Casa Viva magazine have With Relish’s Sarah Hyndman as their featured Designer of the Month this month – for her playful Olympic projects and teaching experiences, but we’re not sure that the gardening should have had a mention having seen the sadly neglected lawn recently.

Last week Sarah was also asked to contribute to Design Week’s Voxpop: What is your favourite example of an icon or pictogram-led design system? Read Sarah’s answer here.

We are delighted to announce that the major Random Project 2012 Exhibition, organised by With Relish’s Sarah Hyndman, will take place at Rich Mix in London from 2nd – 19th August.

Rich Mix is located in an old garment factory in the heart of vibrant Shoreditch and close to the City and Olympic site. The venue is an art gallery, performance space and cinema with an ongoing programme of exciting events and activities.

The exhibition will open as part of First Thursdays, where the galleries and museums of east London open their doors late for a chance to see amazing art, culture and events after hours. The exhibition will be a growing exhibition as more postcards are added to fill the entire gallery space. We will be running postcard making sessions and events – please check our website nearer the time for details.

Rich Mix
Lower Café Gallery
Thursday 2nd – Sunday 19th August
Entry: Free
35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6LA

Random is organised by With Relish’s Sarah Hyndman who had the idea when teaching a course in Experimental Typography at LCC.

This is a series of travel sketches of coffees I’ve drunk around the world to celebrate the start of the London Coffee Festival which runs from the 27th to the 29th April.

Sketchbooks by Sarah Hyndman

The London 2012 slogan was announced yesterday as ‘Inspire a Generation‘. This ties in perfectly with one of Creative Director Sarah’s side-projects. She’s photographing objects in the formation of the Olympic rings every day to celebrate the count down to London 2012. Her blog has inspired others to join in, becoming a shared art project and exemplifying the team spirit of the Olympics.

Most recently the project has inspired a class of eight-year-olds to create images for the blog during theirArt Week. Question and answer sessions were filmed and the children have become the hosts of the blog for a month as each of their images have been revealed every day.

Speaking of the project, Sarah said: “I was delighted when the London school contacted me and asked if they could create images for the blog during their Art Week. The images arrived complete with cleverly written captions and their creativity inspired me to up my game.”

“We have a huge interactive whiteboard in the classroom so each morning I have the logo for that day displayed when the children arrive. It is lovely to see the faces when it’s their day!” Mr O’Donnell.

Sarah continues “2012 is a big year for London. It’s a chance for us to celebrate the community around us in our city, and to enjoy the events taking place throughout the year. It’s a tough time financially and there are plenty of Olympic-knocking stories bouncing around. In light of this it seems timely to do something positive and light hearted that everybody can join in with and smile.”

“That is simply inspiring! And good on the teacher for recognising such a great arts project for the pupils.” AJ

“Wow..well done Barnes Primary School” BG

We felt like we’d spent a balmy evening in Italy last night watching the warm and witty Filumena directed by Mike Attenborough at the Almeida Theatre. Samantha Spiro’s Filumena is an endearing and feisty woman you’d want in your corner and she steals the show.

It felt like we were invited into the family home and the beautiful set with dappled sunshine and background sounds of crickets and barking dogs have left us feeling like we’ve just come back from a lazy holiday.

Filumena press night at the Almeida Theatre. Promotional materials designed by With Relish and photos by Hugo Glendinning.

Read the Evening Standard review.

It’s now one year since the devastating Tsunami hit Japan. Graphic Designer Miho Aishima folded over 1400 origami cranes to raise funds for the Red Cross Japan’s Tsunami Appeal. The whole flock of cranes can be seen in ‘This is Not a Pop-up’ at the Hayward Gallery, which was launched as part of the London Design Festival.

The cranes have been suspended from the ceiling in the formation of a single, flying crane, and each bears the initials of the donor. On the private view evening, each donor received a card with the location of the cranes folded in his or her honour. It’s a beautiful creation and an amazing feat of determination and dexterity.

The crane sculpture is at ‘This is Not a Pop-up’ at the Hayward Gallery. Opening hours are 12pm-6pm Mon to Sun.

The Random Project 2012 identity and website have been creative by Sarah Hyndman of With Relish.

The identity combines Knochen and Lubalin Graph typefaces to create a modular system which can be rearranged to adapt to a range of scenarios. Visit the website.

Typefaces
Lubalin Graph is by Herb Lubalin. It’s a slab serif font which retains a geometric appearance and the large x-height of the Avant Garde Gothic on which its design was based. Knochenis by graphic designer and typographer Martin Aleith from the Berlin-based collective Pfadfinderei.

Website: Typekit Fonts Museo Slab Serif and Museo Sans Serif.

I do, when necessary, resort to Amazon but it doesn’t provide the same experience. Even though Amazon offers up potential alternatives to those already searched and bought, it doesn’t throw the curve ball of walking past a table crammed with books you didn’t think would interest you and finding a gem that you just can’t put down.

I made my way through five floors of books and for the first time I saw in situe, the Waterstones strap line – “Feel Every Word”. As I continued to browse, I understood just how clever the phrase was. At a time when we are all hooked up to a screen for most of the day, when even reading has become a reason to fire up yet another screen, I think some of us have lost a bit of the “feeling” of reading. Remember the feel of a new book with its cool, crisp jacket and pristine pages? The feeling of wanting just 10 more minutes to get to the end of the chapter (there’s never the same sense of “chapter closure” with a Kindle), the panic when there’s only a few more pages left and you wonder how the story could possibly be resolved on such a small amount of paper? The sense of loss when the book is finished, a little more tattered than at the outset but with the story and characters etched into your head and heart?

Even sat at my desk typing now, I can recall the devastation of Prabaker’s untimely death (Shantaram), the heart stopping moment when the method of his high school massacre was unveiled (We Need to Talk About Kevin) and the burning frustration at Stevens’ maddening sense of ‘dignity’ when I knew he really loved Miss Kenton and she loved him (The Remains of the Day).

So Waterstones, thank you. Thank you for reminding me about the joy of reading a proper book.

If you feel the same – why not champion the humble but glorious book by encouraging the children in your life to celebrate World Book Day on 1 March  or join in with World Book Night on 23 April.

The Random Project 2012 was launched this week. It is organised by With Relish’s Sarah Hyndman and will showcase a growing collection of postcards which are created by all of us. These will celebrate the spirit of London 2012 and enable us to visually document the shared cultural experience as the year unfolds – we will all become the artists-in-residence for a historic year.

The project is open to everybody to take part in; from artists to school children to athletes. Each postcard is designed in response to a randomly assigned word relating to either 2012, London or the Olympics.

To take part please email word@random-project.co.uk with a number between 1 and 100. You will be sent your word along with full instructions.

The postcards will be on view in the Random Project 2012 virtual gallery which will open on February 1st 2012. A physical exhibition will be planned later in the year.

The Random Project first ran in 2006 as part of the London Design Festival. Contributors include Ed Fella, Stefan Sagmeister, Ralph Steadman, Alan Kitching, Alan Rickman and Isabelle aged 7, to name just a few.

Find out more on the Random Project 2012 website
Follow on Twitter @randomproject

Press coverage of the project launch:

Images shown:
Alan Kitching/neighbourhood, Jeff Pyrah/london, Ursula Horton/london, Ralph Steadman/British
Moira Johnston/pride, Stefan Sagmeister/disappear, Alan Rickman/noise, Louise Weir/true

UK Wikipedia has blacked out for the day today to raise awareness of legislation being considered in the U.S.

Are you aware of how many times a day do you look at Wikipedia, or use information that has been sourced from it? Much as we realise the information may not always be accurate, the collective nature of the information also makes it an impartial and evolving resource. We’ve come to rely on this instant information for researching through to resolving debates in the pub. A day without it will be a powerful reminder of the access to knowledge we take for granted.

We’re going to plan an internet free day here at With Relish, a day to use phones and books, close the browsers and turn off wifi (yes we appreciate the irony of announcing this on our blog). Would you like to join us?

SH