Here’s an advert I spotted near the train station by where I’m staying. I love how they used the (A4) symbol to signify the Audi A4, since that’s the exact way it’s labelled on roads here!
Again, after a day of class, I decided to go and find another Banksy. This time I planned a bit better than last time and took the tube to the nearest station, and walked the rest of the way 
.
This particular Banksy was located just off of Bethnal Green Station, a part of town I had never been before. It was kind of like going to Hastings in Vancouver if you know what I mean. Anyway I kept an eye on my 6 and kept on!
The Banksy was located on a side road near a construction sight just off of the main road.
When the work was first put up, the double yellow lines forming the flower came up off of the road onto the sidewalk and then up the wall. It’s a shame that part of it got buffed, but nevertheless, it’s a great piece of work! Oh and the speech bubble was not, as far as I know, done by Banksy.
Here’s a link to what it originally looked like, pre-buff and speech bubble.
I am a big fan of Banksy.
Ever since seeing his work discussed in newspapers, I’ve been keeping track of him all around the world, I have his book Wall and Piece, and my Aunt & Uncle in London often send me newspaper clippings of his newest works around the city.
Anyway, to get to the point, now that I am in the UK I am going to try and find and blog as many Banksy pieces (Banksies?) as possible. I think it’s a cool way to see different areas of the city that are potentially off of the beaten path, and hey, I get to find some work which I really admire!
Alright, here we go!
To find these pieces I consulted this map, which was very well-compiled by artofthestate.
The first piece I decided to find is called One Nation Under CCTV and is located off of Goodge Street on Newman Road. I got out of class early on this particular day and decided to go for it. I printed a map with directions and set out on my way, not knowing the painful mistakes I was about to make!
So, my first mistake was thinking that the travel time that the map provided (7 min.) was for walking and not driving. People don’t drive here as much as they do back home, so I didn’t even think of that. Damn I walked far.
The second mistake I made was thinking that all of the roads could be accessed by foot, which of course they couldn’t, or it would be a waste of time since the paths on foot would be much faster. Great!
Anyway, I wouldn’t let that get me down! So I kept on.
And on.
And then it started raining.
Good thing I brought a brolly.
I followed the directions flawlessly (I thought) and for some reason I could not find Tottenham Court Road, which I needed to find to lead me to Goodge Street. I suppose that at the time I wasn’t quite used to the road signage system in London yet.
Anyway, I was pretty wet from all of the rain and the umbrella wasn’t very big so my backpack was just drenched. It was at this point that it began to rain very, very hard.
And then when it started to thunder I caved and gave up. I was soaked and tired from walking so damn far, f*** it, I thought.
So with my head held low, I started back the way I came so I could go home and dry off, maybe have a miserable pint or something.
But then, as I was walking back I saw something. That’s Tottenham Court Road! I had unknowingly stumbled upon the road I needed to find! Forget being soaked to the point of hypothermia, it’s on mother f***er! The hunt was still on!
After finding Tottenham Court Road, I found Goodge Street (And Goodge Street Underground Station…damn!), and then Newman Street! At this point I am very excited. A hip young chap was strolling by and I asked him if he knew what side of Newman Street the Banksy was on and he said “Urm, I fink it’s over there. Go that way, yeah?”, and so I took his advice.
Strolling down the street and coming up to an industrial building lined with razorwire, cctv and security guard booths, I found my first Banksy.
If you’re wondering how exactly Banksy happened to stroll over a fence and put a twenty-foot painting on a wall and not get caught, read this article.
You can’t tell from the picture but this map is soaking wet! Mistakes aside, finding this was quite a thrill and I have been finding more and more, which I’ll also blog. Love it!
Found this around Fleet Street, on my way to the Millenium Bridge (which I’ll be posting eventually).
I could do with a trim.
Or three.
So here’s some long overdue pictures from a part of the festival that took place on Exhibition Road, just by the RCA Grad Show and the V&A, Natural History Museum etc. Basically the entire road was closed off for the festival, with Architecture grads from RCA using old Route Master buses to display their work. There was tons of other stuff going on, live music, artist installations and more, but sadly my camera died and I only got to capture a bit of it… enjoy!
More info about the festival can be found here.
This was an installation made with cardboard blocks and tape. It could hold a lot of people, which was very impressive!
