In a recent missive from long-lost founding member of A to M, Andy Smith — we’ve discovered the exciting news that he’s moving from his current agency Great Fridays, to join Love. Andy has the curliest hair of anyone I’ve ever met, and probably the most reckless attitude to riding bikes down steep hills. He also taught me how to say magic wand in sign language and aided and abetted in the naming (and consumption) of surely the worst cocktail ever.
The Manchester Jazz Festival kicks off tomorrow – and we thoroughly recommend it. I do however, feel somewhat compelled to point out that we’re not involved in any way in the design this year.
Ramsbottom’s hottest night spot and home to the very best Lancashire T’apas. Rik Garner’s beautifully furbished and well stocked bar & kitchen gets a new site to follow the identity we created for him last year. The food’s tasty, the beer satisfying, the web site’s, well, a web site. But we hope it encourages some of you in the East Lancs area to get down their and try it out yourself. Mine’s a pint of the Outstanding Blonde!
Unrealised Potential
From Sat 17 July to Sun 12 September
CORNERHOUSE
70 Oxford Street
Manchester
M1 5NH
Unrealised Potential is an art project as exhibition which will allow gallery-goers the opportunity to become producers themselves by purchasing the right to realise a leading artist’s dream project.
The show also includes a number of invited contributions from over seventy other artists, including Richard Wilson, Tom Morton, Cecilia Wee, David Shrigley, Simon Patterson, and many more.
Also of interest is the rather appealing open call for logos.
EDIT: On trundling down to the opening, we were pleasantly surprised to find their site (which we designed for them) on full display on the first floor of the exhibition. The exhibition is well worth a visit (not just for that reason!)
Photo: Tom van Schelven
We are lucky enough to share our studio with a rather talented photographer (just don’t tell him I said that) – Tom van Schelven- and he’s just updated his site with a little help from yours truly and a bunch of great new portraits. The hirsute gentleman above is none other than Jay Taylor, the guy who gave us our first break way back in ’03 when A to M was just an attempt to get some weird and wonderful ideas on to paper and out into the unsuspecting world.
Just so you know, the guy responsible for all our exquisite bits of hand drawn illustration here at A to M is none other than partner and co-founder, Ben Lamb. Having recently just completed work on Closer to Everything: An Exhibition of High Priestesses (my favourite priestess pictured above) he’s also had the thoughtfulness to collect his best output into one convenient website. Check!
Just a little mention for our friend Thaddi who’s Berlin label just celebrated its third 12″ release and another real blink-and-you’ll-miss-it one it was too. You may be able to hunt down a copy if you’re quick, otherwise you’ll just have to hang on for release four, or else pop over to the new label website to pine over missed opportunities…
There’s been a few comings and goings here at A to M towers, or at least the Four & Five studio. We were sad to lose the one man ragga revival that is Eoin MacManus as he heads off to take over the internet one sartorial blog post at a time. We were graced too briefly with the Brompton slinging code genius that is Jono Brain before he found himself his own home from home around the corner (it has skylights).
However, taking up the newest deskspace is ginger funnyman and The National’s All Time #1 Fan Adam Rix of Various Artists. Along with a much needed female touch, the talented illustrator Deanna Halsall. It’s coincided with a nice little rearrangement of the studio and a cleaner floor. Top-a-mop!
Congratulations Ben & Alexandra.
Photo: Adam Russ
Best wedding ever?
After reading an article from A List Apart on web standards for E-books I decided to have a pop at a couple of styles for the newly formed ePub Zen Garden created by Threepress. The ePub format is a standard for publishing books for screens and the Zen Garden is designed to showcase the flexibility of the format. The most successful submission of mine seems to be Seneca, based loosely on the design by Phil Baines for the Penguin series of Great Ideas (I recently finished Seneca’s Shortness of Life). The other styles I submitted are Carter and Jost (references to the typographers Matthew Carter and Jost Hochuli respectively).