orangegodd http://www.craftyfish.com/blog Design in the real world Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:21:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 en hourly 1 End of an era http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2012/02/05/end-of-an-era/ http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2012/02/05/end-of-an-era/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:40:36 +0000 admin http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/?p=1220 See the full 17,000px wide panoramic on Flickr (5Mb)

Well, I have been honoured and privileged to have had the opportunity to feast on this wall of creativity pretty much every day for the last year. Ever changing and morphing into different forms, Rue des Pyrenées has been a vast canvas for urban essays issuing from the cans of some of the finest street artists in Paris. It’s been mentioned here before on these pages, but this time it’s real. The ephemeral nature of the artform has finely caught up with this particular incarnation. The demolition crew have been brought in and the Marie of paris has authorised the razing of the former bus station-one wall of which you see here. I can’t help but wonder what is going to replace this little coloured corner of South East Paris. Je vie dans l’espoir that it will 1 tenth of a percent as interesting as what it is replacing!pyrenees_lrg

]]> http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2012/02/05/end-of-an-era/feed/ You’re my heat… http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/12/19/youre-my-heat/ http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/12/19/youre-my-heat/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:44:17 +0000 admin http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/?p=1167 youremyheat_lrg1A random project experiment found skulking on my Mac’s hard drive in a dusty folder of unfinished work. A colour halftone based on a sonogram from DJ Gunshot’s Wheel ‘N’ Deal sample of Mary J. Blige’s Sweet Thing -an old Jungle favourite which stirs up memories of AWOL at The Paradise Club in Islington circa 1994. Most definately ‘back in the day’!  Whilst researching this sample online I stumbled across this site www.whosampled.com which lists pretty much any sampler/samplee in existance. Highly addictive and lots of fun.

]]> http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/12/19/youre-my-heat/feed/ Street Knowledge http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/12/10/street-knowledge/ http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/12/10/street-knowledge/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:31:02 +0000 admin http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/?p=1146 streetknow_lrgIn between designing a wicked London-based iOS/Android app for a not so mysterious Russian Billionaire (details to follow soon) and knocking out some designs for France 3 via my studio mates Motion Boutique I have been immersed in this book by King Adz published by those wonderful lot at Thames & Hudson.

It’s a fantastic trawl through the world of urban art, street culture and it documents the it’s ever evolving influence on daily life. The author put’s it quite succintly-
“Writer and fimmmaker King Adz has spent 25 years getting to know old-school graffiti legends, avant-garde street artists, DJs, writers, poets, designers and musicians to produce this groundbreaking insider’s guide to street culture.” and also goes on to say “This book is going to be fucking amazing and beautiful to read”

Quite!
Maybe worth a letter to Santa…

]]> http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/12/10/street-knowledge/feed/ Karamell Kungen http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/09/30/karamell-kungen/ http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/09/30/karamell-kungen/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:06:14 +0000 admin http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/?p=1141 Bloody lovely Swedish liquorice from a shop in Stockholm called Karamell Kungen… probably. sweets_lrg

]]> http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/09/30/karamell-kungen/feed/ Libuše Niklová http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/09/18/libuse-niklova/ http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/09/18/libuse-niklova/#comments Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:08:44 +0000 admin http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/?p=1118 plastique_lrg

A fascinating retrospective of  the Czech toy Designer Libuše Niklová who designed ground breaking flexible toys from the 50’s to the 1980’s. Check out her Accordian dogs n cats- they will seem eerily familiar to you and you won’t quite know why. Ingenious use of the then relatively new material called plastic. Squeezy, Inflatable plastic Czechoslovakian toys that will put a smile on your face, and lovingly curated to boot.

]]> http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/09/18/libuse-niklova/feed/ Centre Quatre http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/08/31/centre-quatre/ http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/08/31/centre-quatre/#comments Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:12:21 +0000 admin http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/?p=1130 This is so lovely it makes me want to shout from the rooftops about it!
CentQuatre on rue d’abervilliers in the 18eme arr continually puts out stunningly designed advertising. This is no exception. Inspired by the Swiss and Bahaus movements, it features great use of colour and typography. It’s for their 2011-2012 season of events. Apart from being a fantastic piece of architecture -with a quite morbid past- Centre quatre is also a social experiment in bringing the creative arts together in a part of Paris that is decidedly shabby and far off the well trodden tourist trail. It will host many musical and art events over the next 6 months not least the Telerama Dub festival, The Gotan Project and many more.
The multiple page A2 printed broadsheet  reproduced here (Just a 1/4 shown) is a refreshing piece of publicity in a sea of mediocrity. Makes you wanna visit the place doesn’t it?
c04_lr

]]> http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/08/31/centre-quatre/feed/ Curves http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/08/19/curves/ http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/08/19/curves/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:11:48 +0000 admin http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/?p=1123 alfa_lrgJust check out those curves-that’s no Ford Mondeo!
Visited Les Arts Décoratifs last night to see the exhibition L’art de l’auto mobile. -masterpieces from the Ralph Lauren Collection. Rare classics including  Bugatti, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo and a swathe of Ferraris all from the halcyon days of sports car design 1930-1965 are all on show. The 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 is shown here. It finishes on Aug 28th so if you are in Paris get down there pronto- it’s amazing,  not least for the walk past the Louvre and the Jardin de Tuileries with all the fine architecture that comes with hanging out in the 1st arrondisement.

Sometimes Paris is amazing.

]]> http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/08/19/curves/feed/ Bien http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/08/16/bien/ http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/08/16/bien/#comments Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:04:18 +0000 admin http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/?p=1112 bien_lrgWell, it has been a while. When I  started this blog it was my intention to write at least a blog a week. The driving force behind this was an article about how regularly posting is meant to improve one’s all round day-to-day efficiency. I think the thinking behind that is that if you can commit to short sharp bursts of creative writing it develops your ability to summarise situations concisely and succinctly in the small windows of opportunities available during a working day and that this skill will carry over to your day job.

Well, my day job involves pushing, nudging, ordering and thinking about pixels. So, it was a breath of fresh air when I had to resort to a scalpel and some coloured paper to make a title for our recent wedding soiree. Hand cutting out a nice slab serif font is theraputic in the extreme and the process almost made me want to ditch the ‘puter entirely and become a primary school art teacher. It also reminded me of the art of craft which is so often absent in our technology driven lifestyles. Unfortunately websites cannot be designed with scissors, rubber glue and textured paper.

That’s a shame

]]> http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/08/16/bien/feed/ Norwegian loveliness http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/07/12/norwegian-loveliness/ http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/07/12/norwegian-loveliness/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:17:07 +0000 admin http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/?p=986 It’s a bit of a mouthful- the name of the airport 45 minutes outside of Oslo. ‘Moss Airport Rygge’. Thankfully those in charge of the airport branding didn’t try and cram it all into the logo.
So, Rygge the town becomes the name of the airport and quite a lovely job they have made of it too. With the use of some swirly text reminiscent of airplane vapour trails this perfectly sums up the ‘go anywhere’ feeling in a fun yet restrained way. Just wondering though….what exactly is it about Orange and airlines?rygge_lrg

]]> http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/07/12/norwegian-loveliness/feed/ Flåm http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/07/01/flam/ http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/2011/07/01/flam/#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:07:53 +0000 admin http://www.craftyfish.com/blog/?p=981 Beautiful type, harmonised colours and some pleasing symmetry announcing the fact that one is about to embark on a wonderous train journey up a mountain from Flåm to Myrdal in the heart of Fjord country. Gotta love the simplicity!flam_lrg1

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