Seen

My favorite feature of being involved in a creative profession is looking. Living and working in the diverse cultural community around Brunswick provides lots of visual stimulation. There are times when I spot things that inform an idea that later becomes a design and there are other times when the image remains as memory of moment.

Some images are borne from the act of taking the time to record them. Recently at Otto and Spike we had the occasion to knit the last cone of one of our beautiful Woolyarns of New Zealand archive yarns. This is a wool, angora and silk mix in a colour they named beech. Here it is waiting to be rewound before we could put it onto the knitting machine to make a new batch of Victor scarves.

Woolyarns 'Fresh forests collection in Beech'

Other images are about timing, being in the right place at the right time to witness something.

I was taking part in the filming of a segment for Art Nation when I spotted this handknit jumper. The crew asked me to walk toward the Five Boroughs store in Lygon Street when the woman on this bike appeared at the traffic lights. The sheer exuberance of the jumper and it’s owner made me take notice.

Vivid knit

This weekend I’d recommend that you tune into Art Nation and watch the design special they have been working on for the last month. Otto and Spike feature in the segment. Time to be seen.

Knitting in a new arena

Sometimes surprising things happen.

On the 2nd of July I was watching a telecast of the local football code. It was a cold Melbourne winter night around 8 degrees Celsius. This was set to be a great game as the two teams had met at the highest level of the competition in recent years. One had continued to triumph while the other was reascending to their former glory.

Our local code like most modern sports is dominated by the opinions of statisticians and former heroes called upon for their expert and insightful comments to add depth and colour to our understanding of the game.

On this particular evening a former player who possesses an approachable rapport with the public and professionals alike rugged himself up against the cold chill of winter. Prior to leaving home he went to his wardrobe and selected a scarf purchased a year before from a retailer in one of Melbourne’s cultural precincts. He was not schooled in design, none the less he saw himself as open minded and a little avante guarde in his approach to personal style.
The thoughts that possessed his mind and directed him to choose this garment we can only guess at. Was it the sturdy functional nature of the piece or the fetching, slightly lairy colour combination?

Whatever the logic the results of his decision are now the stuff of urban mythology.

He left home with his trusty Grandpa scarf rolled up in his stylish satchel and headed for the large downtown sports arena. By the time he arrived the retractable roof had been closed cutting out some of the chill effect. This arena like many multi-purpose venues built in the manner of the Colosseum has large openings let into the sides to facilitate the movement of large numbers of people. When the harsh winter wind in Melbourne blows in off the snowfields to it’s north they funnel themselves through these fenestrations increasing the chill factor. It was into this arena that our brave ambassador went about his work that evening as the likable ‘boundary rider’.

The boundary rider’s job is to trot out onto the playing surface to seek up to the minute observations from the mouths coaches and their confidants and players at the cessation of the game. Our man, we’ll call him ‘Tim’, was to be found in various locations on this playing field resplendent in his Grandpa scarf, amiably chatting to a coach here and later a player there.

During this time, whilst he was on camera one of his co-commentators well know for his acerbic wit and his thesaurisian grasp of the English language noted that the scarf he was wearing owed a strong resemblance to table clothes in kitsch Italian restaurants. His actual words were, “We know where Tim ate dinner tonight, he’s stollen the table cloth from an Italian restaurant”.

From the time these words left his mouth a legend began to engulf our humble scarf. Did Tim’s patronage of our Grandpa scarf signal a fashion statement or the acceptance of ethically made local craft in a new arena?

Tim Watson's Grandpa scarf

These questions may never be answered.

If you’d like to find out more about this tale I suggest you click on this link.

Start somewhere

After such a long absence from the pages of this blog there’s so much to post I have to start somewhere.

The first story is the one about how we sent samples to Canada in February. This was the result of my trip there in October in the post “Canada in Autumn”. I was impressed with a small boutique department store in Toronto called Holt Renfrew. Donald the accessories buyer liked our work and asked us to send him the next collection.

It’s always a tough communication situation when you send your work to someone alone. When you’re not there to talk with the products. I was left in one of the situations where I had to devise a means to make the range talk without me.

First I spent several days arranging the pieces to create a series of linked product stories. After several attempts the range settled into five groups, Animated, Sculptural, Vintaged, Traditionalist, Identified.

Sculptural

Animated

Vintaged

Traditionalist

The pieces in each related to the title in a way the made sense of the grouping. The animated group are all strongly coloured, pop concepts, the sculptural pieces are all garments that can either be functional or decorative and they’re all high relief surfaces, sculptures to put around your neck. The vintaged pieces are classic Otto and Spike, Grandpa’s, Squizzy’s, Pockets and Ripples – known and loved garments. Identified brought together pieces that define who we are, sailor, cyclist, designer. Traditionalist these items seemed to indicated that they were part of a new tradition, somehow already old classics.

