Design Musings

One of our clients, Absolute Joinery, recently exhibited at The Cornwall Home Show held at Kingsley Village. They approached us asking for some promotional material to give out to prospective clients. They had previously remarked on our own badges , which we had produced to work alongside our 2009 calendar, and were looking for something just as fun and quirky. So we set about working on two designs around the theme of wood and bespoke design. On one badge was simply written in a cartoon-like font "I Love Wood" in brown tones, and the other featured a collection of furniture in white on a background of wood grain. The limited size is always a challenge but there is something irresistible about designing badges, they have an indie-cool and are very collectable - everyone likes something they can pick up and take away for free. The company's web address was included so people would remember where the badges came from. Absolute pride themselves in producing work that s...

These last two weeks we have been enjoying the company of Jess who is with on a work experience placement. Emma set her a project that took advantage of her creative skills and new techniques she has been learning in the studio. Here is what Jess has to say about the project. “My brief was to take photographs around the garden and then add some appropriate quotes on to them. I also decided to add a few illustrations on to some of the images. I added filters using Photoshop to make parts of the images stand out such as the red chair. Red Chair (Top) “I took this image from a low angle to make the small chair look large and powerful. I then dulled down the background to make the redness of the chair stand out more. For the illustration, I decided to draw a very small man sat on top of the chair, with a crown, as if he had conquered it. I thought the quote “nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’” fitted with image as with the size of the person, it would seem tha...

Part of Khaled Hafez's Tomb Sonata in Three Military Movements (and Overture). Photograph: Khaled Hafez Source: The Guardian The Guardian's piece on the art of the recent revolution in Egypt caught our attention this morning, especially as we were all concerned during those fraught weeks for the artist John O'Carroll who was in the country. The Guardian is running a very interesting piece on an exhibition being held from the 6th July at the Mica Gallery, Shubbak: A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture , presented by the mayor of London and encompassing all the arts, until 24th July. During this time, John was unreachable by any means, so we were very happy to finally hear from him when the dust settled. His work in Egypt takes him deep into the desert where he catalogues finds on archaeological digs. Two of his drawings are below. This work translates into his art in many ways. One of his new pieces is below. John had plenty of tales to recount when he visited ...