Matt Cox (coxy)

It wasn’t long ago that I posted a Green Party poster that I’d quickly mocked up, writing about how I intend to do more non-work design work — but I didn’t quite anticipate to be doing more stuff for The Green Party of England & Wales. Only, I am doing.

An email dropped in my inbox the other day asking me to take a look at the logo used for Young Greens — the youth branch of the main (and presumably more mature) Green Party. I spent 15 minutes coming up with a few concepts before it made sense to create an icon based around a sapling, which then matures into a fully-fledged Green Party logo / party member.

sapling (săpˈlĭng)
n. A young tree.
n. A youth.

Definition by Wordnik

The artwork is quite messy right now — it definitely needs loads of tweaking, tidying up and correct fonts used (Helvetica is admittedly my go-to-sans-serif when I don’t have the correct font to use) — this was just stripped from a file full of rough concept work… but as a concept, I’m quite happy with it.

Just made a few visual improvements to the Opera web browser site. This is my job. Robert Jacobsen did most of the coding. Go and check it out.

http://opera.com

Tweet tweet. This is a sparrow from my garden today.

Just organising my hair before work. #ddc – View on Path.

Master Chef @lamphongs is making the “perfect” omelette! Someone call a scientist - we need to open a new space on the periodic table for Omelettium.

Back in the day, I used to spend so much time just ‘messing’ with design in the evenings, outside of official working hours, doing various logos, posters, illustrations — anything really — all for fun.

Nowadays I don’t do so much of that and, having worked in-house at Opera for the past three years as opposed to working in an agency, where you’d get to work with different styles and brands, I don’t feel that I get much practice outside of working with red, white, black and Helvetica.

So, in an attempt to keep things fresh, I’m going to be doing more little ‘bits’ and posting them on my blog if they’re any good. Or even if they’re not. As a general rule; I’ll think of a topic to focus on and then spend around half an hour artworking concepts and have ‘something’ to show at the end of it.

The UK County Council Elections are coming up in the next few days, so I figured I’d create a simple poster reminding people to vote. Kept it simple and direct.

Feel free to print it out and stick it in the window of your house (if people still do that sort of thing).

This past Sunday was ‘turist i egen by’ day in Olso, where over 20,000 people took the opportunity to get a free Oslo Pass at City Hall and enjoy Oslo’s museums, public transport, and the beautiful weather.

I tried to make the most of this and got a pass, visiting a few museums along the way. It was a nice day out, despite the hordes of people, and a great way to explore some of the museums and art galleries that Oslo has to offer.

Went out this weekend and bought myself a new pair of kicks — SUPRA Owen Mids. They’re the first lightweight shoe from SUPRA, risen to a mid-top height. It’s been a long while since I last bought a pair of SUPRA, or any trainers at all — I’ve been lugging my feet around in a pair of Dr. Martens Original boots since the end of last summer, so it’s nice to be able to feel my feet breath again through the mesh.

It’s been the first time in a long while that I’ve been able to spend my wages on something other than paying bills, for flights, or food. Happy pay day! – View on Path.

Pie, mash, gravy & footie. Can’t get better than this. #mufc #bpl

"Recently i had a dream that i was breast feeding a baby made from mash potato…"

Adam Richards

Subtle fashion advice.

Top Artists, 5 April 2013

Despite the inevitable sarcastic comments from Jon Dubielzyk, here’s a round-up of my Last.fm profile data for this week:

Stars (46 Plays)

This week I discovered the latest album from Montreal-based Stars, titled ‘The North’, which consequently meant that I bought the album and played it a lot more than I should. It’s a nice record and I recommend you check it out.

David Bowie (21 Plays)

And old favourite back with a new album; ‘The Next Day’ has been one of my instant go-to records since it’s release a few weeks ago. Everyone loves a bit of David Bowie, right?

Barbecue Bob (18 Plays)

Digging up the essential collection from American blues musician and the best selling artist for Columbia Records from the 1920s, Barbecue Bob. A great starting point if you’re looking for some Piedmont blues.

Tour management for the live music industry

A few of my good friends run a DIY tour management company for the live music industry.

They take quite a few bands on the road, including; Darwin Deez, Metronomy, Friends and Django Django — so if you’re into any of those bands, get on board with Elephant Riders via their Facebook, Twitter or Google+ accounts and keep up-to-date with all the latest tour dates.

You’ll get a behind-the-scenes insight into what the bands get up to when not on stage.

Oslo Reptile Zoo on Flickr.