Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Accessory Designer Hope Von Joel from Eye of the World Designs

Eye of the World by Milly Jackson
Eye of the World S/S 2012 collection by Milly Jackson.

Hope Von Joel is a multi-talented knitwear designer, more about stylist, see fashion editor and accessories designer. But just how does she do it all? Read on to find out more about Eye of the World Designs.

Hope, you studied knitwear at Central Saint Martins and have also worked with the likes of Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh and Charlie le Mindu. As a stylist you’ve been a fashion editor for Super Super and now at Fiasco Magazine. What prompted the move into accessories design and was it a steep learning curve?
During my time at Central Saint Martins I worked at the houses of McQueen and Pugh on knitwear and design. These where both invaluable experiences and have definitely shaped by view of fashion to this date. It was a pleasure to see how the Design teams worked on the process behind such imaginative and wonderful collections. Styling wise yes I have previously worked with Charlie Le Mindu on his catwalk collection and Look Book; his creative flair is addictive and he is definitely a very capable and imaginative designer and business man! Styling for me is a great pleasure, I have worked on all sorts of projects from editorials for Elle Girl, Vogue, Oyster etc, to various fashion shows and big creative advertising campaigns – it’s a job with many different dimensions. I am always thrilled to work with clothing and accessories which break boundaries and challenge perceptions of the female form.  

Eye of the World Designs
Eye of the World Designs created for Brooke Roberts A/W 2012.

WIth this in mind the move over to accessories designing was quite easy. Having studied the concept of design at Central Saint Martins and seeing what is on offer from the bigger design houses I felt there was definitely a place in the market for sustainable, beautifully designed and hand finished pieces that are also made in the UK. What is nice about this sort of design is the fact that people can follow it from the design to the finished piece. Much of our raw materials are recycled or reclaimed and this gives the buyer a personal experience. I had the opportunity to work with Brooke Roberts because I was styling her collections, and it has been a great platform to launch the designs and see them worn with knitwear, which is another one of my passions.

Eye of the World Designs
Eye of the World accessories created for Brooke Roberts A/W 2012.

How do you juggle your different jobs? 
It’s about time management and everything has its place. The way I work is very creative but things overlap and that’s the joy of London and the creative scene. I am with an agent in London for my styling: Clicks and Contacts. They are a great creative push in that area and the rest I am learning along the way. 

Eye of the World Designs
Eye of the World accessories created for Brooke Roberts A/W 2012.

What’s in a name? How did you come up with Eye of the World designs?
Eye of the World Designs was thought up by my business partner Liam Motyer when we where travelling in South America. It became one of our favourite sayings and can apply to anything and everything. Our love of the organic form of wood seemed to offer a great view point on the world. I like the way it influences everything, very much like fashion; and so our use of wood has stuck.

Eye of the World S/S 2012 belts by Estelle Morris
Eye of the World S/S 2012 belts by Estelle Morris.

What inspires you when you start creating a collection and how do you ensure your ideas are translated into successful accessories. What parameters do you need to consider?
Colour colour colour colour… and wood. We take influences from anything and everything, from organic forms to marbles and glass… really anything that touches us. The colours of wood play a great influence, so if something doesn’t go with wood it’s not for us! This season we have been loving Orchids, Marbles and Wood. We always consider the season, who our customer is and what she is going to wear our accessories for. It’s like playing dress up with your favourite doll, creating a scene, place and style for each particular season.

Eye of the World Designs
Eye of the World accessories created for Brooke Roberts A/W 2012.

Most of your designs use wood – why is this and where do you source your wood from?
All our wood is sustainable, reclaimed or recycled and sourced locally to SE London. The reason we love wood is because Liam is a master craftsmen and his creativity and flair is in his manipulation of wood. We design and hand make every piece together in Peckham, with much love.

Eye of the World Designs S/S 2012
Eye of the World Designs S/S 2012.

Your pieces are notable for being extremely bold. How do you think they are best worn?
With a smile and a confidence that belongs to the wearer. I think that you should wear your clothes and accessories instead of letting them wear you.

Eye of the World Designs
Eye of the World accessories created for Brooke Roberts A/W 2012.

Your collection is styled with knitwear by Brooke Roberts – how does this collaboration work, and does it make you miss the world of knitwear? Any chance of a return?  
We worked with Brooke Roberts on two collaborations this season and last season. Last season I also styled her collections as I have done for some time. Her knitwear is luxurious and beautifully finished and her organic forms lend themselves to wooden accessories beautifully. I would love to return to knitwear and sometime soon I know I will! It’s a love and once you have the bug and the creative knowledge it’s like riding a bike.

Eye of the World Designs Converse
You recently created a special piece for the Converse Bag range. Can you tell me a little bit more about this project and what inspired your design?
Working with Converse was ace, we where asked to design a bag that reflected our love for Back to School. For us school was about movies, skating and moving forwards with speed. So we referenced the movie Back to the Future and created a real treat – a wooden and red flocked bag that combines music and design. Our signature is wood and so it seemed a perfect combination. The wood was all reclaimed and matched the original bags colour and the flocking is a technique that we are perfecting at the moment. We are also flocking wooden hats for editorials, so watch this space. We had a ball making the Converse bag and look forward to more projects in the future.

Eye of the World Designs Converse bag
What’s next for Eye of the World?
Well the world is our oyster. We hope to make more bespoke accessories because we love making extravagant pieces, which we have done for a few mega editorials that will be out in some big publications shortly. We are also now working on an A/W 2012 collection that will sparkle you all away. Eye of the World Designs continues to collaborate with all sorts of people. Our master craftsman Liam is creating some pieces with furniture makers Hendzel and Hunt for Designersblock and also for Selfridges. Lastly but most excitingly Eye of the World Designs for Brooke Roberts are now available to buy at Browns Focus and bespoke pieces are available directly from us.

You can follow Hope Von Joel‘s exploits on her blog, and don’t forget to take a peek at the Eye Of The World website too.

Categories ,accessories, ,Alexander Mc Queen, ,Back to School, ,Brooke Roberts, ,Browns Focus, ,Central Saint Martins, ,Charlie le Mindu, ,Clicks and Contacts, ,Converse Bag, ,Designersblock, ,Elle Girl, ,Estelle Morris, ,Eye of the World, ,Fashion Editor, ,Fiasco Magazine, ,Gareth Pugh, ,interview, ,knitwear, ,Liam Motyer, ,Marbles, ,Milly Jackson, ,Orchids, ,Oyster, ,Peckham, ,Reclaimed, ,recycled, ,S/S 2012, ,Selfridges, ,stylist, ,Super Super, ,sustainable, ,vogue, ,wood, ,Woodcraft

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Amelia’s Magazine | Save Our Souls: Camberwell College of Arts Illustration Degree Show Review Part 2

For the launch of Amelia Gregory’s (Editor: Amelia’s Magazine) wonderful illustration anthology in which illustrators illustrated the range of alternative energy sources. The artists were asked to illustrate the walls of Concrete Hermit. Two of the participants Liv and Jess have subsequently formed an interesting project called Pencil Chit Chat in which their conversations happen entirely through their drawings. Culminating in an exhibition soon to occur at the Front Room in Cambridge. Liv and Jess will each have a side of the room in which to draw their conversations live. Part of the remit of the project is that in real life Liv and Jess have barely met and the illustrations arrive in the post.

Liv:It was at the drawing on the walls day at Concrete Hermit back in December. But I don’t think we even had an extensive chat at all. We were getting into the scribble zones. I was really impressed with Jess’ wall. It looked so bold and vibrant.

Jess: I remember Liv commented on my good use of type and I watched her slowly throughout the day and thought “wow”

How did you become to be involved in Amelia’s Anthology?

Jess: I’d already done some stuff for Amelia and thought it was a fantastic opportunity to get involved in.

Liv: My local toon is intrinsically involved in environmental policies and it has positively rubbed onto me. I feel strongly about 4×4 vehicles. I have a pencil. I can draw stink lines.

Explain Pencil Chit Chat please…

Jess: I had the idea for a while and was just waiting for the right person to come along. I thought Liv’s type was different enough in style to mine but still had hand rendered qualities which helps fuse the project together.

Liv: It was Jess’ idea. I was bowled over and really excited by her email asking me to take part and be the other shoe to walk along a meandering little journey into scribbledom.

Where do you see Pencil Chit Chat developing?

Liv: Into print and to keep going. The whole idea of the Chit Chat is personal work but not self-indulgent. Maybe other illustrators could do the same. It’s like the Slow food movement, pilule pigeon post, back to the old writing desk days of yore.

Jess: Really I see it as a creative outlet where I can experiment and discover. I get many projects where people want a illustration which looks like a previous one. This is a chance for me to explore new techniques and avenues. Where do I see Pencil Chit Chat developing…….where it wants to really. Possibly I’d like a better website, but it have to be idiot proof for me and liv! Me and Liv where thinking we’d published the first years illustrations in a book by Christmas.

What are your plans?

Liv: Make a wee book, possibly in time for Crimbletime. Make up more words and infiltrate them into society. I’d like to see it passed onto others designers. Illustrators possibly sometimes feel like doodle hermits cooped up in their sheds or ships.

How did you become involved in front room?

Liv: This was also through Jess. As you can tell she is the brainchild of the operation- an extremely prolific and hardworking dude she is.

Jess: I came across there website whilst browsing on the internet. I got in touch! Originally I was going to do a solo exhibition. But I thought it be funnier and better with Liv.

How will the exhibition unfold? Will you take over the gallery walls again as at Concrete Hermit?

Jess: Pretty much! There going to be two different conversations unfolding, so we are both working all the time. “busy bees”

Liv: We will have two starting points i.e. two conversations will be underway, and we will swap over when one has finished their reply. It will be different I’m sure.

What is it that interests you about type, particularly hand rendered typography?

