Inuit – AmeliasMagazine

A few weeks I popped along to the third ELCAF held at the Oval Space, which is a trendy new venue in a semi derelict part of Bethnal Green between Hackney Road and the canal. There were abundant creative types enjoying the late afternoon sunshine on the long balcony which overlooks one of the rusting gas towers, and inside a chaotic and slightly bawdy atmosphere reigned. Here’s what I saw:

Studio Hato invited attendees to play comic strip consequences in the entrance hallway.

Near the entrance I discovered two old Amelia’s Magazine friends sharing a table and a publishing imprint, Magic Capes. I love Lesley Barnes’ new range of fashion illustrations for the V&A, and am looking forward to reading Thereza Rowe’s Hearts book with Snarfle soon.

Corn Dollies by Isabel Greenberg featured on a print and these cute badges.

I was drawn like a magnet to Madalena Matoso’s amazing swimming pool print on the Planeta Tangerina stand.

There are some fantastic contributors to this Mythical Creatures zine, including Bonbi Forest’s Lee May Foster-Wilson.

I love Katherina Manolessou’s reworking of the toddler’s favourite tune Zoom Zoom Zoom, featuring a fluffy red monkey and other lovely creatures.

I was really taken by work from Otto Graphic, an illustrator and screen printer who is influenced by the Constructivists and Polish poster art.

Inuit is an Italian bookshop and printworks, selling knitted lungs and cacti alongside beautiful risoprints.

It was great to meet the El Famoso brothers Rich and Chris Fairhead, who work together on their illustrations – read about their recent exhibition here.

Next door it was a pleasure to meet the Day Job girls, who very kindly gifted me their Activity Book (above) to share with Snarfle.

Benjamin Wright’s wonderful laser cut badges featured Darth Vadar and a Ninja Turtle.

Sam Taylor and co were particularly boisterous when I stopped by, perhaps a given when you take a closer look at the styles on their stand.

The Brolly Lolly collective is comprised of MA graduates from the Cambridge School of Art, presumably not including the small and very industrious helper on hand – I loved these strange plant prints on a zine by Melissa Castrillon.

Wonderful fruit and vegetable prints are by the inimitable Matthew the Horse.

And finally, but by no means least, it was ace to catch up with Babak Ganjei, who continues to turn his talents to eccentric comic strips (you may remember I featured one of his early stories in the print version of Amelia’s Magazine way back). Roll on ELCAF 2015!