Showing posts with label hello dodo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hello dodo. Show all posts

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

studio loo | christmas artist's open house brighton and hove

We are very excited to be back at Studio Loo this winter for the Christmas Open Houses. We were part of the May Open House and it was so much fun, there was delicious homemade cake, tasty rhubarb drinks for none tea drinkers (me!) and a whole host of awesome work!

Just off the main road, and next to the school, you can't miss it! 

Tasty Rubarb drink I mentioned!

This time round you can find these awesome designer makers!

designosaur (obvs) | Claire Potter Design | Penelope Kenny | Kate Forrester | Claire Cameron-SmithThe Intrepid Camera Co |Vivienne Ridley | Chris Murphy | Hello DODO | Parkminster CandlesRarebit Design | Peter James-Field | Mark Reeve – Piano Planetarium

Our designosaur set up!

Planters by Chris Murphy

Beautiful jewellery by Vivienne Ridley

when you visit between 11am – 5pm on:

Sat 21st – Sun 22nd November
Sat 28th November
Sat 5th December
Sat 12th – Sun 13th December. 

We will be there this Saturday 21st between 11-2pm, so if you want to have a chat with Jacques and I, then come along then!

Claire Potters Edible City Guide, great for marking your foraging hot spots!

You know we love these dispensers, this one contains seedballs and is only 20p a go! How cool is that?

Obviously all the photos are from the summer open house, as the Christmas Open House hasn't started yet! But we can promise that it will be even better, as you have these designers featured and more!

The Studio will be stuffed full of fun gift ideas, and Claire has a fantastic eco design ethos which means that items are made from sustainable materials, or are organic, have been upcycled or designed with their life span carefully thought through!

A Minor Bird by Mark Reeves, made from old piano keys, there are Piaon People too!

Need directions? You can find us at Studio Loo, 201 Portland Road, Portslade, Hove BN3 5JA.

Make sure you chat to Claire herself, it's so fun hearing about where all the different parts of the Studio came from and her restoration story! This is a really quirky and awesome space filled with quirky and awesome products, I'm not sure what else you could want?

See you on Saturday,

ROAR!

Karli

Tuesday, 28 July 2015

a weekend in glasgow

​This weekend we were invited to by Sally of Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes to hang out with her, her boyfriend Keith and their two cats Chi and Harry at they pad in Glasgow.
 
The gang!

We went up with fellow Brighton creatives and pals, Jam and Ali from hello DODO, Toby of i Like CATS and his boyfriend Kieran of Little Mountains. They are all regulars on this blog so you already know all about them!

Sally and Keith organised a crazily jam packed party of a weekend!

When we first arrived we went to the Kelvingrove Museum to see a baby dinosaur exhibition! It was all about their eggs and young and the answer to nearly all the interactive questions was ornithopod.

Little baby dinosaurs! How cute!

We then grabbed the biggest and most delicious ice creams and milkshakes and had a walk around the park. We deserved it, we'd done lots of thinking in the museum!

In the evening we went to a Cèilidh, I think probably the hottest Cèilidh in the world and I was pretty terrible at it, butttt it was so much fun all the same!

Saturday we had Butteries for breakfast, a local Aberdeen breakfast so I'm told, they were delish, if not ridiculously unhealthy, but all the best things are ey!

We went to Glasgow city centre to bumble around the shops, we had an awesome vegan lunch at Mono, which is also a record store! And played find the load bearing minion. (This drove everyone crazy as only Jacques has spotted it, and nobody else could find him)

Colouring in with Kieran | Photo Credit HOYFC

Photo Credit HOYFC

Now most people have relaxing Sunday's but we decided to go to the Trampoline Park and it was THE MOST FUN EVER! We got to bounce for an hour, we played trampoline dodge ball and basketball and even jumped into a massive foam pit!

Check Jacques in this photo! haha! (but not me cos I look terrible!) | Photo Credit HOYFC


I can levitate! | Photo Credit HOYFC

Being back in Brighton seems boring in comparison now! We can't wait for Sally and Keith to come and visit us so we can have just as much fun here!

ROAR!

Karli

PS most of the photos I have used in this blogpost are from HOYFC because all of mine are already on instagram :)

Tuesday, 16 June 2015

mollie makes handmade awards

Last Thursday we were invited, as finalists, to the Mollie Makes Handmade Awards, and what a day it was!

I'm sure you've all met George by now but if you haven't here he is, and he's the reason we were shortlisted with hello DODO for the Mollie Makes Collaboration Award!


Now Brighton is a pretty talented place and Amy and Claire of Super + Super were also shortlisted for the Established Business Award - WOOP WOOP! HYPE BTOWN!

