Things is back again! It goes away for six days and returns! Like a really slow (but creative) zombie

Things is as things does, so Things illustrates, photographs, posterises, prints and publicises, profanes and protests and I’m not sure when or why the illieration started but Things does that too. And it looks damn good when it does it.

Josh Cochran: This Is Me, Everyday

If this newspaper mail out “is” Josh, everyday, then I think it would be OK to be him. One illustration depicts skeletons carrying giant strawberries, potentially to be used against a crowd of musicians while another describes the diving possibilities of an abstract landmass. When I put pen to paper, I draw the same four shapes in worrying iteration so looking at work like Josh’s is an illuminating and depressingly good reminder of the wonderful imagination great illustrators are blessed with.
www.joshcochran.net

h3.Various students of Kingston University: 9 till 12

The 65 students exhibiting in this 9 till 12 will graduate from certain courses at Kingston this year, photography isn’t one of them. So why? Why are these illustrators and graphic designers putting on a very nice show (which is open now and is “like walking into a tumblr,” apparently) and printing a very nice publication to go with? Maybe to encourage us to consider photography as a part of their practice and not superfluous to it or as inspiration or as proof that they’re not tethered to their desks. Who cares, they’re well nice.
www.9till12.co.uk

Matt Lane-Dixon: Royal Park Primary

In 2009 an abandoned primary school in Leeds was occupied and renovations started by local residents in an effort to dispel their frustration at the councils lack of progress in returning the building to the community. In this simple zine, a photographic 12-pager, creator Matt Lane-Dixon champions the occupants cause and highlights their struggle since their eviction and ensuing legal battles. Stirring stuff and great images.
www.mattlanedixon.co.uk

Vodkovia

You know that feeling when you’re little and bigger boys are sharing a joke that you don’t really get but you still find funny? Well that’s how this poster promoting the fictional eastern European country of Vodkovia’s Olympic team makes me feel. It features wrestler Viktor Povlanzki and is part of series of uber evolved athletic specimens (or “freaks”) ready to make their mark in London 2012. If it’s promoting something I can’t make out what it is but I kind of taken. You can read all about the country and even hear from its president on the website, or you can content yourself with this visual free-for-all, complete with nice cyrillic type.
www.vodkovia.eu|

Siobhan Leddy/Craig Jackson: Flamingo –Homes and Habitats issue

Absolutely rammed with interesting tales and curious visual page-turners and a very vague roll call of the contents for this latest issue of Flamingo begins to sound like an inventory of the ultimate randomiser. Illustration is heavily represented like in one feature billed as a “tenuous attempt to crowbar in some drawings of hats” but in reality is justifiably charming regardless of meaning. They speak to a man who circumnavigated the world by foot, a notorious London pub’s landlady and welcome conversations from artists about literally anything (like Kevin Cyr and his camper bikes) – lovely stuff!
www.flamingomagazine.com