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What with raising children, selling clobber and making music for psychedelic darts tournaments (more on that one soon!) it’s easy to forget that I have an actual proper job. Some spiffing updates over at Touch, including our recent brand project for Edinburgh International Film Festival. Plenty more of that to come in 2020…
www.thetouchagency.co.uk
To celebrate ten years of my being a fashionable male (read: selling a range of garms in my mother-in-law’s iconic vintage boutique, Herman Brown) I recently created a capsule collection of menswear pieces, each sourced from deadstock and embroidered with a new HB Electronics logo. The whole lot sold out in a matter of days (thanks internet!) but there may well be more where that came from.
A while back the artistic polymaths at Yokollection designed me my very own skate deck, something which had been a lifetime goal since I was about 12. This year they released a ‘pseudo-fashionable’ look book to coincide with their latest exhibition, Double Disaster (in which they document a pilgrimage/driving lesson at the site of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1969 car crash) as part of Edinburgh Art Festival. Thoroughly recommended viewing and if you ask nicely they might just send you a copy of the publication, featuring this decrepit old skater amongst many other more sprightly collaborators.
www.yokollection.com
Our conceptual art-jazz quartet Karate Priest supplied the creepy noises for a new promo from Scottish skate brand Garden. I have known the founder and creative head honcho since he modelled tees for our shop, and can attest that the quality of design is head and shoulders above most modern skate fare. Check the More Information promo below and then buy a stack of boards and tees from your local shop.
moreinformation.co
I love commissioning an idea and seeing it come to life. Case in point: this tripped-out editorial spread by Kaja Merle for the Majedie Journal, from an article about Rentokil’s progressive employment policy of all things. I suggested a Pied Piper theme incorporating the iconic Rentokil uniform and Kaja and my colleague Charlie made it all work perfectly.
kajamerle.com
What with the absolute shambles that is UK politics at the moment, our art project/band Karate Priest felt that we had to make a statement in the only way we know how; by making a piece of work. Collaborating with Italian jazz wizard Filoq, we embarked on a cross-border remix project complete with a video by artist and band member Chris Walker. Let’s hope it helps us all stick together rather than fall apart.
www.dlso.it/site/2019/03/27/karate-priest-filoq-flyn-video
A while back I was asked to get involved with a community initiative that wasn’t to be, however I had the idea of repping our ends with this cheeky nod to a popular clothing brand and thought it was worth sharing. Turned out I was right as the t-shirts sold out in a day. I still have a few stickers available for your surfboard, climbing bag or enormous gas-guzzling SUV though 😉
We finally got round to updating the Touch site with a load of great projects, from super slick custom editorial for whisky behemoths, to our very own exhibition with Leith Theatre as part of Edinburgh International Festival’s Light on the Shore event. Be sure to have a gander when you get a spare minute, and follow our insta for up-to-the-minute on-the spot news broadcasts. Tons of good stuff planned for this year too…
www.thetouchagency.co.uk/projects
Chris and I have been invited to speak at Foilco’s Multiplicity event in November, alongside industry big-hitters Craig Oldham and Jim Sutherland. Come through and offer us some much needed moral support – we promise we won’t flick nervously through our work archive…Seriously though, thanks to Foilco and Dave Sedgwick for putting us on.
multiplicitybyfoilco.com/edinburgh
This August, together with my Touch colleagues, I am curating Aftershow, an exhibition at Leith Theatre in collaboration with Edinburgh International Festival. Before its doors closed in the 1980s Leith Theatre played host to everyone from AC/DC to Thin Lizzy and Kraftwerk. When we learned more about this rich musical history we were inspired to do something to help the recent community efforts to restore the space, so we have designed a series of banners that pay tribute to some of these performances. Visit the show, buy some merch and help us raise funds for this incredible venue.
www.thetouchagency.co.uk/aftershow