Neither here nor there

Gestalten TV interviews Oliver Jeffers, artist and award winning author of picture books for children (Lost and Found, Harper Collins 2005) on the launch of his first monograph. Neither Here nor There compiles some of Jeffers' painting, collage and installation work. It includes some of his best know pieces as well as new works not published before.

*video and images from Gestalten's website and Oliver Jeffer's website.

Toast

By chance, looking for some illustration work, I found this... and it made me smile. According to their website 2,430 pieces of toast were laser burnt to make this video... that's a lot of toast! Beautiful.

*By Geoff McFetridge and Champion Graphics with Moving Colour

So much to catch up with

That I hardly know where to start. Let's consider this post something of a three course meal:

Our starter, I think, should be enticing enough to open our appetite without spoiling it completely. So, how about a piece of delicious and dreamy work by Maria Fischer, in particular her book project Traumgedanken ("Thoughts on dreams"), a collection of literary and scientific texts on the subject of dreams. Connected networks of threads and words form vague and fragile patterns representing the elusive nature of dreams.

Then, for our main course the amazing 10 minute animation The Thomas Beale Cipher by Andrew Allen, an intriguing story as beautifully detailed as stylish. A feast of textures and vintage patterns that will delight the senses and while engaging the brain since it includes 16 hidden messages to help you solve the riddle, a challenge that cannot be refused!

And finally for dessert, some letterpress eye-candy from the expert hands of Studio on Fire designed by canadian collective Point Form. Printed to perfection on duplexed French Poptone Sweet tooth and Lemon Drop card, as tasty as it sounds. Yumm!

*image credits in order: Maria Fischer from her website, Andrew Allen via Vimeo and finally Studio on Fire from their blog.

Doing it for the kids

Some lovely nursery rhymes posters by Sub-studio I specially like the retro look of the illustrations and the simplicity of the two colour approach, moving away from the habitual over-use of saturated colours in materials for children. I would very happily own one of these.

And, even though the style is completely different, these prints got me thinking of illustrators from when I was a child and I recalled the work of Pablo Ramirez (Linares, 1926 - Jaén, 1966). At the time I didn't know his name only that I quite enjoyed the books and illustrations. It is quite hard to find images of his work on the internet but he pretty much illustrated every single book I read as I was growing up. He was extremely prolific in his short life and I'm sure his work influenced the aesthetic values of various generations of children in Spain.

*top images by Sub-studio from their shop website

All things Victorian

Doing research for a project I found some images of work by Dan Hillier, I remember having seen them before but this time I checked his website and blog. I most definitely prefer his altered engravings (images above) where he combines original Victorian engravings to achieve an unexpected and quite eerie effect, which -as I'm finding out- is something that the Victorians themselves would have approved of.

*all images from Dan Hillier's website

De Plastilina

I have just found out (checking old posts by Drawn) about the work of Irma Gruenholz. She creates these remarkably unaffected yet detailed illustrations with soft clay. I think it is the sculpted element that really makes it special for me and the way she uses other materials to add texture and depth. Don't you wish you had sticked with play-doh when you were a kid... sadly I never passed beyond the 'everything will eventually become dodgy brown' stage.

*all photos by Irma Gruenholz taken from her website

...on the twelve day of Christmas

Just a short note to wish you all a very happy holiday and of course an excellent New Year 2009. Inkthread has lots of new plans and good resolutions for the next year, some are old ideas that never took shape during 2008 and with a bit of luck and lots of hard work we are sure will come to live in 2009. As always we will keep you informed... thanks for reading.

And now a few things that I hope to find under the Inkthread tree, I have been very very good indeed!

No 1. The beautifully designed and bound selection of classics by Penguin. So you may have read them all by now but did they look this good on the outside? Well, now the cover matches the quality of the content, form follows content, ahem.



No 2. ABC 3D a pop-up book where each letter of the alphabet magically transforms with every page you open. Using a restricted palette of black, white and red. You can find it via Present & Correct.


No 3. Rainbow In Your Hand, flip book by Masashi Kawamura. Flip the pages and the rainbow appears...very sweet. Find it at Analogue Books.

No 4. The Applause Machine, designed by Martin Smith for Laikingland. Just press the button and the Applause Machine claps its hands for you in case you need cheering up, silly but funny.

*all images from the websites mentioned as links, (except top image by Inkthread).

Out of Print

This month I have been briefly tutoring at Glasgow School of Art and wasn't it a nice coincidence that the exhibiton that was on (just by the Computer Studio where I was) was entitled Out of Print.

Unfortunately it's over now, sorry about the late post -and my photographs taken on my mobile phone don't do it any justice- but it was worth visiting, though I wished there had been more samples of work. Featured aboved are Edwin Pickstone's works in letterpress. I find them extremely beatiful; simple in appearance, black ink on small pieces of crisp white paper, and an accurate balanced use of space and printed type. On a completely different style was the work of Marc Baines (photos below) screenprinted poster size pieces vibrant with colour. The strength of the exhibition was probably the fact that each one of the exhibitors work in a completely different media and have very different styles, however I still felt I would have liked to see more from each one, but maybe that's just me being greedy!

All I want for Christmas is...

It's only mid-november, I know, but the Christmas shopping madness seems to have started a while ago and I thought it would it be a good idea to join in... from the safe distance of my screen! So, this is my wish list, for the time being...

No1. Gateshead Get Carter Car Park print by We Live Here , litho printed.

No2. 3D letters in recycled card by REfound Objects, one letter would do, really.

No3. This colouring book from People will always need plates, and maybe one of their mugs too...is that too greedy?
No4. Anything from Blanka... no need to explain, I think.No5. These plates by Le Petit Atelier de Paris

No6. This poster by Transfer Studio, it can be bought via Beyond the Valley

This list seems to be getting longer and longer, and I'm sure I can think of a lot more to add! I may publish a second part, it may give some people ideas, you never know!

*all images by their correspondent authors as they appear on the linked websites.

Alex Noriega

I haven't posted about illustrators for a while and I've been meaning to mention Alex Noriega for a long time now. His work is always colourful but subtle and rich in detail, with a child-like quality that reminds me of fairytales. He ran a contest via his blog where you could win one of his prints, if you (like me) missed it do not despair! some of his work is for sale through his website.

*all images by Alex Noriega

On a different note: I have added a flickr account to the blog where I'll be uploading bits and pieces that are not really worth mentioning but that maybe nice to look at... unfinished printouts, letterpress tests, rejected proposals...

For rainy days

Illustrator and artist Keri Smith has published through her website an "Artist's Survival Kit" that can be downloaded for free. As she says it's "for the really bad days (...) when you want to lie in bed for a month and eat chips." She intended it for artists but I think it works absolutely fine with more practical creative professions: designers, printers (he,he)... or for anyone who's decided to work in a non conventional way! We all have bad days and a bit of humour goes a long way.

*all images by Keri Smith

I thought they looked familiar

Now, unless I'm very much mistaken this -the latest Robinson's campaign- looks like the work of Adrian Johnson (the image at the bottom is from his website). I don't know if it succeeds in making parents buy more of the product, or indeed in making kids ask for it, but they surely are cute!

A book by its cover

Ever judged a book by its cover? "Everytime" would be my answer. I admit it, I'm a sucker for a nice cover, beautiful packaging and other shiny and colourful things. And in this case I recognised the illustrator Rob Ryan and couldn't resist. If you've never seen his work it's worth having a look at his website & blog. In my defense I'm sure the book is really good too, and with a different cover I probably would have bought it all the same... mmm.