Exactitudes.

Thanks to a comment on an earlier item of mine from someone on the Culture Show (?!), I now know who the artists/photographers in question are! Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek are responsible for the documentation of the various fashion tribes throughout the world's major cities from 1994 - 2008. They have compiled the images in a book called "Exactitudes". I love the outcomes when all images are tiled together.

The website looks pretty cool too.

www.exactitudes.com

Below - one of their earlier documentations in 2004

Monster Round The World Trips.

This is a poster campaign by the same creative agency that did the "Creamfields 07" poster, they're called Love Creative based in Manchester. For each portfolio piece they provide you with "The Brief" and then "The Idea"; I liked this as it offered me an insight into how the design solutions came about. This is one of several poster ideas and I just though it was really apt for the brief - comical, attention grabbing and likely to interest their chosen target audience. Nice!

American Apparel Ads.

I love the brazen sexuality in these ads. Sex really does sell - I have enough of their "apparel" anyway. With highly sexed poses and a tongue in cheek manner, they don't air brush their model's lumps and bumps - they stick two fingers up to convention.

Martin Parr - Last Resort.

Parr's subjects were the people and their "seaside town" of New Brighton, on the Wirral, which he later compiled in a book entitled, "Last Resort" (speaking critically of the people and the resort). Liverpool and its surrounding area had a tough time of it in the 80s and while there was this hugely deprived local society, New Brighton was somewhere close and cheap for a "fun family day out".

I personally know that many of my childhood wet weekends were spent at this local seaside town, wrapped up in a miniature shell suit, screaming on the waltzers, crabbing in the cold, buying fake "fags" and poos from the joke shop, and eating chips literally swimming in vinegar. And whilst they are some of my fondest memories, I can see how those happy days could be subject to ridicule. And it was even worse in the 80s. I don't reject Martin Parr's depiction of the town, but welcome it with warm arms, as I think New Brighton's personality is beautifully portrayed in his series: Sure! it's cheap, tacky and brash  - but it is all part of its charm. I'm proud of those days, and though Parr may be critisising my mini Blackpool (as if that isn't bad enough!), I think he documents it in a way where I can look back with sincere affection.

Saul Bass.

I've liked his work since I discovered him about the age of 15. He isn't my usual style, but nevertheless, I truly admire his work. Simple, classic, individual, with a real aptitude for hand rendered type. His colour schemes are simple, graphical and of an era. Hitchcock and Bass had a creative bond with each other, Bass designing many of Hitchcock's film posters and even co-directing that famous shower scene.

Steve Schofield.

I found this guy by accident, I was looking for something else. However I found some photos of come interest to me. There are two series of his photographs ('Dancers', 'Land Of The Free') which I think are really very curious - and that's exactly why I like them. And though I know it's the subjects in the photographs which really make it for me, they are so very aptly shot. He captures the personality of the people, their "Britishness" (if you know what I mean?) and their habitats very nicely indeed.

www.steveschofield.co.uk

Ink Kisses Paper.

Okay so this is really quite old now, and I don't necessarily like the design (I'm not really a minimalist in my tastes), but I just love the title copy. It's a book that "demonstrates Print Library's philosophy and absolute command of printing" (what they said). There's just something beautiful about that phrase that makes printing seem anything but mundane; more magical and romantic. Sublime!

Creamfields 07.

These are just... magnificent, striking, and... breathtaking images for Creamfields 07. (It certainly doesn't represent my time there one bit - I have vague memories of Stella Artois and queues for the free bus at 5am). But still, just opulent, gorgeous images. I love them. They really capture the unique euphoria you can experience at a festival (not always aided by narcotics, kids). I just love them!

Gui Seiz.

These are some horror movie posters I happened to stumble upon by a lad called Gui Seiz. I like the muted malevolence of the posters. I'm really partial to the type, and particularly like its execution within the design - slightly psychotic. The macabre nature of these posters is what makes them so successful. But then again it's also their simplicity - one of those occasions where what you can't see is what fills you that little bit more with dread. Very nice indeed.

The Satorialist.

A blog recommended to me by my friend Si Sherlock. It's a sort of documentation of fashion in NYC.

It really reminds me of a feature which I saw on BBC's The Culture Show a few months back, for which I have been searching high and low (so if anybody can help me out? I would be eternally grateful!). A pair of artists/photographers decided to photograph the different "tribes" that were apparent in the everyday fashion world of big cities. They took their subjects into a locally rented studio and photographed them in a pose which reflected their "personalities", each member of this tribe would indeed have the same fitting pose. Tribes included such people as, rich Japanese girls with a designer handbag, the student male with a cross over back pack, the power-dressing over 30s woman, the goth etc. Yes some of it was contrived, and they made their subjects fit their own "brief", as it were; but the end result looked brilliant. So many people thinking they dress differently, and yet, they fit so perfectly into a tribe with so many other people.

House Of Holland.

Passio Factionis - the latest range; and it's stunning. I love tartan, always have, always will (owning an outfit entirely of red tartan complete with a pair of red tartan Doc. Martin's at the age of 9 has got to prove this?) - which is why I'm so glad it's "on trend" for this Winter. I'm gonna stock up on it - I just wish I could afford Henry's range - I think it looks absolutely wicked.

Wes Anderson.

This is yet another film which I love, where the plot is about the people, the relationships, and moreover, the oddness of these people and these relationships. I love idiosyncrasies - the dysfunctional parts of us that make us so interesting and so individual, and I think, so too does Wes Anderson. His quirky style of presentation throughout the film is brilliant, the content is expertly and understatedly witty, and the art direction is simply beautiful. Superb.

