Florence is an arms dealer?

I quite like this, it doesn't really have a purpose, but then again neither does Amy Winehouse really so i guess it doesn't matter.

http://mutatebritain.bigcartel.com/product/dr-d-–-i-hear-duffys-selling-coke

enjoy.

Bad day to be a ginger

http://www.miauk.com/

This music video for MIA's new song "born free" literally shits all over Lady Gaga's "story" music videos, its got a cloverfield/hurt locker feel to it, but with a much weirder message.

It's very good if a little over graphic for a music video. Follow the link to see it.

The Big Idea

EXILE/FOREIGN/DEMOCRACY/FREEDOM/FUNDAMENTALISM

My last official project at Uni is finally upon me after this its just a few weeks of portfolio reviews, presenting this blog and putting together a grad show, and then i graduate and become technically unemployed.

The project is called the Big Idea, we are given 5 words and we are told to pick one, we are encouraged to pick quickly and impulsively, out of all the words freedom is my gut reaction and Freedom is what i will be focussing the project on. However part of me feels I am pandering to a cliche, the interesting thing is a lot of my previous work has focussed on these themes before in my work and a part of me feels that these "random" words were given to me because of what I already have in my portfolio, thus imprisoning me in a project that i do not want to be in, the irony of picking the word freedom, I am interested in how I will come out of this one, I don't normally post about my work, but I think I will keep the blog updated on this particular project.

Freeview HD advert

I was watching TV this evening and an advert came up for Freeview HD, the content was a bunch of kids playing football in a packed out stadium, it was just a beautifully crafted advert, I can't find it on the net but I will continue to look for it, watch this space.

Harry's New York Bar

The reason for blogging this bar is similar to the reasons for blogging the bookstore, it is in Paris, and was frequented by Hemmingway and Fitzgerald, however i get the feeling that they were visiting this establishment for very different reasons. This bar again was set up by an American hoping to profit from the American occupation of france in the WWI, he bought it with a friend who owned a bar in NYC, dismantled the NYC bar and shipped it to france to re build it there.

The owners hired a guy called Harry to run it, when the bar went out of business Harry bought the property put his name in the title and ran it himself, turning it into the parisian legend it is today, it purports to be the oldest cocktail bar in europe and created cockatails like the bloody mary and the monkey gland. There are pictures of writers and artists sat at the tables hanging on the walls, and gershwin composed and American in Paris on the piano in the cellar bar.

Again just the oppourtunity to be in a place that Fitzgerald and Hemmingway may have thought or even penned a draft of The Great Gatsby and The Old Man And The Sea* is really exciting and gets the creativity inside me all riled up. Plus the Long Island Ice Tea is fantastic if brutally alcoholic.

*if you haven't read these, do so. They're really good.

Shakespeare and Company Ltd Book Store, Paris

As I said, graphic design in Paris seems to be on the back burner, however there are some very cool places for the arty creative types (surprise surprise).

One of these places is the Shakespeare and Company bookstore on the bank of the seine just opposite Notre Damme, It was opened before the war and has had quite an interesting past, it published Ulysses by James Joyce, when the States and the UK banned it, it was closed by the Nazis when the then owner wouldn't sell Finnegans Wake by James Joyce to a Nazi soldier, it sold risque books like Lady Chattersley's Lover when it was banned in other countries and was a hotspot for travelling authors of the 'lost generation' like Hemmingway and Fitzgerald.

After its closure it was reopened by George Whitman, and american soldier who didn't want to go back to the USA, it followed on in the same tradition as the original shop, becoming a cultural point of reference for bohemians and authors alike, it offered a very open door policy to travelling authors offering them free accommodation in return for a few hours work in the shop. This tradition continues today with shop housing 70 beds for traveling authors and bohemians, in addition there is a piano which the owner encourage the customers to play, similarly the writing booth complete with typewriter and fresh ink ribbon is there for all the aspiring writers.

The shop is fantastic housing every book you could possibly wish for, 1st editions, re additions, classics, modern classics, fictional or reference, all aspects are covered, with velvet seats scattered around the upstairs for you to sit and read.

It is of personal interest for me as I am a big fan of American Literature especially Fitzgerald, so just to see the places he hung out, drew inspiration from and was a part off is quite an experience.

Paris

Hi, so i have just come back from Paris, I went with my lady, firstly it was pretty sweet, secondly there was barely any decent graphics there, terrible poster designs and no agencies in central paris to have a look at, the galleries were pretty good, but very traditional, no real exapmles of a graphic edge in any work, even in the Pompadou, however there was a real presence of some quality product design, Phillipe Starcks presence in Paris is clearly rubbing off.

Hope you like, I'll find the designer in a bit and post up his website, for now there is a link to Phillipe Starcks website because, in my opinion he is a fantastic designer.

http://www.starck.com/

enjoy.