Liv: It’s really cathartic to draw letters and take your time over something that people do everyday, scribbling a note on a napkin or by the side of a crossword. It’s pure communication and you can be witty or stupid. I like like illustrations that educate you too. I was alwys pouring over my encyclopaedia when I wes a younger.

Jess I like the expression and extra meaning you can give to a word when its hand rendered type. I have always done it really it’s just natural.

What is your relationship between text and the illustration or is there no separation between the two?

Liv: Definitely the educational slant and informing an audience directly. I’d be more than happy to make versions in different languages, as that is a downside to hand rendered type if one doesn’t understand English. Maybe I should go and research in Japan..
I feel letterforms make my work look better! It’s an extra graphic detail, but it also has substance.

Jess: I see it as all part of my work. Sometimes the type can give extra meaning to the illustration

How did you develop as an illustrator?

Jess: I always really enjoyed drawing and being creative and it just seemed a natural progression for me. I like working to a brief also which is something illustrators seem to do often.

Liv: I decided it was the path for me when I realized it was in between fine art and graphic design. I didn’t want to be either of those. Illustration is for the people (as is Comic Sans- that’s a font for the people, but that’s another story) as it bridges gaps between understanding and informing one of a text or an idea, rather than alienating and putting something on a pedestal.

Favourite Illustrators?

Jess: Recently Cristina Guitian is doing brilliant stuff, and Adam Hayes. I really like the big shows that Le Gun put on. I saw there one at Pick Me Up I thought it was ace.

Liv: Old cookery books- the kitsch photography is joyous. Ren and Stimpy and other fifties-esque cartoons. Dirty edges and bits you get out of photocopiers, collaging Victorian style, Blists Hill museum, music pumping into my earlugs- plenty of textures and bleeps, Books books and more books. The music video ‘The Tain’.

In your interview in the Anthology your (Jess) use of Lightbox is mentioned, what and how does this work?

Liv: I hope this isn’t some new software everyone is in on. It’s a tracing cube with a switch and electricity, powered by a lemon battery used on the old spice ships to help sailors navigate in the lower decks. I think the Lumiere brothers invented it.

Jess: It’s a errrrrrrrr..(this is hard). Right!

It’s a box which you can draw on to copy the images underneath. So I draw all my roughs first, to get the alignments and proportions and then trace the images in color.

What were your thoughts about your respective technologies?

Jess: Why isn’t being used!

Liv: The sea serpent, The Anaconda- what a beast. It stays tethered to the seabed and gathers the power of the waves in its rubber body. A fantastical piece of engineering I want to see in our high seas.

For the launch of Amelia Gregory’s (Editor: Amelia’s Magazine) wonderful illustration anthology in which illustrators illustrated the range of alternative energy sources. The artists were asked to illustrate the walls of Concrete Hermit. Two of the participants Liv and Jess have subsequently formed an interesting project called Pencil Chit Chat in which their conversations happen entirely through their drawings. Culminating in an exhibition soon to occur at the Front Room in Cambridge. Liv and Jess will each have a side of the room in which to draw their conversations live. Part of the remit of the project is that in real life Liv and Jess have barely met and the illustrations arrive in the post.

Liv:It was at the drawing on the walls day at Concrete Hermit back in December. But I don’t think we even had an extensive chat at all. We were getting into the scribble zones. I was really impressed with Jess’ wall. It looked so bold and vibrant.

Jess: I remember Liv commented on my good use of type and I watched her slowly throughout the day and thought “wow”

How did you become to be involved in Amelia’s Anthology?

Jess: I’d already done some stuff for Amelia and thought it was a fantastic opportunity to get involved in.

Liv: My local toon is intrinsically involved in environmental policies and it has positively rubbed onto me. I feel strongly about 4×4 vehicles. I have a pencil. I can draw stink lines.

Explain Pencil Chit Chat please…

Jess: I had the idea for a while and was just waiting for the right person to come along. I thought Liv’s type was different enough in style to mine but still had hand rendered qualities which helps fuse the project together.

Liv: It was Jess’ idea. I was bowled over and really excited by her email asking me to take part and be the other shoe to walk along a meandering little journey into scribbledom.

Where do you see Pencil Chit Chat developing?

Liv: Into print and to keep going. The whole idea of the Chit Chat is personal work but not self-indulgent. Maybe other illustrators could do the same. It’s like the Slow food movement, patient pigeon post, this back to the old writing desk days of yore.

Jess: Really I see it as a creative outlet where I can experiment and discover. I get many projects where people want a illustration which looks like a previous one. This is a chance for me to explore new techniques and avenues. Where do I see Pencil Chit Chat developing…….where it wants to really. Possibly I’d like a better website, pill but it have to be idiot proof for me and liv! Me and Liv where thinking we’d published the first years illustrations in a book by Christmas.

What are your plans?

Liv: Make a wee book, possibly in time for Crimbletime. Make up more words and infiltrate them into society. I’d like to see it passed onto others designers. Illustrators possibly sometimes feel like doodle hermits cooped up in their sheds or ships.

How did you become involved in front room?

Liv: This was also through Jess. As you can tell she is the brainchild of the operation- an extremely prolific and hardworking dude she is.

Jess: I came across there website whilst browsing on the internet. I got in touch! Originally I was going to do a solo exhibition. But I thought it be funnier and better with Liv.

How will the exhibition unfold? Will you take over the gallery walls again as at Concrete Hermit?

Jess: Pretty much! There going to be two different conversations unfolding, so we are both working all the time. “busy bees”

Liv: We will have two starting points i.e. two conversations will be underway, and we will swap over when one has finished their reply. It will be different I’m sure.

What is it that interests you about type, particularly hand rendered typography?

Liv: It’s really cathartic to draw letters and take your time over something that people do everyday, scribbling a note on a napkin or by the side of a crossword. It’s pure communication and you can be witty or stupid. I like like illustrations that educate you too. I was alwys pouring over my encyclopaedia when I wes a younger.

Jess I like the expression and extra meaning you can give to a word when its hand rendered type. I have always done it really it’s just natural.

What is your relationship between text and the illustration or is there no separation between the two?

Liv: Definitely the educational slant and informing an audience directly. I’d be more than happy to make versions in different languages, as that is a downside to hand rendered type if one doesn’t understand English. Maybe I should go and research in Japan..
I feel letterforms make my work look better! It’s an extra graphic detail, but it also has substance.

Jess: I see it as all part of my work. Sometimes the type can give extra meaning to the illustration

How did you develop as an illustrator?

Jess: I always really enjoyed drawing and being creative and it just seemed a natural progression for me. I like working to a brief also which is something illustrators seem to do often.

Liv: I decided it was the path for me when I realized it was in between fine art and graphic design. I didn’t want to be either of those. Illustration is for the people (as is Comic Sans- that’s a font for the people, but that’s another story) as it bridges gaps between understanding and informing one of a text or an idea, rather than alienating and putting something on a pedestal.

Favourite Illustrators?

Jess: Recently Cristina Guitian is doing brilliant stuff, and Adam Hayes. I really like the big shows that Le Gun put on. I saw there one at Pick Me Up I thought it was ace.

Liv: Old cookery books- the kitsch photography is joyous. Ren and Stimpy and other fifties-esque cartoons. Dirty edges and bits you get out of photocopiers, collaging Victorian style, Blists Hill museum, music pumping into my earlugs- plenty of textures and bleeps, Books books and more books. The music video ‘The Tain’.

In your interview in the Anthology your (Jess) use of Lightbox is mentioned, what and how does this work?

Liv: I hope this isn’t some new software everyone is in on. It’s a tracing cube with a switch and electricity, powered by a lemon battery used on the old spice ships to help sailors navigate in the lower decks. I think the Lumiere brothers invented it.

Jess: It’s a errrrrrrrr..(this is hard). Right!

It’s a box which you can draw on to copy the images underneath. So I draw all my roughs first, to get the alignments and proportions and then trace the images in color.

What were your thoughts about your respective technologies?

Jess: Why isn’t being used!

Liv: The sea serpent, The Anaconda- what a beast. It stays tethered to the seabed and gathers the power of the waves in its rubber body. A fantastical piece of engineering I want to see in our high seas.

I’ve already blogged about my absolute favourite illustrators from the Camberwell College of Arts Illustration Degree Show Save Our Souls, ask but because there was so much good stuff to see here is a compilation of my Best of the Rest: and apologies to any absolute wonders that somehow slipped from my gaze as I hurried around the exhibition.

Andrew Thorpe
I liked Andrew Thorpe‘s strange targets and squirrels etched onto wood.

Camberwell degree show2010Andrewthorpe

Jamie Peter Hall
Jamie Peter Hall‘s Germanscape used household paint on wood. His work has an appealing real fine art feel to it.

Jamie Peter Hall

Myrto Williams
For some reason I found this work from Myrto Williams extremely unsettling. But the combination of hyperreal style and unusual subject matter certainly drew me in.

Camberwell Degree2010 Myrto Williams

Nina Malysheva
This clever collaged paperwork to illustrate The Rime of the Ancient Mariner from Nina Malysheva had great appeal.

Nina Malysheva Mariner
Nina Malysheva

Paddy Jones
Paddy Jones takes cue from comic books, cure Andrew James Jones, prostate Modern Toss and ilk to produce fun characters, often with an accompanying storyline. I liked his large wooden cutouts.

Camberwell degree show2010Paddy Jones

Emily Brown
Does some very nice woodcut animals, but other than that I can tell you no more because she barely has an online presence. In fact this image was all I could find.

EMILY-BROWN

Imogen Kirk-Reynolds
Imogen Kirk-Reynolds played around with found imagery and type.

Imogen kirk reynolds

Rochu Chiu
A nice bit of nonsensical fun from Rochu Chiu, who had stuck a load of postcards spilling out of a fake letterbox onto the floor. Illustration or installation? You decide.

Camberwell Degree2010rochuchiu

Christie Corbally
I liked some of Christie Corbally‘s very trendy crystal influenced printed textile designs, but again, no website and no way to find more of her work. Even her link on the Save Our Souls website doesn’t work.

