Ace Jet 170

What Jim said

I mentioned this on Twitter: I was going to tell you what I thought of George Lois's little book of big ideas but Jim's, well, totally (ehum) summed it up here.

On rescuing mass production from the ugliness and aesthetic emptiness which has so far characterised the greater part of its output, and other stories.

Design Research Unit deserve their near mythical position in design history. I first wrote about the "Practical Idealists" four years ago here. More recently, Johnny kindly wrote a guest post here after seeing the exhibition that toured a year or so ago. And a little before that, Eliza Williams wrote this for the Creative Review blog.

Anyone working in design today owes a debt to this amazing collection of disciplined and creative planners and smokers. Back in the day, barely a day went by when the besuited gentlemen of design didn't gather together to flame up a tab and plan a brighter future for us all.

I don't think I've anything to add to what's already been said. Except to say that the new book provides a rather convenient introduction to anyone less than familiar.

Just look at them: It's like Design Avengers Assemble circa 1970.

Of Screen and Semiotics

Pauline Clancy is an MA student at the University of Ulster studying Mutlidisciplinary Design. Pauline very kindly sent me a copy of her new self-promotional piece: A set of screen printed cards that piece together and reveal her pre-occupation with semiotics. Check out her website or blog for more typographics.

Henri's Walk To Paris

After reading that great big book about Saul Bass, and thinly disguised as a Valentine's present for Karen, I bought this lovely thing a little while back. Classic.

David Pearson at Walker Art Center

Groundwork

I mentioned a week or so back that a few of us were in Belfast's Linen Hall Library for the launch of a book we'd designed. Well, Sam Irwin did it really. I can only take credit for supplying the vintage typewriter he used to tap out the entire text. It was a labour of love and it's a testimony to all his hard work, attention to detail and commitment to the cause that at the launch no one, I mean absolutely no one, mentioned either Sam or Thought Collective. No one.

We were sitting there, a few rows from the back. Smiling through the first set of thankyous, not worrying too much that we weren't mentioned because there was plenty of time left. They singled out all the other parties involved, quite rightly. Made a particular effort to thank the photographer involved. But when the final round came…nothing.

But the thing is, I'm not joking that it's a testimony to to Sam's diligent work that no one noticed the design. That's what we set out to do: undesign it. Only problem is, for that to be successful, it should mean it goes unnoticed. It wasn't noticed. Result.

To get the full story, pop over to the TC blog.

 

Cuts and Colours

The latest gift book from Pentagram dropped through the door last week. Always interesting, this new one attempts to, once and for all, assign a more comprehensive colour system to common moods and emotions. French folded pages with perforated edges hide within the mood/emotion the design team felt best matched the hue.

Only trouble is, if you want to know what it really means to feel kind of brown, slightly purple or seriously orange, you have to break the perfs. Nightmare. Still, out came my Swiss Army Knife and in slipped the clean, sharp blade. Slit, slit, slit.

Smile

Birmingham-based designers Smile sent me their super deluxe promotional box of awesomeness before Christmas. Dive in and you get to scratch beneath the surface of their means and methods.

Own Label

Back in the sixties Sainsbury's played a big role in the development of the retail experience. Arguably the first UK supermarket, it set the standard others would reach for. I guess it was a model-shifting time for the graphic design business too.

Own Label, the new book by design company Fuel and Jonny Trunk is a vivid celebration of an important instance for retail packaging design as well as a broader cultural shift.

A few things helped:

Clearly, the times they were a'changing and the public were hungry for a tasty new shopping experience. This was also the time when foreign travel was becoming way more accessible to many for the first time and with that came tasty overseas delights. A prime time for the more adventurous.

Technical advancements in graphic reproduction must, I imagine, also have played its part - it was Penrose Annual's heyday, with the printing industry forging ahead at quite a pace.

And then there was that one vital component for this kind of thing to achieve momentum: a forward thinking champion at board level. While much credit can be given to in-house design supremo Peter Dixon, his work would has soon floundered without the full backing of company director John Sainsbury.

Clearly, the Sainsbury organisation had the right idea at the right time and it looks like the superretailer took full advantage of the opportunity for own label products to become a core part of their business, fuelled (pardon the pun) by exceptional graphic design.

It's a great book: a fantastic snapshot of an optimistic time.

 

10 by 10

I won.

FS Clerkenwell, to be precise. If you follow Fontsmith on Twitter you'd have enjoyed their anniversary typocompetition a couple of weeks back. It was simple but tricky at times: throughout the week snippets from their beautiful 10 years in type anthology teased us with abstracted font features. 

