After a period of R&R, blogging will now resume at regularly scheduled intervals. For your viewing pleasure, here are various incarnations of the television test card screen, which as Wikipedia notes is “typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast (often at startup and closedown).” In other words: summer vacation.
Recently I took a two day letterpress workshop with some friends at Holmen, where the Danish Design School is located. Set at the very edge of the harbor, looking out from the letterpress studio you could see ships coming and going.
It was a weekend of fun and experiments, playing with the materials at hand, taught by bookmaker and letterpresser Jens Jørgen Hansen. It was interesting to learn the Danish or European measurements system (the cicero) instead of the points and picas used in the USA. I also used tube woven special German string for tying up my type block (no other string would do, said Jens), and learned that “type high” is a relative term, depending on which country you print in.
Here are a few outtakes from the weekend.
Food is one of my favorite subjects: to look at, to eat, to talk about, to draw. Notice that I do not mention ‘to make’. My entire life there have been people around me who were better at making food than I am. Why not let the cooking experts make the food, and the eating experts consume it? Seems like a logical plan. However, it does result in an achilles heal when left alone. My survival strategy therefore consists of A) making a giant portion of fajitas/dahl/spaghetti that provides sustenance for most of a week, or B) ordering something out that equates to days of leftovers – a very tall order.
My uncle once asked what my sister and I wanted for dinner on a particular evening. “Stuffed turkey!” I exclaimed as my sister simultaneously cried “Calimari!” Not daunted in the least, my uncle made both, along with a 3-course following for each. My aunt contributed with a marzipan cake. At the end of the meal, a liter of ice cream was placed before me and I was told “if you don’t eat it, it will melt”. There didn’t seem to be a choice. Sometimes, things are just bound to go wrong.
You know you’re in good company when the short-firings of your brain are not only totally acceptable, but met with enthusiasm and embellishment. The following conversation commenced during a springtime walk in Copenhagen with two of my lovely and equally creative compatriots.
_
L: Ahhh, it’s such a nice day!
M: Totally! I have taken one of my many scarves off to enjoy it.
P: Let’s cross the road here…
…enter path away from main street, see a curious sign…
M: Hey, look, this is where you can walk your croissant.
L: Yes, it’s a very French area, right around here.
P: That kid can barely keep up with the croissant!
M: Croissants must be fast.
L: Didn’t you ever wonder how French people stay so slender? It’s all the croissant walking.
_
I’m pretty sure that with two extra white panels, the croissant would turn into a basketball. But who am I to interpret public wayfinding in a land where the entire month of December is devoted to eating æbleskiver?
If you’d like to designate your very own croissant walking area, I’ve created a replica of this sign in various sizes. Download croissant crossing signs.
Well Vegan is a brand the Bureau created in 2012 and continues to work with today, including this most recent piece. Well Vegan makes it easier and cheaper to consistently follow a healthy, plant-based diet. In the past we had made postcards for Salad In A Jar and Building the Perfect Breakfast Bowl. With summer coming up, it seemed like a perfect time for a follow-up postcard as a reminder of just how good smoothies can be (for you) – so we’d like to introduce the Mix & Match Smoothie diagram! Visit the Well Vegan blog for some smoothie recipes as well as time-saving and on-the-go tips, or check out this handy line-up of green smoothie recipes.
You can also get tasty updates from Well Vegan, including a summer full of smoothie recipes, via Twitter or Facebook or Instagram.
Illustrations for an upcoming project involving mmmm, food.
