soundtrack: Shout Out Louds – Fall Hard

Home workspace organized and ready to go. Couple more things to the inspiration/ motivation wall, perhaps. I’m hoping that staring at the t]m specimen poster every day will work some magic.

2010 -  No need for additional new years promises really; I have the index cards. Except for the  g r a d u a t i o n card. And the a p p l i c a t i o n s card. This quote makes me think, though:  You must bring something to the school before you can carry even more away as you leave it. Then again, it’s not up to me. My work is to try.

Too often my work process goes like this: get totally stuck for some time, panic, overwork on the details, start hating the whole thing, spend a week ruining all the previous work, then a week repairing the damage… Don’t know if these are good qualities for (type) designer? But: slow, steady, has patience to do things over and over again – that is me as well.

P.S. I found a job for autumn!

Sandra tagged me to show my desk. “Desk” at the moment is in two rooms and three table surfaces but changes all the time.

The best working music for me is Boards of Canada. Which music works for you?

Too dark a day for taking photographs, but here you go.

The poetry magazine came from print yesterday. Considering I would love to tweak a million things, I am pretty happy with it. Especially the colour scheme. The theme for this issue was fantasy/science fiction, a challenging topic to visualize.

It’s a project done via school, meaning it’s a real magazine but every issue is layouted by different pair of TAIK graphic design students. Each issue is unique, only constant is the format.

Happy weekend all!

The poetry magazine looks rather like this, only bigger. Will show more when we get the real thing from the printing press.

I went to see this exhibition yesterday, liked the planes -piece the most. Perhaps something to do with my current state of mind now that I think about it..

Sawa tells that his works are about travelling without leaving a place and also about his own feelings of alienation and on arriving to Britain from Japan. He embraces the movement of people and the mutable notion of home as central themes in his work.

I booked my flight to Holland the other day.

During our perfect Saturday of coffee, girl talk and bookstore browsing my friend spotted the book some of my work is in. So if you are in Helsinki you can find Custom Kicks at the Stockmann Bookstore.

Got my complimentary copy of Custom Kicks the other day. It’s such a cute little book filled with wacky shoes and bright colours, I know I’ll spend ages exploring the artists websites. Good job makimaki!

Today has been laundry, trying to figure out Paris maps, checking up train timetables, booking things, printing things… who knew a month of travel was this much work to organize? Soon some cold medicine (just a tiny cold, and it needs to not grow bigger) and emails to friends I am going to see soon. So much to do before Saturday!

Yep, my shoes are featured in a book and I can finally tell you all about it, since Custom Kicks is now in publication and available for pre-order.

Last summer kim & matthijs of dutch makimaki asked me to make something for their forthcoming book on customized shoes. I wanted to work with collagé, so I made a pair of “Origami Converse.” They are not meant to be wearable, more like shoe art, but held up suprisingly well in the photo shoot! Can’t wait to see the actual book and all the other shoes in it; over 150 artists, designers and illustrators were invited to participate. It’s due out in May and published by Laurence King Publishing. There will also be a book launch party (in Amsterdam, in June) and maybe even a gallery show of the shoes. Stay tuned.

In other news, I have a terrible cold. It might even be a flu, judging from the constant fever. I’ve been trying to get as much work done as possible, because I have a big deadline hanging over my head. I know one shouldn’t work when sick, but sometimes there’s is nothing to do about it. But I try to rest too..

I have a new project: composing sketchbook-pages from the leftover paper scrap + paint on my desk at the end of an illustration day. Time it takes: five to ten minutes. (The annoying thing is I usually like them better than the real pieces. I have no idea how to fool myself into bringing the same fun into work. )

Monday cool:
Camilla’s converse (I want this version)
Design police will punish!
A good article on making the jump to your own business
Roisin Murphy concert this Wednesday night.

What are you up to this week?

Crawling from under the paper scrap to say: Happy New Year! I started mine by watching a dutch movie and going to yoga. I am also working on a fun project (hence the papermess). So far so good, this 2008-thing.