Observation – Page 2

My iPhone hates me

I think my iPhone hates me, it has recently been swapping the album artwork of one band for another. This is very much a first world problem, I know. But it does feel very personal. My phone, for all its ‘smartness’, must know how important graphic design and music are to me. I use the MusicContinue reading “My iPhone hates me”

Graphic commons: Tunnel and peripheral vision

Distance: 3.7 miles Steps: 8113 Start: 06:25 Ground covered: Feeder roads into and out of Ipswich town centre; pedestrianised shopping precincts; town centre. It has been a while since I last did a dedicated graphic commons walk; 2017 in fact. More recent graphic commons posts have mainly been about walks taken as part of otherContinue reading “Graphic commons: Tunnel and peripheral vision”

Graphic commons: Bucharest, a bohemian rhapsody

Recently I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to travel to Bucharest, Romania, for work. The trip was so that I could attend an art and design education fair and to talk at a couple of high schools about our courses. This was my first such recruitment trip abroad, and I’m told you oftenContinue reading “Graphic commons: Bucharest, a bohemian rhapsody”

Graphic commons: analogue community

Lostwithiel, Cornwall, (affectionately known as Losty by the locals), was the nearest town on our recent summer holiday. As I have mentioned in a previous post I have an interest in noticeboards, and Lostwithiel has not one, but two that I could find. What struck me more than this though was that 2 noticeboards didContinue reading “Graphic commons: analogue community”

Graphic commons: Oxford streets

For many, traipsing historic academic cobbles and staring at spires, let alone dreaming of them, would define any visit to Oxford. For me, on a family weekend there recently, it was an opportunity to study its graphic commons. Looking for its vernacular, I mostly steered clear of high-street parades, and came away finding the city’sContinue reading “Graphic commons: Oxford streets”

Dear Tesco

Dear Tesco, I have had an idea that could help the environment. You are welcome to have this idea for free should you want it. Recently you announced that you were going to stop selling single-use 5p plastic bags to encourage people to buy reusable ‘bags for life’. Reported in The Guardian, you claim “endingContinue reading “Dear Tesco”

Graphic commons: roadcode

I took a dérive to work the other day and came across road work annotations on the pavement. I’ve seen these many times before, and often photographed them, but yesterday’s discovery prompted me to pull the more interesting images together in one place. When cropping some of these square, the reference to Mark Boyle and theContinue reading “Graphic commons: roadcode”

Run / ? / tell

In the aftermath of the recent horrendous Manchester and London terrorist attacks, I was puzzled by the imagery used to accompany a new police warning advising people to RUN, HIDE and TELL if they should find themselves in the midst of such a situation. Seeing this for the first time on the Channel 4 news,Continue reading “Run / ? / tell”

Glasses off

It’s good to have a side project on the go. Of the many I have, they usually just languish somewhere on a hard-drive, or occasionally get posted to Instagram without anyone being any the wiser that they are part of a themed project. However, I’ve just launched a Tumblr of Glasses off, a completely pointless exercise where-by I photographContinue reading “Glasses off”

Graphic commons: more banner frenzy and other temporalities

After my last walk in Chelmsford, I’ve been noticing more and more temporary banners tied to railings. So today I took a short walk around my local area to capture those I had seen whilst in the car. Unlike many that I saw in Essex, the ones I saw today were mostly ‘official’, in thatContinue reading “Graphic commons: more banner frenzy and other temporalities”