Olympic mascots become self-ware and go on a killing spree around London!

Wenlock - Olympic mascot

Ha ha, only kidding they do look like they were sent back from the future by Skynet though ;)

So finally the London 2012 Olympic Mascots by have been revealed. As you would expect from the 2012 committee, they are not really what we expected! Far from cute & cuddly they are cold & hard, more like a Henry Moore sculpture than a kids toy.

Designed by London agency iris, I read that they only cost “a few thousand pounds”, I think they probably cost a bit more than that! Probably just trying to play it down after the £400,000 logo fiasco.

Mandeville - Olympic mascot

I feel for it’s designer though, whatever you create you’re going to get people ripping the shit out of it (myself included, sorry..) It’s an impossible brief, design by committee jobs always are.. I actually like it quite a lot, everything from the neck down looks awesome, great proportions, clean lines, sweet as in my book. Problem is though, why oh why that eye Olympic Committee?

You can tell by the descriptions on iris’ design boards, that the eye was supposed to be a camera lens, but at some point they decided to stick a cartoon eye on there which looks totally at odds to the rest of the angular design. Pixar have already shown with characters like WALL•E, or even their original anglepoise lamp short, that with the limitations of something ‘less human’, you can get a lot more unique character out of it. Feels like it was almost good, but they fucked it up at the last hurdle..

I actually took part in the original pitch too!

My olympic mascot pitch

Only fair to put my own work up for comparison/criticism. My idea was unsurprisingly the sock monster route. Rather than selling preformed shiny toys to the kiddies, I wanted to make ‘kits’ which were essentially a pair of long sport socks with instructions of how to make your own mascot from scratch! Thought it would be nice thing to do in school as a crafty lesson, give them chance to be creative and add a bit personal flair to their own mascot. The agency I was working for poo poo’d it because it wasn’t ‘commercially viable’, said the committee would never go for it as they needed to pay for the Olympics through some mass-produced piece of Chinese plastic..

Vík Prjónsdóttir

Vík Prjónsdóttir Blankets

A while back I was repeatedly sent this Beardcap link, I never blogged about it at the time as it was all over the internet already. But the Icelandic company responsible – Vík Prjónsdóttir continues to knock out fresh stuff, in particular I’m lovin’ their new blankets.

The layering of this Shield of Wings (pictured) and the anchored Sea Blanket is mighty nice. Although the one that I really want to get shipped over from Iceland is Hidden World (bottom pic), it’s well wizard :)

Via: Coolhunting.

Foodie Felt Patterns

Felt Let Go To Fresh Market Set Pattern PDF

This set of foodie felt patterns ($3.99), just caught my eye, I really want to make a string of felt sausages :) There’s a plethora of other cute felt patterns from julyhobby on her Etsy.

While looking up what the hell you call a string of sausages, I came across Sausages 4 All, awful name I know, but they have a dizzying array of sausages ready to be delivered to your door in the UK. Kangaroo sausage anyone?

Via: Jeanie & Jewell.

Best Made Co. Axes

Awesome Axes

Wow, I never knew I wanted an axe until now, amazing how much a couple of paint dips can increase my desire of a object. Not sure how much use they’d be in London, but if I was in the market for an axe, then a Best Made Axe it would be.

An axe is indispensable & sublime, the epitome of fortitude & strength, a perfect design object, a timeless instrument.

More Axe Action

Via: seiz whaa?

Present & Correct

Present & Correct Store

Just found this lovely online store, the London based Present & Correct. “A long-term obsession with stationery has culminated in a constantly evolving store. A selection of P&C products mixed up with handmade goods, vintage items and work by designers from all over the world”.

I could of happily bought just about everything on there, but had to restrain myself! I did pick up this great vintage dymo machine, and this 1949 book on preserving (and a few secret other things). Most of their stuff is one off finds so get over there and have a look before it all gets snapped up.

Eleanor & Andy’s Wedding cake

Eleanor & Andy's Wedding cake

Just back from our wedding tour of the north, here’s some pictures of the Eleanor & Andy’s wedding cake that me & Nicky made!

Eleanor & Andy's Wedding cake

What inspired me to ask Eleanor if I could make her cake was the Eugene & Louise bakery art show. I blogged about it a while ago and have been itching for a good excuse to have a go since. Working the Marzipan was a bit harder than I had expected, not quite the same as plasticine.. Definitely didn’t reach E&L’s standards, but I think El was pretty happy with it none the less :)

Wedding Cake Marzipan Men

The best bit was making all the marzipan men for the top. So much fun in fact that ended up with so many that they couldn’t all fit on the cake. We had extra marzipan for all the kids to make their own, took them about 10 minutes to realise it wasn’t plasticine and start eating it!

Brightly coloured wedding attire

I think me & Nicky had the most brightly coloured wedding attire at the wedding! Although with everyone else on our row we almost had the whole spectrum.

Vintage bus ticket machine

Had to post a pic of this amazing old bus ticket machine, I was bus conductor on the way to the church and had to stamp the specially made tickets with it.

I’m afraid we were too pissed to take any pics of the cake actually being eaten.. but I’ve got a vague recollection that it tasted extremely good.

For those interested, more wedding pics and cake making pics on my Flickr.

Mammoth luggage for little people

Mammoth luggage for little people

Me and Nicky were invited by my mate Rob to enter his Pimp my Trunki challenge! If you’re not aware of Rob’s luggage for little people, check ’em out here. I remembered when Rob was designing the original Trunki at University, his first sketches were all of a furry animals. I always thought at somepoint he’d release a big furry version, but he hasn’t, so I’ve done it for him!

I’ve made it so that it’s basically just a stuffed cover that could be easily slipped on and off (and packed away inside). The material I used (toilet rugs!) was a bit on the think side, had to hand sew everything and it only just about manages to pack away inside itself. Nicky made the little caveman rider, I’m sure all you crafters will want to know how we did the hair – I’m not entirely sure what it is, some sort of hair piece (but ring shaped?) from the big wig shop at the beginning of Ridley Road Market in Dalson.

It’s going to be displayed along with about 10 other custom trunki’s from other designers and artists at this years Bristol Design Festival, 5th-11th June 2009. I’ll be going down on Saturday to check it out.

Update: What I didn’t realise (should of read the brief..) is that the custum Trunki’s are getting auctioned off to raise money for the festival. So if you can’t make it down the auction and would like to own a Cookie & Nicky ridable luggage original, then email penny@magmatic.co.uk with your bid.