So, there may be a few people out there who read this blog that may have noticed our absence lately, we can explain: we have both recently graduated from the London College of Communication and have since been very busy with several interesting things.

I have been wrapped up in setting up my own design studio with Elliot Hammer, we now operate under Birch Studio Ltd, this has been eventful and very exciting, we have worked on several projects over the last few months and these will be available to see on our website when it launches in late December. Other than that I have been printing on the Black Box Press, with Simon Hessler, pictures of that to come soon. I have also been involved with setting up a letterpress cooperative with Alex Cooper, Rose Gridneff and Elliot Hammer under the name Workshop, we are based in Hackney, East London.

Whilst all of this has been happening Varvara has been working hard on designing a beautiful identity and website for Russian school of stylists – Avanscena, im sure Varvara will post more about this when it is to launch in the new year. Whilst also working on finishing her own portfolio and website.

But alas, these are not excuses to stop feeding this blog with visual inspiration and this post is aimed to break the silence.

Nothing is a new commercial creative agency formed by Michael Jansen and Bas Korsten that has just opened its doors in Amsterdam. While the city houses the KesselsKramer agency in a fairly unconventional building – a nineteenth-century church – the Nothing office is an unusual construction too, in that it is built almost entirely out of cardboard. They sent us some great pictures of the space, which was created by designers Joost van Bleiswijk and Alrik Koudenburg…

The Nothing team took the idea behind the company name (taking nothing and turning it into something) as the starting point for the physical design of the office; which included creating walls, signage, beams, tables, shelving and even a set of stairs out of cardboard.

But Nothing aren’t going to be prissy about the clean lines of designer cardboard that surrounds them. Apparently, the walls will double as a blank canvas with visitors encouraged to leave their mark on the surfaces. Indeed, illustrator Fiodor Sumkin was the first to liven up Nothing’s predominantly brown colour scheme with some well-crafted penmanship.

And when they get bored by the accumulated daubings, the studio can presumably replace individual sections of their workspace for, well, nothing much at all.

[via CRblog]

(via Manystuff)

(via Manystuff)

(via Today and Tomorrow)

These are two of the presses Manystuff mentioned:

“Bedford Press is a small-scale, fully functioning printing press and publisher operating out of the Architectural Association. The aim of the press is to integrate the publication of printed materials into the AA Print Studio’s existing focus on generating content, editing and design…

The hope is that the influence of Bedford Press will quickly extend into the academic and intellectual life of the school, playing a key role as a protagonist of future publication initiatives. Bedford Press was founded in 2008 and is operated by AA Art Director Zak Kyes, Wayne Daly, Claire McManus and Phill Clatworthy under the auspices of the Architectural Association.”

“Rollo Press™ is a small print studio located in Zürich and is operated by Urs Lehni since the beginning of 2008. The only printing machine available is an old Risograph GR 3770. Rollo Press™ aims to produce printed matter with friends and accomplices in a way that includes all steps of the process: from concept to design on to printing, binding and distribution. It’s like in William Morris’ “Art and Its Producers”: To own the means of production is the only way to gain back pleasure in work, and this, in return, is considered as a prerequisite for the production of (applied) art and beauty.”

**UPDATE**

Black Box Press has been launched by myself and Elliot. We have printed 2 real nice jobs and have another couple in the pipe line. Stay tuned for the new website coming soon. If you’re interested in printing something on our Riso CR1610 then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

(via Thinking for a Living)

Really like these morphs from abstract shapes into Agostina designed by Michael Cina, although, the sounds/music is really annoying.

“This is Agostina” is a video to promote the font Agostina which was designed by Michael Cina. Michael Paul Young made this animation, he founded YouWorkForThem together with Michael Cina.”

(via Today and Tomorrow)

“As a fan of eBoy, I got in contact with Svend from the legendary clan, and I arranged a visit to the eBoy studio in north Berlin. Absolutely fantastic studio and really nice guy Svend. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to meet Steffen and Kai, the other two members of eBoy, but I had a nice chat with Svend about what work they are up to, what I am up to, and also got to look at some new posters and potential new Kid Robot toys to be made. I will keep in touch and eBoy have a great new book out too.”