The Best Camera IN THE WORLD!

   Anyone who has looked at my work will have noticed my propensity for using photographs. Well, why wouldn't you? A picture is worth a thousand words, as they used to say, and a photo is a picture you don't have to make yourself. It's just there, waiting for you to hunt it down. But you've got to have a decent camera.
   So, what sort of camera is best? Well, if you want technical details don't come me. Professional photographers have to lug around a massive, heavy bag containing thousands of pounds worth of equipment, whilst worrying that the next technological breakthrough will render the whole lot obsolete overnight. The likes of you and I, however, need keep only one criteria in mind: The best camera in the world is THE ONE YOU'VE GOT WITH YOU ALL THE TIME.
   We're not going to tote around a heavy, bulky article every day on the off chance of getting a decent shot. No, we need a decent phone camera. So that's why I bought a Nokia Lumia 1020.
   As a phone, it's a dog. The Windows operating system is terrible. You're stuck with inferior versions of Android apps, like Skydrive instead of Dropbox. But I'll put up with it for the sake of the powerful camera.

   No amount of technology will help if it's in the cupboard at home. You have to strike a balance between effectiveness and portability.
   When adverts started appearing for the first phone cameras, starring some goon having his picture taken with a relatively tattoo – free David Beckham, I thought "What the hell are you going to use one of those for?" Now the camera is the most – used ancillary programme on any phone I have. So I make sure it's a decent one.  

PDP: Branding - not as fascinating as I thought.

   We visited Bridge Hall primary school, which is about to replace its WW2 era buildings with shiny new ones and need a new identity to go with it. The visit was fun, and informative - my partner is a primary school teacher, so now I have more idea of what she talks about. However, after staring at the list of requirements to be crammed, if possible, into the new logo, I had a revelation.

   I wasn't interested at all.

   There's a quote, supposedly attributable to an executive of the Coca – Cola company, which says:
    "If Coca-Cola were to lose all of its production-related assets in a disaster, the company would survive. By contrast, if all consumers were to have a sudden lapse of memory and forget everything related to Coca-Cola, the company would go out of business."

   This makes it seem quite sexy. Coke is, after all, just a soft drink. But, by some kind of magic, it has transcended the reality to become an icon, a dream, a symbol of freedom. At that level, yeah, it looks exciting.

    But at humdrum, everyday level, you are often 'gilding a turd'. You are tasked with making something inherently dull appear interesting. On top of that you are lumbered with mountains of nonsense that the client wants including in the design. And when you've done it - they don't like it. They say 'Can you just put this in? And take this out?' So you do. And they still don't like it.

   (Until you get a reputation, that is. Then you can say 'I know best. This is brilliant branding, the best you're gonna get. If you don't like it it's your funeral, but either way you owe me £££'s'.)

   I've tried to read many books on the subject, but I end up re – reading pages over and over again, vainly attempting to absorb the message. So it's not something I'm going to be concentrating on.
   

Hopes, Fears and Opportunities - Part 2

   I fear that I'm never going be any use at the Adobe stuff.

   When I say fear, I mean know. My mind cannot absorb the complexity of the procedures. I have wasted untold hours trying to accomplish some procedure or other that a more polished operator could deal with in minutes. It cripples my creativity. I hate it with real feeling.

   So I'm never going to be a graphic designer.

   There, I've said it. Three years of education wasted.

    Or is it?

   Well, maybe not. This course has opened my eyes to all manner of things that I knew, and cared, nothing about. Before I started this course I actively disliked the art world. The famous line "When I hear the word culture, I reach for my pistol", often misattributed to Hermann Goering, could have applied to me. If I'd had a pistol.

   But art, like Ebola, is extremely contagious.

   Another by – product of this course is the demolition of my conviction that I'm 'not very good with my hands'. Years of failed repairs to cars and bicycles, collapsed shelving, askew cupboards, blown fuses, leaking pipes and lost components had made me shy away from anything involving tools. But it would appear that I've changed over the years. I seem to have acquired analytical skills and tenacity from somewhere. Not to mention patience, of which I used to have precisely none.

   So I'm convinced that my future lies in the 'Craft' world. Even more so after my visit to Textbook Studio, where thanks to Vicky and Chris the way was finally made clear. I do images. The image, to me, always comes first. The text is an afterthought. Though it's actually the typography I struggle with: the wording is straightforward enough.

   And as I'm far too old to take the usual career path, and have always assumed that I would be self – employed again rather than in a 'proper' job, it's not such a bad direction to take.

   I'd heard about Hotbed Press from Kiran, who does some work down there, and had contemplated stumping up for studio space when I lost access to the College's facilities next year. I asked Vicky about their facilities and she said they have the best anywhere around here. So I'm going to call on them over reading week and check them out. The downside of printing is that you need expensive, cumbersome and, in the case of presses, very heavy equipment, which wouldn't fit in the flat even if I could afford it. So becoming a member looks to be my first step on graduation. Looking forward to using an Albion press.

   So, image making it is. Someone else can do the type.

Portfolio Revue – Textbook Studio

   So, back to grim old Islington Mill for my first portfolio review. Mercifully, it was much warmer than last time we were here.

 
   Textbook Studio is my kind of place – full of old equipment in various states of repair, papers, books and bottles everywhere. It's the home of people who like making things, the exact opposite of a pristine Mac – monkey studio where the only old machinery is the bikes hanging from the wall.
   The visit went well. Their conclusions were:
   My images – great. Especially the linocuts. And the pinball table. (Apparently it's VERY rarely that students actually make stuff. They usually see just posters etc).
   My typography – shit.
   Well, no surprises there. I explained to Vicky and Chris that typography was a closed book to me. No amount of reading up on it has any effect - the information just slides off my mind like butter off a hot pan. But this doesn't matter. Because I have a future as an image maker.
   They gave me some straightforward 'Graphic Design' advice on the portfolio, and some other ideas too – maybe form the words 'Zines of Wonder' out of actual books, or make a movie of the pinball table. But the good advice was purely for me. Like bring actual linocuts and screenprints to reviews, for maximum tactile effect. To paraphrase Vicky, "I know you have to do this for the course, but FOR YOU, just fuck the text off and concentrate on the images".
   So that's what I'm going to do. I'll do enough typography and related stuff to pass the course, but the image will be my emphasis from now on. Vicky and Chris gave me a couple of people to contact - there's a bloke in Handforth with a Letterpress in his garage - and I'll be at the Manchester Print Fair on Saturday 25th October. See you there.

  
 

PDP: Letterpress - the Future

   We had a lecture by Jim Williams today, he of 'Type Matters' fame. He graduated in 1982, when the tool of the time was Phototypesetting. This sounded horribly complicated, and subsequent research confirmed this - the advent of the digital age must have saved loads of time, though probably at the cost of loads of jobs. His salient point about it was, though, that he had to get it right first time, as corrections cost both time and money. Hence, you had to know about typography.

(Incidentally, the typesetting apprenticeship took seven years.)

   Now I've got his book. But I haven't read it. I've always found typography uninteresting. But when Jim started explaining the historical context of typographic terms, I succumbed, as usual, to the lure of the old.

   Letterpress, he says, is seeing a rise in popularity. Outfits like Apple are "Looking backwards to see forwards", or as I call it, strip-mining the past. But as previously discussed, I'm drawn to doing things the old-fashioned, hands-on way. Anything to get away from the wretched Adobe stuff that I have less than no affinity with. I regret missing out on the visit to the letterpress studio on last year's London trip, so I've never seen it actually done. And it's just another form of relief printing - another process I'm drawn to. It is taught as part of the Graphic Design course in some universities, though unfortunately not ours. And people are making a living out of it; Jim works with Blush Letterpress in North Wales, who print wedding invites etc.

   So, a valuable lecture. I've got another archaic technique to focus on, and some handy typography hints as well. Then again, they might have been in the book. Better read it, eh?

