As the festive season gets nearer and nearer I thought I would upload an image to toast the launch of the Fetchaset Blog and thank all those who have worked with me to make this happen.
Cheers...I hope you will return again soon.
Russell
STUDIO
This is a recent photograph of me on holiday. It could have been taken in any year over the last 30 years.
I tend to travel light, so I’ve edited down just what materials I need to take with me on location...
The Ingredients:
1 X A6 Sketch book [Moleskin]
1 X A4 Sketch book - Durable and not too precious
I micro Watercolour set.
Various brushes - Wide/medium width
Fine liners, Biro's and Pencils...
Prit stick
Recipe:
Bake slowly in a high Mediterranean heat for 7 days.
Objective! Look for the extraordinary in the ordinary.
ANTALIS MCNAUGHTONS — STUDENT DESIGN AWARD
Its always good to have one's hard work rewarded and recognised, but that doesn't always happen.
On 29th June 2012, a group of my 1st year design students were rewarded for their hard work by winning the prestigious Antalis McNaughtons ‘Student designers of the year award’.
Kim Wilson from McCann Erikson, Jane Pluer from Pentagram, Chris Smith from Traffic Design and Jon Honeywill from Black Sun...Selected their 2013 Calendar design from over 140 other entries, from across the UK.
The judges decided that... ‘Good use of paper in the imagery...’ The design concept showed the group paid attention to the brief and translated the use of paper in the illustrations together with the choice of stock used throughout '
I'm very proud of the team...
Gail Greatrix, Tom Rowe, Dan Haddock,
Dan Barnes, Nair Martins, Ben Page, Peter James,
Sue Taylor, Sain Rann.
The future does belongs to those who can see it coming.
LET’S DANCE — MICK HAGGERTY
One of my favourite graphic designers is Englishman Mick Haggerty. In a decade when no one feels much like dancing, this image comes from a decade when we all ‘...put on our red shoes and danced the blues...’ to the beat of an upwardly mobile society, and David Bowie’s album ‘Lets Dance’.
Over the last 40 years, he has designed countless album covers for artists such as David Bowie, ELO, The Go-Go's, PIL, The Police, Simple Minds, and The Rolling Stones. Haggerty's work always reflects the note of current pop culture but it seldom looks dated. Grammy Awards In 1979, Mr. Haggerty won the award for Best Album Package (along with the late Mike Doud) as the art director for Supertramp’s Breakfast in America.
Other well-known artists/covers he’s created include:
David Bowie — Never Let Me Down and Tonight
The Police — Ghost In The Machine
ELO — Face the Music
Plus works for OMD, Disturbed, PiL, King Crimson, Richard Thompson, Roxy Music, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Richards, Aerosmith, Sammy Hagar, Roy Orbison, Boz Scaggs, the Violent Femmes and, recently, Josh Groban and Michael Bublé.
He is a British Great.
RONALD SEARLE…HERO
This long overdue post respects the life, person and work of the great Ronald Searle.
In a time when the word ‘Hero’ is used to describe anyone at the drop of a hat, Ronald Searle can truly be thought of as a Hero. A career which started at age 15, the father of the St Trinians girls, prisoner in a Japanese war camp in 1942 and commissioned by Life magazine in 1961 to draw and record the war crime trial of Adolf Eichmann.
The posted image is an unusual choice, a light and fluffy sketch from a book that was first published in 1994, [Marquis de Sade meets Goody Two-Shoes] The picture title ‘Mr Sherman meets Mr Ford’
His life was unbelievable in every context. I could not recount it and do it justice here. Enough to say that he is a Hero of mine.
Ronald Searle passed away aged 91, 30th December 2011
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE
Its just something to send a message in, or an item, a thought or an object...so how much design and Illustration does there have to be on one envelope? And how many designers, Illustrators and typographers did this envelope employ in order to transform it into the item seen in this post?
Question... When does a piece of stationery becomes a piece of packaging and stops being just an envelope?
STRIKE A LIGHT
To most its just rubbish, but the old match books and match boxes can often be lovely pieces of design with witty graphics and reflections of an era or a distant culture.
I've been collecting the odd match book for about 40 years. The sample blogged is, I think, a sweet example of word play and period Illustration. It's a good striker !