Atomic pack

When you receive something the first impressions are so important – the special cases we sent to Canada had already established a high standard of idiosyncratic packaging art. How do we follow on? I’ve always loved vacuum sealed packs. This way the groups of samples could be held together and not move about in transportation. I found a really helpful company out in Dandenong (South East of Melbourne) they went out of their way to help us make the individual packs look good.

Tie Me Up

To complete the range I stitched each group of blister packs into calico sacks and stenciled our name on the outside. The effect was like looking at the bounty brought home by a great explorer in the nineteenth century.

Handmade calico sacks stitched with a sailors needle and string knitted cord

Stitched, stencilled and ready

And the question you want answered, “Did Otto and Spike get picked up by Holt Renfrew for this coming Fall/Winter?” The short answer is no. But we did have to start somewhere.

Keeping it local

I love Brunswick.

Brunnie is a great spot to spend some time, especially on a cold winters day, walking through Fleming park, looking at forgotten commercial art, discovering new and old buildings tucked away in factories or hidden around tight corners , having a drink at the E.B.C, Mr Wilkinson, trying to decide what wine to take home from Blackheart and Sparrows, reading the paper in a warm cafe like Sugardough – full of ‘just baked’ smells , a quaint pantry in the midst of the hustle of Lygon Street. You could also do some shopping at our Pop Up at the Five Boroughs store, 345 Lygon Street, just in case you haven’t already.

A cold Fleming Park

Nuts'n'bolts

Minnie Street milk bar

Warm inner glow of the dough

A selection from the FB's Pop Up

Drop anchors

Glove palette

Keep me warm

O&S @ FB's

Family and Friends 2

Our next collection launches on the 25th of February at the Life InStyle show in Sydney. The new works are structured around collaborations with eleven designers whose work we admire.

Some are local, some from interstate and others live outside Australia.

The designers and artists we invited to take part are:

Sara crowEST
http://www.sarahcrowest.com
(Blotch Woman, textile designer and conceptual artist)
Amber B Dianda
www.elementeden.com/advocates/AmberB
(ambercreate, photographer, illustrator, toymaker, sculptor, Element USA)
Bruce Slorach
http://www.deucedesign.com.au
(Deuce Design, Mambo, Funkessentials, Galaxy, Abyss)
Simon Wood
www.fitzroymusclecarclub.com
www.sneakerfreaker.com
(Woody – Fitzroy Muscle car club & Sneaker Freaker)
Kyle De Kuijer
http://345boroughs.blogspot.com
(Five Boroughs – co designer Holly Daze)
Wendy Voon
www.wendyvoon.com
(Freelance knit designer and educator)
Moyra Jones
www.surfaceart.com.au
(Surface Art, Ken Done Design)
Matthew Langille
www.matthewlangille.com
www.matthewlangille.com/blog
(NYC designer and illustrator for Marc Jacobs, Havaianas, Swatch, Adidas)
Rachael Koussoratis
(Freelance Stylist – Designer)
Liza Bruce
(Designer, denim aficionado – Mooks, Levis, Crumpler, Mambo, Ultra Nectar USA)
Jon Paton
(Printmaker to Fitzroy’s petrol-heads now turned graphic designer)

Each collaborator was asked to respond to Otto and Spike’s tag line of “a familiar retro aesthetic”. How they dealt with these words in knitted form was left open as we wanted a diverse range of responses. Happily we can report that the outcome is eclectic and varied. The result is a compilation of visual and textural designs ranging from a discourse on traditional knitted structures to obsessions with car culture, fixed gear bikes, Scandinavian modernism, animism and pop graphics.

To give the collaboration concrete form the works will be exhibited as part of the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. The show is titled “Otto and Spike presents, Family and Friends” and will be housed at the Guilford Lane Gallery, Ground Floor, Guilford Lane, Melbourne and opens on MArch 15th until Sunday March 20th.

Family and Friends

I’ve mentioned that our next range involves collaboration with artists and designers from Australia and overseas. It’s time to look at the some of the work that’s been slowly developing at Otto and Spike.

In the post “Things I forgot” I included an image of the gates at the rear of Mitchel House called The Victor. I also mentioned that it was the inspiration for a new scarf. The resulting scarf nearly didn’t make the cut. Sampling this style also coincided with a sudden burst of hot weather that made the idea of working with wool in hot factory very unpleasant. The Victor is knitted using a single end of two ply yarn on a seven gauge machine, the scarf is light and soft and the resolution of the design is more accurate than we’d expected.

Victor

Mitchell house gates

London weekend

Before I returned to Melbourne I spent forty-eight hours in London. In one day I shot around town recharging my visual library.

