Laxness

Ok so I realised this morning that I haven't been keeping my blog very up to date.

There are several shite reasons for this:

My day job work these days is mostly art direction. Concepts and strategy stuff that doesn't necessarily translate very well into visually exciting blog posts.

Plus a lot of our current projects are VERY long running and some are top secret, so I'm unable to post about them.

Plus I'm working on a project with my boy that is also dragging on quite a bit but involves a lots of digital drawing - which I enjoy a lot. The working-with-my-boyfriend bit is not so plain sailing. Sigh.

ANYWAY.

I'm starting to get itchy about getting back to some good old fashioned DRAWING. Even some icon design would be nice (although I did do a really fun and mahoosive icon design project for the day job - but it falls into the top secret category, so I cannae show you it. Arse.)

So I'm going to do something about this. I think it may involve more activity along the lines of Viv's suitcase - like, buying vintage items and customising them with typography drawn on with paint markers. Maybe shoes! Maybe old globes, satchels, belts, and leather jackets! Maybe plastic/wooden chunky bangles! Maybe I could set up an Etsy shop and sell em!

Maybemaybemaybe... GET ON WITH IT WOMAN.

In the meantime though, have a couple of marque options I did for one of our clients. They're pretty enough I suppose...

Bon Voyage Viv

Another wonderful person is heading off into the sunset. This time it's the sparkly Lady Viv. A big group of her gal pals chipped in and bought her the most beautiful vintage Gramophone, which she adores, and I made her this wee thing just from me. I bought a simple vintage suitcase off ebay and some new white Markal paintmarkers, and drew this partial quote from Mark Twain onto the front of it. The quote came from Viv's 'inspiration' pinterest board and I thought it was pretty appropriate. I sketched the quote first, blew it up on the photocopier, and then transferred it to the surface of the case.

My girl flies off on the 12th June. I'll be seeing her off at the airport along with a lot of other ladies who are lucky enough to be her mate. Sad times. But SO excited for her.

Twiddly bits

I've been attempting to get back into illustrating type, and the motivation of my bessie mate's impending 30th birthday chivvied me into realising an idea I'd had for a print based around the speech I made at her wedding back in February. My other bessie mate did an absolutely mint job of the screenprinting and the birthday girl was suitably chuffed. All good. So much fun had I making twiddly bits for her, that I had a stab at another bit of twiddly type for a wee internal project here at Frame Towers. Still dicking about with it, but here it is as a Work In Progress.

Speech!

It would appear I have gone and agreed to take part in an event organised by She Says Scotland. Which involves me standing up and talking. In front of potentially quite a lot of people I don't know. And attempting to sound like a grown up and a professional who knows what they're talking about.

Ah crap.

Oh well.

The event asks the question 'Where do good ideas come from?' and myself and a number of other ladies in the creative industry up here will be attempting to answer that with reference to our own personal experiences/disciplines.

Helpfully, I gave a talk recently within Frame that was sooorta in the same territory. So some recycling may occur. Although I am going to add in a couple more slides that relate to stuff that stuck with me after reading Steven Johnson's marvellous "Where do good ideas come from?' (that I also helpfully read not so long ago).

Pray for me. Or at least keep me away from the bar until after I'm done speaking.

RBS, Edinburgh Airport

So NOW you see why I've been so quiet. Two major campaigns going live in the space of two weeks. Oooft. This was was another belter though. We were asked by RBS Group to produce a new campaign to populate Edinburgh Airport with. They have a great deal of media space there and wanted to use it to talk about The Group, their heritage, and their powerful connection to Scotland.

We produced the 'This is Home' campaign. The work was designed to illustrate that RBS Group, having been based in Edinburgh since their inception in 1727, know Edinburgh as well as anyone, all its little foibles and idiosyncrasies and adorable faults, all its nooks and crannies. They call it home.

The photography was meant to feel like an Edinburgh resident's own snaps of their home city, while avoiding the usual picture-postcard cliches. So naturally I turned to the best photographer I know. The awesome Miss Jane Stockdale. Who pinballed wildly around edinburgh from dawn to dusk on the longest days of the year, taking snaps of the city she too once called home. And the results were bloody fabulous. Natch.

The campaign went live last weekend. I reckon I might just have to jump on a flight somewhere so I can go check it out. In the meantime, if you're jetting off anywhere nice - have a look and tell me what you think.

The National Museum of Scotland Reopens!

Goodness. I have been quiet haven't I? Not like me. But I offer up the usual excuse. I've been a busy busy wee bee. All big and exciting stuff though, and all the hard work is starting to go live and get great reactions. So it has all been worth it, I swear.

One mammoth project was the launch campaign for the newly reopened National Museum of Scotland. The old part of the museum was closed down three years ago, and treated to a world class makeover. We, the Framees, were tasked with producing the campaign to announce its impending reopening.

