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)

Now that dark days and rain are here again, I’m harking back to those glorious halcyon summer days of the festivals (although I’m off to Green Man in two weeks) By providing you with a list of my favorite summer camping gadgets and goodies! So let the fun begin!

Now understand that this isn’t necessarily going to be an affordable list, but rather a list of all the really nice stuff that’s out there right now.

1. Rolling Garden cooler

Yes, you’re right, it is a bit bulky for a festival. And at £250 steep is an understatement;, But picture the scene: The sun is shining, you can hear the sound of Laura Marling singing in the background, you pull up in your lime green VW Camper van Bring out your Rolling Garden cooler full of micro-brewery beer and you set yourself down in your…

2… Penguin Book Deck Chair

I need it. Although I definitely can’t afford it… Moving swiftly on.

3. Solar Lanterns.

These would look so pretty on strings surrounding your tent in the evening- Imagine having a post gig pint under these. Bliss.

4. The tent.

You Know by now that I love all things retro, and this just tops the lot. Yes I know brown isn’t everyone’s favorite, but it’s such a lovely ‘umptious’ colour. And you just know that this baby would stand out in a crowd!

And who needs wellies or a sleeping bag when you have these lovely things?

I have something new to show you, and It blows the shoes and the bracelet out of the water. Take a look at this beauty:

It’s a Lightsaber Umbrella! Ok, the store calls it a ‘Blade Runner Style Umbrella’.But I chose to ignore this and instead attach it to a far superior (well, the original three anyway) film franchise.

This Umbrella makes miracles happen, Look how this otherwise ignorable kid becomes Awesome when given this umbrella:

Oh, oh, and this one’s really cool too:

I can feel a recurring awesome umbrella feature coming on…

more later!

Kanye West has aired a preview of the video for his track ‘Power’ on MTV.

Sampling British prog rockers King Crimson’s ’21st Century Schizoid Man’, the accompanying video for ‘Power’ is equally unconventional for the Hip Hop genre. Directed by Marco Brambilla, Kanye has described it as more of an animated painting than a conventional music video (well, he tweeted ‘It’s not a video .. It’s a moving Painting!!!’) and as you can see below it’s an accurate description for the oddly hypnotic clip.

Ok, so Halloween is roughly three months away. However It’s never too early to get into the Halloween spirit! And so my faithful blog readers I give you the scariest thing I’ve seen all year. Yes sometimes designers do bad, bad, wrong, horrible things. Prepare yourself, and I hold no responsibility for unrestrained gagging.

Did you throw up a little?

Lauren’s Awesome List of Awesomeness part 2:

Blogs: Blogs are awesome, enough said. I follow around 30+ blogs at any one time some are design based some are artists personal blogs and some are just crazy. My favorite three at this particular moment in time are: Cake Wrecks (blogger Jen also owns Epbot, which is a bastion of nerdy cuteness) Hyperbole and a Half and It’s Nice That.

Webcomics: Yes I am that kind of person, I love Webcomics and Graphic novels. I have nothing more to say for myself, other than to let you know about LICD (which isn’t suitable for under 16’s) XKCD and Girls with Slingshots, which Really Isn’t suitable for kids…

More later!

As the only girl in the studio, I again feel the need to inject some femininity into the blog. So here we are, a beautiful, girly vintage background for you:

Now, I’m not sure exactly where I stand on personal branding, Obviously it’s necessary to brand your design firm, or your business, or to some extent your website, but personal branding? Is there ever a way to condense everything about yourself into an easy soundbite. Well the short answer is no, But the slightly longer answer is yes-Ish. So this is my go at condensing my personality into a tasty nugget of design awesomenss:

The beautifully designed logo was made for me by Antony, and I decided upon the background and type. What do you think?

It has come to my attention, that I am now known as the ‘obscure’ one in the design studio. Just because I don’t necessarily like very much ‘mainstream’ music or t.v. doesn’t mean that I’m odd! United Design needs a bit of a shakeup, Difference is good. So thankfully I arrived just in time to give you all just a hint of my nerdy-ness AKA “Laurens List of Awesome things”. Now pay attention, as there will be a quiz…

I’ll ease you into this easily, we’ll start slow with some amazing music and film:

1. Regina Spektor: I mentioned to the studio that I’m a great lover of singer/songwriters, and Regina Spektor has to be one of the best, My particular favorite song being ‘Us’:

2. Delicatessen: Possibly the best film ever, cannibalism, underground vegetarians, romance. What’s not to love?

More to come!

Oh my lord look at these:

Ok, ok I hear what you’re thinking, “Lauren, this is a design blog, not a girly fashion blog with a bit of typography thrown in for fun.”

But look at them, no LOOK AT THEM! They’re beautiful, and unisex.

Ok they’re a little pricey for the average student, coming at £65. But that’s not too bad considering I spend roughly  that amount on my monthly food shopping, I can live on pasta for a month… can’t I?

If you, like me, have found the new love of your life and they just happen to be machine washable. These babies are available on Zazzle by seller iShakespeare