Last day of term.

It was an amazing term. Thanks for the knowledge, the enlightment, the bullshit, the fun, the critique, the bigups, the catfights, the the tolerance, the lunches, the dinners, the parties and a special thanks to Mr. James Quintessential Norris for closing it off. Sampson, I'll never forget how you melancholically shouted in my ear that Jarvis' Cocker's 'Common People' is my song. It's yours darling! Happy holidays and safe travels all, word to yo moms. XBX

CSM BAGD 1 Football tournament.

Bethnal Green, sunshine, footie, drinks, food, smokes, hoodlums, a thief and about 40 sophisticated artfags. Yay!

Live Brief 2 - Duke Street

I also did another brief. The client this time is Duke Street, an industry leading private equity group, with offices in London and Paris. They recently moved to modern refined offices and require inspirational artwork to adorn the walls of their meeting rooms.  The aim of the project is to complete photographic images or illustrations based around the theme of London. Duke Street would choose students whose work they think best represents their brand.

I undertook this mission with Emmanouil Zahariades, a greek fella in my year, who taught me some nifty Photoshop tricks and delivered some brilliant photographs used for the project. We came up with the idea to create multi exposure images consisting out of photographs of well known and less familiar sites of London and tried to merge the contemporary with the past, putting the emphasis of Londons colorfull, hectique, energetic and intricate vibe, keeping in mind that these images need to work as decorations in a professional environment as well as making a creative statement. We wanted to have the final results displayed as Duratrans. We submitted a variety of work; 1 panoramic image, 6 square images and 2 single wall filling images of London skylines.

The final hand in was yesterday as was the prizegiving supposed to be. But the jury decided to postpone the prizegiving and instead shortlisted a handfull of winners of who they're almost 100% sure that they want their work displayed in the London W1 office... and we're two of them, yeahboy! 4 of our 6 square images were selected for display. Unfortunately the lightbox idea isn't gonna to fly due to Health&Safety Hazards ( meh booh!), but they loved our images and would like to see them printed on proper photographic paper. If that's going to work, which I'm sure it will then our work is guaranteed a place on the walls in 2 of their meeting rooms.

Unfortunately I'm not yet in the position of showing you these 4 selected works but here are 2 of the squares and the panorama that didn't get selected for you to get a feel of what we've done. Once the project is finalised I'll show you the chose images.

Rule Brittania! Vivat Londonium! Bigups to Manolito, well done homeboy!

Live Brief 1 - Hugo Boss

Remember the Hugo Boss competition? the brief was to design a Christmas concept which included a window display, mailing material, give-aways and packaging. Due to circumstances (having to find a new flat, moving, other briefs, coursework, eating, sleeping, wanting to stay sane, etc.) I decided that it was best to leave this brief for what it was and dropped out. I did manage to make it to round 2! It was a good experience, but it hurt, dropping out was necessary but a difficult decision to make. 

My initial concept evolved around unity through the use of geometry and light, taking into concideration German Design and Hugo Boss' clean and modern appearance. Here's a sketch for a window display, the idea was to have translucent panels hanging from the ceiling that could be backlit from behind. (Yeah, the idea is obviously more elaborate) and 2 prototype mailing design considerations which are basically thin cardboard fold out cards. Everything was done with good 'ol grid/tracing paper, scissors, ruler, and pencil. Goodluck to all you remaining competitors!

Vintage Lecturis magazines

A gentleman from Cornwall sold me these graphic magazines for almost nothing. They remind me of the Netherlands. They're part os a documentary series that were produced under the editorial supervision of Wim Crouwel. It was assigned by printing company Lecturis bv in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Copies were spread free of charge amongst relations.

Part 4: Readability. An attempt to describe the coherence between reading, writing and printing. Written by Johan Dirken. Designed by Wim Crouwel. Published July 1976.  

Part 9: About Magazines. This issue consists of a dialogue about magazines between designer Anthon Beeke and author K. Schippers. Published in August 1979. 

You know what?

Fuck you and the shoredouche hipster showpony you rode in on. Call me a sell out, call me commercial, call me a twat, I don't care. These commercials are fantastic and they make me feel good. Enjoy!

Loud man.

I was visiting Buckingham Palace and walked past these 2 men who were having an argument, I think. One of them was being loud. Like really, really loud. I have no idea what they were talking about, I think it was about some biscuits, or something. I don't know if this guy was angry or if this is just his way of communicating, but you know... I just couldn't help laughing.

Rye Lane.

I shot these for a uni assignment. I was to do a photo essay titled 'A Day in the Life of...' I chose to spend some time in a street called Rye Lane in Peckham Rye, the first neighbourhood that I lived in when I moved to London. Peckham is a traditional London working class community that now coexists with communities that have their origins in Bangladesh, the Caribbean, China, India, Ireland, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Eastern Europe and Vietnam. Rye Lane used to be one of the most important shopping streets in south London. It's not exactly a high street shopping area anymore but for the residents the street is still a vibrant source of everyday household shopping. There are also a variety of markets, barbershops and nail salons. I didn't quite know what to expect but most of the people that I tried to photograph reacted shy and humble, as if they were taken off guard. I was surpised by how friendly and collaborative the merchants were. I love this street. It's crowded, colorfull, loud, smelly, hardcore, honest; alive.