Invasion of The Alien Snow Bears

Apparently "a White Christmas is unlikely" or so the news told us! Today we woke up to an even more snowy landscape than yesterday so it was straight down to Kirkstall Abbey to throw the white stuff at each other and build the monstrosity you see below:


Our efforts did not go unnoticed too as a random passer-by asked to take this photo to send to their Aussie relatives as proof that snow DOES in fact fall on our green and pleasant land. Seems like years since we've had proper snow :)

Happy Holidays

We're sending out a message of Kooji cheer to all our friends. Happy Holidays everyone :)

Katherine & Johnny XX


Check out previous Kooji Cards from Katherine & Johnny here

Kilo-Ho-Ho-75

We had a fantastic night out last week with the gang from Kilo75: Matt Seward, Monica Tailor, Pawel Dubiel, Dean Vipond and Mohsin Ali. After a delicious meal, some great conversation, lots of Xmas crackers (of which we had most of the prizes) Matt and Monica handed out groovy goody bags containing a moleskine, doodlebook, sharpies and sweeties. Here's to Kilo75 Hurray!


We've promised to have another get together to compare moleskines. Who's gonna have the best cover?

TrumpetCleaner is live!

That's right my brand new, interactive, mechanical portfolio site is finished. Inspired as much by cosy (dingy) pubs as it is by Blackpool, the site should also give you an idea about what bounces around inside my skull when I'm staring into space :) For me there's a wonderful nostalgia attached to Blackpool, particularly the Illuminations so what better way to decorate my creative work showcase?

Come take a nosy, see what you think. Point your browser to: http://www.trumpetcleaner.co.uk

Lord Whitney's Circus Sideshow

Last month we mentioned that during Culture Vulture's Holey Moly Arty Party we took part in a circus sideshow photography session by Lord Whitney. Well here's the result in all it's glory! Are we not beautious?


'Siamese Twins' © Lord Whitney http://www.lordwhitney.co.uk

Lord Whitney are a creative duo specialising in photography, illustration, set design and art direction. To see more of their fantabulous wonderfications check out their website, blog and photos on Flickr.

Holy Moley Arty Party

Last August we bumped into our friend Helen Harrop who told us about a Travelling Moleskine Project she was involved in. What's a Moleskine we hear you cry!? Well...

"A Moleskine® is an iconic black book, beloved by creative types (Picasso, Van Gogh, Hemmingway etc) It can be a notebook, diary, sketchbook, city guide or planner." - The Culture Vulture.

Helen was in charge of one of the 80 moleskines that were dished out by the Culture Vulture (who teamed up with The Big Draw for this collaborative project) and she needed lots of talented people to contribute words/poetry, art, photos or doodles. Each moleskine had a theme, Helen's was 'Chinese Whispers,' and each of the participants were asked to make their own creative interpretation of this.

We've heard a lot about these travelling moleskines and collaborative projects like this are always fun so we thought we'd add our creativity to the mix. Here are our contributions:

'Oobly' © Johnathan Gallagher http://www.trumpetcleaner.co.uk'Me to You' © Katherine Moss http://www.quantempus.co.uk

The ones below were drawn on the train after our trip to the London Design Festival. We both took turns to describe the features of a character: eyes, nose, hair, mouth and then each drew one half of the face.

Image © Johnathan Gallagher and Katherine Moss

Image © Johnathan Gallagher and Katherine Moss

Image © Johnathan Gallagher and Katherine Moss

Image © Johnathan Gallagher and Katherine Moss

The moleskines were exhibited in their full glory at an Arty Party held at the Culture Vulture's HQ, Temple Works in Leeds, to help raise funds for the Campaign for Drawing.

The night's festivities included a line dancing hoe down by Axis, a circus sideshow photography session from creative duo Lord Whitney (more about this later ;)), an entry in the Year Book, some conversation ear-wigging/ under cover work for Helen 'Chinese Whispers' Harrop, some naughty caricatures by Alex Hughes from The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation, some wicked wall drawing by Helen Entwhistle a.k.a Memo and a nifty networking room called 'Chumspace' from Numiko.


Related Links:

The Culture Vulture >> Travelling Moleskines®
Culture Vulture Travelling Moleskines Flickr Group
Lord Whitney
Memo and Memo Blog
The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation - The Bloghorn
Axis - The Online Resource for Contemporary Art
Numiko

London Design Festival 2009

Well, it's that time again! A whole year has flown by since our last visit to the London Design Festival and despite us insisting that we would never step foot on a National Express coach again, we did (albeit only for the inbound journey - we booked bargain priced train tickets for the journey home though, which was a joy to behold). In true Kooji style we both staggered off the coach, after a brief 4+ hour ride, and treated ourselves to a full English Breakfast at Ponti's an Italian restaurant in Marble Arch. Delicious!

