Wednesday 4 November 2009

Siop.chwe.ch is live!


I've finally organised my Spreadshirt shop into it's own site, where you can now customise you're own clothing using my little designs. Have fun! (btw 'siop' means shop in Welsh. Yes, I like being awkward :)
Oh and don't forget, there's a 15% discount between 9th and 23rd of November. There's never been a better time to try out the site ;)

Friday 9 October 2009

My own t-shirt shop!

 
I've been obsessed this week, I've finally found an outlet for some t-shirt ideas that have been lying around on my mac. The amazing thing is that all I need to do is upload a design and it only gets made when someone wants to buy - so they're specially made for you. The only shame is that it gets made in Germany, but that's not too far away and I guess I might find some European customers. I only have a few designs for far, but there will hopefully be more soon.
I'd love to hear your opinions of the designs - hopefully they'll appeal to someone in the future. Next step is to get some samples and take some model shops - never been interested in the 'fashion' industry but this could be fun!

P.s. It's a long story but I call my shop and website 'chwech' because it's an idea I've had for a business philosphy for sometime. Basically, chwech means six in Welsh. I hope to be creative/busy for 6 days a week and enjoy a great break for more important things on Saturdays.

Monday 14 September 2009

Humbled by Project H


Seeing and reading about the drive and initiative of Emily Pilloton (Project H founder) has truly humbled me. I have yet to recieve a copy of her book, but I've been following her progress since her articles on Inhabitat. And now within a year Emily has founded an organisation that is the answer to all the worries I had while studying Industrial Design/Product Design. Basically taking the 'product' out of design. Read this wonderful article on the release of Emily's book 'Design Revolution' and see what I mean:
A Design Revolution Hits the Road.
All this at my age and within the last year! (While I've um.... done nothing. I must some how join the ranks of Project H designers!)
http://projecthdesign.org/

Humbling - Vimeo, animation, illustration...

While having trouble uploading an interview my brother edited to Youtube the other day, I re-found the wonderful Vimeo. I'd forgotten this is where quality video creativity on the net is shared.  One of the first videos I found was a recent animation graduates work. After seeing this video I had to visit her website, and I was stunned by her wonderful illustrations and paintings. I'm finally appreciating the amazing dedication and skill that such artists share. I'd almost forgotten as well, the fun illustration blog Drawn.ca where there's regular updates of inspiration on all kinds of illustration.
Back to the animation, by Lois van Baarle (Loish.net), the atmosphere is mesmerising, especially with the sound. Watch out for the whale!


Trichrome Blue from Lois van Baarle on Vimeo.

(Lois's portfolio site is genius, and thanks to her I've found a brilliantly simple flash tool to put on my own site (simpleviewer). Now if only I had some decent drawings to share, I'd be happy with work even half as good as hers. It's all so bright and and full of life!)

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Free Hugs?!

Hugging still isn't natural to me, but seeing this guy hug strangers is somehow magical. These videos are 2 years old but this website has been set up since: freehugscampaign.org
Simple acts like this really can make peoples days (just a bit annoying that only the people in the US can download the free song).



Wednesday 19 August 2009

Giraffes! - pointless but fun


This Norwegian guy (OneMillionGiraffes) is doing something completely pointless but it's really fun and creative so I decided to help out in a tiny way. I do have lots of other work to be doing but I don't follow reason well and just wanted to try it out... and by the way, I love bull clips!

Why don't you have some fun and join in the Giraffe challenge?

Monday 17 August 2009

Parkour - freerunning

Hi, for some reason I thought I'd share some Parkour, instead of talking about the trip I've enjoyed over the last weeks (the Alps are stunning!).

The first Freerun championships were held in London last week, and amazingly I found this out from my mum! There was an interview with a freerunner on Radio 4's Today show which really shows that the interest is now everywhere.

Here's the video that David Belle made for the BBC in 2002. I think he's the founder of the 'sport', I hope that it won't ruin how poetic the idea of breaking free from the 'street' really is.



