James Gulliver Hancock

Was searching for some inspiration for some illustrations we're doing at the moment for an interior wall graphic and found these lovely drawings. Wish I'd done that...

More at www.jamesgulliverhancock.com

How much for that?

I went to the Design Museum the other day to take a look at the Brit Insurance Design of the Year Awards which showcased 99 of the most innovative designs (product, fashion and graphic) from around the world. It was amazing. I found this particular project by London based studio kennardphillips that I thought I'd share not only because of the impact it had on me, but because I saw a relevance in the work that we at Boheem do.

Cafe of Equivalent$ was a food stall set up in the bustling financial district of London which sought to question how much diners should pay for their food by equating their salaries with the cost of lunch for a worker in the producing countries such as Mozambique and Indonesia. Backed by research that a worker in Mozambique spends 10% of their $2 daily wage on lunch, Cafe of Equivalent$ started charging $181 for a bowl of soup and bread -that is, 10% of the earnings of the average bonus-earning banker. Now that puts things into perspective!

A simple and brilliant idea supported by beautiful graphics makes this project hard to forget. It's so great to see how visual communication can be used in a powerful way to engage viewers, provoke thought and instill a strong message.

Coconut, Raspberry and Chocolate Slice

I did a spot of baking last weekend, and so to get the Boheem Kitchen tag started I thought I'd share this little gem. It's sooo tasty!

125 gms unsalted butter

150 gms white chocolate

3/4 cup caster sugar – superfine

1 cup self-raising flour

1 cup desiccated coconut

2 eggs – beaten

1 + 1/4 cups fresh raspberries

icing sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 180˚c . Grease and line a lamington tin. Melt the butter and white chocolate in a saucepan over low heat. Add the caster sugar and stir to combine. Pour into a large bowl and add the SR flour and coconut. Stir to combine, then add the eggs. Stir lightly to just combine, then fold in the raspberries. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes or until firm. Cool in the tin. Cut into 20 pieces and dust with icing sugar. Enjoy!

Something special

I came across these fabulous posters at an exhibition featuring the work of Warsaw based studio 'Homework'. They've won stacks of awards for their use of visual puns to create effective posters for cultural events. Love, love, love their work.

This week I clung tightly to my handbag and took to the neighbourhood of East London. Brick Lane, Old Street, Shoreditch and Spitalfields are the equivalent, some would say, to Sydney's Surry Hills and Newtown. This place oozes coolness. Design studios, awesome exhibition spaces and funky little cafes dot the streets of the East and I was left feeling incredibly refreshed.

Street art here is embraced so heartily. It's not harsh or threatening, but rather pleasant in its randomness. I would turn a corner and find a small sprig of mushrooms stenciled on a wall, or a little boy pointing to the sky. I love that the artists here are smart in how they use their environment and whilst I didn't find any of Banksy's work, I discovered ROA (pictured first), who is perfect for demonstrating my point.

"ROA started painting abandoned buildings and warehouses in the isolated industrial outskirts of his hometown, Ghent, in Belgium. Fixating on the animals he found there, the wildlife became the central subject matter of his work, inspired by their clever ability to adapt as scavengers in order to survive. He used the dilapidated, coarse interiors and exteriors of the unyielding landscape as a canvas to portray his large-scale creatures".

I'm in awe of this guy. His official exhibition begins next week and I can't wait to see more.

Life is a circus

Found these delightful little artworks whilst meandering around the world wide web this morning. Don't they just warm your heart? It's that simple, creative idea partnered with intriguing and beautiful imagery which just works and makes you think, "wish I'd thought of that!" Check out the rest of this guy's work at www.snarlik.se .

Even the Tube is inspiring

I found this poster at Chalk Farm Station. Pretty clever I thought.

Week 1 in London...

...what a joy. Who knew that under that looming dark grey sky stood a city full of typographic surprises that would blow me away. Everywhere I look I see a poster, a shopfront or a typeface that makes my heart skip a beat. It's obvious to me now why London has a strong reputation for cutting-edge, smart design. And something about the juxtaposition of huge block type faces against the old vintage buildings and cobblestone alleys works so wonderfully. It makes me smile.

I took these photos walking down Carnaby Street (near Oxford Circus) where I was exchanging a pair of boots. I admit that the shopping in this city gives me just as much joy as the design does! 'Sketch Book' is one of the few 'pop-up shops' I've come across in London –there's plenty of them. Shops that stand for a month or so to promote creativity or express a social/political voice. I love that places like this exist in between the clothes shops –that creative culture is embraced here and made a part of everyday life. It inspires me.

This coming week, I'm heading to the Eastern side of London for an edgier, more gritty view of London. Fingers crossed I come across some Bansky.

Roadkill

Happy Easter from the team at Boheem.

Oscar & Lucinda

Some of us like to think that we were amongst the more academic elite at school, and how we scoffed at the simplicity of the cheap page-turner that was "The Time Traveler's Wife". This book, Oscar and Lucinda, brought each member of the Boheem Team back to reality: we're perhaps not actually that keen for a literary challenge after all. We liked the idea of pouring over an Australian Classic like this one more than, we have to admit, the actual act of absorbing the words on paper. Kass observed one day in the studio that she found herself getting to the end of a page and then realising she hadn't paid attention to a single detail... and ashamedly we could all relate.

