Food For Thought

My latest research project based around the social and experiential side of food.

The Real Cookbook

German design agency Korefe have come up with this little gem, the first and only cookbook you can read, cook and eat. I'm not sure how 'useful' design like this is, but i don't think it really matters, i love it. I've been toying with the idea of printing with edible ink onto rice paper for some time, but i fear my efforts may look a little poor in comparison now that this has emerged. Certainly good for inspiration though.

Base 3

The majority of my time this week has been taken up by helping to organise an exhibition of 3rd year work. Held at 52 Princess Street in Manchester city centre, our little group designed, arranged and put up a large body of work over the two floors of gallery space. The preview was on Wednesday evening, and went really well, with a few well known faces putting in an appearance. The show's set to be up for a while so take a look if you find yourself in the city.

photos by Charlotte Wakefield

Saturday Morning Egg

As part of some experimentation for my new brief, I 'deconstructed' a fried egg. As it turns out molecular gastronomy is not just odd states of food chucked on a plate willy nilly. For a good long time, this did just look like i'd dropped my breakfast. Onwards. Upwards.

47. Taste

I was nudged in the direction of Visionaire, and came across issue 47. Taste. It's a collaboration between flavorists, contemporary artists,chefs and photographers. The tastes offered are pretty conceptual, covering themes like 'Mother', 'Guilty', and 'Life'. The flavours are combined with artwork that interprets the theme, and the whole thing is generally packaged fairly nicely.  

Interesting idea.

The Tea Room

Over the last two weeks, the Holden Gallery Cafe has been transformed into a 1930s tea room by 3rd year interactive art students, to raise money for their degree show. With hot drinks, freshly prepared food, music, service with a smile and an aviary, this has probably been the most imaginative fundraising event i've seen at uni. The amount of effort and planning that went into the event impressed me massively. It will be a shame to see it go.

If you didn't get the chance to visit, have a look through the photos on their facebook page (where these photos are from).

Things I wish I Owned (as a child)

Whilst researching design that's aimed at children, I made the startling discovering that about 90% (perhaps more) of it is total bilge. It's horrible! Nasty computerised cartoons, too many fluorescent colours and unpleasant typefaces. I came across some publications from Anorak Magazine which seem to save the day a little bit. I wish i'd had these to read when I was younger.

I am fennel

SEVN #2

The latest edition of SEVN Magazine. This month's theme is Play.

Have a flick through, it took us long enough :]

Pop Up Shop Success

A few of us recently held a Christmas pop up shop to raise money for our degree show. Everything on sale was handmade, and xmas themed. I paired up and made a variety of wooden snowflake decorations in three different sizes. 

It was very exciting to actually sell out (we'd made about 80!) before the end of the day, so we're planning on making a second batch this week coming. If anyone fancies some for their tree get in touch.

(Photos taken by this person)

Tales To Change The World

The latest addition to my portfolio...a perspex book. My idea began primarily as a response to the great influx of digitised books. Being a great believer in the good old fashioned three dimensional book, i felt that this project should wave the flag for the physical book. 

With a brief that limited us to producing something predominantly typographic, i looked for ways to break those rules. I created images using perspex letters, and printed them on acetate and trapped them between my perspex pages. 

I wanted to re-excite the reader with an even more 3D book than ever. I hope it celebrates the text 'The Waitress' by Jack Zipes, and most importantly lets the reader use their own imagination, and create their own ideas from the imagery that Zipes describes. 

Excellent fun.

Lowercase Love Affair

It's crept up on me

I'm usually fairly unbiased when it comes to characters of the alphabet, divvying up my attention equally between the provoking swells of the 's' and the 'b', the elegance of the 'f' and 'l', and the piquant punch of an 'i' or a 'j'. I have come to realise though, that i have for quite some time now, been having a sordid love affair with the lowercase 'g'.
I can't stop thinking about her...(she is a female character). For some reason the lower case 'g' looks to me like the perfect characterisation of a woman. I can't stop drawing it, trying to get the angle of her hips exactly right. A complicated mix of authority and elegance.

Oh yes, it's crept up on me, but it's now official... I'm clinically insane.

Holden Gallery Project: Two

Poster number two for the Holden Gallery. This time we had to advertise a vintage themed pop up shop. Everybody loves bunting right?

Holden Gallery Project: One

I am lucky enough to be one of three people chosen to help produce posters for exhibitions held at the gallery at Manchester Art School. This is our first one for illustrator Johnny Hannah. His work's pretty nice so pop down to the Holden Gallery next week for a gander.

Co-designed with Charlotte Wakefield & Chantelle King

And They're Off!

The first project of the year is just about done (minus a few tweaks). The brief set was 'BANG!', and we were pretty much given free reign on where we wanted to take it. I went down the route of investigating the home life of horse racing commentators (obviously..?) and produced this little spectators kit. It accompanies some audio i scripted which i may one day upload, should i work out how.

[a transcript of the audio]

The box that houses the items needs re-making, as everything's a bit of a snug fit at the mo (can't add up). But overall the general concept's there, i'm pretty happy with it.

22

22 today!

I shall be having a Spanish themed birthday party in Barcelona city centre today. I think we'll probably find a nice restaurant later on and drink nice wine before the madness and excitement of the conference tomorrow and Tuesday. Don't want to overdo it in my old age. 

Back to Catalunya

Is it slightly excessive to visit Barcelona twice in one year? 

Probably. 

Today i am lucky enough to be jetting off to my favourite European city for a whistle stop trip filled with excitement. It's my birthday on Sunday, so i plan to spend the day enjoying the last of the summer sun, whilst stuffing my face at the food market. 

On Monday and Tuesday i am attending the AGI 2011 conference, which has some fairly massive names in graphic design speaking. Very very excited. Hopefully i'll come back feeling hugely inspired and ready to launch straight back into project work.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Yesterday we took a day trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Summer showed up unexpectedly, and I had a lovely day flouncing about the grounds and getting mild sunstroke. The Henry Moore sculptures looked very much like an extension of the landscape, rising up gently over the grassy slopes. I was introduced to Jaume Plensa, and spent some time looking round the indoor exhibition rooms containing his work. Aside from being a brief escape from the sun, the sculptures really were strange and intriguing to look at.

 I was transfixed by these sculptures! I couldn't get over how much they looked like projections. 

Very nice day out, would be especially nice on a crisp, cold wintery
day too.

Summer Salt

Forty days of food and drink, my response to the data collection summer brief we were given. Alarming how much one eats and drinks in that space of time. 

Home Again

With the warmth of the Tuscan sun already feeling like a distant memory, it's time to get back to work in the rainy city. Autumn has well and truly barged its way in, and the familiar 'back to school' feeling is hanging threateningly overhead. Already fighting off the first of many autumnal sore throats and sniffy noses, i am feeling surprisingly upbeat about the sudden jolt back into reality. Ten days of warmth has relaxed every wind and rain-braced muscle in my body, and i feel (as i often do at the beginning of September) that it's time to turn over a new, rain spattered leaf. 

Siena to the Sea

We're headed to the coast today, to Porto Santo Stefano. This is the wild card of our Tuscan tour, none of us know much about it, or what to expect. I'm hoping for lots of fresh seafood, and a very welcome sea breeze.