Geo Graphic - A Book for Map Lovers

I meant to blog about this last week but didn't get around to it.
I received my copy of 'Geo Graphic - A book for Map Lovers' last week all the way fro Spain. It's published by as Spanish publisher - Index Books - who seem to specialise in creative and inspirational publications and they asked Angus at Snowhome and myself many months ago if they could feature the Word Maps. We of course said yes as it looked like it was going to be an interesting book to be a part of.
The book looks at cartography and the development of the map as an essential symbol of design. As I discovered when I did my talk for the BCS last month maps are increasingly used not only for their simple cartographic uses but in all sorts of different and fascinating creative uses and applications. Many people are turning to the map form and interpretations of the map to inspire new and exciting projects. Maps have always been used to categorise and catalogue the world around us and are a fantastic tool to categorise and catalogue information and ideas for design purposes also.

There are great examples of some maps in the books by fellow creative people and collectives.

The examples above are Armelle Caron & Nancy Goodman Lawrence.

Last week

Last week was one a bit out of the ordinary for us.
I was contacted back in January by a Belgian lady called Adeline. She wanted to improve her English and preferably in a creative environment. Last week she stayed with us for the week and helped me out in the studio. - And she was very helpful indeed. She packed cards and updated my website shops and generally helped me out and in return I showed her out to screen print.
It was lovely to have some creative company in the studio for the week and we talked about books, upcoming fairs/markets, websites, ideas and passive houses while we worked.... It was great to broaden my horizons a little for the week and have a refreshing change to the usual routines. It also made me realise how much I miss the chit-chat of a shared studio situation.
In short I'm very glad I said yes back in January and that I've met a new creatively like-minded friend.

Take a look at Adeline's website and keep checking back as she'll be launching her new crafting company Fleur de Champs website very soon.

A farmers wife

It's not very glamorous and not the most chic designer environment but this is the reality of my life out of work time. My husband is a farmer and although we don't live on the family farm ourselves we do spend a lot of time there especially on weekends. Whilst helping out with the lambs this Easter weekend I had a little wander around with my camera phone (hence not best quality - I'm getting lazy not taking my camera out as much these days - need to change this..) and snapped a few dusty corners and bits of interest. I concluded that the lambs are not very good subjects though - this was the least blurry of all the photos - too frenetic and lively for my amateur photographing!
Sometimes it takes looking through a lense to notice all those little nooks and crannys which you walk past so often and don't see.

Back in the studio I'll be spending this week shoe-horning as much work as possible into the few days (and evenings) at my desk that I can manage - Easter school holidays continue to cause me problems! One more week to go....