Design by Ben Blog, Designs@ www.designbyben.co.uk

With a vary of interest this blog will be focused on anything I find interesting whether it be, design, art, graffiti, travelling, fashion trends or even popular TV programs with my spin on them.

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Quick visit to Amsterdam

Staggeringly quick 50 min flight, takes you from LGW to Amsterdam. On first appearances it may seem like a weed smokers paradise, but once ventured further into the city, the beauty of architecture and mass of museums and things to do, becomes apparent.

Similar to London, hotel prices are rather pricy, finding a budget hotel means compromising how far you want to be from the city center. Finding a hotel under 40 euros a night seemed quiet hard. Clink Nord Hostel was one of the best choices for price and distance. With limited information online in regards to the ferry crossing behind the central station, to our delight we discovered it ran a free 24 hour service, which was every 5 mins during the day and 10 mins during the night. Overall the time to travel from central station to clink nord was approx. 10-15 mins.

The hostel was friendly and very modern.

Cons    

-       check out 10 am

-       Pillows + bed hard (industrial)

-       Kitchen not open till 12 am

-       Rather cold and heating control not very useful

-       No chance to open windows to get fresh air

 Pro’s

-       Great location

-       Good hot showers (private room)

-       Great prices

-       Friendly + helpful staff

-       Large lounge and bar to socialise

Eager to explore Amsterdam, after checking into the hostel we took a map and explored the city. Although a bit on the cold side (Febuaray) walking around Amsterdam is pleasant and incredibly safe. There is a mass of high street shops, cheese shops and souvenier shops selling joke weed products and drug accessories.

 Top 3 Attractions to visit-

 1.     Van Gogh Museum

22 Euros, highly recommend getting audio tour, powerful deep insight into the life of van gogh and all round very impressive and stunning. Allow plenty of time as it’s a big museum with plenty of floors and lots of artwork (3 hours.)

 2.     Heineken experience

16 Euros from Ticket Torus + 2 free drinks

Not expecting much apart from a few beers and a laugh/walk around a brewery. I was surprised by the geniuses that put this together.  It was incredibly smart branding, with light playful insights and teaching into Heinekens history, logo identity and brewing process. At the end there are games to play as you enjoy two free beers. Don’t miss the free canal cruise and free Henienken glass.

3.     Rijksmeusem

17.50 euros , Very large and lots of different rooms with diferent types of artwork this museum is great exhibit of classic and modern artwork from Dutch Artists.

 If time allows, hire a bike for a day and cycle around the city at your own pace, its a lot of fun and a great way to explore and take in Amsterdam. Red lights Secrets Tour/museum is an eye opener and also a good visit and don’t worry about missing Madame Tausaudes.

 City Hub

City Hub, the future of hotels or a sc-fi  lovers vision of sleeping in a space ship. Which ever it is, it is different and will take off for its quirkiness. However I do feel the price was maybe a little bit high for what it is. The pod’s design was clever and slightly futuristic however adding a Bluetooth speaker and led lights that change colour is the most thrills you get. The shared bathrooms had a vintage rustic approach that were well finished and complete contrast to the pods. Nonetheless the quirkiness will be like marmite for many of the visitors and a fun experience for a day or two.

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India Blog Part 5 - Holi - Pushkar

Coming to the end of my journey and the last month was the hardest. Not knowing how much travelling around India would change me, the last two months had been nothing but truly amazing and a real eye opener. Being free to do what I want for so long meant coming back to reality was depressing thought that was round the corner. The last month was a battle to try and fit as much into my journey as possible, with careful planning of where to go and for how long.

I had noticed a major pitfall of travelling, by going on a conquest to find paradise or see sights that you can’t imagine, you were almost left disappointed every time you visited a new place, the one you left always seemed better.  Similar to the ‘grass is always greener’ mixed with a weird sentimental value for the place you left behind which had become home for a couple of days.

From Jaipur I went to Pushkar (above), this was another place that on arrival didn’t seem that great. However it became one of my favourite places to chill, shop, relax and paint. Having not painted for years, I found a great art studio to paint a picture I took in Rishikesh.

Pushkar was a fairly touristy place, with very easy laid-back nature with no cars and near a desert, it was surrounded by mountains and similar vibe to Rishikesh.

Pushkar had an amazing atmosphere brewing by the fact we were a few days away from Holi, there was beating sticks around fire in celebration of beating the bad spirits away. Fireworks were set off the night before Holi and more banging of sticks and dancing plus a major bubble blower.

Holi started at 10 am, walking to the main square it seemed like christmas with all shops closed and people roaming around. In the main square my shirt was ripped off me in seconds and everyone was trying to blind me with colour. The local kids were loving life, dancing and chucking powder with all the tourists with huge sound system playing ridiculous techno. I survived 5 hours of dancing and chucking powder in the baking sun. It was rather painful on the eyes and hole body, close to a survival of the fittest.

From Pushkar I went on my first sleeper coach to Bikaner. Bikaneer had hardly any tourists around and hotels were generally rather expensive. With only a few museums and gallery’s to visit the main reason to go is for the camel safari. The desert is quiet boring with everything looking the same, however it was amazing for making you feel like you escaped civilization and finally truly alone.

From Bikaneer I travelled 1st class to Delhi, it was miles better then what I had come to be use to (in sleeper class) and it felt a fair deal safer. Travellers had warned me about Delhi, and they were correct about it being expensive but not about safety.

In Delhi I stayed in Connaught place, I was fairly surprised to see Marks and Spencers, and restaurants the same price as London!

From Delhi I took a fast 3 hours train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Hearing so many mixed opinions, I thought about missing it out.

After seeing the Taj Mahal the mixed reviews had made sense, I was glad to go early morning before the sea of people that visit this supreme building every day. At first it was hard to understand the building, which seemed to be a mass of ego and art, that took close to 22 years to complete and 22,000 people to build.

It is a symbol of love, which uses deception and trickery to make it easy on the eye, flawless and beautiful. Unlike looking at the Taj in a picture, in real life it sticks out like a saw thumb, the glistening white of the building is close to blinding and dwarf’s the 1000’s of visitors that visit daily.

 Back in Delhi, glad to only spend the day in Agra. I was coming to the end of my trip and feeling excited and gutted to be going home. The food in Kake-Da-Hotel was not helping, they served some of the best curry’s I had tasted in India.

The train from Delhi to the airport rivalled the sort of service you would want in London (amazingly clean, on time and reasonably priced.)

Travelling around India had changed me for the best in too many ways to explain. It wasn’t easy and had been very testing at times with me venturing threw every emotion possible. I came back feeling more confident, positive and sure that work wasn’t everything. Whilst also learning to be a bit more spontaneous with decision-making and trusting my instinct a little bit more.

[designbyben]

India Blog Part 4 - Varanasi + Jaipur

Not intending this blog to have so many parts or be so long, it has been great reminiscing but extremely difficult to cram all the adventures and places in 1 entry and spiralled to be around 6. If you have any questions I will be happy to answer them so please email me at [email protected].

Rishikesh was close to being my favourite place in India, it had a great deal of things to choose from and do as well as a great vibe and peaceful nature. From Rishikesh I ventured by train to Varanasi. It was one of the longest train rides at approx 22 hours.

At Varansi I stayed at the cheap and friendly Seven Sea’s Hotels. Varanasi has a fairly rough and determined tut tut’s that crawl the stations for tourists. Be warned they are not as friendly as other area’s and saying you have a hotel booked is a must. As they are desperate to take you to a hotel in the middle of no where to get great commission. My first impressions of Varanasi was not great, the one place I was set on visiting had the most awful stink and floods of people. Probably the long journey didn’t help and not being use to the baking heat, after the cool mountain air. 

Varanassi started to appear as a tourist trap with hundreds of tourists everywhere watching the River Ganges worship. Haridwar struck me as having more of an authentic feel with hardly any tourists around.

