Catch-up is a lovely idea. Get people together, listen to a talk, look at an exhibition, have a chat, drink ale and eat peanut and jam sandwiches. It’s called a conference but feels a lot more relaxed and informal than that. The recent event looked at image making and art direction. Rob Low (aka Supermundane) was guest speaker, his work and talk was fun and interesting and set the day off to a great start. At the round table talk Rob was joined by Matthew the Horse, Nick Deakin and members of Nous Vous and Lord Whitney. I enjoyed hearing peoples thoughts on being creative and working on paid commissions. Drinks and entertainment followed with lots of Leeds Pale Ale and chatting. With a bag of goodies (real stuff – not a sponsor in sight) and just £5 a ticket – all conferences should be like this!

There are some exciting things happening in Leeds at the moment. The first of a few blog posts to share our finds.. The Village Bookstore. Newly opened in the Corn Exchange in a lovely bright and relaxed space. In their own words they are an.. “art book store, gallery and publishing house … We offer a curated selection of contemporary artist books, creative magazines and self-published zines from independent publishers”.

Only once I returned home, sifting though many holiday photos, I realised how many images I had of maps from Brittany. I loved the individuality and hand painted graphics, often using traditional tiles or enamel. They were always a welcoming sign to a new location on our adventures.

1 Tiled map of the area in Camaret sur-Mer. 2 Map of the area in Aux Quatre Saisons campsite, Roscoff. 3 Pont-Aven and the surrounding area. 4 Cap Fréhel map in Du Pont de L’Etang Campsite. 5 Map painting of the island Île-de-Bréhat inside Chapelle St-Michel. 6 Map in of the area in Huelgoat

Good news for us York folk. Lotte Inch has opened a new gallery in York full of contemporary art and design gifts. How did we live without this before?

The Art Deco building and entrance with click-through gates hint at what’s to come at Stonehaven’s heated open air swimming pool. The changing rooms and old signs are beautiful too and then there was the pool itself! The added bonus is this is a photo friendly venue and I was able to document our fantastic afternoon at this Scottish gem.

I spent a lovely Sunday pottering around the popular vintage and and textile fair in Newcastle. It was the first one I had been too and I was sold on the great poster by Alice Pattullo. The day was really enjoyable, inspiring and full of lots of nice people.

Yesterday we visited Nick from The Print Project in Bradford to discuss some new Maraid Design business cards. It was the kind of meeting we like; coffee, chatting, looking at old machinery and thinking about design. Nick talked us though bits and pieces of print history and typography. Now we are even more excited to have a little bit of letterpress magic come our way.

When travelling it’s those small differences to home that catch my eye. I was impressed by the beauty of Norwegian manhole covers. I loved the way they are designed specifically for that town or area. During our visit to Ålesund we were promised beautiful art nouveau buildings but the street design underfoot was much more impressive.

1. Ålesund, 2. Røvær Island, 3. Bergen

Arriving via the Balestrand ferry, Mundal (sometimes known as Fjærland), looks like the quintessential Norwegian Fjord-side village. Only accessible via water up until relatively recently the town has retained its wonderful charm. We spent a perfect day cycling around and browsing the twelve book shops that occupy various buildings such as the ferry port, tourist info, cafe and a couple of cowsheds.

I love film and unique cinemas. Miniciné perfectly combines these two passions. They are a non-profit film society operating in the smallest cinema in the north of England. The 26 seat cinema in Leeds Industrial Museum is created from a reclaimed Edwardian picturehouse. The films are well chosen with a short documentary preceding the film. Our main attraction was Chop Shop. We grabbed a cuppa, piece of cake, soaked up the surroundings and sat back to enjoy the film.