Typogateaux 09 was awesome, some people had gone to huge lengths in their creations, mine (above) took a long time in the night to complete with me and my sister baking and decorating to the early hours, fun fun. The idea was there were different typefaces on each of the cakes and if you could guess them correctly you get the cake. There were some other crazy creations such as a cake decorated with edible lego parts which can be used to construct typographic parts or Leigh Wortley & Hannah Jackson's blue cake? The winner was a lovely handcrafted cake with upon it a winter snow scene pointing to the north and the leeds college of art, by one of the first years. After we tucked in feeling rather queasy afterwards, unfortunately not everyone completed their Silent Movie videos and posted them to youtube so I didn't see them, never mind. But what a great way to get us into the festive spirit.

Pictures courtesy of Becca Liggins.

Thought I'd have a bit of a trip out into town, having done most of my christams shopping it was an opportunity to just to have a good mooch at some craft fairs in town. The ArtsMix at the Loft (Leeds Centre) was really nice, full of lots of handmade items such as jewelry, canvases, photography, and such as well as some knitted items, cosmetic and even graphic design. Pleb. is a design shop selling creative clothing and quirky items which is definitely worth a look sometime in nearby keighley, having spoke to the owner of the stall I found out the was a lot like myself, seemed more interesting in selling his made graphic design rather than creating design for someone else for a company which is what I would like to do. There was also some lovely illustration by Claire Cooper, and some other quirky gifts by Framedup and Big Tree Little Tree whom had some lovely potted creations.
I also popped into Paper Scissor Stone and asked about creating some cards to sell which I am going to get straight on with for Valentines day. Ive had a couple of ideas in mind which I want to produce but I'm gonna get on with christmas I think first before I start losing sleep.

The second craft fair was at Brudenell where Ian and Tim had set up their stall and were selling their postcards and other creative goodnesses. It was quite nice to see some of my work being sold and I even got a free pack, Chloe Galea was also selling some of her handmade cards on the same stall and Ian also had a couple of t-shirts of his awesome illustrations he had made during the summer. There was some more lovely illustration by Katie Rose Gill, TwoDucksDisco and ManyNiceThings I also ended up also buy a brooch from AmyPanda which was in the shape of a camera having spent money on my secret santa earlier I was running low on pennies so that was unfortunately the end of my trip. Unfortunately I have to sit down and do Enterprise & Innovation tonight. Boo.

Do you like typography? What about Lady Gaga? Facial hair? I first caught a glimpse of this video in the Metro on the way to college a couple of days ago, it had me in stitches, reminds me of the horrific 'Puke in My Mouth' videos.

I just couldn't help getting my letter-stamps out again, after doing the brief for Ian and Tim I was inspired. I like the play on words with this, simple effective and typographic. I'm gonna screen print this design on my Christmas cards on monday, totally feeling festive now.
© Carl Holderness

For a change of scenery myself, Luke, Becca and Matt decided upon ourselves to go to London for the day to see some sights and sounds. I had a fantastic day, we ended up going to the Design Museum near the Thames where we saw some architecture and product design by Braun and of course stopping by the gift shop. I found the exhibit really interesting in particular the spacial design and use of labeling in exhibition space and such which I have been of keen interest lately. From there we plodded on to have some dinner, at this point of course we had spent nearly six hours on the coach ride there and had wandered around the Design Museum for over an hour. The headed down to the Tate Modern which was awesome because I had never seen it, looking at the exhibits which were needless to say 'interesting', basically it involved lots of Andy Warhol, pretentious art thinking and 18+ screened areas, and of course spending money in the gift shop again.

From there we also had a look at the London Graphic Design Centre, which is fantastic for every graphic designers needs, Covent Garden, Kidrobot store, Hamleys Toy store and after a very tiring day we had to stop at platform 9 3/4 before we left. An amazing day indeed, to which every opportunity was taken to visit a gift shop.

Pictures taken by Becca Liggins & myself.

Ian Prentice and Tim Wan I think have truly captured christmas in the studio with a pack of festive postcards they have printed, designed by several of us in the studio and organised and screen printed by Tim and Ian. They look lovely and will be available for purchase this sunday and the Brudenell craft fair. Look, Mines there!