WeAreNorth

Seeyabye

2010-12-29T15:10:00.000-08:00

I haven't used this blog in ages. For that, there are many reasons. The main being I now have a son who is awesome.

Other reasons being that i'm no longer using the moniker wearenorth and am now attempting a bit of web consistency under the new name EightyTen.

This is my last post here, so if you've stumbled across this and thought "shit, what a shame, I like that this guy talks extremely sporadically about music and design" then you can stalk me at the following places.

Twitter, Last.fm & Tumblr. I also do a bit of blogging here.

Oh, and 2011 is the year i'll have a personal portfolio site up. I swear to god.

There is an idea of a Patrick Bat[e]man and other stories

2010-05-14T03:38:00.000-07:00

Well I finally did it. Ten years of music in one handy mixtape.

Actually, that's not strictly true. It's two mixes and I had it done in March. So anyway, here it is. What i've been banging on about for the last few blogposts. A concept mix about living in shared accomodation between 2000 and 2009. Containing some or all of the below (links to zip files are the mix names...)

–

Part One. Did You Just Call Me A Fuckass? Contains some or all of the following: The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash (2003) / Hidden Track - Lift To Experience (2001) / Gorosukehoukou - Merzbow (2009) / Comfy In Nautica - Panda Bear (2007) / 1,000,000 Died To Make This Sound - A Silver Mount Zion (2008) / Good Morning - Cage (2005) / I Found The F - Broadcast (2005) / A Story Of Boy Meets Girl - Mychael Danna & Rob Simonsen (2009) / A Song For The Deaf - Queens of the Stone Age (2002) / Tearing Me Apart - Curses! (2007) / Fluorescent Grey - Deerhunter (2007) / The Velvet Ant - cLOUDDEAD (2004) / Uplifting Chart Trance - 65 Days of Static (2005) - Hello, My Cock Is An Aardvark - Bong Ra (2005) / GNG BNG - Flying Lotus (2008) / Soothsayer - The Mars Volta (2008) / Phoenix Riddim - Kid 606 (2005) / Bridget Riley - Ateleia (2007) / Cock Pushups - Tenacious D (2001) / Lawine - Machinefabriek (2006) / And All You Can Do Is Laugh (1) - cLOUDDEAD (2001) / Track 30 - Cassette Boy (2005) / Enfilade - At The Drive In (2000) / Eye For An Eye - Unkle (2003) / Blue Moon - Alec Empire & Elvis Presley (2006) / With Charles Bukowski On Ride - Slepcy (2006) / A Good Son - Bloodhorse (2009) / Hit Wash Moidah! - Ergo Phizmiz / Track 35 - Cassette Boy (2005) // Strat Hear - Kid Koala (2003) / Bitch’s Brew (Excerpt) - Nomeansno (2000) / Xerrox Soma - Alva Noto (2009) / April 06 - Word The Cat (2006) / The Bride (Edit) - Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath (2004) / Psychic Secession - Yellow Swans (2005) / Dirrty - Christina Aguilera (2002) / Bootylicious - Destiny’s Child (2001) / Shots Ring - Excepter (2007) / All Roads To Fault - Yourcodenameismilo (2004) / Bools Rule - Wounded Knee (2009) / House Of Jealous Lovers - The Rapture (2003) / These Words - Natasha Bedingfield (2004) / I Hear Voices - MF Doom (2005) / It Took The Night To Believe - Sunn O))) (2005) / Wire Covers - P Wilson & J Smith (2005) / The Ground So Soft - Lift To Experience (2001) / English Lesson - DJ Format (2003) / 2 Morrow Morrow Land - Lightning Bolt (2006) / Wham City - Dan Deacon (2007) / Atlas (Honda Remix) - Battles (2009) / Untitled Three - Odd Nosdam (2005) / Track 60 - Cassette Boy (2005) / Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2003) / Holy Shit - Johnny Solstice (2005) / I’m A Star In LA - WMFU (2008) / Beautiful (OG Ron C edit) - Christina Aguilera (2005)

