New portfolio site

All my articles are now available to view and download over here at www.laurasnoad.co.uk.

Goodbye

So I've well and truly retired this blog now, but you can read my recent scribblings for Design Week here. They'll be a new portfolio site coming soon, in the meantime contact me at laura dot snoad at hotmail dot com.

Top of the Shop

If you like weasel astronauts, throwing the V at little dogs, and voluptuous ladies with cat tattoos, then Mr Bingo is your man.

As well as being a genuinely nice chap, Mr Bingo is a brilliant illustrator, who has produced work for the likes of Esquire, Wired and even Microsoft. Humour and kooky line drawings are his sought-after trademarks, both of which won him plenty of admirers at Somerset House's recent illustration fair Pick Me Up.

Bingo has just launched his own online print shop, so you too can own a chick with a dick. Check it out here.

Buff-ting

Probably the best use of QR codes that I've seen so far. Berlin-based artist Sweza captures graffiti with his camera then once the work is buffed, puts a QR code where the piece once was. Passers-by can then use a QR reader on their iPhone to take a picture of the code which will link to images of the original graffiti.

The internet is changing the permanence of graffiti and creating an online palimpsest of the streets we live in. As Sweza's QR code gets buffed another work might be written in its place, then another code, ad infinitum.

Take a look at Sweza at work below.

Big bang theory

I can't wait for the Alternative Fashion Week in April after seeing this stunning collection from Sini Moilanen. Her cosmology-inspired outfits are surprisingly wearable and will make up just one of the shows that clothes-loving hipsters can feast their eyes on at Spitalfields Market next month.

Check out below for a preview of her star-studded work.








The Alternative Fashion Week will run from 19-23 April at Spitalfields Maket, Crispin Place, London.

Re-Design week

This week Design Week has a new look, thanks to DW art director Sam Freeman. Not only has the new layout freed-up the pages to accommodate... well, whatever we like, it looks bloody marvellous too.

All of the web content has gone behind a subscribers-only paywall. But don't worry, if you're too tight to invest, you still get treated to our brand new blog.

The design of the times

I’m currently flexing my journalistic muscle at leading industry weekly Design Week. A hybrid between a trade and consumer title, the magazine covers news and features from the creative industries, especially graphics, packaging, web, architecture, branding and advertising.

Read some of the news stories I wrote during my first week below:

Nokia seeks designers to raise living standards in developing world
Fudge works in Creative Islington website
Antony Gormley chairs Brit Insurance awards jury
300 Million retunes Paris orchestra logo

And keep your eyes peeled for my feature about designers in residence in the UK’s leading cultural institutions, which will be posted later this week.

The singer not the song

No, the ‘Father and Son’ hit-maker hasn’t renounced Islam and started taking pictures of indie-rock royalty. Instead his namesake exhibits her wealth of musical portraits, including Joanna Newsom and PJ Harvey, at Rough Trade East this month.

The former Plan B picture editor has shot some of the most exciting new artists of the last five years and her playful photographs have been snapped up by record companies and magazines alike, including Island Records and Vogue.

Ranging from theatrical musician-in-a-dressing-up-box shots to simple expressive portraits, Stevens’s work shows an extraordinary sensitivity to her subjects and captures the magic of music making.

‘The Singer not the Song’ runs at Rough Trade East, Dray Walk, Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London until Jan 30th 2010

Know Hope on Great Eastern St

Branded

Even if the name doesn’t ring a bell, there’s no doubt that you’ll already know the distinctive figure of Grayson Perry. The 2003 Turner Prize winner, whose transvestite alter ego Claire was courted by a bemused press at the time, uses traditionally ‘safe’ media such as ceramics and textiles to communicate shocking modern issues.

This month’s exhibition at the Victoria Miro gallery features Perry’s largest work to date, a 3m x 15m tapestry, which was designed specifically for the gallery’s top floor exhibition space. Depicting a life that stretches from womb to tomb, the Walthamstow Tapestry is scattered with numerous brand names that have been stripped of their distinctive logos. Paired often with incongruous scenes from daily life – a folk art hair hops over a scribbled ‘durex’ – the tapestry demonstrates how heavily branding is woven into everyday life. How alien they look without their emblems, alone, a bizarre collection of letters.

Striking lime greens and a scarlet and fuchsia umbilical cord anchor the piece firmly in the 21st century but its naïve style draws upon the folk art of eastern Europe and the Arts and Crafts movement. It’s an impressive piece both in size and detail and, from ex-hippies to hoodies, chronicles contemporary life in all its triumph, anger and inanity.

Alongside the tapestry, a large body of Perry’s new work is on display including a number of large etchings and ceramic pieces. Despite dealing with dark subject matter such as child abuse, political hypocrisy and environment apocalypse, Perry’s work is also delicate and beautiful. Sumptuous glazes, graffito drawings and decoupage photographs cover his curvaceous pots, luring viewers close before confronting them with uncomfortable ideas.

The winning combination of a Turner Prize artist, a crowd-drawing hit piece and the gallery’s stunning views over the east London rooftops, meant that this was always going to be a monumental exhibition. But smartly calculated to coincide with the release of a major new book (Grayson Perry by Jacky Klein, Thames and Hudson, £35), it’s also an interesting admission that even artists are not above branding, consumerism and well-timed self promotion.

Grayson Perry – The Walthamstow Tapestry runs until the 14th November