Today it was my partners birthday so after having a full english (I'm so going to miss having a real breakfast once christmas is over) we decided to have a venture out and went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for a day out together. It was actually my idea to go, because james is quite indecisive I carefully played this so I could go see the rob ryan exhibition which Becca had told me about at the YSP. having sampled some of his cards in london a couple of weeks ago the exhibition was no let down, his work is so romanticised and with great attention to detail which is a trait I think I often carry in my work. Sporting many of his hand-cut words ranging from a few hundred to eight thousand pounds there was also lots of merchandise items such as books, ceramics and stationary. Of course I had to step by the gift shop just to have a good mooch and I spoke to one of the assistants whom directed my to the shop's buyer of the YSP which I can speak to about selling some of the cards I am making for Valentines day which I am going to start making soon. For the rest of the day however we had a walk around the park which was completely covered in ice and the lake itself was from edge to edge encased in ice strong enough to support my weight, after we had to warm up and went home for homemade birthday cake and tea. What a perfect day.

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.

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

Apparently every year the Visual Communication degree course holds a money raising event for charity every year. There were some awesome ideas such as the traditional baking cupcakes, lucky dips and such but with a twist. To get a cupcake you had to guess the typeface, or you could challenge the VisCom team in Call of Duty 6, buy a handmade ashtray made out of drinks cans, make the longest swear word of of some given letters or simply watch two people squirt reddened water at each other. The cupcakes were nice, and I bought this handmade wrapping paper for 30p I thought i'd share with you.