Kim (in print)

visual arts & london stuff

Where Books Come to Life

Having tried a teeny bit of paper cutting, I'm in awe of this beautiful stop motion animation from Andersen M Studio for the NZ Book Council. My friend Sarah McIntyre posted this vid the other day, as tweeted by Neil Gaiman, so it's already garnered a lot of comment about the place.

The voice over is in the evocative spirit of Gee's writing, and it made me think about my own association with some of the locations mentioned... living in the inner city suburb of Kingsland, taking a shortcut each day across those tracks to work on Mountain Road, opposite the castle-like prison, (Mt. Eden), just downhill from Auckland Grammar where the boys enjoy a lofty view of the prison yard....

The selected text is so rich visually. Yeah, I love all the NZ scenery, but it's somewhat refreshing not to see a mountain/river/lake in this advertisement.  I'd only been to Auckland once as a kid, and apart from the harbour bridge, my main visual cue was the prison. Which to a kid is more like a castle, turrets and all. It's an unusual NZ landmark, and it makes a superb paper sculpture.

Oh, and as for the delicious voice over, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that's Alan Dale, (aka Jim from Neighbours, also in Lost, West Wing, Ugly Betty etc) reading the script in his native Kiwi accent.  

(OK, I could get shot down....)

3D Illustration (and not 3D)

Sea-urchin

 

I enjoyed this article in Design Week on 3D illustration, particularly as it featured the work of Frank Kunert, and in particular his calendar design -Hansel & Gretel are full. It's not the first untraditional take I've seen, (greedy little H&G eating the poor witch out of her house) but it's the most fun.

Yesterday I went all 60s recipe book with a gaudy cake. Today it's back to nature for EDM challenge #207 - seashell. I picked up this sea urchin shell in Brighton. It's brown, however I changed the colour palette to be more like kina, an NZ sea urchin with a shell shaped like a pin cushion. Not that this has much to do with Hansel and Gretel which is what I'm meant to be working on right now - only not in 3D.

 

Putting New Zealand on the Schmap

Early_morning_on_new_regent_st

Today this wintery morning snap of New Regent Street, (Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand) got selected for local mapping by Schmap via my Flickr.

I was here having breakfast with family, having just stepped off the plane (Aug 07) and it was one of those perfect Canterbury winter days - crispy cold with warm sunshine and clear blue skies. The sun came out for the whole ten days I stayed. When I got back to the London '07 late summer there was no sun to be seen.... 

(Disclaimer: Christchurch, NZ  is not always sunny - but it was that year, and London, UK can get very warm and humid over summer. Just not that one!)

It's new. It's big. It's Westfield's, London

A new Westfields mall (shopping centre) opened down the road yesterday, so I popped in with a friend for a glimpse at the largest shopping centre in Europe. I live in a neighbouring suburb, and I'm generally positive about anything which brings regeneration to White City.

Visit official website
Transport links - Excellent. Leave the car at home and go public transport. 
Cafes/Restaurants - Stylish food, (no McDs or KFC) but long, long queues/lines. Even for coffee, and it wasn't overly busy. Barristas working hard, just not enough cafes. I talked to a manager in M&S and he was saying, 'Oh it's just new, so there are more people' but they are expecting 60,000 a day here, so that doesn't really wash. It's no different to finding a bite on Oxford St/Carnaby St during lunch hour. 98% of stores at Westfields opened on time, but not restaurants - quite a few not open yet so maybe this will improve? 
Cinemas - 16 screen multiplex; not open until 09.
The Look & Feel - It's a mall. Designed by Australian company, a woman from Essex told me. Lot's of hype about the upmarket 'Village' . Which has a champagne bar. If you can stand the cold surroundings. The aircon is set around 18C (64F) which is on the uncomfortably chilly side. We left our coat/scarf on - many other shoppers did the same. Bound to be pleasant in August's humidity, but way too cold for now. It was much better on the upper level where the heat is rising, and walking around there gave us a chance to warm up.
Shops - Mostly clothes. Nice looking gift shops, and some child-friendly toy stores. A lot of standard UK High Street stores, with a few yummy surprises like Desigual which sports one of the few imaginative looking windows/entrances. Spain is well represented as is Downunder: Kathmandu, (yet to open) Pumpkin Patch and Canterbury - all from New Zealand - and Leona Edmiston, Uggs and BB's from Australia, plus gifts and fashion from mainland Europe and touches of US fashion too.
Culture - Zip, beyond fashion. Two bookstores (WHSmith, Foyles) and HMV. Foyles, while adequate for general gift books, is nothing like the stores in Charing X Road or South Bank.

In essence, if you're planning to shop for clothes or general gifts, you've got plenty of choice in one spot. If you don't want to see another Next or department store concession, exit Westfields, jump onto the Central (Red) line and get off at Tottenham Court Road Station. Exit the tube to Charing Cross Road where you'll find books, music, coffee and... heating.

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Black Olympic Uniforms - Not Just For Goths

I've been slipped a copy of Project Runway's last ep., (not airing here in the UK yet). The challenge to design an Olympic Opening Ceremony outfit for the Summer 08 US team resulted in a mixed bag. Stella stuck with black... (surprise) and contestants bandied the word 'Goth' about - being synonymous with the color 'Black' in the insular world of Project Runway.

Despite the jibes, Black is the choice of colour for New Zealand. Not so much Goth (tho' they like to keep a few of those as well) but, well, original. Rather than getting stuck with British Empire colours, we have a Black/White combo (depending on sports code) emblazoned with a Silver Fern.

And if we can squeeze the word 'Black' into the name of the team, we'll have a go at that as well, e.g. The All Blacks, The Black Caps, The Tall Blacks. A yacht nick-named 'Black Magic' beat Stars & Stripes to win America's Cup in 95. You get it. We like black. So slagging off 'Black' as a non-sports color showed how out of depth some of these people were with this task... as ever, it made great watching though!

The real US Summer Olympic team looked extremely smart - very corporate - in Ralph Lauren. So what did Team New Zealand wear? Disappointingly, nothing designed by Armani or Dries Van Noten! Nah, forget Europe, there's a stash of decent 'down under' designers too, but no. The Kiwis took the, ahem, less fashion forward route of having a local sportswear manufacturer do the job.

And then they threw Crocs into the mix. (Don't see many of those on Bluefly.com, do you?) There aren't many shoe designers in NZ (pop. 4 million) so I guess the US company, snapped up the opportunity to sponsor a team with Croc style flip flops.

Locals were aghast... primarily because they thought their athletes were going to be showing up cobbled in traditional Crocs, (which are like LEGO for your feet). Bizarrely, this flip flop style of Croc is also a nod to Kiwi culture - Flip flops are called Jandals in NZ and are part of kitsch culture, or Kiwiana - kitsch visual representation of modern NZ culture. Someone at Crocs had been doing their homework....

So the NZ sportswear manufacturers had longer to think about how to deck out Team NZ than Project Runway's sleep deprived designers. At least there was a bit of originality in there... expressed through symbolism - and not restricted to using the colours of a flag. I liked the way the silver fern was designed - later I read that it has 8 fronds (lucky Maori & Chinese number). Also, thoughtful incorporation of red Chinese lettering against the black. Check out these photos are from Stuff.co.nz. Mahe Drysdale (rower) leads Team NZ, dressed in Black, looking more Olympian than Goth. IMO.


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