We checked out a few sights during our stay including a trip to Camden Market where we encountered some giant horses.

One of the highlights of this year's festival was emerge 'the debut graphic design graduate showcase of the london design festival' so we stopped by to take a look.

'Science Museum Posters' © Natalie Talbot http://www.piedesign.co.uk/
http://piesdesign.blogspot.com/

'Swagga' © Danielle Mullis http://www.daniellemullis.com/


London poster exhibition - All emerge graduates were asked to produce poster designs working with a brief produced by Pentagram. These posters were then pitched against those of established designers who worked on the same brief for the V&A. The posters celebrate London as the creative capital of the world and are created using only two colours. The results provide an interesting comparison between designers at different stages in their careers.


Emerging graduate portfolios: A selection of links found on business cards and promo material at the exhibition.

Natalie Talbot - http://www.piedesign.co.uk/
http://piesdesign.blogspot.com/
Danielle Mullis - http://www.daniellemullis.com/
Aki Makita - http://makitaaki.blogspot.com/
Lisa Edoff - http://www.edoffdesign.com/
Kristianne Phillips - http://www.kristiannephillips.co.uk/
http://www.kristiannephillips.blogspot.com/
Jack Lee - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacktherabbit
Lucy Brown - http://www.greycaine.com/
Rebekah Burke - http://www.rebekahburke.co.uk/
Richard Carey - http://www.richardcareydesign.co.uk/
J Hannevold - http://www.jhannevold.com/
Tom Lenartowicz - http://www.tom.thrilly.com/
Tom Lovell - http://www.lovelldesign.co.uk/
http://tomlovell.wordpress.com/
Tom Lynch - http://www.tomlynch.co.uk/
David Marsh - http://www.dmarshdesign.co.uk/
Ruth Pearson - http://www.ruthpearson.com/
Daniel Camacho - http://www.dscamacho.com/
Charlie Crook - http://www.charliecrook.com/
Richard Johnson - http://www.rjdesignstudio.co.uk/
Steve Loton - http://www.steveloton.co.uk/
Sarah Prismall - http://sarahprismall.co.uk/
Barbara Ward - http://www.bward.jotta.com/

Barry Purves: Animator Extraordinaire

This month's Creative Networks featured Barry Purves, a traditional stop motion animator who has worked on all sorts from Postman Pat and Wind In The Willows to Hollywood blockbusters like King Kong. His love for animating comes from the 'performance' though as he originally wanted to be an actor. Barry showed us some lovely examples of his own work and personal favourites by other artists. Take a look:

OverTime - by Oury Atlan, Thibault Berland and Damien Ferrie

John and Karen - by Matthew Walker

Related Links:
Animated Yorkshire

Underground Art School

Earlier this year I was reading through doodlage, a fantastic website about all things doodley, and came across this blog post about a new zine called Underground Art School. This isn't just any magazine though, it's made by some incredibly creative and friendly peeps and it's jam-packed with the most beautiful and inspiring artwork you've ever seen.


We were hooked immediately and planned on contacting them to ask about how we could contribute, they beat us to it though and messaged us to say hello after we befriended them on FaceBook.

You can befriend them too. Watch this video to learn more :D

With dancing skills like this we had no choice but to ask Racheal Anilyse (whose mind Underground Art School was envisioned within) if we could promote her work through the collective.

The Current Issue 'The SketchBook' is on sale now through MagCloud, you can preview the magazine on Issuu too. I just got all three copies in print last week as a birthday pressie from Johnny and they're SoOOooo good! I did have a sneeky peek pre-birthday, but only because they sang to me from inside the parcel!!

The first issue has tons of affirmation type in it too to make you feel positive and all warm inside, ahhh :)

Open publication - Free publishing - More underground

and if that's not enough you can get that warm squiggly feeling all 365 days of the year with this cool calendar:

Open publication - Free publishing - More underground

Entitled: 'Cultivating Community through the Creative Process' issue 2 is just as ace as the first and really has loads to get your artistic chompers into:

Open publication - Free publishing - More issue 2

SketchBooks! We love ours and have so many now that they've formed their own colony and are breeding in some far away galaxy. We call them the SketchBookonians...