Silver Cross Packaging.

I ruddy bloody love this packaging series! As Silver Cross do products such as prams, car seats etc, it's just absolutely perfect in every way. And it takes me back to the days when I (the spoilt brat) got a Barbie house, which came in a massive box (or at least it was to me back then). Once all the parts were out of it, all I was enchanted with was the cardboard box - it could be anything I wanted it to be. As I said - it's perfect.

Agent Provocateur.

Their promotional material is always top of the class - edgy, saucy photography, sophistication (can anything else be expected of them?). When the Leeds store opened, I was handed a newspaper style promotional booklet, announcing Kate Moss was the new face of the company. I loved the photography, and the overall layout, so decided to put my name down on the mailing list. This is something else I received from them - a mock of a trashy love story with a sexy storyline guaranteed to get your pulse racing. The story is accompanied by illustrations and photography (which I again, LOVE); and I always love a bit of "tongue-in-cheek" humour, of which there is plenty. Nice promotional item.

Nikki Jackson is: Cheap.

Nikki is a friend of a friend, and I only met her the once but Myspace is a fickle place, so that means we are "friends" too. But I'm very glad. I love her work, she has a folder on Facebook entitled "Oodles of Doodles". And that's exactly what they are; usually accompanied by whimsical, and sometimes nonsensical hand-written copy. She also has a real knack for getting across her observational humour for the mundane - she also likes to attribute personalities of those she has observed, to that of animals - who can't love that?!

Her and her mates seem to have started a magazine called "Cheap" - I think I'll keep my eye on that one.

www.myspace.com/poochy

Blood sweat and tears.

This is an ad I found in Creative Review. These people design packaging and claim to be able provide a solution for any packaging requirement. The copy on the image is what really makes it for me (the tiny stuff that you unfortunately can't really see). A nice idea that I'd love to rob and use as a gimmicky CV. Sigh.

James Rosenquist.

I forgot how much I had loved James Rosenquist's work until I watched "The Mona Lisa Curse" on Channel 4 a couple of weeks ago, when his name was mentioned. I saw his work in The Liverpool Tate and loved it. Although it would fit into the "Pop Art" genre (which with I am becoming wearier and wearier), I really like his big, bold and brash work. Without knowing any political statements or anything about his work, I can appreciate it merely on an aesthetic level - and I really do.

Adame Lowe.

His illustration is divinely simple and elegant. Using a muted colour palette, there's a sort of understated decadence in his work. I love the illustrations' "unfinished" look and the melancholy undertone. Beautiful.

www.adam-lowe.com

Amelie

I literally LOVE this film. Not only is it visually exciting but it embodies so much of what I love about story telling (done so well in particular by the Frogs). I love the idiosyncratic world to which the viewer is introduced - the attention to detail is second to none. I love Audrey Tatou's performance. I love the accompanying soundtrack (Yann Tiersen). I love the quaintness of it all. I just love it in it's entirety, and am always disappointed when the credits roll, as it ends all too soon for my liking.

Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit?

by Steve Lowe & Alan McArthur.

Amazing - witty, dry and cynical. For the grumpy old man inside me. An A-Z of everything you (probably) hate, or at least have a slight gripe with.

A couple of exerts for your pleasure:

"Media Studies

After three years studying 'the media', I  must be an expert in 'the media'. Can I have a job in 'the media' now, please? Vacuous tossers."

"Washed and ready-to-eat vegetables

A fantastic way for supermarkets to turn a bag of carrots at 45.3p per kilo into a bag of scrubbed carrot batons at £2.78 per kg.

Batons? Don't make me laugh. You couldn't run a relay race using anything of that size. You'd be almost certain to drop it during the changeover"

There is a Volume 2 also. I need the pair.

Newspaper Bags.

Really nice idea. Bags made out of newspaper and sold to help children on the streets of Delhi, India. Taking something that is seemingly worthless and transforming it into an entity which can make a profit for a cause extremely worthy. A Non Government Organisation helping a local community, recycling newspaper to create this eco-friendly product; it ticks all the right boxes. I was given this bag on buying a gift for a friend in a little boutiquey/vintage place in Liverpool, and thought it was their own idea (everyone trying to "out-quirk" everyone else). I loved the look of it and thought it was really sweet, so it was delight when I  found out that the shop I had just bought the item from were trying to help a community in real need of aid.

This is what it says on the tag:

"The organisation was started in 2004 by street children who wanted to give something back in return for the opportunities which had allowed them to escape desperate circumstances. These are elder children, now married with children of their own, generate an income by making newspaper bags and jute items. This allows them to take care of thirteen street children that they have saved from the street's surrounding Delhi train station. Support for this wonderful project means that these children can enjoy going to school and playing, rather than pulling rickshaws, shoe polishing, rag picking and worse".

www.theindiashop.com

Paul Davis.

This guy is everywhere. I first found out about Davis in Creative Review where he was featured for his illustrations in "The Girl's Issue" of Illustrated Ape - he did the illustration for the whole issue. His childlike and seemingly effortless illustration has a real comedy about it. I think this kind of illustration is aesthetically pleasing, yet something inside me wants to hold back on liking it, as it looks like the kind of doodles you find yourself doing in your Physics book when you're bored at school - but then, that's all part of its charm. His website is pretty cool too and reflective of his playful style.

www.copyrightdavis.com