Given time, Varanassi warms on you with character unlike any other in all of India. All the ghats are beautiful and are ideal for a dreamy long walk which cant compare to anywhere else in the world. The architecture is heroic to say the least and a great mesmerising mish mash of British, Mughal and Hindu architecture. If the architecture is not enough your distracted with the burning bodies and the interesting fact that this is one of the oldest continuously inhabitied cities in the world

Not sure I was getting the most from Varanasi, I decided to wake up at 6am to visit a sun rise ceremony and yoga event. It was so foggy I couldn’t see the sun rise and the fogginess created a film like atmosphere of tranquil loneliness and warmth that went surprisingly well doing yoga outside next to the River Ganges. Before the yoga was a ceremony which was extremely hard to understand as it was in Hindu. Meeting a traveller from Nepal I went to a small Hindi temple underground to meditate in, it added to the suspense and mystery around Varanasi. Whilst meditiating we got interrupted by a spiritual ceremony which I ended up being involved inn, everyone chanted and rubbed what looked like salt and milk over the sculptures in the middle of the temple. It added to the crazy Varanasi adventure you cant make sense of. The feelings could have been provoked by nerves and excitement but there was definitely something going on. Similar to the awkward but quiet prolific feelings felt when seeing bodies being burnt to later be placed in the holly river ganges. 

River Ganges ceremony’s in Varanassi were quiet impressive with mass of noises (bells), lights and flames being moved around but did feel like a performance set up for tourists rather then a very religious worship. I noticed the performers spent a fair amount of time with there back facing the river and the amount of locals were vast compared to number of tourists.

From Varanasi I went to Jaipur where I heard a story of a ruler who had seen a beautiful woman in a village that he decided he should have. The woman and the village didn’t want the ruler to take her, so over night they all fled and disappeared leaving every thing they owned. 

Jaipur was rather expensive for accommodation, I visite Nagarah fort which was a fair walk and made me wish I hired a motorbike. The palace was for a very lucky king with 9 wives, I found it quiet funny that one of the wives had a large double bedroom but the others all got large single bedrooms (favouritism.) I highly recommend a tour bus round Jaipur as there are a number of places to visit which aren’t to close and it’s good to hear the history. The pink city isn’t really pink, and good attraction is Jal Mahal a palace that looks like its drowning. Overall I wasn’t to impressed with Jaipur, but it might have been because of how amazing Varansi was.

The next post will be about Holi in Pushkar!

[designbyben]

Traveling India Part 3 (North)

From Mumbai I travelled by plane to Amritsar (North India.) The two internal flights were booked a few days before hand on the iphone using the ClearTrip app, which was incredibly handy. In Amritsar with no hotel booked, I easily found a cheap and cheerful place to stay at 400 rupees a night, which was walking distance from the Golden Temple.

Amritsar is home to the Golden Temple which was breath taking, felt like it had been dropped out of space by aliens, completely unbelievable experience that has to be visited if you have the chance. Not being a very spiritual person, I was taken back by the emotions and energy surrounding this amazing temple. Amritsar was also well placed to go and see the boarder change with theatrical performances that seemed overly childish but worth witnessing in real life with a pantomime feel to this show off test match.

 In north India the traveling was predominantly coaches with not much chance of finding a train. It was a nice change, but not as spacious or comfortable for long journeys. It was also a drastic change from the warm conditions I was use to.

Not planning my journey in North India beforehand meant I visited Chandigrah in Febuary, which was a ghost town. The upside was I stayed at a really plush hotel on the cheap, Hotel Aricent was a great hotel but make sure you don’t get a room facing the noisy road. Chandigrah had many things to go and do and see and was one of the strangest places I visited in India with Le Corbusier signature of cold cemented buildings everywhere and hardly any stray dogs or cows wondering around and nice well kept road surfaces.

Pictures are of the really clean rose garden and the Rock Garden. The Rock garden was impressive due to the scale but did seem to be like a poor theme park with great waterfalls and dodgy architecture that was merely to impress and not much more. Wikipedia state 5000 people visit this garden daily so maybe I should have given it more chance to impress.

5 hour coach ride (900 ruppees) took me to the stunning fairly commercial area called Shimla. The fresh air was beautiful. The coach ride went up many twisty roads around mountains and the views were stunning. Shimla was rather chilly and had a no car zone, creating a refreshing change and peacefulness. I stayed in The Mall, which was amazing place for views, and a great relaxing homely place. The place was fascinating with a sureal amount of buildings shoved up against each other with all buildings placed on awkward mountain slopes almost as if children had decided where all the buildings were to be placed.

