vernerpanton.com

I first became aware of Panton's massive mark on the design world after reading an article about Lenny Kravitz' house about 12 years ago. His Miami ranch house, designed by Michael Czysz, is a hybrid of psychedelic influences which include an environment very similar to 'Visiona 2', the exhibit that I was fortunate enough to immerse myself in during my trip to Vienna. I kept the article and probably have it tucked away in an old sketchbook somewhere but can't for the life of me find it now I want to read it again! Just like me, Michael Czysz was clearly a big fan of Verner Panton's super-sexual, psychedelic-styles too.

Me in Vienna:



Hippies back in the day:



I was blown away by the quote on Verner Panton's site too:

"Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” (Wassily Kandinsky)

Although doing a bit more research it seems that 'harmonies' is replaced with 'hammers' in different versions of the quote. The first person to set me straight on this wins a psychedelic kiss from me, inspired by this: