Hay On Wye Festival Part Two

In the afternoon I had booked us to see Alex T Smith who was promoting his Claude books. The blurb in the festival booklet said it's time to get excited, delighted and waggy tailed as Claude and Sir Bobblysock make their Hay debut. Berets actively encouraged!

As with any talks like this you never know what to expect but you just have to go with it and hope for the best. This was a well thought out presentation because he told the audience a little about himself and his three small dogs which he drew quickly as examples before getting the children to draw their own pictures of Claude, the main character in some of his books. This was a great way to instantly engage the children who seemed totally engrossed in their efforts. Then he chose a few children to go on stage to show their own drawings and receive some stickers and postcards.

Whilst he was good at engaging the audience, I felt the story was a bit strange. I know it is aimed at children but even so, it did appear a bit amateurish. The illustrations as well seemed a little too simplistic for me and didn't really show a professional illustrative style.

It is purely down to personal choice and it may be that there are so many childrens illustrators that you become accustomed to more full colour detailed pictures. Plus I didn't really get an attachment to the main character. Not because it was a dog but partly because the dialogue wasn't of a good enough standard and his sidekick, being a bobbly sock didn't really help. Again it is just my opinion but overall, I did enjoy the talk and we did end up with his original signed drawing of Claude, after a bit of cheeky persuasion and a couple of signed books afterwards to keep.

We only had a short break before we had to be back at the Starlight Stage again for the last booked talk of the day. Andrew Weale had written several books and his latest one was Nora, The Girl Who Ate Too Much. It sounded like it might be fun for Sophie and a bit of silliness thrown in for good measure.

Now I know that as a childrens author you have to be able to appeal to children and talk at their level but within five minutes, I was already getting irritated with his over the top comical style. I can appreciate that it was his first time at Hay but he was just trying too hard to be funny and it didn't quite work. The beginning was a story about how he lost his hair and how it escaped down the road and went off on amazing adventures which amused the children. Then he got a couple of children to go on stage to make a disgusting sandwich to see who could win. This wasn't quite thought out enough and would work better with a smaller audience who could see what was going on.

The story itself is quite funny and has some great illustrations by Ben Cort who was also there on the day promoting the book Aliens In Underpants which is also a great childrens book. Overall the talk was entertaining but we were glad when it was over in one way as it was a bit intense, we thought.

It is going to be somewhere that we would definitely visit again and we are already talking about next year and trying this time to spend a few days there instead of just one. If the weather had been better it is a great place to kick back and relax. There is plenty going on but it may cost quite a bit considering the price of some of the events. Then you also have to add on the cost of any book purchases which could easily cost you hundreds of pounds if you bought one after every talk. Another solution next time would be to split our time with Sophie so we get to see some shows that we want to see instead. It was only when we studied the diary of talks how many other talks we would have wanted to see. There was Peter Lord who is responsible for some of the fantastic creations by Aardman. He was joined throughout the week by other members of the team to help promote the new Pirates animation film.

One event I would have loved to witness was a talk by Jung Chang. She wrote a book called Wild Swans which is still one of my favourite books of all time. Her account of growing up in China under an oppressive regime is breathtakingly engrossing.

There were numerous other events that we would have liked to see but like I said, we will be looking out for next years events and booking a lot earlier this time.

Hay On Wye Festival Part One

As it was half term last week, I was trying to find somewhere to go for a couple of days that would suit everybody. The first thought was to visit the coast but with the weather being unstable as it has been lately, it wasn't the best idea. I have been looking for an excuse to visit Morecambe for ages to see the work by Why Not Associates centred around Eric Morecambe and also the pavement of words which is also nearby. Plus I remember seeing them repair the old art deco hotel on the front which would also be nice to go inside.

So whilst scouring the internet for appealing places to visit, I found that the Hay on Wye Festival was on all week. We have wanted to visit this for a while and thought Sophie would love it as well as she loves her books (don't know where she gets that from!). There is always lots of interesting talks and shows on but we decided to book ones that would appeal more to Sophie and as I also like childrens illustration, it might be ideal.

I was concerned about the weather as it hadn't stopped raining all day and managed to find a parking space in a very muddy field. How we were going to get the car out at the end of the day was possibly going to be another problem. Having not visited before, we didn't really know what to expect and dreaded a day filled with trawling through mud and sitting in wet clothes all day.

This may have been the case years ago when the festival was in its infancy but today, the organisation is near faultless. In between the different venues there is a series of covered walkways wide enough to cope with the thousands of visitors. There are also plenty of places to get a coffee and and something to eat if you don't mind struggling to find a seat and also the close to extortionate prices.

With the weather everything was running slightly late to allow people to access the site which was fortunate as we were also running late! The first talk I had booked was by Tracey Corderoy and her latest book, Monty and Milli. They are the best magical mice duo ever and it promised to be an extravaganza of puppets, magic tricks and games.

Tracey was very good at keeping everyone engaged throughout her talk and of course it also helped that she had goody bags and magic tricks. It was a clever way of getting the children engaged with the story and of course it helped having somewhere dry to sit for a while.

What I also liked was at the end you could make your way over to the main bookshop and meet the authors and have a book signed if you wished. Mainly for Sophie but I thought it would be nice for her to have a book personalised for her to keep. The layout of the bookshop for the signings was very well organised and everyone formed an orderly queue for their chosen authors.

What I did notice was the other people present at the festival. I know its difficult not to stereotype and pigeonhole people but  let's just say that the majority of visitors didn't seem to worry about personal finances. Overheard conversations were either about what expensive cars they had just bought, expensive restaurants they had been to or what private schools their children were studying at. To be honest it was the most civilised festival I have ever been to. It might be an age thing but it made a nice change not to be jostled about and have to dodge drunken idiots.

When we eventually got to the front of the queue you had time to talk and ask questions and didn't feel hurried at all. Plus you had time to get the ever important photo opportunity.

Our next talk wasn't until the afternoon which gave us time to explore the site and also get something for dinner. There was lots of crafts organised for the children but these events were booked up early which is a bit difficult to explain to a disappointed six year old. There was plenty of other activities to take part in like a Where's Wally hunt and a great exhibition about the rainforest's with a very impressive 3D film. As Sky was one of the main sponsors there was plenty of 3D technology around the site including in their own venue which organised some classes where you could learn drawing and watercolours. They also had free music events throughout the day with some nice cool jazz performers.

Linocut Mess

I haven't done any linocut printing for quite a while but I had forgotten how much fun it can be. You can't beat getting all inky every now and then. These are the first efforts but there will be more to follow.

Disassembled and Rearranged

I have been looking through a few choice books today mainly for inspiration and whilst reading one about Logo Design, wondered how many new logos I could make out of a couple of iconic designs. Answers right at the bottom:

There are probably countless other designs you could come up with but it would depend on how many you would actually use for something else.

Anyway the top two are Atari and the bottom two are Adidas.

Rotten To The Core

I have said previously that I love taking photographs of decaying objects. Especially if its at the seaside where you can find amazing colours in peeling paint on old fishing boats or a multitude of colours found in rusting boat winches or on groynes. There is just something unique in the way that objects decay over time and they all take on their own sense of degraded appearance whilst retaining a kind of beauty.

The following photographs are not coastal based, which makes a change, but equally fascinating. Estonian artist, Heikki Leis, first noticed it in some potatoes he had left in a pot for too long and on closer inspection, he saw the amazing forms and colours starting to appear that he started photographing and publishing them online, to see if anyone else found them as fascinating.

It started to attract several micro biologists who are studying how food degrades and they encouraged further study in this area.

Brought To You Today By The Letter M

There is something about a well designed logo that cannot be beat. You have your classics like Fedex and Nike which are simple but eye catching and now you have your icons for things like Facebook, Twitter etc which can also been seen as a logo of sorts.

Time magazine detailed the new branding for the Minnesota Zoo back in the early 80's and I loved its simple accessible design. It had a great childlike quality and looked like something straight out of Sesame Street. I found some of the original pictures the other day on a Logo website which examined the original rebrand compared with how it looks today.

It looks perfect for a zoo and is really engaging. Compare those above to the current identity:

I wish they had just revamped the old design as the new one is just trying to be too clever. The old design was a lot more iconic and didn't need any other words to give the zoo its identity. I loved the old wayfinding icons as well which were fun but easily distinctive. The problem today is that in an increasingly competitive market, companies are becoming obsessed with rebranding themselves every few years. There is an old saying, its a bit of a cliche but its true. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Thought Of The Day!

I was in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham this morning to catch up with an old friend who I haven't seen for too long. She makes the most fantastic pieces of exclusive jewellery that I am always in awe of her work. Sitting in her studio with some soothing background music on, a lovely cup of coffee, watching her work got me thinking.

Sometimes when I am creating designs or pieces of my paper crafts, they have got to be some of the best times I have ever spent. Because you are concentrating so much on every little detail and getting excited about how the finished piece will look that I realised in some small way, that is what is missing in this country and something that a lot of school leavers will never experience. The joy of making.

We used to be a giant of manufacturing, respected the world over and now we have been reduced to a nation of service industries. There is something special about taking something and turning it into a physical product that you can touch and feel. I count myself extremely fortunate because when I left school I went into engineering. One of my first jobs was working in a small backstreet engineering factory in Birmingham making parts for guns. It was highly skilled work and you attained a great sense of achievement making something perfect that would be used on an expensive product. Then I worked at several more small companies, learning from men close to retirement who would get out their mahogany tool chests full of amazing hand tools and measuring devices. Nothing comes close to getting on your overalls, first brew of the day in hand, firing up the machinery and wondering what you were going to create that day. The smell of the suds and the bright sparks that escaped off the metal at the first touch of a cutting tool just cannot be beat.

Another job I had was making spray booths for the car industry. You would get your drawings from the offices and then have to design how to make it yourself. Just the thrill of taking several sheets of flat metal and turning it into a 30ft spray booth over a couple  of weeks was great. You had to make all the ducting by hand, work out where the wiring was going, where to put structural pieces in to make it secure but not too heavy and then have to travel to site to erect it in place. The factory had proper apprenticeships where you would see clueless teenagers turn up one week and in a few months it was fascinating to see their skills improve. Not just from an engineering perspective but it made them more sociable, especially when you had to work with people of all ages. Basically it made you grow up!

It may be a generalisation and I don't want to get all political but I think that's why so many people are unhappy in their daily lives. There is no sense of achievement sometimes.

The last time I was in London and you walk past these vast office buildings filled with suits, grey filing cabinets, headache inducing strip lights and I feel sorry for them almost. I've done the corporate world and there is no way I am rushing back to it. The money was great but you never got a sense of achievement. Now I know we need people to do these jobs or the country would grind to a halt but at least we could make the work environment a lot more interesting.

What we need is the people who design their own design agency spaces to go into drab office spaces and change them. I know you can't change the building itself into some trendy loft space or converted mill but you could change the inner shell to something more exciting and vibrant. As a nation we love decorating our own homes and choosing bold printed wallpapers, modern kitchens, colour everywhere and then where we spend nearly a third of our time, is grey and depressing.

So if the government is going to try and get Britain's youth into work, please don't shove them into soulless office spaces, create some small manufacturing units and get them making something for the nation. Not just creating jobs but creating products to increase sales that creates more vacancies that creates more youngsters brimming with pride at making a genuine contribution.

Ditch the suit, get your hands dirty and make something!


I MISS THIS..........

BUT NOT THIS............