Shimla was a relaxed place you could fall into a routine very easily, enjoying the great amount of food outlets and miles of walk ways. Looking for a bit more an adventure I headed towards the beginning of the river Ganges in Haridwar. I took the toy train down the mountain which got held up by a cow walking on the tracks. The journey was fun for an hour and then became a very slow long tiresome 6 hour journey.

Haridwar was superb value for accommodation, 2-300 rupees a night. It was a small pleasant and chaotic place to walk around. After being there one day and seeing a rather serious worship to the River Ganges I ventured to Rishikesh.

Rishikesh was a travellers gem, with the options to do water rafting, trekking, yoga and spend time in Ashrams. I was surprised it was not shown on the map in the lonely planet book. I stayed in the very relaxed and touristy Laxman Jhula Road. Pictures won’t show the rather free flowing chilled out vibe and peaceful nature felt in Rishikesh.

Similar to Haridwar but on a much smaller level I saw rituals to the River Ganges at sun set.

With many people flocking from all around the world to learn to teach yoga as well as be somewhere that felt incredibly unreal. With endless options I opted for water rafting, laughing yoga and hiring a motorbike for approx £5.

Being a thrill seeker, I drove from Rishikesh to Deradhun and back (90 km) passing by temples and sights that I dropped into.  Mountain Fox Adventure were really good at hiring me a bike and drawing a treasure map to followed. The adventure would never been the same if I had a sat nav. Bit like an amazing journeys you see on Top Gear, I rode on some really amazing mountains and drove a massive 350cc avenger off road and on road.

[designbyben]

Traveling India part 2 (South)

Kerela was one of the most chilled relaxing places I visited in India. Admittedly I felt like I was on vacation and not backpacking. The small area Kovallum was great to recharge your batteries and avoid all the temples and clear your mind with beautiful beaches, yoga and great food. Kovalam pictured bellow shows the light house and beautiful scenic palm trees and beach.

A short train ride from Kovalam was Varkala which had a huge cliff and great beach. The scenery was amazing and a huge amount of tourists had found refuge in another peaceful and small area of Kerela. I would recommend not buying leather bags from here as the best place to buy leather goods is in Rajhastan. The cost for sleeping in Varkala was a little bit pricey as it was so popular but it was a safe and very commercial holiday type of experience with a lot of wannabe hipsters enjoying the relaxed and beautiful environment.

Another short train journey and straight to the romantic part of Kerela, Alleppey. My sleeping accommodation was a 4/5 Star Ramada hotel for a stunning £15 per person per night. £30 for 2 people in a hotel with a free gym, free boat ride, free bike hire and free yoga lessons. It confirmed with out a doubt its sometimes worth paying a little extra and getting what you pay for. As expected the rooms are extremely comfortable and clean, with great air conditioning, and a outstanding restaurant where I had the best meals in India. I also hired a jet ski to explore the great beautiful lakes.

 From Alleppey it was easy to get to Cochi where I caught a flight for around £40 to Mumbai. To save spending over a day on a train I took a 2/3 hour flight. The price for the flight was three times the price of the train but in my eyes a must for time efficiency. Mumbai was the second most expensive place in India for accommodation if you travel on your own expect to be paying around 1700 rupees to be in the Colaba (where everything is going on). There was a few stylish 3 star hotels that were 5000 rupees. Considering I had just paid less for a 5 star hotel I was happy to go on a real budget and take a very basic room with no wifi.

Mumbai was the first part of India I was traveling solo and a great place to start as this busy city has so much to see and so many easy places to meet other friendly people. The best place to eat and meet people was ‘The Leo Cafe’ which puts people who are on their own on a table with other people in the same position.

Mumbai struck me as having a similar vibe and style to London whilst having its own crazy uniqueness. The city’s fast amazing buzz with great transport links, had some of the richest people mixing safely with some of the poorest. At night  stool owners can be seen sleeping on the street at the same spot as there stools.

