#18: Four intriguing zines + 10 flashy posters = This week’s brilliant bundle of Things!

“How’re things going this week?” You ask. Very well, thank you, especially since this week we’ve been sent yet another wonderful collection of Things. Included in the bundle is a plastic-bound zine dedicated to contemporary female artists and issues, ten bright and bold birthday prints, and a publication of photographs documenting the transformation process of the new Design Museum in Kensington. If that’s not enough for you, we’ve also got some heartbreaking photographs, and an extremely wacky and surreal collection of illustrative stories. They say all good things must come to an end, but judging by all the great things that we keep receiving, it looks like we’ll be writing this post for years to come.

Lucie Massey and Maddie Yuille: Gertrude Vol. 1

This plastic-bound zine focuses on “the experience of women – what it is like to be a girl, female relationships, the trials and tribulations as well as the beauty and grace.” The pages celebrate incredible female artists working today, including some of our favourites, like Laura Callaghan, who we’ve written about before, and Erin Riley, who creates incredible textiles and cites Facebook, sexting and dating as her inspiration. Covered in glittery stickers, cut-and-pasted together on a computer in the true zine spirit, and filled to the brim with punchy essays on Freud, bathing and grandmothers, this is exactly the thing that everyone should be reading at the moment.

Koto Bolofo: Work in Progress

These bold photographs by Koto Bolofo spectacularly document the transformation of The Design Museum’s new home in Kensington. Sparse, informative quotes from those involved are peppered elegantly throughout the publication, and Koto’s photographs provide not only an intriguing glimpse into the incredible structure, but also capture the beauty of the building’s tiny elements, like the nuts and bolts and bricks. Koto has been photographing the transformation of the iconic structure for three years, and his beautiful shots capture very powerfully what would otherwise be unseen.
www.art-dept.com
www.designmuseum.org

Soma Gallery: Ten Prints

For Soma’s 10th birthday, the Bristol-based illustration and graphic design gallery have asked ten artists to create exclusive limited edition, celebratory prints, and included in the bunch are the fantastic Adam Bridgland, Lucy Gough, Spencer Wilson and Hazel Nicholls. Our favourites of the prints have got to be the colourful, folk-inspired poster by Alice Pattullo, and the dark, floral pattern by HelloMarine. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate your birthday then by getting your favourite artists to specially design posters for you, so Happy Birthday Soma!
www.somagallery.co.uk

Celine de Cadt: Tell Me Lovely Little Stories

As you turn the pages of this curious publication, the images just get weirder and weirder. The first half features well-known scenes from The Wizard of Oz, made slightly obscure by Celine de Cadt’s splodgy, thick style of painting. As the zine progresses, the story distorts mysteriously, and by the end we’ve been transported to a desert of smiling cacti, and to a motorway made of giant, disembodied heads. Tell Me Lovely Little Stories takes you way, way over the rainbow, and it’s quite a trip.
www.celinedecadt.wordpress.com

Lily Rose Thomas: Heartbreak City

The self-printed and published zine brings together photographs taken by Lily Rose Thomas between 2012 and 2013. The zine is divided neatly into four chapters: Menemsha Blues, which is sultry and moody and melancholic; What You Know About the Tide which is elusive, watery and windswept; Bloodbath, a collection of photographs of knee grazes, bruised thighs and elbow scrapes; and Always the Same, which is shadowy, enigmatic and fragmented. The photographs are intriguing and mysterious and at times very heartbreaking, but heartbreaking in the best way possible.
www.lilyrosethomas.com