Assistance (Psst, Pass it on)
We need help: Press Publish, publisher of this here blog amongst other things, is looking for someone to help out with our many and varied activities. We need help writing and posting blog entries, answering emails, preparing artwork, attending events, documenting projects and generally keeping things moving.
All you will need: is an innate interest in any combination of editorial, design and publishing (hopefully all three). Experience not necessarily necessary. Enthusiasm and a finely tuned sense of fun (‘finely tuned sense of fun’… does that sound right to you? I’m not sure) will rank pretty high.
Register your interest and find out more by emailing michael[at]presspublish.info with the subject line ‘Assistance’. Include anything you think may be relevant. You can send formal CVs if you like, although we’ll probably be more interested in your interests and self-initiated stuff. Most jobs are boring anyways. :) Hope to hear from you soon… whoever you may be.
— The Management
All your back issues are belong to us
You can now pick up all four issues of the super lo-fi Fever Zine from their newly launched online shop [feverzine.co.uk]. Also, get yourself involved with their online network on myspace and facebook — they’ll soon be looking for all kinds of contributors for Issue 5.
And Freakin’ Shoes!
Yes, I’ve gone completely POD crazy. Did you know that Zazzle are now offering customisable canvas shoes? Madness, huh. I had to have a go utilising some of the designs I’ve been posting over at Bon Bon Kakku [bonbonkakku.com]. They’re not the most super stylish of models and trainer-heads are likely to sniff at them but when you can put yer own pattern on them… who gives a toss, really. POD it’s all about you… but mostly it’s about me. Me. Me. Me… sorry, we. We. We. We. See the latest bunkum replete prints on yer feets here (they’ll be posted in the boicoshop too eventually) [zazzle.com/retailfashions] and [zazzle.com/retailfashions].
Be Damned Again
I love a good independent publishing fair and this one is the daddy [publishandbedamned.org.uk]. What sets Publish & Be Damned apart from any other indie publishing fair is that this one is carefully curated. You can’t just turn up with a bunch of raggedy photocopies in yer hand. This is the creme-de-la-creme of zine culture. Turn up this Sunday to the Rochelle School in East London [afoundation.org.uk/rochelle], or be damned to spend the rest of eternity never knowing just how cool indie publishing can be. There’s a full list of participants (including the excellent Fever Zine [feverzine.co.uk]) on the website or look em up on [facebook]. You can see some pics from last year’s event on [flickr].
Need to Know Basis #3
Spanish design and style magazine, Neo2 has just launched a blog [neo2.es/blog] and it’s pretty darn ace. Be sure to stop by the typography section where you can download some adventurous experiments with various letterforms. ¶ Punchdrunk [punchdrunk.org.uk] make amazing, immersive theatrical experiences. Their shows are guaranteed sell-outs and once experienced you’ll agree that there is nothing else like them. For their last sell-out event, which used the Edgar Allen Poe story ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ as a starting point, saw them taken over most of the Battersea Arts Centre [bac.org.uk]. Inside you were free to roam the many themed and dressed rooms, watching impromptu performances and seeking out hidden treasures. To get the jump on their next extravaganza you can now become a friend of Punchdrunk and help support this unique outfit. ¶ Mike Perry’s ‘Over & Over’ [papress.com] is only slightly disappointing because it follows on the heals of the excellent ‘Hand Job’ [papress.com]. The problem is a lot of the hand drawn stuff just starts to look a bit ’samey’. Still worth checking out. The spread above features the work of Stefan Marx [livincompany.de] ¶ Neon Addict [rampub.com], on the other hand, is deliriously ‘active’ stuff. The theme: nothing Pantone Florescent inks. The contributors: Bright sparks from the Japanese (and International) creative scene such as Adapter [adapter.jp], Alexander Gelman [designmachine.net/gelman], collect.apply [collectapply.jp] and Namaiki [namaiki.com]. This bright little package is then wrapped tight by the design team behind the Japanese edition of Dazed & Confused [nmca], ASYL [asyl.co.jp] and Bluemark [bluemark.co.jp]. ¶ It’s the Graniph annual tshirt design awards again. Check out the winners and grinners at [graniph.com/award]. ¶ Magazine as ‘finely crafted artifact’. That’s how the creators of Popular Noise describe their ace, new(ish) publication [popularnoise.net]. I dare you to find a more elaborate periodic format than this. 3 x 7″ vinyl records are slotted into a concertina’d and letter pressed poster. Editions are understandably limited to 300 per edition. ¶ Cecilia Lindgren [cecilialindgren.com] is Art Editor, and the woman behind, last year’s refresh of the Architects’ Journal [architectsjournal.co.uk]. She dropped us a line to let us know about a musical compilation called Cortical Songs on Non-Classical records [nonclassical.co.uk] which she has lent her design talents to. Cracking line-up too.
