One Hundred Days - no. 55

a little shoe-loving

I love love love these new grey suede shoes from Ruche ($84.99). Lord, I might even love them enough to pay the $20 P&P to the UK. Or maybe not.


Have you seen Ruche before? It's an online boutique dedicated to selling affordable clothing and accessories with a vintage touch. Simple as that. It is all beautiful. Go and have a look! The shoes above are here but they are sold out unless you have enormous feet! Gorgeous and quirky.

some sofas

I think I saw this over at Tea for Joy a while back. I was looking through my bookmarks at the weekend and found this sofa from Pinch. I adore it, especially in that soft grey colour. I like the nod to traditional shapes paired with clean, modern lines. But maybe some more detail in the seat back - some buttons perhaps (I'm very partial to a button-back) - might not go amiss. Now all I need is £3729. Ouch.




Whilst I'm talking about button-back sofas, I also rather like this one (above) from the bespoke selection at The Sofa & Chair Company, with prices starting from roughly £2800 depending on your fabric choice. I like the retro styling and simplicity. I bet the husband would hate it or at least not 'get' why I like it. Never mind eh? Sadly I'm not actually looking for a new sofa, but I like to look anyway.

There are loads of other retro style button back sofas out there, but right now I haven't got the inclination to hunt any more down. But off the top of my furniture-filled head, Heal's do one called Mistral, and Sofa Workshop have one called Fancy Nancy. Or try Vintage Retro for the real deal - some nice sofas pop up there from time to time.

One Hundred Days - no. 54

Stuck in a cage with a deranged rabbit or something...

Sometimes it hurts

One of the things that I probably should have learnt at university but didn't was how to grow a thick skin. When I left university and started working, I'd never until that point been rejected. I'd always been near the top of the class, won prizes and received praise. So when the first job rejection came along I was gutted - I'd been working on some television adverts for Minute Maid juices back in 2007, thinking that this could be a big break for me, and then my agent got the call that they had decided to go for something more 'graphic' and made in 3D. I was pretty upset at the abruptness of the dismissal, even though it was not because my work wasn't good enough, it was just not what they wanted in the end. Since then I've grown a thicker skin and rejections tend to slide off my back these days. I sometimes go through a bit of a cathartic rant just for the sake of it - once I did some drawings for a big department store's sale and then the agency, over the course of a weekend, decided to use someone in-house instead; I was pretty annoyed and subsequently decided that I HATED their campaign - but I get over it quickly enough.

So you remember that I told you with excitement the other week that we'd been working on something that was linked to Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall? Well, it was for Jordan's cereals who are the new sponsors of River Cottage. I don't usually talk about work commissions until they are definite, but I got a bit carried away with this one and told you all. And, lo and behold, on Friday I got the call that they had decided not to use the stuff I'd been working on (these are some of the images I produced for my pitch) and instead to go for something in the style of their current television advert.


Needless to say I just shrugged over the telephone and said 'never mind, it happens all the time', but I'll tell you this: this one hurt a bit. I am fed up with doing things that I think are suitable for the project only to be rejected for something more 'commercial'. It happens to me all the time - it is the nature of the advertising industry to do this - they hedge their bets and get loads of different styles to choose from. They will try to push the boat out and do something different but then they always revert to type in the end - colourful, noisy and obvious. Every few times it gets to me. It makes me question whether I'm trying hard enough, or if I'm not good enough, whether I should try and change myself in order to win jobs. I was told, with great emphasis, that the rejection had nothing to do with the work I'd done, that the agency and client had loved it, but that they just decided to use the same style as the existing campaign. I totally understand that choice - it's all about creating a recognizable brand after all - and I don't take it personally, but I couldn't stop it from stinging a little bit. I am full of self-doubt and I hardly ever like the work that I do for money - that's why there is so little of it up here on this blog. Every time I get the chance to do something that I think might look nice, it seems that I get rejected in the end. It wears me down after a while :-/


Ah well. Next time, eh?

On a much lighter note, and sorry about the swearing, but this video, entitled 'graphic designer vs client' had me WETTING myself (DISCLAIMER: I really DO NOT feel like this about any of my clients, but it's damn funny, especially the bit where he asks for the size of the advertisement).

One Hundred Days - no. 52, 53

And because of the beautiful weather we are having:

Wrangler Blue Bell Website

Check out this website for the Wrangler Blue Bell Spring Summer Collection. It's great fun. Seriously, go there and play. NOW.

Happy happy weekend! I am entertaining my mad family at home on Saturday and then working my arse off on Sunday. Hooray!

One Hundred Days - no. 51

Orla Kiely

I'm so sorry to any of those readers who are getting fed up with my clothing obsession. I can't stop myself from looking, it's like a disease. I will write about other things too some time! I promise. However...

I was browsing through Orla Kiely's new Spring/Summer lookbook and thought I'd post up some of the cute outfits. The inspiration behind the collection is the traditional English seaside holiday, with boat prints and sweet blazers, all in a palette of soft grey-blues and navy, brightened up with my favourite mustard yellow amongst other colours. Lovely!






OK, so I'd not go as far as wearing a dickie bow, I am not an English redhead and I most certainly DO NOT have legs like that, but it doesn't harm to look, right?

Handmade school in Bangladesh

I have never written about architecture before, nor does it interest me a whole lot, but I came across this amazing school in Bangladesh via Salvoweb's blog today and had to make a note of it. I think it is a wonderful project - built by local craftsmen, children and adults, all working together to create something really special. I adore those vibrant doorways - those colours make my heart swell with joy. And the use of natural, locally sourced materials is a great thing too. I think it is utterly beautiful, both inside and out. Check out the link above to read more and see more images. Here is a brief extract from the Designboom article:

Hand-built in four months by architects, local craftsmen, pupils, parents and teachers,this primary school in rudrapur, a village in north west bangladesh, uses traditional methods and materials of construction but adapts them in new ways. the architects, anna aeringer from austria and eike roswag from germany, made every effort to engage the skills of local craftsmen, helping them refine processes and learn new techniques that they could then use to improve the general standard of rural housing.





All images from Designboom.

One Hundred Days - no. 50

whoohoo! half-way to the one hundred. I really think I should try harder with these but I've been so busy with work since I started that it's been pretty hard to do anything at all. Today, I've done a kind of self-portrait in the sense that I'm one of those really irritating people who will push books on people, saying 'honestly, this book is the most amazing thing in the world and you will be morally/culturally/emotionally bereft if you never read it'. Yeah, I can be like that.

One Hundred Days - no. 46-49

For Saturday, Sunday, Monday and today. Some of The Vegan's acquaintances.

Amy Cutler

I am snowed under with work today. I thought I'd quickly show you the work of Amy Cutler, an American artist who mostly draws beautiful images of costumed women doing bizarre things. I think her work is fascinating and lovely to look at. To tell you the truth I've not had much time of my own to explore her work so I am quite intrigued and keen to see more. I've scanned in a drawing, titled 'Row', 2002, from that book I wrote about a few weeks ago, Vitamin D, but if you want to see more, try googling her name. That's all I've got time for today. I'm falling further and further behind with my One Hundred drawings, but you know, I need to earn me some cash...

One Hundred Days - no.45 - stuffed...

Sorry for my absence today. I just got home from a harrowing drive from Manchester to Stansted Airport and then home from there. It was not delightful, put it that way. I had some shouty moments involving idiot lorry drivers. I need a cup of tea. Pictures for the weekend will be up tomorrow. For now, this is how I feel: