London Part II

Following on from my previous post we also wandered on up to Hackney’s “Little Shop of Horrors” to view their array of intriguing curiosities! On arrival, we were met by an assembly of two headed teddy bears who graciously accepted our two pound admittance fee and ushered us inside.

What followed seemed to represent a jungle of oddities, large taxidermy bears awaited a tea party closely observed by two headed sheep. Whilst companionless dolls such as the unfortunately named; “Fat Homeless Helen”* looked on in hope of rescue. There was something for everyone, presuming that golden pig snouts and mummified dancing rats are on your Christmas list this year! Either way, I left feeling much more inspired for the ghoulish festivities of Halloween.

To follow was Somerset House which is currently housing the AOI Illustration Awards from the 2^nd through to the 27^th of October. Winning pieces included children’s books to the self initiated and more or less everything in-between.
 

A few of my favourites are pictured below alongside the accompanying wall mural that I particularly enjoyed! Despite my best efforts to remain unbiased and after an appreciative viewing of everything that was on offer, I inevitably gravitated towards the more fantasy based pieces, aswell as soaking up any portraiture based work on my way. This included a sneaky eyeful of sketchbook work and a sprinkling of animation before a quick play in the fountains sent us and our soggy shoes on our way.

*(For those interested, Helen remains homeless but hopeful to this day and arguably just as fat, depending on your perspective.)

London Part I

A trip to London at the weekend saw us skilfully dodge the bad weather whilst allowing us to explore the unchartered and often mystifying land that is otherwise known as a child’s imagination, courtesy of the V&A Museum of Childhood.

Equipped with a healthy helping of pain au chocolat we got a glimpse of exactly what children believe the future could hold for them. This was in the form of captions which were then illustrated by assigned ‘grown-up’ artists; the results were amusing, heart warming and occasionally terrifying!

A few snippets included “Yellow and red animals will be living on a world of rice”, “The sharks look silly. No tooth fairy for the sharks because they always brush their teeth” and the absolute and straight to the point gem, “Kangaroo is eating the future (banana shaped)”.

These are only a few of the many varied predictions, but I like to think that statistically speaking surely one of them must come true, right?

There’s more information on other events run by the Museum of Childhood here, http://www.museumofchildhood.org.uk/

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

A whopping 18,000 people drifted through the Business Design Centre for New Designers this month, myself included, to take a glimpse at what all of us graduates had to offer! The building became a hive of activity, lined with all manner of designs I soon found myself engrossed in a maze of other people’s imaginations and hard work. So much so that it seems I was too distracted (a common occurrence) to take any really good photos of my own work nestled amongst the other exhibitions!   

 

Unfortunately my carelessness continued further that day and after a dramatic turn of events poor Marie number 5 found herself smashed and exposed outside of Euston station. Despite a particularly vulnerable train journey and much frantic clearing of glass she luckily arrived home in one piece. Phew! (Although she is still feeling quite flustered over the whole affair and has resigned herself to a life free of any perilous activities for the time being.)

Anyway, I'm excited to see what next years fresh set of graduates will bring to the show!

For more information about New Designers and the many talented graduates involved, head on over to website here http://www.newdesigners.com/