Sunday

Why I should love living in the country(ish).





















I've been waiting for a sunny day to go out and use my DSLR at one of my favourite spots where I live. Well Sunday was a sunny day and I didn't care how ill I was, it wouldn't show in a photo, so I wrapped up warm(ish) and set out to be a budding, excited new photographer. The photos were taken at about 2pm, but the winter means that it seems more like 1600. Some photos have been edited (I like the new lomography that's becoming increasingly popular so thought I'd fake it with Photoshop CS5) but some are just on the right setting. As long as it's not on Auto I'll be happy with what I get.

TCM Actor Quotes

TCM and a memorable face
What happens when you find some fonts, amazing photographs of faces from the past, and a Bank Holiday weekend watching TCM? I spend a day putting it all together. The series features Brigitte Bardot, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn and Marlon Brando to name a few, with quotes on film. A very simple concept that I think I'll print off and plaster over my wall, if not format them to landscape and have them as desktop wallpapers. Get in touch if you'd like a copy.

London Bridge Photograpy

HP: sharable widget visualises fight against counterfeit drugs

Infographic project created at Bite Communications for their HP client

Photography

Part birthday part Christmas present from family and myself, my new SLR camera is probably my favourite investment so far.
I decided to settle for the Canon 500D with 18-55mm IS lens, and I can work my way up with lenses later.

So here are my first few images. I've used SLR's before but not had a clue about settings, so I'm determined to add photography to my fortes.

LFW

Standard or Limited Supply?

This week’s London fashion week has seen trends such as the 70s and fruity colours such as peach and plum emerge, but are people as excited as they were last season? Have we arrived at a stage where fashion is so easily available to us via live broadcasting of fashion shows such as Burberry and Vogue and Style.com posting catwalk photos and reports by the end of the day, that we’re no longer determined to find out what the latest styles are? As someone who’s studied and worked in fashion I feel compelled to find out who’s doing what this
season, but am I really in the mood to shout about it when someone could read a Bumpus report on Vogue.com instead? Why would they want to listen to the ramblings of a recent graduate over a well established magazine site or blogger? Although the price of fashion has kept many from feeling the need to watch the catwalk, having London fashion week so ubiquitous in the press and online means we can ignore it if we want.

After all, there will always be a next season and the current one will go out of fashion in no time, so should you really prioritise your time over something so fleeting? I always will as it still fascinates me how some designers always get it right and set every new trend (ahem Burberry...) and others will just create something that seems for the hell of it - did you see Giles Deacon SS 11? My apologies but having interesting models such as Abbey Clancy after her recent tabloid appearances and Kelly Brooke tells me you’re trying to distract from the clothing using make up that makes them look like drag queens...

Would having fashion less available to us like it was during war time 50s make it more covetable? Don’t we love biannual magazines and buy them every issue rather than buy the weekly one’s? Perhaps one designer should get rid of all these cruise and pre collections and create an all year collection... It may mean better quality lines and sustainable trends to say the least. Would we stock up for all year knowing there won’t be a collection for another 365 days rather than months? I think those who appreciate fashion appreciate short supply and limited edition, and designers might appreciate the break to stop and think.

Lois Jeans

Hope of Love Revolution.
Lois Jeans grabs the number one position on Design Charts, the weekly top 40 website design chart, and it's clear why...

The injustice of man destroyed love...
It's ashes covered the world for centuries...
but there is still hope...


...Love...
...Lois.

The website's primary feature is a short story film directed by Humberto Vignali that resembles the Band of Brothers Bastogne scenes using snow (actually flour) in slow motion shots against a dark grey, gritty Russian winter background. Beautifully crafted despite for web, the film is set to the music Nessun Dorma by Pavarotti (which has now completely changed my mindset of it being for slow motion football adverts), the two lovers (Brisa and Vinicus) slow motion scream, fall to their knees, pull off masks and slap bum cheeks while wearing the collection.



It's a shame that the promotional images just aren't on par with the film. If anything it would have been more visually stunning if they'd used stills from the film rather than do a shoot. I wonder if the director of photography Alex Garcia even took part in the shoot? Perhaps their aim was a Call of Duty style, as the press pack images seem to look more like game covers without the blood splatter.





(No it's not the wrong way around, calm down)

Sky High Rankin

Sky High Rankin
High profile photographer Rankin shoots a campaign for Sky Arts at his Annroy studio in North London. The photographs, commemorating all areas of the arts, will blanket Tottenham Court Road billboards...every one apparently. They will also exhibit in Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Liverpool.


An interesting take on advertising, but a little misunderstood. Although it's supposed to be an exhibition, it is still an advertising campaign for Sky Arts - it's not even as if it's an exhibition that's been sponsored by Sky, it's still advertising. It would have been nicer to have it in a more pure form. It'll be interesting to see how long the 'exhibition' lasts with the cost of advertising space in central London.