Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
Auckland's Diwali festival finished today in Auckland and it was quite an event - bright, loud, energetic, tasty (the food that is) and crowded. The performances were impressive, the teenage youtube sensation from Superwomen from Canada appeared driving the teenagers in the crowd into a screaming frenzy, then this group of drummers appeared in the crowd near us and were instantly engulfed by a joyous crowd of waving dancing fans.
One of the highlights for me was Hanif Kureshi's typography project. He was busy creating a large poster in traditional hand painted font styles.
Hanif, a fine artist and art director based in New Delhi is on a mission to save the Indian art of hand painted typography which is disappearing in favour of bland computer generated artwork. I haven't made it to India yet, but I know the graphic design would be a huge attraction for me. The project includes recording the typographic styles of hand painting masters for future generations. Soon the digitised type will be available for purchase and use on your computer too with half of the proceeds going back to the original artist. Go to handpaintedtype.com to check out the fantastic lettering styles and video.
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