The Very Clever Types at the museum really wanted to emphasise the huge range of exhibits, the fact that a great deal of them had never been see before, and the thrill of discovering something new every time you visit. We produced a series of fun, bold juxtapositions that collided exhibits together; bringing to life the unexpected connections you may make at the museum and the sheer range of things on display. It was a fun, easy-to-get, populist campaign that spoke to everyone. And got some great reactions on twitter and facebook when it went live.

And we fair painted the toon! Six sheets, bus sides, banners, window displays; the work was EVERYWHERE. And the response was ace. People had really missed their museum and the campaign seemed to really fuel the excitement on the lead up to the grand reopening on the 29th of July.

The opening day was a runaway success. The museum surpassed their visitor targets three times over. While an animatronic t-rex, acrobatic gargoyles and japanese drummers welcomed them through the doors, once inside, the building and the exhibits required no such pizzazz. The transformation is truly world class and I feel so, so proud to have played a wee small part in that.

Congrats to all at NMS and pats on the back for my fellow Framers. * superchuffed *

Supertalented mates

Another of my super-enterprising and super-gifted friends has sailed away from that safe harbour and set up their own studio. Bob Young, another ECA alumni, has formed Alphabetical Studio with his friend Tommy Taylor. They are coming straight outta Shoreditch and together are making sweet sweet design music. More than worth keeping an eye on I reckon. *proud face*

Good, good times.

I also forgot to mention I'm not long back from my hols. Don't worry there shall be no mega-posts along the lines of my Indo diaries (I did keep a wee diary while I was away, but I just can't be arsed transcribing it here - erm, sorry). The whole impetus to go on said jaunt was primarily to be a bridesmaid to my bessie mate Sarah, who moved to New Zealand about five years ago and never returned. I can't blame her though. New Zealand is a truly, truly beautiful and completely awesome country and she has bagged herself a wonderful kiwi man called Otis. Otis is a bloody talented artist himself and besides doing breathtaking spraypaint murals, he also makes and 'tags' Sarah's sandwiches every morn. Ah. Its definitely love.

Anyway - the wedding and subsequent recovery BBQ amounted to the single best wedding I've ever been too; in fact probably one of the best social gatherings I've ever been to, full stop. My girl looked like a film star. The other bridesmaids (and there were many!) were a cracking bunch of ladies too. Much wine was drunk, many speeches spunk, many moves were busted, and many many songs sung. Including one made up on the spot by the soon-to-be-famous Matt Stalker, inspired by my good pissed self going for a twirl in the rain around about midnight. Which thankfully somebody recorded and Mr Matt posted on soundcloud so that we might relive that night ad infinitum. I felt so lucky to have been there. Le sigh.

I haz a website!

Hoorah! FINALLY. I have sorted myself out with a website. Of sorts. I had a stab at building my own site from scratch. (Note to self: you will never be a developer. Quit trying.) And soon realised that I'd get much better results by just using a portfolio template service like Cargo. Who are purty darn good. My site is super simple and will be being added too over the next couple of weeks, but thought I'd just throw up my first bits and bobs and push the 'go live' button. Cos I got a bit overexcited. :)

Go see go see! www.ladyleledesign.com

Oh yeah...

Oh, and another thing - as I've just realised I never updated after the post about the nomination - I only went and won a bloody Gold at the Roses Design Awards didn't I? For the Young Scot Annual Report featured in an earlier post. A wee jaunt to Manchester was had by myself and two of my digitally-minded colleagues, a dancefloor was thoroughly pwned, champagne quaffed and monster hangovers generated. Was fun.

Also, the photographer at the do was doing a mini shoot of all the winners after the awards. And I maaaaay have gotten a bit overexcited and pretended to..er... eat my award.

Still, as ridiculous as I look, the Drum clearly liked it as it ended up on the cover of the Roses Awards supplement the following week.

Oh.

Knickers.

Mais, je ne regrette rien.

Whoops

I do believe I buggered off for a bit there, didn't I? That will never do. Sorry. It's down of course to the fairly reasonable excuse that the day job has me almost permanently up to my tits in it. And then I was away over Christmas and yaddayadda. Plus I'm about to embark on another of my all too infrequent jaunts about the globe too. So I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about that once I'm back.

In the meantime though, one of the little bits of freelance I DID do was for a friend of mine in London who has recently set up Alphabetical Studio. Cos he is a talented bugger yes he is.

Anyway, this bit of freelance was for a regenerative project called The Link, which was looking to transform a fairly grim area of South East London with a series of brightly coloured painted murals, all featuring positive, community-focused messages. I was asked to do 'Make a Connection'. Pretty sweet really. No chat yet on whether its actually been made into a mural but that would be super rad if it happens.

Watch this space.

Tip, and indeed, Top

Newsflash! Just heard that the Young Scot Annual Report has been nominated for a Roses Design Award! AS HAS Mike Marlin website!! Very very chuffed. Props to Mr Adam Smith, Ms Keli Mitchell, Mr Dave Buchan and Mr Colin Wiseman. Go team! Woooop! :)