25/04/2013

WAYNE HEMINGWAY - "THE STORY SO FAR"


I might be giving away my age here but I used to love watching Wayne Hemingway in the fashion section on The Big Breakfast (I've mentioned this to younger friends and have been met with blank stare and the question "What was the Big Breakfast?" You know Zig and Zag, Johny and Denise, More Tea Vicar?!?! No? ok I'll move on).
So when my friend asked if I wanted to see him speak at the Old Fruit Market about his 30 years experience in the design industry I was like "Hell yeah"!
He is probably most famous for founding the global fashion label "Red or Dead" where he started on a stall in Camden Market and brought an affordable designer label to the high street and when he sold it he then started the multi discipline design studio Hemingway Design 
designing everything from clothes to houses.
His down to earth attitude and advice to research your market but then "just go for it" really hit home with me and I loved how even after 30 years as a designer he still wouldn't class himself as one which he feels helps him to remain adaptable moving between architecture, digital and advertising projects. This along with the belief that you make your own luck and to do business with people you like seems to be THEE winning combination for a successful career.
I thought he was great before I went to see him and came away totally inspired and loving him even more after it. 

21/04/2013

PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS > WEEK 3

It's week 3 of my photography class already and it was all about composition, oh and exposure as always. We managed to get outside and the aim of this weeks class was to take pictures of objects that looked like letters and to create a word out of the letters we collected.
I created the word "Glasgow" and found that the letter "G" is really hard to find, that's why I had to feature an actual letter "G", well we were on a time limit.
It was a really great exercise to get you thinking about making the shot look different and a bit more creative.

20/04/2013

EASTER IN SWEDEN


I have been meaning to write this post for ages but you know how it is, life and work happen.
So for Easter CJ and I were invited to his little cousins Christening in Gothenburg. His uncle has stayed there for 13 years so he has been over about 10 times but I've never been and it's one place that's on my list to go to. 
It just so happened to fall on our 4th anniversary so it was a no brainer. We booked our 6.30am flights, packed our bags and jetted off at 4am in the morning eek!
The weekend was a bit of everything, a lovely "couplely" couple of days and nights (is that even a word?) with some family stuff with 7 other people.
It was everything I thought it would be! It's so cool, clean and modern with a vintage twist.
We stayed at the gorgeous Radisson Blu in Gothenburg for 2 nights and then headed to Lindome for the Christening and stayed here for the rest of the trip.
There are tons of things I didn't take pictures of and I really want to get better at recording moments as well as enjoying them at the time. When I go to a place I try and fit in some culture as well as eating and drinking and try and ignore the 16year old voice in my head "but museums are boring!!!"
We made it to the Rohsska Museum, a fashion and product design museum which was great and had dresses by Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen on show. They constantly rotate and update their exhibitions and the Coco Chanel exhibit had just been moved which would have been amazing to see.

When we had done the "culture" stuff it was time for some "nightlife" stuff and the hotel bar made amazing cocktails that we tried before we went out, my favourite was definitely a tasty (but dangerous) alcoholic strawberry milkshake.
One thing I noticed is that everyone is stunningly gorgeous but there is no pretentiousness which is nice and ensures the bars are nice and relaxed too. We found a sort of gentleman/supper club place, a Kino bar and a place called Cicero and on our last night w
e met up with some friends in Gothenburg who took us to an app bar called Pincho's where we snacked on tapas and cava that you order with your phone and pick them up when you get the alert, so much fun. As we were staying at Lindome just outside of Gothenburg we headed off for the last bus. It was great to see the city but spend some time in a little town aswell.

I tried to show a mixture of pictures but when I started looking through them I realised I am slightly obsessed with trams and fish for some reason which I''ll have to keep in mind in future. For some reason I was totally fried with work before I went away and this trip came at exactly the right time, it is such a chilled and gorgeous city I came back totally relaxed and inspired. Just what I needed and I'll definitely be going back.