16
September
2013
Nice ot meet you : Miss Clara
posted in Nice to meet you
at 8.22 AM
from
Home ! Maruéjols Les Gardons
(near Alès / Nîmes / Uzès)
/ France
listening Bjork
Second stage of our summer "road trip", after going to Spain to meet Elcalotipo, we werre back in France, in Bordeaux to see my friend Philippe, of Poa Plume. He is currently working on the third volume of Auguste Derrière books, which I will have the pleasure to present you soon. He also has an impressive collection of wooden letterpress blocks awaiting a new life ... but it will not be until a few weeks...
It was also at Bordeaux that we met Miss Clara. But I admit that I was not expecting anything like this before pushing the door of her house! Miss Clara is a graphic designer, illustrator... since we must call things!! But it is above all a creator, in everything she does and sourround her, her world is totally fascinating!
It was also at Bordeaux that we met Miss Clara. But I admit that I was not expecting anything like this before pushing the door of her house! Miss Clara is a graphic designer, illustrator... since we must call things!! But it is above all a creator, in everything she does and sourround her, her world is totally fascinating!
With nimble fingers, she makes small characters with very little material: glue, scissors, paper and gouache. She chooses her paper folds, creases, color and handles with delicacy and passion. She photographed some of his creations, then reworks the images on your computer by making photo montages and materials to illustrate books, notebooks and postcards.
But entering this home was really entering another world and discover with amazement green mice, mischievous goblins, colorful birds, dresses made of paper, hundreds of objects, details ... Even SpongeBob is hand made cardboard!
Thank you Miss for those moments of inspiration!
Discover Miss Clara work on her web site / blog / facebook. Also interesting this french article about her home with more photos.
04
September
2013
Nice to meet you : El Calotipo & Las Armas
posted in Print | Vintage | Nice to meet you
at 6.05 PM
from
Home ! Maruéjols Les Gardons
(near Alès / Nîmes / Uzès)
/ France
First of all, thanks a lot for the support and orders of the ebooks. I will start to work on the 3td issue of THREE soon as it should cover july to september posts.
After been in contact with Piers Faccini via twitter, I found El Calotipo via instagram. When I saw the pictures of their work, I feel their passion for printing, paper and, more important, details ! I was looking for a new partener for the 2014 letterpress calendar, so I contact them. They are in Zaragoza, Spain, and as I am in the south of France, it is not so far and organize a trip there. I have Spanish blood in my veins, my great-grandparents are Spanish and I often went as a kid. And just for the Iberico ham, it's worth the trip! The most impressive is their lead in terms of "gluten-free" : pizza, sandwiches, special dishes in restaurants, big "gluten free" sign on products... a dream !
El Calotipo are Carla and Nelson, and their studio is located in San Pablo neighborhood of the city : the place that has witnessed the evolution of the craftsmen in their workshops since the fifteenth century, we aim to give impetus to this area of the city and recover some old crafts and new technologies works taking as a starting point the following: manual printing generates some qualities which are very interesting in graphic design.
But is was not all ! The whole neighborhood was worth the trip. After showing me their work and talked about our project, Carla gave me a tour of surrounding shops and creatives : Las Armas square, is a new project to revitalize this part of the city and we have a part of association of creative people, called Las Armas Espacios Creativos, founded in 2011. We are 8 creative projects.
Some of the spaces werre closed (well it was august !) but had the chance to met some of them. Mù Restoration who share my love for vintage items and furnitures. If ye have home furniture (and if you live around Zaragoza, of course) that needs to be restored or transformed, in Mù Restoration take care to give a new 2nd life.
I can visit the UndoeStudio and talk about the Asalto, an art festival the organize every year. And it continues with a54 insitu, a group of photographer, architect, interior designer..
Amazing creative place where art extends around the buildings destroyed. Art hide the scars in the city and put creativity at the heart of urban development.
Some of the walls done during the Asalto festival :
Thanks El Calotipo for this nice moment. We are now working together on the 2014 letterpress calendar, so if you want to be updated, suscribe to the newsletter!
16
May
2013
Nice to meet you : Piers Faccini
posted in Music | Nice to meet you
at 7.35 PM
from
Grabels
(near Montpellier)
/ France
listening Piers Faccini ;)
For all those who don't know Piers Faccini (shame on you), he's a singer, composer, songwriter, photographer, painter... mixing Englsih and Italian origins! I've followed him since his first album, "Leave no trace" in 2004 and for all the subsequent albums, I've seen him live twice, including an impressive showcase in a French record shop, where with only his voice, guitar and harmonica he can give you have chills !
