Wednesday 28 May 2014

Open call for photography-savvy Hackney residents to participate in Ella Doran’s collaborative photographic art project


'Tour de France 2014 through Hackney Eyes'



What it is about:

To celebrate photography, shared excitement, participatory urbanism, the love of bikes and the creative Borough of Hackney within the context of the Tour de France coming through Hackney on Monday 7th July 2014 artist/designer Ella Doran is curating a participatory photographic art project.

The aim behind using different photographic eyes and vantage points is to emphasize the hybrid nature of an event being shared as a community, but experienced by everyone within their individual space. Accordingly, a staged set up of 14 photographers (referencing the year, ’14) will be positioned in front of the crowds across the short stretch of the Borough of Hackney that the Tour de France passes through.

Once the photographers have captured the images according to Ella’s brief, all the material will be collected and Ella will curate artwork from it that will form part of an exhibition. More details to follow later.

If you would like to participate:

Please send an email to info@elladoran.co.uk by Friday 6th June 2014, explaining your own involvement with photography and why you would like to participate in Ella’s project. If you have a link to your own work or think a few of your own images would be worth including, please feel free to do so. 

Because of the nature of ‘The Tour de France seen through Hackney Eyes’ we can only consider applications from Hackney residents.

Please note that because of the technical background of what Ella plans to do with the imagery, you will need to have access to an iphone for the event. Also, you will need to be available for a set-up meeting at the end of June. Please state your availability on Saturday 28th June and/or Sunday 29th June, indicating preferences for am or pm in your application. If possible, keep both days free, as the idea is to do a test run on location with the whole group. (We obviously can’t afford to run into difficulties on the day, as it is a live event.) Of course, you will need to be able to take Monday 7th July off for the big event.

What’s in it for you:

Any money made from the project will go to a Hackney-based charity, but you will get a fabulous photography-related gift and will be mentioned as a participant photographer.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Ella Doran


Friday 2 May 2014

Behind the scenes - photo shooting wallpaper



We are about to launch our first ever wallpaper book. Getting together the in situ images was hard work, but also a lot of fun, some of which I'd like to share with you, for your entertainment and inspiration. As you may remember if you've subscribed to our newsletter, we said a while ago that we wanted to get into the habit of doing more interactive stuff on our facebook page. So I'd like to invite you to tell us which design from the ones featured in this post you like best and why, for a chance to win a 'Sevens' cushion in taupe or red, displayed at the bottom of this post. 

Please post your answers on facebook. We will announce the winner on Friday the 9th May!

So here's the first design: Sunlight through Leaves

photograph by Rita Platts

Doesn't this look innocently enough like a shelf mounted on a wallpapered wall?

... and this one: a proper hallway, decorated with Bikes of Hackney, wouldn't you think?


 photograph by Rita Platts.

Far from it: What you can't see is the hand holding the coat hanger in place, just out of frame to the right. (I was holding it so I don't have a picture to show you.) Special thanks to our local Hackney friends @ Hoxton Mini press and Ally Capellino for their bags on the coat hooks!

  photograph by Rita Platts

Paris Marble above, the newest design of my Concrete Inspirations collection. I love the colour accents the objects bring to this shot, styled by Louie Waller. The table is one of my limited edition tables, with a printed Formica top in the Opal design.


 

This design will launch this month, it's called Parquet Inspired by Andrew Stafford, so no link available just yet.

As the name suggests, there's a backstory to this design: 
Over the past few years my friend, furniture designer Andrew Stafford, has worked with me on designing my trade show stands. Prompted by his suggestion, I originally created the artwork for 'Parquet' for our stand at the Home Show 2013 (read the full story in an earlier blogpost here

To make up this design I took lots of images of the parquet floor in Andrew's kitchen, and then I have re-pieced each piece of wood  together from my photographs to form a chevron that repeats. It was a lot of work and I'm very happy with the outcome. To give the wood space to 'breathe' I have kept the repeat wider, so this design comes as a double-width 110cm wide, 5m long roll, which I think is very special.

However, if you have looked back on my previous post, you will notice how much bigger the scale was on the one-off artwork for the trade show stand. For my ready-to-buy wallpaper I have altered the scale to make it fit most residential or commercial uses, but as you can see, modern technology gives us a lot of flexibility for scales and sizes.

So if you are interested in having an unusual wall pasted with this design, do get in touch, we can produce it in many different ways to fit your desired specifications. 



 Above is a 'behind the scenes' image of Sevens Taupe wallpaper (no link available yet) that I posted on instagram. I always find it fun to imagine what happens off the frame of a cropped image.

It was harder than it looks, though, to keep the guitar in place and for Rita Platts to get this shot!


By the way, Sevens Taupe is new to launch in wallpaper. I have scaled the 45's so they are as close to a 7" record as I could get them for the repeat.

I really look forward to seeing how our customers pick up on this design and how they will use it in their homes ;-)

Below, Fretwork, imagined in a conservatory setting of flowers and vases. 


Lastly, I thought I would add this amusing video on how to put wallpaper/accent murals on your wall. It's by Surface View, whom I work with on many projects and showcases Geo.



Now don't forget to roll on over to our facebook page and tell us your favourite/s from the ones listed above. Here's a picture of the cushion you could win (either red or taupe).



Now don't forget to roll on over to our facebook page and tell us 
your favourite/s from the ones listed above. Here's a picture of the cushion you could win (either red or taupe).


Enjoy your bank holiday everyone,

Ella x