MAKING SOME SILKS

I travelled down to Bicester yesterday to Allertons & Company. Allertons are the premier manufacturer of Racing Silks in Britain and they are going to be manufacturing my 'Reel Racing' silk designs for Ascot.  Their premises is a converted stables and its a real rabbit warren of productivity. Everyone couldn't have been nicer and took such an interest in the designs, and were really excited about manufacturing them.

The reason for me going down was to pick the right colours out for each silk, to make sure we got all the shades spot on. They were concerned this could be tricky, but it was actually really painless, and we got every colour almost exact, true to the original designs. Then it was just a case of advising the seamstresses on a few other technical details. Such as the angle for some of the chest motifs and the thickness of the sleeve stripes and a few other bits and bobs.

It was such a pleasure to see the silks coming to life. Its really exciting to see the silks as they progress through the stages of manufacture. From my initial designs, onto the Allerton's template. From their the separate elements are laser cut and then 'sewn in.' They're all handmade and its surprising to see just how much work goes in to each one.











A big thank you to everyone at Allertons for making me so welcome and showing such an interest in my work. Especially Michael Rawson for being such a great host and buying me lunch ! Not forgetting Amy and Steph at Racing for Change for arranging the visit !

3/6/2011

BA DONE

So after a manic week, I submitted my portfolio for my final ever hand in on friday. After three years my BA Graphic Design is DONE !

Its been emotional !

(courtesy of Patrick)

23/5/2011

Reel Racing

Last Wednesday Night was the final for the Racing For Change competition, 'Reinventing the Racing Silks.' I designed a collection of twelve silks (front, back and caps) inspired by fruit machines.  After pitching my idea to a panel of judges, the Winner was announced. I WON ! Which was totally overwhelming, my designs are now going to be manufactured for the first race at Ascot on July 9th. It'll be the first time the racing silks have changed for over 250 years !

The media coverage has been pretty exciting with my designs popping up all over the place, including todays Racing Post, with a picture of me chatting to Sir Peter O'Sullevan. Peter was a lovely chap, his particular favourite was the lemon. 

23/5/2011

Newd Magazine

One of the most recent projects I have been working on is a spread which will form part of a special CSM Mini Mag to be included in the release of the last ever edition of Nude Magazine. I have been working in collaboration with Rachel Sale. Its been a really great partnership, which has resulted in a spread I'm really pleased with. We were given an article about the American Illustrator Jim Flora, most famous for his Jazz Album covers back in the 40's and 50's, our spread aims to celebrate the zany style of Flora's work whilst expressing our own thoughts and feelings on his work.

Im really proud of our joint effort.

23/5/2011

SCARF SHOOT

Had a really successful weekend, as I managed to get two both shoots done for my, "Stat Scarf" and "Wear Your Colours" scarf projects.  The weather was kind and I managed to get all the shots I needed. Both were great fun to shoot. The projects have real contrasting tones. With the stat scarf shoot I was aiming for some real clean, clinical shots to express the idea as bolding and as simply as possible. The second project is very personal and the shoot reflected this. I was chuffed with the results and cant wait to get them all laid out and printed in the books ready for binding. At last its all coming together.

A massive thank you has to go to Harry, Jim, Tom and my good old Dad for being such a sterling set of models. They really made my job easy.

8/5/2011

Knit one, purl one, drop one, curl one

Knitting has been all consuming recently and I've managed to document bits and pieces along the way on my trusty blackberry. The project has pulled me in all different directions, whilst being true to my initial intentions. The project is in its broadest sense a 'reinvention of the football scarf.' This has been split into two directions, one reflecting football on the pitch, the other more personal, relates to events off it. The scarf count is around seven, which means the production line is nearly over. Im currently planning two books which will accompany the scarves.  The stat scarves are looking great, im really pleased with the level of finish I've been able to achieve. Each scarf has its own unique label, which in a sense parodies the conventional percentage labels you see with garments, stating the material content (eg. 100% cotton) 

They look great, its really pleasing to see everything coming together for the final straight.

The 'from terrace with love' element of the project is done and printed, all thats left for them is the packaging. 

so lots going on, lots left to be done.

Few hectic weeks coming up.

27/4/2011

Crossing the white line...

First finished scarf, inspired by Zinedine Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait and the sporting term, 'crossing the white line.' 

Hand knit

134cm x 13cm

_______

“Magic is sometimes very close,

To nothing at all,

Nothing at all.

When I retire

I’ll miss the green of the field

Le Carre Vert.”

Zinedine Zidane

Le Carre Vert - The Green Square

Ive also completed the first prototype for the 'stat scarf' series, more of this to come.

10/4/2011

Colour as representation

Ive been doing some research into information design and the use of colour as representation, I came across the work of cartographer Eduard Imhof, who makes some really interesting points.

The fundamentals  of colour in information design:

to label (colour as noun)

to measure (colour as quantity)

to represent or imitate reality (colour as representation)

to enliven or decorate (colour as beauty)

> ideas not only guide work, but also help defend our designs against arbitary taste preferences <

If one limits strong, heavy, rich, and solid colors to the small areas of extremes, then expressive and beautiful patterns occur.

7/4/2011

This week I have been mostly...

Feel like the blog has lacked attention lately, but in fact there's been quite a bit going on. The knitting is in full swing, with one scarf already complete, all hand knit, inspired by 'Zinedine Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait.' This was just a start to kick off the knitting really, I've now moved onto, 'stat scarves,' picture updates to come. As well as this I've been working on tying up my football song project, which was a fusion of my interest in terrace chants and my desire to use letterpress to reflect this. This has now developed and become a project I've titled:

'From Terrace, With Love.'

This has meant a lot of time setting type, but Im really enjoying it and think it's going to lead to a really cool outcome.

In other news, we met with Nude Magazine last week to discuss the summer supplement that we will produce for their final, celebratory issue, Im really looking forward to making a start on this and I'm excited to be working with Rachel Sale, I'm sure between us we are going to come up with something great.  I also had the shortlisting event for The Racing Silks brief that I mentioned previously, last week, which was fun. Their was beer, sausage rolls and I got shortlisted, so all good ! Its been really fun to work on and I'm really pleased I've got the chance to continue to work with it.

So lots going on, pictures of all this to come shortly.

4/4/2011

Giddy Up !

Over the last week or so, during my knitting breaks I've been designing a set of Racing Silks, for a live brief thats come up at College. Its been really refreshing, and I'm really pleased with how their looking. Hoping to post more on this as the project moves forward.  Also, have finally got my hands on a knitting machine, production is about to step up a notch !

23/3/2011