Wednesday 31 March 2010

Web Play!

One more sleep till i'm home for the Easter break! As of 10:54 tomorrow i'll be sat on the train waving bye bye to the 'Garden of England' - (HA!).
Although, i have been doing some rooting around and i think i might be getting up super early and rushing up to London to grab myself a super bargain... i'm keeping schtum for the time being but i will spill all tomorrow!

Anyway, i've stupidly lazy this week and done sweet F.A. Feeling very guilty about it now however because ive just realised my final magazine goes to print in less than 4 weeks! God help me! Seriously need to work my butt off from now until the 8th, which is when i'm jetting off to the villa in Florida! Don't get me wrong, i know i cant afford a week of bliss, so i'll be taking the mac with me, but if i can get as much done as possible beforehand, i can enjoy the sun, the pool and relax without the stress!

Although, i say i've done nothing all week, i spent most of yesterday researching for the website im creating for Book 77 Magazine. Was looking into flash sites (i really want to incorporate flash into my site, even if its a tiny tiny part of it, but it looks so complicated!) and there are some pretty epic ones out there!
Here are some of my favourites i came across that i think are seriously worth having a look at:

1.http://prismgirl.org/ - Really beautiful site. As a project from Azusa Mano's graphics portfolio, its simply there as a means of showing off design skills, but its such a great piece. The interactive element with the firefly, leaves falling, flowers bursting into bloom is so relaxing against the background soundtrack.

2. http://www.mono-1.com/monoface/main.html - I picked out this site purely on its entertainment factor! It's completely pointless, but really funny if you have couple of spare miutes. It basically features a face, made up of different parts from different peoples faces, and you simply click the facial feature to change it to the next person. You can make up a correct set of features or have fun and mess it up. It's been designed so that no matter what feature you pick from whichever person, they all blend together to appear as if it were completely normal.

3. http://soytuaire.labuat.com/ - This is a page for Spanish musician Labuat, for the song Soy Tu Aire. The page loads and you press play. The song begins, and your mouse becomes a watercolour painting tool. As the song plays, the page is moving from right to left as you paint along to the music. At various intervals, little features pop out of your drawing, like butterflies, fish, and phtoographs. Another beautiful little touch is the way the weight of your brush becomes thinner as the music is quieter, and it becomes heavier and faster moving as the tempo increases. This is one of my favourite things ive found in a while, and i love the song too!

4. http://www.hypr.com/ - A cool little site for a creative design studio. As you click through the adjectives for HYPE at the top of the page, just move your mouse back to their logo in the middle of the page and see what happens! Its all very clever!

5. http://mnatwork.com/#/?state=0 - Magnetic North, another interactive design company. It lets you make the site your own. You draw shapes to see projects, draw a diagonal line through the shape to delete it, draw a horizontal line to see news pieces and draw a vertical line to open the search bar. Try it and see for yourself!


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Chanel To Go

Check out this quirky little offering from Chanel!
The Chanel Paris Shanghai Takeaway Bag.
Not a fan myself, but fun all the same! And you can't say no to Chanel-o.


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Saturday 27 March 2010

Today.

So the rain is actually heaving down today, but im kinda liking it. The sound always seems to relax me, and despite moaning about frizzy hair, soggy feet and the like, i do love it.

Today's feeling a little odd. Kind of feels like being in the eye of a storm. The past week or two have been horrible, mainly down to stuff at uni. Just one thing after the other after the other.
But the resulting crying episodes and general hopelessness just aren't getting me anywhere. So i'm on a mission to try and bring back the spark and hopefully, i can move forward and get things going in the right direction.
We'll see how that goes...

- ooo i swear i just heard thunder just now! -

So the weekend plan? Work my butt off! Im in the process of playing around with website designs for my Book 77 Magazine website! It's going quite well so far. Mismatching, awkward, kooky, eccentric.

Ciao!

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Friday 26 March 2010

Dear Diary

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
I think i'll just turn to my friends and alcohol.
Graduation cannot come quick enough!
GAH!


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Escape

Time for the Easter break next week! A chance to get away from the wretched Medway! I can't wait to be sat on the train watching it all disappear behind me.
Alas, there will be no rest for the wicked. Work must go on, and at a more hectic rate than ever!
But on the upside, i'm getting away from England for a week with le mother. We're heading over to the villa in Florida! Should be goooood. It'll be nice to spend some time just me and her too :) Also the perfect chance to stock up on my amazing mascara and more moisturiser too, which i can only seem to get over there!!

