Good Stuff

This place is pretty cool. It's a busy site, but worth a look!

http://www.spraygraphic.com/

New Illustration

If you can't say it, draw it.

Get your tights off!

I have just heard about this fantastic way tight loving girlies can help a very worth while charity.

Come on girls get ur tights off!

The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia treats woman who have suffered a fistula injury due to complications in child birth. This is a problem that we no longer have in the developed world.You can help the wonderful work done by the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital by sending them your old, clean tights. Ladders and holes are not a problem.Following their operations the women use the panty parts of the tights to hold their bandages in place. Nothing goes to waste as the legs are woven into rugs. Thanks to everyone for sending in tights, we have had an amazing response. We have just sent off our last batch, but if you would like to contribute to the charity then please feel free to send the tights directly to Ethiopia.
Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital,
PO Box 3609Behind Swiss Embassy,
Jimma Road,
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia

This was set up by http://www.tightsplease.co.uk, well worth a look for some fab looking winter legs!

More Late Night Doodles.

They just keep coming!

New Stuff.

Some late night doodles...

Does anyone know how to get Indian Ink out of untreated wood?

Food for thought

Bit of an unusual post but I wanted to ask if anyone else thinks that some elements of the food industry (unhealthy) have lost the plot?

Over the last few years there has been a creeping change to make obviously unhealthy food healthier - WHY? sweets, chocolate, crisps, fizzy drinks, fried foods basically all convenience food.

Let me explain: Pot noodle - now less fat, less salt and more vegetables - result they are foul. Smarties used to be be likes E's but now all the colours are natural - result they look like someone's already sucked them and put them back in the tube! Yuck. And coke - now has no sugar, no caffeine but does have added vitamins and omega oils - what the F.........!

There used to be a honesty - a spade's a spade mentality. You didnt eat them thinking they were anything but JUNK and that was part of the pleasure. Dont make everything the same, variety is good even when its bad. Now they aren't junk and they aren't real food.

Honesty. Its being lost from more an more industries -   just a thought... 

Do you DOODLE do?

I am a fan of doodling so wanted to highlight National Doodle Day - which is on 27th February 2009.

Every day should be doodle day in my book as it allows you to have a sneek peek at your subconscious - or it could be just interesting sketches! They often do reflect in a very simplified form what is on your mind. If you think so then check out this as it investigates the idea.

Keep a doodle book, develop your doodles, brainstorm, link things together, re-invent the wheel, share them with friends (hide them from strangers!).

Whether its shining a torch into your ID or ego or merely a use for old/used envelopes - doodle more - you never know you might like it!

FFFF Me!

So Chris found this place the other day. What an amazing site - I spent 5 minutes on it and had about 500 ideas. Sometimes looking through sites like this leads you in amazing directions. I'm not talking copying (we are firm believers in ACID) but you just get so much inspiration.

Forgotten what being a creative is all about? Check the site out: ffffound.com

Toast Night Out

We managed a night out last week which was messy. Too much beer and a penchant for neat spirits always goes down well. Toast nights are always something people have very little memory of, but they must be good, because we try and do them every month!

Tattoo Ahoy!

So my wife Zzazz has just got an amazing new (stage one, two to go!) tattoo from artist Jo Harrison. She does some pretty amazing stuff. Just thinking about mine now, which is pretty difficult as I am such a finikey bugger when it comes to putting art to print, let alone skin!

Posted by Dave.

Illustration

Is if he hasn't got enough work to do, Dave@Toast also runs a small site (with big SE rankings) for illustrators to display a thumbnail of work, small biog and link to their website.

It's not much but if you are an up-and-coming illustrator or a student, an extra link can't hurt!

Groovy Illustration.

Adam found this today. A great illustrators site.

T-Shirt Design Competition

Our friends over at iStock, the universally useful royalty free image library are running a t-shirt design competition. I'm entering, are you?

Check it out here.

We love brave branding.

It doesn't come much braver than this. These guys have done it their way. They know their product and market and aren't scared to not try and appeal to everyone. Great Stuff!

Check the site out here.

The Importance of Sketch books for students.

If you're a student, you should have your tutor banging on at you about your sketch book. If they aren't, then get a new tutor.

When we interview potential employees at Toast, there are a few things we look for. Number one is creative flair, number two is your ideas, and the third is fit.

As a designer first and MD second I'm interested in your passion, ideas and you as a person. When you graduate, your portfolio reflects what you needed to do in order to get the grade - you were pleasing your tutors rather than the industry. This is where sketchbooks come in.

Your words, ideas, sketches, doodles, thoughts and ideals are important to a potential employer, and they're vastly more interesting than a plastic-sleeved portfolio of work you did eight months prior to the interview.

Pour your passions onto paper and the Creative Director that's interviewing you will enthuse (cos good CD's keep regular sketchbooks too). Don't be too precious about ideas either - you may dismiss an idea that another creative will buzz off - record your thoughts and ideas all the time: it's what makes you interesting.

Your sketchbook reflects you as a person (which will also suggest your fit within an agency); your passion and ideas, and it's these qualities that will get you a job.

At Toast, we love to hear from students, so if you'd like a constructive critique email 3 samples of your work to Laila. We'll put them on this blog together with our (positive) thoughts to give you some feedback and help other students.

Groovy Stuff

Everyone needs to get one of these babies. Custom designed skulls, 6" tall. That's the kids birthday presents sorted.

See more here: ArtofSkulls' photostream

The Plunkett Foundation

As part of our on-going work with The Plunkett Foundation, we've recently created a marketing folder for Making Local Food Work.

Making Local Food Work is an initiative funded by the Big Lottery Fund to explore community enterprise approaches to connecting land and people through food, rooted in the belief that the needs of consumers, producers and the land are interdependent, and that community enterprise can renew and strengthen these links to the lasting benefit of all.

This is a really nice little project and a great example of our ethos - to produce great work, whatever the budget.

Welcome to the new Toast external blog.

This blog is where we vent all the stuff that doesn't make it onto our main site blog. Here you will find random design-related stuff, answers to students' questions and whatever we feel like posting.

Our main site can be viewed here: www.toastdesign.co.uk