“The Haro number plate was a landmark product in BMX. Within this plastic panel is the story of a 16 year old BMX kid bending sheets of laminate over his mom’s stove, hand crafting each plate and number as a way to support his riding. It is one of the first examples of iconic graphic design in the sport of BMX. The product was also a piece of functional sport performance equipment that doubled as a platform for individual creativity, giving every kid in BMX a “blank canvas” to express themselves. It was the point on the bicycle where speed met style.
Bob Haro went on to leverage this successful product and create a brand name in BMX that was always rooted in great design. Bob’s next contribution to the sport was even more iconic as he fused his love of skateboarding and BMX into a new sport category called freestyle. Bob and his friends literally opened the doors of imagination of what could be done on a bicycle, riding in the streets, skateparks, and on ramps.”

The artworks will all be auctioned off in public to generate funding and awareness for The Land Of Plenty. The other 30 artists include some great creators, some people that really influenced me at an early age, Bob Haro, Andy Jenkins, Mark Lewman, John Martin, Kevin Wilkins, Todd Bratrud, Yogi Proctor, Michael Leon, Dave Fox, Nick Phillip, Jeff Tremaine, Gork Barrette, Michael Lau, Rich Hansen, Joe Polevy, Ronnie Bonner, Norman Chuck, Dave Ortiz, Andy Mueller, Greg Higgins and David Slade.

The Lightning Bolts show will debut in Beijing, China on May 15, 2008. And if your interested in a little bit of a history lesson you should watch the documentary Joe Kid on a Stingray.

Nasko’s work beautifully combines the collage of found printed material and hand drawn lines, and can be seen in projects with Muji, the Guardian, Paper Sky and The New York Times.

It’s not particularly new, but i recently discovered the collaboration between Paul Smith and Mercian Cycles of Derby. All of their bikes are still handmade at their Alvaston workshop and in this collaboration they produced unique Paul Smith designs available in a selection of six hand painted colours in both track and touring set ups. Smith originally wanted to be a professional racing cyclist (he rode a Mercian), but an accident ended his dream at age 17 and was actually the main reason which led to him becoming a fashion designer.

These bikes also sport handmade leather Brooks saddles and handlebar tape, still made by craftsmen in Smethwick just outside Birmingham. Their website has a gallery of catalogue covers as well as a nice collection of illustrations from their original patent applications. They’re beautiful objects that should last a lifetime and actually adapt to the shape of the rider with time. I really should be riding one.

Nobuyoshi Nagahara is a master nib maker for The Sailor Pen company in Hiroshima. He’s worked with pens for over 50 years developing new nibs for specific types of writing and drawing.

Nagahara is a man with the skills to adjust a nib right before your eyes, all he needs is to watch you write. Read the interview with him here.

Part of his work is creating a performance which does not actually begin and end with the performance itself, he wants the listener to form their own narrative and in some ways become part of the work itself albeit a very personal one.

As part of a full moon performance in glass building in Daikanyama, he initially send out a small book that contained words taken from his notes to people who were visiting the show. On arrival people were also given a kind of bound book box which was just the right size for the first book to fit in to.
A month after attending the performance people received a CD with a recording of the performance itself which fits perfectly in the space left in the box. The performance then becomes something more like an piece of art in itself.

Together with being good friends with Nieves, Utrecht also publish their own books, one of which is Rainbow in Your Hand by Masashi Kawamura, an art director in a wide variety of disciplines including some impressive music videos. It turns out he was also involved with Pitagora Suitchi (ピタゴラスイッチ) the television programme airing on NHK since 2002.

Not knowing any of this, on the same trip that i met Eguchi San i also picked up the 2 volume DVD set of Pitagora Suitchi for my good friend Stef. If you have a liking for Pythagorean Devices, Rube Goldberg machines or Heath Robinson contraptions, then you should probably have a look at some of the You Tube videos starting with this one.

Its interesting how things connect sometimes.

I’ve been planing to work with Digiki for almost a year now, and this is the first project so far. The theme for this edition is love and you can download the the podcast here (check out some of the previous mix’s too).

The work was actually created in November, but things have been a little too hectic recently to keep totally fresh with the updates. If you’re in Osaka, you can check out the original sculpture for this at Vade Mecvm gallery.

Most of the books are going to be sold here in Japan, but i kept a few in England, so if you’re interested they’re available from me here or from Analogue Books if you’re in Scotland.

For anyone interested in the technical details, we’ve also created a 10 point tutorial on a small section of the final animation which will also appear in the magazine.