Use Print Finishes for a Finishing Touch.
I wrote a blog post for Printhouse Corporation about different examples of print finishes.
In this week I had a meeting with a client. Their company has a beautiful designed, working website. But he still has the need to get a brochure/flyer printed. His reason was: When someone receive it, hopefully they will pin it up and see it all the time. Then it should be easy for them to phone us when they require our services.
The great thing about print is, it can result in items that can serve as something useful. A lot of situations still require to hold a beautiful finished off brochure with high quality photos in your hands. Or a special invitaton that someone can open and keep as a reminder of an event. Excellent reasons to spice up the design even more.
Print finishing is a commercial and/or personal value-added process that takes place after printing. Often print finishes are overlooked as an option when designing for print. In my blog post The use of Print Finishes with Design you can read about a few options and to view examples.
First London Blog Club Meetup #LondonBlogClub
The London Bloggers Meetup Group first came to my attention. It is a rather big meetup group. I continued my search though, to find a brand new meetup group for bloggers in London: London Blog Club. Murray Newlands and Marko Saric (running successful blogs of their own) go to the London Bloggers Meetup Group. After the last event they decided to start their own meetup group.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010 was their new group’s first meetup at The Pitcher & Piano in Holborn. The Central Line train transported me from west to east quicker than I anticipated. I was officially the first attendee at the very first meetup of London Blog Club. Not long after me, more bloggers started to arrive and I enjoyed finding out what part of the bloggersphere they reside.
Where do I find myself in the bloggersphere?
Chatting to other bloggers about their blogs and blog goals (achieved and to achieve) opened up a discussion to myself about my own blog. My website originally was (as mentioned before) to showcase my work. The time then arrived to do a bit of the other. At school, writing and grammar was not one of my strong points. I looked for a bit of help from the book: On Writing Well by William Zinsser. It is (hopefully) helping me to not miss the message and waffle to many long sentences. And if I do, to revert to my core objective and what I am trying to say.
After the meetup when I went through my RSS feed I came across this article: You Got Design Right – Now ‘Write’ Design! – a blog post, from a writer to a designer (how great is that…). In the blog post Dave Thackeray explains his view point of the similarities between the design and writing processes. It made me feel more at ease with the future of my blog (and adamant now not to fail at Project 52).
The joy and reason for me for blogging is sharing my design experiences, other designs I like, event and travel experiences. I also have a few topics up for discussion. As time go by I am sure a few more will come to mind.
Back to London Blog Club Meetup
The first meetup already got my mind to start working. I would not be surprised to see a rapid growth of the London Blog Club. RSVP ‘Yes‘ for the next meetup Tuesday, 2 March 2010 and I will see you there!
Showcase of Illustrations Collated in a 2010 Calendar
I created a 2010 calendar for Printhouse Corporation and jelly. jelly bring together a collection of original and fresh talent from around the world, from live-action directors, illustrators, animators and web/flash developers. jelly organised the stunning illustrations for the cover of the calendar and each month.
I am really fascinated by some of the illustrations. Below are my favourites.
Illustrations
Front Cover
The illustration for the cover by pokedstudio is one of my favourites! Do check out their website. I could not help myself to download and use one of their (free) wallpapers.
February
Illustration by Steve Scott.
April
Illustration by Jo Bird.
May
Illustration by Karen Cheung.
June
Illustration by Migy. Festive for the month of Glastonbury.
August
Illustration by Fabio Coruzzi.
October
Illustration by Toyzmachin. I am fond of this style and the colours used.
December
Illustration by Matt Johnstone. In the spirit of another festive season ahead!
More about the Calendar
The whole calendar is matt laminated. Spot UV have been used on the title of each month. To make things a bit more interesting, I added Spot UV to a few elements on each illustration. It add some texture to the over all look and feel. The illustration below for January is by Brand Nu.
On the illustration for September by Sandra Suy, I used Spot UV on all the black bits.
The last page of the calender is 20mm longer. This allow to show the logos of the two companies through out the year. A charcoal background colour was used for bottom part (22mm high) of the back page. The logos are in Spot UV only. The rest of the back page has a light cream background colour with information (text in same charcoal colour) and contact details about the two companies.
Only a limited amount of the calendars was printed. Luckily I got my hands on one to entertain me all year around.
PechaKucha Night 20×20, London #2
I am really happy about my find on Brain Pickings, where they listed top 10 cross disciplinary conferences. I joined PechaKucha 20×20 group on Facebook and went to their second London event at The Archers. PechaKucha means chit-chat in Japanese. The 20×20 is a presentation of 20 slides while talking for 20 seconds about each slide.
PechaKucha Night started in Tokyo about 7 years ago as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has now moved its way around the globe, covering 268 cities. The event is open to any topic to talk about. Photography and art seem to be the most popular.
The Speakers of Event #2
In Nerys Mathias‘s 20 slides, she showed off artwork of more explicit nature in mediums such as photography, painting and illustration. Including work of Marlene Dumas.
Trashed is the new online platform for teenagers to get creative! It is packed with news in the creative industry in the UK. Teenagers can also pick up new skills for projects and get access to work experience placements and workshops.
I enjoyed Valerie Pezeron‘s illustrations. Her style is the kind that I am rather fond of. She also presented it well with a bit of wit. She went through some of her archives and shared the beginning of a new project she is working on.
Bruno Wizard from the The Homosexuals / The Rejects presented with a lot of passion. Entertaining photos and (quick) stories about their career and friends of The Homosexuals.
