Amelia’s Magazine | Studio 350 – University of Brighton Graphic Design & Illustration Graduate Show 2015

George Harvey brighton uni 3
In early July the Brighton University Studio 350 graphic design and illustration show was held at the Rose Lipman Building in Hoxton. This year there was a particularly diverse range of talents on display from both graphic design and illustration. Here are my favourite finds.

George Harvey brighton uni 2
George Harvey brighton uni
George Harvey brighton uni 4
Firstly, I fell in love with African influenced patterns by George Harvey, who also played with type featuring amusing quotes from comedian Mitch Hedburg.

Julie-Ann Pedida brighton uni
Julie-Ann Pedida focused on the colour and designs of coral in miniature sculptures and in this stunning cushion pattern design. Imagine what she could produce for my colouring book open brief!

Sasha George Brighton Uni 2
Sasha George Brighton Uni 4
Sasha George Brighton Uni 3
Sasha George Brighton Uni
I loved apocalyptic illustrations by Sasha George: definitely another favourite find who could produce amazing pages for my colouring book.

Florence Reddington brighton uni
This crossstitch needlework by Florence Reddington purveyed an equally dramatic message in a very different way.

Roo hasan brighton
Printmaker Roo Hasan produced this lush pattern on a tent.

Brighton Uni Illus Amy Fullalove
Amy Fullalove made a graphic wall display inspired by the signage needed for nuclear disposal units in the far distant future.

Nigel Farage by Holly MacDonald
This pottery sculpture of Nigel Farage is by Holly MacDonald who is “teaching the world about politics threw fun ceramics and cartoons” with her Pop-Up Poll Booth project.

Doyeon Sharon Kim brighton uni
Graphic prints by Doyeon Sharon Kim had a distinct 80s vibe.

James Heginbottom
James Heginbottom 2
James Heginbottom created a series of spooky photographic collages inspired by the occult, witchcraft and all things macabre.

Vicky Stevenson
Artist Vicky Stevenson put together an interactive stand inviting visitors to Take Something and Leave Something: I took some sparkly badges and left a note saying ‘I like your sparkly badges, and so will my child‘ and he did!

All of these images first appeared on my own my instagram feed: follow me there to catch my discoveries as I make them.

Categories ,2015, ,Amy Fullalove, ,Doyeon Sharon Kim, ,Florence Reddington, ,George Harvey, ,Graduate Show, ,Graphic Design, ,Holly MacDonald, ,Hoxton, ,illustration, ,James Heginbottom, ,Julie-Ann Pedida, ,Mitch Hedburg, ,Nigel Farage, ,Pop-Up Poll Booth, ,review, ,Roo Hasan, ,Rose Lipman Building, ,Sasha George, ,Studio 350, ,University of Brighton, ,Vicky Stevenson

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Amelia’s Magazine | Rock Paper Scissors: Camberwell College of Arts Illustration Graduate Show 2015

Anna Skeels
My final review of the graduate illustrations shows is for Rock Paper Scissors, the stand alone show of Camberwell College of Art students held at Hoxton Arches last week. Lovely loose painterly pieces (above) from Anna Skeels were inspired by a Tove Jannson short story called The Woman Who Borrowed Memories.

Joseph Killick
This strange animal is by Joseph Killick, for a project based on the John Tradescants, Lambeth collectors of rare oddities.

Percy Edgeler
Percie Edgeler made abstract collaged patterns to go with a zine project.

Katt Hardy
I absolutely loved this decorative ‘Story Screen‘ by Katt Hardy, who applies her illustrative skills to interior design.

Alex Gamsu Jenkins 2
Alex Gamsu Jenkins
This crop is part of a vast tableaux featuring life in Croydon and Penge, an astonishing and oddly beautiful work by Alex Gamsu Jenkins, whose work I would love to see submitted for my brand new colouring book open brief.

