Been a busy bee lately. Lot’s happening in the day time at Poke. And lots of nice things to keep me busy in the evenings too. The above is a work in progress identity design for the lovely Elaine of Lainey’s Cakes. ( They are damn good by the way! The cakes i mean ;) ). A favour for a friend type-of-project. It’s been a great typography challenge so far. And hopefully when i’m done i’d like to share with you my creative process from sketch to finished printed items. ( This is just a photoshop mockup to show how a screen printed cake-box tag might look ). Let me know what you think, and if you have any cunning ideas i could incorporate in to Lainey’s wonderful world of cupcakes!

For the Junior Players there’s the inevitable anatomy lessons. For the Pro Players? They play to win :) Cheers to Dan N-S for tweeting the vid. Image above by Stéphane Massa-Bidal.

And for those of you still intrigued, but still wanting to keep your dinner down - a great mini study here by Casey Neistat who takes a humourous look at who’s doing what on Chatroulette…. or How To Be Sucessful On Chatroulette.

Sunny enough for a walk. Chilly enough for a scarf. That’s how it is at the moment. So here’s a couple i happened across yesterday, to keep you warm on the walk to work. The Bacon Scarf is crying out for a fried Egg Head woolly hat no ? That’d be a sweet combo ;) And a topical one for the Poke peeps here, the Police Line scarf! Always handy to have on you should you come across a crime scene.

I must admit that the older i get, the more i love animated gifs. This Totoro one spotted here. I’ve been saving a few. At some point soon i’ll do an animated gif special ;) There’s something a bit cheeky about a gif. They are having a bit of a renaissance - and i’m enjoying it.

Matt W. Moore’s first solo-exhibition in Paris, all the works of which were created during his visit to the city. Have a look at the exhibition and the rest of the vibrant collection here. He actually uses spray paint to create almost digital looking canvases, which i was surprised at. The use of colour is extremely tasty, creating optical illusions and facets that remind you of crystal shards, glass buildings, and feel like bursts of excitement. Really interesting looking at the part made works in progress, his piles of stencil papers, and tables of paints. A very optimistic and inspiring feel that makes you want to go home and get your colours out.

His exhibition is still on until March 12th so if you fancy a trip over on the Eurostar be sure to take your camera.

Continuing the theme of geometric shapes, and 3d forms this time, here’s a collection of work by Lenancker Romain. From Lyon this time, his works are a mixture of still life photography and scene creation. ( What’s the work for that ? ! ). Love the ominous ‘invasion’ feel of the black pyramids/cubes.

And finally the gaggle of white cones, cylinders and cubes was spotted over at Ffffound and is in facts a photomontage, enhanced with gouache, airbrush and papercut created in 1936! Titled ‘Metamorphosis’ the artist is  Herbert Bayer. You can find out more here.

I was in Amsterdam the other weekend with Cookie. We wondered the streets looking in shop windows and stopping for beer and steaks. The occasional snowflake added to the atmosphere. But my favourite find was a hot tip off from @whatkatiedoes - The Cat Museum! There are real live cats in there. I counted 4 but there may be more…. Filled with vintage posters and painting of cats, cat sculptures, and toys. And a shop of prints to take home.

My favourite by far was the discovery of Zwicky! A charismatic cat drawn by artist Donald Brun. There were several more works by Donald i hope to buy prints of. I’ll let you know when i find them ;)

Alex sent these round this week. Beautiful posters for this year’s Baftas illustrated by Tavis Coburn. I’ve blogged about Tavis’s work right back in the first days of Monster Munch with his mixture of collage and comic style - great richness of texture and colour. The Bafta’s are on on Saturday night in the UK, but you can join in on the banter, live online with comedian Peter Serefenowicz on the Orange Bafta Night Live site.

A mixture of interesting work on Sarah’s site including wonderfully stylised, food and household objects. Vibrant colour, and unusual combinations of objects and textures show up throughout her work, as well as diagrammatic shots of everyday objects - But all with the same sense of curiosity and imagination about them. Lots to look through here on her portfolio site.

Technical hitches here at Monster-Munch! The internet has decided not to play ball. Apparently to fix it i need an old fashioned ‘land line’ telephone to test the line. Wha ? Who has one of those for gods sake! :) Well, i’ve dug one up ( thanks to Chris ), and we should be back online soon. Till then, i’ll try and pop you up some juicy bits at lunchtimes ;)

PS - I broke my email too - sorry all yous i’ve not got back to yet. I’m coming!

Image above - Manipulador del sistema Breguet, nuevo modelo - from a great gallery of vintage etchings of chaps, ancient science and technology diagrams, illuminated letters, and more.

Lots more great finds, articles, thoughts and commentary over at Nathan’s Rubbish Corp. Always a good read.

Detailed line work and sweeping curves create the rich texture in Micah’s work. With a strong eye for form, type, and pattern, there’s some great hand drawn lettering in his portfolio. There’s a few jungle pieces that have a touch of Where The Wild Things Are ( the book ), which i love. Definitely worth spending a few minutes going through as you never know what to expect on the next page. Look out for monsters, dinosaurs,  forest, more forest, ghosts, and lots more hidden behind the trees. Also - here’s a quick vid of some sketches he drew for his friends of their favourite things.

Nice! Lovely illustration and sweet ideas on this range of hand screen printed limited edition stockings. Loving them! I’ve never seen designs like these on legs before. I didn’t even know you could screen print on tights. There’s bunches on there - the rain drops are a favourite, as are the bloody veins at the top here. Reminds me very much of the Blood and Guts chairs and cushions by Akel Creations. Anyway, the range is Les Queues De Sardines, by M + O, and are available from Fortnum and Mason ( and lots of places in France and Europe ). Check out the rest here!

Wowee he’s a monster! I opened the curtains to the balcony today and found this guy lurking…. ! What is he? How did he get so big so fast? Can i eat him ? …. I’ve been looking into it and i *think* he’s an Oyster Mushroom. Or he may just be some kind of horrible fungus. But i’m not certain yet so i’ll be holding off on the mushroom omelet until i’m sure he won’t kill me ;) Very ‘woodland’ for Dalston. Maybe i should get a gnome to go with it…

Handy place to carry your cat…. There’s definitely a gag here that i’m not gonna make! There’s kids watching ;) The source link seems to be down, but here it is on ffffound.

Lisa Congdon is going to show us a collection a day for the whole of 2010. Nice stuff emerging already as she picks from her vaults of items she’s been collecting across her lifetime. She’s an artist and illustrator from San Francisco and will be drawing and painting some of the objects form time to time too. Love these vintage erasers. Some retro packaging on the site too. Keep your eyes on this one. It’ll make a lovely book at some point.