The jelly London ladies headed down to BAFTA last fortnight for the official launch of Create Britain, accompanied by others from various creative industries; we ate sushi and drank champagne. Though the best part of the evening for us was getting to paint bright colours onto a huge canvas with bright colours provided by DULUX.

We heard Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland speak about how one must use the recession to one’s advantage, how to create more with less and most importantly how we can use our creative instincts to outwit the general public in terms of finding value in an idea as opposed to a final product. A golden night.

When it comes to travelling places I prefer to take my camera & forget my map

I wanted to share my Valentine's Day Project #heartjelly for the 14th February 2013 with everyone... It will be a lovingly crafted, digital, social and above all, romantic affair...

So what do I mean by #heartjelly? jelly London wanted to create a bespoke animation which celebrates the playful side of Valentine’s Day with a cheeky little cupid character darting his love arrows across the globe. This was a great opportunity for jelly London to get creative, engage with our loyal twitter community and to collaborate with two other enthusiastic companies, NeverBland and Massive Music.

What does the illustrator say about #heartjelly? Caroline Tomlinson is a the mixed media and collage specialist who has created the illustrations for the campaign. She likes to blend old and new styles to create a scrumptious and vintage finish. 

"I have wanted to animate my collages for some time now and this opportunity seemed ideal. Not only did it mean my illustrations finally got to move, but it also allowed me to collaborate with so many talented people. People who added life to my work! Valentine’s Day is an interesting event in the year. It’s a bit like Marmite. You either love it or hate it! So I didn't want anything too romantic or slushy. Just the chance to have a bit of a giggle about the idea of Cupid, or rather several Cupids, causing mischief by showering love hearts all over the world."

Tell us about your creative vision?
"In terms of art direction I wanted my images to be animated in a very playful style, nothing too slick as I prefer elements of imperfection to my art. I find jiggles and flickers heart warming and they nicely compliment the cheeky Cupids arrows darting through their journey around the globe."

What was your inspiration for the art direction?
"I actually have a vast collection of vintage photographs and magazines to pull ideas and reference images from. I also take my own photographs and use them within my collage work. For this project however, a great deal came from vintage finds. There is nothing I enjoy more than searching for vintage prints for my collages in flea markets. Whichever country I am in that is always my favourite thing to do. Then it’s a case of sitting down and playing around with all the elements until it starts to come together, kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s magic when everything comes into place and you know you’re on to something special."

Why did Paul Reynolds, Managing Director @Massive Music London want to be involved?
"Getting involved in this project was a no-brainer for us. We saw it as a perfect opportunity to get one of our MassiveTalent artists some invaluable digital and social media exposure within the industries that we work in. A collaboration with an incredible illustrator, digital studio and production agency was always going to produce something interesting but when saw the animation with the track playing…we had an ooh la la moment! Sometimes there can be such a bond between song and picture it feels as if a song was written for especially for it."

About the track, Nuthin But Love... "Nuthin But Love is by MassiveTalent artist Jim Morey and is available to licence, listen to on Spotify and buy on iTunes. MassiveTalent is a division of the music agency MassiveMusic, which has offices in London, Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles and Shanghai. We search, write and produce music for picture. We work with scouts, acts and a huge pool of exclusive composers and sound designers. We focus on developing communication strategies that revolve around music and help brands discover their musical DNA. We're also known for throwing a mean party once in a while!"

What did Alex Cragg, Head of Product @ Digital Agency NeverBland say... "Well, we love jelly London's work and were obviously very excited to work with them on the #heartjelly social campaign filling in the technicalities which make spreading the word and the Valentine's love one simple click away. The twitter mechanic has so much potential and makes the campaign much more interesting as each experience is personalised for the viewer. Get tweeting your love letters..."

You can send your own love tweet here...

I wanted jelly London to create something extraordinary and enjoyable this Easter so we had a good old think about which brand we would like to work with on an interactive, collaborative and creative project. Now when we thought about Easter the first thing that came to mind was chocolate, but that was just too obvious for us and chocolate is not made of jelly either. Whilst we pondered together munching through the bags of luscious Jelly Belly® jelly beans which we keep up in our Charlotte Mews studio, an idea struck us like a booming flavour explosion - we realised that our dream candy collaboration for this project was without a doubt, Jelly Belly® UK. (And how on brand it was!)

