Archive for the ‘Design’ Category
Fond (of editorial design) Zine
Three design students from the University of West England (Fanny, Sophie and Naomi) got in touch mid-2011 excitedly talking about their course in design and their passion for editorial design. I met them for a coffee and answered their questions about Boneshaker, how we set up the mag and gave our thoughts on digital publishing and so on. Here is a little more about the project:
“What started as a professional practise project for uni, soon grewinto a full colour zine, selling out at the Handmade & Bound zine fairin London, November 2011. The content came from three UWE studentseager to find out more about editorial design. Designers responded alittle too well, providing more than enough responses for theirrequired ten minute presentation, and the girls took all that extracontent and packed it into Fond. Fond of Editorial design is hopefullythe first of many issues, with a second planned in a few months time,focusing on typography…because they’ve long since forgotten themeaning of free time!”
To see an online version of the zine, click here. The printed version is lovely, full of ideas and different papers and techniques, well worth a look at if you get the chance…
Bicycle Portraits
Stan from Day One publiching just got in touch with his great project, such an amazing set of images and watercolours. Here’s a few words from him about the project:
“I thought you might enjoy a project myself and a good friend have been working on for the last 2 years, called ‘Bicycle Portraits’. Our 6000 kilometer journey around South Africa by bicycle aimed to be a photographic study of South African commuter culture (something that is nearly non-existent here), but it’s turned into a portrait of a nation through the bicycles that they own and ride every day, revealing all manner of social, historical, class and cultural nuances never imagined. We are about to publish the best 165 portraits (from over 500 photographed) in book form, accompanied by 6 essays and beautiful watercolor maps for each portrait indicating where it was photographed. We are currently in the last phase of fundraising through pre-sales of the books (plus great extras like prints and special editions) on the wonderful Kickstarter platform.
Please have a look at www.bicycleportraits.co.za/kickstarter for our Kickstarter page, or visit www.bicycleportraits.co.za to see the project online – and please spread the word – we have only a few days left to reach our target!”
The Bicycle Animation
Lovely animation sent to us by Katy Beveridge
‘James Bowthorpe’ by Robert Mason
Some truly great images of James Bowthorpe’s 24 hr cycle ride in the window of Look Mum No Hands earlier this year. Taken by Robert Mason – see more of his work here. For a little background on the day and his pictures, Robert has put a few words together:
“I work part-time in ‘Look Mum No Hands’ cycle cafe where one day James Bowthorpe turned up and asked my manager if he could cycle for 24 hours in the shop window. The cafe looks out onto a busy Old St. At first I thought he was a nut case and was rather amused until I learned that James is a serious ‘round the world’ cyclist. The aim was to complete a virtual 300 miles which would equal the pace of a stage, at the race across America. Straight away I introduced myself and asked if I could take some portraits of him. I was curious why he chose the cafe. He said he liked the idea of getting people together and enjoys the cycle community who hang around the cafe.
The day came on 15th June. Rollapaluza set up a stunning working installation, complete with a digital read out, smoke machine and second bike for friends and public to join in. At 7.30pm James was off, fuelled by the support of his friends, family and cafe staff.
James cycled through the night, I was thinking of David Blaine’s publicity stunt by Tower bridge back in 2003 and was worried that he may suffer eggs been thrown at him etc…
He said that in fact passers by, although at first bemused, got it and cheered him on and enjoyed the novelty on the otherwise quiet summers night.
The following morning I started my shift at 7am and was happy to see James in great form, with the aid of his friend John McFaul who rode a 4 hour stint with him and some old school tunes from Les Rythmes Digitales. We fed him breakfast, lunch and dinner that day which he devoured feverishly.
In the afternoon I took several shots of him, we spoke later about the pictures, James said that he was surprised by the changes his face undertook over the 24 hours. He also found the shot taken from outside a good juxtaposition, between buildings and trees reflected on the glass window. For this shot felt pretty timeless, maybe James didn’t now what time it was in this moment.
At 3.30 p.m James had already reached his target. In the final stages leading up till 7.30 pm there was an eager crowd awaiting the talk. They cheered and egged him on to sprint for the final minute. By this time he was spent. Maybe he wished they were there at 3.30p.m!All in all he completed 425 miles! After finishing we tried to get him to down one of our ales, but he thought “best not” to as he was about to talk for an hour.”