a day trip to London

HOLLA HOLLA!

January is a bleak month. All of the sparkle from Christmas is gone and everyone is walking around with a face on because they've run out of money and only want to wear pajamas for the next month.

We needed some inspiration so headed to London for the day. We were actually going to go to the Tate to the Sigmar Polke exhibition but that didn't happen and we went to the Saatchi Gallery instead. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

Jacques doing the "where are all the people" pose, as we suddenly found ourselves alone!

Our brains were then buzzing with ideas so we went to Carnaby Street to 'The Diner' had coke floats, milkshakes and burgers and scribbled for a couple of hours, getting down all our ideas, sketching and planning. It was great. We came up with so many new ideas and also reimagined some old ideas that never went into production. You'll see the results in the next few weeks!

After we'd filled our bloodstreams with sugar we headed to Lights of Soho Presents God's Own Junkyard. Chris Bracey, the King of Neon with the largest collection of Neon outside of the USA sadly passed away this year, and some of his pieces have been brought to Soho for your viewing pleasure.

"I did 99 percent of every sex establishment in Soho for 20 years, for me, it was an artistic endeavour." 

- Chris Bracey 2013

Bracey was a graphic designer who went into the family neon business. Anything in London you see that is made of Neon is probably his work and it's just such an awesome medium you can't help but get sucked in... 

As you can see it's blooming marvelous, and if you can, you should go. They encourage photographs so you can instagram to your hearts content! 

I am obsessed with neon, you will see in my previous post that Jacques commissioned me my own Neon light (which I adore) as he has worked with Andy Doig of Fishtale Neon in Brighton creating some of the laser cut back boards and boxes.

Fully cured of feeling uninspired and January-ish we are now raring to go on new awesome designs! What gets you inspired? Let us know!

ROAR!

Karli (and Jacques... kinda)

Sunday!

So I had the day off on Sunday, and we tried to cram in as much as possible, so this is going to be a bit of a day in the life of post. With lots of pictures. Here goes!

This is what I wore, new glitter jelly shoes which I got for my birthday but this was the first weather appropriate day to wear them. They are awesome and I got LOADS of compliments. However I'm not a heel wearer and wearing them for 10 hours with tights (slippy feet) made my feet hurt, so I think I want flat ones too!

The Unicorn ring is obviously designosaur, and the rainbow ring is the HEAVIEST ring I own, I also wore a Minnie Mouse crop top, so I couldn't have been more 90s if I had tried...

designosaur Unicorn Ring and Me and Zena Rainbow Ring via Porta 

We headed up to the AT Open House which is just beyond Queens Park and it was AMAZING! Honestly, it was AWESOME, go and see it. If you really really can't see it, read on and live through me...

This looked amazing! You had to put your hand on it, turn the crank and then you got a fortune  print! I didn't do it because it was £10 and having recently got all of my other prints that have been piling up, framed, I didn't want something else to get scrunched up in the cupboard waiting for a frame.

I love this! I think it's the simple colours and that it says BERT in the middle. I also have a bit of a soft spot for pharmaceutical art as I did my GCSE on Pillboxes (the title was 'Safely Enclosed' - best not to ask)

Bert Ibertprofen - Screenprint

Delicious Industries pop up on my twitter feed and I love these awesome prints. I think I need this one, but as I said before... PENNIES! I think it was very reasonable sold framed though... so I'll see if I last May without it ;)

Delicious Industries - Screenprint

Jacques has a T-Shirt with a bear similar to this one on, it was bought in Brighton and we were told they were designed by the people selling them but we don't remember them mentioning Claire Scully, so I'm not sure. More research needed!

Claire Scully - Bear - Archival Print

We watched some poetry, sunglasses were needed because it was sunny but also because HelloDODO led us astray again, and we were all a little hungover.

Hello DODO repping designosaur! Narwhal necklace and Dodo Brooch (links to necklace as the brooch isn't currently available on Etsy)

Hello DODO, new designs and some of the classics!

Everybody's favourite Print... 

More Hello Dodo

Jam and Ali (Ali is holding Vegan Cake which she was very excited about eating!)

There was much more that I didn't take photos of, so definitely go!

When we were having breakfast, because our flat is on Grand Parade, we saw all the buses and trucks going down to Maderia Drive for a London to Brighton. I LOVE the fonts, badges and styling on the faces of the trucks, and vintage cars are just so much more interesting to look at than modern cars. They were less about streamlining so they had awesome shapes! We wandered along and I stored some inspiration for a rainy day!

           

           

           

           

Ollie (our friend) said this one looked like Brum's Dad...

Jacques has been researching Brighton Festival events, and this was one he read about, he was particularly overexcited when he spotted this... but then immediately underwhelmed. You can read about it by following the link.

Under the Shadow of the Drone

As we came to the end of the trucks, Jacques pointed out that Fishtail Neon was open, I was so excited because we always come past when it's closed. I took some snaps, but the man, who I presume is the artist Andy Doig, was making something with a big flame and some Neon tubing so I didn't want to chat (distract) him too much!

It's amazing there, I begged Jacques to buy me a light but he said no. Again. Life's so unfair.

Oh yeah, Jacques works at Brighton and Hove Plastics and they cut some of the plastic for the big box type lights, it's amazing all the cool people he gets to work with!

Fishtail Neon

Andy Doig - Fishtail Neon

Fishtail Neon

We had a nose around the Makers Boutique Gallery on the seafront too! Checked out some more Hello DODO, and as you can see some of another of our favourites, Beetlecherry! Go and have a look next time you need a bit of shade on the seafront.

Makers Boutique on the Seafront

Then after a longer stroll to Hove Lawns, an icecream, a Pint and a tasty Sunday Lunch we headed home, past the clocktower which is COVERED IN CLOTHES!

Kaarina Kaikkonen clothes the clocktower

This post is long, and big, and it took FOREVER for me to link everything to the appropriate places because I HATE reading things on the blog and being like, I WANA KNOW MORE, or WHERE CAN I GET THAT and not being able to find it. So I hope you appreciate it. Let me know if this is too long or if you don't care what I did on Sunday.

ROAR!

Karli