Bog Family

These guys were designed for an aborted project, I've grown quite attached to them so I thought I'd post them here. Hope you like them. x

COS Pop Up Store for Salone del Mobile Furniture Fair

COS are launching in Italy this July. To promote their impending arrival the guys at COS asked me to design and build them a pop up store in Milan to coincide with the prestigious Salone del Mobile furniture fair.

I felt like the pop up store should embody the COS ethos, simple yet witty design that doesn’t overpower or distract. This made me think of classic Swiss interior design and the idea of no unnecessary extras.  I thought about a perfect wooden box and how every part of that boxes material could be reconfigured and used, this became the design philosophy for the instillation. 

 I used Mondrian as a starting for this project and thought about how he divided his paintings into sections, I considered how I could transpose this idea into an environment design. This led me to the concept of the box and how it could be fragmented and fold into itself to create a display space. I loved the idea that every part the cube would be used to make every part of the display areas and railing systems, nothing would be wasted. From roof to wall to floor, all would be cut away and re-assembled into all necessary display components. The process of designing this became a kind of elaborate puzzle, as every part that I changed had a knock-on affect to the rest of the structure, ultimately leading to a thoroughly considered piece of design that sits somewhere between retail space, instillation and furniture.

  

'Salad Days' for T Magazine with Richard Burbridge and Robbie Spencer

I don't envy the poor models who have to work with me a lot of the time. If I'm not getting you to climb into a horribly claustrophobic cage set, I'm pouring jelly over you or gluing fish heads to your face. This is my latest editorial with Robbie Spencer and Richard Burbridge for T Magazine, continuing me and Robbie's ongoing quest to see how much stuff we can throw onto a model before he or she storms off set, this time using all kinds of sticky foods as our weapon. Julia Nobis and Hanne Gaby Odiele were fantastically patient with us as we piled seafood, meat, vegetables and noodles on them for a couple of days.

So let this be a warning to all you budding models out there, if you turn up to a job and see me on set organizing a gigantic table full of wire, glue and all sorts of creepy looking aquatic creatures I'd get on the phone to your agent quick.

Special thanks to Catherine Mudford and Tyler Cancro

Live Mural for Joseph, 77 Fulham Road

Last year the wonderful people at Joseph asked me to contribute a window display at their Kensington flagship store, they gave me the freedom to curate and design the entire space, so I suggested painting them a huge mural live in front of the general public. At the time I started this project winter was drawing in and Halloween was around the corner, it was a great excuse to embrace the darkness of the coming season and paint something brooding, gothic and gleefully weird.

The most thrilling aspect of the project was the danger of it, the fact that I had absolutely no idea what I was coming in to paint was so exciting, the risk involved really interested me. The only thing I had to go on was black, white and red, the rest was totally improvised. The decision-making process that would normally happen in private was happening in front of the public and every mistake was there in the open, for the world to see, so there was great pressure to make every brush stroke count. that pressure informed my approach to the painted. The public also became part of the creative process with me, tapping on the glass, cheering me on, sometimes coming into the store to talk to me about what I was making. The support and encouragement from passers by was really heartening.

Live Mural for Joseph 77 Fulham Road

Dazed and Confused Birthday Present and Time Capsule Contribution

I really am terrible at updating my blog these days, I have literally 30 projects on my desktop ready to be uploaded, and yet still they wait, impatiently glaring at me from my desk top wondering why I haven't deemed them worthy of posting. Well I'm sorry, I've been busy okay! Anyway, I finally thought I'd put this guy up, he's a suffocating torso! I made him for Dazed and Confused's anniversary issue celebrate their 25th year of publishing, it appeared along side loads of other contributions from the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, Donatella Versace and Kate Moss. They later auctioned off the entire collection for Oxfam. Here's my blurb that appeared in Dazed-

''Masking tape and me go back a long way, we discovered we could make wonderful things together at college. It was only when we met dazed that our relationship truly blossomed, sadly though I started seeing other materials like polystyrene and masking tape grew more and more distant. But for dazed birthday we decided to work together again and make him a present. What could be more fitting for a time capsule than a suffocating man gasping for air for eternity. I loved the idea of him glowing underground forever with no one to see him.''

GQ Style - Hipster dissection

What is a Hipster? What does that even mean? Am I a hipster? Do I have to come out all over again?! I thought about this question a lot over the period of working on this little project. The guys at GQ Style asked me to illustrate an exploded diagram of the modern hipster to go along side an article about the same topic. No easy task really since its so tricky to define what it actually means. There are so many kinds of hipster these days its hard to pin down its exact characteristics. Two things seem to be certain- if you live in East London and do anything remotely creative for a career you are, through no fault of your own, by the modern definition.... a hipster! God knows I must be, I mean I wear colourful socks, Brogues, bright shirts, I'm creative and live off Broadway Market, so by default that makes me a hipster, right?..... maybe not. The sad truth is I'm probably too old now to qualify.

Anyway, I thought to myself before taking on this job that I'll only do it if I can have fun with it, this meant brutally lampooning one of my dearest friends. My wonderful flatmate Will is a stylist, an occasional model and is in huge denial about his hipster credentials, ''easy prey" I thought and immediately got to work mercilessly dissecting my buddy. All the favourites are there, the fix wheeler bike, the 'pretentious rock band t-shirt with the ripped off sleeves', the 'Supreme' cap, even a little dog.

So here it is- a playful poke but ultimately loving homage to my mate Will, the modern hipster, (whether he likes it or not.)