HWCH

The Hard Working Class Heroes Festival took place in the Pod complex in Dublin last weekend. It's a 3-day affair to give unsigned bands a chance to perform in front of a wide audience, ideally consisting of people from the industry too. There were 6 rooms - in order of size: Working Man's Club, Lennon Lounge, Odeon, Pod, Crawdaddy, Tripod. The Odeon was for chilled out, sitting on comfy seats type music.

In terms of design:

• the logo is pretty poor methinks. Indecipherable. No sense to the colour scheme.
• the brochure and info was fine although the map was unhelpful. A rip-off from architect's drawings without considering how they would be useful to patrons.
• The layout of the rooms, the one-way system, the signage was well thought-out. (Apart from access to the Odeon being via the street and therefore not being able to bring drinks.)

Here's my scribbles on the bands I saw over the three nights. I did up my own timetable again so I could see where the overlaps in the schedule were.

Bands I enjoyed: Tribal District, Not Men But Giants, Le Bien. The attendance at most gigs was disappointing.

I met a friend who is in one of the bands and he had been busy throughout the day at mentoring sessions with PR people and others which he found very beneficial.Design, music, creativity - I suppose it's a valid posting for this blog! And I did try and involve the idea of "designing a festival". Another example that I was at was the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures. It's interesting the info that is handed out to the public, the way the thing is laid out etc. I think it's related to Design!

Car Free Day

Today is car free day the world over and Dublin is no exception.
I came across this website which I thought was very informative and interesting:
http://www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd/
The Dublin City Council press release is very badly put together. Free events at Merrion Sq, Parnell Sq and Herbert Park. Unfortunately I'm sick in bed so won't be joining in!
I remember being abroad for one of these car-free days. I think it might have been Paris, and it was fantastic. Families and all kinds of people were roller-blading, cycling, skate-boarding through the streets. A few years ago I think the buses were free in Dublin on this day.
My family aren't setting a good example though I'm afraid. Both my aunt and my mother came into town today - by car, and they would be users of public transport. Convenience and time constraints made up their minds today.

Fringe Fest 2007 - Free Events

I've been making graphicy timetabley things again!

Monocle and Madrid

In Madrid airport I popped into the newsagents intending to buy Cosmo or some other trashy magazine to keep me company on the flight home. My eyes alighted on Monocle ("a briefing on global affairs, business, culture & design"). At E11 I thought it an expensive purchase but splashed out! And what value for money! The magazine or briefing kept me occupied for an hour or so before the flight, two and a half hours or more on the plane and for another while in bed that night. And I still have more to read. It was intelligent, amusing, enlightening if somewhat faddy. The july/august edition focussed on urban living and had a survey of the world's top 20 most liveable cities (Munich topped the list). I was thrilled to hear many of the contributors citing the importance of water in the urban environment. I live near a canal but development of the walkway alongside it is at a standstill, I know some of the canal-side is not in the safest of areas but surely good design could inhibit certain activities?

I don't have much to write about Madrid. My next holiday will *not* be in a city! After a while they all have a certain sameness and offer similar experiences. We did enjoy very much the huge choice of small bars off Calle Fuencarral.

I visited the Prado museum with its great collection of art. Especially fantastic were Hieronymous Bosch's pieces.

And the reason we went to Madrid - the summercase festival - was a great experience. The music was super! Arcade Fire, Kaiser Chiefs, The Gossip, Air, 2ManyDJs, Chemical Brothers, The Whitest Boy Alive, Scissor sisters, Jarvis Cocker, !!!, PJ Harvey, James, Belle & Sebastian DJs...

Summercase Festival in Madrid - Schedule

I've just compiled a grid of who's playing when and where for the Summercase festival in Madrid that we're going to on friday and saturday.

The letters on the left are the names given to the four different stages. The vertical lines break up according to the time the bands are due to go on. The time given to each band isn't the same hence the variation in the width of the cells.

I had the grid layout designed from the Hard Working Class Heroes Festival last year. It's the same idea - different bands playing in different venues with slightly varying time changes.

The colours I used for Dublin were appropriate for the venues (I thought!) but I don't know the differences between the stages in Madrid and don't know the bands well enough to deduce a music genre/vibe (if there is one) on each stage. It was hard to know when to draw the ending line, should I end them all with one line and square off the grid; how long will the last act play for? I decided it was more readable and probable if I guessed when the stage would be finished up! Big decision!

I really enjoyed putting this together. It's one of my ventures into graphic design!