Pop-up shop at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft

So, today Niki Best and I had a lovely morning at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft setting up our pop-up shop ready for their 1st birthday party tomorrow.

Remember it's FREE entry 11am - 10pm, there's local beer, produce and cake. Workshops and fun activities are running throughout the day and then of course there's the pop-up shops from me and Niki Best, Brighton's Unlimited and the guys from SORT.

We would love to see you, come down be sure to say hello.

Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft’s 1st Birthday!

It's official, we're doing a pop-up shop at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft as part of their 1st birthday celebrations!

Ditchling museum is a gorgeously designed museum nestled in the heart of Ditchling village on the South Downs. This unlikely village has a strong history in the art and craft world, having had many world renowned artists and crafts people living and working in it's community over the years. For example typographers Eric Gill and Edward Johnston both lived in the village and Eric Gill is buried there. The museum celebrates these arts and craft ties with an amazing collection of work and objects created and used by these people right there in the village.

To celebrate their 1st birthday the museum is opening up it's doors for free 11am - 10pm on Saturday 20 September. We'll be there selling our wares as part of the Best pop-up shop, along with pop-ups from Brighton gallery & shop Unlimited and the lovely guys from SORT Design. The pop-ups will be open from 11am - 5pm after which there'll be a paper-cutting workshop and a DJ so you can dance the night away.

There are loads of events on throughout the day plus there's delicious cake, locally sourced foods and real ales so be sure to put it in the diary. Come on down have a look around and say hello, there's a free shuttle bus to and from Hassocks Station too so there's really no excuse!

For more information check the museum website.

Dead Slow Brazil 2014

The Printiprinter's hand-printed World Cup results service, Dead Slow Brazil 2014 is the only thing making this month of football bearable.

The results are compiled using his hand-printed lino cut numbers and mono printed country names straight after each game and posted here. For me the imperfections and textures in the print and the bright, constrasty colours are the perfect combo. 

Loving the big lino cut numbers? Check out The Printiprinter's collection of lino prints documenting his beloved Liverpool's last season scores here.

To Dry For

Online boutique To Dry For are adding a bit of glamour to washing the dishes with literally hundreds of artist-commissioned and designer tea towels.

With designs from Rob Ryan, Have a Gandar, Pintuck, Bold and Noble, Mr PS and Lisa Jones, as well as some fabulous vintage designs by Daphne Padden there really is something for everyone and every kitchen.

Check out their full range here and keep up to date with new designs on their blog.

Auto Type XXVXV

More fabulous auto lettering and emblems.

Show season is upon us again so the auto type will be coming thick and fast over the next few months.

In this lovely bunch we have some 1940s and 1950s Americana alongside some very rare German loveliness. If only they all belonged to me!

You can see our ever-growing collection of Auto Type here.

Greetings Cards & Prints now in Studio 73

A selection of our greetings cards and prints will soon be available from Brixton's Studio 73. In fact, they are winging their way over there as we speak.

Studio 73 is a gallery and framing studio in Brixton Village run by Adrian Flower. They have a great selection of print for sale and we're happy to be in the company of our Brighton buddies, Hello Dodo and fellow Pick Me Up 2014 designers, Sort letterpress studio and Catherine McGinniss!

Lots more new stockist news to come, so watch this space!

AT Openhouse

We've been pedaling our wares again this month at the wonderful AT Open House as part of the Artists Open Houses alongside a fantastic line-up of artists, designers and makers.

As you can see there's work from a few AT regulars; Mark Pavey (Dead Methods), illustrator Alice Pattulo, screen-printing duo hellododo, Pinch of Petting Zoo Prints & Collectables, glitter-loving James Sawyer, realist painter Rhys Trusseler and illustrator/rude word purveyor Nathan James Page. Along with some great work from some new additions to the AT family; perspex jewellery extraordinaires Designosaur, kitsch toy lover Toy Pincher, whimsical painter Becky Blair, contemparary jewellery designer An Alleweireldt (Oxx Jewellery), illustrator Ceri Amphlett, abstrat painter Sophie Abbott and Teresa Stewart Goodman with her quirky animal character cut-outs.

This weekend is the last weekend to see all this work in one place and of course treat yourselves to the delicious cake, so get yourselves down to AT Open House before the doors close for another year.

AT Open House is open 11-6pm, Saturday & Sunday at 42 Hendon Street, Brighton BN2 0EG.

New Linocut prints

So here they are, our new set of A3 fairground and circus inspired linocut prints.

Each print is an edition of 100 and will be stamped and numbered. They're going to be for sale as part of the Best Home collective at Pick Me Up later this month and also at AT Openhouse as part of the Brighton Festival's, Artists' Open Houses throughout May. Once the shows are over the remaining prints will be available from Art-O-mart, our online store.

Spring Shows

Busy times at Delicious HQ lettering, lino-cutting and printing for our new range of circus and fairground inspired prints, totes and silk scarves ready for our Spring shows.