Nana Takeuchi
Nana Takeuchi 2
Nana Takeuchi 3
Nana Takeuchi presented beautifully drawn tribal costumes and pot creatures.

Hayley Ford
Hayley Ford 2

Finally, these Jurassic era papermâché dinosaurs in neon colours by Hayley Ford attracted loads of likes when I posted them on instagram. What fun!

All of these images first appeared on my own my instagram feed: follow me there to catch my discoveries as I make them!

Categories ,2015, ,Alex Gamsu Jenkins, ,Camberwell College of Art, ,Camberwell College of Arts, ,Croydon, ,Graduate Show, ,Hayley Ford, ,Hoxton, ,Hoxton Arches, ,illustration, ,John Tradescants, ,Joseph Killick, ,Katt Hardy, ,Nana Takeuchi, ,Penge, ,Percie Edgeler, ,review, ,Rock Paper Scissors, ,Story Screen, ,The Woman Who Borrowed Memories, ,Tove Jannson

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Amelia’s Magazine | Hvass&Hannibal Losing The Plot at the Kemistry Gallery, Shoreditch

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-14012010021

Danish designers Sofie Hannibal and Nan Na Hvass (pronounced with a silent H) are in London on the eve of their new exhibition at the Kemistry gallery in Shoreditch, stomach running until 27th February. Having first been invited to put some work together a year ago, salve Losing The Plot was completed in just six weeks. Sparring off each other in that easy way that really really good friends and work partners do, the girls describe the thinking behind their colourful work and how their long relationship with the band Efterklang came about.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-14012010038Hologram (detail)

When did you start working on the exhibition?
S: Well, we left everything to the last minute so the real work only began in November.
Oh no, so did you have to work really hard over the Christmas break?
S: Well, no, Nan Na was in Istanbul for the New Year for five days with her boyfriend Rasmus… who is in the band Efterklang.
Oh, I didn’t realise that was who I was speaking to when he emailed me!
N: It was our 5 year romantic anniversary but I had to pay for it [metaphorically], by working extra hard over Christmas.
S: I left her alone though, I only sent one email.

We’re sitting in the fancy boardroom of the ad agency above the gallery. I think I hear a cat. Nan Na shifts in her swivel chair. Miaow it goes. Hmmm. Not a cat then.

Do you like cats?
S: We have 3 feral cats living in the courtyard of our studio.
N: We’re quite crazy about animals – Sofie used to have a dog.
S: It died.
N: It was a fat barrel shaped one with little thin legs and a triangle head.
S: We did talk about getting another studio dog, but we have a studio elf instead; it’s made of wool and lies all stiff in a hole in the wall.
N: We picked it up in a fleamarket.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-17102009057Spot the aforementioned elf.

What is your studio like?
S: It’s in the basement of an old house and we share it with others.
N: It’s an old building so all the walls are crumbling but it’s a charming area with lots of little shops.

Sometimes their studio is messy. (Not as messy as my house I’ll bet). And for the past four months they have had one full time intern who helps out with research and sewing.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-14012010013

Was there a brief for this exhibition?
N: No, but we decided to base the designs on statistics, data and numbers; taking inspiration from the patterns. At first we wanted to collect our own information from surveys [to turn into designs] but we felt it could be confusing and might tie us down. So we decided it would be more fun to be open ended because it forces you to focus more on the media without getting lost in the content. So there is no real information.
S: It’s a very free translation, so for instance with the pie charts – you can invent yourself what each colour represents.
N: We looked at Edward Tufte, [described as the “Leonardo ad Vinci of data” by the New York Times, fact fans]. He’s done 3 or 4 books where he collects different information and graphics and celebrates their prettiness. For example the diagrams and instructions for dancing steps.
S: We started in earnest on December 1st.
Blimey!
N: No no we started on the screenprints before that, we were thinking about them in mid November, but it’s hard to find a screenprinting place in Copenhagen.
So where did you do them?
S: We can’t actually say where we did them…

At this point dear reader I have been sworn to secrecy. So, my lips are sealed. You’re never going to know. Can I have a free print now please? [I really really want one. It’s so bad when you just want things isn’t it?]