Camberwell degree show2010ChristieCorbally

Pete Willis
I liked Pete Willis‘s strange family portrait in coloured pencils and the similar scratchy pencil style of Feronia Parker-Thomas, who was reviewed in Matt Bramford’s earlier blog.

Pete Willis

On a bit of a tangent, I was most intrigued by the work of Sprouting 56… which appears to be a collective of “co-facilitators of edible related projects” that blurs into the Transition Town Brixton and Peckham food groups and takes into account a bit of guerilla gardening… quite what it has to do with illustration or any other artistic discipline I’m not sure, and will need further investigation. But it’s great to see artists tackling these kind of projects as part of their degree work. Very exciting stuff. With apologies for the shite photograph below but it’s all I have.

Camberwell Degree sprouting 56

Finally, I have to say that I continue to be massively surprised by the lack of online engagement from the majority of graduating illustrators. I suppose what irks me most is that I actually lectured most of these particular illustrators when I visited Camberwell during their second year, and I distinctly remember devoting a large part of my lecture to the importance of online networking – and especially the importance of being on Twitter. I’ve yet to find one of these illustrators proactively on there.

I suppose that what I take from this is that unless I actually sit down and spend significant amounts of time helping illustrators (or other artists and designers) to set up their online presence, then it simply goes straight over their heads. But then, that’s completely down to whether the art colleges will employ me to do so. I don’t think they can afford not to. Tutors, if you’re reading this, you know where to find me….

Categories ,Andrew Thorpe, ,Brixton, ,Camberwell College of, ,Christie Corbally, ,Emily Brown, ,Feronia Parker Thomas, ,Graduate Show, ,guerilla gardening, ,illustration, ,Imogen Kirk-Reynolds, ,Jamie Peter Hall, ,Myrto Williams, ,Nina Malysheva, ,Paddy Jones, ,Peckham, ,Pete Willis, ,Rochu Chiu, ,Save Our Souls, ,Sprouting 56, ,transition town

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Amelia’s Magazine | Save Our Souls: Camberwell College of Arts Illustration Degree Show Review Part 2

For the launch of Amelia Gregory’s (Editor: Amelia’s Magazine) wonderful illustration anthology in which illustrators illustrated the range of alternative energy sources. The artists were asked to illustrate the walls of Concrete Hermit. Two of the participants Liv and Jess have subsequently formed an interesting project called Pencil Chit Chat in which their conversations happen entirely through their drawings. Culminating in an exhibition soon to occur at the Front Room in Cambridge. Liv and Jess will each have a side of the room in which to draw their conversations live. Part of the remit of the project is that in real life Liv and Jess have barely met and the illustrations arrive in the post.

Liv:It was at the drawing on the walls day at Concrete Hermit back in December. But I don’t think we even had an extensive chat at all. We were getting into the scribble zones. I was really impressed with Jess’ wall. It looked so bold and vibrant.

Jess: I remember Liv commented on my good use of type and I watched her slowly throughout the day and thought “wow”

How did you become to be involved in Amelia’s Anthology?

Jess: I’d already done some stuff for Amelia and thought it was a fantastic opportunity to get involved in.

Liv: My local toon is intrinsically involved in environmental policies and it has positively rubbed onto me. I feel strongly about 4×4 vehicles. I have a pencil. I can draw stink lines.

Explain Pencil Chit Chat please…

Jess: I had the idea for a while and was just waiting for the right person to come along. I thought Liv’s type was different enough in style to mine but still had hand rendered qualities which helps fuse the project together.

Liv: It was Jess’ idea. I was bowled over and really excited by her email asking me to take part and be the other shoe to walk along a meandering little journey into scribbledom.

Where do you see Pencil Chit Chat developing?

Liv: Into print and to keep going. The whole idea of the Chit Chat is personal work but not self-indulgent. Maybe other illustrators could do the same. It’s like the Slow food movement, pilule pigeon post, back to the old writing desk days of yore.

Jess: Really I see it as a creative outlet where I can experiment and discover. I get many projects where people want a illustration which looks like a previous one. This is a chance for me to explore new techniques and avenues. Where do I see Pencil Chit Chat developing…….where it wants to really. Possibly I’d like a better website, but it have to be idiot proof for me and liv! Me and Liv where thinking we’d published the first years illustrations in a book by Christmas.

What are your plans?

Liv: Make a wee book, possibly in time for Crimbletime. Make up more words and infiltrate them into society. I’d like to see it passed onto others designers. Illustrators possibly sometimes feel like doodle hermits cooped up in their sheds or ships.

How did you become involved in front room?

Liv: This was also through Jess. As you can tell she is the brainchild of the operation- an extremely prolific and hardworking dude she is.

Jess: I came across there website whilst browsing on the internet. I got in touch! Originally I was going to do a solo exhibition. But I thought it be funnier and better with Liv.

How will the exhibition unfold? Will you take over the gallery walls again as at Concrete Hermit?

Jess: Pretty much! There going to be two different conversations unfolding, so we are both working all the time. “busy bees”

Liv: We will have two starting points i.e. two conversations will be underway, and we will swap over when one has finished their reply. It will be different I’m sure.

What is it that interests you about type, particularly hand rendered typography?

Liv: It’s really cathartic to draw letters and take your time over something that people do everyday, scribbling a note on a napkin or by the side of a crossword. It’s pure communication and you can be witty or stupid. I like like illustrations that educate you too. I was alwys pouring over my encyclopaedia when I wes a younger.

Jess I like the expression and extra meaning you can give to a word when its hand rendered type. I have always done it really it’s just natural.

What is your relationship between text and the illustration or is there no separation between the two?

Liv: Definitely the educational slant and informing an audience directly. I’d be more than happy to make versions in different languages, as that is a downside to hand rendered type if one doesn’t understand English. Maybe I should go and research in Japan..
I feel letterforms make my work look better! It’s an extra graphic detail, but it also has substance.

Jess: I see it as all part of my work. Sometimes the type can give extra meaning to the illustration

How did you develop as an illustrator?

Jess: I always really enjoyed drawing and being creative and it just seemed a natural progression for me. I like working to a brief also which is something illustrators seem to do often.

Liv: I decided it was the path for me when I realized it was in between fine art and graphic design. I didn’t want to be either of those. Illustration is for the people (as is Comic Sans- that’s a font for the people, but that’s another story) as it bridges gaps between understanding and informing one of a text or an idea, rather than alienating and putting something on a pedestal.

Favourite Illustrators?

Jess: Recently Cristina Guitian is doing brilliant stuff, and Adam Hayes. I really like the big shows that Le Gun put on. I saw there one at Pick Me Up I thought it was ace.

Liv: Old cookery books- the kitsch photography is joyous. Ren and Stimpy and other fifties-esque cartoons. Dirty edges and bits you get out of photocopiers, collaging Victorian style, Blists Hill museum, music pumping into my earlugs- plenty of textures and bleeps, Books books and more books. The music video ‘The Tain’.

In your interview in the Anthology your (Jess) use of Lightbox is mentioned, what and how does this work?

Liv: I hope this isn’t some new software everyone is in on. It’s a tracing cube with a switch and electricity, powered by a lemon battery used on the old spice ships to help sailors navigate in the lower decks. I think the Lumiere brothers invented it.

Jess: It’s a errrrrrrrr..(this is hard). Right!

It’s a box which you can draw on to copy the images underneath. So I draw all my roughs first, to get the alignments and proportions and then trace the images in color.

What were your thoughts about your respective technologies?

Jess: Why isn’t being used!

Liv: The sea serpent, The Anaconda- what a beast. It stays tethered to the seabed and gathers the power of the waves in its rubber body. A fantastical piece of engineering I want to see in our high seas.

For the launch of Amelia Gregory’s (Editor: Amelia’s Magazine) wonderful illustration anthology in which illustrators illustrated the range of alternative energy sources. The artists were asked to illustrate the walls of Concrete Hermit. Two of the participants Liv and Jess have subsequently formed an interesting project called Pencil Chit Chat in which their conversations happen entirely through their drawings. Culminating in an exhibition soon to occur at the Front Room in Cambridge. Liv and Jess will each have a side of the room in which to draw their conversations live. Part of the remit of the project is that in real life Liv and Jess have barely met and the illustrations arrive in the post.

Liv:It was at the drawing on the walls day at Concrete Hermit back in December. But I don’t think we even had an extensive chat at all. We were getting into the scribble zones. I was really impressed with Jess’ wall. It looked so bold and vibrant.

Jess: I remember Liv commented on my good use of type and I watched her slowly throughout the day and thought “wow”

How did you become to be involved in Amelia’s Anthology?

Jess: I’d already done some stuff for Amelia and thought it was a fantastic opportunity to get involved in.

Liv: My local toon is intrinsically involved in environmental policies and it has positively rubbed onto me. I feel strongly about 4×4 vehicles. I have a pencil. I can draw stink lines.

Explain Pencil Chit Chat please…

Jess: I had the idea for a while and was just waiting for the right person to come along. I thought Liv’s type was different enough in style to mine but still had hand rendered qualities which helps fuse the project together.

Liv: It was Jess’ idea. I was bowled over and really excited by her email asking me to take part and be the other shoe to walk along a meandering little journey into scribbledom.

Where do you see Pencil Chit Chat developing?

Liv: Into print and to keep going. The whole idea of the Chit Chat is personal work but not self-indulgent. Maybe other illustrators could do the same. It’s like the Slow food movement, patient pigeon post, this back to the old writing desk days of yore.

Jess: Really I see it as a creative outlet where I can experiment and discover. I get many projects where people want a illustration which looks like a previous one. This is a chance for me to explore new techniques and avenues. Where do I see Pencil Chit Chat developing…….where it wants to really. Possibly I’d like a better website, pill but it have to be idiot proof for me and liv! Me and Liv where thinking we’d published the first years illustrations in a book by Christmas.