Take me to these places and i'll love you forever!

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Lily White

How i've never seen these images, i dont know, but i came across them yesterday and they're beautiful.

Its a shoot by Solve Sundsbo featuring Lily Cole (serious girl crush on this beauty!). The pictures are gorgeous, and i love how her flaming red hair takes center stage, while the pristine white setting complements her pale skin perfectly!

I'm craving to get my red hair back now! But since i'm on a hair-dye ban at the moment i'll just have to dream...

I want to be this girl!


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GaGa Oo Lala

Gaga's video for Telephone! Highly anticipated, definite ode to Quentin Tarantino, and absolutely amazing! I love it! The vivid colours, the story, Lady G and Honey B, all just fabulous!! And the outfits, oh the outfits! One of my favourites are the Viktor & Rolf Chain suit and the telephone hat in the diner. I can't stop playing it, definitely gets me in the party mood, which is something i certainly need right now.




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Florence

I've recently seen the wonderful Florence and the Machine's new video for Dog Days Are Over. Its pretty nice to! They originally did the video in 2008, but due to what i can only put down to the success of the album (and a much bigger budget i can imagine) they've redone it.

The first video was very lo-fi and pretty simple. Shot in a woods with hand held cameras, weird woodland folk running around and Florence sparkling in the middle. This new one is almost the complete opposite to that. Its clean, VERY white, heavily styled and pristine. I quite like it, and i also like the fact that despite going with the big budget routine, they've kept some of the references from the old video. Like the crazy make up, and the presence of the odd folk and children.

Anyway, go have a gander for yourselves and see what you think!







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Sunday 14 March 2010

Around The World

Being the geek that i am i came across this great little typography related book. Around the World with the Bodoni Family is a limited addition book written by graphic designer Teresa Monachino and printed by The Society of Revisionist Typographers.

Essentially it takes the type and associated the different letters with places around the world. For example, the letter A becomes the mountains of the Alps, the letter I in italics becomes the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy, the letter O becomes the olymic rings of Olympia, and the D becomes the famous Mickey Mouse ears at Disneyland.

It's all very clever, quirky and lovely to look at, and it's great to celebrate a font thats been around for centuries.
However at £95, i don't think i'll be purchasing it!

(Note - if you do have the luxury of having an income and not being a skint student, you can buy it at the London Design Museum's shop!)


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Alice?

The BFI (British Film Institute) have just released an amazing piece of history that i've totally fallen in love with! It one of the best things i've seen in a long time and it's absolutely wonderful!

The very first Alice In Wonderland film, shot in 1903, restored to its former glory. It was shot on 35mm film and was directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow.
The film is more than 100 years old and very damaged but i think this just adds to the beauty of it! It's a silent film and it's only 9 minutes long so please, if you have a spare moment, definitely give this a watch. You won't regret it!

I love the sepia, black&white, weather marks, flimholes, scratches, burns, grain. Its just magical!




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Untitled

Love these necklaces by (of)matter.
I craving one that reads '17'. My birthday, not like it's cliched at all!

http://supermarkethq.com/product/perpetual-necklace-custom-number

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Sunday 7 March 2010

Dapper Dan

On my daily reading session of all my favourite blogs, i came across something which really caught my eye.
The mens fashion and style blog Style Salvage occasionally features a post called 'Magazines in the Spotlight' where they discuss, analyse and offer their opinions on a new, or recently discovered magazine that is of particular interest. Usually magazines that are doing something different either in terms of their attitude, direction, overall voice, that kind of thing.

They've just done one of these posts recently about a new magazine called Dapper Dan. Now i know the title sounds a bit cheesy but never judge a book by its cover and all that! The magazine is clearly influenced by Fantastic Man aesthetically, lots of black and white, clean design, classic typography. Now i cannot commennt of the content myself, having not read it, but according to the Style Salvage men the read it wonderful, and 'varied enough to keep even the most wandering minds focused and inspired'.
From reading their review of it and looking at the images, it looks like my kind of magazine. Like Fantastic Man, it's all about the design, classic details and effortless style. I really want to go and get myself a copy but unfortunately it's only on sale in Paris apparently, but global stockists are expected soon so hopefully i wont have too long to wait! Trip to R.D Franks looks imminant!
Unless i give in and order it online from Colette!


