Keek, Twinstraat, Utrecht

Above and below are pictures of the window signage for Keek, an independent bakery on Twinstraat in Utrecht. This approach of simple, mono-tone graphics, hand rendered in white paint seems, I noticed, to be favoured by a number of businesses in Utrecht. These ones in particular being painted by a friend of the business owner. I really love the effortless feel of these illustrations.

Desk Lamp Sculpture - Claes Oldenburg

I love this installation by Claes Oldenburg! Once again walking between my contract job and my hotel home for the week in Birmingham I found another cool bit of public art. Claes Oldenburg is most famous for installations of oversized, everyday objects in public spaces. A quick on-line search revealed a giant shuttlecock, a pair of binoculars and an upside down ice cream on the top of a building. There's clearly some humour in his work!

The desk lamp, outside the Mailbox,  is a working light and illuminates the street at night. There was something really friendly and cheerful about it. I wasn't sure if it was the bright red of the paintwork or if there has been an animated desk lamp in film I've seen; but I was almost expecting it to swing it's shade around, "look" at me and say hi! I also enjoyed how the sculpture messed with my perception of scale, the bricks of the Mailbox looked so small in comparison. Which, of course, with a desk lamp wouldn't be the case ordinarily. It really is the most pleasing desk lamp for many reasons. 

It was also lovely to see people interacting with the installation too, whether it was a smile being raised or people stopping to pose for a photo with the sculpture.

Hello!

What a great place for a bin. Honestly...

The Lovely People - Temper

Working in Birmingham this week, the route from my freelance job to my Ibis Budget hotel (contractor style!) took me via the Mailbox and The Cube. I noticed this sculpture by Birmingham street artist, Temper. Temper was commissioned by The Cube to create some three dimensional art for the space and he created The Lovely People, sculptures of inspiring local folk. 

I hadn't realised there was more than one sculpture until a Google search to find out more about the artwork revealed there was more than one. Alas, I have only an image of the lovely person below.

Each sculpture has a large, red heart instead of a face as Temper wanted to portray each person by the size of their heart, rather than their physical appearance. Such a nice sentiment. The statues include Gerda, a Holocaust survivor, and Dave Burns, a fire fighter awarded the George Medal for Bravery.

Proper lovely

Utrecht Centraal Museum - Krijn de Koning Installtion

The images below are of Krijn de Koning’s work at the Centraal Museum, which I loved when I saw it. The installation occupies two floors and prior to the museums renovation the space was warren of doctors consultation rooms and corridors. 

De Kroning’s work is site specific and aims to interrupt environments by adding sculptural, architectural and colourful constructions. At the Centraal Museum, De Kroning knocked down some walls and left some standing complete with doors to create a new accessible space. The colours are bright and vivid, walking in and around the installation it was hard not to feel really cheerful.

60 years of Miffy – The Miffy Parade

Utrecht is the home of graphic artist, dick bruina, and 2015 is the 60th anniversary of his most famed creation, Miffy the Rabbit. I also visited the dick bruina huis whilst in Utrecht, was amazing to see more of his work and also the technique and process when he creates images of Miffy. More on that in another post though...

Miffy, or Nijntje in Dutch, was created in 1955 whilst bruina was on holiday in the north of Holland. He sketched a little rabbit that kept hoping into the garden of the family’s holiday home and each evening would make up stories about the rabbit to entertainment for his young son.

To celebrate 60 years of Miffy, 60 artists were approached and asked to decorate a statue for the Miffy Parade. The artists, working in many disciplines, drew their inspiration from the world of the Miffy and each decorated a 1.8m high statue of her. The status are on display throughout The Netherlands and Japan and below are some of the statues I found on display in Utrecht. The statues will eventually be auctioned to raise money for Unicef.

Village Underground

These re-purposed tube carriages have been photographed loads but I was particularly excited to see them as I bumbled through Shoreditch en route to Hackney Central one Saturday afternoon. The Village Underground project was featured on George Clark’s Amazing Spaces which was a Thursday evening favourite of mine and my flatmate’s in Christchurch, New Zealand. So as I rounded a corner in London I got that jolt of eek-I’ve-seen-them-on-the-telly excitement!

