Dulux - Own a colour

 

I absolutely love Dulux's new initiative - "Own a colour" 
In an effort to raise money for Unicef, Dulux are selling 16.7M colours to the world...

 It even gives you the option to base your decision on the latest fashion trends and by gender. I couldn't guess how much money they'll raise but my guess is a hell of a lot!!

It's only in it's earliest stages at the moment but as competition for colours hots up, perhaps donations will have the be more substantial? Maybe the last ones will get auctioned off? I need to buy mine now!

3 British Films

High Hopes (1988). East is East (1999). Submarine (2010).

High Hopes is a sweet observation of the life of couple Shirley and Cyril amongst the lives of Cyril's aging mother, stuck-up sister and mother's upper-middle-class neighbours. The film starts however, with a bashful, lost young chap - who you expect to be the protagonist - who introduces the viewer to Cyril. The reoccurs throughout the film highlighting Shirley's longing for a baby as she helps him and looks after him as if he were her child.

East is East  is set in 1971 Salford, (stars the majority of the cast of Eastenders) and watches the lives of the Khan family and the influence Manchester has had on the views of the Khan "children" (young adults). The hypocrisy of Mr. Khan is plain to see when he demands that his sons marry Pakistani women despite having married both a Pakistani and a Caucasian woman.

Submarine is an adaptation of the book by Joe Dunthorne. Richard Ayoade (the geeky on from the IT Crowd!) writes the screenplay and directs the film.

Submarine is set in 1980's Swansea and is the tale of a lovelorn teenage boy, Oliver Tate. His parents are experiencing marital problems since the rearrival of his mother's old flame, a self-help guru...called Graham. His lust for schoolmate Jordana feels quite Amelie-esque, as polaroids line his wall and they are seen sitting in a bath tub on the beach. I like how this film is similar to the other two in its subtle humour but adds in surreal scenes, a slightly modern touch bringing this film into the 21st century and setting it apart from the other two.


All are truly British comedies, funny but also quite poignant; without plot or story but just allowing the viewer into their lives for 120mins.

Steph's brief history of: Art Kane (1925 - 1995)

Arthur Kanofsky "Art Kane", was a fashion and music photographer in NYC from 1950s - 1990s. He started his career at Esquire magazine and then went on to become the Art Director for Seventeen magazine (the youngest Art Director of a major magazine at the time). In the 1950s he became the prodegé of Alexey Brodovich.

Perhaps his most famous photo, "Harlem" features 58 of the greatest legends in jazz:

15 minutes of CSS fame!

Found out today that the last design for my website made it onto ccscollector.com :)

Steph's brief history of: Henry Wolf (1925-2005)

 Henry Wolf was born in Austria but made his fame in America. He became Art Director for Esquire in 1952 and the succeeded Alexey Brodovich (see post below) when he became the Art Director for Harper's Bazaar in 1958.

I really like the way Wolf has created both a facing and portrait image of his subject using a glass of water - something only a fantastic photographer would think of doing.

In 1965 he joined McCann Erickson producing advertising for Coca Cola, Alka Selzer and Gilette amongst others.

In 1971 he launched Henry Wolf Productions where he worked for 30 years producing over 500 tv commercials.

Wolf was certainly influenced by Brodovich, his work feels like an extension for that of Brodovich.

Steph's brief history of: Alexey Brodovich (1898 - 1971)

Brodovich was born in Russia but fled to France in the Revolution of 1920.This Bal Banal poster started his career as a Graphic Designer when he entered it into a competition, beating a drawing by Picasso:

As Paris started to lose its design flair, Brodovich decided to move to America where he would create his most famous works for magazine, Harper's Bazaar:

Hi work emits movement, energy and modernity. He turned blocks of text into elegant and abstract forms:

He assigned cover illustrations to avant-garde artists such as A.M. Cassandre, Herbert Beyer and Salvador Dali.

Steph's brief history of: Milton Glaser (1929 - pres.)

Milton Glaser has to be one of the most respected Art Directors. Being a spring chick when it comes to advertising, I find it hard to imaging the industry without computers and Glaser's work is a beautiful example of analogue times. The work of Milton Glaser Inc. even now has a feeling of being artwork as opposed to computer generated work.

I can't help but feel that perhaps something like this Zero7 cover art would be a computer-made version of Glaser's Bob Dylan poster... 

Nice little Lego ad

Weetabix Spoonsize

Weetabix - Dancer from Tonic Music on Vimeo.

Maybe it's just me but I think this fashion for dubstep might have gone a little bit too far...?

V&A Power of Making exhibition

The Power of Making exhibition at the V&A showed me what we can achieve if we just put our minds to it and apply a little bit of patience. Pieces such as the gorilla made of coat hangers was a perfect example of this. The sculpture is simple in structure, the most astonishing thing is the amount of concentration and commitment that it must have taken to produce it.

The following piece is a japanese-style "wheelchair" designed with Stephen Hawkin in mind.

 I had never really seen the produce of a 3D printer before so this urn really impressed me:

 

Crochetdermy bear, Shauna Richardson:

 Fantastic glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly: