My parents are clearing out their house in preparation for retirement and a big move. I am trying hard not to transfer the piles of unwanted stuff to my flat. My Dad’s architecture books were too good to pass. I love the similar style of design - blocks of colour with transparent monocrome photography.
I’m a fan of Hula Seventy’s Photobooth Friday. This is the first time I have found a photobooth picture in a second hand shop and in true Hula Seventy style I’m calling her Joan. Taken by Jerome Studios, Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 24 March 1964.
It makes me happy that this came from a charity shop. Granted that the woman behind the counter didn’t know how an empty curtain box got into the shop, perhaps it had some shoes in it at some point, but it was potentially throw away packaging that I was willing to spend money on.
New year in the Yorkshire Dales exploring a derelict house just outside a small village on a quiet country lane. Nothing much remained apart from fixtures and fittings but they hinted at a once loved, colourful and fashionable interior. The last meter reading was taken in 1949.
Full set of derelict house images on Flickr.
More links
I came across the Casino Carpet Gallery by Die is Cast (via Apartment Therapy).
David G Schwartz
“In a strange way, though, it’s sublime work of art, rivalling any expressionist canvas of the past century. Note the regal tones of Caesars Palace, the bountiful bouquet of Mandalay Place, the soft, almost abstract pointilism of Paris, all whispering, “gamble, gamble” just out of the range of consciousness as people walk to the nearest slot machine.”
I photographed the interior of Mecca Bingo Hall and Social Club in Sheffield last year and particularly liked the carpets. I’m not sure they convey any sublime messages but definitely offer a glitzy escapism that makes me want to visit more bingo halls with my camera.
Welcome to the fourth reincarnation of maraid.co.uk
Since becoming a Web Designer I have found the most challenging job is designing a website for my business. The brief to myself is to design something that appeals to potential clients but also something I really like too. In my last redesign I suspect I thought too hard about the client side of things and ended up with something I wasn’t entirely happy with. This time I think I’ve got the balance right.
The other major change is the addition of a blog, an idea I have toyed with for a while. I didn’t have much of an inclination to write about web development but as more and more design blogs have become part of my daily read I have been inspired to join in. The plan is to write about design, photography, found images, typography and architecture. The things that inspire me. In the long term I would like to be scanning less images and creating more of my own, some of which may turn up from time to time.
The blog part of the website was built using WordPress. Which was as adaptable, easy to work with and all I had hoped for. As I started to build the site Firebug beta was released for Firefox which was indispensable for reworking the WordPress theme and is now used for every job I work on. I would also like to thank install4free for their assistance when I was having difficulties configuring my WordPress files for my server. Thank you.