Fake French

The zine symposium went really well. Sold lots of zines and spent all the proceeds on cake!

I have some Ted Leo zines left (limited edition of 50)

If you want to help fund my cake eating habit please find zines and prints for sale here

www.owenrichards.bigcartel.com

Postage to the US maybe a little extra than stated, get in touch with me directly if you are interested.
owen@owenrichards.co.uk

This time last year I went to the LZS and said to myself, next year I want a stall. Well guess what! My friend Seb and I have a stall and we will be selling zines, prints and other papery goods. I am in the processing of making a couple of photo zines documenting my European Tour exploits last year among other things. If you are in London I really do suggest you come down. There is a heap of other stalls and distros, talks and events going on. Its going to be F.U.N.

This year the symposium will held at The Rag Factory just off Brick Lane this Sunday (27th).

A couple of weeks ago i popped over to Berlin to explore it’s sights and sounds. I generally find the subtle details of design in a new location or context to be the most fascinating. The fact that all the subway stations were colour coded, the typography used on the street signs and the freedom of which Berlin’s graffiti scene was allowed…

However, i think the most remarkable thing about the city (from a design perspective) was the pride in which virtually every shop / bar / restaurant took in it’s presentation and appearance. Maybe it’s the Bauhaus’ influence? or maybe it’s just the youthful & creative nature of the city?

All in all Berlin was super inspiring, despite me not actually making it inside the Bauhaus archive.

I have had lots of things published recently. You can check out some of them on my site.

Including Matana Roberts for The Guardian.

Also it keeping thoroughly inbred I have some images of Dan’s new band Tropics up on Drowned in Sound.

First gig, first shots: DiS catches Tropics in London

Along with some all new promo pics of them looking all bearded and sexy. hell yeah!

Back in December I was lucky enough to fly out to Birmingham……..Alabama! (I never get tired of that joke) to photograph Dan Sartain for a feature that can be seen in this months Plan B magazine. I will be posting up some more shots and words very soon.

Happy new year! 2007 was a pretty good year for all three of us and I’m pretty sure we are gonna have an even better one this year. I just got a copy of the Happy Holy Roar tape compilation that I designed from Holy Roar Records and it looks ace even if I do say so myself. I drew all the illustrations by hand and coloured them in Photoshop. You can check out the artwork in detail over at my website. It’s a run of only 100 and they all sold out within a week so you may have to look it up on eBay if you want one. More stuff / news soon!

Dan x

Dan Reeves and Fake French featured by the good folks at It’s Nice That.

Nice!

I am starting a project on people who live their lives in the spirit of DIY ethics. This stems from my education in the DIY Punk Rock scene in Exeter but has spread to something beyond just music. Its an excuse to photograph my friends, to document them living their lives in the way they want to, whether that be writing zines, making art, playing in bands or just living their life in pursuit of their dreams. This is the kind of project with no end in sight and could evolve into any number of outcomes.

This weekend I was in Brighton hanging out with my good friend Rich Phoenix who drums in countless bands and is an great artist and cook to boot! He and
his house mate Luke not only just play in bands, they record their musical projects in their dining room, they design the artwork, cut and paste the cases together and release them on their own label. To me these guys epitomised DIY ethics, they are creating things and having fun whilst doing it.

This is picture of Rich outside his studio that he shares with four other artists.

I just got back to the office after 2 days learning about ‘the future‘ here in NYC. I have written this up in a little more detail over on Mint’s blog and also put some photos on the Mint Flickr account. Unfortunately, the photos from the actual conference look whack cos the building was designed before they invented natural light and projectors.

It might also be worth keeping an eye on Keegan Jones‘ flickr account incase the laptop thief accidentally uploads some photos. Good luck hunting it down Keegan!

Because Tom would never sink so low as to promote his own band that has released a digital EP on Dan’s record label (Faux Discx). I guess that leaves me.

Check out a rather good review of Super Tennis debut EP on Drowned in Sound.

You can download the EP with DIY artwork here.

Tom - you can pay me later!

Since moving to London just over a year ago I have been fortunate to meet some bloody nice people. One of them being Pat Graham, a photographer who also run the 96 Gillespie gallery in Finsbury Park. Pat is a ‘graduate’ of the Positive Force house in Washington DC where he forged friendships and photographed people that have gone on to be in all the bands that you have ever loved, from Bikini Kill and Fugazi to Modest Mouse and Tortoise.

Bikini Kill

Fugazi

Pat recently released a book entitled ‘Silent Pictures‘, I strongly recommend you buy one, not only for all the amazing pictures, but you will look damn cool too!

Pat currently is on tour with Modest Mouse and keeping a photo blog of his adventures.