I was delighted to win, Clerkenwell is awesome. But even better, I signed up for a copy of the celebratory box set and it arrived at the tail end of last week. It's an amazing thing: superbly printed by Team Impression and stupendously designed by Thompson Brand Partners. Ten booklets tell the stories of ten unique fonts. This morning saw the launch of an accompanying microsite so if you're not able to get your hand on the real thing, you can still learn about Fontsmith's dedication to their craft and find out what makes them such exemplars of the fine art of type design.

The Lesser Spotted Bass

There's no point me spouting on about the genius of Bass. We all know it. Even if you only know a few posters or title sequences, if you're a graphic designer of at least "a certain age", you know how important Saul Bass is. If you're lucking, some time in 2004 you were at the Design Museum for the exhibition. Jonathan Jones, writing for the Guardian, slagged it off a bit at the time. I thought it was amazing. Perhaps Jones had a point but I didn't care - it was a ton of Saul Bass, on show, together. Wow.

I vaguely remember there was some promise of a book after the show. I think (and I could be getting mixed up here) you could even pre-order it on Amazon. But it didn't happen. Perhaps somewhere out there, there's a proper explanation of what happened.

Of course, fast-forward seven years and here it is. A mightly volume. And even if it doesn't read well (I've yet to test that) it's a ton of Saul Bass, on show, together. Wow.

As I've just hinted, I haven't had time to explore the book in any detail but one thought did occur: if you remove all the stuff we all know, take out all the film stuff, what's left is still pretty amazing. So rather than dwell on the posters and titles you may already know, here's some quieter things I at least had never seen before.

It's a hefty book but with a relatively modest price tag so I'd say it's more than worth buying. It's an essential chunk of graphic design history and it's beautiful.

Kind of Amazing

Yesterday David reminded us all (how on earth had I forgotten?) about Display, Kind Company's impressively curated archive of mid-20th Century graphic design, well yes, awesomeness. A word so easily over used nowadays but wholly appropriate when applied here. This is stuff to, literally, quicken the pulse and send your heart into palpitations.

Typohaircut Sir?

An Alan Aldridge. So it is.

So good they named him twice

 

Merrick Angle is an English designer, illustrator and print-maker. He lives near some cows in Northern France with his family and other stuff. Every now and then he emails me about his latest print. That's his new one there. The one with the molecular thingy. Good Science. I really like it. And his other prints. Especially the three down there: La Lune, La Terre and Le Soleil.

I'm not sure exactly why, but he operates under the title of "Double Merrick". There's a short film about him here that goes a little way to explain where the name came from. His online shop is here. And you can see more things he's made here.

  

Wish I'd done that…and that…and that…and…oh hell, all of it!

It's the classic gauge. With so much great stuff out there: reported on the blogs, in the press, in all those lovely books we have on our shelves, there's really only one way to seperate the work that you know is good but aren't that fussed about from the stuff you drool over; the stuff you wish you had the talent, skill and opportunity to have done yourself.

Because yes, if we have good eyes and a well informed, level head, we can review graphic design done by others and say that's good, that's not and that's a pile of crap. But then our own personal tastes and aspirations kick in. We see the good stuff we can enjoy but pass by and we see the good stuff that quickens our pulse; the stuff that we wish we'd done.

It's only really the Envyometer™ that gives, on a personal level, an accurate way to measure the worth of a piece of graphic design work.

I've been lucky enough to get hold of a copy of Hat-trick's new book In brief and although it's dimensions are small, it represents a massive body of exceptional work. Mini-page after mini-page delivers nugget after beautiful nugget. Envyometer™ readings at maximum. Brilliant ideas, skillfully executed. And over a period of just 10 years.

It's an abnormally good collection (think they must be in league with the devil or something) and a totally top-notch book. With words by the legendary Nick Asbury.

Not surprisingly, it's selling fast. Go here to secure yourself a copy.

With extra special thanks to Kate at Hat-trick for tolerating my damned cheek and for Nick for putting in a good word for me and for being a generally nice chap.

The Gentlemen Cyclists

I was chuffed and honoured to be asked by Alistair from We Made This to join the exceptional collection of guest writers he's brought together. So far, 16 guest bloggers have covered for him while he peddles the length of the UK. With his mate Dafydd he's cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats. That's 23 days, 35-65 miles a day, 1,050 miles in total and two rather sore arses.

