I Have Been Drawn!

My lovely blog reader Amalia has drawn this beautiful portrait of me, I love it!

Amalia is a really talented illustrator and she has a wonderful blog called Pencils and Fireflies. She also has an etsy shop where she sells art prints and custom portraits.

Thank you ever so much Amalia!

Pick Me Up 2012

Last weekend I went to Pick Me Up, a graphic art and illustration exhibition at Somerset House in London. This is the third year I've gone to this show, I really recommend it if you are interested in contemporary art and design. Although this year I felt like there were actually too many exhibitors, there were too many artists and styles on show. The work would greatly benefit from not being so crammed, and the visitors wouldn't lose interest at the end. However, I still enjoyed the exhibition, and there were some real gems in there...

Like the work of English illustrator Paul X Johnson! Paul's work was my favourite of the show. His paintings are so cool, they have an elegant retro feel to them and a sense of narrative that makes me wonder what their story is.

Another talented very artist exhibiting was Riikka Sormunen, both Josefine and I loved her work.

This photo doesn't do it justice, but the details in her paintings were just incredible!

In one room there was a "Drawathon", where people of all ages could draw their troubles away, so sweet!

I also liked these simplistic woodcut prints, by Matthew Hawkins...

and these footballers portraits by Jim Spencer.

This piece by Anthony Burrill made me laugh because I think that's quite a common though among exhibition goers.

This flamingo piece by Sweetoof would look very cool in a kitschy home!

Lastly I'd like to share with you this piece by Andy Smith, it's fitting right now and I'll reveal why soon!

Moments in Life

Jon Rafman is an artist that created "9-Eyes", a blog where he collects strange and beautiful images captured by accident by the Google Street View cars. Some of them are funny, some are peculiar, and some heartbreakingly sad, just like life. All of them depict true moments of everyday living around the world. I find these images stunning, and some of them really touched me because they are so real. For more check out the 9-Eyes website.

Yummy Pantones

Firstly I would like to say thank you to everyone who wrote encouraging comments and tweets about my video pitch, you're the best! Today I am handing in my application for the grant, so exciting! Then I have to wait 6 weeks before I found out... I'm gonna have to try and forget about it! But the cool thing is yesterday I went to an information meeting about this grant and found out there are two more similar organisations that I can apply to as well, and they also use video pitching so that's perfect!

Secondly, how cool are these Pantone Tarts? It might be a bit of a nerdy designer thing, but I love them! They were created by art director Emilie Guelpa, maybe he should go into food photography though cause these photos are making me hungry!

Formex Favourites

I'm back in London after an intense but very good visit to Sweden. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I went to a design fair in Stockholm with my mum. The fair is called Formex and is the largest one in Scandinavia for interior and surface design. It was so inspiring and interesting to see all the new design products and talk to the designers and exhibitors. I especially liked the section with young Swedish designers.

Here are my favourites from Formex:

KD Konstig Design by Emma Sjödin was my favourite of the fair. Emma makes beautiful home products from her art; drawings and watercolour paintings inspired by her childhood on the Swedish West Coast island Tjörn.

I love these pillows with a print inspired by the shape of a seashell, and I also adore the green coasters with the three leaves.

Emma was incredibly nice, me and mum talked to her for ages and mum even put in an order for some of her products!

Emmas product range includes tea towels, trays, coasters and textiles, you can buy them in her web shop or check out stockists here.

Another memorable exhibitor was Jenny von Döbeln with her design company Mini Empire. Jenny is a graphic designer/illustrator who studied and worked in Barcelona for five years before moving back to Sweden and starting Mini Empire.

Jenny's owl wallpaper really caught my eye, and the more I look at it the more I like it! I find her illustration style so charming, I love when designers incorporate a bit of humour in their work! To see more of Jenny's illustrations, click here.

These amazing ceramic chandeliers are made by Créme de la Créme.

They also showed lovely cake stands made from odd pieces of vintage crockery.

I also like the summery glassware and jars by Lisbeth Dahl...

And these lovely lamps and pretty paper products by Danish design company Rie Elise Larsen.

Graphic Design company Format presented a very cool wall sticker, it's a tree that you can change depending on the season. Would be a fun thing to do with your kids!

Puzzled by Art was another interesting young designer, behind the products is oil painter and illustrator Lisa Ling.

This stand was so cool, I love the funky wallpaper! The company is called Isak, they had lots of cute products.

There were also a section of bathroom products, these bath melts from Bomb Cosmetics looked good enough to eat!

Sthål is a company consisting of Susanna Theander and Helena Åkesson-Liedberg, two graphic designers who has created a collection of beautiful ceramic dinnerware.

Arabesque is Sthål's first collection and will be launched in May this year.

Lastly, I love these mugs and carafe from Maria Liliegren, fresh and retro at the same time!