Martin Barrett is an artist who likes making apocalyptic installations/art. At the event he preferred to share his experiences hanging on a rope off a mountain in mid air. The photos that he had in his presentation had stunning views of different mountains all over the world.
Jane Kellock has a lot of experience in the fashion industry. She is a trend forecaster, designer, writer, lecturer and creative thinker. I fully regret the fact that I missed out on this presentation {blush}.
Zoe Holloway showed some of her photography and shared the stories, with some travel related. She is also making tees from photos of street art.
Richard Adams talked about the new School of Communication Arts 2.0 that will be opening soon, operating as a not-for-profit organisation. It is a school that will focus on the practical side of things to prepare talented students for a successful career.
Minxy McNaughty ended off the evening on a high note. Very entertaining, excellent sense of humour and I loved the way she presented the slides about Deptford. I so want to go to Deptford!
It enlightens me to hear a person talk so passionate about his/her work or hobby. It really opens up a personality to grasp and appreciate. There was also enough time during the evening for socialising and getting to know some of the attendees, sharing the same interests and passions. From what I have heard, there is a PechaKucha Night every second month. I am already looking forward to the next one!
Christmas 2009 in Paris
There might be some browsers where my Polaroid photos are not going to display/work the way it should… updated your browser (IE is not too kind with this post).
My family lives in the southern hemisphere. Making a turn at the south point of Africa was not in the itinerary for 2009. What to do for Christmas? 2007 I was on an adventure of my own through Belgium. 2008 I went to Prague. I have not been to Paris before. “Christmas in Paris” sounds nice. Busabout from Radical Travel offered a great itinerary.
Thursday, 24 December 2009
My first day of holiday was an early rise to make it in time for check in from 7:15, at the Busabout headquarters in Victoria, London. With a group of over 40 people, 7:30 sharp we were ready to hit the road to Dover, UK. The guide introduced himself and gave us a bit of inside track and history of Paris. After mostly sleeping on the bus, everyone was happy to mingle on the ferry, crossing the channel to Calais, France. The approximate 1.5 hours was enough to stock up on coffee, brunch and the necessary shopping in the duty free shops. We reached Calais, France at about 12:30 (GMT +1:00). The snow was still thick in the country side and a bit fog on the road. We made a 20 minute pit stop to make it in good time at our accommodation, St Christopher’s in Paris. Most people did not waste too much time freshening up for a welcome drink, that was followed by dinner. After dinner we were back on the bus for the guide’s own ‘Paris by night’ tour, taking in all the sights the great city has to offer. The bus made a stop at the Eiffel Tower and in time for the light show. We had to wait 20 minutes before our group could head up. All the entrepreneurs trying to sell souvenirs was more overwhelming than the rain at that time. The view from the middle was colourful with all the lights from Paris. Unfortunately, right at the top we ended up in a cloud, with absolutely nothing to see half a meter away.
Pit stop on the way to Paris
Light show of Eiffel Tower
Absolute top of Eiffel Tower
Friday, 25 December 2009
Xmas day! Clear blue sky! After a quick breakfast for me, it was time to get out and about in the breathtaking city. First we head out to the Château de Versailles for a wander around the spectacular gardens and a mid-morning snack. After Versailles I decided to have a wonder along Avenue de Champs. From The Obelisk of Concord, through all the Christmas markets, making a u-turn at the Arc de Triomphe. After sunset, dinner at St Christopher’s was a traditional roast meal (including Foie gras) and all the trimmings. Not long after the Christmas dinner, armed with a couple bottles of wine, we head through the little streets of Montmartre filled with artists and restaurants. From there we had to climb a (great) few steps up Montmartre hill to get a closer look at Sacre Coeur. The Sacre Coeur looked amazing with the spot lights over the famous white finish. From the front of Sacre Coeur, a great view of Paris can be seen.
Château de Versailles
Avenue de Champs
Arc de Triomphe
Sacre Coeur
Saturday, 26 December 2009
After a few baguettes and strong coffees it was time for the day’s itineraries to start. I jumped on a Fat Tire bike and experienced Paris in a pack of over 40 bikes through streets and parks of central Paris. The tour guide has been living in Paris for over 8 years and had a great knowledge of the history of the city and other interesting stories to go with the scenery. All the bikes were parked for lunch in Tuileries Gardens. Then we head off with our bikes to board a river boat to see Paris from the water. Passing places such as the Grand Palais, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Louvre Museum, Saint Chapelle and Notre Dame. By late afternoon we dropped off the bikes and there was a little bit of time to stray off the pack. “The National Lampoons Louvre Trip in 60 Minutes” had to fill this gap. With limited time we had to make a bit of a run through the Denon and Sully area to capture at least the most popular pieces; Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and The Winged Victory of Samothrace. The evening was topped of by dinner at a local French restaurant Le Marmite. The onion soup (with a layer of cheese on top and pieces of french bread underneath) is highly recommended!
Fat Tire Bike Tours
Notre Dame
Louvre
Le Marmite
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Au revoir, Paris!
Update
When I downloaded my photos of Paris (cut and paste), all of them was corrupt. I was rather upset and disappointed without thinking clearly. With a lot of good advice and suggestions from people I was able to retrieve my photos with MjM Free Photo Recovery Software. It worked like a charm. All the photos in this blog post was taken by me. View more photos of this trip at my Flickr Photostream or Facebook.
