I have just updated our /Mr and Mrs M./ website, adding projects Liz and I have been doing recently, including a lot of work for German fashion duo Felder Felder, who we’ve been working with since 2007.
Go have a look at our work!
I’ve been working on and off for the past 2 years or so on the first issue of Starling, and I finally assembled the selection of work I want to show within its pages. Now “all” that needs to be done is the cover…
First press blurb of 2010, in the 198th issue of .net magazine which discusses tips and trends for 2010:
“Don’t live in a vacuum — use available network tools to syndicate your content in a smart manner. One push of a button can send your blog’s content to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, MySpace and Ning”
— Tom Muller, Kleber
(And to find out where you can find me online, just look at the link list)
Next month I will do the first of 2 talks (1 in London, 1 in Glasgow) organised by LongLunch.
I’ll be talking about my work, Kleber, comics, and designing in general.
Really looking forward to do these talks (all thanks to Brian Copeland at LongLunch!)… and I hope I’m interesting enough to shift some tickets.
For those gagging to see me (all 3 of you) tickets for London are on sale NOW and can be purchased online at the LongLunch site!
Here’s the full info for BOTH talks—
Event 32: LONDON
Tuesday 2nd January 2010
Project Space
Westbourne Studios
242 Acklam Road
London W10 5JJ
Doors open 7pm for 7.30pm start
Tickets £8 / £6 (NUS) available via LongLunch.comEvent 37: GLASGOW
Thursday 6th May 2010
Mackintosh Lecture Theatre
Glasgow School of Art
167 Renfrew Street
Glasgow G3 6RQ
Doors open 7pm for 7.30pm start
Hope to see you there!
Yes I know its already 2010, but last month’s “Comics…” was postponed because of the holidays. Also, a short trip to the mainland yielded some excellent European BD which I wanted to include in this list.
As with last month’s entry, I’ll highlight and link the comics & books I think you really should be reading.
• Hellblazer #262 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Daytripper #1 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Ultimate Armor Wars #3 (of 4) (Marvel Comics)
• Astonishing X-Men #33 (Marvel Comics)
• Captain America Reborn #5 (of 6) (Marvel Comics)
• Phonogram — The Singles Club #6 (Image Comics)
• Haunt #3 (Image Comics)
• Supergod #2 (Wrap cover variant) (Avatar Press)
• B.P.R.D. War on Frogs #4 (Dark Horse Comics)
• The Perry Bible Fellowship AMANACK (Dark Horse Comics)
And for my Euro BD loot:
• Siegfried books I & II (Dargaud)
• Aigles de Rome (Dargaud)
(NOTE: I bought the Dutch language versions)
• Mœbius: Made in L.A. (Casterman)
• Yume book I & II (Bries)
But don’t take my word for it: Complex Magazine ran down The 50 Best Comic Book Covers of 2009, and VIKING #3 made the grade:
Hell-lo, huge sword. This cover isn’t compensating for anything, though. Great action pose with the wolf and the sword, terrific color palette, and even a killer mustache. The cherry on top is the overall detailing, from the weathered logo to the blood drop behind the issue number. —LEONG
The cover art, of course, is by the German Wonder that is Nic Klein.
Personally I’m quite happy to see this cover has been chosen, as its one of my favourites of the whole series.
You can see all of the VIKING covers I’ve designed at my site, or have a look at the design process of the logo.
Looking forward, next year will see the release of the 1st VIKING collection, and with that, the brand new logo & trade dress of the series. Stay tuned for more!
Another post listing some of my favourite covers from the 80s, and probably my first encounters with the American Graphic Novel format. Looking back at those now I think that the 80s were a very fertile ground for comics, especially with the rise of independent comics — and the Big Two (Marvel and DC) put out a remarkable amount of more left field work (sometimes using company characters) in their range of prestige format books. I was pretty much a Marvel Zombie back then, and the “Marvel Graphic Novel” label in the corner or at the top of their books meant I was going to be in for a treat: psychedelic art & stories by the likes of Rick Veitch and P. Craig Russell — not to mention the incredible graphic storytelling — and Bill Sienkiewicz on pretty much everything, from covers to movie adaptations…
So here are a few of my favourites from, to me at least, a golden era in comics:
Continue reading…
I’m happy to announce that WIWP have reissued the posters from their “Now Showing” exhibit, including my Logan’s Run poster!