PDP – Lessons from Stefan Sagmeister

   A couple of weeks ago, if you'd said to me 'Stefan Sagmeister', I'd have thought 'razor blade nutjob'. That's the trouble when one piece of an artist's work is inevitably picked to represent them - like if you hear a Van Halen track it's usually 'Jump'. Everyone gets typecast.
   Then I read 'Things I have learned in my life so far' and 'Made you look'. Now I know better.
   He does MAD things. Like hanging out of a window of the Empire State Building so he could be filmed waving a sign, and almost being arrested as a jumper. Or making words out of tape wrapped round fences or trees. Or swimming in the Hudson river with letters on his back. Or using photos of Lou Reed at the point of orgasm to illustrate his album sleeve. He's not shy about getting his kit off and having his scrawny body become part of the message. either.
   In short, he's a performer.
   I have no desire, never mind ability, to stare at a Mac for days at a time. It's not healthy, for one thing - the screen gives me migraines, and there's nothing worse for your health than sitting at a desk shoving crap into your gob for twelve hours at a stretch. But that's the lot of most Mac monkeys.
   Sagmeister has shown me that there's a market for designers who DO stuff, who make mad things out in the open. That's more the sort of life I want to lead than being chained to a desk all day.
   Before I started this course, I thought I was crap at the hands-on stuff. But when I was photographing the pinball table, and I was fiddling with the mirrors to line up the laser, Graham Holt said "Were you an engineer in a former life?" So, maybe, I'm not crap at it after all.

PDP – La Dérive

 The Situationist Intellectual Guy Debord wrote:

"One of the basic situationist practices is the dérive [literally: “drifting”], a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. Dérives involve playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects, and are thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll".

In other words, what I've been thinking of as 'Flaneuring'. (Debord claimed to have invented the Flaneur, despite the concept predating his birth). As part of my research into Rebecca Solnit's book
"A Field Guide To Getting Lost", I tried a bit of Flaneuring, or as I see it, wandering without purpose or haste. This is completely alien to me: I normally map out routes beforehand and like to know exactly where I am, how far away my destination is, and how long it's going to take to get there.

My first attempt was a wander around the country outside Buxton. See? Before this, I'd have said "a walk from ... to ... ". This time I just parked in a likely spot, and started walking. I had a map, of course, but as long as I ended up back at the car the rest of the route was immaterial.

And you know what? It was very liberating, not being tied to a schedule, not knowing where you're going or when you're going to get there. You pay more attention to where you actually are - 'living in the moment'.

 My next dérive was in Manchester. I assumed that I knew Manchester too well for this to work, that I'd always know where I was. But as I took off into the streets around MMU I realised that I only know them from driving and cycling - I'd never actually walked along them. And you notice a lot more as a pedestrian, when you're not separated from the environment by glass and speed.

Again, it was very liberating, if not exactly 19th century Paris. It opens your mind to the prospect – nay the expectation – of new things happening just around the corner. You think differently, more creatively. Recommended, if you've got the time.

PDP – Nostalgia Sells

  Here's One We Made Earlier is an exhibition at the Lowry celebrating 90 years of children's broadcasting.
  In my view the exhibition was designed to appeal to today's kids, rather than people who enjoyed, or endured the likes of 'The Clangers' and 'Bagpuss'. There were a lot of interactive or tv displays and a disappointing lack of actual stuff. (The Imperial War Museum North suffers from a similar malaise). But none the less it triggered nostalgia. Lots of mums and dads saying things like "Oooh, I used to watch Noggin the Nog" And that's a powerful tool to deploy when you need to influence someone.

 
 There is plenty of scope for nostalgia in graphic design. And as I’m instinctively drawn to ‘old’ stuff, it’s a direction I intend to specialise in.

  This, I believe, is the most recognisable example of nostalgic design in this Country. Originally designed by the Ministry of Information in 1939, it was never used during the war and was forgotten until a copy was rediscovered in 2000. It has since been used on mugs, posters and T-shirts, and endlessly mutated into a myriad different variations. And in the process has made a great deal of money. Its power comes from the nostalgia it invokes, of the war and the blitz spirit, even to people far too young to remember the real thing.

 Writing in Design Observer, Jessica Helfand said 'Nostalgia has always been a bad word for designers. Like "retro" and "vintage" it smacks of a sort of been-there-done-that ennui — looking backward instead of forward, nostalgia presents as the very antithesis of the new'. If this is true, it leaves the territory to be occupied by those people with the contextual knowledge and the desire to invoke the old. People like me.

And It helps if you're old enough to remember it first time round.