I caught up with my old work buddy Louise Rogers who’s based in the city developing product for Puma UK. These images are a record of the day.

Wherever you spit it’ll land in the sea

After immersing myself in Toronto for a couple of weeks I was fortunate to travel to the tiny Channel island of Jersey. My primary reason for visiting was to meet my step mum Sheila for the first time. Duncan, my dad was a master mariner and reluctantly had to find a place on land to live out the latter part of his life. What better place than an island where the locals say, “Wherever  you spit it’ll land in the sea.”

La Veue d'La Corbié

I guess it was inevitable that I’d find a knitted connection. The island of Guernsey lies to the north of Jersey and has a special place in the history of woolen outerwear. Both islands thick, durable jumpers to keep out cold sea weather. Unfortunately Jersey hasn’t maintained  industry. Guernsey has been able to keep making traditional wares. Traditional guernseys are produced using Scottish and Australian wool.

Swing tag Guernsey knitwear

A jersey from Guernsey

Both islands have a traditional knitting pattern for their garments in Jersey the pattern features three raised self stripes in Guernsey it’s an anchor motif.

i purchased this garment from A. Amy and Sons Queen Street
St Helier. This is a store that could be transformed into something special. The staff are very friendly and genuine offering plenty of product knowledge but the environment in-store needs a lift.

Thanks to Mick and his staff for allowing to add their images to this post.

A Amy and Sons Ltd - home of fine Guernseys

Jersey abounds in images that are connected with the sea. The generosity of my relatives made it possible for me to see a fair amount of the cost during my short stay on the island. While they drove me around filing me in on the history I was able to check out the landscape.

I found this eccentric little house on St Ouens Bay not far from the main surf break. It was originally built-in the 1930′s by an island store owner as a holiday house, it’s now available for the public to rent. It couldn’t be more than 3 squares in total size. It mixes my love of nautical and deco themes.

Seagull

Seagull windows

Vase in Seagull window

To follow is a small photo essay from the visit.

It’s Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Canada in autumn

Spring hadn’t quite kicked off in Melbourne by mid September the weather had regressed to cold and rain only a fortnight before my departure to Canada. It was still cold enough to sport a scarf as you can see by this picture of supportive parliamentarians wearing a scarf we designed in collaboration with Plan Australia for the Because I’m a Girl campaign.

After tormenting Fareeda Chand at Austrade in Toronto for two years with the prospect of an Otto and Spike marketing visit, finally during mid September we made the decision to present at the Mode Accessories Show. The consequences of our decision sunk in quickly – less than two weeks to complete a new cardboard display booth.

Before I could get ready to leave the residual winter weather played an important role in making our task more difficult.

First I smashed my ankle into the bitumen while riding my bike.  I was checking on a friend’s house while he was away in Canada and the roads were slippery from an unseasonal tropical downpour. My ankle blew up, went black – the weekend before I had to begin the task of building the booth. Then exactly a week later I endured a mental scarring when the Saints lost the Grand Final. It had taken a year to get used to the idea that they were winners  only to have it snatched away again.

The booth for Mode was special as it had the added requirement that all the pieces had to fit into 5 shipping cartons. We needed a design that would give us maximum wall coverage, floor area and be lightweight and strong.  After pages of sketches, mock ups and with time rapidly evaporating we had to move straight on to building the final construction. Fortunately it all worked and the pieces could be freighted out a week prior to the show.

Three units of the modular display system

The design is based on a modular system of interlocking units each is the dimensions of the inside measurements of a yarn carton, 620 mm X 450 mm.

Seven units make the base

Large display form

And this is how it came together in situ.

At the Mode Show

I always imagine when I travel to the Northern Hemisphere that the there will be a distinct change in the season. This time I had the impression of being in a continuous Autumn. It’s a really disorienting sensation that leaves you wondering what season you’re coming from and going to. My mate Joe Rogers (whose house I was checking on and who hails from Nova Scotia) assures me Canada has the same effect on him at this time of year. The other thing that took a little getting used to was the lack of little local cafés. It took me a while to find this great little French Pâtisserie as most places in Toronto are franchised – looking out their window at Trinity Bellwoods Park it’s hard to tell that it’s Autumn.

Trinity Bellwoods Park from Clafouti's window

On my way across town on day one I was reminded of our connection with Plan and the B.I.A.G. campaign when we pulled up alongside these posters.

Once I hit the ground I had two days to familiarize myself with the lay out of the city while I located the last bits and pieces needed to finish the booth.

Regal

The guys at Regal had everything I needed to complete the build on our stand. It is such a great store I wish I’d photographed the interior – wall to wall tools and gadgets -  just like a real hardware store should be. I visited a wide range of stores from the large department stores and international brand name stores to small consignment boutiques specialising in Canadian made craft. The window displays in the two ‘big’ stores were elaborate and fantastic.

