FEAR.LESS - LOCAL COLLABORATION

It's been a while since I've had a chance to sit down, clear my head and put up some quality content. I've been finding loads of great stuff to post, but what's a blog if it doesn't have a fair amount of opinion on what you're posting. As much as I love tumblr, I don't want this to be my tumblr. I want discussion and discourse, opinion and feedback. Engaging stuff. To kick off what might still be a sporadic bout of posting here's a look-see at some talented local team-effort stuff. Daniel Ting Chong and Jordan Metcalf collaborated to produce a series of artworks commenting on our collective paranoia and fear of crime in a South African context. You can read and see more about the project and their motivation for it, here on the BehanceNetwork or click on their names to be taken through to their individual sites. Great to be back.

LOCAL LADS PICK UP A LOERIE

Congrats to my mates Kevin Parry and Greg Davies of In the Beginning for their first ever Loerie Award. This is truly a great achievement considering they've only been on the scene for a short while, and were the only Durban agency to win this year. They picked up a silver for their work for Ardmore in the design mixed media campaign category. The agency was briefed on translating the renowned ceramic pieces of Ardmore Ceramics into a range of mediums, including silk scarves, fabric design, furniture design ( couch and ottoman), as well as tableware. The couch in particular was nominated for the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa award, and has been featured in Visi Magazine and the Sunday Times, and travelled to Milan for the Talking Textile exhibition. See more of their work here. So proud!

KIM LONGHURST - PAINTED BLACKBIRD

Talented local lass Kim Longhurst has a new blog. It's pretty difficult to pin point exactly what it is that Kim does ( illustrate, paint, design, make other cool stuff) , but whatever she does, is done exceptionally well. Pop on by and follow it/tell her how cool she is/buy something.

INKLING - THE TRAILER

Ever wish you could take a sketch you've just finished and copy it, as is, straight into an editable format on your computer. Well, that's the wish of many, and to a degree that is achievable. The thing is you have to tweak the various levels, up the tolerance and fiddle with a range of indecipherable settings. Well that's not the case any more.

HOMEGROWN : JORDAN METCALF

I've long been an admirer of Jordan Metcalf's illustration and design and had a chance yesterday to browse some of his recent work published on the Behance Network. Particularly like the series of illustrations he produced for X Games 2011. His line work is faultless, his typography is outstanding and honestly it's great to see a local getting some international, in this case much deserved, recognition. See more of his work on his Flickr page here.

HOMEGROWN : BRUCE MACKAY

Bruce Mackay is a Cape Town based illustrator and designer. He's pretty flippin' talented. The images above are part of a series he produced for the Winter Wonderland Exhibition which is currently on at Salon91 Contemporary Art Gallery in Kloof Street, Cape Town until the 6th of August. He's produced work for clients including Nike, Cell C Adidas and Verb. See more of his work on Flickr and even more on Behance. All images courtesy Bruce's page on Flickr. Pop by both and tell him you love his stuff.

HOMEGROWN : RUDI DE WET

One of my favourite things about the internet, besides Facebook stalking, is the ability it has to dish up gems like this...straight outta nowhere. Now based in Australia, fellow-saffa Rudi De Wet has some fantastic and highly enviable skills. Discovered here via afroklectic.

JAMIE CULLEN ILLUSTRATION

Digging Jamie Cullen's work . Have a look at his extensive portfolio. It's got a little Piet Parra/early Jasper Goodall/Sgt.Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band thing going on.

HOPE PROJECT & SENYOL IN FINLAND

One of my favourite artists and now a great friend Wesley van Eeden and his lovely wife Megs, along with Paul Senyol are currently in Finland. I remember Wez chatting to me a while back about the opportunity to take-up an artists residency in Ekenas, a town a small trip away from Helsinki. Well, they're all there now and seem to be loving it, colder climate, snow and stark landscape and all. If you've never heard of Wez or his lovechild hopeproject.co.za, browse by his site and see what they're up to after browsing his portfolio. He's got some serious skills coupled with a great heart. His compadre on this adventure is Capetonian Paul Senyol whose blog you can check out here and his flickr page here. Have a great public holiday tomorrow and ejoy the long weekend.

JAMES VICTORE INTERVIEW

I first saw James Victore's work in my third year of studying Graphic Design. We had a great lecturer who was not only cool but fully informed and on the money when it came to contemporary culture, branding and trends. Part of our syllabus was an anti-branding campaign for Amnesty International. Part of our reference base were a few of Victore's posters. Oddly enough I never took note of who designed the posters but merely admired them for their striking visuals. Then this morning my mate Wok ( Thanks Wok ) sent me an interview he found on the99cpercent.com with the man himself. Victore's new book which you can order on amazon.com looks set to be a much sought after addition to every designers library. All pics are Victore's and were nicked off coolhunting.com.

MARK ALLEN MILLER

Bright, bold, graphic and colourful illustrations from Allen Miller. Found via trendland.net. Love the mix of pencil, vector and scanned imagery. I think it adds a sort of retro, instructional diagram feeling to the work

ERIN WASSON FOR RVCA

I found these kaleidoscopic fashion illustrations of Erin Wasson for RVCA a while back. Love the mix of stark photography and colourful line work.

DRAINSPOTTING

Remo Camerota documents Japanese manhole covers. He's even published a book about them. Read more here or order the book here on Amazon. Found via Trendland.

MORE MONROE

I hadn't visited Stockholm based artist Brendan Monroe's site in ages. His work seems to have always had a delicately surreal and dreamlike quality. It seems that his work has become more abstract yet retained its simple beauty. Check out his some of his more recent pieces here and more of his ethereal paintings here.

JR & VHILS COLLAB

I remember Wooster Collective being one of my first favourite websites. In my final year of study my major project dealt with Graffiti and Street Art and it's influence on contemporary design and illustration. Wooster provided a fantastic platform for the research necessary. Current favourite on the site is this collaboration by JR and Vhils. Read more here and visit Wooster Collective here.

PIET PARRA

I discovered Piet Parra's work a couple of years ago. I love the way he's taken a simple character and his own brand of humour and built a pretty successful little empire. Read an insightful interveiw with the Dutch born artist here on the99percent.com.

JULIE MOREL

Slightly creepy but ultimately cool illustrations titled "Organs" from Julie Morel. Found on Yatzer. See more of her work here.