Problem Solved

This is a great design book, where some of them just have pages and pages of images of creative design and ads, which is great for inspiration, this book has real chapters, its highlights different kinds of briefs and projects, talks about the problems and opportunities and goes someway to giving advise on ways to deal with them.... and then there's tons of great examples to illustrate the point. I love it, its a great addition to a designers library.

Mark Haddon

 If you haven't read anything by Mark Haddon yet - you have to. I just finished "A spot of Bother" which is his second adult novel, and it was a "couldn't put it down" read. Infact I left my copy on a bus in America so I had to find a bookshop the next day and buy a second copy! (and the fact I was so short of money I couldn't eat must go someway to explaining how much i wanted to finish the book!) The book is written from the perspective of several different characters and goes back over the same events from each of their viewpoints, which made for an interesting read. I read Haddons award winning first novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" a couple of years ago, its written from the perspective of a little boy with Aspergers syndrone, and its a very moving read, similarly his latest novel deals with mental illness from the perspective of the sufferer, but does so in an often amusing way. If your a keen reader give these novels a go!

... and for those of you who are into all this blogging, Haddon has a pretty interesting one on his site... http://www.markhaddon.com/ he is a very interesting and creative individual 

Millions

WATCH THIS FILM! It's so good! I watched it on the plane going to America and choose it simply because it was directed by Danny Boyle, and there has been alot of talk about him since the release of Slumdog Millionaire. Anyway... Millions, it's about two boys that find a million pounds, and try to keep it a secret! and the story of what happens next! Its such a lovely little story and its wonderfully directed, the sound tracks great too! 

We have all spent probably hours of our lives thinking and talking about "what we would do with a million pounds" and this film is from the perspective of the little boy who does, and he has an endearingly innocent personality, while his older brother just wants to buy the world and have his friends treat him like a king! The film is especially good at showing the conflict between what the two brothers want to do with all the money! 

Running with Scissors

Running with Scissors is a 2002 memoir by American writer Augusten Burroughs. I think it's possibly the most bizarre thing I've ever experienced. The book documents the writers teenage years, and the crazy situations he found himself in. His alcoholic father leaves him with his mentally unstable mother and he somehow ends up living with his mothers therapist Dr. Finch, and his family in house with no boundaries or rules. It really is the strangest thing I've ever read... so I rented the film too! and thats just the same totally bizarre but very funny! My only issue with it is that with it being a memoir and not a novel it documents a series of unrelated incidents and therefore doesn't really have an ending as such, interesting and entertaining just the same though! 

Spirit of the wild

This images are from a book I picked up at an exhibition of Steve Blooms stunning Photographs. He's a wildlife photographer and has an incredible talent for capturing the personality of his "subjects".  his photos are animals in their natural habitats and viewing many of them you get the feeling of seeing them as they are, in secret, without knowing they are being watched. I especially love some of his close up images of animals eyes, so many species in the world and yet seeing all they eyes together in the book somehow brings us together with the animals and gives me a sense that we all share the world and should do more to preserve that. For a photograph to give me those sorts of feelings they really must be good! I would love the opportunity to travel and take photographs... its a dream right now, but artists like this make me want to make it happen. Maybe one day it will.

We are what we do.

 I first came across WE ARE WHAT WE DO, when i saw the book, Change The World For A Fiver. It's such an inspirational book, packed full of 50 simple ideas to make changes to benefit the world around you, the themes and morals behind this book really appealed to me and combined with the simple layout of each spread its a wonderful book.

I looked into the "we are what we do" website after seeing the book and have signed up to it, its a lovely website for starters but i love the whole idea and ethos of "we are what we do" 

The philosophy is that SMALL ACTIONS x LOTS OF PEOPLE = BIG CHANGE

and the website is even more packed full of really simple tasks that anyone can do to make the world a better place - cheesy as it sounds - its truely inspirational!

I have also bought another book from them - it' written by children for children. It's called Teach Your Granny To Text and its again full of simple actions that kids can do everyday to change the world around them. As well as the content the layout and page designs are great examples of good design for children, so it's worth a flick through. 

Please have a look at this website and join - I think its great!

http://wearewhatwedo.org/