By the way, I think Jackie Chan was the first 'free runner' :)

Saturday 11 July 2009

Howieite...at last!

I've been admiring the cool Welsh clothing store and their philosophy for ages. But all their products have been way too expensive for me, so finally this time I managed to check their sale in time and got some groovy recycled polyester shorts. This is the tag that i just ripped off the back of my new summer kit :) (click to enlarge)

Maybe you can catch something in their sale howies.co.uk

Monday 6 July 2009

So much to learn...

... but that what makes life living :)
I honestly never heard of Charles & Ray Eames before, I feel embarrassed. Their creative philosophy is wonderful. After sll these years and 'design' is finally starting to make sense to me.

And these Finnish Designers seem to show how Industrial Design is meant to be done. Industrial, Design (In that order).

Monday 18 May 2009

Planes train and lots of buses


I've done it before, but some reason this time it was really complicated. At last it's all sorted, ryanair doesn't make it easy but this should be interesting :)

Luckily I'll get to Umea in time for a rugby game. I've not played in ages, but I'm really looking forward to it. I'm not sure what will happen there but I just knew I needed to visit. The design school exhibition is sure to be very interesting, I'm always amazed by the creativity of the students I met last year, even more so their dedication.
Umea is where I learned that you can learn more from your classmates than your teachers.

Wednesday 8 April 2009

Radio Hope

Hi, just thought I'd share a podcast with you that was inspirational to me. I gave another talk (I hope this doesn't become a habit :S) on Saturday and I mentioned this radio programme that I heard in the car last week. Tuning into Radio 4 is working for me :)
Basically the report on 'Crossing Continents' was about a simple radio show by young children who have become a ray of light through huge suffering. Swaziland is being decimated by HIV and so a radio programme that isn't scared to tackle taboos is very brave and much needed. Have a listen:
Swaziland: The Kingdom of Kids
(It was amazing to hear of the North Wales school that is partnering with a Swazi school, Amen!)

Friday 20 March 2009

BSG

The finale of Battlestar Galactica is being shown in the US tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to seeing how they resolve the crazily deep story.


If you haven't seen the series then you need to see it from the start, it'll take commitment but it's worth it. This week they had a conference with the show creators and actors at the UN, which shows how powerful the show really is. 

The forum lasted for about 2hrs so you don't have to see all of it, but it's great!

Check out BSG at the UN (you'll need Realplayer).

Sunday 15 March 2009

CAREfree

Had to share something, and finally get this out of my system :)

Thursday 12 March 2009

Smiley

I found the first t-shirt I painted, it was years ago at camporee. I decided to play about with it and come up with a fun Welsh flag. Not sure why I've given him a cheesy smile but he's pointing up or having an idea, so maybe it's his eureka moment. 
I know I know, get some serious work done!

Thursday 26 February 2009

Scrawl


The notes I used for the talk on Saturday...


..my uncles notes on his trip with my dad in Bangladesh.

Bit of a difference!
After reading a BBC article on the decline of handwriting it got me thinking on the really lazy habits I've picked up. Maybe I should try hand writing these blog notes from now on, that may be interesting :)

Monday 23 February 2009

The Big Picture

I was fortunate to be asked to share a talk with Newport Church on Saturday (nervous first time and I'm not sure why me, but I took up the challenge :). I've never aspired to be a preacher, but for some reason I was happy for a chance to study over the last few weeks and be able to share a positive message. Instead of just sitting in the background it was exciting to be up front and finally put aside ideas of not being good enough, a fear that has always held me back.
About the talk, well I babbled on for too long, with too many ideas in my head, but hopefully some people got a thread of the message (at least I think they got past me wearing a big painted t-shirt and comfy white trainers in church, a mini victory :).

By providing some link surfing I'm going to try to give a clearer picture of the ideas I tried getting across through this post. I'm not an expert on anything, just a guy trying to offer something useful, so please don't think that everything I say is truth, I'm just trying to point to a greater truth.

1.Wonder at Yann Arthus-Bertrand's aerial photography, then check out this pdf of the facts (updated link to a sample of teacher's resources).
With facts like '$53.7 billion spent on public aid for development compared to $798 billion on the world's military' and '50,000 species become extinct every year' despite its beauty this is a broken world. Broken systems and ecology.
Don't all these seemingly insurmountable problems worry you?

2. Read what Jesus says in Matthew 6:25-34 
"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?"
How can we not be worried about the bad news that surrounds us every day?

3. John 3:16-21, this is why. Jesus, the 'Liberator' came to save everyone. Save us so we don't have to follow the same patterns of self-harm and destruction, to instead live a love filled life. A life where every person is preciously important.   

In Matt Krick's essay 'The Theology of Ecology' he starts by putting Jesus, The Word, into perspective.
"The story of God does not begin with sin. It is not his invention, and he calls us to remember that this is not the way it is supposed to be. We live in God's good earth. Creation began good and remains good, broken as it may be."
He was there at the start and came into the world to lead us back to the way the world should be. The lessons Jesus taught and example he led show us what love is and how to live. Love everyone as yourself sums it up. The beauty is in the teachings simplicity but this doesn't make it easy. Many Christians seem to forget that Jesus promised to return to fix the world for good. We're part of a creation story where we have the hope of a happy ending. Until then there's no way that people will listen to the message unless Christians (Jesus Liberation movementfollow Jesus by living love filled lives where the tragedies of our world cannot be accepted and actions of love flow naturally. "Preaching the Gospel to all the world, in some cases using words" - people only listen to those who are genuine.
5. The brilliant Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1964 Nobel lecture summed up the state of world:
"... in spite of (these) spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers."
Spoken at the time of the Cold War, this seems even more true now. How can we bring peace to this world? Where wars are started over water and half of humanity lives on less than $2 a day.
King Jr. goes on to say:
"We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say "We must not wage war." It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace."

6. So lets focus on the 'positive affirmation of peace'. Thanks must go to the Nobel Peace Prize for going against the grain of merely congratulating diplomats. In recent years they have given recognition to people who's organisations are bringing peace into the world through amazingly simple actions. Let's shout for joy and join or support them and others who fight against the injustices in the world.
People like Wangari Maathai whose Green Belt Movement by the simple act of planting trees are empowering people in Kenya to save their environment and in turn themselves.
And Muhammad Yunus and the Grameem Bank for giving hope to millions of poor people in Bangladesh and now the world. Through micro-lending a world movement is building aimed at eradicating poverty.

"We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody that is far superior to the discords of war."
(You've gotta love King Jr.'s wonderful language :)

7. And finally, see the big picture in 'The 2 Minute Bible' *
(a poem by the Welsh author and performer Rob Lacey, who sadly passed away 3 years ago)
...
"The sequel:
'With God in us
We can bring heaven on earth
Bit By Bit'
All ending up with Jonno's general memo
On how things are going to get
Wrapped up:
The snake gets bbQd
The Jesus liberation movement get limitless life
Heaven on earth
Absolutley!

(P.s. If this post hasn't been clear, I hope you gain something from the links. I'm obviously not a brilliant writer but thank you for taking the time to consider this.)
*Sadly the link to the original source has been removed but you can find out a little about Rob Lacey here)

The Golden Arrow

I almost forgot about this video until recently.
Annie Leonard and some cleverly simple animations give a clear picture of how the world works.


Watching the news on the financial crisis where the solution always seems to be just aimed at 'fixing' the 'Golden Arrow' makes me realise how narrow most peoples views are. Now is a great opportunity for great system changes. It's an awesome challenge to take up, but what are the advantages of sticking to the current order? People can change.

Thursday 19 February 2009

Too Few Role Models


I've been thinking a lot about 'peace' this week thanks to a Martin Luther King Jr. speech found on the thorough Nobel Prize website. Suddenly I remembered good old Calvin & Hobbes, and this strip basically sums it up. (C&H official site is here, but this fan site is a better introduction).

Peace doesn't simply mean 'no violence',
stop being boring... be creative!


(Ps. I was at one of the meetings where Rob Bell gave this talk that the blogger sums up so well. I've read so many disgusting comments from judgmental people on other websites that I have to stand up for it. The whole talk was brilliant, shedding new light on the wonderful possibilities that non-violence can provide when done creatively. It's a shame that I can't find a full video or transcript from this talk.)

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Stencil


Finally got that t-shirt idea out of my head. The t-shirt looks ok, but the stencil is more interesting so I thought I'd post that instead. Soon I'll hopefully have a decent explanation for the point of all this :)

Friday 13 February 2009

Missing the Bränn


This is old, but I just wanted to share something.
Reminiscing the Arctic Design Monkeys.

This is Brännboll, a brilliant alternative to rounders.
I was lucky enough to play with some great people.

I miss the people I met in Umeå. Wherever you are,
I hope that you're all living your dreams :)
Tack alla!

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Paint,Podcast+Facebook


The Christmas present of fabric paints needed to be put into action.

Listened to an old Mars Hill podcast this morning 
(yes I do have music but these talks are powerful stuff).

And for some reason thinking a friends Facebook status could be a tee (thanks KonKon! ;) )

Thats what has brought me to this today 
(I realise I need to practice painting more and yellow wasn't the best choice to paint over blue). After reading Matthew chapter 6 I've had an idea on how to make this an interesting tee (hopefully it will work out, but needs way more creativity than just playing with letters).

Being random like this is probably why I'm stuck where I am, but I have to try this out for some reason and learn to finish things off. It may be another failure but I gotta have a go! :)

Monday 26 January 2009

eif



"The value of identity of course is that 
so often with it comes purpose."
Richard R. Grant 
(I haven't got a clue who this guy is but this quote was too good)

Sunday 25 January 2009

Scots

For some reason I woke up at 5 this morning, instead of finishing a book (I'll do it one day) I flicked on Radio 5 live and listened to the news. It's amazing the energy the presenters have so early in the morning. Anyway I found out quite a lot about the great Scot, Robert Burns whose 250th anniversary is today. I've vaguely heard of him before but I had no idea how popular his poetry is and the wonderful celebrations Scotland enjoys this weekend. Of course I'm jealous that we don't have anything like it in Wales, there are many poets but as usual we never make a big song and dance about anything (well, apart from rugby).

It was wonderful to hear an expert on Burn's work share his passion. Apparently Lincoln had a high regard for the poet, and similarities can be made with his speeches and Burn's humanity. The highlight was the reciting of the poetry, hearing the Scots dialect (I always thought it was called gaelic but this makes more sense) was so soothing. Luckily the BBC has all his written works including recordings. Check out these two poems:

Thursday 15 January 2009

Wisdom

After trying to get my head around the financial crisis earlier, I just got a better perspective on it all thanks to the wonderful Tony Campolo. If you haven't been lucky enough to hear about him (Christian or not) then I hope you can get something from this podcast. Even if you don't believe in Jesus, I hope you can recognise the wisdom.


Manure!

A little bit of wisdom suddenly came back to me, and I think it's worth posting.

"Hello Dolly!" was on telly the other day and I happened to catch the end of it (I think it's the musical that Wall:E watches so I thought I'd see what it was about). This quote came up that I thought was a real pearl for today:

"Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around, encouraging young things to grow." 
Dolly Levi

I'm no financial expert but it makes a lot of sense. All I seem to know is Monopoly, but it's still a good lesson. Having cash in hand doesn't mean that much (hopefully my brother doesn't learn this lesson so I can have another whole street full of houses).

