this is a picture I just had to post, as I it makes me proud.
gabes goes back to brighton in the morning, hope you have had a good week (enjoy the surf dvd) 
and the steaming coffee well I like it. no links today and yes it took less 5 minutes to do this.
I have always liked italian food and much as english style pizza especially at pizza express is not really italian in the true sense well it is close, much like starbucks isn't only a little coffee shop I am prepared to buy into the world of a corporate money making image. if it tastes ok, does not harm any one, does at least something positive (fair trade coffee, for example) and is designed well.
pizza express is somewhere I can remember going to as a child, it has been around since the mid sixties I know that italian interior designer enzo apicella designed a lot if not all of their restaurants and the corporate identity / logo. I was looking at their logo today while enjoying the meal all with the rest of us and I am sure that is has changed over the years, I have no basis for this just I think it looks different than it did in the 70's. does anyone know if I am right?
the indulgence of the day was another visit to mcdonalds for the second time this year, it was my son ben (8) who wanted to go. 
I was surprised that they accommodated my strange dietary needs, I am vegetarian and don't eat cheese anymore, as you can see from the picture it looks a little odd but it tasted fine, I just can't help fueling the all these american monsters.
I can see that my week was pretty busy but this weekend (second photo) and the beginning of next week is not, as defined by the lack of scribble (scribble = good) and that makes me worry. I still like to have too much to finish another 80's throw back perhaps. 
luckily I have the surfing article to get done (third photo). I am sure by tuesday my pages will be full of scribble again.
today went too quickly I only had a short time it seemed until I was eating lunch with maria and jules. I couldn't resist taking this picture. It was of part of my lunch, it looked so good in the spring sunshine. after that the day simply flew past.
specially for him I thought I would add this publicity picture for the 60's film endless summer a surfing classic. it says a lot about how things have changed but even gabes at nearly 14 can relate to parts of the surfing lifestyle or his perception of the that lifestyle, any way it is a great picture.
well. surf boards, it was george who really brought kneeboarding to the notice of other surfers and non-surfers in the late 60's early 70's.
I have been chasing my tail for the last few weeks sort of achieving. I have so many different design projects in the air and combined with the hectic workload of a teacher to think about I don't seem to be as productive even as successful as I would like...
a few weeks ago my friend davidthedesigner posted on his blog a picture of his favourite pen a 20 year old rotring. at the time I wanted to respond with a picture of a muji pencil (silver, right) that I thought was my favourite, but at the time couldn't find it. in a way I am pleased that I didn't because the fact that I couldn't find meant that I wasn't really using it. it wasn't very comfortable to write with but it looked so good. since then I have found the bic mechanical pencil in the photo (below black/silver) which I have now replaced as my favourite. it is a budget mechanical pencil but it is just so nice to use and it looks good as well.
I got to thinking in this world of technology and digital applications why is it that I still am excited about a cheap mechanical pencil?
I did however have a chance afterwards to go for a surprisingly nice coffee, (I chose not to have it black as would usually in case it was not very nice) at a very large retailer, as I was enjoying my coffee and carrot cake. I got set to thinking if this retailer take £1 of every £8 spent in the the UK, how does this reflect on the design/layout of the shop.
I also remembered that in the early 90's I was responsible for designing the floor layouts for a very large menswear retailer when they opened their flagship shop on oxford street, london and across the country the group where then bought up by eventually (arcadia). the design/layout of a shop obviously makes an enormous difference on how much money it makes I then realised why I had stopped doing it!
it will all make sense, it is still presentation. as used in teaching and learning. here is just a little look at some little things.
the pictures are incidental (or not) I was waiting in the bright spring light this afternoon, and wondered what it would look like if I took a picture of the sun, (I wasn't looking directly at the sun I just pointed the camera to the sky) I think the result is quite nice. remember don't look into the sun!
I know in one of my many other guises I run a surf website surf98, and lately blogs have been infiltrated by advertising companies but this post is not produced from anything except a catalogue that was sent to carol.
david hieatt their co-founder writes in the introduction to the book about being concerned about our environment to the extent of canceling an overseas photo shoot in favour of doing the shoot for the summer 07 catalogue in a shed in cardigan, wales in mid-winter.
you are not aware of their work as printers producing carbon zero productions). I am afraid as much as I would like to be able to give away a few of their books/catalogues I only have one and need to keep that because carol wants to get a dress from them and for a while it could be one of those precious things I was talking about. you can just go to their website and order a copy or just have a look at a .pdf version to be more carbon neutral, that is if you buy in to that argument.
I had no idea that when I went over to newquay, (surfcity uk), cornwall to take ben to play rugby today. that I would be writing about mods & rockers when I got home. it was in the car park as we work leaving that I caught site of this scooter (left), the owner was very busy on the phone so I didn't talk to him but the machine was original and had been painstakingly restored I had to get a picture.
away from the seafront when we went to the beach on holiday weekends, as cars parked on right next to the sea often got sometimes got damaged. I remember very clearly noticing a real difference in the way people dressed, and just how incredibly import it was we used to talk about it at school one thing we did do was wear our caps in different ways to show which we were, I will leave you to decide which I thought were cooler, have to say it has changed over the years.
I thought some scandinavian design was long overdue an airing on dgthekneelo for no other reason that I like a lot of it. 2Krogh as I am sure some of you will have heard of them. they produce some really good stuff, this is (left) their entry page logo I like it, (right) is the index page designed for the sculptor peter hesk moller's website.
it is a very neat clean/clear website. I find it relaxing to browse, as it uses a lot of flat colour making it nice for me to get away from the flowered themes that have been going through my head of late. can't seem to get flowers out of my head, even dream about them!
It has been a long funny kind of day, long in the sense that I have been awake for a long time, funny (I don't mean full of jokes) but I had to see a few people to discuss stuff as well as contact people who are making decisions that could effect my future.
just a normal day you think for most of you I would expect. but I also spent some time talking to students and their parents who are currently making decisions that will at least make a difference to the next 2 years of their lives (probably more), if not the whole of their lives.
would be too much so I have added just 4.
I have been trying perhaps too hard to be inventive, informative and or complex in the last week or so in this blog.
so I thought i would go it my kitchen a photograph 3 things that I liked for no other reason other than I liked them for some reason. Some cake, left over from carols birthday, a waitrose espresso tin (I just liked the red), and some chilli plants that we are growing as I like chilli's.
in addition to the post below we went to see our nearest and favourite professional rugby team play on saturday and it was really good as they won and are through to the semi finals, great weather, great atmosphere. but I do sometimes think people might consider me a little odd as I try and look up at the skyline as much as possible even at a sporting event looking for shapes and colours. I have a whole load of these kind of pictures taken over the last 25 years .
when I say skylines it is perhaps more where the sky meets the buildings I was doing this on the very short walk from the car park to the rugby ground as well as in the stadium. when I noticed this to my mind beautiful building in amongst newer occupied flats. I have walked the areas before and never seen it doing this you really do see the most amazing things each time something new.
I love walking round places slowly and looking up. in the last two years I have spent time in Nimes in southern France and that really is a place to look up in. having said that I keep finding new parts of my city that inspire me and show me that you don't always have to go far to see, moreover it's about how you look. some of the architecture and ornamentation across our local city is so beautiful is just largely unseen.