Wear It With Pride have teamed up with Blanka (no stranger to fans of fine design products) to produce the new prints which are now available in 2 formats: 50cmx70cm, priced at £75 GPB (edition of 25), and a cheaper A2 sized format priced £50GBP (unlimited print run). Both are Giclée print on Da Vinci Archival Art Paper.
WIWP is having a site overhaul at the moment, so in the meantime you can buy the poster HERE from their Flickr shop.
Just in time for that perfect holiday gift!
Too many comics, not enough time to read them all.
I’m going to start something new, from now on I’ll highlight and link the comics & books I think you should be reading.
• Hellblazer #261 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Batman & Robin #6 (DC Comics)
• Powers #1 (Marvel/ICON)
• Astonishing X-Men #32 (Marvel Comics)
• Ultimate Armor Wars #2 (of 4) (Marvel Comics)
• Ultimate Avengers #3, 4 (Marvel Comics)
• Captain America Reborn #4 (of 5) (Marvel Comics)
• Fantastic Four #572, 573 (Marvel Comics)
• Image United #1 (of 6) (Image Comics)
• Haunt #2 (Image Comics)
• Phonogram — The Singles Club #5 (Image Comics)
• VIKING #4 (Image Comics)
• Hellboy — The Wild Hunt #8 (of 8) (Dark Horse Comics)
• B.P.R.D. 1947 #4 (Dark Horse Comics)
• Sir Edward Grey: Witchfinder #5 (of 5) (Dark Horse Comics)
• Abe Sapien: The Haunted Boy (Dark Horse Comics)
• Gravel #15 (Wrap cover variant) (Avatar Press)
• Chronicles of Wormwood: The Last Battle #1 (Wrap cover variant) (Avatar Press)
• Ignition City #5 (Painted cover variant) (Avatar Press)
• Supergod #1 (Wrap cover variant) (Avatar Press)
• Scalped Book 5 “High Lonesome” (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Luna Park Graphic Novel (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• The Wintermen TPB Collection (DC/Wildstorm Comics)
• Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7 (Fleet Street Scandal)
This month’s issue, which is all about the workspaces and work environments of designers/studios, features a photo of my/our home studio in the Comment section, accompanying my response on the CR blog Question of the week “Where do you work” —
Since 2005 Kleber has converted to what you can call a “virtual” company — meaning we got rid of our office in London in favour of working remotely from our homes. Since we’re a small studio to begin with and have been working together for a long time it was a painless transition, and we’re in touch with each other every day via phone, IM and email.
As far as location is concerned… We’re currently spread out all over the UK with people in Sheffield, London (me) and the South-East — and have no problems whatsoever with being available for clients (we can easily meet them at their offices), and the luxury of working from home is second to none. Location these days is not important. With a proper internet connection and a phone you can work for anyone, anywhere at any time.
The theme of the CR issue was largely inspired by the excellent Studio Culture book from Unit Editions (Tony Brook+Adrian Shaughnessy). Its quite an interesting topic to discuss, partly because of the inherit voyeuristic tendency we have to have a peek into other people’s work place, but also to see how they actually work… and there seem to be largely 2 categories: the ultra-clean white Vitra/Vitsœ setup (Modernism by numbers?), or the Ikea/2nd hand/whatever works interior that kind of organically grows over the years.
Personally I’d love to one day have a wall covered in Vitsœ shelving — although Mrs M is an advocate for the democratic Billy book case. When reading about other studios and looking at photos of their work environment its always pretty obvious that the ones with all the high spec “design must-haves” impress you first time round, but on second thought they all look a bit soulless at times. And while I like some of that clinical minimalism, I personally prefer a bit of organized chaos. And Mrs M has a keen eye to combine Modern with Vintage or Ikea, to create an environment that looks alive. Even now, after more than 10 years of having worked at, and seen, different work space setups I still haven’t found my “perfect” work environment at home.
I’m pretty happy with how my work space has been for the past 3 years (constantly evolving), but there’s always that nagging “Hmm, how about a bigger desk? Should I get that extra shelving?”. But then I get rightly told of by Mrs M who has a more practical eye on things and keeps me in check while I try to convince her that maybe one Vitsœ unit in the office wouldn’t hurt ;).