Fishing at Holt Renfrew

Holt’s lavish, layered outdoors themed Autumn windows were approaching psychedelic.

Barbie at The Bay

Life sized

At The Bay the windows featured Barbie. Not the doll but Barbie clothes for real people – I’m not sure if it’s life imitating art maybe life imitating commerce.

There were a few reminders of home – Australian clothing brands stocked in stores around town. Nobody Jeans from our neighborhood in Fitzroy were available in some good stores like Lileo in the Distillery and Lavish and Squalor on Queen West.

Nobody in Lileo

Toronto has a layered public transit system, subway (TTC), ground level trains and buses (GoTransit) and street cars. It was hard not to think of Melbourne – riding the ‘rocket’ along King and Queens streets.

It’s great to see different approaches to issues  – I couldn’t help noticing this public health message.

Sleeve sneeze?

I quickly became aware of another form of transport closer to my heart – bikes. Everywhere I was noticing examples of a strong bike culture. When I photographed this eccentric bike trailer the guy who made it appeared from a doorway to make sure I wasn’t trying to steal his design concept. My interest was in the aesthetic properties of the trailer not the engineering which he assured me were exceptional as the arm attaching the trailer to the bike had a universal joint for fluid movement.

Copper pipe trailer

Like cities all over the world the fixed wheel bike phenomena is sweeping through Toronto – converted road bikes and track bikes kept popping up everywhere. The ones I have  photographed I liked for the intricacy of the paint work and the choice of colour combinations – Fixie 2 was an unusual combo of white fading into dark purple contrasted with bronze anodised head stem, handle bars and pedals. Number 1 used a dark grey frame with hot pink highlights on the head badge and on the top of the front forks and grips.

Fixie 1

Fixie 1.2

Fixie 2

Located on Queens Street West is Toronto’s Community Bicycle Network – it’s hard to miss all the yellow signs and bikes parked on the pavement. You can go there to rent a bike, fix or make one. There’s a lot of bike action on Queen West.

C.B.N. bike stand

Vintage Chopper

One of the highlights of the trip was singing I heard each morning outside my hotel room door.  At first I wasn’t sure who was serenading the new day until I discovered the housemaid Maxine’s mellifluous voice escaping from the open door of the next room. I asked if she sang anywhere else and she replied in a beautiful lilting Jamaican accent, “only in Church”. Maxine generously allowed me to take her photo as she was a bit concerned about a strange guy asking to take her picture.

Maxine

I’ve always been interested in Jamaica so finding a city that has a big Jamaican population and  culture with Mr Jerk restaurants to Ethiopian Coptic Churches was an added fascination for me. The signs below feature the ancient Amharic language of Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Orthodox Church

In another part of the city I discovered Corrado’s Barber Shop on Bathurst Street. I love the painting on the front, it reminds me of Nigerian barber shop paintings. I was so captivated by the sign that I had to go in. I knew I needed a trim and the painting pushed to do something about it. Corrado emigrated from the Southern most part of the Italian mainland fifty-three years ago. He said he’d like to be there now, “somewhere that it’s summer nine months of the year.”

Corrado's

Corrado the man

Here he is surrounded by some very buxom women – company on the long afternoons napping in the chair between customers. He was such a character I didn’t notice handing over $20 for a number zero trim, despite the fact the he missed a section on the back of my head.

Streetscape Queen West

My favourite area in Toronto is West on Queens Street. There’s a strong culture that’s evident in the shops and businesses that resonate with visuals, design, and an eclectic style that reminded me of home. Jennifer Durand at Ziliotto told me that often people from Melbourne feel very at home on Queen West. It’s also where you’d find a Crumpler store in Toronto.

The store windows in this precinct presented a catholic array of objects displayed in unconventional ways.

Says it all

One of my favourite windows on the strip is Chatelet. Their engaging combination of found objects and products are intriguing.

Chatelet Kids

In Ziliotto the best-selling hat is a cloche – something we understand at Otto and Spike.

La Cloche

The next image completely baffled me when I first saw it. At a distance I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at – I had to get quite close before I could see that it was a wooden post completely covered with rusting steel staples used to hang posters.

Lamppost

Queen West has a number of art galleries.  An intricate and intimate collection of found objects in one and pop art simplicity in another.

R is for aRt

Button

Toronto is a great city and Otto and Spike will soon be there. To get this far we were lucky to get help from some new friends.

Fareeda Chand at Austrade, Peter G from N.A.F.E, Jason at Crumpler, Sean and Lisa at dconstruct, Orusia from Pushan, Jen from Jeelee, and Jo Balles (even though we didn’t get to meet).