Salts Mill, Saltaire

http://www.saltsmill.org.uk/

While in Saltaire last weekend I made sure to take a look inside Salts Mill. The Mill contains shops, galleries and a cafe for you to take time out and appreciate the art and design inside. The main attraction of the Mill is the work of David Hockney on display but there are other artists work on display and it's an enjoyable day out. There is also a fantastic shop where you can pick up any different art and design books.

Having just searched for the website I thought the design was pretty good, I liked the panoramic images of the mill but I found it hard to navigate and find out about what the mill has to offer. If I hadn't have been then I would have found it rather difficult to understand.

Headingley Triangle Arts Festival

http://www.triangle.org.uk/artday.htm

Last Sunday, after going to the Saltaire Arts Trail, I attended the Headingley/Cardigan Triangle Art Day. This day follows in a similar fashion to the Saltaire festival as residents open their houses up to the public to show off art work from local artists. It was again a nice chance to have a look at what was being produced locally and gave me some real ideas, especially when it comes to photography for my projects. Again I would recommend this annual event when it comes around again next year.

There poster could do with a rethink though...is it a Microsoft Word job?...

Saltaire Arts Festival

http://www.saltaireartstrail.co.uk/

Last week was the Saltaire Arts Trail in Saltaire, Bradford. As part of the annual Saltaire Festival the public are invited to walk around the streets, halls and houses of Saltaire which display the work of artists, photographers, sculptors and designers alike. The picturesque world heritage site Saltaire was the perfect backdrop for the event and the work on display was very impressive. It was a nice chance to take a look at the amateur work out there and it was a chance for them to display their work for free. There was the chance to purchase work but I found it nice to just walk around, take it all in and perhaps even take inspiration from some of the work on offer. It was my first experience of the festival and I look forward already to the event next year.

On another note I was very impressed by the brochure design (available on the website) and the website design, as you would expect from an arts festival. It did make me laugh that the arts festival falls under the main Saltaire festival and the website for that is awful...take a butchers...www.saltairefestival.co.uk

Some of the brochure pages are below...

Design Museum, London

http://www.designmuseum.org/

Last December I visited the Design Museum in London and was disappointed with what I saw if I'm honest. I love the whole look and branding of the museum which was featured in Creative Review last year too and that article actually made me make sure to go when I was in London. When I visited there I was surprised how small it was. I expected a very big museum that would show the development of design over the years. Instead I found that the museums relevance to certain areas of design came down to what was being exhibited at the time. Unfortunately for me my visit was at a time of fashion exhibitions which if I'm honest doesn't excite me. This is not to say I would not recommend the museum, I would just advise people to check before they go...plus if nothing else the shop has every design book under the sun!

Superlambananas

I've mentioned the madness of the Superlambananas in response to Francesca's post on the Elephant's dotted around Norwich city centre.

http://francescabennett.blogspot.com/2008/07/go-elephants.html

Next week marks the end of the Superlambanana's invasion of Liverpool's streets. At that point they will all be auctioned off for charity. The link here is for the official site of the Superlambananas where you can download the trails and try and get your picture taken with 120 of them...quite a task however as there are Superlambananas as far away from Liverpool as Mael Famau mountain in Wales and even London!

The whole scheme has actually brought a lot of fun to the city and when I was home this weekend there were families following the trail and getting there pictures taken with them. It really is a scheme that has got everyone involved and made everyone intrigued as to where they are all hidden.

All in all a lot of publicity for a sculpture first created by Japanese artist Taro Chiezo for the Arts Transpenine in 1998. Ten years on and it's still going strong in Liverpool.

http://www.gosuperlambananas.co.uk