Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.

I was just having a flick through a book called Fingerprint, which is all about 'The art of using handmade elements in graphic design'. I found a poster by Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. who is a letterpress printer, he designed the poster for an exhibition about Rosa Parks. The posters feature quotes and important text from Park's amazing story.

I love them, the words are so powerful but the design helps to amplify them and connect with the viewer. From what I've been reading online about Kennedy, he seems a fascinating man, I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a copy of the documentary about him; 'Proceed and be bold', the trailor for which can be found on youtube.

I just saw this post on Its Nice That, it's about Willi Dormer's latest performance of 'Bodies In Urban Spaces', in New York. So I thought I'd share my experience from when I was lucky enough to catch a performance in London last October.

I was on placement in London at the time, and was using a weekend as an opportunity to explore the city, whilst my boyfriend had come down to stay. We'd just got off the tube at London Bridge, and were on our way to walk down to the Design Museum. We didn't know the performance was taking place, and were more than a bit confused when we saw a man wedged behind a lamp post...

We then noticed there was a lot of press photographers and also police, and realised something interesting was happening.

We then followed the small crowd that was gathering around quite a long route around London, which took us around residential areas, public gardens and finally the steps outside the city hall. Because there are so many 'dancers' in the performance, there are several different installations happening simultaneously, so the press and public were frantically trying to view each one. It was quite an intense half an hour, and generated lots of buzz and excitement around the area. It was a great 'happening' and Dormer managed to create an experience that made those involved look at both the human body and their environment in a very different and quite surreal way.

Lunar Landscapes

I was recently in Cornwall on holiday and visited the place pictured, it's called Hartland and is just up from Bude on the North coast. The reason I found this place so visually interesting was because of the dramatic coastal landscape, formed by the slate cliffs. The slate forms in thick layers, which when eroded can form fascinating features such as the arch and lagoon above. The landscape looks almost lunar and the textures and structures are really quite inspiring.

Biba

Over the last few weeks I keep hearing about Biba, today I read on Natasha Bailie's blog that House of Fraser have bought Biba and their archives, and when I was in The Whitworth Gallery last week, I was flicking through a book called The Biba Experience in their shop. Biba grew from a boutique fashion shop to a huge department store in London in the 60's and 70's.

The book explained how Biba was the first high street brand to really market and 'brand' themselves in the sense that we know it today. They had a 'logo shop' shown above, where the customer could get a Biba branded everything. I love the Biba aesthetic, the Art Deco design of the interiors and logo contrast dramatically with the iconic 60's and 70's fashion.

I'm not sure what I think about House of Fraser buying Biba... apparently there have been several unsuccessful re-launches of Biba in the past but nothing ever of this scale; Daisy Lowe will be the new face. I can see that it is a very smart move for HofF, with vintage and 60's fashion being so popular at the moment Biba is a goldmine... but it does make me feel a little uneasy, I think maybe we should just respect Biba for what it is and leave it well alone.

Cute as a Button (Mushroom)

I just saw these painted foods by Nic Bennett on It's Nice That, they made me smile which is always nice!

My favourites are the kiwi and the red onion.

Corinne Day

I read last weekend that Corinne Day has passed away. I was aware of some of her work in the 90's with Kate Moss, and the subsequent backlash to do with the creation of the 'waif' and associations with drug use and eating disorders. I can understand why the media would like to perceive Day's work in this way, but I think she was more about portraying what women really looked like, not producing over-polished and over-edited images. I really like a lot of her photography, the images she creates are powerful and full of emotion, particularly her 'Diary' series from 2000.

Walls are Talking

One of the exhibitions we just managed to catch whilst in Manchester was 'Walls are Talking' at the Whitworth Art Gallery, it was meant to finish on the 30th August but luckily some of it was still open on the 31st when we went! It was an exhibition of wallpapers all relating to the themes of gender and sexuality, and I thought it was brilliant, particularly those that provoked thoughts about the female body and women's role within society. One of my favourites is shown above, it was designed by Peter Saville and Julie Verhoeven and from a distance first looks like an 18th century Toile de Jouy wallpaper design. On closer inspection it features scenes of bondage and women performing sexual acts, quite a contrast to some of the traditional Japanese scenes still remaining in the background.

Urbis

It was my 21st this week, hurrah! Me and my boyfriend took a couple of days out to go to Manchester, not the most exotic of locations I know, but neither of us have ever really explored the city. So that's why a few of my posts this week may relate to Manchester. While we were there we tried to get to as many of the galleries as we could, although there weren't actually that many exhibitions on and we noticed a distinct lack of photography for Ian.

Amongst our failed attempts was our trip to Urbis exhibition centre, which we'd heard a lot about as far as galleries in Manchester go. Unfortunately when we got there it was closed... and we were dismayed to see it's now becoming the National Football Museum. Gutted. However, it was a gorgeous day so we had a chill on the grass next to it, and I admired the Urbis building. None of my photographs did it any kind of justice, so the one above is pinched online from elliotmcintyre.com. In the daytime the tinted pale blue glass panels become a gorgeous pale blue colour, and because it was such a clear sunny day I think the building really looked its best.

Inception

I finally went to see Inception while I was in Manchester this week, I'd heard a lot about it so I had quite high hopes.

To be honest I wasn't bowled over, the dreams concept was amazing and it made me do a lot of thinking which I really like in a film, also some of the shots were stunning... but overall it just didn't quite do it for me. It could be that it was just a bit too much like an action film for my own taste.

It did however remind me of two of my favourite films; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and The Science of Sleep, they both have similar themes of sleep and dream intervention and I think I will have to give them both a watch again soon. I definitely enjoyed Inception, and I would recommend that everyone gives it a watch, but I don't think I will be viewing it again.

OMGposters.com

Another poster related post today, omgposter.com is a poster lovers blog, and was shown to me by a friend at work. The posters they blog about are really diverse and don't conform to a particular style, so I've found it's a really great source for inspiration and just to appreciate the awesomeness of some of the illustration and design.

The posters above were designed by Phantom City Creative for the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, they were featured on the blog a couple of weeks ago.

Mert & Marcus Vogue Shoot

I first saw this through Natasha Bailie, her website has an amazing collection of vintage clothing, many of which I am tempted to purchase! But it was when I was browsing her blog that I found a post about a vintage shoot for Vogue by Mert & Marcus, featuring Lara Stone and styled by Grace Coddington. Lara looks incredibly well turned out in the images, which have a retro all-american 50's vibe going on.