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Guess the animal? Earlier in the week, I spent a day printing some extra copies of a publication based on the 'After Life' exhibition at the Horniman Museum. It was from a brief set by the design studio Julia, to create a catalogue for a show of your choice.



ps. It was a passenger pigeon, obviously!

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How great is this Melita Gandham print I bought the other week? It's super playful, definitely the best £1 I've spent in a while! It reminds me of one of my favourite pieces, The Snail by Matisse. It really sucks how expensive it is to see the Matisse Cut outs exhibition at the Tate, it's such a shame how dear entry prices can really put one off going to a major show.


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Tis the season for writing lists and then crossing things of them!
Yep, it's end of term portfolio time (for the last time ever) so the next few weeks look like I'll  be getting intimate with indesign and battling with tripods - tis the season!

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Last week, Jack and I went on a day trip to Zurich to visit the BuBu book factory after the Swiss book bindery set our course a competition brief in collaboration with BOB design. You can see more about that here ... http://barbarafrankieryan.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/100314.html. Bubu is short for Buchbinderiei Burkhardt, founded by the brilliant Hans Burkhardt who looked after us so well during our visit.  The factory was literally a dream, it was the book equivalent of what Charlie and the Chocolate is to confectionery. There were so many machines and production techniques (my favourite being the machine that pinched spines in order to curve them), a combination of mechanical and hand processes, each used when appropriate or in comnination. 

Jack and I received prototypes of our winning designs (one of which BuBu will use as their 2015 new book, after further prototyping) which were made by the irin-house hand binding team. They did a stonking job. Mine being a sharing book that is torn in half in order to be used and Jack's is a pocket book (designed to curve perfectly to his bum) which aims to make books more informal again. Here are the prototypes ...




Then Jack and I had a go at some handarbeit and made ourselves some books, of course with a lot of assistance! I opted for lemon with my initials foiled in white and Jack went for a more classy black and gold foil combo. It was great to learn so much about books and I hope to make a lot more books in the future!



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Everyone has a favourite piece of art that they have never actually seen in the flesh. And mine is The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson, it looks as though it is one of the best things that has been in the Turnine Hall. Beautiful! Anyway, a couple of weeks ago when I was invited to an ABC talk at Wolff Olins they spoke about a collaboration with Olafur Eliasson which I embarrassingly hadn't heard of.

The project is called "Little Sun"  and it is portable light which provides a reliable source of electricity for people who live off the grid, for an affordable price. I think it's a beautiful and functional product. And if you have a few minutes, the short film at the bottom this post, explains the project perfectly.







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I absolutely love this denim laptop case that my Mum made me for my birthday! I love the great typeface that she has designed, so simple and so good. Here's how she makes 'em ... http://ilovedenim.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/cutting-edge.html




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How much do these chair leg pom poms that Joe and I made for a project, look like a rock star diva?!