Amy, Jam (with no legs) and Ali chilling in the sunshine

The day started with a Photo Walk by Xanthe and some homemade lemonade. Presentations from the finalists were through-out the day. We couldn't watch these but there was a panel of EIGHT judges, and we were the very last presentation... eek!

There were talks on how to get your book published and one from Pinterest. They were fun and definitely insightful! (now what can I write a book about...)

Crafty Materials for Crafternoon Cabaret Club

Unfortunately Jacques wasn't able to come along but I got to hang out with the Dodos and met plenty of amazing designer makers!

So with our nerves building all day, we waited at the bottom of the stairs to meet our doom (jokes) - we presented to the very friendly bunch and were asked lots of questions about George, our brands and how we had worked together to collaborate.

When it was all over we grabbed a pint - cos it'd be a stressful day - and waited nervously for the results and when we were announced, none of us moved! We were winners of the Collaboration Award! WAHHHHOOOOO!

WE WON! WOAH!

Creative Idea award winner Allison Sadler’s (#MakeItSewcial) and Established business award winner Nikki McWilliams (I'm a stalker, as you can tell they weren't posing for me ;) )

Back in Brighton we all went for celebratory burritos and filled Jacques in, he was pretty hyped so here's a dark blurry photo of him and his Mollie Makes swag (including an amazing brother pen with a LIGHT!?!)

So George is now award winning! How magic is that? Mega thanks to Mollie Makes and all of the judges, we are soooo excited to have won!

Do you have a George? Do you think fame has gone to his head?

Karli

Tuesday, 2 June 2015

pick me up! london graphic arts festival.

A couple of weeks ago we went to visit  Jam and Ali aka hello DODO at Pick Me Up, a yearly graphic arts festival held at Somerset House, London.

Lazy Oaf 

Lazy Oaf

Lazy Oaf

hello DODO were part of the Best Room and when we went to visit it was PACKED! We came back just before close to take some snaps!

Best

Best

hello DODO's work in the Best Room

I couldn't help but buy some of the gorgeous pieces and I snapped up a graphic print by RISOTTO and a FUN print in the Lazy Oaf Room.

We listened to Cathy Olmedillas from ANORAK talk about their new Magazine DOT. I love listening to successful business people saying that they didn't have a plan, they were winging it or they went against others advice but still SMASHED IT!






It was a visual delight of colours and patterns and you should definitely go along next year! Did any of you go this year, which was your favourite room, or piece?

ROAR!

Karli


Tuesday, 19 May 2015

supermarket sarah


You will hopefully have seen that we have created a Supermarket Sarah Wall along with our crafty besties hello DODO!

We started discussing creating a SMS wall back in 2013 (no really!) and now in 2015 we have finally created it! I won't even try and explain Jacques' "Urban Steps" plan...

We planned the wall and then spent an evening building it at hello DODOs place whilst munching fish and chips and having a few beers, always casual...



So here is is! The way it works is you can click on anything on the wall to buy it! Those bats take your fancy? Click on them for a full description, price and a link to PayPal.. want the dinosaur t-shirt too? CLICK ON IT!

designosaur x hello DODO | Supermarket Sarah Wall

Whilst you're on the SMS website have a look through the other walls, there's some great designers who have created walls including  Camille WALALA, i am Acrylic and Patternity.

Now what's special about our wall is that we have created a whole bunch of new stuff that is exclusive to the wall! Lets have a closer look shall we?

BATS! Bat Wall Hangings designed by hello DODO and turned into acrylic beauties by ourselves. There's a big version and a small one and each bat can be hung from it's left wing, right wing, or upside down by his feet!

This is a close up of the SUPER YUM screen print design which we have created and hello DODO have masterfully printed by hand in NEON OMBRE!
Jacques really wanted to turn hello DODOs Totem design into a necklace, and none of us had any objections cos it looks DOPE! This comes in two sizes depending on how much you want to make a statement!

I do like to wear everything that we design so we turned hello DODOs wall hangings into bat necklaces! I love his cheeky grin and I've already rocked this guy out and about and he looks SWEEEEET!

Finally a none collaboration piece, but still something that is exclusive to the wall - we have created three box lamps with different dinosaurs on in different colours. It's the first time we have created lights to sell and we hope you love them as much as we do!

There are also some designs from hello DODO that you can't buy from anywhere else right now, and classic designosaur pieces in finishes that aren't available on Etsy! Go and have a mooch about, you won't regret it!

ROAR!

Karli

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

50 shades of George

The 28th February was #dayofgeorge. Not a day that we invented, but that you guys, the George fans, decided was going to happen!