After looking into how Jelly Belly® UK are positioning themselves on the market using art as an engaging means of communication via their social channels, we put two and two together and decided to pitch in the idea of merging a flavour sensation with a visually stimulating and interactive game. We thought, quite literally, that we would crack up the conception that Easter has to be all about chocolate eggs with an eggsplosive game.

We asked jelly London artist, Matt Lyon to beautifully illustrate bespoke egg designs for each flavour so that the user can use either their mouse or finger on an iPad to burst open one of the 15 featured flavours and watch as the eggs explode with Jelly Belly® jelly beans. The game was developed using Box2D to give each element, be it an egg or a jelly bean, graceful physics which allows them to gently bounce off each other and around the screen in a responsive way to the users touch.

Jelly Belly® UK were so excited about our Easter game idea, (particularly as this is normally the time of year when Chocolate is the treat on everyone’s lips) that they promised to give the person who explodes the most illustrated eggs in the designated time a fabulous prize; a year’s supply of Jelly Belly® Beans and a retro Jelly Belly® Bean machine. Five runners-up will also receive a fabulous Jelly Belly® hamper prize for taking part! Terms & Conditions apply.  Players must be over 16 and living in the United Kingdom to apply. The lucky winners will be announced on Friday 5th April.

We are so excited to let you experience the 16 flavours which feature in the campaign and to wait and see who will win the greatest Jelly Belly® jelly bean prize.

It’s just our way of saying, we hope that you have a fun, tasty, lucky and most of all Happy #Easter! Click here to play #JellyLondonEggs game!!

I took photos for the first ever ACHICA.com press show. It took place at the OXO Towers on London Southbank, the champagne and canapes were delicious, the products were beautiful and I learned a lot about the importance of being selective when it comes to visual merchandising. (Though I will never apply these learnings to my own wardrobe...)

Painting after performance

The room was full of color and reeked of high paint fumes. There were mirrors lined with blue stripes which reflected parts of yourself. I saw the blue splashes of a Hockney painting in real life and the angry drips of a Pollack masterpiece too.

I also discovered Helena Almeida for the first time. It made me think about inhabited painting, the different processes and the act of producing an artwork. My next photo project will be stitched up with ribbons and marked with graffiti cans. I cannot actually wait. 

William Klein at Tate Modern. This man was not just a great American Photographer, he was also a filmmaker, a documentarian and a graphic designer. Born in New York in 1928, he spent too much time in the Museum of Moden Art before enrolling at the Sorbonne in Paris.

He began his photographic career as a fashion photographer after Alexander Lieberman the Art Director of Vogue offered him a job. At the same time though he set about documenting the city into a photo diary that was to be become his first book.

He evolved his own distinctive street style, more obtrusive than Henri Cartier-Bresson in that the subject was aware of the photograph, and sometimes confronted or even provoked. Klein used a wide angle lens to cram in as much detail and activity to each shot as he possibly could. His work is not perfect by execution - he embraced grain, blur, and cockeyed framing. Yet these quirky elements became his signature style and consequentially flowed into his fashion work - he brought his models out of the studio and into the streets deliberately using the urban backgrounds and crowds' reactions to contribute towards chaotic scenarios.

I love his work - many of his photos have been left 'Untitled' - he leaves the viewer to analyse the scene for themselves. All he tried to do was to convey a perception of the city he both loved and hated. New York, New York. 

The jelly London ladies headed down to BAFTA last fortnight for the official launch of Create Britain, accompanied by others from various creative industries; we ate sushi and drank champagne. Though the best part of the evening for us was getting to paint bright colours onto a huge canvas with bright colours provided by DULUX.

We heard Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland speak about how one must use the recession to one’s advantage, how to create more with less and most importantly how we can use our creative instincts to outwit the general public in terms of finding value in an idea as opposed to a final product. A golden night.

I went to the magical 

exhibition at Somerset House this afternoon. And oh my - was it fantastical. There must be something special about the name ‘Timothy ’as Burton and Walker both interpret their crafts in such a macabre style, radiating mysticality.

Tim Walker. A great story teller.

Easy as it is these days to sit and surf an artist’s folio online - there is something extraordinary about stepping through this carefully curated path of Walker’s creative vision. Definitely make the effort to go, it’s such a tactile exhibition and by tactile I don’t mean that you are allowed to actually ‘touch’ anything – (though you will be tempted) – more that you are able to  see the behind-the-scenes props that help to construct the masterpieces.  They are often huge and rather disconcerting – expect giant furry insects, a monstrously manic dolly along with a classic spitfire emerging from the floor.

“Everything is contrived, nothing is real. You try to make your own real moments. And then you go home and make sense of it all.” TW

I agree with Walker on this point and so, taking his words far too literally - I wanted to take my own little piece of the exhibition home with me. I have designed some Walker accessories which include a locket on a chain, a rope necklace and even a watch – (kind of ironically as he seems to tread into a Wonderland, which balances outside time and reason more often than not).  If it were to be made, I would call it the 'If Only' collection...

I remember learning about Ansel Adams in Photography class quite a few years ago, the founder of the F/64 School and an influential artist during the transition from Pictorialism to Modernism. So visiting Adams vast collection of fine water-works at the National Maritime Museum today was a pleasure. Waterfalls, rivers, lakes, rapids and geysers all highlight the fragility of time and motion in a naturally beautiful way. 

Adams explored his own environment religiously, never taking a holiday and developing negatives in the dark room for days, dodging and burning to perfection, achieving stunning, sharp monochrome landscapes which are always centered around water.

In the great depression where he could and some thought - should have been photographing editorial frames of societies’ collected anxieties of the time he chose instead art for arts sake and shunned using his chosen craft for the sake of any propaganda driven cause.

Not only was he a whimsical thinker and a gifted photographer but also a passionate environmentalist who became aware of the much bigger picture before many others did and what a legacy he left behind. 

It is true, a book cover can be as illuminating to a reader as the story itself. 

I was really lucky to attend an interesting lecture about books as tactile and aesthetic objects this eve at the British Library.

The event was hosted by the Folio Society, which was founded way back in 1947 with a dream of publishing beautiful books that would be affordable to everyone. Above all else, the Folio Society believes that great books should be outstanding not only in literary content but also in their physical form. A person’s pleasure in reading is enhanced by the book itself, in which typography, illustration, paper, printing and binding all play a part in creating a harmonious whole. Competing in a world of declining publishing standards, where most books are cheaply printed, and bound using low-grade materials.

Peter Bailey exhibited his enchanting work in progress roughs and grainy, line drawn illustrations for his Northern Lights book cover. To hear that he has illustrated over 30 prestigious titles and never once done so, without reading the book twice was quite astounding. Peter takes great care to understand the characters and the style of the literature before he dares to try and capture the escapism of the piece onto the blank pages of his sketchbook . What a romantic perspective to take. 

Next up, Sara Ogilvie presented her striking hand drawn illustrations for The Wizard of OZ. Explaining how, whilst she crafts her characters by hand to develop a careful and bespoke style, she colors them in digitally for time saving. She described the pressure of capturing the characters and scenes beloved by millions of readers but in the end chooses to capture the essence of how she believes the fantastical story should look as an illustration, experimenting with many different styles through out the novel.

Now the question to all you illustrators and artists out there is - if you were asked to illustrate any book in the world - only one - which would you choose? 

I like to take pictures of pooches. Simple.

There is a whole bunch of research out there to justify just how much a pet can mean to us and add to our sense of happiness, but I believe that none really talk to you and understand like a dog does. 

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Down to Earth restaurant owner, Khalid Owner used to dabble in property before he found his true passion for organic, holistic living and farming. Now into his second successful year in the foodie business, we sit in the relaxed and elegantly styled dining room which was once a bank on Kensington High Street.

Down to Earth stands right next to the impressive building site, which is to become the British Design Museum mid-next year. Feeling very relaxed after nibbling on raspberry and cocao dried curly kale and sipping on various kinds of fresh juices we discuss his aspiration to craft an organic and elemental dining experience for his customers, within a space with oozes elegance and luxury.

Khalid wanted to add something special to the large, white wall at the end of his restaurant, a monochromatic wall doodle would add a unique and hand crafted charm to the space. He surfed Google to find some inspiration and came across jelly London’s wall mural works by the imaginative and smiley, Jo Bird. After discussing the brief, she was instantly commissioned and packing up her vintage school project and inky marker pens.

The mural took three days to create, in between dining and juicing, Jo crafted a kitchen scene mural, reflective of a Kensington home, full of posh nosh, like olive oil and fresh, organic veggies, relevant reading materials and a window view of London’s contemporary sky line which really extends the whole restaurant space. Now coffee drinkers and raw food enthusiasts alike are even more drawn to Down to Earth’s luscious interiors and creative gastronomy.

‘As a child I dreamed of making a beautiful dress in the colour of the night. I envisioned dark clouds dancing, illuminated by moonlight… somehow woven into a garment.’ DP

Found this post via @ComplexMag and it really ticks all my boxes with one paintbrush! Basically, Vienna-based Grafisches Büro design studio took it where no designers have gone before. They took different dog breeds and assigned them to various typefaces. Taking their characteristics into account, they matched them with the appropriate fonts. A dalmation seemed like it would match Courier and a German shepherd seemed to match Helvetica. They made posters as well so that this beautiful idea isn't limited to the confines of the Internet. How amazing? Come on pay day!  

Some of the jelly London producers and myself headed to the huge illuminated rooms of the Excel centre in the Docklands this Wednesday, via the Emirates Cable Car, only to be astounded at the technical gizmos and gadgets we saw, that left us craving more.  It was truly a fantastical experience for every one’s inner geek.  

We saw an ice sculpture of the new Canon Mark III and GoPro awesomeness. However, the one talk we were most excited to hear about (being the animation and motion obsessive experts that we are up in jelly London HQ) was from ADOBE. We wanted the answers to why all the pros are now switching to Adobe Premiere Pro for all their postproduction needs.

This is what we learned and why we will be investing in some new software. Firstly like any tool, it takes time to immerse yourself into a creative place where the magic can happen, whether you are learning to play an instrument or painting a wall mural, to have to stop in the middle of an inspirational moment is destructive to the creative process. ADOBE understand this which is why they are reducing the need for rendering and re-rendering breaks, they have also made the interface customizable to the users own personal preference, in terms of color scheme, layout of content and the tools which you need to use.

ADOBE have worked closely with different camera brands, without mentioning any names, to understand how footage – including RED, is captured, so transcoding is no longer necessary when streaming content.

This became clearer as the speaker explained the user can control trimming and marking their footage directly using useful key binds, conveniently allowing more screen space to devote to their content.

There is a dual screen option which is useful to present creative work to clients to measure timings and transitions or maybe to compare alternative treatments. Trimming clips is now a more streamlined process too, you can quickly select edit points by double clicking which instantly opens up a zoomed-in window allowing the user to trim clips directly from the interface.

The ‘warp stabilizer’ is also a new feat, which deserves a shout out, in one simple adjustment layer you can stabilize all footage and compare the benefits using the dual screen mode. We looked at some wobbly wacky racer footage, which proved the effectiveness of the feature in one smooth crash landing!

So, there you have it, popping corn and cakes a plenty, glistening gadgets galore, if you have a chance, head down to the docklands tomorrow, registration is free and you will feel inspired to re-love everything to do with the production process and challenge previous ways of thinking in this ever-evolving industry.

The Rain Room at the Barbican was magical. 

My experience in six words would have to be:

Random. Electric. Elemental. Innovative. Uncanny. Escapist. 

One of my nearest and dearest from Margate-on-Sea, Zoe Murphy was exhibiting her fine work at Tent 2012, which took place in the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, as part of the London Design Festival. In case you have not already heard about her, she creates beautiful, bespoke printed furniture and textiles - re-upholsters chairs, dusts down and re-veneers chests of drawers and prints art onto whatever she can find in local charity shops and Ebay. Her creations are, to put it quite simply, stunning. She was recently short-listed for the BBC New Designer of the Year Award. Click here to see more of her gorgeous work.