The Art of Punk

After dabbling in gig review writing (here and here), I've landed myself a weekly feature on Colin’s Punk Rock World. This is definitely all down to my writing ability and ideas rather than the fact I’m his girlfriend, obviously!

Every Tuesday I will be posting an article under the theme ‘The Art of Punk’. My first post went out earlier today and is a bit of an introduction to the whole concept, but also features London Calling by The Clash.

Alongside working on my own posts, I’ve also designed some banner-style images to head each blog post on CPRW – for each category: album reviews, gig reviews etc. These also appear down the side of the blog (see above!) and offer quick links to each category.

…I’m not taking over, honest!

It’s here!

As of today, Love Japan magazine issue 2 is now available to buy in print and is also free to read online! (Although, I’d recommend getting it in print… because it’s a magazine.)
I got my copy earlier in the week and it looks great.

I’ve worked alongside some super talented and passionate people over the last few months and I’m really excited for the world to see the magazine, at last. I designed this issue but also look out for my own article in the Travel section!

Love Japan Magazine Issue 2 is jam packed full of interesting articles and interviews covering a wide range of topics from food, fashion and art, to lifestyle, travel and events.

Our first 20 print orders get a free gift of either a ‘I ♥ Japan’ pin badge, or Japanese food stickers. Click here to make the jump and grab a copy of the mag!

We hope you enjoy reading the magazine as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it!

Colin’s Punk Rock World

Last month I met a man named Colin who loves punk rock about ten times more than I do – and I really love punk rock myself! He just so happens to have an excellent blog compiling album reviews, gig reviews and top tens called Colin’s Punk Rock World. It was always really well-written but, being the keen graphic designer that I am, I immediately asked if I could offer my design expertise. I initially designed a new banner for the Facebook page and tonight I tweaked the blog to match.

Yes, I am also plugging my own review that I wrote for the blog a few weeks ago. At least, it’s kind of a review but mostly me babbling about how The Gaslight Anthem ‘changed my life’ or something like that. Colin was kind enough to think it worthy of being posted anyway.

ps. Colin is also now my boyfriend but that’s kind of irrelevant here.

Coming Soon!

We are literally putting the final, final touches to Issue number 2 of Love Japan magazine. It will be going off to print very soon. I can’t share much more than the cover at the moment but a complete 88-page print version will be available to buy very soon. Exciting!

UPDATE:

We’ve decided to upload a complete version of the magazine, rather than a snapshot version as we previously thought about doing. We think this issue is just too good to keep only for print! The full magazine will be published online at the same time as print copies becoming available for purchase – which is looking like it’ll be early September. (We had a last minute addition to the magazine that we didn’t want to leave out!)

BUT don’t panic Japan fans, keep an eye on the Love Japan Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts over the coming weeks as Emily will be sharing snippets from Issue 2, ahead of its full online and print debut.

Gurafiku: the Japanese graphic design archive

Ryan Hageman, a designer/researcher based in Chicago, has an excellent and ever-growing blog that forms ‘a collection of visual research surveying the history of graphic design in Japan’ – Gurafiku.

I was pointed in the direction of Gurafiku by my very own design studio, emc design, tweeting about an It’s Nice That post. (I’m so bad at keeping up to date with Twitter, design blogs and all things Japan related these days so it was lucky that I happened to see the tweet tonight!)

“Looking through all the works archived on Gurafiku, I am always impressed by the sheer diversity of different styles, approaches and methodologies present in Japanese graphic design. It’s these characteristics that’s been able to carry my interest in the project for so many years.” – Ryan Hageman says in the article for It’s Nice That

Japanese Manga: A Meal Makes Her Forget. Jun Abe / Yasuhisa Kawatani. 2014

Japanese Poster: Forest in Tokyo. Chikako Oguma. 2015

Japanese Illustration: Tokyo Xperia. Hasegawa Shinpei. 2014

Japanese Magazine Cover: Graph Press. Shogo Sato. 2012

Japanese Theater Poster: Frog Ascension. Motoki Koitabashi (Akaoni Design). 2015

Those are just some of the most recent images added to Gurafiku. I’ve added some more of my favourites here…

Follow Emma’s board Japanese Influence on Pinterest.

The Tree of [Indo-European] Languages

by Minna Sundberg (via Open Culture)

Volkswagen II

I got my very first car in 2012 – a good 3 or 4 years after passing my driving test, mind you. It was a Volkswagen Fox, purchased in Cornwall during my graduation week (hence the Cornish flag sticker), and has been my trusty and beloved vehicle ever since. Well, since today at least. Because today I said farewell to my lovely blue Foxy and hello to a shiny new (well, 3 years old) red Volkswagen Up.

Photograph taken at work this afternoon before our last drive together.

…and the new car!

The Up is similar in size and, obviously, still a Volkswagen but being a more modern car it has electric windows, air conditioning and remote locking – plus 4 doors where my Fox had only 2 (and massive ones at that). So, you could say that this is quite the up-grade… pun intended.

Volkswagen has got me hooked – I barely even considered getting a new car from another car manufacturer. I think I’ve always subconsciously loved VW, even before I could drive or was thinking about driving. As many young hippy-come-alternative-type girls dream of a VW Campervan or Beetle of their own, I did too. I had plenty of Campervan money boxes anyway – at least 2 – an assortment of Campervan and Beetle ornaments and one t-shirt with ‘I [heart] [picture of a campervan]’ on it. Sadly I no longer have this t-shirt.

BUT, ultimately, as a graphic designer I love their classic advertisements. I posted a few of the ads in my first Volkswagen blog post when I was ‘new to the Volkswagen club’ but I’ve dug out a some more of my favourites to share now.

And in more recent design and automotive news, Volkswagen have changed their font:

The company claims the new font is “more contemporary, less geometric and features dynamic contrast,” and that it is “inspired by VW’s distinctive vehicle design.” Whether or not the typeface, created by outside agency MetaDesign, resonates with prospective customers and increases revenue remains to be seen, but there’s certainly no risk for lack of exposure. Not only will the new font be on display in VW stationery and brochures, but it will also adorn every new VW dashboard, center stack and infotainment system. – Paste Magazine

The previous typeface, apparently called Utopia, was a very clean and rounded Futura-style font – in fact, Futura itself has been used in past VW advertising. The roundness suited the classic VW logo and the classic shape of the Beetle as well – as you’ve seen in the ads above! Then why have Volkswagen gone away from this? I’m not sure…

Before and After.

As Erik Spiekermann (notable German typographic designer) said…

I like the new VW fonts, just not for this brand. #vw #typography

— erik spiekermann (@espiekermann) May 29, 2015

In print

Well, I’m practically a published author now! My one and only copy of Five Thousand Miles arrived in the post on Monday and it looks absolutely beautiful.

But I’m not just talking about my design or photography skills – although they are fairly decent – as the overall finish of the book is amazing. It did cost me more than a few quid though, so I expected the quality to be good but perhaps not quite so good (check out Blurb books). It has been so nicely printed, keeping the colours bright and crisp, and uses such high quality paper (although, again, I paid for it!). The cover alone is excellent to behold, nevermind the inside of the book…

I took the book into work for everyone to have a look at (if they wanted to!) yesterday and received some great feedback. I mean, I’ve received positive feedback regarding the web-journal and digital book versions too but there’s something more rewarding about having this travel journal as a real printed book. Plus, I love books.

I haven’t taken too many photos as it is either best looked at in person or, if you’re perhaps on the other side of the world and we’ve never met, viewed the digitally.

I’ve photographed the book with a green tea Kit Kat. Partly for scale – the book is huge! – and partly because I have resisted eating this remaining treat from Japan for a whole year.