Open publication - Free publishing - More underground

We're both advocates of creative collaboration and community and Underground Art School Magazine is right up our street for this kind of stuff, we just love it. We read the UAS Blog regularly and so should you :D They also have a pool on Flickr, you can watch them on Vimeo or tweet at them on Twitter if you're into bird calls... tweet tweet ;)

The Scribble Project

I was reading the Doodlers Anonymous RSS Feed last week when I came across this blog post about a cool collaborative doodling project called 'Clubhouse Scribbles,' which is part of The Scribble Project. What's that? Well, it's "a playful community of doodlers who like to share our handiwork and collaborate in spontaneous art."

Johnny, me and Steve like to scribble socially, especially during a night out at Fab Cafe, so we thought this might be fun. We even had a small crowd (well two guys who were a bit pished) crowding round us eager to see our doodles. I took the opportunity to whip out the print-outs from this month's Clubhouse Scribbles - a groovy totem pole doodle that they're gonna link altogether to create one huge uber totem - so we each did two totem pole doodles and here they are!

© Johnathan Gallagher TrumpetCleaner

© Johnathan Gallagher TrumpetCleaner

© Katherine Moss quantempus

© Katherine Moss quantempus

© Steve O'Brien Super Nashwan

© Steve O'Brien Super Nashwan

If you fancy having a go doing your own totem pole doodle there's still time - the deadline is 31st July.

Check out the Website, Blog, Flickr Group, FaceBook Page, or Twitter.

Coming Soon

Hold on to your hats! The brand spanking new personal portfolios of Johnathan Gallagher and Katherine Moss are heading your way. We've been beavering away on these two gems for what seems like eons now, but with a bit of luck (and a lot more elbow grease) we'll soon have these fantabulous extrapolations uploaded in their full glory. In the meantime, check out these beautious holding pages! Ahh, can't you just taste the chocolaty goodness!?

http://www.quantempus.co.uk

http://www.trumpetcleaner.co.uk

© Katherine Moss quantempus

© Johnathan Gallagher TrumpetCleaner

Patrick Burgoyne: Creative Review

Creative Networks had a very cool talk this month by Patrick Burgoyne, the Editor for Creative Review. Patrick's talk entitled 'Labels: and Where to Stick Them,' covered a range of projects including the creation of the cover for the January Issue by a letterpress studio called Gráfica Fidalga in São Paulo. This workshop keeps the tradition of letterpress alive by producing books and prints.

Image © Creative Review Magazine

Image © Creative Review Magazine

Check out this video which documents the project:



Another issue's cover was produced in Mumbai by photographing a taxi which was covered in specially made stickers all produced by hand:



Here's a cool quote taken from Patrick's blog post Everything and Nothing. It's something all graphic designers need to keep in mind when they work:

“To design is to create images which communicate specific ideas in purely visual terms and utter statements whose form graphically embodies or enhances the essential nature of the notions to be communicated.” This definition of graphic design comes from John Commander, the first chairman of D&AD and a noted art director.

There were some really great videos during the presentation including this one called 'Obsessions Make My Life Worse and My Work Better' which shows an installation led by Stefan Sagmeister:



Read more about this collaborative project here.

This one had us giggling. Would you trade in your FaceBook friends for a burger? I think I'm tempted:



A very cool 'Kinetic' (that means moving kiddies ;)) sculpture. Oooh! Pretty:



The emphasis on the hand-crafts was evident throughout Patrick's talk and was a real delight. There is a definite trend emerging in the return to the hand-made (which I absolutely LOVE!) and many skilled designers and artworkers are looking to traditional methods to produce their work. This can not only be seen in typography, but in type-setting, sign-writing, hand-lettering and many other trades. The perfect balance of the traditional and digital crafts is what's needed.

Patrick also gave his opinion on what the future may hold for the magazine itself (in the ongoing battle of the Hand Crafts versus New Media). Eventually the magazine may be accessible through digital means rather than mass distributed as hard-copies (the huge use of paper isn't exactly eco-friendly) - although this form of publication may be preferred as people tend to enjoy having something to read in their hands, so only time will tell.

The End of the Beginning

As courses end, careers start.

A showcase of over five hundred
young creatives at this pivotal point,
the end of the beginning.

From fabric to photos, art and
arm chairs, this is a chance to
see the new generation of talent,
at one of the few thriving independent
art Colleges in the country.

Image © Leeds College of Art and Design

This degree show at Leeds College of Art and Design was the best by far, so much so infact that we spent almost a whole day walking around all of the degree shows from all of the creative courses at both the Vernon Street and Blenheim Walk sites.

As we ran round all the exhibits we picked up lots of post-cards, business cards and flyers and took a TON of photos documenting all the best bits to see. Here are some extra spicy photos and links to cool portfolio sites that'll get your creative tastebuds tingling:

Image © Sammy Dowgill BA (Hons) Visual Communication

'From Little Acorns, Big Oaks Grow...' © Laura Jordan BA (Hons) Visual Communication

Johnny and I both attached 'acorns' to this tree with a small message on each about what our dreams and aspirations are. The responses will be used as inspiration for illustrations in the zine 'Raise Your Hand, Raise Your Voice.' The zine has a blog too, check it out.