–

Part Two. There Is An Idea Of A Patrick Bat[e]man. Contains some or all of the following: Surf Solar - Fuck Buttons (2009) / The Whale Years - Mountains (2009) / Bitch’s Brew (Excerpt) - Nomeansno (2000) / 1,000,000 Dies To Make This Sound - A Silver Mount Zion (2008) / Variation No. 2 - Merzbow (2009) / Chop Suey! - System of a Down (2001) / Velocity of the Yolk - Yellow Swans (2005) / Senorita - Justin Timberlake (2003) / A Song For The Deaf - Queens of The Stone Age (2002) / When Are You Gonna Start - Planningtorock (2006) / The Longvein of the Voice - Subtle & Mike Patton (2006) / Son et Lumiere - The Mars Volta (2003) / Ode To Isis - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead (2005) / Trapped In The Closet - R Kelly (2005) / She - Subtle (2004) / The Embassy - Mos Def (2009) / Peacebone - Animal Collective (2007) / Intertiatic Esp - The Mars Volta (2003) / A Divine Proclamation for Finishing the Present Existance - Last Days of Humanity (2007) / Drought - Pelican (2003) / Orthodox Caveman - Sunn O))) (2005) / Don’t Kill Me - 65 Days of Static (2005) / Keen Teen Skip - cLOUDDEAD (2004) / Hearts Alive - Mastodon (2004) // Bike (2) - cLOUDDEAD (2001) / If I Had A Heart (Fuck Buttons Remix) - Fever Ray (2009) / Our Name - cLOUDDEAD (2004) / The Day That Never Comes - Metallica (2008) / Over & Over - Hot Chip (2006) / Wrestlexotica - DJ Shitmat (2008) / 2004 Igen Med Ralf Christensen Ved Roret - Goodiepal (2007) / Hard To Explain - The Strokes (2001) / True Union - Yellow Swans (2005) / Staring at the Sun - TV On The Radio (2004) / Defeated By Technology - Hot Chip (2004) / Brian Cardboard & His Swaying Stance - Cassette Boy (2002) / Noise Epic - The Bellrays (2003) / Chicago - Sufjan Stevens (2005) / Revenge of the Fern - Themselves (2000) / Aluminium - White Stripes (2001) / Candlegoat - Sunn O))) (2005) / Hemicyclic Anthelion - Ghost (2006) / Furies - hamaYôko (2007) / Bad Romance - Lady Gaga (2009) / Stay Golden - Au Reviour Simone (2005) / Cripplefight - Droon (2007) / Knife (Girl Talk Remix) - Grizzly Bear (2007) / Paper Planes (Remix ft Bun B & Rich Boy) - M.I.A (2007) / Drum And The Uncomfortable Can - Liars (2006) / At The Bottom of Everything - Bright Eyes (2005) / Orchestra of Wolves - Gallows (2007) / Ipacial Section - Authechre (2005) / Retreat! Retreat! - 65 Days of Static (2004) / Peacocks Skeletons With Crooked Feathers - The Blood Brothers (2004) / Gene by Gene - Blur (2003) / No One Loves Me & Neither Do I - Them Crooked Vultures (2009) / Air Raid GTR - The GO! Team (2004) / Great Release - LCD Soundsystem (2005) / Ice Cream - Muscles (2007) / Son of Sam - Elliot Smith (2000) / Sea of Love - Cat Power (2000) / Street of Dreams - Guns N’ Roses (2008) / Bitch’s Brew - Nomeansno (2000) / Into The Storm - Lift To Experience (2001)

Sports Car vs Snow

2010-01-14T01:23:00.000-08:00

I wish i'd got video of this. 45 minutes of sheer skiddery trying to get my Golf GT Sport out of the unadopted road at the back of my house.

It is officially the wankest car in the snow.

Adam Bertocci: Two Gentlemen of Lebowski

2010-01-12T05:02:00.001-08:00

What if The Big Lebowski was written by the Bard himself?

Even someone who doesn't know Shakespeare in and out like myself can clock the sheer genius of this.

Here's a bit from the rug-soiling scene...

WOO
Rise, and speak wisely, man—but hark;
I see thy rug, as woven i’the Orient,
A treasure from abroad. I like it not.
I’ll stain it thus; ever thus to deadbeats.

[He stains the rug]

THE KNAVE
Sir, prithee nay!

BLANCHE
Now thou seest what happens, Lebowski, when the agreements of honourable business stand compromised. If thou wouldst treat money as water, flowing as the gentle rain from heaven, why, then thou knowest water begets water; it will be a watery grave your rug, drowned in the weeping brook. Pray remember, Lebowski.

THE KNAVE
Thou err’st; no man calls me Lebowski. Yet thou art man; neither spirit damned nor wandering shadow, thou art solid flesh, man of woman born. Hear rightly, man!—for thou hast got the wrong man. I am the Knave, man; Knave in nature as in name.

BLANCHE
Thy name is Lebowski. Thy wife is Bonnie.

THE KNAVE
Zounds, man. Look at these unworthiest hands; no gaudy gold profanes my little hand. I have no honour to contain the ring. I am a bachelor in a wilderness. Behold this place; are these the towers where one may glimpse Geoffrey, the married man? Is this a court where mistresses of common sense are hid? Not for me to hang my bugle in an invisible baldric, sir; I am loath to take a wife, or she to take me until men be made of some other mettle than earth. Hark, the seat of my commode be arisen!

WOO
Search his satchel! His words are a fantastical banquet to work confusion upon his enemies. There sits eight pounds of proof within; surely he hides his treasure on his person.

BLANCHE
Villainy! Why this confounded orb, such as men use to play at ninepins; what devilry, these holes in holy trinity?

THE KNAVE
Obviously thou art not a golfer.

Read the entire thing here.

Puking Up Bullshit presents: 2009 - Keep Calm & Carry On

2010-01-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

This is what I get obsessed about at the same time every year. Tape Night. Well, not just Tape Night, everything that leads up to it. The listening over and over to this year's music and mentally making notes about the mixtape i'm about to put together. The summation of a year in music. In some really nice packaging.

I usually like to put together a little book to accompany the 'tape' (it hasn't actually been in tape form for a couple of years, see previous posts!). A visual compilation of the year's events / things that I liked etc etc. Each year, the packaging became a little bit more intricate, with last years being a 12pp booklet housed in a handmade box envelope that actually made it in one piece to London in the post!

This year, I think I went a bit overboard, and did an annual report. Feltron style.

The WeAreNorth Annual Report is a summary of my Browser Behaviour, Twitterstream, Facebook Status Updates, Travel, Listening Habits and projects worked on compiled in 2 12pp booklets that can only be accessed by peeling the perforated strips. These are in turn housed in a double gatefold 325gsm GF Smith Mohawk Options Crystal White Smooth outer. All handmade.

I didn't really keep a very good record of where I'd been and what i'd worked on in 2009. Cue me frantically going through the entire job list, trying to jog my memory about what fonts i'd used, what stage the job had got to and how many pitches i'd won.

Turns out, i'd had quite a good year. And thanks to Last.FM, the music side of things was a lot easier to compile. Although, i'm sure there's an easier way to do this. Maybe I should keep that Daytum account going.

Or maybe 2010 is the year of the Tape...

And here are the mixes from off of Tape Night™ '09.

First. Mine (Keep Calm mix can be found in an earlier post)
Carry On Side A
Carry On Side B

Then Mr McKerchar's - Collapse, Rebirth & Idiosyncratic Syntax
Side A - Bruise Campbell
Side B - "My Mum says you're a Badman"

And finally Mr Bennett's - Maintain Speed Maintain Dispersion
Side A - Maintain Speed
Side B - Maintain Dispersion

Happy Nude Year

2010-01-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

A new year means a new calendar, and what else would be adorning my wall than the LDNnudetech 2010 calendar. It arrived, as promised, just before christmas, and looks fantastic. Now, i'd only seen a couple of pages on press (see below), so had an idea about how good it was going to look, but, wow - i'm very happy with the end result.