I’ve always found the space on public transport interesting. These tube carriages re-purposed as artists studio reminded me of the bus journeys of my youth on the Cardiff Clipper P7 service from Cardiff to Barry via Penarth, where I’d day dream about how I’d design the interior of the bus were it my mobile house!

As well as being a cultural space and an artists’ community the Village Underground is an ecology project. In a society that is so wasteful it’s always heart-warming to see things recycled and given another lease of life.

Nice to see Nathan Barley is still knocking around. 

Getting Regional

I recently had the rather lovely opportunity to reprise my old role as a designer on ITV regional news. Rather fittingly, what with it being region news an' all, this gave me the chance to visit a different region of the UK; I packed my bags and headed to Birmingham for the week. 

Although it's the UK's second city I know very little about Brum so it was nice to get a little better acquainted. The following snaps are from a lunchtime stroll through the streets of the city centre. Birmingham has some cool and varied architecture from the impressive Victorian Art Gallery and Council House through to the striking Library of Birmingham.

Library of Birmingham

Birmingham Council House

Bullring Shopping Centre

I Like Your Form

An image of one of my favourite sculptures in Christchurch. Christchurch city centre is such an interesting back drop for art. The city is constantly shifting as space is opened and closed as buildings come down and new ones go up. This sculpture is on display at The Arcades which is on the site of a demolished hotel.

"I Like your Form is by Lonnie Hutchinson and is a 50-metre-long eel trap, or hinaki.

The giant hinaki is a reminder of traditions that might not be immediately apparent in the midst of Christchurch’s hectic rebuild. Hutchinson says the Avon River plays a unique role in the traditional economy and culture of local Māori.

“The intervention of the kupenga (net) tensioned between the two sets of arcades is a reclaiming of ‘site’ that is of significance to Ngāi Tahu.”

The sculpture was specially lit during FESTA.

On the Tourist Trail 2

Whilst visiting Utrecht I also climbed the famous Dom Tower. The Dom Tower’s bells ring out across Utrecht every hour, each time playing a different sequence so that the residents can tell what time of day it is. On the weekend the official bell ringer is in residence and treats the town to a campanological concert; I Love to Hate You by the Pet Shop Boys being amongst the choice chimes on the Saturday I was there.

Instead of a ticket for Dom Tower you get a little passport and some badges to take away. I’m unsure why you’d need a passport, as such, to climb a tower however as examples of collateral I think the Dom Tower’s artwork is nicely considered and much more fun than plain, old admission tickets.

The view from the top: Utrecht from above with Dom Tower's shadow

On the Tourist Trail

Walk into any tourist information centre and there’s a myriad of leaflets for activitites, all competing for your attention.  These flyers, for Utrecht Centraal Museum’s different attractions, caught my eye in particular.  As well as the Rietveld Schröder House, the dick bruna huis is another one of the Centraal Museum’s attractions. dick bruna is graphic designer, famous for being the creator of Miffy. 

I love the strong layout of information on these pamphlets as they highlight how white space is effective on designs. In addition they fold out into a poster showcasing the respective attractions. In a sea of tourist pamphlets these leaflets, with their graphic layout, are attention grabbing. 

Garage Project Beer Cans

Garage Project, what great beer and what great artwork. I think there is hardly a beer in the Garage Project line where I don't adore the artwork. Their approach seems to have been to just take inspiration from the beer name; as opposed to a fixed look for the entire range that gets adjusted accordingly for each product. 

The result is a plethora of brilliant and often humourous designs with influences that include vintage advertising, Jamie Reid, Film Noir, vintage computer games, Arts and Crafts, and Godzilla.

As well as being seduced by the beautiful artwork I chose these two cans due to their contents; particularly La Calavera Catrina which is brewed with maize, habanero chilli, watermelon and rose water!

That's whole lot of creativity in a can.

North Island Typographical Tour Part 2: Taranaki

I had to finish with one of Cardiff. Dim unman yn debyg i gartref ♥