Welcome to rachelsays... The blog of Rachel Lewis, containing my thoughts and musings on illustration, design, fashion, music, cakey-bakey goodness, culture and things that I generally find cool. There's also a good chance my own illustration work will pop up on here.
All work on this blog is copyright to me unless I state that it isn't. Obviously. Don't do stealing, kids.
So come on in, have a look around, and leave a comment if you like what you see.
Now. This isn't a clever viral marketing campaign, or guerilla gardening, or anything of that jazz. This is a plain, straight-up TV advert. And generally, most of them are bad. Not this one. It made me laugh and go 'aw' and feel fuzzy all at the same time. Possibly just a girly reaction, but my dad also immensely liked it too. And he complains about adverts more than I do.
Watch it. Why do I love it? Cute characters. Nothing gets me more than cute, slightly helpless characters. It's why I also love the Orange adverts.
And that it also works, at telling you what the product is (or reminding you of it) with none of that cliched icicles/arctic wind/cool fresh breath/breathing on a mirror stuff that most adverts of similar brands come up with it. It's just a visual representation of bad breath. In a cute way.
What's the song in it? If anyone knows, say so. It's nice.
I also love the bit at the end where the lil ickle onion gets stuck in the lift door. I hope he doesn't get squashted >.<
Alright, enough. I've made my point. It's fun and happy. The way ads should be!
New work! How exciting. Been so busy with new job and everything that I haven't done a new illustration in a while.
As soon as I got this spam comment, I loved it. It's not even that nonsensical... in fact, it makes perfect sense! Click for larger.
"Since it is the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late...."
From the comment on my H! outfit post here. Just don't click the dots, pretty sure they're links to porn sites. Excellent.
This has been the Easter bank holiday weekend, so it's been ALL about not getting eaten by the early bird, definitely. Been getting up at about midday every day, it's been amazing. It's going to be a shock going back to work tomorrow, with my 5.45am getting-up time. Sigh.
It was so great drawing birds again, I really enjoy it and haven't for ages. Here are a few scans from my sketch book, some of which made it into the illustration:
First off, love that type treatment. Love love love.
It's spring everyone! The cold and rain could've fooled us, but the clocks went forward, and the high street has gone into floral overdrive. It's inevitable; out comes the sun (sometimes...) and in comes all the 'florals with a twist of... grunge/irony/retro/futuristic...etc' (*delete as appropriate). This collection however, is unashamedly florals with a hippie twist, with an even better twist of sustainability! Hurrah. Rachel is suddenly much more interested. Boasting recycled polyester and organic cotton, it's not ground-breaking, but it's certainly a breathe of fresh air, especially when we all know (and, admit it, try to ignore) the facts about how much virgin fabric is used by the fashion industry every year, and so forth. It's shocking, but we still don't stop the fast fashion train. I'm guilty of it, for sure. I feel guilty every time I shop at Primark, or every time I think about how many tonnes of textiles go to Landfill every year. (you can put clothes in your recycling bin you know peeps, I just recycled loads of old bras, things that really can't go to oxfam!) Even that though, is getting ridiculous, read this article about the steady increase in our clothes usage that means recycling plants are full to the brim with cheap, barely worn, unwanted clothes.
So at least H&M are making some headway, and bringing recycled polyester into the mainstream. Here's an avant-garde thought, high street, how about all of your clothes using recycled materials? I know, crazy. But H&M prove that it an be done, and it hasn't even changed the price points in any way that I can notice. Let's take a look at the collection, it fuses a bit of romance and exotic garden, and has some really great pieces. I popped in to H&M yesterday after seeing the collection online, and these are my favourites:
Love this floral body; the right mix of the underwear/outerwear trend and inky florals. Would look great under a loose cardigan. £12.99.
I love love love this vest top. Nudes are of course massively on trend right now, and I love it, it's such a pretty, girlie look. And the swirly rose relief pattern gives it a bit of interest without taking away from the fragility of it. £12.99.
