Some of you may know that this isn’t the first time i’ve posted a video of Gary Vaynerchuck. I’m a big fan of his, he talks a lot of sense and this talk from FOWA09 is no exception.

This week marks 28 years since the death of John Lennon, in my opinion one of the greatest singer/songwriters of recent times. I have seen a lot of posts and content about it, but this video really stuck with me. He speaks on this tape with honesty, integrity and morals that stand strong today.

I love the illustration in the video, the way that it merges into what feels like just one line. It’s a great style and I think really lends itself to the audio. Reminds me a lot of the kinetic typography videos that have been going around.

On a side note, I also really enjoyed this anti-war poster, I can’t remember where I saw it now, to give credit. But excellent. I love the bold typography, clean design. It’s a Jobs moment (It Just Works!).

via current.com

Over 1 million copies of a spoof New York Times was recently distributed across NY and LA. The free, “special-edition” detailed stories such as the end of the Iraq war, free healthcare in the US and was full of great spoof ads.

The hoax mimicked the real NYT paper and was accompanied by a spoof website. It was an elaborate plan that took over six months of planning and execution. 1.2M papers were printed on six presses and distributed over the US.

Apart from the massive scale of this there is the obvious question of how did the fund it? The cost implications would have run into the tens of thousands (maybe more). I think it’s great that people still have the belief, energy and willpower to get up and say something.

“Wouldn’t you love to receive news like this every day? You can, but you can’t buy it — you have to make it happen”.

Download a copy of the paper from here

Today is the beginning of London Design Week! There are loads of design orientated talks on most of which are free, you just have to book tickets.

If you can’t make it – or get tickets to any of the talks this week then don’t worry, I think the Designers Block in covent garden is going to be a must see and is on over the weekend. Over sixty UK and international designers present new works, spread over more than 10,000 square feet at Number One The Piazza.

10.00 – 19.00 Thursday – Saturday
10.00 – 17.00 Sunday
No1 The Piazza. Covent Garden. WC2E 8AA.

Last night me and my flatmates went to see the pilot for Dave Gormans’ new BBC show Genius.

I’m a bit of Gorman fan-boy anyway so this is all a bit biased, but it was really funny. If you listened to the BBC radio show of Genius then you will recognise (the voices at least) of a lot of the people presenting their ideas. As usual though Gorman was on-point, witty and bouncing off the audience/guests. Really looking forward to the series, make sure you check it!

There a few samples from the radio show online at the BBC

Blog Action Day 2008, a day for bloggers of the world to unite and trigger a global discussion about poverty… They also have a lovely website

It’s time to dust off that skateboard and head down to Southsea because this weekend is the skateparks 30th birthday! One of Englands first parks and still some of the best concrete in the uk.

If you can’t make it check out Bored of Southsea the local skateshop, it’s an awesome shop supported by some big names – eS, Carhart & ILD to name a few and more to the point they are driving force in keeping the park alive.

Your Invitation to the Southsea Skatepark 30th Birthday

Yesterday I attended Rise Festival 2008, an eco conscious, sustainable festival aimed at raising awareness of cultural & community diversity.

Rise has been a bit of a hot-topic this year in London. It was first pitched as London united against racism but Boris decided that the focus should be more on cultural diversity than anti-racism, implying that racism in London is the problem it once was (this view is wrong).

Boris has a shocking track record on racism and the promotors of Rise where very much involved in the Stop Borris campaign. I think it was poor show of Boris to change the name in an attempt to remove the political motive behind the festival, after all if you can’t have a political motive at a festival, when can you have one?!

All said and done though I thought the festival was a success, the weather was amazing there was a lot of good attitude (apart from the few bad eggs that make an appearance at every free event) and the music was fantastic. Jimmy Cliff was headlining and despite the fact that the festival was supposed to be non-political he didn’t seem to care, vocally putting down Blair & Bush and spurring on Rise for their sustainable policies.

Here are a few videos from the day event (the Jimmy Cliff one is great!)

I have been working on the branding and materials for a major campaign in central london celebrating 60 years of the state of Israel.

It was a pretty extensive campaign I designed over 20 adverts for newspapers, stickers, badges, banners… The full works! The event itself was held in Trafalgar Square and looked fantastic (you can even see Nelsons Column in the background!). It was very surreal to see my artwork on display at such an amazing venue.

Interested in seeing more of my design work?

• A graphic design project for Swansea Universities photography exhibition.
• My design portfolio is also here and details my approach to work.

Last week saw over a months worth of sweat & tears come to fruition as the team that I work with put on the Annual dinner for Ezer Mizion – A Celebration of Life.

I was lucky enough to brand the event & design printed / web based material. The event was a great success and although the figures haven’t been released I believe we helped to raise a considerable amount of money that will help the bone marrow cancer research charity continue with their award winning work.

Interested in seeing more of my design work? Visit my design portfolio