The 13 year old fashion blogger

I recently heard about this in the press and it puts my blog to shame....

Tavi Gevinson, is a teenage fashion blogger from the suburbs of Chicago.

She describes herself as a "tiny 13-year-old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats". Since launching her blog in December Tavi has appeared on the cover of Dasha Zhukova's relaunched Pop magazine, been interviewed by Pixie Geldof in Katie Grand's new issue of Love, and has been pictured on the front rows of this season's biggest fashion shows, with editors and celebrities seated behind her.

Gevinson's blog was initially believed to be a fake created by fashion insiders because it was so professional, and features analysis of magazines and photographs of her daily outfits. I'm sure we'll see her working as a top editor for Vogue in a few short years.

Have a peek: http://tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com/

Covers

With an interest in illustration, I stumbled upon London based artist John Paul Thurlow. 

This project 'Covers' is almost like a hobby to John, who enjoys illustrating famous creative magazine covers. I love the attention to detail and alongside the lack of colour, creates a great piece of personal artwork...even if copied. 

"This is an hommage (six months in), an attempt to create cover art for every great magazine I own (+ a few I wish I owned). It's never a straight crib and it's not about perfection, the source magazines are simply a playground for my imagination..." (John Thurlow).

Reviving flat eric

Flat Eric is back!

Wieden & Kennedy's Tony Davidson and Kim Papworth, are the creative team behind the 1999 Levi's Flat Eric ads and are currently working on a project that will resurrect the iconic puppet.

The project involves the creation of a short film, alongside Flat Eric’s creator, Quentin Dupieux. He invented the character for his own short film but it was later picked up by Davidson and Papworth for their Levi account. After much success in the past, this all sounds exciting!

W.11

"Portobello road, Portobello road

Street where the riches of ages are stowed.

Anything and everything a chap can unload

Is sold off the barrow in Portobello road.

You'll find what you want in the Portobello road"

Over the summer I made my way to one of my favourite destinations. ...to the one of London's landmarks, Notting Hill's Portobello Road. Every Saturday, the market opens its doors to buyers from all over the world looking for second hand clothes and antiques. It's amazing, it's a treasure trove for times past showcasing anything from old teacups and war medals to vintage fashion pieces. I was overwhelmed.

The experience rekindled childhood memories of one of my all time favourite films 'Bednobs and Broomsticks':

"I want my MTV"

When pondering on memories and inspiration from childhood I came across this term coined the MTV Generation. Apparently anyone born from 1975-1988 falls into this labeling, a generation whose adolescence and coming of age is perceived to have been heavily influenced by 1990s popular culture and mass media. I have always been interested in the influence of culture and how this shapes our beliefs for the future, something we are born into...something we are  have no choice in being influenced by.

Courtesy of Wikipedia: If you were part of the MTV Generation you will remember:

• the VHS
  
• Growing up with personal computers in the home.
  
• The introduction of the Nintendo and Atari gaming systems.
  
• The introduction of first-person shooters (e.g. DOOM) and online games (e.g. EverQuest)
  
• Early computer games like Prince of Persia, Test Drive and California Games.
  
• popularity of The Simpsons
  
• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, with its vague associations with Bushido, white rap, and surf slang. Interest in some of the Asian martial arts (including, of course,Ninjutsu) temporarily spiked among teenagers in some areas due to the franchise's influence.
  
• The launch of Nickelodeon (TV channel) in 1979, one of the first channels geared to entertaining children.

• The launch of MTV in its early period before its mid-1990s makeover for predominantly pop music, rhythm and blues, hip hop culture and reality television. The popular tagline: "I want my MTV"
  
• Music influences stem mainly from MTV standards such as Madonna and Michael Jackson - mostly from The Like a Prayer & Dangerous years in the 1980s - but also include the rise of the Grunge music scene of the early 1990s, and the rising popularity of Hip hop and techno music through the 1980s and 1990s.
  
• The second generation to mostly be influenced through Television (especially Music Television) as the primary medium for information and entertainment (the first being the baby boom generation crossing over to the early Generation X - when TV came into becoming an item in every household during the 1950s) especially from children growing up in the 1980s to their teens in the 1990s.
  
• Films such as The Goonies, The Neverending Story and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial which featured children in opposition to adults and oppressive or impersonal systems of law. 
  
• Transformers, Thunder Cats, M.A.S.K., Masters of the Universe and other toyline (franchises) centered around the primary theme of alien/high tech/supernatural combat occurring at large in a disguised form, but also containing strong modernist/morally absolutist themes which have been more recently removed in revised versions of these fictional scenarios

I'd also like to add Back To The Future, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Home Alone 1&2 and a Sega Mega Drive II to that list :)

The MTV generation represents the revolutionary changes of the 80s and 90s and the overall feelings this created. I found it fascinating how one TV channel has been the catalyst for much of my childhood memories, that along with the changes in media, meant that the constant bombardment into living rooms was something hard not become absorbed into. It's almost like the impact of viral campaigns today.

There were for no jabs against the MTV virus.

Although I didn't really mind being infected,  the cultural references surrounding the term really re-kindled times once forgotten, I'm sure many other twenty-somethings will agree with me. 

Bart Simpson: Nothing you say can upset us. We're the MTV generation.

Lisa Simpson: We feel neither highs or lows.

Homer Simpson: Really? What's it like?

Lisa Simpson: Ehh. [shrugs]

I Love NY

I've always loved this logo.

So iconic of the city that I was constantly inundated with its presence on a trip to New York last year.

Not surprisingly I was intrigued to find out the thinking behind it.

After a few days sightseeing in this amazing city, I attended a one day conference set up for art, design and graphic design students from all over the UK. It was Held at the The Parsons School of Design in New York, a pioneer in design education since 1896. Considered the leading place for design innovation, the conference included presentations from design legends. The two in particular that I found most inspiring were Milton Glaser and Bob Gill. Both creative veterans have been a major influence and impact on contemporary illustration and graphic design. Glaser's work is characterized by directness, simplicity and originality, executed mainly through book jackets, album covers, advertisements and direct mail pieces and magazine illustrations. 

                    

Similarly Bob also worked in magazine illustration but then went on to teach. Amidst his ongoing graphic design projects he managed to publish some inspirational material including:

   

Forget all the rules you ever learned about graphic design. Including the ones in this book. was published in 1981. 

It became required reading in many design classes in the United States and Europe. The title and the chapter headings reveal a lot about Gill's ideas about design: "The problem is the problem," "Interesting words need boring graphics," "Think first, then draw," " Boring words need interesting graphics," "Less is more," and "More is more". 

It was really interesting to see how two of America's most renowned graphic designers had such an audacious approach. In the Q&A session, a student asked Glaser how he came up with the idea of the I love NY logo....

His response.. a quick scribble on a tissue in the back of a taxi, and extraordinarily I found out that Gill was once told he shouldn't be a graphic designer, perhaps a photographer instead.

Fine examples of my belief that designers are born not made.

WonderlandMagazine

From a dragon's den pitch to world wide distribution, Wonderland's editorial appeals to all walks of life. The magazine was born in 2005 and is a uniquely positioned, independent, bi-monthly publication for both men and women. 

A homage to visual culture and contemporary creativeness, Wonderland appeals all those interested in art, design, fashion and film. The talent behind the magazine had previously worked in the editorial offices of V, The Face, Spruce, Wallpaper and Photographer. Not only is every cover design completely different to its predecessor, but the creative quality of each spread is reflective of the gifted graphic designers and art directors who have put the art work together. Whether it be the choice of typography or use of colour, the effectiveness of the layout is down to a tea.

Check out every issue:

http://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/