Matt Lyon

some really interesting and unique illustrative print work I have come across by matt lyon. This sort of approach to an illustrative style I think would sell really well at a craft fair. Its, for lack of a more fitting word, kookie and fun, and a feast for the eyes!

His type solutions are really inventive and expressive, but also fit nicely into a context:

A festival poster Matt did, The kaleidoscopic style shapes and colours work really well for a summery, festival theme, which is why I think there working so well on thi poster. It also works well in more figurative and structurally abstract illustration:

By far my favourite" typoquote" as matt calls it, that he has produced is this one:

I can say that I aspire to create some print work like this in my third year, even if the brief is only to create imagery for typoquotes, So this can be seen as another brief idea - fair enough it would not be challenging to me as a brief, but surely by building a strong portfolio of work that is unique and says alot about me as well as client work shows a clarity in my aspirations into self directed and self motivated projects as well as client lead work.

Photo of the day!

My little friend in the bathroom...

The shape of tommorrow zine

Ben and Ken luckily extended the deadline to the 15th, which was great and means i can submit something, I can get into college and use the resources if need be. The shape of tommorow is a series of a5 zines, each based on a shape, with the first being a circle. I was a little stuck for decent ideas last week, But with a fresh approach (and extended deadline today), heres how it's going so far.

I took this image first, of my chinese health balls, just because they are appealing to look at and this could have made quite a nice full bleed duotoned image for the zine. Then I started thinking about the geometry of circles and things like crop circles. This lead me to the name Euclid after an internet search. Euclid was ancient greek mathematician, and geometrist who actually originated the circle shape.

This made me think of that old fashioned quote "only a mad man can draw a perfect circle" - was euclid crazy? Who knows, hes dead.

Im thinking of just using that image with the red outlines, and putting it through illustrator and making the outlines vectorised, and the desired colour. It's already the right size, and I'm happy with how the illustration actually looks.

Handmade summer craft fair

So I went to the handmade craft fair in ilkley on saturday, there was some really nice, well finished stuff being sold and everything was handmade. I've looked into getting a stall at the next fair with Jess (Who I collaborate quite alot with) In order to sell some stuff. We have made a plan of how were going to split the stall, what and how much we will be making, and what we will collaborate on.

Attending the next craft fair would mean Me having a branded identity including business cards, a banner, some postcards and possible posters and tags for items, as well as doing the same for jess. This is good because I have spoken with jess about designing a branded identity for her as one brief I do next term, and I could do the same for myself. She is a printed textiles/ surface pattern designer. I will put up a post solely for this brief idea at a later date. for now, here are some of the business cards I picked up at the craft fair. I was looking at them to see what sort of print methods were being used and how the designer/ makers were dealing with things like budget, the price of the stall, and also talking to them about how successful the stalls were. It seems to be down to the "luck of the draw" with the next one being at christmas however, lack of eager customers shouldnt be too much of a problem.

As you can see the cards and postcards really do vary from 1 colour stamps to full colour digital prints, for me i guess it will just depend on the budget I have at the time. Here is the flyer for the fair, which is pretty well layed out and simple, obviouslty its been done to look crafty and i think it would look nice blown up to about A2 for a poster. Jess has been telling me she would like me to design her logo to look similar.

Bonsai brief idea continued

Heres a mini care guide I picked up from a garden centre, its good and it serves a purpose as an introductory thing, I will have to have a look and see if there is a full book version of this type of thing, but Im thinking I want to design a bonsai care kit for first time growers like myself.

Another Brief idea

This summer so far I have been getting my green fingers out and planting herbs. Got some basil and some rocket on the go - today I went down to a patch of woodland near where I live and went looking for some new tree saplings. Found a load so i uprooted 6 of them and re planted them at home. This is because I have recently become really interested in cultivating some bonsai trees, its a long, and challenging process that is very rewarding and after a few years depending on the tree size, they can be very valueable.

In the last image I am aware that looks cruel, but its a tempory measure until I can get some proper training wire. Anyway as I was plating up these trees and beginning to train one of them, I realised a Bonsai tree kit would be really helpful, or a little growers care guide. Ill upload some images of a care guide i got from a garden centre and go into a little more depth about what im thinking when the internet permits...

Busy Bee!

So yesterday the sun was shining and it was a wiced day outside so I decided to get into town and buy some stuff to do some canvases, here are the results, ended up with three small ones, three medium and one large with two canvases wasted. I figured I could sell them because theyre probably the best canvses I have done to date, bright, good illustration and i dno nice, anyway I was asking friends how much they would expect to see them priced at and heres what they said:

Large: £20 - £25 ("easy")
Medium ones - £10 - £15
Small ones - for the white on 3 colour ones,  - £5

It made me think because on saturday Im going to a craft fair in Ilkley and I think it would be worth looking at getting a stall for me and jess for the next fair. (obviously this will depend on the type of people that go and buy stuff at the craft fairs, what they buy and which stalls do well, but still, definately worth a look.) If i can knock out 7 decent canvases in a day I could take a load of canvases down and also all the print work I have been stock piling for a special occasion such as this.

Im going to write up a brief Called summer Fair/ Sell Your wares which encompases all the above details that will most likely say produce a range of print and illustrative products to sell at a craft fair, Ill probably get out ambers book fair brief and draw some connections. I will post up more on this particular brief idea After ive been to the craft fair on saturday and had a sniff round.