The Owlthulhu

East London: Shoreditch and Bricklane are some places fromm where I derive my greatest inspirations. The street art- the best in London is so fresh, current and deliciously bizarre. It's ever- changing, and in every visit I see new work that didn't exist before.

One piece of work I absolutely couldn't get out of my mind, were the paintings of Alexis Diaz. The weird- steam-punk lovecraft-ian creatures are those you cannot 'unsee'

So I was super excited when I got an opportunity to design a logo for 'Bedlam & Boss', a designer boutique label.

My clients were Lorna and Kay- a creative couple who design eclectic furniture and furnishings. I rarely come across 'dream clients' , but both Lorna and Kay love 'weird and steampunk'

The idea was to create something that brought alive both their personalities:

Lorna: the wise half
Kay: the wild and crazy

So here goes.... My 'Owlthulhu'

works of Alexis Diaz in Bricklane

Rich Door- Poor Door

As one lane takes you through canvases of beautiful art, another hits you with a whiff of warm Bengali spices, and you walk down to marvel at a massive chimney of an old brewery or you wander away losing yourself in alleyways of street boutiques and vintage markets. What more would you want? A charming little factory what makes bells, or a narrow gully home to the largest anarchist bookshop in the city. Or perhaps a mysterious night walk with Ripper tales.

Aldgate East, Brick Lane, Whitechapel.

Brick Lane

It is the London I want to be a part of, proud of. A meting pot of cultures, free thinking, free people.

That's until it became an 'investment opportunity'. 'One Commercial Street Tower'-  twenty one storey eyesore. There is no better way to describe that, but then again I hate tall glass characterless buildings. They seem to lack a soul.

But that is not my issue. Sky scrapers seem to be the answer to growing population in super cities. What's disturbing is what I read at the 'East End Howler', a local newspaper I picked up from the Freedom Bookstore. Apparently developers are 'sometimes forced' to provide housing that could be passed as affordable (still beyond reach for the average Londoner). The end result, the developer is faced with a situation where the desired residents will be living in the same building as the undesirables. (cringe)
The solution devised by Redrow (the builder) is to have two separate entrances.  The main entrance (rich door) has a vast lobby and security guards and an upscale reception, while the 'poor door' is around in a dingy side alley with nothing welcoming in the narrow access except mailboxes.

This has not gone unnoticed. There have been protests every week against this ridiculous hypocrisy. The protesters have talked to residents of both doors. One of them coming out of the rich door did not even know there was a poor door. (.really?) Some of the poor door residents have revealed more details of the discrimination. The lift frequently breaks down and they are not allowed to use the rich lift!

This is no longer about 'abolishing' the two doors. Maybe the builder will eventually be forced to do it, but what is really happening here? The bloody immigrants? This area has been the heart of the Bangladeshi Bengali community for decades, so what next... The Apartheid in East London?

Rich and poor entrances

Latest update(Nov 27): Round 1 goes to the Poor Doors. Richie Rich have agreed to 'talks' regarding the abolishment of the poor door. I walked around this building today, and there were quite a few cops lurking at the entrance, but no protesters.

Voices of the working class. Newspapers at the Freedom Bookshop

I admire the will and the dedication with which people are writing and publishing such journals for free distribution. What's the motivation? Maybe 10 people will read it. Maybe five will blog about it. Being aware and being alert. It is important for the information to be shared and passed on.

My baby is finally taking shape

After completing the summer course on typography, I was itching to create a font. Something from scratch. Something beautiful. And to be honest, I hadn't done anything entirely original in a while and wanted to get my hands dirty! 

And so I embarked on this rather tedious journey of designing the font. After spending weeks wondering where to begin, how to design, and hours of googling, I found a tutorial on youtube on how to create a font using Adobe illustrator. This is exactly what I was looking for.

For any designer who wants to create a font, and doesn't quite understand the technical complexities and mathematics involved, just follow the instructions. It is absolutely critical that you start right, with the correct file size and format so that you don't struggle at the end. Even a tiny error can impact the entire exercise and you might end up re-doing all 52 characters!

Having said that I am nowhere close to end myself, but so far this tutorial has proven very very useful.

I was keen to base my font on something that inspires me, interesting design wise, and also connected me to my roots. I thought about Indian art, Indian architecture and Indian textiles. And there it was... IKAT. It is rich, it is distinctive, it is traditional, and yet so geometric and contemporary. I just knew this was it.

Here's a sample of my work in progress. Far from complete, I still have the entire lower case and numerals to go. And of course all the fine tuning and adjustments. I can clearly see already that the 'O' looks too big! So fingers crossed, I should get this done by the end of the year at least.

Haunting walks

I had never been to a cemetery.  On a recent visit to Scotland, we were walking down the Royal mile, and I was somehow drawn towards the Cannongate Kirkyard. On a hillock, overlooking the city, it felt like a spot of untouched beauty, that endured the passing of time and the world that grew around, and stood it's ground, imposing. 

I can't help getting all choked up , walking through the gravestones, through people who were loved, some taken away before their time, their stories set in stone, to be read centuries later, by a stranger from the other side of the planet. 

It's the overwhelming feeling of feeling connected and yet disconnected. Intruding... yet not feeling like an intruder.

Down the road is another gem, the Greyfriars Kirkyard. I was most touched by the story of Greyfriars Bobby. Greyfriars Bobby belonged to an Edinburgh city police night watchman. When the watchman died, he was buried in Greyfriars cemetery. Bobby refused to leave his master's grave and spent the rest of his life sitting over it. He never left the spot for nearly fourteen years, till his death. He was then buried close to his master.