What are your plans?

Liv: Make a wee book, possibly in time for Crimbletime. Make up more words and infiltrate them into society. I’d like to see it passed onto others designers. Illustrators possibly sometimes feel like doodle hermits cooped up in their sheds or ships.

How did you become involved in front room?

Liv: This was also through Jess. As you can tell she is the brainchild of the operation- an extremely prolific and hardworking dude she is.

Jess: I came across there website whilst browsing on the internet. I got in touch! Originally I was going to do a solo exhibition. But I thought it be funnier and better with Liv.

How will the exhibition unfold? Will you take over the gallery walls again as at Concrete Hermit?

Jess: Pretty much! There going to be two different conversations unfolding, so we are both working all the time. “busy bees”

Liv: We will have two starting points i.e. two conversations will be underway, and we will swap over when one has finished their reply. It will be different I’m sure.

What is it that interests you about type, particularly hand rendered typography?

Liv: It’s really cathartic to draw letters and take your time over something that people do everyday, scribbling a note on a napkin or by the side of a crossword. It’s pure communication and you can be witty or stupid. I like like illustrations that educate you too. I was alwys pouring over my encyclopaedia when I wes a younger.

Jess I like the expression and extra meaning you can give to a word when its hand rendered type. I have always done it really it’s just natural.

What is your relationship between text and the illustration or is there no separation between the two?

Liv: Definitely the educational slant and informing an audience directly. I’d be more than happy to make versions in different languages, as that is a downside to hand rendered type if one doesn’t understand English. Maybe I should go and research in Japan..
I feel letterforms make my work look better! It’s an extra graphic detail, but it also has substance.

Jess: I see it as all part of my work. Sometimes the type can give extra meaning to the illustration

How did you develop as an illustrator?

Jess: I always really enjoyed drawing and being creative and it just seemed a natural progression for me. I like working to a brief also which is something illustrators seem to do often.

Liv: I decided it was the path for me when I realized it was in between fine art and graphic design. I didn’t want to be either of those. Illustration is for the people (as is Comic Sans- that’s a font for the people, but that’s another story) as it bridges gaps between understanding and informing one of a text or an idea, rather than alienating and putting something on a pedestal.

Favourite Illustrators?

Jess: Recently Cristina Guitian is doing brilliant stuff, and Adam Hayes. I really like the big shows that Le Gun put on. I saw there one at Pick Me Up I thought it was ace.

Liv: Old cookery books- the kitsch photography is joyous. Ren and Stimpy and other fifties-esque cartoons. Dirty edges and bits you get out of photocopiers, collaging Victorian style, Blists Hill museum, music pumping into my earlugs- plenty of textures and bleeps, Books books and more books. The music video ‘The Tain’.

In your interview in the Anthology your (Jess) use of Lightbox is mentioned, what and how does this work?

Liv: I hope this isn’t some new software everyone is in on. It’s a tracing cube with a switch and electricity, powered by a lemon battery used on the old spice ships to help sailors navigate in the lower decks. I think the Lumiere brothers invented it.

Jess: It’s a errrrrrrrr..(this is hard). Right!

It’s a box which you can draw on to copy the images underneath. So I draw all my roughs first, to get the alignments and proportions and then trace the images in color.

What were your thoughts about your respective technologies?

Jess: Why isn’t being used!

Liv: The sea serpent, The Anaconda- what a beast. It stays tethered to the seabed and gathers the power of the waves in its rubber body. A fantastical piece of engineering I want to see in our high seas.

I’ve already blogged about my absolute favourite illustrators from the Camberwell College of Arts Illustration Degree Show Save Our Souls, ask but because there was so much good stuff to see here is a compilation of my Best of the Rest: and apologies to any absolute wonders that somehow slipped from my gaze as I hurried around the exhibition.

Andrew Thorpe
I liked Andrew Thorpe‘s strange targets and squirrels etched onto wood.

Camberwell degree show2010Andrewthorpe

Jamie Peter Hall
Jamie Peter Hall‘s Germanscape used household paint on wood. His work has an appealing real fine art feel to it.

Jamie Peter Hall

Myrto Williams
For some reason I found this work from Myrto Williams extremely unsettling. But the combination of hyperreal style and unusual subject matter certainly drew me in.

Camberwell Degree2010 Myrto Williams

Nina Malysheva
This clever collaged paperwork to illustrate The Rime of the Ancient Mariner from Nina Malysheva had great appeal.

Nina Malysheva Mariner
Nina Malysheva

Paddy Jones
Paddy Jones takes cue from comic books, cure Andrew James Jones, prostate Modern Toss and ilk to produce fun characters, often with an accompanying storyline. I liked his large wooden cutouts.

Camberwell degree show2010Paddy Jones

Emily Brown
Does some very nice woodcut animals, but other than that I can tell you no more because she barely has an online presence. In fact this image was all I could find.

EMILY-BROWN

Imogen Kirk-Reynolds
Imogen Kirk-Reynolds played around with found imagery and type.

Imogen kirk reynolds

Rochu Chiu
A nice bit of nonsensical fun from Rochu Chiu, who had stuck a load of postcards spilling out of a fake letterbox onto the floor. Illustration or installation? You decide.

Camberwell Degree2010rochuchiu

Christie Corbally
I liked some of Christie Corbally‘s very trendy crystal influenced printed textile designs, but again, no website and no way to find more of her work. Even her link on the Save Our Souls website doesn’t work.

Camberwell degree show2010ChristieCorbally

Pete Willis
I liked Pete Willis‘s strange family portrait in coloured pencils and the similar scratchy pencil style of Feronia Parker-Thomas, who was reviewed in Matt Bramford’s earlier blog.

Pete Willis

On a bit of a tangent, I was most intrigued by the work of Sprouting 56… which appears to be a collective of “co-facilitators of edible related projects” that blurs into the Transition Town Brixton and Peckham food groups and takes into account a bit of guerilla gardening… quite what it has to do with illustration or any other artistic discipline I’m not sure, and will need further investigation. But it’s great to see artists tackling these kind of projects as part of their degree work. Very exciting stuff. With apologies for the shite photograph below but it’s all I have.

Camberwell Degree sprouting 56

Finally, I have to say that I continue to be massively surprised by the lack of online engagement from the majority of graduating illustrators. I suppose what irks me most is that I actually lectured most of these particular illustrators when I visited Camberwell during their second year, and I distinctly remember devoting a large part of my lecture to the importance of online networking – and especially the importance of being on Twitter. I’ve yet to find one of these illustrators proactively on there.

I suppose that what I take from this is that unless I actually sit down and spend significant amounts of time helping illustrators (or other artists and designers) to set up their online presence, then it simply goes straight over their heads. But then, that’s completely down to whether the art colleges will employ me to do so. I don’t think they can afford not to. Tutors, if you’re reading this, you know where to find me….

Categories ,Andrew Thorpe, ,Brixton, ,Camberwell College of, ,Christie Corbally, ,Emily Brown, ,Feronia Parker Thomas, ,Graduate Show, ,guerilla gardening, ,illustration, ,Imogen Kirk-Reynolds, ,Jamie Peter Hall, ,Myrto Williams, ,Nina Malysheva, ,Paddy Jones, ,Peckham, ,Pete Willis, ,Rochu Chiu, ,Save Our Souls, ,Sprouting 56, ,transition town

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Amelia’s Magazine | In Place Peckham: Camberwell College of Arts Illustration Degree Show 2014 Review

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review
This year the Camberwell College of Arts illustration graduates eschewed central London to hold their show in a warehouse in Copeland Park behind the Bussey Building, an area which has changed beyond all recognition since I shared a studio there after graduation with Simone Lia and Catherine Vase. Nowadays Peckham is a seething hub of creativity, with the cafe culture to support it. Eighteen years ago (gulp!) not so much so.

Bussey Building, Phlegm
Phlegm artwork adorning the Bussey Building, which used to be known as SANA.

The exhibition was aptly named In Place Peckham: when I arrived some of the illustrators were kicking a ball around with local kids, and a few of the final projects were the result of work (and play) within the community. Peckham may be changing but it’s still a very deprived area of London, so it was good to see a thoughtful engagement from students who clearly consider the place where they studied an important factor in their creative development.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Soonmi Jung
Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_soonmi jung after the tide
I’ve been to a lot of shows this summer and I’m incredibly late posting my reviews because we’ve been away a lot as well. So here, without further ado, is my run down of favourite pieces found in Peckham. Soonmi Jung creates wildly energetic paintings and I fell in love with her book, After the Tide, about becoming engulfed in the sea whilst hunting for pretty pebbles – with illustrations that wonderfully evoke the untamed nature of the coast in glorious technicolour.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Matt Dunlop
This subtle wood texture print is by Matt Dunlop.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Daryl Rainbow
I thoroughly enjoyed some spot on commentary about excessive mobile phone use from Daryl Rainbow. Of course, I fully get the irony of taking photos of his illustrations on my mobile phone and subsequently sharing them on instagram (where I first shared all my finds a few weeks back).

