Chrissie Abbott

London based illustrator Chrissie Abbott was at the Nike 1948 pop-up store last week, embellishing the first of Max Lamb’s benches he built the day before. I really like her style and bold use of colour.

www.flickr.com/ycn

Wim Delvoye is banned from exhibiting tattooed pigs in China

Eight tattooed pigs by Wim Delvoye have been pulled before the opening of SHContemporary in Shanghai, China. The pigs were tattooed with Walt Disney characters and other symbols. There has been no official comment about the ban from the art fair organizers, but Delvoye has made his frustration known, stating, “We have collectors who've traveled to China all the way from Europe to see the pigs. They're very disappointed.''. If they had been purchased by collectors the pigs would have been slaughtered and their preserved skins sold for over $10,000 each. Delvoye went on to say that he does not understand why the ban was so “aggressive“.

Delvoye has been tattooing pigs since the 1990s. In recent years it seems that more artists are killing animals in the name of what they call art. Is it art? What are your thoughts on this? Should a line be drawn between branding animals for slaughter and consumption and tattooing and slaughtering animals in the name of art? What do you think?

Hellovon

By the looks of things Von has been a busy man! A beautiful Creative Review Monograph to his name this month that’s well worth a buy if you’re into his work. The London based illustrator has also recently completed this piece, Migration.

‘Migration will take place in two parts, in two cities, in two months. A flock of abstracted birds will be seen first at the Truman Brewery, London in late August. In September the birds will reappear in New York flocking towards the billboard on the side of the Espeis Gallery in Willamsburg — the project inheriting the migrational nature of it’s content.’

www.hellovon.com/migration

Cutting Books

Artist Noriko Ambe creates her amazing pieces by cutting precise holes in books and other bound publications. Born and educated in Japan, Ambe currently lives in New York City. Check out a list of her upcoming exhibits right here.

Mythbusters Paint Mona Lisa In One Go With 1,100-Barrel Paint Gun

"Leonardo Da Vinci might have worked painstakingly on the Mona Lisa and her enigmatic smile but the crowd at Mythbusters managed their own version in less than a second at nVidia's NVISION event this week.

Of course, the duo of Adam and Jamie were going to have to pull it off in style, if they wanted to demonstrate the difference between single-core CPUs and multi-core graphics processing units (GPUs). And that they did, with the help of an 1100-barrel paint gun that fired all the paint simultaneously."

One word.....WOW!!!

The Mossenger Project

Great concept...Anna Garforth's 'Mossenger' project' will use moss to create type for the verse of a poem written by poet Elly Stevens as part of YCN LIVE.

"Being interested in public art and ecology, it led me to thinking about sustainable graffii. I collected a common moss that grows well on brick walls and glued it to the wall using a mixture of natural (bio active) yoghurt and sugar. I will be experimenting with type and illustration to create further messages using this mossy medium"

Olympic logos from 1924 to 2012.

As you may gather, I've become a tad obssessed by the Olympics this year. I came across this link, showcasing the Olympic logos from 1924 to 2012. Some good, some very bad...my fave is by far the Mexico 1968 games, maybe because the retro style has bacome fashionable in recent years, but I just love the type, and this identity seems so much more adventurous than others.

I can't believe that there were people in there!!

Anyone of the 4 billion of us who watched the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony would have been left speechless after the unsurpassable and magnificent show. However, I'm currently in disbelief; I've just been informed by my boss, John, that the 'movable boxes' part of the ceremony was infact created by three-thousand people jumping up and down inside columns (as seen above). The illusion they created was phenomenal, and I was convinced this was all down to digital enhancement; definitely my favourite part of the ceremony. Apparently the chinese practiced this routine again and again for....wait for it....five years!!!!! what amazing dedication. As John said, "its easy to see why, when china can produce something like that, that communism clearly works." Hmmmm..not sure about that one!

I've also just come across this site, with some great photography of the ceremony:

Custard Factory Flea Market

This weekend I went to the Custard Factory flea market in Brum, which is held every Sunday from 11am-4pm. I've been to flea markets before, usually the kind where there's only a couple of stands worth lookin at amongst another hundred or so sellers, however, at this flea market there are only a hand full of sellers, most of whom are artists/illustrators/photographers/fashion designers, all trying to promote themselves by selling canvas', postcards, handmade jewellery or antiques. I was pleasantly surprised! Well worth going to, if only to meet the friendly faces. One leaflet I picked up led me to http://www.wonderleague.co.uk, also worth a look!

YCN Live

YCN LIVE is starting to gather momentum, a great event at the end of the summer and well worth getting involved in. Check the site for all the details.

‘Over the last week of August and the first week of September, YCN LIVE will create platforms for emerging talent internationally. Partners including creative agencies, studios, retailers and other organisations will show the work of emerging creatives within their workspaces, environments and media.’

www.ycnonline.com/live

The Cake Sale

"The Cake Sale" is an album of original songs by a collective of musicians and songwriters with all profits going to Oxfam. For the artwork Aad Art & Design, based in Dublin, wanted to cement the feeling of the different talents bringing something to the table. They drew direct inspiration from the name, creating it out of a variety of decorated sponges. For the promo materials they used behind the scenes shots of the cakes being made and decorated.


These giant cake chairs were made as part of Oxfam's summer festival campaign.

Type Club

This image is from an article featured in grafik magazine. Type club is all about getting your hands dirty around the cutting table for 'a dose of communal type-related bonding!' I really like this idea, as it certainly beats reading book after book about type, as opposed to really experiencing it.

Background:
RCA students Ben Freeman & Annabel Fraser began type club earlier this year. It has been a weekly event for several months, but really came into its own at the RCA graduate show, where it ran a series of events in the Big Top atmosphere in Hyde Park. Type club aims to educate anyone with an interest in typography and type design through accessible workshops. Past guests have included Jeremy Tankard, Apfel and Abake. For more info visit www.ben-freeman.com