A great night was had at Daunt's Bookshop, Marylebone (and a local hostelry afterwards!) launching PinUps, the book on classic poster art from 1972 - 1982 by Roger Crimlis and Alwyn Turner that I had the privilege of designing. It was great to see many friends old and new - Miles from BMG, Paul-Ronney from the Urban Voodoo Machine, David Courts of Hackett & Courts, The Beat's Andy Cox... and of course Eugene and Richard from Extradition Books, fast making themselves the imprint of choice for rock music books! The night was long and liquid, and it was great to have a great looking book to take home on the train the next morning! |
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It's been a busy April so far, with work continuing on Hickory Wind, the biography of Gram Parsons, the 53rd issue of Vive Le Rock! magazine just going to press, four fabric designs for Sunbeam Jackie done and sent to the printers and news of the autobiography of Johnny Green, the Clash's road manager, in the offing too! Plus I painted a portrait of Chet Baker, the jazz trumpeter and vocalist, that I'm very pleased with.
However that hasn't stopped me applying for interesting little jobs that I see online, as after all variety is the spice of life and I also like to see what clients are interested in and how I can keep my ideas fresh. What a change from applying for jobs in the old days though! You fire off a chatty email, and a CV, and a link to your website... and usually hear nothing. I suppose that's the modern way, not even a thanks but no thanks! This week brought an interesting title from Extradition Books to dovetail with the new film 'Here To Be Heard' about the late 70s all-girl group The Slits, written and directed by William Badgley. To accompany the film's release Extradition are releasing a facsimile of Slits' bassist Tessa Pollitt's scrapbook, containing all the press clippings she collected from the band's inception to demise. It's really fun having this very personal insight into that incredible vortex of creativity and nihilism that was the late 1970s; singer Ari Up (stepdaughter of John Lydon/Rotten of the Sex Pistols) was only 14 when the band started. Her death at the tragically young age of 48 from cancer in 2010 adds some poignancy to this book full of fun, mayhem and friendship. Believe it or not (I can't, they've had me best years) I've been involved with Big Cheese Publishing since 1999! We initially met at the 1999 Board X Big Air Snowboard Festival in Battersea Park. They were then on issue 17 of Big Cheese magazine, I was selling my snowboard clothing label, and in my cocksure way I took a copy home, redesigned a couple of spreads and said 'I can do better than your current design'. From that one (frankly slappable) action I designed the magazine from issue 19 to issue 155, eleven years on a monthly mag that led the industry in skateboarding and noisy bands news. I then switched to launching Vive Le Rock! magazine with them, and I'm currently on the 53rd issue of that magazine. So that's (gets fingers out...) 189 magazines I've designed for one company over 19 years! Anyway. On March 28th they are hosting their first ever Awards ceremony in London and (boomy voice) You Could Be There! Click here for details. With live performances from Ginger Wildheart and TV Smith, and awards presented by ex-Sex Pistol Paul Cook and (whisper it) Shakin' Stevens - oh yes! - it's sure to be a great night. See you there! I've just sent the 2018 Mounts Bay Sailing Club Yearbook to print. I've been involved with MBSC for about twelve years now, doing their annual Yearbook and National Championship books. This is unpaid work, and I'm not going to pretend they are a paragon of design excellence as mainly it's a list of Sailing Instructions, map courses and member lists, but a) it involves me with my local community and b) they invest a lot of time in getting young people outside and doing something active, which you may have gathered is a bit of a passion of mine. What you give is what you get, as someone once said! I have to admit I knew virtually nothing about the group Love when I was given this book to design (it's a memoir written by Michael Stuart-Ware, the band's drummer). In one of those mad moments of serendipity, not long after I started the project I was at a friend's house and some music was playing I didn't know. 'Who's this?' I asked. 'Love' he answered... It's a great read (and of course the design is exemplary). Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, colossal egos, back-stabbing... it's everything you'd like to curl up beside the fireside with. I'm very proud to have been able to help the Caps On Cancer Charity with free design work. I even bought a cap! It's run by the very talented Jeremy Gower of Thomas Crown tailoring in Dorset. It's quite a story... In February 2016, Jeremy was given the horrible news that everyone dreads; he had cancer. The following eight months were miserable for him as he was treated with chemotherapy reducing his weight significantly, losing his ability to remember events, losing his hair, continuously threatened with losing his life and distinguishing those of his friends who would look after him and those who wouldn’t… To mark the anniversary of being given his grim news, he decided to offer a few tweed flat caps for sale via his Facebook pages. Hoping to raise a few hundred pounds for Cancer Research UK, his expectations were surprisingly surpassed. Within sixty hours, Thomas Crown, Jeremy’s tailoring label, was taking orders from discerning customers from over twenty–two countries around the world. Today, with a growing amount of supporters, the offer of putting Caps on Cancer still stands. For every one of the distinctive tweed flat caps that is sold, a donation of £10 is made to Cancer Research UK. As Jeremy says, “We might not be able to cure this horrible disease but with your help, we can help someone, somewhere." You gotta give something back, or life is a very lonely and sterile process. About nine years ago I set up a Charity called Shifting Horizons, helping young people with challenging behaviour and disadvantaged start in life back into eduction, training or the workplace. I'm very happy, and proud, to say we have had many success stories over the years. But every year we have to fundraise, and this year I'm organising a Charity Silent Art Auction in Cornwall on March 10th. We have paintings donated by many of Cornwall's leading artists: Anthony Frost, Alice Mumford (tutor, St Ives School of Painting), Faye Dobinson (tutor, Newlyn School of Art), Ben Catt, Steve Slimm, Kate Richardson, Mike Hindle, Phil Ward, Kit Johns, Helen Jones, Paul Wadsworth, Janine Wing, Russell Hedges, Sarah Goldbart, Tom Wright, Julia Mills, Tide, Billy Burman, Tim Wright and Susie Chaikin. All these artists have a proven selling record so you may well pick yourself up a bargain! If you'd like to view the art on sale, and leave a bid of you like (there's no reserve on anything!) please click here. Although I missed the time period referred to in the title of this book (just), it's been delight to work on for several reasons. Not only because the concept of the rock poster is examined in exhaustive and fascinating detail - who knew so many genres from art movements, to films, to classical sculpture, to poetry, to town planning(!) were influences on the designers of this oeuvre? Similarly, the way that some of these images have been used as inspiration by future designers. The launch party for this book is in April 2018 - to attend please contact Chris Hewlett on 0845 601 2833 or [email protected]. Sunbeam Jackie are a great little design company based in the deepest depths of Cornwall (and when I say deepest depths, I'm talking 4x4 territory here). They source vintique and original (that's where I come in) fabrics which they then use for a simply stunning range of parasols, cushions, chairs and lampshades... they even produce their own furniture. Just the sort of business it's a joy to work for. |
AuthorEd, when he gets a moment to himself. Archives
May 2018
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