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Laura Preiti
Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Laura Preiti ceramic
This interactive sculpture by Lara Preiti explores the reasons why structures might collapse in earthquakes. I also like the quizzical faces on ceramics that remind me of the Easter Island monoliths.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Gaurab Thakali
Nepalese illustrator Gaurab Thakali created colourful illustration inspired by a love of jazz.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Jess Money
Large scale fabric cacti and succulents by Jess Money dominated the corner of a room.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Haylea Rush
Haylea Rush also worked in fabric to create this somewhat jokey fabric sarcophagus.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Lisa Mallinson
Bizarre aggregations of flowers, fruit and body parts remain a very popular trend amongst graduating illustrators, by Lisa Mallinson.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Camille Thirot-Lafond
A decorative ceramic roast chicken by Camille Thirot-Lafond was cast from a plastic one she found in a pound shop, part of a commentary on how we attribute value to objects.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Soo Nyeong Shin
These pretty patterns are by Soo Nyeong Shin.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Ara Cho
Ara Cho had created a plethora of tiny colourful collages inspired by the act of dining.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Caz Slattery soap
Soap was re-formed into oddly familiar shapes by Caz Slattery, one of many artists interested in imbuing everyday objects with a new significance.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Chloe Greenfield
Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_chloe greenfield
I really liked Chloe Greenfield’s patterned ceramics and textiles display, part of her Greasy Shrine installation.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Anna baldwin
Beautiful fine porcelain was adorned with delicate illustration by Anna Baldwin.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Rebecca Barnett
This joyful astronaut cat and giraffe illustration is by Rebecca Barnett.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_amy glover
Amy Glover showcased a clever and much needed project, the result of making dens and spaces for play in collaboration with local Peckham kids.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Yvonne Wiecek
Surreal interiors by Yvonne Wiecek were inspired by a love of fiction.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_Amy Grimes
Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_amy grimes ceramics
I love the perspective on this campfire scene by Amy Grimes. She also created these coral ceramics and sheep.

Camberwell illustration in place peckham review_natalie rowe
A love of science and nature inspired a series of very detailed work by Natalie Rowe.

To support the In Place Peckham exhibition the students raised money via Kickstarter to produce a beautiful show catalogue. The exhibition was also lovingly realised, but I had to spend an inordinate amount of time matching the work to the illustrators, as everything was number coded and had to be checked back to an A4 sheet. This made for a slick show on the walls but it was a nightmare to write about: future graduates please take note! It’s a shame, also, that Camberwell students did not accept my offer to list their graduate show on my website (as I did for Kingston and Bournemouth). When I didn’t hear back I clicked on over to their website and nicked a few images to use in a listing for the June Open House at Camberwell College of Arts. The result? A major art book publisher got in touch with me because they want to work with one of the students whose work I featured. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: new graduates have to grab every opportunity to promote their work, for this is not the end it is only the beginning… and you never know where offers such as mine may lead.

Follow me on instagram to discover new art in real time as I find it.

Categories ,2014, ,After the Tide, ,Amy Glover, ,Amy Grimes, ,Anna Baldwin, ,Ara Cho, ,bournemouth, ,Bussey Building, ,Camberwell College of Arts, ,Camille Thirot-Lafond, ,Caz Slattery, ,ceramics, ,Chloe Greenfield, ,community, ,Copeland Park, ,Daryl Rainbow, ,Degree Show, ,Gaurab Thakali, ,graduate, ,Greasy Shrine, ,Haylea Rush, ,illustration, ,In Place Peckham, ,Jess Money, ,Kickstarter, ,Kingston, ,Lara Preiti, ,Lisa Mallinson, ,Matt Dunlop, ,Natalie Rowe, ,Peckham, ,Phlegm, ,Rebecca Barnett, ,review, ,SANA, ,Simone Lia, ,Soo Nyeong Shin, ,Soonmi Jung, ,Yvonne Wiecek

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Amelia’s Magazine | Nestled at Deptford X Arts festival

treesSMALL

All photographs © Olga and Ania Mici?ska

One cold rainy morning back in October consisted of a trip down in the direction of Deptford to check out the 12th Deptford X Arts festival. After frequent wrong turns, viagra 100mg map gazing, standing in the map, asking for directions I stumbled into the Viewfinder Photography Gallery and the work of Ania and Olga Micinska.

The exhibition also happened to be part of two other cultural festivals running concurrently: Photomonth and the Big Draw.

Despite the rain and TFL’s apparent desire to make journeys between the East and the South East as difficult as possible, the work of the Micinskas’ was a pleasure to behold.

bench-3SMALL

The series of photographs depicts one or another of the twins bending their bodies into a variety of urban architectural features that are synonymous with most if not all European Cities. Accompanied by the titled “Nestled” the twins appear to have made a nest in the most unlikely of urban locations.

concreteSMALL

The series lends to the impression or question of humans being out of place in the environment of our own creation; the uncomfortable metropolis appears difficult for the body to experience at ease. This feeling of disjunction within the urban jungle is never more apparent than when a tourist, new in a big city, is reliant on maps and blockbuster sightseeing spots to navigate their way through various city planners’ ideas of a navigable livable city.

Appropriately it is this position of the tourist from which the Micinska’s leap into their project: “we didn’t exactly deny our tourist status; on the contrary we thought about our situation more insightfully and the state of being home for a long period of time.”

filarSMALL

Examining the relationship between tourist and traveler they portray their journey through that of the tourist snap, albeit less of a snap more of a lengthy mediation on what it is to inhabit a city through their medium format Pentacon SIXTL and Yashica (6 x 6 format). These cameras’ physical presence extends the body’s circumference of a space.

The Twins never reveal in which city or country they inhabit during the photographic series. Instead architecture bleeds into architecture, undercarriage into undercarriage. We inhabit a world where the only flowers exist in carefully constructed flowerpots along the sides of the road.

doorSMALL

Examining the photographs drew an awareness of the fragility of the human physiology and the hardness, which surrounds us on an everyday basis.

What is undeniable about this lovely photographic series is the presence of play within each of the photographs; hiding behind benches and in children’s playground brings a sense hide and seek into the proceedings.

What’s more this exhibition draws attention to the range of creative expression that is constantly being presented in London, whilst this exhibition fell into the jurisdiction of three cultural exhibitions, it also brought to my attention the variety of galleries present in South East London (Deptford/New Cross/Peckham area). Whilst much has been written about how South East is the new East, there is limited attention donated towards the actual quality of the work present in the South East. Deptford X threw open the doors of Bearspace and Pony gallery both of which feature bookshops and Pony even functions as a café.

metal-box-verticalSMALL

The current show at BearSpace is Goblet by Julia Alvarez

For more information about Deptford X please see  here.

Categories ,Ania and Olga Micinska, ,arts festival, ,Bearspace, ,Deptford art festival, ,exhibition, ,First Thursdays, ,Peckham, ,Photomonth, ,the Big Draw, ,Viewfinder Photography Gallery

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Amelia’s Magazine | Camberwell College of Arts: Mixed Special Illustration Graduate Show 2012 Review

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Painting by Charlotte Mei.

This year’s graduate shows are nearly upon us so what better way to kick off the new season than with a reminder of some of the brilliant talent that I discovered last year. (And failed to blog about back then, due to the demanding needs of a very small baby. Now I just have a slightly larger very demanding baby, but at last I’ve found the time to catch up.) Mixed Special was the great name given to the show from Camberwell College of Arts illustration graduates, many of whom have gone on to create new collaborative projects. Since it’s been so long in the making this review will also pick up on what’s been happening for some graduates in the year since their show.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
First up, the fun work of Lewis Wade Stringer, who created an ‘added value’ burger out of silicone, acrylic and plywood. Shown vacuum packed as a finished object, I imagine that in it’s separate pieces it would hold great appeal for small children. The burger theme continues to be strong in Lewis’ life – you can purchase his burger tote bag, delivered in a disposable carton with bespoke sticker, over here on Burgerac.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
I wonder if an obsession with the 80s will continue to be a major influence amongst the graduates of the more progressive illustration courses this summer. Aaron Ziggy Cook is a member of the Day Job illustration collective, who showcased a stunning array of goodies at Pick Me Up in April. His love of 80s iconography and painterly pastels is evident in a series of interior themed designs.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Charlotte Mei is another member of Day Job, as happy playing around with clay as she is with a paintbrush. A sense of humour is a key component of her wonderfully tactile clay creations. At Pick Me Up I was particularly taken with her human and vehicle sculptures; and a plethora of editorial jobs undertaken since graduation testify that her unique creations are in demand. She was also part of the marvellous Jiggling Atoms exhibition that took place last October.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Completely Unexpected Tales by Holly Mills are a series of illustrations based on short stories by Roald Dahl which combine delicate swathes of watercolour, fine line detail and integral typography. Holly won the V&A student illustrator award in 2012. Confusingly, there is another Holly Mills illustrator, based in Melbourne (also well worth checking out).

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Hasmita Hirani was inspired by the Mahabharata epic poem to doodle a series of narrative scenes across large sheets of paper – read an interview about her process here. Hasmita has recently collaborated with old friend Hana to create Rolled Paper Pencils featuring beautiful abstract designs in bright colours, available at the brilliant Poundshop.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Ellie Denwood‘s End of the Line are a series of eery atmospheric monochrome prints based on trips to the end of the Underground Line.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Emily Jane McCartan is another illustrator who made use of the ceramics facilitates at Camberwell, covering clumpy clay shapes with big daubs of paint; her gouache prints for What the Moon Brings feature the same painterly splodges as her ceramic glazes. Her mission, to encourage a 70s craft revival. I like it! You can buy some of Emily’s wonderful creations on Etsy here.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Phoebe Stella Garrick Summers‘ modern take on medieval maps features pubs rather than churches at the centre of daily life. Her interests lie in art psychotherapy.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
A strange bandaged man accompanied by foxes hovers by the bin bags outside a closed shop: The Tumbleweave Series by Sarah Wharton is based on the invention of a modern folklore. I’d love to know what Sarah is up to now.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
I like the simplicity of mushrooms by Katie Johnston. More recently I admired her stuffed rocking horse head, on display at Pick Me Up with Day Job.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Miranda Sofroniou created Arctic themed wallpaper which she also decoupaged onto a chair frame. She is currently working on her third children’s book.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
The Infinite Space by Acktarr Khedoo was an intense psychedelic installation that used neon colours, hanging shapes and sparkling textures to create a playful experience, all lit by UV. It was a lot of fun to explore: it’s a shame I can’t figure out what he is up to now.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Amelia’s Magazine contributor Kristina Vasiljeva produced bold skeins of Peckham inspired African fabric which showcased her love of fashion illustration.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Ben Woodcock‘s Bibotelli is a series of intriguing graphics suggesting snippets of narrative; another strongly 80s influenced body of work.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Beautiful painted miniatures by Isabella Toledo were inspired by A Journey Around My Room.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Yet more 80s style from Ellie Andrews, this time combining a rounded airbrushed style with a pastel palette & plenty of colour shading, some produced as risograph prints. One of her designs was used for the launch of Boxpark in Shoreditch. Check out some of Ellie’s latest work in It’s Nice That.