Woshi-Woshi: Japanese inspired packaging

To me, this Japanese-inspired packaging brings to mind tea (something like these) or, perhaps more appropriately, sake (something like these). But it is in fact packaging for a line of Russian skin and hair care products – shower gels, liquid soaps, bath salts, deodorants, shampoos, and conditioners.

Created by Art Lebedev Studio, the bold and colourful illustrations are inspired by Japanese gardens and manhole covers. You can see my previous post about the oddly beautiful manhole covers of Japan here and see just how much they have influenced this design.

I discovered this wonderful packaging thanks to a tweet by Creative Roots yesterday. Creative Roots is a great design blog that showcases the best of graphic design, illustration and art from all around the world. There’s a lot of amazing stuff in their Japan collection, as well as this packaging (although this isn’t strictly Japanese, the inspiration is obvious!). And, of course, there’s some great art and design gems from the rest of the world too!

Japan Zoologisk Have

I spotted this postcard in the Copenhagen Zoo shop last Saturday and, well, how could I not buy it? I have no idea why this exists. I mean, I assume it is from an old poster for the zoo (much like London Zoo has) but just why exactly it has a samurai on it I do not know. I’m not sure there was anything particularly Japanese about the zoo and I can’t think of any specific animals they had that are native to Japan. But hey, cool postcard!

Love Japan Magazine: Issue #1

You may remember at the end of last year, during my Christmas break, I spent some time working on the branding for a new Japan-themed magazine – Love Japan Magazine. Well, Issue #1 is now out there and it’s awesome!

I didn’t have too much involvement in the actual layout of the magazine… But I designed the patterns that are in use for backgrounds and page borders, as well as suggesting font combinations when I did the branding work. Plus, one of my photos is in there – see if you can find it. I have also made some overall typographical and editorial design tweaks to the final magazine – as an editorial designer in my day job (2.5 years and a middleweight designer now, by the way!), I thought I could put my skills and expertise to good use.

Emily has done an amazing job pulling everything together – not to mention coming up with the idea for a well-researched, well-written and well-designed Japan-themed magazine in the first place – and there are some excellent articles, photos and illustrations that have been contributed to the magazine from a wide range of people, all over the world.

I’m excited to say that, although I didn’t work on the design for the layout of this issue, I will be having more involvement in Issue #2. I’m meeting Emily to discuss things [over some Japanese tea] in London next weekend. So stay tuned for more details on #2! And for now… here is Issue #1:

Pedal Down

I had the pleasure of seeing Chuck Ragan, one of my most favourite musicians, live in London last week for the fifth* time. Chuck and his band, The Camaraderie – comprising of bass guitar, pedal steel guitar, fiddle and drums (plus Chuck with the acoustic guitar and harmonica) – put on an outstanding show. Probably even better than when I saw them last May. This time I didn’t have my usual gig-buddy-boyfriend with me, but I did have both of my parents! And they loved it almost as much as me.

The support acts Tim Vantol and Skinny Lister are absolutely, 100% worth a mention too as both were excellent. The latter I had listened to prior and was excited to see. The former I had heard of but never properly listened to – he’s playing in Milton Keynes later this month so I’m going to go to that (with the ’rents again!). I would also highly recommend the Scala music venue. It’s fairly small, the sound is great and they played the best between-sets music I’ve ever heard at a gig – although, I am not sure if that was their doing directly or the people with the bands.

I picked up this beautiful screenprinted A2-sized Pedal Down Europe tour poster at the show. I’ve always wanted to buy a nice gig poster but there have never been any that really caught my eye until this one. At least not actually at the gigs I’ve been to – there’s loads online that I like the look of. I haven’t got a frame for it yet so had to masking tape it to the floor to take a decent photo!

I spent about 10 or 15 minutes, this evening, trawling around Google and Google images trying to find out the designer of the poster. I had no such luck finding out myself (I couldn’t even find the poster, let alone its creator), so I asked Chuck Ragan on Twitter instead. Which turned out to be a much better solution as he replied within minutes.

