Make Studio

Our friend Andrew Bell, who produced the fantastic Make posters, has put together this rather sweet little guide to screenprinting.

http://prettyrough.co.uk

GSA Vis-com student Sarah Fishlock dropped by to visit us recently, to chat about her folio and what she’s been up to. Sarah takes photographs and draws images, which we think is a pretty good combination in her case.

http://sarahfishlock.tumblr.com/

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We recently met up with Glasgow based graphic designer Andrew Forteath, who produces these great collages, amongst other things.

We recently stumbled across the magnificent work of artist Dan Hillier while searching for images of Victorian engravings. Then we lost an afternoon poring over the work on his site. Described as a ’steampunk’ artist by some, he takes old Victorian etchings and turns them into tongue in cheek images of magically twisted darkness. We think they’re pretty outstanding.

www.danhillier.com/

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Today we decided it’d be a nice addition to the site, to include work which maybe doesn’t see the light of day. Work which we maybe don’t present to the client, work which we make as part of a larger process, work which we do just for fun. We’ve decided to call this section “other”, because it seemed the most fitting term, and we thought calling it “misc” or “random” or “play” or what have you just seemed so same old same old.

To start off this new section, we’ve included some typographic work produced by Lyn in the process of making some large format exhibition graphics.

http://makesomethingfor.me.uk/other/environment/

We seem to keep getting wonderful things in the post. This week we received a package from long time friend and inspiration Alex Hetherington, containing a copy of his latest edition “Neon John”. Alex is a performance-based visual artist and writer whose practice spans a multitude of roles, which is partly why we respect him so much, and he divides his time between Scotland and Northern California, which is partly why we’re so jealous of him. Plus the fact that his work is simply stunning, and that’s before you’ve had a chance to really consider it properly.

We really didn’t think we were linguistically gifted enough to describe Alex’s work in a way which would do it justice, or would in any way match the standard of Alex’s own writing, which is breathtakingly eloquent and sharp. We thought we’d just show you some images of Neon John, and recommend that you check out some more of his work, as Alex has been a huge influence on both of us, probably without even knowing it.

Alex, you rock.

x

www.alexhetherington.net

Edition 1:

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This morning we launched a new site design for the mighty Mogwai. Building on the existing site, developed in 2006, we implemented a stripped down, minimal, css based design in keeping with the current output of the band.

http://mogwai.co.uk

This article was first published on This is Central Station.

Starting out on your own will be one of the biggest decisions you make.
Whether you’re going it alone as a freelancer, working as a creative team, or starting a fully fledged company, the pitfalls are by and large the same, and the same preparations are necessary.

When we decided to start Make we struggled to find information directly related to the creative industries, and starting out. A lot of blog posts were written by serial entrepreneurs, whose business models seemed to be built entirely around venture capital, funding, and building a service without a revenue model.
There was also a lot of advice offered to us by people who’d never run a company. We dismissed it out of hand.
There seemed also to be a distinct lack of realism and self-criticism, and a pious insistence that self belief will conquer all obstacles. 
We found very little in the way of practical, realistic advice.
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Early in February we gave a talk at Glasgow’s Metropolitan College, and met with some of the vis-com students there. Soon after, Andrew Bell, a final year student on the course, got in touch and came to see us in our studio, to chat about his folio, and really to rack our brains about what he should be doing with himself. When we saw his folio we were blown away. We saw work which wouldn’t be out of place in a senior creative’s book, so for a 17 year old, it’s jaw dropping. This week we got a little surprise in the mail. Andrew has designed this beautiful poster, based around our name.

You can see more of his work at his blog http://www.prettyrough.co.uk

It’s been a labour of love, but our new site is now live. As well as the usual showcase of work, some details about us and easy ways to get in touch, we’ll be trying to keep a blog going, with some technical articles, things we like, and guest writers posting on topics close to our hearts.

If you haven’t done so already, grab the RSS feed and keep up to date, or drop us a line and say hi!