Using animation Daniel Clarke created an ode to J.G. Ballard‘s short story Chronopolis – depicted here in sombre darks and swirling pastels, viewed through a round porthole. Daniel’s obsession with architectural form is evident in his work with Day Job.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Tim Cockburn used fine black pen to describe a monster eating the city. He is now part of the Brothers of Stripe collective, who showed at Pick Me Up.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Brigid Deacon showed drawing and objects in a contemporary cabinet of curiosities that merges her interest in comic art, the grotesque and erotic art. She has since become involved in People of Print.

Kraggy Mixed Special
This 80s-tastic palm tree t-shirt design by Kraggy was adapted as a repeat pattern for his website. Buy the look here.

ruxandra ene bird
Ruxandra Ene‘s intricate and eye-catching depiction of Utopia was inspired by William MorrisNews from Nowhere.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Ella McLean chose the environs of Peckham as the basis for a great risograph zine created using her favoured palette of limited colours. She too is now part of the great Day Job collective: make sure you check them out.

It’s been great to check back in on the illustrators I liked nearly a year ago and find out what some of my favourites are doing now… but it begs the question of what to do with old websites, blogs and social media feeds. Quite a few of the illustrators above have not updated their websites with anything new in a whole year: perhaps an indication that illustration has been left behind? Some twitter feeds built expressly for the promotion of student shows are dead as a dodo, but I was pleased to see that someone is sporadically maintaining the @MixedSpecial feed to promote last year’s graduates. University of Brighton students have taken over the feed created by the previous year and are continuing to tweet full pelt with a new name @carparkshow: surely the best way to make use of a ready made following for the newest batch of graduates. I look forward to what 2013 brings…

Categories ,80s, ,@MixedSpecial, ,A Journey Around My Room, ,Aaron Ziggy Cook, ,Acktarr Khedoo, ,Arctic, ,Ben Woodcock, ,Bibotelli, ,Boxpark, ,Brigid Deacon, ,Brothers of Stripe, ,Burgerac, ,Camberwell College of Arts, ,Charlotte Mei, ,Chronopolis, ,Completely Unexpected Tales, ,Daniel Clarke, ,Day Job, ,Ella McLean, ,Ellie Andrews, ,Ellie Denwood, ,Emily Jane McCartan, ,end of the line, ,Folklore, ,Hana, ,Hasmita Hirani, ,Holly Mills, ,illustration, ,Isabella Toledo, ,J.G. Ballard, ,Jiggling Atoms, ,Katie Johnston, ,Kraggy, ,Kristina Vasiljeva, ,Lewis Wade Stringer, ,Mahabharata, ,Miranda Sofroniou, ,Mixed Special, ,News from Nowhere, ,Peckham, ,People of Print, ,Phoebe Stella Garrick Summers, ,Pick Me Up, ,Risograph, ,Roald Dahl, ,Rolled Paper Pencils, ,Ruxandra Ene, ,Sarah Wharton, ,The Infinite Space, ,The Poundshop, ,The Tumbleweave Series, ,Tim Cockburn, ,University of Brighton, ,utopia, ,va, ,What the Moon Brings, ,William Morris

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Amelia’s Magazine | Camberwell College of Arts: Mixed Special Illustration Graduate Show 2012 Review

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Painting by Charlotte Mei.

This year’s graduate shows are nearly upon us so what better way to kick off the new season than with a reminder of some of the brilliant talent that I discovered last year. (And failed to blog about back then, due to the demanding needs of a very small baby. Now I just have a slightly larger very demanding baby, but at last I’ve found the time to catch up.) Mixed Special was the great name given to the show from Camberwell College of Arts illustration graduates, many of whom have gone on to create new collaborative projects. Since it’s been so long in the making this review will also pick up on what’s been happening for some graduates in the year since their show.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
First up, the fun work of Lewis Wade Stringer, who created an ‘added value’ burger out of silicone, acrylic and plywood. Shown vacuum packed as a finished object, I imagine that in it’s separate pieces it would hold great appeal for small children. The burger theme continues to be strong in Lewis’ life – you can purchase his burger tote bag, delivered in a disposable carton with bespoke sticker, over here on Burgerac.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
I wonder if an obsession with the 80s will continue to be a major influence amongst the graduates of the more progressive illustration courses this summer. Aaron Ziggy Cook is a member of the Day Job illustration collective, who showcased a stunning array of goodies at Pick Me Up in April. His love of 80s iconography and painterly pastels is evident in a series of interior themed designs.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Charlotte Mei is another member of Day Job, as happy playing around with clay as she is with a paintbrush. A sense of humour is a key component of her wonderfully tactile clay creations. At Pick Me Up I was particularly taken with her human and vehicle sculptures; and a plethora of editorial jobs undertaken since graduation testify that her unique creations are in demand. She was also part of the marvellous Jiggling Atoms exhibition that took place last October.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Completely Unexpected Tales by Holly Mills are a series of illustrations based on short stories by Roald Dahl which combine delicate swathes of watercolour, fine line detail and integral typography. Holly won the V&A student illustrator award in 2012. Confusingly, there is another Holly Mills illustrator, based in Melbourne (also well worth checking out).

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Hasmita Hirani was inspired by the Mahabharata epic poem to doodle a series of narrative scenes across large sheets of paper – read an interview about her process here. Hasmita has recently collaborated with old friend Hana to create Rolled Paper Pencils featuring beautiful abstract designs in bright colours, available at the brilliant Poundshop.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Ellie Denwood‘s End of the Line are a series of eery atmospheric monochrome prints based on trips to the end of the Underground Line.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Emily Jane McCartan is another illustrator who made use of the ceramics facilitates at Camberwell, covering clumpy clay shapes with big daubs of paint; her gouache prints for What the Moon Brings feature the same painterly splodges as her ceramic glazes. Her mission, to encourage a 70s craft revival. I like it! You can buy some of Emily’s wonderful creations on Etsy here.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Phoebe Stella Garrick Summers‘ modern take on medieval maps features pubs rather than churches at the centre of daily life. Her interests lie in art psychotherapy.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
A strange bandaged man accompanied by foxes hovers by the bin bags outside a closed shop: The Tumbleweave Series by Sarah Wharton is based on the invention of a modern folklore. I’d love to know what Sarah is up to now.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
I like the simplicity of mushrooms by Katie Johnston. More recently I admired her stuffed rocking horse head, on display at Pick Me Up with Day Job.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Miranda Sofroniou created Arctic themed wallpaper which she also decoupaged onto a chair frame. She is currently working on her third children’s book.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
The Infinite Space by Acktarr Khedoo was an intense psychedelic installation that used neon colours, hanging shapes and sparkling textures to create a playful experience, all lit by UV. It was a lot of fun to explore: it’s a shame I can’t figure out what he is up to now.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Amelia’s Magazine contributor Kristina Vasiljeva produced bold skeins of Peckham inspired African fabric which showcased her love of fashion illustration.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Ben Woodcock‘s Bibotelli is a series of intriguing graphics suggesting snippets of narrative; another strongly 80s influenced body of work.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Beautiful painted miniatures by Isabella Toledo were inspired by A Journey Around My Room.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Yet more 80s style from Ellie Andrews, this time combining a rounded airbrushed style with a pastel palette & plenty of colour shading, some produced as risograph prints. One of her designs was used for the launch of Boxpark in Shoreditch. Check out some of Ellie’s latest work in It’s Nice That.


Using animation Daniel Clarke created an ode to J.G. Ballard‘s short story Chronopolis – depicted here in sombre darks and swirling pastels, viewed through a round porthole. Daniel’s obsession with architectural form is evident in his work with Day Job.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Tim Cockburn used fine black pen to describe a monster eating the city. He is now part of the Brothers of Stripe collective, who showed at Pick Me Up.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Brigid Deacon showed drawing and objects in a contemporary cabinet of curiosities that merges her interest in comic art, the grotesque and erotic art. She has since become involved in People of Print.

Kraggy Mixed Special
This 80s-tastic palm tree t-shirt design by Kraggy was adapted as a repeat pattern for his website. Buy the look here.

ruxandra ene bird
Ruxandra Ene‘s intricate and eye-catching depiction of Utopia was inspired by William MorrisNews from Nowhere.

Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Mixed Special Camberwell illustration 2012
Ella McLean chose the environs of Peckham as the basis for a great risograph zine created using her favoured palette of limited colours. She too is now part of the great Day Job collective: make sure you check them out.

