kyle@kylebean.co.uk
+44 (0)7745 412773
+44 (0)7745 412773
I love ideas that are as clever as they are fun. My friend Ashley has created a limited edition set of 'commuters pillows'. They are handmade 3-colour screen printed pillow cases, lovingly stuffed and stitched resulting in a marvellous product. She even made me one where the destination is 'Brighton'. I absolutely love it. Both Ashley and I are regular commuters to London and so we can appreciate the need for one of these from time to time. Ashley may still have some left, so If you would like to buy one off her, she would love you to email her as this address: ashlee.allen@hotmail.co.uk
Today was a monumental day for model enthusiasts. My good friend and supremely talented director David Wilson, and myself attended Model World 2010 at the Brighton Centre. Upon our arrival we realised that we bridged the age gap, as the majority of people there were either younger than 14 or older than 50. We watched a model re-inactment of a WW2 battle, the titanic hitting an iceberg, a lego space station and to top it all off, we had a ride on a miniature railway! Childhood fantasy comes to mind. Of course our trip to Model World was all in the name of research.
I have been working on a little personal model project, simply called 'paper aeroplane'. It has been a fairly challenging task but great to translate the forms of a jet into a paper sculpture. Unlike a conventional paper aeroplane, I don't think I will attempt to throw this one through the air....well not yet anyway.
Happy New Year everyone! Many new things have been changing for me over the last few weeks. Firstly, I am pleased to write that I am now represented by Blink Art, which along with Blinkink, Blinkproductions and Colonel Blimp form a well respected and forward thinking production company in London. Some work is already in the pipe-line, including some fantastic collaboration opportunities. I have also moved into a much bigger house in Brighton which means I get to have a whole room to use as a study (although I like to call it a studio!) Here's hoping this fresh new start brings some great things in 2010. Best of luck to all of you!
Some of you may have noticed that I now have a new icon in my navigation that is entitled 'shop'. As you can now pre-order my book, 'Guide for the Unlucky' on amazon.com (not amazon.co.uk yet) I thought it was time to launch this section on my website. It is my intention to sell other products through my website in the future, but for now it is page devoted to my new book. To coincide with this launch, I have also made a special promo video for the book which you can view in both my shop and portfolio. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Blink who supported me in creating the video. Special thanks to Simone who helped me with the painstaking process of stop-frame animation and Daniel Elms for creating the music for the video.
Well I thought I'd update a couple more projects to my portfolio today. My Police Dog Hogan albums came back from the press a few days ago. Just in time before the band had a gig! The other big project I have revealed is my pop-up book, 'Guide for the Unlucky'. I had a prototype up on my website several months ago, but over the past year or so, this book has been improved and refined for publication. I am now pleased to announce that this book will be on sale in all major book stores early next year. It is already listed on Amazon.com! Very exciting indeed.
Last night was the first installation of my Christmas Project for Hermes. I spent the evening at the Sloan Street store, dressing the displays with Rebecca Cox, a regular designer for Hermes, and Creea, window construction specialists. It was very satisfying to see all of our hard work come together. The rest of the displays will be going up across the country over the next few days. You can now view images of this project in my portfolio section.
Having liked my furby 'compartmentalism' project, the people at creative agency 'The Assembly' have commissioned me to create a video for them on the same theme. In order to re-inforce their company name, they set me the challenge of assembling an old typewriter from scratch and documenting my efforts. My hands were black from oil after handing all of the individual components! I am now going to begin editing it all and speeding it up (like time-lapse) so that viewers don't have to sit through hours of footage!
Whilst being busy with paper-mache, I have found time to work on a nice project designing an album sleeve for band 'Police Dog Hogan'. The band asked me to create something 'iconic'. That is quite possibly the scariest thing to ever ask a designer in my opinion! Well...the band are giving me the thumbs up with what I am producing for them, which is good enough for me! In a direct reference to their band name, I have created a hand made-police badge to form the basis for the imagery. I'm still playing around with the design and having fun exploring possible promotional pieces for the band too.
With the many days so far spent covering numerous musical instruments in manuscript paper, It felt right to have a little bit of fun with them today and dress as a one man band... as you do! Just a few weeks now until they will all be up in the windows of Hermes shops across the country. So exciting. I can't wait!