Ice Cream Man - Reprise

Hi there

Quick bit of news to inform y'all that Roxbury Industries are now featuring mine and Many Nice Things' Ice Cream Man for sale from their website. I'm still distributing them but it's nice for the little guy to get a second lease of life and to see him gloriously displayed on their website. Go check him out.

Whilst having a rummage around at home I also found the first sketch that I did for Ice Cream Man. This was when Sarah and myself sat down and 'mind-mapped' all our ideas for the print. Hopefully you'll find some interest in this, I thought it was cool to see his humble beginnings... Not much else to report really, except this week I shall be screen-printing a poster for masked brutes Kong for their one-off show with Chickenhawk this Thursday at Nation of Shopkeepers in Leeds. Here's a sneaky peak... Obviously the actual print won't be animated... that's just silly!

Have a good week y'all!

We Are Underused

Hi there

First off I've been working with a chap called Tom, who is planning on launching a new fold-out zine soon. So, as well as creating the logo (above) and helping with the layout of it, I've also been interviewed and that will appear in the first issue, which will be nice.

In other exciting news, I will be exhibiting along with the UK's finest poster folk at Camden Crawl this year as part of Poster Roast 2010. I can't wait for this, as the previously attended Roast's have been lots of fun and this year looks set to be equally as amazing.

As well as displaying our lovely posters, there will be live screen-printing to give peeps an idea as to what goes on behind the scenes. The live screen-print in question will be a collaborative effort featuring a letter of Poster Roast illustrated by all the designers exhibiting. I was given the first letter, so I thought something 'interesting' was required... For more info on Poster Roast 2010, just click on this link and you'll be whisked off to a magical land full of skulls, nipples and lots more things you probably wouldn't approve of...

Hats well and truly tipped to the lovely Chris and Alex for putting it all together, it promises to be a weekend of fun, frolics and maybe a little bit of drinking. Roll on the bank holiday weekend in May, yeah!!

Yo Yo Bye Bye

Happy St. Patricks day all.

So yesterday, the Drew Millward and myself popped over to Mirfield to print our collaborative poster for Berkeley's alternative hip-pop group, Why?

Before all that though, we had to come up with a concept and then design the thing, which proved trickier than first imagined. So I asked Drew to throw together a 'geek' face in his crazy style and then I'd see what inspired me and work from there. After toying with the idea of having quite a text based poster, I decided to go with a geek-come-superhero approach (hence the cape clad action sketch). From there we kept adding bits and eventually building up a poster that resembled the classic Marvel comic covers from days of yore.

So without further ado, here is the printing process that we completed yesterday with the aid of Mars bars and cans of Coke in worryingly heavy consumption.

The acetates lined up ready to be burned onto the screens The first screen, burned and awaiting colour Mixing the first colour, which getting it spot on to our digital file always takes a while and generally brings out the perfectionist in me Action shot of Drew printing the first colour of the poster The first colour down The second screen burned and ready for print The orange layer down, which came through quite thin due to a slight over-estimation of Acrylic medium. This ended up give the poster's a washed out / authentic faded feel, which looked really cool. The final screen Done and done Here are some detail shots of the final printed poster Look out! The poster measures at 50cm x 68cm (which means its pretty huge) and will be on sale at the Brudenell Social Club tonight at the gig. They will also be available from Drew's site and my Big Cartel store as of tomorrow, so if you haven't got a ticket for tonight's sold out show then tomorrow all your dreams will come true.

Thanks as ever for reading and looking at the pretty pictures, hopefully that'll give an insight into all the time and effort that goes into the screen-printing process. As you can see it's a cool but long and tiring process and not one print comes out the same, making each and every poster totally original and individual.

I think after all that a well-deserved Guiness or 4 are in order for tonight. Believe.

The Wave Ballet

Hello there

For the last few months I've been doing some work for Leeds based label Leaf. They're really cool dudes and have put out records by bands who I love including Efterklang, Caribou, A Hawk and A Hacksaw to name but a few.

This year they've turned 15 years old and to celebrate their progression through adolescence they will be staging events across the year featuring bands from their roster. Here is the identity I've created to mark the occasion. Its even up on the Camden Crawl website and everything.

More things will emerge around this project across the course of the year, so stay tuned for those. I've also just acquired an album called Eggs by Oh No Ono released by Leaf and its truly amazing. Like if Emerson, Lake and Palmer got high with The Beatles and Animal Collective. Yep.

Also, I recently completed a poster for 'folktronica' legends Tunng for their show in Brighton as part of their mini UK tour before they head out for Europe. And just before I sign out I thought I'd drop a little reminder for this Sunday's No Culture Icons exhibition at Nation of Shopkeepers in Leeds. My little 'something new and exciting' thing is coming together slowly but will involve this record. Plenty of more things to come in the next week or so. Crazy busy times are good times.

Hips Don't Lie

Good day.

You may recall that a couple of months ago I posted the artwork of Sam Airey's debut EP 'Season's Change'. Well, Sam was kind enough to give me some copies of the CD and the packaging looks amazing, if I do say so myself. Sam decided to get the wallets printed with an uncoated soft matte finish, which nicely accentuates the folky qualities of his music. Plus it looks [and feels] awesome!

I also recently completed a new flyer design for the Leeds club night Silver Hips. Like Sam, these dudes are interested in pushing the diversity of print finishes and these flyers are printed on 280 micron uncoated pulp-board.

It really pleases me to see different and innovative ways of promotion and packaging and definitely makes a difference when you see the finished article in the public sector.

I also popped into Hyde Park Records earlier and can highly recommend it if like me, you enjoy flicking through stacks of records trying to find that hidden gem.

Plus the walls are lovingly decorated with Brendan [shop owner] Docherty's magnificent photography amongst other vinyl memorabilia. Brendan has a great eye for photography, so I'd recommend going to check out his Flickr page, especially the Monotonix set [pictured above] as its pretty wild!

Arrivederci

Put the Needle on the Record

Hi there.

If you haven't heard, there is a record shop that is now officially open in Hyde Park (Leeds). This is obviously exciting news. Its on Hyde Park corner and looks lovely and cozy and stocked to the rafters.

I was lucky enough to be asked to do some promotional items for the shop, including this flyer. I have yet to make it along to the shop yet but intend on doing so this weekend and taking all my hard earned pennies for a bit of a spree!

In other news the fabulous No Culture Icons collective have asked me to exhibit at Nation of Shopkeepers in Leeds city centre. I will showing off my posters / wears / something new and exciting on Sunday 14th March alongside awesome dudes such as Liam Henry, Sarah Abbott, Callum Harris, Jon Stanley Austin, Clare Owen and many more. You should come, it'll be right good. This poster was done by Sarah Abbott. I told you she was an awesome dude...

So much more work to come soon...

Ta ta for now