I didn’t make the opening of the new Apple Store Norwich in the end ‘cos it was my son’s tenth birthday and I didn’t want to be missing for the present opening and his special birthday breakfast. Plus he was playing a gig at 11am at the opening of the new Hethersett Youth Club and I was roady-ing for him. We did visit yesterday though, and it was wonderful. I really still can’t believe we have an Apple Store here in lil’ ole Norwich at long last.
I saw this on YouTube this morning (via @stephenfry) and it really made me laugh – whoever made this is a right old clever mawther.
Ah, Baltimore! Home of The Wire, Hairspray and my new favourite illustrator, David Plunkert. Mr P draws in many styles, but it’s his George Hardie meets Paul Blow ‘block’ style that really made me fall off my seat. Even though he’s new to me, he is a long established illustrator who has worked for the great and good (MTV, Nike, Adobe, Sony, IBM) and has a pile of awards to prove it.
At last! The Apple Store Norwich is opening in Chapelfield this Saturday 26th September at 10am. If you’re one of the lucky first thousand people through the door, you’ll even get a free t-shirt! I’m hoping I’ll be among that number, but it’s Joe’s birthday too, so I may be elsewhere when they open first thing. However, I aim to visit – so if you see a bald bloke, dribbling and muttering “want that, want that…” over and over again to himself, that’ll be me.
Oh dear – nothing to report this week as there’s been no change on the weight front, folks. No loss, no gain. Nuffink, nil, nada, zilch, zero. The only thing I feel I may be losing is the motivation to keep my eye on my weight. Trouble is, I have too much real life going on at the moment to make time for exercise. However, I did turn down the curry in the canteen today in favour of a much-less calorific cheese roll, so that’s a few rolls of flab kept away from my jelly-like body. And as Asda says, ‘Every little Helps’…
After last weeks incredibly local Fri-llustrator-day, today we are whizzing south, down to Kent-shire to knock on the door of Robin Chevalier, Senior Lecturer at Maidstone’s University of the Creative Arts and all-round fab illustrator. I am a big admirer of Mr Chevalier’s work as is Nokia, The Economist and The Wall Street Journal to name just a few.
As I mentioned in the Lardwatch below, Team Kirkendall went to London last weekend for a bit of shopping. I was really excited because I was taking Number One Son on a rite of passage tour of my favourite comic shops. We started off in Gosh. I love Gosh. They have a great selection of beautifully presented comics, all smiling at you, willing you to take them home. I patched up holes in my Incognito collection, bought Bat-Manga, a new Chip Kidd/Geoff Spear/Saul Ferris tome about Japanese Bat-tales in the sixties, as well as a beautiful, beautiful book called Paris, by British creators Andi Watson and Simon Gane.
This book alone was worth the trip to London – a wonderful romantic story, sumptuous, stylish drawings with lots of architectural detail, it really made you feel like you were wandering around the arrondissements. It has got to be my favourite graphic novel this year and Watson and Gane are two great new discoveries for me. However, it also came out in 2007, so it’s another late exclusive for you folks! Another late discovery I made was Scott Pilgrim. I picked this up on the Forbidden Planet leg of our journey, after eyeing it for some time and it’s superb! Great characters, great stories and terrific Manga-style illustrations. It’s soon to be a major motion picture, directed by Edgar Wright (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, etc).
By the time we left the ‘Planet (as we cool kids call it), our arms were ape-like with knuckles dragging on the floor, weighed down by our ton of purchases. Which is why we never made it to Orbital as I didn’t think my hernia belt could take any more. That, and Number One Son wanted to go to Harrods… *sigh*
Top: Joe in Bedford Square in front of ‘Driftwood’ by Danecia Sibingo.
Good news – even though I am still wobbling around in my 100% natural fat suit, I have decreased it’s WQ (Wobble Quotient) by one pound. And allowing for the fact that we had it large in London on Saturday and also had a rather extravagant tea last night, I am still confident that I can keep letting the air out of my spare tyre and lose all of my recent weight gain over the coming weeks (it says here).
Yes, it’s back! Fri-llustrator-day returns after it’s little unplanned summer break and today we’re really close at home. In fact, the desk opposite me. Andy Bobbin, my colleague in the Virgin Money studio, is not only a fab designer, but also a closet illustrator. He’s just launched a tumblr site of new work he’s completed and what great work it is too. Visit bobbindrawedthis and see for yourself.
Well, I seem to be continuing my descent from the orbit of good health and proper weight to the very large Planet Corpulent (in a reinforced space suit, of course) as for the third week running, I have gained weight. OK, it’s only another pound, but it’s not the direction I want to be going in. Still, today I’m cycling to work for the first time in a couple of months and the kids go back to school today, so our normal routine of running around stressed out and ignoring food starts again. Hopefully that will stem the tide of calories and I’ll have better news next week.
He worked across the entire spectrum of graphic design, creating posters, stamps, book covers, TV graphics and logos. In 1994, the International trademark centre in Ostend rated him as one of the top trademark designers in the world alongside Saul Bass and Paul Rand.
Do yourself a big favour and visit the Stefan Kanchev website. WARNING: Your jaw will be on the floor for the rest of the week.
Well, after another catalogue of calories last week, is it any wonder I have gained another pound? No? Well, howsabout this… last Tuesday Mike looked after our cocker spaniel Bella and, as is tradition, gave me a super (ie highly calorific) dinner when I went to pick her up. Last Friday night, the Virgin Money studio, with friends old and new, found itself at the Duke of Wellington’s beer festival, where many a pint and hamburger were consumed. The next day, I extended my hangover as we had friends over for a barbeque. Then on Sunday we met friends for a visit to the beach. Not so bad in itself (I only had a strawberry Cornetto) but we then went to Byfords for Dinner, where not only did we eat three courses, but the non-driving men-folk had a different drink with each course. Gulp! Bank Holiday Monday was a little better, but there were Mars bars and bottles of white wine involved, so I can’t replace my halo just yet.
I have got to kill my intake of grub, especially now I’m going to have to drive Eve and Joe to school from next week (long story) so that’s going to put the kibosh on cycling to work. So, either I really do make an effort to find my hair shirt and lose weight, or I start a new column on my blog called ‘Bedridden Food Binge’.
A designer at Virgin Money, Steve Kirkendall does lots of luvverly creative stuff, when he’s not doing amends. This site is about graphic design, illustration, comics, animation and web design. But mainly, it’s about Steve Kirkendall.
If you want to say "Hi" mail him at:– steve at kirkendall dot co dot uk.
Steve K designed and built this on a Mac, using coffee, HTML and CSS. Content management by Textpattern, hosting by Fasthosts. Steve K loves web standards, but he loves drawing more.
