electric angel /design for life

totally tactile

i visited the new exhibition at scarborough art gallery today, led around by dylan (art critic, aged 3) who was on his second visit of the week. i’ll be going back soon again too – it’s superb. the three visiting exhibiting rooms have each become home to an interactive sculpture (aka podules) by jan niedojadlo. if you, like me, always long to reach out and touch sculptures you’ll love this. not only are you positively encouraged to touch, but also to climb inside and spend some time there.

each piece is a large pod, made out of junk materials but surprisingly substantial. they seat about half a dozen people on various alcoves and shelves inside and have piped ambient music. one is based on a shell, one a crystal and one on a sub aqua theme (it reminded me of a cross between the alien movies and the beatles’ yellow submarine). there’s a video showing alongside the three sculptures in which the artist talks about his work but i didn’t get chance to watch that today so you’ll have to make do with my interpretations. [you can click on the images above to view larger versions of the pics taken on my camerafone]

perhaps it’s the use of materials that gave me the feeling of them having arrived from a post-apocalyptic future. they’re rather womb-like and once inside you forget you’re in a gallery. because the shell and the crystal both have a central ‘fireplace’ inside, you can imagine being joined by wandering post-nuclear nomads to share a meal sheltering from a bitter desert night. or maybe that’s just me. (scarborough’s summer is rapidly resembling bitter desert nights). however, dylan assured me they were spaceships. alt.worshippers paying this blog a visit from jonny baker’s will immediately recognise these sculptures potential as miniature alt.worship spaces.

this exhibition (which runs until 2nd september) couldn’t be more of a contrast to the previous show of drawings by lord leighton. it will certainly upset some folks (and there are plenty locally) who believe that unless it’s pictorial and on a canvas it isn’t ‘art’. so credit to lara goodband, the gallery curator for this bold programming of contrasting shows – far more intelligent than some galleries who try and please everyone all at once and as a result satisfy nobody. i also think i’ve noticed that the permanent exhibition varies according to what’s visiting – there seemed to be more 20th century work on display alongside the last victorian visiting exhibition – unless i just noticed those pieces more after looking at leighton’s work? so there’s still some classic painting on display too if that’s your thing – the atkinson grimshaw‘s are on permanent display.

anyways, if you’re in, near or planning on visiting scarborough over summer be sure to make time to come in out of the sun and chill out inside some art.

felt – send us your veggie pics

matt (dowson.com) dropped in for a coffee on monday and left with a copy of felt. he suggested that we ask people to send in photos of the plants grown from the seeds that come packaged with the first batch. what a splendid idea we said. and then we thought why stop at the plants – why not send in a photo of the meal you cooked with the veggies? so… if you did receive some seeds and you’ve planted them and you have nothing better to do, take some pics as they grow and as you eat and send them to us. and we’ll post everything we receive here on the blog. happy gardening.

no, mr bond. i expect you to design!

a quick piece of work from the archives… this was for bmedi@ – bradford’s new media network. the event was a business seminar and networking event and taking place in the cubby broccoli cinema in the national museum of film, photography and television (now the national media museum) including a tour of hidden parts of the building. broccoli was the producer of the james bond films, the event was on the (00)7th, so we went with a bond themed flyer to advertise the event.

folding out from an envelope-friendly size it’s printed in dark blue and silver – flip it over and there’s a cut-out-and-assemble cocktail shaker including a recipe for that perfect vodka martini. we also wrote the copy which is full of groan-out-loud bond puns. what moore could you want? (sorry)

there was extensive research both literary and practical needed for the recipe. it’s a hard life. try it for yourself:

the perfect vodka martini

chill a stemmed cocktail glass by filling it with ice. set aside

take 2oz of premium quality vodka. add 1/2oz of dry vermouth

shake vigorously with ice for no longer than 5 seconds

shake the ice from the cocktail glass taking care to hold the glass only by the stem

strain the vodka-vermouth into the glass from a height of approximately 8cm

add a speared green olive or twist of lemon as preferred (optional)

serve immediately, if not sooner

cheers!

is design art?

at the creative coast ‘reeling them in’ event last month the q&a after shirlie’s talk led us into some interesting discussion, not least that old chestnut of the nature of art. shirlie actually laid down a very good definition of the difference between fine art and ‘the commercial arts’ (which for some reason conjures up images of harry potter to me). i’m paraphrasing here and surely not doing justice to shirlie’s well though out definition, but it went something like this:

artists attempt to communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings to the world.
commercial artists attempt to communicate the ideas, thoughts and feelings of their clients.

it seemed that the artists present felt there was more at stake when defining who does what and why than the designers, who didn’t seem to really care what they get called as long as someone pays them for it (link: is design art? on the creative match website). there was clearly a bit of a dilemma for some artists as to when it was acceptable to be commissioned to express someone else’s ideas and the worry as to whether this dilutes your artistic worth.

perhaps part of the problem is that if you’re not making a whole load of money as an artist, how do you (or how does society) put a value what you do? for that reason alone artists have to have a cultural cachet afforded to only a select part of society (also eligible for this are composers, musicians, poets… but not designers, and rightly so). otherwise we risk rating the visionaries and prophets of our culture purely on their financial success. and despite the megabucks that some artists are making and the millions that are paid for works by iconic artists, the value of art in our lives really has nothing to do with money.

more thoughts arising from this discussion later in the week…
rachel and i covered most of it in our online discussion – see the comments.

more light

we’ve added some more photos of the publicity for lighthouse – the hull based charity who work with prostitutes helping them breakout of a life of abuse. there are now photos of the client contact card and also a couple of detailed shots of the work so you can read the ‘labels’. click here for the full post.

what we’re reading [1] – design anarchy

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design anarchy by kalle lasn.
lasn is one of the founders of adbusters magazine and this book is a call to arms to the designers of the world whom he accuses of having an implicit role in the mess of consumerism, low self esteem and unhealthy living to which the western world has succumbed. the issue is that too few of us designers have ever stood up to a client and said ‘no – that’s wrong’. we just take the money and draw them nice pictures and write them clever words. of course, saying ‘no’ demands that the designer in question holds the moral and political viewpoint that the practices and goods they’re being asked to promote/sell are wrong. so the question is will lasn’s message be lost on the designers who bought into consumer culture and capitalism long ago and see nothing wrong with it, or are there are lots of cynics out there who turn off their conscience while at work? the second sounds infinitely more worrying to me. you can read excerpts of the book here.

to be honest it’s slightly weird experience to read this book for two reasons. firstly it’s a rather thick, expensively produced book with extravagant use of space to say it’s by someone who is railing against consumerism and waste of resources. unless it’s deliberately ironic (but at what cost?). and secondly (if this doesn’t sound too pious) i’m not sure it’s really aimed at the likes of electric angel. maybe the glossy approach is to give it some ‘weight’ and be taken seriously/desired by the boys at the big advertising agencies.

it’s caused me to stop and think about what we do here at electric angel and realise how lucky we are to work with people who are doing some good in the world. many are charities, many in education, all are working towards helping people in their lives or environment. many are genuine heroes. i tried to think of a situation where we had been presented with a moral dilemma as to whether to do a job or not and could only recall one instance. of course we often direct potential commercial clients elsewhere because we have made a decision about the sort of work we are here to do – and to do that well we need to specialise.

so, lasn’s book has made us think and i suspect you’ll see some slightly more direct self-directed work from us before long as we process his message. but it’s also made us feel ok about what we do so at the risk of sounding a bit gushy we’d like to say thank you to everyone who engages our services and gives us the opportunity to work with them. it’s a privilege we genuinely value.

hit me baby one more time [scarborough blogosphere II]

in celebration of us now getting over 100 unique visits every day (that’s this blog, not people to the studio – we’d never get any work done. besides, we couldn’t afford the coffee bill) we thought we’d post a couple more scarborough blogs we found. alas, none are creatives, but they’re both related to scarborough’s cultural scene. they are:

scarborough renaissance urban space group

scarborough civic society
(who are our newest clients incidentally – more about that job when it’s done)

and we’ll also mention our favourite scarborough-based glaswegian, gordon who claims to have a blog but told me he never writes anything, which is maybe why we can’t find it. so visit his website instead: sneakytrick

and whilst we’re bigging up our fellow graphic designers we’d better say hello to nick at emily edwards creative or we’d feel mighty mean. (nick will be pitching at creative coast next wednesday)

pitch perfect

here’s the creative coast news we promised…

yorkshire coast college – creative coast/creative york student award
congratulations to costume design jessica wood who won the inaugural creative coast/creative york student award at the yorkshire coast college degree show last friday. the award was voted for by the people who attended the exhibition and jessica wins a cash prize, a business support package and the book ‘the creative economy: how people make money from ideas’ by john howkins. click on the images above to see some photos. tomorrow is the art, design & media private view at westwood – another chance to see some of the degree work as well as the work of FE students.

at the risk of being mr grumpy, it was shame the event was poorly supported by creative coast members who all received a personal invite. they missed out on seeing a stunning costume show and fascinating work from the fine art and design for digital media exhibitions. i would have thought local creatives would want to be there to show support for the latest young people joining the ranks of the creative industries. being a bit of a city boy a lot of things here still surprise me – such an event would have been well supported in leeds or bradford. i think scarborough still has a lot to learn about working together and just plain good manners. there, rant over.

if you’re feel guilty now and want to make amends, as part of tomorrow’s event there’s a short informal meeting for local creatives at which the college are asking for views and support and in return be asking if there are ways the college can support or help you. it’s great to see them making links like this. it’s been said before, but scarborough could really buzz with creativity if only people worked together. here’s to joining the dots.

the 5 minute pitch
wednesday 20th is local creatives chance to pitch their business/work/creative skills to their peers. it’s not only a great chance to get some practice in a friendly environment, but it’s also vital that other local creatives understand what you do. otherwise the chances of them passing on work are pretty remote. so what’s your excuse to not do it? james will be delivering the electric angel pitch on wednesday.

the wednesday surgery
helen perkins of creative york is also in town on the 20th offering to drop in on creative coast members to offer advice and support. she’ll be glad to field any questions you have about business, training and other opportunities and point you towards free support that creative york can offer. you can read more at: www.creativecoast.net [click on cc17]

funding
we’re also chuffed that creative york will be continuing to support us to deliver another 6 month programme of events, probably starting in october after a short break over summer. scarborough borough council’s urban area committee have also given us a grant for this series which opens up a few more opportunities as to what we can organise. ta everyone!

meeting
and so with a little money behind us we’re meeting to plan the series. monday 2nd july, 10.30-12noon at the renaissance office. all creative coast members welcome.

and finally, bon voyage…
to andrew and sabine who will be winging their way back to canada today. it was great to meet with them last week and get a sneak preview of some of the footage andrew’s filmed here. also fascinating to hear about life in scarborough, ontario. i hope we can exhibit the piece here in scarborough uk when it’s finished.

more stripes

we’ve added a couple more photos of the identity and printed material for west yorkshire chaplaincy project, notably the pocket-size client cards we mentioned in the original post. also the notice board posters and information leaflet. rebecca was at wyccp in leeds on friday training staff to use their new website and content management system – we’ll blog that when they’ve had chance to upload some more content. click on the link above to see all the pics.

creative coast flyer

a few pieces of creative coast news coming up this week, but for now here’s the flyer we designed for the feb-jul 2007 series.