We welcomed two school placements into B&L at the beginning of January. Bethan and Daniel both from Calderstones School. On what sometimes can be a slow and dreary start to the year, Beth and Dan brought a breath of fresh air into the studio. I can confidently say that they both have a flair for design and quickly picked up Adobe Illustrator. We tasked Beth with writing a blog post about her time here which follows.

“Recently I came to work for Bolland & Lowe for 2 weeks as work experience. These 2 weeks have been enjoyable and fun, and I now feel part of the team. I got to know everyone through making endless amounts of tea and coffee and now know everyone’s name and tea order.

I have learnt how to edit my drawings, improve them and how to use new technology like an Apple Mac. I love using new programmes like Illustrator to bring my drawings to life , as well as making posters, letterheads, stationery and newsletters”.

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We visited Cyclopark last week to see how things are shaping up, to say that we were impressed would be an understatement. Opening to coincide with London 2012, Cyclopark will be Europe’s largest cycling venue. We’ve been working with the team behind it from the start and we were lucky enough to be invited down to Kent last week to see how things are shaping up.

We were really impressed to see how quickly things are progressing and the scale of the site really has to be seen to be believed. The BMX track and the mountain bike ‘black run’ look amazing, if a little daunting!

We’ll be working on a number of exciting projects and little surprises in the run up to the full opening of the park next year!

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Tags: bmx, Branding, cycle park, cyclopark, kent, London 2012, Mountain Biking, Olympics

On Friday 7 October between 4pm – 7pm we’re throwing open our studio doors to reveal the inner sanctum of Bolland & Lowe as part of the Liverpool Design Festival’s Design Studios Open Day.

Come along to the launch of illustrator Neil Keating‘s exhibition at the Bolland & Lowe studio, and bring the kids along to his fairytale themed workshop. Chat to designers, clients and printers about their approach to design and marketing with Bolland & Lowe and get tips on working with international licenses and designing for greeting cards specialist Hype Associates. If you’re a graduate who wants to get a taste of a working studio and receive feedback on your creative work then bring along your portfolio for a review with the team, or if you’re a design buff just wanting to have a nose around, then we’d love you to drop in to see us.

 

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Tags: Bolland & Lowe, Design Studio Open Day, Liverpool, Liverpool Design Festival 2011

Having been raised on the not so mean streets of Merseyside’s suburbia my knowledge of graffiti history is somewhat lacking. Nevertheless, Channel’s 4 excellent Graffiti Wars made for fascinating viewing for somebody whose tagging experience started and finished with exercise book doodling.

Graffiti Wars introduces us to the imposing King Robbo, arguably London’s graffiti godfather, telling the story of his influence on the London scene and his ongoing feud with Bristol’s Banksy. We’re shown how the feud emanated from Banksy’s vandalism of one of King Robbo’s last remaining pieces which ignited a street war of tit for tat retaliation.

There’s no doubt that this feud increased the profile of King Robbo as his work becomes acknowledged in the commercial art world and subsequently leads to his first gallery shows. He is commissioned to paint a silhouette of actress Zoe Kravitz for the promotion of Yelling to the Sky at the Berlin Film Festival and begins to enjoy some of the acclaim that had been long bestowed on his more mainstream nemesis.

The programme also presents the conflict of graffiti styles, from Robbo’s freehand technique to Banksy’s use of stencils. French graffiti artist and pioneer of the stencil use, Blek le Rat is one of the shows contributors and his frustration at the adulation received by Banksy is understandable once you see his work. The similarity between Banksy’s and Blek’s style is inescapable, although the Frenchman’s work predates the Bristolian by at least a decade.

Much like Exit through the Gift Shop, it’s difficult to decide how much of what we’re told is the complete truth, although the animosity between Robbo and Banksy appears genuine. Irrespective of any dramatic license employed, Graffiti Wars is an engrossing documentary that shines a light on one of the most influential art forms of recent decades.

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Tags: Banksy, Berlin Film Festival, Blek le Rat, Channel 4, Graffiti, Grafitti Wars, King Robbo, Stencil, Yelling to the Sky

BBC News was on hand to capture the first tests runs at Cyclopark in Gravesend. With London 2012 fast approaching it’s great to see the complex taking shape, and it’s always nice to see your work featured on TV! See the report here. You can see more images of the park on the Cyclopark blog.

Photographs courtesy of Richard Hall, Image South East

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Tags: bmx, Branding, Cycling, cyclopark, kent, London 2012, Mountain Biking, Olympics

On 19 July 2011 the Liverpool waterfront will welcome its newest addition. The Museum of Liverpool is the largest new build museum in Britain for more than a century. 100 years to the day that the iconic Liver Building opened its doors, the museum will be launched and welcome its first visitors.

The Museum of Liverpool is the world’s first national museum to be devoted to the history of a regional city, reflecting Liverpool’s unique history and culture.

More than 10,000 local people were consulted when deciding on the content of the museum. Amongst the diverse range of exhibits will be the stage where John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met in 1957, the last remaining carriage from the Liverpool Overhead Railway, Ben Johnson’s Liverpool Cityscape and a life-size 18ft tall Liver Bird.

Since our inception we’ve enjoyed a great relationship with National Museums Liverpool (NML), working on a number of successful campaigns (we were even lucky enough to get a sneak peek at how things were shaping up when we attended a fund raising dinner inside the museum last year). We’re proud of our work with NML and look forward to building on this relationship long into the future.

All of us at Bolland & Lowe wish to congratulate everybody who has worked so hard in bringing this museum to the city, we have no doubt that it’ll be a huge success and we can’t wait to visit!

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Tags: Liverpool, Museum, Museum of Liverpool, National Museums Liverpool