Hello and a belated Happy New Year to you all. It's been a long time since my last post and I've some explaining to do. I've not been lazy, quite the opposite actually. In August I set up a studio here in Bristol. City Edition Studio has been finding its feet with some great clients with very interesting projects. I wanted to wait until I had some work finished and up on City Edition Studio site before I put a post here. I am still doing freelance work with other studios, some of which might end up here in the future. This site will remain as an archive of my student projects and a record of my doings and visitings featured here on the blog. So head on over to the new site to see what I've been making. A news page will be updating there too, so be sure to bookmark it or grab the RSS link. Wish me luck!

Last month I attended the British Book Design & Production Awards. I was nominated for the Best Student Book Award, along with a good friend, Ged palmer (pictured right), and Louise Evans (pictured centre) from Norwich University. Louise's book An Anthology of Fairy Tales took home the award, and I gladly received the Highly Commended Award. Apologies for the blurry photo, it was that kind of night. It was great to meet Louise as well as being able to check out all the other books up for the different awards.

It's been a while since I last wrote anything here. I've been busy, with lots of interesting new projects and getting used to my new studio space. I've been in London quite a lot recently too. Last night I took part in a discussion about British book design at the Russian Club. Although it wasn't the award ceremony it was meant to be, it was definitely a lively discussion about current book design. The Argos catalogue did particularly well, although the Screwfix catalogue wasn't entered, so it was a bit of a one horse race. It was good to take part with some amazing names in graphic design like Richard Hollis (pictured above to the right of Mia Frostner of Europa. I also met illustrator Jim Stoten, who is a nice chap. That's all for now.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I googled a shop location today, only to receive this message. Smartphone? Smartarse more like.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

One more sneak-peek for your peepers!

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.

Another sneak-peek for you. This one is particularly exciting, hot off the presses!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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 matallic silver, on Ebony Gloss paper from GFSmith.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

I went to the aquarium the other day. I like these little guys, they look a bit suspecting, almost standoffish.

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.

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.

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 brighly coloured wood scupltures 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.

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.

Sneek-peeks draws to a conclusion today. Here is a glimse of my most recent book, A Battle of Wills, which documents imbalances of power and accountability between the UK government and its citizens. It's not finished yet, changes need to be made. As soon as it's complete I'll put up more photos.

Sneek-peeks continue today, with a quick look at a booklet I've produced called Rule Britannia, which is a collection of rules gathered from recent news stories, some of which have been featured right here on this very blog. I'll end sneek-peek-week tomorrow with a look at a book I've been producing recently.

Time for the second sneek-peek at some of my recent university projects. Rules for Snow is a screen-printed business sized card with some basic rules for snow I created after my recent experiences of trying to navigate snow covered pavements. It's just a bit of fun, but handy nonetheless.

I handed in all of my recent work at university yesterday, without any hitches I'm pleased to say. That marks the end of preparing for self-directed study and the beginning of actually doing it, which is exciting. This week I'll be putting up sneek-peeks at a selection of some of the work I handed in. First up is my zine documenting where rules have failed people in international sport, featuring Thierry Henry and the Irish football team and mean old cricketer Greg Chappel and his unfortunate brother who had to do his evil bidding.

The snow is showing little regard for my rapidly approaching deadline. I had to walk a couple miles through the snow to get to the printers today, and on my way took a couple of photos of people enjoying the snow more than I was. And I fell over a couple of times. If the buses don't run tomorrow, and I can't get into the screen-printing department I might get very angry at the snow! Flickr set here.