There was another cardboard structure further down the street, but for some reason it was being demolished by children. Maybe they were tearing it down to start over again?
Architectural integrity aside, it looked pretty fun to tear it all up, and I almost went to help the kids out, but I didn’t want to spoil it for them.
Roughly the second week I was in London, my relatives took me out to a smaller town outside of Kingston (I think) called Barn Elms, where there was a fair going on. This was not just any fair!
Carter’s steam fair is a collection of late 1800s rides and attractions, restored to working order and most of which use steam to power the rides! The fair took over an entire field and definitley looked like something out of a history book! The rides themselves were magnificently crafted, but also looked as dangerous as hell.
I didn’t get a chance to tempt fate on any of the rides as I was too busy looking at all of the lovely painted signage throughout the fair. Below are some examples!
Here’s a picture of one of the steam engine’s powering the Britannia, a ride that is basically like the Pirate Ship at Playland back home. Between rides, the workers would shovel coal into the furnace of the engine and away it would go again!
Close-up of some hand-painted type.
Arts & Crafts in London – The William Morris Gallery
Published July 8, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a CommentOn the same day that we went to the RCA show (see post below), my relatives took me up to Walthemstow, which is a small town on the outskirts of London. From there we went to Water House, which is where William Morris, the Arts & Crafts designer, lived for a time before Red House and Kelmscott Manor.
The house had been converted into a gallery (free admission), and there was a substantial amount of his work on display, including the actual woodblocks used to print his many textile designs! Also, and arguably more importantly, some examples of his book printing with Kelmscott press were on display, including a specimen sheet of his printed types – Golden Type, Troy Type and Chaucer Type.
Seeing his printed works on-screen or reproduced in books is one thing, but seeing the actual printed works up close was fantastic. At the gallery (like most around here) there was a strict no-cameras rule, but I managed to take a snapshot of the type specimens really quickly. I sure ol’ Will won’t mind.
Water House
A bust of William Morris in the gallery foyer.
Here’s my badly taken paparazzi shot of a type specimen booklet featuring the three main typefaces that William Morris designed – Golden Type, Troy Type and Chaucer Type.
The other day, I eventually made it to the Design Museum (Near London Bridge) with my class for a drawing excercise. We had the option to go into the exhibits or explore further along the Thames river. I chose the latter for various reasons, but I thought I’d post a picture of the men’s bathroom within the Design Museum. Nice!
Thank God no on else was in there when I took the pictures!
PS – If you don’t know who Moholy-Nagy is and you’re a design student, you should.
The first weekend I spent in London with my family, we went to Exhibition Road to see the London Festival of Architecture, and by chance stumbled onto the Royal College of Art Grad show!
I think the first thing that tipped us off was the rather small sign outside the building.
The show was divided into several days of studies, and thankfully the day we found it, it was the show for all of the design students. There was fashion, engineering, architecture, and a plethora of other smaller disciplines, and of course, graphic design!
Now I wasn’t able to take very many pictures, since photography was not allowed, but when I asked the graphics students they were cool with it. The pictures below are from the graphic design portion of the show only.
Here’s a poster promoting the use of the exclamation colon, a typographic symbol combining an exclamation mark and a semi-colon. The poster said to find info about the symbol online, but I can’t seem to find anything. 
The above project takes the cake for me.
Everybody hates Comic Sans, yes? Well, I know many graphic designers and students alike loathe it. These students have created Serious Sans, a typeface based on the proportions of Comic Sans, perhaps in an attempt to make peace between lovers and haters of that god-forsaken typeface 
. There were no specimen sheets or posters, which is a shame, but this is very impressive stuff!
Designed by four students, Valerio Di Lucente, Hugo Timm, Filip Tydén, and Erwan Lhussier.
A more complete documentation of the show can be found here: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/degree-shows-08-royal-college-of-art-show-2
Next post I’ll be putting up images from the London Festival of Architecture. Someday. LOL
As a newbie blogger, I had no idea what to expect from the world of blogging. I’ve only now realized that it is quite hard to consistently publish postings, let alone publish them on the day that they happened. From now on, all of my posts will be reflecting on events happening on days gone by, simply because I can’t keep up! There’s so much to do over here!
