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3rd September 2010
I mention recently that I've been moving to a new studio for the past couple week. It was frustrating setting up my work space but not being able to use it. Conversely, it was also perhaps a little refreshing to spend a few days away from work. In order to move all of my stuff I popped down to the Oriental Market just down the road from my old flat and borrowed a few boxes. Some were rather dull, but there were a few gems, such as the box of Chaokoh Coconut Milk which was home to this rather happy fellow. A nice bit of simple two colour printing. Lovely stuff.
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2nd September 2010
A few weeks ago I bought a Risograph machine. It was something I was meaning to put up a post about but it's been a busy couple of weeks. So instead of showing you the machine, I'll show you the first job I printed with it. It's a hand-rendered poster by fellow UWE graduate and ISTD member Ged Palmer. Ged's night A-OK has been a regular event in Bristol for almost a year now. A-OK held a Reggae Roast, which I sadly missed, so it was a perfect excuse to bust out the Red Stripe colours on my machine and get printing.
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24th August 2010
It's been a busy couple of weeks for me. I've been interning at Red Stone in London, as well as meeting old friends and new ones in the capital. But most exciting was my trip to Hearn Hill velodrome, site of the 1948 Olympic cycling events. The track is great, and although a little dilapidated, the buildings have a certain charm to them too. The distinctly analogue lap counter was my favourite piece of kit there, just ahead of the old Harry O bikes they have to hire. Rain scuppered the day but it was still good to get round the track, even if us beginners were going at a snail's pace compared to some of the regulars (and kids!). I'm moving into my lovely new studio this week so posts might remain thin on the ground until I'm settled and unpacked.
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2nd August 2010
On Friday I went along to the V&A Summer Camp to attend the Typography Summer School Critiques. Despite being ill I enjoyed the evening a lot. I submitted a small print I'm working on and had it critiqued by Fraser Muggeridge and Paul Tisdell from Europa. Olly Knight from OK-RM, Robert Sollis of Europa and Jenny Eneqvist (currently at GTF) completed the line-up. There were some very interesting items being critiqued, including a cats bag, a website, Bee Craft magazine and a sinister postcard.
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22nd July 2010
I googled a shop location today, only to receive this message. Smartphone? Smartarse more like.
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13th July 2010
The past couple weeks have been a bit of a blur for me. I received my award from the International Society of Typographic Designers last Friday, which was a fantastic evening. Last week I was working hard at Fraser Muggeridge's Typography Summer School. It was an amazing week, an incredible learning experience. We benefitted from the knowledge of the wealth of visiting practitioners such as Ken Garland, pictured here with Gemma Villegas, David Pearson, Paul Elliman, Europa and Sara De Bondt. The students were all great too, a surplus of design talent. Great fun.
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30th June 2010
On the ferry toward the Isles of Scilly we were greeted by leaping dolphins. The water was like glass, a sign of the beauty we were about to encounter. More pics soon.
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29th June 2010
I managed to make it along to the Royal College of Art for their SHOW 2010, along with Kenneth Shaw, the happy gentleman in the photograph. I'd never been to one of their shows, and my high expectations were easily met. The work was amazing, in all departments. I was particularly blown away by the colourful online/offline word plays of Jean Jullien, as well as the incredibly interesting typographic work of Mark El-Khatib. The latter also designed the latest issue of ARC, the RCA's journal, which is also very nicely put together.
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28th June 2010
After the D&AD exhibition I decided to pop out to Stratford to visit the Temporary Museum. Part of the London Festival of Architecture, the museum features a wide range of interesting items and documents of Stratford, some new and many old. I worked on the exhibition design with Europa a couple weeks ago. It was great to see the work we did in place and being used by visitors to the museum. I've put up a few photos on Flickr.
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25th June 2010
I've been a bit quiet this past week as I've been enjoying the sub-tropical heat and beauty of the Scilly Isles. I might put up a couple pics of that over the next few days. I'm back on the mainland now, at D&AD's New Blood exhibition at the Truman Brewery. UWE's graphics course has been featured on the D&AD website recently, with an image of my Battle of Wills book, which I'm thrilled about. I missed the graphics private view last night, but I'll be there tonight to make up for it!