We're very excited to be doing Pick Me Up for the first time this year, as part of the 'Best Home' collective, the brain child of the lovely Niki Best, "print and graphic arts are all around us, and not just on our walls. We want to show the variety and number of different applications by getting various artists working in mediums that they havent worked in before". Best Home will be bursting with exclusive wallpaper & fabric, ceramics, paper cuts, prints, totes, notebooks and greetings cards from Antony Burrill, Lubna Chowdhary, James Marshall ( Dalek), Danny Sangra, Alex Binnie, Lou Taylor, Curly Mark, INSA, Stewart Easton, Home Slice and Stanley James Press. Best artists will also be running workshops throughout the show including paper-cutting, letterpress, embroidery and printmaking. Pick Me Up 2014 starts on the 24 April and runs until 5 May at Somerset House, London. Check our their website for more information and to book early bird tickets.

In May we'll also be back at AT Openhouse alongside an impressive line-up of artist, designers and printmakers; Alice Pattullo, An Alleweireldt, Becky Blair, Dead Methods, designosaur, hello DODO, Inkyskipper, James Sawyer, Mr Wingate, Nathan James Page, Petting Zoo Prints & Collectables, Sophie Abbott, Teresa Stewart-Goodman, Toypincher and Winsome & Saucy. Of course there'll also be lots of tea, coffee and cake! Artists' Open Houses are open weekends throughout May as part of the Brighton Festival. For more information and to keep up-to-date with artists and plans, check out the AT website.

I'll post up some taster pics over the next month as the new range comes together, so watch this space.

The Comedy Carpet, Blackpool

I finally got over to Blackpool last month to see The Comedy Carpet in all it's glory. It was towards the end of the day and the late was fading but it looked amazing in the evening sunset.

The mammoth 2200m sq artwork was comissioned by Blackpool Council as part of their seafront regeneration and is located on the promenade directly across from the tower. It was created by artist Gordon Young and his team who hand-cut 160,000 granite letters for the piece which incorporates, jokes, lines from songs and catch phrases from over 1000 comedians and comedy writers. 

Hand-cutting each letter and setting them into concrete along with using a limited colour palette has given the piece an almost letterpress feel - you can see the slight indentations of each letter and it really makes you want to touch it (or maybe that's just me). It really is worth a visit, these pictures don't really do it justice or show just how vast it is. 

You can read all about the project here, the team, the research, the design and the planning - it's all there. 

DB Photography

Here's the identity we created for Brighton-based street photographer Darren Baldwin to brand his business DB photography.

The brief was to design a bold, simple identity that incorporated a monograph of his intials DB and was black only to reflect his images. We're really pleased with how it turned out and even more pleased with how good it looks letterpressed on his new business cards. 

Check out Darren's wonderful images here.

From the reference box #143

#143 - French Button display cards, circa 1940/1950. These lovely vintage button cards are from the Brighton street market and only £1 per card!

The lettering is fantastic and I bought them for that alone - I love the scripty 'Nouveauté' on the white card (third from top), it has such a Parisian feel as does the 'Haute Nouveauté' on the blue card (top) with it's ascending A's and quirky E's.

I feel another collection starting!

From the reference box #142

#142 - Vintage Boulangerie Patisserie receipt, "Pains de Régime - Specialité de Croissants, Graines & Farines".

A new addition to the reference box - this is the first of my Paris ephemera haul from the Marché aux Puces (flea markets).

It's a letter-pressed receipt probably from around the early 1900s. If only receipts were this elaborate today, shopping would be much more fun!

75 years of Blue Note Records

Today marks 75 years of Blue Note Records, surely that's a good enough excuse to look through some of their wonderful LP covers.

Blue Note was founded "when a German immigrant and passionate Jazz fan named Alfred Lion produced his first recording session on January 6, 1939 in New York City. Blue Note has gone on to represent The Finest In Jazz, tracing the entire history of the music from Hot Jazz, Boogie Woogie, and Swing, through Bebop, Hard Bop, Post Bop, Soul Jazz, Avant-Garde, and Fusion".

Throughout their 75 year history Blue Note have also been responsible for some of the finest, most desired and collected abum covers of all time. They're all fantastic but I had to be selective, so here are some of my favourites designed by Ried Miles, John Hermansader and Paul Bacon in the 50s and 60s. You can see a much larger selection on the great Birka Jazz Archive - but be warned you will need a spare couple of hours!

Margaret Calvert Interview

Here's a great little interview with designer Magaret Calvert at the AGI Open London 2013 by Design Indaba. I'm sure you all know, but Magaret along with her former tutor Jack Kinnear created and developed the British road signs we see everyday. 

“When you design road signs you have to start from scratch,” she says. “We looked at what they already had and then started drawing letterforms in terms of making it readable for the driver.”