Blog
Bestwood Wilderness Series – Binding
It is always interesting and a privilege to see other creative spaces. Design Bind perfect bound the Bestwood Wilderness Series booklets and upon picking up the 300 completed booklets we were fortunate enough to have a quick tour of Design Bind . Thank you Nadene for showing us around and allowing us to take a few photos! The team at Design Bind are talented craftspeople both in their extensive book binding knowledge and practical hands on skills. The creative workspace of Design Bind is as a true reflection of their use of traditional and modern techniques! Thank you Design Bind.
Light Bright & On Time
Having fun in the studio today creating these staged studio shots for our latest creative project.
In creating this clean environment we have succeeded in accentuating the crispness of the colours of the clocks, adding interest and depth with multiple props whilst maintaining the point of focus within the image. Right on trend and taking a leaf out of the latest Frankie and Uppercase magazines for styling inspiration.
Be sure to check out our beautiful clocks on Felt
Keeping Up – Daily Design Inspiration
Everyday in the studio we try to start off by checking our favorite blogs and hope to kick start the day with some awesome design inspiration. Today was one of those such days as we stumbled across this amazing blog: Daily Dishonesty by Lauren Hom
Beautiful typography, bright vibrant colours, vintage themes and everyday fibs whats not to love!
Modernity & Tradition
Paul McGillick editor of Habitus magazine’s irresistible editorial in issue #16. It is a beautiful piece which summaries our romance and why we identify with craft and the anomalies of the hand made.
"But cyberspace, like the Expanding Universe, seems to be ever expanding, threatening us all with permanent anomie - a feeling of not belonging anywhere. This is an aspect of the clash of modernity and tradition. Currently, Asia is the arena where the clash is most obvious - although elsewhere the Slow movement and the lo-fi revival of individual craftsmanship for contemporary use are examples of organised resistance to the loss of identity through cyber-colonialism."
McGillick goes on to say we question modernity and its place and also tradition, why recondition a historic building without making it functional for contemporary use? I love this reasoning of embracing the benefits of handcrafted and modern living, and such is the reasoning behind so many beautiful product, spacial and graphic designs today!
"Here modernist formalism has been complemented by the resurgent interest in materiality, ensuring that contemporary Asian design continues to be rooted in the reality of everyday life."
Thank you Habitus for the lovely mixed stock pages showing a multitude of examples of these principles and the coverage of Asia Pacific makes for a good read!
Crafty Lights
If you get a chance to head out to Riverhead and have a pint at Hallertau its well worth it. The beer is as crafty as the interior design, I enjoyed these classic hanging light shades with a twist; wrapped in twine. The spacial design and decor is fun, relaxed with a twist and classy and whats more you feel comfortable in jeans and your favourite shoes whilst the menu is paired down, it is 100% fresh an full of practical goodness.
Graphic Design of Cook Books
You may have read last Saturdays canvas magazines feature story “Good Enough To Eat” about our fascination with food books and our apparently addictive for food in wine books. I particularly liked this reference to the visual styling of cook books:
“Much time was spent crafting the book; finding a design to match the personality of the writer and their food, photographing the dishes and then packaging it all in a cohesive and inviting manner. Photography and design has become increasingly important, say publishers and booksellers, because we’re a more visual culture, and we eat with our eyes, we cook with them too, especially given many of us dont know from experience what the finished dish is meant to look like. The photographs are a visual map.”
Visual styling is so persuasive it can present, depict and represent another sense, and who can resist beautiful cook books, after all, I for one have little intent of making the recipes!
Treehouse Illustration
I couldn’t resist this drawing from Rickitinic, I like the expressive inky marks which are rickety and romantic. The treehouse is sweet, imaginative and playful, and then i was sold with the dog looking mournfully with puppy dog eyes to play in the tree too! I can’t wait for the illustration to arrive, thank you Rickitinic!
Tribes – A Play at Maidment Theatre
This time last week I was feeling rather excited about seeing Tribes, a local play performed at Maidment Theatre. I do believe this week its coming to its three week end and the actors must be exhausted. The two hour sessions are dialogue intense and I have no idea how the remember all their lines, its fast paced, hilarious, gripping and each of five cast family members all deliver amazing performances. The family depict a modern family and in all the noisy antics their is little room for listening and the through a deaf son they explore communication within a modern family. I really enjoyed the demonstrations of what it may be like to not hear, the discovery and excitement of to learning sign language and what it may be like to loose your hearing and what its like to be part of deaf society. The use of sign language and translated words projected on the wall (and a beautiful use of Helvetica font) were truly engaging, some literal and other cheeky examples of reading between the lines were eloquently used as alternative ways to communicate within the play!
