Gold Nike Air Force

These were in the Nike store on Champs Elysee.

Gregos Faces

All over Paris you'll spot Gregos faces glued to various walls. This one was in a side street opposite the Louvre.

Invader

Spotted on Rue Étienne Marcel...

Flying Skulls

The Catacombs were closed (again) due to vandalism, but determined to see something macabre went to the most visited cemetery in Paris. Love these flying skulls and the fact everyone else is too busy trying to find the last resting places of Jim Morrison, Chopin, Edith Piaf etc. to even notice the little things like this. It's a bizarrely peaceful and calm place, not at all grim and scary. But it was a sunny day.

Melodies Graphiques

Stumbled on this old calligraphy shop on Rue du Pont Louis-Philippe, where people who buy from him then write to him, showing off their skills with the new purchase. The best envelopes make it onto the wall. He's like a Parisian Tony Hart for calligraphers.

Monsieur Moustache

I haven't managed to find out who this is by yet, but I liked it so it's up here. Paris is pretty thin on the ground for good graff of any sort. It's not like they're just awesome at cleaning it off, as there's a lot of useless scrawls. It does make it extra exciting when you do spot anything half decent.

Parisian Booksellers

All along the sides of the streets around the Louvre, there are little green boxes which are occasionally opened up by people selling second hand books. There are some real gems in there.

Guess Where I Am

Phillip Marsden Exhibition

True Stories by P.M. is a retrospective exhibition of Phil's comic book works since 2004, running from 12th September - 28th November at Riverside Gallery in Richmond upon Thames. Make it there for a squizz if you can, more info here.

Anxieteam

OK, so here's something. New band. Anxieteam. Would love for this to be serious. It's like when someone superglues the locks on your car, just with music. And there's video for Melancholy Pays My Rent directed by Mimi and James of Plastik Magazine. As you might be able to tell, a certain Mr. Burgerman has a hand in things.

Moss Graffiti

I've been doing a fair bit of gardening recently, so I'm going to have to plan a bit of Moss Graffiti. On my own property, of course...

Mr Scruff Fairtrade Tea

Super-Fairtrade-Ultra-Ethical teabags from Mr Scruff, give you an even warmer feeling in your tummy when you drink it... For a more in depth review, have a look at Nice-Cuppa-Tea where they've written up their mug test.

The Toasters

Found this in a drawer the other day, it was given to me by one of the Toasters collective back in something like 2000 (or 2001 maybe?) when we helped out on a graphic design student thingemy up north. Was tough to have a conversation with at points, as was generally looking for places to stick these. Walking through the streets you'd just hear the occasional twang of a bestickered hand slapping a lamp post.

Old Obama Shots

Just seen these old photos on the Time website of Obama, looking quite young and different from the image he has these days. I'm going to have to dig out the old copy of a contact sheet I have of Sean Connery posing for his first promo shots for Dr. No in 1962. Will post them when I find them...

Clipper Tea Packaging

I love the new packaging from Clipper for their teas. I don't love nettle tea. Nettle tea was a bad choice.

Seasick Steve

I'm a big fan of Seasick Steve, and this interview is nicely put together for the Take Aways section of French site Blogotheque - I know I'll be working my way through a few more of the Take Aways films as soon as I find time, but the Seasick Steve spot has a very natural feel about it, a behind the scenes glimpse of the real artist. I love the way he strolls around playing to an almost oblivious mix of tourists and rat-racers, then sits down in the middle of a bunch of skaters who duly stop and watch, tapping along to his blues tracks. I hope I'm like Steve when I'm older. Minus the dungerees, maybe.

Robot Key Toppers

I love my Robot. Buy one from Fred.

Architectural Association

I was lucky enough to be at a wedding at the weekend, where the reception was at the AA in Hooke Park, Dorset - a 330 acre wood where they have a groundbreaking school who make some amazing experimental buildings and structures. This one, which acted as a dancefloor for the evening, is made of plywood. So I loved it instantly.

The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother

Directed by Jonathan Glazer, the new video for Treat Me Like Your Mother. I've been a fan of Jonathan Glazer's work for years, but can't help feeling this has kind of missed the mark somehow. Great track though.

James Bored

This just makes me laugh. It's like the vodka Martinis have finally caught up with him and he just can't be bothered with saving the world today.

The Gents

The Crown Inn, Roecliffe is a very nice, posh country pub in the middle of nowhere in Yorkshire, the loos are adorned with old pages from old school Playboy magazines. Tastefully done, with Honda logos and the like covering anything which may cause offense, there have been a few attempts to expose the ladies, alas to no avail. In the words of Jake Blues, "This is glue. Strong stuff."

Kent and London Letterpress Drawers

Spotted this chest of drawers, inspired by old letterpress blocks, by Kent and London is hand made and I absolutely want one but, at the thick end of three grand, I may be waiting some time...

Fabulous Bakin' Boys Packaging

Spotted on the end of a box of muffins from the Fabulous Bakin' Boys. How true they are.

UUVVWWZ

UUVVWWZ caught my attention with a track called Green Starred Sleeve - I can't help pulling really stupid faces in time with the guitar. Just seek it out and listen to it, you'll see what I mean. Or you won't see what I mean and just think I'm odd. Oh, and to help with the band name, say what you see - dubble-yoo dubble-vee, dubble-dubble-yoo zee.

Old Dan Air Font

I liked it so much I bought the company.

When I were a lad...

One of the rare works of mine which incorporated usual child-friendly methods of drawing, namely a crayon, although the original outline was care of a Pentel N50 Bullet Point fat black marker.

Santa the Pigeon

For about a week now, I've had soot dropping down the chimney and kept thinking "We'll have to get that cleaned." At seven this morning, I walked into my front room to open the curtains and found the culprit, Santa the Pigeon. I was considering getting it stuffed to add to the collection...

Miru Kim

Some really interesting work by Miru Kim, including the Naked City Spleen, a series of shots taken around the world with nudes in unconventional places. Probably quite cold, damp, dangerous, unconventional places by the look of it. That's probably the point, so I won't get to artsy about it and let you decide for yourselves.

Converse Extensions

I seem to be seeing more and more knitted stuff as time goes by and I'm starting to like it. In a totally manly way, of course. These knitted Converse are by Dutch fashion designer, Daryl van Wouw. Check out the series of five Converse Extensions over at the Virtual Shoe Museum, which is worthy of a blog entry all of it's own when I get a sec.

Inkie's Urban Art Auction

"Street Art" as a term has probably seen it's day. For now anyway. But there's still merit in a lot of work and I'm a fan of Paul Insect, who's in amongst the bunch who have contributed to the auction to raise awareness about the Cochlear Implant. It's all in aid of the Cochlear Unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Get in touch with The Paradise By Way of Kensal Green for tickets and info.

Glue Society

8th March saw the end of the Pulse Art Fair in New York, where the Glue Society had their latest art on show - a role reversal where there's a very small man and a larger than life pigeon. The rest, I'm sure, you can guess.

The Making of Electrabel

A bit of a late spot, but this animation for Electrabel's Happy New Year ad is stunningly simple and beautiful. After 4 weeks of testing, it took director Raf Wathion 5 days to shoot 1600 photographs with the help of 20 animators using 288 thousand tealight candles.

Federico Multilingual OT

This font is based on the quill pen strokes of the Spanish poet and playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca. Designed by Russian type designer Olga Umpeleva in 2007, it was released by Paratype in 2008.

Barack Obama

In celebration of the arrival at the Whitehouse of Mr Obama, here is my favourite Obama based print (from the vast sea of designs produced in the run up to this day). It's by Ron English and is a mash-up of Obama and Lincoln. Quite apt also, as Obama was sworn in using the same bible as Lincoln and it's the first time that bible's been used since Lincoln was sworn into office.

I Love Desks - Part 2. Minimal Desk

I can't put it into words, but I know I want one of these Milk desks, designed by Soren Rose. They're perfect. I want two. No, I want to buy a bigger studio so I can have seven of them.

I Love Desks - Part 1. Geek Desk

Han In Carbonite Desk... I know, alright. I know.
But I love it.

Martin Creed

Martin Creed - Work No. 786 - 2007 - 1/4" Plywood. I love art and I'm not a prude about it. I kind of buy into the whole 'it's art cos I say it's art' attitude. And I love plywood as much as the next man. No. Actually, more than the next man. In fact I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with the stuff. I used 1/4" ply (6mm to us) to cover my kitchen cupboards at my last place, with two sheets of 18 mil. ply laminated together to make the work surface. I've generally used 18 mil. ply (Latvian Birch Ply, to be precise) for more things than I maybe should have. The first birthday gift I gave my girlfriend 6 years ago, for her 21st birthday no less, was presented in a small box I made from 18 mil. ply. Now that had a snug fitting lid (she still has it today and I'm still in awe of it. And she's now my fiancé so something went right). With all that in mind, here's 's "Work No. 786". Is it art, or just a stack of ply. I'll leave you to scream in disagreement at one another, but also check "Work No. 571" from 2006, which is another stack of plywood (Martin's made a few). Or maybe "Work No. 600" from the same year, which looks terribly much like he's made a film of a girl having a poo.