A statue and fountain have been erected to commemorate him, 'the most loyal dog in Scotland'

The beauty of the West Cemetery of Highgate, is unsurpassed. It was for me, like walking through Tolkien's Old forest. It probably is one of those hidden treasures in London. Forgotten paths, dead ends, moss covered graves, the stone angels that remind me of the weeping angels from Doctor Who. It's haunting contrast of the burning orange autumn leaves against the cool green moist moss, makes it a magical setting for tales of a distant past. I thought of Neil Gaiman's story of a little boy whose home was a graveyard such as this, in the care of ghosts.

Raiders of the lost Art- Kumar and the lost art of Punchcutting

Such an inspiration. 48 years!

Discovering Letterpress

So what have I been up to off late?
Super interesting 'computer- free' (can you believe that) course on Typography. Totally digging the assignments which involve a lot of cut-pasting, photography... and never thought I would get to work on one- A letterpress!

I realise I had lost the joy in small things..for example choosing a font for a project, was the biggest bore and a chore! But now I'm looking forward with experimenting and being more aware of a font I decide to use. The hands-on craft DIY approach is how teaching art should have always been.

Meeting and learning from teachers who are experts in the field, who know what they are doing. I missed this in India. I would really love to do a longer course here at Central Saint Martins. (if only it didn't cost the earth!)

Bike to Work

Bought a cycle... something I was looking forward to and dreading at the same time.

It's been over 25 years since I have ridden a bike... in and around gullies near my home in Bangalore. When I grew older I got too scared to ride around in India. The traffic, the total lack of lane disciple, the utter chaos in streets, and lastly... the soot in the air.

So the past couple of weeks, I have been riding all over London like a total noob. Crossing roads only if I don't see cars up to a mile away. Causing long traffic pile ups behind. Inviting stares, glares rather.

In India I would have been yelled and cussed at. I used to drive a car back in Mumbai. I hated people who held up traffic, couldn't decide on a lane, and blocked both lanes. Idiots who drive in slo-mo. All my frustrations released through loud incessant honking.

Today, I have become the same idiot I used to hate. I am probably annoying everyone on the road, and I do feel for them, they don't even honk!  People here just too polite. I appreciate that now.
I seem to be the slowest even among fellow cyclists. But hopefully as I gain confidence and stamina, I would get faster, and ride beeter as well.

I bought a Trek, under the biketowork scheme. It takes me a good 30-35 minutes one way from Islington to Aldgate. Fairly good exercise, (the only exercise I get). I'm really enjoying the experience, I like to ride in a leisurely pace, look around at all the houses and the parks. Quiet and leafy neighbourhoods, with only the birds chirping.

Seems like I get excited by little things, but these are what I missed back home.

In the Park

I love the fact that you can take a short bus ride from home, and park yourself under such lush green canopies. I missed that in Mumbai. Now when I think of it, everything about it was just so barren and concrete.

Bangalore has it's share of good parks. We had Cubbon Park and Lal bagh, and they bring back fond memories of childhood. Sundays at the park, with the giant wheel, merry go round, toy train (putani express) pink cotton candy, pop corn and bhutta. The big bamboo forest and picnics with sandwiches and puliyogare.

But parks in London, seem to be at a very different level altogether. Parks with ducks, swans and pelicans in the middle of the city. Dotted with pretty cafes where you can spend a whole day brunching and lunching. We planned to head to St James park this Sunday morning. 'Inn the Park' nestles cozy beside the pond, and this log wood cafe looked very inviting.

They have a pretty extensive breakfast menu, but we treated ourselves to a stack of thick pancakes, in a pool of sticky maple syrup. Simple and delicious. We went for a short walk by the pond, and sat for a while on the bench, doing absolutely nothing, just absorbing the fresh air and the cackling of the ducks and pelicans. The pelicans apparently are a rare sight in the park, and were probably there for the mating season.

I could have spent a few more lazy hours, but Ram gets impatient quite easily. He always has to be 'doing' something or 'going' somewhere. What next?

How about nothing.

Or as the Italians would say 'dolce far niente', or the sweetness of doing nothing. Delicious idleness!

Discovering the Hunterian

What's super awesome about the city are the free museums. I'm trying to visit as many as I can on the weekends. This Saturday we went to the Hunterian Museum. I had read about the museum on TimeOut, and it sounded interesting.

As we entered we were confronted with enormous glass displays of the weirdest specimens in jars. Animal parts to human, random stuff like an ox heart or a lizards intestines. Dissection of diseased body parts, bones affected with cancer, cross section of a foot! monkey heads, wooden planks with the nervous system, and even a skeleton of an Irish giant! What freaked me out was the foetus in different stages, looked almost alien like.

There were some sections that were truly morbid. Two headed creatures, animals with four legs, John hunter might have been a genius no doubt, but he surely was a freak. And apparently this was not even one fourth of his entire collection. The Historical Surgery Instrument display is totally worth the visit to Hunterian. There are instruments dating back to the 17th century. Some more recent used by the Japanese during the world war.

The collection is so extensive, after a while we were just skimming through the sections, but I can imagine how fascinating it would be for students of science and biology. Or perhaps Dexter.

It's definitely worth a visit once, and when it's free, why not?

 how glorious it must have been

Discovering the canal

One of my favorite books in childhood was 'Three men in a boat' by Jerome K Jerome. The adventures of three guys with their dog Montmorency (can never forget that name!), and their journey through England on the river Thames. Such fun.

It's pleasant these days with spring setting in, flowers blooming, birds chirping, we thought of walking down to Kings Cross for lunch. Walking by the Regent's canal is lovely. The sun peeping out from behind the puffy clouds, making the waters sparkle. Pretty boat homes lining the canal on the sides.

Further down, there are boats you can hire, to go to Camden lock. There are these cute little corners and patches of grass in between where you can spread out a towel and soak in the sun and read a book. Live music, doggies day out, cycling along the canal... it all looks like something out of an Enid Blyton book.