These shorts are so cute. Not sure how they'd look on my terrible legs, I didn't get the chance to try them on (either couldn't see them, or they weren't there), but I like them all the same. £14.99. And they'd go great with the vest top.
Oh em gee, I love this dress so much! It's so pretty. I didn't get the chance to try it on though because again, I couldn't see it in my local branch! Damn you, Milton Keynes. Either it had all gone or they're not carrying the whole collection. I think I'm going to have to hit Oxford St after work this week and see what they've got. You'd have to wear nude underwear under it obviously, and it wouldn't go with everyone's skin tone, but it's great. So feminine. £19.99. Bargain!
This however, is my favourite of the whole collection. I think it epitomises it, with the clashing florals, girly empire line, hippie flowy dress and BIIIIG pockets. I am only little and I love big pockets! ^.^ Especially in dresses like this, you can just shove your hands in and stand around in faux-nervousness, looking cute. ALAS, they'd run out of my size!! They had 8's and 14's. No 10's or 12's. Unless they were lurking in the changing rooms. I'm usually a 10 in dresses but H&M has been coming up really small recently on me so I'm pretty sure I'd be a 12, but I'd want to try it I think. Anyone else finding that? I bought jeggings in a size 14 and they're basically too small. WTF. I'm not a size 16. No way. Anyway, this is the way to wear it:
Except I'd wear it with a really light denim cropped jacket, and some pastel-y tights until it warms up a bit. £24.99. With this scarf:
Which is cute and is only £7.99. A great way to wear the nude trend if you're worried about getting washed out. And I'd also wear it with...
These shoes! I haven't got any new pumps for this season and this might be a good way to start. It's almost pump-wearing weather! £9.99, cheap as chips.
I think this collection has got some really good mix and match pieces, but too many tunics (not a fan of the tunic...) and not enough skirts I think. I would've liked some more high-waisted, billowy skirt I think. And maybe the odd denim jacket. But I think it's great that they are using these sustainable materials, and hope they continue to do so. Click here to view the collection! You'll have to buy it on shops though, H&M still don't have online shopping.
Another great thing that H&M are doing online though, is the Style Guide - I really like the part where you can drag your favourite items from the guide across (it tells you the total cost) and then you can 'blog' the image - although what it really does is send you a jpg of your selection, you have to actually blog it. It's a nice touch though. Here's my quick selection:
See, the awesome floral dress with a denim jacket. Looks nice :)
Ah, I love my RSS feed. So much useful stuff, in equal amounts to so much crap. I subscribe to about 3 cupcakes blogs (...why?) and all kinds of weird stuff, but I also subscribe to many useful design blogs, which churn up some great stuff.
At the moment I have nearly 2000 unread items on my feed.... you can see why. I may just cleanse the whole list. I'm not ever going to read all that!
Anyway, after my Organise or Die post, Sian Louise from One Last Thing got inspired and made her own To-Do list. This is highly organised of her and I approve. It's even in a pleasing shade of magenta. This is a good thing because it sounds like she's in that Easter phase of her third year... i.e, freak the fuck out, the end is nigh, omg I've got so much to do time of year. I remember it with great fondness. At the time I was in a constant state of mentalness/drunken denial. I have no idea how I got it all done. LISTS, that's how. Lists and Relentless. So so much Relentless. My degree should have been sponsored by it.
There are from a new book called ReWork, by 37 Signals, which is all about streamlining the Creative business, productivity, what to do, what not to do, etc etc. You know the drill, one of those business self-help books that everyone raves about and I should probably buy. But the illustrations alone are great:
Illustration for the essay "Learning from mistakes is overrated" - This is interesting. I'm constantly being told, and have been all through art education, that making mistakes is how you learn, your best work can come from mistakes, and that sort of thing. But they're saying the opposite here. I think I should read the book to understand it completely, but I know what they're saying - sometimes mistakes aren't acceptable. We shouldn't be so brainwashed to think that they are - mistakes can cost time, and even money, and that's not good. It's ok if you learn from them, but don't expect to make mistakes, and don't think it's your right to.
