My tummy's rumbling...

Hi All,

I haven't much time at the moment to blog but while watching telly last night a friend of mine said "why don't you write about something different, like food". So I whisked up a few of these this morning.

So for breakfast I had...



Then I was feeling a bit peckish, grabbed a watermelon and before eating it, did a little sculpting...



For dinner I'm going to have this, prepared it last night, it's my tribute to spring...



While whipping up my dinner last night, I thought I'd also have a stab at my tea, never had frogs legs before, found this little fella in the garden, you might think that's cruel but i rescued him from the snow...



The good thing about making this stuff is, although it's a lot of food to eat in one day, it takes a lot of energy to make them so in theory it's a diet!!!

I'll get back to blogging about design soon, unless anyone has any other suggestions.

Here's a little animation for ya...

Just figured out how to post one of the gifs...here's one about design and designers.

Animation made easy...

Johnny Kelly (artist from Dublin but living in London) and Matthew Cooper were commissioned by agency Soon In Tokyo to create 56 animated gifs for a new campaign advertising the Barcelona-based design college Elisava. Using 56 animations, the agency created an interactive website, where visitors can add their own gifs to the website by either uploading their own files or creating a gif using their webcam.

Visit the website by clicking here.

They also made promotional materials such as the poster above from the frames of the gifs. It's really brilliant idea, I love the simplicity of the animations and 70's kind of feel to them, the muted colours also work really. I'll have to try some gif animations out myself.

POD Publishing...

This is a blog, about a blog, about me.

I just picked this up today on google alerts, Mick Rooney of POD Self Publishing and Independent Publishing has written a lovely blog about my story and its plight on Authonomy. I'm really happy about the article, reads really well and I want to thank Mick, which he'll see if he happens to stumble past this post.

Here's the link

Leprechaun Museum

In celebration of St Paddy's Day I have a post with an Irish feel.

The Leprechaun Museum, is a celebration of all that is Irish in tales and folklore. I haven't been there, intend too but will have to wait for my next visit to the "Big Smoke", apparently it's pretty cool affair, good design and nothing cheesy, so it's worth a visit. Its on Jervis Street, the website is pretty sparse and can't seem to find an exact address but here's a link to have a search for it yourself.

Let me know if anyone visits

A Load of Rubbish, No.4 on Authonomy.com

Hi All,

"A Load of Rubbish" (yes I know this name can cause confusion but that's what it's called) is now no.4 on Authonomy.com, its a site run by Harper Collins to spot new writing talent. Anyway if I stay in this position until the end of the month, my story gets passed onto the editors in Harper Collins and they review it. It's not a definite nod to publication but it's step in the right direction and has helped a lot of authors get launched.

Please click here authonomy.com
You'll see it sitting there no. 4 on the "Editors Desk", click on the book and you'll be lead into the blurb, click read the book button on the right and you can have a read.

If you like it, I'd really appreciate a backing, this involves registering with the site. I've blogged on exactly how to do it on one of my recent blogs here

Anyway thanks to everyone who has already,
Helena

Rogier van der Zwaag Music Video, all image no effects...

Brilliant video and really funny video of the making of the video (a lot of videos there). Anyway have a look, the music video is made by Rogier van der Zwaag using 4085 photos, madness really. The second video is a documentary of Rogiers sad demise!



Music Video

The colour of death...

I couldn't believe what I was reading about these images when I came across them. First, I was struck by the colours, they are amazing, then I read the story behind these strange objects and I was stunned. The images, as far as I could see, are all separate but I thought they would have better impact in a group and so I made a grouping of them for this blog. Read the story of these canisters below...

From 1913 to 1971 five thousand one hundred and twenty one mentally ill patients were cremated on the grounds of the Oregon State Hospital. Their remains were sealed in copper canisters. The canisters were stored in the hospital’s basement until the 1970s when they were moved to a memorial vault underground. The vault was subjected to periodic floods. In 2000 they were removed from their institutional crypt, placed on plain pine shelves in a storeroom, and were left virtually forgotten until David Masiel heard of their existence and photographed them.

They had been soldered shut with seams of lead. Leaked traces of the human remains, a mixture of phosphates, calcium (from the bones) and sulfates, with smaller percentages of potassium, sodium and chloride (the chemistry that makes up from ashes to ashes, dust to dust) combined with the corroding acid in the groundwater to form secondary mineral deposits. From the over five thousand of these unclaimed canisters, Maisel selected one hundred and ten to photograph. He worked on site, in a temporary studio using only natural light.

Max Hattler video

Really like the feel of this video but can't really put my finger on why...have a look and see what you think here

I "Heart" Tom Gauld

Found this work lately and thought it was a cool idea...

Tom Gauld, a well known illustrator, has paired up with Diet Coke and produced artwork for cans to celebrate "Heart" month in the US. As far as I understand it's a month to make people aware of heart disease. Anyway, the new cans are really striking and I don't drink coke but if they were on the shelves over here, I'd buy a few to look at...could make really nice pyramids or just squash them down and make a deadly collage...or could just get out the sketchbook and draw a few hearts of my own, lots of options, so little time, my heart bleeds and that definitely goes against the idea of US heart month, I'm confused...Anyway you can check out his work on tomgauld.com.

It's definitely a news month...Held in Prudence magazine

Prudence magazine wrote an article on Held Design in this months (March) recessionistas section. I have uploaded the spread and article above but if your in the shops grab this issue, it's a good read (not just cause i'm in it!)

Held in the Sunday Business Post

Held Design got a nice write up on the Sunday Business Post yesterday, I have pasted the article in below...

Striking out alone provides impetus for success
28 February 2010 By Jenny Hauser

Graphic designer Helena Duggan used to work for a company which catered mostly for corporate clients, and felt her creativity was being stunted.

When she was let go as a result of the economic downturn, it gave her the impetus she needed to follow her dreams and set up her own graphic design company.

‘‘I was let go the Christmas before last because of the recession. I always said I would set up my own business and this way I was pushed to do it," said Duggan.

Now it is just ‘‘myself and my computer - we’re great friends’’, according to Duggan.

She said that graphic design was a hard profession to follow when working for someone else. ‘‘When I went out on my own, I actually did better than when I was working for a company," she said. ‘‘I was able to go out and find work that I wanted to do.

‘‘When you own a company, it seems like people listen to you more and go with your ideas more."

Duggan completed her degree in graphic design at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology in 2004.

After two years in the world of employment, she packed her bags and went travelling for two years.

However, her creativity was not put on the back-burner during that time. In Melbourne, she enrolled on a creative writing course.

She is only 28 years old and always on the move, at least creatively.

Her latest successful project was a line of illustrated postcards and posters for Kilkenny.

The cards flew out of the door and Duggan is now looking to expand to other counties.

Other projects included designing brochures, t-shirts and flyers for a charity event, Aids Partnership in Africa, as well as designs for the Kells Comedy Festival, a knitting shop and a hair salon.

Held Design celebrated its first anniversary last month, and it has had a busy year. But despite this, Duggan also has her sights firmly set on publishing her own children’s book, which she wrote while travelling in Australia.

What started with a notebook given to her by her sister, ended up as 400 pages about the perils of a shoe called Seamus who finds himself on a rubbish-dump.

Currently, the book (A Load of Rubbish) is on Authonomy, a community site for writers, ranked in ninth place of around 8,000 books by aspiring authors. Each month, the Harper Collins editorial board reviews the top five books and publication is then within reach.

The ambitious designer has her sights set on being in the chosen five, and already has chosen the illustrations for the book on her desk.