Need to Know Basis

YCN have given their original site a major overhaul and it looks great. Check it out here [ycnonline.com] / Andrew Losowsky has a blog. It’s the Magtastic Blogspolsion [losowsky.com/magtastic] … natch! From one of the fine folks behind Colophon2007 / Speaking of the Colophon magazine symposium. Artwork for Colophon2009 [colophon2009.com] has just been released (see below). Bought to you by the talented designers at John Brown [johnbrowngroup.co.uk] / V Magazine’s latest incarnation is digital [vmagazinedigital.com] / This month marks Fabien Baron’s return to Interview magazine [interviewmagazine.com] as fellow editorial director (alongside the legendary Glenn O’Brien) / The Chap [ghostly.com/the-chap] are freakin’ excellent and have a new poptasm of an album out in a couple of weeks. It’s called Mega Breakfast [lorecordings.com]. / Bon Bon Kakku [bonbonkakku.com] is the Finnish threadless for fabrics and pretty darn ace. Shame the prints are so expensive. Is quality but. / The Hammer House of Horror is undead… and only on MySpace… starring Jamie Dornan [beyondtherave.net]. Wierd. / Winkreative [winkreative.com] have given Case da Abitare [atcasa.corriere.it/Casedaabitare] a much needed makeover. Now… ahem.. the curtains should match the drapes… er… the editorial should match the design… you know what I mean…

mm Status Report

Hi. You may or may not have noticed that posts have been rather sparse on Boicozine lately. This is because your host (ie… er, me) has been kept über busy tying up a number of projects for a place called The Future Laboratory [thefuturelaboratory.com]. My tenure as lead designer comes to an end within the next month, so hopefully things will get back on track soon. This means I’ve had to put the mm (millimetre) magazine project on hold too [mm.boico.net]. Thanks to everyone who has offered to help out or replied to my emails about this. It’s not dead, just flopping about a bit until I can free up some time to get things moving again. If you’d like to find out more about mm just drop me a line or leave a comment on this here blog. We’re also way busy setting up shop as shopboico begins to take shape [shop.boico.net]. There’ll be more about this in time soon. On the topic of The Future Laboratory, I have inside information that they will be looking for a Senior Designer/Design Manager real soon working with their new identity designed by MadeThought [madethought.com]. If you have 5 years + experience you can inquire about this by emailing [michael(at)thefuturelaboratory.com].

What’s Up #28: Gillian Blease

Gillian Blease [gillianblease.co.uk] has been creating graphic illustrations for a number of years now, often gracing the food section of The Guardian Weekend magazine. Ahead of her time in that, it’s only now there’s a shift away from the hand-drawn to more hard-edged informational illustration, that her crisp graphic renderings are coming into their own. She currently has prints for sale through her website too that are as tasty as her subject matter.

Gillette Covers Bond

Penguin are reissuing a whole heap of Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 stories with new covers designed by Michael Gillette [michaelgillette.com] to help celebrate a centenary of 007. The covers have been illustrated with a generous nod to the films that each book spawned. There’s an interview with Mr Gillette about the new 007 covers over at Bond geek site, mi6 [mi6.co.uk]. The books are due for release at the end of May [penguin.co.uk].

Day Zine Believer

The 2008 London Zine Symposium [londonzinesymposium.org.uk] takes place this Sunday at The Rag Factory in East London [ragfactory.org.uk]. Not only can you get yer grubby mitts on the latest and greatest zines around but there’s loads of ace events… and cake… I’m guessing… there’s usually cake… isn’t there? Anyway, cake aside there’s a whole programme of events on the day such as a walking tour of the Radical history of East London and screen printing workshops. Fever Zine [myspace.com/feverzine] will be launching their third issue designed by Boicozine contributor, Simon Whybray [simonwhybray.com], at the event. And now here’s one of the many hi-tech staplers available from stationery wonderkind Askul [askul.co.jp]…

Review 2007: Mark Robinson

The Boicozine Review 2007 ain’t quite over yet [boicozine/review2007]. Mark Robinson is the original D.I.Y. indie mogal and head of Teenbeat Records [teenbeat.net]. At Boicozine, we’re not just fans of the music — Mark not only enlists some of the US’s finest musicians who you’ve never heard of, but also plays in a number of bands on the label including Air Miami and Flin Flon and on a number of solo projects — we’re also big fans of much of the artwork Mark has helped produced under the moniker of Teenbeat Graphica. So without further ado were pleased to present Mr Robinson’s highlights from 2007…