Illustration for the essay "Start making something" - This is good, and something that is being drummed into us at Immersion. Instead of procrastinating and worrying what/who you are, what you do, what you make, etc etc, just go and make something. Just go. Stop being afraid of failing and actually start something.
"No time is no excuse" - Aha, another good one. I'm sooo guilty of this. We all are right? "I haven't got time to exercise, I haven't got time to blog every day, I haven't time to draw every day..." Well I've got time to watch Glee, and 24 and Lost, and all kinds of other things, so I pretty much do. It's more laziness. Damn.
"Building to flip is building to flop" - I don't understand this one so much, again I should prb read the book. I just like the hand drawn type, and that it sounds good.
And so on. I could post them all really, they're great. And some are worth printing out and sticking next to your mac I think. One of those daily reminders.
Remember I was saying in my last post about the talk from Max Fraser, where he had loads of good tips? They were all things like this. We got sent round a hand out which rounded-up (I'm sure that's terrible grammar... round-up in past tense?.... summed up! That's better) which summed up the session, here are a few golden nuggets:
Get on and do something - do projects for real - have tangible experience
Notice what you “have” rather than “don’t have”
Look at things from different perspectives - things haven’t failed just because they didn’t turn out as planned - they are just not what you expected
Build “can do” networks including people who believe in you and your idea.
Find your niche - whats unique in your process? How can you collaborate, or link different interests, worlds and ideas?
Success comes through the hard graft, bringing together the nitty gritty with the ambition. So where do you go for your inspiration fixes? What rocks your boat and will keep you going through the tough times?
Spend time doing what you are selling, creating, writing, producing - nurture and give time to your creative practice, keep it finely tuned, and nourished
Give “time” to “time” - it is important to slow down sometimes
Identify, create, go for and seize opportunities…
Nurture “Luck”
Always follow up leads
Make some tasks a regular part of your diary – e.g. each week email 4 new contacts while you are raising your profile, the following week phone them and try and make an appointment.
There were a lot but those are some of the good bits.
P.S, Happy Easter! I'm up here blogging because dad and brothers have put some god-awful football match on (Everton v W.Ham... why... why... they don't support either...) but it's prob only fair because I did watch the Grand Prix for hours earlier. Good one, it was as well.
Did you get lots of nice Eggs? I hit the jackpot... Green & Black's and Lindt. Get in.
Exciting news! I am now a part of Illustration Dust - a really exciting blog full of great illustrators, all showcasing their best work and getting much needed feedback from each other.
I am yet to post, but I have a couple of new illustrations that I have done so will put those up there in the coming week hopefully.
I have written before about the importance of collectives and how I always hoped to join one; I think working in isolation isn't really conducive to creativity in the long run and it's very difficult to work on something by yourself for ages without any feedback from anyone else. This is what's great about the internet - even if you are physically alone in your workspace, there's always someone out there to contact. This is what I miss most about university; the ability to just turn roundto whoever in the studio and say, 'hey, does this look alright?'... for the time being I can only be a part time illustrator and when I am, it's just me in my loft.
Eventually I would love to set up a studio with some like-minded creatives (all from different disciplines mind, I believe that's the way forward) and all work together and seperately within a shared space. This may become a reality with my Immersion group - we are looking into using a pop-up space/empty retail space and what possibilities are out there. Exciting stuff. More in a few months, I'd imagine.
This session was really great; enjoyed it a lot. It was back with the original course leaders, and was all about Ambition again, or rather, refreshing our ambition after being halfway through the course! A lot of us have clearer thoughts, while even more were more confused than at the start! Which I don't think is a bad thing. Just means that we are thinking about things more, at least.