The architecture seemed to have a lot of English character which could also  be seen in the styling of the Gateway of India, which ceremony in 1948 was seeing the last set of British troops leave India. The Mumbai train station made London Victoria or Charing cross in rush hour look like childs play, it was the most chaotic and busy train station I have ever stepped into.

One of the best things I did in Mumbai was the Reality Tours and Travel Dharvi Slum tour. The money paid for the tour guide was invested back into the slum and the tour guides were people from the slum that were great at explaining the city inside a city which you see and experience first hand. Not being able to take pictures and being warned there are a few crazy people in the slums added to the suspense but you feel really safe and can’t believe the optimism and charm the biggest slum in Asia has. Lots of people visit this slum because Slumdog millionaire film being shot here, but its shocking character is feared to be eroded away with the Indian Government planning on knocking it down and building flats as the land is becoming so valuable.

Mumbai is great place to explore, armed with lonely planet book you can easily walk around and see all the great sights and feel no fear of getting lost as everyone is so helpful. The street food was great and you can spend all day on a budget enjoying the city. Night times are just as busy as daytime you never feel alone and there is always something to go and see or a lively bar. The Dome was a 5 star hotel bar where I paid more for a bottle of beer then I have done in most parts of London. Tax in Mumbai for Hotels and beer is one of the highest rates in India.

[designbyben]

2015 - Traveling India part 1

Three amazing months of my life were spent traveling around India, this blog is my summary of what I ventured through. I didn’t necessarily know why I was traveling around India and even extended my journey from 2 to 3 months because I was having such an amazing time. The rest of this blog will explain what an adventure I had.

Before I start, if your planning on traveling around India and looking for advice like I was before traveling, I recommend the following:

Lonely planet book (might be rather heavy and big, but incredibly useful)

Visit your GP and get the necessary jabs/vaccinations

Packing lightly and sensibly (essentials only, washing clothes is cheap in India)

Set up your mobile phone to be able to book train tickets (IRTC and clear trip accounts) (http://www.indiamike.com/india-articles/setting-up-your-irctc-and-cleartrip-accounts-for-buying-indian-railways-tickets-from-abroad)

Good moskitio repellent and a thin travel sleeping bag (some guest house beds are dirty)

Cheap pens (children love them)

A good novel like ‘Shantaram’ and a good camera.

Lastly and most importantly Travel Insurance + India Visa

Before booking a flight I would advise researching all the amazing events and book accordingly. Lonely planet’s book has a few pages close to the front which have a month by month guide to all the major events. My top picks would be Holi Festival, Carnival in Goa and the Yoga festival in Rishikesh.

Goa is an easy place to start your travels as it boasts some of the best beaches in the world and very touristy being the only real party place in India with tons of night life. Don’t miss out on visiting the massive Arpora Saturday Night Market and Club Cubana an amazing club with an open pool which had great hip hop and club anthems.

After partying In Goa, Hampi was approx an 8 hour train ride and takes you off to a mystic place that seems out of this world with hundreds of ruins and temples. My top picks would be to climb up the 500 steps of the monkey temple to a scenic view and also visit all the ruins, a local tut-tut should charge you around 700 rupees to take you around to all the main sites. Hampi is a great place to chill after Goa the accommodation is very different and its such a small homely place that feels very disconnected to the real world with a shortage of cars visible. Tourists be aware that this is one of the few places you don’t want to hire a motorbike as it is illegal if it does not have yellow number plates.

Approx £8 and 11 hours sitting on a train took me to busy city of Banglore.  Known for being the silicon valley of India, it was a vast crazy contrast from Hampi. With not many tourists visible, the main reason to visit is the great discounts on MG Road, where there are Converse, Levi’s, Nike and many other big brand stores with massive discounts. Levi’s store had the jeans that cost £80-£100 in the Uk for £25.

Heading south to Kovallam, a fairly easy 18 hour train journey. Was an amazing vacation spot, similar to Goa but without the night life this was a very peaceful and beautiful place. It was great place to relax and feel your on holiday and not traveling. Nonetheless it did seem like an over 50’s beach so after a few days I quickly retreated to Trivandrum, nonetheless the sleeping accommodation was super great value compared to Goa and much nicer.