I've already done an exhaustive post on this before, so i'll keep this one brief (word-wise). Below are a few shots that sort of fill in the gaps between the Leap Anywhere 'Making of Video' and the calendar you've bought because you're a nice person who saw this whole exercise the way it should have been seen. As an opportunity to ogle Hermione W- sorry - *ahem* an opportunity to raise a shed load of money for a great cause.

There are still a few left in stock at Firebox, so what are you waiting for? Buy one!

First Proof arrives at Manifest

Calendar on press at Waddington & Ledger

The finished article arrives!

10 Years into 90 minutes.

2009-12-17T01:08:00.000-08:00

Help. So every year myself and two of my closest friends produce an end of year mixtape and have a big nerdoff some time in January. Which is fine - i've pretty much nailed this years anyway. It wasn't until some bright spark though it'd be a good idea to create an 'end of decade' mixtape that I started worrying.

How do you condense 10 YEARS of music into 90 minutes? Follow what these guys say? Fuck that.

And where the fuck do you find a C90 nowadays?

Above is my first draft of what i'd want to put on. I'm in trouble. At the moment, i've like 5 openers. Maybe even 7. What the hell am I to do? And do I do this old-school track after track, or do i chance it and throw it all into ableton and hope for the best?

Sometimes, I should just keep my mouth shut.

Get yer ya yas out (or something a lot less crude)

2009-11-18T05:22:00.000-08:00

I'm extremely proud to be part of the team creating the first ever #LDNnudetech calendar, a nude calendar featuring some of the capital's leading tech pioneers - the techoratti, if you will. You won't? Oh, ok then.

Organised by Milo Yiannopoulos (someone I have only just become acquainted with, but a stirling bloke if I do say so myself), money raised from the sales of the calendar will go to Take Heart India. Click the link to find out more about them. The job was pitched in t'studio by fellow Manifestee Mr Myers (or 'The Client' as he's known up in the north studio...) and obviously our first reaction was who was going to pose in their birthday suit! Thankfully, all we've done is design the thing. For nowt. Because we're nice like that.

Initially, we pitched in an idea that would have the calendar packaged in a polythene bag, printed black with a hash tag pattern revealing the odd bit of flesh. But with pressing deadlines and launch parties around the corner, a quicker, and less costly alternative was chosen (see above).

I'm currently putting together the finishing touches to it and have to admit that it's looking great. And that's not down to the design & layout. All the photography is top notch, with every model looking gorgeous. It’s testament to the character of everyone involved (Milo, the guys at Huddle, Hermione Way, Mike Butcher, Lucian Tarnowski, Alicia Navarro, Sam Mathews, Poppy Dinsey the list goes on…) that the calendar will be produced in time for Christmas as planned – which was always an ambitious target for a project of this scale. There's a making of video made by fellow sponsor Leap Anywhere at the bottom of the post.

It's also a project that's sparked quite a few heated debates on blogs and tech websites. This one in particular caught my eye. Maybe it's just me, but at the end of the day, it's a CHARITY calendar. Gerroverit.

The calendars are available to Pre-Order now from Firebox, and the projects already got some great coverage in the Lah'n E'nin St'hndeeerd, Telegraph and NBC Turkey (double u, tee, eff?) with more not far off. Keep your eyes on #LDNnudetech trending on twitter as I type!

Go on, buy one.

Seriously. If you buy one, tweet me (@wearenorth) to tell me you have, and if, say, i get 50 tweets, I'll pose for one next year. That might not actually be the greatest incentive...

Nude London Tech Calendar from Leapanywhere.com on Vimeo.

Off My Arse...

2009-11-03T14:17:00.000-08:00

Have finally started putting together my personal website. Which means I get to write another heap of case study text after the marathon job that was the Manifest site!

This site will be a lot more streamlined than that one, no news stories, just cold hard projects (and a few links to Twitter, Last FM etc). Some from work (which I will put a bit of my own two penneth in a bit), some from home (jobs for the missus and all that) and some really old stuff (i'm a nostalgist after all).

Here's the first two screen shots. Now. Who wants to give me some free hosting?

Home Page.

Case Study Page.