But apart from the music, I like how he is involved in all the creative process of his albums, making the artwork and doing the photos and designing the sleeves with designer Uncle O... He is for me a full creative, passionate artist doing things just for the pleasure and beauty of it all…
With the magic of social media you now can be in contact with everyone, even if it is most of the time "virtual"... But this time it became much more concrete... After his tweet about a demo of one of his songs on soundcloud, I just retweeted it and we started a tweet exchange... He likes this blog and as I know he lives near me (now I am back in the south of France), I asked him if we can meet to share about design and inspiration... I came to graphic design through a passion for music, not the kind you play but the stuff you listen to... I've collected records over the years and spent more time looking for rare LPs or 7" vinyl when I was young instead of losing time in bars like most of my friends. So meeting a global creative artist like this, someone I admire and inspires so much through his music was really exciting…
Our meeting was set up in his house, on May 9th... Piers lives a nice home in "Les Cevennes" with his wife and their 2 kids, and has a small house at the back of the garden where he can create, paint, and record his albums... We spent some hours talking about the process of the design of his album sleeves, about how today you can do your own promotion and be in contact directly with people who like what you do... I asked him to write me about all that we had talked about via email so as to have his own words (in italic black).
But apart from the music, I like how he is involved in all the creative process of his albums, making the artwork and doing the photos and designing the sleeves with designer Uncle O... He is for me a full creative, passionate artist doing things just for the pleasure and beauty of it all…
With the magic of social media you now can be in contact with everyone, even if it is most of the time "virtual"... But this time it became much more concrete... After his tweet about a demo of one of his songs on soundcloud, I just retweeted it and we started a tweet exchange... He likes this blog and as I know he lives near me (now I am back in the south of France), I asked him if we can meet to share about design and inspiration... I came to graphic design through a passion for music, not the kind you play but the stuff you listen to... I've collected records over the years and spent more time looking for rare LPs or 7" vinyl when I was young instead of losing time in bars like most of my friends. So meeting a global creative artist like this, someone I admire and inspires so much through his music was really exciting…
Our meeting was set up in his house, on May 9th... Piers lives a nice home in "Les Cevennes" with his wife and their 2 kids, and has a small house at the back of the garden where he can create, paint, and record his albums... We spent some hours talking about the process of the design of his album sleeves, about how today you can do your own promotion and be in contact directly with people who like what you do... I asked him to write me about all that we had talked about via email so as to have his own words (in italic black).
My wilderness sleeve process
I have always been fascinated by these portraits used on his 4th album, even more now that I know how they were made... I always thought it was done with photoshop but actually Piers told me "I don't even have it !". He did these self portraits by cutting up maps ! Impressive...
And it's part of the whole concept of the album :
The whole thing was inspired by a song 'my wilderness' that I wrote in the year that album was taking shape :
"Here was sorrow and here was I / Here was anger and here was my / Wilderness where I'd remain / Emptiness forever retain"
The idea came to me that when I write it's as if I go roaming in a desert, in a place where nothing is marked or signposted, nothing is permanent... In this metaphorical place I'm happy to be lost as I always end up finding something unexpected. A seed or a fragment of something that slowly grows into a poem or a song.
So with my songs I map my very own wilderness, I transcribe its geography and songs are the end result. This wilderness as well as being imaginary refers also to physical/emotional/spiritual journeys and discoveries.. That's how the idea of making a self portrait with maps came about. In order to tell a story, I deliberately chose maps not only for their colours but because of the links my music had with those places. For my skin I used the Sahara, for my shirt Mississippi and Texas, for my hair walking maps of the Cevennes.
In fact, this side portrait was use on the American version of the album, while a front on portrait was used on the French sleeve. When I asked, Piers told me that when he presented the idea to the record company, the boss didn't like it ! But if he had to choose, he preferred the front on one... Luckily, the American label preferred the side one so in the end both portraits were used ! The US album also contains 2 more songs, which was how Piers conceived the album, but the French record company thought it was too long...