Of course, it's not just for fun. They're raising money for Cancer Research UK.

You can read my post here and the posts by Paul Finn, Nick Asbury, illustrator Joe McLaren, Angharad Lewis, Michael Johnson, Wired and Ride Journal art director Andrew Diprose, Mike Dempsey, David Pearson, book designer and design teacher Clare Skeats, novelist Joe Dunthorne, Mike Reed, Catherine Dixon and Nick Hornby.

You can also follow the journey on their blog here.

And once you've done that, the nice and proper thing to do would be to head on over to the Just Giving page and, well, just give.

Planet Suite

Astronomically-obsessed, Montréal-based, designer Stephen Di Donato has a new Kickstarter project. Beyond Earth is a self-initiated poster (and postcard) series designed from a 1965 perspective, the year of the first space walk. A planet per silk-screened poster, each will detail what was known of the heavenly bodies at the time. You can find out more, including how to support the project, on the Kickstarter site.

Chi squared and its common misuse

If pressed, I would say Derek Birdsall is my favourite designer of all time. A couple of years ago Mike Dempsey opened a blog post on Birdsall with a sweeping statement, "If you don't know of [Birdsall] then you are not a graphic designer]". I think right now, in 2011, that might be a little harsh but then again, as a designer of a certain age myself, I also feel that it's not a totally unfair assertion.

At its best, Birdsall's work (and that of his studio Ominfic) is utterly meaningful and incredibly simple. Often so simple, you feel that each piece must have taken mere mintues to produce. And yet they're so powerful, it's impossible to imagine how you could better express the idea.

It was a Birdsall/Omnific cover design that got me into collecting Penguin books. When I stumbled across Juniors I was blown away; it was perfect and about as minimal as you can get. The studio produced many covers for the publishers Education imprint; the ones I have are on Flickr. I've just added this one.

(@H_FJ quite rightly pointed out on Twitter that that character is, of course, Psi, not as the title of this post might suggest Chi. I did know that. I DID. Really! The Chi reference comes from an overly obscure extract on the back cover that I haven't shown you. In other words: I have made no attempt to make this make sense.)

Herbology

 

Masters of the minor map location Herb Lester have extended their tip top product range with a set of complementary notebooks for "birders, fishermen, foragers and ramblers". With cover illustrations by super-talented Jez Burrows. Stock up here.

Yeah! Fuck you Michael Nyman.

Russell Mills was in town yesterday. He was speaking at the University of Ulster as part of the Ulster Festival of Art and Design. Mills, I suspect he won't mind me saying, is a particularly unfashionable designer. In fact, the tag "designer" hardly fits. Most of the work he showed was more "art", although has often been deployed in a design context, CD and book covers, for example. He's also a musician. Mills is not for everyone but he is for himself. And if there's one thing I admired about him it was a not-up-his-own-arse approach to his super-self-indulgent work. I don't like his work, to be honest, but that doesn't matter. He was interesting. Here are my notes…

My Notes:

The importance of sheds, in relation to Barnes-Wallace and the bouncing bomb.

Sirens.

Hairdresser that made starlight.

The up-their-own-arseness of art.

Schwitters.

Generative Japanese oily wall.

David Sylvian.

Crying fish homage to Benny Hill.

Pissed punk printer hijacks Pentagram artwork.

Porno playing cards.

Sensible sandels.

Cycling in the countryside.

Sheep and three voices.

LA for dinner on Thursday.

Blood, my blood, insects.

Obliged to live in catacombs.

The Christians saying, "Fuck You", to the Romans.

Iceberg off East Anglia.

Punctuated by gunshots.

Barking like a dog.

[At this point we were interupted by a woman choking and I subsequently lost my pen lid. Which disturbed me.]

Micre.

Wisdom and knowledge.

Stained glass, PVA and peat.

12 inch IBM hard disk.

Foot and mouth sheep with human head x-ray.

Pages turning into flapping wings.

The fossel of a shed.

Biblical air plant.

[At this point we were interupted by the choking woman's friend who had eventually decided to see if her friend was OK. I found my pen lid.]

Fuck you Michael Nyman.

White egg cosmic spade.

Pushing the Pull

Delighted to get Mike Perry's Pulled through the post the other day. I've had my beady eye on it for some time. It's an uncharacteristic aquisition really, it's not often I'd be so interested in a "showcase" book. But Pulled is a fabulous celebration of the screen print. Contributions are diverse, from the retro-cartoon luxury of Jim Datz to the messed up surrealism of Montreal's Seripop. It's a joyous collection of inks on papers.