If you don't know who George is, then I don't know where you have been. Read about our collaboration with hello DODO here!

A whole bunch of you wore your necklaces on the same day and showed off George to his full potential, showing that he really does go with everything! Thank you to everybody that took part, we really loved seeing your photos!



@loraleopard

@hannah_would

@jaynekitsch

@victoriapenrose

@dannifromdublin

#dayofgeorge

I had gif issues, I wanted to make a really snazzy gif like this. But then InDesign, .jpegs and Instagram didn't want to be friends so I made a simplified gif above of alllll the 'day of george' photos!

If you have a George and want to share him camouflaging against your own clothes use #georgethechameleon and tag @designosaurYEAH and @hellohelloDODO. We really do love seeing what George gets up to!

Realised how awesome George is, and don't have your own one yet? You can get one here!

ROAR!

Karli

Re: Blog title - 51 people posted photos of George on the #dayofgeorge hashtag... makes sense now right?

Monday, 13 October 2014

The Blog Hop!

We have been nominated by our uber colourful, wonderful crafty partners in crime hello DODO to do the 'Blog Hop'

Jam and Ali from hello DODO and Jacques when we were at Renegade last year!

What's that I hear you say, well I said yes I'd do it before I even knew what it was but luckily it's nothing too crazy! I just have to answer three questions and then nominate two other people to do the same. Easy peasy.

So here goes...

What have you been making at your desk this week?

If you don't know about us here at designosaur, it's me Karli, and I  do all the blogging, social media, answer your emails and manage our shop. Jacques does the designing and we both do all the creative brainstorming to come up with new designs. It is very much team work as we both did Product Design degrees but have different strengths when it comes to running a small business!

One of 4 ROARball designs!


This week we are resting after having just launched the new ROARballs! We are getting a lot of custom requests so are working on designs for these commissions, but we can't say much more about that! Our stockists have started to place orders for Christmas so we have been making lots of stock for them. There are always a lot of George's to assemble 'cos he's a popular guy and it's been fun to make some of our newer designs such as the sabre tooth tigers and toucans.

George - Photo from hello DODOs instagram

We have a collaboration in the pipeline which we don't know whether we will be able to get out before Christmas :S and we also have a new product to launch in the next couple of weeks which isn't laser cut! (yes you should be excited!) 

It's always very busy at designosaur HQ will a million projects running side by side working all hours of the day and night. Jacques and I talk nothing but plastic and dinosaurs, Jam from hello DODO even commented about how strange our conversation was when I told Jacques in the pub to be careful when we got home as the Sabre Tooth's eyes were laid out on the table"

Putting together some Sabre Tooth Tigers!

Where are you currently finding your inspiration?

Inspiration comes from everywhere and anything, Jacques is very good at reading my mind, if we come up with a concept together then usually what I have in mind is what Jacques then draws. We love going to museums and exhibitions and are out and about whenever we can be. 

We have been working on several collaborations recently, you will have seen the ball of yarn rings which we created with Claire from Yellow Bear Wares and we are working on other secret collaborations which you will find out about soon so our inspiration comes from the people we work with too, it's great to get a new perspective and there's plenty of creatives to bounce ideas off in Brighton!

Ring from our Yellow Bear Wares Collaboration

How important is being creative to you, and how do you blend this with your work/life/family balance?

Being creative is important but it's not something that we need to think about to make it happen. If we aren't designing for designosaur then we are being creative in a heap of other ways. I'm pretty into what I wear and I get to be creative in that way. Jacques is a maker, and a problem solver, he's creative by making or fixing things around the house, we have several laser cut lamp shades as Jacques has broken the previous ones, and Jacques is very proud of the custom mud guard he has made for his bike (it's the small things in life ey)

Rocket Lamp Jacques designed and laser cut (photographed
 in an oddly none colourful area of the house! :S

Everything falls into place balance wise, it probably isn't very balanced but we are having lots of fun!

Passing the Blog Hopping Baton

Now I'm nominating some others, I hope they get involved!

Rockcakes - I have been fangirling over Rockcakes since I came to Brighton in 2007, learnt about her awesome husband LOMOKEV and found out about her incredible jewellery. This is one clever lady, not only does she make fantabulous precious jewellery, I have her diamond bracelet and TV ring, she also makes a heap of fun laser cuts too!

Rockcakes TV ring and designosaur unicorn ring

Woah The Pickle - Vicky is a linocut printer, her designs are fun, intricate and super awesome, I have several of her troll prints and they all have iridescent hair. They are AMAZING.

All the trolls, photo from Vicky's Etsy shop!

Thanks for reading, let me know in the comments if being creative is important to you too!

ROAR!