Portfolio Update

Work update alert!!

We have just completed a large interior project for a private client,

right here in snowy Brum! Working with Sphere the project consisted

of design, installation and fit out of a 5 bedroom b-e-a-utiful home

for a premiership footballer no less!!

Please have a look at our interior portfolio and click the left arrow

Here are a couple of images as a little taster!

Egg Nog Blog!

Ok, so its December, which means Lisa has already bought, decorated the christmas tree, made 3 gallons of egg nog &

played her spotify christmas playlist 3 times!!

Heres a pic of our new addition to the Kancho ranks (the tree!)

And our first festive tipple, a trip to the German market is in

order i think!

If you have never tasted egg nog, its amezzin!!

Heres what you need:

Eggs

Whipping Cream

Milk

Caster Sugar

Whisky

Dark Rum

Vanilla Extract

Nutmeg

Or call into the studio & im sure Lisa will be more than

happy to whisk up a new batch - any excuse!!

Not much on the blog front this week - Too many meetings!

Normal service should be resumed next week!

Studio Culture

Just finished reading Studio Culture by Unit Editions. Good Read!

Being nosey, its great to see some well known agencies opening up

about how they run their studio! I found a lot of the interviewees to

still be guarded however & they gave superfluous answers that werent

needed. It is great to read about successful studios who started up the

same way we are and followed a similar path to ours!!

Overall its great to have quality relevant books available that help

to answer the unasked questions about running a business in our industry.

Also check out the limited edition signed by the authors

copy that we have!!!

Frets on fire

OMG! this is addictive - Guitar Hero but on the mac!

Ok so its not as good as guitar hero, cus i cant get my

rock 'stance' on with fake guitar in hand! but its pretty

good for the office!! Bit tricky getting it to work mind,

try searching for version 1.1.324 as this seems to work.

It does mess up all the folders on your desktop but its

totally worth it!

The Barca 'Joiner'

Inspired by SMILES 'weekly joiner' ive crudely created this pic

from some photos i took from the roof of our hotel on our

recent jaunt to Barcelona!

We are loving wonderwalls amazing portfolio!!

love what they do & love their site!

mini cards - like business cards but smaller!

We actually produced these cards about a month ago, and i just

stumbled on the image on my mac so i thought i'd blog it here!

These are a set of 'mini cards', thats right like business cards

but smaller for our client - Sphere. Thanks to the Sphere for

being brave and trying the unusual size of 70mm x 40mm.

We (and Sphere - thankfully) think they are great, and

support the idea of a small company with big ideas!

Watch out for spheres new website which is in progress.

Monty for Mayor

Saw this site and it made me chuckle!! Get voting - monty for mayor!

Hola!

We went to Barcelona over the weekend and it was awesome!!

Its everything you want a European city to be, it has lots of little

cobbled streets surrounded by beautiful ancient buildings with

lots of little cafes & restaurants to stop at and top up on tapas

and sangria! There are street performers everywhere, some good,

alot awful!! Then theres a gaudi designed building in the middle

of a normal street!!

Sagrada Familia is - a m a z i n g !!! No wonder Gaudi didnt finish it!!

Can you imagine pitching to the local council saying 'im proposing to

build a cathedral thats going to take 100+ years to build and its going

to be mental with the interior based on a forest!' Any way heres a few pics...

anil amrit

Old friend & ex work colleague Anil has unfortunately

(like loads of others) been made redundant but has

set up on his own! If you need a designer based

in Shropshire (Worfield to be exact) then check

out his site www.anilamrit.co.uk

Funny Foods

A lunchtime visit to Asda yesterday (yawn) was made more fun by laughing at foreign funny sounding foods!! See pics below...

I think ill stay clear of the cock flavour soup!!

Help in the Studio

This morning, Charlie the cat decided he would help in the Studio.

He'd make a rubbish intern! He didnt make coffee or contribute

to ideas or create any artwork!! He did have his own note paper though!

100% Design

A couple of weeks ago, we made the trip down south to a sunny Earls Court for 100% Design. Which was good fun, there were a couple of things that caught my eye though. The Luminoso stand and product was super cool!! and they have a nice flash site too! link here.

They are basically a venge wood panel with pin point back lit holes, which can be cut to any shape which creates an elegant light form, ideal for a swanky bar! Image below...

There were also these cool polystyrene limited edition massive tea cups. At £20 a pop.

I wish id bought one now, it would look ace in the studio! Bit difficult to carry on the train though!

After my - 'this cat is awesome' post

Stupot from OWB sent me this 'cat'

Im not sure he is 'awesome' at all? maybe

in the 80's, but anything went then!!

This cat is awesome

I know this image has been around on the net for ages,

but i stumbled on it again the other day and it made me smile!

That cat is awesome though!

Johan Lorbeer

Johan Lorbeer is awesome!! We have been researching still life

performance artists for an event we are organising & this guy rocks!!

his site is www.johanlorbeer.com

Derren Brown - I dont trust him!!

Even though we are going to see him next year at the Alex Theatre

in Brum. I don't trust Derren Brown. He couldnt glue me to the sofa

(although a bottle of rose & 4 stellas did!) but he did manage to make

me draw 'concentric circles' on friday night! Im sure it was the close

up of the ladies eyes with the circular reflection in them that did it!

Heres mine and Lisa's scribbles from friday (As you can see i had to write

under mine what is was, cus im rubbish at drawing!)

Our new cards

We have had our cards for a couple of weeks now but this is the

first chance ive had to blog about them!! We decided to go with

a 55mm square shape, printed onto 350gsm, printed in a spot red

with a spot uv, creating a layered typographic effect - we love em!!

How difficult is it though to design for yourself?

Blog on...

So here we are, blogging!!!

Who would have thought?

I always thought a blog was a bit self obssessed,

and a bit 'hey look at us arent we great!'

but - hey look at us arent we great?!

As this is my first post i'll introduce us, we are Kancho Creative.

Howard & Lisa, graphic & interior designers respectively,

also in the studio are Charlie (cat) and Mia (also a cat).

You can see our portfolio at www.kancho.co.uk and find out more about us.

Our blog will consist (hopefully) of the usual blog guff, stuff we like, stuff we dont,

things we have done, places we have been & things we have seen!!

I always wondered, 'who reads blogs, especially design agency blogs?'

And i guess it's me, or people like me, who are interested in what other

designers do on the daily grind & away from the office. I have a load of

local & international agency blogs bookmarked and check to see what

they are up to on a weekly basis, so im hoping other people like me

will be nosey and see what we are up to! and ill try to keep the blog

current with whats new in the world of kancho.