Publications
National Geographic [nationalgeographic.com] – Hands-down the best. Runners-up: Good [goodmagazine.com], Beer Advocate [beeradvocate.com] – new beer aficionado’s periodical, McSweeney’s [mcsweeneys.net] – consistently great fiction / nonfiction / whatever
 
Film
I end up seeing only two or three per year in the cinema so I’m sure I missed many good ones. I’ll have to go with The Kite Runner [IMDb] and Ratatouille [IMDb]. I saw Rataouille with my kids and The Kite Runner with my mom and stepdad on Christmas. I really want to see Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain [IMDb]!
 
Design & illustration
Deerhoof’s Friend Opportunity [deerhoof.killrockstars.com] album cover illustration by David Shrigley [davidshrigley.com]. I’m kind of hot and cold with his work but I really love his spray-painted letters.
 
Events
The Somerville Art Council events in Union Square are always fun [somervilleartscouncil.org]. I discovered our local chocolate factory (well, a new small independent chocolate factory, not to be confused with the other big brands in town) called Taza [tazachocolate.com] and a beekeeper that makes his own Jamaica Plain honey.
 
Purchases
When Pigs Fly [sendbread.com] seeded whole wheat bread. Bread prices sure have gone up, but this is worth the $US4.29. A small bakery in New Hampshire that makes a variety of super duper stuff.
 
Places to Visit
Saint John, New Brunswick [tourismsaintjohn.com]. Pretty much the only place I visited in ‘07. Quaint, British, run down, beautiful. Drink St. Amboise cream stout on tap if you can find it. A superb Oatmeal stout.

Pawson at the Horse Hospital

Mark Pawson [mpawson.demon.co.uk] is having an exhibition at The Horse Hospital [thehorsehospital.com] in London (near Russel Square tube station). It’s only on until the 26th of this month so get along to take a rare peek into the obsessive compulsive world of this collector of modern ephemera and U.K. King of Gocco [flickr.com/inkdesigner]. There’s been a film night and you can hear Mr Pawson talk about his work today at 3pm.

DIY Utopia

I’m not going to hail a return to the days when small boys were expected to tuck themselves away in the attic in order to construct elaborate miniature villages that lit up at night to later emerge, moth-like as fully formed men creatures (well, most of them anyway) but… model railways do seem kinda cool all of a sudden especially if you think of it as a form of escapism from the current durge of developer-led architecture plaguing our fair cities (well, London town anyways). Be your own urban planner! Collect models of building you’d like to populate your town or city with. You could do something along the lines of Will Alsop’s plan for Barnsley [alsoparchitects.com]. And just to prove the Germans are just as nutty about model railways as the British were, here’s an excellent video for a track called ‘Pilot’ by The Notwist (sorry about the crappy quality, they have pulled the original video off their website, the rotters!)

Religion Fashion Graphics

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Sweden Graphics [swedengraphics.com] so it’s good to see they have set up shop for the Vallery gallery in Barcelona [vallery.es/sweden]. Not only are they exhibiting there but you can also but pieces from their limited edition clothing line and posters created for the show through the gallery.

Domestic Disturbance

There’s a lot of places flogging decorative vinyl wall coverings at the moment but the original and the best still has to be French group, Domestic [domestic.fr]. Domestic have a whole raft of new and crazy cool stuff out in time for the Milan Furniture Fair including a range of laser cut perspex mirrors going by the name of Narcisse (Antoine & Manuel [antoineetmanuel.com] contribution is shown below). They have also branched out into plates (adorned with graphics supplied by eBoy [hello.eboy.com], Studio Job [studiojob.nl] and Geneviève Gauckler [g2works.com] amongst others). They haven’t forgotten their roots either with new vinyl designs by creatives such as Groovisions [groovisions.com] and Rinzen [rinzen.com] and a collection curated by fashion magnet, Colette [colette.fr] (with designs by Work In Progress (recently renamed as Petronio Associates) [petronioassociatesblog.com] and Jeremy Scott [jeremyscott.com]).