It’s been great to check back in on the illustrators I liked nearly a year ago and find out what some of my favourites are doing now… but it begs the question of what to do with old websites, blogs and social media feeds. Quite a few of the illustrators above have not updated their websites with anything new in a whole year: perhaps an indication that illustration has been left behind? Some twitter feeds built expressly for the promotion of student shows are dead as a dodo, but I was pleased to see that someone is sporadically maintaining the @MixedSpecial feed to promote last year’s graduates. University of Brighton students have taken over the feed created by the previous year and are continuing to tweet full pelt with a new name @carparkshow: surely the best way to make use of a ready made following for the newest batch of graduates. I look forward to what 2013 brings…

Categories ,80s, ,@MixedSpecial, ,A Journey Around My Room, ,Aaron Ziggy Cook, ,Acktarr Khedoo, ,Arctic, ,Ben Woodcock, ,Bibotelli, ,Boxpark, ,Brigid Deacon, ,Brothers of Stripe, ,Burgerac, ,Camberwell College of Arts, ,Charlotte Mei, ,Chronopolis, ,Completely Unexpected Tales, ,Daniel Clarke, ,Day Job, ,Ella McLean, ,Ellie Andrews, ,Ellie Denwood, ,Emily Jane McCartan, ,end of the line, ,Folklore, ,Hana, ,Hasmita Hirani, ,Holly Mills, ,illustration, ,Isabella Toledo, ,J.G. Ballard, ,Jiggling Atoms, ,Katie Johnston, ,Kraggy, ,Kristina Vasiljeva, ,Lewis Wade Stringer, ,Mahabharata, ,Miranda Sofroniou, ,Mixed Special, ,News from Nowhere, ,Peckham, ,People of Print, ,Phoebe Stella Garrick Summers, ,Pick Me Up, ,Risograph, ,Roald Dahl, ,Rolled Paper Pencils, ,Ruxandra Ene, ,Sarah Wharton, ,The Infinite Space, ,The Poundshop, ,The Tumbleweave Series, ,Tim Cockburn, ,University of Brighton, ,utopia, ,va, ,What the Moon Brings, ,William Morris

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Amelia’s Magazine | The Kotki Dwa Comeback: just in time for Halloween

JoeWorricker_by_Sandra Dufour
You’ve just released Finger-waggers. What’s this song about and why the name?
I wrote Finger-Waggers when my hair was so shockingly large people used to pull at it in clubs and take the piss. It’s about the importance of self-love and not letting people tell you how to be. Each of us are only here for a short time and we should be whatever we want to be

What’s the idea behind the video?
It’s set at a tupperware party with posh ladies who are the finger-waggers. The director Lily Smith did a fantastic job, buy she has made it look amazing.

Your sound is a pretty unique combination of pop, purchase indie and soul. How would you describe it and why?
The songs are Beatles, The Marvelettes, Debussy and Kate Bush mixed and the vocal is a weird soul voice I suppose. 

You’ve already been hailed as a new soul sensation – how does this feel? What do your mates mates say to you on the subject?
It’s an amazing feeling when someone appreciates your work. What’s important is how you feel about it. For my first album I’m proud and think I’ve set good starting ground for future things to come. My friends are really supportive and always come to my gigs.

When did you start singing, and how did you end up signed to Rough Trade?
I started singing to Disney songs when I was a baby and haven’t stopped since. When I was gigging round London some music peeps got talking, Rough Trade heard about me and came to watch me in Soho. They then invited me in and offered me a deal

What was it like growing up in Essex – did you live the life of a typical “essex boy”? PS what do you think of the new real life soap The Only Way is Essex – is this the Essex you knew? is it an apt representation of life in Essex?! or not at all….
I probably lived the Essex girl life more. Went out every weekend to binge drink underage with my girl mates and wore and still wear excessive amounts of fake tan. Although I get St Tropez now which is the best in the business, where then it was very cheap rub on tan; I’ve matured. I haven’t seen the show yet, but everyone has been banging on about it. Yes, there are people like the people you see on the programme for sure

X Factor: what’s your opinion? Did you ever enter any talent competitions as a teenager?
Talent competitions can be amazing platforms for people. Jennifer Hudson being the best example, who is totally sensational and may have never been discovered otherwise. I entered the X-Factor when I was 18. I didn’t get through though, I think they were scared of my voice.

Where are you living at the moment and why? 
Fitzrovia. I only live in areas where I can walk to Soho in 5 minutes or less
 
You’re a proactive twitter user – what do you use twitter for?
It’s good for letting people who are interested in your music know about gigs, singles and the generally rubbish you are getting up to. Perfect for potential stalkers.

When can people catch you live? What can they expect from a Joe Worricker live performance and why should they come to see you?
My London headline show at XOYO on 16th November in Old Street. They should come see me coz I’m better live and i’m extra gifted at talking rubbish between the songs

What makes the best kind of party?
Vodka, hilarious music, getting naked in the early hours

When can we expect a debut album, and have you got a name for it yet? go on… give us a bit of a clue…
It is released in the new year. It is the title of the 1st song I wrote for the album. The song is about a moment of profound beauty and clarity when every fear and worry about life fell out of my head and I could see the world clearly

Illustration by Lesley Barnes

Coco Chanel the name synonymous with French fashion, website like this so carefully cultivated by Karl Largerfield, he feels as if a caretaker at the same time as being an innovative fashion designer such is the call of the Chanel Staples. Each catwalk is a reinvention of the tweeds, the stars, the numbers, simplistic beauty is what Chanel conjures and it is what it achieves.

Justine Picardie is a journalist for the Telegraph and an author who produces both fiction and non fiction, for the last 13 years her side project has been researching Coco Chanel. Picard opened her talk on the publication of her Chanel Biography with the statement that the V&A is the heart of Fashion, forget Topshop!

Illustration by Joana Faria

How could I pass up the opportunity to find out more about this ever present, but ever distant fashion designer? Especially as I am yet to watch either of the recent films made about her early life…

It was the perfect talk – full of teasers about what the book contained alongside interesting insights into Coco’s design aesthetic – the monestry where she grew up the walls were embedded with stars, similar to what would later feature in her designs.

A talented speaker, Justine enraptured the audience with tales of Chanel’s rise from rags to riches polevaulting through French Society’s conventions that those born in a certain place – should stay on the rung of society they were born. Luckily, not only for Haute Couture but for women everywhere who wanted to wear trousers, Chanel made ignoring social conventions a habit of a lifetime.

Illustration by Kelly Angood

“Fashion is very dark, what we wear is what we cover up” Coco Chanel

Not for Chanel the corsets of early 1900′s France – no, the most striking thing about Chanel was seeing the pictures of her in a style that has inudated our subconscious – from the wearing of trousers to single handily popularising the Breton Stripe. Most importantly Chanel was an avid wearer of the flat show – not for her the gravity defying, walk preventing spindly heels that seem so popular not only on the catwalk but that shop which nestles within the heart of Oxford Street, Topshop.

Illustration by Maria del Carmen SmithAn aside, notice how Chanel sits on the horse in jodphurs, rather than side saddle, a fairly political statement at a time when most women were bound in corsets.

Chanel was funded by Boy Capell, the man in the above illustration, as soon as the Fashion House produced revenue, Chanel paid every last penny back. From the start Coco was to be an independent women.

Justine Picardie covered the usual ground of Chanel’s relationship with men, starting with Boy Capell and touching upon her life spent fishing in Scotland with the Duke of Westminister. Through whom Coco met Winston Churchill in the early 1920′s. The discovery of a picture of the two together lead Picard to the ministery of war archives, specifically the archives on Winston Churchill to explore Chanel’s reported relationship with a German Soldier may not have been what has so far been reported, the work of a traitor, but a (slightly naive…) plan -devised perhaps by Coco and regaled to Winston Churchill- to bring the war to an early end. This may seem rather glib, but to find out more and the outcome of Picardie trip to the archives? Sadly the author left this announcement within the pages of her book.

Illustration by Abby Wright

Picardie touched upon the inclusions of the number 5 etc and the use of stars… magical numbers were part of Chanel’s magical thinking… Tarot Cards. Chanel was interested in simple beauty. Justine attributes this magical thinking to her time spent as a child growing up in an ancient monastery, suggesting that the epoynmous chanel star was inspired by the mosiac’s made by Medieval Monks…

Illustration by Antonia Parker

Justine Picardie described fashion as “a series of Hauntings” and finished the talk with a wish for a book on the continuation of Chanel by Karl Largerfield, to conclude that such a book could only be written once Largerfield had left Chanel and quite possibly this planet… Coco Chanel, The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie is on my christmas list!

Illustration by Lesley Barnes

Coco Chanel, ampoule the name synonymous with fashion, website like this Paris or otherwise has been so carefully cultivated by Karl Largerfield, he feels at times, as if a gentle caretaker – such is the call of the Chanel Staples. Each season’s Largerfield’s catwalk has produced -whilst channelling his own creative designs- a small reinvention of the tweeds, the stars, the monochrome, the pearls or maintained the simplistic beauty, the word Chanel brings to mind. Chanel is coveted, and her sense of style has embedded itself amongst the designs of the high street, during the talk I found myself playing spot the influence, from the cropped bobs to the presence of stripes on pratically every other member of the audience who found themselves at the V&A that blustery Friday night.

The talk was held by Justine Picardie in celebration of the publication of her new book; Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life. Picardie is a journalist for the Telegraph, an author who writes fiction and non fiction and who has spent the last 13 years researching the life of Coco Chanel. This was an opportunity to discover the person behind the label, that was too good too miss.

Illustration by Joana Faria

A talented speaker, Justine enraptured the audience with tales of Chanel’s rise from rags to riches polevaulting through French Society’s conventions that those born in a certain place – should stay on the rung of society they were born. Luckily, not only for Haute Couture but for women everywhere who wanted to wear trousers, Chanel made ignoring social conventions a habit of a lifetime.

Not for Chanel the corsets of early 1900′s France – no, the most striking photographs of Chanel shown at the talk, documented her investment in a shocking departure from the norm, in the form of trousers and the aforementioned Breton top. Importantly (I am speaking here as someone who despises how reliant high heels make me on those I am travelling with) Chanel was an avid wearer of the flat show – not for her the gravity defying, walk preventing spindly heels that are oh so popular not only on the catwalk but that shop nestling within the heart of Oxford Street; Topshop.

Illustration by Kelly Angood

“Fashion is very dark, what we wear is what we cover up” Coco Chanel

Justine Picardie covered the usual ground of Chanel’s relationship with men, starting with Boy Capell and touching upon her life spent fishing in Scotland with the Duke of Westminister. Through whom Coco met Winston Churchill in the early 1920′s. The discovery of a picture of the two together lead Picard to the ministery of war archives, specifically the archives on Winston Churchill to explore Chanel’s reported relationship with a German Soldier may not have been what has so far been reported, the work of a traitor, but a (slightly naive…) plan -devised perhaps by Coco and regaled to Winston Churchill- to bring the war to an early end. This may seem rather glib, but to find out more and the outcome of Picardie trip to the archives? Sadly the author left this announcement within the pages of her book.