[designbyben]

is considered one of the greatest TV shows

 If your one of the few who hasn't been watching 'Breaking Bad' you might be wondering what is all the hype about.

Well apart from winning 47 awards the American TV drama has critics and fans hooked.

The series started in January 2008, and is being "considered one of the greatest TV dramas of all time."

The story is simple, a chemistry teacher 'Walter White' gets diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Thinking he will die at any time, he turns to a life of crime, as he considers cooking methamphetamine to be the fastest way to make money to provide for his family once he is gone.

Unlike any other TV series each season is better then the previous. The drama gets more intense and entertaining the more you watch and the plot has you in suspense forever guessing what will happen next. 

Breaking Bad has everything you could ever want from great acting, action, drama and plot to great cinematography. Stunning scenes are created with fascinating effects from different type lenses and carefully manipulated landscapes and camera angles. If you haven't watched it, it is certainly worth watching in HD from Netflix or buying the box set.

[designbyben]

URBAN MASTERS

Where – Opera Gallery, (Shoreditch, UK)

Who – “33 of the most important Urban & Street Artists” 

Why – “an alternative art installation giving street and urban artists a chance to render homage to the masters, masterpieces and muses that have influenced their journey through the world of art and played a part in who they are nowadays” (quote from www.operagallery.com )

Impression -

Similar to a film, this exhibition set high expectations with its bold name and A-list line up of artists. Any doubts of this exhibition being a flop was removed within seconds of walking to the exhibition and seeing the quality graffiti stencils on the street leading to the entrance. Not aware at the time there could have been a hidden meaning with Banksy’s stencil of zebra and tiger in a bar code (street art) on the street of a street art exhibition? I continued to the exhibition to see the urban masters sign being a piece of cardboard with urban masters graf’d on by a pen. Thinking I would be in the holy grail of graffiti I was surprised that this was more an art statement. Neatly presented was high quality artwork that proved street art or urban art (whatever you want to call it) has evolved to be recognized in the art gallery arena.

  My favorite piece was Zeus – ‘Love, Crash & Burn,’ had several metaphors about love being a car crash, two cars crashed and burnt on a small scale had a playful appearance as if they were children’s toys, yet showed the aftermath of adults relationships when in ‘love.’ This piece reminded me of Dface’s characters that appear to have dropped out of the sky and crashed on a car in Brick lane. Impressed by the shear scale of the character and destruction of the car by Dface, I thought Zeus had pushed the boundaries with producing this model in real life scale as well as a toy model, which both had a ton of metaphors relating to the effects of the cars.

  Whilst this exhibition set a high benchmark for other artists, it could be said there was a lack of artwork displayed, approx. around 20 - 30 pieces in total. Banksy’s artwork was not one of his best, and the road sign that had been grafit'ed looked like an amateur did this while drunk.

Overall this exhibition was well worth the trip, and great being free to public. Many things stood out, in particular the brilliant use of materials adding extra character to the work, like the floppy disks, badges, model trains, cars, newspaper print and wooden canvas. Yet the most impressive part was how well thought out the artwork was with so many cleverly linked references to old masters like Pablo Picasso and others, that worked well in producing attractive artwork which doesn’t exist in modern day art being shown at the Tate - Turner Prize.

[designbyben]

‘Aye Spy Glasses’ product review and interview

Sunglasses are quiet an interesting product to review as their main function is to protect our eyes, yet the styling/appearance of the sunglasses has become more important than the actual protection provided. Others have explored this idea under the title, ‘Sunglasses – Merging Fashion with Function’ and ‘Mens & women's sunglasses are fashion items.’ Therefore this is nothing new, yet at the ‘Design Junction’ I noticed something that was new, ‘Aye Spy Glasses’ refreshingly different approach to sunglasses’ design.

‘Aye Spy’s range of sunglasses are created by Scottish designers Jamie Bartlett & Lucy Ross. Inspired by some of the great inventions by Scots they ‘believe you must look at things from a different perspective in order to be truly innovative.’ Wanting to know more I had a brief interview with the designers.

Its rare to see sunglasses made from wood, what made you choose wood?