Incidentally, there's an interview with Perry over on Grain Edit.

  

  

Mint Classics

You might have seen these by now. Tomas, from the Lithuanian agency Love, emailed me about them before we headed to England and I just didn't have time to do anything about it. If you missed them you can read a little more about them here.

Look, Look, Look

Look what dropped through the door over the weekend: A beautiful piece of work from Rachael and Stephen at One Point Oh. Screen printed in two colours onto mighty 1250 micron board, the Stop, Look, Listen totem pole comes (rather cleverly if you ask me) complete with a strut-card attached to the back so it can stand all on it's own.

It's a stunning piece of illustration. You can get yours here.

Eye Maps

Talking of maps, if you don't happen to have the latest Eye, you should probably get yourself a copy. I don't subscribe. But, casually leafing through Sam's, it occurred to me that I must have one. So I nicked his. Sorry Sam; it's mine now.

 

The cover is the cat's meow. A beautiful reproduction of one of Joost Grootens stunning maps for the Atlas of the New Dutch Water Defence Line. For the main article John L Walters (interestingly, a founding member of 80s "Einstein A Go-go" performers Landscape) talks to Grootens about his unique approach to mappery. 

Eye have generously illustrated the piece with numerous examples of Grootens work but you can get a feel for his atlas's physicality from this video.

And if that wasn't a good enough reasons to buy a copy (and trust me, it is) there's also a fantastic article on David Gentleman. It's also where we found the font we're using for the "The Zimbabwean" part of the masthead.

Z

We're buzzing at Thought Collective right now.Wednesday saw us presenting first stage visuals for the user interface and print editions of The Zimbabwean. It's been an exciting process to date but there's still a whole pile of work to be done. You can read more about it on the TC blog and catch a glimpse of the print version too.

&

Ampersand loving Janine brought her new, and pretty amazing, Gemma Correll letterpress print into Thought Collective this week. It's pretty amazing. (Oh, I've said that already). Still, it is.

Not enough Nitsche

I found a copy of Nitsche-designed A History of Ships and Seafaring to add to my snails-pace New Illustrated Library of Science and Invention collection. There's a few images on Flickr. Isn't it about time someone wrote a book about Nitsche? Heller could do it, he wrote this. And then, there's also this. Sadly, for reasons they explain here, BustBright have discontinued their absolutely amazing Nitsche Flickr archive. Which is tragic but understandable. It does, however, add further weight to the need for some kind of permanent representation of this astonishing designer's works.

Opposites

Details are sketchy (when I Google it, all I get is me!) but this dropped through the door last week. It's Pentagram's latest New Year keepsake. 12 antigrams to decipher with illustrations, cunningly printed dark grey and black, to act as clues. Pentagram have a tradition of producing these little books at this time of year but they're usually attributed to a partner. This time, I can't find anything that reveals who conceived the piece. Perhaps that's a tactic to perpetuate a spooky air of mystery.

11

Typotheque's 2011 Pocket Diary and Sketchbook is available. Designed by Peter Bil'ak, with a week to view and a plethora of gridded sketch pages at the back.

Dissident Robot Faction Protests

Equipped with Stephen and Rachael's placards, the tin-brained activists did their best to support the campaign. But protestations were soon abandoned fearing the onset of rust.

Excoffon

This is pretty exciting: Frédérique Duboscq has been in touch. To mark the centenary of the birth of ace French type designer Roger Excoffon, Ypsilon Editeur have just announced the release of the first monograph on the great man, Roger Excoffon and the Olive foundry. Written by Sandra Chamaret, Julien Gineste and Sébastien Morlighem (and designed by Chamaret and Gineste). It looks amazing. You can find out more here and see more here.

 

 

Think Tank

It's reminiscent of some kind of abandoned military base or a set from 70s/80s TV favourite The Professionals, which may go some way to explain why I've always been strangely attracted to Portview. It's not the locale; it's a bit dodgy down there - just a bit. That said, it's good enough for a few notable architects, a great photographer and one of Belfast's best kept graphic design secrets (and some pigeons). And it's where you'll find me in the New Year. I'm very excited to be joining a small, hand-crafted group of super-talented individuals; 2011 will see our amalgamated thinkings applied as one.

More later.

Cc:

Just in case you didn't get the email Bryan Edmondson from SEA is talking at UU on 11th November, at 6.45pm. £4 to get in, or £2 if you're a student. You can book a place by emailing Kelly Gordon. Bryan's also bringing an exhibition of SEA work which will be running until 15th.

