— Taken from the 1994 film by Patrick Keiller [screenonline.org.uk] simply entitled ‘London‘ [iMDB].

The big question that seems to be floating about at the moment is once you acknowledge the influence online media has had on traditional print media, how do you then make yourself visible when readers may not even be viewing your content through your own website. I’ve often wondered how many people visit Boicozine directly or prefer to view these here posts via a reader such as Google Reader [reader.google.com]. I know many of you still do because of the encouraging (and occasionally negative) comments I get when meeting readers in person. Film is shaping up to be the last vestige of branding for publications starting to aggregate content. So without further ado. The first Boicozine mini-movie thingy. Please let me know what you think. Too fast? Too shabby? Too much like I’m liking the sound of my own voice? Post comments here on on the boicovideo Vimeo page [vimeo.com/boicovideo].

Charlotte Mann [charlottemann.co.uk] has just completed her latest massive wallscape of a commission for the intriguingly esoteric (and recently launched) shopping experience, The School of Life [theschooloflife.com]. There’s no sneaky digital reproduction going on here. Charlotte uses marker pens to draw straight said walls, which makes the resulting pieces all the more impressive. You can see her mural for the School in their ‘classroom’, appropriately enough.

Boicozine is participating in a postcard exhibition to be held at the Geoff McFetridge designed Sunshine Cafe in Tokyo. The advantage being that postcards are such a neat size, you can pack loads more contributors in (66 at last count), so something you everyone? Visit [postcard-exhibition.blogspot.com] to spot submissions by creative types such as Toby Neilan [tobyneilan.com], Andreas Samuelsson [andreassamuelsson.com], Ingela och Vi [ingelaochvi.com], Körner Union [koernerunion.com] and Carolin Löbbert [ykeschotten.com]

Alex Ostrowski [www.alexostrowski.com] recently got in touch with boicozine to share some quality linkage and here tis… Chris Clarke’s [chris-clarke.co.uk] Type Cube a neat idea that’s been doing the rounds on design blogs recently. Chris investigates modular typography and has created a movable typographic toy which you can mess about with to create letterforms and whole typefaces of your own. Hattie Newman [hattienewman.blogspot.com] crafts beautiful little three dimensional models which she turns into animations, or simply 3D illustrations. She has some gorgeous work, in particular her set designs. Alex himself is super busy, not least with this year’s YCN Book [ycnonline.com/blog/24] in collaboration with HudsonBec [hudsonbec.com]. The image above is from the recent YCN Live launch event. See more from the event here [Flickr].

The Notwist have a new album and newly refurbished website to go with it [notwist.com]. Designed and built by giraffentoast [giraffentoast.com] in collaboration with Yokoland [yokoland.com]. It’s nice to see a band promoting themselves with a quirky, well designed promosite instead of a useless crap load of marketing gumph (take note Primal Scream [primalscream.net]).

Dots on Demand Poster

Did you get down to the ICA in time to get a free ‘Dots on Demand’ Poster [ica.org.uk]? Created by Alex Rich [field-trip.org], Jürg Lehni [scratchdisk.com] and you! (If you have any pics of your posters to share, I’ve just this minute set up a Flickr Group for them here: [Flickr].)

Axel Peemöller is an Australian ‘Master of Design’. It’s official. The qualification was only introduced in Australia a mere 7 years ago and he’s got one. Cool. Currently living in Hamburg Germany (I wonder if the MDe means anything to a European audience), qualifications aside, the quality of his work speaks for itself and is exemplified by his slick foliosite [de-war.de]. Though, it’s the Eureka car park in Melbourne that has been garnering him the most interest [de-war.de/eurekacarpark].

As Lawrence of Demin once sang, ‘Council Houses, Inner City, Urban Squaller, ooo I won’t pay the rent on this concrete slum, imprisonment’… actually I only included that bit of lyrical majesty cause the track is called ‘Council Houses’ (and cause Demin [wikipedia] are ace). Council Housing needs to work harder. It seems blindingly obvious that it you improve inhabitants environments then you move them closer to he point of optimum happiness. When people are happy they don’t need to rob, maim or kill each other. When people have a space where they feel safe and comfortable they can focus on other issues and make a larger contribution to the community. It’s common logic. The other issue is while us non-council tentants squabble over the tiniest, mankiest, dodgily managed (can we somehow force all buy-to-let property owners take some sort of course in property management and how to be a decent landlord… please!) crappy, baggy, over-inflated, sub-standard, badly decorated properties… many council tenants perch aloft spacious, ‘mid-century modernist’, potentially iconic buildings without the slightest appreciation of the amount of space afforded to this select group of inhabitants, squinting at the world through their ridiculous net curtains and tudor style lead-lighting. Sure the many incompetent city councils seem to do their best to make these places feel uninhabitable but great things can happen with a bit of respect and imagination. Already there is a bright ring of community housing projects drawing more and more attention from æstheticians and sensible types simply looking for cheaper, better housing. Estates such as The Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury [nothingtoseehere.net], Rowley Way in St. John’s Wood [greatbuildings.com] and, the place Boicozine currently calls home, the Golden Lane Estate [goldenlane.co.uk] in the City of London are all example of mid-century ideals of community living that have endured and even prospered. It’s time council and decision-makers changed their half-century old attitudes to the ’spectre’ of council housing. They are an integral, interwoven part of the city’s fabric whether we like it or not and just waiting to be enhanced for use by the community at large.

Further Reading / Viewing:
[flickr.com/groups/londonsocialhousing]
[bbc.co.uk/cheaphomesfor sale]
[emptyhomes.com]
[philobiblon.co.uk/TheRealHistoryofCouncilEstates]
[bdonline.co.uk/RobinHoodGradens]
[c20society.org.uk]

The thing about seriously criticising London’s many flaws, something becoming more and more popular in the run up to the inevitable Olympics debacle, it that it’s such a juicy topic to attempt to tackle. In coming posts I’ll be bashing on about subjects such as London’s architecturphobia, the weird sense of ‘disconnect’ (if you can think of a more perfect buzzword for our modern times let me know) that has pervaded the city since Tony Blair made rather his dubious mark on modern Britain and more domestic issues such as how shitty cinemas has become in London and what a waste of space the Houses of Parliament are (think ‘barricaded play pen for poshos’). If you’ve got a topic on the state of London town or if you’d like to defend the city for what it is leave a comment or post something yourself and let us know.

Even Further Reading:
[monocle.com/Failing State 01—United Kingdom]
[cityofsound.com/london_hasnt_ch]
[channel4.com/london_sucks]

[flickr.com/groups/graphicdesign]