Going back in time.

Walking through Hayfield, I assumed the shit state of the road meant that roadworks were due.
But a butcher's shop with carcasses hanging outside? And who are these ragged - arsed yokels leaning on lamp posts? Anyone would think that they'd fallen through a wormhole into the 1920's.
Then I saw the cameras.

 

Yeah, they're filming "The Village" again. I gave up after ten minutes of the first episode, when John Simm went into "By thunder, I'll take me belt off and me trousers'll fall down" mode. If I want to see a world where landed toffs kick the poor in the face on a daily basis, I don't need to watch TV drama. I'll just look out of the window.

PDP Interview - Steve Little, Design Manager, PokerStars.

Where and what did you study? - Somerset College of Arts and Technology in Taunton, affiliated to Plymouth University. I did a two year HND in graphic design, with a one year BA topup in packaging design.

Why did you go freelance, and what are the pros and cons of freelance work?  - The main advantage was the higher rates of pay, including overtime payments. The general consensus in the design and marketing industry is that there's twenty other people ready to bite your hand off for your job, therefore you should be willing to work every hour God sends, but we're only going to pay you a basic salary. Unless you're a freelancer, where you'd get paid by the hour. You also get a broad spectrum of experience if you move from one place to another and you get different varieties of work for your portfolio. Whereas in my current job it's all for one client, it's all the same. That's what you call client - side. The main disadvantages are, if you take days off, or go on holiday, you don't get paid. If you don't have a family to support, though, it's probably going to be a lot better because of the amount of money you can make.

How did you get back into permanent employment? - I did three years contracting, or freelancing, I wasn't really looking for permanent work, but then this company I'd freelanced for (PokerStars) came up with a good offer. It meant that I'd be able to afford for Michelle (his wife) not to go back to work. And this company have a lot of perks, they have a pension scheme, and a bonus scheme, which is pretty rare. So I'd be able to go on holiday and still get paid, spend more time with the family. And be working in London. It's not glamourous work, necessarily, but they're a good employer, and the business seems to be recession proof.

 So when were you working for Honda? - That was in an agency called Collective London, in 2005 and 2010. In 2005 a bunch of guys who worked for AKQA, one of the biggest digital marketing agencies in London, decided to split off and set up their own company. They pitched for Honda UK's redesign and won so they had to expand very fast. It was very exciting, new company, a bit disorganised, no one knew quite what they were doing. Honda's a great client to work for.

So what is your role? - I'm a design manager. I've got a team of seven or eight designers, depending in if we've got any freelancers or not, and basically I'm in charge of online graphics, which is all the promotions they run on the websites. There's a digital animation guy who deals with the TV stings that you see before and after programmes. There's a print department as well, and there's live events, who deal with all the liveries and brandings at the live events, poker tours and the like. There's a web department as well. But the bit I'm in charge of is promotions, which is trying to get the players to deposit a certain amount of money.

How do you approach a brief? - We get a studio briefing and have to come up with the first concept and then run it by the main stakeholders, all the different internal departments within the company, then get it signed off by our creative director. We don't really get much time to do creative concepts, unfortunately, there's only a few briefs where we get time to think it through properly, rather than just get it done because it needs to be done. Time is a pretty key factor in what we do, which I think is pretty much the same through out a lot of marketing and communications agencies these days. They think that because everything's digital that everything's instant. The fact of the matter is that if you want a good idea you have to spend he time thinking about it. But yeah, it all comes down to time at the end of the day.

Any advice for aspiring designers? - I wouldn't specialise too much. It's good to have a good knowledge of print and how print works, how a website's put together, current technologies. software skills are always useful, but you don't have to know every bit of software inside out to be a good designer. Keep up your craft skills up, your drawing skills. Things like life drawing. Yeah, so, probably don't specialise too much is probably the best bit of advice.

How would you describe your style? - Less is more. People tend to think that the more stuff in there, the better. Certainly the clients think that, they think you have to have every single piece of information in there. For instance if you do an email marketing campaign it has to be a really simple message, not pages and pages of text, cos no - one's going to read it. I think less is more is the biggest thing.