Since we had been bold enough to invite St John client Ellen Gregory to our group, we felt some responsibility to at least try. Claire watched the film at 11pm the night before our book club meeting – a wonderful Aussie make, incidentally, if you'll really never read the book.

Between us we had all read enough of the book (or at least the Cliff Notes) to chat about it. Together we worked through the unusual story and its very complex and peculiar characters, and and marvelled at Peter Carey's genius as we discovered the delicate parallels he made between the fragility of Oscar's life and the glass with which he worked. We also enjoyed the historical context within which this book was set; it was nice to imagine old Sydney town in the time of horses and carts and sinking glass church/rafts. It seems like this is a book which, for anyone who is prepared to invest themselves into reading it, offers high reward. Boheem is, er, unqualified to rate this book.

Next book: The Cat in The Hat, by Dr Seuss

Boheem in the Park

Last Sunday, we donned our designer black tees and sneakers to take part in St John's Walk & Talk. This was a long awaited day -the result of many months of planning with St John to brand the event and raise money for a new bus. Badges, waterbottles, hats -our playful little logo was everywhere and it was great to see it all come together.

The weather was glorious, the enthusiasm of all the volunteers and members was remarkable to see, the sausage sizzle was oh so satisfying after a long walk in the sun, and the St John band was just a delight.

Cheers to St John for putting on a great event.

St John Ambulance Interiors

Boheem have recently been responsible for the design and production management of the interior graphics at the new St John Ambulance headquarters. Our concept was "Hands that help", a tribute to the life-saving efforts of St John, and each design element was hand-written or hand-made.

For the cafeteria areas (top), we covered the walls with charming watercolour trees, hand-drawn creatures and foliage. These spaces are wonderfully bright and fun, and with astro-turf flooring and timber park-bench style seating, it's a great break away from the usual corporate social areas. The glass wall decals (middle) which provide privacy between rooms was treated with a very subtle continuous line of scribbly text reading "hands that help". Finally, the walls of the the staff working areas were decorated with a tile acrylic artwork (above). We wanted the staff members to feel a sense of ownership over their new space, so each person was given a few tiles to decorate. It was a great team building experience where the staff were given the opportunity to add their own 'creative input'.

Studio Manager Position at Boheem

You may already know that after 2 years, Jane is moving on to greener pastures (literally: she's heading north to live on a farm..!) and so we'll soon be (re)opening the position of studio manager here at Boheem.

We will be interviewing through March and planning for a 3rd May 2010 start date.

We are a small, happy team of girls working in Surry Hills with really great clients from a variety of industries. We're thinking this would be a permanent part-time or full-time role. It's a perfect opportunity for someone with a creative edge and a background in management wanting to work in a place where they'll feel busy and important – because that's indeed what they'll be!

We're looking for someone mature, organised and level-headed who can show initiative to 'get things done'. This position is client facing and involves budgeting, scheduling and reporting for individual clients. They will be required to foster client relationships, as well as having input into longer term marketing projects. Often the role is heavily account handling focussed.

Here's a list of the sorts of day-to-day tasks a studio manager here undertakes:

Project Management

• Meeting / corresponding with clients to collect all briefing information/content for projects

• Organising content and preparing brief/ job bag for use in the studio

• All quoting including printers & other suppliers

• Supplying quotes to clients and following up

• Liaising with clients on projects, ie sending initial concepts pdfs, seeking feedback, managing amendments which may include briefing session with designers or marking up draft PDF's

• Time management - tracking jobs to ensure they are completed on time and that extensive changes are managed & billed, keeping the client informed at all times where a job is at

• Expectation management for the Studio and clients - ensure it is aligned

• Follow-ups: checking that clients are happy & satisfied with processes & final product, addressing any issues raised

• Keeping Filemaker up-to-date and directing Monday morning WIPs

• Helping clients with all their needs & making them feel special

Supplier Management

• Meeting with printers

• Print sample checking and sending via courier

• Sourcing suppliers for unusual requirements ie special envelopes

Studio Management

• Creation/development of studio work systems

• Assistance with Boheem marketing

• Stationery and post office purchases

• Invoicing

Wrap it up with style

Those clients who've been with us for a little while will remember the wrapping paper we designed a few Christmases ago. It's now available to purchase from our website: www.boheem.com.au/shop .

We're planning to create some other interesting gift and homewares in the coming months and make them available on the wonderful world wide web too.

The Time Traveler's Wife

The first book for Boheem Book Club was The Time Traveler's Wife. We chose it because it seems to be a fairly popular read at the moment, and with the film just released it was 'time' to find out what it was all about.

The Time Traveler's Wife is a love story about two people whose lives are overtaken by a genetic disorder: time travelling. As the name of the book suggests, the male protagonist, (Henry) is the one popping in and out of the past, present, and future; and his wife Clare is the one left picking up piles of clothes on the floor when he departs, and pieces of their lives as the confusion between predictability, predestination and hope gets the better of what is otherwise a seemingly normal, mostly healthy marriage.

We felt that this book was overall an enjoyable read and we'd recommend it to anyone wanting a good yarn. It lacks the more delicate, poetic treatment of a story which jumps around in time which perhaps Michael Ondaatji (for example) has mastered. Its easy reading is a bit of a trade off with depth and resolve, and there are moments when it feels ever so slightly trashy, or even creepy (what exactly was going on between our naked 40-year-old Henry and 8-year-old Clare in her backyard?). Boheem gave this book three stars.

Next Book: Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey...