D&AD: So what do you think of New Blood this year?

Jonny’s beard: ‘Blah blah blah, I live on Jonny’s face’

(or something to that effect)

The day has finally arrived when we can announce our print mag - 64 pages of B5 glory wrapped in an Eboy original limited-edition-for-this-magazine-only illustration which also extends onto a B3 poster (included for free, naturally) all for £2.50. It’s taken tiiime to get to this stage and we’re über-excited to bring this beast to life.

The launch party is being held at our stand at the D&AD New Blood fair at the Truman Brewery on the 26th of this month (Saturday innit) - get there for 5.30 to ensure you get some of the booze. At 7 we will then trundle of for a curry and a serious pub sesh.

If you’re keen, check our facebook event here - If you can’t make it do not fear, there will be plenty left to pick up a copy at your leisure from our shop or from various other outlets. If you sign up to Stack by the end of the month you even get it for free!

Some of the topics covered:

Cake, ITV’s Gladiators, paid placements, Eboy, Glug, Moustaches, Haikus, “Industry-ready?”, Adrian Shaughnessy on lobsters in shoes, rickshaws, nudity, FFFFUUUU, Are D&AD any good at pool?, creative tics, idea vs execution, mums on Facebook and much much more. We’re so proud of it, we put our name on it.

That’s all. Good tings.

With speakers from AKQA, Superfad and Proud Creative, this Thursday you’d be a mug not to get in on Outside In, an event right in the middle of Shoreditch, all proceeds of which (£5 a pop) go towards the Ravensbourne College degree students.

Also worthy of note is the video they made for the first of these talks (though you can’t fault anything set to The XX in my eyes).

After the success of previous lectures (including Harry Pearce, see our recent post), the Student-run Designers Society based at the University of Plymouth brings its next round of events, including a lecture/portfolio review/shmooze by mega Illustrator, Designer and ‘Master of Swirls’ Si Scott.

Plymouth is pretty far from … well, anywhere, but this event should be worth any trip, especially as the cheapo £5 ticket will make up for petrol money spent on those winding Cornwall roads. We just wish we could come along ourselves…

D&AD looking for Graduate Volunteers*
D&AD wants YOU to apply for one of their graduate volunteer positions at this year’s New Blood Festival (24-28 June). It’s an opportunity to make a difference with this years graduating students, and a chance for you to network and engage with senior creative’s and perhaps land yourself a job! Email katie.huggins@dandad.co.uk.

*Two things to note.

1. By applying not only do you get all of the above, but you also get to be our friends/get pestered by us throughout. (we like meeting new people)

2. The image above is IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH D&AD. It’s mega shit and we wouldn’t want to smear them with that brush. We just did it, you know, because a black pencil hat would be awesome. If they did it it would probably have been shot by Jason Tozer and Neville Brody would almost definitely have been wearing the hat while looking quite stern.

In the most exciting event to hit Huddersfield since Leeds Utd. went to the dogs, the 29th of April sees ‘The Brilliant Design Lecture’ host names such as Nicolas Roope, Jason Bruges, Mr Bingo, Rob Chiu, Jason Fretwell and Matthew Grey, all sharing stories around three themes with ‘a unique presentation format fuelled by the energetic banter of a game show.’

Whatever that entails, we wish we could go too but this one is just for the lucky-bastard students of Huddersfield - what’s great to note though is that the guys who organised the whole thing (including this nifty bit of hand-made type) are themselves recent HUD grads. Giving something back. That’s what that is.

Make sure you have a look at the website which shows off the photography in all its glory, and you can follow them on twitter too.

On Saturday night ShellsuitZombie were kindly given three tickets to what would turn out to be one of the more surreal evenings of our social calendar so far this year. Mercy, the same Liverpool and London based agency that creates 12 Angry Zines, held the sixth of its incredibly successful (and oversubscribed) nights with Liverpool-based pop experimentals The Wave Machines at Shoreditch Church - ‘Wave if you’re really there’.

This one, entitled Baptism, featured a host of talent in the fields of spoken word, music and performance, with brilliant (and hilarious) vocal performances from Nathan Jones, Ross Sutherland, Salena Godden and David J, Music from Eugene Mcguinness and the Lizards and of course The Wave Machines and some bizarre performance art from a troupe, one of whom kept putting her head in the font (church, not typographic). Everything combined (as well as a BYOB policy resulting in excessive wine consumption) to create a great atmosphere, helped of course by the Medieval/Palladian style architecture of the church itself (yep damn right, wikifuckingpedia).

Moment of the night had to go to Dave O’Dowda from Table on piano accompanied by a choir which popped up out of nowhere (like in Love actually). All in all a memorable night, please for gods sake go to the next one.

(The two good photos are © Tamsin Isaacs, the grainy ones are © Ellies crappy iPhone camera.)

On the first of March a rowdy group of two-score Stockportians and four of SSZ met up in a pub in Kings Cross to start a revolution. An evening of beer, chat, strange celebrity endorsements, quickfire questions and yet more nob gags ensued.

The loose structure of the night meant that we didn’t finish until half 11, by which time most peoples eyes weren’t going in the same directions, but we managed to fit in an initial chat/ramble by us, a complex challenge involving celebrities and their endorsements and a final Q&A. We also gave everyone a dead nice screenprinted poster and managed to fill our ‘book of awesome’ with some strange scribblings.

Things we learned:

1. The students of Stockport college are an inventive lot.

2. James should never be allowed on stage after 4 pints.

3. Just because you call a book ‘The Book Of Awesome’, that doesn’t mean it will be treated with any more respect.

4. Bono could feasibly have a tie-in with Vagisil. (Ooh Bono, Aah Vagisil)

Thanks to all the students and Tutors who came along and made the night what it was, a reet laff. See all the photos on our facebook page and get your very own screenprinted A2 Radio Rebelde poster (see below) from our shop.

Some of our long-term readers may remember us covering the 2009 World Beard and Moustache Championships. Well this is entirely different to that. The London Word Festival is upon us and we here at Zombie Towers are excited as hell about it. With linguistic stylists from all over the world gracing the stage as well as other events ranging from screen-printing to crime-comic- jazz interpretations, this one has it all. You’ve already missed Alex Horne, Robin Ince and various other semi-celebs but there’s literally mounds of steaming culture left to see before the whole shebang ends on the 1st of April.

Impress your mates. Go to a poetry recital.

Somerset House presents Pick Me Up, the first contemporary graphic art fair in the UK. The fair will bring together the most exciting graphic artists working today, giving you the opportunity to buy limited edition, affordable graphic art, illustration and design from the likes of HelloVon and Alex Trochut. There’s also going to be a tasty programme of events and activities including an open studio from legendary paper artist Rob Ryan, a pop-up print workshop from Print Club London and film screenings from It’s Nice That.

So get yourself down there between Friday 23 April and Monday 3 May.

That guy is Noel. He was at VS. We think he enjoyed it.

On Tuesday the 16th of February, a day that will live in infamy, We, ShellsuitZombie, hosted a silly evening. Braving wind rain and puddles, a krunkload of people came along to enjoy what we had promised would be a night of competition, intrigue, industry and graduates. And against all odds, we think we just about pulled it off…

With creatives from agencies like AMVBBDO, Fallon, W+K, Profero, BCL etc, designers from beautiful boutique agencies like A+B, The Plant, Morph, Magpie and DRY as well as some lush prizes on offer, a couple of cracking bands, beats by DJ and Designer David Rudnick and a lovely bunch o’ students and grads, that made for a fun-ass time. (and the longest sentence in the world. care.)

The Point

We believe that your first contact with industry shouldn’t be in the reception of a design agency, nervously clutching your portfolio. Job interviews are so forced and you have such a short time to get your personality across, yet personality is a vital part of teamwork and the creative process.  Fortunately, the majority of design professionals are joke-loving booze-hounds and somehow they seem a lot less daunting with a beer in their paw.  Our intention was to create a social atmosphere where grads and pros meet not as potential colleagues, but as co-humans; connecting through humorous anecdotes, not relevant work experience; flipping beermats, not pages of the (immaculately formatted) CV.

The Competition

We really wanted to avoid a school disco situation with grads on one side and pros on the other, nervously eyeing each other, dreading that first dance.  So we came up with a strategy to skip the small talk and escalate to full-on flirting.  The theme of the night was VS, and so a competitive spirit was encouraged throughout the night.  Guests were instructed to pick mini-duels with each other in whatever form they deemed appropriate.  These nano-challenges could be anything from drawing the best willy, to a dance-off, to the best magic trick. The winners of the most impressive micro-tasks won some awesome geek-out prizes kindly donated by our friends - including mugs by A+B Studio, t-shirts and posters from Magpie Studio and the limited edition Firetrap gnome from DRY (thank you all for donating these prizes).  Most importantly everyone got involved, the air was thick with challenges, and these led to real dialogues between new acquaintances.

Meanwhile we had music from the awesome Keston Cobblers Club and the smooth sounds of Harrison Hope.  Later on designer and DJ Dave Rudnick laid down his eclectic beats (So Solid anyone?) and the boozy chat continued.

The Future

More of the same innit?  We love organising events like this and will keep on doing more.  If you have suggestions for themes or locations, definitely get in touch.  Check out our flickr and Facebook pages for more pics and make sure you come along to the next one!

Peace out playerz. One Love.

Living in or around Nottingham? Love Screenprinting? Then you’re gonna love cheesy peas Screen fiends, a screenprinting event being held by Nottingham Trent Design students. Thing is (and sorry guys for being so crap) it’s in 2 days!

Anyway, find a crappy old tee, bring it along and get a one-off design that will rival any of the wang* that the Shoreditch kids are rocking currently. Find out all the deets here.

*wang = mildly derogatory term (not as rude as wank).

If this doesn’t make you want to hug a friend/pet/inanimate object then you’re literally dead.*

(via yourstru.ly)

*That’s not a threat [we do our threats predominantly via email], we just mean dead inside, a bit like Paris Hilton.

The second prize haul for Tuesday’s NOW SOLD OUT VS event is a couple of brilliant limited edition prints from Student Designer, ShellsuitZombie contributor and irritatingly talented Midlander [Stoke, bleugh] Andy Cooke. I warn you, I will personally be fighting tooth and nail for one of these bad boys, so bring your A game dickheads (nothing personal). If you want to jump the gun and snaffle one up right now, go to his shop here.

Still more to come you beautiful people (I’m feeling a bit bad about saying the dickheads thing now)

Just a few of the prizes and giveaways available on Tuesday courtesy of the guys at Magpie Studio and A+B Studio. Benji, David and your respective crews, we salute you!

More to be announced imminently.