If you were starting again, what would you do differently? - I've always enjoyed motion graphics, but I never really got into it because I trained as a traditional designer, before the internet. I'd try that route if I started again.

How important is typography to you? - It's 60 or 70 per cent of what I do, or what my department does. Because there's so much information we have to try and get in, but there's only a certain number of pixels on the screen to fit them into.

Lastly, how much of your work comes out of a snap decision, and you subsequently have to invent a scientific basis for it, and make it not magic? - Ah, post-rationalising. Probably not that often, not in the type of work I'm doing at the moment. But in the past, maybe 20 - 30 percent of the time. I've come up with a good idea, I've only spent half an hour, two hours thinking about it, why am I going to go round the houses for another day to come up with other ideas when I think this one's a good idea. After a while you'll have a set number of rationales you can use time and time again, you can use that one for that one and this one for this one.

Thanks very much, Steve.

PDP - The Field Guide to Typography

I hate typography.

Well maybe not hate. I don't feel deeply enough about it to hate it. But I don't really see it, like posh people don't see their servants. It's just there, doing its job.

However, I accept that I have to develop a working knowledge of typography. So I've read lots of books on the subject. Or tried to at least. Definately looked at them for long enough. And I've learned some stuff about the mechanics of it, mostly from this book, which was recommended by Peter Holden at his lecture.

But on actual fonts, I was totally in the dark. How on earth do I decide what is 'good', and what is 'bad'? How, even, do I tell them apart? If only I could recognise them in their natural environment rather than just on an indesign document, and build up a collection of mental images that correlate with the name on the font list. After all, you can't recognise birds just from pictures in a bird book, you have to equate those images to the real thing.

Then I read this.

It's deliberately styled like a bird identification book, even down to the binoculars on the cover.
Inside there are articles on 125 frequently encountered fonts, containing brief histories of the fonts and their creators, identifying features, and pictures of the fonts in the wild.

 In some cases there are comparison charts explaining the difference between similar or rival fonts, like this one for Arial vs. Helvetica.

It was news to me that Arial was, supposedly, adopted by Microsoft as an 'alternative to Helvetica' because they didn't want to pay the licence fee to Lynotype. This, apparently, really annoys typographers, who all seem to idolise Helvetica for reasons that are lost to me. I rather like Arial, even more now I know it's not the done thing to like it.

But I still can't explain, typographically, why I like it.

PDP - Hopes, Fears and Opportunities

I fear that I’ll be found out. And I hope I won’t be.

What am I? A graphic designer.

"And what’s that, then?"

Ermm….

"Hah! You’re nothing but a charlatan!"

‘Graphic design is the art of communication, stylizing, and problem-solving through the use of type, space and image’ according to Wikipedia. But is it a science, or an art?

I read somewhere, I can’t remember where, that ‘Magicians’, who come up with a product or solution out of their own imaginations, are paid less than ‘Scientists’, who use, or claim to use, a rational path towards their final decision. The reason being that people think of the magician, ‘Oh, anyone could do that’, whereas the scientist has a huge arsenal of confusing facts and figures to convince the public that what he does is far too hard for them to comprehend.

So, which one are we?

Paula Scher wrote – again, I can’t remember where – that she often comes up with THE idea for a brief in a flash of inspiration, then spends ages thinking up two or three less good options. Because if she gives the first, best solution to the client TOO soon, they’ll think “Huh! Didn’t take long. So it can’t be worth much”. The multiple options, and the time taken, prove that work, long, scientific, expensive work has gone into the product. So they think she’s a scientist, not a magician. But in these cases she IS a magician.

With me, it’s almost always an idea from the blue. I’m not even sure what the scientific approach is, apart from looking at what others have done first. So that makes me a magician. And as I’m not so hot on justifying my decisions – with secondary research, for example - one day someone might call my bluff.

Opportunities – well, after my conversation with Patrick Harvey at Love studios I’m slightly more inclined to believe that I might get a proper job in some shape or form. I’m certain it won’t be a conventional graphic designer’s career path – see reasons above, amongst others – but I reckon now there’s a niche somewhere. Perhaps in branding or marketing. And one of the studios we visited got quite agitated when I asked what was their policy on working for an evil client. Obviously touched a nerve there. Now I’m quite relaxed about going over to the dark side, and prepared to be up front about it. If you’re going to be a villain, at least be a full – on, moustache – twirling villain.