NASA - Money

Susanna Hertrich

Susanna Hertrich has design this working prototype of a calendar that shreds each day. It takes 24 hours for it to shred one day and doesn't have an off button so never stops, leaving you to simply contemplate your days and "...as the seconds pass by, the tattered remains of the past pile up under the device."

John Wringe

John Wringe is a thoroughly nice and very talented advertising and marketing chap. We worked with him recently on Winergy and, after knowing him since I was in short trousers, I can't believe I've only just found out something about him.

Barry Norman (yes, of "Film 80-something-or-other" fame) says John is "...very possibly the world’s leading aficionado of pickled onions."

I hope someone says something like that about me one day.

Sarah Magazine

Almost a hundred artists from around the globe have submitted artwork for inclusion in Sarah Magazine. It's on sale for 15 Euros and all proceeds go towards paying for a cochlear implant for Sarah, a 23 year old girl from Antwerp.

Her myspace site says:

"Sarah was born almost deaf and recently got a cochlear implant in her right ear, which helps her hear sounds she never realized existed. The second implant in her left ear has been scheduled for 2009, but since medical insurance will only cover one operation, she'll have to pay the full 25,000 Euro bill all by herself... To help her out, 100 artists join forces to realize a publication and donate the full proceeds to her operation."

Glue Society

It's from ages ago, but I spotted this entry to Sculpture by the Sea by The Glue Society. It's from back in 2006 but I'm not ageist and besides, I love it. It's called "Hot with a Chance of a Late Storm" and is made from polystyrene and urethane and it's a fair size. Check out their website, they have the equally brilliant acts of God captured by satellite imagery which have to be seen.

Dead good sofas

I love these sofas made from recycled coffins. Unused, 18 gauge steel coffins, to be precise. These guys at Coffin Couches collect them from local funeral homes, mainly in Southern California. I don't know if I'd dare to lie down on one.

I want to be a Jellymonger

Just found these guys, Bompas & Parr, who are Sam Bompas & Harry Parr and are jellymongers - curating jelly events and designing bespoke jelly moulds and other wobbly activities for clients like Habitat, Innocent and the V&A. And they even do glow in the dark jelly. There's not many things I see and really want to do, but this is definitely one of them.

Jeff Soto at RAM

Hailing from California, I love Jeff Soto's striking work. The Turning In Circles exhibition at the Riverside Art Museum in California runs til 21st Feb 09.

Pete Fowler Lino Prints

After the sale of artist's proofs of four lino cut designs like "Skullscillator" pictured above, the next lino print by Pete Fowler is a "...Little Bittern/Human mutant playing the soprano uke..."

The inside track from Pete is he'll probably release something like a limited run of around 30 prints, so keep your eyes peeled and snap one up quick sharp when they're released.

Oh, and in case you've not seen it, here's a Pete Fowler animation from 2007.

First Day Back

First day back after the new year is normally a shock to the system, but I've had a pretty calm Christmas break as we (almost) completely closed for the festive period. The result? An enthusiastic start to the next year of Trap 5, with a lot of good stuff planned for 09.

It's snowing outside but I'm happy working (although the lure of catching snowflakes on my tongue is pretty strong). If you haven't tried doing that since you were five years old, you really need to.

New years resolutions are to be more organised. To back up my work more often. To be more organised with how I back up my work (spent a lot of time over Christmas trying to rid my various drives of duplicate files and I just don't trust Time Machine yet). To keep on top of my finances better. To keep running. To cook more. To cook more varied dishes than cheese on toast. To drink less tea. To drink more water. To clean my teeth more thoroughly. And the staple NYR in most people's arsenal... To stick to the NYRs for more than a week. Oh, and to be more optimistic.

Work wise, we've uploaded our little YouTube animation for Winergy Equilibrium, which was great fun. If you own a horse, you have to feed them this stuff - it's catered specifically for your kind of horse and they love it. It's just a bit like eating a weird cereal and a fistful of hay. Apparently.

I'm off to drink tea and eat cheese on toast while randomly backing up some files into the first TO SORT OUT folder of 2009... Happy New Year.

Face in the Peanut Butter

The face of a certain Messiah has been spotted numerous times in anything from tomatoes to naan bread to the leftover-gluey-bits-of-wallpaper-that-won't-come-off-by-regular-means. So it's time to start evening up the score for the every day man on the street. Here's a face I spotted in the top of a new pot of Skippy. It just appeared in front of my eyes as I was making my breakfast. Admittedly, it's not much like any actual people I've seen. But it counts.

Batman Special Effects Magic Exposed

Finally, I know how they looked so effortless.