'Class of 2008 - 2009 (Rogues Gallery)' © Peter Kesteven BA (Hons) Fine Art

Costume © Jessica Bull BA (Hons) Costume with Textiles

Image © Claire Pullan ND Graphic Design

Image © Claire Pullan ND Graphic Design

http://www.clairepullan.co.uk/
http://clairepullan.blogspot.com/

We both recognised Claire's art from last year's degree show and were really blown away by this piece of work. It's 3 metres by 1 metre and looks amazing! Be sure to check out her portfolio website and blog for lots more illustrative masterpieces.

Image © Ken McFarlane

http://kenneh.deviantart.com/

It was a nice suprise to come across Ken's work as it was one of so few examples of sequential art (or comic book art) appearing in exhibitions. We'd like to see much more of this kind of work on display at these events so cheers Ken and nice artwork!

'Kevin Bacon is the Centre of The Universe' Image © Vicky Smith

http://www.vickysmithisnice.co.uk/

Image © Aric Arthur

http://www.aricdesign.co.uk/
http://aricdesignpractice.blogspot.com/

Image © Steph Baxter

http://www.stephsayshello.co.uk/
http://stephsayshello.blogspot.com/

Steph is an Illustrator and Graphic Designer and also part of the Collective Custard Cream Creative. Yummy! We loved her work and will definitely keep checking back on her websites for updates. Take a look at her images on Flickr too!

Image © Joe Kelly

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joekelly


Related Blog Posts:

Leeds College of Art and Design End of Year Show 2008: Blood, Sweat & Tears
http://koojicreative.blogspot.com/2008/06/blood-sweat-tears.html

Portfolio Websites: A collection of links found on business cards from the show

http://www.nataliapasquino.com/
http://www.mitashpatel.com/
http://delightfullybritish.blogspot.com/
http://www.leedsviscom2009.co.uk/
http://www.kylebibby.co.uk/
http://kylebibby.blogspot.com/
http://www.will-campbell.com/
http://thingswhatihaveconsumed.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dogsndoodles/

Bradford Zine Fayre

Johnny and I have been getting into the Zine Scene of late, so we decided to head on over to the Treehouse Cafe in Bradford to check out the first ever 'Bradford Zine Fayre.' When we arrived we were treated to table after table (well 3 in total) filled to the brim with lovely self-published zines from all over the UK. We even spotted some itsy bitsy single-sheet zines too, just like this Free Doodles Zine on Super Duper which you can print out and make yourself. Neato!

Site (1) Arts Festival 2009

The Leeds School of Contemporary Art and Graphic Design hold an annual end of year show celebrating their graduating student's achievements and we always make sure to get a look in on the artwork on display.


This year's degree show, Site (1), is part of the Leeds Met University's Arts Festival and is across 3 'Sites' from The Faculty of Arts & Society including the Leeds School of Architecture, Landscape & Design and the School of Film, Television & Performing Arts. There was plenty to see and lots of inspiring exhibits to get our creative juices flowing. Here is a selection of what we saw as we wandered around:

© Carine Brosse
© Carine Brosse
© Alex Monaghan, Untitled, Print Outs on Board, 15' x 11'

© Alex Monaghan, Untitled, Print Outs on Board, 15' x 11'

© Nicholas Pierce, Centaur, Graphite on prepared board

© Laura Havenhand
© Laura Havenhand

LDS09 Fine Art Degree Show

Being greeted by a handshake, a "Thanks for coming" and then a very European 'Kiss Kiss' on either cheek was a surprise, but also quite a refreshing change at this year's Leeds University Fine Art Degree Show. We're not usually welcomed in this way to an exhibition, but we're not going to knock it either - it was very arty!

What was even artier was the 'Art of Queuing' installation. We headed up a staircase, found ourselves in a queue, someone whispered "they're letting two in at a time," so we patiently waited and made chit chat. When we were allowed in we were met by a long, dark corridor with a TV at the end. On the display screen was a live recording of all the other mugs patiently waiting in the queue - the small plaque read: 'The Art of Queuing (and Conversation).' Clever :D


© Emma Melton
'Fig. 8', Hysteric Beauty series, 2009
Oil, acrylic, make up, sweets and glass paint on canvas.


We found this on the way out. A pile of letters, part of which formed the word 'White ³.' I wonder what it means...

http://www.lds09.co.uk/