Wedding Revelry

2009-10-11T07:08:00.001-07:00

A quick post, and one I should have done AGES ago, but y'know...

So one of my best friends got hitched and asked a few people to create half an hour mixes for the 'night-do'. A genius idea, and one i'm stealing for my 30th birthday.

There's two below, mine and my good friend Gramschi McChurcher's (his is better, mine was just an excuse to play Wired for Sound...)

WeAreNorth Wedding Mix -
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion
Dolly Parton - 9 to 5
The Knack - My Sharona
Cliff Richard - Wired for Sound
Missy Elliot - Get yr freak on
George Michael - Faith
New Bomb Turks - Jukebox Lean
Guns N Roses - Human Being

Gramschi's Mix -
Little Richard - Long Tall Sally
Destiny's Child - Lose My Breath
Mr Scruff - Get A Move On
Roxette - The Look
Nena - 99 Luftballons
Elvis vs. JLX - A Little Less Conversation
Reel 2 Reel - I Like To Move It
The Kills - No Wow (MSTRKRFT remix)
John Farnham - You're The Voice

Speaking of Self Initiation...

2009-10-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

Facebook Facelift - Home & Profiles from wearetol on Vimeo.

This is quality. Although if it was implemented, i'm not sure how it'd go down.

The Facebook Facelift is a self initiated project to challenge the form and functionality of Facebook. It's streamlined, structured, linear interface is more comprehendible, enhancing the user experience and absorbability of content.

The home page features many new benefits: the publisher toolbar enables users to post content from any page within Facebook, saving time in navigating needlessly through profiles; the streams' two-tiered filter (content type & content contributers) also creates a more coherent structure with the core elements retaining their position throughout most of the site; and the live feed displays a constant stream of all content posted in a users network, which expands upon mouse over.

"But I can still get on Farmville. Right?"

This week I have mostly been looking at...

2009-10-09T05:53:00.000-07:00

Obviously, doing what I do means I take a keen interest in what's happening in the world of design. Trawling through the many, many RSS feeds I have at work, here are what's been getting me all excited this week.

Ben Terrett is a designer and a partner in Really Interesting Group, a multi disciplinary organisation working in post digital design. He also has a blog, upon which I found this. A newspaper containing interesting things he'd found on the tinterwebs. So there you go, the internet is keeping print alive. Well done, internet. Well done.

2. Nicolas Feltron. Probably one of the first designers (to my knowledge) that took the old 'self-initiated projects' to a higher level. This is some serious geek-outery, and I can't wait for 2009's report. He's also partly responsible for Daytum - a way to help you collect, categorise and communicate your everyday data, which is cool. Although i've not actually used mine in ages...

3. James Dawe is an Illustrator & Image Maker who grew up and still operates out of East London. James specializes in contemporary photo collage, working both digitally and analog with a tendency to assemble imagery in the form of portraits. Pride is taken in composition and interpreting the everyday in a surreal and fantastical way. Since graduating from the University of Brighton James has regularly freelanced with Village Green Studio and has worked on a diverse range of projects which include: Financial Times international billboard campaign, Guardian Podcasts Campaign, artwork for Fabric Nightclub, covers for G2 and The Guide, Sky Sports Epic campaigns and a music video for The Maccabees.

4. Non Format. Hadn't been on their site for a while, but did so this week and found they'd updated. Typographically, no one can touch them. Still the best at what they do, and Wire magazine has never looked the same since they finished art directing it.

Global Poetry System

2009-10-09T04:49:00.000-07:00

On Thursday this week, the lovely people at the Southbank centre introduced GPS (The Global Poetry System), a project to explore and map the poetry of the world.

Based on the idea that poetry's everywhere, from the public toilet walls of the world to great memorial statues. GPS invites you to upload poems you find, and share them with the world. These are then showcased on an interactive map that works a little bit like the Nokia Vine website designed a while ago by Airside.