Photos are of the rather good Gmund Paper mailers SEA did for GF Smith recently.

ISTDMcKee

I think Alice is doing OK. Seems fairly happy. She sings a bit and eats nuts. She did a really nice job this week on a branding project. It looked superb. This is her final degree project - her response to the ISTD brief. And a lovely piece of work it is too. You can read all about it here. (Forgive her blogs brokenness, she's working on it).

The lovely elmwood box was made to Alice's spec by Fruitvale Woodcraft.

 

 

Hollis in the Sixties

Found this in the surplus box in our local charity bookshop. Deserving much better I salvaged it even though I've already got it. Designed by Richard Hollis, in my opinion it's probably the second best Penguin Specials cover from that time. The best being Hollis's cover for The Stagnant Society from around the same time.

You might know Richard Hollis from his essential book Swiss Graphic Design from a few years ago but his website is superb with loads of examples of exceptional work.

Out of Office

Absolutely beautiful work from San Francisco creative studio Office. Found on Minneapoliis-based Florafauna's blog. Florafauna also do absolutely beautiful work. A little bit of which I hope to be able to show you soon.

AOK

Mark Ferguson's been remote-snooping. He sent questionnaires to various studios (including johnsonbanks, NB:Studio, Mother, The Case, 300million, Build and many more) quizzing them on their relationship to their immediate environments. Mark then compiled responses into an A0 layout which he had printed onto mighty-sized trace. 

He explains, "This mailer presents the results of an in-depth investigation into the relationships between working environments and creativity within the design industry. The mailers were sent out nationally to the respondents who had completed questionnaires for the study. The design is printed on an A0 sheet of trace to represent the space and light which the investigation showed designers value in a workspace. The large sheet was folded down to A4 for mailing."

Mark now runs his Very Own Studio.

Brucie Bonus

 

I suspect knowing full well of my weakness for an interesting bit of mappery, designer Dan Cassaro dropped me a line about, then dropped me a copy of, his self-published, Springsteen inspired Springstreets; a fictitious street map with all locations and street names taken from Bruce's lyrics. I'm not a Springsteen fan myself but have to admit, it is a marvelous piece of work. If you're quick, you might still be able to get a copy here.

Brockmann in Motion

Brockmann in Motion from Vít Zemčík on Vimeo. Via The Casual Optimist.

Prickly Pair

 

Designer Topher Sinkinson and illustrator Rob Halverson have a thing for cactus and have developed a range of home stuffs at Portland design studio makelike. It's all a bit weird and a bit nice too. Take a look, you can download their pdf catalogue here.

 

FSF by CBS

Beautiful new work from super-talented (and fan of Horse Stick) Carolie Bickford-Smith.

'Ow much to 'Oldham?

If you're quick, you might still be able to get 'old of a copy of Craig's all new* 12IN12 Super-Deluxe Extra Yellow Version at New Blood (with proceeds going to the worthy D&AD Education charity).

* Well, not exactly "all new"; more all, well…updated. And not necessarily "all". Updated.

And his all new* 10 Penneth can be bought for the princely sum of £3.50 (plus postage?) from the man himself, in all it's nasty dayglo majesty. Worth every penny and, especially if you're freshly qualified, both publications would be wise purchases. Even more so if you actually read them.

* Well, quite new.

They Made This

This is brilliant. I did a Stuff Exchange with Alistair at We Made This. Basically because I wanted to get my hands on one of their superb Twickenham Carnival posters. I did my best to offer a suitable trade but can't help feel that I came out of the deal a little on top.

 

 

About three hours

I presume you've already got your copy. So you don't need me to say how beautiful this is and how lovely the printing is. Or how great those diagrams are.

 

Lost (on me)

  

I'm not a Lost fan. Watched a few of the early ones then zoned out. Ty Mattson, on the other hand, is a massive fan and has designed a series of superb screen prints in homage to the show. More here.

Top Design Bloke Stalked By Found Type, Print and Stuff Blogger

I got so distracted by our trip to Lowden last week that I've totally skipped the official reason why Michael Johnson visited us. Michael had been invited by Queen's University to do their Creative Industries Fellowship Lecture. It was a great talk about where the ideas come from. Using examples of Johnson Banks' work, Michael explored the origins of concepts; how wrong thinking can often be right and how what you take out is often as important as what you leave in. And much more. From what I gather, everyone really enjoyed it and could have happily heard more. 