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Escape to Wonderland

So Friday was the release of Tim Burton's eagerly anticipated interpretation of Alice In Wonderland!
I've been waiting for this to come out since it was first announced and cannot wait to see it! Might drag my mum out tomorrow while i'm at home, or drag Liam out Wednesday!
I've heard and read snippets of reviews and peoples thoughts on it already, [some good, some not so good] but i'm ignoring them all. I don't want my view to be tainted before i see it for myself.
I love Tim Burton's work, from his quirky illustrations, to his interesting short films, to his big blockbusters and with the connection he has with Mr Johnny Depp, the audience is left with an insight into their weird, kooky, gothic wonderland.
So i'm sure this latest installment will be a treat!

Laurel Avenue Bakery is selling cute little 'Down the Rabbit Hole' boxes filled with Alice themed treats!

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Saturday 6 March 2010

Oui Oui

So, i'm back up north for a long (and much needed) weekend at home! Its so nice to see the family and just be able to chill out and have a full fridge haha! Plus it was my brothers birthday yesterday, so it was nice to celebrate it with him for the first time in 3 years seeing as ive always had uni stuff going on!
Anyway, aside from keeping up with research and what not for FMP, it's meant i can get up to date with all the goings on from fashion weeks. Some exciting collections going on in Paris, so here's just some of my favourites:


RICK OWENS

I loved how he played around with using padded up segments to represent armour almost. It was very much warrior-woman-esque and the eye makeup was fantastic! Fur hooded coat this way please!
LANVIN

Ooo la la, i want so much from this collection. Sexy, strong & statement, all the traits of the typical Lanvin lady. My particular favourite was the black jumpsuit. Makes me wanna chop my hair and dye it black!

PEDRO LOURENCO

A relatively new designer as far as i'm aware, feel free to correct me if i'm wrong mind you! I just found his collection really interesting. i loved his interpretation of mixing harsh leather with soft chiffons and velvet.

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

Aaah, Dame Viv, love of my life! Fabulous and fun for autumn/winter 10. Like a child in a dress up box who's raided their mum's makeup, it's just wonderful! I loved the layering, the colours, the cute crowns and oversized bouquets of flowers. Now i NEED the gorgeous floral dress for my summer wardrobe [centre, bottom row] !!

CHRISTIAN DIOR

Well Galliano whiped it out the bag yet again for a fantastic collection for Dior. The pallete of gentle pastel colours alongside rich brown leathers was perfect. I'd quite like a pair of those cute frilly socks [right, top row] and my hair all jazzed up like that too please. Favourite look? Centre, bottom row for me!

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Thursday 4 March 2010

Book 77 - Issue Two!

Final Major Project -FMP- is under way now, meaning its only a matter of months till i can be officially labeled a 'Graduate'! I think i like that, but it means i'm stripped of my student status and therefore have no valid excuse to be a bum and be a wreck! Time to get a job, get my own proper place and be a grown up :( BOOO

Anyway, my FMP involves creating issue two of my fabulous Book 77 magazine that i created for the last project along with a team of fellow students. This time it's just me and Naomi working on it so its a lot more responsibility. We're co-editors, and while im focusing on all the art direction and web design, she's focusing on the fashion editing side of things.

Issue two (working title - The Flamboyant Issue) is based around a different British eccentric, one im sure you're familiar with, a Mr Quentin Crisp! So you can expect lots of quirky features, hats, scarfs, colour, flamboyancy, eccentricity and lots more craziness! I'm not going to divulge too much as of now, but i'll be posting little snippents every now and then.

The magazine is going to be launched at a live event in London in April which is majorly exciting! More info to come later when more it confirmed!


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Step up to the Pugh

Its now Paris Fashion week and the time to pull out the big names! Christian Dior, Chanel, John Galliano oh i love you!
But, i'm here to talk about dear Mr Pugh. After our love affair was ignited during a film project last year, i became somewhat obsessed! A year on, the obsession has died down but i still adore his collections. Its so interesting to have been able to follow his journey from those crazy bunny suits which generated so much hype, to his conceptual but totally wearable pieces of today. They still have that Pugh vibe to them with a very graphic edge, lots of leather and gothic nature but they're just realised in a much more accessible way.
Here's a snippet from his A/W 2010 collection shown in Paris on Tuesday.


Oh how i would die for that leather jacket!! If i was a hot shot fashion bod right now, i would totally be a Gareth Pugh girl. Black, graphic, gothic, perfect perfect perfect. I love the shapes he creates, the structure of the pieces, everything.

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