Between dogs and wolves new album sleeve
For the new album (coming later this year) I wanted to carry on working with cut out paper, this time I chose to work with silhouettes using a reduced palette of blue red and black. As a painter, working with paper is a way I can create work that is of a more graphic nature which is of course primordial with album artwork and design.
The title of the album is 'Between dogs and wolves' I've translated this French phrase into English because the expression doesn't exist in the english language. I liked the idea of using this title in a literal way to accompany an album of love songs because when we are in love we are in a way between day and night, between love and desire, between the mataphorical 'dog' and 'wolf' etc . The album also transcribes the moment of twilight and this 'non-time' between day and night to a landscape of relationships, and to the stories we live, falling in and out of love. The songs depict the unknowable and undefinable spaces between love and desire, between two lovers.
I feel that in a way what an artist does more than anything is to attempt to describe the unknown and the undefined, the treasure lies in the paradoxical and ambiguous 'in between' spaces !
I wanted the artwork to be a little like illustrations from a book of fables or fairy tales as well as being visually and graphically strong enough to imprint an association with the music in the mind of the listener. It also allowed me to carry on my love affair with work on and with paper.
The Comic books reflections
Funnily enough the idea of The Comic books reflections come about through the desire to have something to post to the people that follow me online that wasn't mundane and gossipy as I'm no good at that! Being as much a visual artist as a writer, I came up with the idea of posting each day a drawing with a kind of aphoristic statement, a simple way to connect with people using poetry and drawing. They're going down really well, if I carry on the momentum, I'd like to make a book with them eventually. (you can see them on Piers facebook)
Freedom of your own label
Having my own label Beating Drum is a way to be able to finally make the decisions my own way without being answerable to a company running a business model that is increasingly bankrupt and devoid of interest. This way I can create the kind of things that I've always dreamed of doing even if they are limited edition. The economic model is very reliant on my relationship with the fans which as anyone can see who follows me is something that I also really value. Hopefully together with the people that follow me I will be able to keep on making music and art and great design objects too!
Here's the first 7" item under the Beating Drum label designed by Uncle O with the artwork done by both of them this time. The record was done to support the Disquaire day, the french version of Record Store day.
Songs I love
This project began as a way to interact with fans on a level that wasn't reliant on an album release. I would give away a song every couple of months on my website. The songs were covers of songs that I loved, as simple as that! It was a way for me to be a fan, recording the songs and playing with their arrangements was a way for me to celebrate the wonderful artists and traditions that have fed me over the years.
To accompany the new album we'll also be releasing a book/cd of the Songs I love. Using paper again I've made portraits of all the songwriters I've covered and written about each song, I'm really excited about this project and I hope all the people who love my music will dig the object too. It's another way for me to continue my collaboration with the designer Olivier Carrie aka Uncle O who I've been working with him since Two grains of sand and now that I have my own label we can really start to have some fun. We have a great working relationship, we're almost always on the same page and we never seem to step on each other's shoes. Sometimes we're uncannily in sync which is a joy! I started the label with my manager of the last 10 years Anais Ledoux and the three of us along with Olivier work very closely on all design/concepts/image to do with Beating Drum.
A new morning
A New Morning is the result of another collaboration, this time with the film maker Jeremiah. We've done so much together over the years especially for la blogotheque, (check my youtube channel. www.youtube.com/piersfaccinimusic ) Mezzo asked us to make a film of acoustic performances of my songs and together with Jeremiah we came up with the idea of filming the performances over the course of the four seasons in the Cevennes where I live.
We wanted it to be a film about music and songs within a normal day to day context, not just a beautifully filmed concert which seemed too banal somehow. We wanted the film to be about how music and songwriting are inseparable from the every day, that's why Jeremiah also filmed certain scenes at home with my kids and my wife. It's a film about sound, about the voice and songwriting as well as the portrait of a place, the mountains of the Cevennes. The film came about because Jeremiah is one of the few people who I feel really comfortable being filmed by. I also love his approach, his eye, his taste, his improvisation, his constant search for the perfect sequence. He also has the advantage of having a really instinctive understanding of music and performance, it was a very easy project to collaborate on as we're also great friends !
Painting, inspiration & instagram...
Piers finnaly told me about his paintings, and his interest in still life... a side that I did not really know from this amazing artist and that you can found on his site. I also told him about instagram, and since then, I guess he posts 10 images a day ;)
24
April
2013
Here comes some picture of I took, and some of the project of this young and promising Singapore studio.
