Seen it: Yayoi Kusama.

'The Priestess of Polka Dots' 82 year old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has been producing work for the last 60 years. Her pieces come in many forms including paintings, sculptures and films. Her signature dots were seen throughout the exhibition which is bright, colourful and perfectly bonkers. It's on till June at the Tate Modern. Well worth a look.   

Because it's Friday.... DTMD (feat. Oddisee)

Have a lovely weekend peeps.

Grafika Collaboration. Part 4.

Here we bring you our final 3 participants in the Grafika X Collaboration. We just wanted to say that we were overwhelmed by the response and loved each and every submission. It was really interesting to see the diversity in pieces especially as everyone was sent the same materials. 


Jonathan Chapman - www.mr-yen.com

Karin Soderquist - www.karinsoderquist.com

The first thing that struck me when I looked at the wrapping paper collection was how beautiful the patterns and colours where. I wanted to create something that showcased that and I decided to make some bunting out of it.

I put the bunting on the wall and a couple of dogs and a cat came and had a party!

Deborah Moon - http://moonko.co.uk/#/deborah-moon/4550076365

What a wonderful surprise it was to recieve such wonderful paper in the post,  

bright & colorful like the pictures in a story book, which got me thinking 

'Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all'. —Hans Christian Andersen

The work is inspired by 'Stories' fairytales from childhood.  Lands full of
stars, mountains & cities.  Story telling is part of growing up & learning, finding ones voice, daydreaming.
As an adult we forget, stop believing in magical worlds, dragons & enchanted
tales.  Life becomes a little less make-believe, where miracles and magic become
a little lost in the humdrum of life.  Sleeping beauties & prince charmings become locked away in some dusty part of
our minds.

I wanted to create a landscape,  very simple, childlike (rough round the edges,
bold patterns which the paper reflects)  set a scene for a story where we create
the spoken & unspoken tale.

The animations are not clean or polished,  like the spoken word, childlike.  The
piece was created to be changed, moved around.... like stories, different
chapters, beginnings & endings.

Interview: Maggie Li.

London-based Maggie Li is one-fifth of Zombie Collective. We love her graphic typography and cute characters. Here she answers our quick 10.

What is your greatest achievement?

I never thought i could make a living from illustrating, so surviving so far has to be my greatest achievement 

How would you describe your work/style to someone who hadn't seen it? Colourful textured bold graphics. 

What piece of advice would you give your 15 year old self? 

To stop worrying all the time because it turns out alright in the end

Who would you most like to collaborate with?

There's lots of illustrators I admire and I'd love to work with someone like Blexbolex. 

What is the worst job you have had?

Waitressing in a catering company for pennies

Who would play you in the movie of your life? 

Meryl Streep! Incredible lady.

What is the greatest song of all time? 

Hard question and kind of depends on my mood but 'Close to me' by the Cure always gets me going

What do you dislike most about popular culture?

mediocrity

What is the greatest invention of all time? 

it's got to be the internet. i'd be in a bit of a pickle without it.

If you didn't do what you do. What would you do? 

i used to have a big ambition to be a table tennis champion, i think i secretly still do... 

all images courtesy of www.maggieli.co.uk

Seen it: The W Project.

Over the weekend we visited The W Projects 'Words of Wisdom' exhibition at the KK Outlet. The exhibit which featured work from female creatives launched last thursday on International Women's Day. Each of the artists had written their words of wisdom on a postcard and sent it in. The diverse postcards carried very different messages and were created in very different mediums. 

Featured: Elle Decoration.

Spotted in the spring edition of Elle Decoration our Sanna Annukka gift wrap.

Because it's Friday... Don Thomas

Have a nice weekend.