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-14012010008Statistical Insignificance. I’d like this one please. Isn’t it just so gorgeous?

What other mediums did you use?
N: Well, we’ve worked in wood before so it was a bit stupid to do it again because it’s very difficult, but we did… it’s very heavy, then you have to cut, sand, prime and use two layers of paint – so it’s very labour intensive and slow. Our studio is too small so we used Sofie’s basement party room.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-14012010048Hologram (detail)

I hear you met at high school. Tell me the story.
S: We became friends pretty fast.
N: I remember dying your hair when I hadn’t known you very long!
S: Then we went to an after school art class together.
N: It goes to show that you should always draw in public so you can discover that it is a mutual interest!
And weren’t you already working together professionally whilst you were still studying for your Ba in Visual Communications? I can’t imagine many British students being that motivated.
S: Well, there are only two design schools in Copenhagen so you have to be very motivated to get into one in the first place.
N: But in general I was a bit bored at design school…
S: So you seek out other stuff…
N: I started doing Efterklang covers whilst I was still at college.
Where did you meet Rasmus?
N: I met him at a Christmas party – he tried to brag about being in a band but I didn’t know them so it had no effect.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-21012010067The first artwork I remember seeing by Hvass&Hannibal, for the Efterklang album Parades

Funnily enough Sofie’s boyfriend is also in a band, Turboweekend. Soon the girls were painting the walls in nightclubs during their spare time. I always dreamt I’d have the cool boyfriend in a band when I was their age. Didn’t happen though. Pah.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-21012010072An album cover for Turboweekend. You’ve got to love it, it’s bonkers!

What instruments do your boyfriends play?
N: They both play bass.
S: They’re the cool ones!
N: They play squash together sometimes but their music is pretty different…
S: …and we all go on holiday together.

Me, jealous? Never.

What kind of music does Turboweekend make?
N: I’m not sure what you’d call it, intelligent party music? Electropop?
S: I don’t know, I’d have to ask, but it’s pop music of some sort.
N: We listen to music constantly when we are designing, especially the bands we’re designing for. We just did some stuff for Clogs, which is a great band.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-21012010064Hvass&Hannibal-2010-21012010065New artwork for Clogs. So beautiful.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-21012010066The new Efterklang cover for Magic Chairs.

Your latest cover for Efterklang features ribbons being swirled in a courtyard, how did you design it?
N: We completed it just before we started work on this show. All the fabrics were hand dyed and sewn.
S: Then we practiced waving them around in the yard. (see pic below)
N: We worked on the set designs and costumes for two big Efterklang shows in Denmark last year, which was really fun.
S: Then Efterklang won an award for the best dvd release.
Did you get a mention?
S: *pulls face*

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-14102009056Sofie painting ribbons.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-17102009058Waving the ribbons in the courtyard.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-21012010063Costumes designed by Hvass&Hannibal for the Efterklang concerts.

It’s a bit of a departure from your usual work, I get the sense you don’t really want to describe yourself just as illustrators?
N: We’ve been talking about this a lot lately; the illustrator label doesn’t quite feel right as we do lots of other stuff, but it’s the part of our work that’s been seen the most. We do a lot of spaces and interiors and we’d like to expand and do more art direction.

Hvass&Hannibal-vegaInterior of the Vega Nightclub.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-14012010025In front of the wood panel Let’s Twist Again, a piece that exemplifies Hvass&Hannibal’s approach to colour.

How do you actually work together, in practice?
S: To begin with we used to send digital images back and forth, but now we work much more individually on specific projects and we talk a lot to make sure we agree on certain things like the colours.

Ah. The colours. If there is one thing that makes a Hvass&Hannibal piece so instantly recognisable it is their wonderful use of colour.