BTW Note to indie (and major) publishers everywhere. Keep sending in any announcements you may have and we’ll keep try to post em but if you want images of yer projects up on Boicozine either send us a copy for us the photograph (we love free stuff) or some unique imagery we can use. Cheers!
— with love from The Management
100 Things: #004
Hakkusan Pottery Cat
For the Hakusan pottery company visit [www1.ocn.ne.jp/~hakusan].
This Post is Untitled… ish
Just a quick plug to a new gallery in Melbourne with some cool, graphic designer-ish work called the Untitled Gallery. Currently showing the graphic juxtapositions of Danny Guinsberg, up coming shows include the embroidered infographics of Michelle Hamer. Visit [untitledgallery.com.au] to feed your head.
Melbourne Festival City
Melbourne, like London, has the cool sweat of festival fever right now (even though it’s winter). For people who haven’t heard what’s up down under, here’s the skinny…
The Melbourne International Design Festival is on again, and getting bigger and better every year. There’s loads of things to do and see and make. We like the idea of Patrick Blanc’s Vertical Garden thing [nationaldesigncentre.com] (see the image below) and an exhibition that tells the story of, arguably the best course of it’s kind in the country, the National School of Design at Swinburne University’s Graphic Design degree [nationaldesigncentre.com]. Over at the festival’s ’satellite’ series of shows entitled State of Design [stateofdesign.com.au] there is another truck load of interesting events. the ones we really like are mostly in Design for Everyone [stateofdesign.com.au].
If your feeling a little jaded by this design overload, how about spending some time alone in the dark? The programme for The Melbourne International Film Festival [melbournefilmfestival.com.au] is looking as strong as ever, we especially like the idea of Ozploitation [melbournefilmfestival.com.au].
Saucy Treasure
Whilst on assignment at Nick Bell Design [nickbelldesign.co.uk], Nick very kindly let me have a rummage around the studio for things to post and I came across an issue of Avant Garde magazine, published in November 1968. Designed by Herb Lubalin [typogabor.com/herb-lubalin] and featuring artwork by Tom Wesselman [artnet.com]. So there’s now a bunch of saucy 60s stylee pics over on our [flickr] page for your perusal. Enjoy.
A Tale of Two Cities
Okay,so this is only really going to be of interest if you live or have lived in either Sydney or Melbourne. But if you thought the Melbourne/Sydney rivalry was a myth, here’s proof that it’s very much alive and well and as spikey as it’s ever been [melbournesucks.com.au]. Apparently Melbourne is “a rip off drug infested hole” where “everything costs money” and “in Melbourne we do like to spell correctly” (grammar seems to be less important though), whereas Sydney has “nice weather”… a lot. I read somewhere (sorry, being lazy) that Melbourne’s population was set to outrun Sydney’s by 2020 so here’s hoping this one runs and runs. (Where’s our London Sucks website, surely that’s a site that would be immensely popular).
I couldn’t find any images of the ‘Melbourne Sucks’ posters that have provoked this recent furore (furore-ish) — if you have pics of said posters please let us know — so here’s an ace piece of artwork for one of Melbourne’s many hip shopfronts dotted around town [forepaw.org] instead. Oh, yeah and guess which city I’m from?
