Pick Me Up Graphics Art festival

In terms of Graphic Design and Art festivals, London is certainly of the best places to be. With its London Art Fair, Serpentine Gallery pavilions, The London Design Festival and Pick Me Up it is the city of never-ending possibilities and inspiration. I strongly recommend following all of those on social media (preferably Twitter) to not miss anything or another tip is to follow Eye Magazine's events on this address: http://www.eyemagazine.com/events.

PICK ME UP

Dates:  23 April – 4 May 2015
Open: Daily 10am-6pm, late night Wednesdays & Thursdays until 10pm
Address:  Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA
Admission: £10, concessions £8, Festival pass £17.50

It is now the #6th year of Pick Me Up festival that connects all the young designers and illustrators under the roof of Somerset house.

The queue that I have had to go through made me realize how popular Graphic Design and Illustration have become over the past years and it was both terrifying (in terms of competition) and exciting (in terms of appreciation) to see interactions of artists and visitors. The whole event consists from an exhibition on the lower floor and workshops and talks on the upper floor.

My first steps lead me upstairs, so I have been browsing around little, slightly overpriced, shops of which some had truly amazing pieces of design. My favourite one were tarot cards with different typography on each one of them.

 But otherwise, I was a bit disappointed. Yes, there was loads of cats for cat lovers, loads of 'hipster design' with deers, foxes and triangles but this all had lost its excitement for me. On the other hand, I understand that if a small company wants to push through and make a name, it simply has to satisfy the demand of the market and I have to say, there was a lot of people around all the cashier's stools.

I don't want to complain too much though and I have to admit, there was certainly a part that I have enjoyed very much which was the workshops. There was a huge variety of them, you had an option to take a photo of yourself and then adjust it with colourful pens and scratches, lots of printmaking combined with typography workshops and also one that I have spent the most time playing with - scratch art. A workshop surrounded by black walls with a table in the middle and people peaking behind the shoulders of the ones sitting at it was called #blickscratchart and provided the possibility to take a piece of black paper and a plastic stick with a sharp end. As you were scratching the black bit off, the colours of rainbow appeared, giving your message a very funky and eye catching mood. I did have a go with my logo:

When I tried to find out about the technique used on this paper, I was told that the studio simply bought those scratch papers on Amazon which was a slight disappointment. They also told me thought that it is possible to make at home - simply just take wax crayons and paint your base layer and then paint with black acrylic over them.

One last photo from the upstairs is a print by Pocko that actually made me giggle out loud.

 The downstairs exhibition was quite small nevertheless there were some interesting things to look at. The only thing I have lacked was the consistency, something that would bond those pieces together. There was an example of beautiful 3D printed dinosaur figures by Jack Cunningham...

...papercraft by Hattie Newman...

 ...sketches by Zoe Taylor...

and probably the most memorable and striking illustration by French artist Thomas Lamadieu.

All in all, it was great to see what is trendy and new at the moment and get some new inspiration. I am also thinking about attending one of the talks as there was none going on at the time of my visit.