How do you come up with your colour schemes?
S: We have favourite combinations of colours
N: You can see this really well on the end wall [of the exhibition]. We have preferences for what works well next to another colour – this is usually a bright colour next to a complimentary but less bright version.
S: We tried to come up with new bold combinations for this show.
N: …I was surprised when I looked back at our work and we could see that even though we’ve tried to make specific choices about colour everything does look a bit similar from a distance.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-21012010073

What about the all white piece you did for the Danish Railways Magazine?
S: It started out as a papercut with lots of colours
N: …but then the drawing told us to do it.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-21012010068For Form Magazine.

And I’d love to see the stuff you did for Form Magazine in Germany. Didn’t you get to showcase some specialist print techniques? As you know I love to fiddle around with such things myself. What was your favourite?
S: We got to do some really nice pearly ones and glow in the dark, by my favourite one to work with was sand.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-21012010070Hvass&Hannibal-2010-21012010069
What about the food faces? I see you have one as your screensaver on your computer.
N: It was initially planned as a poster for a festival, but they didn’t use it.
Did you eat your creations afterwards?
N: No! But I think we’d like to experiment with mediums more.

I particularly like a few of the other projects you mention on your website [which is very good readers, you really should check it out] – can you tell me a bit more about your Save the Rainforest with Art project?
N: We were asked to do a project with a youth design school and wanted the theme to inspire and then we donated some of the money [from sales] towards saving the rainforest. Maybe we have a bad conscience [about the content of our art]… but we’re driven by aesthetic pleasure, and we just love choosing shapes and patterns.
S: I think you can be political in your everyday life and in how you work. We are very conscious of how we consume in a private kinda way.

Before they can attend their solo private view Sofie and Nan Na are off to the launch night of the If You Could Collaborate exhibition down the road, where they are also exhibiting.

Hvass&Hannibal-Anne-WernerFor If You Could Collaborate, with Anne Werner.

What did you do for If You Could Collaborate?
S: We did a piece with the artist and tailor Anne Werner, sort of an Op Art tapestry.
How on earth did you find time to do that?
N: Luckily she did a lot of the sewing!
S: We need little helpers to help us.

What did you think of what happened in Copenhagen during the Cop15?
S: I think it’s ridiculous. We have a Reclaim the Streets protest every year and I once got caught between the police…
We would call that kettling here.
S: Yes, so I got away somehow but my friend got arrested, as did another one who was just going to get the newspaper. It was so ridiculous that everyone who got arrested was able to sue the police.
Did you attend any of the demos this time?
N: No, it’s quite sad but we were working all through December…
S: It’s strange, I feel we should’ve been participating but we had no time… and I actually got really frightened after the last time [being kettled] and that’s a real problem.
N: So we were just sitting in our basement, isolated from all the news.

Do you find that there peaks and troughs when it comes to earning money?
N: Yes!
S: We’re actually talking about making a long term plan to describe what we are doing and why.
Do you have any plans afoot for the future?
S: We’re going to north China in April to do a lecture at an arts academy who found us through some books.
Do you think you are they well known now?
S: It’s difficult to know… but I think we are, it depends who you ask!
Any other plans?
S: We want to get a webshop and a blog but we’re going to have to wait till the end of January, and then we have a little helper who is going to do the programming.
N: Yes, a young man has offered himself.
Can I have one too? I really need one of those.
S: We’ll sell tote bags, cds that we’ve designed, that kind of thing.
Do you sell anywhere at the moment?
N: You can buy some stuff on artrebels.com.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-21012010071For sale on Art Rebels.

Lastlly, do you ever argue?
S: Yes… sometimes
N: But it’s never very dramatic, not exactly arguments, just that sometimes we just get tired of each other.
S: It’s never physical though!

They both laugh, in that easy way of theirs.

Hvass&Hannibal-2010-14012010037Nan Na and Sofie.

