Herb Studio - graphic design

"Give me the creative freedom of a tightly defined brief."
📚: A lovely spot of type design featured on a page from What is packaging design? By Giles Calver.

Thank you for a wonderfully creative weekend with all my girls at the Swifts workshops in Bridport this weekend.

Such a fun and refreshing time, drawing with you & the girls, making art, learning about nature & spending precious time together! 😘

More days of the week should look like these!
#

Bird & the bees.
Picture postcards from my phone.

I've been waiting for the opportune moment to post this one.
I love this city - with some exceptions (!)

Sentry Duty.
Picture postcards from the City of London.

London skies.

Reflections on some famous art pieces with the young people at this weekend with

We went in for our youngest, who wanted to see some Monet, stayed for some bonus Van Gogh, Rousseau, Stubbs & more.....

Picture postcards from the coast.

Picture postcards from a rainy walk by the sea...

"O Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on earth!"
Picture postcards from a photo walk with

Knife Angel.

Passers-by taking a moment beneath the Knife Angel sculpture in Taunton.
100,000+ knives from every Police force in the country used in this 3.5 tonne monument to ending knife violence in the UK.

Thought-provoking reflections from the small people as we stood beneath the Knife Angel sculpture on a rainy Sunday with

100,000+ knives from every Police force in the country used in this 3.5 tonne monument to ending knife violence in the UK.

Lest we forget: Civil liberties enjoyed & expected in our culture today have been hard-won by the generations who've gone before.

Women didn't get the Vote equally until 1928 in England, after decades of trying: Campaigning, protest, civil disobedience & martyrdom is the price paid for many freedoms we so easily take for granted now.

Social justice & equality doesn't just happen & left unchecked, most social systems will favour the elite few. It's every generation's responsibility to ensure freedoms are taught, understood & protected.
📸 Force-feeding Suffragettes on hunger strike at

Prison cell living at

Views of life on the inside in a cell.

Cold & hard views of life on the inside at with

Bleak & imposing: Exploring prison life in the oldest prison in Britain with

Imposing & bleak; Fascinating tour of Shepton Mallet Prison with

Satisfying tonal range.

"We don’t yet see things clearly.
We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.
But it won’t be long before the weather clears
and the sun shines bright!..."
Picture postcards from my phone.

River in flood: Picture postcards from my phone.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2024/apr/03/women-photographers-celebrate-jane-goodalls-90th-birthday

Female photographers celebrate Jane Goodall’s 90th birthday Ninety wildlife and landscape photographers from around the world are marking the primatologist Jane Goodall turning 90 with a print sale of environmental pictures. The Jane Goodall Institute and the nonprofit Vital Impacts have collaborated on The Nature of Hope: 90 Years of Jane Goodall’s Impact...

Scenes of Spring: Hummingbird Hawk Moth on the plum tree blossom.

"They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;

They lighted beseeching fires all night long to keep the year alive...."

"They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They lighted beseeching fires all night long to keep the year alive...."

"So the shortest day came, & the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world,
Came people singing, dancing, to drive the dark away...."

Woodland mandalas, music, candlelight & bonfires in the woods to celebrate the Winter Solstice & see out the seasonal year.

"So the shortest day came, & the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world,
Came people singing, dancing, to drive the dark away...."

Woodland mandalas, music, candlelight & bonfires in the woods to celebrate the Winter Solstice & see out the seasonal year.

This week has seen a massive moment in the media industry as Rupert Murdoch stepped down.

*Long post*

One of the last bastions of the 20th Century media industry as we knew it, there's few else in modern memory who've held such a long and lasting influence in the News industry since Citizen Kane.

As we've endured multiple high-profile news stories in recent months & public discourse has been dragged from one scandal to the next, I can't help but think about the media's influence as Malcolm X had it (full quote below).

In the light of the most recent celebrity scandal, the rivalry between the traditional news-media outlets & the 21st Century digital platforms is now more front-&-centre than ever: "Trusted media" Vs "Independent media" 🤔

I can't help thinking what a 21st Century Malcolm would make of it? The end of Murdoch's tenure feels like another death-throe of the C20th's influence.

But the ever-polarising echo chambers of social media are no better. They appear as the route to the alternative & fresh, but let's be honest.
The Algorithm *is* the new Murdoch.
If you got this far, check out '5 lessons from Malcolm X' podcast episode. ✌️
"The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.

The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make the criminal look like he’s a the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal.

This is the press, an irresponsible press. It will make the criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."

- Malcom X

The smell of rain & smoke is starting to hang in the air & the berries are in the hedgerows.

Seeking moments of stillness & reflection as this summer starts to fade.