Happy Birthday Stewart!
Here is my latest birthday card design, created for Stewart’s recent birthday. The card has been personlised by Emma and myself to include a lot of in jokes. Some changes have been made to the card for the purpose of this blog so no persons are offended. If you would like a personalised card click here for further details.
Panoramic photos!
I have just uploaded a new app to my mobile phone called 360 Panorama. 
The app allows you to take full 360o photos and stiches them together neatly, so they flow continuously. The app is tricky to use and requires some practice. Photos can be spoilt by the movement of any object within it and cannot be edited, but with a bit of patience it produces some very nice photos – double click on the images below to view in scroll mode.
I have tried a number of photo apps for mobile phones. Another two I would recommend are Hipstamatic and Infinicam. These allow the different styles to be applied to photos to give different looks.
Who is Auguste Bartholdi?
I make the following statement unsure as to the nationality of the 
reader. But I am willing to bet that 95% of the people that read this blog have know idea who Auguste Bartholdi is. I am als0 willing to bet that 100% of the people reading this blog will have seen at least one of his works, whether in person or on the TV, in a newspaper/magazine etc. I hadn’t heard his name prior to my visit to Colmar (Alsace, France), his hometown, but became aware of his work when we visited the museum created to show his work. The museum is fairly small, but interestingly, not only shows what the final works look like, but also the pencil drawings and scaled prototypes/models that were produced to show what the commisioned works would look like. His work can be found across France with a large number in Colmar and Paris. His most famous work, and the work I refered to earlier, can be found in… Read more…
Vive la France!
Having completed my GTP year, I have now returned from a 2.5 week holiday in France. I haven’t posted about holidays before, but having had such a great time and visited so many interesting and picturesque places I thought I would post photos of the places we visited to share. We visited Reims (I am assured this is pronounced ‘rance’), Colmar, Annecy, Dijon and Laon and some of the local towns and villages. The places are situated on the east side of France and follow the borders with Germany and Switzerland (we had to drive through Basel – a navigation nightmare!).
They Draw and Cook – THE BOOK!
The people at TDAC have now received an advanced copy of their cook book. The book contains over 100 illustrated recipes submitted to their site from around the world. It is available to buy later this year (October). For a preview of the book click below.
They Draw and Cook Book coming soon!!!
Great news from They Draw and Cook, they are now going ahead with the print of a cookbook. This will include over 100 illustrated recipes submitted to their site from around the world. To top it all off they have selected one of my recipes – Chilli & Lime Seabream. The book will be available from the summer (to be confirmed). Watch this space.
In addition to this, today’s selected recipe is my new illustration for ‘Lamb Chops & Aubergine Salad’, one of our favourite dishes.
Over Christmas, my wife, Emma and I visited Hathersage, Derbyshire. We went for a meal at the The Plough Inn. We had been previously and had a great meal, we were not disappointed this time and would strongly recommend the Inn’s menu of rich, gutsy food.
Whilst there we visited the David Mellor shop. David Mellor might not be familiar name when it comes to design but everybody has seen and used some of his more famous designs. These include the square red postboxes, bus shelters and more noticeably the current traffic light design! He is also the best known cutlery designer in the UK. His items do not come cheap but could be a source of design inspiration. If visiting it is also possible to visit the Roundhouse and watch the designers at work!
A photo taken of a display of traffic lights within his grounds.
450 slide presentation!!
Ever heard the phrase ‘death by powerpoint’, well check out this 450 page presentation!
It was compiled in Google docs and as the final page says, you don’t need high tech hardware or software to be creative… just an incredible amount of free time!!
Christmas recipes at TDAC
Throughout the month of December the website, www.theydrawandcook.com, have held a Christmas recipe contest. Having received over 250 illustrated recipes they have, throughout December, been showing some of the entries on their website. The contest draws to its conclusion on the 31st December. The fourth placed entry will be displayed tomorrow, the 1st placed entry on December 31st. There are both fantastic illustrations and variety of interesting recipes from around the world take a look.
This is one of my favourites
NAME Joana Faria; LOCATION Lisbon, Portugal; WEB joanafaria.wordpress.com
T-shirt wars!!
Another brilliant stop motion movie from such a simple idea. All you need is 222 tshirts and 2 free days. If you would like to try it yourself there is a behind the scences video attached below – click on Read more… below