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17th June 2010
I've been helping out at Europa in London this week. We've been solving problems with brightly coloured cardbaord. It's been fun! Delicious lunches in the park and good music all the time, it's always a pleasure helping out here.
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8th June 2010
New work! New website! I've spent the past couple days taking and organising photos of my most recently completed projects. In light of the volume of projects I've altered the layout of my homepage. Projects are represented by a single image and are presented together in proportion to each other. The largest is The Prisoner's Constraint, an A1 wide poster, and smallest of the new projects is Beware of the Dogma, an A5 booklet. Other new projects are: The Workshop of Potential Design, Absolutes & Shades of Grey, Rule Britannia, The Golden Rule, The Unwritten Rule, and two posters relating to Absolutes & Shades of Grey.
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7th June 2010
In my final week before hand-in I decided to spend a day in the library and wrote myself a brief. I wanted to solve a complex visual communication problem using rules. I chose to raise awareness of the library's collection of Typographica Journals, edited by Herbert Spencer during the 1960s. I gave myself a strict set of rules and the result is the publication above. Click the photo for more images and details of the project.
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28th May 2010
Yesterday I faced the final curtain, as Sinatra would say. Life as a student has drawn to an end and life as a graphic designer proper begins, well, as soon as I shake this hangover. Here's to a summer of football, cricket and job hunting. If anyone would like to help me out with the latter then I would be most appreciative.
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26th May 2010
By coincidence three of the projects I'm about to hand in tomorrow are books with no titles on the covers. They all have names, but for different conceptual reasons they do not appear on the covers. I'm not trying to start a new trend here but if you see more books with blank covers, you saw it here first!
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25th May 2010
One more sneak-peek for your peepers!
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24th May 2010
As my time at Bower Ashton campus comes to an end it was a delight to have lunch outside there this afternoon and have time to reflect on the past three years.
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21st May 2010
Another sneak-peek for you. This one is particularly exciting, hot off the presses!
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20th May 2010
There are a lot of different projects I'm in the process of finishing during the next seven days, too many to mention here. So I'm going to put up a couple sneaky pictures instead. Lucky you!
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18th May 2010
Last week I took part in a workshop organised by Oliver and Rory of OK-RM. I worked with Katie Pieczenko and David Gibson on a publication that documents some of the hidden gems in the library at Bower Ashton campus. Above is the publication, if you click on the image you'll be able to see a few more pictures and details. Thanks to Oliver and Rory for taking the time to run the workshop.
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14th May 2010
News time. I've added some pictures of one of my recently completed projects, The Workshop of Potential of Design - A Critical Reflection & Instructions, which is the partner document to the publication of the actual workshop. The main publication is nearly finished and pictures will be added to the page as soon as I can. Also, I was thrilled to be accepted into the Typography Summer School today. I'm really excited about working with some of the big names who will be teaching there.
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9th May 2010
As my final hand-in approaches I'm putting the finishing touches to a few projects. The latest one to be finished is Beware of the Dogma, a book exploring the nature of rules and how graphic designers relate to the rules and principles of their discipline. It's aimed at graphic designers, particularly younger designers who are learning about design. If you'd like a copy please get in touch.
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30th April 2010
Now if there's one thing I like, it's a nice bit of screen-printing, and there is no nicer screen-printer than Christian at Uno One Print. A lovely chap and a stickler for a nice finish, if you catch my drift. If it's a nice t-shirt you fancy, or something more adventurous, give him a shout and he'll make your dreams a colourful reality. I've worked with Christian before and always had fun. He also has a rather lovely baby called Milly, and a highly readable blog about all things nice. If you don't know, now you know...
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29th April 2010
When I was in London earlier this week I popped along to the much blogged about Pick Me Up graphic arts fair at Somerset House. Without gushing too much, I'd say it's the most satisfying show I've ever been to. By that I mean it's like scratching a big graphic itch, if that makes sense. There's so much interesting work, affordable and unaffordable stuff, along with amazing opportunities to see how practitioners work in their studios. Above is a photo of some of the sketches and notes on Rob Ryan's studio wall. Just go this weekend before it finishes! Flickr gallery here.
