The Design Conspiracy Blog

Making Things

As current graphic trends go, the art of craft and actually making things is certainly one of the better and hopefully longer lasting ones. The paper manufacturers GF Smith certainly think so too as their latest exhibition, Beauty In The Making, shows. It takes you behind the scenes of paper making, letterpress, font creation and even envelope making.

Held in one of the 22,000 sq ft basements below Victoria House in Bloomsbury, we went along and not only were we impressed but we learnt a few things too. We letterpressed some cards using 3 Adana 5x8s that had been set up and we also got collared by the ladies from Hull, who make the envelopes. It isn't new to us though as we have been getting our hands dirty since we started back in 2001 (as previous posts testify) from screen prints to our lovely vintage Golding Pearl No.3 Press.

If you want to see the exhibition you'll have to be quick, it finishes this Friday 27th April.

Letterpress Letterhead

We have been wanting to letterpress our new staionery since we moved into the new studio, finally as we needed a non digital file, we quickly set this (well, as quickly as you can set the bottom text in 6pt lead!).

It is printed on 140gsm GF Smith Pearl Plike on our 5x8 Adana, with brass rule from Stephenson Blake set in 10pt/6pt Gill sans. If you want to get technical...

Now we're not saying this is the definitive new stationery, but it certainly has a little something.

 

Sorry for the less that perfect pics, all done on the phone.

The Olympic Excitement Builds...

 

We're looking forward to the 2012 Olympics and if the new venues are as good (and I'm sure they are) as the Aquatics Centre that we went to a couple of weeks ago then the Olympics is going to be fantastic and something which all of us in the UK can be proud of.

Honestly when we walked through the door of the of the 2012 Diving World Cup test event it took your breath away. The original drawings of the Aquatics Centre looked fabulous and in the flesh it certainly lives up to expectations. I've only really wanted to see the newly built venues when applying for tickets so I've only chosen these regardless of the sport. 

Unfortunately missing out on tickets on both occasions now my hope is that I can get some next time...fingers and er..toes crossed!

 

Driving Home For Christmas

Our latest addition to our Not On The High Street shop. The ubiquitous motorway sign doesn't need any introduction, originally designed by Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir their road sign system has been copied by many countries throughout the world and now by The Design Conspiracy!

We thought that this classic piece of design needs elevating to art status, primarily in a frame on your wall. So if you're from Manchester, Nottingham or Leeds or have any connection with these cities take a look at our new screen prints available framed or unframed at A3 or A2.

 

The High Street Online

We were very pleased to be invited by Not On The High Street to join their online marketplace some months ago. However moving studio and doing the day job have delayed our debut until now but finally we are live!

Just in time for the christmas season (although for other retailers this started back in september!) We'll be updating some new stuff over the next few weeks too keep checking regularly. 

Finally like your actual high street why not take a browse and see if anything takes your fancy!

Goo and Glitter

So, the all new print studio is up and running, not quite at 100%, but we will see what we need to address as we use it, so far so good - need to address storage issue and the darkroom area is being amended on a weekly basis, but it is all good fun.

Also this week we recieved these beauties, yup, 144pt Bodoni Poster. Looking forward to putting them on the press.

Keep an eye out for the work we have been doing with the contents of these salt and pepper pots, AB did lots of experimenting to find the perfect finish, and I can vouch that the end product, is delicious.

Hats Off To Our New Studio

Finally after what seems like a month of travelling to and fro we have settled into our new studio in Hatton Place. We've got a decent pub at the end of the road, Leather Lane market and plenty of new eateries to explore, mind you all of this will have to wait for now as we've still got loads of sorting out to do but the new place already feels like home. 

Like the last place we have a dedicated floor for our letterpressing and screen printing. In addition we'll be producing our own screens too instead of me making them at home which will save me carting screens back and forth. Anyway got to go holes to drill...

Life in Tokyo

You wouldn't need much of an excuse to visit Tokyo but if you happen to be visiting Tokyo during August there's an added attraction! Our friend and textile embroiderer Naomi Avsec has a lovely exhibition called Doodles, Dreams & Stitchery at the Paul Smith Space Gallery. Running until 28th August she will also be giving sewing demonstrations on 20th/21st. So if you're there why not take a look?

Sixty Impossible Things Before Lunch

 

So, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Where is the centre of nowhere? How do you get to the end of a rainbow? And where is the needle in the haystack?

No, we don't know either. But illustrator Harriet Russell has tackled these thoughts visually, along with many other impossibilities, in her new book "Sixty Impossible Things Before Lunch", and we have the pleasure of hosting an exhibition of images from the book here at The Design Conspiracy.

For those who like to ponder the impossible and unfathomable and those who love quirky thought provoking illustration with hand drawn type, this book and show is a delectable feast. 

Harriet Russell studied at the Glasgow School of Art and Central Saint Martins in London. She collaborates with publishers and newspapers such as Penguin, The Guardian, Independent on Sunday, Random House, Phaidon and many others.  

'Sixty Impossible Things Before Lunch' published by Corraini is her fifth book after 'Jack and the Beanstalk', 'A is for Rhinoceros', 'A Colouring Book for the Lazy' and 'The Utterly Pointless Counting Book.'

 

She's downstairs setting up the show as I type this and we're all looking forward to seeing what she's got up her sleeve. 

The show runs from 15th July until 22nd, open weekdays 10am-6pm and weekends 11am-4pm at The Design Conspiracy, 12 Stukeley Street, London WC2B 5LQ

 

Chalk & Cheese

Browsing through ffffound.com the other day I saw these fantastic typographic chalk illustrations and I realised I need to up my game - a lot! You see we have a door in our meeting room covered with matt black vinyl for the very purpose of writing on it in chalk. A few years ago I wrote very ornately the word 'create' it was a spur of the moment thing and looked ok but compared with these drawn by the very skilled Dana Tanamachi I now need to revisit it...now where's that chalk...