The UK is an whole heap o' mess with this 'credit crunch'. It's not hard to see where the problems came from, basically all we have here are shops (with multiple credit cards given to everyone) and we don't really make anything. It looks like only now everyone has finally realised that the whole economy is unbalanced.
I can't see how anyone can see everything getting back to normal sometime soon ('normal' wasn't good anyway), especially when we have politicians saying:

"Our debt isn't as bad as America's"

Anyone who has seen I.O.U.S.A. will be very very worried. 

Hopefully more people will give the Liberal Democrats a chance, hearing Nick Clegg on Simon Mayo's show (best podcast by the way) was a breath of fresh air, simply because he was honest. 

I'm staying positive though, common sense will come back and after looking through the last edition of 'Monocle' there are many intelligent people out there with good ideas, if only they could get the attention they deserve. I'd also love it if we all learned from Cuba through their answer to the problem: urban farming (back to the good old allotments).

Back on track

I kept my word and ran this morning :)
(not early morning but rain doesn't really inspire me).
2.5miles (4km) doesn't sound like much but I have to start somewhere.
At the end of the workout the great Lance Armstrong congratulated me! 
Little design details make a big difference. MiniMe even has some cracking dance moves, how did they know about my skills? :P

Having Dewi run circles round me as I'm struggling does put it all into perspective though, but I'll tire him out one day!

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Fatty fatty boom boom!

Over the holidays I really have let myself go -  not checked my weight but for the first time I've got the measuring tape out and... well, I could give pregnant women a run for their money!
I've made stupidly drastic promises to myself a couple times to stop eating, but I just love food too much, even worse I've convinced myself that I can cook, so no wonder I'm in serious trouble.

So how am I going to get out of this?

Jogging.

Exercise is the only way. Luckily my appetite is not in the Michael Phelps territory so I can have a way more modest regime. However with me it never gets to be simple, even though I know simple=best. I've decided to get motivation through the nike+ system for my ipod. It's pretty cool, just add a sensor to the trainer and plug in the receiver and it tracks your distance covered - no need for clicky wheels on sticks from primary school, magic!
(There was no way I was going to buy special nike shoes just for this, I'm a Reebok man :P So I found a nifty little trick to get past this, by slipping the sensor into the tongue of one trainer and sewing it close with some nice orange thread, thanks instrucables!)

Anyway I like the system, but the best thing of all has to be the mini character I got to make through the web application. He's all animated and looks almost as cool as me (my eyes aren't THAT messed up). At the moment he's not to please since I've not kept up the regular routine since last week, but after todays measuring tape revelation I'll make him happy again in the morning. Facebookers can see if I do any better, hopefully friends can guilt me into action if I don't make miniMe happy.

Running on disused railway tracks and up hills isn't an easy start, a nice even flat surface would be nice, but these are the valleys so I'll have to follow Calzaghe's lead, while trying not to lose Dewi in the process.

Hopefully I'll have news of ideas finally sketched for the next post... healthy mind, healthy body (I need to get both in shape!)

Monday 5 January 2009

"Good Punk"


Very late but... Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! 
(Happy new year)

The wedding was a great success and hopefully when all the photos are in I can show you some of the cool ideas my sis tried out to make the whole event personal and even more special.

Sadly (well only for me) the mini clip experiment was a no-go since they weren't needed in the end. Annoyingly the venue just taped the menus to their own table markers. Hopefully the idea will be of some use in the future.

I've not been up to much lately (apart from piggin' out on mince pies and other goodies) but I've tried to make a productive start to the new year. Starting with getting my room in order (no small task!). I've been sorting through 'work' going back years, and it's sometimes disheartening to see that some of my drawings as a teenager are better than today, but also fun to find old sketches for ideas that I never carried through. Anyways, until I dust away all the cobwebs and finally get to making new sketches I'll leave you with this 'comic'. It's a shame I didn't date it but I think I was 11 at the time, wow.. 15 years ago ('Larry the Punk' even then I was out of date!)

New years resolution: get work done and make this interesing! :)