We started by getting into groups (Janie and Sian love group work... quite a lot... 'get into groups of 5!' 'get into groups of 3!' and then it's the whole 'soooo..... who wants to go first...' thing. It's fine after a bit and generally no one can stop talking after a while. It's just makes me laugh everytime they say 'We're going to get you into groups...') and talking about what we are learning about ourselves, what's changed, what do you want from today's session, what values do you have around ambition. My general thoughts were thus:
What are you learning about yourself?
That I'm really impatient and am always chasing the next big thing. It's why I get bored in jobs quickly and why I think freelance is the best road for me in the long run. But I also know I need to stop being like this so much; I've just started (well, I say just, been there 4 weeks now) a great job which I'm learning so much from and I'm already thinking about where I want to be next in my life. I need to slow down and chill. There are so many things I want to do and be involved in, some of which will take years to get established in, not months. Chill. Out. Rachel. All is good. What's changed for you?
Well, I have a job. That's good. Also, I'm much more clear about how I want to work, in what fields, and what I need to do to get there. I'm also finding that London is great, and I will live there soon. I have changed as well I think. I'm learning to link various parts of my life together, and how things can lend itself to others. (Like blogging, that was just a fun thing for me before, now I'm seeing how it's a vital extension of my professional self and is a great way of exposing my talents to the world. Mmmm. Sell out.) What do you want from today's session?
For it to be different and useful. Simples. What values do you have around your ambition?
We didn't really get this question. Still don't, really. My values don't change, my ambitions do... so... I don't know. I know I don't want to sacrifice my values to get my ambitions. I aspire to work in an ethical and environmental and social way. So... yep. Can you be ethical and ambitious?
We were then told to look up B.J. Cunningham. As he is a branding guru. Apparently. Noted.
We then had to get into a different group? I think? Maybe? To talk about how our ambitions translate into a tangible vision. I couldn't answer this as well. My tangible vision is to be living in a cool part of London, running around London working for cool brands and agencies, designing cool stuff, writing about cool stuff, drinking cool drinks, eating cool food, sleeping with cool people. Asking the existential question, what is cool? Am I cool? As I ponder my greatness. Is that shallow and consumerist? Possibly. I'm exaggerating for dramatic effect, but oh, to be a cool kid. I'm not ashamed to aspire to enjoy my 20's, for sure. Bring it on. And listen to The Common People by Pulp, by the way.
She was such an inspiration. We graduated from St Martins, had work experience at Cartier(!) and then decided to go it alone. She works so hard and seems to be doing well from it. She had interesting advice as well, best for those of us in the course who are actually jewellery/fashion designers. But just generally, you have to see just how much she adores her work, and quite rightly so. I do too:
All her collections have characters and stories behind them, which I love. That narrative behind her work is fascinating and she puts a lot of effort into really inventing this character, and who would want to buy into it, and why.
After that talk, we got back into groups (see...) and talked about, who benefits from our ambitions? Who else? What is the risk? What wouldn't you risk? What will help you to take those risks? What do you need to make it happen? Which were strange but good questions. I know I wouldn't risk my financial stability (not like I have massive financial stability right now... but there you go...) It was nicer just talking about looser things really, our group got into a tangent but that was good. I like to hear other people's answers more than talk about my own, so groups is good, so long as I don't go first :) Ha.
After lunch, we had a talk from Max Fraser, who is a) really nice b) a design commentator/writer/critic guy c) writes books and d) boyfriend of Hannah Martin. So therefore one half of the most awesome design/creative couple I've ever met. Damn them.
His website is also 'coming soon' (how annoying), but he has twitter, so that'll do.
Max is a freelance journalist, events producer, writer of design books, does something called 'production', and many other things I'm sure. He basically reports on the best of contemporary design, and has 3 companies - MaxFraser, which is him, Spotlight Productions, and Spotlight Press, which handles the publishing of his own books.