Devan Power is a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ designer and illustrator based in Toronto. He’s previously worked with Hot Water Music, Chuck Ragan’s long-standing hardcore punk band, and a number of other music-related clients. I’m now following him on Instagram. He posted this poster himself a few days ago – apparently they are from a limited run of 100 prints. All the more awesome.

* I paused writing this post to check my ‘seen live list’ and find out just how many times I have actually seen him.
I initially thought it was four, not five!

Five Thousand Miles: the cover

This is a little bit of a work in progress… in that I need to take a closer look at how each image here has been cropped. Just to make sure that there are no strange keylines or generally funny-looking bits of photos. Also, I’m not 100% on how I’ve got my name here – not sure how legible it is. Maybe have to shuffle around a few images so that the red text is more clear overlaying whatever photos.

BUT this is the design for the cover of Five Thousand Miles, at least.

There was no way I was ever going to be able to decide on a single image to use for the cover, so this seemed like the best solution! There are even more images on the back cover too, as I’ve (currently) chosen not to have any kind of blurb on the back.

The insides of the book are very nearly complete. It just needs a few final tweaks to scanned images that are in place and a final look over – by someone other than myself! Still on track for printing/online publishing in April.

The San Fan

To celebrate the release of Isao Takahata’s Academy Award nominated and ravishingly beautiful new film, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, released in UK cinemas on Friday 20 March, 2015, we’re launching a brand new creative brief and offering a great prize for your efforts. – Little White Lies

I was kindly pointed in the direction of this creative competition by my friend Chrissy (she’d previously asked me a Ghibli related question so it was an appropriate share). I didn’t think I’d have much free time to come up with a suitable design, what with putting the finishing touches to my Japan book design… but I have ended up putting together a fairly simple design today.

The task: to design a Studio Ghibli themed fan (focus of each artwork must be on the amazing female heroines of the Studio Ghibli universe).

My design: The San Fan – inspired by my favourite Ghibli heroine, San, from Princess Mononoke and repeated patterns within Japanese art.

I’m aware that my design is far from groundbreaking and I probably could have produced something far more impressive had I got the time. But it was fun and I’m happy that I have something to enter. I do love Studio Ghibli!

Japan: 2014 and 2016

Last Sunday, I finished laying out the final pages of my ‘Five Thousand Miles’ Japan 2014 travel journal – the book version (of this). I am now in the process of checking over a full PDF and marking up any amends/additions to the text, plus any photos that require a little tweaking in Photoshop – mostly making images lighter.

This process looks a little like this…

Please note: I’m not doing a proper job of the mark-up (like we do at work!), just doing what is quick for me.

I started work on the book version of Five Thousand Miles just after Christmas and have spent many Sunday afternoons on it since then. It hasn’t been a quick process – there are more than 1000 photos in the book and it spans 196 pages – but I’m pleased that I will soon have a printed copy in my mits. I intend to get these text and image tweaks done in the next week or so. Then hand a new PDF over to my wonderful friend and colleague Kat (editorial and production pro) to have a look over it, as well. I wouldn’t want anything to slip past me – because I’ve looked at it so much and may be blind to the obvious!

When I’m content that the book is finished, I will be sending it off to Blurb to be printed. All hopefully before the 11th April – a year on from when I set off on my trip to Japan. Although, if it ends up being any date after that but before the 27th (when I finished my trip last year) that’ll be okay too. I also intend to eat my remaining green tea kit kat that I’ve been reserving for the anniversary, as I look through the book!

As well as my original travel journal, featured on the website version, I have written a little something extra for the past few pages of the book. I figured I may as well share it here, ahead of finishing the book.

What next?

In the process of designing and laying out the pages of this book I have, unsurprisingly, begun to think about my next trip to Japan. Although, as you’ve seen in the pages of this book, I did pack a lot into my April 2014 first-time trip to Japan, there is so much more that I want to see and do in Japan!