So there you have it, an introduction to the wonderful world of Hvass&Hannibal. Two immensely talented girls who’ve found the perfect foil in each other. Get along to the exhibition if you’re in Shoreditch, buy one of the limited edition prints here or just make sure you visit their lovely website to keep updated on their many projects. As well as being super pretty it is also informative and easy to use – just how every website should be. It’s no wonder Sofie and Nan Na are on a roll.

Categories ,Art Exhibition, ,colour, ,Cop15, ,copenhagen, ,Danish, ,Denmark, ,Hoxton, ,Hvass&Hannibal, ,Kemistry gallery, ,limited edition prints, ,screenprinting, ,sculpture, ,shoreditch, ,Statistics

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Amelia’s Magazine | Dimbleby & Capper – Interview


Illustrations by Daniel Almeroth

A surprisingly balmy (well, story if 14 degrees can constitute ‘balmy’) evening at the Hoxton Bar & Kitchen beckoned me in last week, this web where I was promised a chat with a local musician who goes by the name Dimbleby & Capper. If you’re wondering where the name comes from, order then fear not, for answers to such puzzles (and a few more) about this East London-based songwriter and musical mage are coming up in the transcript below:

Hello.

Hello!

Laura…?

Laura. [nods]

Second name…?

Bettinson. With an ‘n’!

With an ‘n’… better write that down, actually. Occasionally I will have to write stuff down, I will warn you, because I’m really bad at names and stuff like that, I’ve got the tape recorder but… OK. I figure it’s best to start off by describing who you are. Y’know, what it is that you do [emphasis on ‘do’]?

Well, Dimbleby & Capper is…

Sorry, just to check – that is just you, right?

Yeah, well, it mainly is. It’s just a one-woman project, really, by myself. I started after moving to London to study for my degree at Goldsmith’s, and I started fiddling around with instruments, and before that I used to sing and play the piano, singer-songwriter stuff, but then got to London and realised that I can’t [a genuine chortle here] take a stage piano on the tube, and actually it’s far too expensive. So this developed as a way for me to take all my instruments with me, and at first I presented it in the same way, stripped-back and relaxed, but then I started messing around with electronics and sticking piano over beats. Then that started to get a little bit of presence on the live scene and we got some bigger shows, so I got in the band to help me, but [noise that can best be rendered in text as an unsure ‘ooer’] as it got more complicated than just me messing about and recording at home, especially getting other people producing me. It was when I asked myself if I was able to sing in a studio and I thought [long, drawn-out] no, I haven’t got seven million hands, so the band stuck then, so…

How many people is it now, then, that you’ve got?

It swings, sometimes it’s three people, and tonight it’s five people. It should be a five-piece, really, to have all the guitars and things.

I was listening to your EP…

Yeah?

Was really enjoying it, actually, especially the first track on there…

‘Slick Maturity’! Awful name, isn’t it?

Hah, yeah… Actually, I embarrassed myself in some e-mails, the first few I exchanged with Tasha [lovely PR lady] I was calling you Dimbleby & Crapper.

Oh, excellent. I’ve heard worse than that…

I said, “yeah, the music’s good, I just don’t understand the name though – surely that’ll put people off?” Where does the name come from, anyway?

It’s literally just, like, a name… I just needed something for a while. I didn’t want to put my own name on it because I’d been using that for a while for my singer-songwriter stuff. I hadn’t really figured out what I was doing yet but I sort of needed something, anything unrelated, really. It goes all the way back to the music, it’s very cut-up, and lyrically too I just pick words, shove them together.

Ah, Bowie did that a lot too.

Yeah, all that cut-up stuff. There’s not really… well, there’s messages, certainly, but it’s not that direct. I don’t just sit down and think the lyrics out – if I can’t write them instantly then I won’t write them at all, pretty much. I won’t just sit there for ages, overthinking things, which for me can be a bit of a nightmare when I take it to somebody else to mix they’re all a bit [a rising inflection on an ‘um-er’]. But that’s how it goes back to the name, the flip thing, the Dimbleby & Capper name reflecting that it’s almost like two different people.