Illustration by Maria del Carmen SmithAn aside, notice how Chanel sits on the horse in jodphurs, rather than side saddle, a fairly political statement at a time when most women were bound in corsets.

It was the perfect talk – full of teasers about the book’s contents alongside interesting insights into the development of the identity of Coco Chanel – from the influence of the monestry where she grew up, to her meeting Boy Capel and Duke of Westminister (with whom she travelled to Scotland and discovered the Scottish Mills who produced the now famous Chanel Tweed).

Chanel was funded by Boy Capell, the man seated on the horse in the above illustration, however, as the Fashion House began to produce revenue, Chanel paid back every penny. From the start Coco was to be an independent women – an undeniably lucky, for her connections with Boy helped her attract clients, but a financially independent one nevertheless.

Illustration by Abby Wright

Picardie touched upon the importance to Chanel of the numbers her perfumes were named after (5,19) etc to the constant use and development of the star motif. In a picture of Chanel’s apartment, Picardie touched upon the presence of tarot cards and the importance of magical thinking alongside Chanel’s training as a seamstress in the creation of the House’s style. Justine attributes this ‘magical thinking’ to her time spent as a child growing up in an ancient monastery, suggesting that the epoynmous Chanel star was inspired by the star mosaics made by the Medieval Monks who originally inhabited the monastery. For more detail, I’m afraid you are going to have to read the book!

Illustration by Antonia Parker

During the talk (which occur weekly on a Friday evening) Justine Picardie described fashion as “a series of Hauntings” and finished the talk with a wish for a book on the continuation of Chanel by Karl Largerfield, to conclude that such a book could only be written once Largerfield had left Chanel and quite possibly this planet…

Coco Chanel, The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie is on my christmas list!

Illustration by Lesley Barnes

Coco Chanel, buy more about the name synonymous with fashion, tadalafil Paris or otherwise has been so carefully cultivated by Karl Largerfield, he feels at times, as if a gentle caretaker – such is the call of the Chanel Staples. Each season’s Largerfield’s catwalk has produced -whilst channelling his own creative designs- a small reinvention of the tweeds, the stars, the monochrome, the pearls or maintained the simplistic beauty, the word Chanel brings to mind. Chanel is coveted, and her sense of style has embedded itself amongst the designs of the high street, during the talk I found myself playing spot the influence, from the cropped bobs to the presence of stripes on pratically every other member of the audience who found themselves at the V&A that blustery Friday night.

The talk was held by Justine Picardie in celebration of the publication of her new book; Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life. Picardie is a journalist for the Telegraph, an author who writes fiction and non fiction and who has spent the last 13 years researching the life of Coco Chanel. This was an opportunity to discover the person behind the label, that was too good too miss.

Illustration by Joana Faria

A talented speaker, Justine enraptured the audience with tales of Chanel’s rise from rags to riches polevaulting through French Society’s conventions that those born in a certain place – should stay on the rung of society they were born. Luckily, not only for Haute Couture but for women everywhere who wanted to wear trousers, Chanel made ignoring social conventions a habit of a lifetime.

Not for Chanel the corsets of early 1900′s France – no, the most striking photographs of Chanel shown at the talk, documented her investment in a shocking departure from the norm, in the form of trousers and the aforementioned Breton top. Importantly (I am speaking here as someone who despises how reliant high heels make me on those I am travelling with) Chanel was an avid wearer of the flat show – not for her the gravity defying, walk preventing spindly heels that are oh so popular not only on the catwalk but that shop nestling within the heart of Oxford Street; Topshop.

Illustration by Kelly Angood

“Fashion is very dark, what we wear is what we cover up” Coco Chanel

Justine Picardie covered the usual ground of Chanel’s relationship with men, starting with Boy Capell and touching upon her life spent fishing in Scotland with the Duke of Westminister. Through whom Coco met Winston Churchill in the early 1920′s. The discovery of a picture of the two together lead Picard to the ministery of war archives, specifically the archives on Winston Churchill to explore Chanel’s reported relationship with a German Soldier may not have been what has so far been reported, the work of a traitor, but a (slightly naive…) plan -devised perhaps by Coco and regaled to Winston Churchill- to bring the war to an early end. This may seem rather glib, but to find out more and the outcome of Picardie trip to the archives? Sadly the author left this announcement within the pages of her book.

Illustration by Maria del Carmen SmithAn aside, notice how Chanel sits on the horse in jodphurs, rather than side saddle, a fairly political statement at a time when most women were bound in corsets.

It was the perfect talk – full of teasers about the book’s contents alongside interesting insights into the development of the identity of Coco Chanel – from the influence of the monestry where she grew up, to her meeting Boy Capel and Duke of Westminister (with whom she travelled to Scotland and discovered the Scottish Mills who produced the now famous Chanel Tweed).

Chanel was funded by Boy Capell, the man seated on the horse in the above illustration, however, as the Fashion House began to produce revenue, Chanel paid back every penny. From the start Coco was to be an independent women – an undeniably lucky, for her connections with Boy helped her attract clients, but a financially independent one nevertheless.

Illustration by Abby Wright

Picardie touched upon the importance to Chanel of the numbers her perfumes were named after (5,19) etc to the constant use and development of the star motif. In a picture of Chanel’s apartment, Picardie touched upon the presence of tarot cards and the importance of magical thinking alongside Chanel’s training as a seamstress in the creation of the House’s style. Justine attributes this ‘magical thinking’ to her time spent as a child growing up in an ancient monastery, suggesting that the epoynmous Chanel star was inspired by the star mosaics made by the Medieval Monks who originally inhabited the monastery. For more detail, I’m afraid you are going to have to read the book!

Illustration by Antonia Parker

During the talk (which occur weekly on a Friday evening) Justine Picardie described fashion as “a series of Hauntings” and finished the talk with a wish for a book on the continuation of Chanel by Karl Largerfield, to conclude that such a book could only be written once Largerfield had left Chanel and quite possibly this planet…

Coco Chanel, The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie is on my christmas list!

Kotki Dwa by Alex Edouard
Kotki Dwa by Alex Edouard. Set design by Hattie Newman.

As anyone who knows me well will know I get VERY excited about Halloween. And so I was even more excited to discover that the bouncy Kotki Dwa have just released a comeback single and accompanying video titled especially for the occasion. I thought I’d better catch up and get the low down on all this Halloween business…. and anyway what precisely have Kotki Dwa been up to?

So, viagra dosage the first question has to be, where have you been? You’ve been very quiet since we last featured you in Amelia’s Magazine!
We’ve been very busy indeed! Alongside our music we’re passionate about other things – Tom is a zoologically trained ecologist working for The National Trust in Yorkshire, Alex is a graphic designer working in London, and Tristan is studying ‘interdisciplinary design’ in Bristol. Aside from that, we’ve been working on new music together – which we’re now ready to start sharing with people!

Your comeback single is titled Halloween and is cunningly released this week…. just before Halloween. What inspired you to do such a thing?
The song’s lyrics were actually written around last Halloween, but it’s taken us a year to get round to finishing and releasing it! So really, it’s a SPOOKY COINCIDENCE…

YouTube Preview Image

Can you tell us more about the video – it looks really fun. How was it made and by whom?
We had lots of fun making the video with our friends Carmel & Harry aka Loopshapers. Alex met Carmel at Art College and they collaborated on our previous video Robin’s Clogs as well. This time we decided to use this cool old Super 8mm camera to try and get some creepy 1950s B-Movie style results, to go with the Halloween theme! Carmel & Harry carefully processed the film with chemicals by hand, which makes it lovely and scratchy. The people in the video are loads of our friends, most of whom were making their acting debut.

Any funny stories from on set that you can share with us?
There were quite a few silly moments – you get some funny looks walking through Peckham dressed like a zombie in a dicky bow and bright red show jacket! At one point we accidentally stumbled through a Sunday family fairground and scared a few children – we had our guitars over our shoulders and one man even thought we were going to play on the stage! Oh, also some of the footage got ruined during processing. Actually, that wasn’t funny at all.

I love the press photo of you all covered in yarn – who’s behind this? it reminds me of the really fun image we had of you in the bathtub for issue 9 of Amelia’s Magazine.
Thank you! We thought it would be a fun idea – set making extraordinaire Hattie Newman made us magical cardboard keyboard, with all the wool coming out the back like wires. The photo was taken by Alex Edouard in Hattie’s studio.

Kotki Dwa portrait

How will you be celebrating Halloween this year? and what will you be dressing up as?
We won’t be together unfortunately, but separately we’ll but getting up to some ghoulish antics for sure. Alex is going to a bonkers veterinary themed party with live stuffed-critter operations! Also definitely going to be watching a LOT of horror movies this weekend. Developed a bit of an addiction during early teenage years and still love a good bit of fright!

Any top Halloween tips?
Just make the most of it because you only get one chance a year. Do everything – carve a pumpkin, apple bob, turn the lights off, scream, gel your hair so hard that it feels like it could crack, stock up on sweets for the trick-or-treaters, eat them all, watch Hocus Pocus and probably fall asleep in your cape.

And finally… What next for Kotki Dwa?
We’re playing two London gigs in November – Saturday 20th at The Stag’s Head in Dalston, and Thursday 25th at The Lexington in Angel. We’ll have three more new songs up our sleeves to share, so come on down! We’ll also continue to develop our new material and get on with releasing more of it – so stay tuned. Fangs for having us Amelia…

Categories ,Alex Edouard, ,dalston, ,Hallowe’en, ,Hattie Newman, ,Hocus Pocus, ,Kotki Dwa, ,Loopshapers, ,Peckham, ,Robin’s Clogs, ,Super8, ,The Lexington, ,The Stag’s Head

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