I would really like to visit Hiroshima next time around, including the Miyajima shrine – as recommended by the member of staff at my ryokan in Hakone – and the peace park. Plus, the peace pagoda at Mt Futaba-yama, commemorating peace since the atomic bombs of World War II. Peace pagodas, in particular, interest me as my hometown of Milton Keynes is home to the first peace pagoda in the Western world. I have yet to see my first peace pagoda in the East, but hopefully it will be in Hiroshima.

I’d also like to visit Nagasaki, for similar reasons. But also because many of the books I have read (historical fiction) feature Nagasaki – as it is the port that many Dutch, Portuguese and English trading ships first docked at upon ‘discovering’ Japan. However, I realise that Nagasaki is quite a bit further west than some of the other place in Japan that I would be likely to visit – it’s actually on another island (Kyushu, rather than Honshu). This means that it may prove a bit more difficult, and certainly take a bit longer, to get to.

As I discovered on my first trip to Japan, I have a huge love for Japanese castles. I was lucky to be able to visit five in a single trip – well, three actual castles (Matsumoto, Osaka and Odawara), one set of castle remains (Kanazawa) and one castle that wasn’t really much of a castle (Nijo in Kyoto). Himeji castle is reputedly the most magnificent of all of Japan’s castles. Conveniently, it has been undergoing a lot of renovation work over the past few years, with the work coming to an end in March 2015. So, although it wouldn’t have been viewable in it’s full glory for my 2014 trip to Japan, it will be for my next trip.

I would very much like to visit Hakone again, perhaps for a couple of days rather than just one. I would really like to see Mt Fuji with my own eyes, too! I intend to spend several days each in both Tokyo and Kyoto again, as both cities have so, so much more to see. There’s more of the modern and technology-fueled side of Tokyo to explore and I must make it to the bamboo forest of Arashiyama, just outside Kyoto this time!

Lastly, I hope that for Japan trip two I won’t be travelling alone. My potential Japan travel buddy is well aware of this, and as long as he gets to see the giant Godzilla outside a hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo, he seems pretty open to seeing all of the above and more!

I really can’t wait for March/April 2016 for Japan trip number two!!

What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World

Last night dad and I went to see, American-alternative-indie-folk-band, The Decemberists play at Brixton Academy in London. They are a band that we have both been itching to see play live for several years now, but never had the opportunity to previously. We were seated upstairs in the circle – I’ve never been upstairs in Brixton Academy before – which meant we were by no means close to the stage. However, that didn’t matter one bit as we were directly in the centre and had a clear view of the stage, albeit at quite a distance, and the sound was perfect.

We knew they’d be great live, having seen a few videos of them playing in the past and having listened to their live album (which for a live album is actually really good – I say ‘actually’ because I’m not usually a fan of live albums). But I don’t think either of us expected them to be quite so incredibly good. I would definitely say that last night was up there with the best gigs I’ve ever been to. They don’t just play their songs, they perform them. I’d never really considered it before but they are a pretty theatrical band, in terms of the themes of their songs anyway.

This song, which was the [second] encore last night, pretty much sums up what I mean. (The Lego version is particularly good too!)

A lot of the songs that the band played last night were, unsurprisingly, from the latest album – What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World. The album came out in January and, although I’ve been listening to it on Spotify, I hadn’t actually bought a physical copy. Yet. So, I decided to splash out and buy the vinyl version last night. It’s a double LP, which is a first for me, and it is beautifully packaged.

Back in November last year I posted the video for Make You Better, the first single from WATWWABW, here on my blog. The kaleidoscopic-style imagery is taken from the album artwork (also featured in that blog). But now I can hold the beautiful vinyl packaging in my own hands – and listen to the record(s) of course, which I’m doing as I write this.

 I particularly like the framing on the back.

I was quite surprised to find the image on the inside of the sleeve to be this way around.

 The two inner sleeves, each a slightly different design.

As there aren’t actually enough songs on the album to fill four sides, only three, the fourth is
simply a laser-etched design (not to be played! because that would end in tears).

Now playing!