As the site explains:

The idea for GPS began with poet and Southbank Centre artist in residence, Lemn Sissay. Intrigued by the idea of finding poetry throughout the Southbank Centre site, not only in the live literature programme,or the Poetry Library, he set out to track down all the poems that were present at Southbank Centre over the first year of its reopening, from June 2007. Finding it on stage in the words accompanied by great classical music, in art galleries engraved in stone, written by security guards late at night, Lemn and his team collected over five hundred poems.

Take a look and enjoy some of the poems there already - from a hip hop chip shop, to a declaration of love etched into a tree. This one in particular frikkin' rules.

Helvarial

2009-10-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

If you liked Cheese or Font, you'll love Ironic Sans' little game Helvarial.

To test your skills, and help you learn to recognize Arial vs Helvetica, I’ve taken 20 Helvetica logos and redone them in Arial. (Blasphemy!) A lot of them are just plain awful in Arial. But a couple of them are actually tough to tell apart.

I got a respectable 18 out of 20. What? Some of them are tougher than they look!

A Sad Bastard Mix, for a Sad Bastard Month

2009-10-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

Pic - Mark for the new Harman Black & White Paper - Direct Positive Paper. Click here for more info.

Hello, October. The month where I get one year older, and the days get darker and Hollyoaks gets stupider.

Ah Sarah Barnes, how i'll miss your weird scar near your mouth.

But that's beside the point. To help get through the rest of the year and the soon to come onslaught of countdowns, top tens, and greatest thing I ever did between 2000 and now is a little 'Sad Bastard Mix' using that loveable application Garageband.

Track Listing

Actually unsure what this one's called. Shiney monkey for the first one who tells me it.
Aimee Mann - One
Steve Fisk & Benjamin Gibbard - Overture
Gypsy Kings - Hotel California
TV on the Radio - Staring at the Sun
Fuck Buttons - Colours Move
Lift to Experience - The Ground So Soft
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
cLOUDDEAD - Bike (2) (edit)
Townes Van Sandt - Dead Flowers
DJ / Rupture - Plays John Cassavettes pt. 2
Blur - Best Days
Hanne Hukkleberg - Boble
Midlake - Mr Amateur
Postal Service - Such Great Heights
Au Reviour Simone - Stay Golden
Telepathe - Drugged
Hot Chip - Defeated By Technology
Bill Hicks - Marketing & Advertising
Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance

Designer vs Client

2009-10-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

I know i'm miles behind with this - but it cracks me up beyond belief. The client bit, anyway. The designer actually gets a little annoying - to the point that I wish he'd shut up so the Client can talk a bit more.

Speaking of clients. This blog is hilarious. Love the stock image in the sidebar...

A full on Manifest update

2009-09-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

After months of blood, sweat and tears the Manifest website is finally live backed up with new stationery and internal document overhaul.

The main challenge we had while developing the brand and site was to make Manifest look as busy as it is on a day to day basis without the site becoming cluttered. Throw In the proverbial curve ball when three quarters of the way through we announced the opening of Manifest London (specialising in Social media PR and run by Alex 'web 2.0' Myers) which needed it's own site, stationery and blog.

The new site uses a custom & flexible 16 column grid and has updateable news, project feeds and loads of little touches we're pretty proud of. We've also added a 'Trash' section showcasing some of the work that didn't make it, but is worth showing.

The stationery is also a geek's wet dream. With a spot silver front and back on colourplan pristine white and business cards using GF Smith's duplexing system white on the front, dark grey on the back. Well, we thought we'd treat ourselves - it's not everyday you celebrate ten years in the business and a new office venture. Shots to follow.

And what happens when you get new business cards? Yeah, you watch this.

Keep Calm

2009-07-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, and the temptation has got the best of me. Plans for the End of Year tape are already in full swing and below is the first part to it - 'Keep Calm'. Containing SOME of my favourite music over the past 6 months (am saving a couple of tracks until the end of the year...). The packaging is being thought out already to top last years (of which i'm planning to put up on here soon) so to those lucky people who get one, you really are in for a treat.

Go on! You know you want to go early and listen... Side A is here, closely followed by Side B.

Speaking of mixtapes, eHarmony's Perfect Mixtape generator lets you create your own mixtape and let the world rate it. If they do, you stand the chance of winning an iPod touch. Which this fella did this week.