One of the biggest things he is known for is writing the London Design Guide:
And so I bought a copy off him. He signed it too! Which was cool. I will add it to my signed Sara Fanelli book, and start my collection. It's one of those books that you see and think, yeah that's really great! And then never get round to buying it. So now I have. I heard about it last LDF and mainly wanted it because the cover is graph paper. And we all know how much I love graph paper.
But it's packed with really useful info and will be great for me; even though I've gone in and out of London all my life, I'm yet to live there so really only have a base knowledge of places to go and things to see, especially from a design point of view, aside from all the obvious tourist-y places. Secret London is also proving extremely useful for this too.
Max had so much useful advice that it was hard to take it all in. He had so many great stories and anecdotes too, like how he scored sponsorship from Mazda to get his first book publishes, which they then backed out of, but he still got loads of money because they'd signed a contract, etc etc. Tales of just being a bit gutsy and not being afraid of getting what you want. Tales of luck, but also of seizing opportunities. A lot of Max's stories were about luck, but there's a saying that has stuck with me, ever since college where it was taped up on the studio wall by my tutor: The harder you work, the luckier you get. I kind of live my life by that. And I think that Max seems to as well. Which is cool.
He also encouraged having a mentor of some kind, but acknowledged that mentors aren't something you actively look for, they just happen to you.
Don't seek praise, seek criticism. If you get stuck, draw with another pen. Learn to trust your intuition. Nobody owes you anything. These were all great bits of advice from him; there were about 20 more I didn't write down.
So another really good session, I love seeing other people's (successful people especially) work and learning stuff from those who have actually gone out there and done it.
At a recent Immersion session we had a talk from Hannah Martin, who is a really talented Luxury Jewellery Designer. She works with silver, gold, diamonds, all kinds of expensive stuff, and produces work such as...
All quite expensive. I say quite. You can guess... gold and diamonds ain't cheap. But they are beautiful.
The thing that really struck me about Hannah's work is that each of her collections have a story behind them. Her first collection was called 'It's only Rock N Roll' and was based on the hedonism and raw masculinity that a rock n roll lifestyle produces. It's the perfect collection for aspiring (or real) rockstars, with pure sexual charge and excitement, she describes it as a collection for men that their girlfriends will want to steal. The silver spikey rings above are in that collection, and that first example, I simply love. I dread to think how much, but I would love to own something like that.
She really gets deep into the character and story behind each collection, and the current one is no different: It's called Vincent and is based on the character of an old-school gangster, or maybe a russian mafia type, but is so stylish and slick and cool. She really thinks about her target market with each collection, not only who they are bit who they aspire to be; after all, jewellery like this is such a statement of intent - not only your status but who you want to project yourself to be.
"An oligarch of the underground, a shadowy patriarch of a Russia imbued deep in the flesh of London society, Vincent is Hannah Martin's prevailing infatuation.
In a sinister world powered by the furtive dealings of presumed businessmen, his disquieting charm impeccably masks a cold and brutal core. He moves untouchable, wielding an enigmatic power over those naively daring to cross his path.
Infiltrate an unscrupulous realm of disquiet, to command allegiance amongst the fallen angels of a brutal empire." That's pretty cool. Take a look at the pieces:
Silver cufflinks, £335. Only 500 will ever be made.
Silver ring, £350
Silver necklace, £995. Only 25 will be made.
£2995. Diamonds, Gold, Hand Cut Onyx. Only 75 will be made.
It's all pretty amazing. She graduated from St Martins and had work experience at Cartier for 4 months, then decided, after no-one would take her on to do what she wanted, she would do it herself. She said at times it had been tough, but it was all worth it, and every year gets easier, every collection gets more press and she's now trying really hard to get her pieces into places she aspires to sell in. She only ever works with people she admires and I think that's an important lesson.
Click here to go to her site, and if you have a few spare K, buy some amazing pieces of hand-crafted art. Then give it to meeeeee. Haha.
If you liked this post, don't forget to share it with my shiny new social networking buttons... )
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