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28th April 2010
I went to the Ditto Press on Monday to begin the printing of a small publication I've made as part of my final project. I've never had anything printed on a risograph machine so Ben ran me through the process and let me see how it was done. It was all pretty exciting and I can't wait to go back next week and finish printing the booklet.
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25th April 2010
I noticed some rather well made booklets of poetry by Kate Lyons on the Hyperkit website the other day. I contacted Hyperkit, who put me in touch with Kate, who kindly sent me a copy of each of the three books of her work. It was nice to speak to Kate about her work, she's a lovely lady. The books themselves are great, very sensitively made with some great embossing on the covers. The booklet pictured her is A Trial of Love, featuring love poems by Kate.
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21st April 2010
I got the news this morning that I had been accepted into the International Society of Typographic Designers, or ISTD. My book, Battle of Wills, received a merit, which I'm thrilled about. The project took a lot of hard work and was an incredible learning experience for me, so it feels great to have been accepted.
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17th April 2010
I've been in London this week helping out at Europa Studio. While I was down there I thought I'd have a quick look in at the Speed of Light show by UVA since everyone was raving about it. It was really good, well worth a look if you're in that part of town. It's refreshingly dark and moody and the top floor is an assault on the senses, all for free too.
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8th April 2010
I've had a quick go on my press! As a means of auditing exactly what type I have and what it looks like I've begun to make printed labels for the many drawers of type I now own. Everything went smoothly which I hope is an omen for many days of happy printing in the future.
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4th April 2010
Exactly one year ago today I put a post up regarding the Adana 5x3 letterpress my brother had given to me for my birthday. In a very serendipitous manner, I have just picked up an Adana 8x5 Press with many drawers of type, mostly Gill Sans and Times, along with all the tools and accessories you need to print. I'm thrilled to bits and can't wait to use it. More posts as soon once I've figured out what is what!
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1st April 2010
I've been in London this week doing a few bits and bobs. On Tuesday I had lunch at the lovely Europa studio with Mia & Rob, and very nice they were too. Yesterday I popped into see the Ditto Press in Dalston. Lynsey showed me around and gave me an idea of the work they do, which was great and I hope to be getting something printed with them very soon. Last night I went to see some of Fraser Muggeridge Studio's books at Kaleid in Shoreditch. I couldn't resist a couple of them and bought myself some typographic treats. Then I met up with Tom Mower for a drink to discuss some of the work I've been up to, which was great and really helpful. Thanks to everyone for their time!
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26th March 2010
With the deadline for the ISTD Student Awards out of the way I've had a chance to photograph my book in more detail. I've put up the photos along with a more detailed description of the project here.
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18th March 2010
Tomorrow is the deadline for the ISTD Student Awards. I've been busy putting the finishing touches to my submission for the past few days. I'll put up more details of my submission when I get a chance, but here is a sneak-peek at one of the spreads for the book, which deals with political imbalance in the UK.
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15th March 2010
Further to my last post about the opening night of the AV Studio, I thought I'd put up a post about my contribution. My object was an old cine-camera from the 60s. Inside there are two wonderful instructional diagrams; one for the tape reel and one for the batteries. I recreated both of the diagrams as screen-prints for the show. The reel diagram appears inside the camera, which is painted with a glossy back paint. It was printed using four colours, including a metallic silver, on Ebony Gloss paper from GFSmith.
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13th March 2010
It was the private view of the AV Studio in Bath on Friday night, and jolly well it went too. There were lots of people there, all enjoying themselves and checking out the work. It was a lot of hard work in the build up to the show so it was great to see the show looking good and full of guests. There are more shots of the work and the evening here.
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11th March 2010
I've got a lot of projects going on at the moment, and a recent addition to that list was the identity for the upcoming UWE Faculty of Creative Arts Degree Show in June and July. I'll be working on the brief as part of Team Blank, which gives a clue to our concept for the show. Team Blank is made up of Rowan Caney, David Gibson, Myles Lucas, Liam Randal, Kenneth Shaw, Romilly Winter and myself.
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28th February 2010
In my last post I hinted towards some 'doings' in Bath. Those doings are actually a collaboration between 7 graphics students from Bath University and 7 from UWE in Bristol, including myself. We're taking over an old AV (audio visual) shop in Bath for one week, with all of us creating new work for the show on the theme of AV. For the posters and invites all 14 of us created a custom letterform that could be both an A or a V, depending on what way up it was. The show starts on the 12th of March with the private view, come along for a few beers and to check out what we've produced.