Sorry, it's a shameless plug for friends!

Hands off my MTV

2009-07-01T12:50:00.001-07:00

As of today, MTV gets a bit of an overhaul. And for the first time that i can remember, the logo is off bounds. Don't touch it. Leave it alone. And put a white box around it.

All of which is quite brave of Universal Everything, the agency behind the 'refresh'. In this world where nothing is really sacred in design circles (or roundels, or whatever your client decides to put your painstakingly crafted logo into) with logos getting bigger and people wanting to be top o' google, like, now, it's good to see that someone stood up and said leave it alone!

"Now the logo is sacred," says Roberto Bagatti, Vice President of Creative for MTV Networks International and Creative Director of MTV's World Design Studio in Milan, who oversaw the project.

Read a more eloquent article here. It goes into more depth about the full brand refresh, which, to be honest, doesn't get me all that excited. But then again, i'm old and don't watch MTV as much as I used to. I guess i'm still pining for those days when that chick chainsawed through the TV and when they had those weird-ass stop motion animations that looked like a cuckoo clock just before Headbangers Ball.

Because I love my wife...

2009-03-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

My wife is a teacher, which means she has lots of ideas to enthuse kids about History. She also knows that if she asks me nicely, i'll do posters for her. Below is one in a series of three posters to promote A Level study.

Italic Managed Solutions

2009-03-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

Following the launch of their other recruitment website Johnson Knight, Fircroft Recruitment asked Manifest to overhaul the site for another one of their subdivisions, Italic. So we gave them not only a new site, but a whole new look. I know I keep saying this, but will have more stuff to show once the wearenorth website is up & running. And the Manifest one!

You can see the full Italic site here

The main Fircroft site is currently being re-looked at, and should be up soon. It was also the first site i got to cut my basic coding teeth on. Which was nice.

Dunlop to the rescue...

2009-02-24T11:47:00.000-08:00

Another quick turnaround ad campaign pitch for Manifest. This time, Dunlop Adhesives - following on from the previously successful (and fun to work on) Microban campaign. The chosen campaign can be found in the much perused 'Builders Merchants Journal', but thought i'd post the 'one that got away'. Bit of a shame this didn't run but, hey, maybe it'll work for something else.

Stuff like this will be filling up the 'Trash' section of WeAreNorth.co.uk which i'm currently working on and need to put a deadline to...

2009 - A Year of Sport for Dunlop

2009-01-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

2009 marks the return of the Dunlop Adhesives Sporting Year, and following the success of last year, Manifest were asked to create a new logo, new website & new goodies.

Below are a few excerpts from the 2009 Calendar (seem to have done a lot of these over the past weeks - more info on those to come in later posts) showcasing my favourite illustrations from the job.

Fingers crossed, some samples will be arriving soon, so will get photos of the real thing up when they turn up.

WeAreUnderConstruction

2008-12-29T14:02:00.000-08:00

After .com got bought under our noses, we thought it a good idea to get off our arses and purchase a domain name. So wearenorth.co.uk is ours. What we do with it, i don't know yet.

Keep checking for what will probably be an ever changing holding page...

Bring On The Trumpets

2008-12-28T13:40:00.001-08:00

As 2008 draws to a close, so Tape Night™ looms closer & closer.

To commemorate such an odd year in everything, including music, WeAreNorth created a 20pp booklet sent to a selected few with two horrible little mixes showcasing our TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE skills with GarageBand.

Each mix contains tracks from this year that we really, really, really liked.

Although neither contain a single Gn'R track, that is not because we hated that album. We goddamn LOVED that album. But that's another blog post altogether...

Tracklists to follow, after Tape Night™ (so that i don't give anything away....).

And with the right kind of eyes, you can see the word emo.

2008-12-28T12:56:00.000-08:00

This little beauty turned up just before xmas (and it was only Christmas Eve when someone actually pointed out the two turtle dove connection, doy). Knocked it up for a pitch for Flip video (an excellent product, i might add), but liked them so much i decided to put 'em on a tee.