I’m sure you all know that last weekend was the weekend of the Star Wars Celebration out in Orlando…What… you mean you didn’t? For Shame!

Luckily I did! And whilst I was unable to attend in person I did vicariously through all the images I found on twitter, digg and various blogs. So here you have my pick of the best costumes, dioramas and exhibits. Let out your inner Jedi, and may the force go with us…

We’ll start with a good one:

Look! It’s Boobie Fett.

The Family that Cons together, stays together. But how pretty is her dress?!

That thing must have taken so long to make!

Awesome.

Ok, here I’m going to mirror the photographers words,

I wish I had a time-machine so I could go back and be as awesome as this 12year old!

Or even as awesome as this little guy!

Here’s one of him with his head on:

Oh my nieces had better be worried…

A really Great photo opportunity!

Last minute Con costume?

Zombies and Stormtroopers, don’t you love it when two of

your favorite things come together?

There’s always one…Oh well, at least he’s not a redshirt.

Look at the detail, look at it!

And now I’m going to end this on my favorite image of all. There are no words for how freaking cool this is!

Later!

Here we are girls; a new week, a new background. I’ve been playing with vectors this time!

The brief was very simple; Design a business card for emerging artist Terri Saunders using images of her work. This is what I came up with:

What do you think?

A few moments ago, whilst trawling the intraweb I came across the cutest think I’ve seen for hours, no not hours, days.  At my loud ‘Awww’ the guys glanced over to see what I was looking at, before quickly telling me that I’m an idiot and going back to their work.

Am I an idiot? That’s for you to decide.

Now I love theater, I mean really Love the theater (and cabaret and live music and any thing else to do with a stage – I’ve even been on the stage a few times…but that’s another blog post) I know all the words to all the songs from The Phantom of the Opera and I’ve even seen The Merry Wives of Windsor in The Globe.

But there is nothing in this world quite like the Fitzrovia Radio hour.

The Fitzrovia radio hour has a very simple premise: they perform a 1940’s style radio drama, their acting is straight up  but find comedy in the performance of sound effects (did you know that there are over seven different uses for a cabbage?)

“Sound barrier being broken. Space-time continuum about to be torn – indicated by poised wobble board.”

They’re at this moment at the Fringe Festival, and are getting the most amazing reviews. Here’s one by a far better writer that myself:

There are some shows that come to the Fringe that are not only inspired but also ingenious in their creativity, delivery, and scope. I can say this with total confidence and no fear or contradiction that The Fitzrovia Radio Hour is the BEST show at this years Fringe festival, not one of the best, simply the best show you are likely to see. The cast, also writers of the play, bring to life the radio voices of the day with a frightening realness. The audience is treated much like the radio audience of the day (there is a wonderful bit at the start where the placards to cue the audience) and after the first 10 minutes you are gripped, sitting on the edge of your seat as the dramas, comedy, and commercials for Roses Carbolic Soap float by.

The Fitzrovia radio hour will be playing next 10 September at 19:30 – 18 September at 23:30 at Wilton’s Music Hall & The Rose Theater Kingston. I hope to see you there!

If you, Like me, Happen to live in rented accommodation with a landlord who’d make Hitler look kind and caring. You know the hell that is bland magnolia walls. But my friends I come to bring Salvation in the form of kids toys:

Learn more about how artist/designer Erika and how she did this Here.

Now here at united Graphic design we rarely chicken out, however we do condone small amounts of chickening out when it’s for a good cause. And so I’ve been charged by the guys to Chicken out just enough to create a T-shirt design for Compassion in world farmings ‘Chicken out’ Campaign.

Now the brief is very short, simply design a t-shirt that spreads the message of free-range.

And this is my contribution:

What do you think?

Something I want to start doing with my blog posts is to introduce you to artists/ designers who are new to me and who I think rock.

So to kick it off we have Rebecca Clements who is an Australian illustrator and comicer, and she is just darling.

Look:

Her website is called Kinkofry and you need to go look at it now.

Cthulhu, originally from H.P Lovecraft’s short story “The Call of Cthulhu”, is a god of destruction that needs the energy from worlds to survive.

He also Loves to snuggle.

This has to be the cutest thing you’ve ever seen, it just has to!

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to For The Bees a project by artists Fern Thomas and Owen Griffiths.

To highlight the plight of the honey bee they have had commissioned a piece of choral music to sing to two hives of honey bees that have been installed in the grounds of Swansea university.

The choir had been brought together from interested people (mostly amateur singers) and last night they gathered with an audience of around thirty folk, to perform the piece, composed in collaboration with Swansea’s Mial Watkins. This piece almost mirrors the sounds of the bees to create a sort of wave of well being – a message of warmth to the bees in the hope that they’ll hear it and understand.

Owen spoke to the BBC about the performance:

“The idea is that this coming together to sing to the bees really is a poetic gesture to the bees, to reconnect and engage people, to see that the bees are in trouble…It’s going to have a very haunting quality to it – it’s like a lament to the bees.”

I know that this all sounds a little ‘lah-de-dah’ but it does have basis in scientific fact: When an unhealthy hive has the sound of a healthy hive played to it, the hive improves.

The actual performance was incredible, the music sounding a little like a cross between a chant and a hymn, all hummed by the choir. This, enhanced by the surroundings and the quiet buzzing of the bees equated to a hushed and almost sacramental atmosphere. But maybe that was just me.

If you’re at all interested in this you can hear Owen talk about this project Here.

There’s an article by the BBC Here

And at some point footage will be broadcast on S4C, I’ll update this post when I have more details!

(All Images where taken from Here)