You’ve talked about playing the piano, and you did some musical things before – when was that?

That was when I was about 16, 17, and before I moved to London, where I was did some singer-songwriter stuff…

That sounds almost, well, ‘refined’? Is that the right word? More thoughtful, perhaps.

Yeah, yeah!

So, Dimbleby & Capper – there’s the head of the singer-songwriter and the, um, soul…?

Yeah, well, people will put whatever they want sometimes, like ‘Myself & the Machine’ when it’s just me and a box on stage, where I’m just singing along to the noises coming out of this machine. A lot of people that was where it came from, but really, no [clicks her fingers] – it came out of thin air.

Alright. So who would you say were your… actually, no let’s go with what would describe your music as? I hate to categorise people, and it’s better when musicians describe themselves I reckon.

Essentially, it boils down to pop music. Dreamy electronic pop, and then there’s that rhythm aspect to it, with some quite heavy beats in there, and there’s also a kind of ‘world-y’ vibe to it with the tribal drumming.

You said you were studying at Goldsmith’s – what are you studying?

Music! It was great, three years of doing your own thing and having free access to a practice space, really great course. It’s where I met most of the band too. I could kind of entwine the demands of the course with what I was doing out and about in town, gig-wise, so it worked out perfectly.

How long have you been gigging around for?

Not too long, really. We started taking it more seriously when we got scouted at the Great Escape festival last year, around May or so. That’s when we started playing together properly as a band – before then it was mainly just me doing solo stuff. Our first show was actually here, around April… that’s almost the same time! Weird, how it’s been almost exactly a year.

What are your plans, release-wise? You’ve got that EP up online, is that coming?

Well, that was something we just had to get out when we found out were doing some Glastonbury slots on the BBC. We were on quite a lot, actually, which was nice, and they played ‘Slick Maturity’ quite a bit when we released that, so right now that EP is more of a reference point rather than a real release. People are asking at our shows why they can’t find us on iTunes, and that’s because we haven’t properly released it! I would like to re-release it on vinyl with a little indie label, but we still need to get the money together for that. It would be nice to get a record deal, you know, but right now that’s not too high on my list of priorities, but maybe to get some publishers involved would maybe be better in terms of being able to do this full-time. We’ll see, I don’t know what going to happen. We’ll put out another 7” again soon, though.

‘Slick Maturity’?

No, it’ll be one of the two new songs, we’ll play it tonight – maybe ‘Falling Off’?

OK. Shouldn’t you be heading onstage right about now?

Yes! Right, I’ll get off then…

At this point Laura gathered her things and headed inside, and I bumped into a couple of friends from the other side of the country. This was serendipitous for me, because I hate going to gigs on my own, and it meant I had somebody to mutter remarks to during D&C’s set. They were good remarks – one of my friends, his initial reaction was, “she’s definitely got something, hasn’t she? Can’t put my finger on it, but she’s got something…”

She has. She’s got a good set of lungs on her, her backing band are tight and have the stage act down sharp. They’ve all got these ghostly white beak masks on under their hoodies – when they gather around the Big Drum for some tribal action it’s no unlike seeing a bunch of spirit vultures circle their prey, the rotting carcass of people refusing to dance. Apparently the Hoxton B&K is a pretty A&R-heavy place at the best of times, but despite few people even daring to nod along the music was fresh and I could see the influences Laura talked about coming into the mix. On record her tunes sound similar, in a way, to Balearic beat bands around like JJ, yet live those heavy beats she says she loves are emphasised far more, turning her dream-pop into something closer to a weird laid-back IDM sort of thing.

Watch out for this girl, and her birds.

Categories ,capper, ,dan almeroth, ,dimbleby, ,dimbleby & capper, ,Dream-pop, ,Hoxton, ,illustrations, ,Indie, ,interview, ,laura bettinson, ,live, ,music, ,pop

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