Somehow I managed to get invited out to dinner afterwards with Michael thanks to Andrew from Queen's which was really nice. Then, the following morning, a small group of us met up for an informal workshop/discussion so we could grill Michael and get the inside track on the secrets of his successes. That was good too. 

Add to all that Friday afternoon's road trip (with lunch and a diversion for chicken feed - yes, I took Michael Johnson to buy chicken feed!) and I feel like I practically stalked the poor man. Still, he was totally top notch company; extremely interesting and good fun.

And he gave me a signed copy of his book, which was really kind.

Mr Hyde

David (davidthedesigner) Hyde has sent me a lovely box of loveliness that he's designed for The Shapes of Things project; a series of exhibitions, each of which pulls together two artists from diverse backgrounds. You might remember him blogging about this stuff in April; he was, rightly, as pleased as Punch with himself, as I remember. David's been working closely with the craft-based artists involved and has developed a number of legacy booklets, using a variety of formats. 

It's an on-going project with two pairs done so far: Alinah Azadeh's The Gifts and Rosa Nguyen's Still Living come together in a flip-over A4 book; while the separate and square formatted ceramicist Halima Cassell and textiler Seiko Kinoshito are held snugly together by a card band - which also serves to carry the exhibition's title details (the covers of the books being unadulterated pure image).

 
 

The Johnson/Lowden Incident

If you know anything about guitars - really totally awesome acoustic guitars I mean - then you know more than me. Although after last Friday, I now know a little more. 

There are, apparently, only about four truly stupendous guitar families in the world. And one of them can be found just down the road in Downpatrick. Aficionados of the instrument rate Lowden above most of the others; I didn't know that. Sam (Fishbone) Bell had told me some of this a while back - perhaps as long as two years ago. But what did it mean to me? I'm not a guitarist. 

So when graphic design supremo Michael Johnson mentioned Lowden in an email and expressed his hope to visit them while over here, it only rang a vague and distant bell. Thankfully though, enough of a tinkle to prompt a couple of questions. And it wasn't long before pieces fell into place (including the fact that I actually already knew Lowden's sales manager Ricky). Then a few arrangements were made and a plan was hatched for a mini road trip to Lowden involving three men in a Mini: Me, Sam and Michael.

OK, so the instruments might not be my thing but an afternoon with Mr Johnson and a sneaky peak inside another factory/workshop was more than tempting enough for me. As it turned out, the trip and tour was ace. Michael was superb company (he basically knows everyone) and although George Lowden himself was in Italy at a trade show all the guys at Lowden were super-friendly and more than happy to talk about their work. Even I was excited by their craftsmanship and, especially, by the trappings of their workshops. Actually more than that; I was inspired…

We talk about the craft in what we do as designers. But there's craft and then there's craft; there's the craft of a carefully kerned piece of typography and then there's the, to be frank, higher-plane craft of the beautifully, hand built, world-class guitar. OK, I may not be equipped with the ability to appreciate how sublime a Lowden guitar sounds but witnessing the work in progress and hearing from a devotee I felt an irresistible energy. 

So I don't know much about guitars but I do know about passion for your craft and obsession. And I think I know how materials – beautiful and often exotic woods in this case – can make you tremble with excitement; and I totally get how intense enthusiasm for your craft can be so powerful it overrides good sense, practical considerations and any otherwise sensible urge to play it safe and comfortable. 

I think I witnessed all that on Friday; uncompromising commitment to making something unlike anything else in it's category; something unquestionably superior. Something, actually, totally fucking awesome…

 

But that's just what I think and like I've said, I'm not a guitar-head. Michael is though, so check out what he's just blogged. And see more images in the usual place.

Famous Designer's Puddings #2

 

Following a stonking keynote lecture on, "Where the Ideas Come From" and hot on the heels* of Nicholas Felton's cheesecake, I give you: Michael Johnson's Pannacotta. Although, to be totally honest and fair to Michael, I made him take a pudding just so I could prolong the Famous Designer's Puddings theme. He only ate the blueberries, I polished off the rest.

Special thanks go to Michael for humouring me and, I hope, forgiving my rudeness. And also to Andrew from Queen's for inviting me to dinner.

* When I say, "Hot on the heels", I actually mean, a year later.

Birthday Rand

Did I mention it was my birthday last week? It's OK, I don't expect presents off all of you. Really, it's OK. When you get to my age, you don't want for much. Just a coffee and walnut cake and a bit of Rand. That's all.