Indian gardens to Urban grafitti

Last week I went to a couple of really interesting exhibitions: the Garden and Cosmos exhibition at the British Museum, and the opening night of the Banksy exhibition at the Flower Cellars gallery in Covent garden, run by the Hospital club. I loved the space of the Flower Cellars gallery and was rather enviously looking at it. I mean really, why have it as a cool gallery when it could be an Anzu office?!

The exhibition had prints, caravan doors and metal signs

The painting they are selling in this one says on it "I can't believe you morons actually buy this shit"

I have no comment on this one as I hate clowns. A clown tried to entertain me in a department store the other week. I tried to hide it but a look of disgust was clearly apparent on my face because he actually gave up mid act and turned his back on me!

Garden & Cosmos is an amazing exhibition currently on at the British Museum. The paintings are stunning - the intricacy and detail of each one, and the volume of paintings actually makes it a pretty intensive, almost overwhelming exhibition.

The compositions are really different and interesting, and the colours are astounding. They are all painted in gouache, but I wonder whether they mixed their own pigments because the colours are extremely vivid and certainly unlike any paints on the market now.

A number of the paintings are also surprisingly modern and different from the usual Indian miniatures we are used to seeing over here. I would highly recommend both exhibitions - see www.britishmuseum.org or www.thehospitalclub.com/the_flower_cellars/ for more information.

Anzu on the Brides website!

A big thank you to Brides magazine for featuring us on their website this month! You can read the article at this link http://www.bridesmagazine.co.uk/brides-loves/feature/090702-say-thank-you-in-style.aspx The cards featured are our bridal cards, which are all based on iconic brides.

This is our Carolyn Bridal card featuring an illustration of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's dress - a simple silk sheath designed by Narciso Rodriguez, which she accessorised with a sheer silk veil and gloves, beaded satin Manolos and a lily-of-the-valley bouquet.

Carolyn Bessette married John F. Kennedy Jr in 1996 in a secret ceremony in a simple but historic Baptist church on Cumberland Island, Georgia. The church had no electricity so was lit simply with candles and kerosene lamps, with an altar adorned with greenery arranged by Jackie Kennedy's longtime butler.

Penguin

Penguin books always manage to come up with such original ideas. I love their recent letterpressed editions, but I think this latest range of classic books with blank covers for you to draw on yourself is daring and a clever idea. A book is always judged by its cover and as Penguin says this 'might be the stupidest thing we've ever done'.I think it's great. There are six titles ranging from Great Gatsby to The Waves, and the books are designed to hold ink, paint and glue.

You can see more information on the Penguin website. They are featuring submissions from the public as well as designs done by Bands. The above one was done by singer Beck and the one below by band Razorlight.

I like the two submissions below by Joanne Lee, and Heather Royston Webb.

What would you put on yours?

And once you've finished them how about housing them in this infinity bookcase (found via The design for mankind blog).

Heatwave

I think that maybe it is a little bit too sunny to be writing blogs right now...

Logos

This post on Logo love gone crazy over at http://parishotelboutique.blogspot.com made me laugh. As we have been working on the anzu branding and having discussions about branding rules, it amuses me to see people just take it and go a bit mad.

Naturally Louis Vuitton is a popular choice.

Is it just me or does this Gucci one kind of work?

I think these Burberry ones are perhaps the funniest.

Now these ones have been done properly - I think you can tell...

An official Gucci collaboration with Cadillac

Hermes for Bugatti

A Chanel Fiore concept car

Hope you're reading this Ryma! In her previous job our graphic designer Ryma branded a jet, a Bentley and a pair of slippers...

Blue

It has been so hot in the office today (we really need an air conditioner). I'm sure we can't be the only ones in a hot office on this baking day so I thought I would post some refreshing blues to cool us all down.

Above is my Mughal patchwork painting, featured in our Patchwork range of cards.

Yoshigo on Flickr, via English Muse

Even though I love blue, for some reason I hardly ever paint in it unless I'm feeling a little fedup ( literally a case of the blues!). It's strange because blue is my favourite colour. I love the ever changing blues of the sea,

the vivid lilac blues of a bluebell field (I went to a small village school and this was pretty much the view from our classroom during May),

the soft grey of a Wedgwood blue as on this Anzu dressing table card,

the deep intense blues of Iznik tiles,

the clear blues of a Canaletto sky,

the Ming porcelain blues of a Cavalli dress,

the incredible underwater blues of a David Doubilet photograph (my favourite)

or a more pale turquoise blue as on the neckline of this Anzu turquoise dress painting.

Happy Father's Day!

Hermes

I am a big fan of Hermes, and I love these seashell bikes they have in their Bond Street windows at the moment. So perfectly summery. There is a heatwave forecast next week (fingers crossed!).

Blossom tree

I love this photo Stella McCartney has used for her new range. The grey English palette and the blossom tree are stunning. We have been designing the new anzu stationery and it has an element not dissimilar to this. I look forward to posting it once it is all finished.

Grouping art

Tim Walker photograph

I bought some old picture frames from Portobello market to frame some of my paintings. All but a few of my paintings are currently hidden away in a box and I thought it was a shame not to have a few more out in the office .

found via abloomsburylife.blogspot.com

I want to do a grouping of paintings like these pictures and there is definitely a fine art to it. I like it best when photographs, painting, drawing, and objet such as letters are mixed.

domino magazine

Mary Ruffle's house via House Beautiful

Find more tips online at www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/at-email/how-to-hang-art-in-groups-like-kate-spade-050872 Sfgirlbybay.blogspot.com did an excellent post on this some time ago too.

found via designhole.com

Kate Spade's office via Apartment therapy

Helena Christensen's home

Sometimes I think about moving and having a massive studio loft space with home and office combined. Not sure I ever will because I've heard these lofts can be freezing and I'm not up for that! However, if I ever do I think I would like it to look rather like Helena Christensen's place as featured in French Vogue this month (via English Muse)

I know it's now somewhat of a cliche, but I love exposed brick walls. I also love the pinboards of polaroids, polished wood floors, and anglepoise lamps.

In fact I would have it just like this, but minus the stag head!

All aboard!

My Dad emailed me this photo he'd done the other day and I love it - I wish it was real! The amount of stuff we seem to end up lugging about, I think an anzu bus would be very useful.

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone that came to Pulse and especially for all your orders and all the absolutely lovely compliments we received on the candles. After working for months on them it means a lot! These are the pictures my Mum took on her iphone of the show.

Pulse and Anzu candles

We are exhibiting at Pulse at the moment

Stand J64

31st May - 2 June 2009

Earls Court

and showing off our brand new range of Anzu candles. We are so excited about them! Above is our Amber candle. More to come about the range later!