Review of the Year 2011: September

September was a BIG month if you lived in Tripoli or were called David Walliams. Aside from those guys it was fairly quiet. Throngs of school children returned to their classrooms and some of us had to come to terms with the fact that we’d never be returning to a classroom ever again. Turns out the big bad world isn’t actually all that bad, it just has much earlier mornings than university.

My graduation aside, the big story of September was the liberation of Tripoli from Gadaffi’s forces. After six months of solid fighting (which Britain initially wasn’t really sure if it supported or not) the city was finally won back from the Libyan dictator (at which point Britain decided it had definitely supported the rebels all along, and had probably aided their victory vicariously). Sweet! Also David Walliams swam the length of the Thames, but made no effort to liberate anything. Lazy.

Meanwhile on the website we went LDF (that’s London Design Festival) crazy, giving over all our posts for the week to the event. We were out and about a lot meeting some extremely talented folk including this guy, hanging out in this obscenely large outfit and catching up with old friends.

My 2011 – HelloVon

One guy who was VERY busy in September was illustrator extraordinaire Von, who’d been feverishly preparing for the launch of his Paralympics campaign (no biggy) and adding himself to Emily Forgot’s fanbase.

What was the best thing you saw in 2011?

One of my best mates getting married accompanied by a speech that didn’t leave a dry eye in the house.

Who would you give a Best Person of 2011 award to?

Emily Forgot. For many reasons.

What was the most memorable thing that happened to you?

It’d be a toss up between being photographed by Rankin for the Hunger Magazine and collaborating with the talented film maker Andrew Telling on a short film about my Semblance Series. 

Were you in any (metaphorical/not metaphorical) fights this year? Did you win?

2011 has been all about work so if there’s been any fight this year its against my workload – thrice my size, it was a close call on more than one occasion. Though having said that I’m already really excited about what’s happening next year.

What would you take from 2011 and give to 2012?

The good luck I’ve been fortunate to be on the receiving end of. 

What were you doing in September?

Just finishing up the Paralympics 2012 Campaign, working on a series of portraits in collaboration with Rankin, working with BBDO in Dublin, releasing the sell-out Semblance 02 silver screen print and putting in motion the Semblance Collector’s Edition Box Set release and launch night for November. Essentially chained to my desk 24/7 with the added bonus of regular trips to the Post Office.

(Top image from Quayola: Strata#4)