Tag: inspiration

Categories
events

Guerilla City As Material

Tomorrow, myself and some of my fellow Probsocis team, Mandy and Radhika, will be venturing on a mini City As Material expedition, hopefully the first of many. We’re aiming to draw sketches and write observations of people and interactions in a variety of public places – places that shape, and are in turn shaped, by the people in them – almost People As Material, if you will. Rather than having a theme or any set ambitions, we’re just going to try and capture the essence of random people and actions, perhaps inventing some fictional narratives and backstories along the way, and see how this format might inspire future City As Material events. Tomorrow we’ll be scouting out a few busy rail stations – places that reveal an interesting insight of the human character when bored or stressed, which should be prime fodder for some amusing drawings and writing. We’ll probably create some eBooks with the results, once we’ve done a few of these, so keep posted.

Categories
inspiration

“Look after your spines, book designers”

Courtesy of the Creative Review blog, I’ve just been reading about how book spines are often neglected when designing covers, and the importance of their appearance when on bookshelves (after all, that’s the portion potential buyers or aesthetically conscious owners often see first). We’re currently in the process of designing a slipcase template for series of eBooks, which will lend a much needed physicality – transforming them int0 stable, store-able artifacts, rather than handfuls of booklets. The studio is overrun with vast quantities of eBooks produced over the years, and these will provide a handy organisation system, as well as looking swish. As for the spines, we’re bound by certain template constraints, but they’ll surely surpass some of the clangers featured here.

Categories
inspiration

Diffusion Archive Highlight: Graffito Scrapbook

In August last year, I lent a hand to the Graffito crew whilst they were running an installation at the Vintage at Goodwood festival. Whilst festival-goers doodled on the iPhone app, their drawings were displayed on a huge L.E.D screen, along with everyone else using it. Giles prepared a blank eBook with the Graffito emblem, and lent us a portable pogo printer, so that we could instantly print screenshots onto stickers and place them in the scrapbook. It was later scanned and published on Diffusion, so anyone who played with Graffito at Vintage can therefore own a tangible souvenir of the event. Something so digital and temporary is saved from dissipating, and recorded somewhere other than the imagination.

Download and make it here.

Categories
inspiration

Pop-up Book Film Projection?

Rather than a Zine Highlight, I thought I’d share with you an astounding book/film/theatre piece that I’ve just spied (courtesy of www.fastcodesign.com – which features some brilliant stuff), which Karen Martin will surely love, after her exploration of Pop – up books and book / technology hybrids. “The Ice Book” , by Davy and Kristin McGuire, is a book of miniature stages made from pop-up cut outs. It seems innocuous enough, until combined with interactive light projection, and it transforms into a magical, ghostly tale that plays with shadows and optical illusions. I was performing a constant double-take whilst watching the video – its amazing to think such a vivid and cinematic effect can be produced with the materials used. The Ice Book website is currently down, due to massive interest it seems, but you can watch the video and read more about it here.

Categories
inspiration

Diffusion Archive Highlight – Dominion Dundas: Add Your Own Story

This was created alongside cartoonist Seth‘s model city installation, “Dominion”,  shown at the Dundas Museum & Archives in Ontario, Canada. Seth constructed a scale cardboard city, inspired by the aesthetic of Canadian cities and towns like Hamilton and Dundas, infused with a detailed fictional narrative and history. The eBook showcases a selection of  buildings from Dominion, alongside exhibition notes and a biography of the artist. It’s main purpose however, was to encourage visitors to recount their own tales and memories of Dundas, record them in the book, and leave it with the Museum to be read and shared. Sparking the imagination of readers, by relating the fictional Dominion to their experiences, this eBook allows the Museum to enrich it’s knowledge of Dundas and it’s inhabitants.

View it here.

Categories
inspiration

Diffusion Archive Highlight: Sea Shanties

Next in the Songs trend is “Sea Shanties” – two volumes of songs sung at sea, selected and introduced by Francis McKee. He states “Beyond society’s canons of literature there are the outlaws – songs and stories that survive in the wild.” It seems these songs are memorised and passed on through their performance alone, rarely being recorded on paper, so it’s unlikely they would be heard outside of sailing circles. Shanties are work songs, the rhythms in time with sailors hauling, and barely sung today due to modern rigging changes. This compilation ensures these tales are not lost to time; these eBooks can be downloaded and reproduced anywhere – perhaps even on deck!

Read more at Andrew Draskóy’s website, Shanties and Sea Songs.

Categories
inspiration

Zine Highlight: The Gentleman Caller

I’ve just ordered “The Gentleman Caller” by Andrea Kearney, but can’t wait for it to arrive, so I’ll highlight it instead. This caught my eye whilst browsing the Zines page on Facebook and seems to be a piece you need to appreciate in physical form, so I might post a few more photos of it when it’s in my mitts.

Its a beautifully surreal and cinematic illustrative zine, making use of double spreads to convey an amazing and disorientating sense of perspective. I love the bizarre imagery and the shading – it’s like a dream (or nightmare) rendered in a book.

It’s available to order here.

Categories
inspiration

Zine Highlight: Who ate all the pies?

“Who ate all the pies?” is an A5 illustrated zine by Mark Long, detailing some of the more amusing chants sang by football supporters in the UK. Though composed entirely with a red and blue palette, hes still managed to create depth with shading and contrast, and I love the multitude of faces – the seemingly simplistic lines belie some great characters. The chants themselves are hilarious, I wonder how many of the crowd are Sun headline pundits. It’s available here.

Categories
inspiration

SNAP Zine

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know I was a tad disappointed by the apparent shortage of literature and poetry zines. Thanks to the Zines page on Facebook, I’ve just found SNAP zine, an international short story and literature zine, complete with illustrations and photographs to accompany the text (and a free badge or two). Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find any photos of the inside, but from the cover it looks like a joyous marriage of aesthetics and intelligent text. Might have to buy this to see for myself. It’s available here.

Categories
inspiration

Zine Highlight: All My Bikes

I’ve just stumbled across “All My Bikes” by Chris Piascik, an illustrated zine showcasing every bike he’s ever owned. It’s a full colour, 28-page zine, and the quality of printing looks fantastic. The bikes are surrounded, and entwined with, associated words in varying fonts and colours; its not hard to see the effort and affection that has gone into creating this. There’s even several pages at the back detailing the story behind every bike.

It’s available here.