Head, originally uploaded by Goldtop.

I picked this matchbox blank up at one the Ephemera Society events a while ago, and recently re-discovered it in a tidy-up.

For some reason they make me happy to look at and hold, and l was trying to figure out why.

• It could be I just love roughly one and two colour printed stuff on card…
• It could be that the scored lines on the unfolded boxes frame the graphics like a miniature variation of a triptych and I like that…
• It could just be the bizarre combination of all the elements; the classical sculpture, the anchor (!?), the typography and the strike panels becoming super graphic abstracts when they’re taken out of the context of being part of a matchbox…

Whatever the reason, I thought I’d scan-and-tell : ) Check out the design with a swallow and the one with another of my loves; a diagram (and the requisite anchor of course!)

“lovingly and effectively designed – stylish yet readable – exactly as it should be”
(Richard Bruton, Forbidden Planet Int.)

Some of you know by now that the magazine I’ve been Art Directing has now gone bust in it’s current print format. Richard writes a lovely goodbye piece on the FP blog, mentioning not only the lovely design – ahem! – but of course all the fab content and contributors.

It has been a brilliant, challenging and rewarding experience working with V (Editor) and although it was a sad day to send the last issue to the printers, plans are afoot for new and exciting incarnations of the ‘Sheep and the website is having a much needed tidy up right now (to go live in Feb) so right now we’re feeling pretty positive.

Signs painted by local children on a hoarding around Durlston Castle; it used to be a restaurant, but now is undergoing restoration as part of the Durlston Project

Every Day in May takes a photographic form over the weekend, as we are away walking on the Isle of Purbeck (in Dorset, and not technically and island). This detail is from a poster in the Corfe Castle railway station (a stop on the restored Swanage Railway) were we waited to board a steam train…

Or is it a bit sea-weedy? Anyhow, this is two words in one; Willow and Parish. I discovered I belong in the parish of Angell Town, and that not only was stripped willow used to beat the bounds, but sometimes the heads of small boys too! And, yeah – I made it repeat pattern again…(couldn't help myself!)

3rd May and still playing with newts… This time using a newt on a leaf to make a repeat pattern… I'd like this on fabric to use to make a skirt.. Maybe in the blue or purple too! Time to visit Spoonflower?

Gah – I’d just written a nice long post about:

• Swiss Cheese door stops (I have one and love it)
• Wooden mice door stops (We Made This pointed these out to me)
• whether it was in excess to desire both
• Other playful things Mr Clerkin has made (and how the Bucket stool reminds me, in a good way, of these wooden toys)

And then the internet broke.
So now you have the abbreviated version.

Dodgy trimming by the printers on the first issue notwithstanding, think this is going to work…

Finally finished the catalogue for Eloise Grey’s 2008 collection… v. excited to be getting a deBeauvoir jacket her Hepsibah show next week!

Now I like typography – love the craft and skill of lettering both hand done and machine. However my interest pales in comparison to that on my Uncle James. I remember once visiting him in St Brides, seeing the racks and racks of metal and wooden letters and making the tiniest print of a curlicue or vine using a metal block; it can’t have been any bigger than 2mm square. He has spoken and written extensively about typography, and now I just discovered his blog. It is that of a full on typophile so be prepared! The bit about the hand-written signs written in the moonlight at Pompeii is great