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25th February 2010
There's some doings afoot over in Bath. Everything's still a bit hush hush but I can promise you it's all very exciting. More details to follow in the next few days. I've been very busy on lots of new projects recently, so what I lack in blog posts I make up for in backstage effort! I'll be in touch.
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9th February 2010
Yesterday I organised a workshop for a few friends at Bower Ashton, my uni campus. The Workshop of Potential Design, named after the translation of Oulipo (the French writing group), aimed to impose rules on the practice of selected designers and illustrators. They were given the same message, but each had a specific rule they had to apply to the communication of the message. It was great fun and a lot of great work came out of it, which I'm not compiling for a publication of the day. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such an interesting day. Flickr set here.
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6th February 2010
Sexy cats? Saucy sheep? That must mean my Mr Bingo print has arrived. In support of the Haiti crisis, the brilliant Mr Bingo created a couple rather surreal prints which he sold with 100% of the money going to the relief fund. In total he raised a whopping £2,485! A noble effort and some great little prints. Good on you Bingo!
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3rd February 2010
I chanced upon a rather cool book in the library at uni the other day: American Wood Type by Rob Roy Kelly. It's amazing! The book contains a selection of specimens, logos and pages created using wood type made in America between 1828 and 1900. It really surprised me to see that some pretty fresh looking fonts were so old! Check out a couple of my favourites here, particularly HAD, which reminds me of the header for Elephant magazine, which is also pretty good.
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28th January 2010
It was my Dad's birthday yesterday. I owe my father a lot, financially and in other more important ways. I screen-printed him a card to say thanks for everything, and had a lot of fun designing and printing it, so everyone's a winner. Happy Birthday Dad!
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27th January 2010
I've just finished printing some posters for Slap Dash, a club night run by two friends here in Bristol. I'd say it's an homage to designer Bob Gill, but I actually mean a rip-off of his classic work for the TV show Private Secretary. The poster is a two-colour print that nicely reflects the simple nature of the DJs who make up Slap Dash.
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26th January 2010
I went to the aquarium the other day. I like these little guys, they look a bit suspecting, almost standoffish.
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25th January 2010
In London I picked up this wonderful little publication, Cook for a Day by Lemon & Herb. It appears to be a collaboration between 3 young design students, a result of breaking their routine and running a cooking workshop at their university. It's letterpressed, using two typefaces and two colours, which is no small feat using university equipment, well it would be at my university anyway. It's very well put together, fun to read and a bargain at £3. Well done Lemon & Herb, very inspiring.
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24th January 2010
Another show I checked out in London was the If You Could Collaborate show by Alex Bec and Will Hudson. It's pretty big, with loads of amazing and varied pieces in a wide range of mediums. It's not on for much longer, but definitely worth checking out if you're in London next week. My favourite pieces we the 'Calligraffiti' by Craig Ward & Sean Freeman & Alison Carmichael, seen here as well as the set of illustrations by Anthony Burrill, who I met at the show, and astronomer John Griffiths. If you can't make it to the show, check out my Flickr set here.
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23rd January 2010
I've spent the past few days in London checking out a few shows and meeting some people. The first show I checked out was Losing the Plot at Kemistry Gallery by Danish 'design polymaths' Hvass&Hannibal. It's an entertaining little show with lots of brightly coloured wooden sculptures and some very nice prints. My favourite was this piece tucked away at the back of the gallery. The painted sides of the wooden waves reflected beautifully onto the white reverse sides. Very nice, and with a price tag to match! More updates will follow in the next couple days. Flickr set here.
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18th January 2010
I'm pleased to announce that my blog has finally got RSS! Really Simple Syndication allows you to subscribe to a blog's updates without having to visit the blog regularly. If you use Google Reader or an equivalent service, or you have an RSS aggregator (Mail can do this if you are a Mac user, just press the plus icon in the bottom left of the program and select add rss feed) then you can subscribe to my feed at http://www.jonolewarne.com/blogrss.xml or by pressing the RSS icon on the left of this page. Thanks to Christian of MicroAngelo for his time and usual willingness to help me with all things code.
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