We decided to use wood mainly due to its individualistic qualities. As no two pieces of wood will be exactly the same, therefore, no two pair of Aye Spy sunglasses will be identical either, providing a unique quality to our products. Also with the use of natural materials (wood and leather) we feel they compliment the face better than those made of man-made materials. 

Are the glasses individually hand made or laser cut? Yes we do laser cut, however, this is the only piece of equipment we use. Everything else is done by hand by ourselves.

The coloured wooden grain is super cool, what made you think of having coloured grain patterns? We loved the traditional wood grains, however, the bold colours really offered something different and unexpected from a material such as wood. Highlighting that you can still gain loud colours from a natural material. 

What's next, are you planning any new products what should we expect to see from Aye Spy? Well, we will be launching "Specs a Day" in the next couple of weeks. Where we will be unveiling a new pair of sunglasses or spectacles each day via facebook and twitter. There are 50 pairs within the range, each one is completely unique no two are the same. Vast array or wood and leather combinations will be available, so it is an opportunity to get your hands on a completely one off product. 2013 will also see the launch of our new product range!

By now I guess you can tell I’m a fan of Aye Spy’s Glasses. From design philosophy of looking at things from a different perspective to using a slightly un-expected material, I think all the quirky components that are mixed together, work really nicely in making these iconic sunglasses. It’s refreshing to see a fashionable item having aesthetics on the back burner while design and material choice being more significant and interesting.

Aye Spy’s "Specs a Day" campaign will be offering one pair of sunglasses each day at a discounted price for all Twitter and Facebook followers, so make sure to follow them. @AyeSpyGlasses

[designbyben]

Design Week - Design Junction

September again, and its London’s Design festival, with 100% Design appearing so similar each year, I decided to visit ‘Design Junction’ boasting “a powerful line-up of world renowned brands” and “ smaller cutting-edge labels, pop-up design stores, one-off installations and much more.”

The first difference was the interesting debates/seminars held at Design Junction, which aren’t as common at 100% design.

  Visiting Design Junction on Friday, meant I could sit in on the “Furniture Craft, Tradition and Technology” seminar. It was great to hear from Bethan Gray and Luis De Oliveira. Bethan Gray came across as a really modest designer, spotted from New Designers, worked at Habitat and now runs her own studio. She touched lightly on her design style using little craft patterns/details, which are explored then used in a creating process to produce unique pieces of furniture. Luis De Oliveira blew away the audience with his advanced outlook on furniture brands and the message “the brand is dead.” His talk mentioned the emerging of designers rather than brands and also the change in consumers' attitude towards purchasing furniture.

Design Junction was a great exhibition, on three floors showcasing a huge amount of brands and designers. I was impressed by the really modern and creative designs on show. Compared to 100% design, this exhibition had much more life, with a buzz of fresh creative designs. 100% design has started to become an out of date, commercial outfit, linking big established companies with high-end corporate consumers. An example of 100% Design loosing its purpose would be the companies exhibiting double-glazing units, and sliding doors. In my eyes 100% Design has sold out to the companies that will pay most to exhibit, Design Junction has a nice blend of big brands and small creative designers that all complement each other nicely.

Favourite design at Design Junction would be the sunglasses by Aye Spy. I would love to do a more in depth write up on their products. So if they could send me a pair of sunglasses I would be more than happy to write a review.  : )

  Design Junction other great designs would be the stunning concrete lampshades by James Bartlett called ‘Portland Pendant.’  O Range table by David Colwell. Others showing great designs were Pinch, Aditi Studio, Bethan Gray and Benchmark.

  Overall, I would say Design Junction is a great exhibition for contemporary quality designs, well worth the visit. 100% Design has more of a showbiz look and feel with less unique creative designs and depth.

[designbyben]

Mr Brainwash's 1st London Exhibition

If you haven’t seen the film “Exit through the gift shop” then go see it! The film is an interesting documentary by Banksy that takes an un-expected direction in following the rise of an artist now known as Mr Brainwash.

Not expecting a large queue I went on the opening day, where people had camped over night to be first in. The clever offering of 500 free signed pieces of art, had drawn in the crowds.  I returned a few weeks later to be surprised by the amount of work on display and size of this exhibition.

