Speaking of food...

We booked dinner at The Zetter on Clerkenwell Road and it was bloody delicious. The 2 for 1 cocktail deal didn't do any harm either! 

London Calling...

I decided I needed a change of scene so on Wednesday I went to London to see some exhibitions and hopefully get inspired. Thank God it actually worked and I ended up having a lovely time - The Tate Modern and Design Museum inter-spliced with some very tasty food and really nice weather (despite it throwing it down when we left Manchester).

The Rodchenko and Poplova exhibition at the Tate Modern was great - really energetic work including lots of collagey type stuff that I'm really liking at the moment, I seemed to like the more rough looking cut and paste poster prototypes more than the sleek final versions. It also made me realise that often the most simple things are the best, yo don't have to go overcomplicating designs and overthinking them (like I seem to do with everything...). 

Obsession Table by Nadia Pedreschi

I think I want/need one of these. I'm not sure whether it would make my obsessive lining up and ordering of things better or worse though...

Milan Furniture Fair 2009

Milan's international design fair is a yearly event that has been going for 48 years which aims to showcase new products from lamps to bed, garden furniture, objects, textiles, chairs - basically anything found in a home, an office, or garden. The fair covers four times the surface area of the British Museum and for one week, 2823 designers and furniture companies hope to attract the interest of some of the 350,000 professionals attending. The Ready Made Bookshelf by NEXT Architects comes with a facade of 'need-to-have' books for status, even if you don't intend to read them. The facade gradually gets replaced by actual books as and when you read them. I find this design really witty, as so many people (especially those in the design business) buy books based upon what they think looks good on the shelf, as opposed to what the actually want to read.

The School of Life

I'm not quite sure how I stumbled across Alain de Botton's School of Life in Central London, but it looks like somewhere I rather fancy visiting. It is 'a new social enterprise offering good ideas for everyday living'. They offer courses, holidays, sermons, and talks by experts on a variety of subjects including love, politics, work, play and family. Some of the upcoming events include an Urban Gardening Holiday, an expert session of 'How to Remember Things' (something I could probably do with signing up to) and a Good Design sermon by Alice Rawsthorn at Conway Hall. Their shops sells some pretty nice and humorous stuff too which would make great gifts, such as this Recession Survival fit box.

The Slow Death of Handwriting

I read this article online a few months ago and thought it was really sad that less and less people are choosing to write by hand. As much as I love and appreciate typography, there is something so special about receiving a handwritten letter or card. A ban on 'handwritten' fonts would also go down well with me. 

Herbert Bayer

I'd seen the work of Herbert Bayer (b. 1900 Austria graphic designer, painter, architect and photographer) quite a few times but there was something about his series of paintings "Seven Convolutions' that I really grabbed my attention. The one posted at the top here reminds me of how migrating birds fly together, which is something that has always fascinated me. Whilst researching Bayer I also found a few typefaces he designed (the one above is called Universal) and some photomontages, one of which was blatantly ripped off on the last Chemical Brothers CD cover. I'm thinking about doing some work based on the alphabet systems he developed.