animaniac!

so whilst at the Natural History Museum we also took a look around some other areas. not sure what was going on in my brain today but i seemed to be viewing everything as an animation and couldn't stop making comparisons to Disney movies and cartoons!!

King Louie from The Jungle Book

Colonel Hathi from The Jungle Book

Manny from Ice Age

Monstro from Pinocchio

Pumba from The Lion King

Shenzi from The Lion King

london snaps - part 1

i had a lovely trip around central london today, something i don't do often enough.  my day started at the Natural History Museum for Scott's Last Expedition exhibition. i always forget how beautiful the building is, so much detail...they really don't make them like this anymore!

(great exhibition by-the-way... would recommend it whilst it's still open - only one week left!)

i was in complete pattern mode today and everywhere i looked i saw a potential new range...so many ideas just from the tiling and pillars!

beautiful carved archway

mosaic flooring

 pillar details

ceiling detail

from the Design Library today...DIGITAL TEXTILE DESIGN

this is a great book full of all sorts of advice, tip and tricks, and interviews to help you in creating a fantastic portfolio to showcase your work to it's best ability...that's what we all want, right?

Digital Textile Design - Portfolio Skills

the great thing about this book is it takes you step-by-step through the creative process...from those initial sketches and how important they are, the proper way to scan and transfer to your computer and how to use Illustrator and Photoshop to make AMAZING patterns!!

the step-by-step tutorials are excellent. one specific one i have found useful is the filters tutorial - they take one image and show you all of the filters that Photoshop has to offer:

the Illustartor tutorials are very easy to follow (and that is coming from someone who finds it rather tricky!):

a fab few pages on how to create a colour palette from images and photos in Illustrator:

and the all important - how to create REPEAT PATTERNS!!! what we all want to know, in an easy-to-follow breakdown for both Photoshop and Illustrator:

this tutorial proved very helpful for when i was putting together my portfolio. it shows you how to apply your patterns to actual objects and furniture in a realistic way. i know that isn't to everybody's taste but it is very handy to know and the outcomes can look great!!

the book also features interviews from a range of artists talking about their work, how they started, their processes...

you can buy this from Amazon.co.uk for £15.75 or form Amazon.com for $23.10

from the Design Library today...NEW YORK NOTEBOOK

i absolutely LOVE this book but now it's come round to writing about it it's really quite tricky!  

it's basically an arty-graphicy-collagey-scribbley-rather random book on New York, but it also a travel guide as to the quirky places to visit, AND you can use it a travel log yourself, adding your own little notes in along your journey! not that i want to write in mine. i'd ruin it.

that's pretty much all i can say so i might just have to let the pictures do the talking on this one...

lots of typography in this book if that's your thang?!

this is one of my favourite pages - there's a breakdown of all diner lingo. who would have guessed 'adam and eve on a raft' was 2 poached eggs?? or that 'dog and maggot' actually meant cracker and cheese?!

cant help but love this palette

unfortunately i can't remember where i bought this book from and it's only available from private sellers on amazon so cannot direct you...so i kind of feel like i've teased you with that one and left you empty handed...sorry!!

windows dressed to impress!

so i went on a little trip around town this week to look at some of the current window displays that have been inspired by the London 2012 Olympic games. I was interested to see the different directions some of the big department stores had taken...

JOHN LEWIS went for a fairly subtle effect, using only red, white and blue strings stretched across plain backdrops:

'Britain get ready to look your best'

'Britain get together to catch every moment'

One window was rather more inspiring an that was showing off all of the goodies available from the Olympic shop. some cut outs of the London tourist hotspots livened it up a bit:

the cool britannia theme was carried through onto their website home page:

BENTALLS went for a cycling theme with all displays featuring wheels and facts:

 'support Team GB'

who'd've thought it...

vibrant main displays were brought to life with brightly coloured circular containers displaying items and moving wheels:

FAT FACE also favoured wheels, with a bit bunting (because we haven't had enough of bunting recently!) in a surf shack set up:

this design was followed through onto their website:

CRABTREE & EVELYN went for 2 different looks:

a more cutesy girlie look...

...a far more graphic, bold approach (my favourite!)