The exhibition showed some impressive art and amused many with some cool and edgy sculptures and art pieces assembled from random materials. Sculptures were produced from rubber tyres, a big boom box was made from cardboard, silhouettes had been made from broken vinyl and spray cans had been painted and assembled to make the union flag.

His artwork was themed around the most famous and notorious icons like Michael Jackson, Barack Obama, Mona Lisa, Elvis Pressley, Daft Vada and many more. Impressing the audience with very tall sculptures and iconic faces, I felt the show was lacking personality. It was like Mr Brainwash is stuck in the world of trying to grab headlines and attracting attention. His style can be seen as advancement from Banksy’s stencils into different types of media, yet controversy will surround Mr Brainwash with questions to his authenticity as an artist. In my mind he could possibly be Banksy’s alter ego that wants to be famous and push graffiti art away from the streets or he could be a lucky businessman that is making his money from art. Whichever one it is, we will have to wait to find out.

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Number 1 Hit “In The Morning” Singer Egypt Supporting the March.

Designed and Made By: @Caramel_Soldier Crystals supplied and Placed By: @elite_swarovski Thank you also to: @Designbyben_

Egypt Official is Officially a POH ‘House Mate’! Showing us her Piece… #Vibe; We’ll let the…

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Top 5 common mistakes when making websites

Having designed a few websites, I thought it would be helpful to create a list of the top 5 most common mistakes made when creating a website.

1.     Website Tunnel Vision

It’s very normal to get excited about your website and think everyone else will do, to, however there are “6.97 billion pages indexed on the internet,” (Source – www.worldwidewebsize.com on 22/8/2012) with so much content on the world wide web, how is someone going to find your website?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) seems to be the answer, however it seems to be a dark art with hundreds of ways to achieve this outcome of being ranked highly on popular search engines. Easiest examples to follow would be the use of Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, whilst also paying for adverts on Google and having links to your website from others sites, including popular forums and anything else with a large number of viewers.  With the importance of promoting a website being so easy, it is surprising when it is overlooked. Personally I think a fairly equal ratio of time should be spent making a website as well as advertising it.

2.     Fancy effects/animation

It’s not un-common to attempt to produce a website that stands out and looks amazing. Javascript and J-query have hundreds of plugins that can make fancy animations and slideshows. It is easy to get lost in the world of fancy animation and make your site a tribute to fancy graphics and not your website content or design. Examples of sites that do this…

http://www.serene-naturist.com/

(WARNING LINK BELLOW CONTAINS FLASHING IMAGERY!)

http://www.dokimos.org/ajff/

3.     Navigation + Design

“Users often leave a web page in 10 – 20 seconds”

(Source www.useit.com Jakob Niclson)

Similar to the way we behave in front of the TV with the remote control, clicking rapidly through channels, the same actions can be seen by people viewing websites. Website viewers are making instant decisions on weather or not they like the website and interested in the content. Clicking of the mouse buttons can happen in seconds so websites have a limited time to grab its viewer. When designing a website time needs to be spent on the layout and navigation, as without a solid interactive and intuitive navigation the website will never have a high success rate.

4.     Broken Links or Content coming soon

No matter what a website is used for, it should be considered with the same attitude and importance a shop owner would have with a shop premises. The reason for websites needing the same level of care is because the way websites are anaylised by potential customers or clients who are likely to form a image of a person or company’s reliability, skills, trustworthiness and quality. With the ease of using free sites like www.brokenlinkcheck.com/ broken links and missing content should not be the tipping point that leads a customer to choose one company over another.

5.     Personality.

Wordpress makes the idea of using a template a good idea and its becoming more and more common for website that look identical apart from a little change in colour, pictures or logos. This is boring and dull, more thought should focused into the website showing the personality of the person or company that is being showcased. Personality should not be stripped from a website to make it look serious or corporate, the best website are ones that show uniqueness and character.

As mentioned in this list, there are many mistakes that can be made when making a website. Website design is an art and something that should not be scrimped on. I offer a website design service and will be happy to discuss any projects you may have.

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