And then, as ever, there’s the craft option. I’ve made a pretty good portfolio at my first attempt. Can you buy such things from a British manufacturer? Not to my knowledge. You have to send off to foreign lands and pay a hefty premium for the privilege. So I’m giving serious consideration to taking portfolio construction forward, at least as a sideline. The £44 I spent at Ratchfords bought me enough material to make at least four similar items, so the profit margin is there – just a matter of streamlining the process. Will I need a bigger portfolio to present all my portfolios in?

PDP - Studio visits.

   We had an interesting day trawling around four of Manchester's graphic design studios. The plan is, one day we'll all be queuing up at their doors clutching our portfolios, earnestly seeking employment.
   Trouble is, I've never had any faith in the prospect of getting a 'proper' job. All other things being equal, the rampant  - and illegal - ageism in this country tell me that no-one is going to look past my advanced years - 55 by the time I graduate. But the experience of the day slightly altered my opinion.
   Patrick Harvey, a 'senior creative' at Love studios, talked at length about the portfolios, letters, emails etc. received from the likes of us. And the common denominator is? They are all EXACTLY THE SAME. Everyone says they 'make a great brew', in a hideously self-effacing way. It would appear that all graphic design students are stamped from the same mould.
   Except me, that is. I can do different. While my nuts-and-bolts skills aren't that hot, I can do the 'blue sky thinking' standing on my head. Hell, why only blue? Red sky thinking!
   Another eye opener was at Holden and Sons.They were the only ones who let us wander around the studio - though they didn't actually have much choice, it was so small - and I gravitated to Megan, their Social Media and Account manager.
   Megan was manipulating Twitter to boost the profile of one of their clients. Now I got a taste for social media campaigning with the Zines of Wonder exhibition. Plus, I've always wanted to be a cunning master of puppets, making the public dance as I pull the strings.
   So I can see myself getting work pushing a brand, raising it's profile - like Love did with Johnny Walker whisky - by manipulating public opinion.
   Someone else can do the actual graphic designing.
  

PDP - Bookbinding

We have to present a portfolio of our best work to date.
Portfolios are stupidly expensive. Sixty quid for a cardboard box? Ninety for four bits of wood, two bits of leather and a few screw posts? No way.
In my view, the portfolio case, or whatever you decide on, should be part of the portfolio itself. otherwise its just a demonstration of who's got the most money. So I decided to make my own.
The wood/aluminium variety looks the easiest to make, but I couldn't source suitably nice materials in the time I left available. The hinges are particularly elusive, though annoyingly easy to get in the States.
 
The next best option seemed to be a bookboard/bookcloth type. We're fortunate to have Ratchfords on our doorstep, so for forty quid I got enough fabric and board to make quite a few mistakes with.
 I got this book out of the library. It didn't have exactly what I was looking for, but some patterns came close, and it's full of techniques and ideas.

I looked online for something nearer to my vision, and I found this:



First of all, experiment. I built a small prototype, to practice gluing technique and to see if the hinge folded out flat.

No, it didn't. I think the lining paper is too tight, as it folded nicely before I covered it. Gluing is also trickier than I thought, at least on this type of fabric; one rogue drop would ruin the look of the whole thing. And there were a lot of rogue drops. I'd have to be much more careful next time. Maybe wipe - clean buckram would be a better choice of fabric.

These are the panels, inside and out. Note the reinforced hinge strip bottom left. Now to glue the lining papers.

And it works!

I've spent a huge amount of time this holiday researching, planning and building this. You could argue that my time would have been better spent elsewhere. But I reckon I'm playing to my strengths here. I'll never be more than adequate at the Adobe stuff. So I'll go with what I CAN do well.

PDP - Deborah Wrigglesworth

   Deborah Wrigglesworth has spent a lifetime dealing with paper. She's obviously very enthusiastic about her work, and came prepared to instil us with the same degree of enthusiasm. Mind you, the prospect of free samples did a lot to guarantee a good turnout.
   We all got a thick pack of samples, and Debo talked us through them, one at a time. It's much easier to get a feel for paper weight when you're holding, say, a 100 gsm sheet in one hand and a 175 gsm sheet in the other. And good paper is lovely to hold. It's obviously addictive.

   Interesting to hear about the papermaking process, too. Sounds dull if you read about it, but Deborah had the enthusiasm to make the subject come alive. I'm keen to visit a paper mill to check it out for myself. Maybe a college trip next year? Deborah works for D S Smith, and they sound like good people, but both their mills are down south, way too far away.
   This lecture was extremely useful to me, given my attraction to the printmaking field. I've been unhappy with the way my linocuts come out - but where lies the problem? Could be the roller - so I've bought a decent one. Or is it the paper? I've always taken it off the shelf in the print room, and have no idea whether it's suitable or not. So I looked up suitably types, and went looking - but no joy, not in Manchester. Eventually I had to make a special trip to Intaglio Printmakers - lovely shop - in Southwark, to load up on samples. If it still isn't right, then it's my printing technique, or the ink.

 

   

 I was bitten by the paper bug on Tuesday. When I'm making my portfolio over Easter, I'll also be making a giant version to keep my paper stock in, where the cat can't sit on it.

   Oh yeah, sorry for calling her Helen.

Bullshitter of the Year 2013 (runner-up)

  The Fairway, Higher Hillgate - formerly the Flying Dutchman - is, according to the sign outside, "Pub of the Year 2013". Pretty good, huh?

 

 And then you see what's written below, in much smaller letters:

 

First class bullshit!

Things to do when you're forced to go shopping.

   So there you are, fainting with boredom. You look around for something, anything, to break the monotony. And then you see it...

 

...bad typography!

   There's plenty of interesting typography to look at in the perfume section of Boots, but it can't all be good. The problem here is a matter of scale. The logo looks fine on the bottles below, but blow it up to this size and the gap between the N and the I yawns like the gates of hell.

   And in reverse...

   This doesn't look too bad, though I'm not sure about the short T. But when you reduce it...

 

  The T screams "Help me! Help me!"

  People in Boots thought I was nuts taking these pics.

   

PDP - Keywords at the Tate

The Keywords exhibition at Tate Liverpool tied in nicely with what we’re currently doing in context, so Gary had us all bussed down to see it. And they’re charging a pretty penny to see it too, £8 for civilians, though we got in for £5.

And…it wasn’t worth it.

Raymond Williams’ book Keywords  is a collection of essays on the changing meaning and usage of 130 words. The Tate has taken this concept and twisted it to frame a collection of artwork and images from the 1980’s. Words scrawled large on the wall –

Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

- were represented by pictures on the facing wall. You would assume these artworks would be logically placed opposite their keyword; but no, the artwork is crammed shoulder to shoulder along, while the keywords sprawl in a leisurely manner. The result is the near impossibility of equating the one with the other.

Maybe just as well, because the artworks don’t really fit the categories. There was a painting of an oak tree. Where was that supposed to go? I’d have had to put it under folk. But no, folk means, apparently, the troubles in Northern Ireland. Whereas to most people folk means nasal singing and morris dancing.

Another room held more stuff scattered across large black carpets, which we weren’t allowed to stand on. Again, keywords were scrawled on the walls, but I had no idea what they pertained to.

The Tate management had decided to use the Keyword concept as an excuse to haul out a bunch of artworks they already owned and charge us loads of money to see them

Yet if we hadn’t been working on this topic, been familiar with the book and its concept, I might have been fooled into thinking the exhibition made sense, and that I was too uneducated to get it. As it was, I just saw it as nonsense.

Rebranding

 These used to be called "Misery Memoirs".

Stockport College's Funding Cuts

After further cuts to the equipment budget, Adam Pilkington is forced to produce his ZinesofWonder exhibit the hard way.

Leeds Again

Leeds continues to delight me. The city centre is so much more impressive than Manchester.

 

This is the Trinity shopping centre. It makes the Arndale look like a public toilet. The roof lets the light and air in while keeping the rain out, so it has more of an outdoor feel.

And there's this brilliant mesh sculpture of a pack horse, perched on a pillar thirty feet in the air.

They also had a Street Art exhibition. Best thing you can do with a Vauxhall Astra.